Mrs. Wood led Suzanne into the office, then turned herdisdainful gaze onto Suzanne.
“Look, Suzanne, before Mr. Cicerelli gets here to tell youyour duties, let me tell explain some things to you. I know your type, and haveseen it all before, and my job is to protect him from the clutches of womenlike you.”
Sue was taken aback. She was not used to be talked to likethis, and had only been in the office 10 minutes and was already be spoken tolike she was little more than a criminal staking out the place before a bigjob.
“I’ve seen the scams your type do many times,” Mrs. Woodcontinued. “In one, you dress sexy, entice the boss, then file a sexual harassmentsuit and hope we settle. You and your boyfriend, probably named something likeSnake, do this many times and find it easier than doing real work. Or, perhaps,you are just a gold digger and dress sexy to hope to seduce and marry one ofour executives. Just to warn you, I won’t let either of those happen.”
Sue wasn’t sure how to respond. She wished she had moresleep, as she was still a bit groggyafter only getting about three hours of sleep last night after her shift,before getting ready and then having the hour-long commute which required bothtaking the bus to get to the subway station and then transferring again on thesubway. Her sleepiness was making it a bit hard for her to think right now.
Just then, a man in a sharp suit walked in. He looked to bein his mid-30s, with his black hair slicked back. Sue thought she recognizedhim. Maybe from that fundraiser for the gallery a few years ago? He definitelyexuded class, and this helped calm Sue down a bit after the way Mrs. Woodtreated her. Even if her supervisor thought she was a bimbo, at least the realboss would be a gentleman. Of course she would not mention that connection.
“Ah, you must be Suzanne,” Mr. Cicerelli said, looking atSue. He turned to Mrs. Wood.
“Irene, I trust you gave her a good overview of the office.You can leave us now. But Suzanne, you should know, Irene here will be yourimmediate supervisor while you are here, making sure you fulfill your dutiesand alerting me to any problems. And she’s a stickler for rules, so I hope youdon’t get on her bad side.”
Mrs. Wood smiled at that, and then left the office as shereturned to her cubicle, closing the door behind her. After she did so, the manopenly ogled her, lingering on her chest.
“Ralph told me you would be quite the, um, asset to theoffice. If anything he undersold just how big your assets really are.” The manlaughed at his own crass comment.
“Okay, Suzanne, let me tell you exactly what we expect ofyou here. We have a lot of clients come in, and we need a pretty face to greetthem. The reason we recruit from people recommended by Ralph is they know howto dress to impress, and there is no doubt it gets our clients in a better moodand increases our sales. So your most important job is to look pretty. I expectyou to always wear makeup, and I expect you to dress well. What you are wearing is fine, but everyoutfit should reveal some of yours legs and cleavage.”
Sue couldn’t believe that the man was treating her just aseye candy. This was a man who used to walk in her social circles. Was this howhe treated people he thought were beneath him?
“And don’t worry your pretty little head about other work,”Mr. Cicerelli continued. “When clients are over I’ll have you get them coffeeor tea. Bend at the waist a bit to tantalize them. You will have to answer the phones, and maybedo some light filing. Mostly, though, keep yourself pretty and laugh at thejokes of any clients. We sometimes have late dinners with clients, too, so Iwill expect you to stay late at times. The clients like it when you treat themwith respect, too, so make sure you call them, and me, Sir at all times. All thisclear?”
At last, Sue responded. “I don’t think I can stay late. Ihave ---“
“Whatever. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Mrs.Wood will show you to your desk.”
With that, Sue walked to the door. She felt his eyes staringat her ass as it gently swayed. For the first time, she regretted the fact shefollowed Ralph’s advice to always walk with a sway in her hips so that it wasmore natural when she was stripping. By taking that to heart, she no longerknew another way to walk and was instead an eye magnet for the eyes of oglingboss. She could already tell this would play right into the vision of everybodyat the office that she was nothing more than the office bimbo.
And Sue was pretty sure she would not get any sympathy fromMrs. Wood at the office, given her discussion of scams. Would she lie and saySue tried to seduce Mr. Cicerelli? Shedidn’t want to put that to the test, and thought she would be treated like asex object, it was only for a few weeks. She could handle this. She didn’t mindit at the stripclub, after all, where she felt in control. But at the office,where she would be summoned and have to perform like a trained sex doll, itdidn’t feel at all comfortable to her.
While, she would grit and bear it, and talk to Ralph as soonas possible for advice on how to make it more manageable. She was most worriedabout late hours. She couldn’t miss a set at the club, but given how long thecommute was and time to change and get made up, she didn’t have time to worklate. But her new boss seemed so dismissive when she started to give her excuse.She would have to talk to Ralph about how to deal with that, especially.