The storyline and characters are all fiction. I hope you enjoy...
Chapter One
10 years later....
My name is Judy Phillips (formally Hopkins), I am a 40 year old wife and mother of two. I have been working for the same company for over 20 years. I now work three days a week, an agreement I made with my wonderful boss Pete Goodwin after the birth of my second child. It helped with my work/life balance, and although the loss in wages put our family under a little financial pressure, we could make it work.
I, like everyone else in Pete's company are currently in a state of shock. We had heard a fortnight ago, that Pete was involved in a car crash. He was now on a life support machine, nobody knew for sure if he'd pull through. Furthermore, the business was going to pot without his guidance, clients were already threatening to jump ship, redundancies were being rumoured.
At 4pm on a Friday afternoon two weeks after the accident, we received a company email from his son Matt. My jaw instantly hit the floor, my stomach churned.., Matt Goodwin! 10 years prior I had had to seduce Matt to avoid going to jail. His dad put me up to it, a sort of payment to help him forget the embezzlement charge he could easily have claimed against me. My first husband had pressurised me into the theft, and I was too weak to refuse him. It had all gone terribly wrong, and I felt utter shame for my actions.
I'd had a very 'energetic' evening with a 19 year old Matt, educating him in the ways of pleasing a woman as his dad had insisted, not that he took much coaching. He was strong, good looking, with a quiet but moreish personality. Anyway, I was married at the time as I've said, so I had basically prostituted myself out to him to maintain my job, my freedom, my life.
Here he was 10 years on. I had managed to avoid him since that time, and was grateful for it. Meeting him again was now inevitable, he would be in the office to see us all at 10am sharp on Monday, nothing more was said in the email.
I should have been continuing to worry about Pete, but all I could think about was Matt. How was I going to explain myself because he had no idea at the time, he just thought he'd got lucky that night. It would be far too much of a coincidence.
Monday morning came and I made sure I stood towards the back of the room. There were only 25 of us employees however, so he inevitably caught my eye from time to time, but never showed any recognition. Maybe because of the timeline, I looked different to him, perhaps I might yet get away with it?
On finishing his talk however he dropped a bombshell. After meeting us all together, he also wanted 15 minutes with each of us individually so we could air any concerns, business questions etc, in private. It transpired that Pete had been showing him the ropes for the past two years, in preparation for when he stepped aside, so he wasn't coming into the company cold. He had to take care of his immediate business interests but was now here to take charge, until his dad had fully recovered. It was estimated at about six months.
Of course I was thrilled that Pete was getting better, but on the running order of employees to be seen, I was last on the list. My heart sank.
By the time I was finally invited into Pete, now Matt's narrow office with the mirrors, I was a nervous wreck. Not only had I had to find childcare for my kids because my husband was away, but it was past 6:30pm and even the cleaners had finished and gone home. We were left alone in the office.
No preliminaries, I was invited to sit at his desk, next to the corner I'd left climatic juices during an encounter with his dad, also 10 years back. I shivered at the thought.
By way of an introduction he simply said; 'Mrs Judy Phillips isn't it?'
I nodded, and smiled at him nervously.
'Remove your panties please Mrs Phillips, and hand them to me.'
'What,' I replied flabbergasted, all of a sudden feeling a little faint.
'Remove your panties please Mrs Phillips and hand them to me,' he repeated.
'What...., why,' I finally spluttered out.
Because you deceived me Mrs Phillips, you lied to me, and I now intend to punish you for it.
I said 'what' again, the only word I seemed able to manage, I was so taken aback.
Finally I managed to clear my head a little. Irrespective of our history, he had no right to treat me this way.
'I have no intention of handing over my panties, or any other item of clothing for that matter,' I responded trying to sound more confident than I felt.
If there was any outsiders witnessing this exchange, they would have been sincerely bemused.
Matt Goodwin had just turned 30, wore the scars from his rugby playing passion, but was a very handsome man, he looked like he could handle himself as well. Most women of my age would have been climbing over the desk and throwing themselves at his feet. I can't deny I did find him attractive, but I was married with two children. Both my pregnancies had been difficult, both births by caesarean section, and furthermore I had been unable to produce milk. The benefit my husband loved to joke about after, was that I had consequently managed to maintain a figure as fit and trim as a women 10 years my junior.
He looked a little disappointed I thought but then said 'as you wish, thank you for your time today Mrs Phillips.'
I was confused, nothing else had been discussed about work or about his father. This was unprofessional, he was just dismissing me like a spoilt child, because I refused to hand over my panties, I was furious.
I was about to leave when his words as he had addressed us earlier came back to me. 'I can't promise there will not be redundancies, but I am here to hopefully make sure that we can avoid them.'
I could lose my job, and we couldn't afford that. The bastard had my measure, I bet he knew me and my husband weren't excessively flush. He also knew I had 'put-out' previously when cornered.
As I got to the door I stopped, what might happen if I were to leave now? This was so unfair, it was sexual exploitation, but why me again after all this time? I had to face the grim facts however, given my history there was little I could do.
'Must I?' I whined.
'I am not forcing you,' he responded.
He wasn't but it felt like he was from where I was standing. Did I have any options? The answer was frustratingly no, there would be no help getting me out of this fix.