“This economy SUCKS!” I slapped a folder down on my desk in disgust. My secretary, Vicki, watched me from across the office. “We’re down thirty percent from last year at this time and things are not looking up.” She sat motionless in her chair that she used to take memos and letters from me. She held her steno pad across her breast and watched my every move, wondering what was coming next. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to cut the fat around here.” I was disgusted. I felt helpless and the swirling sinking feeling of losing my business was looming like an anvil over my head. I had run this business starting from the trunk of my used car twenty years ago and build it into a multi million dollar business and now, things are looking at all cherry for me. I have over a hundred employees to consider and the impact on their lives and on the business and the overall impact on future contracts. This was no surprise to anyone here. The facts are well known and everybody knows how hard I try to keep things going. But, the fact is, the American public is not spending like it used to and the dollar is shrinking and the raw materials are doing nothing but going up. I looked up from my desk top and stared into Vicki’s eyes and said, “We’re goanna have to lay off at least ten percent of the work force, cut insurance benefits, and freeze salaries.”
The steno book became very heavy for her to hold against her chest and she dropped it to her lap. She slowly opened the cover and flipped a couple of pages to find a clean page and asked, “I see, and how do you want to do this?” She returned my fixed gaze and propped her pencil ready for action. I could sense that she had a tear in her eye but she was far too professional to let me know it.
“Vicki,” I said, “your job is secure. You’re my right arm; you need not worry about your job. Is that understood?”
She nodded and allowed a slight smile to cross her lips. She had been with me for over twelve years. She was a faithful employee and a hard worker. When it was necessary she stayed late into the night to complete a project and would be relentless in her research. Until this moment, I never even thought about her as a person, let alone women. Now, for the first time I noticed that she was quite attractive, with long dark hair and fine chiseled features. She was not a large breasted women but she was not tiny either. She kept herself fit and trim, I know, because she would go to the gym on those late nights and work out for an hour or so and come back to finish up. The most striking feature about her was her legs. Long and slender, giving her equal standing, and an eye to eye look about her; she usually kept them covered up in long skirts but today she had on a mid thigh length skirt and it reveled the smooth skin and delicate knee caps of her stocking clad legs.
“I understand Mr. Neuman and thank you very much, I appreciate that.”
“Vicki, you’ve been with me a long time and it’s about time you called me by my first name.”
“Yes sir.”
“It Zac and not sir, I would be ever grateful if you used that instead of Mr. Mr. was my daddy’s name.”
She relaxed a little and smiled, “Yes Mr. Zac,” she joked. We both laughed more as a pressure relief than for anything funny.
“Ok, let’s start with all the employee files and see who’s close to retirement and who’s the last hired. Get that together and get my insurance company on the line so we can talk about the benefits. Also, put in a call to my lawyer and find out what the legal issues are in freezing wages and can we do it for a limited time, say a year, and then subject to review, either continue or lift the freeze.”
She make those obscene scribbles on her steno pad, stood up, nodded her head in my direction and said, “Got it Boss,” turned to leave and stopped at the door to my office and over her shoulder she said, “Got it Zac”, smiled sweetly and left. I watched the milky white legs encased in stockings walk briskly out of my office. Long after the door closed I pictured that in my head and re ran her walk. I could see the curve of her ass hidden in the dark skirt she wore and the muscles in her back move as the cream colored fabric clung to her form. The phone rang and it was my lawyer and all thoughts dissipated into the mundane business of the day.
Hours later we found ourselves in my office with empty cartons of Chinese food sitting about and hundreds of files scattered across the floor. Earlier in the day she had her hair neatly pinned up but now it was hanging loose about her shoulders and her blouse was working its way out of her skirt. She had taken off her shoes and was sitting in her steno chair studying a file intently, looking for facts about that employee. I was on the floor segregating files of those who I wanted to keep and those who I had to let go and those who were on the cusp of either position or those yet to be evaluated. I had long since jettisoned my jacket, tie, shoes and socks and was tired and wanted to have something stronger than coffee. I kept a bottle in my desk drawer for perspective clients to seal a deal and it became a great idea to me. I looked up to invite her in a drink and witnessed a sight I had not seen of her before. She was sitting in such a fashion that her legs were apart and the stocking were starting to loose their grip on those lovely legs of hers, with a file in her lap. Her skirt had bunched up along her thigh and I was looking directly at her panties and found this extremely erotic. It caught my breath for a moment. She must have noticed something and asked, “What did you say?” Her blouse was open at the top and when she peered over the file at me I caught a glimpse of her bra and noticed that I was aroused at the sight.
“I was wondering if you could use a drink.” I felt like a guy coming onto a girl in a bar and was sort of embarrassed about it. She did not let on that it was an awkward situation for me; instead she nodded her head and said, “That would be nice, yes. Thanks”.
She put the file down on a table next to her and stood up and stretched, while I retrieved the bottle of scotch from my bottom drawer. When she stretched the fabric of her blouse stretched tight across her breast and I could make out the darts of her dark colored nipples. I found two empty coffee cups and poured a couple of shots into both and handed her one. “I’m sorry to keep you so late; it was not my intention to do so. If you have family or social commitments to make please don’t let me hold you up.” She shook her head and took a small sip of the whisky and said, “Oh, don’t worry about it. I have no life. Just work.”
“How sad, you’re far too pretty women to devote your life to nothing but work. You should be out dancing with some dashing man of your dreams or something.”
“Oh,” she said as she starred into her cup before taking another sip, “I had the man of my dreams, but he had dreams of his own.” I let her continue. “He was dreaming of one of my ‘good’ friends more than dreaming of me. They are very happy together and I hate them both.” She finished her drink in one last gulp and placed the empty cup on my desk. Instinctively I filled it again. “Normally, one is enough for me,” she said, “but I could really use this, and she took the cup and fell back into her chair and sipped the warm liquid. I splashed a little more into my cup and offered it up as a toast, “Nostrovia”, I said and downed the entire contents and smacked the cup down on my desk with a bang. “Nostrovia,” she replied and did the same, almost chocking a bit and slammed the cup on the table next to her.
“Whew, I needed that.” She was patting her chest as if it were on fire.
“It looks good on you,” I said with a smile and we both chuckled a little.
I went back to sorting out the files on the floor and she just sat there watching me. We were both exhausted and frazzled from a day long drudgery of sorting out people to dismiss. It was a nasty business and neither of us liked it.
“What about you,” she asked?
“Hugh,” I was a little startled by the question.
“I mean, don’t you have someone at home to go to. I know you’re not married but you must have a girl friend that is waiting for you.”
“No, sorry to say, this business is my only girl and she’s a handful.”
