Frank rolled over and grabbed his phone. He hit snooze on the alarm.
Three snoozes later, he made his way to sitting up in bed, looking red-eyed at his phone.
"Do you have to hit snooze so many times, Frank?" his wife asked, still rolled up under the covers. "I'm trying to sleep. Just set your alarm for when you are actually going to get up already."
"What the fuck do you know about it," he snarled, but he stood up, and made his way to the bathroom.
He heard the coffee maker in the kitchen beeping right on time. Good enough. He finished in the bathroom and made his way to the kitchen. He poured a cup of coffee and reached into the refrigerator for some milk.
There wasn't any milk.
Fucking woman, he thought. Sleeps until ten each day and can't even keep God damn milk in the house consistently.
He found some almond milk like what the California kids liked. He unscrewed the cap, smelled it. Smelled pretty bad to him.
Black it is, he thought. I'll make her go to the store later.
Sitting at the kitchen table with his coffee, he opened up his email.
But he probably shouldn't have. The first email was from John Claire. Frank hated John Claire. He had no idea why he hadn't fired John Claire when he wanted to last week.
Good morning Frank,
John wrote.
Good news- not only can we consider phase one of the security upgrades completed, but we've made great progress on the phase two metrics. About a quarter of the way done, and we didn't need to use up as much weekend overtime as we thought we might have needed to get caught up. Let's set up a meeting -
Frank closed his laptop. Jesus fucking Christ.
His phone vibrated on the table. He picked it up and took a look.
A message from baby doll.
Nice, he thought.
I hope you like it,
she wrote, next to a little winking smiley emoticon.
And there she was, beautiful little baby doll, wearing nothing but some sheer and expensive looking underwear in a picture. There were a few pictures of that, one of her kneeling, one with a view from her tight little stomach up to her plump tits, one she had taken of herself from above.
His cock jumped in his boxers looking at Morgan wearing the underwear he told her to buy.
Good little baby doll, he thought, sliding his stiffening dick out from the slit in his underwear. Good and obedient like always. You know who takes care of you.
He looked at her unsmiling lips in the pictures, and thought about her wrapping her mouth around him, sucking up and down on him, drinking the cum from his squirting dick the way he liked to make her do. He got harder as he thought about that.
"Frank? Are you still out there?" his wife yelled from the bedroom.
Fuck.
"What the fuck do you
want?"
he yelled back. He got up and got into the shower.
***
"Ooh, I like your coat," Zoe said, stroking the wool. "It looks so warm! Is it
new?"
Morgan blushed.
"Yeah, you know... my old coat was wearing out, and wasn't very good... I got myself a new one."
"Lucky
you.
Looks
expensive."
"I guess."
"Good for you. Treat yourself."
Wei walked into the shared office space, holding a cup of green tea in a clear glass jar, the leaves swirling around inside.
"Oh! Nice coat, Morgan," she said.
"Thank you."
Wei pursed her lips together looking at Morgan. She seemed stressed, Wei thought. Like she hasn't been sleeping enough.
"I'm sorry I've been a little rough on you," she continued, taking a sip of her hot tea. "I've been a little stressed this semester, you probably have too. Sorry I took it out on you."
Morgan hung her new coat up on the rack. She walked over and gave the smaller woman a gentle hug.
"I know, Wei. I'm sorry, too. I haven't been myself lately. I'm trying to be better."
"Group
hug!"
Zoe announced in a singsong voice and embraced the other two women.
When the three women separated, Wei kept her hand on Morgan's forearm.
"I've noticed that you haven't been yourself. I hope you know that I care for you. I hope you know that I'm your friend, and that you can always come to me."
"I know, Wei," Morgan smiled. "I know I can. But I'm OK. I think it's just the stress of school and working here. I'm not sure I'm learning what I thought I would be learning at this internship."
Wei smiled.
"Right. Fucking Excel, you know?"
"Something like that."
***
Lynda looked over at the shared office space where the interns were. She took a sip of her cup of coffee.
She watched the three young women hug. It made her smile. She was happy to think that they had each other, she knew how hard it was for women to make their way up in the corporate world.
There were a lot of predatory sharks in every office aquarium, and sometimes young women could be swallowed up whole by one of them.
Lynda was proud of her job mentoring the interns that worked at Maxon International, she tried to be firm, but helpful, and she often kept in touch with some of them after they moved on with their professional lives.
Some of them didn't make it. Lynda didn't like to think about those.
If Lynda would have guessed at the start of the internships, she would have been concerned about Zoe the most. A flighty girl, not able to focus very long on any particular task. Lynda thought that she might have to push Zoe a little harder than most.
But it was Morgan who Lynda came to be the most concerned about. When Morgan had first started at Maxon, she had a clear-eyed zeal and a confidence about herself that Lynda found inspiring. It had been heartbreaking to see Morgan develop a furtive and hunted look about herself.
Morgan now had a nervous laugh that Lynda did not recall hearing those months ago. Her eyes were very often pointed right at the floor.
Hopefully Wei can help, Lynda thought. Wei is quiet and smart and strong. Maybe she can take Morgan under her wing.
Lynda picked up the phone and dialed an extension.
"Hello?" the man answered.
"Hello John? John Claire? This is Lynda Wainwright up in bookkeeping. How are you?"
"Oh! Lynda! Yes, we met yesterday. I remember. How are you?"
"Good. I just wanted to thank you for letting me know that my intern wasn't feeling well. Morgan?"
"Yes."
"It was kind of you to take notice of her. She's feeling much better now, and I wanted to say thanks."
"You're very welcome."
"So, John, I think it's a little funny that we've worked here so long together, and I don't think we've ever actually met before. Isn't that silly? I was thinking that maybe I would take you to lunch and say thanks. We could go out into the City, if you wanted? There's a Szechuan place I like out there, but we could always just eat in the cafeteria if you didn't feel you could get away."
"Oh!" he exclaimed. "No, we could go out for lunch. They've got us geeks down here in the Bowels, so I'm not too far from the front lobby. I could come up and meet you there?"
"The Bowels?"
"You don't want to know. It's just computers and fluorescent lights and instant coffee and shit. Water pipes all over the ceilings. We had a plant, but it died because we're underground. That kind of thing."
She laughed.
"You could put in for another plant," she said mischievously. "This is Maxon International- we have the money for a ficus or what have you."
"You know, Lynda, I was too attached to that plant, and when it died, my heart broke," he laughed. "I'm not ready to move on yet. But I am ready for some Szechuan, though."
Lynda laughed too.
"I'll see you at noon, John."
***
