(...and how a voyeur's chance-discovery of Leanne's infidelity turns her anguish to enlightenment!)
Leanne's Christmas break was over less than two weeks later as she had not accrued enough holiday pay for the full four weeks off like Sue and a lot of the others had. She was required to join the skeleton crew that would work in preparation for when the main workforce returned. More dull work really; painting lines on the factory floor; grinding off weld splatter from work benches; repairing tooling and similar brain-numbing work.
She had thought very seriously about not returning to the factory, as she was not too sure how things would go with Scott after the Christmas party. She was really worried he would brag about their adultery to his workmates and before long the whole factory would know. The one consolation was that he was not due back for another fortnight, so she had a chance to look for another job in the mean time if she was still uncomfortable about working there.
There were a little more than ten workers on the floor – including Leanne – and one supervisor. When Leanne fronted up for work she was almost aghast to learn that the big old creep, Gus, would be ordering them around.
Gus had the workers gather for a toolbox meeting the first morning to explain what task he wanted each small team to work on and to give them all a pep-talk about safety. As he spoke, Leanne thought he was even creepier looking than ever and she was certain he kept smirking at her. If he kept it up, Leanne decided, she would just snatch it – and if she couldn't get a job back in a law firm, she didn't care, she would make sandwiches in a deli if she had to, rather than be near Gus!
The first day went surprisingly fast. Leanne was with three other women, one of them, Maria, whom she had worked with before, and they all got along well. They were on the floor-painting task. A bit back-braking, but better than grinding workbenches they'd all agreed.
As Leanne was planning on going to the gym after work to meet the girls, she was eager to leave on time. But as she was washing up, Maria mentioned to her that Gus wanted to see her in his office.
"Oh he does, does he?" Leanne scowled to herself, as she dried her hands.
She could not imagine what the creep wanted to see her for; she'd arrived to work on time and had worked hard all day – and she had worn all the PPE that she was required to. Her timesheet was even up-to-date. He had nothing on her, she thought confidently.
How wrong could she be?
She knocked on his office door and stood there waiting for a response more than a little impatiently. She did not want to waste time here any longer than she had to, as she was looking forward to catching up with the girls. They were planning on swimming a few laps for a change instead of the usual gym class, and then possibly having a nice wine in the licensed café next door afterwards.
"Come in."
Leanne hesitated a moment – she had never been inside Gus's office before.
"Come in!" she heard him call louder, an annoyed tone in his voice.
He was a cranky old fart, she thought to herself.
Opening the door, she stepped across the threshold to his small office. He was sitting behind a large wooden desk – she had expected papers to be strewn everywhere, but quite the contrary, his desk, and his whole office for that matter, was impeccable. Not a thing appeared to be out of place.
"Maria said you wanted to see me... sir?"
"Yes, shut the door behind you please, I have something very important to discuss with you," he said curtly, as he opened up a draw and removed from it a manila envelope.
Leanne did as she was told and stepped closer to his desk. For some strange reason, her heart was racing in her chest and she felt her mouth was dry. What on earth did he have of importance to speak to her about? Could he possibly want to offer her a promotion? Her mind boggled.
"Leanne," he addressed her with a smug look on his face, "getting married soon I believe?"
She nodded, not that it was any of his business, and she did wonder how on earth he knew anyway. Factory talk, she surmised, quite correctly.
"That should be nice for you, Leanne, very special to marry someone you love, is it not, Leanne?"
"Sir...I have an appointment I do not want to be late for, could you just get to the important business... please? Maybe skip the pleasantries?"
Gus raised his eyebrows and pursed his lips, as he lifted his hands up from the desk and placed them behind his large bald head.
"It is relevant I think, my dear, as you seem like a nice girl, raised well, quite educated, who has possibly lowered her aim in life, however briefly, for some obscure reason," he took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "Was it to see how the other half live?"
Now he was really creeping her out, "Sorry? I...I don't know what you are talking about. Is it about why I took this job or something? Surely that would be none of your business... sir?"
Gus sighed, "The envelope on my desk – open it please if you may."
Leanne looked down at the envelope and hesitated for a moment before picking it up. Gingerly she folded back the tabs to the metal fastener and peered inside. There seemed to be several sheets of thick paper inside. She looked back at Gus and noticed he had a bemused look on his ruddy face and his barrel chest seemed to swell even larger.
"Take the items out, my dear, and if you may, spread them out on my desk in front of you."
What game was the creep playing at, she thought to herself?
Leanne emptied the contents onto his desk as instructed and instantly recognised them as being the back of large photographs.
"Turn them over, my dear."
Leanne's heart was racing again, what on earth was the creep going to show her? Shaking her head in growing annoyance at the man's antics, she flipped the photographs over and peered down at them.
Horror washed over her at what she was looking at!
"Ah yes, my favourite, came out far better than I had expected. Black and white images are so tasteful, are they not? Even for images that are of quite a pornographic nature."
Shaking, Leanne spread the images across his desk and felt her legs almost go out from under her as she stared down at the pictures – they were like a horrid story of her encounter with Scott in the tavern's car park a little over a fortnight earlier.
The quality of the photographs was totally lost on her of course – Gus's perfect selection of camera and lens, film and light and shutter speed, not to mention his skills in his darkroom, had culminated into fine images indeed.
"I am not too sure, though, would you agree with me that that particular image, yes that one, is possibly the best?"
Leanne trembled as her eyes flitted toward the one Gus was indicating – it clearly showed her bent over as she leant up against the tavern wall, her jeans almost around her ankles, and Scott behind her, his cock just discernable as it partly disappeared between her naked buttocks.
"Yes, I like that one," Gus said smugly, "caught you just as you looked around at your seducer finally getting his shaft inside of you."
"What... what do you want from me?" Leanne stammered
"Mmm... depends on how much you would like to keep your little adulterous tryst a secret from your groom-to-be?" Gus smiled, "Or am I to be mistaken, and you and your partner are into that wife-swapping sort of thing that is becoming popular? If that is the case, my apologies, I will even forward these prints to your man for his enjoyment, if you would like?"
"No! He mustn't know... that would be the end of things!" Leanne blurted out suddenly, without thinking.
Gus looked at her and sniggered, "Oh dear, is that so?" He paused for a moment, "So what ever would you suggest would be fair to keep your infidelity a secret then, my dear?"
"I... I don't know... I haven't got much money... I haven't got much at all really..."
"Oh, quite the contrary, my dear, you have something very special, something of great value to me."
Leanne's stomach was churning into knots as she stood in front of Gus's desk like a rabbit in a spotlight. My God, what was she going to do to get out of this mess?
"I'm not sure what... what you mean?" she said softly, eyes downcast.
"My, my, you are naive are you not? It is obviously true, what they say about country girls it would appear," Gus said contemptuously. "What do my photos of you show, my dear?" Not waiting for a response, he went on, "A pretty young girl, with a desire for occasional fun... a pretty young girl with a beautiful young body that she would share occasionally with men other than her husband-to-be."
The realisation of what he was suggesting to her hit her like a ton of bricks – this time she staggered back almost uncontrollably. She looked around and noticed a small chair against the wall near the door and she sat down on it, trembling.
Leanne took a deep breath and recovered her composure somewhat, "Surely you're not suggesting I have sex with you?"
Gus smiled back at her, "Maybe you just show me that fantastic body of yours, my dear?"
"Pardon?"
"I want to see you in the nude."
Leanne thought she would vomit. Swallowing her bile she took a deep breath, "You want to see me naked? Is that all it's going to be? When?"
Gus leant his elbows on his desk and touched the fingertips of one hand with the corresponding fingertips of the other, spreading them slightly, "Yes... Maybe not... And how about right now," he said, answering her three questions clearly in a clear, moderated tone.
