I've tried to write this one reversing the usual male/female characters. It's a slow burner with a gradual build up.
The main character is American and I'm not, so I apologise if I have made any mistakes translating British to American.
*
Sitting at my desk, I find myself watching the office clock tick over to 12:30. Finally passing the midpoint in the week. Hurray! Fewer minutes of drudgery until I can escape the office for the few brief hours of the weekend. It's not the job itself that is so bad, but after a drunken misunderstanding at a Christmas party, over an unwanted kiss under the mistletoe. I've been on the shitty end of the stick ever since. And as I was neither the person drunk nor the person insisting on the kiss, that seems extremely unfair. It was my team leader Carol, and my rejection of her advances might have passed as a harmless misunderstanding. If she'd not managed to do it in front of virtually the entire company and made a big fuss about it.
At first her reprisal was to spread a rumour I was gay, which was kind of childish, but I could live with that. I never hang out with anyone from the company anyway. Then she switched to what makes my life a misery today. Ensuring I get allocated all the trickiest and most time consuming cases and then pointing out to our supervisor that I'm failing to meet my targets. I'd complain except for two things. First is the pair are BFFs and the second, and I'll admit this is my fault, I'd nicknaming our supervisor 'the dragon' and she overheard.
Greg, at the next desk, throws a paperclip past me and whispers.
"Josh, you're not doing yourself any favours spacing out like that. Have you even done the Johnson file?"
"Almost..." I lie. It was the next file in the in-tray.
"Just a warning mate, I overheard 'the dragon' talking to the boss in the break room. She promised consequences for any of her staff who failed to meet their quotas."
"About time to!" Carol adds with a vindictive grin, proving she was eavesdropping again.
"Mr Anderson!" 'The dragon' calls over, stopping us dead. "Ms Terry would like to see you in her office right away." The colour drains from my face.
"Fuck 'J' now you're for it." Greg exclaims.
"Should I empty your desk now?" Carol asks bitchily.
Ignoring this and the sneer on 'the Dragon's' face as I head to the lift. I feel like a condemned man, on the way to the gallows. Adele, her secretary busy on the phone, waves me right into the Boss's office. Ms Terry is also on the phone, so I stand in front of her desk feeling like a schoolboy in front of his headmistress. My mind wanders as I wait. It would be quite easy to have a headmistress fantasy about Ms Terry. Despite that she always wore rather severely tailored trouser suits, she was attractive. In her mid to late thirties with ash blond hair. The suits couldn't hide her curvy figure completely. She glances at me and the fantasy crumbles. Wait! What am I doing? I'm standing in front of the boss, expecting to be fired, and I'm thinking about sex. Remember who she is? She scares the crap out of almost everyone in the office. Her refined British accent just adds to the impact of the tongue lashing you get, if she thinks you aren't pulling your weight. I'd seen men in their fifties reduced to jello after five minutes in her office. She puts the phone down and turns all her attention to me.
"I have had a number of negative reports about you." Crap! Perhaps Carol was right about clearing my desk. "However, I always investigate both sides before making important decisions that affect people's employment status." I wonder if I'll have time to recover my lunch from the break room before I go.
"So, I have decided you should attend the convention with me at the end of the week. You know we have the Denver convention this week?"
"Of course, Ms Terry." I lie; I never read the department bulletins.
"The person I usually go with is unavailable...." The office rumour has it that she and the guy, Steve who she normally went with, had a thing going on at the annual convention. His wife found out, and cracked his skull with a frying pan. A bit Looney Tunes I know, but it added fuel to the rumour. "So, I have decided you should attend this year in his place. We will have plenty of times to talk about these reports on the drive there." There isn't a hint of request about this. Not that I wouldn't sacrifice my weekend to save my job. I'd only be alone in my apartment, staring at the walls otherwise.
"I do kinda have a full workload at the moment..." I hedge.
"Pass your files back to Carol. She is always claiming to be the best in your section, I am sure she can cope." Her smile proves she knows more about our teams working than I'd expect. "Adele will give you the details and inform your supervisor."
"Why me? I know nothing about sales."
"You do not need to, I handle all that. Your role is purely admin and to look good behind the counter." A smile crosses her face, for barely an instant. That sounds like I'm supposed to be just eye candy. Perhaps she believes the rumours of me being gay?
Only when I get home do I realise I don't have a suitable bag to take. My gym bag hasn't been touched in months, not since the free trial period at the gym expired. And even without opening it I can tell it stinks. Then I remember my neighbour Amber, she's an air hostess and is bound to have a spare bag I can borrow. Only problem is she wouldn't be home until really late.
In the morning, after nearly five minutes of knocking on Amber's door, growing guiltier by the second for disturbing her so early. Just as I'm trying to figure out if I can get in any more trouble for using her spare key. I don't want to just walk in, as you never knew when she'd bring someone home.
The door opens to reveal the dark tousled beauty of Amber yawning and blinking at me.
"Hey 'J' it's kinda early ya know?" She asked in her soft southern drawl. She'd sort of taken me under her wing when I first moved in. Lending me stuff at first and teasing me over my lack of girlfriends. In return, I collected her mail and watered her plants on her frequent trips. "Sorry, I know. I'd never disturb you this early normally, but I've got to go to a convention in Denver and I need to borrow a bag."
"Going up in the world? Sure, come in." That's what I love about Amber; she's like a big sister to me.
The door opens as she walks away, the sister analogy wobbles. She's wearing a bright orange semi-transparent baby doll nightie. It highlights her slim frame and graceful movements. Now I'm thinking stepsister or distant cousin and it still feels weird. Her bedroom floods my nostrils with her perfume, but is as messy as usual. She may look spectacular, but she lives like a slob.
"There is a bag at the back of the wardrobe, help yourself. I drank too much last night." She collapses face down on the bed and the nightie flips up exposing a matching thong and her great ass.
"Any reason?" I ask, looking away quickly and trying to clear the abandoned clothes to open the wardrobe door.
