The New Assistant 2

Two straight girls find each other and their lives change.

I slammed the handset of my phone down in total anger. I'd missed the deadline for submission of an article for the first time and realised that it was my own fault. My life was in chaos and so was my office.

I'm a political writer, commentator and author and have my own small office near the centre of the city. I chose to have an office because I knew that if I worked from home I would lack the discipline of having to actually 'go to work' everyday. I looked around the office and saw papers strewn across my desk, piles of filing, unopened mail and worst of all, I was out of coffee.

I stormed out of the office, over the road to a local cafe and plodded back with a take away coffee and a doughnut. I angrily threw myself into my office chair, put my feet up on the desk, knocking more rubbish onto the floor and reclined with a huge sigh. I took a bite of doughnut, a sip of coffee and closed my eyes.

I was thirty years of age, thought that I was attractive as well as smart, but something was wrong. I'd had numerous boyfriends over the years but none of them pushed all of the right buttons and none of them seemed to be partner material. Sex had never been that great and in any case it was almost six months' since that had been a reality. I knew that I was frustrated but I'd not been out socially and therefore not had the chance to meet anyone.

I'd fired my assistant or secretary or whatever her title was four weeks ago which partly explained the chaos. I'd worked with Hannah for several years and we had everything ticking over nicely until just over three months ago, when her boyfriend decided to take a job in Newcastle and she went with him. It all happened very fast and I was left floundering.

It took me a month to find a replacement. Yvonne seemed competent but she wasn't well organised and spent a lot of time on her phone or the internet. The last straw came four weeks ago when I asked her to type up a manuscript that I'd spent the previous evening writing at home and which I needed to proof read and email before midday. Fifteen minutes before the deadline I found her shopping for clothes on line and the manuscript still on the corner of her desk untouched. I flew off into a rage and told her to 'fuck off'.

That resulted in a call from the employment agency complaining about my conduct and language! I explained the issue, they seemed unsympathetic and refused to supply me with a replacement. Since then I'd done nothing and now things were in chaos in both the office and my social life.

The phone ringing startled me and I snatched it up still not in very good humour. "What?" I shouted. It was a woman who had heard through someone who knew someone who knew that I needed a secretary/assistant. I barked at the woman and nothing either of us said made any sense to me, but she offered to come round and meet me at 2pm.

I was still in a foul mood when the door opened and in walked a young woman a few inches shorter than my 5 feet 8. She was dressed in a smart black skirt suit and heels. I took all of that in quickly, but what struck me most was her almost waist length red hair, beautiful blue eyes, the light freckles below those eyes and a wonderful smile.

"Miss Morgan? I'm Milly Scott, we spoke earlier and I'm a few minutes early."

"Yes, yes, come in and have a seat. Bloody chaos here, I need to move this stuff off on the seat. Please sit down." I was babbling and I had no idea why.

"Okay. I need a secretary or personal assistant or whatever to sort out this office and my work. Why should I employ you?" I was stunned by her very forward reply.

"Well I'm very capable and well organised and having looked round this office you clearly need help very badly, this place is a mess." She wasn't smiling any longer and although she was right it pissed me off. This was not going well.

"Okay. You have a point but what's your background?"

The woman, Milly, explained about her previous work experience and training and it all sounded good to me but why was she available? So I asked.

"I was working for a company in London doing very similar work to this and I lived there with my boyfriend. Things had been tough at home for a while, but I discovered that he'd spent the previous weekend with one of his work colleagues and had been sleeping with another one of them as well. I'd had enough so I packed my belongings, phoned my boss and got on a train here." She was a bit stressed in explaining that and I started to feel sorry for her rather than hostile.

"So, why did you come here?"

"This is my home town, where I grew up, and I came crawling back to stay with my parents. I hate it, I need a job so that I can escape from them and get my own place."

After another ten minutes chatting, during which she seemed to conduct the interview, I offered her the job. She seemed surprised that I was willing to pay decent money and accepted.

"Okay Milly. Why don't you start on Monday and maybe we can try to bring some order to this chaos."

"Thank you. That's great, but that gives me three more days with my parents. I could start tomorrow," she paused and smiled at me, "Actually if I started right now I might be able to find a chair underneath some of this clutter."

I laughed and for the first time that day I felt a lot more cheerful. By the time that Milly left the office that evening the papers were now in neat stacks set in order of priority and both desks were clear of rubbish.

I was surprised that the office door wasn't locked when I arrived at ten past nine the next morning. I could smell coffee as I walked in, and something else that I didn't recognise because of the coffee smell. Milly was emerging from the small kitchen area with a mug of coffee, "White no sugar, right?" She was wearing a pair of close fitting black trousers and a grey blouse, she looked good.

"What are you doing here? How did you get in? What the hell?" I stuttered and was confused.

"You told me to come back today, remember?" I nodded like an idiot, "I got one of the caretakers to let me in. He saw me waiting for you and said that you were often in after nine. Coffee okay?"

I nodded again. I wasn't usually stuck for words, but I seemed to be when standing in front of her.

"I came in trousers today because I guessed that things might be a bit messy. Is that okay?"

I nodded again and put my mug down on the desk, "I'm sorry. Somehow I forgot and you surprised me, I'll get you a key. The coffee is good, you can wear what you like and what is that other smell?"

"It's coconut, the place seemed a bit airless and stale yesterday so I've opened the windows and the coconut makes it smell fresher. Do you like the smell of coconut?"

My head was spinning and I was off axis. I muttered, "Fine, fine, whatever you think is best."

I got down to work and managed to get quite a lot done. Milly was working away in the other room and there were occasional sounds of drawers opening, something being moved and a rubbish bag being filled. Best of all she was answering the phone and I didn't have to speak to anyone. She'd delivered coffee mid morning when I was on the phone leaving it on the desk and smiling as she did so.

Just before one o'clock she put her head round the door. "What do you do for lunch?"

"Eh, I usually get a sandwich or a roll or something." My mouth didn't seem to work correctly when I spoke to her.

Fifteen minutes later she delivered two salad rolls, a mug of coffee and a slice of millionaire's shortbread. "Hope that this is okay? I need to speak to you about some of the mail and other stuff after lunch."

I nodded, my mouth still wasn't working.

An hour later I called her through and saw that she had a pile of papers and a pad with a lot of notes. I spent an hour going through mail and answering her questions and she made more notes. I was puzzled though, "There doesn't seem to be much mail, there's usually loads?"

"There was a lot more, but I went through it and either binned it or dealt with it. What I have here is what I think that you need to deal with and when I get used to things I should be able to halve that as well. I hope that's okay?" She grinned at me.

"Of course anything that keeps the crap off my desk is great." I was starting to like this girl.

When I arrived on Monday morning, on time for a change, I thought that I had walked into the wrong office. The place smelled fresher, a smell of coconut and coffee. Milly's office was unrecognisable and when I went into mine I was stunned. The place shone; no litter, no dust, the windows were clean and apart from my computer, a letter tray, a desk tidy and phone, my desk was clear and clean! I jumped when she appeared from the kitchen with coffee.

"What the fuck happened here? Elves, fairies, pixies, a cleaning crew?"

She gave me a huge grin and her eyes sparkled. "Not unless you think that I'm an elf or a pixie. I told you that living with my parents was torture and this place was filthy so I decided to invest some of my time in cleaning and was here for a few hours over the weekend. It means that I can start work properly this morning. Oh, we need a decent vacuum cleaner."

She turned on her heels and left. I gaped at my coffee.

I'd just finished a phone call and was pondering what to tackle next when Milly came through the door with a fresh mug of coffee and a plate with biscuits on it. She saw me hesitate and I collected myself, "We have biscuits?"

"We do now. You may get visitors at some point and who doesn't like a biscuit?" She grinned at me again as she put the mug and plate on my desk.

She turned and walked away. I'd started to flush, something happened when I saw her standing in the door way and I wasn't sure what it was, it certainly wasn't the biscuits. As she walked away I noticed her legs, they're very shapely and there was a lot of them. She was wearing very sheer tights and they showed that she had a lot of freckles on her legs. Her skirt was short and flared and she wore heels, all in all a very nice package. As I sipped the coffee I sat wondering what was wrong with me, why had I noticed her legs? I wonder if she has freckles elsewhere? I'm not gay and have never thought about another woman in the way that I just noticed Milly, she's very beautiful with her cascading red hair and faint freckles. Get a grip of yourself.

Milly

I saw that look as I reached the door. I've seen it before but always from men. I know that I look good and am confident in my appearance, but I'd never seen that look from another woman before. The one where the eyes are appraising you in an interested way. Maybe Alex is gay, not that it matters to me, each to his or her own.

As I sipped my coffee I thought about Alex. She's a confident woman but a little disorganised. She's three or four inches taller than me with a nice figure that she keeps hidden because her clothes are a little wrong for her. She has long brown hair that she keeps in a pony tail and then piles up on top of her head in a messy and yet endearing way. She's actually really attractive, or would be if I was into girls.

Alex

The last three weeks had changed my life, although I didn't appreciate just how much. Since Milly arrived my office was clean, tidy and really well organised. We had a filing system and proper email accounts. My diary was well managed and I only had to deal with emails and letters that actually mattered. All of my typing was up to date; she proof read everything and made corrections. We now had fire alarm procedures I never knew I needed.

Something else had changed as well. I enjoyed being at the office when she was there and I was smiling a lot more. I stopped for lunch most days, mainly because Milly brought me coffee and a sandwich. We usually sat in my office and chatted as we had lunch and I enjoyed doing it. She had her own views on current affairs and had a good sense of humour.

Milly had started to do research for me and after a few days she started to get the hang of what I needed. The two hours of effort to coach her had saved me twice that time in the first few days.

We were working late one Thursday evening, to finish a new article that I needed to send to my agent and Milly had stayed on to help me. It was after seven by the time that she sent it away.

"If that's everything Alex I'm going to head off. I need to grab something to eat and head back to my parents for another evening of; we always disliked him, you need to find another boyfriend, we want grandkids!" She grimaced as she said it and pulled on her coat.

I have no idea why I said what I did next, "Why don't we go out to dinner. There's a good Italian not far away."

"Are you asking me out on a date?" She was laughing as she said it.

I blushed. "No, I'm offering to buy you dinner because we worked late. And neither of us dates other girls."

We walked the few hundred yards to the restaurant and as she moved to avoid another pedestrian she bumped my side and then hooked into my arm. I felt her do it and didn't object or move it, I just left it there and realised that if anyone else had done that to me in the past I would have jerked it away.

We didn't talk about work that evening. It was all about my failed love life, my time at university and I confessed to playing the guitar which amused her. Milly told me about her parents and her two former boyfriends including the one that she had walked out on recently. Turns out that he liked to gamble and drink as well as sleep with other women.

I was shocked when she suddenly went quiet and said that it was time to leave. Had I said something? I racked my brain but couldn't think what I'd done and for some reason it was really important to me that I'd not upset her.

Milly

I watched Alex all through dinner. She got excited and animated when talking about her work and time at university. She got all morose when describing her failed love life and I was surprised to learn that she played guitar. She really listened when I was talking and I noticed that the left corner of her mouth turned up very slightly when she smiled and it was really quite appealing, even sexy. The way that her eyes shone was also really nice. Suddenly I realised what had just gone through my head. I stopped talking and listening, I was confused. I needed to leave and I could see that Alex was puzzled about my sudden change, but I had to go.

My parents were annoyed that I was late home without telling them where I had been. I was 25 for goodness sake! When I told them that I had been out for dinner they assumed that it was a date and wanted details. They also assumed that it was a guy and I let them waffle on until I managed to get away and went to bed.

It was still early and I could not concentrate on my book. I was thinking about Alex and I found myself examining the details of her face and hair. I decided that she needed to get a decent hair cut and some new clothes and I smiled to myself as I thought about how much I had enjoyed dinner with her until I realised that I thought that she was sexy. As I thought about it I knew that I was right, but that it did not mean anything. I could appreciate an attractive, funny and clever woman. Of course I could and then I realised that I had two fingers inside myself and was getting really turned on. When I imagined her kissing me I came. I fell asleep ashamed of myself.

Alex

What had I done to upset her? What made her want to leave so quickly? I had really enjoyed having dinner with her. I trudged back to get my car and drove home puzzled.

I made tea and went to bed with my book, but I could not concentrate. I realised that I was imagining her face and trying to count the freckles and then I realised that I was stroking myself and squeezing a nipple and I imagined her leaning over to kiss me and I came. I fell asleep ashamed of myself.

Milly was already in the office when I arrived, despite the fact that I was very early. I could smell coffee and she emerged from the kitchen when she heard me. "Good morning. Thank you for dinner last night I enjoyed it. Sorry that I had to dash off but I did not want to worry my parents. I have a doughnut for you." She placed the mug and plate on my desk and turned back to her own.

I sipped my coffee. She had lied to me about why she left, it was written all over her face but I did not understand why. She was wearing a calf length skirt this morning. It was the first time that I had not been able to see her knees and she had only once worn trousers. A few minutes later I realised that I was disappointed that I could see her knees and tried to recall what they looked like.

She went out for lunch so we did not chat and I got the feeling that she was keeping her distance all day.

Milly

I had no idea how I was going to face her this morning. I wore a longer skirt, I have no real idea why, but thought it was the right thing to do. I collected doughnuts before I reached the office. Whatever had happened I needed this job and I really, really liked it and liked working for Alex. I would never let what happened in bed last night happen again.

I made up some sorry apology and I could see from her face that she knew that it was a lie. I tried hard to avoid her all day and even went out for lunch. I did take her back a sandwich but I had missed sitting with her.

I was making fresh coffee when Alex came through and went into the bathroom, but she left the door open. Her hair was down and she stood in front of the mirror with a brush and was trying to get some tangles out. "Would you like a hand with that?"

I have no idea why I made that offer, she looked surprised and even more so when she said, "Yes please," and then she blushed. I spent the next ten minutes brushing her hair to untangle it. It was really nice but whoever had cut it had not done a very good job. We did not speak, I just brushed and thought that I heard her purr.

Alex

My hair was a mess and when Milly saw me she offered to brush out the tangles. I was thinking no but said "Yes." We stood for about ten minutes and she stroked it and brushed it. I never said a word I just stood and let her do it and enjoyed it and then I realised that I was turned on. My knickers were damp and I clutched the sink. "Thanks Milly, that was really nice and it looks so much better. It does need a trim though."

She stood back and handed me the brush. She turned to pour coffee and as she handed me my mug she spoke, "You have nice hair but whoever cut it last should be shot. I could have done a better job with hedge shears," she smiled at me. One of those beaming smiles that started at her eyebrows and worked itself down to her chin.

"Actually I know someone who was at college with me and who has opened a new salon. Well it's not hers but she is the senior stylist. I could find out if she has a slot." I nodded.

The next day I noticed an entry in my diary for a hair appointment so I asked Milly about it.

"You have a free afternoon and I managed to get you an appointment. I decided that in return for the favour I could have the afternoon off and come with you." I laughed, now she was giving herself time off!

When we reached the salon Milly led the way and her friend came to meet her. There was a big hug and Milly introduced me, "Alex, this is Jess. She was the star of the hair students when I was at college."

I shook Jess's hand and she led me to the sinks and asked what I wanted. Before I knew it she had decided that I needed a new style, a good cut and some soft highlights. She left me to have my hair washed and I saw her chatting with Milly.

When I was sitting in front of the mirror as she worked on me I was able study her. She was a similar height to Milly and wore a short skirt and heels but had a bigger bust. She had the most angelic face, but there was something more to her that just oozed sex appeal. She was actually stunningly beautiful and I had no doubt that this girl was not short of a boyfriend or two.