Chapter I
Some women valued their careers more than others. To Lori, her career was her life. Ever since the ninth grade, she knew she wanted to be a marketing specialist. She’d had a hard time making friends, but she went through Highschool and college just fine, by keeping a small social circle of two friends who didn’t bore her with their party stories and their dreams of meeting the knight in the shining armor or wanting to become a famous model like Blah-blah-who gives a shit.
Her passion and hard work had carried her through college, out to the market, and into one of the best fashion companies in the country. She got an alright GPA, of 3.2; that was only because she couldn’t bring herself to put any real effort into any of the unrelated trivial courses—it wasn’t her fault that the educational system was stupid, and as far as she was concerned, she had more Marketing knowledge in her pinky than all of those A+ wits combined. She bet none of them made it to a company as nice as the one she was driving her car to now.
She parked her car in the company’s garage. She looked into the rear-view mirror and adjusted her long brown bang to the side, before putting her thin delicate glasses on. She didn’t really need them unless she was reading, but she liked to put them at all times; it made her look sophisticated, smart.
She got out of the car and walked in through the company’s big glass doors, swinging her 2000$-suitcase by her side and amusing herself with the click that her equally expensive black heels made against the floor. She wasn’t much of a spender, but when it came to her work clothes and accessories, she didn’t think twice about investing half of her salary in any item that would make her look sharp. At 25 of age, already promoted once only after four years in the company, she was confident that she was going to be the boss one day, and she should look the part starting now.
She took a deep breath as the elevator took her to the nineteenth floor. She straightened her poster and rose her chin slightly as the elevator parted its doors upon reaching her floor. She strode to her cubicle, making sure to walk fast so that no one would pin her down for a useless 10-minute chat. Luckily, today, she managed to do that. She sighed with relief as she reached her cubicle.
“Hey Suzan,” she said to her cubicle mate.
“Morning Lori,” Suzan turned on her wheel office chair to face Lori. “How are you?”
The cubicle included two desks with each one facing its cubicle wall.
“Good,” Lori thudded her suitcase on her desk. “Did you finish the spring collection slides?”
“For heaven’s sake bitch I just woke up…” Suzan whined.
“So. You were supposed to be done with them yesterday.”
“Well yeah but…I had a dozen of episodes of AOT to binge, so I made a judgment call.” She smiled, trying to be funny.
Lori didn’t find it funny. “…Suzan, you were supposed to finish them,” she said, trying to sound firm, but not mean.
“Just relax…only some final touches are left, it’ll take half an hour, I’ll do it right now…after my coffee.” She shook her coffee cup beside her face with a girly smile then took a sip, before she offered Lori hers.
“Thanks.” Lori frowned jokingly as she took it, then turned back to her desk and turned on the computer. She shouldn’t give her a hard time. Suzan was her only friend here. She wasn’t that different from the rest of the girls, but she was different enough. Like most of them, she didn’t work as half as hard as Lori, and she liked to run her mouth for a little bit too long every now and then, but she understood her limits. Lori liked to think that Suzan admired her work ethic and she appreciated her for that. She knew that she was the only woman in here that was genuine when being nice to her, as she’d been so from day one, and hadn’t changed since.
The first couple of months Lori had spent at this company, with her personality cold, and with no tolerance to hear anything unrelated to work, she wasn’t surprised that people found her a bit repulsive to be around. And she didn’t care. She wasn’t there to make friends she was there to work, and whether the rest of the girls admitted it or not, they were all in a competition.
She was surprised, however, when the girls started acting nice to her, even though her general dismissive attitude hadn’t changed. They just…started making visits to her cubicle and starting conversations, and only left when she intently showed on her face that she’d like them to piss off so she could go back to work. She just dismissed them and they left with a smile on their face. All of that was a huge difference from how they usually treated her; they usually ignored her, which had been understandable, given that she’d made it very clear that she had no interest to know any of them; people tended to not like that very much.
Her confusion hadn’t lasted that long, as she realized that the change had occurred at the same time that she had gotten her first promotion. She had only been there for four years and had already been promoted, rising above some of the girls who’d been there a decade or more. It had become evidently clear to her, that they had realized, that it wouldn’t take that much time until she was the boss. They just chose to practice their ass-kissing skills while Lori was still their level.
She got to work, and so did Suzan after she finished her precious coffee. They spent some time working in silence, or at least the kind of silence that one would get working among a hundred cubicles. If there was one thing Lori was excited about when getting her next promotion, it would be the new office she’d have with it. She’d be out of this dame beehive. At her office, she’d enjoy true silence.
She was focused on her computer when her head abruptly snapped to the cubicle’s opening upon hearing an aggressive knock. A grimace showed on her face for a second before she hid it, as her eyes landed on Miss Santana standing two feet away from her desk the way she always stood: like she had a broom shoved up her ass.
“How’s the presentation going girls,” Miss Santana said, in her usual confident, enthusiastic tone, that never failed to make Lori feel sick in the stomach.
“Great boss.” Suzan turned on her seat then rose to her feet eagerly, making Lori grimace inside. “Just putting the final touches.”
“Good girl, excellent,” Miss Santana’s eyes darted between Suzan and Lori, as Lori stayed on her chair like a self-respecting woman should, and crossed her stockinged legs.
“You look great today by the way,” Suzan said with a sly smile.
“Oh stoooop,” Agatha threw a slap in the air as she faked shyness. She stood there in her white knee skirt and her Paige suit and white shirt blending smoothly with her pale white skin and blue eyes. She did look great, with her long red hair falling on her shoulders. She was in her mid-thirties, but she looked at least 10 years younger.
“No you really do, doesn’t she Lori,” Suzan said and looked at Lori, inviting her to join her ass-kissing session with their perfect boss.
Agatha looked at Lori with her faint smile and cold eyes, waiting for an answer.
“Yeah…you look good…I guess,” Lori said, relying on her tone alone to show her slight sarcasm.
Suzan got a disappointed look on her face before she looked at the ground, and Agatha, not really that surprised, widened her smile before she said calmly, “Thanks, dear.”
“Project will be ready any minute boss.” Suzan gave a joking awkward bow.
“Well…make sure it’s on time this time,” Agatha said, her tone losing some of its friendliness. “And I’m speaking to you Lori.”
FUCK you. She never missed a deadline. Not damn once. Well…once, but it was her first month. It was years later and Agatha was still holding that damn little fuck-up over her. She sucked up a breath as she saw Agatha look at her with a smirk and an amused pair of eyes, that knew they were tormenting you. “You got it,” she said with difficulty.
“Good girl,” she turned with an amused nod. “Continue on, chop-chop.” She clapped her hands animatedly as she strode away.
Suzan gave her a sympathetic look, sensing Lori’s discomfort, knowing the swears she was harboring in her mouth.
Lori peered her head out of her cubicle, waiting for the tall Amazonian tree to get far enough. When she was sure that Agatha was far enough, she lunged forward towards Suzan and whispered, “Fuck that bitch.”
“Come on…” Suzan huffed. “You’re un-helpable you know that.”
“I never missed a deadline…fucking never.”
“Well…” she tilted her head.
“Other than that fucking once for goodness sake,” she shouted.
“Keep it down,” Britany yelled from the adjacent cubicle.
“Sorry,” Lori yelled back then leaned on her elbows getting closer to Suzan. “And baby…do me a favor, don’t include me in your ass-eating session next time will you.”
Baffled, Suzan recoiled back. “Bitch I did that for you. Promotions are around the corner and you need to get on good terms with her before then.”
“I don’t need to do anything…” Lori puffed. “I’m the best working girl on this floor. She has to promote me with her foot over her neck or I’ll go straight down to Mrs. Barlow.” She bragged, reminding Suzan of her winning ace.
Suzan frowned and shook her head, giving up. “Have it your way…but you’re relying too much on that HR crap honey.”
“So what…I’m the only obvious choice and she knows it. She’s only giving me a hard time because she has to promote me soon.” I said getting back to my desk. “You can see it in her eyes how salty she’s about it.”
The only negative thing Lori found about rising up in the ranks, was having to work closer to the nastiest woman in the company.
Agatha Santana wasn’t a bad person, per se. She didn’t have the qualities that one would usually find in a bad boss. She didn’t impose on her employees, and she didn’t try to tell anyone how to do their job, and she wasn’t strict about dress codes or vacations or being late; she was a cool boss. That was why most girls liked her. But it was how she carried herself that rubbed Lori the wrong way.
Whenever she entered a room, although she’d walk and talk all cheerfully and in an uplifting manner and tone, Lori could always spot a harbored sense of…superiority in her every move. She walked like she owned the damn place, striding quickly like nothing was standing in her way with her chin up and her head held high.
It was true, that Mrs. Yanami walked like that too, but Mrs. Yanami could walk whatever way she fucking wanted cause her name was printed on the company’s gates, she did own Yanami’s Company. Agatha, at the end of the day, was just another employee, no matter how high she had reached on the corporate ladder, and she acted like wasn’t. All the girls noticed that about her, but for some reason, Lori was the only one that found it obnoxious. She saw the snobby, ugly personality Agatha was hiding behind her friendly face and tone and gestures.
Like, when she’d ask someone for a favor, she wouldn’t ask, she’d order, but in a friendly, over-enthusiastic tone, like she was talking to a toddler. “Hailey, be a dear and bring me a coffee.” And when Hailey would return. “Good girl,” or, “Tiffany, I’m running against the clock here, pick up my dress from dry-cleaning downstairs. I need it for the interview today so make it quick honey.”
When she had made her first friendly request to Lori, and asked her if she could fetch her a cup of coffee, Lori didn’t refuse, given that the bitch had coated it in a kind tone that would make it so rude to refuse. So she told her “Sure,” with an equally friendly smile and tone, then she walked back to her cubicle and ignored the request. That was maybe the turning point of their relationship, cause when Lori saw Agatha walk towards the coffee machine minutes later to fetch her own god dame cup of coffee, she spotted that resentment in her sharp eyes that she’d usually hide. She’d felt that since that brief exchange, Agatha had put her on her list.
“DONE,” Suzan whooped throwing her arms in the air.
Lori recoiled from Suzan’s sudden girly shout and regained her grip over her coffee cup after it spilled some on the floor. “Fuck’s sake Suzan.”
“What…I’m done.” Suzan turned on her chair animatedly. “Presentation is officially ready. Be happy you ungrateful twat.”
“Well show it to Miss Santana…” Lori glared at the mess of coffee on the floor. “And bring a mop with you…”
“Hey…” Suzan rose to her feet and adjusted her blazer and snatched her notes. “Leave that bossing around shit till you’re actually my boss.”
“Yeah yeah…” She waved her hand. “Just tell me what she says.”
Suzan got out of the cubicle, leaving Lori to her work. Lori stared at her computer screen for a bit, fretting about what the bitch would say about her work. Ever since a fight she and Agatha had a couple of months ago, she’d made Suzan do all the communication between them. She wasn’t that happy about that, given that she always did most of the work, but she doubted that Suzan would take any unearned credit for herself; she wasn’t a cunt, and she didn’t care that much about the job to turn into one. Lori sighed and took a random glance at the cubicle’s opening, only to find Suzan standing there with a thoughtful look on her face. “What?”
“I was thinking,” Suzan said wiggling the notes in her hand. “…why don’t you do it.”
“Do what—no.” Lori shook her head. “Now go show it to her before she gives me shit about being late or something.”
“I’m serious,” Suzan whined, persisting. “There’s still some bad blood between you from your last fight, just go in there and show her the work and clear the air.”
“Honey she hates me,” Lori said aggressively. “And I know I wouldn’t be able to control myself. Up until now ignoring her has worked just fine for me. If I walk in there and she starts giving me trivial shit about this or that I’ll go ballistic on her and our relationship would be worse.”
“No you wouldn’t, cause you’re smarter than that. So just go in there and suck it up…and it wouldn’t hurt if you…” she shuffled her flats, seeming hesitant about continuing. “…Apologized for—”
“Apologize! Why what the fuck do I have to apologize,” Lori hissed making sure to keep her voice down. “She was in the wrong.”
“Fine…” Suzan held her hands up in defense, trying to calm Lori down. “Don’t apologize, just brief her on the presentation…with a polite smile on your face…and get out.”
Lori’s eyes darted between Suzan’s hopeful face and the notes in her hands. Her friend was right. If they were going to work even closer together soon, it would be best if there wasn’t so much bad blood between them. Especially that Agatha could still make her life hard, even after the promotion.
Her face must’ve betrayed her acceptance cause she saw Suzan’s face gradually light up in stupid victory. “Give me those notes,” she snarled as she stormed up from her seat and snatched the notebook from Suzan’s hand.
“Outta girl,” Suzan gave her a light slap on her butt cheek as she walked away. “Go kiss that ass.” She teased.
She rose her middle finger at Suzan without looking back as she continued walking to Agatha’s office. On her way there, her mind reluctantly recalled their childish fight.
Mrs. Yanami had been planning to come down to get a briefing on their new marketing strategy, and all the girls had been hunkered in the meeting room getting prepared. In the middle of their preparations, they found out that there were some documents messing, important documents. Agatha, staying true to her state whenever Mrs. Yanami was supposed to visit their floor, had already been a nervous wreck, but when she found out about the missing documents, she exploded, and for some reason—probably because of the coffee fetching incident—chose to aim all her anger at Lori. She blamed her for everything, called her stupid and incompetent, and said that she didn’t deserve to work in the company. Lori of course took all of it to heart, and unlike the other girls who’d usually just shut up and take it, she exploded in return.
She was never as nervous as when she stood in Mrs. Barlow’s office hours later and told her side of the story. Part of her nervousness, other than that Agatha was her superior, was that Mrs. Barlow was Agatha’s sister. And they were obviously really close. She saw them get to and leave from work together, or sit in each other’s offices drinking coffee and chatting. So it was an understatement to say that she felt like a piano was lifted from her shoulders when Mrs. Barlow ruled in her favor. Agatha didn’t seem salty at that, or at least she didn’t show it.
That incident made Lori feel like she had somewhat of an ally in the company, a good, professional ally. Mr. Barlow and Agatha were sisters and still, she ruled in Lori’s favor, and even urged Agatha to apologize, which of course Agatha shrugged off with a snicker. That allowed Lori to feel safe in standing up to the stuck-up bitch and not let her walk all over her.
Upon reaching Agatha’s office now, she paused at the door. She sucked in a deep breath, as she tidied up her long brown hair and adjusted her dark blazer. She took a couple of calming breaths then knocked on the door.
After a second, a lively response came. “Come in.”
fv
That fucking tone. Lori pushed the door open and entered. “Miss Santana…” she looked at the woman sitting behind her desk.
Her eyes hadn’t left her computer screen yet. And when they did, her face fell into an indifferent frown at seeing Lori at her door. “Oh, you. What do you want?”
I don’t see you speaking in this rude tone in public you witch—Lori cleared her throat then said with a polite smile. “We sent you the presentation, I just want to know what you think of it.” She stood respectfully with her hands behind her back.
Agatha’s eyebrow rose in confusion and reclined in her chair, as her gaze stayed cold as ice. “Suzan usually briefs me, why the sudden need to be courteous.”
“…Emm…” she pushed her heel against the door closing it as she thought of an answer. “…I’m just interested to know what you think Miss.” Part of that was true. An extra cost to cutting the relationship with the woman in front of her, other than making an enemy of her superior, was being unable to make use of her expertise. Agatha had been in the company for almost 15 years, and according to everybody, she’d been one of the main reasons for the company’s current success. But still, Lori could do without benefiting from some extra knowledge if that meant she didn’t have to tolerate her boss’s pretentious attitude.
“Yeah…” She nodded slowly like she didn’t get an answer to her question, and pushed her red hair behind her ear. “But why not send Suzan…like usual.”
“Umm—I don’t…I gu—”
“Ummmm—ahhh—oooh.” She mocked aggressively. “At least Suzan didn’t babble like an idiot…come in sit down make yourself comfortable.” She carelessly waved her hands at the chairs in front of her desk.
Idiot. Resisting the urge to run towards Agatha and karate-kick her out of the big window behind her desk, Lori relaxed her muscles and made her way to the chair. She sat down and laid her notebook in her lap, looking at Agatha as she clicked around her computer. “Okay…” Agatha sighed as she arrived at the folder. “Let’s see what you girls did here.”
Lori grew confused as she watched Agatha recline in her chair, casually left her legs up, and rest her feet at her desk. Consequently, Lori was forced to stare into the dirty soles of Agatha’s black pumps if she wanted to look her way.
Cunt…as simple as that…cunt. Resting her feet on her office wasn’t that disrespectful, but she put them right in Lori’s face, and knowing her better by now, Lori knew that it was no oversight.
“I like what you’ve done with the colors…who’s call was that?” Agatha shook her foot as she examined the slide.
“Mine…” Lori said as she tried to keep her composure, and aimed her look to the side, ignoring the shoes in her face.
“Oh…That’s surprising,” she chuckled, her ridicule clear.
“…” she couldn’t help the aggressiveness in her tone. “Why’s that surprising?”
“Glad to have an assignment of yours on time for once.” She ignored her question and delivered another insult. “I only feel bad about Suzan, she’s the one who has to drag your ass around.”
An irritated snicker escaped Lori’s mouth, as she took her frustration on the notebook in her hand, clutching it. Lori wanted to tell her that she herself was the one doing most of the work, that she was talking bullshit, but she was sure that Agatha already knew all of that. Just because she didn’t suck up to her like the rest of the girls, she was giving her shit now. But she held her tongue; she was here to make peace, not further escalate their cold war.
“I suppose you chose the fonts as well,” Agatha said.
“Yeah…they’re good right.”
“No their hideous,” She said coldly, making Lori boil. “Truly hideous.”
“Well…” Lori bit her tongue. “I think they’re good, they go well with the mode and the colors. That’s just my opinion.”
“Out there you have an opinion,” Agatha said with a sharp tone. “In here you shut your mouth and do as I tell you…change them.”
Shut my mouth! Lori took a breath as she returned her eyes to Agatha, only to find the soles of her shoes to greet her. Her temperature slowly rose, making her tight white face turn red. She said with a cold tone, “Can you put your shoes down please?”
She switched her legs, resting one ankle on top of another. “No.”
“It’s disrespectful.”
“That’s the thing…” Agatha chuckled. “I’ve reached a point in my life where I can disrespect a brat I don’t like. You…didn’t. So you’ll sit there and take it.” She peered her head to the side, only to give Lori a grin with amused eyes before her head despaired back behind her heels.
I’ll take you and throw you off the fucking window you arrogant bit—Lori laughed nervously as she realized she was going to explode, and that wouldn’t be wise, so she got her feet. “I’ll be in my cubicle if you have any questions. Here…” she threw the notebook in Agatha’s lap and smiled at the cold displeased look she gave her as a result.
She had almost reached the door when Agatha said, “Lori…”
She turned, making sure to keep a straight face. “Humm?”
Agatha’s eyes gave her a quick scan, before settling on her face again. “How much is that blazer?” her tone was curious.
“…What?”
“The blazer…it looks nice.”
“…A couple of thousands…” She narrowed her eyes. “Why?”
Agatha nodded with an arrogant smile on her face like she was looking at a naïve kid or something. “Nothing, it’s nice…the whole outfit actually, makes you look…serious, or whatever.”
“…Yeah…thanks.” She faked a smile before pulling the doorknob and leaving. Bitch.
She stored back to her cubicle resisting the urge to stomp her heels on the ground.
when she arrived, Suzan turned her chair to face her. “How did it go.”
“CUNT.” Lori hissed as she slammed her butt on her chair and moved her mouse aggressively.
“…” Suzan turned back to her desk in silence with widened eyes. “Cool.”
Lori was laying on the couch in her living room, still in her work clothes.
“I mean…” she bit her sushi with a bit too much force. “I don’t know what her problem is…” she mumbled around her food.
“Don’t let her get under your skin honey,” Bill said while he applied some more pressure on her foot. “She’s probably just giving you shit because she has to promote you soon.”
“Duh,” she said, accidentally spitting out some rice. “But the thing is I’ll still work under her after I’m promoted. I’m under this woman forever, I’ll never outrank her or something, is she gonna keep giving me shit forever…other foot please.” She smiled politely.
He grabbed her other foot and started rubbing, making her moan with relief as he eased out 10 hours of built tension from her sole.
The nightly foot rubs were the prime reason Lori headed home every day with an excited smile. Even though Agatha made it clear that she didn’t care about the dress code, Lori was one of the few in the office that kept wearing heels, while other girls just wore comfortable shoes like sneakers and sandals. And while the six-inch heels did hurt, and made walking a lot more difficult, Lori would’ve picked a seven-inch if she could walk in them, given that her height of 4 foot 10 inches had always been her biggest insecurity. So a sore foot at the end of the day was a small price to pay if it meant that she didn’t have to look up when talking to another woman.
“You can try acting nice to her…”
“Yeah,” she nodded. “I tried that today, she put her shoes in my face and gave me shit about the presentation that I had been working on for weeks.”
“Well she probably has some harbored resentment she needs to throw your way first, you should’ve sucked it up—”
“Fuck you.” She nudged his stomach with her toe.
“What…didn’t you tell me she’s sisters with that HR woman, and a friend of the CEO, Mrs. Yanana or something—”
“Mrs. Yanami, the owner and CEO” she said. “And no, they’re not friends, I mean their relationship is good as far as I know, but I don’t think they’re friends.”
“Whatever, if the job is that important to you, you’ll need to be a bit more careful around her. From what you’ve told me, she can easily ruin your career.”
“No she can’t,” Lori huffed. “Worst case scenario…she’ll force me to leave the company somehow, or outright fire me.”
“And you’ll live with that?” he asked her with a teasing smile. He knew her better.
“No I’ll probably kill myself if that happened,” she said, exaggerating a little, but not that much. “But I’ll get over it.”
As she’d anticipated, Bill didn’t seem thrilled with her answer. Ever since they’d gotten together, he’d made it clear that he wasn’t a fan of her working. Not that he was against the idea generally, but he was probably afraid that she wouldn’t be able to find a balance between her life and her work, and he was right as rain about that. Most of her time was either spent at work, or at home working, and given that his salary would be enough for both of them, it looked like Lori had chosen their life to be this way. But after a dozen of fights about it, he caved. But she should probably shut up about work now, this was supposed to be their time.
“Anyway,” she sighed. “What’s up with you.”
He put on a fake smile as he looked at her, then said, “Well, Josh’s still mad about me fo…” his voice turned to mumbles in her ears. As he went on and on about his fight with Josh, all Lori could think about was the market research she was supposed to do in a couple of days. It wasn’t due until a week or so, but if she started on it now, she could probably finish it way earlier. She tried to imagine the look on Agatha’s face when she’d hand her the report a week sooner. Maybe the only positive thing she could say about Agatha, was that—even though she had a weird way of showing it—she was a professional woman. She cared about the company. She’d never keep Lori in her place, consequently promoting someone less competent, and thus damaging the company’s sales, just out of her childish spite and pride. All she could do was nitpick and give Lori shit at every turn. And even if that wasn’t the case, Lori could always go to Mrs. Yanami as a last resort. She wouldn’t be happy if she found out that Agatha was hurting a hardworking employee just because.
“You even listening…” Bill pinched her toe.
She shook her head as she looked at his suspecting gaze. “…No.” She smiled awkwardly with guilt. “I’m sorry honey I’m just busy thinking about the promotion. I have some work to do actually.”
“…” he seemed like he was deciding between starting a fight or shutting up. He smiled warmly then nodded. “I’ll leave you to it then. I’m going to bed.”
“Thanksthanksthank.” She clasped her palms in gratitude. He gave her a kiss on the mouth then started walking to the bedroom. “Can you bring me my laptop…it’s right there on the table,” she said as she shuffled on the couch and got comfortable. Without a word, he snatched the laptop, then walked to her with a smile then threw it in her lap, a little bit too harshly. “Thanks,” she frowned at him as he walked away.
“Knock it out…” Suzan elbowed her in the arm.
She looked at Suzan’s scoring face, then stopped biting her thumbnail and rested her shivering hands on her lap adjusting her skirt. They, along with fifteen other girls, were sitting around the long wooden meeting table. Most girls chatted in little groups, but Lori stayed silent, eyeing the clock on the wall. She took a deep breath every now and then, taking a glance through the giant windows in front of her. She gazed at the high-rise glass buildings as they reflected the sunshine. It was a sunny day, but she felt gloomy, and she’d keep feeling like that until she’d hear her name out of Agatha’s mouth. She looked at the clock again: 10:30.
All girls kindly be in the meeting room at 10:20 sharp. There’s an important announcement . 10:20 Sharp, speaking to you Lori. That was Agatha’s email.
Lori shifted in her seat, feeling a mixture of irritation and worry. 10:20 sharp…and yet you’re late by ten minutes…Her eyes met Suzan’s that were staring at her with a frown. “Relax will you.”
She took a deep breath before she whispered. “No all I’m saying if she’s gonna say sharp she shouldn’t be—”
“Girls…” Agatha greeted loudly with a ringing tone as her tall figure strode into the room. “Morning.”
“Good morning boss.” The girls greeted in unison as they rose to their feet, including nervous Lori. She watched Agatha walk with quick steps to the head of the table, with her red long hair dancing behind her. She looked extra glamorous today, her face was beaming with health. Lori didn’t know what was the reason behind her good mood, she just hoped it didn’t have anything to do with her.
“Have a seat…” she gestured with her hand for the girls to sit.
Lori sat down and bit her lip as her eyes stayed glued to Agatha’s lively face.
“Now…” Agatha said. “You can probably guess what that announcement is about…” she said in a teasing tone.
The girls giggled as they exchanged excited glances. Lori knew their excitement was fake. They knew it was about the promotion, and they knew that Lori would get it.
“I’ve had the responsibilities of our marketing coordinator for two months now, since Elia left this company, and I think it’s time that one of you girls have it,” she said as her eyes darted between the girls. “Now, you’re all good girls here, hardworking and focused on improving this great company, but there’s one girl in particular that I think deserves the job more than everybody.” Her blue eyes glanced at Lori for a split second then looked away. “She’s been working her ass off, with diligence and determination, and never stopped improving her skills ever since she’d stepped foot in Yanami, and I have no doubt that she’d continue to do so.”
Lori felt a burst of excitement run down her spine as she saw Agatha stand up and extend both palms in her direction. “Say hello to our new Marketing Coordinator…”
She loved Agatha at that moment, as she saw her smile at her with pride. She smiled politely as she got ready to get up to her feet.
“Suzan.” Agatha grinned.
Lori halted in her rise upon hearing the name, as her confused gaze stayed with Agatha grinning face. the whole room was silent for a second, with obvious shock.
“Gee.” Agatha frowned, looking at the girls. “Is that how you congratulate a colleague!”
The girls started clapping and cheering as they stood up from their chairs and made their way to confused Suzan. Suzan hesitantly rose to her feet as her eyes darted between Lori and the gaggle of girls around her. Lori just sat there with a pale face as she saw Suzan return the greetings awkwardly. In the middle of her panic attack, Lori’s eyes jumped to Agatha, and saw that her blue eyes were firmly planted on her. The tormenting smirk that curled up her mouth made her want to jump out of her seat and tear her pretty red hair out. As if to sense the boiling rage that was building inside Loir’s chest, Agatha winked her eye before giving her a kiss.
She managed to keep her mouth sealed, as she looked up and saw the gaggle of girls around Suzan. She was the only one still sitting like an idiot, so she got up and stood in front of her friend. “Congratulations.” She said in a weak choked-up voice.
Suzan’s guilt and empathy showed on her face as she nodded weakly, then said, “Thanks.”
The girls parted as Agatha walked into their group and put her hand over Suzan’s shoulder. She was a tall woman, and the heels she wore only highlighted the fact.
“Wow boss…” she said nervously as she looked up. “I’m…speechless.”
“Oh honey you deserve it,” Agatha patted her cheek lightly. “Besides…” she directed her teasing gaze towards Lori. “You deserve a reward for surviving a year with this lazy brat…” She chuckled at Lori, acting as if she was joking.
The girls laughed, like they always did whenever Agatha said something she thought was funny. And Lori smiled despite herself, pinning her hands at her side. But her disdain must’ve shown on her face, cause Agatha pouted as she teased. “Oh don’t look so gloomy now…she’s your friend don’t be so jealous.”
With her head about to explode, Lori could only glare while Agatha leaned towards her and pinched her cheek harshly.
“Some girls understand that they should work hard to rise up in this company.” Only a hint of her cruelty showed through her amused smile, as she gave Lori a light, playful slap across her red cheeks. “Something you ought to learn.”
Her hand instinctively shot out and brushed Agatha’s hand off, making the group fall into awkward silence.
Agatha nodded with satisfaction on her face, as if she’d proved a point, before she took a deep breath and looked around the girls. “Well. A celebration is in order, so I’ll leave you girls to do that… there’s wine and food in the break room.”
“Why don’t you join us boss,” a girl said.
“Oh your nice…but I’m afraid I have some work to do. Suzan, swing by my office when you’re ready, I’d love to show you your new workspace. Oh and by the way you all get the day off…” she said and smiled at the girls as they cheered her. She gave Suzan a kiss on the cheek, telling her to enjoy her big day, before she strode to the door, making sure to bump her shoulder harshly into Lori’s who was caught off guard and so tripped over her high heels and tumbled to the ground with a yelp.
“Clumsy Lori,” Agatha snickered as she strode out of the room, giving her one last tormenting smirk.
Lori rubbed her sore knee and shoulder as she watched Agatha walk away with fuming eyes that reluctantly started tearing. She’d never felt that much hate towards someone before. She felt it boiling inside her.
“Hey…”
She looked up, then swallowed her sadness before she took Suzan’s offered hand and pulled herself up.
“You can at least try and look happy for your friend,” Britany taunted. “Gee what a jealous bitch.”
“Britany!” Suzan hissed.
“What…” Britany smiled. “I’m only teasing.”
“Well knock it off…” Suzan said.
Britany nodded inocently then wrapped her arm around Suzan’s shoulders. “Congrats love, you deserve it.” She gave her a kiss on the mouth.
Lori only gave the blonde girl a weak glare in response to her gloating. She was wondering about how long it would be before the girls’ attitude shifts again; not that long it seemed. Pure joy showed in Britany’s taunting smile, which was only one of the many girls who hated her. She could already see it on their faces. They were going to taunt her for every second they’d spent sucking up to her.
“You could probably use a drink,” Suzan rubbed her shoulder and urged her to walk beside her.
“Hey easy with the touching,” Britany protested and tugged at her girlfriend’s hair, getting jealous like always.
“Take it easy,” Suzan nudged her away. “My intentions are pure.”
The girls hang out in the giant break room. They drank wine and ate the snacks and deserts filling the big table in the middle. Some of them formed small groups and danced to a cringy rap song. They weren’t really that close to Suzan, but girls here liked to party for any reason; having fun didn’t need a reason. Lori sat in one of the chairs in the corner, sipping her red wine, grimacing every time the stinging liquid touched her mouth; she didn’t drink that much usually, not at all really, but she could sure use one now.
While she kept a fake wide smile on her face and watched Suzan chat politely with the girls, returning congratulations and compliments and laughing awkwardly at some stupid jokes, all Lori could see was Agatha’s face staring at her, with that damn grin showing her teeth. She pushed her sliding glasses up the bridge of her nose.
All the overtime, all the all-nighters, all her fights with Bill, half a fucking decade of her working her ass off, had been taken from her and put in the trash. She enjoyed it, sure, but most of her enjoyment came from imagining the day when she’d grasp the rewards of her efforts. Today was supposed to be that day, and here she was, with nothing to show for her discipline and hard work. Instead, it was Suzan, polite, incompetent, ass-eating Suzan who would get the rewards. She was still her friend, but god she hated her right about now. It wasn’t her fault; who in his right mind would say no to a promotion. She shook her head. She shouldn’t lose focus. The right aim of her wrath and contempt should be towards the unprofessional cunt sitting in her office.
“Gee…” Suzan sighed as she sat on the chair beside her, accompanied by Britany. “I’m beat.”
“Lori…” Britany said.
“Yeah…” Lori looked up.
“Wine on skirt.”
“Wha—” she looked down to see a big stain of red on her black skirt. “Shit…fuck.” She put the glass on the ground and slammed her hands on her thighs.
“Chill…” Britany recoiled with a surprised giggle. “Washing machines are all the buzz lately.”
Shut up.
Suzan handed her a napkin before she said empathically, “It’s expensive.”
“How expensive,” Britany narrowed her eyes, as always shoving her nose where it didn’t belong.
“None of your business,” Lori whined as she dried off the stain.
Britany looked at Suzan with wide confused eyes, as if to ask what did I say, and Suzan returned a comforting look. “Fine I’ll shut up.” She said as she took a seat beside Suzan and started scrolling down her phone with a cold frown.
“You feeling better,” Suzan said.
“I’m sorry I’m acting like this on your big day.”
“Bitch please…” Suzan said. “We all know it should’ve been you.”
Britany puffed, but stayed silent once Suzan elbowed her.
“But you can’t say I didn’t warn you,” Suzan mumbled.
“I’m sorry I thought her a grown-up,” Lori sniffled. “She’s so spiteful…”
Suzan nodded silently as she rubbed Lori’s back.
“It’s so unfair—”
“Bitch get over yourself,” Britany said aggressively, making both girls look at her, Suzan with a knowing frown and Lori with confusion. “All the girls get along with her just fine.”
“Cause she likes her ass kissed and you girls are experts at that.”
“Yeah, she’s not perfect…” Britany said like she was explaining the obvious. “She has a good side and a bad side. We keep our distance from her and we act nice and polite when she’s around, but you, with your obnoxious pride managed to get on her bad side, and ours. This might be news to you but Miss Santana is not your only hater here.”
“I know…cause you’re—”
“Cause you’re repulsive to be around.” Britany cut her off uttering every word. “You look down your nose at everybody. At least Agatha’s the boss, so it’s a bit expected of her, but you were acting like an entitled bitch since your first day here…I need to piss.” She pointed her finger at Lori, as if to say that she wasn’t finished then hurdled away.
Lori frowned at her as she left, determined not to pay any thought to what she’d just said.
A couple of minutes passed in silence, as Suzan stayed by her side as she regained her composer. “Look,” Suzan sighed. “I’m not about to question her about giving me a promotion…” she said, making Lori look at her with confusion. “I mean that’s almost double my salary…but, I won’t blame you if you go to her and asked her to reconsider. Who knows maybe she’ll give you a raise instead, or maybe there’s another position she can give you.”
It was the late afternoon, and all the girls had left, except for Lori. She stood at the end of the hall, glaring at Agatha’s office door. She could see the light poking out from under it, and she knew Agatha was still there; she always stayed late. She took her mini-mirror out and tidied up her hair and fixed her makeup. There was no way in hell the bitch would get to see that she was sobbing; she didn’t want to give her that pleasure.
She thought about what she’d say. She should go in there and leave her pride at the door, but she should put a limit to how bad she’d allow Agatha to treat her, how much she’d let her get away with. She adjusted her skirt and blazer and walked to the door, deciding on her opening line.
She walked into the abandoned assistant office. Then stood at Agatha’s office door.
She knocked.
“Come in,” a cold reply came. She probably knew it was only her and Lori here, as no one stayed this late except for them.
She opened the door and walked in. It was night, and the only light came from the two tripod lamps in the corners, emitting warm orange light on the big office’s walls. Agatha sat in her chair, with her feet propped on her desk. She had a cigarette in one hand, and a glass of some beverage in the other; judging by the color, it was likely bourbon.
Something about the sight made Lori shiver. She suddenly felt anxious about the fact that she was alone here with this woman. She grew nervous as she saw Agatha resting there, not working, not really doing anything, but sitting in the silence of her office with nothing but a cigarette and a drink.
“Miss Santana…” Lori said.
Agatha’s response was moving her cigarette to her mouth and taking a drag, then puffing slowly, as her blue eyes stared at Lori coldly.
“I just…” Lori took a breath. “I wanted to apologize for…” she forced herself to lie. “My rude behavior, at our last meeting.”
“Yeah?” Agatha said.
“…You were obviously under a lot of pressure, and I didn’t…act considerably. So I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.” She looked towards the ground with fake guilt.
Agatha nodded, with no emotion showing on her face. Lori took the liberty to approach and sit down at the chair in front of her. She put a remorseful look on her face and leaned forward a bit with slouched shoulders, attempting to betray some weakness. “I hope we can…put it behind us.”
A hint of a smile showed on Agatha’s face, but it despaired quickly. “…Behind us it is,” she said. “Anything else?”
“About the promotion—”
“You didn’t deserve it.”
“…” She snickered nervously before she continued. “No, I clearly didn’t…so I was wondering, if…you would have something else for me in the company, other than my current position, any step up here would mean the world to me.” She said with a choked throat. It wasn’t right, that she had to practically beg for what she’d already earned. “Giving all the hard work I’d put—”
“You think you deserve something,” Agatha slurred, as she was obviously a bit drunk. “You think I owe you something.”
“…No…but if you could give me any kind of…validation for my hard work, I’d be more than grateful.”
“Validation…?” Agatha narrowed her eyes for a second before her drunken face lit up, like she’d got a brilliant idea. She held her cigarette in her mouth and tightened her hand into a fist and rose it in the air. “ ‘Outstanding performance’ ‘good job’ ‘You go girl’” she cheered with a smile on her face, making Lori frown. “Here’s your validation…” she chuckled between coughs.
Lori tried to control her temper as she watched her take another drag from her cigarette and look at her with a cold but taunting face. “This is my career here, please don’t treat it as a joke.”
“Duly noted …” She nodded. “Now get the fuck out of my office.”
“…” Lori darted her eyes in lose around the cruel pair of eyes. “Can you at least assure me that… you’ll keep me in mind for the next promotion…if I work hard enough for it.”
“I assure you that you’ll stay at your current position as long as I’m sitting in this chair.”
Lori recoiled back at the hateful comment. She felt assaulted by how much hate the woman had put into her tone and on her face. “…Why? What did I ever do to you?” she whined feeling herself get emotional.
“Nothing, I just loathe you…do I need a reason for that?”
“If you’re gonna fuck up my life over it you do.”
“Well.” She shrugged. “I guess you better give me your resignation now, there’s no future here for you honey.”
She stayed frozen in her chair, out of things to say. She’d never imagined she’d face something like this in her life. This wasn’t right. Climbing up the corporate ladder was simpler in her eyes; You work hard, you take some crap from an angry boss every now and then, you suck it up and you move on. What the hell was she supposed to do when facing a woman like this. This was the best company in the city, one of the best in the country. When one would arrive here, they could rest assured that their career was moving in the right direction; resigning would be a step—no, a leap, a huge jump backward that she could never recover from. She was humbling herself in front of that woman, and all the woman could give her was a cold stare; she’d hit a brick wall.
“Miss Santana please…” she whined, feeling herself get emotional. “What can I do?”
Agatha took a gulp of her glass, wincing at the burning taste, with her eyes still on Lori. Her feet started rocking on the table while she looked at Lori in silence like she was thinking things over; Lori hoped she was at least. She hoped that the woman had the smallest bit of kindness, enough to give some thought before she ruins her.
She coughed a couple of times after she’d taken a drag from her cigarette, then she sighed and said in an indifferent tone, “You wanna be my assistant?”
Lori bulked. She expected to hear a lot of stuff, but not this.
Agatha had had only one assistant. The girls didn’t really know her that much, as she’d been quite busy most of the time. They just saw her hustle to and from Agatha’s office ten to twenty times a day, always bearing an anxious look on her face.
Lori had been working for only two months in the company when the girl stormed out of Agatha’s office crying. She refused to talk to anyone and continued marching through the door pushing everyone out of the way and yelling ‘I quit…I Quit.’
It had been no surprise that after that incident, when the position opened again for admissions, no one submitted a request; no one wanted to be Agatha’s assistant after the emotional storm-off the last girl had made. The admission period closed abruptly after three days; Agatha said that she found that she didn’t need an assistant after all. She had played it off as a joke, but it was obvious on her face how offended she was.
“But…” Lori mumbled. “You don’t need an assistant.”
Agatha smiled faintly. “I’ll make an exception for you.”
Lori stayed still, with a hurt, defeated look slowly taking over her face. Being an assistant to someone this high up the company wouldn’t be that bad, she’d learn a lot, and build a useful relationship; but she knew she wouldn’t get those benefits working under Agatha. She wanted her as her assistant cause she hated her, and all that Agatha would probably give her would be trivial tasks and mean remarks.
“Is…” she took a deep breath, making a last effort. “this the only position—”
“Yes.” She cut her off coldly. “I’ll think of something else as we go on, but it depends on how well you perform in the position I’m offering you.” She wiggled her foot as she looked away from Lori and laid out the terms. “If I’m happy with your performance, and you better know that you should reach a very high bar to make me happy, I’ll find you a position you’d love, maybe like the one you just lost due to your incompetence, maybe higher.” She looked at Lori and raised her eyebrows, successfully enticing her and rising her hopes up, before her face went back to cold. “But if you disappoint me, and that’s easy to do, I’ll fire you.”
Lori gulped, as the mere mention of the word made her sick. She couldn’t imagine having to leave here. Her anxiousness must’ve shown on her face, cause Agatha gave a mocking snicker before she took another gulp from her drink.
“You’ll make me fetch you coffee and documents right…” Lori said with slight contempt. “Trivial shit like that.”
“Among other things.” Agatha nodded with narrowed eyes. “But I’m offended that you think it’s trivial. I mean, my time is very valuable. Any time or effort you’d manage to save me would highly contribute to the performance of the company. If you’re gonna take this job you should take it with pride.”
She didn’t give any thought to Agatha’s last line of bullshit, and instead weighed her options quickly. She could either quit now, cause there was no way in hell she’d stay in a dead-end job, or she could accept the offer, and hope that after the hateful woman would have her fun, she’d let her continue her career in peace.
She looked at the ground then said reluctantly, making sure not to sound weak, “Fine.”
Agatha nodded, before she frowned jokingly and whined. “Aww remove that beaten dog look from your face will you. I’ll make it fun for you, you’ll see. You’ll find that being my assistant is a whole career line in by itself, with levels that your eager little ass can climb.”
“Happy to hear it.” Lori put on an ingenuine smile then rose to her feet. “Guess I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Agatha stubbed her cigarette as she nodded with a bit too much movement with her neck; the alcohol had obviously gotten to her. She let her feet slide to the floor as she straightened herself. Lori headed for the door with fast steps.
“Actually…” she heard Agatha say before she turned.
Agatha wasn’t looking at her, but down at the floor, right at her feet.
“My pumps are dirty.”
Lori narrowed her eyes, unsure of why she’d stopped her exit to tell her that piece of information. “Excuse me?”
“My shoes…my pumps…” She looked at Lori with a drunken innocent smile. “They’re dirty.”
“So?”
“…Nothing…” She held her hands up in front of her. “I just thought I should tell you. You being my assistant should do as you see fit with that information.”
It took a moment for the confusion on Lori’s face to turn into astonished disdain. High bar huh. She snickered as she shook her head at the ground before she closed her eyes and took a breath. “Would you like me to…” her nick twisted reluctantly. “Polish your shoes for you Miss Santana?”
Agatha thrust her lip out and shrugged. “I wouldn’t refuse you I mean, sure why not.”
Lori sealed her swears as she strode towards the desk and snatched two napkins out of the napkin box before walking around the desk and facing Agatha’s chair. She paused for a moment as her angry eyes stared at the ground near the woman’s feet. She never knelt in front of anyone before, let alone to clean someone’s shoe for them. A harsh punch hit the top of her stomach, as she felt like she was about to lose a part, although small, but unrecoverable of her dignity. She swallowed her pride and knelt, setting on her heels, to see that Agatha’s black classic pumps were perfectly clean.
Before she leaned in to start polishing, she took a sharp breath when the woman slowly rose her foot and rested the sole of her shoe on her lap. Lori bit her tongue as the shoe twisted on her expensive skirt. She looked up, to see Agatha looking down at her with a drunken cold look.
“Whenever you’re ready Lori,” Agatha said, planting her other shoe on her lap.
The mixture of determination and hate was obvious in the woman’s stare, her determination to humiliate her. Lori thought the best thing to do would be to give the bitch above her minimum satisfaction, so she’d show no signs of discomfort or weakness. If she was going to be debased, she’d take the debasement with a smile on her face. So she folded the napkins in her hand and started cleaning the clean shoe.
She ran the napkin forcefully up and down the top of the woman’s pumps, all the while fretting silently about the other shoe being wiped up and down her skirt, leaving big spots of gray dust on her dark material. She thought about telling Agatha to stop, but then decided against it and just kept polishing. Agatha was a bully, and the usual best response to a bully would be to fight them head-on, but sense that wasn’t an option, the next possible thing would be to let them know that their mean, pitiful acts had no effect on you to speak off.
“You like your new job…” Agatha said.
“…Yes.” Lori smiled as she kept her eye on the shoe she was cleaning.
“Shoe Girl.” Agatha snickered. “That’s your current position. Keep up the good work and you’ll rise up my ranks in no time. Understand.”
“Yes Miss Santana.”
“Good girl… other shoe.”
She started working on the other shoe. Good girl. That was the first time she had got a good girl from her boss, or maybe the second. Other girls got them all the time but she never did. Sure she’d still love to kill the woman above her, but it still felt kind of good.
She kept at it for almost five minutes before her wrist started aching. She stopped and removed her hand then looked up. Agatha wasn’t even looking at her but had reclined in her chair and aimed her gaze at the big window to her side, like she was deep in thought. Something about the picture in front of her was haunting. She always thought that Agatha stayed late at work cause she was actually working, but was that how she really spent her nights, alone, with a glass of bourbon and a cigarette in a dim lighten office.
Lori coughed a couple of times, trying to get her attention. “…They clean enough, miss?”
“Huh…” Agatha shook her head. “What?”
“They clean enough?”
She’d barely taken a glance before she nodded and rested her feet on the ground. “They’re fine. But napkins aren’t that effective anyway. I expect you to keep a cloth with you at all times.”
Lori dusted off her skirt as she nodded. “Yes Miss.”
“And I don’t wanna have to tell you to do your job, got it.” she nudged her with her shoe. “Whenever you feel like my shoes could use a polish, you get down and give them one. I don’t wanna have to keep checking if I have clean shoes, that’s your responsibility. Understood.”
“Yes…” She bit her lip as she rose to her feet. “Miss Santana.”
“Good.” She rose to her feet, staggering as she did. Agatha almost tripped before her hand found Lori’s shoulder. Lori held her arm in surprise.
“You alright.” Lori said in honest concern.
“Perfecto.” Agatha giggled as she straightened up.
Lori found herself suddenly looking up to meet the woman’s eye. She thought it was the heels, but she was wearing heels too; this bitch’s tall. She always knew it, but standing there so close to her and face to face really highlighted her formidable posture. Tall with long red hair and a pair of blue eyes; she’d have adored her, if she weren’t such a cunt. The ash smell combined with the sharp stench of alcohol made Lori wince.
“You need anything else from me Miss Santana,” Lori said still looking up.
“…No,” Agatha said, before she slurred, “Fuck off.”
Lori recoiled back from the sharp repulsive response. She gave the drunken, inconsiderate face in front of her a shocked look, before she turned away with a red tight face and headed for the door. She remembered giving Bill an earful one time when he said those words to her once as a joke. Nobody should speak to her like that.
She hustled along the hall with tensed legs and shoulders, feeling her anger build up at the top of her chest. She got out of the company and into the garage, swung her car door open then slammed it shut. She gripped the wheel, then, once in the safety of her car screamed at the top of her lungs. She hit her palms on the wheel shouting, “BITCH, BITCH…………………… Fucking BITCH.” She took fast uncontrollable short breaths as she stared down the street. “SOAP. Your mouth needs fucking SOAP,” She took a deep breath as she slammed the wheel one last time. “BITCH…SOAP.”
Once her tight face got a bit looser and her breaths got a bit steadier, she twisted the keys in her car and slammed her heels against the paddle. No big deal…this is still your career, she thought. this is just another skill you have to master. Currently, you have to learn to deal with a bitch.
She took a deep breath as she headed home, while a new thought troubled her. The fact that she wouldn’t get to share her misery with Bill taunted her. She could share none of this with him, cause she knew, that the second she’d tell him that she’d just shined her boss’s shoes for some job, he’d start bugging her and urging her to quit, and wouldn’t stop until she did. It was true that it had been one of the reasons she’d fallen in love with him, but right now she wished he wasn’t so goddamn prideful.
The elevator took Lori up to the nineteenth floor. She spent the ride up staring into her own face in the big mirror. She held Agatha’s cup of coffee in her hand as she looked into her brown eyes with determination.
It had been a week since she got her new position. And every day as she rose through the stories of the company, she’d look herself in the mirror and tell herself, this wouldn’t break me. Just one day at a time. Remember what you’re doing this for.
Tomorrow was her day off, she remembered with a relieved sigh. The week had felt like a month. Every day took a harder toll on her strength and sanity. Coming home that evening when she’d gotten the job, she had a childish thought that maybe, just maybe, Agatha wanted her as her assistant because she actually thought she was good. That she thought Lori was so good that she couldn’t resist the urge to be selfish in keeping her all to herself. The thought didn’t dim Lori’s disdain, but at least it made her feel a bit better about her situation.
But the week had proved to her just how stupid her childish thought was. Ever since day one, any doubt she had about the reason behind Agatha offering her the position evaporated; it was clear that the only thing Agatha wanted to gain was to see Lori hurt.
Her boss didn’t miss a single chance to make her life harder. She embarrassed and humiliated her at every possible turn.
Lori looked at the Starbucks cup in her hand, taunted by the fact that Agatha would probably make her make another trip to get her a different one, cause the one Lori had brought, wasn’t what Agatha wanted.
First time she’d brought her a Nescafe from the coffee machine, but it turned out Agatha wanted black coffee, so Lori went down and replaced it, drinking the Nescafe herself. Next time, she got her black coffee, but it turned out Agatha wanted cappuccino—iced cappuccino, she added, after Lori brought her the hot one.
Later she made the point that she didn’t like how the coffee machine drinks tasted anymore, and Lori knew that Agatha was hinting that she was expected to start getting her coffee from the coffee shop at the end of the street; that only made her trip more tiering. She had stopped wearing her nice clothes days ago so that they wouldn’t be ruined with the endless trips she had to take inside and out of the company. And when she asked Agatha—in the politest tone she could muster—to inform her of exactly what she wanted to drink in a specific day so that she didn’t have to take two trips, Agatha smiled then said, “The thing is, I don’t know what I want until I taste what I don’t want, you know…it’s like… I want a coffee, but then I drink a sip and realize, maybe a Nescafe.” To that, Lori had nodded, pretending like it made sense.
The elevator door opened and she walked out, hurdling towards her Boss’s office. She walked as fast as one could walk with a pair of heels and took an anxious look at her clock; three more minutes and she’d be late. She had no problem being there early, even before Agatha, but the first time she arrived early to greet Agatha as she walked into her assistant’s office, Agatha frowned then said, “Don’t come early. Be here at 8 AM sharp and not a minute before then. I don’t want that face to greet me first thing in the morning.” She’d said it with such disgust that kicked the polite smile out of Loir’s face. And all she could do was look down with a pout and reply, “Yess Miss Santana.”
So she started getting her early, only to wait in the garage for like twenty minutes, then getting out and arriving at Agatha’s office at 8 AM, sharp.
She returned some greetings without stopping as she walked beside the cubicles, before walking into her new office, then knocking at Agatha’s door. “Come in,” the cold answer came.
She entered.
“Good morning Miss Santana.”
“Humm.” Agatha nodded lazily without taking her eyes off her screen.
She walked and put the cup at the desk, then stood there waiting for Agatha to find out if she really felt like drinking a coffee today. She stood there for like two minutes as Agatha ignored her, before she finally grabbed the cup and popped open the plastic cap. She took a sip, then a sharp grimace showed on her face as she spat the liquid back in the cup. “You know what, I don’t feel like drinking anything today.”
Lori nodded with a forced polite smile. The only positive thing she got to enjoy about the two coffee-fetching trips, was that she’d get a free cup of Starbucks at the end, and Agatha had just ruined that for her by spitting in her dame cup that she wasn’t even going to drink.
She pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose and said, “Anything else I can do for you, Miss.”
“Yeah…” Agatha sighed as she turned her office chair to face Lori. “Fetch me the week’s report from Suzan.”
She expected as much. She resisted the urge to remind her that email was a thing, so was fax, that was right there in the corner, so was google fucking drive. But why use them when Lori could just run along and fetch them for her. That alone took more than two hours every day, as Lori ran between offices and cubicles fetching documents. She nodded politely then got out, making her way to Suzan’s office.
She arrived then opened the door without knocking.
“The red button for fuck’s sake,” Britany was screaming standing over Suzan’s shoulder while they both stared at her computer screen.
“I see the fucking button—” Suzan’s shout at Britany was interrupted by Lori’s entrance. “Manners, knock first.”
“Piss off.” Lori said. “What are you guys doing.”
“Teaching this cave-bitch,” Britany slapped the back of Suzan’s head. “How to use company’s software.”
Suzan elbowed her with scorn then looked at Lori. “What’s up.”
“The weekend report,” Lori said as she rested her hands on the back of one of the offices chairs.
“Oh,” Suzan said as she started looking around. “The report…” She froze. “Where’s the report?” She looked up at Britany.
“You asking me?”
“Shit. Just a second.” They started opening drawers together nervously as they rummaged through the files. “So how’s it been, working with Miss Santana.”
“…You know.”
“We do know,” Britany smiled teasingly as she looked inside a drawer. “Shoe Shiner.”
“Knock it off,” Suzan said suppressing a giggle.
“What…” Britany said before she snickered as she looked at Lori. “Actually my shoes could use a shine right now if you have some free time.”
Lori only put an irritating smile as she rose her middle finger at Britany.
She knew that it wouldn’t take long until her embarrassing incident would reach everyone’s ears. Two days ago, just when she was finally getting used to cleaning Agatha’s shoes on a daily basis, Agatha couldn’t help but make her humiliation go public. She had been waiting at Agatha’s side while Agatha stood in the hall and talked to a couple of girls about work, when all of the sudden, Agatha looked down at her shoe and whined, “Ohh, these shoes keep getting dirty it’s ridiculous.” She didn’t think much of it at first, but when her eyes briefly met Agatha’s, she knew what she wanted. Agatha had merely glanced at her before redirecting her eyes to the girls and continuing her conversation. It took her a moment to muster her courage before she took the cloth out of her pocket and slump down to her knees mumbling, “Allow me boss.”
Agatha took a step back like she was touched by the kind gesture, and she said, “Oh…What a nice girl.” Lori bit her tongue as Agatha patted her head. She didn’t know why, but she felt like she needed to say something in response, so she said as a joke, “A woman like you shouldn’t walk around with dirty shoes Miss.” She heard Agatha giggle above her as she felt the girls’ eyes drill through the back of her head, with bafflement and contempt both. What an ass-kisser they had to think of her. She gave the two shoes a quick shining before rising up and walking away with her boss, avoiding to look at the girls and only managed to hear their giggles when she and Agatha were far away from them.
“But seriously,” Suzan said, “How’s work been?”
“Seriously!” Lori sighed. “Shitty. She’s making me run around the company half the time, and wait in my office the other half. She didn’t give me a single important task since I started, not a single one. By the time I reach home I’m so tired all I want to do is sleep. Honestly, I don’t know how long I could keep this up.” Her eyes momentarily looked at the both of them while they rummaged through the files. It hurt her to admit it, but Suzan had been doing an alright job, not great, but better than Lori had expected. Brittany was doing a good job helping her too. “Can you guys hurry it up, I don’t want her to give me shit about being late. I mean if you’re keeping your files organized this shouldn’t be happening.”
“Hold your horses,” Brittany said as she looked.
“Found it.” Suzan bolted up. “Here you go.” She reached her hand and handed Lori the file.
“Thanks.” She took it then headed to the door.
“Keep those shoes shiny.” Britany teased with a laugh.
All could Lori do was flip her off without looking back and get out. Britany had to be enjoying this; she always thought of her as a snoop, though Lori never knew why that was. She knew Britany meant well, but she really hated that she was slowly becoming the laughing stock of the company.
She walked back to Agatha’s office. As she handed her the documents, Agatha got a cold but scornful look on her face as she took them. “Has Suzan been relocated to China or something?” she said.
“Wha—” Lori said taken aback. “No.”
“So why did it take you this long,” Agatha raised her eyebrow as she examined the file.
“…They just…” She took a breath. “It just took a minute for her to find it that’s all.”
“I’m not interested in excuses Lori. When I ask you to fetch something you do it quickly.”
Do you want me to do fly here. “Miss Santana I really walked back here as fast as I could.”
“Well, next time, run.” Agatha looked up with a smile. “I don’t care about dress code, so lose the heels next time.” She nodded towards her shoes.
Her instinct got the better of her in her response. “…You can’t tell me what to wear,” Lori said defensively, but her fear showed in her fake aggressive tone.
Agatha gave her a cold look, before she reclined back in her chair, her mouth curling into a confidant, calm smile. She didn’t say a word but Lori saw on her face what she hadn’t said: Sure I can. She thought about arguing further, but she doubted it would be of any use. So she swallowed the torment and nodded.
“Good,” Agatha looked at the document again. “Now fuck off.”
Lori nodded again, and headed for the door, or, she fucked off. She had to hear that phrase at least twenty times a day. It had been almost a week and it still didn’t feel any lighter on her ears, neither the ‘get your ass in here now.’ whenever Agatha needed her. She couldn’t get over the degradation of being summoned and dismissed like that, and being forced to accept it.
“What did I tell you about responding Lori,” Agatha said lazily.
She bit her lip and turned, to see Agatha still eyeing her documents. “Sorry…Right away miss.” She said clearly her response then walked out of the room. Agatha had been very clear that she’d like to hear a reply when she’d give Lori an order, so Lori always replied, in all politeness. Fuck off, right away miss. Get your ass in here, right away miss…fuck you miss…I hope you die miss. Lori cursed under her breath as she slammed her butt on her chair.
She stared at the empty wooden desk she sat at. There was a computer but it didn’t work. Like every day, Lori took out her phone and started scrolling to kill the time, as she was instructed to keep her ass stuck to that chair as long as she was on the clock. She was to sit there and wait, until Agatha would need her assistance again. She had brought this point up with Agatha two days ago, that sitting alone doing nothing was really taunting and that she’d appreciate it if she’d have something work-related she could help Agatha with; she did have some useful knowledge after all. All Agatha said was that she would think about it, which gave Lori some hope.
After half an hour of scrolling through social media apps—which she installed just two days ago for the sole purpose of killing time while she sat there doing nothing—The phone buzzed before Agatha’s cold voice came out from it. “Get your ass in here.”
She got up, then walked into the office.
“Miss.”
Agatha took her eyes off the computer screen then said. “I was thinking about what you said.”
Lori stayed silent, confused.
Seeming to sense her confusion, Agatha sighed then said, “About how you’d like a bit more to do around here.”
“Oh…” Lori smiled with pure joy as she exhaled a relieved breath. “Yes Miss I would love that…my butt is practically numb from sitting out there.”
Agatha laughed despite herself, bringing her hand to her mouth to suppress it. “Come here girl.” Agatha nodded to her side.
“Yeah…” Loir rushed to her side, like a little kid eager for a treat. She stood at the side of Agatha’s disk and pushed her glasses up, looking at the computer screen, thinking that Agatha wanted to show her something on it. This would be her chance to prove her worth. If she could help her boss with something that truly mattered, maybe she’d see the potential in making use of Lori’s skills instead of continuing with her spiteful torment. “What can I do for you?” She asked eagerly, her hopeful smile still wide.
“Well,” Agatha smiled in response to her show of eagerness. “It had been a tiring week. And you know what I would love, after such a stressful, tense, work week.” She slowly propped her legs at the edge of her desk.
“What…” Lori’s eyes darted between Agatha’s smiling face and the computer screen.
“A foot rub,” Agatha said as she crossed her ankles.
Lori’s lively smile gradually faded, as she saw the smile widen on Agatha’s sharp cheeks, making that dimple show clearly. She didn’t try to hide her disappointment, neither the hurt frown that took over her face. “Miss I was hoping you’d give me something work-related.”
“This is work-related,” Agatha said with an innocent face. “You making me relax equals me doing a better job, equals better sales for the company.”
“I can…” she said, fighting off her agitation and speaking with difficulty. “I can do other stuff. I can help you with your job.” She said almost pleadingly.
“You think I’d trust an incompetent brat like you with my job,” Agatha said firmly, making Lori squint her eyes. She knew Agatha didn’t believe in her harsh words, but it still hurt. Why did she have to keep belittling her like this? “Now I’m giving you a chance to be useful. Whether or not you make use of it, I will keep that in mind.”
She froze in her place for a second, watching Agatha stare up at her with a mixture of terror and impatience. She stopped tightening her fist as she felt her nails about to dig into her palm, she took a deep breath, then she turned, but before she could Agatha said, “Where you going?”
“To shift the chair,” Lori said sharply.
“No need. Your ass is numb anyway remmember. Just kneel at the ground.”
Lori looked up at the ceiling, trying to gather the patience and strength to move forward, then she nodded, and knelt at the ground at the side of Agatha’s desk. She couldn’t sit at her heels if she wanted to reach Agatha’s feet without rising her arms too much, so she just rested on her knees. The amused look that Agatha gave her only tormented her further. She looked pleased, even a bit surprised that Lori had obeyed her, like she was testing her limits and was happy about the results.
Lori looked at the dusty black soles in front of her, ignoring the sick feeling at the top of her stomach. She never gave someone a foot rub before. And she never received one from anyone other than Bill. When he gave them to her, she felt like a spoiled princess and loved it, but other than that, the ordeal was, in a way, sensual. It had a sexual feel to it, however light. She felt it and she was sure that Bill felt it too, that it was one of the many intimate acts he expressed his love and adoration to her. She could already feel how tormenting and messed-up it would be to give one to another woman, a woman she loathed.
The foot in front of her abruptly shook, interrupting her train of thought. She took a final look at her tormentor’s faint smirk, as she put her hands on Agatha’s shoe and eased it off, to reveal the bare sole.
“Ahh.” Agatha sighed as she reclined her head back. “I already feel better. It feels great being out of these shoes.” She wiggled her toes as she sighed. “Other one.”
Lori leaned in and pulled off the second shoe, resting both on the ground. She wasn’t surprised that her boss’s feet were big, given how tall the shrew was. Her nose wrinkled as a sharp stench lingered under it. Fantastic. She held her finger up to her nose as she stared at the smelly pair of feet. It wasn’t even that late in the day yet, but she could spot a shiny layer of sweat on the wrinkly soles.
She leaned in, keeping her face as far as she could from the source of the unpleasant smell, then rose her arms and wrapped her fingers around Agatha’s foot. Agatha hummed to herself as she looked up at the ceiling, and moaned in pleasure and relaxation. “Oh…that’s the stuff.” She said as Lori’s thumps thrust into her meaty soles. “I should’ve made you do this days ago.”
Lori grimaced at the confirmation that this would be a regular service, that she’d have to provide probably on a daily basis. She’d be disrespected, talked down to, belittled and humiliated, and at the end of the day she’d be forced to kneel down and express her gratitude and adoration for the woman that was humiliating her, by easing the tension from her sweaty feet. As she knead the sole in her hand, she couldn’t help but wonder if she was doing the right thing. What would Bill say if he saw her right now? Would he emphasize or be disgusted? He knew how much she loved her job, how much she cared about her career, but he was a prideful man, as was she.
Those were the two things she knew about herself; she valued her dignity and her career more than anything; what the hell was she supposed to do when a bitch like the one sitting above her forced her to choose between them. She could stand up for herself and tell her to fuck off, or she could shut up, swallow her bemoan for her stained dignity, and take the debasement with a strong face, hoping that she’d one day get compensated for her lost dignity.
She took a deep breath as she mustered her strength, and immediately regretted it once she felt the sharp foot-aroma waft into her nostrils.
“The hell are you holding your head back for?” She said like Lori was acting weird. “they’re feet Loir, not a bomb.”
She thought about telling her that her feet stank, but Agatha probably already knew it didn’t she. She knew it and she didn’t care. And even if she didn’t, it couldn’t be wise to insult her. So Lori put a smile on her face as she shifted her body forward slightly and relaxed her arms, and continued rubbing silently.
“It better not be the smell,” Agatha said narrowing her eyes. “Do my feet smell Lori?”
After a short battle between being frank and being overly polite, Lori chose the former; if the woman wanted her rubbing her feet she might as well be a bit considerate and keep them clean next time. Lori wouldn’t be out of line if she made that obvious point known. “Yes,” she said staring straight into Agatha’s eyes. “They stink.”
“Stink!” Agatha spat as she lurched forward. “Is that what you said? They stink?”
Lori recoiled from the sudden aggressive tone, and couldn’t help but respond with the same aggressiveness. “They’re feet, Agatha. They’re fucking feet it’s obviously been a day or two since you showered so yes they stin—” Agatha’s foot wiggled free from her hand and hit the side of her head, making her lose her balance, barely avoiding the fall. She looked at Agatha’s dead-eyed stare, her blue eyes cold and menacing.
“Use that tone with me again,” Agatha said sharply. “Come on.” She raised her eyebrow.
Lori couldn’t hold the threatening gaze for more than a couple of seconds, and her eyes were forced down towards the ground. “I’m sorry.”
“For what?”
“…For saying that your feet smell.” She said nervously as she pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose.
“Well,” Agatha shrugged. “In your defense, I think you were confused. Maybe it was something else that you smelt.”
No it was your fucking feet. “I guess…Maybe I’m a bit grimy today.” She said, unable to not sound a bit sarcastic.
“Well, come closer, give them a sniff, I’m sure you’ll change your mind.”
“Oh…” Lori mumbled. “Boss that’s really not nesses—”
“Sure it is…come on, scoop closer and give them a big fat sniff for me, I’d like to make sure. Otherwise I would be anxious about my hygiene for the rest of the day.”
Lori’s disgust showed on her face. why. Fucking why? Why were all the girls out there doing work and I’m here trying to prove that a pair of rank feet smelled good? She looked up almost pleadingly, but only saw a half-amused half-curious look on Agatha’s face. She had to be enjoying this, being able to force another woman to suck up to her like that. Lori’s shoulders slouched as she scooched closer, and held her face inches away from Agatha’s toes. She thought about just pretending to smell then tell the woman what she wanted to hear, but she thought that she’d probably make her do it again cause she didn’t hear her. So she closed her eyes, and breathed in through her nose, allowing the offensive stench to enter. She cursed inside and growled at her boss as she heard a suppressed giggle escape from her lips.
“So,” Agatha snickered, not trying to hide her enjoyment.
“I was wrong…they smell alright.”
“Alright!” Agatha widened her eyes making Lori flinch.
“I mean…” She mumbled nervously in fear. “Great they smell great…like roses…like spring.”
Agatha titled her head, confusion obvious on her face. “Roses…Spring?” her face looked weirded out as she said, “That’s a strange thing to say Lori…”
“I mean—” Lori tried to correct herself.
“You sure you don’t have a foot fetish or something.”
BITCH, I have a foot fetish now! “I didn’t—” she halted, speechless. There was plenty to say, but she couldn’t think of something that wouldn’t be taken as an insult and still get her out of her predicament. So she just said. “No…I don’t have a foot fetish.”
“Either that or my feet do smell like roses and spring,” Agatha said, acting like she was actually thinking about it. “Hand me my shoe for a second. Let me check.”
She frowned as she played along with Agatha’s stupid stupid game, and handed her the shoe. Agatha slowly moved it closer to her face, but still kept it at a faraway distance, much farther than the distance between Lori and her own feet. She wrinkled her nose before she held the shoe away and faked coughing. “Oh my god. They stink. I need to wash these shoes.” She held them out with disgust with the tips of her fingers and tossed them to the ground, before looking at Lori with disgust. “What’s wrong with you, how can you think this smells good—oh not only good, like roses. what kinda gardens do you wander in young lady.”
Lori could only look up, barely able to hide her disdain. “…I don’t, actually think they smell like roses. I just said it cause you were so offended.”
“Oh…” Agatha said. “So you don’t think that…You’re not a foot fetishist.”
“No.”
“You’re an ass kisser.”
“Yes—what, no.” Lori said. Her eyes grew aggressive as she straightened her posture. She grew hot over the offensive labeling. Ass kisser. She was maybe the last one in this damn company that would deserve the title.
“Yes you are, you basically complimented the stink of my foot just cause I’m your boss in order to get on my good side, which is the most shameless act of ass-kissing I’ve ever encountered. I mean, my ass had been kissed before…but never like this.”
Her face grew tight and red as she got tired of Agatha childishly toying with her like this. She found it hard to believe that the woman was almost a decade older than her, she was acting like a child with all the teasing.
Agatha seemed to sense the boiling feelings of hate that ran through her because she gave her one of her amused smirks before she said, “Go on then,” she reclined her head back again. “Get back to rubbing my scented feet.”
Lori swallowed her curses and wrapped her hands on her boss’s foot again, failing to unscrew her tight scorn. While Agatha just looked up at the ceiling and ignored her, Lori worked her thumps on the sweaty sole, taking some of her frustration on it. While she worked her hands on her boss’s feet, all she could think of was, how much more could she take of this shit.
Chapter II
Lori kept thrusting her thumps on Agatha’s soles, the moans of pleasure and relaxation only made her feel shitter about her situation. Her knees felt sore against the carpet, and her arms and hands ached, but she kept her mouth shut, knowing that Agatha wouldn’t care and would tell her to keep rubbing anyway.
“Focus on the heels a bit there,” Agatha said keeping her gaze up at the ceiling.
Lori obeyed, sliding her fingers, now as sweaty as Agatha’s soles, down the woman’s foot and thrust her thumps into her heel. And didn’t forget to reply reluctantly, “Yes Miss.”
She couldn’t make up her mind about Agatha’s reasons behind all of this; did Agatha just want a foot rub and had no problem exploiting her position to get one, or was this just another way to humiliate Lori.
“Hummm.” Agatha hummed, before leaning forward on her chair to look at Lori. She gave her a calm smile before she opened a drawer in her desk, and took out a whisky bottle and a glass. “You’re good at this,” she said as she poured herself a glass. “You do this often?”
“…No,” Lori sighed, unable to hide her irritation. The compliment meant nothing to her; it almost felt like an insult. “First time.”
“Well,” Agatha swung her glass to her lips. “You’re a natural. But don’t let it get to your head. Don’t get into comfort-zone, I expect you to keep improving.” She wiggled her finger. “Take a course or something…I’ll fund it.”
She couldn’t resist snickering. She didn’t know if her boss was joking or not, but there was no way in hell she’d give one second of her free time to this nonsense.
The door knocked, startling Lori and making her snap her eyes towards it.
“Why did you stop, keep rubbing.” Agatha looked at her with confusion, at the same time putting her whisky glass in, still full, back in her drawer.
Lori’s eyes grew worried as she said, “But—”
“Keep rubbing. What are you shy,” Agatha said before turning towards the door and saying in her bubbly tone, “Come in.”
The door opened, and not knowing what to do, Lori just sat there with her hands shivering at her sides. She was so not ready to get further reducible for sucking up to her new boss.
A woman with long blonde hair entered, Mrs. Barlow.
“Agatha—” She looked up from her phone and halted at the sight of Lori, which only looked back at her with blushed cheeks and nodded politely. “Hey there.” Mrs. Barlow nodded back, with a cold but questioning stare.
“Elia, you know Lori.” Agatha
“Hey…” Lori’s eyes were forced towards the ground.
Elia’s eyes darted between the two of them for a while, before she took a deep breath, then walked in and closed the door.
“To whom do I owe the pleasure?” Agatha said.
“To a boring Friday,” Elia said as she sat on her chair and crossed her legs. Her eyes glanced at Lori before shaking her head slightly at her sister. “What’s she doing?”
“Oh…sweat Lori here has been kind enough to offer me a foot rub, you can get back to it now dear.”
Lori smiled politely at Agatha, then at Elia, almost apologetically, before putting her hands back on Agatha’s sole, and praying she’d wake up soon from this embarrassing nightmare.
Almost a minute passed with no one speaking, but Lori could feel the woman’s eyes drilling through the back of her head. “It’s funny, Last time I saw you…” Elia said. “You two were at each other’s throats.”
“Yeah…” Agatha nodded with a snicker. “But Lori here managed to see reason and recognize her faults, we came to an understanding, didn’t we Lori.”
“Yes Miss Santana.” She gulped and said, watching Elia out of the corner of her eye.
The 30-something-year-old woman seemed deep in thought for a while, before she sighed and said, “Well…glad you two managed to work it out.”
Lori would give a kidney to know what was running in Elia’s mind right now. Less than two months ago, both her and Agatha stood in her office after their fight, and she’d been nice enough to rule in Lori’s favor and even urge her sister to apologize, and now…what was she thinking now? The sight she was witnessing wasn’t practically that normal. Lori was kneeling there on the ground in a position that was clearly far from comfortable, slaving away at her boss’s feet. Would Elia think she was doing this forced, or would she think her a suck-up?
“Hope your feet are clean,” Elia said, “Can’t imagine Lori here would be curt and tell you if they weren’t.”
“Oh please…” Agatha snickered.
Don’t…Don’t you Fucking dare. Lori’s eyes snapped up fuming, suspecting what was coming.
“Just before you walked in,” Agatha said. “She told me my feet smell like spring.”
Fuck’s sake.
Elia chuckled, but suppressed it quickly. “What?”
“Yeah…Spring, and roses, right Lori.”
“I didn’—” She shook her head at Agatha, then at Elia who sat there her face between confusion and empathy. “I just said it so that she doesn’t feel over conscience,” she said weakly her cheeks blushing with hate and embarrassment both.
“You were trying to be polite,” Elia nodded at her, kind of in a comforting gesture. “Take it easy, I’m afraid my sister doesn’t get sarcasm or politeness.”
“Yeah alright,” Agatha said, ending the conversation. “How’re you doing.”
“Fine.”
With that, the two women got busy with their conversation while Lori sat and listened, with her hands still working. She’d been keeping going to Mrs. Barlow for help as a last resort. She wondered if that card was expired now. Elia had just seen her acting like she was the office’s masseuse or whatever, and do so willingly. Lori must’ve looked like she didn’t mind it that much, it looked like she really was just nice enough to offer her boss a foot-rub, or worse, trying to suck up to her that way.
How could I be this stupid, I should’ve talked to her days ago, Lori thought. She had already been hesitant about asking her for help, partly because they were sisters. But also, she was afraid that even if Elia emphasized with her, she wouldn’t necessarily do something about it. At the end of the day, Agatha had the right to promote whomever she liked. Technically, she wasn’t forcing her to do anything against her will. She really could keep her in her current position forever and not get questioned about it.
Lori’s thought was cut short by hearing something that caught her attention.
“She’s in her room most of the time, and when she’s not she’s out with her friends,” Agatha said, a bit underwhelmed.
She was pretty sure she’d heard the word: daughter.
“She’s at that age…” Elia said in a kind tone. “Don’t take it personally.”
This cunt has a daughter. Lori looked up at Agatha’s hand. No ring.
“Eha.” Agatha snorted as she brushed off the conversation. “But that reminds me. You free tomorrow?”
“Tomorrow,” Elia mumbled. “Why?”
“I was planning to spend it with Holy, but…surprise surprise the brat’s already booked with her friends…so? Dinner?”
“I…” Elia mumbled, shuffling in her seat, then said, “I have plans with Steven.”
“…” Agatha smiled faintly, then nodded. “Cool.”
Elia nodded back with the same smile, then got to her feet. “Well, I’ll catch up with you later, and Lori…take care.” Elia said in a friendly tone before heading for the door.
Thinking fast, and feeling her aching fingers and arms scream at her, Lori spotted an opportunity. “My knees are kinda sore, my arms too…” she said to Agatha before Elia could reach the door. “You mind if I stop.”
Agatha looked at her with widened eyes, before her eyes darted between her and her sister. “Bahh.” Agatha chuckled. “You don’t need to ask my permission silly.” She said with a bubby tone and wide smile, but gritted teeth. “You can stop whenever you like…” Agatha withdrew her feet and started putting on her heels, smiling nervously at Elia, who returned a cold frown.
“Thanks Miss,” Lori nodded with a teasing look, trying not to worry about Agatha’s knowing gaze. She adjusted her skirt and blazer before walking with Elia out of the office.
“Catch up with you later Lori…” Elia said as she turned to leave.
“Mrs. Barlow,” Lori said without thinking, making Elia stop and look at her questionably. “Can I…you have a minute.”
Elia took a deep slow breath, her knowing gaze seeming unpleased with Lori’s request. She had some similarities with her sister. Tall, although not as tall, her body a bit menacing to be close to, and that cold pale face and blue eyes. “…Sure.” She nodded calmly.
“So, Let me…wrap my head around this,” Elia said, rubbing her palms over her impatient face.
Lori had told her everything. She liked to think that she’d put it clear enough so that there would be no chance for Elia to misinterpret the situation as anything but an exploitive boss torturing an employee. Elia had been responding with nothing but empathy and understanding; Lori liked that, but she’d been hoping for a bit more anger in her response.
Elia put her hands at her desk as her shoulders slouched over it. “Lori…” She shook her head. “What are you asking from me here? Why are you telling me all of this?”
“…I…” Lori shuffled in her seat a bit uneased by the question. “She’s acting out of spite, and she’s being unfair and biased in her assessment and she clearly hates me. So…what I want is a solution.”
“Hand her your resignation.”
Lori froze. “That’s not—” She tried to put her disappointment into polite words. “Is this your solu—” She couldn’t. “Are you fucking kidding me Elia,” she said with gritted teeth as she pushed her glasses up. “She’s in the wrong. She’s a spiteful unprofessional woman and sh—”
“She’s the second most important woman in this company. She’d been here for more than a decade, she’s great and exponentially effective at her job. She…is…indispensable. You are not.” Elia said, uttering the last word. “Yanami is a good company but there are other options you know.”
“I’ll have to start from the bottom,” Lori said, her tone showing her irritation from having to explain the same shit to everybody. “And I’ll have to explain why in hell would someone leave this lovely company. It’s literally like taking five years of my life and shoving them in the trash, I can’t do that. I love working here and I…” She decided against finishing her thoughts. The truth was, she couldn’t bring herself to accept working in an inferior company, especially having entered the best one. But she doubted Elia would emphasize with her if she knew of her unhealthy need for perfection and success.
Elia nodded, before reclining in her chair. She seemed trying to put together a kind response. “Lori…” she said, “If you wanna be here, then you have to…get comfortable…with the fact that you’re basically under that woman’s control. She can promote you, she can keep you in your current position or demote you. She can fire you. Now,” she took a breath as she looked away then back at Lori. “I know my sister. She can be hard at times…really hard…Let’s be honest she can be a bitch.”
“Thank you.”
“And she obviously doesn’t like you…for some reason. So I don’t see her treatment of you getting any better anytime soon. So the way I see it, is…” Elia said, her tone gradually growing firmer. “You can either resign and find another job, which I think you should do, or…stay, dance to her every tune in hope of getting what you want. Your choice, I won’t judge, but don’t come complaining if you choose the latter.”
Lori couldn’t help the scorn on her face as she looked at the woman. All of that crap meant: she was on her own. Lori had always thought these big companies were a bit more civil when it came to issues like this. She just hoped the wake-up call wasn’t this harsh. It didn’t feel good being on the victim end of corruption. She had already made up her mind, but couldn’t resist making this last attempt. “What would Mrs. Yanami say?” she asked, her tone rude.
Her question made Elia drawback, before a wide grin made it to her face. “You’re a tenacious little girl aren’t you Lori.”
“I mean…this…ridiculous, lack of justice in here wouldn’t look nice if it went public wouldn’t you say. I mean, I think Mrs. Yanami probably takes her company’s reputation seriously—”
“Be my guest…” Elia sighed, her tone losing its friendliness. “Ask for an appointment. Delight her with this…reputation threat of yours—”
“It’s not a threat…” Lori said weakly.
“The thing about working in a powerful company Lori is that you may have to deal with powerful people. I advise you to leave before you step on somebody’s toe.”
“But—”
“I said what I have to say…now I need you to leave. And don’t come to me with the same problem again.” Elia said rising from her chair and pointing to the door.
Lori, regretting the way she’d let this conversation develop in, tried to calm the heated woman. “Mrs. Br—”
“Fuck off Lori.”
Nice. She pursed her lips and rose to her feet. “This polite tongue runs in the family it seems.” She mumbled as she stormed to the door.
There went her winning ace.
She walked back to her office, unable to shake the defeated feeling, like she had her tail between her legs. Agatha was going to promote her sooner or later, as soon as she’d finish with her spiteful vendetta.
She reached her office and threw herself in her chair with an exhausted sigh. She felt a painful pinch of self-blame and regret, as she thought about how different the situation would be if she’d acted like the rest of the girls from the beginning: like a good girl. If I just fetched that goddam cup of coffee. She took a deep breath as she rested her head on her empty desk.
The phone buzzed, then Agatha’s voice shot out of it. “Get your ass in here.”
A painful snicker escaped her lips as she got to her feet.
The following morning, Lori’s eyes shot wide open. Immediately a wide grin curled up her lips. She straightened up on her bed, taking a look at Bill who was still snoring beside her. She got out from under the cover, gently removing them not to wake him up, then got to her feet.
It was Saturday, their day, his and hers, alone. She washed her face in the bathroom and got ready for the long-needed day, away from work, away from her devil of a boss. She started putting on her make-up, as she usually did every Saturday. Nothing too fancy, just some black-eyeliner and dark red lipstick. Both looked good cause of the contrast to her white face. She brushed then straightened her brunet hair down so it fell elegantly on her shoulders. Today, she and Bill would watch a movie, have sex, eat out in a fancy little restaurant, come back, watch a movie, have sex, then sleep: a classical Saturday.
As she took out her black revealing nightdress from the closet, her phone beeped. She picked it up, it was a message. Her face automatically grimaced at seeing the contact name: Evil Cunt.
She opened the message, and her grimace turned into a horrified stare upon reading it:
Why the hell aren’t you in the office.
She replied with the obvious answer:
Boss…it’s Saturday.
She stared with lazy eyes at her phone screen, growing more worried with every passing second.
So…
She exhaled a breath. She couldn’t make her work Saturdays. She’d been holding her sanity together all along this damn week, this was supposed to be her breather. She couldn’t make her work Saturdays. Bitch she has you rubbing her feet, she can make you work Saturdays.
Another message came:
You’re my assistant, Idiot. If I’m working you’re working. Now get your ass here now.
“Fucking cun—” She snapped, her face tightened as she sealed her swears in her mouth with a miracle not to wake Bill up, and punched the air imagining she was punching Agatha’s face.
She looked up the ceiling and took a long deep breath, before she looked down at her phone again.
Be right there boss.
She threw her phone away, then stood in her room with slouched shoulders and a cold face. She looked at Bill who lay on the bed hugging the covers. Instead of staying here and being pampered and made love to, she was going to spend her weekend with Agatha. Maybe she’d be nice and let me go home early…this way I can enjoy half my weekend at least. She looked down with this hopeful thought, then started getting dressed. She put on a black blazer and pants and heels, wrote Bill a note that something in work had come up and that she’d be back as soon as she could, ending the message with a couple of hearts and a pouting face, then left.
She walked into Agatha’s office, bringing her a cup of coffee as she asked.
“Morning,” Lori greeted reluctantly with a tight face.
Agatha, in a white blazer and pants, was sitting with her elbows on her desk, looking a bit sleepy and cranky herself. She took the cup from Lori without a word then opened her drawer and took out her whisky bottle.
Fuck’s sake it’s 8 in the morning. Lori scorned. “Need anything from me.”
“Thought I told you to lose the heels,” Agatha said coldly as she poured some alcohol into her coffee.
“What…” Lori said. “Oh…yeah…Sorry I forgot. I’ll wear something else tomorrow.”
“Lose them.”
“…I will.”
“Now.” She looked up at her, her cold face menacing. Then took a sip from her coffee-whisky drink.
Lori looked down tightening her lips, determined to keep her cool. She kicked her heels off, then stooped down and grabbed them, standing anxiously on her stockinged feet. This was the first time ever that she stood in this office without her heels, and the thought made her anxious. She didn’t feel better when Agatha’s eyes widened at noticing her. She took her lip off the rim of her glass as coffee splattered out of her mouth. She put the glass down, unable to hold off her chuckling. “Holy crap…” She cackled as she looked at the red-faced Lori. “You’re a midget. Like an actual midget.”
Lori’s arms instinctively crossed at her chest as her face got all red and tight, resisting the urge to shout.
“I always thought you wore heels cause you were so devoted to the corporate image or some stupid shit like that.” Agatha managed to control her cackles enough to deliver her mean remarks. “Should’ve known, you insecure about your height honey. Lori the dwarf.” She giggled before she smirked at her.
Lori couldn’t help but feel some of her suppressed sadness and anger turn into tears at the corner of her eye. She was supposed to be watching a movie with her man who loved her, instead, she was here, getting belittled and made fun of. “Is that why you asked me here…” she said, her tone uncontrollably coming out whiny and weak. She hated that she was showing weakness, that she was letting Agatha know she succeeded in hurting her, but she could no longer hold it in. “To make fun of me.”
“…Yes.” Agatha nodded animatedly, but her smile was replaced by a cold curt stare. She seemed angry, for some fucked up reason only a sociopath like her would know.
“Well that’s nice to know…” Lori nodded and her ag. “Do you need anything else, or can I go sit on my desk.”
“Go…” Agatha nodded towards the door dismissively. “Fuck off.”
“Yes Miss Santana,” Lori said and stormed out of the room, holding her tears in and slamming the door shut behind her. She threw herself in her chair and buried her head between her arms, fighting off tears.
The day proceeded uneventfully. For six hours, Agatha hadn’t called her in once. She kept her out there waiting, and Lori spent the time either staring silently into the office door or watching something on her mobile. She got up every now and then to get herself a snack or a drink, but mostly she just kept to her chair, growing uncomfortable by the unusual silence of the office, as there was no one on the floor but her and the devil inside.
While she was watching some Youtube video, her eyes glanced randomly to the office’s window, to see that the sun was going down, and realized she’d been here for almost 7 hours, doing literally nothing, missing on what was supposed to be her relaxing day of the week. The door opened. She watched with dull eyes as Agatha walked out of it, her steps a bit staggering, making Lori think that her mess-of-a-boss was obviously drunk. “Oh…” Agatha slurred as her lazy eyes met Lori’s dead ones. “Totally forgot you were here.”
Lori could only snicker out of pain, but she was relieved to see that Agatha had her purse and was probably going home, which meant that she could go home and have what remained of her Saturday. “Heading home boss,” she asked as she wiped down her grimy face.
“Both of us are…” Agatha slurred with a nod.
“Great—” Lori nodded before she shook her head in. “What do you mean…I’m going to mine and you to yours or are we both going to yours?”
Agatha froze for a second, like she was making sense of the question, then said. “That would be the latter.”
“…” Lori stood up. “Why?”
“I need your assistance at home…call it overtime, It’s paid hours don’t worry about it.”
“…Boss I’d really appreciate it if I can just…go…home…please.” She said. “I’m tired and…and…tired.” She pleaded, but in a firm aggressive tone that made it sound like a demand.
Agatha smiled drunkenly, before she beckoned her close with a wave of her hand. “Come here…little one, come.”
Lori frowned, but walked close nonetheless. She stood close but still kept some distance, waiting to hear what she had. Agatha, for some reason, walked closer, closing the gap between them and invading Lori’s personal space. Lori looked up as Agatha’s menacing face loomed over her. The silence became awkward as both of them just stood there, and Lori could only keep the loaming blue-eyed stare for so long before she looked down and to the side. The sight of the woman was just too smothering to look at. Agatha had an imposing presence, and standing this close to her made Lori feel… small, powerless, inferior. And the sharp stench of cigarettes and whisky didn’t make her feel any better.
The next thing she knew, she felt Agatha’s hot breath on her neck, which made her shiver. “My sister called me…asking me if I could take it a bit easy on you…” Agatha whispered with a drunken light giggle. “You happen to know anything about that.”
Lori shivered. Was this what was it all about? “Miss Santan—” she mumbled and got quickly interrupted.
“You…” Agatha said. “Bad…mouth me to my sister—to anyone, again, you’ll have only yourself to blame.”
Before she could get a chance to respond, she felt a sharp and narrow pain dig through the top of her barefoot, making her yell in pain. She squirmed in her stance as she looked down and saw Agatha’s heel grinding on her foot. To her luck, Agatha wasn’t wearing her high heels, but ankle boots, but still, their thick solid heel hurt like hell against her toes.
“Miss—” She yelped but only felt the heel dig harder making her cry out in pain. “BOSS.” She sank instinctively to her knee, with Agatha’s hand pushing her shoulders down. She grabbed at Agatha’s leg and tried to wiggle the woman away from her position and quickly failed. “Bo—Ahhhh.” The heel left then slammed again against her foot, and Agatha pushed her head harshly downwards until it touched the ground. Agatha took her foot off Lori’s toes, only to step on the top of her hand that was now on the floor, grinding her fingers to the ground. Lori felt her cheek rub against the cold floor, before the dirty sole of Agatha’s shoe rested against her head, pinning it to the hard floor and twisting.
Lori sniffled, as her tears gathered at the corner of her eyes. She didn’t know if she should cry from the sharp pain or the humiliation that she’d never thought would experience. Her head lay literally under another woman’s foot, squashed into the ground. “Take your foot off.” She shouted, her shout coming out strong in volume but weak and pathetic tone. “Take it off…now.” She shouted again, but Agatha’s foot didn’t shift in the slightest.
The sharp sickening sting at the top of her stomach made her want to cry but she held it. Agatha just stood there, pinning her to the ground effortlessly, and kept standing there for a while, to the point where it became awkward. All could Lori hear were her own heavy breaths and Agatha’s, and all she could see was Agatha’s shoe stepping on her soring fingers. A wave of shame ran through her, at how easily Agatha had managed to render her powerless.
Since shouting had got her nowhere, she tried to talk with a polite, calm tone that came out all weary, “Boss…I’m so—”
“…You’re like…” Agatha said from above. “You’re like a bug…” She ground and twisted her foot, putting heavy, sharp pressure on the corner of Lori’s head. “A bug…that I can squash.”
“I’m…” Lori whined. “I’m sorry I talked bad abo—”
Agatha spat and applied more pressure making Lori yelp. “Shut up…slut.”
Lori gulped another insult as clenched her eyes closed, determined not to let her tears fall.
“I think there’s a fact you need to make your peace with…” Agatha said. “As long as you work here…you’re under my thump…”
“I know,” Lori said. She did know. Elia had explained it perfectly to her just yesterday, in much kinder means.
“You could leave any fucking time you want to, but something tells me you’re here for the long haul…I’m I right.”
“Yes…” she whined.
“Then know this…you’ll get nowhere, without my say so. I can keep you in your place—and lower—till the last miserable day of your career…Not only in this company…but as long as you wanna work in this industry, on a respectable level, you’ll have to deal with my foot on your neck.” She said and gave another twist of her foot to emphasize. “I own you…You’re my bitch.” She uttered the last word clearly. “Got that.”
Lori sniffled. She didn’t know if she was supposed to answer but she didn’t want to. She didn’t want to answer that question. Agatha had one foot on her hand and the other one on her head, literally pinning her helpless and unable to move, but even if she could move, what would she do. That woman still held her career between her fingers. It wasn’t like Agatha said something new, but to state it out loud, to give that form of acceptance wasn’t something she was that eager for.
She felt the solid sole being grounded harder into her already sore skull. “Got that?”
“YES…” she said aggressively through gritted teeth. “I got that.”
“What are you?”
“…”
“What are you?”
She gulped. “I’m your…bitch.” Hearing those words come out, as a pathetic weak whine, made her want to crawl up in a ball and disappear.
She gave a relieved yelp as the hard sole left her head, and the other one left her hand, allowing her to bring it closer to her face and examine the blue bruise on her knuckles.
Before she could say anything, she saw Agatha take one step back, keeping her right foot planted forward. “Kiss my shoe.”
She knew full well of how messed up the situation she was in was. And knowing the woman in front of her better by now, nothing could surprise her, but this line did. Kiss your shoe. Who did she think she was? What kind of woman would ask—demand such a thing from another. Lori eyed the black ankle boot extended in her direction while Agatha stood there in dead silence. Her eyes reddened at the realization that she was going to do it. Lori giving her verbal approval of their new relationship wasn’t enough for Agatha. Lori admitting what she was and what she was willing to do wasn’t enough. For some reason, Agatha wanted her to show her submission by humble acts.
She wiped her sleeve on her runny nose as she sniffled, before she leaned down and propped herself by her palms on the ground. She got her face closer until her lips were inches away from the toe of Agatha’s boot, then pushed her puckered lips against it, hearing the smack of her lips on the leather.
She sat back on the ground, the idea of rising to her feet not even crossing her mind. Agatha’s gentle hand caressed her messy hair, petting her like she was a fucking dog, reminding her of how messed up her situation was. She sobbed silently under the woman’s gentle fingers toying with her hair. “Hussh,” Agatha hushed, patting her tear-filled soggy face. “You love this job don’t you?”
“I do,” Lori said with a choked-up throat.
“You have a promising future here,” Agatha said, seeming to try to talk with a comforting tone but it ended up all heavy and drunken. “You just have…to accept your place, under me.”
The kind tone her words held somehow made Lori feel more uneasy than before. It looked like even a woman like her, wouldn’t be cruel to someone who’d just humbled themselves at her feet. Who could’ve known that all she needed to do to get on Agatha’s good side was get on her fucking knees and kiss her shoe like some kind of ancient time’s peasant. She couldn’t bear to look up at the eyes of the woman whose shoe she’d just kissed, so she just looked to the side, pushing her glasses up the sweaty bridge of her nose, and nodded weakly.
With that, Agatha patted her head one last time then turned and walked away, leaving her on her knees. “Go wash up, then meet me at the car.”
Lori stormed into the bathroom wailing, her legs barely holding her and threw her briefcase near the sink. She propped herself in front of the mirror and stared at her miserable state. Her hair ruffled up and missy, her make-up running two black lines down her soggy face. She sobbed freely as she knew Agatha couldn’t hear her.
Had she always been this weak and pathetic, or was Agatha just too strong of a woman to oppose. If Agatha had managed to stomp on her head this easily, then maybe her head deserved to be stomped on, maybe it belonged under there. She’d chosen to fight this fight. She refused to bend, and maybe Agatha saw that and didn’t like it, and so decided to break her.
She never imagined she’d experience what she’d just experienced, but even if she had she wouldn’t have probably imagined it to be this sickening, this nauseating. To have someone she hated that much humiliate her this heavily, and be so powerless to get back at them. She felt like throwing up. She had no way of getting back at that woman, while Agatha was free to keep hurting her.
When she’d started this, she had set a limit to how much shit she’d accept in order to keep working here. Looking at herself now she realized she’d let herself bypass that limit, by far. But it didn’t matter anymore did it. She wasn’t going to quit now. She couldn’t harm her tormentor, but she could at least suck it up until she’d get what she’d been promised. Her dignity wasn’t that relevant anymore; How much dignity and self-respect did she truly have left after she’d kissed another woman’s shoe anyway. That kiss meant something: acknowledging that woman’s superiority over her own.
She sniffled at her messy face in the mirror and opened the tap, splashing her face with water. If she was going to do this, she’d do it without being a sobbing pathetic mess all the time. She would have loved to rise in her career with her dignity intact, but it looked like Agatha wasn’t providing that option.
“Take this turn here,” Agatha mumbled with coffee in her mouth, pointing to an exit.
Lori drove into another exit, entering another residential street. Even in her miserable state she couldn’t help herself but marvel at the fancy area she’d been driving in. While Agatha drank her coffee and laid in the passenger’s seat like a numb lump, Lori explored her surroundings with curious eyes. Every street had a giant, well-lit mansion on either side of it, and each mansion was surrounded by a vast garden and softwood or stone walls. It was both a formidable and beautiful sight; Lori often dreamed she’d live in places like this one day, but now, she felt uncomfortable even driving near them.
“Park right…there.” Agatha pointed to a big house at the end of the street, a two-story, cubic house, with giant glass windows and a couple of oak trees rising above it.
Lori nodded, gulped then drove the car through the open wooden gate. What was she even doing here? She parked the car on the opening in front of the house, then sat in her seat and looked at Agatha. Agatha returned a lazy stare, and took another sip of her coffee before she said, “What are you waiting for.”
She took that as a sign to get out, so she did, and after standing in front of the car for some time, and seeing that Agatha hadn’t even opened the door, she bit her lip in suppressed irritation, then walked to Agatha’s door.
She opened the door for her and gestured respectfully with her hand like a proper chauffeur. Agatha smiled and extended her hand out of the car.
Un-fucking-believable. Lori forced a smile on as she took her boss’s hand and helped her out. “Madam,” she said sarcastically.
“Good girl.” Agatha patted her cheek and handed Lori her purse before walking up to her porch.
After wrestling with jamming the keys in the lock for about a minute, and brushing off any attempts from Lori to help her, she finally managed to get them in and shove the door open.
Lori walked silently behind her, her eyes darting around the spacious living room that could easily contain her house. Agatha seemed to have decorated her office similarly to her house: modern Paige furniture surrounding a wide, wooden coffee table, Paige walls and hardwood floors, dim orange lighting.
With a mixture of shame and relief, Lori looked at the neat, sparkling clean living room and thought, Great, at least I know I’m not here as a maid. She watched Agatha meander her way to the couch and throw herself on top of it, before putting her cup of coffee on the table. She reclined her head against the backrest before her eyes settled on Lori who stood at the door in silence. “Kick your shoes at the door, house rules.”
You just walked in with yours on, Lori thought while she kicked her heels and put them near the shoe rack.
“Now come help me out of mine.” Agatha shook her foot lightly as she let her back sink lazily into her couch.
Forcing herself to smile, not thinking about protesting, Lori walked to the couch then kneeled in front of Agatha and grabbed her extended foot. She put one hand on top of her boot, one hand on her heel, then started pulling; the task proved itself harder than Lori had thought, as the ankle boot clung to Agatha’s foot. Lori wrestled with it for a time, and pulled harder, until it flung off causing her to fall on her back with the shoe in her hand then get back up again.
“OHhh,” Agatha sighed with relief and wiggled her toes inside her gray socks. She kept her foot extended in Lori’s direction, making her grimace at the disgusting sight.
She looked with weak eyes at the dark, wet spots of sweat at the sole of her boss’s socks and made sure not to let her disgust appear on her face. After Agatha crossed her legs, extending the other boot in Lori’s direction, Lori did the same with the other one and wrestled it off. She put the two ankle boots neatly on the ground then kept to her place on the floor, speculating that Agatha would ask for a foot rub next. Since she was sitting awfully close, with Agatha’s dangling foot a couple of inches from her face, her nose wrinkled as it smelt the sickening stench of spring and roses.
“You owe me…big time.” Agatha sighed as she wiggled her socked toes near Lori’s face.
She couldn’t resist asking. “Why?”
“I wore ankle boots just for you.” She snickered, nudging her shoulder with her toes. “They feel like an oven on my feet, all so I could give them that spring scent that you love.”
Lori winced, her eyes darting between the wet stain of sweat on the ball of Agatha’s foot and Agatha’s tormenting smirk, and her mind torn between playing along and protesting. Given how all her previous protests had ended, she chose the former, although reluctantly. “…Thanks…” she mumbled. “That’s really generous of you.”
Agatha’s smile widened, then a light cackle escaped her. She shrugged and rolled her eyes. “Anything for my little assistant.”
Lori nodded with a polite smile, determined to keep her outrage in.
“Well?” Agatha rose an eyebrow, as she dangled her foot in front of Lori’s face.
“…Well…” She breathed through her mouth. “What?”
“Don’t be shy,” Agatha said, curling her toes, positioning them closer to Lori’s nose so that they were straight under it. “Take a sniff.”
Loir chuckled nervously as her hands shot up and grabbed the foot holding it away from her, wincing as her hands touched the moist fabric. “I’m good…thanks anyways.” That bitch really doesn’t know when to stop.
“Suit yourself.” Agatha shrugged, seeming indifferent. “Go grab me an ashtray, and the bourbon bottle from the cabinet, this coffee tastes plane.”
Lori nodded then practically jumped to her feet, happy to get away from the bitch’s feet. She walked to the kitchen which was connected to the living room. She grabbed a crystal ashtray and an opened bourbon bottle from the cabinet and put a glass over it. She walked back to Agatha, who took the ashtray and lay it on the sofa beside her, but nodded towards the coffee table once Lori offered her the bottle and the glass, and Lori took it as a sign for her to prepare a glass.
Lori opened the bottle and started pouring.
“Wow wow…stop—” Agatha said. “You don’t pour a full glass like this…only a third. What are you trying to have me drunk?”
God forbid. Lori smiled apologetically and handed her the glass, then sat at the other couch, which granted her a raised eyebrow from her boss. “What?” she said.
Agatha only stared, and Lori speculated what she was thinking. There was nothing for her to do here, and that probably didn’t sit right with Agatha. She was probably thinking of something for her to do, probably something embarrassing or humiliating.
“Make yourself useful, rub my feet.”
Bingo. Lori smiled knowingly then sunk to her knees. She wrapped her fingers around the grimy, moist socked foot and started rubbing. All of this is temporary, all of this is temporary. She said to herself over and over again. Eventually Agatha would get bored and let her off her short leash. She’d promote her, and let her continue her career in peace. With time, this would all be behind her, and after ten years or so, Lori would be lounging in one of those mansions herself. While toying with those hopeful thoughts and thrusting her thumps in Agatha’s sole, she felt Agatha’s other foot thud on her shoulder. She looked up from the sole she was massaging, to be greeted with Agatha’s cold stare. Apparently, Agatha didn’t need to ask her before using her as a footstool.
The humiliation of it wasn’t even bothering her anymore. She had little dignity left to consider; however, she didn’t see herself getting used to her boss’s foot stench anytime soon.
“Don’t forget to wipe your lipstick off my shoe before you leave.” Agatha said as she put a cigarette in her mouth.
She didn’t know if the woman was really concerned about the cleanness of her boot or if she just wanted to remind her of her humiliating experience, probably both. “I won’t.”
“Why were you wearing all that makeup anyway, it’s not like you.” Agatha grimaced.
“…I…” She thought about how much she wanted to give away. “I usually spend Saturdays with my boyfriend…I put make up when I wake up.” She looked up, hoping to see some guilt on the woman’s face for ruining her special day.
Agatha’s eyes shot wide open, in surprise and confusion. “You have a boyfriend?”
Trying not to get offended by the woman’s surprise, she nodded politely. “Yes. Four years we’ve been together.”
“That’s…”
Don’t say surprising…don’t fucking say surprising. Lori’s eyes grew aggressive in anticipation.
Agatha seemed to sense her irritation, and she said, “Sorry for ruining your night.”
With that, a surge of hope ran down her, as she smiled pleadingly. “It’s okay…I can still enjoy the best of it if I leave now. It’s only 7 PM.”
Agatha smiled, taking a gulp of her drink, obviously enjoying the pleading look on Lori’s face. “What’re you going to do with him?” she asked, tilting her neck curiously.
The question caught Lori by surprise. Why do you care? She looked at the foot in her lap and focused on it as she said, “…Probably watch a movie…nothing special. Dinner maybe.”
“A romantic dinner…candles,” Agatha hummed, as if she was recalling some memories. “Then fuck his brains out huh.”
Lori widened her eyes embarrassed and surprised. She chuckled nervously, “Yeah…kinda.” She looked up, and felt uncomfortable under the woman teasing stare. Getting into the details of her personal life with this cunt was the last thing she wanted.
“Well…suit yourself.” Agatha shrugged, making Lori grin with a thankful look on her face.
“Really?” Lori said.
“Sure…if you think a romantic evening with your man is more important than staying true to your job responsibilities, then go to him.”
Lori’s confusion quickly turned to a frown on her face. What was she thinking, that the woman would all of the sudden grow a heart? If anything, it must’ve heightened her pleasure to know that her games were fucking up with Lori’s relationship.
“What…you wanna leave.” Agatha smiled, already knowing the answer.
“No,” Lori directed her cold stare downwards at the foot in her lap and just kept rubbing.
“That’s my good girl.” Agatha said, stroking Lori’s cheek with her toes.
Lori violently turned her face away from the touch of Agatha’s toes, and instinctively scowled at her. Agatha only smiled in response, probably knowing full well that a scowl was all that Lori was capable of.
Suddenly the door opened, and Agatha fidgeted in her seat nervously, her eyes snapping to the door. Lori turned, to see a young girl walk through it and into the living room. She had red long hair and was dressed in jeans and a conservative long blouse. “Hey…” the girl cocked her head questionably.
“Hey honey,” Agatha snickered nervously, pulling her foot from Lori’s hand. “You’re home early…done with your friends?”
“Yeah…” The girl walked closer, her eyes darting between her mother and the woman at her feet.
“Well…” Agatha said, “This is Lori…” she scampered to her feet gesturing for Lori to get up.
“Hey Lori.” The girl walked to her, extending her hand. “Emma.”
Lori shook it and nodded. “Nice to meet you Emma.”
Lori stepped back to stand beside Agatha, as Emma took her hand back and wiped it on her jeans, probably getting rid of the sweat.
“Lori is…a colleague of…mine.” Agatha said. She seemed desperately trying to speak clearly, but ended up half-slurring.
“Yeah…” Emma said, seeming quite relaxed herself. “What’s so special about this one…” she said then smiled at Lori. “You’re the first colleague to step foot in our house by the way.”
“Oh we’re just…best of friends…” Agatha wrapped her arms around Lori, shaking her up as they both kept looking forward. “…so I just thought I’d invite her in.”
“Humm.” Emma nodded, as she kicked her sneakers at the door then put them in the shoe rack. “Did you offer her something to eat or has she been massaging your feet since she arrived?” Emma said jokingly. “You’ll have to excuse my mom she’s not the best hostess.”
“Yeah…” Lori could only node, waiting for the conversation to end.
“We ate out,” Agatha said.
“Alright…I’ll be up in my room, leave you guys to it.”
“Don’t you wanna do something…” Agatha smiled eagerly, letting go of Lori’s shoulders. “Lori was just about to fuko—to leave.”
Emma stood there, seeming like she was thinking of a polite way to refuse, before she said, “I…have some homework. I’ll catch up with you guys later.”
There was a bit of awkward silence for a while, before Agatha nodded, with a wide smile on her mouth. “Cool-cool…” she said, watching Emma node affirmatively then go up the stairs.
A long, relived exhale came out of Agatha’s mouth as she kept her eyes on the stairs which Emma had just ascended, before she and Lori heard the door shut. Lori looked back, and saw that Agatha had walked back to her couch, so she went back to her position. “Your daughter?” she asked, taking Agatha’s extended foot.
Agatha only nodded, still eyeing the staircase with a cold look.
“Nice girl,” Lori said.
“She really is.” Agatha sighed then grabbed her glass again, before lighting another cigarette. She must’ve noticed Lori eyeing her naked finger again, as she said, “Divorced.”
Gee, I wonder why? Lori smiled. She looked up at Agatha, noticing the cold look on her face. She didn’t seem that thrilled with how her relationships developed. She and her sister didn’t seem that close, judging by their brief exchange at Agatha’s office. Her relationship with her daughter seemed, quite awkward more than anything, but there wasn’t really that much to be told about a brief exchange like the one Lori had just witnessed. Lori really based all her suspicions on Agatha’s personality more than anything else.
“You be wary of that, if you ever get married,” Agatha said, in a genuine, advising tone. “You may think he loves you…but sooner or later, he’ll find himself a secretary to fuck, then fuck off to France.”
That was, a bit more detail than Lori had asked for. She didn’t know if it was the booze talking or if Agatha wanted a response from her, empathy.
“I’m just saying…” Agatha continued with a sigh. “Men can be pigs.”
Lori focused on the foot in her lap. “When they’re married to an alcoholic cunt they are,” Lori muttered unconsciously, then her eyes shot wide open with dread, hearing what she’d said. She looked up slowly, to see Agatha’s confused eyes, like she was making sense too of what she’d just heard.
“What…” Agatha shook her head. “What did you say to me?”
“Nothing I’m sorry.” Lori whispered then gulped, her lungs shivering.
Agatha’s face screwed up, her eyes fuming in anger Lori hadn’t seen before. Lori only shivered in fear under the menacing stare and the narrowing eyes. STUPID CUNT. She cursed at herself. Agatha was conversing with her, for once, talking about her life with her, and all she managed to do was deliver a cheap insult. Brilliant.
With worried eyes, Lori watched the woman straighten up, then lean forward, her cigarette holding hand swinging in the air then—Smack. She tumbled to the side, her face burning, her glasses had flown off and clattered on the wooden floor. She held her red cheek, feeling Agatha’s big handprint sting on it, and looked up from her position on the ground, as her eyes teared up with pain. She sniffled, and seeing nothing but the angry, drunken face of the red-haired woman, she started whining. “You…can’t…do this to me…” Lori said. Humiliating her was one thing…assaulting her was another. Agatha shouldn’t do this. She shouldn’t take the liberty to strike her.
Bad thing to say, as Agatha took it as a sign to leap to her feet, crouch beside Lori, and swing her heavy arm again, striking Lori on the side of her face. Lori took the slap then rose her hands, holding them in front of her face in defense, but stayed silent, in fear of another.
“Tell me again…slut.” Agatha slurred whispering with a sharp tone. “Tell me again about what I can and cannot do.”
Lori just kept her hands raised in front of her, and waited for the raging monster above her to calm down. Agatha kept breathing heavy breaths, her eyes staring menacingly at the scared woman beneath her. Eventually, she took a deep breath, then rose up. “Apologize.” She said, in a calm, leveled voice.
“Sorry,” Lori said, her voice devoid of all emotions.
“Properly.” Agatha nudged her stomach harshly with her toe.
At first, Lori didn’t know what that meant. Sorry was a proper apology, but for the fucked-up witch who’d been ruining her life, it wasn’t. She turned on her belly, and shifted till her face was above the feet of the woman who she loathed most in this world, and steeled herself to repeat the messed-up act. “Sorry.” she winced against the sharp stench of Agatha’s feet, before she bent her head down and lay a kiss on the top of her toes, feeling the sweat stain her lips. Agatha didn’t move, neither say anything, which told Lori that she wasn’t satisfied, so she pressed her puckered lips against the moist fabric again. “Sorry Miss Santana.” And again, forcefully, sucking up a breath of the stench she was failing to get used to.
Agatha stooped down, scratching the back of Lori’s head with her fingers. “You keep…forgetting your place…Lori,” she said in a kind tone, that didn’t appear unless Lori was at her lowest. “And you keep forcing me to remind you.”
“…I won’t forget anymore.”
“What are you?”
Lori said, like a mindless drone. “Your bitch.”
“Who owns you.”
“…You do…” She said, “You own me.”
Lori felt herself hit a new low. To be slapped around, then to cower at the ground, grovel at the feet of the woman who slapped her. What self-respecting woman—right…she wasn’t a self-respecting woman anymore. She was whatever Agatha allowed her to be. All the time, while staring with dead eyes at the tops of Agatha’s feet, she repeated in her head, it’s only for a time…only temporary…it’s not forever.
Agatha let her go home after that, even called in a private cab for her. The drive home proved longer than she’d thought. It took about three hours from Agatha’s house to hers. She arrived at eleven, to find Bill dozing off in front of the TV in the living room, probably waiting for her to get home. She was almost thankful he was asleep. She didn’t want him to see her like this. She knew that if he asked her if she was alright, if she heard his kind tone and felt his gentle arms wrap around her, after she had been basically treated like less than an animal, she’d break down crying.
She didn’t even care to change her clothes, and she didn’t wake him up from his sleep on the sofa. She just threw herself in bed and closed her eyes. Her throat refused to loosen up, and kept chocking, and the picture of Agatha’s face refused to leave her vision. It was a tormenting feeling, to loath someone this much and be totally powerless to get back at them for what they did to you. The only thing in Lori’s power was quitting, and Agatha would still win if she did that. She’d go along her life, probably find another poor girl to fuck with, and Lori would have to fix her fractured career, and heal whatever emotional scars this disturbing treatment was leaving on her.
She’d said to herself that she was going to keep moving forward strong, but she couldn’t now. Agatha’s eyes kept staring at her, forbidding her to sleep, so she started crying, hoping that would help her. And it did. She hugged her covers to her chest and cried herself to sleep, with Agatha’s blue-eyed stare tormenting her until she cried enough to be allowed to drift off.
Every day, she went to work, knowing what was awaiting her. Every day she’d go, run between offices, fetch Agatha her documents and her coffee and whatever else she wanted fetched, summoned by get your ass in here, and dismissed by fuck off. None of it bothered her anymore really, she’d grown used to it. She had lost a part of herself getting used to it, but she was happy it didn’t get to her anymore. No matter how much Agatha tried to belittle her or make fun of her, she didn’t show a single tear, but even took it with a smile at times.
Agatha invited her back to her home almost every day. They pretty much spent most of their day together, and Lori spent the majority of that time either at Agatha’s feet, or—her new task—tidying up Agatha’s house. Agatha had fired her maid apparently, cause she didn’t need one anymore; she got her handy little assistant, so Lori spent a good portion of her day mobbing floors and cleaning windows, all in her pants and blazer. Agatha would usually make her do her cleaning when Emma wasn’t there, but when Emma saw her once, Agatha told her daughter that she wanted to start taking care of the house herself from now on, and Lori just offered to help, cause they were such good friends.
Lori of course went along with the lie. She thought about telling Emma how horrible her mother was, but she knew that would be asking for hell gates to open on her, and besides, Emma probably already knew it. She doubted that the college girl was in the dark when it came to her messed-up mother.
One thing that caught Loir’s attention, cause of how much time she was spending with her thirty-something-year-old boss, was how little time Agatha spent with her sister and daughter. That exchange: Agatha asking to hang out, and Emma or Elia refusing and saying they have plans, reoccurred, a lot. They always had some excuse, Elia either had plans with her husband or work, and Emma either had plans with her friends or school. When that happened, Lori would spot a look of total sadness, close to a beaten dog, on Agatha’s face, just for a moment, before the cold face would replace it. She’d feel bad for her if she weren’t such a cunt.
With how much time she spent at work and at Agatha’s place, she hardly had time for anything else. Consequently, she and Bill fought, a lot. He’d go on and on about how much he missed her, and she’d counter with arguments that her job just needed a lot of her time right now, and it was only temporary. Him, not wanting to risk being selfish, and opting to be supportive, would always cave first, but the next fight always came fiercer.
During every fight, Lori couldn’t stop herself wondering, what would he do if he knew how she was spending her time at work, whether he would still love her if he knew what a spinless wimp she’d allowed herself to be treated like, all for the sake of her precious career.
Today was another Friday, which Lori had spent half of at work with Agatha alone, and was now driving to Agatha’s house to spend what remained of her night. Like every Friday, Agatha only invited her back to her home once she was sure that her daughter and sister were busy for the night. Agatha had called both of them today, Elia had to work, Emma had a birthday to attend.
“Miss,” she said and took a U-turn.
“Humm?” Agatha asked lazily, while she looked out the window.
“…How long…are you planning to keep this going?” She asked the question she’d been fretting about asking since they took off. Agatha was in a good mood today, and for once, there wasn’t an ounce of alcohol in her. She hadn’t drunk today yet.
“Keep what going Lori?” Her tone irritated. “Speak clearly.”
“Keeping me as your assistant…it’s been…months.”
“So?” Agatha said. “It takes years to earn a promotion. You youngies have little patience.”
Lori took a breath and focused on the wheel. “I’ve been good…” She couldn’t stop herself. “haven’t I…Aren’t I playing by your rules? I’m doing my best.”
Agatha puffed, but looked kind of convinced. She shrugged, “I suppose. I mean…” she smiled teasingly. “Your foot rubs have reached…professional levels. And you get my coffee on time…you don’t complain half as much as you used to. Yeah, you’re doing alright.”
A feeling of pride reluctantly overtook her. She didn’t want to feel proud for these trivial acts, but they were literally the only accomplishments she could look back on. “Thanks Miss.”
Agatha nodded like she was saying you’re welcome.
Lori waited for her to continue, but she didn’t. Lori kept driving in silence for a while, before she said, “So…Boss—”
“Hush…stop here for a sec.” Agatha said, lurching forward.
Lori, confused as to why she should park on a busy street, asked, “Here why—”
“Stop I said.” Agatha snapped at her. “Idiot.”
Lori drove to the right, and let the car park slowly. She looked at Agatha who was still staring out the window in silence. What is she even looking at? “Boss…?”
After a long while of silence, Lori bent to the side to look through Agatha’s window. There was a restaurant at their side, about twenty meters away. After a while of searching for something worth looking at, or worth this sudden stop, Lori recognized one of the customers, then quickly recognized the one they were sitting with. Elia and Emma.
Lori straightened her back, and sat in her seat, not knowing what to say.
For about three minutes, Lori just sat there, eyeing her silent boss who kept her body leaning forward, looking out the window in dead silence. She spotted that beaten dog look again, it stayed longer this time, however. After a while, Agatha leaned back, her face cold, and simply nodded forward without looking at Lori, who took that as a sign to move.
They reached home, and as Lori took her sneakers off at the door, her worried eyes watched Agatha immediately make her way to her kitchen cabinet, taking out that fucking bottle of whisky. Good luck reopening the conversation now, Lori thought.
She scorned while she watched Agatha put her bottle and glass at the kitchen counter then pour herself half a glass. Agatha gulped it down in one go, her face wincing, before she put the glass down again with a thud, then poured herself another, and froze as she propped herself on the counter, breathing heavily as she looked down.
She felt like she had to say something, but she didn’t know what to say, and she wouldn’t risk saying the wrong thing. She stood there with her hands behind her back, waiting, praying that Agatha would take the glass, leave the bottle, then sit on her damn couch.
Her face lit up as she watched Agatha do just that. She took her glass then walked to her couch, before her eyes snapped towards Lori. Knowing what that meant, she nodded then walked towards her, taking her usual position at her feet.
She put Agatha’s long boot in her lap, before she started unzipping it. “Did I tell you how fabulous you look today miss?” Another thing Lori had forced herself to get used to, was giving Agatha compliments, without being asked. Just another technique she’d started utilizing, in order to stay at her boss’s good side; and she so wanted to stay at her good side at all times. She probably should’ve developed this skill earlier, but she’d learned her lesson.
It was amazing how easily she could make Agatha unwind after a stressful day, or outright make her laugh her ass off, by simply acting like a pathetic ass-kisser. It had been hard for her before, but she had no pride to protect anymore. With Agatha’s mood this shitty, Lori needed to use her secret weapon now.
To her disappointment, Agatha didn’t care to respond, but just stared over her head in silence. She pursed her lips, and eased Agatha’s shoe off her foot. As usual, a wave of warm stench wafted over her, smothering her nostrils. Not caving to the natural temptation of turning her face away from the offensive smell, she breathed in, letting it enter freely. She still hadn’t grown used to Agatha’s foot smell, but she never tried to brush it off anymore.
She grabbed the socked foot, and raised it to her face, while her eyes kept staring at Agatha, waiting for her to look her way, she took a sniff, a deep one, like she was breathing in an appetizing scent; Agatha always liked that, nothing made her happier than seeing Lori humble herself this way, willingly sniffing the stink of her feet. She decided to say something to get her attention. She pushed her glasses up her nose. “Why does it smell like spring in here all the sudden.” She smiled, waiting for a reaction.
But this time, Agatha looked down at her coldly, before she harshly pulled her foot away, then kicked her other boot into Lori’s stomach, making her yelp. Lori unscrewed her pained face, then started unzipping the other boot, taking the clue to keep her mouth shut.
With both boots off, Lori tried to grab her boss’s foot to give her her foot-rub, but Agatha wiggled it off, and instead raised her leg and rested her foot on Lori’s shoulder, keeping the other planted on the ground. They spent a minute or so like this, both of them silent, and Agatha taking sips from her drink, before she finally said, “What were you saying in the car earlier?”
Relieved to open the conversation, but afraid to have it while Agatha was in this state, Lori mumbled, “Oh…it’s nothing. We can talk later boss.”
“No come on…” Agatha said, nudging her cheek with her toe. “I’m all ears.”
“…” Lori took a breath. “I was just…wondering, about when well you…you know…give me what we talked about.”
“The promotion?”
“…Yes.” Lori said, not committing the mistake of raising her hopes up. “The promotion.”
“Well…” Agatha nodded. “I guess I can’t hope to keep you as my assistant forever right.”
The slight sense of warmth, sent a weird feeling down Lori. Do you want to keep me as your assistant? She didn’t know if it was her messed up mind talking, but the question made her feel good, special, that Agatha saw her like something valuable, that she wanted her to stay. She shook her head, as if to wake herself up. Of course she wanted her to stay; what sadistic cunt wouldn’t love a subservient girl at her beck and call, to make fun of, to reducible and belittle, and abuse. Agatha did value her, in her own twisted way. Where else would she find someone whose career mattered more to them than their dignity.
If there was one thing that Lori had made sure to stay wary of, was to not get attached. She’d gotten used to Agatha’s treatment, and sometimes, they’d just sit there and talk, for long periods. Lori would be working her hands on Agatha’s feet or cleaning around the apartment, or –rarely, Agatha would cook them both dinner—and they’d just…chat, laugh together.
At these moments, although for a the briefest of moments, Lori would forget about her situation, and she’d feel like she was in the company of a friend. And every time, she’d smother that feeling down in its prime, reminding herself of what the woman was doing to her, that Agatha was no friend, but a sadistic cunt who was ruining her life.
She looked up at Agatha’s calm face, and smiled, nodding. “Well, you know why I’m doing this in the first place.”
“Yeah…” Agatha nodded. “I know.” She took a gulp from her drink, then smiled down. “Forgive me…I forgot. For a second there, I forgot what a slut you are.”
Lori frowned, then removed it immediately, replacing it with a passive face. She was yet to get used to those names. Agatha didn’t call her that often, not for months, not unless she was in a terrible mode, and trying to fix that mode by drinking.
“You realize that’s what you are right.” Agatha twisted her head, her eyes narrow. “A sluttt.”
“Miss Santana…” Lori chuckled nervously, looking down.
“What?” Agatha said. “You don’t like to hear it. Or maybe…” she said in a curious tone. “You don’t believe it.”
What the hell did she want from her. Why was she abusing her now? Lori’s thought was interrupted by Agatha’s foot sliding down from her shoulder, only to stop at her breast. Just having it there was enough to make her nervous, but when it shifted, inserting itself between Lori’s blazer buttons, Lori trembled.
“Take your blazer off,” Agatha said, out of nowhere, making Lori look up in shock.
“What?”
“Take your blazer off.”
“Why?”
“Cause I said so.”
Getting uncontrollably scared, she whined. “Miss Santana why do I need to take my—” Agatha’s drink splashed over her face. She gave a high-pitched yelp as she held her hands up, feeling the whisky trickle down her face and soak her shoulders.
“It’s wet,” Agatha said, before she pushed the sole of her foot against Lori’s face and kicked her away, making her fall on her back. “Go grab me my bottle.”
Lori, holding her shouts, feeling her limps shiver in anger and fear both, rose to her feet, and wiped her hands over her face. Some of her hair was wet, tricking down the floor as she walked to the kitchen counter. She handed Agatha her precious bottle.
“Take it off Lori I’m not asking again,” Agatha said, pouring a glass.
With her face red as blood, Lori unbuttoned her blazer, then slid it off her shoulder. Agatha nodded towards the ground, instructing Lori to kneel. She did, and Agatha leaned forward, looking straight in her eyes.
Lori winced, as two cold fingers touched her neck, then gently, slid down. Her hands instinctively shot up, holding Agatha’s hand just when it took hold of one of her buttons. She couldn’t speak, and only stared pleadingly at Agatha’s cold gaze.
“It’s okay…little one.” Agatha said, in a kind tone. “I own you remember.”
With that, she brushed Lori’s hands away, and undid her first button, then the second, parting the sides of her white shirt. Next, she let her hand slip in, her fingers caressing the upside of Lori’s breast. “What are you doing.” Lori whined, shivering under the cold touch on her breast. Only Bill touched her there.
Her hand slipped under Lori’s bra, making her wince in shock, as she felt Agatha’s palm make contact with her breast. “Proving a point,” Agatha said, as she clutched her tit.
“Agatha!” Lori gave a high-pitched yelp as she tried to wiggle away, but Agatha put her drink down, and used her free hand to grab a handful of her hair, pinning her.
“What….” She squeezed Loir’s tit in her grip, as she pulled her face closer so that it was inches away from her own. “Slut.”
“Please…” Lori pleaded, hearing her plead come out as a pathetic whine, feeling her scalp burn from Agatha’s grip. “Stop.”
“If I didn’t…” Agatha tugged harder at her hair, looking in her eyes with determination. “What will you do…Let me guess…nothing.” She snickered. “You’ll cry…suck it up…like every other insult I’ve been throwing your way. Right?”
Lori closed her eyes in shame. She couldn’t deny it, but she didn’t expect Agatha of all people to be the one to call her out on it.
“You know…the only thing, the only nice thing I had to say about you, before all of this…was your unquestionable sense of pride. It was…admirable…obnoxious.” She widened her eyes for emphasis. “But admirable. But it turns out…that too, was a front, a joke. Everything about you is a joke. A prideful little whore…” She dug her fingers in Lori’s breast, making her squirm.
“You forced me to—”
“Shut up bitch…” She pulled her hair. “You had a choice. You could’ve quit, resigned, moved to another company. But no, a narcissistic bitch like you needs to work at the best company ever right. You’re perfectly willing to lick the dirt off the bottoms of my shoe in here, so you can walk with false pride out there.” She narrowed her eyes. “Here you are still…allowing me to have my way with your body. You’re no better than a woman who’d sleep around for a job. If I was a man…you’d be slobbering on my cock.”
To her shame, Lori thought about the possibility of that being true. But it wasn’t…she didn’t choose this rood…Agatha made her. She’d tried to make her way up through hard work, but that simply didn’t work, and it wasn’t her fault. She wasn’t some cheap slut that tried to fuck her way up the ladder. She did choose her career over her dignity, but Agatha made her take that choice, she had no right to judge her.
“Guess what…slut…” Agatha said, tugging on her hair, forcing her eyes to tear. “If you want to get that promotion through being a cheap little ass-kisser, you’ve hardly paid your dues. You need to earn it…”
“I’VE DONE EVERYTHING YOU ASKED.” Lori screamed, the pulling of her hair making the pain in her scalp unbearable. Agatha let go of her tit, only to slap her, causing her cheek to sting.
“Watch your fucking tone.” Agatha gripped her face, digging her fingernails through her cheeks and forcing her lips to pucker. “You did everything I asked and I’m still not impressed…how about that cunt.” She shook her head. “Got a problem with that.” The menacing blue-eyed stare only allowed Lori to shake her head, slightly however, as Agatha’s grip was still strong on her face. “I’m not impressed by your pathetic attempts…if you want me to promote you, as a reward for your…pathetic ass-kissing, as a reward for simply being utterly worthless and pathetic, you’ll need to try much…much harder. You need to really crawl up my ass to earn it.”
“What do you want from me?” Lori mumbled, through puckered lips, as her face was still squashed tightly in the woman’s harsh grip. “What do you want?” She asked in defeat and loss.
“You’re probably willing to say yes to anything aren’t you?” Agatha said, a sly smile curled up her mouth, amused. “That’s how cheap you truly are.”
With that thought, Lori dreaded what was playing in her boss’s mind. She was right. She’d say yes to almost anything, cause otherwise, all of this would be for nothing. She couldn’t bear getting out of this nightmare with nothing to show for it…she just couldn’t.
“What if I tell you to give me head.”
Lori’s face fell, as she stopped herself from gagging, watching Agatha smile in delight as a reaction.
“Would you do that for me Lori…” Agatha said, in a mocking tone. “Would you get your tongue out…and lap my pussy…like a slutty little dyke.”
“I’m not…a…” She stuttered. “I I…” She had trouble speaking as she shivered and stared in the cold pair of amused eyes. “I’m not a—lesbian…” She was still getting over her shock, when she saw Agatha shrug.
“Wow, I didn’t think sexuality is a strong enough barrier for a resilient slut like you…” Agatha snickered, before she shoved Lori away, making her tumble to the ground. “However…I’m only fucking with you…I have no interest in having your disgusting tongue anywhere near my pussy.”
Lori struggled to her knees, far from relieved. Her hands instinctively hugged her shirt to her exposed chest, as Agatha eyed her, her intentions obviously vicious.
“I have a more…” Agatha wiggled her head, thinking. “Appropriate, place for that tongue of yours.”
Lori’s shoulder sagged, as she speculated what the twisted woman meant. She looked down in defeat. She imagined herself following through with Agatha’s disgusting condition. Was she really that…prideless? She’d already let herself be humiliated more than she’d ever thought she would, but the act she thought was running through Agatha’s mind now, would surely sink her to a new low. Maybe she should get to her feet, tell the woman to fuck herself, and storm out of the house, let her nightmare end, go back to Bill’s loving warm arms and his kind loving words, live the rest of her life and keep whatever remained of dignity. She’d find another job, start from the bottom, work her way up, try to forget.
“I can see you’re a bit lost…” Agatha crossed her legs, dangling her socked foot casually as Lori gave her a hate-filled glare. “It’s normal, every now and then…a woman like you will get a bit unmotivated, so let me…fix that for you.”
Lori listened curiously, without a word.
“I’ll…write a letter of recommendation…tonight…” Agatha said, smiling as a reaction to Lori’s widened eyes. “I’ll write it to our office at Jamani. It’s a bit further from where you currently work but I suspect that won’t be a problem. The further away from me the better right–”
“For. What. Position?” Lori interrupted, her tone bearing a mixture of weakness and strength.
Agatha smiled. “For a position better than the one you’ve been debasing yourself for. A step above. My letter is pretty much your guaranteed ticket to land the job, you know that. You’ll be at your new office two days from now, and you’ll never have to see my face again.” She shook her foot, her mouth smirking knowingly. “Interested?”
She couldn’t speak, but her face said it all. One final act. One final humiliation. Less than an hour, and all her troubles would be over, she could put this sickening nightmare behind her and not have to see that sadistic cunt again. Agatha must’ve seen her answer on her face, cause she chuckled, shaking her head. “You never disappoint…Lori.” Agatha said, “Hand me your phone.”
“…why?”
“I’ll film this.” Agatha said carelessly.
“The hell you are.” Lori spat. “What are you crazy.”
“It’s your phone…idiot,” Agatha said. “Now give it, before I change my mind.”
Lori scorned at her, but she took her phone from her blazer. She hesitated just before Agatha reached to take it, which made Agatha frown. “Bitch do you think I need to blackmail you.”
She handed her the phone, then took her place at her knees.
“Remove your shirt…and your bra…I want those slutty tits on full display for this.” She said, not even looking, as if confidant Lori would obey. Her confidence wasn’t misplaced, as Lori turned her mind off, and stripped out of her shirt. Before she unbuttoned her bra, she said, “If it’ll be on my phone why do you want to film it…?”
“I’ll watch it once before I give it to you…This is a first for me, I expect it’s a first for you too, not the last though I bet…you’ll always find a new boss to suck-up to.” She giggled. “Once a slut always a slut.”
Lori could only growl in response, as she unbuttoned her bra, letting it fall to the ground. She kneeled there, her hands on her breast by instinct. She felt exposed. She was exposed. She pushed her glasses up her nose, before she realized she’d better take them off, so she did, sitting them on the coffee table.
“Alright,” Agatha took a gulp of her whisky, as she reached the Camera app. She looked at Lori, then snickered once she saw her covering her breasts. “Slutty Lori getting all shy? Hands off, let’s see those udders.”
Lori bit her lip at the labeling, resisting the urge to lunge at the woman. Almost over…Lori…Almost over. She took a deep breath, before removing her hands, letting her tits hang down.
“Ssssexy,” Agatha laughed, making her blush. “Bill is such a lucky guy.”
“Jealous?” Lori said instinctively, her tone the least friendly.
Agatha only smiled. “Alright bitch…I want a smile on your face the whole time…one moment of hesitation, or if you suddenly get into this victim mentality shit and start crying like a little bitch on camera, we do the whole thing again…got it. I want you doing this with pride…consider it…an interview, this is your chance to really earn…your position.” Agatha said, unable to stop her giggling.
Lori nodded coldly. She had no more tears to give. Half an hour at most, and this would be over. If anything, she wouldn’t be that surprised if her smile would be genuine while committing the act.
“Fantastic,” Agatha said, taking a big gulp straight from her bottle. She shook her head, as if to excite herself, then pressed the record button. “Hey bitch…”
Was she supposed to respond to that? “…Hey?” She said, fidgeting on the ground.
“Why are you here?” Agatha said, then took another gulp, wincing.
“…” she didn’t understand, so Agatha repeated, irritated. “What are you about to do, dummy?” she asked while dangling her socked foot in front of the camera. At the same time, she gestured for Lori to smile, so Lori put on a wide, fake grin.
“I’m…” She took a deep breath. Her head suddenly felt light at having to state it aloud. “I’m…I’m gonna, lick your ass.”
“Lick—No…Eat…You’re gonna eat my ass right?”
“…Yes.” She looked into the camera; her smile intact. “I’m gonna eat your ass.” Her eyes darted between the camera and Agatha’s smirking face. She had to be looking pathetic, kneeling there with her tits on show. Turn off your fucking brain for a sec. She shook her head. “Can we get this over with…?” She said.
“Ohhhh.” Agatha said in a bubbly tone. “Eager little girl aren’t you.”
“Yeah I can’t wait.” Lori said, the sarcasm clear in her tone.
“First…” Agatha extended her foot. “Kiss my foot…thank me for the privilege.”
Lori scorn showed only for a second, before her forced smile returned, as she grabbed Agatha’s socked foot as it dangled in the air. Agatha angled her foot so that the sole was in Lori’s face, so Lori kissed it, laying one kiss after the other. She avoided breathing the smothering stench, dreading the horrible smell she’d have to deal with soon.
“That’s it…” Agatha said, rubbing her other foot on Lori’s exposed breast, making her squirm. “You like that.”
No. Lori didn’t like that. But she couldn’t help but feel a slight tingle run down her spine. She hated the situation and loathed the woman, but couldn’t help but weaver while the fabric of Agatha’s sock rubbed on her nibble. She closed her eyes, unable to hold Agatha’s tormenting smirk.
Agatha kept her doing that for a while, rubbing her sweaty socked-foot on her face while Lori kissed the sole with her eyes closed shut, waiting for it all to end. After what she supposed was about five minutes, the foot left her face, so she opened her eyes, to see Agatha rise to her feet.
She watched her press something on her mobile, probably pausing the record, before she unbuttoned her pants. Lori kneeled motionless as Agatha let her pants fall to the ground then kick them to the side, then stand there with her shirt and black panties.
After giving her one final smirk, taunting her silently about what she was about to do, the tall woman turned, giving Lori her butt.
“Slide them down.” Agatha slurred, with a heavy breath.
Lori gulped, reminding herself that it was almost over, then did just that. She inserted her fingers between the woman’s panties and her waist, feeling a cold shiver down her spine. She pulled them down, slowly revealing Agatha’s naked ass.
“Now I don’t want to remind you…” Agatha warned. “Give it your best effort. Your career depends on how well you manage to eat that ass you got it.”
Lori only hummed in response, trembling at the sight in front of her.
“Part my cheeks and dig in, ass eater.” Agatha mocked, chuckling, her heavy fast breaths a testament to how much she was enjoying all of this.
Lori took a deep breath, then put her palms on Agatha’s smooth asscheeks, feeling a chill run down her body from having to touch another woman that way. She parted them, and quickly realized what a big mistake it was to keep her eyes open, as the sight that greeted her made her gag. She hadn’t even started yet, but her eyes uncontrollably started reddening, as she shivered with fear and felt light in the head, “I—I—I can’t…I don’t want to I can’t…I don’t want t—I can’t—” She stuttered, feeling genuinely scared.
“I—I—I, ca-ca” Agatha mocked, not pleased. “Shut up and get it over with…”
“It’s too sexual—”
“It’s my asshole not my pussy…” Agatha spat, then giggled. “Don’t worry…Bill won’t mind would he. Actually…pretend I’m him…that should make it easier for you.”
“Why the fuck would that make it easier.”
“I don’t know just do it already.” Agatha sighed, emphasizing by kicking her heel into Lori’s thigh. “Eat me…come on…lick my ass lick your way up the corporate ladder come on.”
Lori closed her eyes, mustering up her courage—or whatever needed to be mustered to do something so degrading—and shoved her face in. Agatha’s cackling laughs rang in her ears as she poked her tongue out and licked. She licked once, then gagged from the taste. It wasn’t that…bad, it tasted surprisingly sweet. The smell was surprising too; if anything, it smelled like a sweaty armpit. Fuck my life that I have to know this information. She unscrewed her face, forced herself to lick again, then kept licking, rubbing her tongue on the wrinkled hole.
“That’s my good girl…” Agatha propped herself on the sofa with her hands, amused by the sound of Lori’s lapping tongue. “Acting like you’re all high and mighty…look at you now slut…look at you now.” She shouted with excitement.
Lori tried to ignore the words as much as she could, and just focused on shoving her tongue deeper; her best efforts right. Withb her face squashed hard against the woman’s buttocks, and with her tongue nestled deep in her asshole, she heard Agatha moan in delight.
“That’s it slut…suck my asshole…” Lori winced as her hair was pulled, shoving her face tighter. “Suck your fucking promotion out of my ass you ass eating whore.”
She did. She pushed forward, sealing her lips around Agatha’s butthole and sucked, keeping her tongue lapping viciously.
It went on, making Lori feel like it wasn’t going to end. Her tongue was aching, her arms were getting numb from having to part Agatha’s cheeks, and her neck sored from being painfully bent backward, as Agatha was almost using her face to prop her ass, at the same time pulling her closer in with a harsh clutch on her hair. The taunts and the awful names didn’t stop, as Agatha stopped blistering her with her degrading labels only when she needed to take a breath and moan and chuckle at her misery. Her face was coated with sweat so much she felt it trickle down the sides of her face. She was in hell but she didn’t dare stop tonguing her boss’s asshole until she’d order her to. This was her ticket out of this nightmare, and she gave it all she had.
At last, the grip on her hair loosened, as she heard Agatha’s moans trail off. She collapsed back on her back, her hands instinctively shot to cover her red face in shame as she started sobbing, and let one of her arms cover her exposed tits. She heard Agatha sit back on the couch, then heard her lighter click, as Agatha lit a cigarette. Next she heard the sound of what she supposed was bourbon being poured.
She didn’t want to open her eyes, she was too ashamed to even rise to her knees, so she stayed on the ground for a while, burying her face in her palms.
The long, relieved sigh Agatha gave only tormented her further. “Any chance I can keep you for an extra month.” Agatha snickered. “You’re something else Lori.”
She forced herself to say with a chocked-up throat, “Just please tell me what I want to hear…”
“Relax…I’ll write the recommendation as soon as you leave, I’ll send you the number you should call.”
Lori nodded, then forced herself to her knees, to see Agatha lounging on her couch lazily, a cigarette in one hand a glass in the other, like she didn’t have a care in the world. She got to her feet, snatched her bra then put it on. She put her shirt and blazer on, happy to be in the safety of her clothes again, then looked down at Agatha, who started at her like nothing had happened. “Can I have my phone back please?” She whispered, unable to meet the woman’s eyes. She suspected it would be a while until she’d manage to look into Agatha’s eyes again.
Agatha smiled teasingly, then gave it to her, and she responded with a cold stare. She walked to the door, slid on her sneakers, then left.
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Hey guys, hope you liked the story. Most of the my stories are about similar themes, I try to explore many fetishes and kinks but the humiliation and foot fetish aspect is pretty much there in every story. I’ll continue to post stories here regularly, but most of my stories and some continuation of old ones can be found on my Patreon. Writing these stories is hella fun, but it does take a good bit of time and effort, and I would really apreatiate your support. Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed the good dean.
Patreon Account: patreon.com/EggWhites
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