The Cursed Tattoo

Andy fell in love with Annie the first time he saw her, just like everyone did. Maybe it wasn't really love but he was definitely infatuated.

Annie was his dream girl. That was easy to say. She was sweet, considerate, and down to earth. She took time to talk to everyone, even the nerds, and never looked down on anyone. She always wanted everyone to be happy. And she was drop-dead-gorgeous: tall and elegant while still curvy and sensual. Her smile could light up your soul. Annie always smelled nice, too, and when she talked to Andy her voice felt like a kiss in his ears.

It didn't hurt that she was also pretty much a natural redhead.

Even in Andy's fantasies, Annie held a special status. No seedy motels or back allies for Annie, nothing quick and easy. Other girls could fill those roles. Annie, he dreamed about, laid down on their wedding bed. Or, if he could, Andy would sail around the world with her, see her in the sun on a beautiful tropical beach. Only then would they make love, and it would be tender and beautiful.

Andy had worked at the office for years. He was as stuck in a mind numbing routine as anyone. Then, strange things started happening.

It was his unassuming colleague Ryan who somehow started it all. He came in late one day and Ms. Chandler, their boss, wanted to lecture him. She often liked to do that for no big reason. Ryan had no reputation as a troublemaker, and was probably late for the first time ever. Somehow, their meeting turned into a massive fight.

At one point, it sounded like they were slaughtering a live pig in there. Everyone at the office stopped what they were doing and listened in.

After almost an hour, Ryan came out. He headed straight for the men's room. To Andy's horror, he saw Annie get up from her desk and follow Ryan into the toilets.

She must just be worried,

he thought. But the men's room? That wasn't like Annie at all. Sweet girls like her don't go into men's rooms, for any reason.

There was a slight buzz of conversation and even some nervous giggling around the cubicles. People were already gossiping. Ms. Chandler's secretary had gone into the office but she had closed the door behind her. After a few minutes, Andy decided he had to go find out what was happening to Annie. Most people were stealing glances toward the boss's office. They didn't seem to care that much about Annie or Ryan.

Andy peeked into the toilets.

They were kissing! Annie held Ryan's face and was passionately making out with him. It was just as Andy had always imagined it in his dreams, the way he wanted her to kiss him in that five star hotel or that sandy beach on a deserted island. It looked like they were lovers.

How the hell could Ryan pull that off? He seems so clueless.

Honestly, Ryan might be a little bit better looking than he was, but Andy considered him a total train wreck when it came to the ladies. They'd gone out for some beers a few times, as part of a bigger group, and based on what Andy had seen, Ryan was the type who never even try to talk to women. Andy had had no idea Ryan and Annie were dating. It still felt wrong to him to see her in the men's toilet.

Ryan spotted Andy and he shooed him away.

Ryan came out a few minutes later and went straight for the elevator. Annie came out a minute later, clearly embarrassed. She went back to her desk, hoping no one saw her. A little later, Andy went to check on her but he didn't reveal he had seen her kiss Ryan. Annie seemed absent, even dazed.

Andy arrived early the next morning, as did some other curious coworkers. Everything seemed normal again. Annie was there, but she was dressed sexier than usual. Andy couldn't decide if that was a good thing or a bad thing. Seeing more of those legs made him shiver but knowing the show was meant for Ryan peeved him. There were some rumors that Ms. Chandler had come out of her office wearing different clothes yesterday. If that was true, it could have just been because of coffee stains, or something.

Ryan was nowhere to be seen. He was late again. At some point in the morning Annie got up and headed out. She was clearly nervous about something. Around noon, Andy heard the ding of the elevator, and some commotion. He had to check it out. It was Annie, Ryan, and another woman.

The blonde amazon was almost as tall as Ryan and looked like a sexy wonder-woman version of an athlete. She was not quite a bodybuilder, maybe more like a track and field decathlete. She was very beautiful. She was dragging Annie by the arm. All of them were headed toward Claudia Chandler's office. They were arguing about something, hissing at each other in hushed tones.

The mystery woman threw Annie and Ryan into the office and closed the door behind them. She then sat down and leaned on it, to keep it shut. Even though the woman looked like a swimsuit model, she acted more like a debt collector, or a mob enforcer. Her dress was actually a men's shirt. Andy wasn't the only man openly staring at her who was having a hard time keeping their eyes up, regardless of how beautiful her face was.

The amazon sat cross-legged, with perfect posture. There was a very sensual curve to her back and hips. Andy saw something soft and pale between her legs, the exact same color as her hair. He could almost imagine she was going commando. Someone tried to open the door from the inside but she held it shut by leaning on it. The amazon made eye contact with Andy and he dropped like a gopher, ducking behind the cubicle wall.

Some people were out to lunch, but at the office, no one was working. Everyone was gossiping and stealing glances at the mysterious stranger.

Ryan and Annie had been in the office for a while now. Some muffled, indistinct noises could be heard but Andy could make no sense of them. It sounded like Ms. Chandler's voice.

Taskmaster? This semester?

Impossible to make out. Then the pounding started.

It was a rumble on the floor, like someone was moving a desk. The mystery blonde looked annoyed. Natalia, Ms. Chandler's secretary, was almost crying.

One sound might have been a scream, or just angry yelling. The voices eventually died down but the pounding continued.

The mystery blonde was tuning it all out, she was still as a statue. Her curtains definitely matched the drapes. Hers was the most beautiful lower body Andy had ever seen that naked. His pants felt tight, and what was with that pounding?

Andy couldn't stop his imagination anymore. He could see it in his mind's eye: Annie bent over the desk, naked from the waist down, her long legs as beautiful as this mystery blonde's. And Ryan, plowing Annie like a dodgy casting agent. Thump. Thump. Thump.

Where would Claudia be, though? This is too much. What the hell is going on in there?

The thumping went on for a good fifteen minutes, and people were pooling around the mystery blonde, demanding to know what was happening. She rose up and declared, "People gathered up! There is nothing here for you to see. Return to your labor, immediately. Intrusion upon other people's privacy is frowned upon in your culture. Do not embarrass yourselves. Disperse! Now!"

Definitely a military general,

Andy thought. The verbal show of force made him even more fascinated by this mysterious beauty.

People actually did as she commanded. It helped a bit that the pounding had finally stopped. The amazon was now standing in front of the door, in a commanding pose, her chin arrogantly up. No one challenged her. Andy sat back down, but rolled his chair into the aisle so that he could keep watching. Natalia, Claudia's poor secretary, was openly weeping now. There were no more sounds emanating from the barricaded office.

After a while the amazon turned around, her movements deliberate, and went in. Natalie ran for the door but the amazon locked it behind her.

What was Ryan doing in there, with three women now? It couldn't be. The pounding must have been something else, maybe a power tool of some kind?

There was some yelling. Minutes went by. Then the door opened again. It was Ryan and the amazon. He looked sweaty and disheveled. They made their way to the elevator at a brisk pace. The amazon glared at people and the crowd gave way. Natalia finally slipped into the office. Someone else tried to go after her but she locked the door behind her.

Andy's mood started to turn. He'd been so shocked about everything he hadn't had time think. The silence grew long.

What if something bad had happened? What did that Ryan asshole do? No. He wasn't like that. The dude was too mousy to be violent. But then again, it's always the quiet ones who turn out to be psychos. No. Someone would have called the police, or an ambulance, or something.

Building security had been called. They tried to open the door with a skeleton key but Natalia came to the door and sent them away.

Later, Natalia left the building, but the door to the office was still locked from the inside. She came back with a big shopping bag. Most onlookers were getting bored by now, but something weird was definitely going on.

Later in the afternoon, Natalia told everyone to go home. Her voice was mousy and quiet. She had little natural charisma or authority, but people didn't mind an afternoon off.

Natalia was hot, though. Tall, a little awkward and gangling, but in a cute, Bambi sort of way. Her face was beautiful, and she could look like a model when sitting still. If there had been room on Andy's list for anyone but Annie, Natalia would have been high on that list. And Ms. Chandler, too, come to think of it. Those three must have been the most beautiful women in the whole building.

"Andy, right? You can go home now. Everyone gets the rest of the off, okay?" Natalia said. She had sneaked up on him.

"Great. Thanks," he answered, and started to gather his stuff.

Andy was the last to the elevator and Natalia had gone back into the office so he doubled back and sneaked to the corner, where the water coolers were. He caught up on his social media while waiting. The gossip was already out. Even people from other departments were already speculating.

The door opened. Andy was relieved to see that Annie was all right. She was wearing a different dress, however. So was Ms. Chandler, and she was angry. She was even stiffer than usual. Natalia was still shaken and the boss was yelling at her to keep it together. Annie seemed happy, though. Ms. Chandler gave the big shopping bag to Natalia and the ladies headed for the elevator. There was definitely something awkward in Ms. Chandler's movements. Maybe she had stubbed a toe.

They had left the office door open, probably by accident. Once they were gone, Andy made his way in. The desk was broken. One of the legs had collapsed. There was a strong aroma of cleaning products in the air. His heart sunk.

How is this possible?

Andy went through the day in his mind. The amazon had known something would happen. The shouting could have been moaning. The pounding had broken the desk. It felt horribly plausible that Ms. Chandler had not, in fact, stubbed her toe, but had been stubbed herself. Both she and Annie had needed new clothes, and the girls had cleaned the office.

And Ryan had been there.

Maybe he was blackmailing them somehow?

Surely that only happened in stories.

Andy's theory weighed heavily on his mind. He could believe that Ryan might secretly be a creep but he would also have to be a real stud, to break a desk like that. Andy didn't see that being the case. Annie had been happy and yesterday her kiss with Ryan had seemed genuine.

If they were a couple, could they be blackmailing the boss together? No, Annie would never do anything like that. And who the hell was the amazon? Maybe she was blackmailing all of them.

None of it made sense.

Andy came in early the next day, just to see what would happen. Ms. Chandler was already in her office. Annie and Ryan were nowhere to be seen. Andy didn't have to ask around. Everyone was already talking about yesterday, anyway. No one actually knew anything, though.

The boss left early, but she seemed fine. Even Natalia was holding it together. She wouldn't talk about yesterday's events with anyone, though. Annie and Ryan never showed.

The day after that, Annie did show up. The story was that she had just taken a personal day.

During the next few weeks it became clear that Ryan was gone, for good. The rumor mill took a turn. Everyone now thought that Ryan had quit and the commotion had been just a bad breakup between him and the company. The consensus assumed the mystery woman, if such a person had even existed, had been Ryan's new business partner or something. The whole thing was thought to be about intellectual property rights, and lawyers would surely handle it from here.

Even people who worked directly under Ms. Chandler, colleagues of Andy who had been there and seen the whole thing themselves, seemed to be buying the bullshit. None of them had smelled the disinfectant.

You don't need to scrub an office from floor to ceiling because of intellectual property negotiations, no matter how heated.

And also, Andy was very sure Ryan held no intellectual properties.

Andy got a glimpse into the boss's office some days later, when the door was open, and he could see the desk had been replaced with a new one. No one had seen it happen.

Annie was still nice to everyone but she seemed preoccupied. She came in late more often and was always in a hurry to leave. She kept with her new, sexier style of dresses and makeup, but that just made her less approachable. There was a glow. Although Andy hated to admit it, she had the look of someone who was in a new and exciting relationship.

He decided to ask her about it one day, and she confirmed that Ryan and her were "very much in love." Annie asked Andy to keep it to himself, because of the incident. She told him Ryan was doing some research now and that the blonde amazon really was his "research partner." Annie pretty much stuck to the script, confirming only rumors that were already out.

For some incomprehensible reason, it seemed like Annie was friends with the boss now. Annie would often just chat with her in the aisles, and sometimes Ms. Chandler even came to Annie's cubicle to talk to her. She

never

did that with anyone else. If Claudia wanted to talk to someone, they got called into her office. Annie was going there often, too. Andy had to assume it wasn't all work related.

One day, Andy and Annie were leaving at the same time, by chance, and he was surprised to see her take a different turn at the door. She revealed to him that she was living with Ryan now.

Andy had to admit he was jealous. Ryan had made a big show of his extravagant resignation, and was now living with Annie, and apparently working with that stunning amazon. Ryan was already a legend around the office, heck, the whole building.

In his darker hours, Andy believed Ryan was having sex with both of them, and Ms. Chandler, too -- why not -- while Andy himself had no one. In the light of day, though, that seemed preposterous. Something strange had happened in the office that day, but as days turned into weeks, Andy was ready to let it go.

---

One evening, Andy was sitting in a cafe. He was actually about to go on a date. The movie tickets were in his pocket. It was a nice, warm evening and he was feeling good. Then he saw Ryan.

The ex-colleague walked by the cafe, right next to him, on the other side of a window. The mystery amazon was with him. Andy had forgotten how gorgeous she was. She was wearing proper clothes now, a sexy dress. There was something familiar about that dress but Andy did not have the time to think about it right then. His attention was grabbed by the two other women in the group.

One was a very beautiful and sexy girl, maybe a little bit younger than the others. Andy's mind would go back to her later, but right then, his attention was captured by the absolutely stunning third woman.

She was tall and slim but her hourglass figure was still exaggerated. She had purple hair. A tiny top highlighted her narrow waist. Her belly was so tight you could see the muscles even though she wasn't athletic, per se. Her bellybutton was pierced. She had tattoos everywhere but they were tastefully done, and there was still oodles of bare skin left on show. Her skirt was short and tight and her lean legs seemed endless, clad in striped stockings.

All the women were in man-killer makeup, had their hair done, and were wearing needlessly high heels. They could have almost looked like prostitutes, but instead, looked like celebrities. That asshole Ryan was just there, in the middle of the pack, grinning like anyone would in company like that.

They passed Andy fast and he was fully and deeply mesmerized by the purple-head's ass. It was so tight and round, and so juicy and full, in relation to that narrow, limber waist, and those needlessly long legs. The ass undulated in smooth circles while swinging from side to side. The tight fabric of the miniskirt stretched tantalizingly with it's every motion, revealing more than it hid.

Time stood still until that perfect little piece of creation had disappeared around the corner. Andy hadn't even realized he'd been staring with his mouth open. The image of that tush would stay with him, stark and clear.

Once the performance was over, Andy started to think about what he had just seen. Details started to gnaw at him.

Purple Girl had been all over Ryan, laughing and smiling. She had hung on to his arm with both of her hands and had looked at him like he was a freaking god, or something. It had been a real show. The girl had done a lot to make people notice how much she was into him.

In his mind's eye, Andy could see her kissing Ryan's neck while leaning in to whisper something sweet into his ear. Whether that had actually happened or not, Andy didn't even care.

Needless to say, Andy's date went badly. He missed half the plot. The movie in his mind was a movie of that ass. Halfway through the film, he realized the dress the blonde amazon had been wearing was exactly like one of Annie's new, sexier work dresses. In the darkness of that theater, feeling alone despite his date being next to him, Andy could easily imagine the dress actually being Annie's and the amazon having just borrowed it. Women did that.

Days later, Purple Girl was still in his mind, like a big poster, because that's what she was: a living, breathing, pin-up poster.

In the coffee room at work, Andy told Annie about what he had seen. Not in so many words, though, he just casually dropped it into a conversation. He said he had seen Ryan with some friends. Annie recognized the other women easily. She told Andy they were friends.

Andy couldn't help himself and dropped a few allusions to Purple Girl being insanely hot. To his surprise, Annie agreed wholeheartedly. They even went on about it for a while, until Annie kind of caught herself being a bit too enthusiastic about the subject.

Apparently, Purple Girl's name was Remy. Andy asked Annie if Remy was single. Annie said she wasn't and that kind of killed the conversation. Andy felt like pushing further would be a mistake. He didn't ask about Purple Girl being all over Ryan, and didn't ask if the amazon was in the habit of borrowing Annie's dresses.

Andy couldn't get over the whole thing anymore. Ryan's resignation, maybe, but not his new "research job," and definitely not his new girlfriend, and his new "research partner," and his other new "friends."

He called Ryan to ask how he was doing, and if he wanted to grab a beer. The dude sounded like the same shy loser he had always been. He told Andy he was busy with a lot of stuff.

One day, Andy followed Annie home from work. He wasn't proud of it, but he had to know more.