Devil in the Details Ch. 02

© 2008 Rob Carver Devil in the Details

(This is Chapter 02 of 'Devil in the Details'. This story will not make sense unless you read Chapter 01.)

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Driving back into the office parking lot the girls directed him to Deb's minivan so she could unload the huge amount of food leftover.

Stephen sat in his SUV for another ten minutes before his legs were strong enough to walk inside. He went right into the Men's room and took off the cup and wet suit bottom. He had to sit there on the toilet for another ten minutes before it was safe to walk to his office.

His email beeped and realized it was three o'clock before the cloud cleared. His boss heard from the Andress Corp. account, there were a bunch of superlative words like 'genius', 'magician', and others. He wasn't yet able to focus so he didn't read the whole thing, just knew they were very pleased and apparently he and Olivia had pulled the account back from the precipice.

He didn't want the attention, wished he could do stuff without the recognition … he opened a new account's ledgers and dove into his number crunching. Hours passed while his fingers clicked away.

When Stephen looked up Olivia was in his office, it was dark outside. "Hi," he said, happy to see her beaming smile.

"Congratulations."

"Oh, congratulations to you too … it wouldn't have worked without your help, I'm sure your effort was at least half the answer there, long term it's ninety percent."

"That's kind of you to say."

"Not trying to be kind, it's true … I don't see the things you do, the strategic stuff. They could have gotten all the dimes and nickels accounted for and yet would still be losing money."

"Perhaps … but I have some things to talk to you about. Do you have time?"

"Yes, just a second … okay, I'll pick this up tomorrow."

"Is your email working alright now?"

"Yes, why?"

"I told you the girls were naughty … they have been playing you."

"They have been teasing me like crazy, today was intense personified."

"I've guessed that … but there is more, I know their motivation behind the teasing. Come with me to my office and I'll show you. I arranged to get system master privileges to show you this." She turned and walked the five doors to hers, Stephen following close behind.

Stephen wondered if this was a good time to do this. The earlier teasing had his libido in a heightened state and he was smelling things, her perfume, and the crack in her voice, the way her haired flowed from one side to the other like in those hair commercials on TV. His senses were too keen to all of her beauty. This meeting wasn't about their friendly relationship; he shouldn't be feeling these things. He knew it must be because of what the girls were doing to him at lunch. Yeah, they were driving him crazy.

He stood beside her chair while she brought up the screen.

"Stephen, have you looked at your expense account folders?"

"No, haven't seen them. Deb is handling the paper work for me. The girls are taking me to different restaurants to show me where to take clients … I know it's probably the wrong thing to do, but it's not illegal, and management doesn't seem to mind."

"Okay, let me show you … these were not employee lunches, we have a strict policy of twenty dollars per person when you do that. That's why we usually just order pizza delivery. Have you seen these? The smallest one is a hundred and thirty."

"No, really?" and he bent over to look.

"Yep, all your account names are listed as the clients, up to five guests plus your assistant. Have you ever taken five guests?"

"No, just the two of us, except three today, we did a picnic today."

"Let's look at today, I haven't seen that one … oh, wow, three hundred twenty … ten guests from the Burke account."

"Three hundred dollars for a picnic? There was a lot of food left over, but three hundred? I could have bought a picnic table, the grill, and the food for that much."

"I'm guessing one of them is feeding a party tonight or tomorrow. And what about the gifts?"

"Gifts?"

"Yes, the two Kitchen Aide mixers at three hundred each and the bedding for four hundred."

"There have been no gifts, it must be a mistake."

"Right … so Andress, Burke and Benton didn't receive these?"

"No, I would never do that, we are not a bank; we don't give out toasters for opening accounts. That goes against every thing I know about business."

"Stephen, the girls went shopping with your credit card. Where is it?"

"I don't know, Deb has it I guess. I've actually never seen it."

"They are not supposed to touch your card, ever. And the trip to Jacksonville, the girls had a wedding to go to, I'm guessing the bedding was the wedding gift from both of them … they were bride's maids, I know because I can read their email. Did you see the girls while you were there? Did they work with you on Saturday?"

"No, they disappeared from Friday night to Sunday night."

"The trip was their idea, they wrote emails to management from you explaining that you needed to go there and straighten the mess out. It was those emails from you that said you needed to bring along two administrative assistants. It's why Deb stopped IT from fixing your access to your email, I checked."

"So all this has been a series of scams?"

"You can't say I didn't warn you … but then I never thought they would go this far. With the trip and gifts, not including the meals, this adds to over six thousand dollars in two weeks."

"Wow … so we need to fire them."

"Not so fast, you need to read the emails they have sent to management. The ones you sent and didn't know about. You have been praising their work; you used words like amazing competence, professional attitude, and suffering long hours without compensation to solve these problems. And management has been very responsive. So if you now fire them, our bosses will think you are some kind of nut, a genius but a flake. They'll just use your talent and never promote you. Right now they think you can walk on water. You have saved the company millions, maybe twenty million in revenues they would have lost without your work. And all good managers praise their employees, try to give them credit for their work like these emails do."

"So you're saying I'm trapped?"

"Let's look at our options … we could just fire them and they might have copies of these emails and they might claim you did all this to get rid of them, suing the company and you personally, sexual harassment or some other garbage … or we could take away the credit card and have a stern talking to them, hold this over their heads so they start behaving, fire them if they try anything else. We can monitor their email and keep a close watch on your expense reports. You are going to have to start taking clients out so there won't be a huge swing in your spending. It wouldn't look right to go from eight thousand dollars in the first two weeks to nothing the next … we'll have to taper that off to something reasonable. And that will match your case load; the difficult clients you saved will be going into a maintenance mode."

"That makes sense."

"So tell me what they have been doing to get you to take them to lunch every day."

"I shouldn't tell you … its sexual stuff."

"No, come on, I want to hear. I haven't heard a juicy story since they did it to the other guy. I took him to a bar after the company fired him, he told me everything."

"But I'm feeling embarrassed." Stephen sat in the chair next to her desk. He tried not to look at her legs crossed just a foot away.

"Tell me about the first time, the Oyster Bar … who was that Susan or Deb?"

"Deb, she went in the bathroom and changed, put on a see-through top, cut really low, took off her bra and folded her skirt over a couple times … lots of leg."

"Yeah, she has an amazing body … so that's it, just the show?"

"Her mouth is pretty bad, saying she liked me looking at her tits, sorry. (He looked up to see if Olivia was offended, she wasn't) And Deb flipped up her skirt, in front and once behind."

"Let me guess, she was wearing a thong."

Stephen nodded his head yes. They were making eye contact and he could see she was excited about his stories. Looking at her face kept his mind off her legs.

"So tell me about Susan, the first time with her, the Showboat."

"Her mouth wasn't as bad … but as soon as we sat down she opened her dress down to her waist, showed me and then grabbed my hand and held my hand to her breast. She wasn't wearing a bra."

"She never does … and she did this right there in the restaurant? Did any one see?"

"I'm sure the waiter caught us once or twice, he didn't say anything, and the place was mostly empty."

"So that was it, just feeling her breast?"

"Almost … and then getting in my SUV she asked me to lift up her dress, it was linen, she didn't want to get it wrinkled."

"Yeah I remember that dress, too dressy for work … So you had your hands on her ass?"

He nodded yes again.

"Stephen, you should have just gone to a strip club, they do all that there. Did you do anything more than that?"

"No not really."

"Did they jerk you off or give you a blow job?"

"No." Stephen was shocked those words could come out of her mouth.

"Never?"

"They never touched me … I was wearing protection."

"Stephen, why would you be wearing a condom?"

"No, not that kind. I didn't want to get embarrassed, I was wearing an athletic cup and wet suit pants under my suit … it was painful." He was worried she might think he was nuts.

"So you put on the cup and wet suit every day before lunch?"

"I wouldn't want them to see me aroused."

"Wow."

"Yeah tell me about it." He wished she knew how painful it had been.

"So you were afraid to show that to them?" she asked pointing to his tented pants.

"Oh my God! I am so sorry!" he blushed bright red and started standing up to leave.

She grabbed his arm and made him sit back down, "No, don't worry, I got hot hearing the story too, it's natural, you should get like that."

"Really, like you aren't mad at me?"

"No … really … so don't worry, I've seen you aroused now, so finish the story so we can go find the credit card."

"Not much else to tell, Susan would let me touch her and Deb was always doing the peek-a-boo and dirty mouth … until today. Today they ganged up on me for the picnic and Deb let me feel her ass for a few seconds. And they changed in the back of my SUV; I saw them naked in my mirror."

"I'm guessing you are not very experienced … a virgin?"

He couldn't look her in the eyes but nodded yes.

"Yeah, I guessed it, same with the guy that got fired. We need to find you a nice woman, take care of that … and you have to promise to tell me when you do it for the first time, I can give you pointers."

"Really? You would want me to talk about sexual stuff?"

"Yes, I told you, this is making me hot, just like you … only you can't tell like I can."

"Oh." But he really didn't understand.

"So let's go find your credit card and plan what we are going to say to the girls."

"We? You're going to do this with me?" He followed her out of her office.

"Yeah, Deb can be mean and belligerent; you wouldn't have a chance doing it alone. And turn off some of the lights; I wouldn't want anyone to see you walking around here aroused like that."

"But no one is here."

"At night you can see in the windows pretty clearly; it's why I close my blinds when it gets dark out, especially that side of the building where the road goes by."

They started going through Deb's desk, the center drawer was locked and his credit card wasn't anywhere else.

"Stephen, we need a key, I don't have one."

"No, we just need a screw driver; the desks are cheap particle board."

"I know where one is, come with me." She held his hand as they walked down the long dark hallway to the Janitor's closet.

Stephen never walked holding a woman's hand before … he wondered what it meant … maybe she was just scared of the dark.

Olivia opened the door and stepped inside, into the total darkness … pulling Stephen with her. She let go of his hand and was fumbling looking for the light switch … she bumped into him, "Stephen?"

"Yes?" he wondered why she did that; the light switch would be higher.

"I'm sorry … oops, there I did it again … I'm not doing that on purpose … it probably isn't helping it go down," she stopped searching while she was talking into the blackness.

"I don't mind, you can bump into it as much as you want."

"Yeah, you wish I could … ooo, I did it again."

"Yeah, that was nice."

"Stephen, stop it, we're here in the dark."

"I know, but they were teasing me intensely today."

"You should have taken care of that in the bathroom when you came back."

"Afraid of getting caught, the doors on the stalls have wide cracks."

"Oh … well I wish I could help you … but I'm engaged."

"I know, luckiest guy on the planet."

"Thank you, that was sweet … you know if I wasn't already engaged, I would go out with you."

"Really?"

"Yes I would … oh … sorry."

"Oh, sorry."

"Stephen, that was my breast … you did that on purpose."

"So did you."

"No I didn't."

"Why are we still in the dark? Do you want me to kiss you?"

"Yes, No! Stephen, we are looking for the light switch and it isn't up there."

She found the switch, pondered whether to turn it on while his hand was still on her breast … she had to … and they looked at each other when the lights came on.

"Stephen?"

"What?"

"It's so big!"

"You did that, you said it was okay not to get embarrassed."

"No, you should be proud … I never knew … wow, you are testing my resolve. Here is a screw driver, will this open the drawer?"

"Yes." But he didn't want to go back, he wanted to turn off the light and stay there.

"Okay, go outside before I turn off the light … I don't want to run into that."

"Sorry."

"Nothing to be sorry about, I'm flattered."

They walked back to the desk and took a team effort to get the drawer open. The problem occurred when he was standing using the weight of his whole body to lean down on the screw driver while she was leaned over to see the lock tab, the metal strip holding the drawer closed, and pulling hard. He just happened to lean his worsted wool suit pants into her brooch. The drawer came open, they found his credit card, and they were stuck.

"Stephen?"

"What happened?"

"Your pants are stuck to my brooch."

"Don't move … your precious brooch, we don't want to break it."

"I know, what are we going to do?"

"See if you can unfasten it from your blouse. If you can, I'll go in my office and release it from my pants material."

"But it's stuck on both sides, I can't get my fingers under without breaking it. Please, it was my Grandmother's the only thing I have from her."

"Can you find a way to get those tiny wires out of my pants on one side?"

"No, I'm not good with small things like that."

"That makes sense, too bad it's not a strategic brooch."

"Stephen, this is not a time to be funny," but she was laughing too. "So what are we going to do?"

"I guess I have to take my pants off. It's okay; I can slip into the wet suit bottoms."

"No don't you dare, you've had enough pain for one day. I'll be okay as long as you keep your shirt over it … but we need to go into my office, I don't want to do this out here. The cleaning crew is coming soon."

"No, we have to take my pants off out here; it will put the brooch at too much risk to have you walking on your knees all the way down to your office. It'll be okay, the main lights are off in here."

"Alright, but be quick."

"You'll have to go lower for me to get them down my legs."

They struggled, had to take his shoes off, but were successful when he leaned back on top of the desk.

Olivia bumped into him a few more times, keeping him living large. As soon as she had his pants in hand she hurried down to her office. There she sat in her desk chair after pulling the side chair closer.

Stephen was right behind carrying his shoes.

"Stephen, I feel so bad … do you want to go in the men's room and take care of that first."

"No, this shouldn't take long … maybe it will subside if I concentrate on little things."

"Yeah, that's my problem right now."

They laughed, and then he countered, "So that must be painful, do you want to go to the ladies room first?"

"Can't … I'm really vocal."

"That's okay, I'll get the stall beside yours, you scream and I'll spray."

"Stephen!" she feigned objection, unable to stop laughing.

The humor wasn't helping either one of their conditions.

He had to splay his legs straddling her to get close enough. He took off his glasses to see close. "Do you have tweezers or a paperclip? I need something to grab the fibers." He was breathing right in her face.

Olivia was breathing faster, his hands were on her chest, not doing anything on purpose … but it was close and she was already excited by what happened in the Janitor's closet and after. "Oh, tweezers, yes I think so." She reached down for her purse and could feel his hands brush over her breast.

"Sorry."

"That's okay; I know that wasn't on purpose, like in the closet."

"That was an accident."

"Sure it was."

"I was looking for the light."

"That was one of my headlights, not the wall switch."

"Oh, so that's why it didn't get brighter when I flipped the toggle up and down."

"Stephen!" laughing some more.

"Don't blame me, you started it. This is really difficult, the wires are so small."

"Stephen, that brooch is so important to me … more important than my engagement, I have to take off the blouse, I have a bra on underneath … it doesn't show anything. I can't have your hands on my chest like that any more."

"Would it help if you leaned on my lap … to even it up?"

"Stephen! (laughing some more) … Stop … and I know where there's a magnifying glass. Jackie has that and one of those eye glass kits, the small screw drivers."

"That will help, I'll get it. But don't think you're going to get screwed with something that small."

She had to bury her face in her hands she was laughing so much.

Stephen left the office, still tenting but not as large as before. His shirt hung down over his boxers He found the magnifying glass and the tool kit. When he returned, his pecker rose to attention once again. The bra was just a comfortable one, not like Deb's bikini, but there was something so sexy about Olivia without her blouse on.

"Close your mouth and thank you again for the flattery, now bring those things over here and help me, I'm getting upset, I don't want to break this."

"Sorry."

"Stop saying that."

"Sure, sorry."

"This isn't funny."

"We make quite a team don't we, you wear the bottom half and I wear the top half. We could save a lot of money on suits."

She couldn't help but laugh, couldn't stop shaking it was too funny.

"Here, let me try that Barney Fife."

"You're one to talk, are you going to run a flag up that pole?"

They both were laughing too hard to continue.

She stood and walked to her credenza, "Want a drink? It will steady your nerves. I have some whisky; the boss likes it when he comes to visit."

"Sure … have a flag I can borrow too?"

"Stephen! (bending over holding her aching sides) I never thought you would be so funny." her knees went weak it was so hilarious to her. She handed him his whisky straight up.