Personal interview

It was strange, but somehow I seemed to be able to make a comment that would get another guy slapped and all I would get is a blushing laugh or at worse a nervous laugh. With Raylene, I always seemed to get the blushing laugh.

"I'm sorry, I didn't hear you coming up." She said with a smile as she slid a piece of paper into her book and quietly closed it. She knew that I did not mind her studying at work, in fact I encouraged it, however, she still seemed as though she felt she was doing something wrong when she did it.

"That was the point." I told her taking another sip of my coffee and briefly wondering how pathetic life must have been before it, "I was trying to catch you naked." She laughed with this as we both new the absurdity of such a statement, she just did not seem like the type who would be naked in public. Although, there was a part of me that believed there was more to this lady than met the eye.

"What have I got today?" I asked her drinking more of the coffee. With a flick of her wrist she moved her mouse around and with a couple of clicks brought up a new screen. Usually I checked my schedule myself, but I had gotten in the habit of asking her to do it, mainly because it kept me by her desk for a few more minutes.

"Uh," she started then pushed her glasses up her nose, "ten you've got an onsite inspection and meeting with First National Bank, new network ground up. And, that is it. But, tomorrow you've got to be here at eight, meeting with CEO's."

"Great, just shoot me now." I said realizing that I would basically be gone all-day and then in the morning a dreaded meeting with my business partners. I leaned forward and glanced at her textbook, the title was "A Sexual Odyssey: From Forbidden Fruit to Cybersex". "Interesting, got an exam?" I asked her nodding towards the book. She glanced down at the book and blushed, not realizing that the title was showing as it was.

"No, research project that I'm trying to get a basis for." She replied, still keeping her eyes on the book. I grunted a response, sensing that she was uncomfortable, or, or what? I thought.

"When you get a chance, could you get me copies of the Bank's folder so I can take it with me?" I asked her, most of the preliminary work had already been done for their network.

She scooted her chair back and started rummaging through a little filing drawer in her desk. I grabbed my coffee cup and started towards the door to my office. Once upon a time there had been a large window next to my door, however I had had that replace with a one-way mirror. Many people thought it was strange, but that way I could see who was waiting to see me. I had learned that there were some people who had genuine problems with the computer systems and some who created their own. Thos who caused their own problems, tended to wait longer than those who did not.

"Well, if you need to do any hands on research, I'll be in here." I said to her as I neared the door. I knew that the smile on my face was evident in my voice. I glanced into the mirror, and saw her looking up over the edge of her desk. Her bangs had fallen onto her forehead and a length of hair had fallen to obscure her right eye. However, I could clearly see her looking at my butt. The surprised me and I considered wiggling it back and forth but decided against it. Her eyes shifted and she saw that I could see her in the mirror, she saw the smile on my face as I opened the door and just before I stepped through, her head darted back below the surface of the desk, she had turned a shade of red that I do not recall ever seeing before. I closed the door behind me.

My office contained the same dark blue carpet and cream walls as my little waiting room. My desk was also one of those imitation things from Wal-Mart, although it was the biggest model that they had. There were three flat screen monitors on my desk all of them hooked up to my computer. Along one wall was a bookshelf that was stacked full of books; occasionally I used them but not very often. Behind my desk was my chair, a black leather full back reclining thing that also came from Wal-Mart. Raylene had one as well and there were two more on the visiting side of my desk. I also had a little futon kind of couch against one wall that had in the past served as a bed when I dealt with serious network problems. I shivered as I remembered the chaos of the 2000 switchover and that despite my calming reassurances; everyone had been in a panic.

I placed my nearly empty coffee cup on the desk and dropped into my chair. I moved my mouse, to kill the screensaver and watched as my three monitors all cleared. Nothing interesting on the network, no emails, a good start to the day. I leaned back in my chair and propped my feet on the desk. I looked through the mirror as Raylene placed a folder on one edge of her desk then opened her textbook again. Once again she looked as though she had fallen asleep. I toyed with the idea of trying to mount a hidden camera out there somewhere, but decided that there was no real point. Glancing at my watch, I decided that I had about an hour before I had to leave for the day. My coffee cup was empty, so I decided to just sit and wait. I watched Raylene through the window, letting my mind drift this way and that. She had pulled out a notebook and was now writing some things down on a blank piece of paper. Eventually it was time for me to leave.

"See you tomorrow." I told my secretary as I grabbed the folder that she had placed on the edge of the desk.

"At eight." She told me without looking up from her book and notes. I could not read what she had written, but it looked like a series of questions based on all the question marks at the end of each line. I thought about her as I walked away and towards my car. She seemed strange to me. She was the quintessential nerd of the eighties, she seemed extremely shy and did not seem to have too many friends, and I based the last on the fact that I had never seen her talking to anyone on the phone unless it was business. And yet, I could not shake the feeling that there was more to her than met the eye. Much more in fact.

I arrived the next morning about thirty minutes before eight. I was wearing a gray flannel suit. The trousers were freshly pressed and blended well with the black Bostonians that I had on. I had a white button down shirt, tucked into the gray slack separated by a black leather belt. I was wearing an aqua patterned silk tie that stood out in brilliant colors against the dark gray of the suit. The jacket was double breasted, however I had none of the buttons fastened on it. My coffee steamed in one hand as I arrived in my waiting room. Raylene had not made it into work yet, which did not surprise me as I had not expected to see her, although by the edge of her desk she had left a stack of papers that I assumed I would need for the meeting. I grabbed them as I walked by and entered my office.

The lights came on slowly as I sat down behind my desk and glanced through the stack of papers. It looked as though the meeting was going to revolve around budgets and other financial things that I did not care about. But, I knew that I would get thrown a bunch of questions about why things cost so much and need to figure out a way to tell them. They were a bunch of computer illiterate people who would not understand the true reason. Oh, well, let the games begin, I thought as I rose to my feet. By the time that I reached the conference room I realized that I had left my coffee behind and silently fussed at myself about the oversight.

The meeting was a little over an hour long and was pure hell to get through. I hated those meetings, and could already feel the start of a headache coming on. I dumped the papers in a wastebasket as I walked down a hall. With one hand I gave a sharp tug and loosened my tie down to the third button on my shirt. I undid the button at my neck finally feeling as though I could breath again. I rounded another corner and came into my waiting room once again. Normally I would have slowed my pace and started thinking of something witty to say but not this time. I walked past my secretary's desk and as I reached for the door handle I heard her voice.

"Wait, please." Her voice seemed distant and soft, almost timid. I turned and saw her rising from her seat behind her desk. Today she was dressed in a pair of purple slacks with a matching purple blouse. Once again, the blouse could have revealed the temptation of her cleavage, however, with all the buttons fastened all it did was let an observer know that they were missing quite a treat. "I was left some instructions by your previous secretary." She was coming towards me, somewhat hesitantly, and I noticed her hand. She was holding a new cup of coffee with four Advils sitting on the plastic lid. I laughed as I took the items from her. "She said that you did not handle these meetings very well."

"She was right, although I think you just made me look forward to the next one. Thanks." I told her with a smile and entered my office.

I had been sitting behind my desk for about thirty minutes and was beginning to feel the Advil pushing the headache away. I had drunk about half of the coffee and was starting to relax. I smiled to myself as I looked out into the waiting room and saw Raylene glancing at her notebook and textbook, she seemed as though she were double checking something. I moved up closer behind my desk and launched a solitaire program on one of my monitors. As I lazily moved cards around on my screen, a new window suddenly popped up in front of what I was doing.

"Do you have a minute?" light blue text appeared within the window. I glanced at it and saw that it was an internal message within our network. Looking at the sender's ID I saw that it was Raylene.

"Sure." I typed back.

"May I come in?" her reply flashed back in a second or so.

"Sure." I typed again and then the window closed. I wondered what that was all about as I glanced through the mirror and saw her rise to her feet grabbing her notebook and a pen. She moved towards the door, seemed to hesitate for a moment and actually began to turn back to her desk before she seemed to decide to go ahead. The door silently opened and she stepped in. She methodically closed the door behind; everything she was doing was methodical, almost as though she was wondering if she could still change her mind.

"Are you sure your not too busy?" she asked quietly as she stood at the opposite side of my desk.

"I'm sure." I smiled to her and pointed to one of the chairs as I drank some of the coffee. "Thank you again, by the way." I said indicating the coffee cup as I sat it back down on my desk.

"Oh, your welcome." She replied almost seeming as though she was blushing. We sat there for a couple of minutes, I was just kind of waiting, since I did not know what she wanted I did not know what to say. She had opened her notebook and was glancing through the first couple of pages seeming to be ignoring me; I could not help but smile at the absurdity of the situation and my first thought. It's almost like she has a crush on me or something, I thought unbelievingly. She glanced over at me as though she had forgotten I was there when she heard me take another sip from the cup.

"Sorry." She said then put her notebook firmly on her lap as though she had made a final decision, "Could I ask you some questions, kind of interview you?"

"Sure." I said with a smile shrugging m shoulders.

"Kind of personal questions?"

"Yeah, why not." I told her again leaning back in my chair.

"Well, very personal questions?" she seemed to be losing some of her uncertainty.

"Sounds like fun." I replied with a smile. She seemed to accept my answer and after another glance at me looked down at her notebook.

"Do you masturbate?" She asked and I could not help but cough in surprise. She looked up quickly then just as quickly looked back down and began to close her notebook, "I'm sorry." She said as she began to stand up.

"No no, don't worry about it, I didn't realize you meant that kind of personal. This is for that research paper thing, right?" I asked her.

"Yes, it is. I just thought that maybe, but I don't think it's a good idea now."

"Yeah, its fine, sit down, fire away." I said leaning back into my chair again after recovering from the initial shock, "What was the question again?"

"Well, do you masturbate."

"Oh, yeah how could I forget that one." I laughed lightly breaking her tension and folded my hands under my chin, "Yeah, I do."

"How often, would you say? On average?" she asked, she was trying to keep her voice clinical and professional, but I could tell that she was quite nervous.

"What? I don't get to ask questions?" I told her in mock shock, "relax, and I guess I would have to say probably three times a week, though my record is three times in one day." I answered proudly and pretended to pound on my chest. I caught the glimmer of a smile from her in response and knew that she was starting to settle down.

"I might answer a couple of questions when I'm done, fair?" she asked looking over at me for the first time since she had started asking questions.

"Yeah, that'll do."

"Three times you said?" one of her eyebrows rose slightly.

"Yeah, oh you mean in one day, yeah I did that once, just be happy you weren't around me that day." I said with a laugh. She smiled but there was a twinkle in her eyes that seemed to convey that she would not have minded at all. She wrote something done in her notebook and then seemed to scan over a couple of lines.

"Uhm," she seemed to be thinking her eyes moving from line to line on her notes, "oh, do you look at adult material when you do?" It surprised me how she seemed to have settled down, and while she might have still been a little nervous she was not blushing with each question. At least, she was not brushing as brightly as when she had started.