AUTHOR'S NOTE: This is a companion piece to Gina from IT. After I wrote Gina, some people cited the #metoo movement and noted that it would be a different story if the boss was female, and the young technician were male. So here's that story! This is a short story (998 words) written for a writing competition elsewhere. All characters are 18 or older.
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The phone on Ms. Perkins' desk buzzed. She hit the intercom button and responded, "What is it, Sally?"
"Gino from IT is here to see you," replied the elderly assistant.
"By all means, send him in."
The young technician entered the ornate corner office nervously. Not only was Ms. Perkins the senior partner at the firm, but she was having all kinds of computer issues lately. While they were relatively minor, and easy for Gino to fix, he worried that she felt he was not good at his job.
"How can I help you, Gino," Ms. Perkins asked, without looking up from her desk.
"It's about my intern paperwork," Gino said nervously in his thick Italian accent. "The school needs it by the end of the week, or my student visa may be rescinded."
"I understand that's important to you, but there are other priority issues I'm working on that are just as important to the firm. I will take care of it in turn."
"Thank you, ma'am," Gino replied timidly and turned to leave her office. Ms. Perkins finally looked up from her desk and admired the young man's broad shoulders, narrow waist and the way his khakis hugged his firm backside as he left.
Gino was summoned back to Ms. Perkins' office, around 4:30 that afternoon.
"Were you able to complete the paperwork, Ms. Perkins," Gino asked hopefully, as he entered the office and closed the door.
"No, I was about to work on it, but I can't seem to get to the internet or our internal file share."
The office was heavy with the aroma of her expensive perfume as if she had recently reapplied it. Gino also noticed that an extra button was undone on her cream-colored silk blouse. "May I come around and have a look?"
Ms. Perkins just nodded and pushed herself in her high-back office chair away from her desk. She saw Gino peek at her nylon clad legs as he reached for the mouse. After clicking around on a few icons, and checking the cables on the back of her workstation, he said, "your network cable may be loose, I'll need to get under your desk to check it."