Upon their return to the office, a strangely satisfied Carolyn was left alone to happily settle into her new job. She occupied the anteroom to Mrs. Stevens' much larger office, but, small as it was, it was all hers to organize and decorate as she liked. It was her first office and she resolved to do it and her new employer justice.
She found that Mrs. Stevens had obtained all new furniture, the latest in office equipment, and even some appliances and decorations. Carolyn checked the invoices for everything, and was surprised to find them with the same date Carolyn had returned Mrs. Stevens' call to indicate her interest in the position of the woman's executive secretary.
"This is interesting," Carolyn said. She wasn't even an employee yet, but Mrs. Stevens had placed an order for all of this equipment for her to use anyway. Carolyn was a little surprised at the timing of the order, but decided that the woman must truly value her services, to be putting her company through such trouble expense just for her own secretary.
"Wow! What an employer!" Carolyn thought happily.
Carolyn soon became completely immersed in the process of sorting and organizing the many files, ordering consumable supplies for her desk, reviewing company phone directories, getting her own on-line account for the company's computer network, and all the innumerable other things now required of her, so that she would be able to start functioning as soon as possible.
The company, she discovered in the employee handbook, was extremely computer-oriented, and tried to keep the use of paper down to a minimum. She looked for a moment at the stacks of files and folders she had yet to sort piled in front of the large file cabinet.
"Right," she said.
It seemed to her that everything (forms, messages, notes, memos, conferences) but everything was electronic, with an extensive back-up program to prevent the loss of any data. She found it most impressive, provided of course, that it all worked as advertised.
What she didn't like was that, starting tomorrow, she had to attend four days of mandatory evening classes for computer orientation. "Phooey," she said as she looked through the company's software user's guide. "I could pick this stuff up on my own in no time at all. What a waste!" But, as she was still the new girl in the neighborhood, she decided it would be for the best if she kept everyone happy and just did what was required of her. For now, anyway.
In spite of a busy schedule, Mrs. Stevens would never leave her alone for very long. She would casually drop in on her from time to time, to see how she was getting along. Carolyn still wondered why she had felt so strongly against this kind and considerate woman, when they had first briefly met at her old law firm.
Today Mrs. Stevens seemed to be deliberately going out of her way to help her, which made Carolyn like her all the more. In her isolated life, she was not used to the kindness of strangers.
Once, when she was standing on a chair in her stocking feet, trying to hang a planter from the ceiling, Mrs. Stevens was kind enough to hold her by the hips so that she wouldn't fall. Of course, in the excitement of the installation her boss' hands kept slipping, and more than once moved completely over the tight material covering an embarrassed Carolyn's jutting buttocks. She had her hands full with the planter and there wasn't anything she could do about it anyway without making a scene. Besides, Carolyn knew it was just an accident which could have happened to anyone.
Another time, Carolyn was putting up a status board and her employer came right up behind her, and without even having to be asked, helped her hold the large frame. Carolyn was impressed that she did this selfless act without even minding she had to press her body fully against her secretary's in order to help her.
Carolyn knew that employers like that didn't come along every day.
It was 3:30pm, and Miss Carolyn Lord surveyed her new domain with satisfaction. It had taken her all afternoon, but she finally felt moved in and ready for business.
There was only one thing left to do, find a plug for her new instant coffee maker and mug warmer. She couldn't use her desk outlets for them, because such heavy users of electrical current had a habit of causing all sorts of computer problems when used on the same power strip as a PC. No, they needed an outlet of their own. The trouble was, there didn't seem to be one.
Carolyn carefully inspected the room, trying to think of all the most inconvenient places an electrical outlet might be located. Her gaze finally came to rest on the file cabinet located across the room. It was four wide drawers across and six drawers tall. It was huge.
"Perfect!" she said to herself. "Where else would it be, but behind there?"
Gathering up her appliances, Carolyn took them over to the cabinet. "We must get a table for these," she muttered as she stretched to place everything on top of the cabinet, as close to the wall as possible. She walked around to the side and, sure enough, in the darkness behind the metal cabinet, she could just make out the faint shape of a wall outlet right there in the center.
"Got you," she said to the outlet.
Now, all she had to do was reach it. It was a very narrow space between the wall and the cabinet, but Carolyn was sure she could do it. She went around to the front again and made sure the plugs to her appliances were hanging over the top, where she could get to them from the back. She then took off her suit jacket and hung it carefully on the back of a near-by chair. No point it getting it dirty and loosing even more buttons. Who knew what was behind there? After going around to the side again, she inspected where her plugs were hanging and where she had to go for the outlet one last time.
"This should take about one minute," she thought.
Carolyn took a deep breath, then let it out. She was ready! Carolyn slowly slid her head and shoulders into the confined area behind the cabinet. She found immediately that it was much more narrow then she had at first thought. Her breasts were pressed against the cold metal back of the cabinet. She found she could still move though, and so she continued to slide toward the hanging plugs. She was almost within reach of the plugs when she felt the front of her blouse catch on something. In was far too narrow for her to use her hands to find out what the trouble was.
"Damn," she muttered. "Can't anything go right?"
No matter which way she tried to move, she couldn't free it. Well, she was too close to quit now, so she kept moving towards the plugs, while her blouse grew tighter and tighter. "Why won't those damn buttons open now?" she thought bitterly.
Finally a button popped off, then two more. Her blouse loosened a bit and she was finally able to reach the plugs, but she knew that those buttons were lost forever in the darkness, and she had no spares with her for later repairs.
Carolyn wondered briefly if she should just give up caffeine at this point in her life and get the Hell out of there.
Making sure she had a good grip on the two plugs, she started sliding down towards where she knew the electrical outlet should be located. As she slid slowly down the back of the cabinet, more of her blouse buttons kept popping. Finally, Carolyn could feel her that blouse had been pulled out of her skirt's waistband and was now completely opened. It was still caught on something above her, but with the blouse now almost off her she was just able to reach the floor. Her thin bra was now the only thing between her sensitive breasts and the cold metal of the cabinet.
