Chapter 8

"We all ended up working from home so we could get some work done," Crystal told her mother. They were walking through the park near her mother's home. There was a foot of snow on the ground, and kids were playing while the clouds were threatening more snow. "Look, I like sex. I love it, but I love what I do, too. Most programmers do, or we wouldn't put up with the insanities of the job."

Her mother nodded. "Well, I'm supposed to keep this quiet, but I know you can be trusted, even if you're married to the son of one of the people who's been investigating us."

"Carl is so disgusted with his mother that they're barely on speaking terms.

""He came home all mad at her, and I was still feeling, well, a bit randy." She laughed. "We were in bed when his mother came around. I put on a really thin robe and answered the door."

"No! What happened?"

"She was shocked, of course. That robe doesn't hide much, it clings to everything and flips open whenever I move. So of course everything was visible."

"And she... ?"

"She asked why I wasn't dressed, so I told her: Carl and I had been making love. She said, "In the afternoon?" And I told her we liked making love before dinner."

"And she... ? Or should I ask?"

"I thought she was going to have a stroke," Crystal said. Carl came out in the middle of it. He had just a pair of boxer shorts on, and if you looked, they bulged suggestively right in front. He put his arm around me, kissed me, and..."

"And she fled?"

Crystal nodded. We didn't get as far as the bedroom. The couch was so handy."

"Well. Good for you two. Love should be spontaneous.

"Anyway, I don't think you have to worry about him. I haven't told him what happens at work, and doubt if I ever will."

Her mother smiled. "That's probably a good idea. Men can be so ... possessive. Anyway, what I was going to tell you about has to be kept confidential. Candace knows, but don't talk about it with anyone else. Okay?"

"My word."

"Okay. Those people, and Carl's mother is a leader among them, anyway, they left behind some webcams and listening devices. Ms. Hubbard had a professional security firm come in and check for them. So far it looks as if they're right. We've sued them to retrieve the cost of the sweep, citing that we are in a highly competitive business, and this put at risk our methods, techniques, and even client list. The lawsuit is in the early stages, so we're being careful right now. I expect things will get ugly before they get easier."

"So we'll be stuck at the satellite offices for some time."

"Not ... exactly. This part I can tell you about. The IT department is being moved to another sight, one about a block from the East Satellite Office. You'll have to travel for meetings, or video-conference, but we'll figure it out as we go. The downtown offices are being converted to all customer service, and the core business elements, like finance, will be there, too."

"With the same as before?" She meant the sex and partial nudity.

"We'll see, but quite likely. It might be that in the end the various departments that we pushed into remote locations are brought back. It's certainly a lot more convenient to have those core business units all close to each other."

A couple of days later Crystal noticed that the bent next to her desk had been removed. She could still smell the flowers, but they weren't over-powering. She could also get some work done. Oh, she still felt the need to have sex, but it didn't blot out everything else.

Two weeks later the department was united on the top two floors of a building two blocks from the East Satellite Office. They spent the first day shuffling around, finding things and getting settled. Terminals had to be hooked up, libraries of manuals had to be sorted out and put in their proper places, and people had to learn just where each other was. They were so busy those first few days that there was almost no time to do anything but work, get settled, and try to get caught up on various projects.

One of the things they established early on was a break room on each floor. The one on the third floor was just that, a few tables, a microwave, a sink, and a refrigerator. The one on the fourth floor had an adjoining room with six beds, and was next to the bathroom that had a shower.

They had to "christen" the new break room, and did so one afternoon two days after moving in. They had a number of things to celebrate, it turned out. First, the new facility, and the knowledge that the company was going to take over the entire building and turn it into a technology development center. The things they were talking about would become a reality down the road.

Second, there were three birthdays, and that meant silly hats and cake. Everyone could get up for that.

The third was both surprising, and not so surprising. Kayla announced she was pregnant.

"As far as I can determine," she said, "it happened during the Great Freeze. I kind of went overboard that week, so..."

"So do you know who the father is?" Crystal asked.

Kayla shook her head. "No, nor am I interested. The baby is healthy, I'm healthy, and that's the end of it."

"But don't you want to know if there might be problems?"

"I'll deal with them when they come up," Kayla said. She smoothed her hand over her still flat tummy. "You know, at one point I hated the idea that a man could get me pregnant. I didn't like all of the inconveniences of being a woman, the unofficial dress code, the way you have to act, and that doesn't even touch on the physical things that a girl has to get used to. But this..." She shook her head and ran her hand over her tummy again. "I'm going to be a mother. This is my baby."

"But the father—"

"He had his 15 minutes of pleasure, and made a biological contribution. I'm taking it from here." She said that with such finality that it was clear that the subject was closed.

"I like that bit about the dress code," Karen said. She was naked, just like everyone else, and faced one of the windows and cupped her breasts, mimicking waving them at the distant freeway. "Yeah, I like it."

That produced a lot of laughter, and people began to pair up to celebrate. By the end of the afternoon's party Crystal felt tired. She had had sex with a couple of the guys, and a third had come on her face and tits. She scooped some of it up while standing in line for the shower. She was sure Carl's mother would have a heart attack seeing her right now.

Unlike at the East Satellite, she found she was able to focus on her work after the party was over. People had sort of dressed like they had downtown, but soon they'd added more clothes. There was an understanding that they wouldn't be so flagrant here. They might not wear bras, but they wouldn't go bottomless.

The next day their manager told Crystal and Karen to go pick up the cake and other pastries for the party, the christening of the new break room, and two of the guys to get the punch. He'd already paid for them, they just had to get them.

Karen looked at the address he'd given them. "An adult bakery?" It says here it's on 42^nd. I didn't know there were adult bakeries."

"It probably means they don't hand out treats to the kids," Crystal said. The streets were icy and treacherous. Snow was falling yet again, and the forecast was for more of the same. No one was sure if it was going to be a repeat of the Great Freeze or not. It seemed awfully late in the winter for that, but so far things had been unpredictable.

The adult bakery was non-descript with a very modest sign. After they identified themselves they were taken into a second room, and there they saw why. The cake had two stylized cocks in fondit on the top, and in the center was a bed, also made out of fondit.

"You have your choice of four different poses," the woman in the baker's apron said. She showed them a display. Each "pose" was of a naked couple, and each was on a bed. The figures were naked. One pose had the woman on her back with her legs on either side of the man sticking straight up. In another the couple was doggy0style. On a third he was eating her out, and in the fourth she was upright and clearly riding him.

"I don't know," Karen said. "I like all four of them."

"Can we take all four, and then decide at the last moment? The others will want to see these, too." The 'story' was that this was for an adult-themed bridal shower.

The baker smiled. "I'd have to charge you $8.50 for each topping."

"I think that's worth it," Karen replied. She dug two $20s out of her purse. "Here you go."

"I'll have a receipt for you in a moment. The woman went over to a register and rang up the sale.

Crystal looked at the other pastries, already placed in a box. These were of cocks made out of rolls topped with a sugar glaze.

"Those have a cream filling," the woman said, coming over. "It was piped in through the tip." She looked up, her eyes twinkling. "Customers say they like to suck the filling out through the tip."

Crystal nodded, trying and failing to keep a straight face. "I see. Yes, that would be the way to do it. They look very real."

"They do, don't they."

The front door rang, interrupting her. She stuck her head through the curtain, then picked up a large pastry box. "Here you go."

She was back a moment later. "I think that's the bachelor party for this wedding. There's the female counterpart to these, and they just picked them up." She waved at the box of rolls. "Anyway, you're all set."

"Thanks a lot," Crystal said. It took all three of them to get the cake and pastries out to the car. Crystal drove through a few ruts, then got on a side street with fresh snow where it was easier going. "I love those rolls," she said. "They have a cream filling you suck out through the tip."

Karen smirked. "The perfect thing for our party."

The first two floors were a construction zone with cabling and pipes everywhere. Because of the storm the workers had been sent home. The programming staff was staying for the party, then they would go home, too.

They needed to use their keycards to get to the top floor. The last desk before the break room was filled with silly hats and cards. There were also two boxes of pastries from the same bakery. That had to be what the guys had picked up.

Their manager helped carry the cake into the break room, then stood in the door to the room with the beds. "I declare this room officially open."

There was a burst of applause, and then people got a good look at the cake. Karen had put all four models on it, grouped in the center so it looked more like what people remembered of the break rooms in the main offices.

Crystal opened the boxes of pastries, and explained that you had to suck the cream filling out through the tip. Then she saw what the guys had picked up.

These were two boxes of rolls sculpted to look like a woman's privates. No wonder the baker thought it was for a bachelor party. "I wonder if she used a model," one guy asked. "Or a mirror."

"Either one works," Crystal said. "They really do look like the real thing."

The cake was served up, along with the punch. The other pastries were sampled, and then the clothes started coming off.

Crystal had worn slacks, heavily lined ones that were supposed to be for the weather they'd been experiencing. One of the guys helped her with them, and then immediately started kissing his way up her legs, first one leg, then the other. She had on her cotton panties, and he deftly pulled them aside to get at her sex.