This is a series of stories that are a sort of sequel to two text-adventure games.
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"You beat the boss to work! Smart move on your first day in the main office!" beamed the receptionist Sally as I dropped my briefcase and box of stuff on my new desk. "She'll be in soon though, so look sharp," she added as she turned at the door of my new office to head back to the front desk. I watched her leave, well mostly I watched her fetching ass leave, before I started to unpack. I set up my laptop, tangle of charging cords, and the beautiful glass pen jar that a ceramics major had made for me back in college after a winter weekend full of mid-blowing sex and very little skiing in Tahoe.
I looked at the wall and decided to leave my diploma, plaques, and awards in the box until I was more settled in. I had bummed around for a year or two after graduating from one of the most prestigious universities on the west coast, but never found a good fit in my intended field of hospitality and resort management. As a stop gap, I had eventually taken a sales job in the San Francisco office of CKE Materials, where I had in all modesty flourished. Before two years were out, I landed a giant national account which in a matter of weeks more than doubled the sales for the whole Frisco office. That got me noticed. Within a month, I had been offered this new position, accepted, and moved to the bucolic midwestern city where CKE's headquarters are located.
A knock on the door and in strode Cathy Ecklesford, the owner. I had not met her before and that was a shame. Cathy was several inches shorter than me, even with the very high-heeled but still professional pumps she wore. The rest of her clothes matched those shoes; hand-tailored to a form-fitting, very flattering cut, but quite business-like in appearance. Together with the easy assurance of a successful entrepreneur, a three figure hairstyle, and striking green eyes, she was a subtle but undeniable knockout. Usually, when I encounter a woman so desirable, my immediate reaction is to start plotting a route into her pants, but I thought much better of it today.
"You are here bright and early. Excellent!" she said, introducing herself. "I have a few account files for you to help get your feet wet, while you settle into town," she went on, dropping some paperwork onto my nearly empty desk. "I do have two important things to talk to you about," she added.
"First, I know HR planned on having you live in the corporate condo for your first few months working here in town, but I need to you accelerate getting permanent digs as much as you can. I'm really sorry, but I have a materials engineer I just hired away from DuPont last night who starts in a month. He's a genius, but he's... hopeless, really." She shrugged. I agreed that I could accelerate my apartment search, since I had a friend or two in the sciences who practically needed a nanny. "You should buy, not rent," suggested Cathy. "You can get three times the house for your money in the suburbs here than you could have even thought about back in California."
"Lastly, I want to lay out some cultural rules we live by here at headquarters. It is a relaxed atmosphere, but the red line rule is absolutely no dating, no relationships, and definitely no sexual interactions with anyone else who works in this building. A lot of us talk a pretty good game, even a bawdy one, but nothing is allowed to be directed at another employee, present or not. Okay?" she asked. I nodded easy assent, glad I had not already started on the seduction plans.
We exchanged a few pleasantries and she was gone, leaving a tantalizing aroma behind. I went over my newly assigned accounts quickly, made a few calls and set up some meetings to introduce myself, but that was all done by lunchtime, and none of the meetings I scheduled were that day. I guessed it was time to demonstrate my go-getter attitude by commencing the house search.
I had already been toying with the idea of buying a house for the first time, and Cathy's suggestion had crystalized the value of considering it. I hopped in my Acura and headed out to the western suburbs, which were the closest to work, and appeared to be the newest area of development.
Pulling up in a quiet little business district, I got out and quickly saw what I was looking for, the small independent realty office I had found online whose staff included several younger, attractive female agents. I have a lot of experience that tells me I am more successful, in more ways than one, when working with women, especially good-looking ones.
I strode in confidently, despite never having spoken to a real estate agent in my life, and was lucky enough to be confronted with one of the more attractive agents I'd seen on the website. Lee was a sweet girl, even younger than I, and of mixed European-Asian heritage. That day, she was wearing a calf-length, dark blue pencil skirt that showed off her narrow waist and suggested rather than displayed nice legs and a potentially stellar butt. Her dark purple blouse was loose-fitting and professionally demure. Her large, dark, slightly epicanthic eyes sparkled behind the heavy, black eyeglasses that I suspected were worn only for show. At least, I could detect no apparent correction or distortion when I found myself staring into her eyes for a bit longer than necessary.
"To get started, let's see how you qualify," she said, leading me to a seat after the obligatory, getting to know one another biographical chit chat. I had a huge bonus in my bank account for a down payment, and plenty of income, so I was pleasantly surprised, both at how much of a loan I'd qualify for, and at how much house I really could get for that here. "Are you married or living with someone?" she asked, but alas, I detected no probing in the question, only professional box-checking.
"No. To be honest, I'm not ready to settle down," I replied casually. "Though," I added, allowing an artful sheepishness into my voice and avoiding eye contact, "I do enjoy exploring the options."
We shared a polite chuckle before she continued. "In that case, I'm guessing you are interested in a smaller, more deluxe home?" I shrugged and replied that I supposed so, but then emphasized that I hadn't fully decided on buying over renting, and I'd be much more likely to buy if I could manage it without using all my money! Laughing, Lee said, "I understand. I hope you don't mind if I do my best to encourage you to buy. At any rate, I'll need to do a thorough search, but if you have an hour or so, I do have one house that might interest you off the top of my head. It's been on the market for a while, so there may be some price flexibility as well. Would you like to see it?"
She went on with a few details about the house, and though it didn't really sound like what I wanted, I certainly thought that an afternoon in a car with Lee would pleasant all on its own, but would also be a good opportunity to get in her head and see what made her tick. And make no mistake, I had already decided that whether I bought anything, I wanted to see if there might be more than one way to get her to "do her best"...
As I followed her out to her seven passenger realtor tank of an SUV, I became more and more convinced that she really did have a great ass under that long, shapeless skirt. I opened her door and helped her up into that ridiculously large, high vehicle, and as she climbed in I upgraded my impression of said posterior from "great" to "world-class".
When we got to the house, I knew right away I could safely be a pain in the ass about it, as it was not at all appealing to me. During the showing, I displayed all my considerable, genuine ignorance of real estate, while picking out every fault I could see or imagine. I was confident Lee did not expect me to buy this beat up, bland old house. She took my pickiness in good spirit and she returned me to her office with advice on what kind of research I could do to help narrow her search on my behalf.
"Thank you so much for all your work already," I said, shaking her lithe hand as we parted. "I do think I lucked out right out of the box in choosing a firm, well, in choosing an agent." She smiled at that and I smiled warmly in return. I went back to the office to work on the paperwork inevitable in a new position and in living in a new state, to get started on the research Lee had suggested, and to just generally be seen staying late my first day on the job.
The next two weeks were a mishmash of introducing myself to co-workers and putting in a lot of time on my "starter customers". Client entertainment is still a big part of sales in our industry, and I'm good at that. But the downside was that my kitchen was gathering dust. I did manage to accelerate my use of the corporate condo's communal gym. I have a damn good physique, and I have always made sure to keep it up, even in the face of my current diet of rich, sometimes delicious restaurant food.
I also did my due diligence for and on Lee. I agreed with her supposition that I wanted fewer bedrooms and upgraded features and location. I also told her that I wanted spaces suitable for manly pursuits, and pretended to make her work to get out of me that one primary manly pursuit would be... women. That got a laugh out of her, and I could practically hear the blush over the phone. She also showed me several more homes, one or two of which were actually decent, but I continued my difficult ways. Frankly, much of the difficulty was genuine. I still wasn't sold on buying over just renting a condo. By the last few showings, I could sense she was getting frustrated with me, and with the process.
