It had been three years since Kaat had started her office job. Three years of bending over backwards for promotions, raises, corporate offers, and working for the worst bosses in the building. Smiling every day and kissing ass wherever she could without becoming the 'office slut' like a few other people she used to know, Emma had finally made it into the front glass paned cubicles overlooking the city instead of the ones in the back of the room with the cheap carpet-covered wall separators.
But, she was still taking calls and such about scheduling and making appointments with people, among other things. So, she'd answer questions about the business, patch people through to where they needed to talk business, and occasionally she'd get in a couple words to her boss. But, other than that, she usually talked to her supervisor, whom recently retired. Having a new supervisor meant that she needed to get a good impression made if she wanted a raise or a—wait for it—promotion. Hell, she went to school to be a secretary for a reason! Okay, maybe a minor in a few other things, but this was the working world. Nobody was going to use an art class and choir in the real world—maybe for self entertainment and a good singing voice when going to bar karaoke, but other than that, Kaat was kind of a boring person when she wasn't taking pictures of her cat, Meemers.
But, the first day that she saw her new supervisor in the open doorway of the wide office room, Kaat felt her jaw drop and she almost dropped the call she had if not for her transferring the call to the billing department.
Tall, strong arms, strong face, quite easy on the eyes, and hair to kill just to get one's fingers in. Hell, he took better care of himself than Kaat would ever think of. Sure, she did up her hair and eyebrows in the morning, threw on some lipstick and called it good, but nothing too abnormal. This new boss of hers looked like he prayed to angels to do his hair and everything for him in the morning. So as he unpacked, she thought of a way to try and get his attention and a possible good spot in a good position.
As she admired his khakis and black tie on a freshly pressed white shirt, Kaat tapped a pen against her lips with a smile as she grabbed a note pad and got up from her desk to wander over to him. He didn't hardly look up at her until she knocked on the open door, smiling brightly. "Good morning—I'm Kaat de Vos, and I'm one of the office workers. I'm also on the Birthday Committee, and I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions."
He stared at her for a moment before giving a simple 'No', then turned back to unpacking his things. This was just added to by her leaning over his desk, still holding her pad and paper. "...You look like a May kind of guy. Or April. You've kinda got ashy-blond hair, and that makes me think April." Kaat smiled, looking at him with an even wider smile when he looked her way.
"If I tell you when I was born, would you leave me to unpack?" Lars asked, sighing heavily. He sure had a lot of books...a few of them were in different languages, but most of them were in English and Dutch.
"Possibly. Most likely." She hummed, rocking on her heels lightly. "It just means I have a chance to get you a cake or something for the staff to share. You know, just to celebrate."
"I know what faculty parties are, so you don't have to explain." He sighed and looked at her, making sure she had her pad and pencil. "My birthday is May 5th. Astrologically, I'm Taurus and I'm type O blood." Lars said sternly, staring her down for a moment before adding, "And I'm not much for chocolate, but I'll take marble or vanilla cake." When finished, Lars waved her off and went back to what he was doing.
But, that was good enough for Kaat. "Thank you," Pausing to look at the name on the desk, she looked back up at him. "Mister Janssen. I'm Kaat, by the way. I'm over in cubicle five, and I'm open for conversation if you need someone to talk to."
"Probably won't. I've got my phone in here, and to be honest, I wouldn't call cubicle staff for any of my problems. You've got enough already, and I don't need another." He retorted without missing a beat.
Still, it was good enough for her to actually see him down the hall, to be honest. But, Kaat just nodded at him and turned heel and retreated to her desk. Without warning, Kaat's heel of her red high heels snapped, toppling over the curvacious woman into the lunch cart. After quick apologies and a very loud 'Excuse me, I'm so sorry Miss de Vos-' , from down the way, Kaat could hear muffled laughter and a short snort. When she did look back to see who it was laughing, everything was quiet, and Kaat was going to be more focused on a mayo stain on her black pencil skirt.
After asking around, Lars found that Kaat wasn't on the birthday committee and there was actually no such thing as the office birthday committee and Kaat was just one of the girls who worked hard to get where she was going in the end. Admirable, but he wouldn't pay too much attention to her. Well, maybe a little. She had potential, after all.
It was at least two weeks later that Lars issued an offer to get himself a office secretary since he was unable to all his work himself. It was a strain on his eyes and he couldn't possibly take all his calls at once like he had been trying to do. Putting out an email to the supervisors saying 'hire the most eligible' seemed corporate enough, and to be honest, he kind of wanted to be surprised.
That rainy Wednesday in July, Lars walked out the way he normally did. Past rows of empty cubicles, down the hall, nodded at the janitors in the break room before punching out, then walked the rest of the way to his car in the parking garage. This time, he didn't make it past the second row of cubicle desks before turning back to the front row and stared at the blonde haired mess laying on her desk.
Kaat, was it? He was sure it was Kaat. "...Miss de Vos?"
Without much warning, Kaat sprung up from her nap, reciting some mumbled jibberish while pretending to type on her keyboard. "Miss de Vos here, how can I help?"
Mentally, Lars was shaking his head, but instead, he leaned down and looked her in the eye. "You fell asleep at your desk, and you didn't get clocked out. You're late on your punch." He said, watching as she slowly recognized her problem here.
"Oh shit...I did, didn't I?" She hissed, trying to get all her things packed up by jamming it into her file bag and grabbed her wallet and purse from the floor. "Shit, and the buses aren't running this late either, are they? Shit...It's eight in the evening? How did I manage to sleep that late?" In her tizzy of cursing and scrambling to get her phone out and call a cab, Lars just walked with her to the elevator, listening to her babble until he piped up.
"You know, I could give you a ride to your house if you prefer. It would save you a bit of money since cabs are terrible most generally. I'd rather have driven you home than see you off in an overpriced germ vehicle." That was a bit...odd. Either way, Kaat kept on talking about how she was late on feeding her cat and how she really needed to get things done. All the way out to the car, she talked, until she sat down in the seat and shut the door.
Lars had a really nice vehicle. Very efficient, very clean, very nice looking smart car. There weren't any signs of decoration, and no CD's or any music player to distinguish what he enjoyed or lack thereof. But, as they started their way out of the parking garage and the rain started tapping on the windows, Lars finally spoke. "You'll have to give me directions. I'm new to the city, and I'm not fond of any other places other than my own."
"That's fine, my apartment isn't hard to miss. Just take a left up here, and go a few blocks down the main stretch until you hit East Boulevard." She said, holding onto her purse for dear life as evening traffic picked up. "...What side of town do you live on, then?"
"North side. From what you're telling me, we're not too far from each other."
"Oh, we are. North side's about a half a mile off. Still somewhat in walking distance, but pretty long on a winter day." Emma snorted. "Once you hit East Boulevard here, turn another left and there's a round about. Take that to the Summer Avenue Apartments exit. I'm the little shoebox with the cat painted on the mailbox."
"Mm." Continuing to follow her directions, Lars glanced at a diner on the side of the road, tilting his head a bit. "You're not hungry at all, are you?"
"Oh, I've got stuff to eat at home. I'm not..." Pausing for a moment she looked over at Lars, arching an eyebrow. "...Maybe some other time. I kind of need to get stuff done, so I'll just eat something small before bed."
"Fair enough." There was the roundabout up ahead, and shortly there after the exit, there was Kaat's home, as she explained it; cat mailbox an all. Parking the car along the pavement, he looked over at Kaat and stared for a moment. "I hope you have a good evening. And get some sleep, too." Before he unlocked the door, Lars made a bit of a gesture, then an actual movement to wipe some lipstick off of her face with a handkerchief he kept in his pocket—clean and pressed, of course. "Just keep that. You had it on your face when you left."
Kaat, in a tizzy of embarrassment and slight rage that she actually was outside with lipstick smudged on her face. "You let me walk out of work with lipstick smudged all the way up my face?" She said flatly, giving him something between the stink eye and a death glare. "...You're something else. Don't ever let a girl do that. It's embarrassing, and plus, it stains." She said firmly, unlocking the car door for herself before getting up out of his little econo-car. "I'll see you on Monday, Lars."
Lars was quiet when she left, watching as she quickly strode into her house to keep from getting too wet. When she finally got in the house, Lars whistled and slowly drove off, thinking about ordering a meal for dinner instead of making something. Ordering out seemed good.
It was that evening when the thought of Kaat arose. She wasn't exactly skinny—her curves were nice, though. If she were his secretary, that would be even bett—er, worse. All through the weekend, his thoughts were dotted with her face, her small smiles, and the fact that she lied to hit on him in his own office. That was actually a bit of harassment. Oh well. Things would work their magic sooner or later and things would come around to bite her in the rear, right? Sure...absolutely.
Monday came around, and over the weekend Kaat got a lovely email. On her phone, the font was small and she didn't have her reading glasses on. But, when she got the gist of it, she sprung out of bed and screamed in sheer happiness, waking up her cat and making him a bit anxious. "I got it! I got a raise! Hell yeeeeesss!" She yelled, until she read the bottom part of the email.
'Your office space has moved to a desk in room 220 B with Mister Janssen as his secretary. Congratulations on your position change! We'll miss you in the cubicles!'
So, she greeted Monday five minutes late with coffee, a bit of red-orange lipstick and a black dress. Sleeves were long and sheer, but the rest of the fabric was a woven pattern that flattered her form. A lacy white collar was round the top of her dress, making it look a bit more youthful chic.
Lars was already at his desk, typing away at his computer and a cup of coffee on his desk. Of course there was a personal coffee maker in his office. And a mini-fridge. And a microwave. "What kind of fresh Hell did I walk into?" Kaat asked herself quietly, shaking her head as she put her purse down and looked over her desk. Everything had been moved for her, as they had put in the email, and they even moved the couple post-its that were on the wall to the wall by her desk.
"Might want to answer the phone. Boss has been calling for ten minutes now." Lars said from his desk, not even taking a break to stop typing. "And I found out there's no birthday committee. Nice try."
"Oh well. It got me your name and birthday." She seamlessly answered, sitting down to dial her boss and put on the headset that she usually wore. This time, it was actually just one of those ear pieces instead of the big clunky one with the headphones and a microphone. Turned out that her boss only wanted to know how she was doing and what she had to do for Lars during the day. Take calls, make appointments, just the stuff she went to college for. Kind of. Since she was a business major and was planning on getting big into the business world, Kaat's class planner slipped the secretary stuff in with her other classes even though she told them not to. But in the end, she thanked them once she graduated at the twentieth spot out of two hundred students. In her odds, this wasn't bad, really.
Their boss was calling just to make sure that she was all settled in and that everything had been moved to the right place. Thus so far, everything was comfortable, save for the chair being a bit too tall for her, and Lars's slightly disconnected way of operating wasn't so great, but it was a good change.
It was a good change until Kaat started thinking. Doing updates on her computer, she found herself thinking about how 'Mister Janssen' would probably be quite muscular. Strong arms, handsome, probably has the stamina of an Energizer battery...
Kaat wondered if... NO. At that very thought, Kaat almost choked on the coffee she was drinking, sputtering and trying to keep from staining the papers on her desk. Lars only glanced up from his work, arching en eyebrow in concern. "Kaat, I know we're flawed creatures and sometimes we have our mishaps, but could you try and drink your coffee in a way that you won't aspirate?" The Belgian only heard half of what he said, so she just stuck a thumb up and turned back to her work, trying to get herself back to normal breathing. But that thought still lingered. What would happen if they were to...say...have a night at his place? It could put a damper on the boss-co-worker thing, but...
Kaat sighed and went back to what she was doing, picking up calls and doing her work like any other person in the building, give or take the lewd thought or two.
A week had passed. Instead of the rain now, it was a light powdery snow that hung over the building like a fog...but this fog was a bit more of a hassle. And it was annoying to scrape off the cars if one didn't have a ice scraper or a working vent system in said car.
Luckily, Kaat had none of those and had to ride the bus. Or maybe she wasn't so lucky. The busses were running late due to weather conditions, and she was already late for work. So, she stood out at the bus stop with her hands in her pockets, glaring into the open oblivion. A few cars went by, but none of them stopped. The fifth car that rolled by stopped right in front of Kaat, and the tinted window rolled down. "...Lars?"
"If you're late to work, text me, not Twitter." Lars opened up the door from his side of the car, frowning widely. "One of your co-workers re-tweeted your tweet and it ended up on my News Feed." After Kaat got herself into the car and got comfortable, he put the car into gear and pulled into traffic, sighing heavily. "You're lucky I need you today. I've got a meeting and I need someone to take calls and compile some lists for me. It's not much, but it'll keep you busy while I'm at said meeting."
"Alright, alright...I'll text you, not Twitter." She sighed and twirled her hair, looking out the window as the flurries of snow passed the windows, melting on the windshield almost instantly. "I'm sorry for not coming in on time."
"It happens. The bus system is inconvenient. I'll pick you up if you ever have a problem getting to work. Just let me know." What a kind gesture of him. That was interesting, though. "It would take too long to fire you and train someone else, so that's why I'm offering to drive you around."
Oh. So that's how it was?
"Anything else you need me to know? Any more meetings?" Kaat asked, continuing to look out the window in slight distaste. What an ass...he was a decent boss, but he was so...insensitive sometimes.
"There's a meeting with the Beilschmidt Company in three weeks...It's more of a brunch and they expect a 'plus one' to come with me, so you're coming to brunch with me. I've got no-one else, and you'd be qualified. I saw your credentials, and you'd be able to negotiate if things ran sour with me."
"...Thanks." Looking back into the rear view mirror, Kaat sighed and relaxed in the seat, looking back to the traffic before them. Lars did have nice eyes, though. They were like a yellowed green colour, kind of like spring leaves. New. Fresh. She stopped staring as soon as he caught her staring into the mirror. To be honest, Lars was also catching glimpses at her from the right side mirror, more so at her ruby red lips in the reflection.
"You're welcome. It would be an interesting way to see how you were really taught. And plus, it would be a good few figures to add to your income." He hummed, strumming his fingers against the steering wheel. "It would also be nice of you to stop in the break room first and get both of us some coffee. I take mine black with two sugars." It was like he just assumed she would take it for him and she'd be fine with it! In a way, she was because Kaat was kind of his 'underling' in a sense. In her mind, it was like an American High School drama where Lars was the Queen Bee and Kaat was that weird exchange student trying to be popular.
"Alright, I'll stop in the break room." Kaat replied before deciding to start a little something when she noticed him staring at her lips. "...Mister Janssen." She thought herself quite fancy now that she could call him that, and her tone was like silk. It made the hair on the back of his neck stand on end. This only lasted until he got out of the car and the cold wind in the parking garage smoothed everything out.
"You've got five minutes to be in my office with that coffee." Lars looked back and gave her a stare that only meant he was serious. "I'll be waiting."
As soon as he was out of earshot, Kaat cursed loudly. "Oh shit—!"
Soon after, Kaat and Lars were having a small ongoing battle. Kaat would wear the best of her best to work. Sheer dresses with teasing lace at the bottom, heels that made her legs stand out, and occasionally, she'd lean over a bit too far to Lars's desk and show off the milky skin and sometimes the bra that held her lovely breasts.
Lars found that he couldn't compliment her features without it being filed as sexual harassment, but in this case, he fought fire with fire. Unbuttoning his shirt when the thermostat was too warm, running his hands through his hair more often (which actually helped de-stress to be honest) and occasionally doing other things that happened to get a ruse out of Kaat. For example: Leaning down to talk to her while she was at her desk. There were still one or two times that Kaat dozed off at her desk, and both times it happened, Lars would realize this and wander over and gently whisper her name. She'd jolt sometimes, but other times when she knew it was coming, she'd sleepily respond with 'Yes Mister Janssen?' and foil his plan.
Tension started to grow between them, and both of them would spitefully find ways to try and frustrate the other. Kaat would wear a garter belt occasionally, just because she felt a bit more ahead of Lars. His days of plotting turned into short glances at Kaat and some mental fantasies. Anywhere from soaping her back in the shower to taking her roughly in his bed while she moaned his name from behind a ball gag.
Kaat's thoughts were a bit softer in some respects, but sometimes a bit darker. More teasing and contrasting fantasies. Hands tied to headboards, love knots, sometimes blindfolds...it was so tempting. But, neither would give in to the other, not wanting to say they needed each other just yet.