Present
The next few weeks seemed to all meld together in Tabitha's brain. The incident with Liam felt like they had taken place years prior instead of a month ago. In truth, she hardly recognized much of what her concern had been. The daily sessions with Dr. Foster were really helping her to process through and move on from what he had done to her. Briefly, Tabitha had wondered if everyone in the office was getting the same attention for their recovery. She'd expressed as much to Mandy during one session.
"Oh silly girl. That's not work related is it? You only need to think about work. Thinking about anything is so hard, isn't it?"
Her beautiful voice was such a comfort. Tabitha just nodded. Thinking was so hard. She stopped concerning herself with the welfare of the other women in the office. Focus needed to remain on her own healing.
That particular though made her pause. She had been typing an email and noticed as she was thinking about healing that the email wasn't making any sense.
"Our new timeline for branding needs to be 80% complete by TABITHA March 29th and TABITHA there will be no further extensions. TABITHA YOU HAVE TO GET OUT. YOU ARE NOT IN CONTROL. Happy birthday to, Amanda!! Obviously we celebrate with our team here in the office. She should meet me in my office by end of day for her birthday spanking!
TABITHA GET OUT YOU HAVE TO GET OUT YOU HAVE TO GET OUT YOU HAVE TO GET OUT."
Proofreading her email she saw the words, but it was as if they didn't have meaning. She could read them. She could comprehend what the words were saying. They just didn't seem to impact her. She didn't even remember typing them. Delete and delete. The email went out. Almost immediately though, she felt her head spinning. It was a sensation like standing up too fast where the walls and floor seemed to move even if she was stationary. Her hands quickly gripped the desk in front of her as she closed her eyes tight and fought the sudden sharp pain in her head. Breathing deeply she endured through.
These pains had become more frequent lately. Dr. Foster had said it was her brain recovering from Liam's influence. Dr. Foster was such a good doctor. She helped so much. Tabitha really wanted to please Dr. Foster and earn her praise for her recovery. The pain finally faded. After blinking rapidly in order to see again, Tabitha got up and made her way to Samantha's office.
Sam's secretary had phoned earlier that morning and set a time that Samantha wanted to meet. Tabitha walked down the short hall of the executive offices toward the desk at the end. All the chief executives shared one secretary, Ayla. She sat at a desk situated in the corner at the end of the hall so that any of the bigwigs could poke their head out of their offices and get her attention. At the moment though, Ayla wasn't in her chair. Tabitha took a seat in one of the plush chairs and waited. A minute later, Samantha's office door opened and Ayla stepped out. Her fingers were in the process of pulling her skirt down into place.
Tabitha glanced over and noted mentally that no matter how far down she pulled that skirt, it would still just barely reach her thighs. In an effort to try and remember if Ayla had ever dressed in such short skirts before, the small pain and dizzy feeling almost started back up. Tabitha closed her eyes and banished the thoughts from her head. It wasn't her concern. She needed to focus on her own development. After a moment the threat of the pain subsided and Ayla's was standing next to Tabitha.
"Samantha is ready for you."
Tab smiled up at the small woman. Ayla was Asian, easily below five foot in height with long black hair falling down her back. She was an incredibly pretty girl and Tabitha's that in that moment, of standing next to her was wondering if she could pick her up and how easy it would be to throw her around. As Ayla turned toward the office door, Tabitha shook her head, trying to dislodge those thoughts.
Tabitha stepped into the office and Ayla closed the door behind her. Sam was sitting on the edge of her desk, looking as beautiful as ever. She motioned to a chair and Tabitha sat down. They exchanged some pleasantries.
"How is your time with Dr. Foster going?"
Tabitha took a deep breath and smiled. "Well. Really well. She's been really helpful with processing everything that happened. I always feel so refreshed after our time together. Dr. Foster is a really good doctor. I just want to pl..." She caught herself, realizing that it might be best not to say how much she wanted to please Dr. Foster. "I appreciate the board bringing her in."
Samantha smiled back. "Actually Wendy is on the board of directors as well." Samantha moved from the edge of the desk and sat in the other adjacent chair. "She mentioned that you might need some further reinforcement."
Tabitha looked confused at her boss. "She said that to you?"
"Yes. Actually, I have been having sessions with her too. Part of my own healing is she's encouraging me to take on more of a mentor role with some of the senior level staff. I want to be sure I'm taking an active role in all of your healing, not just my own. Dr. Foster's suggestion was so right. She's such a brilliant woman. I just want to please her, don't you?"
Tabitha gasped in relief, a slight laugh escaping her lips. "Oh my goodness. Yes! I almost said it earlier but I didn't want you to think I was weird." They giggled a bit together.
"Anyway," Samantha stood up and continued, "Dr. Foster said an important thing I can do is to replace some of the trauma of your experience with Liam with a more positive experience so that you can heal. So," Samantha shifted a bit, seeming to be a bit uncomfortable with what she was asking. She laughed nervously and rubbed her temple with a finger and thumb as she seemed to work through her nerves. "I would like for you to, um...if you wanted to..."
Sam fanned her fingers out in front of her and waved them while taking a deep breath as she gestured her discomfort. Then she shook her head and laughed again before her face seemed to harden just a bit and she made up her mind.
"Tabitha. Remove your skirt and bend over and place your palms on my desk."
---------------------------
Past
Tabitha was mortified. The elevator doors opened and she glanced through them before stepping out into the desk clumps. She didn't spot Rebecca, but she saw many other girls getting situated for their days. Quickly, Tabitha exited and fast walked along the wall, passing by the executive hall and hoping she could get to her door before anyone acknowledged her.
"Tabby!"
The man's voice startled her and she jumped and almost shouted, letting out a cut off hiss as she started to cuss and caught herself. Liam laughed. He was standing a few feet down the hallway she was passing so she hadn't noticed him. Almost like he'd been waiting for her.
"Tabitha." She corrected once she caught her breath. "Good morning, Liam. You scared the life out of me."
Liam's smile was one of condescension. She'd seen it on practically every man in a position of power above her her entire career. It was part of why she had fought so hard to join this company and work under women. Even though Liam wasn't really her boss, he was an executive. She wanted to please the executives.
"Apologies. Tabitha." He corrected himself but the smile didn't change. "Could I see you in my office for a moment?" The man was meek and barely taller than Tabitha. She hadn't thought him particularly arrogant in their only other interaction of setting up her computer, but when he asked the question it was clear he was lording over her. Without even waiting for a response from her, he merely turned and walked down the hall toward his office door, expecting her to follow.
Tabitha only hesitated a moment before shouldering her purse better and walking down to his office door as well. He was standing at the door handle holding it open for her, closing the door behind her and indicating a chair in front of his desk. This office was roughly half the size of Samantha's. It only had a single window in the far corner. His desk was on the other end of the room. His desk was pulled away toward the center of the room as was standard, but instead of a bookcase or windows behind as was common in other offices. Instead there were four large monitors mounted to the wall with a sort of workbench below them. Two of the monitors had screensavers, one was just a normal desktop, the last showed a series of graphs and meters that seemed to be measuring temps and speeds of some computer or another.
Tabitha sat in a chair in front of his desk and Liam crossed behind to sit in his own chair. He just sat there, smiling at her without saying anything. After a minute of this silence, Tabitha held her hands up expectantly.
"Did you...want to discuss something?"
Liam finally looked away from her and chuckled to himself. "I wanted to talk about two things. Firstly, just checking in to see how things are going. Any issues with systems or programs?"
Tabitha considered the question for a moment and shook her head slowly. "Nope. All, pretty standard." She smiled again. Hoping to get away from this uncomfortable exchange. Again, silence and that condescending smile. "Was there something else?"
Liam chuckled and leaned back in his chair. His head didn't even reach the cushion that acted as a headrest on the high-back chair. She was about ready to get up and walk out of the office.
"Nothing major. The second thing I wanted to discuss is just a reminder to you."
Tabitha put all of her effort into smiling politely. "Reminder to?"
He leaned forward in his chair reaching up to his monitor. "When you're in the office, we do have a policy of wearing professional attire." Liam turned the monitor on his desk to face Tabitha. Her eyes widened in horror. On the screen was a looping video of Tabitha, the night before, walking through the bullpen of desks in nothing but her lingerie. At the bottom of the screen, Rebecca's head was just barely visible sitting at her desk a dozen feet away. The video showed Tabitha walking through, purse on her shoulder and heels on, pink lingerie obvious. She paused at Rebecca calling out to her. Then the obvious realization. Covering herself. Rushing back to her office. Then it repeated.
