Corinne Anderson hated her job. It was
boring. It was monotonous. It gave her no personal satisfaction of any kind.
What it did do was pay her bills and would, if she could stand it that long, provide her with a damn good retirement portfolio in
another thirty years. They also had a kick-ass health insurance plan though she
almost never used it. At the end of the day, it all came down to money. She
needed the money and chances were slim she'd find another job that paid her as
well as this place did for the mind-numbing tasks she had to perform.
"You get Mr. Creeley's
account done yet?" Sue poked her head over the edge of Corinne's semi-private
cubicle. Sue was The Boss. Sue was a professional at delegating all her tasks
leaving Sue with far too much time on her hands; time she used to stalk and
harass her employees. Either that, or she could be
found in the staff lounge on break for half the day. Sometimes Sue would even
be so generous as to take the receipts down to the bank instead of having
someone else do it. Of course, this would take her almost two hours to
accomplish when everyone else was allotted only thirty minutes for the task.
"Yeah." Corinne
shuffled through her papers and handed Sue the folder.
"I needed this yesterday, you know?" The
brunette flipped through the pages quickly, nodding now and then. "But, I can
see you did a superb job, Corinne. I'm sure Mr. Creeley
will be pleased with our efforts."
"Thanks." Pft,
our efforts, indeed, Corinne thought, listening to the clack-clack-clack of Sue's
heels as she retreated back to her office to take all the credit. My efforts,
you mean. One of these days Corinne would gather up the balls to tell that
bitch just what she thought of the efforts around here. Certainly no one else
would. They all needed the money, just like Corinne. They needed the money and
everyone knew how easily they could be replaced. So, they kept quiet and slaved
away in their little honey-bee like cells and prayed for something better to
fall into their laps.
Every Thursday night Corinne treated
herself to dinner out. For a while she had rotated her dining experiences but
as with so many other things, she eventually fell into the rut of stopping at
the same place every week and ordering the same meal. It had gotten so
predictable that Rose's staff didn't even hand Corinne a menu anymore and most
of the time there was a table ready for her. Rose's was a little more upscale
than the rest of the college town fare. They served wine, had real table
clothes and napkins and glass water goblets instead of those red plastic cups
and a straw. Corinne liked the place and settled into her chair, draped her
napkin on her lap and ordered her meal without even looking up at any of her
fellow diners.
It startled her when she finally glanced
up and saw a man looking back at her. And not just any man, a very handsome and
charming looking one, to boot. Corinne gave him a brief smile before looking
away. He sat alone, a laptop propped open beside him that he occasionally
glanced at, typed on then went back to eating. As the waitress was bringing
Corinne's salad, the man looked at her again, this time his smile blossomed,
revealing a row of perfectly spaced teeth and a dimple. Corinne concentrated on
her salad, not daring to look in his direction again.
"Excuse me."
Corinne looked up. It was him, standing
right there in front of her. "Yes?"
"I hope you won't find this to be too
forward of me, but, your name wouldn't happen to be Corinne Anderson, would it?"
He looked slightly embarrassed.
"Yes, yes it is."
His smile returned. "You don't remember
me, do you? We went to North Valley High School together. I'm Gregory Monroe.
Father Gregory now," he held out his hand which Corinne took and shook without
a hint of recognition on her face.
"I'm sorry, I don't remember you."
"I didn't expect you to. I was a senior
when you arrived as a freshman."
"Oh."
He cleared his throat. "Well, I don't
want to interrupt your meal. I thought you looked familiar and..." Here he paused
and something in his steel-gray eyes grew more serious and intense. "And, I
always thought you were very pretty in high school, in fact, I have something
of yours you might want back."
"You have something of mine? From high school?"
He nodded. "Yes. A
book."
"I read a lot of books in high school,
Mr. Monroe. I don't recall which..." But she did recall one, one very different
book that had come up missing one day. Her cheeks warmed at the thought of it. "...which
ones I may have lost," she concluded. He couldn't possibly mean that book,
could he? He was some sort of priest. Priests didn't read those things. Of all
the books she owned, that particular one she had never written her name in. She
didn't want anyone to know who it had belonged to or that she was the one who'd
scribbled notes in the margins. She'd read it a dozen times at least. Read it
and masturbated to it alone in her bedroom.
"Well, if you haven't missed it then I
guess it doesn't matter, but I found it all very interesting, then and now.
Especially now that I see you have become quite a beautiful woman. I can't help
but wonder if you ever did anything about, well, what you read there," he knew
he was being very forward but he wanted a reaction. He wanted to know just how
she felt about that book and its contents.
"As I said, Mr. Monroe, I read a lot of
books in high school. To have one come up missing would not be unusual. I don't
know to which book you are referring," her forked jabbed into her salad.
"Yes, you did read a lot, as I recall," he
slid into the chair opposite her without asking. "You read all about witches
and vampires and ghosts, didn't you? We had lunch the same period, Corinne. I
watched you a lot during lunch, much to the ridicule of what few friends I had."
Now he was just getting creepy. "Mr.
Monroe..."
"Call me Gregory," he leaned back. An air
of power and confidence radiated from him. Her eyes scanned his pristine
attire. His dress slacks were perfectly creased and he wore a black dress shirt
under a black jacket, both with a distinct Naru
collar. His black hair was much too long for a priest, she thought and the
goatee added a decidedly Satanic look to the whole
thing. There was no white tab in the center of his collar to even indicate he
was a priest.
Corinne looked him in the eye though it
made her cringe to do so. "Mr. Monroe or Gregory, it was nice to meet you and
all, but I don't remember you and I don't remember this book you are talking
about. Now, if you don't mind, I would like to get back to my salad before my entrée
arrives. Alone."
For a moment she was afraid he wouldn't
take the hint. "As you wish, but I think you do remember that book very, very
well," he stood up again and pushed in his chair. "And though I can venture a
pretty good guess, I'd be interested to know what role you put yourself in
while reading that book. Because, if you are what I think you are, I may have
an offer for you," smiling, he returned to his table, gathered up his things
and left.
"God, what an asshole," Corinne muttered
to herself. No wonder she didn't remember him. He had probably been just as
much of a jerk then as he was now. She didn't like pushy, forward people;
people who had so much confidence they reeked of it. She waved her hand in the
air as if fanning away the stench she imagined. And as far as him still having
her book, that was downright weird. Corinne vividly remembered the day she'd
realized the book was missing. She'd searched her bedroom frantically then dug
into her locker with equal intensity. It was nowhere to be found and there was
no way in Hell she was going to ask anyone if they'd seen it. There was a
reason she'd put a paper cover over it after all. She didn't like to take it to
school but that day she had and someone, apparently this Gregory Monroe guy, had
found it; found it and read it and kept in for almost twenty years and knew it
had been hers. She shuddered at the thought of him reading her notations.
Someone else knew about her deepest desires.
"Because, if you are what I think you
are, I may have an offer for you."
What sort of offer, she wondered,
watching her salad plate being taken away and replaced with one on which rested
a roasted chicken breast, baked potato and steamed broccoli. "Anything else?" the
waitress asked.
"No, thank you." The waitress almost
turned away. "Wait, there is something. That man, who was
sitting over there. Do you know him?"
The girl nodded. "Oh, yes, that's Father
Monroe. He's the Father Superior at Saint Dolores."
Not being anything close to Catholic,
Corinne had no idea where that was. "So, he's a real priest then?"
Now the waitress was blushing. "Unbelievable,
isn't it? He's about the hottest looking priest I've ever seen."
"And a flirt," Corinne added with an air
of annoyance though she agreed with the waitress. Priest or not, Father Monroe
was hot. "Thanks. I was just curious. He knew me, said we went to school
together but I hadn't a clue who he was." Corinne
finished her meal in quiet contemplation and found herself so uncomfortably
aroused by the time she left that her panties were damp. All the way home all
she could think about was that book and Father Gregory and the idea that he
knew more about her than any other man and had not been in the least bit
revolted by the idea. In fact, he had expressed a great interest in it. Not very priestly of him.
With a trembling hand, Corinne unlocked
her apartment door and let herself in. Her groin was practically throbbing. The
urge to relieve herself had not been this strong in
years. She had to do it. Corinne hurried down the hallway to her bedroom,
pulling off her blouse and bra before she was even in the room. Her slacks and
panties quickly followed. Corinne stripped the blankets back, leaving just a
bare sheet to spread herself on. She liked it like that. It felt stark and
almost hospital-like that way. Her fingers probed into the wetness of her
pussy. It felt good. She closed her eyes; one hand at her groin the other
grasping her full breast, squeezing it slow and hard then grasping the nipple
until it hurt. The hand at her cunt moved more quickly, rubbing the clit until
she felt the first wave of shuddering. Something more needed to be in there.