Lucy Gives It Up for the Teacher
since Lucy had been with a man, and she was more than ready, but it wasn’t going to be with Gary. She knew where that would lead. She wanted something with no complications, no ties.Lucy had just downed her third Vodka when she saw the grandson walk through the function room door. She nudged Alison. Then, to Lucy’s disappointment, a tall blonde followed him into the room and stood next to him.
“His wife?”
Alison shrugged
The man and the blonde took a seat at the far side of the room, next to the buffet. They were certainly a couple, but didn’t appear to have much to say to one another. Lucy concluded they must be married. Lucy hadn’t intended having anything to eat, but decided a trip to the buffet would give her a chance to get a better look at the man.
“Do you want anything from the buffet?” she asked Alison.
Alison smiled. She knew what Lucy was up to. “Get me a sausage roll.”
As she walked across the room, Lucy was aware that a number of men were watching her. She didn’t wear a mini skirt to work very often, but whenever she did it had the same effect. She had great legs, even though she did say so herself.
No expense had been spared on the buffet. Lucy didn’t know what half of the food on offer was. She avoided the more exotic food, grabbing only a couple of ham sandwiches, crisps and a sausage roll for Alison. Her eyes barely strayed from the man as she got closer and closer to him. He was exceptionally good looking, but he appeared very stern. Still it was a memorial service - he was hardly likely to be laughing and joking. Suddenly he looked straight at Lucy. She stopped dead in her tracks. She felt guilty, as though he must know she had been staring at him. She knew she should look away, but didn’t. The man’s gaze moved down her body. He was checking her out. There was no doubt about it. It felt as though he was undressing her. And she liked it. She would have liked it even more if he had been doing it for real. Finally he looked away, and Lucy walked back to her table.
“He was checking me out” she couldn’t wait to tell Alison.
“In your dreams. He was probably wondering what the hell you were wearing at a memorial service.”
Lucy hadn’t considered that. Perhaps he hadn’t been checking her out. Perhaps he was appalled at the skirt she was wearing at his grandfather’s memorial service. Oh well. She could dream couldn’t she?
“Hi Lucy,” Gary broke his silence.
“Sod off Gary,” Lucy said. She wasn’t that desperate.
*******
Part 2
The phones in the telesales office were red hot the next morning, and Lucy wasn’t firing on all cylinders. She was still suffering from the after effects of the free Vodka. The founder’s grandson, whose name she had since discovered was Edward Jacobs, had left not long after Lucy had been to the buffet. Once he had left, there hadn’t been much else to do, except drink.
Luckily for Lucy, she could flirt on auto-pilot, so her customers were still happy. She was on target to make the bonus this month. There was a handbag with her name on it at the Grandside Shopping Centre, so she had to keep going. Alison didn’t help. She knew Lucy was suffering and taunted her mercilessly. Lucy consoled herself it was Friday. She met up with the same three girls every Friday night. It was a tradition. She should have recovered by then. They usually had a few drinks at one of their houses before doing a pub crawl around town, and then off to a club. Lucy had made her mind up that tonight she was going to hook herself a man. She needed to get laid. In between calls, she planned what she would wear. Something particularly slutty was called for. Slutty chic.
Lucy was suddenly aware that someone was looking over her shoulder. It was Claire, her supervisor. From her office, Claire could listen to any of the calls ‘for quality control reasons’. Lucy thought she had done okay this morning despite the pounding hangover. Had she upset a customer? She didn’t think so. Lucy used hand gestures to tell Lucy to come to her office once she had finished on the current call. Claire’s office was in the corner of the sales floor. Its glass walls allowed Claire to keep an eye on the telesales floor. The girls on the sales floor called it the goldfish bowl.
“What have you done now?” Alison called after Lucy.
Lucy shrugged. She didn’t know, but she knew this wasn’t good news. The last time she had been called into the goldfish bowl, it was to get a bollocking for taking her flirting too far. The customer hadn’t complained when she had asked if he needed her to give him a hand to unload. But her supervisor hadn’t liked it, and had given her an official warning. Lucy knocked on Claire’s door, and then opened it without waiting for a response.
“Don’t sit down,” Claire said. She looked flustered. “They want to see you upstairs.”
“Who does?”
“I don’t know. The girl who telephoned didn’t say. You have to go straight away. Take the lift to the fifth floor, and then ask the girl at the reception desk. Hurry up - don’t keep them waiting.” Claire practically pushed Lucy out of the door.
The fifth floor was where all the ‘chiefs’ were. They rarely ventured downstairs, and Lucy couldn’t remember anyone from the telesales floor ever going up there. Not even Claire.
As she punched the ‘5’ button in the lift she wondered what was waiting for her. She was pretty sure it wasn’t going to be anything good. She must have really pissed someone off yesterday.
The girl behind the reception desk on the fifth floor looked down her nose at Lucy. She wasn’t accustomed to seeing a commoner up