The Mistake

When Ginny was called in to see her boss that morning, she had no idea how radically her work-life would be altered. She had been the office manager for this private consulting firm for the last fifteen years, and Doug had been her boss since becoming the CEO five years ago when his father had retired. Doug was a good boss: he was competent, usually in a good mood, and most of the time was not overly demanding. Ginny was comfortable working for him. They could joke around together on slow days, and while their conversations never strayed too much outside the bounds of small talk, they also weren't completely fake or empty. Doug was in a completely different financial class than Ginny, but he never made her particularly conscious of that fact. Basically, he was a great guy to work for, and an easy guy to completely forget about when she left the office. But that was about to change.

Ginny was a bit flustered as she entered Doug's office and closed the door behind her. She was still catching her breath from running up the stairs, trying--unsuccessfully--to get to her desk by 8am. She'd been late for work a few too many times this year, and Doug had actually had to mention it to her recently. Overall she'd been a very dependable worker in her time with the firm, and it wasn't as if she'd ever get fired for tardiness. Still, it was embarrassing that Doug had felt the need to point out her lapse, and it was especially troubling to her that she'd arrived late on a day when Doug had left a note on her desk to see him immediately. He'd only left her one such note before, when she'd forgotten to mail an important client file, and she was pretty sure he wasn't calling her in to give her a raise. Plus, Sam and Andy (the firm's full-time lawyer and the head of IT, respectively) had given her slightly worried looks when she'd rushed past them in the break room five minutes ago.

"Hi Ginny." Doug's tone was measured, serious.

"What's up?" she asked, trying to sound as casual as possible.

"Ginny, would you sit down?" He motioned to the chair across from him. She sat. Doug's desk was massive, and she was glad for the distance separating them right now. She didn't know what was going on, but she was nervous, and was hoping it wasn't too obvious.

"It's the Miller account. There's a problem with the spreadsheets you forwarded to them at the end of last month."

Ginny felt instantly sick. She knew immediately, or was pretty sure she knew, what Doug was talking about. She remembered having a problem with one of the files. She had gotten into a conversation with Sam as she did her updates, they were having fun talking about their spouses, and they had talked for too long. She'd been working as she talked at first, but had finally given up and talked to Sam intently for over half an hour. When he was called out, she'd returned to her work and realized that a bunch of data was missing; important data. She must have been clumsy on the keyboard while they were talking. It was late in the day, everyone was out, and she was panicked. She'd finally managed to find a recovery file, and saved it over the damaged version. She was relieved, but was still slightly worried that she didn't have all the original data. However, she'd also bungled a newsletter PDF just two weeks prior. Ginny didn't make many mistakes, and it was simply bad luck that this situation had happened so close on the heels of her last error, her first one in recent memory. So she decided to just send the files on, being 99% sure that she had recovered the one file completely, and not wanting to admit to another failure so soon. She was about to find out what a huge mistake this was.

"--and the missing pages caused some real problems on their quarterly returns." Doug was talking; he'd been explaining for a while, but Ginny had tuned out for...she didn't know how long. "They had backups, and everything's been put in the right place by now. But as I'm sure you knew at the time, they were in a hurry to include those new accounts, which is why we were helping them on this--"

"I'm SO sorry about this, Doug. I knew they were rushed, and I--"

"I know, I know, I'm sure you're sorry, and I have no doubt that you won't let that happen again. But the missing data meant that Miller had to re-file, past the deadline, and they incurred some heavy fees. About $140,000."

Ginny's eyes bulged. Fuck. That was over twice her salary. The Miller Corporation was probably 20% of her firm's business. If they were to lose an account like that due to her stupid mistake, she could kiss this job goodbye. FUCK. She was 43 years old, and had worked here since she was in her late twenties. Her husband Mark had just changed careers and took a big pay cut. Their daughter was in college, and their aggressive refinance last year had bumped up the mortgage payments considerably. Ginny made good money for an office manager, and with her salary they'd be fine. But without it, they were screwed.

"Is Miller going to...?" She trailed off.

"Are we going to lose the account? No. Our board met yesterday about this. We've compensated them partially in future fee reductions, and I'm doing a couple of other things for them...the details aren't important, but I took care of them, and they're satisfied with the solution. But Ginny..." Doug sighed and stood up behind his desk.

"Ginny, I'm not fond of delivering bad news to people, but I guess I have to ask you to read this." He grabbed hold of his monitor, and carefully managing the cord, turned it around to face her, then slid it toward her a little. She saw it was opened to an email, but still couldn't read it. She stood up and leaned on the huge desk to get close enough to read the email, which was sent by Dan Greaves (whom she'd always hated) to Doug and the rest of the board. Doug walked around the desk and paced a little as she read.

"Ginny, Dan has asked that you be dismissed, and several of the board members are in agreement with him. I know you and Dan don't like each other, and I know this could be at least partially a vendetta,"--(several years ago Ginny had called out Dan on a lot of extra 'vacation' time he'd been submitting, and Dan had been reprimanded)--"but the truth is, this was a serious fucking fuck-up, and people lose their jobs all the time for less than this."

She was near tears. This was the end for her here. Still leaning at the edge of Doug's desk, Ginny collapsed her head into her arms on the slick wood surface, trying not to cry. Doug was still talking, pacing behind her.

"I don't exactly have a free hand to do whatever I want here, Ginny. I know this was a mistake, I know it's not the kind of thing you do very often, and I personally don't want to fire you. But Dan's on a tear, and he's got some important people on his side. Now, I've been the CEO long enough, and have enough people in my own court, that I might be able to overrule Dan. But I'd be calling in some favors, and I'd end up owing some favors of my own."

She pulled up her head, but kept leaning on the desk, pretending to look at the email from Dan Greaves. Doug approached the desk and stood right next to her, so close that their hips touched.

"Ginny, I can save your job. But it wouldn't be without cost to myself. I'm willing to go out on a limb for you, but I would want you to do something for me in return." Doug spoke quietly, deliberately, and she could feel his weight push in on her just slightly.

Instantly Ginny went from almost crying to being indignant. She stood up straight and walked around to the other side of the chair, putting a few feet between her and Doug. She spoke slowly and evenly: "What exactly are you saying to me, Doug? Because it sounds like you are proposing something that could get you and your company sued. It SOUNDS like you are sexually harassing me. I could almost swear you were on the verge of saying 'I can save your job, Ginny, if you'll just fuck me.' I really hope that's not where you were going, Doug."

Doug looked nervous. He put his hands in his pockets and went back to pacing. He seemed several times to be about to speak, but stopped himself. Not knowing what else to do, Ginny simply waited. Finally, Doug went back to his chair behind his desk and sat down. He started talking, but he couldn't look at her. His eyes darted around the room.

"Ginny, I'm not asking you have sex with me. This is just a bad situation, and I-- I see a way we can...I don't know. OK, I don't know how to say this, so I'm just going to say it. I have been attracted to you since...forever. I...fantasize about you when--I mean, you are a VERY attractive woman. I would LOVE to have sex with you, OK? OK, so I've said it. I can't stop watching you, some days I can't stop thinking about you. But I know you're married, and I respect you, and I have always found you to be an asset to the firm, and have just set that attraction aside."

Now Ginny had something entirely new to occupy her mind. What a fucking day! If Doug had ever given the slightest indication that he was attracted to her, she had missed it entirely; and she didn't miss shit like that. So he must be pretty adept at covering up what he was feeling and thinking. For her part, Ginny had not once thought about Doug that way. He was not unappealing as men go. He had a nice smile, was obviously smart, and kept himself in good shape. Almost too good...he was very lean and muscular. Which, to be truthful, just wasn't her type. He was a little too image-conscious for her taste. Not to mention ten years younger. It simply wasn't something she'd thought about. And now he was telling her that HE thought about HER that way all the time.

"--and, so, ultimately...to be completely honest, yes, you're right. I'm being inappropriate here. I've thought about this a lot, and I kept changing my mind about it. But in the end, I just decided I had to try...I just really want to see you...to touch you. Kiss you? I know, this is fucking insane. And I know, how is it any different from asking you to actually have sex with me?"

"It isn't."

"Right. I know that. And I know I'm risking not only losing you as an employee, but also getting my company into a lot of trouble. And I don't want that, obviously. I'm just...you are nearly irresistible sometimes, Ginny, and this Miller thing just put it into my head that maybe I could--look, I'm a guy, OK? I'm a fucking pervert. Let me just put the cards on the table here. You're hot. I get an accidental glimpse down your shirt, or a button comes undone, or you bend over to get something out of the bottom file cabinet, and it's 2 minutes until I'm here in my office with the door locked, jerking off, and when I cum, I imagine I'm spraying it all over your tits, or your ass."

Despite the gamut of emotions she'd experienced this morning Ginny let out a small involuntary moan at that. She hoped Doug hadn't heard. She'd sat back down while he talked, and now she squirmed just a tiny bit in her chair, feeling warm.

"I know you're not slutty. I know you're not the type to have casual sex, and that of course you're married. If you were that type, I would have tried to fuck you a long time ago to be completely honest. But then if you were that type, I probably wouldn't have been so attracted to you in the first place." Now he looked at her. "You always dress so conservatively. I hardly ever see anything, and I've worked with you for a long time. I never even see where your nipples are through your clothes...not even in the summer when the air's turned up too high. But I can tell you have a great body, and it would be absolutely amazing to me just to see a little of it, and be able to put my hands on you. Just for a little while. You know what, you wouldn't even have to take your clothes off. Well, not all of them. If I could just see you in your underwear...rub against you a little, maybe feel your tits and ass, and kiss you. That's it, I swear."

Her head was spinning, for about five different reasons, but Ginny wasn't so distracted as to not be skeptical of this.

"OK, let me see..." she began. "I don't know what you'd have to do to get the board to agree to keep me on, but you say it will be costly to you."

"Well, yes," Doug said, "Quite honestly yes. It's impossible to say what kind of call-ins I'll get for favors in the future, but it's not out of the question that it could cost me shares as well as influence."

"And yet, you're willing to compromise your future at the company so you can feel me up for ten minutes?? That doesn't make any sense."

"Well, first of all, you're right." Doug began ticking off points on his fingers. "It doesn't make sense. Second, my dad still owns controlling shares in the company. I might compromise myself a little bit, but it's not as if I'll be forced out or anything extreme like that. Either way I'll be doing just fine. Third...I don't think it's possible for you to appreciate how turned on I am by the thought of touching you." Doug had splayed out three fingers on his left hand at this point. Ginny noticed that he then grabbed his pinkie as if to tick off one more, but he didn't say anything.

Ginny prodded him to continue. "Aaand fourth?" she asked.

"Fourth..." Doug looked away for a moment, and allowed himself a small smile. "Fourth: who said anything about 'ten minutes?'"

Ginny sat back in the chair and looked straight up at the ceiling, sighing.

"Look, Ginny, I'm asshole. I know, that, all right? I'm imperfect, and I am way too attracted to you. I know what I'm doing, and I'm not exactly proud of it, but let's go over the facts here. You could be out of a job, and it's your fault, not mine. It's asking a lot of me to stick my neck out and save you after what happened. Normally I wouldn't do it, and I think you would understand. You'd be unhappy, and you'd have to look for a job, and you'd suffer financially, but you wouldn't hold it against me, because firing you would not be my decision. I know you understand that.

"But I also know from our conversations that you and Mark are not as secure as you could be financially, and I know there's no way you could find a job that pays what this one does. I'm using that to my advantage, and I feel like a dick about it. But I'm not asking you to do anything reeally depraved or unsavory. I want to spend some time with you, I want to touch you...I want to see what you look like under all of those proper garments. It won't be any real work for you, I won't be hurting you or anything. I'll keep my clothes on. You'll keep your clothes--well, most of them--on. All in all, it will actually be easier than what you normally do here, and no one will ever have to know but you and I. And you know what? You might even have a little fun, if you let yourself go."

Ginny sighed again, leaned forward and put her head in her hands. She could barely believe it herself, but she was actually considering it. Doug knew it, too, and so he kept quiet. It was completely crazy, and Doug was definitely a huge asshole. But his argument made sense to a large degree. She could walk away from her job on principle, but she'd be walking into a long period of financial uncertainty. Mark's new job wasn't likely to show great returns for a few years. She was very employable, but not at her current salary. The house would be up for sale by the end of the month, they'd be cutting back on entertainment and groceries, and Tonya would no doubt have to start getting student loans or choose a different school. And Ginny could stop all of that from happening just by letting her asshole boss grope her and kiss her. She definitely thought he was wrong about the possibility of her "having a little fun" in the process, but how bad would it be, really? It's not as if he were a fat smelly old man, and he wasn't asking her to blow him or anything.

On the other hand, she was sure she'd feel humiliated, and she wondered how long that might last, and if she would be able to look him in the eye again afterward. She knew she had a decent body for her age, but she wasn't exactly a model of self-confidence, and would feel very weird about showing her body to anyone but her husband. She was not a prude by any stretch of the imagination, and she was secretly proud of how good she was in bed at home. But she dressed conservatively because she simply didn't have the level of confidence to "strut her stuff" the way some women seemed to.

She looked up. Doug hadn't moved. It was almost as if he was scared to breathe too loudly. She stood up and walked about halfway to Doug's office door, then turned back to him.

"Sooo...you don't want to fuck me," Ginny said flatly.

"That's a separate question," said Doug. "I'm not asking to fuck you. I'm simply asking to...enjoy your body for a little while. To fulfill a fantasy I've had for a long time."

"I don't have to be naked?"

"I'd like to see your bra, and your panties. I want to know what your ass looks like when you bend over, without the damn wool skirt getting in my way. And I don't even know how big your tits are. I just want to see a little more. I want...privileges. And I want to kiss you. Real kisses."

"I take off my shirt, and my skirt. I let you see me. Feel me up. And I make out with you."

"Yes."

"And that's it?"

"That's all. Swear."

"And you're 100% sure you can deal with the board. That my job will be secure."

"If it falls through...if I can't convince them, I'll pay off your mortgage," Doug said, with supreme confidence.

Ginny walked slowly the rest of the way to the door, hesitated. Looked at the floor.

"Listen, Ginny. Why don't you go home. Take the afternoon off and think about it. I know I've ambushed you with this, and I know it's improper, and probably offensive. I respect you. I really do. And I'm allowing my desires to overpower my propriety and my respect. I don't think what I'm asking you to do is extreme, but I also don't want you to feel like I'm not giving you any options. Yes, I am taking advantage of your situation, but the situation is your fault, and you know it. You can accept my solution or not, but I want it to be your decision. Go home and think about it before you decide."

Ginny threw the deadbolt on the office door and turned around.

"I've decided. Let's get this over with right now."

Doug's eyes widened a tiny bit, but he just stood there, saying nothing.

"Well??" Ginny prompted him, "Can we just do this? You said it might take longer than ten minutes. It's not even 9 am. Will the whole fucking day be enough for you?"

"I'll have you out of here by noon."

Doug smiled, a bit too wolfishly, and she wondered momentarily if she had just made another huge mistake. She ignored her misgivings and took three small steps toward him, then stood, feet together, back slightly arched, chin raised up.

"Tell me what I should do," she said.

***TO BE CONTINUED***