As the two well-wrapped figures made their way quickly through the quiet streets on an increasingly stormy Sunday afternoon it was clear that the forecasters had been extremely accurate in predicting a dramatic change in the weather over a 24-hour period, as a band of heavy rain, with storm force winds, came hurtling in from the Atlantic Ocean. The temperature was plummeting, the wind was gaining strength rapidly and the skies were darkening unusually early for the time of year.
The early day-shift had been particularly arduous, with unrelenting pressure and all the tensions that such a situation engenders, with the result that both Stevie Wilbray, a 29-year old supervisor at the call-centre where both women were employed, and Emma Casselt, a 35-year old colleague who had only been transferred a few weeks previously, were ready to unwind and de-stress.
Stevie had been working for the company for the past 9 years, during which time she had made her way up through the ranks to a very impressive position as Senior Supervisor, responsible for all her Department's operations during her shift and with oversight covering 4 teams of 20 call-centre staff, each with its own Team Leader.
Since Emma's relationship with Gary, her live-in boyfriend, had broken up about six months previously, after he, a Trainer at Emma's original base, had become entangled with a new 20-something recruit entrusted to him for induction training, she had struggled to overcome her desperate sadness after 12 years of a shared life. She had done her very best not to allow her personal problems to interfere with a job in which she took great pride, but, being a sensitive and intelligent woman, she soon realised that the continuing presence at the same workplace, where they often worked simultaneous shifts, of the two participants in the new relationship that had taken Gary from her was eroding her confidence even further.
The HR Department had proved unusually sensitive to Emma's situation and had acceded readily to her request for a transfer to the subsidiary centre. They were in no hurry to lose such a valuable and experienced member of the company's staff and even agreed to pay for temporary accommodation for Emma during the first four weeks of attachment to the new centre.
During the first week at the new site, Emma had been shadowing Stevie in her busy role, which involved shift work around the clock. Thereafter, she shadowed each of the Team Leaders in turn. Emma's arrival had coincided, fortuitously, with the imminent departure on maternity leave of the last of the Team Leaders whom she was shadowing, which explains why she found herself in charge of that team on a cold and extremely miserable morning early in March.
Fortunately, Emma had managed to arrange to work most of her shifts on consecutive days, which had saved her commuting and accommodation costs, but she did not want to wait too long to find a place of her own.
During the first shadowing week at the new base, Emma had swiftly set aside any misgivings that Stevie's youth had triggered, for the latter young woman demonstrated very clearly why she had been appointed to a role in which she had achieved great success, exhibiting work and personnel management skills that would not have been out of place in an employee twice her age. In fact, Emma had almost been overawed by Stevie's energetic and skilful approach to her work, but quiet pauses over a number of cups of coffee in the staff canteen had reassured her that Stevie was, in fact, an extremely normal, but very level-headed and sharp-minded young woman.
For her part, Stevie had not, in all truth, been looking forward to having the 'incomer' assigned to her for shadowing since she had been very concerned that the 'new girl' might find it difficult to adapt to the way in which staff at Stevie's centre interpreted the standard operating procedures that formed the basis for all the company's operations. She also feared that she might bring old habits with her that could cause friction with her new colleagues.
Furthermore, Stevie had heard rumours on the company grapevine as to the reasons why Emma had asked to be transferred and this simply compounded her fears that the new arrival might not be up to speed in dealing with the very demanding workload.
As it turned out, Stevie actually found herself quite drawn to Emma, almost in a sisterly way, since the latter had, obviously, gained a great deal of experience during her 12 years with the company. At a professional level, there was, therefore, a very constructive bi-directional flow of personal experiences between the two women.
For six years, Stevie had been in a semi-detached relationship with Ollie, a welder eleven years older than her. A lot of Stevie's colleagues had expressed sympathy with her at being separated so frequently from her 'partner', but she gave no hint of her relative satisfaction with a relationship that met the needs of both, but gave them both a substantial measure of independence to let their strong characters follow their respective courses in life. At no time had Stevie particularly wanted to call the relationship off, despite a degree of uncertainty as to what went on socially in Ollie's life when his work took him to other parts of the world. Nonetheless, she was now settled in her own home, a very comfortable tastefully modernised three-bedroomed Victorian terraced house in a pleasant, quiet and leafy street, just three-quarters of a mile from her workplace. Apart from Ollie, when he stayed over at her place rather than vice versa, and a female cousin from Canada who visited her from time to time, she lived alone.
Whilst she was definitely regarded as being friendly and sociable, everybody knew that Stevie valued her privacy, so it came as much as a surprise to her as it did to Emma when she offered to put her new colleague up until she could find a place of her own. There was something about Emma that struck a chord with Stevie, but she could not define it.
The offer of this arrangement brought a huge sense of relief to Emma, who felt that Stevie was being extremely generous in taking only a contribution to utility bills and council tax as remuneration for the accommodation, so that Emma could have as much spare cash as possible available for when she found the property that she wanted. In fact, the two women had already looked around the town together, drawing on Stevie's local knowledge of the area in which she had spent her entire life. One or two places seemed promising, but nothing had yet leaped out of an estate agent's window and seized their attention.
Stevie and Emma kept a firm grip on their rucksacks as they headed home, having agreed that, as they had done a few times since Emma's arrival, they would call at the gym for an hour before moving to the warmth and comfort of a house that had given Emma several ideas about internal styling and décor. Since Ollie was back home, but had been spending the day with his parents, some 40 miles away, the arrangement was that he would collect Stevie between 9 and 10 p.m. that evening.
Stevie had looked quite tired at the start of her shift on that day, but Emma was not so naïve as to
enquire as to why, for she realised that Ollie had only been home for two days and that he would soon be heading off again, this time to Bulgaria, on a new construction project.
The two women had set themselves a fairly strict routine at the gym, involving a short session in the swimming pool, followed by specific exercises for different muscle groups and ending with a brisk session of cardiovascular exercises rounded off with a refreshing shower.
In the early evening that Sunday, it was obvious that a lot of people had heeded the weather warnings and had opted to stay at home. By 5.30, the two women, tired but far more clear-headed than they had been when they had left the pressure cooker that they called their workplace, were the only two people in the female changing rooms as they prepared to shower.
Stevie was not exactly an exhibitionist, even though she was very comfortable with her trim and well-muscled figure. At school, she had sometimes been taunted by her less intelligent peers for not having a particularly well-developed chest, but this had never bothered her and those girls who had been foolish enough to persist with their stupid taunts had soon learned to do otherwise.
Emma was somewhat more reserved, all the more so since she sustained the huge dent in her self-confidence that had been left by the dismantling of a relationship in which she had invested so much care and effort. This had made her self-conscious and had even led her to wonder if she was just too drab altogether, compared with dazzling blonde-haired, blue-eyed 20-somethings who knew their potential and knew how to exploit it.
For once, since the changing room was otherwise empty, Stevie stripped off completely and bent over to pick up her towel and shower gel. Just at that moment, Emma, who had been putting her gym top in her rucksack, turned round and paused very briefly, slightly open-jawed, as she looked at the dark markings that ran in broad, neat lines across her landlady's small but very shapely bottom. She quickly regained her composure and by the time Stevie looked round again, Emma was following her cue and slipping her shorts off. She also picked up her towel and shower gel and the two women headed off into the communal shower.
