Chapter 9
Lara was only feeling slightly stressed as she made her way to Ms. Baker's office. Her stress mainly came from the strange looks her co-workers had given her when she brought coffee to Tina. The compliment was all so very worth it though. One thing was for certain her therapy was definitely advancing wonderfully in helping her deal with her stress. She was so much less stressed out than on a usual Friday.
Ms. Baker had to agree that Lara's therapy was advancing perfectly. She just came off the phone with Tina and it appeared that Lara had been so much more servile. Down to even giving her previous rival a foot rub on her lunchbreak. It wasn't really the slut like behaviour she was hoping for, but from what she had heard from Tina the slut definitely did go out if one started flirting with Lara. It was just an avenue Tina didn't want to explore. Lara certainly did seem to dress more like a slut from what Tina had told her.
The stupid angle was one that apparently didn't come out enough just yet. Well not as obviously as Ms. Baker wanted it to that is. It had been clear to Tina, Lara had obviously come over a little ditzy to her between the distraction of mentally checking her appearance, the frequent phase outs after someone said her name, and the playing with her hair. That ditziness hadn't been spotted by her co-workers though, at least not to the point where it appeared in their gossip. Although that might have something to do with everything else they have had to gossip about. According to Tina the ditziness had also become less apparent over time as Lara didn't seem as confused as before after her name had been called. In fact it had become barely noticeable that she even zoned out.
An added benefit according to Tina however was how Lara's looking down at people's feet all the time made her seem a little more insecure and even a little submissive. In that regard that command had definitely worked out better than expected.
While Ms. Baker made some last mental adaptations to the new hypnosis routine, adapting her new commands to what she still needed to work on to continue advancing Lara in the direction she wanted, Lara arrived at the office. She was about to head into the office without knocking like usual, but she reconsidered at the last minute. Wasn't it rude to just enter without knocking? As her superior Ms. Baker certainly deserved to be treated with the utmost respect even if she paid her to do this job. A little awkwardly Lara decided to just knock on the door.
It startled Ms. Baker slightly. She had made herself comfortable to receive Lara, gotten ready to go and put the woman to the test herself and now this? Who the hell could that be at such an inopportune time? "Come on in!" She called out half annoyed, really wanting and needing to deal with who ever was at her door quickly cause Lara could storm in at any moment.
Much to her surprise it was Lara who entered her office, surprising because Lara never knocked before. With the commands she had been feeding the woman it was a logical new habit, but it still surprised Ms. Baker. In a good way though. "Ah Lara, please have a seat." Ms. Baker said, quickly regaining her composure.
She hadn't put Lara in a trance just yet. The woman had become a lot less insufferable and she really wanted to try something this time. As Lara took place on the couch Ms. Baker deliberately dropped her shoe and started rubbing her sheer tan nylon covered sole, grimacing like her foot was aching. Instantly Lara was transfixed on her therapist's foot, trying to observe as much about it as possible now that she was given this rare shoeless look.
"Excuse my unprofessionalism Lara, I've just been on my feet all day and apparently breaking in a pair of heels at the office wasn't such a great idea after all. They've been aching something fierce all day. I'm sure you understand though, you're always wearing such elegant heels yourself." Ms. Baker explained as she quickly started putting her shoe back on as if it had really just been to get some quick much needed relief.
"Oh, I definitely know what that's like." Lara said trailing of a little, seemingly hesitating. "Maybe I could help you out, you know massage the tension away a little. I mean it would give me something to do with my hands while we talked." Lara offered, blushing a little, a finger instantly going up to her hair. This was very inappropriate, but Tina had paid her so many compliments when she was massaging her feet so it was definitely worth a shot, in any case it would help out a superior person.
"That would be mighty unprofessional. I mean I could really use a foot rub, god I would be so grateful for a foot rub right now, but I simply can't accept one from a patient of mine." Ms. Baker replied although that offer from Lara was exactly what she was hoping and aiming for with her little show. Now she would wait and see how the woman further reacted. She really hoped she would push on after her rejection. She had really made it alluring after all, claiming how she could use a foot rub and how grateful she would be.
There was a moment of clear hesitance and nervousness in Lara's eyes before she exclaimed. "Well if you don't say anything to anyone neither will I. You have helped me so much already, I mean my stress this week has stayed pretty bearable thanks to this new kind of therapy no doubt. The least I could do is help you a little in return. No one has to know about you being unprofessional so please, let me return the favour and help you out a little."
"I'd almost think you were a lawyer, that's a very good argument and I could really use that foot rub. If you insist then why not?" Ms. Baker joked a little, trying to make the conversation light-hearted. She wasn't about to refuse again though. Lara had reacted exactly like she had hoped, after all the work she had put in hypnotising Lara these were the fruits of her labour and she would take full advantage of them. Without further hesitation she slipped off her heels and put her feet right on Lara's lap.
The woman didn't hesitate even a moment as she started kneading the somewhat damp nylon soles of her way older therapist to the best of her capabilities. "God Lara that feels so good. You're doing such a great job, you really are amazing." Ms. Baker complimented, giving Lara the praise she so much craved while reinforcing how good it felt to help people out with whatever they needed. Lara certainly had come a long way. Even last week she wouldn't knock before barging in here and now she was massaging her feet for a few words of praise.
"Lara is a stupid slut." Ms. Baker then exclaimed. Her little experiment had been a huge success, but now it was time to get to work. In response to her trigger Lara's eyes immediately glazed over and her hands froze in place around Ms. Baker's feet.
"You can carry on massaging my feet while we do this Lara." Ms. Baker added with a smile. The massage did feel great after all and having this bitch of a woman do it for her was better than any massage she had ever had. The sheer enjoyment of having this high and mighty lawyer, the one who felt superior to everyone do something like massaging her tired somewhat sweaty feet really was the best.
"Good, Lara, how does it make you feel to make yourself useful to your superiors like this? Does it feel great? Does it make you feel useful? Do you like making yourself useful?" Ms. Baker asked as Lara gave her a toneless yes in reply.
"See that's exactly why you aren't worthless. You might be wildly inferior to everyone and you are, but if you make yourself useful like you do now, your superiors won't care. They will even appreciate you, appreciate you for the use you have to them, whether it's fetching things, handing out foot rubs, just looking pretty, flirting back to people who have an interest in you, it doesn't matter. As long as you have your uses whatever those uses are people will accept you and appreciate your presence. You aren't worthless because you are worth something to your superiors. Remember that very well Lara." Ms. Baker spoke, further enforcing the feedback loop, she had previously ingrained in Lara's subconscious, solidifying it completely.
"Now I have noticed that you don't seem as confused as you were before anymore after phasing out when you hear your name. Can you explain to me why that is?" Ms. Baker asked, happy with herself as she felt Lara's thumbs press into her soles continuously.
"Well, it's a very brief moment and usually just a few words pass in that time. I can usually just fill in the gap pretty easily. Constantly reasking what someone said is annoying and it makes me look stupid. People don't seem to notice if I don't pay attention to it." Lara said in her flat tone.
Ms. Baker had to give it to the woman, she certainly was smart and she did have a lot of people skills despite being a huge bitch. She knew how to take advantage of how people thought. Well it was time to tackle that problem so her previous command wouldn't miss its effect in making Lara look like a ditz.
"That is quite naïve Lara, people do definitely notice when you phase out and just ignore half of what they said. It's rude and disrespectful to your superiors. It's even dangerous. If you fill in gaps like it suits you that could lead to miscommunication. There is a trick which you can use to avoid being annoying though. If you just giggle when you didn't fully get something people will automatically see you as being more likeable. A giggle can really go a long way, people won't hold you so accountable if you just giggle." Ms. Baker said with a smirk. Giggling certainly wouldn't be seen as annoying continuously asking things again it would just make her look stupid instead hell the accountability wasn't even a lie. People didn't hold airheads as accountable as people they saw as intelligent. Constantly giggling would certainly make Lara seem like an airhead.
