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I guess life has been pretty good to me so far. I qualified as an architect, from a good college, and ended up joining a big firm with a reputation for award winning work. Things went well there, and soon I was heading up a small department. Then, a couple of years back, when we all started hitting 30, myself and a few colleagues decided it was time to break out and found or own firm.
The salary checks got smaller of course, and the hours got longer, but we were all happy with what we were doing. We had enough work, mainly sub-contracting, to pay the bills while we tendered for more interesting work, and a year ago we landed our first big project.
The client was a house builder in a city about 200 miles from our office and we were designing an upscale apartment block for him. The project was the biggest thing he had ever done and was easily the largest deal we had signed. Soon, as you might expect, things were getting a little tense.
As the building went up, there was the inevitable time slippage, but nothing we hadn’t built into the plan. The client, however, had allowed for no delays and he was beginning to hurt financially. Inevitably, he was trying to pass this pain onto us and, with no great pool of resources behind our little firm, it was decided that one of the management team should go up there on a weekly basis to oversee things. Andy (one of our project managers) was up there full time already, but he was getting steamrollered by the client and he needed a bit of senior support.
As the ex-departmental manager from the old days at the big firm, I had taken on the roll of Managing Partner, so it was no surprise when I got landed with the job.
We agreed I would go up to a site meeting every Friday morning to review the past week’s progress and agree actions and targets for the following week. With a 400 mile round trip drive, it was a full day and then some, but we had no choice: if the project failed then so would the client’s firm, and so would we.
In the first few meetings I could see Andy’s difficulty. Even with my support, we were seriously outnumbered and it was easy to be brow beaten into taking on more commitments than we should. I soon also realised that the minutes, as prepared by the client and sent to us on a Monday morning, had a habit of showing up actions that I couldn’t recall agreeing to. I had to regain some control.
I discussed this with my partners and it was decided that I should take Susie along to the meetings. Susie was a woman in her 40’s who had been with us since the start. She started off as our receptionist and was now kind of a ‘Girl Friday’ looking after the receptionists and various other admin. jobs. It meant that two people would be out of the business for a full day, and, with Andy also up there full time, it was a serious commitment for a small firm of 10 people. Nevertheless, it was something we had to do: this project was critical to the success of our firm.
The idea was that Susie would also take the minutes, so that we could catch any non-agreed points the client was sneaking in. Actually she had an immediate impact that was way greater than we had anticipated.
I hadn’t really been aware that the weekly meetings were an all-male affair. Susie’s presence had an immediate civilising effect, which moderated the language and counteracted all the testosterone flying around the room. We actually started making some progress.
After a few weeks, the problems with the minutes had disappeared and it was clear the project was moving forward; we were all working as a team, we were making up some time, and the stress levels were dropping. I actually began to enjoy myself.
With the project under control, the long drive up and back gave me the opportunity to take some time out and consider where we were going with the business. I started to make good use of the time, dictating fresh ideas and actions, while Susie sat in the passenger seat taking notes and making calls on my behalf.
The meetings started at 10 am, and although it meant a 7 am start, we were now getting done by 12 and I could make an excuse about having to get Susie home, to allow me to get back to the office by about three.
On one such drive home I commented to Susie on the difference the presence of a woman could make at these things. It was an entirely innocent comment, but Susie came back with: “Well Ben, I may be 42 but maybe I still have something left, eh?” With this, she glanced down at her admittedly large bosom, nicely delineated by the seat belt. I honestly hadn’t meant any reference to her body, but she didn’t seem at all concerned - quite the reverse if anything.
“Erm, yeah, quite.” Was all I could manage.
As I drove I realised that I had never really considered Susie in that kind of way; she was simply the lady who answered the phone and dealt with the day to day admin. of our firm. I had regarded her much like you would a fixture in the office: it’s there every day but you never really register it.
Driving on, I found myself using the rear-view mirror and some (hopefully) discreet sideways glances to check out Susie, almost as if I was seeing her for the first time.
Her age was no secret; she had already told me she was 42. She wore her dark, almost black, hair in a neat shoulder length bob. She was, I now noticed, quite pretty, with sharp distinctive features, green Irish eyes, and artfully applied make up, featuring boldly rouged lips. As always, she wore a smart dark business suit, the jacket hanging in the back. Her crisp white blouse was just low enough at the neck to display a hint of cleavage and, with the sun shining, was also just transparent enough to suggest the fullness of her breasts constrained in a lacy bra. I guessed, making a mental comparison with my wife’s ample 38C’s, that she must be around 40D. Her skirt was the usual modest on-the-knee length but had ridden up in the car to show a little more of her shapely, stockinged leg.
Maybe I had misjudged why the guys at the meeting had become such pussycats when she was around. I spent the rest of the journey home trying not to develop an erection.
As the weeks past, it was getting more likely that the project would come in on time and on budget. I realised I had been acting a little unfairly with Susie: I enjoyed my Friday journeys now, but she was in my car by 7 am and I was racing straight back to the office where she had to work until 5:30 pm. All with no overtime payments. As the company did not have an overtime policy, I made a deal with her: we would stop for lunch on the way back at a fine country house hotel I knew, and I would drop her right at her home by about 4:30 pm. Susie seemed happy with this. With her usual train journey back from the office she normally didn’t get home until around 6:30; so this would make up for the early start.