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“‘Do this, get that, no that’s not right, do it again’, urgh, will that woman ever cease!”
Jenny was sitting in the apartment she barely made rent for on the sofa she and her roommate had found on the curb the day they moved in. It had a few mysterious stains that wouldn’t come out, but was still serviceable as something to sit on that wasn’t as hard as the barewood floor. She had short, mousey brown hair and a cute face sporting a pair of cheap but functional glasses that she only barely needed and resented having to wear.
Sitting beside her was Lynette, her flatmate and closest thing to a best friend she had. She looked like she had discovered what a hippy was when she was 12 and then never looked back, which was partially true. Jenny secretly thought that she’d be really pretty if she just tidied herself up a little, but clearly that was her thoughts and her thoughts alone as Lynette never seemed to be wanting for that kind of attention. She never stayed with one guy for more than a few weeks, sometimes even just days, until the next one would come along. Jenny had stopped trying to remember their names as it was pointless, but the main mementos she had of these men were the moans of her flatmate from her bedroom and a growing number of the ‘mysterious’ stains on the sofa.
Jenny herself was going through a dry patch, although by choice. Her career as a Personal Assistant meant she had little to no time for pleasantries and certainly wasn’t in a position to manage someone else’s life and needs alongside her own. Besides, she was already doing plenty of that for her boss…
Jenny was the PA of Amanda Chevalier, CEO of Chevalier Incorporated, the leading media outlet in her state. They produced newspapers, gossip magazines, fashion blogs, lifestyle advice, anything that could be sold as information to the public. Amanda was a formidable woman and one who even at a relatively young age had always been ambitious to a fault. Still only in her early 30s, she had aggressively outsold, shut down or even bought all of her competition in the state, and now she had her eyes firmly set on national domination.
Being so closely by Amanda’s side was arguably a privilege, especially for a young woman such as Jenny looking to find her feet in the industry, but that socalled ‘privilege’ came at a cost. Jenny was paid poorly, commanded like a dog at times and regularly embarrassed at what seemed to be the whims and fancies of Amanda. It may be that she would be sent for coffee with a ridiculously specific order only to return with it and be told Amanda had changed her mind and wanted something else instead or that she’d have to hold Amanda’s lunch plate for her while she ate to avoid ‘staining her desk’, whatever it was it was usually annoying, frivolous and demeaning. Today had been the absolute last straw however…
“I’m telling you Jenny,” Lynette said in her aggressively laid back almost whimsical way of speaking, “you need to just stick it to that bitch and tell her to shove her job up beside the stick in her butt.”
“Oh yeah, of course, why didn’t I think of that,” Jenny replied sarcastically. “You know I can’t do that…”
“Why not?”
“You still want a roof over our heads right?” she replied, frustratedly pointing at the ceiling, “unless one of us suddenly wins the lottery or something, or you get a job, whichever is more likely, I need to keep that job to pay our rent.”
“Hey I resent that, I have a job,” Lynette replied as huffily as her lackadaisical being would allow.
“Oh what, have your boyfriends started paying?” Jenny bit back.
“My job is keeping you sane honey bun,” she replied, apparently ignoring Jenny’s retort, “without me here to chill you out, you’d be trying to bust out of a padded cell by now.”
Jenny had to begrudgingly admit that some of that was true. Lynette was so laid back she was practically horizontal most of the time and this quickly diffused all of the anger and frustration Jenny normally came home with. Either that or the amount of weed that Lynette smoked every day was making their apartment a conduit for it by default.
“Anyway, you still haven’t told me what she did today that’s got you so high strung or why you were so late back home,” Lynette added.
“Oh it’s a doozy,” Jenny started. “So, she’s got this big presentation tomorrow with a bunch of these corporate bigwigs to talk about her plan for world domination or something. Basically her going national or not hinges on this meeting. So, she tells me this morning that I need to audit EVERY SINGLE FILE associated with the deal to make sure it goes ahead as planned. We are talking months and months worth of paperwork here. She hands me a laptop and a hard drive, sends me to a deserted desk in the corner of her office and makes me sit there all day.
For a little while, I didn’t mind, because she wasn’t constantly pestering me to do other things, which was a nice change, and it felt like she was really placing a lot of trust in me, like the kind of trust that might be given to a high up, important employee. So, it got to the end of the working day and I’d only been able to manage maybe 60% of what was needed. I told her I tried my best and she insisted I stay until it was done because of how important this was.
So that’s what I did. I stayed. I was there for hours after everyone else had gone home, including her, and she made me promise to call her once I was done. And when I did, when I was finally done after hours and hours of my life given over to this task, do you know what she said?”
Lynette shrugged. Jenny was normally a little heated after work but this seemed to be above and beyond that. It was quite entertaining.
“‘Good, now delete all of it.'”
That was even enough to force a reaction out of Lynette. She sat up, as wide eyed as she could manage and jaw agape.
“You’re kidding…”
“I wish I was!” Jenny fumed, throwing her hands up in the air.
“So she had you do all that only to delete it all anyway?”
“Yep! Apparently she’d already decided before I came in this morning to go in a new direction with her pitch and rather than just tell me to delete all of the previous stuff, she had me pour through the whole lot so I didn’t spend my day ‘distracting her’.”
“But then why make you stay after hours to finish it?”
“Because, and I quote, ‘it was so funny watching you diligently slave over that all day, I didn’t want to ruin your little moment by telling you it was worthless.'”
The room was quiet for a moment as the bombshell of Jenny’s sunk in.
“Ok,” said Lynette eventually, “this is a little out there, but trust me just go with it. Now I know this guy, right, who says he knows a guy who knows a guy who can make people ‘disappear’. Now I know what you’re thinking, how do we get in contact right? Well we…”
“I’m not killing my boss, Lynette,” Jenny sighed frustratedly.
“Are you worried you won’t get away with it? Cause from what I’ve heard this guy is very thorough, very professional, we’re talking gone without a trace stuff here…”
“Yeah and with Amanda gone what happens to my job, hmm? Can’t be a PA to a woman who has ‘disappeared’ can I…”
“You know what your problem is?” Lynette interjected. “You always get so bogged down with details and practicalities. Live a little! Listen to the voice inside your head that says ‘just do it!’ for once and I bet you’ll feel so much more relaxed and in control.”
“If that little voice is inciting me to murder, I think I’d better keep ignoring it,” Jenny said. “Although you are right about one thing, it would be nice to feel a little relaxed. Particularly tomorrow. God knows what Amanda is going to make me do and redo, particularly if it means showing off her power over me in front of the guys she’s meeting with. You know what would be nice? If I could have that kind of power over her one day, just so she can see what it feels like.”
Jenny both sighed and groaned.
“Fat chance of that. Anyway I’m going to bed. She wants me there early to make sure the meeting room is set up correctly, something I could have been doing yesterday but… urgh, never mind. Night…”
She waved lethargically to Lynette as she shuffled to her bedroom and closed the door behind her. Lynette waited a few seconds after the door was closed and then took out her phone. She chose a name from her contacts and pressed ‘call’ and waited for the man to pick up.
“Hi Lynny, I didn’t think I’d ever hear from you again,” said a voice on the end of the phone.
“Hey Greggie!” she replied. “You know how it is, life of a free spirit and everything.”
“Did you need something?”
“Remember how you said if I ever needed a certain something from you, I only had to ask?”
The phone was quiet for a moment.
“I mean yeah but, are you sure? This is pretty heavy stuff…”
“Absolutely!”
“Ok, well, I’ll see you in about an hour then… you can pay right?”
“I’m sure we can come to some arrangement,” Lynette grinned.
* * * * *
It had taken a while for Jenny to get to sleep, despite her exhaustion, and it didn’t help that after nearly an hour of tossing and turning she started to hear the familiar sound of Lynette having her way with some guy in her room. The walls were paper thin between the two rooms like the room had originally been a single bedroom and it had been divided up with nothing but wallpaper. She’d made the mistake once before of trying to intervene when this happened, even if only to ask them to quiet down, only to get repeatedly propositioned by both the guy and Lynette into a threesome. She couldn’t be less interested in that kind of thing. Still…
Her alarm hammered her awake the next morning and as she left her room she was surprised to see Lynette up waiting for her.
“Hey honey bun, hope I didn’t keep you awake last night,” she said with a knowing grin.
“I mean it didn’t help,” Jenny sighed. “It was kind of a dick move to tell the truth, you know how thin the walls are and how difficult it is to sleep with you moaning and groaning on the other side of the wall, and you knew I had a tough day ahead. Why do it?”
“I keep telling you you should just join in Jenny,” Lynette grinned, “I bet it would tire you out at least…”
Jenny shook her head and went to make herself a coffee.
“And besides,” Lynette continued, “it wasn’t a dick move as you put it, I was actually doing it for your benefit.”
“What could you possibly…”
Jenny went white with fear for a moment.
“Lynette, tell me you didn’t arrange for my boss to be assassinated…”
“What? No!” Lynette responded, visibly confused. “Why would I even do that? Do you want me to do that? Cause I know a guy…”
“NO!” Jenny said immediately. “No, just… no, forget I ever said that…”
“Ok,” Lynette shrugged, “so what last night was actually for was so I could convince Greggie to give me this…”
She held out a tiny, clear bag that had a single, pea sized tablet in it.
“And what exactly is that?” Jenny asked, taking a sip of her coffee.
“No clue,” Lynette shrugged again. “All I know is that it’s supposed to make you feel super bold and powerful, like self confidence in pill form.”
Jenny stared at her blankly for a moment.
“So you listened to everything I said last night and the first solution that came to mind was to get me high?”
“When you say it like that you make it sound so dumb,” Lynette laughed, “and besides, this won’t get you high, not like that anyway. It’ll just make you feel a bit better, that’s all.”
“Drugs aren’t always the solution,” Jenny sighed, too tired to argue the way she would have done at this ridiculous and frankly irresponsible plan.
“Who’s saying they are?” Lynette laughed. “This is merely a one off helping hand to get you through what’s bound to be a shitty day.”
Jenny finished her coffee and went to head back to her room.
“I’ll put it in your bag shall I?” Lynette smiled as she walked past.
“Please don’t, I don’t want to get frisked for drugs at work and lose my job,” Jenny told her.
“Whatever you say…”
* * * * *
Jenny was close to being late for being early to work, the subway unusually busy that morning, and Amanda was waiting for her when she arrived.
“Finally she shows up,” Amanda said huffily.
“I’m sorry Amanda, the subway was just mad this morning and…”
“Honestly, I could not care less about that,” Amanda said dismissively. “What I do care about however is how I have the most important meeting of my life in less than an hour, the room is nowhere near ready and my personal assistant looks like she walked through a clothing rail at the thrift store this morning and thinks that’s acceptable workwear.”
Jenny looked over her outfit both confused and hurt. Amanda had never had a problem with her work attire before and Jenny thought she looked relatively smart, or as smart as she could with her meagre budget, with her admittedly greying floral blouse, thick threaded but worn cream cardigan and slightly ill fitting pinstripe black trousers.
“II’m sorry Amanda, this is all I can afford…”
“Oh, so it’s my fault for not paying you enough, is that what you’re saying?”
“Nno, not at all I…”
“Because frankly you are paid way more than you are worth, do you understand that?”
“I… I…”
“Save your apologies,” Amanda said emphatically, raising her hand almost to Jenny’s face. “Luckily for both of us, I had the good sense to bring an additional outfit. Go get the bag from my office, get dressed, sort the room out and then be back in my office by 9:15.”
With that Amanda turned and walked away leaving Jenny frankly shell shocked. She thought she might have been about to cry, but she couldn’t let herself do that. Not here. Not where she could see.
Jenny hurried to Amanda’s office, picked up the bag of clothes and headed to one of the firm’s toilets. Each one was an individual room (to save having to install larger mens and womens ones Jenny had always expected) so she was able to lock the door behind her. She felt the need to cry building up inside her again, but then if she did that it would smudge what little makeup she had on and Amanda would probably kick her ass for that too.
She opened the bag and pulled out the clothes inside that Amanda was insistent that she wear.
“You’ve got to be kidding me…”
From the bag she pulled a plain white blouse that didn’t seem to have any buttons or button holes above where her cleavage would be visible, a grey pencil skirt that looked like it was at least a few inches too short and a pair of tan, semi translucent tights to go with a pair of black heels. It all looked brand new like Amanda had planned for this and bought them specifically which unfortunately meant she’d clearly put some thought into what she was going to make Jenny wear. She wasn’t just planning on embarrassing Jenny by ordering her about like a personal slave, she was going to put her body on show for all of the undoubtedly predominantly male panel to get a good, long look at too.
Jenny felt tears of frustration starting to well up in her eyes as she switched to her carefully chosen outfit but somehow managed to stop them cascading down her cheeks. The skirt was quite high waisted, starting halfway up her belly and above her hips and only really covering another inch or two below her buttocks which was made worse by the heels pushing her cheeks up and out as she was forced onto tip toe. As for the shirt, at least the neckline didn’t swoop down quite as low as she’d feared. It was, however, partially translucent it seemed, and whilst it wasn’t so bad around the top of her stomach and her arms, her black, goodwill bra was so visible beneath it she may as well have not been wearing a top to begin with.
It left her with two options: either stay as she was and draw attention to her chest the whole time or take the bra off and hope her bare breasts would show as little beneath the material as the rest of her skin did. Option two was deplorable as far as she was concerned, but still seemed the better of the two options. That said, if she had to bend forward much more than a little at any point, the thing would fall forward off her chest and give anyone looking a good eyeful of her breasts. Grimacing, she removed the top, took off her bra and then put the top back on, tucking it into the waistline of the skirt and just in front of where her tights reached up to. Thankfully, it seemed her breasts would just blend in with the rest of her figure now, as long as she didn’t get cold or something.
Her frustration was quickly turning to anger as she looked over the image of herself in the mirror.
“I hate you Amanda Chevalier!” she shouted with a muffled rasp in case anyone could hear her outside.
She breathed heavily for a moment, trying to let some of her anger vent and regain control of her emotions.
“You’ve got to own this, Jenny,” she told herself between deep breaths in and out. “Even if you FUCKING HATE IT… own it. Don’t let her get this one up on you.”
She suddenly saw a slight glint from the inside of her bag, like something had just caught the light of the cubicle for a moment. She investigated her bag only to find a familiar, small plastic bag with a tiny white pill inside.
“Oh for fucks sake Lynette!” she groaned.
This was the last thing she needed! She was lucky her bag wasn’t searched this morning or she would have been fired on the spot and potentially even reported to the police. Lynette never listened to her, why did she never listen to her? How was this meant to help?
“‘Self confidence in pill form’ she said,” Jenny told herself.
Her anguish quickly turned to defeated acceptance as she stared at the bag and its little white contents.
“Well, I’m going to need it to bear wearing this shit and dealing with her all day.”
With that she emptied the bag onto her open palm, considered what she was doing for a moment and then quickly swallowed the pill. She stared at herself in the mirror for another few moments.
“Oh, you stupid bitch Jenny,” she groaned to herself, bringing a hand to her head, “that could have been anything, you could have just poisoned yourself!”
There was a loud and sudden knock on the door that made Jenny flinch.
“Hey Jenny, you still in there? Amanda is looking for you…”
‘Of course she is,’ Jenny thought to herself.
She looked in the mirror one final time, a slight grin forming on her face.
‘Imagine if I just dropped dead while she’s in the middle of her presentation… that would ruin her!’
Smiling to herself for the first time that day, she left the bathroom with renewed resolve.
She opened the door to find one of her female coworkers waiting for her, the woman’s eyes widening and running up and down her body.
“Oh,” she said, “is this a new look?”
“At Amanda’s insistence,” Jenny replied curtly. “Where is she?”
“Over by the meeting room stressing out about it not being ready yet.”
“Well, I’d better go and help then,” Jenny said, turning and marching off in the direction of the meeting room.
She looked back over her shoulder after taking a few steps forward, noticing the woman was still staring. Jenny had to give Amanda one thing: she knew how to make something look good to catch people’s attention. But seeing as that ‘something’ was her, a supposedly liberated and free young woman, it only made her hate her all the more.
“There you are,” Amanda snapped as Jenny approached.
Jenny saw her give her a once over with her eyes before her slight snarl changed to a wicked smile.
“Well, it turns out you can polish a turd,” she grinned cruelly. “You know you should think about making this a regular look for you, you might get yourself a man instead of sharing a bunk with some scabby hippy girl…”
“Oh fuck you,” Jenny bit back.
ero
