Authors: Jessa Hawke
So that's why I'm interested in doing this, Jane though to herself, because of how the intersection of business and law changed my life so greatly when it impacted my father's.
Or something like that, at least, she figured. But maybe it was just that she wanted to run a business and that meant she needed to be the boss. So many people had their own reasons, and Jane figured they were all just as good. Jane had them on her mind now, as she finished packing away her things and started searching for her swimsuit. The firm had told her to think of all the goals that she wanted to achieve in her life, and also they'd asked her to have a good idea of her motivations and intentions by the time she “stepped on deck tomorrow,” the email had read. Her father had said that a few of her bosses would be former Marines, but not just that, Marines that had been Drill Instructors. He said that they expected people to be “locked on” and that meant that if they asked her to do something then she better God damn well do it, and if they asked her to be ready with answers then the answers better roll of her tongue and be the best thing she'd ever said in her entire life. Or close to it.
Jane couldn't help but let out a long sigh as she slid into the hot tub on the roof of her new apartment complex. She'd have a long day tomorrow, but it would be rewarding, she was sure. Her father said the guys she'd be working for like to give out bonuses for things that were sometimes strange, like going the extra mile on something that didn't seem important at the time. Her father had gone on to tell her about all the times he'd heard them talk about how they'd given an intern a huge cash bonus for moping the restroom floor well, or for scrubbing all the typos out of the firm's newsletter. Jane had heard others that seemed more comical than serious, but the point had been made—Jane knew that she needed to be on top of things, that when any of the firm's partners told her to do something she needed to do it.
As she sunk down in the hot tub she thought of how some of the partners were really hot for old guys. She remembered how many of her friends from college had told her that it was creepy to think that way about dudes that were literally old enough to be their fathers, but Jane didn't care. To her all men were just that, men, even if they were a little bit older than her, or even if they were a
lot
older than her. It just didn't matter to her at all, really. And she didn't care if they were her bosses, either. What was the worst thing that could happen if they fooled around? But then she chided herself. Surely she wanted to be a little bit more professional than that while she worked at her first real firm. It wouldn't do to just run around sleeping with everyone, especially since they all knew her father from playing golf with him and buying land through him.
Oh well, Jane thought, it could have been fun.
The firm wasn't in the big building that had existed in Jane's mind. Instead it was in a smaller building, but nevertheless well built. When she walked in she realized how out of her eliminate she was. There was all manner of people seated in the foyer waiting to be seen by the lawyers, and that was something that Jane hadn't even thought of. In her mind all of their clients would be rich white people, even though she knew better than to think that. She had known better intellectual to think that, but that didn't translate to real life, she'd just found. One of the men got up from his seat and walked over to her, assuming she already worked at the firm and this wasn't her first day. He asked her several questions rapidly in Spanish and when she didn't answer he stalked back to his seat and sat down in a huff.
“You'll have to excuse some of the people we do business with,” a voice from behind her said. “They often times aren't in the best mood. Hello, my name is Derek and I'm one of the partners. We're about to go to a meeting room where Jon will join us.”
Jane nodded and followed Derek to a room not far from the lobby. They didn't speak as they walked, Jane being to shook up to manage any words and Derek leading the way with a quick pace. When they got to the room they found Jon waiting for them. Both of the men were much older, with salt and pepper hair and crow's feet at the corners of their eyes. They both seemed like kind men as they introduced themselves more fully, giving a brief history of the firm and what she might be able to expect in the near future. Jane listened intently and nodded at the right times. She figured that there wasn't much that she didn't already know, considering how straight forward things were. All at once she was surprised.
“So could you stand up and take off your clothes so we could see you naked?”
It had been Derek that had spoken, but Jon had nodded so vigorously when Derek had said it there was no way of mistaking that both men were speaking one in the same. Jane stood up, feeling like she was some kind of zombie. Not that she wasn't in control of her faculties, or anything like that, but just that she was so shocked she wasn't sure what else to do. The most shocking thing wasn't that the men wanted her to get naked, the most shocking thing to Jane was how wet she'd gotten just at the idea of doing so. It was something that instantly turned her on, made her so hot that she could barely control herself. What had gotten into her? Jane didn't know, but she did know that she didn't want it to go away anytime soon. She liked feeling so worked up about older men. It really made her feel like a sexual person, like she was sexy.
“Why do you want me to take my clothes off?” Jane asked.
Jane just asked because she wanted to her just why they did want her to take her clothes off. It was a pretty bold request, even for a law firm. These guys had to know that if she was wearing a wire, or if she'd turned her phone to record, that she would be able to turn around and sue them for pretty much everything that they had.
“We don't, actually,” Derek said. “But we wanted to see what you'd do. As I'm sure you're probably aware myself and Jon are both former military men. That really doesn't mean too much out of the ordinary, but it means that we like people to follow orders. Orders that make sense, that is. So you see, we wanted to throw something at you that you would have absolutely no way of imagining we'd say. So we said that because it's totally out of line.”
“What were you looking for?” Jane asked.
“Well like I was saying,” Derek went on. “It's really about your reaction. We want you to make a move to follow the command because we want you to be that kind of person, a go getter who knows how to follow orders. But at the same time we don't want you to be a mindless robot. We want you to question things and think for yourself. What good would you be at a law firm if you never thought for yourself? Now, granted, much of the time you'll be doing all of the drudgery work. And some of the time you'll be administering special services to me and Jon, and maybe a few of the other partners. But there will be times that you absolutely, positively, must be at least awake on your feet so that you don't do something stupid on autopilot. I know that might sound weird but you have no idea how many people we have to let go because they come fresh out of school with this fucked up attitude of thinking they have to do whatever they are told. Well yes, you do, kind of, but you also have to be mentally competent to be able to adapt to things.”
Derek paused. Jane blinked.
“Do you know what I mean?”
Jane nodded. What else was she supposed to do? There really wasn't anything else he could mean—or so she thought. Jane wanted to fuck the two older men more than she could believe, but it never occurred to her that they could be setting her up for that very thing. It wasn't that Jane would have resisted, or that she would have turned her nose up at the opportunity, it was that she was used to living in the small town world of Ames, Iowa; and although Des Moines wasn't much bigger, it was at least a place with a gay bar, more than one, operating. Ames hadn't really been able to support even that, although some of the old alumni that were still hanging around campus for whatever reason would sometimes talk about how the Foxtail used to be the town gay bar, even though the Foxtail had been shut down for years. Here in Des Moines there were things that Jane didn't know, things she wasn't even aware she was ignorant of. Part of this, or course, had a lot to do with Jane's age. At twenty-two she thought she knew everything, especially after having just finished college. Because Jane didn't go to a place where college challenged her, even though ISU was a completely legit school that did strive to put their students to the test. That didn't matter so much because the entire system was broken, corrupt, and suffered from systemic problems that weren't going to go away anytime soon. Or ever. So instead of being challenged Jane was awarded as for grades, and easily made the Dean's List, and garnered awards and trophies for things that normally would have only earned a student in the old days of academia a nod.
The old days of academia were over, gone far away. Now everyone that trotted their happy selves through the front doors, and signed enough papers to make the loan money come pouring forward from the Federal Government, was allowed to participate. And not only were they allowed to participate, they were bequeathed the knowledge, very early in the process, that things were going to turn out in their favor. No one was going to outright fail them, it just wasn't how things were handled anymore. People didn't get anything below a C unless they didn't come to class, or if they came to class and slept. So Jane had shown up, churned out the right answers during tests that were graded on a curve that always seemed to favor her, and she ended up with the very degree that loads and loads of money bought her. Except that Jane didn't have loans because her dad was rich. And she didn't realize that the men she was talking to might not be joking, at least not enough to make it all right to joke about out loud, but it all seemed to get glossed over by Jane.
“I think you know what I'm talking about!” Derek said with a smile, his voice rising to match the jubilant look on his face. There was something about people that looked so happy that made Jane happy as well, so she smiled and nodded, hoping that she wasn't so wet that she might soak all the way through her panties and make a spot on her dress or something of that nature. But nothing like that happened. The two men showed Jane to her knew office and left her to her own devices.
Jane sat for a while trying to figure out what exactly she was supposed to be doing. She wasn't really sure. The two men hadn't given her a very good idea of what she could expect of this place at all. She did grant them that she'd been so turned on by the idea of getting naked in front of them that she really hadn't been listening to a whole lot anyway. So now she sat behind her computer in a small room with a small window that faced her in the top right corner of the wall. The window was stained glass, and looked like it had been made a long time ago and maybe restored just for this room, since the building seemed old and most likely needed some kind of upkeep that was pretty much continuous or else the place would just crumble. The stained glass window was a strange vision of harvest, with little workers wielding scythes out in the amber fields of grain that plastered the countryside. For such a small window it sure held a lot of activity and ideas in it, Jane though to herself.
Glancing around the rest of the room revealed little more than deeply pocked walls, damaged from tenants who'd decided that it was more important to nail up a few tapestries than it was care about things like the wall and the paint and the time of whoever was going to have to clean it all up. Jane thought that it was the perfect place for someone like her, someone who really liked to think about their surroundings and what was going on. She had been like this in Ames, at least when she hadn't been drinking. Now that she'd moved she'd gone without boozing for a few days, and that was a lot longer than she'd ever gone without boozing the rest of her college career. She was kind of amazed at how transitions like this could end up being almost therapeutic. Jane made some tea and slipped into a warm bath. The next day, her real first day since today had been a day of strange introductions, was right around the corner and she wanted to be well rested for it.
The next day started out with one of the partners calling her in his office. He had her tidy up around the place, lifting up books to dust under them and doing other chores such as that, as he leaned back in his chair and smiled at her. She looked back at him with the same smile. She couldn't believe how good he looked, even though he was a little bit older than anyone she ever thought she'd be attracted to. She remembered him being named Jon.
“Jon, is this all right?” She asked. “Is there anything else you'd like me to do while I'm here?”
Jon thought long and hard for a second, and then smiled.
“You know what, there is something I need you to do for me,” he said.
Jane could tell that he was having a hard time hiding his erection from her. He was the kind of guy that didn't like it when younger women knew that they had turned him on. Jane never got it when guys decided to be this way, it always struck her as odd. But for some reason she was all wet again, and she couldn't help but play into what was going on.
“Would you like some help with that hard on?” Jane asked.
“Anything you could do for me would be greatly appreciated!” Jon exclaimed.