It was far too late to still be working. Alex glanced at his watch: it was almost ten o'clock. The sixth floor of the office had long since been deserted and the movement sensing lights had all gone dark, save for the two in his office, and those immediately around Laura's desk, directly outside his door in the open plan area. In all the fourteen years she had worked for him, ever since he took her on as a trainee, this was latest she had ever had to stay. All credit to her, he hadn't even asked, she knew the situation and she had volunteered. The mountain of papers she had been sorting, hole-punching and putting into lever-arch files had steadily reduced over the evening and he could see that she was nearly done.
Alex rubbed his eyes, tying to ignore the headache that had been developing over the last five hours of proof-reading documents on the computer. He leaned back in his chair and called out to Laura.
"Is there any of that nasty pizza left?"
"Nope. Except for the piece I dropped on the floor!" She gestured over her shoulder, "but I know there is more wine left if you wanted to steal another bottle!" She flashed him a broad grin.
He laughed, pushed himself up wearily from his desk and walked out of his office towards the little catering kitchen where the wine for the events his firm put on for clients was stored. He shook his head at Laura as he walked past.
"You mean more of the wine that is for clients."
"The wine is my compensation for sorting out this mess" she replied.
"Fair."
Alex took a bottle out of the fridge and grabbed another two cheap plastic wine 'glasses' from a cupboard. In the morning, he promised himself, he was going to tell his facilities team to buy some proper glasses. He walked back across the office. Laura was standing, bent over her desk and facing away from him, moving papers around. He had taken her on because she was far and away the best candidate he had interviewed, although a couple of guys had asked whether he had even read her CV. If anything, she was more cute now than she had been then. She was a redhead, about five-five / five-six, with green eyes and curves. She had more than a handful of ass, and on the occasions she wore something low cut she could have asked him for any pay-rise she wanted. That red hair though; she mostly wore it loose and long, and he was pretty sure if she was naked she might just about be able to hide her nipples behind the last few centimetres of hair. The long green dress she was wearing now wasn't tight enough to do more than hint at the outline of her figure from behind; it certainly didn't grab her ass as tightly as Alex was thinking about doing.
In all the time they had worked together nothing romantic had ever happened between them. Not quite. To celebrate thirteen years of them working together, a year last April, he had taken the team out for drinks and given a little speech in which he joked that the traditional present for thirteen years of marriage was lace, but he was worried about whether HR would approve of his choice of lingerie. Later that night, when it was just the two of them left in the bar, he had passed her an envelope with an Agent Provocateur gift card inside. He had bought it on impulse and knew it was a risky move. A risqué move even. He had almost convinced himself not to give it to her, but there had been something about the way she seemed determined to outstay everyone else so it would be just them, and how after she had been to restroom she sat so close that their legs kept touching. He knew he had made the right decision when she had immediately taken out her phone and logged onto the website. She made him pick out something he thought she would look good in: he chose a black lace basque, thong and suspenders. Still showing him the phone-screen, she swapped the thong for a g-string and ordered it with the gift-card. He often thought about how good her ass must look in that g-string.
As it happens, a few years ago there had been a rumour in the office that they were sleeping together. He had no idea how it started; something to do with them leaving a staff party at the same time, which had been pure coincidence. When he heard the rumour he didn't actively discourage it. He knew that when someone mentioned it to Laura she had left them with more questions than answers. Given the ten year age difference it was far more flattering to him than to her, but it seemed that she hadn't been horrified by the idea.
"Here's your compensation," he joked as he poured her a glass of wine. "You didn't drive in this morning did you?"
"Yep." Laura shrugged nonchalantly and took a sip of her wine. "This is nice. Working late isn't so bad!"
Alex hesitated for a moment and she noticed. She sighed and tilted her head slightly to one side. "I'm not going to drive home, don't worry. I've already told Ben I'm going to stay over in town. I booked a room in the Hilton right across the road about an hour ago. You are paying. Obviously." He felt that they held each other's gaze for just a second longer than was decent.
Laura took another sip of her wine and laughed. "I have got myself a little upgrade. The honeymoon suite was taken but my mine does have a jacuzzi bath. And just in case I hit the room service too hard the reservation is in your name. The finance team won't dare question why there is pink Cristal on the bill if they think it was you."
