Story: Nightwatch Part Four

I reached for my uniform.

„Leave it,“ she said and headed for the lift. That was that for her. And for me. I obeyed, left my uniform and followed her in my cocktail dress, barefoot and trying to halt the light swinging of too short cloth over my too long body.

The short lift-ride was not less awkward than the moments before. But I felt even more trapped and exposed. The cabin was small and we had to stand close to each other. I tried to avoid her eyes. She looked me up and down. Looked away, seemed to be lost in thoughts for a second.

Abruptly she said „Back straight.“

Immediatly, my spine snapped straight. But I tried to keep my shoulders down so I would have a little more of the dress over my hips.

„Shoulders back.“

I obeyed. What else should I do? I fared well by obeying her. That was what I concluded after the ten seconds it took the lift from going from second to fourth. The hem of my dress still covered my hip area, she knew it would be long enough. But I felt even more exposed, at any minute, with any movement, the dress could ride up and expose my crotch or my ass. Uncomfortably, I kept my back straight as a stick and shoulders back like they were of stone and staggered behind the woman.

We sat down in the security office. A dim room of the size and allure of a broom closet. She told me to sit in the office chair in front of the four surveillance monitors. One was black. Second floor, ladies department.

She told me to face her. I turned the chair around. She closed the door behind her back. The air was getting stale fast, every sound was amplified and muffled at the same time. Her presence made the room crushingly small. I pulled at the dress to cover what I could of my thighs. At least I shaved today, zipped through my mind, with an awkward feeling right on this observations heels. I waited for her to say something. This definetly wasn't going to get over by me. I'd just shut up.

„Ok, here's the deal.“ She said, „Daddy... My father... Mr. Friedman – he's my father.“ She took a breath. Oddly enough her search for the right phrasing made me relax a little bit. The spell was somewhat broken. I could see her for the first time. She had blonde hair, open, flowing over her beige blazer. A fleeing chin and a boney nose proved that she really was the daughter of the old Mr Friedman. Her chin and nose didn't make her ugly. It made her intriguing to look at. Over all her dominating feature were her eyes.

She used them on me again. They impaled my mind.

„Point is, I'm your new boss.. Click play on that one“ She pointed with one of her red nails to a video player. I obeyed and started the recording, knowing what I would see. Shame and embarrasment pumped through my body. I looked on the screen only one second, than away. It was a surveillance recording from a new angle. I saw myself standing in he ladies department, still in my uniform, walking around, trying to decide what I would wear that night. I didn't want to see more, I knew what came next. I looked to the floor.

„I got suspicious when the camera malfunctioned almost every night. I got a new one and now I can get you fired... or much worse.“