Office Dynamics Ch. 02: Good Girl

Present Day

It took several minutes sitting in her car, breathing deeply, to calm down enough to actually get out and go upstairs to the office. For the briefest moment that morning, Tabitha had considered not going in at all, or worse case resigning her position. She just couldn't bring herself to pile on to Samantha's problems though. So, after mustering up what little courage she felt was left, she stepped out from the elevator.

Throughout the office small groups of women stood huddled together, chatting in low voices. A few looked up as Tabitha passed by and gave kind smiles. No explicit thank you's or other acknowledgements. Not that she had expected any praise coming through the door. Every woman in the office had just been through a traumatic revelation. It would take time to peel through and uncover just how much damage had been done and to whom.

There were a few people gathered around one of the computers in the desk clumps that Tabitha didn't recognize. Three men, one sitting at the desk typing on the computer and two others watching. They were talking in low voices. One was carrying a tablet and tapping through things while they pulled things up on the screen. The third was taking notes. There was clearly some intense studying of something on the system.

Getting to her office the only thing Tabitha felt she could muster doing was sitting at her desk. She glanced over at the computer and couldn't help but feel revulsion and a deep aversion to ever wanting to use a computer again. Before more tears could come unwelcome to her eyes though, a soft knock at the door sounded. Samantha entered quietly and pushed the door to almost closed behind her. Tabitha stood up immediately but couldn't bring herself to say anything. She just looked wide-eyed at her boss in concern. Samantha's life had just been turned on its head after all, and though it wasn't Tabitha's fault, she had certainly been the instrument for that revelation.

The moment of silence was broken when Samantha walked behind Tabitha's desk and embraced her. This was just too much for Tabitha. Her own arms wrapped around Samantha and she felt her emotions surge, tears again staining her face.

"I'm so sorry, Sam." She was whispering it into the other woman's ear as they embraced.

"Sweetie. Sweetie, sweetie. There's no reason to be sorry. You did everyone here a service by exposing him." Samantha pulled back just a bit and put Tabitha's face in her hands, looking her in the eyes. "I'm just so sorry that I wasn't doing my job to protect all of you."

They spent a few minutes just hugging and crying in the privacy of the office before there was another soft tap at the door. They pulled apart slightly and Ashley poked her head through the door.

"Sorry, Sam. Mr. Sekham said it's time." Ashley sounded as worn down as Tabitha felt.

Sam just looked over and nodded. Taking Tabitha's hand the two women went out into the bullpen of desks. Samantha left Tabitha standing among the other women and walked to the front of the room where Andrew Sekham, the chairman of the board, stood with three or four other women that Tab assumed were also board members.

"Alright. Thank you, everyone, for coming in today. I know it was probably more difficult than normal to trudge to the office. Firstly, I would like to apologize to all of you." Andrew's voice wasn't boisterous. Tabitha noted that the tone of his voice gave off genuine sincerity. When he said he was sorry, it wasn't a corporate bigwig feigning with a smile to win anyone over. The look in his face and eyes seemed to be genuine.

"We should have protected you all. Please don't think of this as Samantha's failing. She is as much a victim as any of you may have been. Firstly, please take note of these three individuals," Mr. Sekham raised a hand, motioning to the three gentlemen across the room that Tabitha had noticed earlier. "They are from an independent tech firm we have hired to come in and exterminate whatever Mr. Townsend was doing in our systems. I understand it was a program that was affecting some of you but, to be honest, I don't fully comprehend the extent of how it operates. So, these men will be combing through every machine and cleaning out anything that has Liam's fingerprints."

Tabitha did her best to control her expression. She'd already made the decision that she would not be using the work provided computer and would instead go get a laptop to work on. Something that had never been touched by Liam.

"A second thing," the voice up front brought Tabitha back out of her head, "the board and I realize there may be longer standing affects to these matters. As such we have brought in Dr. Mandy Foster. She is a psychologist who specializes in hypnosis and trauma. It is my hope that we get to the root of any anxiety any of you might be feeling. We want this to go back to feeling like a safe environment for you all."

After some more reassurances, the morning moved on. Tabitha returned to her office but did not get much done. Regardless of the events they had a deadline to get their project done but finding the motivation was difficult. There was a knock at the office door.

"Knock, knock. Hope I'm catching you at a good time." A small red headed woman stood in her doorway.

"Oh, um...no. I mean, yes. I'm not getting much done today." She looked at the woman in the door and considered her for a moment. "I'm sorry, who are you?"

With a warm smile she introduced herself, "Dr. Foster, but you can call me Mandy. You are my first appointment today."

"Of course. Yes, please, come on in." Tabitha stood and held the door open for Mandy, closing it once she'd entered. Mandy stepped over to the small loveseat that sat against the back wall of the office and took a seat, Tabitha pulling over a chair and turning it to face the couch. They sat in silence for a moment, Mandy's legs crossed in her skirt and hands clasped in her lap. Tabitha just sat, waiting, unsure what to say or how to start.

"You've been through quite the ordeal. I specialize in cult studies, brainwashing, hypnosis and trauma. I want you to know my goal, which is to pinpoint the triggers and isolate the thoughts in your mind to identify what is natural to you, and what is a manipulation."

Tabitha considered this for a moment. She thought back to the night previous. Getting home and changing into lingerie, the sense that she needed to wait for someone. She expressed as much to Mandy.

"Precisely," Mandy responded, "those are intrusive thoughts. Inductions that lead to triggers. I'm going to help you isolate those, work through them and reverse some of the programming that has been done to your brain."

"Programming?" Tabitha blinked, it was the first time she'd thought of these events in those terms.

"Precisely. You see, hypnosis is not a golden gun. I can't simply put you into a trance and have you wake up a bimbo. Strong changes to personality take time and slow, deliberate influence to emotional and mental responses to external stimuli. If the sky is blue and I wanted you to believe it was orange, I couldn't do that in a single hypnosis session because your brain would overwrite the impulse. If I wanted you derive pleasure from pain, it takes time and external stimulus to change the emotional and physical responses."

Tabitha had a flashback to being bent over her desk, a hand smacking her exposed ass. For the briefest moment, she almost moaned out loud imagining it. The thought also turned her on and she shifted uncomfortably in the chair. Mandy noticed.

"You were thinking back to something, weren't you?" Tabitha didn't respond, merely blushed a bit. "I apologize, to work through these things you're going to need to get a little uncomfortable mentally. To heal a wound we have to clean it out first."

Tabitha merely nodded. She understood but it didn't change her discomfort.

"To get you in a good headspace, let's go ahead and get you comfortable physically, huh? Go ahead and take off your clothes, sweetheart."

Tabitha almost sighed with relief. In moments she had tossed her blouse and skirt over her desk and was kneeling next to Mandy's legs in only her lingerie. The same lingerie she'd put on the night prior.

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Tabitha didn't bring up ever to Samantha what she'd witnessed the week prior with Liam. She chalked it up to a secret office relationship that was really none of her business and moved on. The rest of the week was troubling for her for other reasons though. After that night where she'd lost several hours after work of just sitting in her office, there was of course concern. She carefully the next few nights documented what time she was ending her day.

5:05, 5:20, and 5:30 the rest of the week. Each time, there was a strange fifteen minute lull from the time she documented to the time she logged off her computer. The last night she wondered if maybe she was hallucinating or having some sort of psychotic episode. Tonight she wanted to be certain what was going on.

Locking the door to her office, she then took her phone and propped it up on the desk with the camera pointed at her chair. 5:45. She'd purposefully waited a little longer this evening to make sure she was the last one in the office. Then she sat, and looked around. Nothing odd in the ceiling or along the windows. Not that she knew what she was really looking for. Maybe a device or camera of some kind but there were no obvious signs. She glanced at the computer and touched around the edges of the screen. It was solid, no obvious signs of tampering.

Sighing to herself, there were no big red flags popping out to her attention. She looked at the time and then reached over and hit record on her phone.

"It is 5:53pm on Monday." She declared it to the camera and then took the mouse in hand and clicked on the Identity program for it to run. The next time she looked at the digital clock it was 6:08. Once again, fifteen minutes suddenly gone. She glanced down and nothing was different. She hadn't moved out of her chair and the computer was logged out. Same as always.

She glanced at her phone. The screen was dark. Unlocking it she immediately went to the gallery app. There was a video as she expected but why had it turned off? She tapped the video. It was only five minutes long. That didn't make sense to her as she hadn't set a timer and had recorded longer video on a few occasions so it definitely didn't have an auto shut off. Tapping the video it started to play.

She watched herself on the small screen as she announced the time and then heard the clicking of the mouse and then...nothing. The her in the video was just sitting there. Staring. Tabitha tapped the phone so the player controls popped up and sure enough the video was still playing. She had just sat there. Sliding her finger she moved through the video but nothing changed. At 3 minutes sitting and staring. 4 minutes, sitting and staring. She watched the last 30 seconds of the video and started to genuinely question her own sanity for a moment. Then she heard a sound come from the phone. It had sounded like her office door opening and closing but she had locked the door. There was no other sound though. No movement on the screen, just her sitting and staring. Until the last five seconds.

The Tabitha on screen suddenly seemed to come to. She turned her face to the phone, no expression to really speak of. Then her hand reached out and seemed to come toward the camera before the video stopped.

Tabitha, the present Tabitha, looked perplexed. She slid the video back again to the last twenty seconds. The sound she had heard. Then nothing for a dozen seconds. Then her turning off the video. Her turning off the camera? She didn't remember turning off anything. Why didn't she remember that? Also, clearly she was moving for those other ten minutes she'd lost.

A small panic started to form in her chest and her breath was picking up. She scanned the room again. Nothing was changed. Glancing at the door, she had to be sure what she heard. Getting up and walking around her desk she reached a hand out to the handle and tried to press is downard. It didn't move more than a few millimeters up or down as it was still clearly locked. So the door hadn't opened. What had the noise been then?

Tabitha sat back behind the desk, her elbows propped up on top and ran her fingers through her hair. She had to be losing her mind. Going crazy. Clearly she was losing time at the end of the day every day but it didn't seem like it was anything but her causing it. The anxiety built up and panic was setting in. She just had to control her circumstances and not let this random psychotic episode affect her work. Ignore and push through, that was the answer.

Grabbing her purse and phone, she steeled herself and took a deep breath before exiting the office. Sure enough, nobody was there. As she crossed the hall where the executive offices were on the way to the elevators she glanced once again to the end toward Samantha's door. It was closed tight and she didn't hear anything. Even if she had, Tabitha had decided it was absolutely none of her business and to not risk snooping again. Instead getting onto the elevator and getting out to her car.

Tabitha did her best to ignore the anxiety building in her mind. Nothing seemed to work though. She tried cooking which normally relaxed her at the end of the day. Even had a glass of wine while watching some reality tv shows. Through it all though something just itched in the back of her mind. Frustrated, she decided to take a shower.

Going into her closet, she disrobed down to her bra and panties. Glancing at herself in the full length mirror that was against the back wall of her closet she couldn't help but grimace a bit. Her body was not out of shape by any means. She definitely wasn't what she would call fit, though. At least not like the toned body that she had noted on Samantha the week prior. She also pictured the lingerie Samantha had been wearing. It was classy and sexy. Very unlike her own collection of underwear. The plain blue bra and mismatched panties just sort of on her and not flattering anything.

Tabitha had always felt she'd had good assets. Her breasts were a nice C and gave her a nice figure. Had always kept in just enough shape even as a teenager. Maybe the anxiety in her was just around comparing herself to all the beautiful women she'd been around for the last week. Such a shameful feeling, she was frankly embarrassed. Tabitha had never compared herself to other women like this. Something about so many of them in proximity though was clearly having an effect.

It took a few minutes of digging through her drawers to realize that really none of her underwear or garments was what she would construe as "sexy". They were all things she'd bought as part of "5 pairs for $X" sales over the years. She couldn't even think of a time she'd been in a store that had the types of lingerie that Samantha had been wearing.

Forgetting about the shower, Tabitha went to her bed and plopped down to sit on it, pulling her laptop up from her bedside table. A quick search found her several different lingerie sites. She wasn't sure where the assurance was coming from in her mind, but it was like the decisions were automatic. She saw sets of lingerie and just knew that she should have that in her closet. Over and over again across several different sites adding things to carts.

Tabitha blinked, focusing for the first time she realized in awhile. It almost felt like the whole experience was on autopilot. She realized she'd been shopping for several hours and bit her lip. Usually, Tabitha was incredibly frugal and careful with her spending. She clicked over to her bank website and pulled up the checking account she'd been using. In total she'd spent almost $1,800 in the last few hours on lingerie, new teddies and babydolls for sleeping, and corsets. She'd never ordered anything like these items previously, and normally spending that much would make her panic. Tonight though, it felt like she was supposed to. She deserved it after all. She worked hard. She had bought a condo young during the market fall and was spending less than any of her peers that she knew of on rent or mortgage. She never really splurged on herself and this was long overdue.

Right? The justifying thoughts flooded into her head, almost to purposefully bury any anxious thoughts Tabitha might have normally had about spending. She closed the bank tab and took a deep breath, satisfied with herself at the purchases, then went and started the water to the shower before peeling off the rest of her underwear and tossing it to the floor.

It was the first time she realized how excited she was thinking about all those outfits. About how good she'd look. About how good Samantha had looked. How sexy she had been that night. The water streamed over and fell down her skin. The heat between her legs more apparent than the water or steam. Tabitha really wasn't much of a sexual person. She had sex when she felt like it. Was attractive enough to go out and find a guy whenever she wanted for the most part. The last few years she had focused on her career and hadn't really dated so every few months there had been some random guy or another.

The sex was never particularly great. Rarely did she feel as turned on as she did randomly that night standing in the shower. Imagining what Samantha had done. Only instead of Samantha bent over at her desk it was herself. Tabitha had never allowed any man to spank her before, it was never appealing. As she leaned against the stone wall of the shower though, the only image in her mind was of her bare bottom sticking out toward a man. Of a firm, strong hand coming down against her skin and smacking against her. Her own moan sounding out as the pain emanated through her body.

It wouldn't be her fingers playing with herself like they were in the shower. It was a man's hand. His thick masculine fingers prodding her and slipping into her wet pussy instead of her own. She would find herself, as Samantha had, on her knees in front of him and a cock hovering over her own face. The orgasm hit her hard and fast. Her whole body shook as she continued to play with her clit. The strength of her legs giving out so that she dropped down to her knees, just as she was in her fantasy, fingers still playing with herself, one hand moving from between her legs and moving up to her breast to play with her nipples.

For the second time in a week, she had multiple orgasms in a night. For the second time in her life. They were so accessible and easy to get to where normally getting even one took effort. After the third one it was all she could do to brace her upper body with a hand against the wall and keep from collapsing down onto the shower floor entirely. The heat not gone from between her legs, if she wanted there were more orgasms. She was simply too exhausted to take them.

The next day at work, the concern about the missing time from her day seemed to be less important. The day just felt better after her night of such intense orgasms. Her team seemed to start really vibing and they were pushing through material and design at a quick pace, well ahead of schedule. During a budget meeting in the afternoon Tabitha showcased the project and timeline updates. Samantha just winked at her and mouthed "Good girl". The grin on Tabitha's face at that praise was genuine. She wasn't certain why it felt so good to receive that, but she appreciated it. Wanted to gain more of it.

It drove her over the next few days to achieve that same recognition from her superior. To please. The mystery of the time lapse all but gone from her mind. What was a few minutes of the day after all?

Packages started arriving at her condo as well. A dozen of them stacked up at the door when she got home from work. The giddy feeling in her was one she hadn't felt since maybe her first crush in junior high. She practically ran up the stairs to her room, arm loaded with packages and boxes and immediately got to work. All the underwear she currently owned went into a trash bag, bras included. She also threw out all her pajamas. Then got to work unpackaging her new collection. Thongs, boyshorts, cheeky, hipster, bikini styles. She clipped the half a dozen new corsets onto hangers as well as the new teddies and babydolls she would now be sleeping in.