Office Politics Ch. 05

Here's another chapter. More plot than sex this time. Thanks again to Panaflora for proofing and suggestions.

K

~

Lou was at Jess's desk along with a new face. "This is David, he's going to be based here for the next few weeks, while we agree on the financial outline for the summer collection."

"Hi Jess."

He was a slight man, with tight curly hair and dark almond eyes that glittered warmly when he smiled. The first thing she noticed was that he was very good looking, the second thing was his accent. He sounded like he was from Manchester, like Lauren.

"Jess is my new assistant, David."

Although he was wearing a suit like every other man in the office, it was subtly different. More stylish somehow. When she got a closer look, she realised it wasn't black, or grey or navy, the fabric was a dark brown pinstripe. His shirt wasn't the crisp white she associated with the office wear either, it was cream and it really suited him.

Because he'd worked at the company for a while, everyone else knew him already. He seemed to get on with everyone well, but David and Jess clicked almost immediately. Jess enjoyed working with him immensely. It was more creative than her usual role, but that wasn't the only reason. They just 'got' each other. Before long, they were eating lunch together everyday. They talked about everything, well almost everything. David talked about his love life all the time, happy to confide about all his office crushes, or his latest adventures on Grindr, but Jess hadn't mentioned the thing with Gabriel. She felt uncomfortable talking about him, because they worked together.

David was so beautiful, that sometimes while he was talking Jess was so entranced by staring at his lips, or his eyes, or admiring his flawless skin that she lost track of what he was saying and had to ask him to repeat himself. But most of all he made her laugh, she couldn't remember the last time she'd laughed so much. She was sad David wasn't going to be there beyond two weeks.

*

It was Tuesday, and Jess was sitting in reception, chatting to Iris, waiting for Joanie.

The planned visit was finally happening. Joanie was due to arrive in a taxi at twelve. She was bringing a selection of clothes to show them, and some photos from her time working in Mary Quant's famous boutique on the King's Road.

But Jess was starting to worry, it was nearly ten past, there was no sign of the taxi, and Joanie wasn't answering the phone. Iris was reassuring Jess, and rationally Jess knew it was too soon to panic. Joanie often didn't answer her phone, she wouldn't be able to hear it if she had it in her bag, or see it flashing. But Jess could still feel a tightness building in her chest.

At last a car pulled up out front. Joanie emerged with perfectly set hair, carefully applied make up, all decked out in her favourite jewellery. She was carrying bags in both hands.

"I'm so sorry we're a bit late dear."

The driver, who had already taken Joanie's bags and was carrying them into the foyer, explained about the burst water main on Horn Lane, while Jess took Joanie's arm.

They went upstairs and put everything on the table in the boardroom. Jess showed Joanie around, introduced her to the girls, then checked out the Kitchen and Jess's desk.

"Who does that office belong to?" Joanie asked, pointing at the currently empty glass box in the corner.

"That's Gabri... Mr. Hunter's office. He's head of operations."

"He must be very important, to have his own office I mean."

Jess smiled. "Yes I suppose he is."

They went back to the boardroom. The CEO George arrived, looking dashing in another one of his tweed suits. Then David and Lou, and finally lots of enthusiastic interns from the Fulham office that Jess didn't really know. David went off to fetch one of the more comfortable seats from Lou's office for Joanie to sit on. Joanie tried to say it would be fine, but he insisted.

Finally, Joanie sunk down into the armchair. She reached into a bag and drew out a vibrant green dress, one of the very dresses Jess had almost worn to the stakeholders event in fact. Soon enough the board room was awash with colour. Clothes draped or hung on every surface, Mary Quant, Kiki Byrne, Jean Varon. Ancient, washed out, yellowing photos were spread over the large beech table.

Joanie's eyes fell closed as she ran her fingers over the fabrics and fondled the buttons. Pretty young women poised with pens waited, while Joan seemed to disappear off into her own secret world for a long moment.

Then she started to talk.

Joanie painted a picture so clear and bright, so vivid and detailed, that everyone in the room appeared to hang on every word, and Jess saw a different side to Joanie. She was transported to the King's Road in the 60's, a world so vibrantly painted that when Joanie finally got around to opening the first of the photo albums, the images already seemed familiar.

And Joanie, perched in the centre of it all, was holding court like a queen, telling stories, of being a sewer and sometimes a dress model, of the days when Mary Quant ruled Sloan Street and how The King's Road felt like the centre of the universe, of a vibrant epicentre of creativity and excitement. She told them all about how they used to dress, how she worked in the shop at all hours before she got married. She told them of the wild, extravagant parties, and of the increasingly shorter hemlines and the moral outrage they provoked.

Everyone was entranced. And Jess was shocked at her own emotional response. She felt oddly jealous. She had never seen these pictures before, nor heard these stories. This was a part of Joanie she had no idea existed until the day of the stakeholders event, and she wasn't sure she was ready to share this new Joanie with everyone else.

"I like this faded look," George said thoughtfully,

David was nodding, a small frown on his brow. "We could bring this look to our next catalogue. What do you think Lou? I wonder if this is something we could replicate?"

"The faded look?" Lou asked. "How would we do that? Filters?"

"A slight overexposure would be better," Jess told them. "What kind of camera equipment do you use to shoot the catalogue? Probably digital," she added, answering her own question. "You might want to consider shooting in analogue. It would be a very different process, but it would be more authentic. It would bring a lot to the table."

"Do you know about photography Jess?" George asked.

Joanie jumped in before Jess could answer. "Yes, Jess has a real gift."

"It's true," Lauren added in her no-nonsense way. "I've seen her Instagram feed, she's an awesome photographer."

For the first time that day, all eyes in the room fell on Jess. She squirmed in her seat.

"You really look like Jess in this photo Joanie," David said, "or rather I should say Jess looks like you. Your hair is a little darker, but you have a similar bone structure."

George agreed.

It was at that point Jess realised Gabriel had slipped into the room without her noticing. He was standing back from it all, arms folded, leaning against the wall by the door; watchful and quiet.

She wondered how long he'd been standing there for.

She tore her eyes away from Gabriel, and looked over at her gran. She was having a quieter conversation with David, they were studying the fabric of one of the dresses. There was a light in Joanie's eyes that Jess hadn't seen of late, but she also looked pale and drawn. She had stayed much longer than they'd originally planned.

"Shall I bring you a cup of tea Gran, and then we should make a move. We don't want to wear you out." She shot Lou a meaningful look, hoping for support in the face of the resistance she was sure was going to follow.

"But I'm having such a lovely time dear."

Before Jess could reply, George spoke. "Well you must come back Joan, I haven't had this much fun for ages."

Joanie's face lit up. "I'd love to."

They were sitting in the lobby waiting for the taxi to take Joanie home, when Lou came and joined them. "Jess, do you want to take the rest of the day off?"

Jess felt relief surge through her. She realised how worried she'd been about Joanie getting home, just the journey down in the lift seemed to have worn her out. Maybe this visit had been too soon.

"Thank you Lou, I'd really appreciate that."

"Actually, it was Gabriel's idea. He thought you might want to go with Joanie, and make sure she gets home alright."

"Oh!"

"Right?" Lou grinned and shrugged.

Joanie talked all the way home in the cab. "It must be a great place to work."

"It's not that exciting, rather dull actually. The Fulham office is where all the design happens, we're more finance and administration, but Lou and David are lovely, and George seems nice."

They pulled up in front of the house, and for a few minutes the questions stopped while Jess helped Joanie through the door, and into the lounge.

"And the man at the back?" Joanie asked when she'd got her breath back. "The good looking one in the corner who didn't speak. Who's he? Oh, you've gone red as a beetroot, Jess, I thought I saw a change in you when you noticed he'd arrived."

"Gabriel Hunter, he's the head of operations, which seems to mainly involve organisation and day-to-day logistics."

"Oh he's the one with his own office? Well he's very good looking whoever he is. Is he always like that? Quiet and brooding?"

Jess frowned. "Yes he is." And then, "I'm going to heat some soup, you must be exhausted after all that excitement."

"Would you bring me a cup of tea too, love? I'm parched."

After she'd got the soup on, Jess returned to the lounge with Joanie's tea, but she'd fallen fast asleep. When the phone rang, Jess rushed to answer it, but Joanie didn't stir.

"Katie, hi!" Katie was Jess's older sister. She lived in Guildford with her husband and two children.

"Hi Jess, how's everything going?"

"It's great." Jess sunk down on the arm of the sofa. "But Joanie came into my work today, and now she's fallen asleep in the chair. She's out cold, she didn't even stir when the phone rang. I'm worried she's overdone it."

"Oh, I'm sure she's fine. The consultant did say she was ready to go out and start doing things, and she was so excited about going, Jess, she's been talking about it nonstop for weeks."

"Hmm."

"How are you anyway? Joanie has been worried about you, she thinks you're not getting out enough."

Jess laughed. Typical Joanie. Always worrying about other people.

"She can come and spend the weekend with us if you need a break, or next weekend if that's better?"

"This weekend is fine."

*

It was the following afternoon and she was in the kitchen when suddenly, Jess's skin prickled with awareness.

"It's Joanie isn't it?" Again, Gabriel's voice was closer than she'd expected.

She spun round. "Sorry?"

"Your gran, she's the reason you don't want to stay the night."

"Kind of." She mumbled.

"Why didn't you say?" He absently brushed a stray hair out of her face.

Because it's none of your business, she thought to herself, but instead she said, "I didn't think you'd understand."

Gabriel's eyes narrowed, but he didn't speak.

Jess opened the fridge, and pulled out her lunch. He rested a hand on her arm, she stilled.

"Will that keep?"

She frowned.

"Let me take you out for lunch."

"Oh!" Jess looked down at her soup, and back at him.

She looked at her watch. "Okay then."

He took her to the nice cafe on the corner, the Italian place. She'd never been before, because it looked so pricey. They managed to grab the only remaining table and sat facing each other. For a moment neither spoke, they just watched each other. It was strange seeing him outside of the usual places; the office, his apartment, the interior of his car. Despite the initial suggestion of dinner, they had never been anywhere, apart from work and bed. Seeing him here, in this restaurant, where the light was different, in a more casual setting, she was struck anew by how handsome he was, how striking, how confident.

"Can I take your order?"

She looked up, the young, pretty waitress was waiting expectantly with a small note pad.

"I'll have the steak," Gabriel said, "medium rare."

The waitress looked at Jess.

"Erm," she looked at the menu and realised she had no idea what she wanted.

"You'll like the beetroot and feta salad," Gabriel suggested.

"Oh, thanks, yes I'll have that please."

"And we'll have a bottle of the Viognier if you have it," Gabriel said, handing back his menu. He turned to Jess. "I've been meaning to take you here for a while, this is one of my favourite places to eat."

Surreptitiously, she glanced at her watch. She wanted to ask how long it would take for the food to arrive.

"I know you have a meeting with Lou at 2.15, but you don't have anything scheduled before that?"

"No" she frowned, thinking, how did he know that? "But I need to get on with the ... "

"That doesn't have to be in till Tuesday."

Her mouth fell open.

"I'm the head of operations Jess, I can see your schedule, and I know about your deadlines."

Before she could reply their food arrived and he was right, the beetroot and feta salad was delicious. The waitress arrived with a bottle and poured a small amount into Gabriel's glass. She watched while he took a mouthful, his eyes fell closed for a moment, when he opened them, he nodded. He was even sexy when he was tasting wine.

"Delicious."

The waitress filled his glass and then went for hers. She covered it with her hand.

"No thank you," she smiled.

After the waitress departed Gabriel picked up the bottle and filled her glass.

"I can't drink while I'm at work."

"You can, I am the COO, and I'm giving you permission. Besides, it's just one glass, it's not going to affect your performance."

She took a sip. "It's lovely."

"It's a French grape, but this particular wine is grown in Italy. It usually has quite a fruity palette but it seems to become more floral when it's grown in Tuscany. I don't usually drink white wine, but I make an exception for this."

"I like it."

"Good, a full bodied red would have suited our food more, but I find it too heavy in the day. So, you live with your gran?"

Startled by the sudden shift in their conversation, Jess looked down at her plate. "Yeah, she just had a hip replacement. She needs someone around while she recovers."

Under the table, Gabriel's knee pressed against her thigh. "And she is not well enough to be left overnight."

It took Jess a moment to find her words. "Not after I've been at work all day."

"But on the weekend?"

She met his gaze, and nodded. His face lit up. Her stomach clenched.

Her salad was nice, but his steak looked really good. As though Gabriel could read her mind, he skewered a piece with his fork and offered it to her. When she reached for it, he pulled it away, and she realised, with a rush of heat to her face, that he meant to feed her.

She met his gaze and found he was grinning. He proffered the fork again.

She released an exasperated sigh, and leaned towards him, and in a moment dripping with sexual tension, he popped the meat into her mouth. It was as tasty as she imagined it would be; succulent, cooked to perfection. She swiped a chip off his plate, before he insisted on a repeat performance.

*

The bill arrived on a plate, discreetly tucked into a leather wallet, but Jess managed to catch sight of the total before Gabriel grabbed it. It came to over a hundred pounds. He took out his card.

"Let me get half."

"No."

"Gabriel."

"My steak was much more than your salad, and I'm pretty sure all this cost a hell of a lot more than that soup in the fridge."

Jess narrowed her eyes at him.

"If it makes you feel better, I'll put it on expenses."

She sighed, but agreed to let him pay. He was right, it was much more than she would normally spend on lunch.

*

They were nearly back at the office, when he stopped, pushed her into a doorway and pressed a leg between her thighs. She hissed his name. He gripped her buttocks with his hands and pulled her towards him. She could feel his erection through his trousers.

"Gabriel," she groaned. "Someone might see."

He released her, and she pushed her hands in her pockets and marched off. Of course he had no trouble keeping up.

"And while we're on the subject, you need to stop with the public displays of affection at work," she told him, through gritted teeth.

"But, if you won't give me what I want, I know I can get to you that way, and besides," he grinned, "I love seeing how much of an effect I have on you."

She felt her face heat. "Stop it. It's not appropriate."

"There's an easy solution Jess. Give me what I want."

Jess sighed. What did she want?