Office Perks

by S. L. Siwik

Her eyes widen in shock. “Wow.” A moment later the excitement kicks in. “OMG! Everyone is going to be so jealous of me!”

  I smile widely. “Yes, they will. Are you done with breakfast?” She nods. “Then please put your dish and glass in the dishwasher.”

  Kendal hops up and skips into the room as I fluff the couch cushions.

  Knock Knock

  Is he here already? How did he get here so fast? It hasn’t even been five minutes!

  “Okay, Kendall, I know that I don’t have to say this…but, this is my boss. Remember our manners.”

  “I’ll be good,” she replies.

  I walk over and kiss the top of her head. “I know you will, Little Bee. You’re the best.”

  Knock Knock

  “Coming!” I shout as I run to the door.

  Opening it, I stand in shock at Mr. Townsend standing there with Daniel. I just stare.

  “May we come in?” my boss asks.

  I snap out of my daze. “Of course, I’m so sorry. “ I move out of the way, so that both men can walk into the apartment.

  Blaze’s eyes sweep across the room.

  “I apologize for it being a bit messy.”

  “There’s no need to apologize. Your apartment is lovely,” He murmurs.

  “Hi! You must be Mr. Townsend,” Kendall greets as she runs out of the kitchen.

  “I am. You must be Kendall.” She smiles shyly. Every woman, young or old, reacts the same to this man; they are completely flustered. I’ve seen it hundreds of times over the years.

  Kendall walks over to shake his hand and pride surges in my chest. I wonder if she knows just how beautiful she is, or how articulate she can be for a thirteen-year-old.

  Mr. Townsend looks slightly amused as she holds her hand out to shake his. He takes her hand, turns it, and kisses the top.

  “Handshakes are for men. A lady’s hand should always be kissed in appreciation of her company,” he explains.

  Kendall looks as though she’s about to short circuit as her eyes blink rapidly before she finally grins ear to ear.

  “My aunt says that you’re a really great boss,” Kendall says.

  “Is that so? Well, your aunt didn’t mention just how pretty you are. Are the boys harassing you yet?” he asks in a fatherly voice. My heart swells to a size that I didn’t know it was capable of ballooning to.

  “No, Chelsie gets all of the attention. Aunt Vikkie told me that when they start bothering me to tell her,” Kendall replies.

  Mr. Townsend’s eyes snap up to mine. “I bet she did. Your Aunt is a fierce woman. But, if she can’t talk some sense into them, you come to me. I’ll set them straight.”

  I’m little more than puddle on the floor right now.

  “Aunt Vikkie says that I shouldn’t bother with boys at my age. They’re only interested in one thing, which is the wrong thing. She told me to wait to love a man until I’m ready to get married.”

  I smile proudly. My brainwashing has been effective. Kendall won’t end up a knocked up teenager with her future stolen from her because some boy promised her things that he has no intention of following through with.

  “Your aunt is a very smart woman. She’s absolutely right. You don’t give your heart to a boy until he bends down on his like this.” Mr. Townsend drops down to his knee. “Takes your hand and slips a finger on your ring, then promises you forever.”

  Kendall smiles brightly. Jeezus Christ, save me. My panties are soaked through. My nipples are so taut, they’re poking through my silk blouse. Why did I have to work for this man? Why did I torture myself daily?

  Mr. Townsend stands back up and looks around the room. His eyes zero in on the projects. “You really do have quite a few things to bring to school.”

  “Ahuh,” Kendall beams back. “We were supposed to make one of the Seven Wonders of the World. But, I decided to make all of them.”

  Mr. Townsend blinks in surprise. “Well, then we better start carrying them downstairs. This is Daniel. He’ll be driving us today.”

  Daniel takes his hat off and bows to Kendall who giggles.

  “Hello, Daniel,” I greet him.

  “Looking lovely as ever, Miss Wright.”

  “Go get your backpack, Little Bee. We’ll start carrying everything down,” I tell Kendall.

  She nods and we all spur into action.

  Five minutes later, Kendall’s projects are loaded up into the limousine. She’s fretting about, afraid that they’ll fall over and break. To calm her, Mr. Townsend starts buckling some of the more solid projects into seat belts. This calms Kendall considerably. I sigh, thinking about how he would make an amazing father. He’d be an amazing father to my children. My mind wanders to thoughts of Blaze naked on top of me, pounding into me as I scream out in bliss. No, you can’t go there right now.

  I try to get my mind out of the gutter. It’s easier than it sounds around this man, especially when the small space and heat blasting in the limousine makes his cologne overwhelming. I’m barely more than a panting, salivating animal right now.

  As we drive to school, Mr. Townsend talks to Kendall about her favorite classes in school, and she boasts about her grades. Kendall uses school as her shield to deal with her parents’ death. It’s something no one can take from her. I don’t discourage it. Her education and knowledge is what will put her on the right path on life. Kendall will never end up in the Projects, where her mother and I grew up. I’d sell my body to every single man in this country before I ever let that happen.

  When we arrive at school, Blaze steps out and holds his hand out for Kendall and me, our other hand full of projects. The moment our hand touches, electricity shoots up my arm. It’s always been that way… since my interview when I shook his hand and he kissed it.

  Daniel and Mr. Townsend both take projects as we walk into the school. Kids are staring wide eyed at the limousine; teachers are staring wide-eyed at my boss. If I wasn’t afraid of losing my job, I would have screwed that man senseless the day I met him. But, Kendall needs me in a respectable job. I can’t go back to my old life. I don’t want to either…except when it comes to my boss.

  We carry the projects into her history teacher’s room and the woman looks like she’s about to faint the moment she sees my boss. She’s clutching the edge of her desk so hard that her knuckles are turning white. I can honestly sympathize. It took me a month solid when I started working for him before I could speak in complete sentences.

  “Mr. Townsend, this is…” She brushes hair out of her face as her voice drops. “such an unexpected surprise.”

  He meets her gaze and her eyes widen as he blasts her with his panty melting smile.

  Geez, boss, don’t give my girl’s history teacher a heart attack.

  We line the projects up along the radiator and Blaze turns to Kendall. “It was a pleasure meeting you. Please don’t be a stranger now.”

  Kendall beams widely. “Okay.”

  Oh, Lord. This is bad…very, very bad.

  Kendall turns around and waves good-bye to me. I stopped being kissed in public by her when she turned twelve. I miss it.

  I smile thinly. “Have a great day, sweetheart. You’ll do great. I’ll see you when you get home.” I mouth so no one can hear, “I love you.”

  She smiles and mouths back that she loves me too.

  Mr. Townsend places his hand on my lower back, and I bolt upright at the unexpected touch.

  “Have a great day, Mrs. Richardson,” I say to the teacher who is now trying to inconspicuously fan herself.

  “You too, Victoria,” she says in a squeaky voice.

  I send her a ‘trust me, I know’ look before I’m escorted out of the classroom.

  Once back inside the limousine, I busy myself with staring at my hands, out the door, anywhere than on the man in the car with me.

  I want to laugh at the absurdity of the situation, sitting here and acting like an inexperienced teenager. If someone told anyone from my past that I was acting this w
ay around a man, they would laugh hysterically. Normally, I would own any man in the room. It’s simple really. You have to read a man, read his body language to see what kind of woman he’s looking for. Then you become that woman. Sometimes it not as easy as it sounds and you can only figure out what a man wants after asking some specific questions. But, I’m not trying to shake this man’s moralities by clouding his mind with lust. This one is off limits. He’s my boss, and I need to stay on the straight and narrow for Kendall. She doesn’t need me stepping back into my old life, a life colored in different shades of gray. No, I need to stay in the world of black and white.

  I’ll admit, I’m not that great with black and white, because it didn’t exist where I grew up.

  My phone rings and I fumble with my purse to find my cell phone. In my nervousness and fumbling hands, my bag falls to the floor from my lap. I watch in horror as the vibrator Andrea stuffed in the night before rolls across the limousine floor. I stare at it as it stops rolling right by Mr. Townsend’s feet, and mentally will it to roll back into my purse. I glance up and see my boss’ brows nearly reach his hairline. Oh, hell. Unemployment line here I come.

  I open my mouth to speak, but nothing comes out. What is the appropriate thing to say for this situation?

  To my astonishment, he picks it up.

  “Interesting,” he murmurs.

  I’ve forgotten how to breathe. My subconscious has been shocked into not remembering how to force air in and out of my lungs. Normally, I’d smile coyly, bite my lower lip and say, “Oops.” Then his clothes would be off faster than a horse out of a racing gate. But, that won’t do me any favors here. I hold my hand out to take it back.

  Instead, he turns it on. What is he doing?

  “I like the settings.” The side of his lip curls up in a smile. My mouth drops open.

  “Thank you?”

  “May I ask you a personal question?” His eyes watch me inquisitively. I nod. “What is a beautiful woman like you doing with a vibrator in her purse? You cannot tell me that you have a hard time finding men who’d be willing to spend a night with you.”

  I lick my lips. “I haven’t been with anyone since I started working for you.”

  His brows reach his hairline. “That’s five years.”

  I nod. “I don’t want strangers around Kendall. She needs stability.”

  “But, Kendall is a teenager now, and no woman was meant to be alone…”

  His eyes flicker to mine, and I can’t remember how to breathe. That really smart comeback that I had on the tip of my tongue flies away. I must look like a gaping idiot.

  Mr. Townsend’s cell phone rings. As he pulls it out of his inside jacket pocket to check the number, a condom falls onto his lap.

  He glances down at the wrapper, then up at me. His mouth opens, and then closes. His phone continues to ring. Before he can say a word, I lean over and snatch it off his thigh.

  As I glance at the condom, I’m furious with myself. Five years Blaze has slept with other women. He should have been sleeping with me. Why have I been holding back exactly? If I lose my job, I could find another job easily having worked for Blaze for this many years. I’d be in another desk by the end of the week. So, what’s my excuse for denying this man any longer? Lust clouds my mind as all of my reasons for staying professional with Blaze melt one by one.

  “Did you plan on using this anytime soon?” I ask as my fingertip traces the border of the condom wrapper.

  He opens his mouth, but then closes it. Finally he says, “Well, a man should always be prepared for any situation.”

  I hear the hesitation in his voice and see the wariness in his eyes. Instantly, it pulls me out of my hazy fog. What the hell is wrong with me? This is my boss. What am I talking about finding another job? I don’t have that kind of time, and Kendall can’t have that kind of uncertainty in her future. Have I lost my damn mind? Isn’t enough that I help manage his life? It has to be, because we would never work out.

  “I’m so sorry for what I said, sir. That was completely unprofessional. Forgive me.”

  He looks almost disappointed. But the look is gone in his eyes before I can confirm it. “And I apologize for asking about this. It is none of my business. We’ll just pretend this conversation never happened.”

  I nod. “I think that would be best.”

  He holds the vibrator out at the same time that I hold out the condom and we exchange. I tuck the damn thing back into my purse while cursing Andrea to hell and back.

  Staring at the ground, I say, “Thank you for helping me out today with Kendall. I wouldn’t have been able to do it without you. You really are a fantastic boss. I’m proud to say that I work for you.”

  “Miss Wright,” I shiver at the way he says my name. “the pleasure was all mine.”

  We ride back the rest of the way to the office in awkward silence.

  I take another sip of my coffee before settling into work at my company, Townsend Realty Corporation. My work is strictly with commercial properties- buying and selling.

  I take a deep, cleansing breath before walk back to my desk. I stare at my computer screen, but none of the words make any sense. The only thing I see, however, is Victoria: naked, breasts heaving, splayed across my desk, begging for me to take her.

  What the hell was I thinking talking to her like that in the limousine? Was I trying to lose my secretary? Was I trying to lose Victoria in my life? This is the problem, I realize. I’ve denied myself her for so long that now I’m making outrageous mistakes if it’ll get me one step closer to her. No more mistakes, I tell myself. It’ll have to be enough that she’s in my life and that I am able to see her every day. No more mistakes. Still, maybe I can have a more friendly relationship with her. If we’re friends, then I could be more included in her life. But, sex will have to be strictly off the table. It’s nowhere near enough, but it will have to be.

  I frown, realizing that it’s going to be a long blue-ball filled day. I am sure that my father is rolling over in his grave watching me now.

  It had been a long day at work- a lot of scheduling, faxing, and coordinating. My back hurts from hunching over the fax machine all day. Rubbing my shoulder, I continue typing. Mr. Townsend left twenty minutes ago, ending the day for an early dinner meeting. I never go with him to these meetings, and I hate scheduling them. I miss him when he’s gone and hate that he’s not in the office with me.

  The door opens and an incredibly handsome twenty-something-year-old walks through. He looks like Mr. Townsend’s brother. I check the notes I have made over the years on the Hurley clan to keep them all straight. The picture I have attached to the file tells me that the man before me is Benjamin Hurley the Fourth, Mr. Hurley’s oldest son and only legitimate heir. He’s wearing a faded grey t-shirt that clings to his ripped body and holey jeans with blue streaks through his brown hair. He has the same panty dropping swagger that most men as rich as he is possess and a smirk that says he if wants you, you’re his. If I were ten years younger, I would have likely lost my heart to him, and he would have surely ripped it right out of my chest. Because in his eyes, I see pain- the kind that you spend your entire life trying to bury deep inside to make sure no one sees, so that you don’t appear weak. I know that pain all too well.

  But, even more so, he looks haunted…Like something has happened to him and from the fear in his eyes, I’d say recently, that he wants desperately to run from.

  “Here are the docs you need, Victoria.” He says, placing them down on my desk, giving me a sultry smile. If I knew him better, I’d joke with him, asking how many women’s panties dropped to the floor as he walked down the hall. But, I don’t know him at all, so potentially insulting my boss’ nephew doesn’t seem like the smart way to go.

  “You know my name?” I ask, a little surprised. I don’t have a name plaque on my desk. Only Mr. Townsend does, and it reads just that: Mr. Townsend. No first or middle name. Even on my paychecks, he signs “Mr. Townsend.”

&nbs
p; Benjamin gives me a knowing smile. “You’ve been working for my uncle for five years now. Yeah, I know about you.” But, before I can ask anything else he says, “If my uncle needs to talk to my father during the meeting tomorrow tell him to conference call him. That’s what my father said to say.”

  Without another word, he leaves. What the hell was that about? I glance up at the time and shut the computer screen off and grab my purse. Time to head home.

  I fidget nervously, checking the clock. Five more minutes until she comes in. I check the clock again. Four more minutes. Pull yourself together.

  “Hello, Mr. Townsend.”

  I glance up to see her smiling, looking as sexy as always, before she turns to walk away just like our normal routine.