At the last minute before heading out of her apartment, Kate remembered that it was Friday. Or more specifically, Casual Friday. Not wanting to stick out in her smart Monday to Thursday attire, she rushed back to her closet and frantically looked for something else she could wear.
There was no time to plan a whole new outfit, and, being in a new job, Kate wasn't quite sure how casual was too casual. A pair of black jeans caught her eye, and she grabbed them from the hanger and quickly pulled off her skirt and stockings.
The jeans were a little tight. Perhaps they'd shrunk in the wash. Still, with a bit of effort, Kate managed to pull them up her legs and fasten the top button. She slid her bare feet back into her smart heels and looked at her outfit in the mirror.
The jeans went nicely with her dark blazer, which she had on over a silky deep maroon button-up blouse. This was a solid smart-casual outfit. Her red hair fell neat about her shoulders, and her makeup brought out the blue of her eyes. The maroon blouse hugged her waist and breasts, showing just the slightest hint of cleavage, and the jeans and heels sculpted her legs pleasingly. Nodding at her reflection, she grabbed her purse and headed back out the door.
Unfortunately, Kate had spent just enough time squeezing into her jeans to miss the subway train she needed to take to the office, and had to wait ten minutes for the next one.
At two minutes past nine, a slightly frazzled Kate burst into the lobby of her office building, greeted the ladies at the reception desk, and hurried to the elevator, heels clacking. It was a hot day in early summer, and the speed-walk from the station had made her regret wearing black jeans. The office air conditioning was a welcome relief from the heat.
Kate pressed the button for the basement. At this job, she was starting from the bottom.
Once the elevator arrived at her floor, she walked briskly down the dingy, windowless hallway towards her work area. Strange noises emanated from the open-plan office, swishes, grunts, and fast moving footsteps. What in the hell was Steve up to today, she wondered.
On paper, Kate managed the organization's technical support department. She was twenty-six and already in management. In practice, her job was to babysit Steve Bunten, a man-child who was as unpleasant as he was indispensable. She was twenty-six and still a babysitter.
Steve's personal charm was zero, his grooming skills nonexistent, and he would spend much of the workday engaged in strange hobbies. But he knew the organization's systems better than anyone, and had single-handedly rescued them from total meltdown more times than anyone could count, so there was no choice but to keep him on the payroll.
As Kate entered the open-plan desk area from the hallway, the source of the strange noises became clear. Steve's latest hobby, it appeared, was darting around the office, dramatically wielding a mall ninja sword, doing all sorts of spins and stabs at the air. For an extremely sedentary overweight man, he moved with surprising grace, but it was clear from the redness of his face that all this swordplay was really taking it out of him.
"Hah! Haa-yah!" Steve cried, swinging his sword in the air. "Oh! Kate! Yah!"
Kate's eyes went wide as the sword descended right in front of her eyes. With no time to so much as step back, her eyes widened in terror. There was a strong tug against her back as the tip of the sword made contact with the top of her blouse, which jerked her forward.
SCHWING! PING! PING! PING! Steve's sword went all the way down and planted itself in the carpet. Steve grimaced as he pulled the sword free, stumbling back a few steps once it came out of the ground. "Sorry!" he said, a worried and apologetic look on his face. "I didn't mean to... whoa..." Steve's eyes widened as they fixed on Kate.
Kate felt the cool wind from the air conditioner in some unexpected places. Her heart sank as she looked down to survey the damage.
Steve's mall ninja sword had cleanly sliced off every button on Kate's blouse! It now hung, loosely parted, exposing the pearl-white skin of her torso, as well as a hint of cream bra. "EEEP!" Blushing, Kate pulled the sides of her ruined top closed. "Steven!"
"I'm sorry, Kate, I didn't see you," Steve mumbled, looking down at his feet. "It was an accident."
"Why were you swinging that thing around in the office in the first place?!"
"Well, you said I should get more exercise..."
"Not at the office!"
Steve mumbled something unintelligible and slunk off to his desk, sword trailing on the ground.
"You could have hurt me with that thing!" Kate yelled after him, after she'd surreptitiously checked herself for any cuts. "I really liked this top, you know!"
Her admonishments were met with more unintelligible mumbling, Steve's usual response when he did something wrong. He plopped down on his chair and put on his large noise-canceling headphones. Kate knew that if she tried to talk to him now, he'd just ignore her, or worse, tell her she was interrupting critical infrastructure maintenance. With a weary sigh, she walked to her own desk in the corner of the room, hands firmly holding her top in place.
Steve was the only other person who regularly worked in that part of the building. The rest of the tech support staff was only to happy to be permanently on-call, or worked remotely, probably to get away from situations like this one. Kate, being a manager, had to be here, with the only one of her team members who really required managing.
She angled her swivel chair to face the corner and sank into it, releasing her grip on the sides of her top so that she could properly survey the damage. As the top fell open, the breath caught in her throat. Her bra was gone!
Kate clutched the top closed again, not willing to flash even the corner of the wall. How had this happened? It must have been cut by Steve's sword, and fallen off while she was walking. This day just kept getting worse, and it had barely gotten started.
Luckily, Kate had her blazer for some cover. She did up its two buttons, hiding her stomach. But unless she held her blouse closed, she would be showing most of her chest. What a nightmare! She would have to get a new top as soon as possible, but how?
For the moment, Kate had an idea. Keeping her chair angled to the corner, she undid her blazer buttons again. Then she took the corners of either side of her top, brought them together and tied them in a knot, which came to rest against her sternum. This new arrangement of her top was not at all appropriate for work, exposing her midriff and considerable cleavage, but it covered the essentials. With her blazer buttoned up, she was basically decent.
Clothes somewhat in order, Kate swivelled her chair around and got to her feet to look for her missing bra. She retraced her steps, scanning the office floor, but could find no trace of it. One possibility came to mind. Steve.
She glanced at the large unkempt man, who was fully absorbed by his screen. Had he moved since she'd last looked? Yes, he was seated slightly differently. There was no doubt in her mind that he'd seen her bra fall off and taken it. For what purpose, she shuddered to think.
Kate's first impulse was to walk over there, wrench his headphones off, and demand that he return her undergarment. But as she played the situation out in her mind, it seemed like less and less of a good idea. First off, she'd have to get up in his face, and in her current state of dress, that would mean just about letting him put his nose down her cleavage. Second off, he'd just deny it. At the very least, there would be an extended argument before he'd maybe admit it. And finally, even if he did return it, what good would a sliced up bra do her at this point?
She definitely did not want Steve to keep her bra, but she needed a change of clothes before it would be practical to confront him about it. Maybe she could sneak home during her lunch break...
Just then, Kate's ass buzzed. She pulled the phone from the back pocket of her jeans and looked at who was calling. It was Ron Booker, her boss. She answered immediately.
"Hi Ron, how are you today?"
