“Didya hear about Ellen?” Margie leaned forward, that look on her face – the one that said “delicious gossip.”
“What?” came the expected chorus, as everyone leaned forward, ready for the news.
It was lunchtime. The five of us – the same five that gathered here in the cafeteria every day for four years – were together once again. Margie was always starting in with gossip of the lowest kind, Usually I was just as ready as the others to play along.
Margie nodded, her eyes twinkling with the power trip that she got from passing along salacious conjecture and soft-core gossip. “Didya hear what Terry heard in the bathroom?”
Everyone shook their heads. I joined in, but I already knew.
“Well,” Margie leaned forward more, her voice dropping confidentially. “Terry was in the bathroom in 1C – y’know, how she always says that one’s cleaner and less people in it,” we all nodded again to show that we did know, “and she was fixing her makeup in the mirror. She heard a noise and looked back at the stalls and saw…” Margie paused for dramatic effect. “Two sets of legs in one of the stalls.”
No one gasped. It was one of those things that took a while to sink in and become important.
“No!” Carrie giggled. “Like, a man was in the ladies’ room?”
Margie gave Carrie a knowing look and shook her head. “No – it was two women. But then, she thought she heard a moan, so she stopped what she was doing and looked harder. And then she heard it.”
“What?” Jen asked the question for all of us.
“She heard it loud and clear – Ellen’s voice saying, “I don’t want to hear you make another noise – just come for me.”
The silence at the table was profound – and shocked to the core.
“No!” Carrie giggled again nervously, her hand against her mouth.
I sat back in my chair, arms crossed. I already knew about it. In fact, I could remember Ellen’s voice in my ear when she had said it.
Samantha was the next to realize the implications. “Oh my god! Are you saying Ellen’s….”
She would never say the word – none of them would. I shut my eyes for a second, feeling Ellen’s hands on me, her mouth against mine.
“I always thought there was something funny about her.” Margie’s hindsight was always 20/20. “The way she looks at you, y’know. Like she wants to eat you or something.” Then Margie realized what she had said and blushed. Carrie giggled again.
“I don’t know,” Samantha said slowly. “I like Ellen. She’s the only manager that listens to the admins. Like, once I made a suggestion in a meeting and Mark just ignored me, but Ellen made him stop and talk about what I had suggested. She’s the only one who does that.”
“Maybe she likes you – you know, that way.” Jen snapped. But then Mark was her manager and he wasn’t a very nice guy to work for, so it made sense that she’d be annoyed.
“What about you, Diane?” They all turned to look at me. “You haven’t said a word.”
“I think,” I said slowly, keeping my arms crossed to hide the fact that my nipples were pressing against my blouse and trying to not moan as I remembered Ellen’s fingers moving across my belly and down below the hem of my skirt. “That if she’s a good manager who cares?”
Margie looked annoyed at that. “Yeah, but…” she shook her head. “Right here at work too.”
There was another silence, and the conversation moved on.
Later, back at my desk, my mind inevitably wandered to that day. I had been in the ladies’ room and was just coming out of the stall, when she had grabbed the door, pushed her way into the stall, me in front of her, locking us both in with a grip of steel.
Without a word, her lips crushed mine, her tongue insistent. I gave in immediately. I had been watching her for months – there was no way I was going to resist. One hand squeezed my breast through my blouse, then underneath, caressing me through my bra. The other moving across my stomach, under the edge of my skirt and into my underwear, stroking me insistently. It felt like hours, although it may have been mere moments, we could hear the door of the restroom open and close. Ellen kissed me, silently, surprisingly softly. We could hear the flush of the toilet and the sound of heels on the tiles. When the plastic click of makeup sounded, Ellen had looked at me with a smile and said, audibly, “Come for me – fast.” Then the hand that had been on my breast moved under my skirt, teasing me above my underwear. I came, hard, breathing into her mouth which had covered mine, forcing myself to not make any more sound. I clutched at Ellen as I shook in her arms until, with effort, I had pushed her away from me and sagged back against the stall wall. While I caught my breath, she unlocked the door and slipped out. Without another word, she rinsed her hands in the sink, dried them and was out the door before I could stand up straight.
Yes, I knew about Ellen.
***
Lunch again, the same complaints; husbands, kids, work. The same sob stories, the same woes – the same lunches. Salad for Margie who was always on a diet, but snacked at her desk because she was hungry. Jen and Carrie were turkey sandwiches, with lettuce, tomato and light Russian dressing, diet soda and fries slathered in ketchup. Samantha was a vegetarian and always had some divine smelling ethnic dish that no one but me would try because it didn’t have meat. Today I had crackers and cheese, the leftovers of a party from the previous weekend I had a hard, piquant Spanish cheese, creamy, soft goat cheese and a divine double Gloucester. Margie made faces as I ate, as if I were eating ants. Samantha took a little of the Spanish cheese, but pronounced it too strong for her. I knew no one else would want any, since there wasn’t any cheddar or swiss on my plate.
Conversation veered, as it always did, to office goings on. Who was seeing whom, who was having affairs, who was on the rise and who was falling apart. The drama was never-ending.
“Oh!” Carrie started, as if remembering something. “Oh my god! I have to tell you!” She giggled, embarrassed. “I was talking to Arlene over in sales and you’ll never guess what she told me?”
“Dan Smith is sleeping with the new admin?” Margie shot back. We all laughed, because the VP of sales was notorious for sleeping with whatever new admin he had hired. He always hired young, inexperience and attractive girls, slept with them, and then had them transferred – preferably out of state. He was a total bastard and all of us older admins avoided him like the plague.
“NO!” Carrie’s voice became shrill, and she stopped herself before her nervous laughter became hysterical. He voice dropped to a hoarse whisper, which we all clustered around to hear. “Arlene said that she was leaving the other night, and she got all the way down to the traffic light by the diner, when she realized she had left her purse back in her desk. So she came back to get it. It was already late when she left, so by the time she got back, it was mostly empty. She parked in a visitor’s spot and came in through the front door, to cut out having to walk through all of the D building, you know.”
We knew. The offices we worked in weren’t built, so much as accreted. Each new section was attached awkwardly to the ones around it, clustering unnaturally around a common center that was turned into an Escher-like atrium. D building was full of stairs that lead in one direction, but not the other and was a pain to navigate. It was easier to avoid it, if at all possible.
“Well,” Carrie’s hands gripped the table tightly in her excitement. “Arlene says that she was walking through marketing. The lights in the halls were all off, but as she came down the hall, she could see light coming from one office. Ellen’s,” she announced, after a pause.
We all watched her intently, waiting for the other boot to drop.
“She had to walk past the office anyway, but as she came closer she could hear sounds….you know – those kind of sounds.”
Hands covered mouths in anticipation. “She hurried past, not wanting to know, but the door was open just a little and she could see Ellen kneeling, and….” Carrie practically choked on the words; she had such a hard time saying them. “Another woman.” She finally managed in a barely audible whisper.
“Was it the same one as the bathroom?” Jen asked and then apologized, because how could Arlene have known.
Of course, I knew.
It was late that night, Arlene was right. Ellen was alone in marketing. I came by to leave some documents that needed to be signed off. If I had done it earlier, I could have left it with Ellen’s assistant, but I had held on to them, waiting.
I hadn’t run into Ellen since that day almost two weeks ago. But she had been on my mind. I knew she would be working late that night – she had a big presentation the day after.
The door was slightly ajar, so I knocked on it, waiting to be told to enter. She was seated at her desk starting intently at her computer. When I came in, I held the papers out and shook them slightly. She looked up, surprise written plainly on her face, followed quickly by something that forced blood into her cheeks and throat, and lips. With my gaze fixed on those lips, I went through the motions of offering the documents to her, but my voice faltered as she rose, her eyes dark. She took the papers out of my hand, put them on her desk and took me into her arms.
She kissed with a passion that burned through me. Once again, I found myself letting her take complete control of me. Her hands unbuttoned my blouse, squeezing me through my bra, running her thumbs over my nipples, pinching them, until I moaned into her mouth. My hands moved under her jacket, but almost as soon as I manage to touch her, I was being moved back against the desk. With a sweep, books and documents were cleared off onto the floor, and I was on my back. Ellen spread my legs, shifted my underwear and thrust into me without any preamble. I was so wet that she filled me easily. My eyes closed, but a second later they opened, as her tongue ran across my clit.
I threw an arm over my mouth and moaned into it, trying to not thrash too much. Her computer was just above my head. I could hear the sound of paper clips crashing to the ground, and the stapler, as I flailed. Her tongue moved around my center with the same intensity as it had in my mouth. Now, I thought, as I tensed. “Now!” I gasped as I came around her fingers, “God,” I breathed. “God.”
I groaned when she pulled her fingers from inside me, and again as she kissed me hard, tasting of me. Then she stood back and put out a hand to pull me upright. She smiled down at me, running her thumb over my lips, then leaned down for a tender kiss. She buttoned my blouse, and helped me rearrange my clothing.
I stood there, dazed for a moment, while she picked up papers and clips from the floor. I watched her for a moment. “What about you?” I asked suddenly, realizing that I had barely had a chance to touch her.
“Good night, Diane.” She looked at me, a small, dry smile on her lips. “See you tomorrow.”
I watched her for a few moments, then turned around and left the office.
***
I didn’t see her tomorrow, or the day after. The rumor mill said that the presentation has come and gone and had been forgotten like all other marketing presentations. My department was busy with a new product launch; we were all pulling long hours. I spent my days making corrections to documents, typing up notes, sending emails, gathering signatures, the usual. I ended up working through lunch, a few times I ordered food for the whole group, since none of us could get away for even a short while.
So it was some time before I found myself back in the cafeteria with the gang.
They welcomed me back cheerfully, asking about the new launch and any good gossip from the group. Margie caught me up quickly on the drama, which was nothing I hadn’t heard before. Jen’s husband was a bastard, Margie’s oldest was giving her trouble, Samantha worried about her parents, Carrie was waiting for her boyfriend to ask her to marry him. The same as always.
We ate, we talked, we gossiped. It was like returning to a routine after being away for vacation – a little comfortable and a little annoying.
“Hey,” I said, putting down my diet soda. “Did you hear about the latest Ellen story?”
“No!” was the unanimous response, as everyone gathered themselves together for a juicy rumor.
“Well, I began, looking around at everyone. “I was in the high density file room, trying to find some of the Tosham files from a few years ago.” Everyone nodded, their eyes wide. “I was totally by myself, I thought. But when I came around the corner, there was Ellen. I was really surprised, I mean – what manager ever goes in there?” We all laughed. Most of the managers wouldn’t be able to find the file room.
“She was totally intent on one of the boxes, so I walked up behind her, trying to not be heard. I guess she was concentrating very hard, because it wasn’t until I just about had my arms around her that she noticed. She jumped and spun around, her eyes all wide and shocked, which is when I held her tight and kissed her.”
There wasn’t a sound from the others. I think they were waiting for me to say it was a joke. But I continued.
“I didn’t waste any time with foreplay. I had my hand under her skirt and between her legs right away. She was so hot and tight that we both moaned as I entered her. I stopped kissing her just long enough to tell her, ‘Come for me. Hard.’ And my god, she did. Right there, while I fucked her against the high density files.”
I stopped speaking. They were all staring at me with expressions of appalled horror and titillation.
Carrie giggled nervously. Jen was the first to recover the use of her voice. “My god, Diane? When did this happen?”
I pushed myself away from the table and stood up, gathering my refuse onto my cafeteria tray. I picked that up with one hand and turned my other over to look to my watch. “In about fifteen minutes. See you girls tomorrow,” I said and headed for the cafeteria entrance.
After that, I would head for the high density file room where I knew Ellen would be puzzling over an inconsistency in one of the files, since I was the one who created it, and I was the one who had sent the memo to her supervisor to have her look at it.
I knew all about Ellen. And now she was about to know all about me.
All characters and situations, E. Friedman
Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)