"Sandra, where's that report? It has to be on the Manager's desk first thing tomorrow. I thought you'd have it ready by now."
"Ah, what report?" asked Sandra, confused. This was the first she'd heard of any report being required.
"The report I asked for on the sales figures across regions. I requested it yesterday. All the data was in the folder. All you had to do was collate it and prepare the report. How could you forget it?"
"Ah, I wasn't here yesterday, Mrs Landers. I was at the dentist, remember. You didn't ask me for the report."
Mrs Landers gave her a killing look. Then a memory tapped her.
"Oh. You're right. I gave it to Andrea. She was supposed to pass it on to you first thing this morning. Don't tell me she forgot."
"Um, I don't know if she forgot or not but she hasn't turned up for work today. She rang in sick."
"Stupid girl. Why couldn't she get sick after passing on the request? You'll have to check her desk and find the folder. That report has to be available first thing in the morning or the whole department will look slack. Get it done."
Sandra sighed. "But, Mrs Landers, if that's similar to the report I prepared last month it will take several hours to put it together. There's no time."
"Yes there is. You'll have to stay back and work on it. In this instance I will authorise over-time. We need that report."
Sandra groaned, silently. Still, it wasn't as if she'd had something planned for that night. Just tea and TV. The over-time money would be useful, as well. She headed over to Andrea's desk to find the folder with the required information. Why couldn't the regions enter the data on a spreadsheet and send it in? Then all she'd have to do would be to consolidate the spreadsheet. She was so going to push for that change to procedure. She'd even design the relevant spreadsheet.
She'd been correct about the amount of time it would take to prepare the report. Hours. Mrs Landers had stopped past on her way home to encourage her.
"I had the manager on the phone asking where the hell his report is. I guaranteed him that it would be on his desk when he arrived in the morning. There won't be anyone here to check it when you're finished so you'd better be sure it's right. When it's done, run up and put it on his desk where he can't miss it."
Yes, Ma'am, no Ma'am, three bags full, Ma'am. It wouldn't kill you to stay back and check it, Sandra thought. She got on with working on the report.
The cleaners had been and gone by the time Sandra had finished. The building was dark, everyone gone apart from security, and everyone knew that the guard never budged from his desk. He'd just sit there, playing cards and keeping one eye on the monitors. At least, he knew she was there.
Report finally finished and checked Sandra headed to the lift and up to the top floor. She was surprised to see that the light was on in the Manager's office. Someone was careless. She walked in, crossed to the desk, slapped the report down in the middle of the desk.
"Done," she said. "Remind me to tell you about the joys of Excel, Word, and Email, sometime."
"Thank you," said a deep voice. "I'll make a note to talk to you on those subjects. It seems that you have something on your mind you want to discuss."
Sandra had been in the act of turning towards the door and freedom as the Manager spoke. She gave a startled squeak and tried to turn towards him at the same time. Her feet got tangled, her right foot catching on her left ankle and she found herself sprawling at the Manager's feet.
"Oh, please," came that deep voice. "There's no need to genuflect. A simple curtsey would have sufficed."
Blushing and embarrassed Sandra would have been even more embarrassed if she'd realised that her short skirt had ridden up and she was flashing her panties. That embarrassment quickly came along.
"I'm happy to see that you can put on a smiling face," laughed the Manager, at the same time stroking that smiling face. The problem, from Sandra's point of view, was the fact that the smiling face was the standard yellow pictogram, a large circle with smile. There again, it wasn't the pictogram that was the problem, but where it was. In this case, printed on her panties. There were a number of them there but the one that the Manager was stroking was in the crotch, with the result it wasn't just her panties being stoked.
Sandra also found that she seemed to be wedged between the desk and the manager. One of them would have to move before she could get to her feet.
"Do you mind?" she demanded acerbically.
"Not at all," was the calm reply. "If you feel I need to know a bit more about modern tools I'm always prepared to listen. Am I to assume that the lack of modern tools was the reason for the delay to the report?"
Sandra was torn between the desire to protect her person and the knowledge that she was supposed to be polite to upper management.
"Partly," she said. "The girl who was supposed to be working on the report was sick and no-one told Mrs Landers. She only found out when she went to get the report. I was a last minute fill in as I did the report last month. And if the staff in the field would enter their data in a spreadsheet it would be a lot easier for everyone. Um, do you mind taking your hand off my panties?"
"You have a point. Prepare a presentation giving the advantages of doing the report via spreadsheets. You can present it to me next Monday."
The Manager was also polite enough to consider her request regarding her panties and his hand and act on it. His hand slid over her bottom, took hold of her panties, and pulled then down. His hand then returned to where he'd been rubbing, this time without panties in the way.
"Quite right," he murmured. "This is better."