Tasks reward and a task not done

Getting back to Mega Corp, Bailey opened the styrofoam box to once again look at his left overs. Inside was half of the meal he had been served, seasoned fries and half a burger. Closing the lid he placed it on a shelf inside one of the break room refrigerators. Placing one hand over his stomach, still feeling stuffed and would love to just burb out the gas inside of him. ‘A good girl always looks her best.’ he thought tilting his head when he saw his reflection on the toaster on the counter. “Can’t like, believe I couldn’t finish, but like…” Bailey pressed one finger to just below the corner of his mouth as he smiled, seeing the happy girl in the reflective surface his smile grew wider. “I can have it tomorrow too!” Closing the fridge door Bailey left the breakroom glancing down the hallway in the direction of the elevators and then the other way in the direction of Brannon’s office. ‘What time did I have to set up the conference room? Sugar…’

Bailey wanted to head down to the basement with Candi and Auggy, but without remembering when he was supposed to do the other tasks Miss April gave him he hesitated. He could imagine going to her to ask what time he was supposed to do the task and getting a lecture about not paying attention, of course she had told Mr. Brannon to keep her… him on task and the fact she was right bothered him. ‘Peaches, just because I like don’t want to be here doesn’t mean I shouldn’t pay attention.’ With that Bailey headed off to Brannon. Finding his way there wasn’t difficult with it being against the wall, making traversing the cubicle maze much easier.

Hearing a soft knock at his already slightly ajar door George looked up to see his new intern walk in swaying her hips suggestively with each step. ‘This girl is a much bigger tease than her mother.’ He couldn’t help smiling looking at her nylon covered legs, up across her leather mini skirt, his eyes lingering at her satin blouse covered chest. “Ah, there you are sweetheart! Do be a doll and close the door so we can talk in private.”

Turning to just that Bailey could swear he could feel the man’s eyes on him. An involuntary shudder ran through his body as the door clicked shut, but he just needed a quick answer to a question before he could be free. “Mr. Brannon… I was like…” Bailey paused for a second, he was about to reword what he wanted to not sound like some ditzy girl, but recalled that was exactly who he was supposed to be. “Well, do you like remember when I was supposed to set up the conference room?”

Brannon watched the girl as she looked up and away from him as she paused, trying to collect her scattered thoughts. “Yes, at two. Now have a seat.” He said as he got up from his desk, waving his hand in the direction of the chairs in front of his desk, his eyes staying on the young thing in his office as she took the seat. “Your actions were superlative.” George paused for a second as he walked behind the girl.

“I didn’t…” Bailey stopped talking when he felt the older man’s hands land on his shoulders, giving them a light squeeze.

“My apologies, superlative, it means you did an excellent job with the Gates boy. Getting him away from the documents was exactly what I needed and you did it so quickly. I think the two of us will work together…” He paused before he used another word the girl wouldn’t understand. “Famously.”

Getting should have felt good, but just having the man’s hands on his shoulders made Bailey’s stomach turn, feeling more and more uncomfortable by the second. “I umm like didn’t really do anything and I should get going.” Bailey swallowed hard when his efforts to get up from the seat were rebuffed by the hands holding onto his shoulders.

“Relax, relax you have plenty of time and deserve a little reward. A girl like you knew exactly how to get and keep a young man’s attention.”

“A girl like me?” Bailey said in a small voice, a flash of heat going through his body as he thought back to Auggy’s hand squeezing one of his breasts, his thumb rolling over his nipple as the young man’s mouth sucked on his other.

“Yes a girl like you, just keep being the little office slut and I promise your mother’s job will be safe.”

Turning his head to the side, Bailey looked out of the corner of his eye to see the man standing behind him, the man rubbing his shoulders. “I’m like not ahhhhh, I’m not a slut.” Bailey said whimpering a little thinking about this man rising to power and firing everyone he didn’t like, making mommy and himself homeless. She would be devastated, and everything he had done for her would be for nothing.

“Oh my dear, don’t take it so negatively, you being promiscuous, slutty.” He added with a firm squeeze to her shoulders before moving his fingers up to rub at the tense muscles in the back of her neck. “Has helped me and when you help me, it helps you.”

“Mmm” Bailey kinked his head to the side hearing and feeling the pop of his bones in his neck. “I umm Mr. Brannon I really have to go.” He hated this feeling, not just the touch of the creepy man, it was the feeling of being powerless. ‘I shouldn’t even like be here! I shouldn’t be sitting here in this cute skirt… Sugar if Aunt Megan didn’t catch me with that escort. OMG! If she didn’t catch me I wouldn’t be here and Mr. Brannon really would fire Mommy!’ Looking up to the tiled ceiling, Bailey bit his bottom lip thinking back to one of this things the pastor said at church. How the Lord moves in mysterious ways. He didn’t buy into any of that, but somehow he ended up in a position where he was punished and only because he accepted that punishment was he in a position to keep the woman he loved safe. The feminized man took in a deep breath as more things started to line up in his mind, not only would mommy have been fired by this man without him being here, but with Candy the escort going missing and all the trouble with the police he might have also been in jail.

“There, you seem better now, all those knots and tense muscles gone. I wanted to show you I can be not so bad, but you need to remember to be a good girl and good girls don’t go and tell their cousins about what happens here in this office. You play your part, do as you are told. You got that Little Best?” George leaned in close to say the nickname in whisper next to the girl's ear.

“Yes… yes sir.”

“Good! Then you run along. I hate to see you go, but I will love to watch you walk away. Now off with you. Oh and tomorrow, maybe wear something a little lower cut. You are a pretty girl, why not show off what your mother gave you.”

Getting up from the chair Bailey hurried out, not daring to even look back when he felt a light smack to his rear. He had something to go do, but felt it was more important to tell someone about the man, someone that could help. So he made his way across the floor to find Miss April.

April had a pen between her lips, biting down on it gently as she concentrated on her task. She was trying to compile a group of reports, but one of them that she was referencing was breaking the formulas making it give out garbage numbers. That was until a soft timid voice calling her name broke her train of thought.

“Umm Miss April.” Bailey said, wishing he had come at another time when he saw the scowl on the dark haired woman’s face when she looked at her screen.

Turning her head April pulled the pen from her mouth to look at Bailey standing in front of her desk. Just looking at him in the rounded toe stiletto heels, dark nylons, the wrap mini leather skirt and satin blouse with the little bow it irked her. “I know you don’t pick things up quickly, but you will remember to refer to me as Miss Gates.”

Clasping his hands together in front of him Bailey kept himself from making a sound, but couldn’t help looking away from her. When Aunt Megan looked at him when she was mad her blue eyes seemed to have a fire behind them that would burn him alive if she could, but Miss April. Her dark eyes felt just as intense, but somehow colder. The gaze felt as if there was less emotion behind it, like she would cut him, or someone and say it was just business. “Yes Miss Gates, I’m like um sorry Miss Gates, but I wanted to…”

“What you want is less important than what you should be doing. You need to run along to prepare the conference room, make a pot of coffee, a pot of tea and have the bottles of water ready and have the binders that were prepped set up at each seat. Or maybe I am jumping to conclusions and being too harsh, have you already completed this task?”

“Well… umm no but…”

“No?! Then turn around and get moving.”

Bailey started to turn and do as she said, but stopped just one step away. Taking a deep breath, pushing his shoulders back and chest out he turned back around to face the woman just a few years older than him. “I needed to talk to you about Mr. Brannon.”

Tilting her head back, one of the corners of April’s lips curled up. “Oh? Has he done something inappropriate?” She asked positive the weasel had said something or done something in direct opposition to what those sexual harassment videos Hr made everyone watch.

“Can… can we like.” Bailey motioned towards the office behind the woman. April turned her head to look at the office of her boss Amanda best.

“Sure.” She said getting up from her chair, feeling no small amount of glee that Bailey was getting exactly what he deserved for pretending to be some caricature of a woman. When Bailey had followed her into the office she closed the door. “It is just us now Miss Best. Tell me, is there a problem with who I assigned you to work with?”

Squeezing his fingers against his palms, careful not to stab himself with his nails, Bailey tensed the muscles along his arms at just the thought of Brannon’s hand’s lingering on his shoulders. “Didyoulike knowhewasgoingtobelike thebossoftheentirebuilding!? Mommyisn’tlike gettingthepromotionheis! And…”

“Slow down, I have no idea what you just said.” April held her palms up parallel to one another to indicate she wanted Bailey to put spaces between his words.

“I said… well I was like asking if you knew Mr. Brannon was going to be promoted to be in charge of the building and that Mommy going off for training was for like nothing because she isn’t getting the job and that he wants to fire her like as soon as he gets the job.”

April pursed her lips as she looked away from Bailey and out the floor to ceiling windows at the back of her bosses office before letting out a sigh. “Bastard.” She said mostly under her breath. “I knew some of that, but you do not have to worry about Amanda. In fact you should talk to her about her promotion.”

The clip holding Bailey’s hair threatened to come loose with how hard he shook his head. “No, like that is what I’m trying to like say! He is getting it because he liked talked to someone high up and said I have to do whatever he wants or he will fire her! He like already has slapped my rear twice now!”

Turning her head to the side April covered her mouth to hide the smile and that she had to stifle a laugh. She knew many girls here had been through much worse, some had chosen to do worse in order to keep their jobs, get raises or promotions. The idea of Bailey coming to run to her to say he was done, that he quit because the man asked for a blow job didn’t feel like some idle dream. Brannon was never going to have the power to fire Amanda, that is if she took the promotion to director of finance for the west coast, but hearing his plans for her best friend did help make up her mind on what she was going to do for her future. If she took Amanda’s place that weasel of a man would be over her, leaving the job opportunity to work under Derrick Connors as a better move, even if it wouldn’t get her the manager title she wanted. “Turn around for me.”

“What?”

“I told you to turn around for me, you were pointing out your skirt this morning and I hadn’t had a chance to really see it. Do a little spin for me.”

“Oh, like okay!” Bailey picked up one of his feet, spinning around on the ball of his other heeled foot. “Wait, like we don’t have time to talk about…”

“Yes, yes. I was just having a good look at you and the way you decided to dress. A little slap to your rear isn’t going to kill you Bailey and if.” April stopped talking, nodding to herself not to figure out what she was going to say but to take a second to appreciate what she was about to do. She wasn’t exactly sure on the timing of any of the position changes and figured if Brannon got his before anyone else, then why not play it safe and use the little chauvinist playing at being a female. “It sounds like you are in a trough position, and it looks like I put you there, but it might be for the best. Bailey I’m going to need you… Amanda and I are going to need you to help us out. We will be just fine in the long run, but until the red tape clears here you just might be the only person keeping us safe. Could you do that? Would you do that for Amanda?”

Bailey felt his skin crawl at the idea of sitting through another reward form the man. Closing his eyes for a few seconds Bailey dry swallowed before opening his eyes and looking into April’s dark eyes and giving her a nod. “I like don’t want to, but I will. I like um think I was meant to help her.”

“That is wonderful to hear Bailey, just what a boyfriend should do for his girlfriend, well in your case I guess it would be more what a daughter should do. Hmm that isn’t right… speaking of boyfriends. How are you and my pest of a brother?”

“Umm we like just had lunch and oh wow Miss April… Miss Gates, it was so good and before that we… umm well.” A blush came to Bailey’s face thinking about the pleasure he felt earlier. “I haven’t told him no like you said so like please don’t tell Mommy about anything. Bailey placed one palm to his warm cheek imagining Mandy being furious that he would cheat on her, saying how much worse it was that he did things with a man and how she wasted so much of her life with a man who was secretly gay.

“I wasn’t planning on… what do you mean you haven’t told him no?” April asked just as the office door swung open without so much as a knock. Both her and Bailey turned to look at the plus sized man in the tan suit who stood in the doorway.

“Gates, there you are. Why isn’t conference room A setup for us? You do understand how your poor actions make others look?”

April glanced away from the overweight man in Bailey’s direction about to tell Bailey to scurry along to get it done on the double, but the intruder in the office hadn’t had the patience for her to answer the question.

“You girls can gossip another time, you were only put in charge of the interns at the instance of your supervisor. Just because she is on a business trip doesn’t mean you get a free pass. Now how about you and…” The man pressed his lips into a line looking at the platinum haired girl standing next to Best’s secretary. “Both of you come along, in fact Gates after the two of you get things ready for us you can stay to take dictation. You don’t seem to be busy and my secretary is out today.”

“Mr…” April stopped talking when the man turned and left, expecting his orders to be followed.

“Oh my god that guy was like so rude! Who is he?” Bailey asked, shaking his head, letting out a huff of air.

‘One, two, three, four…’ April counted in her head before acknowledging Bailey. She knew that she had ordered Bailey to act like a ditz, something she regretted when he acted that way to her. “No one I report to, but someone important enough that you shouldn’t have kept waiting. Now come along, I will help you do the job I assigned you and then it would be best if you just got out of my sight till tomorrow.”

With a nod Bailey started to follow along till he almost bumped into the woman as she stopped suddenly in the doorway before she spun around to face him. Bailey took a half step back when she put her index finger in his face.

“I have too much on my plate to also have to do the tasks I assigned you or any of the interns. With Amanda gone I told her I would take care of one of the monthly reports and I really do not have time to sit and take meeting notes. In the future you will do your job before coming to talk. What you had to say was important, but taking five minutes to put some tea and coffee on a table wasn’t going to change a thing!” April left the office, striding over to the break room closest to the conference room to get things that were needed, moving with a purpose. She was mad and while she would love to put the blame on Bailey, she also knew she shouldn’t have snapped. She was in charge and could have fixed this before it became a problem, so she resolved to do better in the future. She wasn’t going to apologize to Bailey, the man sat around Amanda’s apartment not cleaning, not cooking, not working in any way for too long. Being told to hop up off his ass and do what he was told wasn’t just the right thing, it was needed as far as she was concerned.