Office Girls

"So, what else are we going to have him do? Make the tea?"

"Oh, I don't know. I thought we might throw the lad a bone, give him something interesting to do. How about let him run the new office girls thing we just started?"

"What, do the admin and all that? Yeah, I'm up for that, it's always a bloody nightmare."

"Well, and the other stuff. Meet the girls, film it. Everything."

"Really?"

"Yeah. It's not like it needs filming professionally, if he can point a video camera it'll be fine."

"True."

"Besides, it's easier to give him something self contained, less supervision."

Arthur turned and addressed me for the first time in a while.

"So, think you can handle that?"

"Er, I don't know. Who are the office girls?" I didn't sound too confident.

"Who do you think?"

I hesitated some more, I was still slightly lost. "Er, other interns, like me?"

Howard laughed slightly dismissively. "They won't be too much like you."

Arthur smiled slightly and just shook his head.

"It's simple, office girls are just girls who come the office."

"Right." I tried to sound like I understood.

He fixed me with a big grin. "And then they take their clothes off."

--------

Arthur was the editor of Balls, the last remaining Lads Mag in circulation. Well, I say circulation, these days it was mainly an online thing. There was just about a monthly magazine still but I got the impression it was somewhat of an afterthought and that the whole operation was pretty cheap these days. A sad come down from its heyday a decade or so previously.

I was eighteen and an intern there. I'd passed my A levels and was starting University after the summer, or at least that was the plan. After slightly disappointing results I'd not got a place on my first choices and, after much scrambling, had managed to get in for a media studies course in Brighton. They'd made it conditional, however, on getting some 'experience' before I started, and so I'd sent out emails in desperation to as many magazines as I could think of. Balls had been the first (and only) to reply.

I'd read it when I was younger. Every guy at school had had copies of it or its close cousins stashed away somewhere. The internet existed but it wasn't always easy to gain access away from the watchful eye of parents, so easily concealed magazines like Balls had been a godsend. As I got older and more trusted I hadn't particularly bothered to keep up with them, so I couldn't say I was a big fan. I was, however, desperate, so when the offer came through of a month's internship I accepted as quickly as I was able. Balls' only requirement was to confirm I was eighteen.

Arthur had greeted me on the first day and quickly showed me around the office. There were only three other people there, and Howard, introduced as their head writer, was the only one who seemed at all interested in me. He had wandered into Arthur's office as he was telling me my duties, which at first had seemed to be those of a general office dogsbody. I got the impression they'd accepted my internship because someone fairly junior had quit with little notice. It didn't sound as if the most exciting summer was in prospect but I didn't really care, it would get me on my course all the same.

Then came the office girls.

--------

After my confusion settled down I confirmed that I was sure I could handle the task, and then I asked what on earth I was supposed to doing. Though I tried not to phrase it like that.

Arthur explained that a big part of the magazine's appeal were its 'Girls with Balls', female readers who had been persuaded to strip for a constantly shifting variety of very thin excuses. Arthur briefly showed me the last few on the website, which were topless karaoke and a table tennis feature. Both seemed pretty much just videos of near naked girls.

To encourage participation there was a vague promise of becoming a 'proper' model, as each year there was a 'Girl with the Biggest Balls' contest where a lucky few got professional photo shoots to be judged by the readers. I remembered that it had once attracted national attention and a few winners had gone on to be semi-famous glamour models, but that was some time ago now. I was slightly surprised to learn the whole thing still happened.

"We keep it going as it's cheap content. We don't get as many of them applying, but we still do alright." He paused. "Just about."

Arthur seemed pretty nonchalant about persuading women to strip for essentially no reason at all, but then I'd just seen evidence that it happened. He was also very vague on what the office girls feature might actually consist of. He showed me the announcement that had been on the website and magazine. It asked for those who wanted to star in the next Girls With Balls feature to get in touch and their lack of clothing seemed to be very much implied, but beyond that there was nothing.

"So, will there be an office set or something?"

"Eh?"

"You know, for their photo shoot."

He laughed. "There's no photo shoot for it these days, we just take videos and edit them a bit. Much easier"

"Where is the studio?"

"Well," Arthur continued, "we used to have a studio upstairs but it cost too much. Since then we've usually used the meeting room over there." He shrugged. "The girls didn't seem to mind, they don't know what to expect anyway."

"So, they come here and." I left the sentence hanging, not quite ready to talk about them stripping. "What do I do for the 'office girls' part?"

"You can have them do whatever you want, really. I figured they'd do their hair a bit like a secretary, wear glasses, that sort of thing. But if you get a video of them in their knickers it doesn't really matter." He paused. "Without their knickers if possible."

I felt overwhelmed and didn't really know what 'hair a bit like a secretary' meant, but I certainly wasn't going to back out. I nodded as if everything was clear. Arthur obviously saw my lack of confidence.

"Don't sweat it. Just look at a few of the videos on the site, you'll soon see what you need to get them to do and you can point a camera, I'm sure."

"Right, yeah." Again there was a slight pause.

"OK, well, Howard will go through the details with you later. Good luck!"

--------

After the excitement of the meeting I spent several uneventful hours filtering emails, opening and filing post and phoning suppliers to pay bills or make mundane orders. I was still in the dark about how I would contact the prospective Girls with Balls and it wasn't mentioned further. Arthur stayed in his office.

After lunch things degenerated further and I was tasked with making the tea, or rather the modern equivalent of going to the nearest coffee shop and getting an order in. I tried not to get impatient but thankfully when I handed Howard his latte he had some better news.

"So, I guess I'd better get you set up to exploit our female readers."

Feeling another burst of excitement I followed him over to the laptop they'd given me.

"OK, first things first, I need to make sure the application mails get forwarded to your account."

I saw him tap away at some semi-technical looking web site for a while before he turned back to me.

"Right, if someone gets in touch it'll come through with 'Office Girls' in the subject. I think we've had one already but I wouldn't expect much for a day or so."

He settled down in the chair and then carried on.

"I reckon we need at least six girls, but it'll hopefully be more and you should get as many as you can. We'll probably put them up in batches but no reason to hang around scheduling them, in my experience they can get cold feet quite easily."

I nodded as if I had any relevant experience.

"Right, so I, er, just ask them to come in whenever." I still had essentially no idea what I was doing, and I'm sure it sounded like it.

Howard looked at me for a while before replying. "Well, you need to book the meeting room in advance on the calendar so they have a place to change and to do the video."

"OK." I paused. "And I tell them they need to, er." Again my sentence just faded away.

Howard smiled. "Look, I get it, I couldn't believe what I was supposed to do the first time I did one of these things, but these girls are way more nervous than you are, and, here's the thing." He leaned in as if he was about to tell me a secret. "They fucking love it."

I must have looked surprised. "Sorry?"

Howard settled back again, clearly in his element. "They've volunteered, haven't they? Now, obviously they'll be telling themselves some story or other about why it's fine." He waved his hand dismissively. "They need a break into modelling, they need a new job, no one they know will see, their friend made them. Whatever."

"But, at the end of the day, they've emailed asking if they can take their clothes off for us. No one made them." He smiled. "I always look at it this way, after that first email then getting them naked is just doing them a favour." His smile was growing ever bigger. "You wouldn't believe how eager to please some of them are once you get some of their clothes off."

I still felt and looked startled, but Howard's honesty inspired me to do the same.

"Yeah, I'm just not sure I'll be able to persuade them in the first place."

He shrugged. "Of course, that's normal, but remember, all the persuasion is done. The magazine's been going for years and everyone knows the score. If they get in touch they're up for it, so get them booked in as soon as you can. They'll be nervous, way more than you, and they'll want to do as you say because that's how they'll get published. Trust me, I know."

"OK, so I just tell them to come in and take their clothes off?"

"Now you're getting it!" He laughed again. "Well, you have to fill out the details a little bit more, but that's pretty much it. Like I said, they'll all have seen our stuff before."

He then went on to explain the logistics of these 'shoots'. The girls would email with a picture, it was usually of them in a bikini or underwear. I could call in who I liked but was told to use my brain and only invite girls I thought worthwhile. Howard kindly offered to give his opinion on them if needed. I was authorised to buy their rail tickets on the office debit card, and they needed to do their hair and makeup themselves. They could bring something to wear if they liked, but there was a collection of sexy stuff, underwear included, at the office and it was usually better to choose something for them.

"You know what guys will like better than them, and they usually pick something fancy that covers them up too much. For our readers then the smaller the better."

As we started talking about logistics my nervousness left me slightly and I got into it.

"Arthur seemed to say I should try and get them completely naked, but I thought Balls didn't really show everything?"

"Not in the magazine, but we can show what we like on the website so we do if the girls let us. I tell them taking their knickers off is just so we can see their bum and we'll edit it to keep it decent. Then if they do it I see how it goes."

We chatted some more and I was just about feeling comfortable by the end, though actually having a girl in front of me still seemed a distant prospect. Howard appeared satisfied and headed back to his own desk, so I excitedly checked my email. The applications were being directed into my own inbox so it was now solely down to me to make this happen. As he'd said there was only one so far and I clicked on it.

The mail was from a Haley and it quickly said how enthusiastic she was to take part. Apparently she'd never done this sort of thing before but had often thought about it. I scrolled down to the attached picture to see if she had what it took.

First impressions were that she absolutely did. She had long, dark, lightly reddish brown straight hair. She was very pale, almost white, but it suited her look and she was very cute in a girl next door sort of way. She looked young-ish and the email said she was 19, Howard had impressed on me how important it would be for the girls to bring ID and for us to take a copy.

The picture was of her in a black bikini on a beach and showed her body off pretty well. She was nowhere near even chubby but had a definite hourglass shape and a lot of feminine curves. I was pleased to see that her breasts seemed fairly large. Overall I thought she looked great and the mail assured me the picture was very recent. I took a few more moments to study her but it was already clear that I needed to reply.

Hi Haley,

Thanks for your application. We're filling up the slots, but I think you could try out for one. The girls are coming in this week and if you could you make it to our offices on Thursday then we could squeeze you in. We'd pay for your train travel and if you give me your number it might be easier to sort out the details. Looking forward to seeing you.

- Stephen Moore

Balls Magazine

I'd tried to take Howard's advice and make it seem as if I was doing her a favour. I hoped that if she genuinely couldn't make Thursday she'd say so and we could arrange something else. Asking for her number was also his idea, apparently it was easier to get them to agree to things quickly that way. I didn't feel at all confident about talking to her but I figured it was worth trying to fake it. I tried to tell myself that even if things didn't work out with Haley there would be other girls.

I reviewed the mail several times but then steeled myself and clicked reply. I tried to ignore my inbox and busy myself with more boring admin but I still checked frequently. I was beginning to give up hope of a quick reply when about twenty minutes later one appeared. I clicked on it eagerly.

It was short and she wasn't sure if she could make Thursday, but it was maybe possible. She did include her number. I looked at the mail for a few more seconds, everything Howard had told me suggested I needed to call her as soon as possible. I felt slightly sick but I reasoned that filming Haley practically naked was absolutely something I was interested in. I picked up my phone and typed the number, then, thinking better of calling while in the open plan office I quickly stepped into the break room.

Once there I stared at my phone screen for a few more seconds before pressing call, it rang just long enough to make me again consider hanging up but then a female voice answered with a questioning, "hello?"

"Hello, is that Haley?"

"Yes."

"Hi, Haley, this is Stephen from Balls. I'm calling about sorting out your train for Thursday."

There was slight pause, then, "hello, I, er, don't know if I can come that day."

"You've already got plans?"

"Not really, but."

"Well, we do want to get them done this week, it'd be a shame if you couldn't make it. Maybe you could do tomorrow instead?"

"Oh, er, maybe."

I decided to once again ignore the hesitation. "Great, that would be really helpful actually. So would you be able to get in for one o'clock? Where are you?"

"I'm, er, I'm just in Reading."

"Fantastic, that's really close. I'll sort out your ticket after this call and email the details."

"Right." She paused again.

I couldn't believe I was managing to act like this, Howard's advice seemed to be working fantastically. She hadn't actually agreed to anything yet but seemed to be on the verge of accepting to come in the very next day. I decided to push things a little bit more.

"So, I'll text you the address and put you down for one. Any questions?"

There was silence, I wondered if I need to again keep going but this time Haley beat me to it.

"It says it's about office girls, do I need to bring anything for that?" It was a good question, and I still didn't really have a good answer.

"Not really, it's just the theme of the feature, nothing complicated. We'll just pretend you're working here when we do the shoot."

"Right, and would I be, er, topless?"

Girls asking this beforehand was a topic Howard had covered in a little bit of detail, the idea had been to not answer directly and, as ever, to act as if it was all already understood.

"You've seen the Girls With Balls features before, yeah?"

"Yeah." They all featured girls at least topless.

"So you know the thing, and obviously you don't have to do anything you're not comfortable with."

"OK."

"Just make sure you bring your make up and whatever you need to do your hair, and we'll provide the rest."

"Oh, right."

Haley paused again. Although somewhat ridiculous, it really seemed like we'd covered everything and that she was coming in the next day.

"OK then, I'll send you your ticket for tomorrow. Just from Reading station is fine?"

"Yeah."

We exchanged goodbyes and that was that.

--------

I booked and emailed her the tickets as soon as possible, and then walked over and reserved the meeting room. As the afternoon went on I wondered whether to tell Howard or Arthur, but neither seemed particularly interested in what I was up to and I was also starting to enjoy the idea of approaching this on my own.

I'd looked on the Balls website as Arthur suggested. They seemed to have attractive young women who were willing to take their clothes off, but all they ever did was just film them standing about in the meeting room. I'd watched a few videos and after the initial thrill of a new near naked girl to look at they became boring pretty fast. The more I saw the more I liked the idea of trying to do something a bit different.

In the end I spent most of the afternoon and then evening thinking about what I could try with Haley. I got quite carried away and started writing down brief details on scenes of office life that I might be able to film with her. They were obviously more about showing off a naked girl than any depiction of work, and I realised I was thinking of short comedy sketches. That seemed to be the sort of tone I'd seen in other Lads Mags videos, and while I realised they would likely not work quite as well in reality as in my head it was an enjoyable process.

The next morning dragged unbelievably. I went out and bought a few things I needed on the company debit card and I received a text from Haley confirming she was on the train without any problems, but for most of the time all I could do was wait. Howard and Arthur had both congratulated me on booking someone already, though neither were that enthusiastic. Howard gave me a quick tutorial on the video camera.

Around eleven I checked out the wardrobe that I'd been told about, and from which I would hopefully be dressing, or undressing, Haley when she arrived. Apparently it had been arrived at over the years by buying things here and there for various shoots. All of the clothing had hardly been worn and so was in pretty pristine condition.

I'd decided that I needed a full outfit, but that hopefully it was really only the underwear I would need to care about. That was lucky as underwear, and more precisely knickers, made up the majority of what was there. It made sense given ninety percent of their content seemed to feature girls wearing them and nothing else.

It was still hard to choose from as there were plenty of skimpy pairs I'd love to get a girl like Haley in. From barely there thongs to cute panties with bows and ribbons. There were plenty that seemed pretty transparent, though the vast majority kept the most important part seemingly covered. I picked out a top and skirt quickly, and then settled on some more-or-less matching underwear that I particularly enjoyed. It seemed there were appropriate bras in a couple of sizes, which might prove useful.

Then, as lunchtime approached I went and knocked on Arthur's door. I'd decided I would need to prepare things with him slightly, and it seemed best to get it done before Haley arrived.