Latisha's (dubious) Plan Unfolds
It had been two weeks to the day that Jamie next walked back into Latisha's office, but this time he was there because she had asked him to visit -- had something to tell him, she had said, when she had bumped into him in the supermarket earlier that week. Now Latisha felt back in control. Duncan had finally been true to his word and the images on the website had gone. He of course did take pleasure in telling her to look after his mates in the future, or he would put them back up there!
She didn't take him too seriously.
Now with the youth, Jamie, standing back in her office, Latisha had quickly gotten to the point of her meeting with him and produced a small tape machine from her desk drawer.
It was an old Dictaphone that she used occasionally. Latisha had learnt from an old boss of hers many years ago, that it was a good idea to record meetings with clients candidly for numerous reasons, one of which was to cover your arse in case of some litigation claim, but mostly in case you had forgotten something important.
She plugged her desktop speakers into the machine and hit play.
Jamie listened to the clear recording with uneasiness -- it was an edited version of the 'meeting' he had with Latisha a fortnight before.
"So what?" Jamie mumbled arrogantly as Latisha turned the machine off.
"So what?" Latisha repeated, "Jamie, I have my evidence now. There is enough there to take to the police...and you'd be a goner!"
Jamie looked at her now with obvious concern, his face going pale.
"And another thing, now that you're over nineteen...you'd go straight to the big house."
"What?" he asked slightly confused at her suggestion he was nineteen.
"Your birthday...two weeks ago you said you had just turned nineteen?"
Jamie remembered his little lie, "Oh yeah...right."
He was worried of course -- really worried!
"I'm...I'm sorry, Miss, truly I am, I know what I did was wrong...really wrong," he said most sincerely, "It was only meant to be a bit of fun...you know. I thought that just maybe you were a bit of a slut...and just maybe you would...well, you know," he stammered nervously, "Please don't go to the police. I'll give you the money back?"
Latisha smiled -- now it was her turn to be surprised at how easy it had been. The table had well and truly turned!
"I want you to promise you'll destroy all images of me that you have...wherever they are," she said firmly, as the boy stood silently, almost hanging his head in shame.
He nodded, "Okay, is that all?" He was getting off lightly, he thought, far too lightly.
"And I also want my knickers back, you bloody thief! They're part of an expensive set you know, French too! My husband would not be at all pleased with me if he noticed them missing!"
He nodded again -- although he wasn't too sure if he could give them back to her, as unfortunately he had let his friend Eddie keep them.
"Is that all, Miss? Can I go now?"
Latisha looked at the youth shrewdly, somewhat surprised at how remorseful he now appeared to be. He was not at all the arrogant, stand-over young man of a couple of weeks ago and she wasn't too sure she should now go through with the rest of her plan -- the part where she had intended on teaching the boy a bit of a lesson.
Then she thought about the humiliation and degradation she'd felt because of him two weeks earlier -- no bugger him, she thought, she would go ahead with her plan.
Thinking he had been dismissed, Jamie turned to head for the door.
"Not so fast...you know I'd said I wanted to see you... for...maybe two hours," Latisha chuckled, a wicked smile forming as she looked at the worried youth.
He nodded, "Umm, yep, what else can I do then?"
"I want to show you something," Latisha said cryptically.
"What else ya got ta show me?" the boy snickered, "Pretty much seen it all, huh, 'cept of course ya tits!"
Well, that did it for Latisha; she was determined to go through with it now, as she saw a glimmer of the same young smart-arse that had tormented her earlier appear just beneath the facade.
"It's not here...its a few minutes drive away. We'll go in my car...you can put your bike in the office," Latisha informed him as she shutdown her computer and prepared to leave.
Barely ten minutes later, Latisha drove down an overgrown driveway to a ramshackle house on the edge of town and stopped under an old wisteria-entwined pergola. Jamie sat next to her quite sullenly not saying a word.
The property belonged to an old client of Latisha's who was terminally-ill in hospital. He had given her the keys some weeks ago so she could get some documents from his study. No one else lived there.
"Wait here a minute," Latisha said to Jamie, as she reached over to the backseat of her car and grabbed a small backpack.
Jamie watched the blonde woman as she unlocked the front door to the house. He just couldn't imagine what she was up to -- but he was worried.
Quickly he pulled out his mobile phone. He would like to have called his friend, Eddie, but he was nearly out of credit -- an SMS would have to do.
A few moments later, Latisha came back out from the darkened old house -- minus the backpack, and waved him to come inside.
With some trepidation, Jamie got out of the car and followed Latisha inside. She led him down a musty hallway to a large bedroom at the rear of the house, an ancient wrought-iron and brass bed sat in the middle of the room beneath a noisy ceiling fan. A tallboy set of drawers were against one wall and a worn red-leather divan was against the other, opposite a small window that had some sheer-netting curtains let in a small amount of natural light.
"What are we doing here?" Jamie asked a little incredulously.
Latisha looked at the worried youth, "Oh, you'll see soon enough. I wanted somewhere private to have a chat to you...somewhere we would not be disturbed," she said mysteriously.
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