A Fateful Meeting

Barbara's receptionist Jan looked surprised when Lin and I entered her office. "Nine, did Barbara summon you here?" she asked.

"No ma'am," I replied. "We were hoping to meet with her. Lin is interested in becoming a mailgirl. Is she in?"

"Oh, um, no but she should be back in a few minutes. Donna Haverly is handling the Mailgirls applications now so you should probably go see her."

"Lin has a special request to make and we were hoping to see Barbara, ma'am," I said.

"Alright. I suppose you can wait here until she gets back."

Lin settled down on the couch in the waiting area while I kneeled on the carpeted floor. It was at least thirty minutes before Barbara showed up and when she finally did she walked right past us without hesitating or speaking, then entered her office and closed the door. Lin looked over at me nervously then spoke to Jan. "Is she going to see us?"

Jan shrugged her shoulders. "She knows you're here."

We waited for another half hour or so and I was about to suggest to Lin that we leave when Jan looked up from her computer. "You can go in now," she said to us.

We nervously entered the office and found Barbara leaning back in her chair with her arms folded. "On your knees," she barked at me. "You can sit," she said to Lin, pointing to a seat in front of her desk. "Now tell me why you're here."

Lin glanced over at me nervously and then began to speak. She explained to Barbara who she was, her educational background, her job as Stimpy's assistant, and how desperately she wanted to become a programmer and game designer for DDE. The girl speaking now seemed completely different than the one I'd first met this morning. Lin spoke with quiet humility, referring to Barbara as "ma'am," and gave what I thought was an earnest and convincing presentation. If she was roleplaying now she was doing a damn good job of it.

If Barbara was warming up to her, though, it didn't show as she continued to sit silently with her arms crossed. It was only when Lin offered to sign a two year Mailgirls contract in exchange for a written guarantee of being offered a programming job that she began to show a spark of interest.

After Lin had finished speaking Barbara unfolded her arms, leaned forward and placed them on her desk. "Stand up Lin," she said. After she had complied Barbara looked her over briefly then said, "Take off your clothes."

Lin gasped at the sudden directness of the request. "Y-yes ma'am." She began fumbling nervously at the buttons of her blouse and finally removed it and placed it on the chair behind her. Then she kicked off her sandals, and began sliding her tight jeans down her legs. After placing those on the seat she was left standing in a matching bra and thong panties. She reached behind her back and unsnapped the bra and added it to the pile, then quickly slid the panties off. When she was fully nude Barbara twirled her index finger indicating she wanted Lin to turn around. She had a beautiful, well proportioned body with flawless skin and firm, medium sized breasts that hung over a flat stomach. I noticed that she didn't have any tattoos which I knew would be a plus in her favor, and the only piercings were in her ears and navel. Lin hadn't lied, she did look great naked.

Barbara leaned back in her chair and appeared to be thinking about how to respond as Lin stood self consciously before her. She was trembling slightly and was obviously very nervous when Barbara finally spoke.

"Lin, I'm not going to offer you a Mailgirls contract." The disappointment on Lin's face was obvious and as she began to open her mouth to speak Barbara raised a hand to silence her. "I am, however, willing to offer a counterproposal if you're willing to hear it."

Lin nodded her head. "Yes ma'am, of course."

"I'll tell you what I'm willing to do for you," Barbara said. "I'll get you on as an entry level programmer with Gangsta and I'll make sure you are given every opportunity there to prove yourself. If you do well I'll also make sure that career advancement opportunities are made available to you and that you won't be discriminated against."

"Oh thank you ma'am," Lin said excitedly. "You won't regret..."

"I'm not finished yet," Barbara interrupted. "There's more."

"I'm sorry, ma'am."

"We need to discuss your dress code," Barbara continued. "It will be what you're wearing now, minus the earrings, bracelets, and navel jewelry."

A look of shock came over Lin's face. "You mean you want me to work naked? As a programmer?"

"That's right," Barbara replied. "You'll be expected to have the same grooming standards as the mailgirls which means showing up to work at least thirty minutes prior to your shift and showering and shaving in the new Mailgirls locker room. You're not going to be a mailgirl so you won't be assigned a number or an MMU, but you will work naked. Since you'll need to communicate with your co-workers as an equal to do your job you won't be required to adopt the mailgirls' submissive language and you'll obviously be allowed to sit in a chair in your workstation. Anywhere else on the premises, though, you'll be expected to kneel on the floor like a mailgirl. That includes the employee cafeteria." After hearing that I was dead certain that Barbara knew about what had happened today in the cafeteria.

"Um, will this be for the full two years?" Lin asked.

"No," Barbara replied. "You'll need to sign a nudity waiver acknowledging that nudity is a mandatory requirement of your job but otherwise there will be no contract and no time limit. This will be a verbal agreement between the two of us. If you hold up your end of it, I promise you I'll hold up mine."

"So you mean I might have to work naked for as long as I'm employed here at DDE?" Lin asked incredulously.

For the first time since entering her office, Barbara smiled. "I don't know," she said. "Frankly this isn't a scenario I'd considered before so I'm not sure how I'll respond to it down the road. It'll be interesting to find out. If you do well at some point I may release you from the nudity requirement. But, then again, I may not. What I can promise you, though, is that if you do substandard work, flout authority, and bitch and moan about your lot in life here at DDE I'll have you fired in a heartbeat. If you're as good as you say you are though and can prove it I'll make sure the door is open to you for advancement in the company. That's my verbal commitment to you. I won't promise you that you'll ever be allowed to wear clothes again as a DDE employee."

Lin gasped when she heard that. "Well, will I at least get the same bonus as the mailgirls get?"

"Nope. You'll be paid the same wages as any other entry level programmer. On the other hand you'll be free to quit the company at any time without any financial penalties."

Lin nervously slapped the palms of her hands against her bare thighs as she thought about what Barbara was offering her. "Can I have some time to think about it?"

"You have until you leave this office to make your decision. After you walk out that door the offer will be permanently retracted. You'll be free to go back to your old job and hope things work out for the best." Knowing Barbara as I did I was certain she'd make sure that things didn't work out for the best for Lin if she turned down her offer.

As I listened to all of this I was shocked by what I was hearing. Not the "my way or the highway" demand for Lin to make an immediate decision since that was pure Barbara all the way. What stunned me was her willingness to expand female nudity from the Mailgirls program into the general employee population at large. Was this really just a spur of the moment decision as Barbara was claiming or part of a calculated plan that had been waiting for the opportunity to present itself to try out? I had no idea, but what I was certain of was that Lin wouldn't be the last pretty female employee who would be "offered" the opportunity to work naked at her normal job if this experiment with Lin worked out. Barbara wasn't one to be constrained by the limits of the Mailgirls program.

"Okay, if that's what I have to do I'll do it," Lin said with a tremor in her voice and my heart went out to her. She was about to embark on a wild ride and I hoped she was ready for it.

"Great," Barbara said with an air of dismissal. "Now get dressed and go. Jan will have the nudity waiver for you to sign on your way out and will send the paperwork to HR and notify your boss of your new position and dress code. You'll start tomorrow morning at eight. I expect you to be showered, shaved and ready to report to your new position by then."

As Lin quietly pulled on her clothes I began to rise to my feet. For the first time since entering the office Barbara turned her attention to me. "Not you Nine. I'm not nearly done with you yet. Back on your knees."

After Lin had left the room Barbara returned to her desk and began working on her laptop, leaving me there on my knees as my anxiety rose with each passing minute. I don't know how long it was before she finally got up from her desk and walked to the cabinet in the rear of the office. This time, though, she didn't return with a bottle of wine and two glasses. Instead she carried the ball gag and riding crop. I began to tremble as I quickly lowered my eyes and bowed my head in a submissive posture hoping for mercy.

"Nine, you know you're going to be punished now. Do you know why?"

"N-no ma'am."

"You don't? Are you trying to tell me you don't remember what happened the last time you showed up at my office without being summoned? When did I ever give you the impression that you were allowed to do that?" I did remember. It was when I'd showed up unannounced and fully dressed to confront her about her collusion with Kelly to get me into the Mailgirls program. It was the first and only time she'd whipped me. Until now.

"I'm so sorry, ma'am. Lin asked me for my help and I thought..."

"Is it your job now to help every stray that comes along? Or is it your job to obey me?"

"To obey you ma'am," I replied as tears began stinging my eyes.

"And why did you think you were allowed in the employee cafeteria?"

"I didn't know ma'am. You've never said anything about that."

"Believe me, Nine, if I wanted mailgirls wandering into the cafeteria for their lunch break I would have told you."

"Y-yes ma'am. I'm sorry."

Barbara moved around behind me now and placed the ball gag into my mouth. As I felt the straps tighten tears began flowing freely down my cheeks. "It's obvious to me now that I've been much too soft on you lately, Nine. But you will learn to obey me, I can promise you that. Now get into position."

I dropped down on all fours and lowered my head to the floor. "Raise your right foot," Barbara commanded. I braced myself for the blow but as the crop snapped against the bottom of my foot the pain shot through my entire body and I lowered it back to the floor. "That one doesn't count," Barbara said. "Lift your foot back up or you'll get twice as many." I quickly obeyed and this time I was able to hold it up as she slapped it again and again and again. I lost track of how many times she struck it before she moved on.

"Now the left foot." Again the pain pulsated through my body as my tears fell to the floor like rain. When she had finished with my feet she started on my right butt cheek and then the left. After it was finally over she stood over me as I sobbed uncontrollably. She waited patiently until I'd finally cried myself out, then leaned down and said, "I'm going to remove your gag now. Please don't make me regret it." All I could do was nod weakly. I felt the straps loosen and then broke into a coughing fit as she removed the gag from my mouth.

Once again Barbara waited patiently until I finally began to calm down and collect myself. "Return to your kneeling position," Barbara ordered but in a calmer, quieter voice than before. She placed the whip and gag on her desk, then squatted down and held two fingers under my chin as she gently wiped the tears from beneath each eye with her thumb. "Danica, Danica, Danica," she whispered. "So beautiful but so disobedient. I want you to know that I will never punish you like this without cause and when I do you need to understand why I'm doing it."

"Y-yes ma'am," I sniffed.

"I'm not angry that you tried to help Lin. I'm glad you did but you arrogantly broke protocol in bringing her directly to me. Everything goes through Donna's office first and then, if it merits it, up to me at a time that I choose to schedule it. If you had followed the proper chain then I'd have been happy to offer Lin a two year Mailgirls contract and the promise of a programming job afterwards. Instead you made it impossible for me to do that."

"I'm so sorry ma'am."

Barbara reached up and began gently stroking my hair. "I know you are Danica, but being sorry isn't enough. There has to be consequences for your actions. I gave Lin the job she wanted but at the cost of her clothes, maybe permanently. You wanted to help her but ultimately you've probably made things much more difficult for her. We'll have to see now just how badly she wants what she says she wants."

"Y-yes ma'am." Her words were cutting deeper than the whip ever could and I wondered how I could have possibly been so foolish.

"And you knew you weren't supposed be in the cafeteria, didn't you Danica?"

I nodded.

"Say it."

"I knew I wasn't supposed to be in there, ma'am."

"Yet you went in there anyway. You're very lucky that you chose to eat on the floor rather than at the table or things would be much worse for you now than they already are."

"Yes ma'am."

"The last time you disobeyed me so flagrantly you lost your clothing privileges permanently. You realize that your disobedience this time requires another punishment that goes beyond just the short-term pain of a whipping, don't you?"

I hung my head and nodded. "Yes, ma'am. I know."

"Alright then. If you want to eat in the cafeteria then I'm going to give that to you just like I gave Lin what she wanted. You're going to eat your lunch there every day from now on. I'll put a Mailgirls mat in the middle of the cafeteria and you'll eat your lunch on the floor like a dog surrounded by the other DDE employees. But only you. No other mailgirl will be allowed in the cafeteria."

I very much didn't want that but there was nothing I could say or do about it. Barbara continued speaking before I had a chance to respond.

"Danica, I know you've been a little lost and adrift since I took your watch away and gave you an MMU that isn't operational yet and vague orders to carry out. You need structure and control in your life and that really showed today. I'm going to provide that for you."

"Thank you ma'am."

"Good girl," Barbara said and she leaned in and kissed my forehead. "I said earlier that you're going to be my star and you will be. It was foolish of me to think you could ever be just an anonymous mailgirl. Your feathers are much too bright. But I am going to be harder on you than on anyone else. You will learn obedience."

Barbara rose to her feet and stood above me. "Danica, the pain you're feeling in your body right now will soon subside but in its place powerful emotions and feelings will remain. I'm going to leave you alone now to sort through them and I won't be back. Let those emotions flow freely though you, whatever they may be, until they lead you to a place of understanding. Once that happens you're free to leave."

As the door closed behind Barbara I rolled onto the floor into a fetal position and began sobbing again. Powerful emotions began coursing though me just as she had predicted: hate, anger, shock, bitterness, confusion, remorse, contempt for myself and what I was letting her do to me. I let them flow unimpeded until, one by one, they each faded away until only one remained. Love.

I desperately, feverishly wanted Barbara to love me.