Laura - Part 1

“Laura”

 

 

“Rachel” Laura yells over her phone to her Personal Assistant, “My Office Now!”

 

Rachel drops everything, grabs her clip board and darts off into Laura’s office. “Yes Laura”, she exclaims before even taking a breath!

 

“Can you print me out the monthly stats for the last 6 months, in month by month increments, we need to sharpen our bottom line”

 

Rachel nods her head and before she even has time to take another breath she is has turned and is scurrying back to her desk. 

 

Laura comes from humble beginnings, an average family in an average neighbourhood. But from a young age she knew she was in control of her destiny. After graduating university with a master’s degree in business she went straight to the biggest business in her home town. A fortune 500 logistics company that had major branches all across the united states. 

 

She met with the Senior Manager at the time, and she very clearly stated what she wanted, “I want your job she told the Male manager who was taken back by her remarks, but in the same token could see the fire within her” 

 

Needless to say, Laura didn’t start at the top, being offered a position as junior co-ordinator was just the beginning of what would be her destiny. 

 

Fast forward 15 years, Laura is now 45, a mature, strong, determine, ferocious Senior Branch manager now in charge of over 200 employees, and has taken out the Company award for the Best Employee 10 years running. She is tough on her employees some in the office might say she is a “severe Micro-Manager” and this seems to have stemmed from her wanting everything done right and her way. Self-pampering is second on her priority list, and she is always pristinely manicured, her hair is immaculate, her makeup looks like it’s done by a professional on a daily basis, she sports trendy fashionable designer dresses and accessories to complement them, her skin care regime is paramount and she always present better than the day before. See for Laura part of her wanting to be the best means she wants to present the best every single day. In actual fact a lot of her pampering happens at work right there in her office, where she will have professionals attend to her needs whilst she continues her work. For her it’s not a chore, it’s a must so that she can be at the top of her game!!

 

Rachel knocks at the door, “Come in” Rachel almost running has the reports for Laura and passes them over. 

 

Thanks “Rachel”, as Rachel turns to head off, Laura pipes up “Can you have my beauty therapist come in today please for a full Mani Pedi”. 

 

Rachel Nods her head, and before she is even out the door, she is on her mobile making an appointment. 

 

Now you might think that a tough boss in the workplace would leave the staff feeling intimidated, well you would be right. The staff literally jump at the sight of Laura doing her rounds, as they fluster to organise their desks and ensure they are working when she walks past. 

 

During the day Laura will venture around the office space located on the top floor of a 20 storey building. She regularly touches base with her management team on the floor to make sure that everything is in order, ensuring that she has total control of the whole organisation. 

 

Amongst her team are a mix of men and women, all with their own unique abilities. 

 

She stops into the office of her Operations Manager, Mike. Mike is exemplary in his job, similar to Laura in nature he is firm and concise when leading his team, but as any good operations manager he has the great ability to motivate his team on a daily basis, all whilst demonstrating empathy and compassion. Mike is really a big softy at heart. 

 

“How are we looking Mike”, Laura asks as she makes her way into his office and takes a seat at his desk. 

 

“Laura, everything is going great. Our month on Month is up 5%, the efficiency in tracking and turnaround time of our transport network is up 10% and we are on target to haul 10% more gross product by years end.”

 

“That’s music to my ears, Mike. Can you get the forecast for the next 6 months by days end? I’m working on some new initiatives to add to our income stream at present, and want to see what available resources we have to commit to getting it up and running”

 

Mike is intrigued, “That sounds interesting Laura, I’m excited and always here to offer my help where needed”. 

 

Laura stands up from her chair, and tells mike that when he brings in the reports she will show him through some details, it’s all on the hush at the moment, as it’s a big contract and we want to make sure we have it in the bag before it leaks out. 

 

Mikes phone starts to ring, as Laura makes her way from the office and he offers a simply nod in acknowledgement. Now mike is also in his 40’s and like Laura has spent most of his time building his professional life, to the sacrifice of marriage and having a family. Mike starts talking on the phone as he watches Laura walk out of the room, his eyes captured by her toned legs, and amazing Christian Louboutin heels as she struts with confidence from his office. Mike has an underlying fetish he has never really had a chance to experience other than fulfilling his desires on various online sites and forums, which is easy considering he has a Foot fetish, one of the most common of all!!

 

Many times, he fantasied about giving Laura a foot massage in her office whist they shared a fine scotch after a long day. But Although mike is strong willed at work, when it comes to his personal life, he is very reserved and cautious. 

Laura continues her rounds, talking with the various arms of the business ensuring everyone is in a good place. She gets around the office like she owns the business, in a way that exudes confidence.

 

As she makes her way back into her office, Rachel hands over a list of appointments for the day for Laura, and a few messages whilst she was away from her desk. 

 

The day goes by quickly as always, and its 3pm and her beauty therapist has arrived at the office to tend to Laura. She too knows the demanding nature of Laura, and with multiple cases under her arms she enters into Laura’s office. 

 

Veronica, the therapist goes straight to work setting up at Laura’s desk, from her cases she unravels a full manicure and pedicure station with a selection of hundreds of colours, Ultraviolet drying lights and a foot soaking tub. Within 10 minutes, Laura has her perfect size 7 feet soaking in warm water, whilst Veronica is working on her hands one at a time. The whole time, Laura doesn’t miss a minute of work, with her Bluetooth headset on she is making calls, sorting issues and planning her next big contract for the business. 

 

Mike compiles his reports and heads straight from the printer to Laura’s office. Rachel, knowing there is a person in with Laura, pages Laura on her desk phone before allowing Mike in. 

 

“Yes send him in” Laura exclaims. 

 

Veronica by this stage is starting to pack up, Laura's toes and feet have been meticulously manicured, with veronica just putting the final touches on her toil nail polish, and bright cherry apple red which oozes class and sophistication. 

 

Mike enters and takes a seat at the desk and hands the reports over to Laura, “Hot off the press” he exclaims. 

 

Laura flicks through page by page, reading over the information, using her pen to make notes on the document. Mike feeling somewhat distracted wonders what her toenail polish will look like, hidden from view behind Laura’s desk, and in the gentle hands of Veronica as she makes the final touches. 

 

“This is good Mike and fits in perfectly with our new stage of growth” Laura says whilst plonking the paper work back on her desk. 

 

Mike’s mind still wandering, he try’s to distract himself by asking a question, “so what is it that you are working on Laura” 

 

Mikes sees a bright light shine in Laura’s face as the starts to explain. “Well as you now Mike, This company to this day has focused primarily on bulk haulage. As the times are changing, I have been looking at the transport needs in the USA and consumer demand to find where we can grow out offerings”.

Veronica at this stage is finished and starts to pack up her stuff. 

 

Laura swivels from her chair and stands up barefooted allowing her nail polish to fully cure.

As Laura walks around from the rear of her desk, she heads to a white board in her office, and mike swivels his chair to see the board. 

 

Laura rotates the board exposing her workings on a multibillion-dollar deal with amazon to provide courier services. She goes on to demonstrate her conceptual idea, “See mike, amazon ships approx. 1 billion packages a year, some via the postage system and some by courier, we currently do a lot of the bulk haulage …………………”

 

Mikes brain wanders away from Laura’s words as his eyes capture the beauty of Laura’s feet. She has perfect feet, with perfectly shaped toes, each in proportion to the next, her arches are high, her heels are defined but not bony, and her legs and ankles are perfectly defined, oh and that fresh pedicure just exudes perfection. 

 

“And see so taking all this into account, I have been working with the execs at Amazon prime, and I want to offer them a complete end to end solution, to deliver all their parcels on strict timeframes utilising our vast network and adding a courier division to the business”.

 

Mikes brain now working overtime, processing the plans laid out by Laura, as well as trying to keep his mind off her feet, and how much he would love to give them a massage right about now. 

 

“Laura, this is Huge” Mike exhales with a very optimistic positive voice. 

 

“When will you be talking to amazon about this” Mike asks. 

 

“The meeting is Friday week, today is Monday so we have exactly 13 days to have this ready to go, so this is what I need from you. I need you to provide me a full plan showing how this can be achieved, what portions of this can be adsorbed in the current departments, and then a full plan on setting up a Courier division country wide.”

 

Mikes already making mental notes, “wow this is a lot to do, we can add the…a New division in each office, that’s 100 new divisions…….”

 

“Ok I’ll get onto this straight away” Makes says as he starts to stand up. 

“I want to meet with you daily Mike, so we can ensure we are on track to knock the socks off the team at amazon when I meet with them.”

 

Mike makes his way back to his desk with a sense of urgency and excitement. Throughout the rest of the day he can’t help but have moments of thoughts about Laura and how amazing her feet looked. He wonders how soft and tender they are even though she wears high heels every day. 

 

The following days prove to be busy both Laura and Mike putting in many late nights getting theirs plans together. As Laura requested, they meet daily, in fact they have been meeting twice a day once in the morning once in the evening so they can plan tasks to complete and then discuss to outcome at the end of the day. 

 

Wednesday morning comes and like every weekday morning, Laura starts her day with an organised PT session with her personal trainer, Rebecca. This occurs at her residence in her full home gym setup which includes everything from weight machines, free weights and cardio equipment. 

 

Her sessions generally end with 30 minutes on the treadmill, today was no different. As her trainer packs up the equipment and prepares the daily nutrition guide for Laura, Laura is pounding out a brisk jog on the treadmill. As the 30 minutes timer clicks over, she lowers the speed to a brisk walk before coming to a stop. Grabbing her towel, she wipes her face down as she rotates to step off the treadmill. Her vision covered by the towel for a split second she goes to step off the treadmill, and very slightly miss judges the edge of the treadmill, as her right foot goes down the heel of her shoe catches and the weight of her stepping down sends her right ankle jolting outwards. 

 

As momentum takes her forward she stumbles and feel an immediate pain from her right ankle. But Laura, not one to show weakness, grabs for the arm rail of the treadmill for support, and immediately straightens her self up. Rebecca looks up as she saw Laura stumble from the corner of her eye, “Are you ok Laura” she asks. 

 

“Yes, Yes I’m fine, just missed the step, nothing to see here” Laura puts on a brave face and takes a moment to compose herself. She can feel her right ankle starting to throb, but in true Laura fashion palms of the notion that she is at all hurt and starts to take a few small steps. She feels the pain, growing with each step, but does not show a sign of pain on her face, nor a limp as she engages in conversation with Rebecca for her daily nutrition plan. 

 

Laura heads off to prepare for her day, and Rebecca finishes off in the gym cleaning and tidying for heading off also. 

 

She reaches her mammoth walk in rob, and starts to undress herself in preparation for a shower. She takes a seat and starts to remove her sneakers and socks, pretending as if her ankle does not hurt at all, even though she is alone. Albeit as the shoe comes off her right foot she feels a shooting pain radiate from her ankle. She takes the sock off revealing her bare foot and ankle and looks around at her ankle. There is no obvious swelling or issues, and she goes on to tell herself, “See Laura nothing wrong, Let’s get this day going” completely denying the fact that anything is wrong. 

 

She prepares herself for the day ahead, and decides on a pair of high heeled ankle boots that are very firm around her feet and ankle, thinking this might be a good option after her little fumble. She starts with a few steps cautiously, and then a few more freely flowing and is satisfied, she has made the right decision. 

 

She arrives at the office, and departs the elevator on the top floor of the building, and struts her way through the office as she does every morning. With every step she can feel the pain in her ankle, but she does not show it, especially to her staff and team. “a sign of weakness from the leader of the team, is a sign of a weak team” she keeps mummering to herself in her head. 

 

As she exchanges many good mornings on her way through she reaches her office where she is met by Rachel, holding a coffee for her, and a list of her appointments for the day and any messages for her and thanks Rachel and descends into her office. As she enters she closes the door behind her immediately, and then leans on the back of the door, holding her right ankle up just off the floor. She rotates her right ankle around slowly, and can feel already its much more painful than when she left home. In the privacy of her office she lets her self feel the pain as her face grimaces as she slowly moves her ankle around.  30 seconds and she pushes off the door and walks to her desk with a very slight limp. 

 

She gets straight to it, with every Wednesday morning starting with a 30 minute debrief with the whole team in the board room. After consuming a few sips of coffee and opening her laptop up for the day, she stands to head to the board room. As she goes to take her first step a sharp pain radiates from her right ankle causing her ankle to wobbly with weakness, as she clutches the desk for support and stops momentarily. She cringes a little, but knows she must put on a brave face and get going. She grabs her coffee and then walks to the door with a minor limp, as that door swings open she puts on her firm boss face and struts her way down the to the board room like she doesn’t have a worry in the world. 

 

She arrives at the board room to see all the staff ready and waiting, she closes the door and prompts the team, “ Well what are we waiting for”. The meeting is Led by Laura, with slides from each division presented on a big screen for all to see. Laura, usually sits for the first part of the meeting and then stands at the screen as she presents her slides. At around the 10 minute mark, the team has finished with their updates and its now Laura’s turn as she pushes her chair backwards and get to her feet. 

 

The minute she stands she feels her ankle start to pound fiercely, but Laura abstains from showing any pain. She casually and purposely makes her way to the screen and takes control of the pointer and Clicker to change the slides and goes on with her presentation. 

 

15 minutes into the presentation and she is just about to wrap up the meeting the pain from her ankle continues to intensify. She holds firm though, talking to the team effortlessly and never waiving from her usually persona. Once the meeting is over she dismisses the team and she gathers her papers together. 

 

“Mike hold back for a moment”, Laura calls out as they are all leaving in a firm voice. “have you finished the plans for the new courier divisions” She asks. 

 

Mike looks over to her and says, “not completely, I have about 50% of it done” 

 

Laura now feeling the pain more than ever in her ankle, looks up and says, “ Well that’s not good enough, we need to get this done. Show me what you have got so far.”

 

 They exit the board room and head for Mikes office which conveniently is right over the other side of the office!!!

 

Every Step becomes more painful, every step she can feel her ankle become less stable, but she soldiers on, without a hint of pain or expression. They reach mikes office, and she take a seat, in her mind thinking “Thank god I can sit for a moment” she raises her right leg over her left to take the weight of her right ankle which helps to relieve the pain somewhat. 

 

Mike goes like a racehorse out of the gates, racing through his information with excitement and enthusiasm. 

 

“Stop” Laura yells, the sound echos through the office. 

 

Mike stops a looks at her like a deer in headlights, as Laura stands up planting her right foot down.

 

“Mike you have missed the whole point, get everyone in the board room, I will tell them what they need to do”

 

She storms her way into the board room with the rest of the staff quickly rushing from their desks. 

 

“Sit down everyone, there is no time to waste” 

 

She gets straight to it and starts to brief the team on the project at hand. “Now Mike, we need to drop those costs dramatically, we need to be able to deliver every package for a maximum cost of $9.95 per parcel.” Mike jumps in, “But that’s going to be….” 

 

Laura cuts him off, “But nothing, that’s what I want to present that’s what we need to achieve.” Mike feeling a bit sheepish and battered at this stage just bows his head as she continues. Laura go on to task every team leader in the room with a specific task and details on how she wants it done. 

 

“And by the way, don’t expect to be going home before 9pm every day until this is complete”. Laura grabs her papers and starts to walk out of the board room. Her ankle now throbbing uncontrollably, she presents with a very slight limp as she is leaving the room. 

 

One of the team leaders, Hannah turns into her friend and fellow team leader Sarah, “Is Laura limping?” Sarah looks up out the door as she and the rest stand grabbing there things. Sarah and Hannah almost run from the room, to look, and see yes she is definitely limping a little. Sarah turns to Hannah and says, “ Well I hope she is and its hurting a lot, serves her right for being so controlling.”

 

The ladies have a little giggle tio them selves, as they head back to their work stations. Mike heads back to his office, and is devastated that all his work so far was a waste of time, and that Laura has come in here and just thrown it out and taking control again. 

 

Laura reaches her office and enters slamming the door behind her, she gets to her desk throws her papers down and then slumps into her chair. She reaches down to her right ankle firmly held in her ankle boot and holds her ankle with both hands. The pain the worst it has been so far, and for a moment, she feels not in control. 

 

“Rachel” she yells, Rachel drops what she is doing and goes into her office. “yes Laura” 

 

“Ring Doctor Robinson please and tell him I need to see him today” Rachel, mistakenly asks, “Is Everything ok Laura” 

 

Laura Snaps back, “Non of your business now just do your job” 

Rachel turns and leaves the office. Laura's pain seemingly intensifying her tone and brashness with her staff. But her she must knows she must compose herself Infront of her staff and knows that they would only like it too much to see her crumble. 

 

Dr Robinson arrives an hour later, and is quickly ushered into Laura's office. Hannah and Sarah see the doc with large case on wheels, walking through the office into the Laura’s office. Instantly it sparks up some conversation amongst the team. 

 

“Maybe she is off her meds, they joke. Maybe she needs to demon tamed, another jokes, maybe they should call a priest not a doctor another replies, and almost all at the same time there is a loud laughter in the office.”

 

Dr Robinsons enters Laura’s office and makes his way to the desk. He greets her and puts his brief case down. “What seems to be the concern Laura” 

 

“Well Doc, nothing serious but I need you to look at my ankle, I twisted it a bit this morning and its becoming more painful.” She goes on to explain how it happened and then he asks Laura to come to sofa in her office so he can examine the ankle. 

 

Laura stands and very slowly limps her way to sofa. The doc see’s she is wearing heels and says, “well they are not going to help the situation Laura pointing at her high heeled ankle boots” Laura takes a seat on the sofa and puts her foot up on the coffee table.

 

The doctor moves in and starts by unzipping the heel shoe and slowly slipping it off to reveal her think white sock underneath. Then He removes the sock gently exposing her pristine foot. He starts to examine all around her ankle foot and lower leg, poking and prodding. Was was a slim ankle is now showing some light to mild swelling around the outer ankle side. As he presses on the areas trying to ascertain the location of the injury and the potential diagnosis, he finds a point of tenderness. “Arghh Laura Screams” The doctor keeps prodding, “Arghhh” He then takes lauras foot up into his hands, and starts to move it around in different directions. As he moves the foot inwards, Laura grasps for air, exhaling a moan of pain so loud the office hers it. 

 

Immediately the conversation resumes in the office, “maybe she has broken her leg, or ankle” one exclaims. Mike caught in the moment, lets his guard down, “I hope not” he says, instantly everyone looks to him, “I mean like we will be working 24 hours a day for the next 10 days if she has” he tries to save himself. They all start to think damn, he is right. Sarah Pipes up, well it would be better doing that and not having her here. 

 

Doc - “Ok Laura, it appears you have sprained your ankle the good news is I’m pretty certain its only minor grade 1, and that tender part where I pressed is the anterior ligament. You have defiantly stretched it good.” Laura goes on to ask, ok well what do I need to do to get this sorted asap” 

 

“ Well firstly I would suggest ditching the heels he says”, Laura ponders the thought for a split second and says, “ That’s not going to happen. What else” 

 

“Ok well you should be resting, elevating and icing your ankle every couple of hours. Here is a number for a physio therapist who will be able to visit you here for further treatment”, as he hands over a business card. He reaches grabs his medical kit and opens the case up, and grabs an ice pack, and an ace bandage. He cracks the instant ice pack so the chemical mix causing it to freeze up immediately. He puts the ice pack down and then grabs the bandage. “Hold your leg up a bit for me” he asks Laura, who complies. He bandages up her ankle in a very neat figure of 8 patern leaving her toes and heel exposed and then rests her foot down and places the ice pack on her ankle. Following this he grabs out his script pad and writes her a script for some medium strength pain pills and some strong advil to help with the swelling. 

 

“Ok, take 2 each of these up to eight times a day with food. Keep of your ankle and keep it bandaged for support. Ring the physio and in couple of days you should be much better. If you have more problems give me a call.” 

 

“Thanks Doc” She says as he packs up his things. The doctor leaves her office and Laura immediately grabs her mobile phone and calls the physio. “Hi I need an appointment today please” she asks, the receptionist who takes the call gets her details and organises her appointment. “Ok just to confirm Laura, our physiotherapist, Daniel will visit your office this afternoon at 3pm”, “yes that’s perfect Laura says” and then the call is terminated. 

 

Laura decides to remove her left boot, and then grabs her boots and sock and stands up and limps over to her desk. She pulls in a chair close by so she can elevate her foot up on the chair and keep the ice pack on it. She picks up the phone and dials her Assistant Rachel, “ Rachel, can you please cancel all of my out of office appointments today and no one is to see me unless you speak with me first. And There will be another person coming to see me at 3pm this afternoon”, “Ok Laura” Rachel Responds. 

 

Rachel does as she is told, and Laura continues about her day. Alternating the ice pack from her ankle to the freezer every hour. 

 

3pm arrives and Daniel makes he way up the building and to Laura's office. He reaches Rachels desk outside of Laura’s office and Rachel calls lauras phone, “ Laura Daniel is here”, Laura responds, “Ok send him in” 

 

Daniel enters the office and closes the door behind him. Laura stands up and moved from behind her desk and heads to the sofa in her office again. 

 

Daniel sees straight away that she is wearing no shoes and one white sock on her left foot, limping and has her right ankle bandaged, and makes a. comment. “well I guess that’s what the problem is” 

 

He Unpacks his medical kit and goes to work. Firstly, removing the bandage and testing the range of motion of lauras ankle. He tests everything out from the strength in her ankle to her balance standing up. After about 15 minutes he comes to the same result as the doctor suggested, Grade 1 sprain. 

 

He then goes to his medical kit and fetches a few items, namely some resistance bands and some paper with illustrations of exercises to be performed. He shows Laura all of the exercises, including some resistant band dorsiflexion and Plantar flexion movements, some heel raises seated and standing, inversion and eversion resistance band exercises and tells her to do this 3 times a day until there is no pain or swelling. He then makes a comment, “Also for the swelling get your husband to massage the ankle in the morning and evening to help reduce that swelling.” Laura has a little laugh, “what husband”, 

 

Daniel back pedals for a moment, “oh sorry I just presumed I shouldn’t have done that”, That’s ok Laura replies, seemingly nice to the guy. 

 

Meanwhile there is a stir in the lunch room again, Sarah and Hannah are talking about the second medical professional that’s appeared today.  “I hope she isn’t here tomorrow” Sarah comments as a quiet laughter erupts from the lunch room. 

 

Daniel completes his work, and packs up his trunk before re-bandaging her ankle. Laura thanks him again, and limps her way to her desk as Daniel leaves the room. She takes a seat and elevates her ankle with a fresh ice pack as well. 

 

The afternoon goes seemless, and she is still working away at her desk at 8:30 pm as the daily tasks she set with the team leaders come flooding into her inbox. She stands and brings her white board closer to her desk, her ankle now feeling much less painful, most likely due to the ice and resting. 10pm comes around and she has not received the daily tasking from Mike yet, and just as she goes to pick up her phone to ring him at his desk there is a knock at the door. She jumps at her seat, quickly, pushing the chair out of the road and putting her bandage foot under the desk, she slides her shoes out of sight also, and then takes a moment to compose her self. 

 

“Come in” she calls out. 

 

Mike comes in through the door slowly, papers in hand. Laura looks up from her papers on her desk, to see Mike slowly entering. “Sorry for bothering you Laura he starts with, I know Rachel told us that you were not wanting to speak with anyone today, but I was just about to head home and I wanted to take some time to show you my work from today, because I think I have the perfect solution.”

 

“Ok Mike come and show me what you got” 

 

Mike enters, with them two being the two remaining people in the office and closes the door behind him. He goes to her desk and takes a seat.  

 

He passes over the papers to her and starts to explain it all. A few seconds in he sees the white board next to Laura's desk and gets up to go to it. “let me show you what I mean it will make more sense” as he rounds the side of the desk he sees that her shoes are behind the desk, with one sock sitting on top of them. He refrains from saying anything at first in fear of having his head bitten off. 

 

He starts to write on the white board, and his plan is starting to come together, seamlessly fitting in with the notes already made by Laura. 

 

Laura in grained in the explanation, forgets for a moment about her ankle and turns around on he swivel chair exposing her bandaged ankle. As Mike continues to fill in the blanks on the white board he turns momentarily to Laura and his eyes glimpse her bandaged ankle. Laura looking down at the papers in her hand, doesn’t immediately notice. 

 

He pauses for a brief moment, “Laura are you ok” he asks. Laura immediately realises that she has let her guard slip. She looks up and swivels on her chair to hide her ankle. 

“yes I’m fine, just a little miss hap” Trying to move on from the topic. 

 

Mike mounts some courage in a split second, fearing that he will be sent marching from the office, “Are you sure, because I saw that the doctor and another person was here today and everyone was talking about it in the lunch room.” 

 

Laura's eyes light up thinking, I need to know what everyone is saying. I can’t have them thinking I have let my guard down, I’m still in control even with the annoying injury. She pauses for a moment to collect her thoughts and then as her controlling mind takes over once again, she has a thought on how to control this situation. 

 

“Ok Mike take a seat”, Mike nervously makes his way to the chair thinking he was about to receive his marching orders. “Now Mike I have always valued your work here, and I look at you as a young me, Driven, Dedicated and hard working. In my eyes I see you as the natural person to take the reigns as the second in charge here” Laura continues to dangle the carrot, as mikes mind is like, is spinning in circles thinking what the hell is going on. 

 

“The reason I am good at my job and have won 10 consecutive awards for the best employee is my ability to be tenacious, firm and distance my self from the work environment and more importantly not show my staff any kind of weakness which will push them to be better and stronger.” Mikes sitting there thinking what was being said in the office lunch room and the rumours between the team leaders, wondering if she really knows what the staff think if her. 

 

Laura goes on, “But see mike I’m sure the staff might think I’m this bully or mean over power, control freak” 

 

Mike thinks to himself, you got that right.

 

“But I need to be in this job, to be at the top of my game” Laura goes on. 

 

“So Mike as I believe you are a good person for this business” She tries to soften him up, “may I suggest something?”

 

Mike looks with his eyes wide open glued to her lips, “yes of course”

 

“ I have decided that once we get this contract, and we will, I will, need a second in charge around here, and I think you are the right person for this. But you need to show me your trust, and discretion abilities and it starts right now.”

 

Mike eagerly listening, “Ok, what is it you need me to do?”

 

“Ok well for starters what you see tonight is our secret, at no point or stage will you every talk to any one about my injury, any weakness of mine will never be portrayed to the other staff, you will not engage in conversation about it, and further more at all times you will not allow me to be disgraced amongst your peirs, and my my authority never be questioned. Can you do this”

 

Mike ponders his thoughts for a moment, not totally sure he knows what he is in for, but he does like the sound of a the second in charge job. “Ok Laura, I can do that. 

 

“Ok” Laura exclaims, thinking she has Mike by the balls so to speak. 

 

“Good work on this project, before you go can you get me the ice pack from the freezer? Mike bounds from the chair, “of course” and heads to grab the ice pack from the fridge in her office. He returns to the desk and Laura has pulled the spare chair closer and raised her foot back up. He hands her the ice pack, and then asks, “Is there anything else you need?” Laura ponders for a moment, “well there is one thing, how are you at giving massages?” 

 

Mikes heart literally stops beating for a split second, “Umm umm” he fumbles his words momentarily, “Well I’m not sure to be honest but happy to try” he exclaims. Wondering what on gods earth was about to happen. 

 

Laura lifts her ankle up off the chair and pushes it back a little, “Take a seat, the doc said a massage of my lower leg, and ankle and foot will help the swelling go down, and I would appreciate your help with this.”

 

Mike pauses for a moment, as his mind catches up with his heart now beating at and un-controllable rate. He can’t believe this is happening right now. He moves his way into the seat and sits down and shuffles forward a little, then Laura lowers her right foot down onto his knee. He undoes the clips holding the bandage firm on Luara’s ankle and starts to remove the bandage slowly. 

 

“So what happened” he asks cautiously.

 

Laura looks up from reading the papers in her hand, “just miss stepped of my treadmill, and twisted my ankle this morning. Doc says its just a grade 1 sprain and it will be fine in a couple days.”

 

Mike has no idea about sprained ankles and really didn’t know what to expect as the bandage comes off layer by layer. As the final loop is removed, her tender foot is exposed. Mike’s eyes waver all over her foot, as he cradles it gently in his hands not wanting to cause any pain, he can feel how soft they are. He is aww, as he starts to gently massage her foot and ankle and lower leg. As he runs his hands all over, he can feel him self getting rather worked up. He gazes down at her foot taking in the beauty of it, whilst trying to be gentle as well. The outer ankle side of the ankle is looking less swollen a already from the ice and rest, and besides some light swelling you wouldn’t know there was an injury. 

 

Interestingly Laura starts to enjoy it, never really have a foot massage before, other than when getting a pedicure, she realises that its actually very soothing. 

 

15 minutes pass and mike looks up at Laura and asks, “ How does that feel?” 

 

Laura puts the papers down, “Good thank you. The doc said twice a day would be ideal, so if you don’t mind could you do it again tomorrow and after that I think I should be right”

 

For a moment, Mike feels like he is starting to see another side of Laura, maybe a gentle warm within. 

 

Mike not wanting to show his satisfaction for the experience responds with a joke, “ Well ill do what I need to get that job”. 

 

Laura hears but does not comment thinking I have got Mike all under control how. Thinking she can get her shoe on with the bandage, she lowers her leg and mike moves the chair away. She starts to wrap her ankle up again as the doctor did earlier, and mike moves to grab his things. “Well ill be off now”, mike says. 

 

Laura nods in acknowledgment and he departs the room. Laura finishes bandaging her ankle which does feel much better then earlier in the day, and then slips her thin white sock on. She grabs her right shoe and starts to put it on slipping the end of the foot in but then is met with some resistance, and the shoe is very tight fitting, she pushes down with the shoe on the ground to try work her foot and heel in the ankle boot which then slowly and frimly slips in, as she goes to zip up the zipper she realises that the the zipper will not do up. The extra padding around her ankle has pushed the fabric and zipper to far apart to zip up. 

 

She decides that seen as though its feeling better she will remove the bandage so she can get the shoe on properly, and she does. She grabs her items from her desk and slowly stands knowing all well she is the only remaining person in the office so she does not need to hide her weakness. She takes a few steps and its definitely feeling better but the heel is causing it to hurt more with each step. She gingerly limps her way out and to the elevator to head home for the evening. 

 

On the way home Mike can’t help but feel super aroused and also shocked by what had just unfolded, Something he has only dreamed off, out of pure chance just occurred. And a little part of him cant help but wish she was injured again so that he could massage every days for longer. But he takes it as it is, and is satisfied that Laura's feet are as beautiful and soft as he had always dreamt. 

 

The next day, Laura arises bright and early in preparation for her PT arriving. She gets out of bed and looks at her ankle which almost looks like its back to normal. She moves it around and its very stiff, so she gets up and gets ready. As she makes her way to the gym she feels her ankle starting to loosen somewhat but also feels its starting to become painful again. 

 

When Rebecca her PT arrives, she tells her she had a late night in the office and isn’t feeling super motivated and will skip the cardio today, Mean while Laura thinks this is the perfect excuse to not aggravate or expose her injury.

 

Laura goes upon her day, as normal, and deciding that the tight ankle boots would be a good option again today, hoping they will provide a little support. She trials them out and as expected she can walk, albeit somewhat uncomfortable and she expects the pain to intensify should she continue to walk a lot through the day, but no one in the office will suspect a thing. She feels confident that her ankle will be fine in no time. 

 

She arrives at her office building and parks in the underground carpark allocated to here which is conveniently close the elevator. 

 

She retrieves her items from the car and locks the car and proceeds to walk towards the lift. As she walks towards the lift on the smooth concrete, her ankle becomes a little more painful but she maintains her composure encase someone is watching. But then it happens….