Serena washed her hands and then went to the blow dryer on the wall by the door. She swiftly rubbed her hands together under the rush of warm air and then opened the door leading to the hallway outside the ladies room.
She saw Brad as he made his way from the office toward the factory; the door through which he came was still slowly closing and she saw he had just exhaled a thick cloud of smoke while he walked. She frowned and thought to herself that he shouldn't be smoking in the office. It was probably against the rules but she didn't want to cause trouble by saying anything about it. She couldn't understand why Anna had been so keen to have her smell that smoke the other day. That was just weird!
He turned toward her and nodded with a brief smile.
"Hi," he said.
Immediately uncomfortable, she pasted her patented fake smile on to her face and put her head down and began walking toward the door to the office.
He always made her feel uneasy somehow. She couldn't quite put her finger on it but wrote it off to the usual thing; whenever any guy looked her way they seemed to be trying to look right through her clothes. Her ultra-conservative upbringing in China made her wary of men in general and white men in particular, and she couldn't help but feel unnerved every time Brad looked at her.
Just as these thoughts were running through her head, she suddenly stopped dead in her tracks. She turned around and saw him still heading toward the factory and he didn't seem to be paying any attention to her at all and yet, somehow, she felt as though he had called out to her.
She must have made a sound, though she couldn't remember saying anything, because he stopped and turned toward her questioningly.
"Yes?" he said.
Unable to think very clearly for some reason, she took a hesitant step toward him. He cocked his head to one side as though waiting for her to speak. He waited and she wondered to herself why she had stopped him.
"Did you want something Serena?" he said.
She suddenly felt very shy.
"I'm sorry," she said with an awkward smile.
"That's okay," he said.
After a brief pause that seemed to her to go on forever, he said, "Do you think you could show me what color your bra is?"
Without a second's hesitation she lifted the front of her sweater. It was white with a blue swirly pattern sewn into it and it was one of her favorites.
"This one very good!" she said happily in her heavily accented English. "Very comfortable and I feel good!"
"It's nice," he said as he casually studied it. "What do you look like when you don't wear a bra under your shirt?"
She blushed a little and said. "Not big," she said. "Nothing to hide!" she finished with a laugh.
"I don't believe that!" he responded. "Why don't you show me?"
She reached behind her and released the bra catch then raised her sweater to her chin and pulled her arms out of the sleeves. She pulled her bra off completely and then pushed her arms through the sleeves once more and let the sweater fall back into place.
Brad watched as she revealed her tiny breasts. They were pretty much the way he expected them to look; well-shaped but small with little button-type nipples that always appeared to be hard.
"See?" she said with a laugh as she pulled her sweater back down. "The same!"
Brad smiled and then reached forward to cup her breast. She gasped and giggled but didn't pull away. He palmed it with his hand and squeezed it gently.
"You should dress like that more often," he said. "You look very pretty!"
She smiled and blushed as she once more looked down at the floor.
"Thank you," she mumbled.
She folded her bra into her hand and then turned and walked back to her desk. She tucked her bra into her purse and smiled to herself as she felt the fabric of her sweater brushing against her bare nipples. It felt good.
************************************************************
Waiting for the elevator at home, Brad turned and saw the blonde girl he had come to know so well coming around the corner at the end of the hall. Right behind her was probably the biggest man he had seen in quite some time. He stood at least two or three inches taller than him and had shoulders and arms like a gorilla. The man was a behemoth!
Brad turned back toward the elevator and tried to look nonchalant. As they approached he turned and nodded. The girl, standing slightly behind her boyfriend gave him a quick but unsubtle shake of the head that spoke volumes.
He turned back toward the elevator and did his best to look... well... nothing!
When the doors opened the big man waved him forward. He nodded an acknowledgment and held the "Door Open" button as they followed him on. He pushed his own floor button and the man pushed the button for the floor immediately below.
"Did you hear anything about the laundry machines being broken the other day?" the man said suddenly.
Brad looked toward him curiously and shook his head before thinking his answer through.
"Really?" the man said. "She told me the machines weren't working right the other day," he went on, indicating the blonde girl with a flick of his thumb.
She had a slightly panicked expression on her face and gave him a pleading look with her eyes, all while her boyfriend had his eyes on Brad.
"Well," he said slowly, "I haven't tried to use the machines here. I take my laundry to a service up the street."
"Huh," was the man's reply.
"It could be that they're not working right," Brad offered hopefully.
"Yeah, I guess," the man said grumpily, "but everyone else I talked to didn't have any trouble."
"Maybe just one of the machines was down," Brad said.
"It wasn't actually down," the girl said. "It was just working really slowly. It took forever to get the clothes dry!"
The big man turned toward her with a frown and nodded slowly.
"I think those machines are propane powered," Brad said. "Maybe the pilot light was out."
The man put his hand to his chin and nodded slowly. "Yeah, I think you're right about that! They are propane powered!"
The girl beside him sighed and gave a brief look skyward just as the doors opened on their floor.
"Later," the man said.
The girl nodded casually and they filed out together.
After the doors closed Brad sighed heavily and tried not to visualize that big man angry.
************************************************************
An email notification popped up on Brad's computer. He opened it and saw it was from Anna.
Hi, have you got time for me?