I heard, "Jeez, dude, I thought she was going to eat you alive!" as I exited the conference room. I looked over my shoulder, and saw that it was my friend, Raj.
Raj always had a way of exaggerating things, particularly when it came to women. If a woman smiled at him, she "totally wanted him," and if he got an enthusiastic hug from a friend, she was "all over him" when the story would be retold to us later. This time, Raj was right on.
We were just coming from a meeting, where I had just been introduced to the staff at my brand new job. The meeting was one that the department heads had each week, but the VP thought it would be a convenient time and place to let me meet the people I'd be working the most closely with.
The VP closed with, "And last but not least, I'd like to introduce everyone to Kendall O'Farrell, our new Chief Marketing Officer. Please do your best to make him feel welcome." As he was finishing his spiel and going over why I made such a "great addition to the team," I scanned the room, making eye contact with and smiling at all of my newest co-workers, trying to make a good first impression.
I spotted Raj first, smiling smugly at me from across the table. He knew that I'd be thanking him for helping me land the job later, during happy hour. He was also happy that one of his friends was now his supervisor.
Then I started moving from head to head from there. Most of my new colleagues were older men. Some of them looked happy to have me on, others just looked bored, and still others had their faces buried in their most recent text message.
I wasn't surprised. I was one of the youngest executives that the company had ever had. I was just hoping that fact didn't make them resent me.
Then, I spotted her. Actually, I noticed HER staring at ME, would be more appropriate. She was older, too... I guessed she was in her late 40's, although she looked younger than that. A combination of being in great shape and some of the best cosmetic surgery that an executive salary could buy made her look 10 years younger.
I briefly froze when her blue eyes met mine, because of how she was staring at me. Everyone else's eyes said "Hello." Hers said "Well hello there..." I diverted my eyes, moving onto the next face, trying my best to not get busted staring back at her.
I had to wait until the VP started going around the table, announcing names and positions, before I learned who she was.
"This is Michelle Sekoa, our Director of Regional Sales for the Pacific Northwest." the VP said as he gestured toward her. I nodded and smiled at Michelle, and gave an obligatory "nice to meet you" as she waved back from across the table.
If I wasn't staring at her, I would have guessed that she was Asian or Native American by her last name, but she looked strikingly Scandinavian. She didn't seem to be as tall as me, but she was still pretty tall for a woman. Straight blond hair framed her porcelain-skinned face, and her form-fitting V-neck sweater showed off an ample chest. Even though the VP and I moved on to the person sitting in the next seat, Michelle kept surveying me, and her grin grew wider.
After the meeting ended, and Raj had finished busting my balls about my encounter with Michelle, I went back to my office to get started on my first official day of work. It wasn't long before my first interruption.
There was a rap on my door frame, followed by a "Mister O'Farrell? Are you busy?" I turned around, and there was Michelle, peering in.
I was in the middle of reorganizing my predecessor's files and setting up my Outlook mail when she stopped in, so she was a welcome distraction.
"Ha. I call my dad 'Mr. O'Farrell'. Please, call me Ken." I said as I rose, extending a hand for a handshake. She came in close as she clasped my hand. I noticed there was no wedding ring.
"Whew, that's a relief," she said. "I prefer to keep it casual, too, but some of these guys insist that you call them 'Mister so and so.' I think it must be an executive thing."
"So I can just call you Michelle, then, 'Miss Sekoa?'" I asked in a sarcastic tone.
"Thank you, yes." she laughed.
We talked about everything and nothing for a few minutes before Raj came in. His face was buried in a manila folder he was flipping through as he walked in.
"Yo Ken, the guy before you made this folder with our..." He paused as he looked up and noticed Michelle standing next to me. "Ohhh I'm sorry! Am I interrupting anything?" he said through a Cheshire Cat grin.
Before I could tell Raj to eat shit, Michelle spoke up.
"No, Raj, I was just taking a moment to personally introduce myself to the new guy." she said as she rose to leave. "I need to get back to work, though. Nice meeting you, Ken!"
Raj followed Michelle's ass with his eyes as she exited the room and walked down the hall.
"Dang, dude, you work fast!" Raj laughed.
I offered to take him to lunch to keep him from embarrassing me in front of people. Plus, I knew he wouldn't leave me alone until he got a chance to bust my balls even more and talk about it.
After work, Raj and I hit a bar on the way to the train station for some happy hour drinks to celebrate my new employment.
Someone shouted to us from across the bar. A familiar voice barked, "Raj! Ken!"
We both peered past the throngs of drunken people in business suits to a dimly-lit corner with a booth. It was Michelle with a few other ladies from the office. Raj recognized them from HR and Accounting. They all waved, inviting us to join them.
We were only there for about a half hour before Michelle's company had to leave. One of the girls had a night course to get to. The others had families.
Raj decided that it would be an opportune moment to leave us alone. He grabbed his coat and leaned in before saying, "Details. Tomorrow. All of it." He grinned and nodded at Michelle. "See you tomorrow! I don't want to be a fifth wheel here..."
Michelle and I laughed uneasily and said our goodbyes to Raj as he pushed past a crowd of intoxicated Japanese businessmen.
Michelle and I talked for a long time. The more drinks we had, the more we both let our guards down. I learned that she had a cougar reputation around the office, because she had a very flirtatious nature.
She wasn't really a slut... she just used her sex appeal to her advantage, with her clients and her superiors. 90% of the people she interacted with professionally were men (usually older ones), and she knew exactly how to use her "assets" to get what she wanted.
She explained, "I never fuck them... but I make them think I WANT to. If it gets me an additional two million in annual sales and a promotion in the end, I'll tell any jackass whatever he wants to hear."
"So this morning, when you were practically devouring me with your eyes in the conference room, was that to try and get something out of me?" I asked, partially joking.
She let out a wide-eyed laugh before saying, "no, no... I was just happy to see that they finally hired someone under 50, and it was just a bonus that you're lots of fun to look at."
She winked at me and we both exchanged a silent smile. I decided that I probably shouldn't risk my new job by sleeping with a co-worker on my first day, so I suggested that we leave, before it got too late or we got too drunk. I walked her to the door of the bar, where we exchanged another handshake and smile before we parted ways.
Over the next few months, our flirting became more bold and frequent. At first, it was small... Michelle would send me an e-mail laced with innuendos, I'd wink at her when nobody was looking, minor stuff like that.
Then it escalated to stuff like talking dirty through instant messages and groping when people weren't looking. It never went any further from there, though. I wasn't sure if it was because of some underlying fear of jeopardizing my job, or if she was all flirt and no fuck, but it looked like we had plateaued.
Everything changed one Saturday in August.
I came into work on the weekend, because I was neck-deep in work with finalizing a national Christmas promotion. I was swamped. After tackling my mountain of work for a couple of hours, I had a headache and needed a break.
Instead of going downstairs to the cafe, I opted to save time by getting a drink from the machine in the break room. While I sat there, looking at the view from the window and rubbing my temples, I heard a noise.
It was coming from the sea of cubicles where all of the work stations for all of the Sales Field Representatives were. I was used to hearing noises in the office on the weekends. The cleaning crew was normally there around this time, and security would make regular rounds. But this noise wasn't of footsteps or a whirring vacuum cleaner... somebody was looking through someone's desk.
Suspecting an office thief, I decided to investigate. I stood on my tiptoes and peered over the tops of the rows of cubicles. I spotted one towards the center with its desk lights on. I quietly made my way down the aisle, making sure I didn't scare the perpetrator away.
