Blog: Jo’s Rings (V)

It was just a matter of time before it happened. This morning, our boss Chris came into our office and wanted to talk to both of us to brainstorm about how to deal with unreliable freelancers. Both Jo and I have struggled with freelance writers who promise they’ll be on time, but fail to deliver; Chris wanted to involve us in finding creative solutions to address the issue.

So he stood next to our whiteboard and led the discussion. Jo and I glanced at each other; we both knew this was going to be trouble. While he wasn’t looking, she frowned at me and gestured for me to be silent, to which I nodded. I let her throw a lot of ideas while I nodded approvingly or shrugged, and occasionally allowed myself a slight grunt to avoid being completely mute. I was hoping it wouldn’t affect her too much and avoid making me look suspicious. After a while, though, it was inevitable that Chris would realize I wasn’t contributing much, and he looked at me with disappointment.

“You haven’t suggested anything, Jaycee. Come on, give me something.”

I shrugged, then sighed like this was a real tough question. I scratched my head, looked around searching for an idea, and otherwise pretended I was an idiot.

“I know you have an opinion on this, you’ve been nagging me about this issue for the last six months. You can’t bail on me now.”

Yeah, that wasn’t going to work. Chris was like a dog with a bone, he wasn’t going to let this go. I glanced apologetically at Jo.

“Well,” I said, “Jo’s pretty much given you all the ideas I had. We’ve had that brainstorm two days ago.” I spoke quickly, hoping that doing so would minimize Jo’s… discomfort. I could see from the corner of my eye she was fidgeting and her breath was quickening, but she seemed to have herself under control.

“What?!” Chris said. “You to have already done this and you’re letting me go like an idiot?” He looked at me in silence, waiting for my response.

“Ah… Sorry,” I said, hoping he’d give me an earful but ask nothing else.

Then my phone rang. I wasn’t going to pick up, but Chris pointed at it.

“Answer it, we’ll finish this right after.”

I looked at the call display before picking up. It was Greg, one of my less reliable freelancers. Talk about coincidence!

“Hey Greg,” I said. “What’s up?” I was hoping he had a quick yes/no question, but no, that wasn’t the case. He wanted to discuss the finer points of the creative direction of the article he was writing for us and wanted my advice on what to do. If I didn’t have that conversation now, he’d be even later than he already was, so I had no choice but to answer his questions. I tried to be succint, but clearly not enough. Across from my desk, Jo was clearly struggling, head bowed and shivering stronger with each passing moment.

I looked at Chris. He had his back to us and seemed to be reviewing the ideas on the whiteboard. As I kept talking, I looked at Jo, hoping to make eye contact, but she was looking intently at her keyboard, teeth clenched, hands grasping the edge of her desk. I think I could see her nipples though her blouse. This had to be driving her crazy.

Finally, Chris turned back to face me and gestured for me to speed it up a little. I shrugged helplessly, pointing at the phone with quiet desperation. I mouthed “It’s Greg” as a manner of explanation. Greg’s well known for his long phone calls, so Chris nodded in understanding. Then he noticed Jo, who by then was squirming very visibly in her chair.

“Jo, you okay?” he asked.

Jo nodded, swallowing. “G-gotta go to the bathroom,” she said. She got up and hurried away. I noticed her her butt cheeks looked clenched and tight as she left the office.

I was able to finish the phone call pretty quickly after that and finished things off with Chris. I gave him some kind of bogus explanation about having had the brainstorm, not wanting to make him feel like we were doing things without him so that’s why we were letting him go on. He told me to tell him anyway next time, he liked our sense of initiative and wanted to see more of that. He left before Jo returned, a good half hour later. I don’t know how much of that time she spent masturbating, but I imagine she came pretty fast and just needed some time to regain her composure.

She and I didn’t speak for the rest of the day. I think she made an appointment with Chris to talk about a separate office. I can’t blame her.

–Jaycee
“I’m doing it.”