THE MORNING AFTER
I awoke early the next morning before the alarm and stared at the ceiling fan turning slowly above my bed. Images from yesterday kept playing in my head like a highlight reel from Danica's Craziest Day Ever. Between being a naked stage prop, the humiliating return to Marketing, my confrontation with Stephanie, Barbara's quid pro quo, and my nude walk home, my emotions felt like they'd been taken for a dizzying ride on a Tilt-A-Whirl.
But with everything that had happened yesterday my thoughts kept returning to the moment when Barbara leaned in and gave me that long, slow, wet kiss. How was it possible that the person responsible for putting me through all of that could make me want her so badly? Maybe the whole point of having me run that gauntlet yesterday was to allow her to toss me a lifeline in the form of a glass of wine, honest conversation, and a kiss. By stacking one humiliation on top of another she was psychologically tearing me down in order to turn a cell that was nothing more than tape on the floor into an inescapable prison with her serving as both my captor and savior. I knew that it was a total mind fuck but I was afraid it was working.
Anna continued sleeping next to me and the warmth of her body and the rhythmic sound of her breathing made me feel even guiltier about my desire for Barbara. Last night I'd told Anna about everything except my conversation with Barbara and the kiss. I couldn't. It's not just that I was afraid that confessing my feelings for Barbara would hurt Anna, I also didn't want to reveal her plans for me. For some reason I felt like this should remain a secret between just the two of us. Perhaps a part of me wanted to see how all of this would eventually play out and telling Anna might alter things.
The sound of the alarm jolted me out of my thoughts and I reached over to shut it off. "Hey," Anna said sleepily as she laid her head on my chest.
"Hey," I repeated back to her as I kissed her forehead and began stroking her hair. We laid together like that for several minutes before we reluctantly got out of bed to get ready for work.
Preparing for work is a breeze for a mailgirl. In my case all I had to do was go to the bathroom, brush my teeth, run a brush through my hair and I was ready to go. Showering, shaving, and applying makeup would all take place at work. Anna had the additional step of putting on her dress and sandals. We each had a quick bowl of cereal, a banana, and a glass of juice then headed out the door.
If anything, the nude walk to DDE headquarters was even more embarrassing than the one coming home last night. This time there were other people from the condos also making the short walk to work so we weren't alone on the sidewalk. I followed a step behind Anna with my eyes lowered continuing to play my submissive role. Anna was also playing her role and when a man asked why I was nude she told him, "Because she's my slave girl and I won't let her wear any clothes."
Since winning her independence from her domineering mother Anna was having the time of her life. She loved being a mailgirl, loved the nudity, loved the condo, and loved being with me. Life was an exciting adventure for her and after being sheltered for so long by her mother she was eager to explore every aspect of it. Playing the role of my master was great fun as far as she was concerned even if it was only for the few minutes it took to walk to and from work. Inside the condo last night we'd both dropped the role playing and went back to just being Danica and Anna.
Other DDE employees were also arriving to work as we entered at the main employee entrance. Anna flashed her ID badge at the wide eyed security guard, a different one than the guy on duty last night. I spotted Donna Haverly across the lobby as she was scurrying towards us.
"Nine, you need to follow me," Donna said brusquely. "One, you can head to the tower and start your normal mailgirl shift." She didn't say what this was about but I assumed it had something to do with the new Mailgirls locker room, the latest humiliation that Barbara had lined up for me today. A knot began to grow in my stomach.
Donna led me to one of the elevators where other employees were also waiting. When the door opened and they entered, I hesitated. "Get in, Nine," Donna ordered. "There's no damn way I'm climbing five flights of stairs." I entered the crowded elevator.
No one said anything as the elevator began to climb, but a couple of women began snickering and I could sense eyes roaming over my body. The elevator stopped on each floor to let people off. By the time we reached the fifth floor there was only one other guy left and he exited in front of us and disappeared into a nearby office.
I followed Donna past the main entrance to the large room where the game "Gangsta," was produced until we reached a door leading into a service corridor. We walked to the end of the empty corridor and then entered another door. Inside it I found myself in the new Mailgirls locker room.
This is huge, I thought to myself as I looked around. Obviously it was much larger than our little makeshift locker room in the tower, but it was also larger than even Hiromoto's locker room in Tokyo. This side of the room held six enclosed toilet stalls, a row of thirty lockers with a bench in front, and a long counter on the wall opposite the lockers with multiple sinks for washing up and applying makeup. On the other end of the room were wall shelves holding dozens of clean, folded white towels and a shower area featuring a dozen shower heads. The feature that really captured my eye, though, was the mirror. It ran nearly the full length of the room and provided a full view of the lockers, sinks, and showers. I assumed it was a two way mirror and wondered if there were already people on the other side staring in.
Donna was winded from just the walk here so the heavyset woman plopped herself down on the locker bench, took out her smart phone and began scrolling through it. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do so I asked, "Is there something I should be doing, ma'am?"
"Not yet," she replied. "We've got a few minutes to kill before the ceremony." Donna had the deep, raspy voice of a long-time smoker and to confirm that suspicion she reached into her jacket pocket, pulled out a stick of nicotine gum, unwrapped it and popped it into her mouth. Then she crumpled up the wrapper and tossed it towards a trash can, missing it by a mile. She was either trying to quit smoking or just trying to make it through the day in DDE's non-smoking environment until she could light one up.
"The ceremony, ma'am?" I asked,
"Barbara's going to say a few words then they're going to pull the tarp off the wall so the Gangsta employees can see in. Then you do your thing."
"My thing, ma'am?"
"Jump in the shower, shave, do whatever else you do to get ready for your shift. Put on a little show."
This was going to be awful. "I don't have my stuff with me here, ma'am."
"They're in your locker."
The lockers were numbered from one to thirty so I walked down to locker #9 and opened it. Inside I found my shower kit, makeup kit, the MMU that would be strapped to my arm, and a black felt tip pen. I closed the locker and took a deep breath to try to calm myself. "May I take a seat on the bench while we wait, ma'am?"
"I don't give a shit," Donna replied, her face still buried in her phone. The woman was a real charmer.
I sat down, closed my eyes and tried to take my mind off of what lay ahead of me. I decided to try to figure out why Barbara had hired Donna to help her manage the Mailgirls program. In the short time I'd been around her I could tell she was obviously no ideological warrior intent on helping Barbara achieve her dream of societal change. Maybe that's exactly why she was hired. Someone like that might question or even challenge Barbara's methods in achieving her goals. Donna was just here for a paycheck. She was a foot soldier who would do whatever the hell Barbara told her to do. And Donna's looks and gruff demeanor insured that Barbara would remain the face, voice, and brains behind the Mailgirls program at DDE.
I felt pleased by that analysis and thought it helped me gain a little more insight into Barbara's thinking. I was no Psych major but I'd decided that it would be useful to try to figure out what made her tick and see if I could find a way to use it to my advantage.
My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Donna's phone ringing. "Yeah. Yeah. Okay." That was all she said before hanging up. "Barbara's outside now getting ready to say a few words. When she's done they'll pull the tarp off the wall outside and you can start. I'll let you know when that happens." She stood up now and walked back toward the door we'd entered from. "Come over here," she said. "Get out of sight of the mirror until it's time."
I walked over toward Donna, my anxiety rising with each step. Barbara was hitting me with humiliations in waves now and I wondered if she would follow this with some more wine and conversation in her office at the end of the day to help soothe my nerves and bond us together. Or she could just as easily gag me, whip me, and throw me into her closet. Who could predict with her?
Through the wall now I could hear Barbara's muffled voice speaking along with the sounds of laughter and cheering by the crowd gathered there. I couldn't quite make out what she was saying but I'm sure it was some inspirational speech about how the Gangsta team had earned their very own Mailgirls locker room to gawk into and watch women undressing and showering. Just a little reward for turning out a game that was a massive international hit.
Finally there was a loud cheer and moments later Donna's phone buzzed. She looked at it, then turned to me.
"That's it," she said. "You're on. It's showtime."
SHOWTIME