One last thing before she starts work...

There seemed to be only one woman in the mail room -- no, wait, the Delivery Dame Department, as it was officially called -- who was fully dressed and only a handful of women who were not fully naked. Most of the women in the department were permitted to wear shoes -- especially running shoes, Alicia noticed. In a way, she was relieved. She had been nervous when she had undressed earlier that she had forgotten to ask if she could wear her shoes. The prospect of spending the rest of the day had been daunting enough -- but the idea of spending it barefoot...

But, alas, she had no shoes with her. She started to turn to her boss -- but she was too busy talking to the other only fully dressed woman in the room to respond.

Then the other woman -- a tall brunette who wore a name badge that said "Domina". A given name or a job title? Alicia wondered. Though she did not retain enough of her high school Latin to know exactly what the word meant, there was something ominous about it that made Alicia so nervous that ironically she was almost afraid to cover.

Perhaps I'm starting to get used to the idea of being permanently on display, so to speak, she thought. Oh, God, is that what this is? Is there a part of me that is getting used to this? Or worse yet, wants to get used to this? Well, granted, I always did sometimes hate having to wear a long dress whenever my family and I went to Mass in the summertime and of course, I always did hate the bother of having to wear a wet bathing suit... Wait a minute! This is not me! And surely things have not changed that much since I was a little girl, right? Right?

The tall fortysomething brunette whose name badge called her "Domina" took one look at Alicia and told her boss, "I can't use her."

What? thought Alicia. Perhaps she would not have to start work in this department after all.

"Not like that, anyway," Domina continued. "She needs to get an I.D. badge first. I know it's only her first day but I can't have her wandering all over the building without some form of visual identification."

"Oh, right," said her boss with an enigmatic expression on her face. "I forgot. Domina, would you be a dear and handle that little detail for me? I have so much to do and I've already spent more time with Alicia here than I intended."

"Well, I don't have time to do it," said Domina -- an odd thing to say, Alicia thought, since Domina did not seem to be doing much right then save for standing around and gazing at naked women -- "but I suppose I can have my assistant do it."

Then Domina turned and called to one of the younger naked girls -- a short blonde woman who appeared to be just a five years younger than Alicia. "Oh, Casey!" she called.

The woman named Casey ran over to Domina.

"Yes, Domina?" she asked with an attitude so breezy one would almost think that she lived to follow orders.

"Alicia here needs to get an I.D. badge before she could start work," said Domina, pointing to Alicia. "Would you be a dear and escort her to the security department so that they can get that little detail sorted out?"

"Sure thing, Domina," said Casey with an attitude so brisk that had she been wearing something more formal than running shoes, Alicia could have almost imagined her clicking her heels. "Only..."

"Only what?" asked Domina with a slight air of impatience.

"Am I allowed to wear panties this time?" asked Casey. "Because I don't want the girls in security to accidentally mistake me for the newbie like they did last time."

"No, you are not yet permitted to wear panties," said Domina. "Nor a thong. Nor underwear of any kind. That is not yet permitted by your job description. I've told you before that I will tell you when that changes and it's not changing today. However, I will allow you to wear a garter."

"Really?" asked Casey. "Can I wear two?"

"If you feel that much like overdressing today, sure," said Domina. "Knock yourself out."

"What color?" asked Casey.

"Use the black this time," said Domina. "More formal."

Alicia just blinked after Casey ran over to put on her garters. "You're encouraging her to dress like a stripper?"

Domina and her boss just stared at her.

Then finally her boss said, "Brides wear garters too. Surely you wore one at your wedding too, didn't you, Ms. Fuller?"

"True," said Alicia. "But I didn't wear just a gar --"

"I'm back," said Casey.

And sure enough, in addition to her running shoes and her hoop earrings, Casey was this time also wearing two black garters, one on each leg.

"Good," said Domina. "Now take her to the security office and when you two get back, do not permit Alicia here to wear any shoes. Since she did not bring any with her today -- and since she back talked me in your absence -- I wish for her to spend her first day of training entirely barefoot. And you can be her trainer. Now go!"

"Cool!" said Casey with a tone that made Alicia hope against hope that Casey would prove to be a **** trainer than Domina or her boss would have been.