The Bet
by Karen Singer
Chapter 28 (Friday – week 4 Part 6 of 10)
Tedious, tedious, tedious! That’s what was running through Chad’s mind as he worked on the project. The part he was finishing up just then had been nothing but tedious – squared! He noticed an email notification popping up on his monitor. There was no question about not opening it right away… anything for a break in what he had been doing!
The email was from Mel… a return email from his thank you note. Was she going to apologize fully? He read the short email through and was more than a bit surprised. She had sent him orders… there was no other way to label the command… that he take the day off on Monday. She didn’t say why. She didn’t really say anything else, other than to spell out in no uncertain terms that he should take the day off formally, because he certainly wasn’t going to be at work on Monday. Why? What did she have planned?
Knowing Mel, he figured he better not take a chance. He immediately emailed his boss, Tom Robinson, and told him that something had just come up and he was taking one of his vacation days on Monday. It only took about fifteen minutes before his boss emailed him back with the ok.
Chad immediately emailed Mel back, informing her that he had arranged for the day off. He also asked her what was going on that he wouldn’t be at work. He closed his email program and his eyes caught sight of the flowers she had sent him again. The flowers really had been a nice gesture… very nice. Maybe she had planned something really nice for him on Monday. He breathed in the sent from the flowers once again and felt his whole body relaxing for a moment. A nice long weekend. Just what he really needed. Oh! He’d better tell Robin! “Oh Roooobiiiin,” he called over the cubicle wall.
“Cassie’s on the line for you,” Andrea said over her private line to Mel’s desk.
“Ok. Thanks Andrea,” Mel replied as she punched the button to take the other call. “Hi Cassie. Thanks for getting back to me.”
“No problem, Mel. What’s up?”
“Do you think those two women that Sissy wouldn’t curtsey for will be in on Monday?”
“Pretty certain. They’ve been coming almost every morning for a while now.”
“And your receptionist will be there too?”
“I don’t think she’s planning any days off. What’s up?”
Mel almost laughed. “Listen, here’s what I’d like to do…”
It was the middle of the afternoon when Chad leaned back in his chair again to take a mental break. After all the tedious work he had been doing today, he was really going to need that long weekend. But, it had been a really good afternoon so far. The only thing that had happened that really messed things up was when the suppositories that Cassie had put up inside of him had done their thing earlier. Yuck! Even though it happened every single day at about the same time, he still wasn’t used to it. He was just very glad that everything he was wearing under his outer clothes hid what he had done from everyone else… but he could certainly feel it. Double yuck!
“Ready for break?” Robin’s voice asked from the entrance of his cubicle.
Chad thought about it for a minute. Would it really be a good thing for him to go? He had run into Derek yesterday. That hadn’t been good. “I don’t know,” he answered, totally unsure of the idea. “Coffee would be really good, but I don’t think I want to chance running into Derek again.”
Robin shook her head. “You can’t hide forever. Besides, nothing bad really happened. You just talked – sort of. Come on, it will do you good to get out of here for a while.”
Chad glanced at his computer monitor again and the tedious work that had occupied him all afternoon. “Maybe you’re right,” he said as he turned the program off. Anything for a break! He got up and followed her out into the hallway.
“I still think you should have gotten some blue hose during lunch,” Robin said as they walked.
Chad rolled his eyes. Women! They never let up! “I really didn’t want to. Besides, we always get our nails done after work on Friday. The pantyhose would only get in the way.”
“Oh,” Robin replied. “That makes sense.” They walked in silence for a moment before Robin said, “We?”
“We what?”
“You said ‘we’ always get our nails done. Who’s we?”
“Mel and I.”
“Oh.” They walked in silence for a few more moments. “I guess you’ve really got a thing for her then. She even sent you flowers. Gee, here I was feeling sorry for you because of your divorce, but you’ve already got a new girlfriend.”
“It’s not like that. She’s not my girlfriend.”
“Then what is she?”
Chad couldn’t tell her she was his mistress. Not at all. “She’s just… a friend. And that’s it!”
He had said the last part with such finality, that Robin knew for sure there must be more to it than that, but she left it alone. But a little teasing around the ladies couldn’t hurt.
Chad followed Robin through the line to get coffee, then followed her over to the table that was already mostly full of women. They had barely sat down though, when one of the women said to Chad, “I heard you got flowers delivered to you today. Is that true?”
“Yeah,” Chad admitted.
“Damn, must be someone special.” The woman exclaimed. “Nobody ever sends flowers to me.” There was a chorus of agreements from a few of the women.
“Can you believe it,” Robin added teasingly, “he’s only been dressing like a woman for a few weeks, and already men are sending him flowers!”
Chad almost spit out his coffee. Men? What was Robin up to?
“Who is it honey?” one of the women asked before Chad could protest.
“Was it Derek?” another woman asked.
“It was from someone named Mel!” Robin threw into the mix.
“Mel?” yet another woman asked. “I don’t think I know anybody around here by that name. Does he work here?”
“Mel’s not a guy!” Chad protested. “She’s a woman!”
“A woman sent you flowers? Doesn’t sound right to me… Unless it was another guy like you are… Kind of a… what shall we say… pretend woman?”
“No, no, no!” Chad shook his head. “Mel’s a real woman. Genetically born… just like you.”
“Are you sure, honey? Cause sometimes it can be hard to tell these days.”
Chad said nothing. He just rolled his eyes and leaned back and took another sip of his coffee. Women! He knew they were all just teasing… but still, they could be such a pain!
“Hey,” another woman said, “I thought you were going to get some blue pantyhose for your outfit today.”
Chad wanted to throw what was left of his coffee at her. “No I didn’t say that. Robin wanted me to.”
“It’s nail day,” Robin added teasingly. “He and ‘Mel’ always get their nails done together after work on Friday.”
There was some smattering chuckling from some of the women. “You mean, Mel – the ‘maybe’ woman?” someone replied. The women were all so worked up now, that the whole table burst out laughing – except Chad.
“No. She’s not a ‘maybe’ woman. Geez! Her name is Melissa!”
“Honey, a name don’t mean nothin’! I just hope you checked under the covers… if you know what I mean.”
Chad’s eyes went wide. “Hey, trust me, she’s a real woman!”
“So you’ve had sex with her?”
This was really getting out of hand for Chad. Why did he come here in the first place? But how could he answer that question. The answer was both yes and no. But really, no he hadn’t actually had sex with her. “Well, not exactly,” he admitted.
“But you have seen her naked,” another woman asked teasingly.
“Um… Not really,” he admitted.
“Then you don’t really know do you? Honey, if I was you, I’d be findin’ out for sure!”
Robin smiled as everyone else laughed. This wasn’t exactly what she had in mind for teasing Chad… and she had only wanted to tease him a little bit. But women… well, they sometimes could get the strangest ideas, thinking they’re funny, and then run that idea into the ground. She actually felt a bit sorry for Chad… sort of. She spoke up, “Actually, the flowers he got were because his divorce was final today.”
“Oh! Sorry about that,” one of the women said far more contritely. “I forgot about that.”
Chad was surprised at how quickly the mood seemed to change around the table. He was suddenly mostly forgotten as woman after woman told tales of divorce’s that were either personal, or they knew about. And every woman listened raptly to every tale. Even Chad.
Mel rushed home after work. As usual, there wasn’t a lot of time before their nail appointments. Would he be ready? He’d better be! She really still wanted to kill him, but she held her anger – by Monday she would be feeling a lot better about things. But she had no doubt that he wouldn’t be! She had to be very careful about how she went about everything or he might realize that he had been hypnotized by Gloria. And Gloria had been right when she had said that it would undoubtedly make things almost impossible for her. So for now, she wouldn’t let him see any of the anger she felt towards him. Let him continue to think everything was just fine. And then later… wham!
She pulled into her parking space and practically ran up the stairs, heading for his apartment instead of hers. She had her key for his apartment out in her hand, but before she could get it into the lock, he opened the door from the inside.
“Hello Mistress,” he said with a smile on his face as he dipped into a better than usual curtsey.
She stood still for a moment and stared at him. Damn! She loved seeing him do that! There was just something about it that totally thrilled her down to her toes.
“I’m sorry I didn’t see you driving up, or I would have met you downstairs.”
Mel only barely heard him. The sight of him curtseying to her had thrown her totally off balance. And Cassie had been right, the outfit he had on looked cute on him. And blue hose wouldn’t look bad at all with it. She finally recovered her wits. “That’s okay, Sissy. I take it you’re ready to go?”
“Yes, Mistress,” he answered. He made a quick grab for his purse and diaper bag, then he was out the door, locking it behind him.
He was just too good! All the way down to the car, Mel had to keep reminding herself that this was the very person who had been deceiving her. She couldn’t trust anything about him! She said nothing as she drove to the nail salon, but occasionally she glanced at him with her peripheral vision. No, she couldn’t trust him, she reminded herself again. Not one bit!
“Mistress,” Chad began, breaking the silence, “I hate to ask, but…”
Before he even got the question out, Mel was tempted to tell him a big, firm… No!” But she held her silence.
He held out his fingers in front of him to look at his long claw-like nails as he continued with his question. “Is there any chance I could have these nails shortened a bit? They really make life difficult. I promise I won’t try to cut them myself anymore.” He looked over at her, pleadingly.
They made life difficult for him! They were supposed to make life difficult for him! That was why she had them put on him in the first place. She was so tempted to tell him no, but she had already talked to the nail technician and told her what she wanted for him for this week. Besides, having at least somewhat shorter nails would help with other things that she wanted to change… or improve on. But still, they did make life more difficult for him… probably a lot! “We’ll see, Sissy,” she said with a bit of a frustrated sigh. “We’ll see.”
No comments:
Post a Comment