Lemons to Lemonade-with a Splash of Lime II
Roxy worked as an office manager for a large local construction company. She had a master's degree in Economics and had taken the current job, fresh out of college, as a way of gaining valuable work experience. She was now on her seventh year. She had slowly discovered that her expertise could be very valuable to the company she worked for. She approached her boss, a man named Harry, with her ideas demonstrating how his company could use its profits to expand into new areas of business, like owning a construction wholesale outlet, instead of merely purchasing from one.
Harry had owned his company for over twenty years, and it had done very well. He employed more than fifty people and always had five or more projects going at once. When he had hired Roxy, he had done so for two reasons; He needed someone who could organize and manage daily business, and he thought that she was one of the prettiest and sexiest women he had seen in a long time. He figured he would really enjoy getting to look at her everyday. To his surprise, she turned out to be a very capable, very trustworthy, and very intelligent young woman. The fact that most of his male workers tended to hang around the office hoping for a chance with Roxy and flirting with her at every opportunity, was a problem but a small one.
The truth was that Harry had many lascivious erotic fantasies about her himself. He was happily married but his wife was a woman who might allow him sex twice a year if he was lucky. They had been married over thirty years and had two grown children. Time had been hard on his wife and she had not resembled the gorgeous woman that he had married for many years. Worse, she did not seem to care about her appearance like she once did. She would put on a little makeup and fix her hair, but she didn't primp, and spent very little time in front of the mirror. It was no wonder that Harry was so frustrated sexually, he was always rubber necking pretty women wherever he went.
The day Roxy approached him with her ideas he was very pleased and recognized that what she was proposing was sound and full of merit. He had already made a mental note to expand her area of responsibility with a raise and a new title, "Chief Financial Officer, or CFO." He invited her to lunch so that they could further discuss her proposals. The lunch was not really necessary but he liked the idea of getting to spend some alone time with her. He picked a very nice Mexican restaurant. He ordered a cocktail and encouraged Roxy do so as well. She turned down the drink saying that it was too early and she had a lot of work still to do. They ordered their meal and, while they waited for it to arrive, Harry asked Roxy how important her proposals were to her.
"They are very important to me, because I have spent a lot of time researching the information and putting together a business plan, and I am certain that they will work," she told him.
"I was certain that you had done your due diligence, but that is not what I am asking. I am certain that if I told you to run with it, that you would do an amazing job. What I mean is, what would you be willing to do for the chance to implement what you are suggesting?" he asked.
"I don't understand what you are asking," she said. "I would be willing to give all of my time and energy to making this proposal a success for both of us. Is that what you are asking?" she said.
"OK, I guess I have to be more direct. What I am asking is, would you be willing to spend some time with me, you know, like go on business trips, occasional dinners, personal time. The kind of time that my wife or your husband don't have to know about." he told her.
Roxy was taken completely off guard. She had never considered anything like this, had never known that he saw her like that. It wasn't like Harry wasn't appealing in his own way. He was over six feet, had all of his hair, was trim and muscular, and he was easy to look at. What bothered her was that he was suggesting holding her body hostage in exchange for the chance to make good. She began to gather her things to leave. She told Harry, "I am shocked to hear you ask me to do something like that. I am happily married and I could never, would never, do that to my husband. I think you should find someone else to work in your office, I will find my own way back to my car," she told him.
Harry hadn't planned on her taking it so badly, he had imagined that she might be offended by his request but that the most she would do was turn him down, not quit. He tried to salvage the situation, "Roxy, I didn't mean to insult you. I am just very taken by you and I thought that the only way to know if there was a chance was to ask. Please don't quit, I take it all back, the company needs you. Listen, I will make it official, as of this moment you are my new CFO, with a larger salary, which we will discuss at your request, a new office, and complete autonomy in the implementation and running of your new department. How is that? Will you stay?" he begged.
"That's a wonderful offer, and if you had offered it at the onset I would have gladly accepted, but after what has just occurred I feel that I need to go home and think about it. Before I leave I have to ask, if I accept your offer will I have to fend off future advances from you or anyone else at the office? If you can't control yourself then the answer right now is, No," she explained.
