Valerie was ecstatic, overwhelmed. She read and reread the invitation. Her attendance had been requested at the home of Mr. Marcus Burke. It was a formal affair planned for the second Friday of this very month. An RSVP was requested.
Valerie was employed at the same advertising agency as Mr. Burke. He was a senior partner. While his was a high level decision making, lucrative position that meant scads of prestige, oodles of money, gobs of recognition, and tons of flattery, Valerie's job was somewhat different. She had worked in the data processing section until just three weeks ago, but for some reason that hadn't been clear to her then she had been reassigned to Human Resources. In both positions she was invisible, a nonentity. No one noticed her. No one commented on anything she did, and certainly no one bothered to take the time to appreciate how hard she worked. She was Valerie Carlyle, the under paid, unappreciated, and innocuous nobody. That is to say no one ever noticed her except for Mr. Burke. For some reason he had taken an interest in her when she was in data operations. He called her in once to commend her efforts, and once he even took her to lunch at the little eatery around the corner. Well, in hindsight one could see where things were headed. The private office commendation and the lunch date had been the first steps in a lighthearted flirtation. It had led to a couple late afternoon dates at the alehouse on the corner, but beyond that, nothing.
To be sure, Mr. Burke had proven to be a true and complete gentleman. If he had any interest in Valerie in any way other than friendship she hadn't picked up on it. In fact, she was a little disappointed when she had been transferred to Human Resources, since that moved her well away from Mr. Burke's areas of authority.
Now, however, with the invitation in her grasp, Valerie felt like she understood the reason for her transfer. Mr. Burke, ever the gentleman, wanted to make certain that, if he and she continued to see one another, and on the off hand chance their up to then very casual dates led to anything more serious, no one would be able to accuse him of anything. No favoritism, or, heaven forbid, harassment. Her transfer to Human Resources now made any continued contact above reproach.
Valerie had liked Mr. Burke upon their first meeting, and even before he had taken any interest in her she had found herself from time to time mooning over him. In fact, most of the women in the office mooned over him. Marcus Burke was a hunk. He was tall, tanned, muscular, and clean looking, and while not what she would call handsome, he was certainly eye catching. He wasn't married, though from what she heard there had been a Mrs. Burke a few years earlier. According to the gossip, he had been given the bum's rush. It was rumored his wife had been quite promiscuous, and she had led him on for quite some time before he caught on and got off that merry go round.
Valerie, when she wasn't especially busy, often found herself fantasizing about becoming the new center of Mr. Burke's attention. She imagined that through her personal wit, charm, and grace she restored in him a renewed confidence in the opposite sex. Of course, in her fantasies, her reward for her selflessness and virtue was a deep abiding affection that led to a massive engagement ring followed by an enormous wedding, a splendid honeymoon, and the classic happily ever after. In her fantasies she was Joan of Arc, Florence Nightingale, Grace Kelly, Mary Tyler Moore, and Marilyn Monroe all rolled into one irresistible, if totally fanciful, personality.
No one had been more shocked than she'd been when he started to take notice of her. There had been the wonderful coffee breaks in the afternoon, and the heart warming after work salads. Yes, and now here she stood at her front door with the proof he had noticed, he had grown to care, and he did want to be around her. After all she was standing here with her own personal invitation to a party at his house. There it was. His invitation with her name on it.
For the next several days Valerie lived and worked in a kind of erotic romantic haze. Each day drew her closer to the evening of the party. Finally the big day drew nigh.
Valerie couldn't let anything fall to chance. On that evening of evenings she absolutely had to be at her very best. A week before the party she went shopping for a new dress. For the first time ever she decided to go to Nordstrum's. She wasn't holding anything back. It was a go for broke, shoot for the moon, opportunity. Though she owned a couple nice cocktail dresses, for the big night Valerie decided she needed a new 'little black dress'. Nordstrum's had just the item she had in mind. It was the requisite black; it had translucent long sleeves, and a hem-line that came to just above the knees. Its texture was a mixture of silk and cotton. The silk gave the dress a low, understated sheen, while the cotton gave it a sturdiness that prevented unnecessary wrinkling or that slouched baggy, slinky, look silk sometimes suggested. The two fabrics gave the dress both allure and stability. The dress had a modestly low cut neckline that revealed a just hint of cleavage. When she tried it on she fell in love with it. It was erotic but not blatantly sexy.
Valerie was a smallish woman not like so many of the movie stars and models. She wore a size eight. Her breasts were small, only a 34B, but they were well formed, and a smidgen of padding in her bras always gave her just the right push to enhance their appearance. Valerie wasn't small and bony like some women. She had just enough flesh to give her that slightly soft demure appearance she'd heard men liked. When Valerie looked at herself in the mirror, in her new dress she saw herself, and correctly so, as being just about right.
She complimented the dress with a pair of dark, charcoal colored, nylons, a black bra with only that slightest hint of uplift she loved, and a pair of three inch black heels. Everything was plain, simple, and modest, but certainly, she hoped, eye-catching. She just knew she was going to be a stand out at the party. She hoped Mr. Burke would notice her.
On the day of the party Valerie arranged to leave work right after lunch. She had planned an appointment at the hairdressers. She wanted to have her hair done, and be able to get home early enough before the party to give herself some time for personal relaxation. The hairdresser knew her, and understood how she liked her hair. This time Valerie intended to take things a little further. She arranged it that her hair would be cut a little shorter and thinned a little finer than usual. Valerie's hair was thick, actually quite luxuriant. She hoped by thinning it a little the dresser could arrange for some soft bangs, a tight uplifted pony tail, and a few softly curling ringlets that would cascade around her temples and ears with perhaps one or two delicate wisps intimating toward her blue eyes. Valerie knew she had beautiful hair, and she had a well-structured heart shaped face. Her hair she knew would accentuate her natural good looks, her delicate only slightly up turned nose, her large vivacious blue eyes, arching eyebrows, rich long lashes, and her pert dimpled chin. Her skin had a clean, fresh, look, more like a child's than an adult's. Valerie was twenty-six, but her skin was clear, free of any major blemishes. It was radiant and soft
The only downside to her reverie was her life long carnal frugality, or what she called her secret social disability. Some said she was frigid. Some of the boys she dated said she was a lesbian. She knew that wasn't true. She liked men. She thought about men all the time. She liked looking at men. She told herself it was a disability, but she knew the truth. She knew she was pretty. She had always been pretty, but all through high school and college she had never had more than a handful of dates. Some girls had all the fun, but she'd never been one of them. She remembered some girls got the quarterback or the fraternity president. She always got the nerd or the creep who couldn't keep his hands off her. When she was in high school she had initiated a dating policy that had worked for her, but had undermined her social activities. She would willingly accept dates, but she insisted on driving herself and meeting the boy at the date site. This was an inconvenience, but she'd never been trapped in the great outdoors with an octopus, and she had never found herself out of gas in somebody else's car. She knew boys only wanted one thing. She knew what the one thing was, and she had vowed early on that that was to be saved for just one man. She wasn't cheap. That was her disability. She was going to be a one-man woman. At twenty-six years old Valerie was still a virgin, a virgin right down to the bone. But she knew when the right one came she'd give it up. She had a hunch that right man was Marcus Burke. At least she fantasized that it was Marcus Burke.
As the afternoon of the party faded into early evening, Valerie lounged back in her only easy chair in her quaint little apartment and thought about what it might be like. She so hoped she carried herself well. She hoped and prayed Mr. Burke would notice her, and she prayed feverishly that nothing went wrong.
Valerie rested until 6:00. Mr. Burke's residence was only about forty minutes from her apartment. She took one last look in the mirror. She had a pearl choker. It was small and delicate. She clipped it to her neck. She took her pearl stud earrings and affixed them in each of the single piercing of each ear. She gathered the rest of her things, her purse, that black evening wrap that matched her new dress, and took off for her big night. She thought. She prayed. This might be the biggest night of her life.
Valerie got to the party at just about the perfect time. The guests were invited to arrive at 7:00. She pulled her little Honda Civic up to the front door at precisely 7:00. A young man in white shirt, black pants and bow tie took her car and drove it around to the back.
She saw other guests were starting to arrive. Luckily, she wasn't the first but she wasn't dragging in with the main herd either. She was just a little ahead of the curve, but not obviously early. Valerie started up the short staircase to the front door.
As she reached the door a rather dignified older gentleman dressed, apparently as the butler, opened the door. Valerie stepped inside. The butler took her wrap, and politely asked her name. She responded Valerie Carlyle. The gentleman took a cursory look at the guest list, and said. "Right this way please." As he spoke he added. "Ms. Carlyle, a very modest difficulty has arisen regarding this evening's activities, and I've been asked to escort you to a side room for a very brief conference with two of Mr. Burke's social secretaries." He led her to nearby side door.
Valerie didn't have the slightest clue what could have gone wrong, and she certainly didn't know how that could possibly relate to her, but very shortly she was to be apprised of the situation.
