I had not intended to write any more of "The Girl Across the Street" series. However, a reader requested an ending to the story, so this is my attempt to create one. I hope it doesn't disappoint. I also urge you to read the first through fourth chapters of "The Girl Across the Street" before reading this. This chapter will not make much sense unless you do.
This story is a work of fiction. Some real institutions are mentioned, but they are used fictitiously. Insofar as the author knows, no real person affiliated with any of those institutions has ever behaved as described in this story. Any similarities between any character in this story and any real person are coincidental and unintended. I encourage comments on this story, both favorable and unfavorable. Thank you for reading.
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Priscilla d'Ubo bought the old River Valley Bank expecting to make dramatic changes. Trish and I necessarily became instrumental in that transition. First, we had to deal with the existing customers. To do that, we continued as River Valley, working clothed, for a couple of weeks. We were candid with the customers. We told them that, when we re-opened as Exhibition Bank, all bank staff would always work nude. We would not require customers to be nude. That would be largely meaningless since most people banked online rather than in person. However, we created some incentives. New accounts opened in person by nude customers would have most fees waived. Business borrowers would be expected to have as much of their staffs working nude as possible. Our standard loan documents provided for escalated interest rates and fees if we determined that a business was operating "excessively clothed."
Some customers were, of course, outraged and closed their accounts immediately. We were able to sell the loans of borrowers who no longer wished to do business with the Bank to another bank. At first, most customer didn't seem to care.
The River Valley staff cared, a lot. Almost to a man and woman, they quit. Lawsuits based on "constructive discharge for refusing to engage in immorality" were threatened. We pointed out that everyone at River Valley was an employee at will, meaning we could fire them or change the terms of their employment pretty much as we pleased. That revelation, coupled with Priscilla's offer of generous severance payments conditioned on the employees agreeing in writing not to sue, ended the litigation threats.
The employee rebellion meant that we would be starting out very short-staffed. Beyond Liz, Geoff, Trish, and me, we had only one other employee, a holdover teller named Diane Woods. In the beginning, Trish would be handling the part of our IT we didn't outsource. I would do loan due diligence and fill in if more than one teller were needed at a time. That meant I spent time with Diane before the re-opening being trained to be a bank teller.
Diane was a mildly attractive, slender brunette. She was a couple of years out of college. I finally asked her why she had chosen to stay on instead of quitting like everyone else had. "My degree is in philosophy," she replied, "and there isn't a big market for people knowledgeable about existentialism. With the pay raise I'll get when we switch over, I just can't afford to quit."
"You aren't concerned about working naked?" I asked.
"Hell yeah I'm concerned," Diane replied. She paused before continuing less vehemently. "It is way outside my comfort zone. To be honest, I get scared every time I think about it. But you, Trish, Liz, and Geoff all seem to be looking forward to working naked so I'm thinking there must be upsides that I'm not seeing. I'll never know if I don't try it." She paused again, smiled weakly, and added, "at least it will give me an incentive to stay in shape." It didn't seem to me that Diane was having any trouble with her shape.
Finally, the day came. The new signage was up outside, ready to be unveiled. First, however, we needed to be unveiled. Liz, Diane, Trish, Geoff, and I gathered in the Bank's small conference room just after 8:00 that morning.
Liz immediately took over the meeting, establishing herself as our de facto leader. She was wearing a classic banker outfit: dark jacket over a cream-colored blouse with a below the knees skirt and heels. "This," Liz announced in a formal tone, "is the beginning of Exhibition Bank. The name has several meanings. On one level, it reflects our owner's commitment to the arts. On another level, it signifies our willingness to exhibit leadership in a new kind of banking." She paused, smiled, and, in a conversational tone, added, "that bullshit aside, it most importantly means that we are going to show off our naked bodies. Is everyone ok with that?"
Geoff nodded somewhat hesitantly. Trish and I nodded much more enthusiastically. Liz looked at Diane. "Diane?" Liz asked.
Diane knew, I think, she had reached a moment of truth. She didn't respond to Liz immediately and I could see her beginning to blush. After a moment, she exhaled, smiled, and said, with more enthusiasm than I'd expected, "let's do it!"
"Ok!" Liz said. She clapped her hands once and said, "clothes off! None of us wears clothes in this building ever again!" She kicked off her shoes, took her jacket off and put it over a chair, and began unbuttoning her blouse. The rest of us started undressing.
I had never seen Liz Rand nude before. Nudity was a definite improvement in Liz's appearance. She wasn't Danielle or Trish, but she had a full, firm chest, nicely rounded hips, and firm, if slightly large, thighs which framed a neatly trimmed bush.
Nudity transformed Diane from mildly attractive to beautiful. I was amazed at what her clothing hid. She was slim with small, pert breasts, a tight ass, and shapely legs. Naked, Diane was in Danielle and Trish's league. Trish asked, "Diane, you've never gone nude with other people before?"
"Only with a few boyfriends when we were, you know, having sex," Diane replied.
"That's a shame," Trish said, "you look fantastic naked."
Diane blushed again. "Thank you," she said, "but I'm not nearly as beautiful as you are."
It is difficult for me to appreciate guys, but Geoff Cardon seemed impressive with his clothes off, especially for a man his age. I glanced at Liz, who was looking at Geoff with what I'd call "proprietary affection."
Liz's cell phone rang. She pulled it from a pocket in her jacket and answered. Her side of the short conversation was, "we're ready," "yes, I know," and "we'll be there in a minute." She ended the call and announced, "that was Priscilla. She and Emile are outside for the unveiling of the sign. She's also arranged for some press to be here."
Trish and I had expected Priscilla would use her influence to get some local media coverage of the opening. Diane seemed petrified. Liz took her hand and started towards the front of the Bank. "Come on Diane," Liz said. "The whole world is going to see your naked body and you have absolutely nothing to be ashamed of."
It was a warm June day, perfect for going nude outdoors. As we walked out the front door, I was not surprised to see that Danielle, clothed, was standing with Priscilla and Emile. Danielle smiled at us as Trish and I walked out in our birthday suits. What did surprise me was that two of the City's TV stations had sent reporters and cameramen. Apparently, the opening of the country's first nude bank was considered an appropriate assignment for female reporters.
Priscilla said a few words. Then we lined up in front of the covered sign with our bare asses to the cameras. Liz turned to face the cameras and pulled a cord that dropped the tarp from the new, illuminated "Exhibition Bank" sign.
To our surprise, one of the stations aired some footage showing our bare asses on their 11:00 p.m. news. There was also a very brief full frontal shot of Liz that someone failed to edit out. Liz was genuinely happy about that.
The reporters had interviewed all of us. It was sexy to be filmed standing naked taking questions from an attractive woman who was dressed to the nines. Unfortunately, my interview was not aired. One station aired interviews of Liz and Trish, showing them only from their bare shoulders up. The other station aired Diane's interview, which was the best. Faced with a microphone and camera, Diane got over her fear by going whole hog, saying she considered that she was being given a "unique opportunity which she'd be foolish to pass up" and inviting the public to "please come in and see me, all of me." Even from just the shoulders up, the newly confident Diane looked great.
After that first brief splash of attention, I expected the nude bank to slowly wither and die. I was wrong. Priscilla had decreed that we would lend on better-than-market terms to anyone who started a nude business or converted their existing business to fully nude. Geoff spent a lot of time out of the office getting us borrowers. While we did have one retail borrower, a shop in Vermont that sold outdoor gear, most of our borrowers were tech businesses. I guess nudity works better when your customer contact is primarily virtual.
We also had a lot of depositors. There was a general contractor based about a mile away from the Bank. After we went all nude, a lot of guys from that company opened accounts at the Bank. Every other Friday afternoon, Diane faced a steady stream of guys coming in to deposit their paychecks. At times, there was even a line. I usually lurked in the background to try to deter anything untoward. However, Diane seemed to have the guys well under control. Although she worked behind a traditional high bank teller's counter, Diane found reasons to move around the area behind the counter so that every depositor got a complete view. She seemed to be enjoying herself.
As we closed for the weekend on a Friday evening about six weeks after we went nude, I was helping Diane get everything put away and locked up. "You know," Diane said with a grin, "if you'd told me two months ago that I'd be looking forward to having a line of men see my bare tits, ass, and mound; I'd have probably slapped you. But I really enjoy payday Fridays."
"Being seen nude is a lot of fun," I replied.
