Persistent Ch. 03

She wasn't wrong about that. Linda thought that Patricia wanted to be appreciated by her and she let her. She just added that new flavor of her game. She did it slightly in a dominant and humiliating way.

Because of the way Linda did that, Patricia couldn't get rid of some troubling thoughts.

If Linda thought that Patricia was admiring her in different ways, that it was truly a pleasure for her to do such a thing for her or that taking her sweaty panties had some hidden agenda in it, Linda's behavior would have been caused by a terrible misunderstanding. She didn't even think about such a thing.

Until she dwelled on that incident like that. And that thought made her sick. If Linda thought so, she could be thinking that Patricia was a lesbian pervert, seeing her panties as a trophy.

But she wouldn't let her take the panties after that, if that was the case. Unless...

Patricia couldn't believe what she was thinking. If Linda understood it wrong and still let her take them, that meant she was OK with that! Did Linda want to have such a thing with her secretary? Was she into women? Did Patricia give her such a signal without knowing? Patricia was stressed a lot. Her idiotic attempt could have given Linda a false idea which led her to pursue that idea even further.

After that, she felt better when Linda acted cool when she was leaving, until she went in, planning to find her gym bag and the following few minutes.

She was thinking that if Linda left the gym bag on purpose for Patricia, it was unsettling too. In the best case, it would mean that she was demoting her to a laundry lady, as if saying "since you're at it, wash these too". If that wasn't the case, this meant she was...

Patricia didn't know what that meant. She was just infected with the idea that Linda could have left them for her. Those optimistic thoughts became history when she realized there was no gym bag.

When she was on the bus, that was all she could think about. The initially insignificant panties started to become a mystery for her. She was trying to solve that puzzle. She couldn't get rid of the idea that Linda expected her to do something with them. What she could imagine was wrong and nonsense. She couldn't avoid extreme thoughts such as Linda wanted her to smell them or something like that. That wasn't just wrong, it was also repulsive. Such thoughts were also dangerous, she felt it in her guts.

She decided to wash them first thing when she got home. And she did that.

That didn't help her relax. Because, she only avoided considering to do something stupid and unpleasant.

But she still had no answers for her questions. She had no idea what Linda was thinking or picturing at that moment, involving her dirty panties and Patricia, sitting alone in her house.

On Monday, when Patricia entered Linda's office with the nylon bag in her hand, she was leaning back on her chair, legs crossed, looking at the ceiling and listening to Nick, making bored expressions.

"And I could not reach either of you that night!" Nick was walking in the room, swinging the microphone shaped journalism and news award in his hand, which was given to Linda a few years ago, when she was doing field work.

He stopped talking and looked at Patricia when she opened the door. Linda looked at her too, with a subtle smile. Patricia couldn't understand if she was happy to see her or was she smiling because of Nick's funny actions. She kept looking at Linda and wondered if that smile was something else.

"YES?!" Nick shouted at her with an impatient voice. Patricia was startled and she dropped the bag on the floor, looking at Nick in fear.

"I..." Patricia looked at Linda again after starting to talk "I brought your..." while she was reaching down to take the bag.

Nick quickly walked to her, took the bag from the floor and said "OK, you gave it to her, now leave us alone."

Patricia walked out and then looked at Linda again when closing the door. Nick was walking towards Linda and Linda was smirking, looking at Patricia.

Nick was looking at Linda when he was giving the bag to her and he noticed that smirk. He looked at the door and saw Patricia's confused expression. When Linda reached to take the bag, he moved back and opened it to find her panties in it. He looked at Patricia again, she closed the door quickly and Nick looked at Linda to see her indifferent eyes.

"What's this? What's going on?"

Linda didn't answer. She was looking at him, enjoying his disturbed face, waiting to see what he was going to do next.

"Are these yours? Why did she have them?"

Linda's calm stare was irritating him. Nick had no idea what was going on. It didn't mean anything but the look Linda and Patricia shared made him feel like it did. And, how come Patricia had Linda's underwear, if it was hers?

He was concentrated on Linda's weekend and he lacked the imagination at that moment.

"Why aren't you talking?"

"I'm listening to you, Nick. Since the morning. We were at the meeting on both Saturday and Sunday. We had dinner and had some drinks at night. And any part except the meetings is none of your business."

"Oh, it is my business! You are my business." Nick was talking nonsense "You can't have your way with me and dump me aside!" His words weren't making sense. He was thinking that something happened between Steve and her and she was torturing Nick after that.

Linda started laughing. She couldn't help herself "Me? Oh, Nick, you're hilarious. If you feel like you were used by me, that's your problem. You should have known better then, you're a big boy. Nobody forced you to do anything."

She was laughing even more in her head. She was the one who was molested by him. But he was feeling too overwhelmed by his desire for her lately. In a funny way, she was feeling comfortable and free to act as if she was the one who ran the show that night. Or, as Steve said 'played with her food'. That was really fun for her.

Nick's face had a red-purple color when she was saying those things. His idiotic spontaneous sentences were always processed by her immediately, to be fired back at him on his soft spots like that.

She was talking to him as if he was a naive young girl who was used and dumped by Linda.

When he thought about that, he froze. He looked at the closed door, then he looked at the panties in his hand and then at Linda, eyes and mouth wide open. He dropped the panties on her desk and walked out. He looked daggers at Patricia when he walked by her desk.

Linda had no idea what just happened in the last few minutes. She didn't even understand why Patricia was looking at her like that.

When Patricia first opened the door, Linda smiled at her as if she was mocking Nick. When she talked about her panties, that she brought her stuff, she remembered the Friday incident and she was thinking "Good girl."

What she had in mind was that Patricia was a candidate for being a true follower of her, who was trying to impress her boss and leader. She was a good soldier.

When Nick was giving her the bag, he saw the smirk on her face, he knew her newly increasing superior behaviors and he sensed that there was something happening related to that.

When he opened the bag to see its contents and started asking those questions, Linda was thinking if there was anything wrong to let her secretary provide services for her such as washing her underwear, while comparing this with the things Nick had been doing to his employees. She knew that this wasn't professional but she already decided to act along with the toxic environment of this company and its dynamics. She thought Nick figured out what was going on.

Nick, on the other hand, had no idea and he was trying to understand. It was awkward for any person to have another person's underwear or bring them to her. But the exchanged looks on both women's faces made him feel uneasy in a way he couldn't describe.

When he was being owned by Linda's words, his thoughts ended somewhere pretty odd. Suddenly he thought if it was possible that the petite Patricia was Linda's plaything. What if she stayed at Patricia's place and forgot her panties there?

It would be the hottest fantasy any man could think of but not for Nick.

First of all, using women was his thing, especially in that company. All of them, married ones, single ones, young and beautiful ones or old and ugly ones were waiting there to be his. He never thought that there would be any kind of competition for them. They could date, fall in love or even get married with other employees but they were always his to take when he wanted. Was Linda using his tactics to have fun? Did she have an ulterior motive?

Besides, Linda was his Everest and lately, his biggest addiction. Nobody, not even petite and naive girls could go near her in that company to get naughty. Not even for letting themselves be used by her, just for her pleasure, even if they didn't want to. He wasn't going to accept any kind of competition for Linda either.

And finally, what was all her 'happily married' speeches about, telling him that she just had a spontaneous fun at that vacation? Was she having such spontaneous moments frequently? Even worse, was she considering to play for the other team? This would be the worst of all.

If Linda was in fact a lesbian or was considering to be one, that could explain how she ignored his efforts and avoided his top-level confusion tactics, which was good for his ego.

But it would mean that this thing was going to a dead end. That he was never going to have a chance with her again. That he ruined the one and only chance he got at that vacation and he was going to have to live with that forever.

There was also the Steve issue. He had to learn what this was all about. But how?

Linda was still laughing in her office, thinking that Nick was losing his mind because of his love/lust and jealousy for her. That was a fun and good morning for a Monday.

Patricia was sitting at her desk, thinking about Linda's confusing actions or smiles, which started on Friday. She wasn't sure about what Linda expected from her. But she knew how and why she decided to wash her undies on Friday, she couldn't unthink the things she thought.

The ones about not washing them on Friday. And her delusional ideas about what Linda expected from her. That was her mind playing games on her but she still remembered how she got nervous on the bus and how she thought that she had to wash them as soon as she could.

Then it occurred to her that Linda had no idea if she kept them unwashed until Sunday or not. As if that was an issue. Worrying that much about this started to detach her from logic.

She stood up, walked and opened Linda's door.

"Mam, I washed them as soon as I went home. I mean on Friday night."

Linda looked at her for a few seconds, confused about what she was talking about and said "OK, Pat, thank you" and returned to her work, smiling, thinking about how she addressed her, 'Mam'.

Patricia felt uneasy again.

What she said was completely unnecessary and stupid. Linda still could think that she didn't wash them until Sunday for some horrible reason and she lied to her. If the horrible thoughts were true, this time she was going to be upset that Patricia didn't do what she expected her to.

Why did she have to say she washed them on Friday? She hated herself.

Finally, she convinced herself that she drew the line on what she could do and what she wasn't going to. Linda could have appreciated her dignity. Like a lunatic.

Obviously, Linda had no idea about Nick's thoughts involving her and Patricia. She had no idea what Patricia was going through.

She never thought anything sexual about Patricia and she never had any naughty thoughts about the panties spending the weekend with her. If she figured that out, she could have learned new things about the side effects of her behaviors.

Her simple and mostly innocent superiority exercise was causing storms in both Patricia's and Nick's minds.

Linda's next visitor was Steve but as soon as he was in her office his phone rang and he said "Hi and bye" and left, because Nick was calling him.

The whole week Nick tried to learn things from Steve, Linda concentrated on her work, Patricia stared at Linda every time she entered Linda's office or Linda passed by her desk.

On Wednesday, Linda came with her gym bag and left without it. Patricia sat in her place for half an hour to decide what to do about it. Was she testing her, as in giving her another chance? Would it be better if she acted as if she didn't notice that? Compared to taking her gym bag home to wash her things? With all the other questions which weren't still answered?

She entered her office, found her bag, checked its pockets to make sure she wasn't taking any valuable things home. She didn't want to be accused of stealing stuff. She took the bag home, washed them as soon as she was there and brought them back the next morning.

Linda found her bag there, opened it and saw that her tights, t-shirt, socks and panties were all washed and ironed. She smiled to herself and didn't say anything to Patricia.

This was making Patricia go crazy because she had no idea what was going on in Linda's mind.

Nick visited again and this time he didn't talk too much. He told her that Steve told him everything and waited for a response. He was acting like a child, trying to make her talk.

"Nice, did he tell you about our poolside party as well?" Linda loved to make him uncomfortable. He opened his mouth and then closed it and walked out quickly. Probably he was going to Steve to make him talk about the poolside party which never happened. She was mentioning the afternoon poolside cocktails they had.

Linda left her gym bag in the office again on Friday.

Patricia saw her leaving without the bag and stood up to run after her to catch her at the elevators. She wanted to end this.

"Linda! I mean Mam!"

"Yes, Pat?"

"I will take your gym bag home again to wash them, right?"

"If that's what you want..." Linda was being careful about that. She didn't want to hear any complaints such as "She made me wash her undies".

"I thought that you want me to do that."

Linda was alarmed. She thought that this girl was trying to make her admit that she told her to do that. She wasn't. Patricia was just trying to make her change her mind about this, stop making her wash her dirty laundry.

"Why? You told me that you were planning to wash my undies, so I just let you. I thought that was something you wanted to do. Was I wrong?"

It wasn't hard for Patricia to tell her she didn't want that. That would sound like she was complaining about something she offered to do in the first place. She wished that Linda told her she didn't want her to do it at the end of her sentence but she didn't.

"Of course not, it's my pleasure." Patricia was in the same spot once again. Even worse. This time, she told her that it was a pleasure to wash her sweaty and dirty clothes, socks and underwear. This time, she was sure that it really sounded gay, like Patricia was hoping that Linda let her wash them.

She wanted to ask her a lot of stuff about this but she couldn't. While they were standing by the elevator, she was trying to find a question to ask, just to remove some of the unclear parts of that awkward situation.

"Do you prefer me to wash them tonight or on Sunday?" It was completely a nonsense and stupid question and she knew it.

She just asked this to see if she was incubating such stuff in her mind for no reason. She was expecting her to say "Tonight" or "What difference does it make?"

Linda didn't understand the question but she said "Oh I definitely don't want you to do it tonight. It's your weekend, they are all yours until Monday. But if you wait too long, they might stink. I don't want you to think I smell bad." She smiled, entered the elevator and left. Leaving an even more confused Patricia there.

'They are all yours' meaning?

Linda was just trying to make this less disturbing for Patricia. She hardly kept herself from saving her from washing sweaty outfit nonsense but she was trying things and she wanted to see results. She didn't want to be cruel but she had to adjust behaving superior to people. That was part of her new game.

Instead, she tried to act nice to her, for her not to feel that serious about that duty or her belongings. She wanted her to spend the weekend as she liked, not to rush for such a thing and do it whenever she saw fit.

But what Patricia got from those words were different. Linda didn't want her to wash them that soon, she definitely implied something with her words and the last part was completely about smelling. Was she telling her to smell them but not for long? To do it while they smelled good? How could sweaty socks or panties smell good or not bad at any time? And why would anyone smell them?

She was feeling in trouble.

She wasn't going to tell her anything and Linda could think that she did what she wanted. This way, even if Patricia was worrying for no reason, she wasn't going to find herself in an odd situation.

She went home, prepared herself a dinner and watched TV while enjoying her meal. She chatted with some of her friends and went to bed to sleep. As soon as she lied down, the thoughts started to visit her mind again. She already decided how to proceed with that matter, so why was she thinking about it again? She couldn't sleep for a period.

She had such thoughts for nearly a week and the conversation they had strengthened her worries about the expectation of Linda, which was about smelling them, as if doing that was a thing. She wasn't interested in doing such a thing but it was in her mind. Those thoughts were making the contents of that gym bag have some significance.

After about an hour, she stood up and got the gym bag and returned to bed with that. She decided to prove herself that this was awkward and meaningless. And she wanted to remove the mystery about that nonsense she was feeding in her mind.

She opened the bag and inhaled through her nose, without making it look like smelling; she was sitting straight and keeping her head far from the bag in her lap. She was just checking if there was a smell. She was trying to understand what this was about.

Nothing, she couldn't smell anything.

She lowered her face towards the bag and inhaled again. There was a mild perfume fragrance with other subtle smells which weren't disturbing. She lowered her face in the bag and there was no bad smell there.

She took her t-shirt out, which was wet and cold. She didn't like how it felt in her palms. She didn't think about it the previous time she washed them but this time she wished it wasn't cold. Its cool wetness made her feel like it got wet a long time ago and it waited like that. Like it started to rot.

Then she changed her mind. If it wasn't cold, it would feel like it was freshly removed from Linda's body, as if touching another woman's skin. She didn't like that idea too.

She smelled it. It didn't smell bad at all. The perfume fragrance was coming from that t-shirt.

She took her tights and smelled them from a distance. Tights were more disturbing, due to the fact that her genitals touched it and she didn't want to cross that line. That was also wet and cold. This one smelled fresh, the perfume smell was subtle on this one, probably sitting next to her t-shirt.

She put both aside and took the panties and socks.

Panties were the most wet ones. They were cold and soaking. She put them back into the bag and looked at the white socks in her hands. They weren't wet, just mildly moist. They didn't feel cold like the others.

She smelled them from a distance but she couldn't smell anything, surprisingly. She moved them closer to her nose as much as she could without touching them and she felt the smell. It astonished her. It was a friendly smell, not disturbing at all. It almost was a soothing smell. She looked at them for a few seconds and made sure she wasn't repulsed by the idea and then pressed them to her nose, inhaling through them. She was feeling uneasy doing that because this time it felt pleasant. They were her boss's socks, which smelled good. She admired her even more. Not sexually, just for her flawlessness.