"See you later, Mike," Mary said as she took her coat from the rack, swinging her car keys around her finger. You could set your watch by Mary's departure on a Friday. I guess cutting out a bit early is a perk of tenure.
"Yeah Mary, see you later. Thanks for helping me get that presentation out today," I replied. Four o'clock on a Friday usually meant I was halfway out the door myself, however today I decided to check my email one last time. At the top of my inbox was a curious, foreboding message.
PLEASE SEE ME - CONFIDENTIAL
A message from my Vice President directly to me. I don't think this has ever happened. Was I getting fired? I can't be getting fired. My last performance review was stellar. I folded up my laptop and headed over to the elevator. The veteran move here might be just to pretend I never saw it and go home, remaining blissfully unaware of my fate until Monday. That wasn't me though, and being 6 months into my first job as a web designer, I never wanted to appear lax.
I rode the elevator up three floors to the executive suite of our five story building in Seattle, stepping off and turning right to head toward my VP's office. His EA, Marni, was still here which meant he was still here. Marni exuded that confident, sexy older woman vibe that I just love.
"Hey Marni," I asked as she looked up from her dual screens. "Is Kevin still here?"
"Yes, and he said you might stop by. Just go inside," she said as she waved her had vaguely in the direction of Kevin, the VP of Design's office, before looking back down at her laptop.
I approached Kevin's door and gently opened it, peering inside. Kevin was sitting on his couch, staring at his phone.
"Hey Kevin. I saw your note and wanted to check in before I left," I stated with some amount of hesitation.
"Oh Mike. I'm sorry, don't be alarmed. Close the door," he said. I pushed it closed behind me and stood quietly as he finished typing something out on his phone before putting it down and turning his attention to me.
"I've got a project for you that requires some discretion. One of our major pharma clients is being acquired and wants us to put together an entire transition site for them, including combining all of their internal assets. I will send you the details by email this weekend," he said.
"Ok no worries, I will take a look on Sunday," I replied.
"When I mean it requires discretion, it's insider information," he said before I could turn to leave. "I'm going to pair you with one of our senior designers and you can work together. We are giving you a war room to work from."
My first ever war room project. For the uninitiated, a war room was basically a dedicated conference room for a given project. Very exciting.
"Who's the designer?" I asked.
"Autumn Perkins. Do you know her? I think she is New York based but will be temporarily relocating here to work this with you," he said.
"I don't know her personally but I've seen her name around," I replied.
"Fine then. Well, have a great weekend. By the way, just report to conference room 9Q on the 4th floor on Monday. That will be your workspace," he said.
I wished him a good weekend and headed out. This sounded like a genuine opportunity, which felt few and far between at this company since I've been here.
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I promptly forgot about work all weekend, before realizing I never read the brief that I said I would until I was halfway into work. I spent a few minutes in the parking lot perusing the docs in my car. I could already tell this was at least a four month project, even with extra help. I headed inside, opting to the take the elevator to the fourth floor and room 9Q. 9Q was a room that was tucked into a corner of the floor, near the storage closets and across from the accounting department. It was one of the least used rooms, as it lacked outside windows, which is probably why it was assigned to this project.
I opened the door, tossing my bag on to the table, and was was abruptly greeted by a tall brunette, sketching at the whiteboard.
"Oh, hey there," she said. "I'm Autumn. You're Mike right?"
"Yes, Kevin told me you'd be working with me on this," I said.
Autumn was probably 5'9", a nice bust and hips that flared. She was wearing a dark gray skirt and a white button down top, exposing just a bit of her cleavage. Her hair was about shoulder length. If I had to guess, she was about 35, a fair bit older than me, which made sense given her seniority in the company.
"Did you read the brief?" Autumn asked as I sat down. I half nodded.
"Let's start sketching out the basics and we'll go from there," she said, returning to the whiteboard. The skirt accentuated her butt, helped no doubt by her heels.
Autumn and I spent the next few hours running through the brief as we worked the outline of the pages we'd need. I took a few opportunities to steal a glance down her top as she leaned forward to look at her laptop, and again on a couple of occasions as she bent over to retrieve things from her bag. She wasn't wearing any rings that I could see.
I decided to probe a bit. "Is your spouse upset that you have to be away from home for so long?" I asked during a momentary pause in the conversation.
"Spouse? I'm divorced. Three years now. I've been trying to stay single," she said matter of factly.
"What about you?" she asked, continuing, "Doesn't yours care that you will probably have to work late a couple times per week?"
"I'm single. I don't get out much," I said. Autumn nodded, touching my shoulder, before the conversation turned back to work, where we worked into the early evening, ordering Chinese food delivery before wrapping up for the evening around 8 PM.
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The next few days proceeded fairly normally. We were heads down on the project, though it did feel as though Autumn would occasionally brush against me or touch my hand or arm as we worked. I did find her attractive, but didn't go out of my way to make it known, and she was several years my senior as well, so I had no way of knowing how she felt about that.
As the days wore on and I spent more time with her, I really started to enjoy her company. She had a funny, dry sense of humor, was clearly smart, and quite beautiful as well. My thoughts on the drive home each night wandered towards what was under that tight fitting top. I tried my best to keep it cool at work, as best as a 25 year old can when trying to impress an older woman.
Finally, on Friday afternoon, we were feeling good about our progress for the week. We chilled out a bit, eating some snacks from the break room and a couple of beers from the exec suite refrigerator that I snuck out and back to room 9Q. I decided to probe a bit as we relaxed.
"So what are you doing this weekend? Are you going back to New York?" I asked.
