David Burrows had been with the Accounting Department of CND Industries for two years. Going straight into the company from college, he had risen steadily up through the ranks due to his nice personality, strong character, hard work and ambition. The CEO of the company, Edward Avery, had his eye on David as a potential future fast-tracker to the corporate elite. Life was good for David. His love life was made complete with his capture of Katherine Andrews, 24, a co-worker in the accounting department. She had become his fiancee the previous summer and their plans were to be married in the coming spring.

Katherine was a stunner. Tall and light-skinned, with dark, raven hair, which flowed to her waistline, and almond black eyes. She was a true head turner as she floated down the fashionable avenues of Manhattan. The sexual fantasy of any man, she had committed herself uniquely to David, who was two years older, and tall, like a stallion, with a slightly boyish, innocent face. His quality character set him apart from so many of the devious people at the office and that was what initially attracted her to him. They lived happily together in a luxury loft in a fashionable part of Brooklyn.

Before David, there had been a brief tryst with Max Skilling, the section chief several years her senior, who presided over the accounting team at CND, a team which included herself and David. Max had been hot for Katherine's ass since the minute she walked into the interview room as a fresh graduate three years ago. She was instantly hired, beating out a stable of far more qualified candidates. Max had been sure to remind her of this frequently, and ignoring the established guidelines for sexual harassment, he would often make physical contact with Katherine at the workplace, patting her tight, high bottom when she walked by, whispering dirty words into her ear, brushing her hair softly and constantly turning every conversation topic into something lewd, causing her to blush, and sometimes unexpectedly, feel wet. He was slowly seducing her.

One night, shortly before David had arrived to their section, there had been a Christmas office party. Max had plied Katherine with champagne, and had even gotten her to join him in a couple lines of coke in the office bathroom. Later that night, they escaped from the party and went back to Max's place for a drunken blow-job followed by a nasty fuck, he leaning Catherine over his sofa and bobbing her rudely from behind. She had never been exposed to this kind of rough sex at college. Alcohol, drugs and nasty sex: Max's ploys at the office had finally started paying off. He was finally getting Katherine in line. She was going to be his bitch now. Just the way he had planned it.

He had carried on like this for several weeks with Katherine, gradually drawing her into his world of cocaine, pornography, and hardcore sex. His plan was to slowly groom her into a total whore who he could take to his buddies sex parties to show off, put on film, and pass around to many dirty friends, but when David appeared on the scene after being transferred up through a channel beyond Max's control, he was caught off guard. David's natural youth and goodness, his nice looks and style were sure to work the charm with young Katherine Andrews. Katherine had begun to feel bad because of Max and the dark world he was pulling her into. She was weakening from the repeated nights of alcohol, sex, and drugs, and her work performance was going down. Max had been good at covering up all of her mistakes so that no eyebrows would be raised on the higher floors of the building. She was getting desperate, and saw David as a white knight who had come on a divine mission to rescue her life.

Quickly she latched onto David, making work-related excuses in order to set up little meetings in the office at first, then in coffee shops outside the office where they could talk more freely. Max was wise to what Katherine was up to but was powerless to rein her in, as his office duties required him to be at various places throughout the day. He had not established her as his woman at the workplace and had tried to keep their relationship secret. This worked greatly to the advantage of Katherine and David, and soon they were often seen together in and around the office, much to the bane of Max. Their friendship progressed and David helped Katherine to gain the confidence to leave drugs once and for all. Finally, one night after a long talk with David, Katherine got up the courage to call Max and tell him that she could no longer see him except as a friend.

Max, of course, was livid. This bitch-whore who he had worked so hard to get on his dick head was leaving him for some fresh-faced college boy who clearly would have no idea how to fuck her right. All of his plans to turn her into his private whore had crashed in what seemed a single instant. Cool-headed and determined, he decided to accept the scenario for the time being, and see how things would play out.

Shortly after, David invited Katherine to dinner and their dating began. He was very patient, and gentle, seemingly afraid to initiate sex. Katherine, however had been recently perverted by Max, and was getting very horny under her pants. She decided to invite him over to her place and cook for him one night. After a few beers, she was easily able to convert this innocent boy into her sex partner, and the two fell quickly in love, despite David's relative lack of skill and know-how in the sack. Within a month they had moved in to the loft together.

Their life continued smoothly and happily until Autumn 2009, when a sudden disruption in the banking system caused a domino-like collapse of the economy. Large and small firms from all layers of society in and all fields of finance began suddenly dropping like flies. The corporate executives were in turn struggling to hang on to their lucrative positions. In most large companies, including CND, it became clear that there needed to be a full scale house cleaning.

Max was called to the 56th floor on a cool sunny morning in October. He walked into the conference room and sat at the table around which various section chiefs and higher ranking people were seated. At the head of the table was CEO Edward Avery.

"Folks, I'm not going to beat around the bush. We are going to have to purge-house. In order for us to stay afloat, we must slash our operating budget by forty percent. I'm ordering all section chiefs to reduce their staffs by 40 percent effective next Tuesday. Use good judgment and be discerning. Keep only the people who you deem absolutely essential to the effective running of the machine. Anyone else must be asked to go. That's all I can say at this time. Please work swiftly. You are dismissed."

The mood in the air was tense as the various execs and section chiefs filtered out into the hallway and back to their posts. Nobody spoke a word. Inside his head, Max was plotting furiously, and laughing deviously, "hehehe".

David was called into Max's office within the hour.

"Dave, sit down please.", he ordered. "I'm afraid there's been a meeting with Avery. Now I know you are a great performer, but buddy, you're fresh, green, and new to the team. You've still got your whole career ahead of you. I know with your youth and vitality you can bounce back quickly. Parsons out there is 52. Imagine how he would feel if I called him in here today. He's got a wife and two kids." he said as he looked at the shocked face of David. Parsons was the oldest of all the staff, sluggish, and a middle rate performer at best, far surpassed by the energy, drive and 52 carat ambition of David. He was by virtue of his age and long service alone, the only person who could be used to support Max's reasoning for firing David at this moment. All the other staff, including of course the very mediocre performer Katherine, fell far short of the performance of David Burrows.