Chapter I
Martin had no idea what to expect when they told him he was getting a temp. He had spent the past week in varying emotional states. They ranged from being irritated to being pleased and all the way over to stark terror.
He was irritated because he didn't think he had any need for a temp. He could handle his job quite well and was doubtful that an extra pair of hands would add anything to his work experience.
He was pleased because he saw this as an opportunity to help mentor a younger worker.
His terror came from the idea that the new temp might be a woman. Or more to the point, a young attractive woman! That could make things very awkward. At sixty years of age, he knew he wasn't likely to be on the wish list of many young women. But he had heard that many men had been subjected to sexual harassment suits by young office assistants in the recent past.
He was close enough to retirement age that an accusation like that wouldn't ruin his life. But he liked his work, and he wasn't ready to hang up his laptop. Not just yet!
He sighed audibly and stared absently out the window to the parking lot.
"I should call HR and tell them to send the temp somewhere else," he muttered quietly.
"That would be a shame!" a voice said from his doorway.
He looked up with a start to see Susan Wield, the HR director. Behind her was a mousey looking woman in her early twenties.
Susan was big, bold and brassy. She was in her forties, had bleached blond hair and enormous boobs. She always wore dresses that accentuated her curvy figure and high heels that thrust her ass out like the rear end of a tractor trailer.
She was funny and likeable though, and Martin always smiled when she came to see him.
"Cheer up Martin!" Susan said with a laugh, "You're getting a temp, not a replacement!"
Martin snickered and nodded uneasily.
"That's what you say now," he half-joked.
Susan scoffed and waved her arms forward and down in a gesture of dismissal.
"Nonsense!" she said, "And besides, this is a summer placement! Theresa hasn't even started college yet! Your job is quite safe!"
Martin sighed and nodded absently.
"Okay, this is Theresa," Susan said and pulled the woman who had been hiding behind her back forward, "She's going to help you in whatever way you find useful. She can type, she uses computers and knows how to file."
The girl, very short and slightly built, nodded shyly. She was dressed in a black pant suit, had large almost bug-eyed glasses on her face and long dark hair that fell halfway down her back.
"Be good to her and I'll be good to you!" Susan finished with a guffaw.
She left the room and Theresa looked toward him with wide eyes and a scared expression on her face.
Martin looked her over and then blushed slightly. He had been working himself up over this meeting for no good reason and he could see now that she was just a young girl who wanted a chance.
He sighed and did his best to show her an encouraging smile.
"Thanks for coming Theresa," he said uncomfortably, "I'm sure we'll find something you can do. Why don't you settle in at the desk in the outer office?"
The girl smiled shyly and nodded. Then she went to the desk outside his door.
She dropped her handbag on the floor by the chair and sat in the wooden roller chair.
Just then, Martin received an email. It was from Susan and had access and passcodes for Theresa to log onto the company computer.
He printed it out and then carried it out to Theresa's desk.
"You'll need these," he said and dropped the sheet onto the blotter in front of the girl, "I think it's self-explanatory, but I'll hang around until you've managed to log in."
Theresa gulped slightly but typed the details into the logon screen. Soon, she was looking at a welcome screen that guided her to set up her new email address. Within fifteen minutes she had everything she needed to get started.
"Well," Martin said with some surprise, "That was easy!"
"Yes it really was!" Theresa exclaimed happily, "I'm excited!"
Martin snickered quietly and looked at her. She was looking up at him like a child on Christmas morning. He felt something stir in him and he smiled in return. Then he coughed slightly and turned away.
"I'll um," he stammered, "I'll be, um, at my desk!"
"Yes!" she replied quickly, "Yes, for sure!"
Martin made a beeline into his office. As he passed through the door, he debated closing it, then decided that would be too unsociable. He was supposed to be showing this girl how their office worked, not shutting her out of his life!
He turned and smiled uncomfortably and then turned away again. Then he went and sat at his desk where he resumed staring out the window.
Theresa watched him go with a puzzled expression. She had been very pleased with the process of setting up her company account, and then he had suddenly walked away.
She shrugged and started playing a tutorial that would guide her through the company's systems.
Martin spent the rest of that day seated at his desk.
The days went by, and Martin was trying to get used to having an assistant. There wasn't much he could ask her to do, but he gave her some filing and asked her once to type a letter for him.
He regretted both.
The filing had been done so badly he'd had to redo the entire cabinet after she left for the day. The grammar in the letter he asked her to type was even worse.
After over a week, he was beginning to wonder how he could tell Susan to get Theresa out of his office. He tried to bring the subject up with the HR director a couple of times, but she had bulldozed her way through the conversation, the way she always did, until he couldn't get his facts together.
When he returned to the office, Theresa was sitting at her desk reading what looked like a magazine. She went to great pains to hide what she was reading, and Martin didn't care enough to make any effort to see it.
He just went through to his desk, sat down and went through the figures he would need to present to the quarterly meeting coming up next week.
He could see the young girl looking at him nervously. He decided to ignore it and do what he needed to do.
When next he raised his eyes, she was not at her desk. He reasoned she was probably in the ladies room. Several minutes later when she returned, she had an oddly flushed expression on her face. Her hair, usually tightly combed to her head, showed a few strands out of place. Her cheeks were redder than was usual for her and she glanced at him furtively when she took her chair.
Martin just sighed and decided to let her keep her secret, whatever that might be.
Over the next few days, he began to notice there was something of a pattern to her absences. It never happened at the same time, but it typically was after reading the magazines she hid at her desk. Then she would trot off to the washroom and return some fifteen minutes or so later.
On Friday afternoon, a time when most of the office had already gone home for an early weekend, Martin was hard at work finalizing his presentation.