Company Policy

~Part Seven~

"Okay, everybody quiet down. I'm calling this preliminary staff meeting to order. Something has to be done," Lillianna barked.

Nancy sat at what she was sure was going to be a clusterfuck of a meeting.

"Now tell us what happened again?" Jim said.

Lillianna gave him an intense stare. "Shelby! Shelby, Nancy's bitch, kicked me! I fell back and hit my head. You can feel the bump if you'd like. Feels like a golf ball!"

Nancy had felt it. It did not feel that large. Was there a bump there? Yes. Was Lillianna being over dramatic as usual? Yes.

"And why did she kick you?" Jim asked again.

Lillianna rolled her eyes. "I was playing with her. I guess she didn't like it."

Jim nodded. "Well, she can't do that. You're her boss' boss. That means you have the same right to her just like Nancy does," Jim said.

"Exactly!" Lillianna said.

Nancy frowned. Technically they were right. But because Lillianna had called this meeting immediately after Nancy had found her and Shelby in the storage closet, she hadn't even gotten to hear Shelby's side of the story.

"Well, then I say, yes. There needs to be a staff meeting," Jim said.

Phillip hadn't spoken up yet. But Nancy's frown deepened. Her vote didn't count and it was already two to one. No matter what Phillip said, it looked like Shelby was screwed.

"Are we not even going to hear Shelby's side of the story?" Nancy asked.

Lillianna shook her head, laughing derisively. "No! She has no side of the story. Her side is insubordination, and we do not tolerate that here!"

"No, we do not," Phillip finally said.

Lillianna sat back in her chair with a triumphant smile on her face. "Then it's settled."

Phillip nodded, standing. "Figure out a time and it'll be scheduled," he said.

"Tomorrow," Lillianna said. "We can't let this go any longer or it will get more out of hand. Swift action needs to be taken!"

~~~~~~~~~~~

Nancy entered her office and tossed her legal pad on her desk. Shelby stood in the corner twisting her hands together.

"What's going on?" Shelby asked. But from the look on Nancy's face it wasn't good.

"What happened in that supply closet?" Nancy asked.

Shelby's hands wouldn't stop wringing. "I was in there, minding my own business, when Lillianna came in. She started telling me awful stuff. Stuff she wanted to do to me. Made me get on the floor. Started touching me. Finally, I'd had it."

"You kicked her?"

"Hell, yes I kicked her!"

Nancy shook her head. "Shelby, you can't do things like that here."

"But-"

"No buts. She is my boss. Which means she's your boss' boss. Which unfortunately means you are hers too."

Shelby's mouth fell open. "What?!"

Nancy rubbed her eyes. "And so now they voted to have a staff meeting."

Shelby shook her head. "So?"

Nancy frowned. "You'll be put on the top of the conference room table. Naked. For the entire office to see. And anybody can do pretty much whatever they want to you," Nancy finished.

Shelby's head spun. "Are you fucking kidding me right now?"

Nancy sat down at her desk. "No. I'm not."

Shelby felt the panic rise. "You have to get me out of this. Your husband co-founded the company. You have great pull here. Surely this can't happen!"

Nancy shook her head. "William is dead. Phillip runs the company now. A vote was taken. It was unanimous that the staff meeting be held."

"There's fucking nothing you can do?!"

Nancy shook her head. "No."

Shelby exploded. "Bullshit! You can open that front door right now and let me walk out of here!"

Nancy shook her head. "I can't do that."

Shelby picked up a laptop Nancy had been working on and threw it onto the floor. The folding screen snapped off of the body. "Yes! Yes you can!" She roared.

Nancy stood up. "Stop breaking things. The only...only thing I can do is I can lobby for everybody to leave your...uh...backdoor alone. Since you've never done any of that before, I can possibly get everybody to accept that."

"You can make it so nobody fucks me in the ass. But otherwise anybody can do whatever they want?!"

Nancy waited a beat, then nodded. "Essentially".

"Jesus fucking Christ, Nancy!" Shelby wailed. She started to shake. "I'm going to lose my shit!" She said. She started to pace. "There has to be something you can do. Something. Anything!"

Nancy was trying to remain calm but she was on her last nerve too. "I told you I can't! What about 'I can't do that' don't you understand?!"

Nancy sat at her desk. She dialed her phone and it was picked up immediately.

"Who are you calling?" Shelby asked.

"Lillianna," Nancy whispered. Then she spoke into the phone: "Yes, it's me. Are you drafting the email? You're still working on it? Well, remember what we said. She is an anal virgin and I will not tolerate any anal penetration whatsoever. Okay. Just wanted to make that clear. Yes." And Nancy hung up the phone.

Shelby widened her eyes. "Well?"

Nancy blew out a breath of air. "You heard it all basically. No anal sex. Traditionally, nothing else can be promised."

Shelby's face crumpled and she sank to the floor. "I can't believe this!" She said. She started to cry.

"Baby," Nancy said, rushing over to the girl. She tried to wrap her arm around Shelby but Shelby wriggled away. "Honestly, honey, in the grand scheme of things..."

"Shut up! Just shut up. It's humiliating! I don't want to be naked on a table where anybody can do whatever they want to me! Who would wish that for themselves?!"

Nancy sighed. What could she say? "It used to be used as an introduction to the company. Everybody did it," Nancy mumbled.

"Did you ever have to do it?" Shelby asked.

Nancy turned a little pink. "Well, no, but-"

"See! So what, if you have an assistant, you don't have to do it. But if you are an assistant you do?"

Nancy moved her head from shoulder to shoulder. "Well, sort of, but-"

"Well that's just ridiculous!"

Nancy didn't answer.

"And you! You must want me to have to do this!"

Nancy's eyes hardened. "I do not. You're mine and I don't want anybody else touching you!"

Shelby scoffed. "Yeah, right. Again, you could get me out of this. Say something to Phillip. Call in a favor. Let me go. But you just don't want to, do you? Me being here is more important to you than what happens to me here."

Nancy didn't answer.

Shelby put her hands on her hips. "I'm done here for the day. And you know what? I expect you to send me some workout clothes and some running shoes size eight up to the apartment in about fifteen minutes. Because that gym you showed me the other day? I need to run. If I can't run away from you at least I can run in there," she said.

Nancy stared at her. "Very well."

Shelby nodded. "Damn straight. And God help me if I see Lillianna on my way to the elevators, because those readers of hers will be lodged deep in her ass if I do."

Shelby walked out of Nancy's office and slammed the door. Loudly.

Nancy waited a beat and followed her. She didn't doubt her Lillianna threat for one second.

But Shelby didn't meet anyone. Nancy hung back while Shelby waited on the elevators. When one came and she got in, she turned around and saw Nancy. "Fifteen minutes," she said.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shelby picked a decent pace on the treadmill and started running. She kept increasing the incline every few minutes because she was furious and she needed to blow off steam.

Her threat had worked, though she didn't know what she would have done had Nancy refused her. Anyway, not too long after she'd entered the apartment, thanks to Nancy calling and sending up the security guard who had a key, the doorbell had rung. It was somebody from the company because he was wearing all white. He had a box with workout clothes for her in it. She took out a tank top, shorts, shoes the right size, socks, and even a sports bra.

The gym was nice and big. She'd counted 12 treadmills, 12 ellipticals, and 12 stationary bikes. One end of the gym had two sets of free weights. The other end had various machines that targeted specific muscle groups.

Because it was the middle of the day, Shelby almost had the place to herself, except for one woman doing squats with a personal trainer, and another woman working out on a stationary bike and reading a book while she pedaled. Well, and there also was the woman working the front counter and running the juice bar.

The three TV's had on Dr. Phil, CNN, and Family Feud. She kept going from one show to the other and reading the closed captioning:

"My sister is practically a hoarder. She has trash everywhere in her house, and she -"

"Told the press corp that the White House briefing would be cut short today because of-"

"Homemade moonshine!"

Shelby slowed down her run so she could take a drink of water.

"Anybody using this machine?"

Shelby looked over and shook her head. "Oh, hey, Joelle. No. Feel free."

Joelle was dressed similar to Shelby but she had on tight workout pants that came just below her knees.

"I got off work a little early today because I worked over yesterday. How cool is that?!" Joelle said.

Shelby was a little surprised; for once Joelle didn't have gum in her mouth.

"That's great," Shelby said, taking another long drink. Afterwards, she sped her treadmill back up.

"So, what, are you off early today too?"

Shelby chuckled. "You could say that."

"You sound like something's wrong. Are you okay?"

Shelby turned her treadmill down until she was walking. "You know what? No. No, I'm not okay." And Shelby proceeded to tell Joelle what had happened while Joelle was in her afternoon meeting.

When Shelby was finished she turned her treadmill up again, her feet slapping hard against the machine.

"Woah," Joelle said. "I...I don't know what to say. I've never been in a position like that before, where a staff meeting is used for punishment," she said. "I mean I used to get passed around from William to Phillip to Jim, but they were always nice to me."

"Wait. I thought Jim was gay?" Shelby asked.

Joelle shrugged. "He used to have sex with girls, but I think he's stopped. Clay is his newest assistant. He likes him a lot, from what I gather."

Shelby rolled her eyes. "Yeah, well, I knew you wouldn't understand," she panted. Her breathing was coming fast and hard now.

"But," Joelle continued, "when I started here, the staff meetings were mandatory for all new assistants. So I've been up on that table before, don't think I haven't," she said.

Shelby looked over at Joelle. "Seriously?"

"Dead seriously."

"Okay, but did you have a sociopath coming at you? Because that's what's going to happen to me. Lillianna is doing this for revenge. And I'll be powerless to stop her. Whatever it is she has in mind, I don't think it will be good."

"And Nancy won't do anything?"

"No!"

"Well, maybe she really can't stop it. But I can tell she really likes you."

Shelby shook her head. "A lot of good that's doing me," she puffed.

Shelby ran the entire length of Joelle's workout too. She was exhausted when they were done. Both women were covered in sweat. They each wiped the sweat off their skin with small towels and chugged down their water.

"Going back upstairs?" Joelle asked.

"Yeah. You don't have a key do you?" Shelby asked.

Joelle shook her head. "Not for your place. But I'll get Xavier to let you in."

Inside the apartment Shelby welcomed the air conditioning. She took her ponytail down and scratched her head with both hands, letting her hair fall where it may.

She took a cool shower and looked at herself in the mirror. She combed her hair and brushed her teeth. Her nighttime attire only consisted of thongs - and that was company policy - so she broke the rules and grabbed a tank top from Nancy's armoire. It was a little big so she tied it at her side. She was not going to sit on the couch and watch TV in that hot robe, and she wasn't going to put on another wrap dress. She grabbed a Pepsi from the fridge and settled in.

She hadn't pushed herself like she just had at the gym in months, so she was exhausted. Her legs ached, her lips felt dry from all that mouth breathing, and her left heel had an open blister on it thanks to her new shoes.

She turned on the TV. The one classic movie channel they got was showing Tim Curry in "Clue." She loved the board game and she loved the movie. She always had wanted to live in the mansion. The movie was at the scene where the dinner guests disguise the dead bodies by pretending they're alive and engaged in hanky-panky while "Sha-boom" plays on the mansion's record player. Shelby chuckled at their antics.

She had been glad Joelle had joined her at the gym, although she didn't know that she'd really gotten much out of their conversation. Nothing had changed as far as she knew. She'd have to talk to Nancy for that and she wasn't home yet.

Shelby sighed. She watched the movie until the end and still there was no Nancy.

"I don't even know Nancy's office number," Shelby said to herself.

She went over to the landline that they had. Nancy had a few numbers printed on a card next to the phone but her extension was not one of them. Dialing zero wouldn't probably work since Joelle was no longer at work and answering the phones. Unless the phones got ported to whoever the security guard at night was. Shelby sighed.

And then she remembered. 4444. The cafeteria. Someone was always there 24 hours during the week.

Shelby dialed them and got a nice, albeit busy-sounding lady. Shelby asked to be transferred to Nancy. The woman sounded confused at such a request, but was able to complete the call. Nancy's phone rang six times and then her voice mail picked up.

"Well, fuck," Shelby said.

Just then the apartment door opened. Nancy came in with a big bag of groceries and a bag with take out food from the cafeteria in it.

"Calling someone?" Nancy frowned when she spied Shelby on the phone. She slipped off her work pumps as Shelby hung up the phone.

Shelby rolled her eyes. "You know I can't. That's not even an outside line. No, I was trying to call you. Find out where you were. How long you'd be. What was for dinner."

"Oh," Nancy said, placing her bags on the table. "Yeah. I got us the cafeteria's spaghetti and garlic bread. You'll love it. And I had to replace the wine you drank," she said with a grin.

Shelby shrugged. "Whatever. What else did you get?"

Nancy stuck out her leg. "New pantyhose to replace these with this run in it. Vitamins. Tomato soup. Um, why do you ask?" She pulled cans out of the bag and started putting them away in the pantry.

Shelby shrugged. "Just making conversation."

Nancy nodded. "Okay."

Shelby was silent for a couple more beats. "So..."

Nancy came out of the pantry. "So..."

Shelby rolled her eyes. "What's the deal for tomorrow?" she blurted out.

Nancy mouthed the word "oh", but she looked down at her feet.

"You didn't even try to get me out of it?!"

Nancy sighed. "No, no I did, Shelby. I talked to everyone. I talked to Phillip. I talked to Jim. I tried to get both men to change their minds, but they just would not. I even talked to Lillianna."

Shelby's head snapped up. "You did?"

Nancy nodded. "Yes. I did. I went to her office. I begged her, Shelby. I really did. But..."

"Oh," Shelby said. She felt wooden. "Okay."

"I really tried-"

"What time?"

"What time what?"

"Tomorrow. What time will it start?"

Nancy swallowed. "3pm. They do these at the end of the business day," Nancy said.

"So I have to wait all day long," Shelby smiled widely, then it fell from her face. "All day."

Nancy sighed. Her grocery bag was now empty so she crushed it and put it in the recycling.

"Let's have some dinner, okay?"

After they ate, Nancy took a relaxing shower. They both ended up on the couch together. Nancy hadn't had the heart to chastise Shelby for wearing one of her tank tops when she wasn't supposed to.

They turned on a comedy and Nancy watched Shelby as she laughed, her laughter masking her concern for tomorrow.

Nancy sighed. She wasn't looking forward to tomorrow. Not at all.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was Thursday.

Shelby was up early and showered. She dressed quickly and came out into the kitchen. Nancy, however, was dragging her feet. She opened her armoire and for the first time, saw her clothes the way Shelby had seen them. Drab. Colorless. Ugly.

"These are crap," she muttered, though they were not cheap clothes by any means. "Shelby, have you found me any new clothes yet?" She yelled.

Shelby poked her head into the bedroom. Nancy sat on the bed in her bra and panties, looking into her closet. "Yeah. I had so much time yesterday at work. And did you ever bring me a laptop here for me to use? No. No, you did not."

Nancy nodded. "Yeah. About that. I forgot."

Shelby rolled her eyes.

They came down together on the elevator and Nancy got to work immediately. She had phone calls to make to New York and more laptops to debug.

Shelby found her notepad and grabbed Joelle. They finished cataloguing all the toner and ink cartridges they had in the storage closet as well as others that were lying around in other closets or stacked on various bookshelves in the office.

Shelby swallowed hard when they came into the conference room on the first floor. She'd never been in that room. She wasn't sure if that was where the afternoon fiasco was to take place or not, but she suspected it was. It had a long, black conference room table with the same comfortable looking executive office chairs that they had in the upstairs fourth floor conference room. There was the same standard overhead projector and white board as was upstairs too.

"How many people will be at this staff meeting?" Shelby asked Joelle nervously as she looked around at the room.

"Oh, I dunno. All the different departments swing by. There's usually sandwiches and drinks, and-"

"It's a fucking catered event?!" Shelby said.

Joelle shrugged. "Look. It's not going to be as bad as you think. The two hours will go by fast."

Shelby felt as if she might faint. "Two hours?!"

Joelle nodded. "Well, yeah. From 3 to 5. But people start leaving even before then."

Shelby got wide eyed. Boy, if she could make Joelle take her place she sure would. If only they looked like twins.

Later, Shelby followed Joelle up to her desk. They were talking amicably until Lillianna came by. Shelby swore she could feel the temperature drop a good five degrees.

"Well, if it isn't little Shelby!" Lillianna said happily. But the words were full of dark undertones. Lillianna had her platinum blonde hair up in a French twist like she always wore it, and today she wore a royal blue sleeveless sheath dress. Shelby supposed it had a matching suit jacket somewhere.

"I wasn't sure if you'd show your face today," Lillianna added. She had a ruler with her for some reason and with her readers sitting on the end of her nose with a chain that went around the back of her neck, she looked like an unhappy librarian.

Shelby smiled a fake smile. "Lillianna," she said. "I wasn't sure if you might have started picking on people your own size yet. But I guess not."

Lillianna's eyes narrowed. "Oh, you're just my size, Shelby," she said. "You're just the right size to be taught a good lesson."

Shelby's eyebrows rose. "Really? Well. We'll just have to see about that, won't we?"

Lillianna's eyes hardened. "Yes. Indeed we will." And Lillianna walked away in her everybody-get-out-of-my-way style that she had.

"Be careful!" Joelle hissed after Lillianna was out of earshot. "That woman is a nut!"

Shelby put her hand over her heart. She was even breathing hard. "Why did I just say that?" she whispered. "Am I crazy?"

Joelle whispered. "Nah. You're showing strength. That's a good thing," she said. "Although..."