Chapter 21 by Johanna

What's next?

The Shift Ends...

You still talk through the remainder of the work, but both of you feel the pressure as the time ticks away but the pile of mail goes down far too slowly. Luckily that impression, perhaps driven by fear, turns out not to be entirely correct and you do finish a few moments ahead of time, although you do have to work frantically for it. Much as you hate the work and the rush, you are almost sad when the shift is over. Firstly, you enjoy the naked company of Ms Stevens (perhaps a bit too much so); secondly, barring a miracle, the shift is almost certainly going to end with a paddling for the both of you.

At least you do not need to wait for too long to find out whether or not the said miracle is going to take place. Seconds after the clock on the wall indicates the hour has changed and while you are still catching your breath, you hear male voices outside the door... Which promptly opens, admitting in three mailroom workers, one of whom you have met earlier. "We're back from lunch, but please don't count too much on our good mood, ladies", he announces. "We'll check your work now." You glance at your work partner/superior/fellow naked punished woman and try to copy her composed and self-dignified expression. With some difficulty.

You expect checking will take some time, but you are quite wrong. Armed with barcode scanners, the men flip the envelopes with an astonishing speed. The scanners emit quick regular beeps as each envelope passes them... Until there is a buzz. "One", the worker announces, tossing the envelope into a different pile. You hope nobody can see any changes on your face, but on your chair your bare cheeks clench painfully. "Two", their boss says almost immediately, likewise moving the small white rectangle into its designated place.

You start to really worry for your behinds now as there is still more than half of the envelope mass to go through, but the count does not go up for a while. The two errors being so close together was just a coincidence... Which, of course, does not mean there will be more such clusters resulting in quite a lot of unpleasantness. All you can do is watch the scanners beep away and hope for no more buzzing.