Upping the Ante: Thursday

DIVESTMENT

"Oh my god," Cat thought to herself as she stepped into her office the next morning, "I can't believe that I'm going through with this."

She thought back to the afternoon before, when Joanna had offered to step in and prevent the bet from being settled. Cat could have gotten out of the bet; she could have worn clothes today at work. Instead, she had decided that she'd live with the consequences of her loud mouth, poor judgment, and inadequate gaming skills. "What the hell was I thinking, turning her down?" Cat asked herself. "Do I have some sort of desire for humiliation?"

The question reverberated in her head. Throughout the day yesterday, she'd found herself becoming increasingly turned on. The thought of other people in the office looking at her naked breasts, staring at her thong-clad, or trying to read the Wonderstorm logo on her crotch had gotten her hot and wet. She had practically begun salivating when she'd noticed Marcus's erection.

A shiver ran down her spine. What was wrong with her? Was she really an exhibitionist? The idea didn't sit well with her particular moral code, but she couldn't hide the fact that there was a part of her that enjoyed being on display, the center of attention. But while Cat couldn't deny the presence of that particular part of her, she also couldn't deny the fact that the rest of her wanted nothing more than just to have a regular, fully clothed day at Wonderstorm.

Unfortunately, today wasn't going to be that regular day. Cat watched her reflection in the blank screen of the computer as she pulled her v-cut white blouse over her head, revealing a silky white bra. Her reflection then slithered out of the red skirt that had accompanied the shirt, and an empty bra soon followed the rest of her clothes into a pile on her desk.

Cat looked at her reflection, standing in her office and clad in just a pair of white silk panties. Rather than meditating on her complete nudity, Cat decided to just get it over with, and slipped her panties down her legs. Looking at herself in the computer screen, Cat couldn't believe that it had gone this far. Tuesday had been bad enough, tromping around the office in the bra and boyshorts, but Cat had pushed through that. And if that hadn't been bad enough, she had only made things worse for herself, having to spend all day in just a thong on Wednesday. And now, here it was, Thursday, and she'd lost even that dignity. Her pussy was on display.

Cat shoved the bra and panties into her desk, but she gave the skirt and blouse to Karen to hang in the front closet. They’d be there when she needed to use the bathroom.

Joanna was the first to poke her head into Cat's office that morning. Chrissy and Karen had been at their desks when Cat came in that morning, but they had been the only ones. Joanna had a few words of encouragement, which Cat appreciated, but they didn't do enough to calm her nerves. She stayed in her chair, just swiveling her head enough to see her boss. Joanna probably got a view of breasts, but everything from her waist down stayed well obscured by the chair and the desk.

The same held true for Suzanne and Owen, who both said good morning to her at one point or another. Owen was clearly let down by the lack of sights to see, but he knew that he only needed to wait for a while. After all, he Joanna, and Cat had a meeting together at eleven.

WATERFALLS

Cat hid in her office all morning. She made phone calls. She worked on spreadsheets. She replied to all her e-mail. She did everything that she could to keep from leaving her office. But when eleven o'clock rolled around, Cat knew that she was going to have to leave.

Completely naked, Cat padded barefoot from her office to Joanna's, under the watchful eyes of Karen, Chrissy, and Suzanne in the main office. Owen had vantage point from the glass-walled conference room, as did Spencer, who had suspiciously rearranged his office furniture to allow him to see into the rest of the department.

“Joanna,” Cat said, getting the older woman’s attention.

“Yes?” Joanna said, looking up. There, standing in doorway, was Cat, completely naked, from her head to her foot. She had seen Cat topless yesterday, and now, though she wasn’t gay, she found her eyes moving down Cat’s body. The thong from the day before didn’t hide much, but Cat’s pussy was neatly trimmed, and Joanna guessed she had probably done that the night before. After all, if it were she, Joanna would have wanted to make sure that everything looked nice before she went showing it off.

“Um,” Cat began, trying to get Joanna’s attention back to eye-level. She was a little disturbed by Joanna’s wandering eye, but she honestly couldn’t blame the woman – it was hard not to notice her pussy hanging out for everyone to look at. “Do you think we could possibly have the meeting in my office?”

“So you can hide behind your desk?” Joanna asked. The tone didn’t suggest disappointment or a scolding of any kind, but it was clear that Joanna knew Cat was hiding.

“Well, it’s just…”

“Cat, I offered you an out yesterday. I’ll offer you another out now. But if you’re going to do this, don’t half-ass it. You made the bet, you lost, and you decided that you were going to deal with the consequences. So deal with the consequences,” Joanna told the girl.

Cat paused. “I know. It’s just that –“

Joanna interrupted her. “Besides, we can’t do it in your office. I’m presenting this Adrenalyne concept to Kelly tomorrow, and I need to practice it with the overheads. You and Owen both need to catch me on any screw-ups, so you both need to see the presentation. We’re doing it in the conference room.” With that, she looked at the nervous nudist there in front of her. “Are you ready? Just get it over with, honey.”

The brunette bit her lip. Joanna DID need to use the projector. And she was right – she just needed to go ahead with this, the Same as she had done yesterday with her tits hanging out, the Same as she had done the day before in just her underwear. Today was no different – she just had to suck it up, go out there, and act confident, like she enjoyed the nudity.

Owen’s eyes locked onto Cat’s body the moment she entered the room. As had been the case since yesterday, her emotions were conflicted: part of her was annoyed at Owen’s blatant lust, but the other part was getting turned on as she thought about the erection that she was probably giving him. Owen seemed to shake his dirty thoughts out of his head, though, and welcome Cat and Joanna into his temporary office.

Cat sat down in the chair next to Owen. The man’s eyes had shifted to the front of the room, but it was clear to Cat that he was trying to get as much as possible from his peripheral vision. Cat, for her own part, just crossed her legs and leaned back, not bothering to cross her arms across her nipples. She was strong. She was confident. And it was more than just an act – part of her was enjoying this.

For the next hour, Joanna went over her presentation. The advertising concepts had been compiled from the work that Cat, Marcus, Joanna, and Owen had been doing all week. They had different ideas for slogans, campaigns, and the game’s rollout itself. The meeting went just like any other for a while, aside from Cat’s noticeable lack of clothing and Owen’s lack of attention to the presentation.

About forty-five minutes into the meeting, Cat reached for the pitcher of water on the desk, and began pouring herself a glass. The handle, though, had worked up a fair amount of condensation, and Cat, only half paying attention, let it slip through her fingers and thud onto the table. For a second, Cat thought that everything might be okay, that the pitcher might have landed on its base. But gravity toppled the pitcher and sloshed water across the table, against Cat’s chest, and down into her lap. She was soaking, sopping wet.

Out of sheer reflex, she stood quickly. Owen was treated to drops of water glistening in Cat’s pussy. Water ran down her body, and was everywhere – on her breasts, on her stomach, and down in between her legs.

“Shit!” Cat cursed, and reached for a few napkins. With them, she patted down her body, but she was already able to tell it wasn’t going to be enough.

“Do we have towels or something?” Joanna asked the rest of the office, half leaning out the conference room door. The response was overwhelmingly negative.

“Don’t worry about it,” Cat said, slipping by her boss and making her way to the front closet. She didn’t have a towel in there, but she had the next best thing – unused clothing. She took her blouse off its hanger and began dabbing her body with it. She wiped the shirt across her breasts. She ran the fabric down her stomach. And she rubbed it between her legs. The touch of her hand, through the shirt, against her pussy was absolutely electric – a jolt of pleasure ran through her crotch. In just a few seconds, her wetness had gone from being an exterior thing to an interior - and very personal - one.

“God, not now,” Cat cursed herself. She only had a few seconds to reflect on the warmth in her groin, before she remembered that she was standing in the main room, on display to anyone who cared to look up. Joanna walked over to the front door and asked her if she was all right.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I just used my shirt as a towel. That was just kind of stupid,” Cat replied.

“Don’t worry about it,” Joanna said. Under her breath, she added, “Erection Boy finished cleaning up in the conference room, so whenever you’re ready, I think he’s waiting.”

The thought of torturing Cat with her body was somewhat pleasing. Sure, being naked all day was a punishment for her, but Owen, Marcus, and Spencer were all suffering, as well – just in a slightly different way. She followed Joanna back into the conference room, the confidence coming back into her system.

LOCKED AWAY

After she had finished her lunch, Cat had to go to the bathroom. This wasn’t such a big deal – she simply put her skirt and blouse back on by the front closet, and headed out the door. The blouse was still sopping wet, and Cat was almost positive that her right nipples showed through, but it was only a short walk to the women’s room, so she risked it. She passed no one in the hall, saw no one in the bathroom, and made it back to her own department without incident. It was when she came back in, though, that she screwed herself over.

Cat pulled the blouse over her head, and neatly hung it back up in the closet. She began pulling her skirt down her legs, but it was only half way down her thigh when her phone began to ring. The skirt was kicked off, and Cat tossed it into the closet on the top shelf, rather than hanging it up. She shut the closet door, and turned quickly to go back to her office.

Unfortunately, in Cat’s hurry to get undressed, she hadn’t noticed Suzanne wheeling a pushcart up behind her. The intern was moving files from the Ad Department downstairs to the basement, and had borrowed the pushcart from the people down at the loading dock to do so.

Cat slammed into Suzanne, causing arms, legs, and breasts to go flying everywhere. Even worse, Cat’s foot caught the bottom part of the pushcart, where the boxes were sitting, and snapped the whole thing to attention. The effect was like Cat had stepped on a garden rake, and the handle shot up, past Cat’s body, and connected with the doorknob.

Apologizing to Suzanne, Cat paid no attention to the pushcart of the closet door, instead rushing off to catch the phone call. With all the commotion, though, Cat’s voicemail picked up before Cat herself had a chance to, and she decided she’d head back and apologize to Suzanne, and see if the girl was all right.

“I am, yeah,” Suzanne began, “but I don’t think that the doorknob fared as well.”

Cat looked at the knob, and saw a large dent in the side. It took a few seconds before Cat even thought about the consequence of the dented doorknob, but once she had, she cursed her miserable luck. She grabbed at the closet’s handle, hoping to prove herself wrong, but was granted no such reprieve. The door was jammed shut.

Cat didn’t give up. She banged on the door. She jiggled the doorknob. The nude brunette did everything in her power to the closet open, but with no success. She was on one side of that door, and her skirt and blouse were on the other.

“Well, at least you still have your bra and panties,” Spencer offered, after Cat and Suzanne had explained the problem to him and Karen.

“I can’t exactly head down the hall to the bathroom in my bra and panties!” Cat explained. She was beside herself. “I can’t exactly ride the subway home dressed like that!”

“Relax, Cat,” Karen consoled her boss. “I’ll call maintenance and have them send someone up. Worse comes to worse, I’ll have them take the door of its hinges, and we can get your clothes out. You’re not going home naked today.”

Cat glanced down at her completely nude body. In all the commotion about losing her shirt and skirt behind the door, and stressing over the thought of having to catch a taxi home in her panties, she had forgotten about her current state of nudity. Karen was right. She shouldn’t be so worried about her clothes in the closet – they’d get someone to fix it.

Unfortunately, by three thirty, maintenance had yet to send someone up. Karen had called down to the maintenance people three times by three thirty, and the secretary down there swore that someone was on their way up, as soon as they finished with an overflowing toilet on the first floor. But for Cat, that wasn’t going to be good enough.

She had to use the bathroom. She had felt the desire to use the bathroom ever since the doorknob incident, probably because she knew she was inhibited from doing so. By three thirty, it had gotten so bad that she didn’t know what she was going to do.

“Sorry, Cat,” Karen told the nude brunette. “I feel for you, I really do. But I’m not going to give you my shirt and pants.”

That had been Cat’s solution. She honestly didn’t know what else she was going to do. She needed to use the bathroom, and the key to doing so was locked behind the busted closet door.

“Cat, I’ll take you,” Suzanne offered.

“What?” Cat asked, surprised that the college-aged girl had even overheard her.

“I’ll take you down there,” Suzanne offered again. “I’ll play look-out. There aren’t usually too many people in the hall – I’ll just make sure the coast is clear.”

The idea wasn’t appealing. Not in the least bit. But it really was Cat’s only option, and she wasn’t sure how much longer she was going to be able to last.

“Fine,” she said, giving it a few seconds worth of thought. “But Karen will scan the hall, you scan the bathroom.”

Cat’s naked ass had found a seat on Suzanne’s desk by the door. She was squirming, waiting for the go-ahead, and dressed in nothing but her sandals. She had decided that being caught in her bra and panties really wasn’t that much better of an option than being caught naked, so she stayed naked in hopes of expediting the whole process.

Karen stood in front of her, glancing down the hall, until she got a thumbs up from Suzanne. When she got the signal, she nodded to Cat, who jogged down the hall, her breasts swinging wildly with each step. She wanted out of the hallway as soon as possible. Suzanne stood by the sink as Cat stepped into the first stall in the women’s bathroom.

When she was done, Cat sighed with relief and stepped from the stall, but Suzanne shook her head.

“It looks out maintenance guy finally showed up,” Suzanne explained.

“Fuck!” Cat replied. “The guy had to pick the worst possible time of the day, huh?”

“Well, at least he showed,” Suzanne said, searching for a silver lining. “You’re not going to be spending the night here at Wonderstorm.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Cat answered. “Why don’t you head back to the office – I’ll hide out here in one of the stalls until you come and get me.”

Suzanne agreed, and started down the hall, leaving Cat to retreat back into her stall. Between the water, the doorknob, and now being stuck in the bathroom, her day hadn’t exactly been easy. Out of it all, being naked wasn’t the worst part – it was just causing all sorts of other difficulties. She sat back down on the toilet, and rested her head in her arms.

UPPING THE ANTE

After the maintenance man had fixed the closet door, Cat returned to the office. Her day had been a nightmare, and it was Owen’s fault. It was Owen who had beaten her in the first place, and caused her to lose most of her clothes. Then, when she’d tried to beat him, she’d lost everything. She had spilled water all over her body. She had locked her clothes in a closet and couldn’t get them out. She spent nearly a half hour in the women’s’ room. Spencer and Marcus were taking every opportunity to gawk at her that they could. She was going to beat Owen at Teaser, no matter what. All in all though, the nudity itself didn’t bother Cat as much as she thought it would have. The thought turning Spencer, Marcus, and Owen on was satisfying in a very deep way. As for the women in the office, it was nothing that any of them hadn’t seen before, so it wasn’t any different than being in a women’s locker room.

Cat had gained some confidence after the water spill. She had walked around this department in a thong yesterday, and how much more cover did a thong give, anyway? She had kept her legs crossed when she was sitting at her desk or in the conference room, and for the most part never offered anyone a view of the pussy itself, even if they did get to see the pubic hair advertising its presence. But Cat went about her day, acting as she normally would, and pretending that the nudity didn’t bother her at all. Towards the end of the day, it actually had stopped bothering her quite so much – though she was, honestly, dying to get back into her clothes.

“Look, I’ve been thinking about it,” Owen said just before five, as Cat strutted into the conference room, “and there’s really not much more you can bet. I mean, there’s more that you can bet, but that crosses the line into something blatantly sexual, and I’m not sure that sort of thing is really beneficial for the office.”

Cat didn’t sit down in one of the chairs that lined the circumference of the table. Rather, she placed her nude buttock down on the table itself, and felt her pussy rub up against the edge. The feeling turned her on. “Yeah, I was thinking the same thing earlier,” Cat said. “But I think I have a solution.”

Owen looked interested, but shook his head. “Cat, seriously. I’ve beaten you three times now, don’t you think that it’s time you gave up?”

Suzanne and Spencer were both seated in the conference room as well. Suzanne was working on her laptop, apparently sick of working at her own desk. Spencer, it appeared, had given up on work for the day, and sat in front of a widespread Babylon Gazette. Both of them looked on in interest.

“Owen’s got a point, Cat,” Suzanne interjected. “Just give up. It’s over. He beat your old high score. He beat your new high score. And yesterday, you were so worked up that you didn’t even make it past the first level.”

“Look,” Cat said, shifting her attention from Owen to Suzanne, “I’ve been playing Teaser since I was a sophomore in college. At Green College, I had the single highest score on campus, and we had a few more people than Wonderstorm. He’s really only beaten me twice – I don’t count yesterday’s screw up. All I want is another chance to beat his high score. 725,000.”

“Fine, fine,” Owen relented. “You can have your way. Tomorrow’s my last day here among you advertising gurus, so might as well make it memorable for me.” He looked at Cat, giving her a sly grin. “What are you going to do? Touch yourself? Take pictures for me? Get something pierced?”