LMC Ch. 03: Treat at the Retreat

The dinner was a masterpiece, offering myriad choices from the restaurant's five star menu, lots of imported French Champagne, and a wide selection of decadent of desserts. More speeches followed, most of them exceptionally dull. But at least the speeches were accompanied by images of the current Leggy Lingerie product line, with each piece worn by a beautiful model, all displayed on a giant screen directly behind the podium.

Hiram C. Packwood III then said that he had a special announcement to make. "Most of you know our West Coast Regional Sales Manager, Bobbie Kaye Spencer." A nice round of applause went up at the mention of her name. "Ms. Spencer, my personal protégé, has been a major contributor to the success Leggy Lingerie has enjoyed, and is largely to thank for our ability to have all of you here as our special guests." A bigger round of applause.

"Tonight," he continued, "I am very pleased to announce that Ms. Spencer is about to be promoted to the position of Assistant Vice President!" Still more applause. "Bobbie Kaye, would you care to say a few words?"

Many of Leggy Lingerie's clients knew Bobbie Kaye personally, either from her L.A. show the year before, from the national show in Manhattan, or from one of her other successful shows. Most of the others had met her at the retreat, or had at least heard of her by reputation. And more than a few had seen her naked by now, either at the L.A. show last year, or that very afternoon by the pool. And the round of applause that went up this time seemed to go on for a very long time.

Cutie made her way to the podium, dressed in a very conservative suit with a knee length skirt, her auburn hair up, looking quite the professional businesswoman. She pulled her notes from a pocket, took a deep breath, and began to speak. "Ladies and gentlemen, friends really, I am honored by your greeting. Leggy Lingerie is a wonderful company, and as you know, we offer the best selection, and the finest quality, of ladies' intimate apparel on the market today! And now," she said, signaling for the presentation to begin, "The Look Men Want To See!"

An unexpected round of applause went up then, catching Bobbie Kaye a bit by surprise. She noticed her sister waving at her, and she just smiled and waved back. She tried to continue her little speech, but the applause just kept getting louder and louder! Emily soon joined Kristy in waving frantically, and they seemed to be pointing at something. At the same time, Cutie saw Gretchen making a mad dash for the door. As the applause grew even more intense, she finally got the idea that her sister was trying to tell her to turn around.

If Bobbie Kaye could have died from embarrassment at that very instant, she would gladly have done exactly that. The Power Point presentation on the giant screen behind her featured a series of very explicit, high definition photos of her little incident at the pool that afternoon.

Cutie stood transfixed as the series of photos played through. There she was, dressed in her black bikini, talking to Mr. Packwood and the others. Next was a picture of her as she was falling into the pool. One of her climbing out, sans bikini, and another before she'd realized her bikini was gone. Then a photo as she tried to cover up, the redness of her face having clearly been captured by the camera. After that came a picture of her naked form as she backed away, prior to colliding with the diving board, and then just another following that collision, as she toppled backwards.

The next image didn't show her face, but did show her from the waist down as she lay on her back, her bottom against the diving board, her legs kicking wildly. The following photo in the series was an amazingly detailed close up of her Hello Kitty tattoo. Of course, the photo also featured her most private place, displayed in such wide open, large screen, full color detail that even a Hustler model might have been embarrassed!

And the humiliation mounted as a series of pictures of Gretchen, Kristy, and Emily appeared, each of them displaying The Look Men Want To See: the stark naked look!

As she gazed at the screen in utter dismay, Bobbie Kaye saw that the series of photos was already beginning to play again. She waited patiently for several seconds for a hole to open in the floor beneath her and swallow her up. When she realized she wasn't going to be so fortunate, she turned to the microphone and, in a quavering voice, simply said "Thank you." Calm on the outside, trembling on the inside, Cutie walked coolly to the nearest exit, refusing to look anyone in the face.

A few minutes later, the screen mercifully went dark. Gretchen had finally reached the door to the room where the Power Point display was running on the hotel's computer. Inside the room, Little Joe, a look of horror on his face, was frantically bashing keys on the computer, trying to make it stop. Unfortunately, the only result was to freeze the whole thing up. No bashing of keys, no hammering of CTRL-ALT-DEL could stop it. Back in the auditorium, frozen for what seemed an eternity on the screen, a little kitten waved mischievously at the audience. Only when Gretchen traced the power cord to the wall and gave it a yank, did the cute little kitten say goodnight.

***

You might think that Bobbie Kaye would get used to everybody seeing her naked, but she never did. Every time it happened, she went through the same mental anguish. But then, every time it happened, she always managed to recover. Eventually. She had learned long ago that you don't really die from embarrassment, even though at the moment it was happening, you might want to.

The four friends were sitting in a booth in the second floor lounge a little later that evening, trying to decide whether to let the issue drop, or whether to confront Nina. After all, Nina had taken the pictures, so she somehow must have been responsible for the outrageous Power Point display. Beauty was still trying to figure what had gone wrong with the computer, leaving her no choice but to pull the plug.

Even now, Cutie's face was still burning, and she tried to disappear every time someone came into the lounge. She was trying to blend into the wallpaper behind her Beauty, not wanting to face any of the people who had seen her so completely naked. The other bar patrons seemed to pay her little mind as they came and went, though. Nevertheless, she was beginning to think about some kind of payback for Nina.

Beauty and Hottie were very much against the revenge idea, as was Sweetie. Cutie wasn't brave enough to take Nina on alone, so she sat there, sipping a margarita while she pouted, unable to forget what had happened that evening. "We have to do something," she argued. "Look what she did to all of us! It was all just so embarrassing!"

"You know what, Sis?" countered Hottie. "What Nina did to us today? Sweetie got so turned on from it, we both had some of the best sex ever afterwards!"

"I wasn't turned on," Emily said quietly.

"Give me a break, Sweetie!" exclaimed Kristy. "By the time we got to our room, you were wetter than you were in the pool!" Sweetie just smiled, blushing brightly at the memory.

"Look, we need to put a stop to it," reasoned Beauty. "If we retaliate, what's Nina going to do to us next? Revenge accomplishes nothing, it only provokes even more revenge."

"I think we should tie her naked to..." Cutie stopped cold as Nina wandered into the lounge, her face somber. She came over to the table and asked if she could join them. She carefully positioned herself out of Bobbie Kaye's reach.

"I want you to know something," she said in her mild German accent. "I gave you the dissolving bikinis, this is true. But I had nothing to do with those photos showing on the screen like that."

"It was your camera, Nina," reasoned Beauty. "Who else could have been responsible?"

"That is just the problem," Nina explained. "I took the pictures, of course. I thought it would be fun. You like these little games, yes? But when I started to download the pictures onto my computer, all I found were pictures of animals, and a strange bird with a bright red beak."

"An American Red-Nosed shrike?" exclaimed Cutie.

"Little Joe!" Beauty and Hottie announced in unison.

They noticed Sweetie waving towards the door then, and were surprised to see a very depressed looking Joe come in and head for the bar. "Mr. Ridley!" she called out. "Come on over and join us!"

Joe approached cautiously.

"Well?" said Cutie, her face still red with embarrassment.

"Well?" repeated Gretchen, standing now, her hands on her hips.

"Well?" echoed Kristy.

"Oh Mr. Ridley," Emily said with her sweet, sympathetic smile. "What have you done?"

"Well... I... um... uh..." he stammered, "I... um... found the pictures accidentally on my camera..."

"Accidentally?" exclaimed Cutie.

"And I thought, well, I would put them in a Power Point presentation. To enjoy them later."

"You did, did you?" asked Hottie.

"And I saved it to my memory stick."

"Well, you would, wouldn't you?" said Beauty.

"Then Beauty, um... I mean Gretchen, um... I mean Ms. Thompson asked if I wouldn't mind putting the presentation for the meeting on the computer used for the conference room. And she gave me the memory stick with it on..."

"Let me guess," said Gretchen, "the memory stick was identical, and you had called your presentation, 'Presentation 1.'"

"Uh... yes," said Joe, "I wanted an innocuous file name."

"You would," said Gretchen.

"And when the pictures came up, I tried to stop them..."

"And instead you froze the computer," wailed Cutie, "with a giant close up of my kitty-cat on display!"

Joe thought he'd better run for it.

***

The girls said their tearful goodbyes the next day. They had to go their separate ways for now, but they knew time and fate would bring them back together again, one day soon. They were friends for life, were Cutie, Beauty, Hottie and Sweetie, and nothing would ever change that.

And they had a new friend, now, too. Naughty Nina still had all those naked pictures of them on her camera, but Cutie had Nina's naked pictures on her laptop. Naked, and being seduced by four beautiful women! Each side had enough on the other to guarantee peace; "Mutually Assured Humiliation," Beauty had called it. But their parting was friendly, and Nina promised to try and look them all up, next time she was in the States.

Gretchen had fallen behind on her paperwork during the retreat, and she knew she had to face it, even though it was Sunday afternoon. Feeling depressed, she turned away from her computer for a few minutes to admire the view from her spacious office. She looked across at the pool, where Little Joe was no longer tied naked to the bottom of the diving board. Bobbie Kaye had wanted to leave him there, but the others figured that all night had been long enough. Besides, he and Emily had a plane to catch, so he had mercifully been released that morning.

She allowed herself one last smile, savoring the memory of the good bye kiss she'd shared with her Cutie before they had to part. That smile quickly vanished as she turned back to her computer, and was followed just as quickly by a look of horror. Just as her gaze fell upon her monitor, the spreadsheet vanished, and a strange new screensaver appeared. The first image was of Gretchen standing stark naked beside the pool, hands on hips. She had to admit that it was a very good picture, her naked body looking stunning as always.

The screensaver image slowly zoomed in on her gorgeous face, then panned from her face, down past her perfect breasts with their little pink and firmly erect nipples, finally resting on her lovely kitty-cat, neatly shaved and clearly visible for all to see. There was a polite knock on the door just then, and her assistant manager Henry cautiously poked his head inside.

"Yes, Henry?" she said, trying to stand in front of her screen in an effort to hide the image portrayed there.

"Beg your pardon, Ms. Thomson," Henry said politely. "There seems to be... um... a little problem with the hotel computers.

The end