An Ominous Email

Tuesday morning, Sarah woke up feeling terrible again. As she showered, she thought again about her relationship with Al, and with work. She resolved to make things better.

Al was just finishing up the cooking when she came into the kitchen. "Al," she said tenderly. "I'm sorry about last night. I understand how you are feeling, and I wanted to say, I also understand why you did what you did. And finally, I thought about it some more, and it was really kind of hot that you came. I mean, we are married, but the anonymity makes it a little exciting! So you should feel free to come in the future, too."

Al looked over at her. His face changed and broke into a big grin. "Oh, Sarah," he started. "I was going to apologize to you!" Here he laughed. "And it was hot! I can't stop thinking about it!"

They ate breakfast together and then Sarah left for work.

As she always did, Sarah checked her email first thing. There was an email from the calendar system, informing her she had an appointment with Natalie at 10:00 am that day.

'Strange,' thought Sarah. 'I didn't have anything planned.'

Just then another email arrived, this time from Natalie directly. All it said was "We have to talk."

At 10, Sarah went down the hall to Natalie's office. Natalie had a large, corner office, with great views of the campus. Sarah strolled in, "Hi Natalie, what's ..." She cut herself off mid-sentence, realizing that someone else was in the room.

Sitting in a chair near Natalie was a gorgeous young woman. She looked to be in her early twenties and was tall and slender. She had a beautiful face, high cheekbones, and straight black hair that was cut rather severely. She was wearing a pencil skirt, high heels, and a rather tight button-down shirt that helped emphasize her small breasts. She was a knockout.

Natalie looked up. "Hi Sarah. Please shut the door and have a seat." 'Natalie seems even more business-like than usual today,' thought Sarah. She started to feel a little nervous.

Sarah shut the door and sat down facing the two women. Natalie spoke again. "This meeting is about your performance at the glory hole yesterday," she started. "There have been some complaints."

"I don't think..." started Sarah, but Natalie held up a finger to cut her off.

"Sarah," she said sharply, "I know how you feel about this. But, as I explained, this is an important department initiative. And, this is the second time this has come to my negative attention, so I'm irritated now. I'm told that yesterday, and the week before, you didn't swallow. That's unacceptable. Now, we want you to succeed here, Sarah. You're one of our rising stars! But in this area you need a little help. I asked around and found an outside expert to help -- this is Toni."

The beautiful woman looked seriously at Sarah. "Hello," she said.

Sarah opened her mouth to speak, but Natalie didn't let her. "Toni is a senior and the president of one of our sororities. I'm too busy to handle this personally, so Toni here is going to monitor you and make sure you're performing to our standards. She'll be attending your sessions and instructing you. I want you to do what she says, and she's going to report back on your progress. I want to be very clear" -- and here she leaned forward a little -- "that your future in this department is at stake. I believe in you and want you to succeed, but you have to be responsible for that."

Sarah was shocked. She slumped in her seat. "Ok," she replied.

"One more thing," said Natalie. "To bring you up to speed, we're giving you a second shift -- you'll be working in the glory hole today during lunch. And now, I have to go to a meeting online."

Sarah left.