And then, it's just another day at the office

"Frank!"

"Brand! Good to see you around the office for a change. How is..."

Vanessa's heart pounded. She tried to **** her activities out of her head, to gather herself as she allowed the men their little macho exchange. Frank Thomas was senior even to her and Brand, a shorter, portly, balding man that possessed an amazing amount of energy despite his advancing years and round appearance. His typically friendly demeanor was well known by those that had worked with him to be carefully and willfully cultivated. When occasion called for it, he could bring out another personality that could cut like a surgeon's scalpel.

Finally Brand was out of her office, but the tension in Vanessa's shoulders didn't lessen one bit.

"Vanessa! You never age a day! Tell me," Frank gestured broadly at her desk, that she had never had an opportunity to organize, "Is all this too overwhelming? I know that you've been given a monumental task in being a part of trying to structure our recent acquisitions into something that is unified and gainful. Tell me, in broad terms, what...

Vanessa concentrated as best she could on Frank's words, still feeling half-dazed. His idea of 'broad terms' became more and more specific. She wracked her brain for details of half-remembered statistics and concepts of theoretical hurdles, comparisons to old challenges that she could relate to, trying to relay confidence and competence while at that moment feeling neither.

"Yes, leasing practices in those regions can be quite tricky. Cortland and Perry brought that up as well. You all make a good point, I'll have to talk to..."

"Cheryl? Ah, yes, I remember - your secretary. A great asset! So wonderful to see a woman in her position take more initiative than simply arranging dates and putting on a fresh pot of coffee..."

"What a fascinating vision for that! But don't you think..."

Vanessa collapsed back in her chair, unconsciously rubbing her itching breasts through her blouse, flaking off bits of slowly drying biology underneath. Frank had never shown anything but his friendly side, and still she felt like she had been roasted over hot coals. What the hell was she going to do? Not wanting to even think about the work in front of her, she idly opened her inbox out of habit. As always, new e-mails awaited her... but one stood out.

Looking around furtively, like she wasn't all alone in her office, Vanessa clicked it.

Ms. Lockley,

I'll be stopping by your office around 4:30. Thank you for offering me a ride and a place to stay - as we discussed earlier I never had cause for anything but rental cars and temporary residence until now. I'll take you up on that home-cooked meal you promised. Let me know what you're thinking of making when we meet.

Thanks,
Brand Barrington

Vanessa carefully moved a stack of papers to the side, clearing a small spot on her desk. She moved the evidence Brand had left with her into her bottom file drawer, and locked it.

She lifted up her phone, pressing a single button.

"Cheryl? Hold any calls for the next fifteen minutes if you please? Then let's be ready to resume work. ... Yes, thank you Cheryl. Alright, see you then."

Vanessa took a tissue out of her drawer, laid it down on the spot she had cleared, and then took one more and set it aside. She placed her forehead on the tissue she had laid flat, and began sobbing.

Vanessa stopped crying and started trying to fix herself well within the time she had allotted for her self-indulgence. First came another redo of her eye makeup. Then, without a better idea, she splashed coffee on her stained skirt, hoping the brown liquid and darker dampness would cover up the spots and the smell of dried semen and drool that marred its crisp blackness. She sprayed some perfume on herself and around the office, not too much, just enough... she hoped.

Cheryl knocked, right on time.

"Come in, Cheryl." God, how could she feel so nervous about meeting a woman that was her own employee, one that she had known and trusted for the better part of two years?

Cheryl entered with her laptop and a pleasant, professional look on her face that quickly dropped into something else, something far too closely resembling amused embarrassment.

"Oh, Ms. Lockley! I knew it! Your hair, and..." Cheryl winced when she subtly sniffed the air. She didn't mention the smell, but it was written on her face.

Vanessa, normally conscious of projecting strength and confidence in front of any subordinate just as much as she did her superiors, felt the blood drain guiltily from her face. "It's... that obvious?" She hadn't had time to think on the smell before Frank entered, and her outfits were always perfumed. She had hoped...

"No, no it's not that bad. Your hair looks good, it's just different from what it was before so I noticed and, the... umm... the other stuff, it's just a little, I can barely... your perfume is really... nice. It's hardly noticeable," Cheryl tried to backpedal, but Vanessa knew the smell must have been powerful to cause her secretary to so fully and completely breach her boss' personal affairs. Worse, this was a quarter hour after her meeting. It must have been even worse... Vanessa knew that she must have been even worse, under her skirt, where she still felt swollen and damp. "You, uh, didn't stand up when Frank... when he... your skirt..."

The blood that had drained from Vanessa's face one moment rushed back hotly the next. A fresh rush of humiliation and loathing washed over her - at Brand, herself, and now even her secretary who was calling attention to her painful liaison in the worst way.

"No, I didn't stand." She did a little at the end, shaking Frank's hand over the top of her desk, but she had tried her best to stay behind a stack of papers, to conceal the evidence of her activities as much as possible. Not that she was about to explain all that. Not that she should have to!

"We've got a lot to do, Cheryl," Vanessa was unable to cover the now-furious edge to her voice. It was Cheryl's turn to blush. She nodded, eyes downcast in a silent apology. Some irrational part of Vanessa wanted to fire the girl right there - how could she share a working relationship when Cheryl knew... when she thought that she and Brand...?

But, that was unfair. Cheryl had overstepped her bounds, but only by mentioning what was grossly obvious to her, what must have been obvious to Frank even though he never gave a hint of anything untoward when he talked business with Vanessa. How the rumor mill must already be turning. As much as the secretaries gossiped, the executives could be even worse.

Firing Cheryl was a foolish notion anyway, an irrational reaction to her own woeful circumstance. Vanessa hardly had time to train a new secretary, and finding one as competent as Cheryl on short notice would be almost impossible. Together the two women began organizing her things, sorting and discussing like nothing improper had been mentioned or advertised.

The familiar rhythm of hard work wrapped around Vanessa, blessedly occupying her mind. Except for the semen still drying on her chest, for the next few hours it was almost a normal day again.