SORE BOSS, SORE BOTTOM Part One
"LISA, you'd better have that page made up for me by the end of the day or there'll be trouble my girl. It has to go in tonight otherwise everything will get out of sequence, and that will be disastrous!"
Jackie Palmer, the editor of Tops and Bottoms, a glossy lingerie magazine for the modern woman, glared as she ripped into me like some bullying headmistress. There was spite in her brown, almost jet-looking eyes and while I thought she was being unreasonably officious, she was the boss and I thought it wise to just bite my tongue and sit tight. But it was difficult not to react to her overbearing attitude. She continued in much the same vein...
"And if I catch you filing your nails and staring out of the window again, you and I are going to have a serious chat about your future, young lady."
The door slammed loudly when she went out and the picture of Brad Pitt (Mr July) on my poster calendar, on the back of the door, rustled and flapped in Jackie's expensive perfumed slipstream. I felt the hot colour coming up from my chest and neck and into my cheeks. God, she was getting unbearable. I felt a mixture of embarrassment and outrage. How dare she talk to me like that!
Fair enough, she had caught me daydreaming again when I should have been hard at work getting my pages ready for the night run. But they were all virtually made-up. I just had a bit of editing to do, a bit of fine-tuning. I was a good worker and furious at the way she had spoken to me. She was treating me like I child lately, not a twenty-year old woman. It was most unfair. I had never let her down with the quality of my work or my commitment.
Okay, so I was still only young and lacked experience, but I knew I was one of her best designers, perhaps the best and I'm sure she knew it too. I guess she saw me as a threat because I was much younger than her, prettier, and more talented. I knew I'd less than an hour's work for my five page feature to be finished well on time. It was only two-thirty in the afternoon so what was she panicking about? The print run wasn't until around ten o'clock that evening and I wasn't the kind to knock off early anyway if there was work to be done. I'd always stay to get things finished and had never missed a deadline yet.
And that was why I was so damned angry at her. Her attitude was totally uncalled for. But of course I knew why she was really getting her knickers in a twist.
Her boyfriend, David Kline, our new sub-editor of two months, fancied me something rotten and she knew it. I could feel her resentment every time she walked into the room. Mind you, given half a chance, I'd share my bed with him, and not to just get further up her nose, either. He was really dishy. In fact he wouldn't have looked out of place in my calendar of Hollywood hunks -- Brad Pitt apart, that is.
Jackie got her claws into him soon as soon as she set eyes on him. She was like a praying mantis. His interview was no more than a formality. I reckon she'd given him the job before they'd started. Thereafter she was always fawning around him, "Ooh, are you okay with that, David?" and, "Oh that's a brilliant idea, David. We'll use that!" Oh, have a big gold star and go to the top of the fucking class, David! It made me want to throw up, it really did.
They were now going out regularly, but it irked her whenever she caught him looking at me, or talking to me by the coffee machine in the corridor. "Ahem," she'd say, "haven't you any work to do, Lisa?" It was nothing more than a chance to make me look small in front of him, a put-down. It was never his fault that we were talking. It couldn't possibly be him who'd stopped to talk to me, oh no!
As much as the green envy in her eyes, I could see in David's eyes the longing for something else, perhaps something younger and more exciting. He would pretend not to notice my boobs which were pretty well-outlined inside the skimpy, low-cut tee-shirts I wore most of the time to work these days now it was summer. I'd breathe in to plump them up, make the most of my assets. I could almost feel his hot breath on them. Wishful thinking? Yeah, probably... but I know he liked them.
Once I accidentally-on-purpose dropped my plastic stirrer so that I had to crouch down and pick it up, just so he could see down my cleavage. By the time I'd got to my feet again he was blushing like a traffic light. I must admit though, I love the feeling of power a nice pair of tits can give you.
Jackie may have had the upper-hand with the authority, sophistication and experience, but I was much younger and prettier and she hated it. It was fine when she first took me on. I guess I wasn't such a threat in the early days. The interview went well and she loved my portfolio and I felt we took to each other really well. In fact whenever she looked at me, I felt she was liking me a bit too much, if you know what I mean. Talk about undressing somebody with their eyes. My God! I was pretty sure she swung both ways. Anyway, enough of that.
It was only when David took Duncan's place as her assistant that things started to go pear-shaped.
Her attitude towards me changed completely once she realised he fancied me. But she somehow got round him, taking him out for lunches, private business meetings, and stops at the pub on the way home for private business meetings. Oh yes, I knew what was going on. And I knew she was a determined, career-minded woman, but I hadn't bargained on her being a predatory man-hunter who would stop at nothing to get what she wanted, and that included making a fool out of her top designer -- yours truly!
Somehow that scheming bitch had got him all tucked up nice and cosy in her bed, and I don't just mean work-wise. I expect she'd already offered him a few nice incentives... a pay rise maybe, perhaps more company perks than was normal for employees, like the new company car he'd acquired last week. And I bet the offer of some easy lady-boss-type-pussy didn't go amiss, either!
Well I wasn't having it; she needed me more than I needed her. I could get a job on any magazine. But I didn't want to leave this one just yet. There were things to take care of, experience and enjoy - like having David's lovely cock inside me. That'd make the bitch really jealous. I was going to teach her a lesson for belittling me in front of her latest flame -- a lesson she wouldn't forget in a hurry, and one it really would be worthwhile getting the fired over!
My opportunity came just a week later. David was working late subbing the ads pages for the next issue. Jackie had been out all day, meeting up with our publishers about a possible takeover in the offing and wouldn't be back till the morning, and I had something to finish off. At least I sort of made sure I had. If I could get to be alone with him after everyone had gone home, I reckon I could win him over, or at least put my theory to the test, prove to myself that he really did fancy me.. Anyway, when was the last time a bloke turned down the offer of a good shag?
(...continued in Part Two...)