Prologue
Tim Johnson had been feeling pretty happy with himself. Six months after he'd opened his company's new advertising office, his work pipeline was picking up nicely. He'd hired a slim, pretty 22-year old blonde named Julie as his receptionist, and soon added three more women in their early to mid 20s as his sales force. Brunettes Anna and Kaitlyn and petite Asian Mei were all recent college graduates in advertising, and they were all smart and ambitious, if inexperienced and a little naive. This was their first real job, and they were all eager to please their handsome new boss.
Tim had to admit that although they were all legitimate, credible hires on the merits, their looks had also played an important role in getting them their jobs. Social skills and attractiveness went a long way in advertising, and Tim was a charming, single guy, enjoying his first taste of the perks of a rising star in the company, one of which was the ability to surround himself with pretty young employees.
He had slowly created a culture in the workplace in which he flirted with and teased his employees. He had gotten them to dress a little sexier, and instituted a semi-serious "discipline" program that involved his administering some playful swats to the adorable behinds of his employees, along with some sales competitions that involved embarrassing "punishments" for the girl who lost. The young women had mixed but mostly positive feelings about their new workplace environment. They all had quasi crushes on their boss, and they were at least partly flattered at his flirtatious interest in playfully exposing and "punishing" them.
On the other hand, each of them had begun to wish that the playing field were a little more even with their boss. After a long work week and maybe a few too many after-dinner drinks, the four of them had joked about trying to get Mr. Johnson involved in one of their sales competitions. The consensus was that they would very much like to see him on the receiving end of some "punishments" of his own.
Then, one week ago, Tim had run into a classic case of "good news/bad news." The good news was that he'd just landed a big account with an up-and-coming maker of athletic clothing for serious bicyclists; Cycle-Wear was co-owned by a small team of women who had been Olympic-level cyclists ten years ago, and Tim had been wooing them for two months. He'd really laid on the charm, and beat out some stiff competition to sign them as his first new clients since he was allowed to open his new branch office.
The bad news was that a new VP of marketing had been hired to be his boss, and she turned out to be an ex-girlfriend of his from college, Shawna Green. Their romantic chemistry had been off the charts, but after a short relationship, they had a serious misunderstanding. Shawna had felt ill-used, and broke up with Tim, and though they'd both missed each other, neither of them had taken the initiative to reach out to the other. Until now, 10 years later, when Shawna was introduced at a corporate meeting as Tim's new boss.
Things were awkward between them at first, but after a few days, they seemed to have let bygones be bygones, and resolved to work together with no animosity. But what Tim didn't know was that Shawna had never completely gotten over him, and she saw their re-connecting as a case of karma. She recognized that Tim's landing of the Cycle-Wear contract might give her the opportunity to get a little payback from her old boyfriend. And maybe have a little fun with him, too.
The CEO of the advertising firm had said that since Shawna and Tim were going to be working together, he wanted the two of them to have an informal meet-and-greet with the owners of Cycle Wear. The four ladies who ran the sportswear company had only been in contact with Tim so far, so it made sense to have Shawna meet them, schmooze a little, and let them see how happy she was that charming young Tim had won the ladies' trust.
The women had created a fun work routine at their shop, which included quitting at noon on Fridays and going for a long bike ride together. They had developed a routine of a segmented ride that took much of the afternoon, with stops for drinks and munchies at several of their favorite restaurants and bars along the way.
