Page 52 of What's the time, Mr. Wolfe
I posed against a white wall, unsmiling as instructed. Two headshots were taken, and I was given a look to approve. They were headshots for a security card, I didn’t think I’d need to approve them.
“Yes, they’re fine,” I said.
“You’d be amazed how many I have to retake sometimes,” Sally, the receptionist, said.
She had told me she’d worked on reception for three years now. She was chatty and bubbly, the perfect type for her role. But she was too happy for my liking. I was always wary of people that were nice. I guessed I was always waiting for the catch.
“If you want to have lunch together, just let me know,” she added, and then walked me to the lift.
“Second floor,” she said, when it arrived.
I nodded my thanks. I had remembered where to go from my interview.
My nerves got worse the closer to the floor I got. When the doors opened, my hands visibly shook. I took in a deep breath to steady myself.
“Ruby, hi, you’re here,” I heard. I looked over to see Amelia. She smiled and walked towards me. “You’re working with me to start with. Is that okay with you?”
I nodded. It was awkward and I tried to look at nothing but her face. Not that she was naked, of course.
“Let’s go get a coffee, shall we?”
I thought that meant we’d head to a kitchen, instead we took the lift back down and walked the short distance to a coffee house.
“Elephant in the room, and all that,” she said, after we sat.
I laughed and sighed. “I thought I’d feel awkward, but I don’t now.”
“Good. We can work well together. We can play together if you want to,” she replied, and I really wasn’t sure what she meant. “Mr. Wolfe and I have a professional working relationship; I want you to know that. What goes on outside the office always stays outside the office.”
“Do other people know about... You two?”
She reached over and placed her hand over mine. “There isn’t ayou two. I want you to understand that. You’re free to have any kind of relationship with him you want.”
“I’m not sure we have a relationship,” I replied, and laughed, not that it was funny.
“He seems to think so. And others do, too. There are some in the business that frequent the club as well.”
“I don’t know what he thinks, to be honest. But I’m not a sub, or whatever. He might need you for that.” Again, I laughed, but it was more from uncomfortableness than anything else. I certainly wasn’t up for a threesomeor sharing, not that I believed I had him to share in the first place.
“He’ll only ever do what you give him permission to do.”
She sat back and sipped on her coffee.
“I don’t understand that. Aren’t you the one that must obey and all that.”
She laughed, she did think my comment funny, I guessed. “Oh, Ruby. You’ve a lot of learn. We have all the power. We decide what we will tolerate or not. We set the rules. We allow them to be dominant.”
“I don’t know that I get any of that. I’m not sure I want to.”
I just wanted to get on with my life in as uncomplicated manner as possible. However, I was starting to believe that wasn’t going to be possible. I smiled and shook my head. “I’m still coming to terms with what I’ve fallen into, to be honest.”
“He’s enigmatic, isn’t he?”
“And mysterious,” I added.
“That’s addictive,” she said.
I worried, then. What if he didn’t want her anymore because of me, and she was addicted to him?
