Revenge - Chapter 37 – Part 2 of 2

Revenge

By Karen Singer

Chapter 37 – Part 2 of 2

Booties.  Boots.  High top shoes really.  Or short boots.  Either way, they were women’s shoes – period!  And the biggest problem was, they looked it.  They weren’t at all like the pair of women’s flats he had been able to wear last week.  No, these had to look more like women’s shoes…or boots…or booties.  Which is what Diane claimed they were.  What he claimed they were, was embarrassing!

Yes, they were brown.  And yes, he had owned brown shoes in the past.  Brown men’s shoes.  No, they didn’t have a high heel or anything like that, although the heel was just a tiny bit higher than he was comfortable thinking about.  Hopefully, it wouldn’t be noticeable.  But he had never owned or even seen a pair of men’s shoes or boots that zipped up the inseam.  And to make matters worse, there was a decorative strap with a gold buckle that ran around the top of the boot, and a long dangling gold chain that ran just under it from each side of the zipper.  Hopefully, they wouldn’t be noticeable either.  And then there was the entire shape of the part his foot went into that was a bit different than men’s shoes.  Definitely more feminine looking – without a doubt.  Hopefully, that wouldn’t be noticeable as well.  Hopefully, nothing about the booties would be noticeable.  Hopefully.  He hoped, but if his pants moved just the wrong way, it wasn’t a lot of hope.  That darn gold chain hung down just a bit too low for comfort.

Tugging at his pants legs to make sure they covered as much of his shoes…booties…as possible, he headed out the door to go to work.  He was going to kill those witches someday.  Well, Monica’s magic kept him from doing that.  But one of these days, soon now, he was going to get his revenge on all of them.  Including crazy Diane.  He knew what he wanted to do, he just had to figure out how to go about doing it. 

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

Ruth was late getting to work because she had stopped at her lawyer’s office to drop off the confession she had…taken…from Monica last night.  In its place, she now had the photocopy she had made of the thing the night Steve had signed it.  Once she had deposited her things on her desk, taking note that nobody even knew she was late, she grabbed one of her notebooks, put the copy of the confession inside, and headed down to the shipping department.  There was a young guy working out front when she got there.  “Is Monica here?” she asked.

“In the back somewhere, I think,” the guy replied.

Ruth headed towards the small office that Monica and Diane shared.  But she spotted them both unpacking some boxes in the big room.  “Monica.”

Monica looked up and saw Ruth standing there.  She immediately stopped what she was doing, and so did Diane.  Both of them went over to talk to Ruth.

“Ruth, what’s going on?”

Ruth’s reply was almost a whisper.  “I can’t tell you that, and it would be best if you don’t ever ask.  In fact don’t even talk about it with anyone.  And I mean that!” 

“But Ruth…last night…”

“I know.  And I’m sorry.  But it was necessary.  Trust me.”

“What did you do with the confession?”

Ruth opened her notebook and pulled out the copy she had made.  “Here,” she said.  “Take this instead.  I can’t tell you what I did with the real thing.”

“But Ruth!  That was important to me.  I want it back!”

Ruth shook her head.  “What I did was for your own good!  You too Diane.”

“But what did you do?”

Again Ruth shook her head.  “I can’t…and I won’t tell you.  Just trust me.  And like I said last night, I suggest you stop playing with Steve!”

“Ruth,” Diane said, “did you turn that confession over to the police?”

“No.  Nothing like that.”

“Are you trying to get Steve arrested now?” Monica asked.

“No,” Ruth said again.  “And like I said, don’t ask, and don’t even discuss it with anyone.  Just trust me.  What I’ve done, I’ve done for not only me, but both of you and Carla too.  In fact, more than just the four of us.  So for your own sakes, don’t talk about this, and like I said, I recommend you stop playing with Steve now.  Just…drop it.”

“But…”

But Ruth shook her head, turned and hurried away.

“What the heck is going on?” Diane asked Monica.

“I’d like to know the same thing.  I needed that confession!”

“I know,” Diane replied.  “I wonder if we should see if Carla is free for lunch today so we can decide what to do.”

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

It was nearly lunchtime and Steve still hadn’t gotten a text from any of the witches demanding their daily pictures.  He was tempted to just go and take care of it before any of them could ask.  The only problem was, he was reluctant to get up from his desk and walk anywhere if he didn’t have to.  He was too concerned with that darn flash of gold from the chain on his booties showing below his pants as he walked. 

His desk phone rang and he immediately thought about the witches, but the name on the screen showed it was his boss, Mr. Carter.  “Hello?”

“Steve.  Before you go to lunch, can you come to my office?  I’ve got something new I want to run past you.”

“Uh…okay.  I’ll be right there.”  Damn.  Now he had to get up.  And most likely, some people would be leaving early for lunch to beat the crowd. 

Standing, he pulled down on his pants legs to make sure they would cover as much as possible.  He walked slowly and carefully, taking smaller steps than usual to make sure that gold chain wouldn’t show.  He passed people, and people passed him.  Fortunately though, it wasn’t far to his boss’s small office.  “You’ve got something new for me?” he asked as he walked in?

Mr. Carter glanced up from his work and pointed to one of the chairs in front of his desk.  Steve sat, glad that Carter wouldn’t be able to see his feet.  But as he sat, he looked down and saw that small flash of gold.  He pulled on his pants legs to try to cover it.  Which didn’t entirely work.

“Steve,” Carter said as he tossed a file folder to the other side of his desk.  “This came in this morning.  I want you to look through it and let me know what you think.  If you think we should go with it, I’m going to let you lead the project and all the coordination on it.”

Steve was surprised.  It was an obvious step up in responsibility.  And hopefully, a big step toward getting a promotion.  “Sure!” he agreed quickly.  “I’ll do what I can.”

“Just don’t go jumping on it if you have any reservations at all.  If that’s the case, then we want to scrap it completely.  I’ll find something else for you to head up instead.  But if you do decide to go with it…or not…let me know your reasons.  Got it?”

“Yeah.  Sure.  Not a problem.  I’ll look into it right away.”

Carter smiled and nodded.  “Good.”  He glanced at his watch.  “But it’s lunchtime now.  Take a break and relax for a while.  Then get to it afterwards.  There’s not that much of a rush on this thing.”

“Uh…yeah.  Great!” Steve replied happily. 

There were more people in the hallway as he made his way back to his desk, and a couple of times he noticed someone looking strangely at his feet.  He looked down as he walked and noticed that tiny flash of gold.  He had been walking too fast!  He shortened his steps.  Doing nothing but constantly watching his feet.  If he was careful.  If he took small steps, that darn gold chain didn’t show at all.  He just had to…walk funny.

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

“What the heck is going on?” Carla asked as the three women sat down to lunch. 

“That’s what we want to know,” Diane replied.  Ruth acted so…strange!”

“For our own good?” Carla asked.  “How can she do anything for our own good?  Especially if she won’t tell us anything.”

“I don’t know,” Monica replied with a touch of anger.  “All I know is that she took that signed confession from me, and now all I’ve got is a photocopy.  And I have no idea if a photocopy will do me any good or not if I ever need it.”

“So what do we do about Steve?” Diane asked.  “Ruth seemed awfully insistent on that too.  And the way she was acting, it seemed like something serious was going on.”

Monica nodded.  “That’s what I keep wondering about too.  It was the way she kept saying everything that has me worried.  Very worried!  Almost as if our jobs are on the line.”

“She works outside of HR,” Carla said.  “Actually, I think she’s somehow part of the HR department.  Maybe she’s heard something she can’t tell us about.”  Her face suddenly turned more worried as she thought of something.  “Oh my God!  Maybe the company’s getting ready to start laying people off!”

That brought wide-eyed worried looks from Monica and Diane.  “Do you think?” Monica asked.

Carla shook her head.  “I have no idea.  But I guess it’s possible.”

Monica thought about that.  Getting laid off would be the worst thing that could happen to her.  She liked her job.  She liked the people she worked with.  And she quickly realized, that if even a hint of what they were doing to Steve ever got out, her job would be history – revenge against him or not.  “Girls,” she said, somewhat fearfully.  “As much as I hate to say it, maybe we better lay off of Steve.  At least until we find out what’s going on for sure.”

Diane and Carla both nodded in agreement.

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

Steve’s desk phone rang right after he got back from lunch.  What surprised him, was that the screen showed that it was Diane calling him.  It was only surprising because she usually called his cell phone instead.  Knowing she was going to ask for pictures, he picked the phone up.  “Hello?”

“Steve,” Diane said.  “Don’t bother sending us any pictures anymore.  I’ll come over to your place tonight to explain it.  So don’t worry about it.”

“No more pictures?” Steve asked, surprised and happy.

“Nothing else either,” Diane said.  “I’ll talk to you tonight.  I gotta go.”

Steve hung up his phone.  No more pictures?  Nothing else either?  He wondered what that meant.  It sounded awfully good if it was true.  But the fact that Diane was coming over later to “explain it” sounded all too worrisome.  He had no doubt that those four witches had something else in mind that would make his life far worse than it already was.  He immediately worried that Monica had finally figured out whatever she had been looking for from all the magic research Diane had said she was doing. 

So if Monica now knew how to do something worse to him….  His thoughts turned immediately to something he hadn’t had much time to think about yet.  His way to finally get back at all four of those witches.  He just had to figure out how to do it.  No matter what Monica did to him later, he had to figure out how to get all four of them – fired!

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

Mel took a large forkful of the salad Sissy had made for her earlier that morning, and stuck it in her mouth.  As she chewed, she picked up the tiny baby spoon from out of the baby food jar, filled it with mush-like food from the jar, and stuck it into Sissy’s mouth.  He couldn’t exactly protest since he was currently trapped into the custom made highchair in his office/nursery.  This was the way they spent most of their lunches…whenever he was under her thumb, and whenever he was actually in the office, and whenever she didn’t have any prior lunchtime engagements.  Feeding him his baby food meals three times a day had somehow made her feel even closer to him than ever.  He was forced to depend on her, and she was forced to give him the close loving attention he craved. 

“I’ve spent all morning going through those files you sent,” she told him.  “Thank you for boiling it all down and recopying everything so that all I have to read, or look at, is the important stuff.”

“Youw wewcome,” he replied before she shoved another tiny bit of the baby food into his mouth.

“I see where you rearranged things too.  It does kind of put things into a different perspective.”

“Fankth,” he said, waiting for more of his lunch.

“Tell me,” she said.  “You know we’ve got to present this differently than anything normal.  You know this can never go to court.  How do you think we should play this?”

He shook his head.  “I don’t know,” he replied, one of the few phrases that ever left his mouth clearly.  “As far as I can thee, thhe’th twyin to bwackmaiw them.”

Mel nodded.  “That’s my impression too.” 

“Tho don’t do it.  Don’t take the cathe.”

Mel shook her head.  “No.  I’m going to take the case.  There are other aspects of this that are entirely legal and justified.  In fact, those are all the aspects that pertain directly to sexual discrimination that she’s suing them for in the first place.”

“Tho what awe you goin to do?”

“I don’t know yet,” Mel admitted.  “I’m still looking through everything.”  She smiled.  “But the way you’ve rearranged some of that material is giving me some unique…options.” 

She shoved another spoonful of baby food into his mouth.  Yes, once again she was glad she had let Sissy look that material over first.  He had rearranged things and presented her with several spreadsheets, regrouping and outlining several different subjects and factors.  And based on those new groupings and outlines, Mel was starting to see her way out of some major problems.  That just left a ton of other major problems to figure out now.  But that was her job.

Sissy had done well for her yet again.  Just like he always did.  Once again she figured he deserved some kind of reward.  But rewarding Sissy was far different than the rewards anyone else would think.  She briefly wondered how Sissy would enjoy another trip to Europe.  This time dressed and acting the entire time just as he was now.  She had no doubt that the humiliation of having to do that would drive him absolutely crazy.  Yes, just as soon as she could wrap this case up, maybe it was time for them both to take another little vacation. 

--- §§§§§§§§§§ ---

Later that evening, Steve was still in his girly underwear, and was still wearing the girly booties.  Knowing that Diane was coming, he didn’t dare take them off.  He finally heard the knock at his door.  “Diane,” he said as he opened it and saw her there.  He quickly looked around.  She was alone again.  He stood back and let her in.  “So what miserable things has Monica cooked up for me now?” he asked with more than a hint of frustration in his voice.

“Nothing,” Diane replied.  “Nothing at all.  In fact, like I told you earlier, you don’t have to worry about sending us any pictures at all anymore.  In fact, you don’t have to wear anything you don’t want anymore.”

“Nothing?” Steve asked, not believing it.

“For now anyway.  I can’t say what Monica will want to do later.”

“Later?”

“Um…in the future.  You know?”

“So what the hell is going on now?”

“Uh…nothing,” Diane replied.  “We’ve just decided to lay off for a while.  That’s all.”

“For a while,” Steve asked suspiciously.  “What’s that mean?”

“For a while,” Diane replied.  “Until we decide otherwise, I guess.”

Steve still wasn’t sure if that was good news, or just the calm before the real storm started.  “So how about my underwear?  That too?”

“Of course.  Whatever you want to wear.  We’re not forcing you to wear any of it anymore.  We’re…done with you…for now anyway.”

It was the ‘for now anyway’ part that Steve was the most suspicious of.  “You’re sure,” he asked again.

“Yes Steve.  We’re done.  For now anyway.”

Steve shook his head.  “I guess that’s good news.”

Diane was clearly surprised.  “I thought it would be something you’d really want to hear.”

“Oh it is.  Trust me.  It’s just that I don’t trust Monica.  I’m just waiting now for her to hit me with something even worse!”

“Steve,” Diane said, “I told you, we’re stopping for a while. Laying off completely.” She smiled.  “But of course, if you want to wear that stuff, I certainly wouldn’t mind,” she said playfully.

“Forget it!” Steve said, now grinning.  “I’m going out tonight to buy all new underwear.”

Diane giggled, then she turned more serious.  “Hey Steve, you haven’t heard anything about the company doing any layoffs have you?”

“Layoffs?  No,” he said cautiously.  “Why?”

“Because…um…I don’t know.  Just something Ruth mentioned that has us all worried.”

“What?”

“That’s just it.  She wouldn’t tell us.”

Steve knew that Ruth worked up by the HR department.  And if Ruth was worried about it, then that didn’t sound good at all.  He thought that he was safe though, especially since Mr. Carter had just given him that new assignment to head up.  Because of that, Steve wasn’t worried about getting laid off.  He was worried about not getting that promotion.  And then another thought hit him.  If the company was indeed looking for people to lay off, then how could he get the witches on that list!  If he could somehow manage that, then the company would do his dirty work for him. 

“So you haven’t heard anything about that?” Diane asked.

Steve shook his head.  “Nothing at all.”

“I just hope we’re wrong,” Diane replied, obviously worried about it.

But now that Diane had told him that he could wear normal underwear again, Steve had more important things on his mind.  “Um…Diane, if you don’t mind.  Since you say I can wear men’s underwear again, I’m going out tonight to buy some.  I can’t wait!”

Diane’s mood suddenly changed as she giggled.  “Maybe not tonight,” she said.

“Why not?” 

“Because we still have one last piece of business to figure out.”

“What?”

She reached into her bag and pulled out a pair of pink handcuffs and held them up.

Steve stared at the handcuffs suspiciously.  “For you…or me?” he asked.

  Diane giggled.  “Well, that’s the part we need to figure out.  Flip a coin?”