Marie's first thought upon Mr. Wright's entrance into the office was,
Yummy.
The new boss must have played football in college. Basketball, maybe. He was tall.
Marie adjusted her blouse as he passed her on his way into his new office, a massive cardboard box in his arms. She could have gotten up to open his door for him, but then she would have missed the spectacle of those massive shoulders straining against his sport coat sleeves. So good.
"Ms. Patterson?" Oh geez, he was looking at her. She felt a guilty blush rising in her cheeks. Had she been ogling him too obviously? "Would you mind terribly helping me with this door?"
She made a few sounds that vaguely resembled words and sprang to her feet, smoothing her skirt more than necessary as she went to open the door. Handsome and polite. Oh, she was going to enjoy working for this one.
"Ms. Patterson, are you very busy today?" he was asking her. His mouth moved in very sensual ways when he spoke. She was entranced. "Ms. Patterson?"
"What? Oh!" Awkward. "Please, call me Marie. I've never gotten used to being called by my last name." Had that covered well enough? He wasn't giving her a strange look or anything. Of course, now he wasn't looking at her at all. He'd turned away to start unpacking his things on the empty desk. She wanted to do something to catch his attention.
She glanced down at her blouse. Buttoned up to her neck? What was she thinking? She flicked at the buttons and managed to open the top two before Mr. Wright turned back to her. He smiled, those blue eyes twinkling. Had he seen her little maneuver? If he was laughing at her, she'd--
"Then I suppose you should call me Todd," he said, and now the smile he turned on her seemed to be kind, welcoming. He wanted her to call him by his first name. How...intimate. She enjoyed a little shiver of glee and then stepped toward him as he spoke again. "But I don't think you've answered me. Are you busy today?"
"Busy? Oh...not terribly." Understatement. She'd had nothing whatsoever to do while they'd looked for a replacement for that last bonehead, Graham. An administrative assistant was very little use without anything to assist or administrate.
"Perfect! Then you're just the person to show me around this place. All I've seen so far is the conference room where they held the interviews. Well, and my office, of course." He was so confident. But he'd have to be, wouldn't he? To be an executive, and so young! He couldn't have been over thirty. And she a dewy-eyed woman of...twenty-nine. Ish. Close enough, when she looked fresh out of college, if she did say so herself.
"I'd be glad to, Mr. Wright...Todd." Oho, now there was a name that could be screamed. Come on, Toddy-boy, just give me the chance.
"Fantastic." Todd flashed her a toothy grin and gestured toward his box. "I'll just get settled in and then I'll come out to meet you at your desk, alright?"
Marie nodded. She'd need that time to freshen up. What had she been thinking, wearing this fuddy-dud skirt on the day a new boss was arriving? Well, she thought he'd be a fifty-something internal hire, like the last two. Still, she should have had more forethought. Oh, if she'd realized how unbearably
hot
he would be, she would have worn her hair down today!
She made it to the ladies' room as fast as her heels allowed. At least those were sexy. She'd just bought a pair that was at least two inches too tall for a respectable office setting, and she loved every inch of them. Mmm....just like she'd love every inch of--
The bathroom door slammed open and one of the execs from down the hall -- ugh, that boyish hair, that pantsuit, could she be any less feminine? -- ducked into a stall. Marie resumed her preparations in front of the mirror, loosing another button on her blouse and loosening the bun at the nape of her neck, rewrapping it more messily so that it looked a little bedroom-tousled. Visuals never hurt.
She slapped some color into her cheeks and bit her lips red. She had some lip stick in her purse somewhere, didn't she? Gloss, maybe? She dug past half-empty packs of gum and wadded tissues and loose change, and victoriously whipped out a tube of cherry chapstick. Close enough.
She pulled her skirt up a little higher. There, there was a little thigh. She turned, smoothing the skirt down over her butt and checking it in the mirror. Oh yes, her backside had always been quite an asset. Marie chuckled to herself.
She could do nothing about her glasses, or her lack of perfume. She would just have to play the cards she was dealt.
Todd was just emerging from his office as she arrived back at her desk. "Ready?" he asked, and she nodded eagerly. She turned to walk ahead of him, putting a little extra swish in her walk. If he didn't notice that, then he was blind. Or gay. Oh God, she hoped he wasn't gay.
But ten minutes later, when she was bent over trying to unjam the copier so she could show him all the machine's quirks, she caught him staring down her shirt. Bingo! Not gay. She grinned as she finished her spiel about toner and paper size.
And later, when they were standing in the elevator, and he stood so close to her that their arms were touching? Oh, he felt it too. He definitely felt it. They smiled and laughed shyly at each other when they made contact, and
neither of them moved away
. Marie was more than a little excited.
She thought she ruined it when she made the stupid joke. She was telling Todd about the difficulties they'd had before all their old files were computerized, when she had to walk down three halls and a flight of stairs to get the tiniest bit of information.
"That would make it harder," he'd said, and she'd replied, stupidly, before she had time to think--
"Yeah, but sometimes I like it hard."
