Hasn't Icy done an excellent job on the cover? I love it to bits.
Here's the story: to get the twist, you'll need to pay attention.
It's a Man's World
A naughty suggestion. A sleazy grope. How do you say no to the boss?
Chris sat nervously in the secretary’s office, waiting the five minutes until the appointed time, remembering quite different sensations from the last time. There had been nerves then too, and apprehension, but behind it all was hope and promise, not this cold, dread sickness. It had been nearly three months ago, the first interview for a job – even before the final A-level exams finished.
Mr Benton, “Please call me Andy,” had been very kind then, appreciating how nerves can affect a performance and doing his utmost to create a relaxed, easy atmosphere. He frequently mentioned his “open door” management policy; reckoned he was famous for it. “If you’ve any problems, work or otherwise, just make an appointment with Jane and we’ll try to sort it out.”
Chris dearly hoped the guy would show the same understanding over this delicate matter as he had on the first meeting.
Being in the office triggered all manner of memories: Coming out after the interview with the promise of a probationary contract to start the week after the last exam. Chris remembered that feeling of elation. Ok, it was conditional on the A-level results, but after the wall-to-wall study, this should not be a problem.
Better still; Andy mentioned the possibility of a full-time sponsored degree in the autumn if everything worked out well. Hearing the secretary put the important call through, Chris figured the time would be usefully spent cataloguing the major incidents, and scribbled a few notes as the memories played out.
It had been an inauspicious start; most of the tasks a student was allowed to do were mundane and trivial; little more than clerical. But Chris quickly built a reputation as someone who would complete a task – however boring – accurately, efficiently and in half the time it took most new starters.
Everything went well, and the jobs got more demanding after two weeks. Then everything changed.
Sam came back from holiday and, right from their initial meeting, there were clues. Little things like the appraising once-over, and the inordinate length of their handshake, should have sounded warning bells, but Chris was far too inexperienced to read the signals.
At the start, the touching was extremely subtle: a hand placed on an arm, a shoulder, or even a knee if they were sat together. Although Chris was not used to this amount of physical contact, coming from a cold, dispassionate family, it was not unpleasant. Ma’s standing advice had always been along the lines of: “Make allowances, everyone is brought up differently.”
Every time it happened, her voice would play out with its plethora of platitudes: “Don’t take it to heart,” “It doesn’t mean anything,” and, “Some people are very tactile.” The real saving grace was that they didn’t meet very often; Sam had recently been promoted.
Then Chris’ team leader, Roy, was out for a few weeks, so all of his team’s projects were temporarily transferred to Sam. Consequently they were spending almost all day together for a few days until the proposal for Chris’ new software suite was firmly outlined.
The whole touchy-feely thing became more and more intrusive. It started with any excuse to use the soft chat area supposed to encourage better flow of ideas with its low comfortable sofas and coffee tables. Sam insisted they used one of the two-person sofas, and managed to take up so much room that their legs clashed; occasionally sitting so close that their thighs touched. Another favourite trick was to creep up and grab Chris from behind, taking great satisfaction in the resulting effect without a thought for personal boundaries.
Chris began to dread every time there was a phone call and made sure the coffee pot was never empty to reduce the reasons for Sam to get up. What really brought the situation home was a chance comment when passing a group clustered at the water cooler.
Trevor made a remark about how a certain manager seemed to have a problem keeping their hands off a certain trainee. Chris blushed furiously and hurried past to copy the schematic. If other people were noticing …
As usual, the paper jammed, and Chris bent down to free it, unaware of Sam’s silent approach until the hand connected with denim, and the accompanying, “Never could resist a tempting target – nothing quite like a pert butt in tight jeans.”
The shock knocked Chris off balance, banging head-first into the photocopier and cutting a finger on a sharp edge as one hand reached out instinctively to break the fall. It was humiliating enough to have Sam offering to “kiss it better” without having Andy witnessing it and walking off muttering something about horseplay in the office.
Later that morning, Trevor was alone in the tea room and Chris asked as casually as possible if anyone else had noticed Sam’s excessive attention.
He gave a knowing look. “Getting a bit much is it? It’s always the pretty ones. If you want to know about sexual harassment you should go and talk to Angela in the commercial department; she knows all about it.”
Trevor didn’t say any more as someone else came in, but luckily Chris knew Angela – a petite blonde with a gentle smile.
That lunchtime, Angela was sat alone and didn’t mind when Chris asked to sit next to her. After a little initial uncertainty, she seemed quite happy to talk about her experiences.
Her manager had been much more abusive; he’d got very physical very quickly, touching her quite intimately after she’d only been working for him for a few days. In spite of her horrified rebukes he’d been really persistent, following her home and ringing up to tell her husband about their “affair.”
Chris’ eyes widened in horror.
“Bless you, it was horrific. Thankfully, the company were very supportive and moved him to another office.” “I bet you were made up. What a monster.”
“You don’t know the half of it. Apparently, he tried it again, so they got rid of him. I was working for Andy Benton at the time, and he was so supportive.”
Chris smiled, that was good to know.
“Actually, there were a few benefits, strange as it seems.”
“Really? What good could come from something like that?”
“I enrolled in a course of self-defence classes so I could handle it if it ever happened again. And best of all, it brought me and my Joe closer together – he came along to the classes.”
Chris couldn’t help but admire the way she’d been strengthened by the incident instead of being distressed by it. She went on to describe how she occasionally spoke at women’s meetings or to classes of schoolgirls about what had happened to her and what she had done about it.
She cocked her head on one side. “But why are you interested in all this?”
“Oh it’s just that I think someone in our office is suffering unwanted attentions at the moment, and I wanted to find out what the options are so I could offer some help.”
“Oh that’s really sweet. Presumably it’s a manager doing the harassing? I thought so. Tell her to talk to her immediate boss – the company has very strict rules about this sort of thing.”
Chris sighed. Not an option.
Angela cottoned on quickly. “Of course, if it’s her immediate boss doing the harassing, she should go to his boss. But if she has any problems, tell her to come and talk to me; I’ve built up a few contacts in this area now.”
Sam was in a meeting all afternoon, giving time to plan the best course of action; with the added bonus of no further incidents. Roy was due back the following day; maybe he would have some advice on how to handle the situation.
When Roy finally had a minute to spare, however, he was not much help at all, casting doubts on everything he heard. “No way. Doesn’t sound like Sam at all. Are you sure about this? You couldn’t have mistaken friendliness for …”
“No. Nothing friendly about being patted on the knee.” Or brushing thighs. Or being smacked on the butt.
Roy frowned. “Well if you are absolutely sure, the only real solution would be to take it higher to Andy; but only if the facts are watertight and you have evidence to back it up.”
Chris expected this kind of reaction from a man, and glared.
“If you’re determined to pursue it, I can’t stop you. Just be aware this kind of accusations can ruin a promising career.”
What about the fact my promising career is being ruined?
The replay ended as the manager’s secretary came out with a kindly smile. “You can go in now.”
Chris’ legs turned to jelly.
Mr Benton listened patiently as the story unravelled, his face hard and stern; this was, after all, a serious matter. He got up at the end and paced round the room, obviously struggling with something in his head. Finally he said, not unkindly, “I can’t believe what I’m hearing. Sam is one of my best managers with renowned people skills. The results from the management training course were exceptional; they’ve never had a student score so highly.”
Andy leaned against the edge of his desk, sighing as he sought a reasonable explanation. “I think you may have misinterpreted one or two gestures. Some people do tend to use touch as a form of emphasis; I’m sure that’s all it is.” He looked at his watch as though he had a lot more things he’d rather be doing right at that moment. Folding his arms, he suggested there should be no problem now Roy was back. “Unless you have a problem with Roy as well?”
Chris figures there wasn’t much point staying, he was obviously not taking this seriously. The next statement confirmed this.
“Look, you don’t have much longer in the department, but we don’t want you to suffer. A transfer can be arranged if the situation really was unbearable.”
It doesn’t get much worse. Chris left the office with mixed feelings of anger and frustration at the lack of support and helplessness of being unable to stop someone from taking advantage of their position of authority.
It wasn’t that Sam was unattractive. Indeed, under different circumstances … That train of thought was stopped abruptly as its subject appeared round the corner looking quite grim.
“Ah, Chris. My office, half an hour.” Chris nodded meekly, then watched, horrified, as Sam entered Andy’s office, wondering if he was going to discuss their conversation; they’d probably have a good old laugh about the whole thing.
Just before reaching the office, he passed Angela who stopped. “Oh by the way, Chris. You know that matter we were discussing the other day? I forgot to tell you something. Your friend could keep a log of all the incidents – you know, date, time, place, brief description and most importantly any witnesses, that sort of thing … what’s the matter?”
Chris felt self-pity surfacing and it must have shown as Angela said with concern, “Come on, tell me all about it, it looks pretty serious.”
Unable to look her in the face, Chris swallowed. “It wasn’t a friend I was talking about, it was me.”
“You? But how …? I mean, who was doing it?”
“Sam.”
“Impossible.”
The certainty in Angela’s voice plunged Chris deeper into despair. “I thought you might believe me …”
“You don’t understand. It couldn’t possibly be Sam. I know this because ..."
Don't forget, if you can tell me the correct twist at the end, I'll send you a free copy of the first book featuring Sexy Lexie.
If you just want to find out the ending, write to me at rogreen13 at hotmail dot com and I'll send you the link.
No comments:
Post a Comment