HOME AGAIN
After getting home from Tokyo I had three days off before a Monday morning meeting with Barbara Anderson giving me plenty of time to freak out over my possible future in the company's new Mailgirls program. It also allowed me to continue to relive the events in Tokyo, especially my nude delivery runs through Hiromoto headquarters and the shocking meeting with Mr. Hiromoto himself.
How boring am I now, Mark, I thought to myself. That's what my long-time boyfriend had called me a few weeks ago as I was kicking him out of my apartment after discovering he'd been cheating on me. I was so focused on my career that I'd become boring. So he'd hooked up with a more interesting girl whose exciting life, as best I could tell, consisted of working at Starbucks, tweeting constantly about her favorite reality show, and sharing cat videos on Facebook. While she was busy making lattes and gossiping about the Kardashians I'd been in Tokyo kneeling naked on the floor as a modern day Japanese daimyo whipped one of the most beautiful women I'd ever seen in front of me. Just another day at the office for boring old me, I guess.
I'm still not quite sure what had gotten into me that afternoon in Hiromoto headquarters when I'd let Kelly talk me into stripping down to get the full mailgirl experience. Acting as a subservient nude delivery girl whose primary value lay in exposing her tits, ass, and pussy went against everything I believed in. What's even worse is that I found myself in a constant state of arousal as I relived that day in my mind. I tried to chalk up the frequent masturbation sessions to the fact that I hadn't gotten laid in weeks, but I couldn't help but wonder if I was discovering things about myself that I might not want to know.
I was also nearly certain now that Barbara had baited Kelly and me into signing a contract that would allow the company to force us into mailgirl servitude for the next two years. I kept envisioning myself confronting Barbara about her lies and manipulation during our next meeting, but a tearful call to Mariko changed my mind about the wisdom of that.
"Making this woman your enemy at this point would not aid your cause," she said to me over the phone. "It is wise not to trust her but also understand that angering her is not a solution. It would be best to keep your true thoughts hidden until you are certain of the path you wish to take."
"So then I have no choice but to become a mailgirl if she tells me to?"
"You always have a choice, Danica."
"But I can't just quit, Mariko. The penalties in the contract would ruin me financially. It would take me years to dig myself out of the hole and I don't want to do that."
"Then you have made your choice."
"Couldn't I sue them to try to get out of it?"
"Yes, of course."
"But do you think I could win?"
"I am not a lawyer, Danica, so I cannot predict the outcome. My experience with Mailgirls contracts is that they are cleverly written by lawyers to give the company the advantage. What I would advise is to seek ways to gain the advantage for yourself."
"How the hell would I do that?"
"No one sees or hears more than the lowly mailgirl," Mariko said. "She goes everywhere and is seen by all, yet remains invisible. She is not worthy of hiding secrets from. If you keep your eyes and ears open perhaps you will find your advantage."
I wasn't terribly hopeful about that and in the meantime I'd be forced to run around naked in front of all of my fellow co-workers at DDE. I knew she was right, though, that calling Barbara a lying bitch to her face without an alternative plan would do nothing but cause me grief. It would be foolish to compound my previous mistakes by piling new ones on top of them.
I had trouble sleeping on Sunday night so I got up early to prepare for work. I turned on the shower and stepped into it, and as the warm water washed over me I had the unshakeable feeling that my life was about to change in a very significant way. I felt like I was floating unmoored and powerless down a fast flowing river with treacherous rapids looming in my path. Along with the fear, doubt, and uncertainty I was experiencing there was also an undeniable undercurrent of excitement as well. Even as I felt control of my life slipping away I was nearly trembling in anticipation of what might happen today in Barbara's office.
And as I imagined what my future might hold my right hand slid down my stomach into the welcoming moistness between my legs.
THE MEETING
The first part of the meeting in Barbara's office was primarily a debriefing where Kelly and I answered a series of questions about our experiences in Tokyo observing Hiromoto's Mailgirls program in action. When asked, I gave Barbara my honest impression that despite the sexist and degrading premise behind it I'd found it to be a surprisingly well organized and efficient system. Whether or not it increased productivity as much as they claimed, I couldn't say, but it definitely did the job of moving information and items between departments in a timely and attention-getting manner. I had little doubt that a memo delivered by a nude mailgirl was much more likely to get immediate attention than if it popped up in an e-mail inbox. Also, knowing that a beautiful nude woman would show up when summoned provided employees with more incentive to deliver information and items immediately to whatever department required them.
Kelly and I also told her that we'd both stripped down and spent the afternoon in the nude following our mailgirls on their delivery runs through the Hiromoto building. There was no reason to try to hide it from her since it was a near certainty that she'd already been told about it by her contacts in Tokyo.
"That's great!" Barbara said with a smile. "I'm glad to see you two throwing yourself into this project so enthusiastically. So tell me, what was it like?"
"Um, well, it was humiliating," I said, "but I have to admit that it felt physically more comfortable on my body doing it nude than in athletic wear."
Barbara asked us about the reaction of the other employees to the mailgirls and if we'd witnessed any abuses. "The mailgirls were treated with arrogance, rudeness, and condescension," I told her. "They're considered lowly servant girls and get little respect. But, no, I didn't witness any actual abuses." That wasn't entirely true, but I'd sworn to Mariko I would tell no one about what I'd witnessed in Hiromoto's office.
"Condescension we can live with," Barbara said. "That's not likely to get us sued or the program shut down by the government. We are going to have to navigate carefully through sexual harassment and labor laws, though." It wasn't lost on me that Barbara was more concerned with avoiding litigation and government interference than whether or not the mailgirls were treated with any respect.
"Well ladies," Barbara said as we wrapped up the debrief, "I've heard nothing but good things about you two from Tokyo and I have to say that I'm very happy about that. You're both off to a good start."
I simply nodded, keeping my true feelings hidden as Mariko had suggested. So far the meeting had been cordial and businesslike but I was still nervous that a very large shoe was about to drop. It didn't take long.
"So anyway," Barbara continued, "we were busy ourselves while you were in Tokyo. Things are moving fast now. Hiromoto technicians were here installing the hardware and software for the Mailgirls program in the tower over the past week. Not many people know about this yet so we told them it was an upgrade to our wifi network."
"It's already installed in the tower?" Kelly asked. "What about the rest of the compound?"
"We're holding off on that. We've decided to limit it to the tower for now. Keep it simple until we get the inevitable startup problems worked out."
"When is it starting?" I asked.
"We'll spend the rest of the week discreetly testing the system and finishing up our preparations. Provided all goes well we'll announce the program internally on Friday morning and put out a press release Friday afternoon. We go live next Monday morning."
"That soon?" I asked. I was a little stunned at the speed this was moving. I thought we were weeks away.
"Yeah, Dan is worried this will leak out to the public before we're ready to go," Barbara said, referring to CEO Dan Evans. "He wants this up and running before activist groups have time to organize protests."
"I didn't realize you'd even hired any mailgirls yet," I said.
There was a long pause before Barbara spoke again. "Well, that's something I need to talk to you two about."
I turned and looked at Kelly and she gave me a knowing look. Here we go, I thought.
THE REAL PLAN
"I told you that we'd signed a two year contract with Hiromoto, and that's true," Barbara said to us, "but there's a ninety day escape clause in it once we go live with the program. For all their bravado about how this company thrives on controversy, the truth is there are some people upstairs who are scared shitless that this thing is going to blow up in our faces. I've been ordered to keep a tight lid on things until we go live so I haven't been able to advertise for mailgirl job openings or do any interviews. I couldn't even put out discreet inquiries in house to find women who might be willing to take the job."
"So we're it, aren't we," Kelly said. "The company's Mailgirls program is just going to be me and Danica. We're going to be your naked guinea pigs."