Gym Buddies Ch. 14

Friday morning Tom was up early, anxious about the upcoming ERP upgrade, feeling the need to get to the office early. He sent a good morning text to Kelli, but didn't hear back until he was at the office, staring at the huge project flowchart covering almost the entirety of one wall -- except for the vital Ugly Plumber poster.

-call you in a few.. 😊

He smiled a few minutes later when she called. Since she now worked for the bank, he'd removed her picture from her contact so it wouldn't pop up when she called, visible to all -- it only said 'GB' and no pic. He closed his office door. "Good morning, beautiful!"

"Hi, handsome! You at the office yet?"

"Yea, lots to do and check today. How are you?"

"Well, I did have to figure out how to dress myself this morning -- seems some guy's been handling that -- and handling me -- the last couple days!"

Tom laughed. "Yea, had wash and shave myself this morning -- not nearly as much fun as the last couple days! So, how are the girls this morning?"

Keli chuckled. "Well, they're feeling neglected -- they miss you, Tom. I miss you."

"I miss you, Gym Buddy."

They were quiet for a few moments, each thinking of all the things they couldn't say.

"So, see you at lunch later?"

"Yep -- got my speech ready -- it's a little different than the one I dreamed!"

Tom chuckled. "Too bad, I really liked that one! Hey, you probably have an invite in your email -- just came out - dinner for corporate managers at Angelo's house next Friday night -- command performance."

"Oh, wow. Should I look forward to it, or dread it?"

'I'll be dreading it -- spouses are expected, so it'll be me and Richard in the same place -- same as tomorrow at the picnic.' "Worth going to just to see his mansion, I hear. It'll be my first time too."

Tom's phone buzzed with an incoming call from his boss. "Hey -- gotta take this call -- see you later, Kel!"

"Bye!"

*****

Kelli hustled into the building for her third day at the bank, smiling, thinking about Tom. 'Hate that we don't have any alone time scheduled - everything is in a group.' When she thought of tomorrow's picnic she felt a knot in her stomach. She'd mentioned it to Richard, hoping he'd be off hunting or fishing or whatever with the guys and she could have time with Tom. Instead, he was playing golf with his sister with an 8:30 am tee time, so he'd meet her at the park where the picnic was, around noon. Richard loved to socialize, so he was looking forward to being there.

'Yea, that'll be interesting -- him and Tom at the same place -- how the hell am I going to handle that? Shit.'

*****

By 11:30 the cavernous training room was almost full with hungry employees crowding the buffet for the monthly meeting. Tom stood to the side, scanning the crowd for Kelli, and for Elliott Whitworth, the banker who'd been nasty to Dayon on Wednesday. Marjorie sauntered up, looking great as always, and they exchanged greetings. "So, all set for the upgrade tonight?" She knew Tom was anxious, even though he and his team were competent and they'd been planning for weeks.

"Yea, we're as ready as we can be."

"It'll go fine, Tom, your team will nail it. You going to say a few words about it here?"

"Yea, I'm on the agenda."

"Me too, to introduce Kelli." She thought she detected a momentary reaction from Tom at the sound of Kelli's name. 'Na.' "I tell you Tom, she's been a great addition to the department, just in these couple of days. Can't thank you enough for referring her -- and convincing me to do the interview."

'Poker face, Meadows.' "Glad to hear she's working out."

Marjorie winked at Tom and grinned. "Yea, but don't think you're going to get a break on your budget review next month. I'm going to tell her to be extra hard on you - just for sport!" Tom smiled as she faked like she was punching his shoulder and headed towards the buffet.

He spotted Whitworth entering the room and his eyes narrowed. 'Time for a little chat after lunch, buddy. He'll head for Kel for sure.'

A flash of blonde hair caught the corner of his eye and he turned to watch Kelli gracefully stride in with some of the accounting crew. He started to smile -- then caught himself and covered his mouth with his hand. He noted she was wearing the outfit that they'd picked out that first Saturday of shopping, for her interview with Marjorie, and she looked fabulous. His pulse quickened and he grinned. 'But like it much better when I already know what she's wearing to work 'cause I picked it out and dressed her! Wonder which bra she's wearing?' He (and others....) admired her pretty blonde hair and perfect hourglass shape, only partially hidden under her conservative outfit. He weaved his way through the tables to get in the buffet line, three people behind her, close enough to see her, but not so close that they'd be seen together. 'Well, we tried to conceal the girls with that outfit, but they're still the first part of her anyone will notice.'

Kelli had looked around when she entered the room, but didn't spot Tom in the big crowd of 130 or so. 'Where is he?" As she ladled some ranch dressing onto her salad she suddenly felt a his presence, a slight tingling running up her back. 'He's nearby.' She glanced back and there he was! Their eyes locked for just a second and both suppressed a smile.

She followed her group to a table and Tom managed to find an empty seat at the next table back, not directly facing her, but close by. She saw him. 'Like when he's close by, I can see him.' She also spied the two women from marketing who'd ogled Tom in the lobby, sitting together at one of the front tables, and checked out the competition. One was short, maybe five-two, dark hair, with a very pretty, exotic face. She carried normal-sized boobs and was slim and toned -- a very hot little bunny. 'Oh, girl, you don't know it, but he's just too big for you, too much man. He needs a bigger, stronger woman -- like me.' The other was a brunette, tall, with a killer body, a pretty, model-like face with big lips. Smoking hot. A fire hazard. Kelli estimated her as a full C cup. 'Well, I've got more tit them both of them combined, but they're both hot. Wonder why they haven't hooked up with Tom?' She smiled to herself. 'But I've got them both beat in the bedroom, for sure. Neither could rock Tom Meadows like I do!'

When everyone was seated and munching away on lunch Terri from HR got up. She was cheery, like you'd expect an HR person to be. Maybe a bit too much. "Hey everybody! Hope you're enjoying this fine lunch. So, a couple of announcements today and we have one new corporate associate to introduce. Tom Meadows, our new IT Infrastructure Manager, is up first. Tom?"

Tom popped up and strode confidently to the front of the room, passing right by his Gym Buddy! She felt him pass, almost touching her, felt that little tingle again and held her hand over her mouth to hide a hint of smile. Marjorie, watching from across the table, thought she saw Keli react to Tom's presence. 'Na, she didn't.'

Tom walked everyone through a summary of the ERP upgrade, not using the acronym-laden jargon of most IT types, instead speaking in plain, simple English with occasional dashes of dry humor. "So, we're all used to looking for those puke green colored help boxes on the right side of each page, right?" Laughter. "You'll immediately notice on Monday that those boxes are now on the LEFT side and they've been upgraded to a color the IT squad has officially christened puke yellow." More laughter from the crowd. Tom held up a finger. "Except on the SG series pages, when they've somehow managed to stay on the right side, for reasons beyond human understanding." More laughter. "Except on alternate leap year days when..." Tom was pretty much drowned out in laughter -- with Kelli joining in. She noticed he engaged the whole audience, looking back and forth, his eyes lingering on her for no more than a split second. Kelli managed to pull her eyes from Tom for a few seconds to catch the two marketing hotties following Tom's every word with rapt attention, smiling -- no doubt to catch his attention.

'Wow, he's so poised, so funny. Makes me want to jump his bones even more!' Kelli's eyes roamed her Gym Buddy's body, top to bottom. 'Damn, he's such a stud, he body's perfect. And I know every inch -- especially his manhood!' She surreptitiously surveyed the room, noting several women checking out her gym buddy. 'Yea, check him out, ladies. He's way better than you even imagine! And none of you could handle him, compete with me. He's a whole lotta man.'

"And finally, please remember to leave your PC powered ON tonight when you leave. You've seen several emails on this, and we plan to send 147 reminder emails on this between now and five o'clock." More laughter. "If you don't leave it on, you won't get upgraded, and on Monday morning Dayon will come around and beat you with her styrofoam pipe wrench." He smiled and pointed at the CFO, who laughed and covered his face with his hands. The crowd laughed as Dayon stood up, grinning, menacing the room with a bright pink, five-foot replica of a plumber's pipe wrench.

Tom nodded at Terri and headed back to his seat, this time walking just a little bit closer to Kelli, his arm swinging out just a bit so his sleeve barely touched her shoulder. Kelli shivered. 'Oh, he figured out a way to touch me! He's so sweet! And hot!'

Marjorie stepped to the front. "On behalf of Sam Endicott I'd like to thank everyone who came to his retirement party last month. Sam sends his regards, and reports he's enjoying retirement and misses, well, most of you, but not all of you!' Laughter. "He specifically said he wouldn't miss YOU, Tammy-" She pointed to a woman in the back of the room. "-and says he will get back at you when you least expect it for giving him the case of Ensure at the party!" More laughter.

"So, I'd like to introduce Sam's replacement, Kelli Sappington." She gestured for Kelli to join her up front.

'Ok, better think of something funny - fast!' She stepped up front, nervously adjusting her jacket.

"Kelli joined us on Wednesday as assistant controller. She's prepared a riveting forty-five minute speech about herself and the latest exciting pronouncements from the Financial Accounting Standards Board that you'll want to take notes about!" The crowd laughed and groaned as Kelli stepped to the front, smiling.

"Hey everyone, I'm Kelli and I'm glad to be with First Bank." Tom looked around and noticed several men taking a very close interest in the attractive, very shapely, young Assistant Controller.

'Yep, not surprised.' It wasn't obvious to the crowd, but Tom could tell she was a bit nervous and was slouching just a bit. He waited until they made eye contact and he subtly straightened up, pulling his head upright. She caught it and stood straight. 'She looks incredible! So want to kiss her!' Tom smiled, proud of his Gym Buddy, his friend, his lover.

Kelli silently thanked her Gym Buddy for signaling her to straighten up, noticed several pairs of eyes in the crowd -- male and female - looking at her chest, not face, and smiled. 'Look at my big chest all you want folks!'

"So, I take it you don't want the 45-minute speech about the exciting world of accounting?" She got back a chorus of laughter and loud 'noooos". "Well, ok then! My last job was with Dixon Brothers Construction, the outfit that just finished the remodel on this building, so I'm the one responsible for the big nasty mess around here these last few months -- so sorry!" Laughter. "Well, I'm looking forward to meeting and working with everyone." She turned to Terri. "And it's great that we get this free lunch every day, right?" More laughter.

Terri rolled her eyes as Kelli sat down. "Well, I would provide, except accounting says we can't afford it!" Marjorie pretended to duck under the table as the crowd guffawed. Terri talked about the company picnic tomorrow, then introduced the CEO, Angelo, who reported some numbers, ending with "No way I can top the humor!" which got him a laugh anyway.

As people finished eating and started drifting out of the room Tom stood talking with a group of bankers while keeping an eye on Kelli and Whitworth. Sure enough, the guy made a beeline to Kelli, trapping her against the far back wall, isolating her from the crowd, smiling, chatting her up. Tom saw the same look on her face as when the two creeps approached her in the gym. He excused himself from his group and circled around behind Whitworth, where Kelli could see him. She made eye contact, just for a split second, very subtly arched an eyebrow, maybe half a millimeter, and Tom understood.

He swung around from behind the guy, reached out to shake his hand and interrupted him. "Elliott, hey, Tom Meadows from IT -- great to finally meet you." They guy gave Tom that 'fuck-off' look and tried to go back to sweet-talking the curvy, busty new accountant.

Kelli smiled. "Nice to meet you, um, Elliott, right? I've gotta run." 'But I want to hear this.'

As she turned to walk away Whitworth made to follow her, but Tom moved over, just an inch, in front of him, his subtle message clear - and reinforced by Tom's significant height and bulk. 'Don't move'. "So, I manage the IT help desk, and I wanted to talk to you about your call with Dayon on Wednesday about the printer problem you were having."

The banker gave Tom an annoyed look. "I'm too busy to talk about IT crap. Send me an email."

While Tom was starting to boil inside, his face remained expressionless. "She was pretty upset at the way you treated her, and she was doing her best to help."

"Well, she must be hypersensitive or something -- I treated her fine, even though she was clueless and couldn't fix the problem."

"Actually, Elliott -- " Tom drew the name out, slowly, to three syllables "- you were on a recorded line, so I heard every word. You called her stupid, ignorant and a waste of the bank's money. And she couldn't fix your problem because your printer was unplugged."

Whitworth knew he was busted, but was never going to admit it, so he just scowled. Tom, totally focused on staring holes through the guy's head, didn't notice that Kelli had sat down at the table behind Whitworth, close enough to hear the conversation, but facing away, pretending to work on her phone.

Tom lowered his voice to just above a whisper. "So, to make this right, you're going to walk over there to her-" He nodded to where Dayon was showing off her large pink Styrofoam pipe wrench to a group -- "And apologize."

Whitworth blustered. "The hell I will!"

Tom tilted his head and rubbed his chin. "Well, you may want to reconsider. If you do apologize, I can probably talk Dayon out of filing that harassment claim with Terri in HR -- she's the one standing right next to her." He paused for effect. "I didn't know this, but those claims get reported to Angelo and the full board."

Tom crossed his big arms across his chest, not breaking eye contact with Whitworth, who, while a jerk, was not an idiot. Tom nodded toward Terri and Dayon. "Go on. And don't ever do it again."

Whitworth muttered "Whatever" and walked over to the group of women. Tom watched him from across the room as he peeled Dayon away from the group, talked to her briefly, and quickly fled the scene, leaving the young woman with a look best described as somewhere between shocked and surprised. It was then that Tom noticed Kelli get up, turn around, wink at him, smile, and walk away.

Marjorie, across the room talking with a group, witnessed the whole thing out of the corner of her eye, although she was too far away to hear anything, or catch the wink. 'Interesting - wonder what that little drama was all about? I'll find out.' Marjorie secretly prided herself on knowing pretty much everything going on at First Bank.

Tom headed back to IT land, smiling. 'Yea, Kel winked at me!'

*****

It was just after four and Kelli was in Marjorie's office, asking her what the new assistant controller felt was the thousandth question of the last three days. "Sorry to pester you with all these questions!"

Marjorie smiled. "Kelli, don't ever apologize for asking questions -- they're all good ones, and some have made me think of things I wouldn't otherwise ponder, so thanks. Hey - wanted to ask you something. Did you happen to overhear Tom Meadows' conversation with Elliott Whitworth at lunch, right after you talked to him?"

Kelli's stomach clenched just slightly. 'Don't want to be a tattle-tale, but she is my boss. Can't reveal I knew about it two days ago.' "Yea, so happens I did overhear it. It sounds like Elliott had made a call to the IT help desk a couple days ago and was rude to Dayon. Tom called the guy on it and made him go apologize."

Marjorie's eyebrow went up and she leaned back. "Interesting. Whitworth is the number one producer in his department - he's not used to being told what to do -- even by his boss -- and he's one of those guys I told you about that would likely hit on you. Did he, by the way?" Kelli nodded. "I've personally had issues with him before." Marjorie thought back. It had been what - eight years - since Whitworth had hit on her in the parking deck -- three days before his own wedding and a month after her return from maternity leave. She had professionally and politely shredded him, on the spot, shutting him down. "Did you catch what Tom said that made him apologize?"

Kelli nodded, and couldn't help but smile. "Yea. He told the guy that if he immediately apologized he could avoid a harassment charge from Dayon."

Marjorie grinned back. 'Damn, nicely done, my friend...' "Dayon would be the last woman on earth to file a harassment claim against even the devil himself. Tom - and everyone else in the bank, except for Whitworth - knows that."

Kelli cocked her head. "He was bluffing?"

Marjorie grinned. "Totally! So, you in the gym, now Dayon. Our friend Tom isn't reluctant to stand up and do the right thing -- and he's pretty clever about doing it."

Kelli smiled and nodded. 'Yea, he's a real man, for sure, in every way! If you only knew, boss. Wish I could jump him right now, let the tigress take over!' She did the math in her head. 'Like 33 hours since we were naked together -- way too long!'

*****

Marjorie stuck her head into Kelli's office just after five, on her way out. "So, how were your first three days?"

"Really good, thanks. Everybody's been great. But I feel I have so much to learn."

"You're doing great -- don't worry, you're a fast learner, so it won't take long. We're all glad you're here."

"Thanks!"

"So, see you tomorrow at the picnic?"

"Looking forward to it!" 'Don't need to tell her about my side gig bra-modeling beforehand!'

Marjorie departed and Kelli started packing up, her thoughts on Tom. 'So wish I was heading to his house instead of my own. Miss him terribly, and I so crave our touching, kissing and the out-of-this-world sex.' She called him as she walked out to the parking deck.

"Hey, hang on a second." She could hear him finishing up a conversation on something very technical, heard his office door close. then he came back. "So, you should know that if you wink at a guy like you did at me today he's going to think you might fancy him, find him attractive, maybe get the idea he might get a kiss."

Kelli broke out in a huge smile as she climbed in the Jeep. "Really? I winked at a lot of guys, today -- were you one of them?

He laughed. "Ha -- as I suspected -- I'm just one of your harem of males!"

"Yea, so many I may have to issue numbers!"

"So, do you have to head straight home, or.....would you have some time....?"

Kelli closed her eyes, thinking. ''Oh, Tom, you know I want to, but 'T and Ricardo are already at my place with Richard...I can't." 'Feel like such a shit saying no, want to see him so bad it hurts.'