Office Romances

"Morning, Sexy!" Liv grinned, her dressing gown deliberately left open enough to give her lucky boyfriend a great view of her cleavage and even occasional. teasing glimpses of her nipples, if she moved her body in a certain way. She was proudly clutching a copy of that day's Gazette "Nice to have it confirmed that I am officially dating the hottest guy in town!"

"What? They actually went with that?" Joey asked in alarm, still rubbing his eyes.

"You made the front page, baby! Here take a look!"

"No, thanks I already know what I wrote!"

Joey pushed the newspaper away before he risked reading any of his lies. He could see how prominent the article was though, as well as the head shot accompanying it, which would mean his army of new female admirers would know exactly who it was they were crushing on.

"Okay, I feel like I need to go into the office today"

Joey jumped out of bed, but Liv pushed him back down onto it in a more aggressive manner than he had experienced from her up until now, then ripped off her gown.

"We're exploring both of our sexual fantasies for the whole day today. remember?"

Joey had admittedly promised that the previous evening, having realised he could now use pre-recorded voice commands to join Liv in the imaginary erotic worlds he created for her. Of course, he needed to be very careful to ensure he had enough safeguards in place not to risk leaving them both trapped there - though he figured there were a lot worse places to be stranded. For now though, he had a fire to put out.

"We'll do that later gorgeous, I promise. I have a work related issue to clear up first. It shouldn't take too long."

From the moment Joey left his apartment, he was quickly able to identify which female passers-by had read the Gazette that morning and which ones hadn't. Roughly one in every three women he was walking in the other direction to either smiled seductively at him, or began furiously preening their hair as they approached. It gave him a depressing realisation of how little of an impact he usually made. The experience wasn't as wonderful as it was always portrayed to be in adverts for male fragrances, either. The Gazette, and in particular the paper version, tended to skew towards a significantly older demographic. The attention Joey was getting was rarely the kind he would have invited, and he now knew what it was like to have his balls playfully groped by the old lady who served him his morning bagel.

From the urgency Jeff came at him with once he made it into the office, Joey figured his colleagues day so far had probably been even worse than his own.

"Hey, Sport" he looked uncharacteristically flustered as he strode over "Look, this article of yours on the front page this morning. I'm not disputing your facts, but is it really in the public interest to run with it? It's pretty embarrassing"

"It was Ted who decided to make it headline news"

"Yeah, well I'm not going into his office alone to discuss that" Jeff played awkwardly with his collar as he spoke "The way he keeps looking at me, trying to flirt with me, finding excuses to touch me. And it's not like I can tell my boss to fuck off"

As annoying as Jeff could be, Joey was actually feeling bad here. This was the first time he had knowingly used his power to harm someone, however mild that harm might be.

"It's okay, Jeff . I'm going to write a full retraction and persuade Ted to run it tomorrow, also on the front page"

"I'd sure appreciate that, Sport"

As Jeff walked away. Kayleigh approached, looking like she also meant business.

"I need a word with you in private, Joey"

Joey followed his buddy to an empty meeting room, feeling like he was being led to the executioner's chair. Kayleigh was definitely going to give him both barrels for this, and he couldn't even blame her.

"So, I read your little article this morning" she told him in a very serious tone as she drew the shutters closed.

"Yeah, about that..."

"I want you Joey!" she told her friend as she pushed him up against the wall "Right here, right now!"

"What? While we're supposed to be working? That's crazy!"

"No, it's crazy hot"

Kayleigh undid the top buttons on her blouse to leave her cleavage more exposed than Joey had ever seen it up until now.

"I have a girlfriend"

"Are you seriously going to choose some bimbo you've known for a few days over me? You know how much you and I have always sparked"

"You think we spark?"

"Of course" Kayleigh thrust her tits up into Joey's face as she spoke, and guided one of his hands up her skirt and onto her thigh "And don't think I never catch the way you look at me when you assume I can't tell you're watching. We both want this, Joey. Let's just do it!"

This was probably the hardest thing he was ever going to have to say. but...

"The article was bullshit, Kayleigh"

"What?"

"I made it up. I'm not Danbury's hottest guy. Not even close to it"

Kayleigh froze for a moment then.

"Fuuuuuck!"

"I'm so, so, sorry Kayleigh"

"What the fuck is wrong with you, Jones?"

Kayleigh thumped Joey on the shoulder as she pulled away from him, but at least not hard enough for him to think he was in real trouble with her.

"You know my shitty sense of humour, I thought I would test the stuff we talked about using a joke. You know, something harmless"

"Harmless?" Kayleigh shouted back as she buttoned her self back up "I almost.."

"I'm really sorry, Kayleigh. That wasn't supposed to happen"

"I realise that. And at least you told me" her tone had softened a little, though she was still glaring at her friend "Although you could have mentioned it sooner"

"I know, I just..."

"You just what?" Kayleigh stood accusingly with her hands on her hips.

"You were talking about us having a spark, and the way you see me looking at you.."

"Jesus Joey, I wasn't in control of my thoughts, was I? I would have said any old shit that fitted with your fucking story"

"I know, you're right but..." Joey could sense his chance to push past the awkwardness and get back in Kayleigh's good graces here "The bigger picture is it worked. Think of all the good we can do now we know that. You're always saying people don't take the environmental stuff seriously enough, well we can get everyone in town recycling, or we could beat some of your least favourite politicians at their own spin game"

"That is true" Kayleigh conceded "We can discuss it properly later. Just don't ever do anything like that again without running it by my first."

"I won't, I promise!"

"Also, poor Jeff!"

"I know, I'm gonna get the whole stupid article retracted in tomorrow's paper"

Kayleigh gave Joey a look that let him know both that he was off the hook this time and also that another fuck up of that magnitude wouldn't be forgiven so easily, then went back to her desk.

Joey remained in the empty room, needing a moment to compose himself. He really hoped the massive hard-on he'd still had during the first part of that argument wasn't as obvious as it had seemed to him at the time. A part of Joey was buzzing though, and his mind racing. Sure, Kayleigh had been under the influence of his article earlier, but so were any number of other women he had come into contact with that morning. None of them had reacted like that.