ShutterBuggered: Women Shattered Under the Lens

Chapter Three-2

“Damn,” she complained as she approached his chair. “I just finished getting dressed!”

“Well then it’s your lucky day,” he said, sounding annoyed and tapping a monitor with his pencil. “He wants you dressed! Completely dressed!”

“Dressed?”

“That’s what I said. Fully clothed! So grab your jacket and shift your heinie back up to the third floor.”

“Oh god! Not back to…”

“Naw! Our Pulitzer Prize-winning author has gone to lunch,” he said, his voice touched with sarcasm. “Office sixteen. It’s across the hall and down a bit.”

“Thanks,” Ann replied, pulling her jacket off the back of her chair and slipping it about her shoulders. She stepped back out into the hall. Ann located office sixteen easily enough and paused a moment before entering. From inside the office she heard the murmured discussions from two men. What now? she thought. She tapped lightly before entering.

“Ann. Please come in.” The man seated behind the desk was quite young, maybe thirty-ish. He beckoned her forward enthusiastically as if they had known each other all their lives. “Ann… say hello to Adam Alt.”

The second man came up from his chair and extended a hand. “I’m very pleased to meet you, Ann,” he smiled as she squeezed his fingers.

“Hello,” she replied, giving him her best smile.

“Ann is my personal secretary,” the man from behind the desk continued proudly. This was interesting news to Ann, having never met him before. “She’s the best there is.” She continued to smile like an uninformed ass and nodding appreciatively.

“How may I be of assistance?” Ann turned to her new Boss who was also smiling, happily.

“Well Adam and I are trying to hammer out a real estate transaction; that property across the river. I wonder if you could take minutes for us; just keep track of the highlights.”

“Certainly,” Ann replied, moving toward the secretarial desk and thinking it was a real treat to be fully dressed. Maybe this guy is legit.

“Oh, and for heaven sakes, make yourself comfortable,” the Boss said, rising from behind the desk. “Let me take your jacket.”

So much for legit, a little alarm went off in the back of Ann’s skull but there was nothing for it. She slipped the jacket from her shoulders and passed it to her new Boss then watched as he hung it on a coat rack not unlike the one downstairs in the Bullpen. As she slipped into the awkwardly sloped seat he kept his eyes carefully averted but she noticed Adam foxily checking out her breasts as she leaned to one side, the movement causing the weight to shift inside her blouse. She wiggled into the seat, fully aware that her skirt was crawling up her thighs, and opened her laptop.

“Ok Adam… where were we?” The Boss seated himself behind the desk and rocked back in his chair.

“Well I was saying that I can’t go higher than nine million on that piece of property. For one thing, we are only talking one acre of land, right?” Adam paused to take a long look at Ann’s legs.

“Well yes, but what I’m selling here is prime location,” the Boss countered with a chuckle. “You know it’s worth fourteen and a half.”

Ann started typing quickly but found she could keep up easily; using point form.

“Well of course,” Adam came back, “if you were selling for an upscale condominium. But you’ll never get the zoning for a condo. Not in a thousand years.”

“You so sure of that?” Her Boss suddenly sat forward.

“Well if you had a couple of the city fathers in your hip pocket, it would be a maybe. A big maybe. But you got nobody. That property will stay industrial.” Ann felt Adam’s eyes on her again but didn’t look up.

The pair of them went back and forth with their haggling and she found after a bit, the words went straight from her ears into her fingertips and she began to lose track of the conversation. It was with some surprise, after twenty minutes had passed, that she found the offer from Adam had been increased to ten million. But on they went; sometimes their indignation flared, sometimes they joked and laughed but always there was the give and take and she just kept on typing.

She was so self-absorbed in her own thoughts, that she almost missed it: “You appear to be enjoying Ann.”

The words seemed to come to her from a great distance, delivered calmly and with confidence from behind the desk. “Well yes,” came the reply. “She’s got a lovely rack.”

The typing drew to a sudden halt as she blinked herself back into the present. She looked down at her computer screen and there it was, burning a hole into her retina: “She’s got a lovely rack.” ...Times New Roman font, on a white background, twelve point type. Crap!

She looked up at the men. “Ann-n-n?” the Boss called out suggestively. “Adam here seems to have taken a bit of a fancy to you.”

“Y-yes, sir,” she replied, still blinking wildly and not quite able to mask the nervousness in her voice.

“Well maybe if you would show him your breasts I could close this deal.” A dirty chuckle rose from his throat.

She looked over to Adam. He seemed to be salivating, working his jaw and swallowing, while slowly nodding his head in agreement. “My breasts, sir?” she asked stupidly.

“Well only if you’re comfortable with it, dear. We wouldn’t want to upset your husband.”

She felt her body spasm. “How did…?” She hesitated and looked over; found him staring at her left hand. She had never thought to take it off!

“No. I mean… we have an understanding… my husband and me.” She had heard the expression, ‘dying inside’, but now she knew how it felt. Everything within seemed to be melting, draining away; leaving her empty, cold and quite, quite numb.

“An understanding? That’s a fine thing; yes a fine thing for a wife to have with her husband. Well then, being it’s ok, and with your husband’s blessing, maybe you could oblige Mr. Alt. I’m sure he would be most appreciative.”

“Hey, it’s ok. Really,” Adam finally piped up, lifting a dismissive hand. “If she doesn’t want to; it’s ok.”

“Nonsense,” was the reply from behind the desk. “Ann has always been a good sport about this kind of thing. Haven’t you, Ann?”

“Yes, sir. A good sport,” she exhaled, feeling darkness overtaking her spirit. She looked down at the front of her blouse and with reluctant fingers began slipping the buttons open. She heard the men squirm as she reached in and pried her left breast from the cup of her bra. She levered it out into the open and then with the opposite hand, pulled her other breast free.

“Oh god,” Adam breathed. Ann couldn’t look up; couldn’t face their expectant faces; the wolfish eyes. She sat motionless reading her computer screen over and over again: “She’s got a lovely rack.”

“God, how do you find them,” Adam gushed. “First that heifer down at reception and now this fine young lady. Beautiful; both of them. How do you do it?”

The Boss laughed. “I go out of my way to surround myself with beautiful things; and to share them with my friends,” he bragged.

“And they undress for you?” Adam asked in amazement. “Both of ‘em. Just like that?”

“Oh Ann here would run around naked all day, if I let her. Isn’t that right, Ann?”

“Yes, sir,” she mumbled.

“But we wouldn’t get a lick of work done, would we, dear?”

“No, sir.”

“You mean she’ll go further?” Adam interjected, his voice etched with excitement.

“Adam… Adam,” the boss laughed. “Ann would like nothing more than to do a little show for you but come on; business before pleasure. We need to get this deal done today but not for ten million.”

“You’re killing me here,” Adam sounded a little overwhelmed. “For a warehousing operation the land is only worth ten.”

“Look, we both know you can talk your board of directors into a twelve million dollar deal. What’s the problem?”

“The problem is you give me more credit than I deserve. I’ve got my neck stretched out as it is.”

“Ok! Make it eleven and we’ll sit back, have a drink and ask Ann to show us her pretty little package.” Ann watched as the Boss reached into a desk drawer and pulled out two whiskey glasses and a bottle of single malt.

Adam looked from him to her and then back to the bottle of scotch, then rubbed his eyes with balled fists. Please turn it down, she thought to herself. Turn the deal down and let me get out of here. “Done!” Adam said decisively and her heart turned cold.

“Excellent!” the Boss blurted out excitedly. “Well done.” And he reached across to shake Adam’s hand. “Now let’s drink on it.” Whiskey splashed into glasses and the two men clinked and threw back the amber liquid. Another round was poured out and Adam leaned back and looked over to her expectantly. “I have the contract already drawn up.” The Boss lifted a briefcase onto the desk in front of him and popping the clasps; he rummaged through a raft of papers.

Adam was watching Ann, rolling his glass between his palms. “One last detail…” he said to her.

There was no use in objecting, she knew that much. She had been asked here to do a job, just like everyone else. Growing up, nobody ever offered her a free ride so why should she expect one now. As a girl, she was caught in a never ending cycle of apartment evictions as her daddy drank his way through whatever rent money her mother was able to bring home. And then, when she met Dave, she saw a way out. She was a good girl but not a gullible one and she used every trick she could muster, short of having his baby, to get him to marry her. And when he finally did, he provided her with an escape, a house and, for the first time, all the security that came with it.

But then she found out the whole thing was a sham. They don’t own their house; the bank does! Maybe people who do million dollar land deals own houses, but not folks like her and Dave. So here she was, knowing that she couldn’t expect those gratuity envelopes that Reena handed out to keep coming if she was not prepared to work for them; and that meant putting-out a little. Being a poor sport wouldn’t be to her benefit. And the bottom-line was she couldn’t lose her house. She loved her husband, Dave, but she would not lose her house; even if it meant prostituting herself in front of these two men. As Adam watched, she slipped from her seat and came around to stand by the edge of the desk.

She pulled her blouse from the waistband of her skirt and finished unbuttoning it. Reaching to the side she unzipped her skirt and heard Adam’s sharp gasp as the soft wool slid down her legs. The Boss was still sorting out contracts as she stepped to the side and reached down to gather up her skirt. She folded it mechanically and placed it on the desktop. She shrugged her blouse off her shoulders and placed it on top of her skirt then, reaching around, she unclasped her bra. She pushed the drooping straps from her shoulders and pulled the lacy cups free. She didn’t dare look at Adam but she could hear his distended breathing as she hooked her thumbs into the elastic waistband of her panties. She tried not to think as she rolled them down over her hips and along her thighs. She tried to imagine she was at home, simply undressing for bed. When the elastic reached her knees she let them go and they slipped to the floor. Working her high heels free, she scooped them up and set them with the rest of her clothes.

Naked now, she backed up and crossing her hands behind her, she leaned back against the office wall, fighting back the feeling of being degraded and used.

“Ok; here we go,” the Boss called out and she heard Adam shift in his chair. She took a chance and looked up at the men. The Boss was holding a fistful of papers. “It’s a standard contract. I’ve taken the liberty of inserting the numbers. All you need to do is look it over and we can sign it right now.” There was a pause and his eyes met hers. “Oh sweet Jesus,” the Boss exclaimed. Ann guessed she should be flattered but it was only disgust she felt as his buggy eyes ranged over the curves of her legs, tummy and breasts. Adam picked the papers out of the Boss’s stalled fingers and started to scan through them while the Boss rocked back in his chair, a stupid grin back on his face. She looked away, concentrating on the far wall.