Chapter One

 

"Fuck!"

Keri winced, though she'd been expecting it. She waited thirty seconds for the worst of Joshua's anger to fade to disappointment and then made her way up the hall and gave him a hug. He was wiping his eyes and she felt a deep sense of sadness and sympathy as she pressed her head against his shoulder.

"My own fault for trying to get involved with the corporate run business world," he said angrily.

"You're too good for them anyway," she said loyally.

Joshua had graduated from UCLA last year with a degree in Philosophy but thus far had not found the world beating a path to his door to reward him for his learned and studious efforts. He had applied at all the places they could think of, and had recently attempted the business world - to scant success.

"It's like I said, I need a master's degree to be of any value," he said.

"Then get a master's degree."

He wiped tears from his eyes and shook his head.

"Money, Keri. Money. It costs a lot and we have little. They're already bugging me to repay my student loan. They're not likely to give me another one. If I had money, why, I could get a doctorate!" he said, his eyes shining. "Imagine that! Then I could find well-paying jobs at any number of universities or academic institutions and think tanks!"

"Well, we'll just find the money," she said stoutly.

"He sighed. "My father is a fascist. He didn't support my taking Philosophy in the first place. He wanted me to take business or something with computers."

"We could move to a smaller apartment," she said, further out. Why do we need to live near downtown? It's so expensive!"

"But this is where progressive and enlightened people live, Keri," he said. "The further out you go the more you find yourself surrounded by racists, fascists and white-supremacists. Why do you think almost all the people of color live closer in to downtown? Once you go out into the burbs you don't see many of them!"

But, well, if we moved further out we could save more and apply that to your education."

She reached hand up and ran her fingers through his soft blonde hair.

"You're so sweet, Keri," he sighed, hugging her. "But you're naive."

Keri hated it when he used words like that. She knew she wasn't that smart or that educated. Not compared to Joshua, who was insanely smart! She had never aspired to going to university herself. She worked as a server at Jack Astor's restaurant. It was a place that catered to a pretty... vanilla crowd of middle class, mostly white people.

It was anathema to Joshua, of course. He preferred quaint ethnic restaurants. And whenever they went out it was to Thai or Indonesian or African places. Joshua was very 'woke'; a progressive and inclusive man who was dedicated to the elimination of racism and discrimination and transphobia and homosexuality and gender bias in all its forms.

She was glad he never came by her restaurant, because Jack Astor liked its female servers to be very pretty and wearing short skirts, high heels, and tight tops. She knew he would never approve of that sort of thing, but the tips were very good.

Joshua himself worked at a local coffee shop. It wasn't one of those big corporate chain places he sneered at, of course, but a local neighborhood hangout where the crowd were mostly young and enlightened like he was.

Keri didn't really understand it all. Of course, growing up in Seattle meant she had imbibed progressive political views with her pablum, and all through her school years. So she certainly agreed with his ambitions where equality were concerned!

"You'll find a good job, and we'll save money and you can go back to school and become a doctor!" she said.

"A doctorate of philosophy is not a doctor, Keri," he said impatiently.

"Well, I know that! Duh! But I meant, like, a doctorate."

***

The girls were undecided about glasses. Some of them claimed they got more tips if they wore glasses, but most thought they got less. Keri wasn't quite sure. She had a pretty good idea of what drove men, for they'd been panting after her since she'd become a teenager.

What drove men were big breasts, a pretty face, and long hair, and she could check off all three boxes. Not that her breasts were huge or anything, but they certainly filled her 36-D cups! She had an oval face with big brown eyes, and her dark brown hair spilled down past her shoulders like a silken wave.

You couldn't grow up a girl in modern America without knowing just how you measured up in a bikini, and Keri measured up very nicely indeed. Except that she was farsighted. She could see objects farther away without any problems at all. But once she got up close things started to blur.

The glasses were fairly thin, rectangular and frameless. She had gotten them because the guy at the opticians said they made her look intelligent. The girls at the restaurant agreed, but they disagreed about whether this was a good thing.

Mallory said that guys loved the idea of cute girl geeks, or librarians. But Theresa thought glasses that helped cover up her beautiful eyes would be less than helpful. Usually she wore contacts, but on this day she had forgotten them so had to wear her glasses.

What was more important, she thought, were the tight tank tops and short skirts.

The restaurant was busy, and she moved quickly to clean up an empty table after the people there had left, then hurried back to the kitchen for an order. By the time she'd returned Amber, at the front door, had shown a couple of men in suits to that table, and she hurried over after delivering the food.

"Hi!" she said in a perky voice. "I'm your server, Keri. What can I get you, gentlemen?"

They both looked her up and down in a way she frankly found kind of rude, but kept her smile on her face. They were both black men, which was a little unusual.

"Hey, baby," the one in the gray suit said. "Bring me a Budweiser."

"I'll have a Corona Extra," the one in the blue suit said.

"Be right back," she said cheerfully.

You had to be cheerful in this job or tips went down.

She brought back the tray and bent over, setting it on the table, then picked off the bottles and glasses, very carefully not looking up to see if they were looking down her top.

This was another aspect of the job she never told Joshua about, but she had resigned it to human nature. Some men treated her with respect and never ogled, but others, well...

"Do you gentlemen know what you want to order or would you like more time?" she asked.

"I know what I want," the man in gray said.

"Me too."

The two men smirked at each other and Keri suspected that their silent agreement was that they wanted her! But she kept her smile on her face as she took out her notepad and pencil. She wrote down their orders and then turned and hurried away.

She was confused about her dual feelings when men treated her like a sex object. Joshua and her school and her parents had taught her that sort of thing was wrong. She ought to be angry at those who objectified her body! But it still gave her a kind of squirmy sensation of pleasure sometimes. Mostly when the men were kind of, well hot.

The two men were quite large and muscular, in expensive looking suits. They were both old, of course, easily twice her nineteen years. But they gave of an aura of... manliness, of the kind of macho physicality and arrogant self-confidence she was aware she was supposed to disapprove of. But that turned her on sometimes.

She was uncertain about how she was to react when it came from a discriminated against minority member. Joshua had talked a lot about how cruel and racist white society had been, not just to Black people, of course, but to the whole world all through history. He recited a long string of depredations and crimes of Europeans and Americans and Keri was certainly not going to argue with a smart, educated man like him!

But from what she gathered, although he and his college friends never said it in so many words, was that certain... communities had to be allowed to veer from the straight and righteous path of political correctness now and then. White society certainly could not judge them on their own cultural and value choices!

Black Americans were not required to have the exact same culture and values as the racist and oppressive white society in which they lived. And she got the idea, here and there, that African Americans were a lot more sexual in how they dressed and acted. But hey, that was their thing and she certainly couldn't judge them!

She returned to the table and again bent over to set the tray down, smiling as she served out their dishes, then stood up, beaming.

"Will that be all for now?" she asked.

"That'll do, baby," the one in gray said.

She left them alone to eat for a while, scanning the remaining tables, and checking in on the occupants from time to time, cleaning another table that became empty and then greeting the new occupants.

She returned to check on them and found them mostly done.

"Can I clear anything away, gentlemen?" she asked.

"You're flattering us, baby," the one in gray said with a grin.

"Yeah, we ain't no gentlemen," the other one said with a laugh.

Keri smiled, not knowing what to say to that.

"What's a hot girl like you doing working as a waitress, babe?" the one in the gray suit said.

"This is my job," she said with a smile and a shrug.

"Can you type?" the other one said.

She looked at him in surprise. "Sure," she said.

Everyone who used a computer could type. And everyone used a computer. They taught typing in school anyway.

"Answer the phone? Read and write?"

"Uhm, yes," she said hesitantly.

"You know, we lost our receptionist yesterday. She moved to California," the man in gray said. "Why don't you apply?"

"Oh, I don't know," she said with a laugh.

"Pays thirty dollars an hour," he said.

She felt her jaw drop and then sapped it closed.

"Really?"

"Yeah. It's an easy job, baby. You answer the phone, take messages, get coffee and snacks when we have meetings and clients, deal with computer email. Mostly just sit there and look pretty."

"Uh... gee, I don't know."

He handed her a business card.

"Call and send in your resume. What could it hurt?"

***

Keri talked it over with Joshua that evening, and they googled the company listed on the card. It was an engineering consultant company, and the pictures of its two partners showed two black men. That got him quite excited.

"A minority owned business! It's perfect!" he said.

"Well... uhm, I've never worked in an office before," she said.

"So? Any idiot can sit behind a desk and say hello when people come in the door, or answer the phone or deal with emails! And it's twice your income!"

"We could save enough for you to go back to school!" she said eagerly.

"That would be so awesome!"

Keri did not mention how the men looked at her. Men tended to do that anyway, especially older ones. And she was sure things in an office would be much more restrictive. Didn't all offices have very strong anti-harassment and anti-sexism policies? And surely a minority owned business would be even more inclined towards such ideals!

So she sat leaning against him as Joshua carefully reworded some parts of her fairly threadbare resume, wrote an effusive letter to go with it where she proclaimed her devotion to diversity and inclusiveness, and then sent it in to the address on the card.

She didn't expect much to happen for weeks, if at all. She was startled to get a reply email the very next day inviting her to come for an interview! The problem was it was right after her shift ended. So she called up to explain.

"Just come as you are, girl," the man's voice said. "We know where you work. We don't expect you to be all dressy for an interview. We're not a big, fancy place anyway."

That sounded reasonable! Still, she did take time to pack a nice green blouse. She would have chosen white but her black tank top would show under it. At end of shift she hurriedly grabbed her things and ran to the bus stop, then pulled on the green shirt and buttoned it up, tucking it into her short skirt after she was sitting down.

The skirt was quite short for a job interview. But they said they knew where she was working, and she would apologize when she got there. She didn't expect to get the job anyway. She had no office experience, and with such a high salary they must have lots of other applicants.

The building was an impressive one! It was all glass, sort of golden tinted, with lots of different angles to it rather than being the usual square type. The office was on an upper floor, and she felt kind of breathless and nervous on her way up in the elevator.

Doubling her salary would mean a lot for Joshua! Sure, she'd have no tips, but the tips had to be shared at the restaurant anyway. Plus she had to pay out a percentage of the cost of the meal to the restaurant just to begin with.

The top floor had a number of different offices. Instead of a reception desk she found herself looking at glass or fancy wooden doors, or double doors with brass plaques or careful lettering for this or that company or organization.

She walked down the hall and there was a smoky glass door with metal plate for the Blaire Group. She opened it and stepped into a small lobby with an empty reception desk.

That would be where she'd work if she got the job, she thought excitedly. It was very nice looking, with a raised counter, and then a desk below that with phone, computer and the like. The lobby was carpeted in red, with black leather chairs for those waiting to go in.

Past the empty reception desk was a hallway and she hesitated before going that way.

"Uhm? Hello? Is anyone there?" she called.

A man came out of a side office, a very tall man! He had a huge chest, and a bald head, and looked to be in his late thirties.

"Uh, hi, my name is Keri Foster," she said.

He was a head taller than her and smiled, then reached out and took her hand.

"Anthony said you were gorgeous," he said, shaking her hand for an extended period of time.

"Uhm, uh, thanks," she squeaked.

"I'm Marcus. Come over here and I'll show you around."

"Uh..."

He led her to the desk and told her what the separate lines on the phone were for and showed her the paper with the intercom numbers for the people who worked here. There were only five. Then he showed her the computer and where emails came in, the public box, plus the internal email feed, and the separate boxes to direct messages.

Keri followed intently, not wanting to interrupt him. Maybe there would be a test afterward to determine if she should be hired. He had her sit down, then, and leaned over her, his big hand light on her shoulder as he had her move some of the emails from box to box.

"People learn best from doing, not being told," he said.

He led her back along the corridor and showed her to the separate offices, where she got to meet three other men who were there. All of them were Black. The guy in the gray suit from the previous day was Anthony, and the one in the blue suit was Brandon. Both of them smiled and welcomed her.

There was a meeting room, and a small kitchen, where Marcus showed her where everything was kept.

Keri was getting confused. When was the interview?

"Excuse me, Mister uhm..."

"Marcus, honey."

"Uhm, Marcus. Is all this going to be on a test?"

He looked at her blankly.

"Like uh, for the interview."

He laughed and put his arm around her, hugging her briefly.

"Baby, there ain't no interview!" he said in amusement. "You're hired!"

Keri stared at him in astonishment. "I am!"

He snorted.

"You can be fired just as fast. So why shouldn't we hire you and see if you work out? Let's face it, as long as you have the right attitude you can do this job. And we can't tell about your attitude in an interview, only by having you around us for a while."

"Uh, I guess," she said, slightly off balance.

"Now, as to why we're giving you a shot instead of some other girl, it's because you're really pretty."

She stared at him in surprise.

"The receptionist is sort of like, the clients' view of our little agency," he said. "Just like our lobby. You know we spent some time and money making sure it had a certain image of a modern, sexy, prosperous kind of organization. A dowdy, dumpy receptionist wearing jeans is just not going to give off the image we want. A sleek, sexy girl in a sexy dress will."

"Uhm... oh," she said uncertainly.

She could understand that. She wasn't sure saying it was acceptable, though!

"So here's the deal. You do the job, give us the right attitude, and wear sexy outfits, and the job is yours."

"Uhm, sexy?" she asked hesitantly.

"Not slutty," he said, his index finger tapping the bridge of her nose. "Low cut tops are the last thing we wanna see!"

"That's good!" she exclaimed.

"It's always better to hint than to flaunt when dealing with image, girl," he said.

She nodded rapidly.

"You got a white blouse, for example?"

"Of course!"

"Form fitting, but high necked. Sexy, but not slutty. You dig?"

She nodded again.

"We're a modern, cutting edge firm. We want our image, which is what you represent, to look modern and hot. You're the first person everyone who comes in here sees."

"I don't have a lot of uhm... office clothes," she said a bit anxiously.

"This ain't a big fancy law office, girl. You don't need expensive. Hmm, maybe we should get you a uniform," he said thoughtfully. "I'll discuss the idea with my partners."

"Uh, okay."

"Wait one second."

He left her in the kitchen and she let herself feel a burgeoning sense of excitement. Thirty dollars an hour! They'd be able to save enough to send Joshua back to school in no time!

He returned with a measuring tape and a little note pad. Then to her surprise, put his arms briefly around her waist! He drew back quickly and she realized he had put the tape around it and was measuring her!

"Uhm... I know my measurements," she said, blushing a little.

"That'll save us some effort," he said with a grin.

He handed her the notepad.

She bit her lower lip a little but put on her dress size, then after a moment more hesitation, put her measurements in since that was what he looked like he was aiming at.

"Always wear high heels," he said. "The higher the better. You got really nice legs, and the clients think long legged girls in stilettos are sort of like models. And that gives us a nice image."

"Uhm, okay," she said doubtfully.

"One more thing. Sometimes we do some traveling," he said.

"Traveling?"

"Yeah, like one or another of us will have to go to San Francisco or Los Angeles or Portland, or sometimes even New York. And on some of those times you need to come along to take notes and keep track of administrative details."

"Wow. That would be so cool!"

He smiled benignly.

Keri could hardly wait to tell Joshua she'd gotten the job!

She would not tell him about the looking sexy part, because he might not like it. Though she reminded herself that black people had a different outlook on sex, and that their culture and values had to be respected and not judged according to mainstream culture.