The Mad Midsummer

The Mad Midsummer

"... to say the truth, reason and love keep little company together nowadays."

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Act 3 Scene1

Tania was having a very bad case of the Mondays early on a Wednesday. Running (or rather wobbling along in absurd kitten-heeled shoes) late for work that morning she had snagged her leg on something getting on the bus and now there was a ghastly run in her far-too-expensive-for-her-pay-grade 20 denier stocking. She was sat behind her desk with her skirt pulled up to her thigh so she could inspect the damage and tried to pull and turn the run to a less conspicuous spot and get on with her day, when she heard a low wolf whistle. Startled, she bolted up and pulled her skirt down over her knee. She saw the smug smiling face of Nicholas Bottomley, one of the agency's top account managers, and a well known rake and lothario. Her face burned with embarrassment that he of all people had caught her in such a compromising position. She steeled herself for his crude and usually unhumourous remarks.

"Hey there Tits," he smirked glancing again at her leg. She moved her chair so that her legs were tucked and hidden under her desk. She hated that nickname he alone dared to use with her, contracting her given name erroneously to emphasize her physical attributes.

"What do you want?" she glowered at him.

Nick slid a precariously high pile of files away from a corner of her neat and orderly desk and sat himself down.

"Is the Big O in?" he asked and waggled his eyebrows at her.

Tania scoffed. "No," she replied curtly.

"Do you know when he'll be in?" Nick asked leaning forward with more casual familiarity than she liked.

"No," she lied.

"Oh that's bullshit Tits," he laughed. "That man doesn't so much as take a shit that you don't know exactly when, where and how much."

Tania pursed her lips and arched an eyebrow, staring at him levelly. His sense of humour was disgusting but he was right, though she would never let him know that. She had been Mr. O's personal secretary for close to 20 years now and she knew more about his work habits, personal life, moods and proclivities than his own wife; first, second or current. She kept his agenda and his life beyond the office running smoothly. Nick, in his own crude way, knew this and seemed to respect it, though she doubted he respected her.

"You," she hissed at him through clenched teeth, "are an ass."

"Pardon?" Nick's hand flew to his chest in a mock clutching-at-pearls gesture. "I'm a...what?"

"You," Tania repeated louder, her face heating again, "are an ASS!" Tania was not used to using foul language in the office, but something about Nick brought out the worst in her.

Nick picked up the small mic of the dictaphone on her desk. "Let the record show that I am an ass. Capital a, capital s, capital s. Period. Duly noted."

Just then Mr. O entered and, barely looking askance at Tania, clapped Nick on the back convivially. "Nick! Wasn't expecting you until this afternoon. Stop tormenting Tania and come on in."

Mr.O shed his trenchcoat and handed it to Tania, now standing with a mixture of shock, embarrassment and regret on her face. She realized she was ultimately powerless in this world, a man's world as the song goes. She knew she couldn't complain about how Nick spoke to her and leered at her; if anyone would lose their job in that situation it was very likely her. Secretaries were easily, and eagerly, replaceable.

"Hey boss, Tania here says I'm an ass." Nick quipped as he slid off her desk and followed O into his spacious office. His tone wasn't accusatory, it was more self-mockery.

O paused in the doorway, glanced at his secretary then glanced back at Nick. "Well," he said dryly, "You are." Then he shut the door behind him. Tania could hear through the door both men laughing as she hung up her employer's coat and she let out a breath she didn't realize she had been holding. The door flew open again and Tania startled. O poked out his head. "Tania be a love and grab me a coffee, you know how I like it. Nick, you want anything?" he turned to ask.

"I'll take whatever she's giving you." Nick quipped. Tania could practically hear the smirk. The double entendre of his reply was not lost on her. She knew it was a long-standing unfounded rumour at the agency that she and O were sleeping together or had at some point been intimate. Admittedly there was a time early in her tenure as his secretary and when she was much younger that she was besotted with him, and a brief period when she dressed provocatively, invitingly. But absolutely nothing had happened.

She glared at Nick and gave her boss a tight-lipped smile. "Right away, sir" she said and turned on her kitten heel toward the hallway leading to the breakroom.

Entering the kitchenette Tania saw the four junior secretaries of the VP,CEO and COO huddled together at the table, whispering. They were her juniors in age, experience and maturity but sometimes she longed to be a part of their easy girlish comraderie. Tania gave them a curt nod and half smile in greeting and proceeded to make the coffees. After a tittering of giggles behind her back, one of the secretaries piped up.

"How goes the planning for the Summer Party, Tania? Did you need us to help with anything?" Miss Webb chirped.

"Yes, we are willing and able to help in any way," Miss Bloom breathed in her best Marilyn Monroe impersonation and the remaining two nodded their coiffed heads enthusiastically in agreement.

For a brief moment Tania considered taking them up on the offer, but thought better of it. She knew these girls each had a crush on Mr. O and would do anything to get as close to him as she herself was. She imagined all the heaving bosoms and fluttering fake eyelashes once they were actually at the party, much less getting them close to him at the office in the days beforehand. On top of everything else wrangling four flirting girls away from her boss was not something even close to her idea of help.

"Thank you ladies, but no. Besides, everything is already done and set. But if you'd like to come early the day of and help with setting up or clean up, you're more than welcome." Tania smiled knowing full well this was not the kind of involvement in the event these four were interested in.

Every year in the middle of summer Mr. O hosted an annual employee appreciation party at his summer "cottage", a sprawling mansion with swimming pools and tennis courts tucked in the woods in the Catskills. Tania had begun secretly calling it the Great Debauch a few years ago after some unseemly incidents. She was always tasked with the planning and organizing, as Mr. O and his newish wife were not much for logistics. Which reminded her, she still had to finalize the luncheon menu with the caterers and get the details to the printer. She would have to do that during her lunchbreak.

Tania wondered, as she walked back to O's office with the cooling coffees, when did she become such a boring drudge and prude? Only a few years ago a younger Tania, a junior herself, would have tittered good-humouredly at the gossip and sly innuendos or sloppy attempts of flirtation both at the office and the annual party. What had changed in her besides just getting a bit older? Well, admittedly, more than a bit older.

After gently knocking on Mr. O's door she let herself in to deliver the beverages. She handed the mug to Nick swiftly and with no eye contact. Leaning slightly over Mr. O's large desk to deposit the mug in front of him, she could sense Nick admiring her backside from his seat opposite the big mahogany desk, confirmed when he said:

"Now if only I had Tania to bring me my coffee every morning...in bed!" and brayed his frathouse boy laugh. Tania blushed furiously. Mr. O merely chuckled and gently chided Nick, like he was a schoolmaster and Nick his favourite misbehaving pupil.

Tania quickly left the office and tried to compose herself at her desk. The nerve of that man! she thought, that boorish, fat-headed... ass! The only thing that kept her from upending the coffee cup over his head was the fact that she desperately needed this job. Like a litany, she reminded herself how much she needed this job and continued to work, soon forgetting the incident.

An hour or so later Nick emerged from Mr. O's office. Passing Tania's desk, he paused. She was on the phone with the printer discussing the things she needed for the party: menus, placards, signage, etc. She looked up at Nick and placed a hand over the phone's mouthpiece.

"Yes?" she asked pointedly, thinking he had some instruction or request to make after his meeting.

Nick smiled a toothy lascivious grin and winked at her. "See ya at the party," he said and walked out.

Tania harrumphed and continued her discussion with the printer. Unbloodylikely, she thought to herself. She would be far too busy at the party ensuring everything was going smoothly to be bumping into him again.

Before long it was the day of the Great Debauch. By the time the guests started arriving Tania was already exhausted. Taking care of last minute details, she had been at the estate grounds since 6:30 that morning. She wished she could just slip away and take a nap while everyone else ate and drank themselves silly, but she felt she had to supervise, or rather babysit, to be sure people didn't get up to their usual trouble. She wanted no repeat of some of the antics that took place in previous years. Stumbling upon couples coupling in the sparse forest surrounding the house, or getting complaints from neighbours about indecency, was not something Tania wanted to deal with this year. Fun is fun, she thought to herself as she reminded the bartenders to stop serving anyone who seemed already drunk, but there had to be limits.

Upon her third walk through the crowd she noticed Mr. O make his way up to the stage where the band was finishing their version of the Choo-Choo Cha Cha. Time for his speech, she thought, a little early but that was okay. He improvised a bit away from the script she had prepared for him, but she wasn't worried, he was a good speaker, so she was only half listening to him.

"Now if we can get Tania up here," she heard him say and she realized he had gestured toward her. People around her started applauding and clearing a path for her toward the stage. Oh no, she thought, oh no nonono...but up she went reluctantly.

Once she reached the stage Mr. O put his warm hand on her lower back and drew her closer to him and the microphone, adding new fuel to that rumour, she thought to herself.

"I just wanted to thank you for all the hard work you've done not just today, but every day. So a toast..." Mr. O looked to Parker from Legal standing closest to the bar and gestured. "Parker give Tania a drink. Can't have a toast without one!" he laughed. Tania was about to protest but the drink was soon thrust into her hand before she could make up an excuse. Oh well, she thought, one drink won't hurt.

"To Tania," Mr. O announced, "the best little secretary Oberon, Ketchum and Tate has ever had!" Everyone cheered and drank and so did Tania, sipping politely. Mr. O was obviously already a bit drunk as his hand slipped from the small of Tania's back to the rounded curve of her bottom. Her eyes flashed wide open in surprise and it was just at that moment she spotted Nick in the crowd, giving her a knowing smirk, a wave of his hand, and a wink.

Flustered, Tania gulped down the rest of her drink and handed the empty glass back to Parker who also had a knowing smile on his lips. Damn, she though, biggest gossip in the office he clearly saw Mr. O's hand on her ass and it would be all over the office by Monday. She gracefully extricated herself and made her way off the stage and down the stairs, suddenly a bit dizzy and her legs going a little wobbly. Sunstroke, she told herself, and plain exhaustion. She excused herself from the well-wishers and made her way toward the house. She just needed to lay down for a bit.

Finding a quiet empty guest bedroom she lay down on the chaise for a short nap. She felt languid and lethargic but not unpleasantly so. A short while later she woke to singing. Someone just beyond the door, a man, was singing. It sounded lovely and whistful, a low baritone with just a hint of seductive malintent. He was singing Cole Porter's "Let's Do It":

"Some Argentines without means do it

People say in Boston even beans do it

Let's do it

Let's fall in love...."

Tania ran to the door and threw it open, insanely curious. In the hallway stood Nick Bottomley in small tight red swim shorts and a towel draped carelessly over one bare and hairy shoulder. Tania gaped at him. She had never imagined him naked nor ever wondered what he looked like under his Brooks Brothers suits, and yet here he was and he looked... surprisingly good. He was average height, their eyes meeting level since she wasn't wearing heels, with a trim but compactly muscular body, powerful-looking arms and legs covered in dark downy hair. She felt herself blush when her survey landed on his groin and she realized his rather prodigious endowment was straining against the polyester of the red swim shorts.

She parted her lips with the tip of her tongue and silently invited him back into the room with her with slow blinking heavy-lidded eyes. How had she never noticed how masculine Nick was? She took a tentative step back into the bedroom, holding the door ajar. Nick glanced back and forth down both ends of the hallway, and, satisfied no one saw him, stepped inside the bedroom with her, gently closing the door behind him.

The late afternoon sun coming through the window set small amber flames dancing through her brown hair, strands tumbled loose in her sleep from the normally tight chignon she always wore clung to her neck. Nick stepped closer to her and raised a hand to the back of her head, pulling and releasing the rest of her hair, falling in deep chocolate waves on her shoulders.

"Fuck," he breathed, awestruck. "Fuck me, you are so fucking beautiful!" Despite the swearing, it was perhaps the nicest thing he had ever said to her. Tania smiled. She had never been called beautiful and certainly never heard it said with so much bare awe and passion.

Emboldened by his compliment, she tilted her head at him and took a step toward him, slid her hand between the fabric at the waistband of his swim shorts and the warm downy skin of his abdomen, and cupped his hard cock. It pulsed and twitched in her hand. Groaning, he bent to slide the shorts down his legs and off. Tossing shorts and beach towel to the floor, he grasped her by the shoulders and kissed her mouth. A long slow exploratory kiss punctuated with nips and teasing bites of her full lips that no doubt would leave bruises. He grabbed fistfuls of her hair, gently but insistently, wanting to draw more of her to his mouth. She wrapped her hands and arms around his thick neck and shoulders, caressing the skin and skimming the fur there with her fingertips. She felt the insistent press of his cock against her thigh through the filmy fabric of her summer dress. She moaned softly.

With a groan he gently pushed her backwards onto the bed, climbing up on after her, tangled up in the eiderdown. Gentleness gave way to desperate urgency as he pushed and shoved at her clothes trying to gain access. She heard some seam tear but cared very little. Yes, she thought, rip it off, tear everything to shreds. But he was more careful and with her help managed to remove the rest of her clothing. He stepped off the bed and backed a bit away, admiring her, appreciating her body in the fading afternoon light. Self-conscious, she blushed and tried to cover her body, or at least the parts she didn't like and didn't want him to inspect so closely. She wanted to hide, suddenly embarrassed.

He gently slapped her hands away. "Don't. Let me look", he whispered. "You have no idea how many times I imagined you naked like this. But this is better than anything I could ever have imagined. You're amazing."

What kind of man loves like this? She wondered to herself. For once, Tania was at a loss for words. I think I love you, she thought. It was illogical but quite true. Wait, had she said that out loud?

Nick chuckled hoarsely as he kissed her neck and shoulders. "Love and logic have very little to do with it, babe." He smiled at her warmly, before sliding himself between her legs, his face mere inches from her moist heat. Curling his hands around each thigh he pulled her down onto his mouth, his tongue easing open her folds to lap and lick at her, occasionally thrusting deep, returning to draw whorls on her clitoris. Tania, moaning and shuddering, legs trembling, raked her fingers through his hair. She was so close, she could feel the thundering pulse rolling in her belly, but Nick stopped suddenly and raised his head.

"No, no please, don't stop!" she panted, raising her hips to him.

"Say it, babe. Tell me what you really want." He breathed heavily, holding her thighs firmly apart, perspiration doting his forehead and his mouth still wet from her. "Say it," he repeated, firmly, menacingly.

Tania drew a ragged breath. It was an effort to say what she knew he wanted to hear. She had never said it aloud, she wasn't that kind of woman, relying on whomever she was with to just get it and get it done without much input or direction from her. What did she want?

Sensing her creeping self-doubt, Nick pressed his thumb to her swollen clitoris and rubbed slow lazy circles around it. At his maddening touch she jerked her head back into the bed and practically screamed: "Fuck me! Oh, god, please please please! Slide your cock into me and fuck me!" The tendons in her neck strained cord-like against her skin, the muscles in her thighs shook, she clenched her fists and her nails dug into the coverlette, tearing the fabic.

Nick smiled broadly. "Yes ma'am" he said just before easing into her. She wrapped her legs around his waist and her arms around his back, her teeth pressed into his shoulder to try and still her shuddering. His hands slid up her back and over her shoulders and he pulled her down onto him, thrusting into her even deeper. When Nick felt her climaxing he whispered in her ear: "Look at me. Look at me I want to see your face." Tania stared into his eyes, whimpering and biting her lip, her body shaking against him. "So beautiful," he whispered, "so fucking beautiful." A moment later he too climaxed, moaning against her flushed shoulder. As their breathing slowed Tania raked her fingers into his thick hair, sighed contentedly and fell alseep.

Tania awoke, alone, a few hours later; it was at least 8 pm she estimated. She lay a few minutes wondering if it was all just a dream. Admittedly, a wonderful amazing dream. She dressed quickly and pulled her hair back into a tight ponytail, straightened up the bed and left the room. Stopping at a mirror in the hallway she wiped as best she could at the smeared lipstick and mascara on her face, and made her way, hopefully unnoticed, downstairs. She would quietly call a cab from the phone in the kitchen and slip out by the staff entrance. At least that was her plan. Just before turning into the kitchen Mr. O spotted her.

"Tania! I'm so glad you're still here! I was worried about you, someone told me you weren't feeling well and had come into the house I assume to lay down." Mr. O gently touched her shoulder. "Are you feeling better? I must apologize, it seems you were slipped a, how do they call it? a Mickey? Parker admitted to me he had put something in your drink. I admit I wanted you to relax and have fun today but he misunderstood me. Please forgive me. I'm firing Parker Monday morning!" Mr. O was rambling, she had never seen him so upset.