Paul had worked for me for two months. I ran a team of eight employees. We had an all male team and things got a little rowdy from time to time. Paul had an incredibly attractive wife named Suzy. They were both around the age of forty. I was in my late twenties at the time, so they were a little older than me.
"How was your weekend Paul?" I asked as Paul walked into my office.
"It was great. We had a weekend without the kids, so we got to have a date night. How was yours?" Paul answered.
"Mine was actually slow. No exciting date night for me. What all did you do on date night? Did you take Suzy somewhere nice?" I asked.
"We actually went downtown to a club!" Paul said with a mischievous smile.
"A club? Really? Like dancing?" I asked.
"Oh yeah. When you have three kids at home you have to take advantage of your nights away from them." Paul answered.
"I guess so." I stated still thinking about Paul and Suzy at the club dancing the night away.
"Let me tell you, once you get kids, you have to be creative. A good amount of sneaking around to have sex. I'm pretty sure it was a married couple that first came up with the lunchtime quickie." Paul said.
"Ha, I can understand that. Lunchtime fun is always the best." I stated.
"We have had so much lunchtime sex that Suzy started wearing lingerie under her clothes to work." Paul said with a huge smile.
"Dang. Really? You are a lucky guy." I told him.
"When you marry a woman like Suzy, you have to keep the spark going." Paul said.
"I guess so, she is very attractive." I told him.
"You should have seen her Saturday night. Wait, I have a picture on my phone." Paul said as he got out his phone.
"A picture of her at the club?" I asked.
"It's at the house before we left." Paul answered as he gave me his phone to look at a picture of her. "She wore that sexy little black dress. It was a fun night."
"Wow, she is looking good." I told Paul as I looked at a picture of Suzy in a very, very, short black dress. She had on some six inch black heels. The dress was very revealing. I immediately was turned on by looking at the picture of her.
"Thanks, we had a fun night. Maybe too much fun, but it was worth it." Paul said.
"Well, I hope you rested up on Sunday because we have a big day ahead of us today. I'll see you in about an hour for our sales meeting." I told Paul.
Paul left my office and I spent the next hour thinking about his wife Suzy. I kept thinking about how sexy she looked in the picture. That dress she had on showed off her very tone body. I also kept thinking about her wearing lingerie under her clothes to work. Suzy had come by almost every day at lunch to pick up Paul. They would leave for an hour or so, and then she would drop him back off. She worked right down the street from our office.
"I need you to go on a call with Chris to help him close a deal with a big client. You two will be taking him to lunch." I told Paul on the phone.
"Okay, sure thing boss. Oh, if Suzy comes by could you tell her I'm sorry I missed her today?" Paul asked.
"No problem. Good luck with the client." I told Paul.
It was ten minutes before noon. I knew Suzy usually dropped by to pick up Paul at noon. I quickly sat down at my desk and typed up a termination letter for Paul. I made sure if Suzy looked at it she could tell what type of letter it was. I placed the letter on my desk.
My office was at the end of the hallway and Paul's office was close to mine. I heard the clicking of Suzy's heels coming down the hallway.
"Hey Suzy." I said smiling. "Are you here to meet Paul for lunch?"
"Yes, how are you?" Suzy asked as she looked in Paul's office that was empty.
"I'm good. Is he not in there?" I asked.
"No, he isn't in his office." Suzy said looking around.
"Well, come on in here and I'll see if I can find him." I told her as I motioned for her to come into my office.
"You have a nice office." Suzy said noticing the view of the city from my window.
"Please take a seat. Yes, one of the perks to being in my position is that I get the nice office. Suzy, what is it that you do again?" I asked.
"I work for the Metro Art Gallery. I oversee advertising." Suzy said.
"That explains why you are always dressed up so nice when you come by here. That sounds like a fun job." I told her.
"You know, it is a fun job. I get to meet some exciting people and go to events. It is fun, but it doesn't pay well. We rely on Paul to do the heavy lifting when it comes to paying the bills." Suzy said as she stopped looking out the window at the nice view and started to focus more on me and anything on my desk.
"Paul said you had a date night this weekend." I told her.
"Oh gosh, now I'm embarrassed. Did he show you the picture?" Suzy asked.
"Yes, he did show me a picture." I told her.
"That figures, that's something he would do. So I know how embarrassed I need to be, how much did Paul tell you about that night?" Suzy asked looking down at the floor trying to hide her face that was turning red.
"Well, Paul likes to talk." I said.
"Oh gosh, I can't believe him. He told you everything, didn't he?" Suzy said still looking down trying to hide her embarrassment.
"Don't worry about it. We all have our wild nights from time to time." I told her.
"Well, you are a good bit younger than us. I'm thirty-nine and Paul is forty-one. We are way too old to be out at the club acting like that. I'm sure an attractive guy like you has wild nights all the time." Suzy said.
"Well, I will tell you I'm thirty-five. You are not that much older than me." I told her.
"You are thirty-five?" Suzy asked.
"Yes, I am. So you find me attractive?" I asked smiling at Suzy.
"Attractive? What?" Suzy asked with a puzzled look.
"You said I was attractive and probably have wild nights out all the time." I told her.
"I guess that slipped out, sorry." Suzy said.
"It's okay, I promise I won't be bragging to Paul how attractive you think I am." I joked.
"Oh gosh. I don't even know what to say to that." Suzy said.
"Okay, so let me see if I can find Paul." I told Suzy.
I knew where Paul was because I just sent him out on a sales call with a client. I needed a reason to get her into my office, so I played along as if I wasn't sure where he was. So far my plan was working.
"Jennifer, have you seen Paul lately?" I asked talking to the receptionist on the phone. "Oh, okay. I remember now."
"Paul went out on a sales call with a client. You just missed him." I told Suzy.
"It's okay. I guess I shouldn't expect to get him for lunch everyday." Suzy said standing up out of the chair in front of my desk.
Suzy's eyes went directly to the termination notice. I watched her read it as she stood up. She didn't say a word. There was silence.
"Is Paul getting fired?" Suzy asked frantically.
"What?" I asked her.
"Are you firing Paul?" Suzy asked pointing down to the notice.
"Oh no, I'm sorry. I didn't realize that was there." I said as I picked up the notice. "Please forget you ever saw this."
"Forget I saw it? How can I do that? I don't understand. I thought Paul was doing well here. Please don't fire him." Suzy said.
"This is nothing." I said as a crumbled up the paper and threw it away.
"No, it's something. Paul will be devastated." Suzy said. "Why is he getting fired?"
"Okay, I'll tell you what is going on. Please sit down, and we can talk while you calm down." I told her.
"Okay," Suzy said as she sat down.
"Every employee within their first ninety days has a certain performance goal to hit. If they do not perform well during their first ninety days, they are let go. Paul is close to his ninety days and this is something corporate sends over. This doesn't mean anything." I told Suzy.
"Okay, has Paul hit his goals?" Suzy asked.
"Not yet, but I'm sure he will. I've been trying to help him out." I told her as I walked around my desk and stood in front of her. "Trust me, you have nothing to worry about."
"Of course I'm worried, you just said he hasn't hit his goals to keep his job." Suzy said.
"Well if it makes you feel better, I have the power to override any decision made by corporate. So I can make sure he keeps his job." I told her.
"You will do this for him? For us? Make sure he keeps his job." Suzy asked.
"I'll do everything I can." I said in a not so convincing voice.
"You don't sound very certain." Suzy stated.
"Sorry, I'm distracted thinking about you in that dress in the picture Paul showed me earlier." I said joking.
"What? Seriously?" Suzy asked.
"I'm just being honest." I replied.
"Okay, I get it." Suzy said.
"You get what?" I asked.
"Well, I get that you find me sexy and I want Paul to keep his job. So I'm guessing you want something out of this. Am I right?" Suzy said.
"Well those are both true statements." I told Suzy.
"I see where this is going. You want me to find a way to encourage you to keep Paul employed here?" Suzy asked.
"First I want to state again that the paper you saw was nothing. Paul is not being terminated. But, I will say, if you think there is something you could do to help make sure Paul has job security, I'm very open-minded." I told Suzy.
"First, if I agree to anything, you would have to promise to keep any of this agreement secret. Paul can never find out. Do you agree to that?" Suzy asked.
