BRENDA
"You wanted to see me?"
Brenda Addison looked up from behind her desk. The young woman who had spoken -- Charlotte -- stood in the office doorway, eyebrows raised.
"Yes, please. Come in. And shut the door."
"Of course." The blonde woman complied, closing the door behind her.
"So. Take a seat."
"Thanks." Charlotte sat down, brushing a stray lock of blonde hair from her face.
Ms. Addison tiled her head, watching closely. It was odd. She hadn't really noticed before just how beautiful the young accountant was. Not that she was sexually attracted to her, or anything. Of course not. But, with what she now knew...
"So?" Charlotte looked across the desk at the older woman. "Ms. Addison? What can I do for you?"
Ms. Addison cleared her throat and refocused. "You've been with the firm for what, six years now?"
"Six and a half," Charlotte answered proudly. "Ever since I received my professional designation."
"Yes, of course. I had forgotten, you were hired right out of college."
The older woman looked across the desk at the young accountant. She had, of course, not forgotten the circumstances under which Charlotte had been hired. After all, it had been her decision to hire her. At the time, it had been a real catch. Diversity was the new watchword in the hiring committee and landing a young woman... an extremely competent and qualified young woman... had been a notable coup. At the time. For many years, under Ms. Addison's mentoring eye, Charlotte had been on the fast track to partner. Ms. Addison considered the young, almost, to be a protΓ©gΓ©.
But then, several months ago, something had changed.
Ms. Addison had never been able to put her finger on it, exactly, but Charlotte's work had somehow become less... competent. Less focussed. The young woman often seemed distracted on the job, leaving early... failing to attend weekend meetings... even turning in sloppy work, something she would never have done previously and something the older woman could not abide. While nothing official had occurred, Ms. Addison had mentally removed Charlotte from the partnership track and was considering changing her to a contract hire.
If that.
It had been a mystery to Ms. Addison, what exactly had happened to the promising young accountant she had been trying to mentor.
Until yesterday.
"I receive a report from our IT department yesterday." The older woman gave a small frown. "Apparently, a site you were visiting on the work server raised a flag. They brought the matter to me."
Charlotte's eyes went wide. They were, Ms. Addison noted for the first time, the most amazing shade of blue. "What? I never... I never used my work computer for... uhm... ..."
She trailed off.
Ms. Addison just shook her head. The older woman picked up her phone and opened an app. "Not your work computer. Just the work server. I assume you were using the firm's wireless network." She leaned forward, turning the phone outward. "Look..."
CHARLOTTE
Charlotte looked down at her boss's phone. She felt a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach as the familiar pink and white "F4F" flashed across the screen and then faded onto a personals site.
Her site.
And there it was. On her boss's phone. The original pictures she had taken all those months ago in her bathroom... the overdone, sexy outfit and the caption that had been oh so exciting to write at the time: ""Hey hey, submissive 25F here, blonde, blue eyes, 5'7, 121lb, 38B, looking for kinky stuff, if you're the type who doesn't ask but demands... hit me up. :) Xx"
Afterward, she had desperately wanted to change the site... to hide her face in the pictures, but Angela wouldn't hear of it. "If it ain't broke," she had quipped, with that awful smirk of hers. And it wasn't... wasn't broke.
Unfortunately.
With Angela's unwanted assistance and encouragement -- the domineering woman had insisted on adding a calendar for booking "erotic encounters" and a public comments page - Charlotte's F4F site was extremely popular. In addition to the 9.5 / 10 rating, her site now featured one humiliating review after another:
"... best tongue ever..."
"... really is a submissive little dyke..."
"... loves to be abused..."
Charlotte felt her face turn red as her boss scrolled slowly through her embarrassing site. This was it, an absolute low point in her life. She was going to be fired for sure. She wished she had never posted on that damn site all those months ago. If only she had known...
"My policy," Ms. Addison said, looking up, "is that what my employees do on their own time is their own business."
Charlotte held her breath, waiting for the "but...".
"I confess," the older woman continued, "I'm a bit... surprised to learn about your er... extracurricular activities, but, as I said, what you do on your own time is your own business, as long as it does not affect your work here."
Charlotte exhaled. Was it possible her career going to survive this?
"I ask two things. Firstly, do not access this site while at work. I do not what this... business of your spilling over into your professional life."
"Yes, of course. I..."
"Secondly, you must remove any pictures which show your face. We cannot have you named in any scandal or identified by a client of the firm." She gave her next words some bite. "Am I clear?"
"Yes, Ms. Addison." Charlotte fought to keep the look of relief from her face. She wasn't going to be fired! "I understand."
"Good." The older woman placed her phone back on her desk. "I consider this matter closed. Now, back to work."
"Yes, Ms. Addison."
BRENDA
She shook her head as the young blonde woman scurried out of her office and closed the door. Perhaps she should have fired her on the spot, but Charlotte had shown so much promise, once. She had expected great things of her. It was such a shame that...
The buzzer on her intercom sounded. "Ms. Addison." It was her assistant. "I have Ms. Parker on the phone for you."
Ms. Addison grimaced. Her immediate instinct was to say that she was not available. Melissa Parker was swiftly becoming her most difficult, and time consuming, client. There was no financial or accounting problem so small that the obnoxious woman wouldn't insist on the managing partner's immediate and undivided attention! The file really was more trouble than it was worth, particularly given the nature of the client's business. She should really...
Then she remembered, all those rumors she'd heard at the time she picked up the Parker contract... that the CEO's interest in the company business was something more than professional. Maybe...