Chapter 1
Lauren
That morning, I had a feeling something was about to happen.
Standing in my underwear, about to get dressed, my hand hesitated before I took out the top I’d been planning to wear today. It seemed wrong, somehow. I bit my lip as I looked for my jeans, thenstepped back, pausing.
Not jeans.
Not today.
It was the end of the week, and I didn’t have that many clean clothes left. There wasn’t time to think about it too much, I never had much time in the morning, certainly not to plan a whole new outfit. I usually thought about what I would wear the following day as I went to bed, to ensure I didn’t waste time in the morning.
But the voice in my head was urging me to wear something nice, something different. Sexy. I couldn’t think why. It was Friday after all and there was a drinks thing at the new office, after work. But these were informal events, I probably would go for a few drinks with my team and come home. It wasn’t like I was wanting to meet anyone or had my eye on someone either, I was happy with Dax, my boyfriend of the past three months. Things were going well, and I was happy with him.
Happy enough.
And, yet.
I glanced at the time and looked through the clothes in my wardrobe, finally settling on a short skirt and tights, with a little top that I always got complimented on. I slipped on a denim jacket over that and looked in the mirror. Yup. That would work.
There was only time for a few gulps of coffee and a slice of dry toast as I rushed to get to work. The apartment was quiet. My mother wasn’t up yet, but the school where she taught art was nearby. She could afford to get up a whole hour later than I did.
It was my first week in the new job and I couldn’t afford to make a bad impression. I had struggled for months to find something suitable and this job as Community Manager for Egal was an absolute dream come true. I ran social media in the communications department. There was plenty of opportunity to move up, to move to another branch anywhere in the country, even overseas. Egal was a global company of consumer goods, owning several brands and getting in had not been easy. There had been several rounds of interviews and fortunately, someone on the interviewing panel liked my Instagram account and I was hired.
“Don’t you look nice?!” Petra smiled at me as I arrived on our floor. I greeted her and made my way to my desk in the corner. There were two others seated close by, Jane, who did our press releases and general media and Tash, who focused more on internal communications. All of us reported to Diaz, the Head of Communications. I spent the day checking various accounts and feeds to see if anything had been reported about the company, looked out for trends, and came up with a few ideas for company campaigns. Five minutes to five, Tash winked at me, “Let’s get ready!”
“Isn’t it too soon?” I looked around nervously, I didn’t want anyone seeing us skipping work early to go drinking.
“Are you kidding? Most of the office has already left! I’m going to put on some make-up,” she said and left for the bathroom. I looked around and saw that Diaz was getting ready to leave too, grabbing his jacket.
“You girls coming?” he asked, looking at me. “End of your first week, right? You did good; congratulations! Come on, the drinks are on me!”
“The drinks are on the company, you mean!” Petra said and Diaz grinned. I was still wary around him, but the company didn’t seem to take office hierarchy too seriously. Or maybe he was just a nice guy. As we all walked down to the elevator, I heard that Friday drinks usually happened once a month. There was a bar near the office where everyone gathered. I was looking forward to seeing what the rest of the company looked like. So far, I’d only seen some of the marketing and sales staff in the elevator.
“What do you think, will the new job work out?” Petra teased, as Diaz and Tash walked on ahead to the bar.
“Definitely!” I said, at once. “I’ve got so many ideas!”
“Good!” she said, tucking her arm through mine and hurrying me along to the bar. When we got there, it was already quite crowded and there was loud music pumping over the speakers. It was almost impossible to have a conversation. We found a space to stand, and Tash pointed out a few people to me. Then we had a round of shooters, then another and I could feel the alcohol going straight to my head. Diaz left some time after that, and Tash and Petra started to drink seriously. When more colleagues left, we found a table and started playing drinking games. Then followed a round of truth or dare. Some other people I didn’t even know joined in. Suddenly, they were all looking at me.
“Truth or dare!” someone yelled, and I don’t know why, but I said “Dare.”
There was clapping and yelling to that, and someone said, “I dare you to grab someone’s ass.”
“What?”
“You know, like they do to us, a sneaky hand below your butt cheek and give it a good squeeze!”
The girls were hooting with laughter.
I didn’t want to get into trouble, it being my first week and all, but Petra assured me we weren’t at the office. “Everyone here is relaxed and this is after hours, so I wouldn’t worry about it! Come on, pick someone!”
I looked at the crowd and felt my heartbeat quicken as I checked out the men. “You did say it had to be a man, right?
Tash and Petra laughed out loud, and I felt myself going along with it. They were nudging me with their elbows, pointing out potential candidates.
“What about him, check out the butt on him!”