Phyllis

I was Chief Engineer and Assistant Production manager in a small consumer electronics company on Long Island back in the seventies ... and it was an interesting job, supervising a group of about 40 women. I also sometimes swept the floor, but that wasnt as interesting.

The assembly line was a series of long workbenches built from old bowling alley lanes and staffed by women hired at slightly more than minimum wage ... before you ask, no I didnt own the company but I was paid pretty well considering the product and product quality, as well as much of the production process, were essentially my intellectual workproduct as they call it now.

Early in the product's life, we manually inserted the electronic components in the circuit boards and hand-floated them in a pot of molten solder. This wasnt 100 percent effective in completing the connections, so there were a couple of workstations set up to touch up those missed connections.

Almost all the women we hired had no experience at all in the workplace, let alone hand-soldering techniques so about every two weeks, I gave short sessions in soldering along with other tips to make the processes easier and more efficient.

We had a lot of success in hiring and retention because we followed through on our promises of cross-training and a somewhat flexible attitude toward excused absence. And I was told by the women on the line that I wasnt at all 'like a boss' because I sat with them and helped solve problems in their stations.

It was at one one those 'sit-ins' that I met Phyllis. She'd had some experience in electronics production so she was assigned to a new test fixture I'd built and I was trying to iron out a few bugs in it. I wasnt too attracted to her at first because she dressed more like a guy than a girl, typically in a tee, topped by a flannel shirt and cheap jeans. She wore no makeup and, I figured, combed rather than brushed her medium length hair ... oh, and she was missing a front molar ... not too put-offish, overall but not my type.

I did notice, though, she was more feminine than I'd thought, she had larger breasts than was readily apparent and a nice butt.

And she was pretty forward. During our chatter, while working, she told me a bit about herself and her situation. Said she had a child, a five year old boy, and her husband had left her a few years earlier.

I dont recall what we were talking about at that particular moment but, out of the blue, she asked if I had a girlfriend.

"Ummmm ... no, I'm married." Which I was sure the women all knew. They talked about everyone in the company.

"That's not what I asked."

My jaw undoubtedly dropped. I just shot her a narrow-eyed glance and kept on working, figuring that was the best option considering there were at least 4 others who had heard her say that.

I'm not gonna say I forgot about it because I didn't. Only a eunuch would have. But I put it away, with only a brief flash of fantasy now and then.

After work, though, I got a call from her.

"I'm sorry I embarrassed you, today."

I thought carefully. "Why did you say that?"

"I didnt mean to, I guess I was thinking out loud." Yeah, right!

"You realize that if the other women think you and I have something going on, that affects your work?"

"Oh..."

"If you get a promotion to a better work area, or a pay raise and they remember that, then they'll wonder if it's because you're screwing me?"

silence

"Look I'm flattered as hell you asked that, but it can make things very uncomfortable if things like that happen."

"Well, you dont mind if I fantasize, do you?"

Oh, shit! How do I answer that! but she didnt wait for an answer.

"Did you ever hear of a zipless fuck?"

Of course, I had. I read scurrilous books from the back racks in bookstores, but that was too good to pass up.