Because I work with them,the angel on my shoulder lectured.Don’t shit where you eat.If things broke bad, then it would get very messy and uncomfortable. I couldn’t risk this job. It was my off-ramp after I quit my OnlyFans account.
But if there was a way to have some fun without jeopardizing my job…
The more time went by, the more I thought about it. Especially since Kai was apparently up for anything in bed. I imagined Kai and I in bed together, and then Michael jumping in. Then I imagined it was August as the third. Both scenarios had me as wet as could be while sitting in my office. I wondered what they would say if I made the proposition to them.
I shook my head. I was skipping a step: first I would need to tell them that I had a side-hustle as an OnlyFans girl. Which I could never do. They would probably fire me. New Mexico was an at-will employment state, so they wouldn’t even need an excuse.
Oh well. A girl could still dream. Wedged between two hard bodies, each of them driving into me, two sets of lips and hands and hard, throbbing…
“Hey, Ginny?”
August was leaning into my office, his dark eyes sparkling with mischief. I gave myself a mental shake and smiled at him while pretending I hadn’t just been fantasizing about being on top of him. “Hi! How’s it hanging?”
I winced.How’s it hanging?What was I, a catch-phrase from the nineties?
August smiled like it was all a joke. “To the left. Hey, I wanted to ask you something.”
“Um, yeah. Ask away. Is it about the grant envelopes I dropped on your desk yesterday? Was there a problem?”
“What? God, no. I don’t read those. I just sign them. What I came here to ask is…” He glanced over his shoulder. “Are we okay?”
I gave a start. “Of course we are. Why wouldn’t we be?”
He leaned against the door frame casually. “I’ve been getting a weird vibe from you all week.”
“I’ve only talked to you, like, twice this week.”
“And both times you gave off a super weird vibe. What’s your deal? Have I had something in my teeth all week? Because it would be a dick move not to give a guy a heads-up.”
“No, it’s not that,” I replied.
He jabbed a finger in my direction. “So there is something. Out with it. I’m the CFO. You have to do what I say.” He paused. “Within reason.”
I wouldn’t mind you bossing me around in the bedroom. I shook off the thought and collected myself. “It’s a small thing. But I was bothered by the way you acted around Sandra Trout last week.”
He stared at me. “How did I act?”
“She made a comment about me not taking too long of a lunch. Then you told me to make sure I was back by one o’clock. You were… kind of snippy about it.” I hesitated, then went on. “It made me feel small. Like I couldn’t be trusted to go to an appointment during my lunch hour.”
“Ah, fuck.” He ran a nervous hand through his dark hair, and glanced over his shoulder at the door. Like he wanted to run away. “I didn’t realize… listen. Ginny. You’re new here. We should have warned you about this. When it comes to Sandra Trout, we all bow and scrape to please her whenever she shows up. We act like she’s actually royalty. Because like the Queen of Hearts, she can shoutoff with their headat anyone on a whim and they will lose everything. She has that power over you. She has that power over me. She even has that power over NMCF as a whole.”
He shook his head. “I’m sorry if it came off as demeaning or whatever. I don’t give a shit how long you take a lunch, as long as you’re getting your work done each week. You’re an adult. We’ll never babysit you here, I promise.”
I felt the tension leave my shoulders. “That’s good to hear.”
“So from now on,” he added, “don’t take anything we say around Sandra seriously.”
I was relieved to hear him apologize, and to hear that his comment wasn’t about me personally. But then my relief turned to anger.
“You all just allow her to act that way?”
He frowned in confusion. “Well, yeah.”
“Why don’t you stand up to her?” I asked. “She’s already donated a huge pool of money to the fund. She can’t withdraw it—I’ve read the fund guidelines. If someone ever upsets her, there’s nothing she can do about it.”
“And legally, Sandra Trout can’t evict you from your apartment,” August said simply. “But she can find other ways to make your life so miserable, you wish youwereevicted. Right?”
I grimaced. “Right.”