It would have been so easy to pull rank and demand to know more, but that just wasn’t how my silk was cut. I made for the elevator, my mind turning with possibilities. Good old Sam knew I liked a mystery and a tease, both of which made the normal workday more interesting.
“Mr. Del Rey,” the receptionist, Inga, had called out to me by way of greeting, from behind her magazine.
“Inga,” I had answered, not bothering to tell her to put it away.
Inga was a professional and she knew to stop reading if someone needed something. But most of the time, they really didn’t.
Still wondering who the new employee was that Sam had referred to, I had gone through the door to the boardroom. The employees tried to be quick, but I had seen the box of donuts being emptied hastily just as I arrived, no doubt out of shame that they hadn’t saved me one.
Not that I minded, but it would have been nice if they had thought to. Just as they hadn’t thanked whoever brought them, the powdered sugar still on their mouths as I sat down, rendering any manner of speech highly unlikely.
She stood out immediately as soon as I glanced around, her hourglass figure just my type, and her pretty eyes bright and eager. That was definitely who Sam had been referring to. She fought my eye immediately, as if embarrassed to be the newbie among the more seasoned employees.
It didn’t take Sexton Blake to realize that she was the new hire, Ms. Skye Stewart, in the flesh. And what flesh it was. I found my eyes wandering to her chest as I went through the usual motions. Her big breasts seeming to defy gravity as they all but hovered in front of her.
I could see she that was young but exactly how young was difficult to tell. The applicants had to be eighteen in order to be considered for the job, there being legal contracts to be signed, but my instincts didn’t put her at much older than that. My cock got as soon as I looked at her.
My younger self might have run with it and allowed me to think of Skye as little more than a prize to be won. But I found myself on the saner side of thirty and I knew that she was something special.
I had women throwing themselves at me constantly, but I had gotten tired of the easy chase a long time ago. I didn’t want to ruin a good thing with Skye. So, I’d hurried to get out of there so that I could keep some mystery on my end of things, too.
Sure, Sam knew I’d like the new hire.
But he hadn’t known how much.
Nor just what lengths I’d go through to get her.Chapter Five - SkyeThe thin black line blinked on the vast field of white like a prairie after a fresh fall of snow. In a single flash of inspiration, I fully understood what my predecessors in the literary arts meant when they referred to the ‘tyranny of the blank page.’
Ideas danced mockingly in my head like demented sugarplum fairies, taunting me with their very existence. I was a classic, or indeed cliché, example of a writer who couldn’t write because of writer’s block.
The ideas were there; there was no mistake about that. It was just that when it came to actually putting them down, none of the words I thought of were right. At least according to my own perception.
The greatest obstinate on my way to finishing something was my own kneecapping perfectionism and self-doubt. Abandoning my labors like the anti-Hercules, I decided to instead get ready for work.
The semi-suit I’d worn the first day had hardly turned a head. Not that that was a bad thing. In some ways it was a positive, as logic dictated it would be difficult to fit in while standing out.
I didn’t want to be celebrated, just noticed, though it was more than possible that being apparently invisible had more to do with my novelty than any instant dislike on the part of my co-workers. At least some of them.
I knew at least two other people were there on the same terms that I was, which was basically that we were to be gum to clog up the leak in the dam until things settled down. It only stood to reason that they would also be angling for a permanent position when the magical elf dust cleared.
It was a situation which couldn’t help but lead to a sense of competition and misplaced animosity in some people. I was quite sure Del Ray had noticed me, but I wanted him to notice me even more. And I wanted to make friends with my co-workers.