After graduating from college with a degree in Accounting, I was thrilled when I got a job working for a large regional bank. It was such a relief to know that I wouldn't be searching for employment and might even be on a career path. I planned on continuing my education in the evenings to eventually become a Certified Public Accountant.
On my first day, I was nervous as heck as my boss, Phil introduced me to the other fifteen people in the department and showed me to my cubicle. I guess it was only natural that my first assignments were tasks that no one else wanted to do. No one likes starting at the bottom and paying their dues but I took my tasks seriously and wanted to excel at whatever duties were assigned to me.
I was the youngest person in the department so I kept mostly to myself. I kept my head down and did my work. There was an older guy, Ray, who sat next to me who was going to help me out and answer any questions I had.
On Friday morning at the end of my first week, I saw everyone's heads pop up from their cubicles when we heard the distinct sound of high heels firmly clicking against the floor and approaching our work area.
When a stern-looking woman appeared, everyone put their heads down but I was new and didn't know any better. She looked as though she was in her early forties with blonde hair pulled into a bun. She wore glasses and was wearing a white blouse and a skirt that looked like it was part of a business suit that came down to her knees. She was tall and pretty with nice long legs. I had no idea who she was.
When the woman walked past my cubicle, she saw me staring at her and asked, "What the fuck are you looking at? Get back to work."
I got scared and put my head down but looked up out of the corner of my eye without lifting my head out of fear it would get chopped off and saw her walking into my boss' office. There was some yelling before company security came and walked my boss out of his office.
The woman came out of the office and said, "George is now in charge of this department temporarily until we find a replacement for Mike. Now get back to work," and she walked off with that same stern look on her face.
When I knew that she had left the area, I turned to Ray and asked, "What the fuck just happened?"
"Well Gabe, that's Ms. Huffington. People around her call her the Bitch Boss while others call her the Widow Maker. She's a V.P. and oversees our department. If you cross her once, she'll fire you on the spot."
I decided to continue to do my job and try to blend in so I didn't cross Ms. Huffinton's path. At a minimum, I wanted to stay at the bank long enough to gain some experience that I could use to get a better job somewhere else.
For the next couple of months, I came to work on time, processed invoices so vendors could get paid, and stayed out of the line of fire of Ms. Huffinton. I liked to be at work early and often stayed late to make sure my work was done. On rare occasions, I would catch the elevator with Ms. Huffington along with several others. I tried to stay in the back so she wouldn't notice me.
The thing that caught my attention was that other people on the elevator would try to engage her in idle conversation and she would ignore them. Even a harmless "Good morning" or "Have a nice day," would not be acknowledged. Ms. Huffington wouldn't even smile or look their way.
I would think to myself, "Damn, she has earned the nickname 'Bitch Boss.'"
I was taught there are some basic common courtesies and she didn't display any of those characteristics. Ms. Huffington made everyone feel like they were peasants and not worthy of her attention.
The thing that struck me about Ms. Huffington is that she was quite pretty. She kept herself in decent shape and appeared to have a nice ass and decent breasts. Her long, shapely legs were her best physical feature. If only her demeanor was better, she might be an attractive woman.
The good thing about working for a large corporation is that I was able to meet other women. I was never a popular guy in school because I was tall and slim. I got bullied in high school and began to lift weights to help defend myself. By the time I got into college, I had a toned body. I will never be a big muscled guy but I'm in decent shape. I'm not the most handsome guy around but I'm not that bad looking either. I guess I still suffer from the emotional scars of being bullied so my confidence level isn't that great. That being said, I would have a date here and there but I wasn't having any long-term relationships. I seemed to be stuck in the "friend zone."
After working at the bank for a few months, I began to settle in and even got a slight raise after my probationary period ended and things were going well. I began to notice some questionable expenses coming through that caught my attention. They were for some cheap motel a couple of hours away in some small rural town. One day when another one came through I asked Ray about them.
"Hey Ray, I keep getting these invoices from Ms. Huffington to reimburse her for some motel. Do you know what this is about?"
"I like you, Gabe, so please take my advice and just pay them. If you start asking questions, the Bitch Boss will make your life miserable at best or fire you at worst."
"Okay, message received. Thanks for the advice."
It still got me curious but I didn't think too much of it until I went on a camping trip with some friends and ended up passing by the motel on our way. It looked like a pretty run-down place, not a place where a woman of Ms. Huffington's stature or pay scale would stay. There was some dive bar next door too. It just didn't make sense to me.
When I got to work on Monday, I decided to look at the history of the invoices for the motel. There seemed to be a pattern that we'd get an invoice in the middle of every month. It looked suspicious other than that it was for a relatively small amount of money. It didn't make sense that Bitch Boss would do something foolish for such a small amount of money. I was still curious but it wasn't my job to question expenses, it was to process the payment.
Those invoices weren't an important part of my job. I was processing invoices for much larger amounts so they didn't consume me until I got another one the next month. I was a single guy and didn't have any plans for the following Saturday so I decided to take a leisurely drive and have a drink at the dive bar next to the motel.
I felt a little foolish driving all that way just to satisfy my curiosity but it was something I felt I needed to do. As soon as I walked into the place, I saw several men sitting at the bar and they immediately turned around to stare at me. It was obvious that I wasn't one of the regulars dressed in my khaki pants and polo shirt. They looked like they were construction workers, farmers, or did some other type of manual labor work.
It was too late to change my mind so I saddled up to the bar, ordered a beer, and scanned the menu. The bartender engaged me in a conversation and it was obvious that he was trying to pump me for information about myself. I told him I was passing through and got hungry so I decided to stop in. I ordered a burger and sipped my beer while minding my own business.
As I looked around, the inside of the bar wasn't as bad as the outside but it was still a dive bar. It had a small sitting area near the bar with a larger backroom. It wasn't someplace I could see Ms. Huffington patronizing. She was such a stuck-up bitch, I figured she wouldn't be caught dead in there.
As I was sitting there with my beer and waiting for my burger, I overheard an interesting conversation among the other guys at the bar.
"I couldn't make it last week. Did I miss anything?"
"Yeah, Bev showed up as promised and damn, she was on fire."
