It's illuminating

You're one of the first ones in your department to arrive today, of course with the exception of Ted, who always arrives early so he can sanctimoniously judge those who get to work after him. After setting your bag down in your cubicle, you grab a pad of paper and head over to the building on Simmons' campus that houses the accounting department. While you are heading over there you have to pass by Ted's corner office, which earns you a dark glare from your asshole of a boss.

'I can't wait until I never have to deal with you again,' you think to yourself. You know there is something up with Ted here, and if you find proof you could take to Marissa Simmons, the founder and CEO of your company, then it would be adios Ted.

After a brisk walk in the sunny morning, you enter the cool air-conditioned premises of accounting. You've never actually been to Beth's desk, but since the building is not large, you quickly locate an office bearing her name. You knock twice, and after a muffled 'come in,' you slip into Beth's office.

Her office is small and tight, but you suppose that the privacy of being able to work in silence outweighs being confined in a room that isn't much wider than your wingspan. The furnishings are plain, as expected of your company that tends to go the economic route whenever possible.

But then your eyes fall upon a sight that makes the room seem even more lacking. Beth, a black beauty roughly the same age as you, with large and probably fake breasts that nearly burst out of her bright white blouse. Carrie's words from this morning reverberate in your mind, and you can't help but imagine the thought of Beth gracing your bed with her presence.

"Hey John, take a seat." Beth greets you. "As I recall from yesterday's brunch at Mary's, you wanted to know about our companies firing and maternity leave policies, correct?" Beth asks.

"That's right," you say, settling into the stiff chair in front of Beth's desk. "I was curious as to how each financially impacts the bottom line of Simmons'."

"Well," Beth replies while retrieving some documents from a file drawer adjacent to her desk. "They're obviously quite different. Simmons treats maternity leave as qualifying for short term disability, starting from two months before the expected due date until two months after the birth of the child. Depending on your tenure at Simmons, the employee is entitled to anywhere from eight weeks at 100% pay to sixteen weeks at 100% pay , and from then on it is 50% pay until the rest of the short term disability period.

"On the other hand, our severance pay, assuming the employee has not done anything criminal or against the employee code of conduct, is two months' salary, paid every two weeks."

Well, you were far from a math wizard but even to you it seemed like the difference was up to two months' salary. In Karen's case, since she had worked at Simmons for over ten years, she probably had enough tenure so she would have gotten four months at fully salary for her maternity leave. You can't help but wonder what happens to that additional two months of salary that should end up in Karen's pocket went. You have an inkling that it finds its way into Ted's bank account.

"Thanks a ton, Beth," you say as you quickly stand up, eager to message Carrie about your findings. You figure that she would know the best way to move forward with this information.

"Not a problem, John. But you didn't have to meet with me to find any of this out. It's all in our employee handbook," Beth says, brandishing a sizable laminated booklet. "It has all this information and more, including all your insurance options, PTO information, and employee bonuses."

"We get bonuses?" you blurt out. To be honest, you haven't gotten a bonus since you started working at Simmons.

"Really? Well, the managers get most of the bonuses, anyway. So even if you haven't gotten any, I'm sure your boss Ted has managed to secure some for himself."

This new information gives you a gut feeling, so you speak up again and ask, "Do you mind if I borrow that handbook?"

"Not at all," she says, handing the booklet to you before continuing on, "Though I should remind you that you should have access to a PDF copy on the company website. But again, this really isn't my department, you should talk with someone from human resources if you have real questions."

"No, Beth, you answered all of my questions and more. I greatly appreciate the help." After saying this, you get up and prepare to leave, and Beth quickly rises to her feet as well to wish you goodbye.

"It was nothing, my work is fairly flexible this time of year. Anyways, have a good week at work, and good luck with James and Mary. I never would have expected you to be into that."

"You too." You exit Beth's small office and begin to head back to the building where your cubicle is housed. En route, you also comprehend the exact words that Beth chose to part with. Was there something you were missing about the brunch yesterday? You would have to ask Mary when she got into work today or talk with Carrie about it tonight after work. But for now, you have other things to focus on: namely the managerial bonuses, because if you were right, it would explain a lot of Ted's behavior over the years.

You arrive back at your empty cubicle. You're surprised to see that Mary hasn't come into work yet, but you decide to take advantage of the privacy to confirm your suspicions. You thumb through the booklet until you find the section on employee bonuses, specifically the bonuses for a manager that runs a department under budget. You skim the pages for a couple of minutes but can't find anything else ironclad to nail Ted for his dealings. It's not until you're reach the appendix of the handbook that you spot something. Apparently, Simmons had some previous policies in effect that were grandfathered in. After reading that, you sigh and set the booklet down. It turns out that sometime in the last decade at Simmons, if a manager's department maintained its output while reducing costs, they got a monetary cash bonus. The real incentive, however, was that if you accomplished this in consecutive years, the bonus started stacking up. And since Ted had been working at Simmons' for nearly twelve years now, the bonus he was receiving had to be pretty hefty. Some quick napkin math gave you a rough estimate that he was earning six figures each year from this policy alone, and since he was relentless in firing employees after the first sign of diminished productivity, he was able to keep costs low while somehow maintaining the necessary output by shoving the increased workload onto the rest of the employees.

You lean back in your shabby office chair and just sit there in silence, processing all of this new information. It seemed to you that Ted had managed to game the system at Simmons, and in order to keep the status quo, had turned to some shady practices in order to keep his golden goose going. You close the booklet and set it down, when a familiar bark startles you out of thoughts.

"John!" Ted grunts out as he rounds the corner and intrudes rudely into your cubicle. You've just managed to close the handbook so that you actions won't seem too suspicious, but Ted narrows his eyes and zeros in on the booklet. "What's that for?"

"Um.." you stammer out, trying to think of a valid excuse. "I couldn't remember if we got Black Friday off as a vacation or not. So I decided to check our handy employee handbook," you say, more confidently now as you exhibit the book towards Ted, "and see for myself that we do in fact get it as a vacation."

"Well, stop that lazing about and get back to work. Don't forget that I know you ducked out of work early last week, so you still have to make up for that by working late all this week."

You catch yourself before you sigh and roll your eyes, and just focus on the thought of busty blonde Helen riding your cock, and how she would forget all about her pitiful excuse of a husband. "Don't worry Ted, you don't have to worry about me not working."

Ted just eyes you and grumbles something his breath. "Well, stop slacking and get back to work." With those words he departs, most likely to terrorize one of your coworkers about some overblown mistake.

You're about to actually start working at your job, but you are once interrupted by an arrival. Only this time, it is your lovely cubicle mate Mary.

"Wow, you're five minutes late," you say, glancing at your wristwatch. "And luckily for you, you just missed Ted."

"Wasn't luck," Mary replies, smiling. "I heard him scolding you, so I delayed my arrival a smidge to avoid him."

"Ah, there's that Ivy league education making a difference. I guess that is what sets you above mere mortals like me."

"Yep!" Mary says, her face lighting up with a ivory grin. "Well, that and looking more appealing than you on every job application." She spots the employee handbook lying on your desk, and being the inquisitive woman she usually is, she motions to it, asking, "Looking to see if taking a dump on your bosses desk violates the company code of conduct?"

"Believe it or not, no." you remark. "I was looking at the employee bonuses, and discovered that in all likelihood Ted gets an increasing bonus every year for cutting costs. Why would the company continue to pay that out? They should have gotten rid of it years ago. It's so easily exploitable."

"Well actually..." and you can't help but imagine Mary as a stereotypical nerd adjusting a pair of glasses to correct you, "About five years ago our state government passed a law that incentivized companies to keep existing employee bonuses in effect. Unfortunately, at Simmons it seems to only affect the managers and above."

You let that statement stew in your mind and get to work, forgetting all about your intention to ask Mary about why Beth would wish you luck with her and her husband James. The entire day is a grind, and you have to work through lunch just to keep pace with Mary and the others in your department. You do manage to find time to text Carrie that you found out something, and she tells you to come to her place tonight so that the two of you can discuss both of your findings. You don't stay late, however, because you really don't care about appeasing Ted any longer than you have to. Thus, at 5:00 p.m. sharp you are walking out to the parking lot with Mary beside you when you suddenly remember about what Beth said.

"Hey Mary," you mention carefully. "What was the deal with brunch yesterday? And why would I need good luck with you and James because of it?"

Mary halts her stroll and you stop a moment later to let her catch up, but she remains motionless. She's having trouble meeting her gaze, as it appears the most interesting thing in the world for her are how her heels contrast with the pavement.

"I figured you knew," Mary murmurs, and you have to strain to hear her. "I thought that since Carrie and you were so adventurous, you'd be familiar with couples swinging. But don't worry, you definitely shouldn't feel the need to accept," Mary expresses loudly, with both her voice and her flailing arms. "Anyways, I'll see you tomorrow." Mary flees to her car, while you're left standing flabbergasted. Mary wanted to swing with you?

Realizing that you're still standing in the parking lot like a dunce, you quickly head to your car. It just shocked you that Mary was interested in having sex with you, as you tended to think that she thought of you as the platonic brotherly type. Also, you never would have thought that she'd do anything even remotely wild, swinging or otherwise. Additionally, while you admit the appeal of fucking Mary is nonzero, you aren't exactly thrilled with the thought of James getting intimate with Carrie. You'd have to talk with Carrie about it, and determine a polite way to decline.

For now, though, you had to focus on a different target: Ted's wife Helen. And you wondered if Carrie found out anything about her past from the private investigator.