Dear reader, be warned, this is a slow-burner to start with. Bear with me as things start hotting up later :).
*****
"Why the fuck would I need an assistant, Mo?" I almost screamed at Maureen.
She's my oldest friend and I love her dearly, but she was driving me up the wall. She'd come around half an hour before right when I was in the middle of trying to sort out a mess and, despite numerous hints, had insisted on making coffee and forcing me to stop and drink it with her. I know she had the best of intentions, but this was time I couldn't afford to waste.
I run a small but quite successful catering company specialising in private dinners. Everything is out-sourced and I'm mostly the coordinator and I was in the middle of trying to tie a million loose ends together for a dinner for 10 that was being put on Lord and Lady La-di-da at the weekend. I had phone calls to make and I was up to my armpits in paperwork. Lovely as the coffee was and enjoyable as Mo's company would have been at any other time, I was conscious of the clock ticking away.
"But look at you Flick, you're being run ragged," she replied, "you don't look like you've slept for a week."
"Oh thanks," I glared at her, but I knew my hair was a tousled mess.
"Just someone to do the boring routine bits so you can get on with the creative bits you do best."
"I don't have the time to train someone up," I countered, "much less waste time on reading CV's and interviewing people."
"No problem," she said with a grin, "its all sorted. There's this young girl I know who'd be ideal. Local girl and looking for a job. She can type and file and whatever else it is that secretaries do these days." She paused and suddenly looked concerned. "Are we even allowed to call them secretaries? Don't they have to have some posh new title? Anyway, whatever, she'd be ideal. Why not give her a try?"
"I really don't have the time Mo, not with this big do coming up at the weekend. I have a lot riding on this."
"Ok so first thing next week then." She interrupted me as I was about to speak, "I won't take no for an answer. I'll bring her round first thing Monday morning and we can interview her together."
And she placed her empty cup down on my desk and rose from her chair, effectively cutting off all argument. That is so typical of Mo, I thought as she swept out of my office. I resigned myself to the inevitable and simply chose to ignore it and got back to my work. My sigh was a mixture of relief at finally saying farewell to Mo and partly at the mountain of stuff I still had to do.
Somehow, I managed to survive the rest of that week and the weekend was a resounding success judging by the size of the bonus I was given. I had high hopes of some repeat and new orders coming in on the back of it. I had to ring round all my ladies and thank them for their hard work and then send them their share of the bonus. I'd completely forgotten about Mo and her devious plans until, half way through the morning, she swept into the office.
"Morning, darling," she gushed, and she leant over and kissed me on each cheek. "I have Yvonne outside."
"Yvonne?" my fuddled brain struggling to make sense of things.
"Your new assistant," she declared, "don't tell me you've forgotten already."
"I didn't know you were being serious."
"I'm always serious when it comes to rescuing friends. Now, no arguments, sit at your desk and look like a boss, I'll just tidy things up a bit."
I couldn't argue against the force of nature that was Mo, so I simply sat down in my chair while Mo gathered up piles of paper from the desk and simply dumped them on the floor behind me. I started to protest but Mo shushed me saying, "Yvonne can sort them all out later, it's what she's for."
With the desk now almost empty apart from a phone and a notepad the place bore some semblance of efficiency. Mo grabbed the only other chair in the room and came and sat next to me. I knew she wasn't planning to be a simple observer.
"We need another chair," I tried to point out, but Mo scoffed at that.
"Maybe later, but we have to establish the boss employee thing first." Then with a final wink at me she called out, "Yvonne, get your pretty little ass in here now."
I glanced at Mo with a look of horror at the way she'd spoken but she simply grinned at me and leant over to whisper in my ear, "Gotta show her who's boss ... besides she loves it," and she winked at me before turning to face Yvonne who was nervously entering the office. Mo pointed to a spot on the threadbare carpet in front of the desk and told her to stand there and then leant back in her chair and looked at the poor girl.
I was left with little choice but to do the same. What I saw was a pretty girl of about twenty dressed quite conservatively in a charcoal grey skirt and a white blouse. She appeared to be wearing some sort of hose but whether stocking or tights I couldn't tell. Her skirt was maybe an inch or two shorter than might be normal for an office and there were at least two too many buttons undone on her blouse, certainly enough to show the hint of lacy pinkness of her bra. As both our eyes swept up and down, she almost visibly squirmed beneath our gazes.
Mo nudged me in the ribs and without bothering to lower her voice commented, "I told you she was a nice bit of eye-candy. If nothing else, she'll decorate the office nicely."
I watched as a pink flush covered Yvonne's face and spread slowly downwards to complement nicely with her pink bra. I had known Mo for so many years that I had become immune to her outrageous behaviour and I have to admit that part of me was enjoying watching the poor girl's embarrassment.
"You're looking lovely today, my dear," Mo complimented her, and her blush became if anything even deeper. "I was telling her what a great ass you have so why not turn around and show us."
To my amazement the girl made no sign of protest but immediately shuffled round and faced away from us.
"So, Flick, was I lying?" she asked me.
I took a long hard look and had to agree that it was indeed a very fine ass. Her skirt was good quality and well-tailored and showed it to perfection.
"Wouldn't you like to see that pert little rump bobbing around the office?"
I nodded in reply, not trusting myself to speak.
