Following her liaison with Suzie that fateful Monday night when Mallory thought she would simply offer her a shoulder to cry on, the 30-something brunette was apprehensive about what their work relationship would be like. She was concerned Suzie might get the wrong idea about her and she may want more than a simple friendship. However, by the time she had her first phone call at work on Tuesday morning, all worries about whether or not Suzie even remembered what had happened between them vanished; she was back to her bipolar self.
Mallory glanced over at her phone as it rang, nervously answering when she saw Suzie's name and extension on the Caller ID, "Good morning, this is Mallory."
"Yeah, I know. You don't have to answer so formally when it's an inner-office call, you know. That's why we have Caller ID," Suzie blurted out. Mallory sighed as she waited for her to continue, "I have a customer that shows they are on credit hold and I need you to take them off, I have to send them some parts today."
Mallory drew in a deep breath, relieved she would not have to deal with their personal situation of the intimacy they shared the night before. However, she was drained and did not feel like dealing with Suzie's particular brand of moodiness today. "What is the customer name?" Mallory asked flatly, getting ready to key it into the system.
As soon as she heard the name, Mallory immediately recognized the customer as one of her past due accounts she had been working for the past few weeks trying to get them to make a payment, or at least a payment arrangement. "Suzie, I cannot take them off of credit hold, they haven't been paying and they have a huge account balance."
With that, Suzie became irate, claiming Mallory would not release the customer from hold as a personal campaign against her. Finally, in the middle of Suzie's tirade, Mallory interrupted her, "If you need to take it to the Controller, I can transfer you to his extension. Would you like me to?"
"Yes," answered Suzie smugly, "I know he'll take it off of hold for me."
Exhausted from the experience, Mallory transferred the call then let the situation leave her mind; the last thing she needed now was to think of Suzie in any capacity. It was the fiscal year end and she would be working for the next 11 days straight to complete all of the balancing, reports, and tax filings she was responsible for in her department. She had enjoyed her vacation and her sexual trysts in the past few weeks, but it was time for her to get her head into business.
A few weeks after the close of the fiscal year Mallory finally had a chance to relax and catch her breath, she sat in her living room one evening relaxing with a glass of wine as she picked up her favorite book. She settled back in her favorite comfortable chair as she gingerly opened her well-worn copy of The Story of O, ignoring the impulse to skip ahead to her favorite sultry parts of the story. Sinking further into the chair as she sipped her wine and read page after page of the steamy novel, she thought to herself, where can I find a man like Sir Stephen who will just dominate me and turn me into a slave?
Mallory was startled at her own thoughts, wondering where those ideas had come from; she had always been fairly independent, to the point it destroyed her last relationship. Almost on cue, her doorbell rang; she was a little stunned when she jumped up to look through the peephole to discover it was her almost ex-husband. She thought they had said all they could say to each other, the last time they saw each other they had a knock-down drag out fight about how disconnected they were, how much she drank, how little they had in common, you name it, they fought about it.
Mallory felt claustrophobic as she started to unlock the deadbolt, she had no idea what he could possibly want from her at this point. "Hi, Mal," he said casually when she opened the door, barely cracking it wide enough to see his face.
