"Oh Ms. Hornthrows" the receptionist, Rachel, said shocked. She was a little thing, a full head shorter than Angela, with dazey amber eyes and dyed red hair. Her small breasts made even smaller by the tight jacket she was wearing. "I didn't know you were coming in today or else I would have prepared a room for you!"
"That's very much okay Rachel. I'm not here for the quarterly exam." Angela, said walking to Rachel's side of the reception desk, all the while gesturing to all the hastily scrawled notes and earnings charts, some of them even containing doodles in the corners and margins as these were all going to be put into the computer at another time. This made Rachel fluster slightly, scrambling to collect all the papers and make them orderly.
Slowly Angela placed her hand on Rachel's shoulder. "No need to worry." She moved closer to Rachel's ear as a slight smile formed at the corners of her mouth. "We're meant to be filthy here." She chuckled out.
As if she had heard the crack of a whip she stopped. Then relaxed a bit as she laughed in an almost nervous fashion still ashamed of her mess. And even through the nervousness her mind was still racing. 'Why is Ms. Hornthrows touching me, why is she so close to my face.' but the next question set in a crushing reality for her, 'when was the last time someone wanted to touch me?'
"Rachel?" Angela asked, but when Rachel looked up at her boss's tan, kind face, she could only note the maturity within it, at least until a single gentle tear ran down her own.
Without a word she stood from her chair, flipped up a placard on her desk that read 'out for lunch'. The clock next to the front door said that it was only 9:07. Even though Rachel was fully aware her boss was watching, she simply headed through the door behind her, hardly able to shut it behind her before she began to cry
Angela thought it was nothing, so why did she feel a pain in her heart, urging her to check on her employee?
It was the masters room, the single most expensive and luxurious they offered at the brothel. On the walls were display cabinets filled with toys. Dildos of every shape size and color. Plugs of any girth, from anal newbie to a plug requiring an anus that could accommodate a frisbee. Paddles with wooden engravings for marking the punished with 'daddy's little slut' to 'hit me harder you fucking pussy'. Whips from all types of leather to canes, gags, costumes, and anything you can imagine of all shapes and sizes to meet any clients desires. But the newest addition to the brightly lit scene was a simple-looking wooden chair in the center, one that Rachel had begged Angela to get a few months after starting, and to which Ms. Hornthrows had drunkenly wrote out a blank check for the cost after coming into the office late one night when only Rachel had been there taking care of a few accounting errors. Oddly, she noted, there was no longer a bed.
To her right, she could hear water running from the bathroom. Angela knocked. "Is everything okay Rachel?" To which the only reply to come was the sound of water splashing into the drain.
Slowly Angela opened the bathroom door, and entered, knocking to give Rachel notice. But even then she didn't protest at the intrusion. Or perhaps Rachel simply couldn't hear it over her own sobs.
The shower door and mirror had fogged up, and Rachel's clothes were strewn about on the floor.
Without a word Angela lowered the toilet's lid and sat there, unsure of what to say. As the minutes passed, Angela could feel the steam filling the room grow steadily hotter. Still, she didn't speak, not until Rachel asked her.
"Ms. Hawthorne... why are you in here." She managed to utter, her voice strained as it gets when there is an insurmountable pain inside your heart, just waiting for the instant to crack and rupture and spill out.
"You seemed upset, so I came to check on you."
"But why? You shouldn't care about me. I'm a freak." her voice trailed off, catching in the back of her throat.
Scared to ask what she meant, and feeling like prying might hurt more than it would help right now, Angela decided to tell her one of her secrets.
"You know Rachel, I don't even need this place to be open. Hell, I could shut the whole place down right now, or gamble it off in a game of cards and still retire without a care in the world if I wanted to." She said, unbuttoning her top, trying to not boil under the sweltering heat of the steam. "I keep it open for a few reasons, some personal, some professional, did you know you can meet a lot of important people in this line of business?" She continued, putting her hair into a bun to try to alleviate the wetness on the back of her neck. "But one part of it that I do like is that you keep the place running by yourself." Her tone shifted slightly then, becoming more sentimental and warm. "And, if for some reason, I did want to close down shop here, I certainly would offer you a new position at one of my other ventures. Losing you would be a tremendous loss for me."
In a mere instant, Rachel's heart stopped throbbing in her chest, the pain subsiding. In the next, she was sobbing harder than before. The pain inside, doubled over as she dug her nails into the soft skin just over her heart.
'How many years has it been since someone gave a shit about me.'
That was the one thought inside Rachel's head. The one thought that had been etched on her brain. The one that dyed her heart black, cold and angry. The one thing that would always remind her that she was not someone worth a damn, and if someone said otherwise, they were lying.
Between the sobs, and honestly without really hearing herself, Rachel asked Ms. Hornthrows a question. One that caused a death-like apathy to radiate from her voice. "Why am I like this?" She started. "How come I'm unable to be close to anyone? Is it cause I'm just a fucking freak?"
"What do you mean you're unable to be close to anyone?" Angela asked, failing to hide the concern in her voice.
"Because no one wants me near them. I told you I'm a freak." Her voice rising slightly, a sense of anguish trailing with her words. "Every person I've ever cared about left me the instant they saw what I really was."
"You can't help me with this problem." She said, a flash of anger rode with her words, yet cold and piercing and as fragile as ice.
"Rachel... please, I do care about you. And I-"
Without warning Rachel slammed open the shower door, believing the only way for Angela to understand that her 'problem' was beyond her, set it on full display for her boss.
"Wow uh." Angela said, actually quite enthused at the development. She actually seemed quite pleased with it.
Suddenly Angela had an idea, she walked over and put her hand on Rachel's shoulder, who was staring at the ground, desperately trying to look anywhere but Angela's eyes. Gently Angela cocked Rachel's face up, and said "That's not a problem, that's a gift."
"What?" Rachel asked, more shocked than Angela.