Pants Off! - Jenna's Tale Part 1

"And after you are done with scanning those documents, I need you process the alpha quadrant documents to sierra tango the line of emails to paradigm shift the punt and open the kimono on a scalable document..."

Jenna sighed as the near unintelligible string of corporate jargon terms went on and on. The man speaking, an older executive who was years passed his intended retirement, droned on in one unending sentence. Presumably, someone else with forty years of experience, or alternatively with eighty years of dementia, might understand. To her, it just meant more tasks. She put on her most perfect work day smile and nodded. To get by in the business world, you had to put up with older, richer people.

"Yes sir, I'll get right on all that!" she said with an even bigger smile. While most of what he said was meaningless, she knew her own job, and could figure out roughly what was needed in any circumstance. Pretending they were listening to some higher was just a way to stay out of trouble.

"As for you, Matilda..." the executive began, mistaking her coworker Miranda for his ex wife. He continued with another line of meaningless terms which the other woman smiled and nodded to.

Jenna snickered. Miranda, a tall woman with, long, waving chestnut hair, was Jenna's main competition at the office. They worked in similar positions, and were both the lead contenders for promotion the next year. In that regard, she was tough- from her looks to her cool, calculated demeaner and long work hours, all combined with an impeccable but professional fashion sense that saw her today in a green designer dress that appeared beyond her salary range, all made her a challenge for Jenna to overcome. That slip, however, was a solid sign for Jenna. Even if Miranda performed well, the misnaming both meant she was going under the radar, and that anything she did well might be attributed to someone else.

The executive paused. He thought for a moment, then laughed. "Oh I'm sorry, did I just call you Matilda? I'm sorry, I know its Miranda, it is just you remind me of my old wife. You are so smart and hard working, just like she was. I think you really have a great future here."

Jenna clenched her jaw.

"Oh that is ok sir," Miranda said. "I remember her, she was a wonderful woman. I'll get right on that."

He laughed again. "She was, and you are just like her. I know you will. Miranda, good luck with the new assignments. Jensy, let Miranda know if you need anything I assigned explained.  Try not to make too many mistakes."

"Yes sir," they both said. Miranda turned to smile at her, and Jenna tried not to scream.

Jenna tsked, stalked away and started on her tasks. She tried her best to maintain her outward smile, but inwardly she was fuming.

Small moments like that reminded her of how much she hated her job. It was always frustrating, but far more so when it became apparent her efforts were ignored. She worked her hardest, put in longer hours then almost anyone, and told herself it would pay off with promotions and raises. That, however, could only happen if people noticed.

Still, she continued. She went to the office's printer and scanner and set some documents down, then turned it on. She stared at the rows of options. What was it again? She clicked on a picture of papers going through it.

"Printing Office Directory. 138 pages," the machine read.

"NO NO NO NO! CANCEL!" she said, and tried to cancel it. After a few attempts it stopped, and she exhaled her relief. She tried to another button.

"Printing Office Directory. 138 pages."

"NO!" she said again, and cancelled it. She paused and tried to remember how to work it.

"Hey JENSY," an annoyingly nasal, high pitched voice said. "How is work going?"

Jenna cringed. "Hey MATILDA," she replied. "Its fine."

Miranda shook her finger. "Oh, no no. Clearly, he corrected that, didn't he JENSY? That's not my name, but Jensy is DEFINITLY your name. Must be embarrassing to get that confused." 

"Mhmm, I need to work," Jenna said. She turned back to printer and scanner, and tried again to remember how to work it.

"Are you sure about that? Seems you are having issues, do you need to go through office orientation again? Maybe one of the interns can help you."

Jenna turned and pointed a finger at her. "Don't you dare..." she stopped. 

In the corner, the same executive who had talked to them earlier was watching her with his eyes open. She realized how it must look- her struggling with a simple task, then getting angry at a more experienced coworker for offering to help.

"I mean, no thank you. Excuse me," she began to walk away.

"Umm, Jensy?" Miranda said. "You forgot your documents on the printer. Better take them, could be a security issue."

She stopped and felt herself tense up. "Yes, thank you Miranda," she said.

She walked back toward the printer and scanner, far to aware of both her coworkers watching her carefully. She bent over the tray and looked inside.

"Crap," she said under her breath, realizing it was the wrong section. She took a step forward.

She heard a snapping sound, and felt something hit across her thighs.

"OH MY!" a weathered voice said behind her, followed by the sound of Miranda laughing.

Jenna snapped up and squealed. She put her hands behind her bottom to feel the bare skin showing through. It took her a second to confirm what had happened- her pants had gotten caught on the printer, she walked forward, and mooned her coworkers.

The blood drained from her face. "Oh god oh god oh god," she said. She reached down to pull her pants up, but her belt and waist band refused to go over her hips. She cursed herself for choosing that day, of all days, to wear the lacy black thong her husband had bought her. She had hoped it would be a surprise for him when she got home, instead it was a much different kind of surprise for the person who held her professional future in his hands.

"How did this go down so easily!?" she asked again, struggling with the belt. After a moment struggling, she undid her belt, pulled her pants back up, and re-did it.

She turned around, face beet red, to look at the others. Along with the executive and Miranda, a dozen of her other coworkers had stopped to watch, mouths open, to see her struggle.

She forced a chuckle. "Ummm, sorry about that. I uhhh..."

"Jensy, your thong is still showing," Miranda said.

Jenna looked down. "CRAP!" She shouted. She had pulled her belt up, but hadn't set it properly, and her thong was still visible above it. She grabbed her belt and wiggled it a bit to get it in place.

"I'm sorry," she said.

The others all looked at the executive, the highest ranking person there.

He inhaled sharply. "That is alright, Jenna," Jenna cursed the fact he suddenly knew her name. "Just remember, this is a place of work, not a club. Perhaps pick more professional clothing."

"Yes sir, sorry sir," she said, but he was always walking away.

Miranda stayed as the others left, watching her with a mocking smile. "Well, Jenna, seems you've finally done something they will remember. Nice underwear by the way, really impresses all the boys, but I don't think it will get you that promotion. By the way, try not to print out the entire directory again, he nee the paper." 

Jenna opened her mouth to reply, but Miranda was already walking away. 

Instead, she gritted her teeth and groaned. She turned back to the printer scanner, but still couldn't find the option she wanted. She began poking around again, and continued her work.

....

Jenna walked up her drive way toward the front door to her house. A modest, but comfortable,  single story brick and wood panel house stood in front of her. From the car in the driveway, her husband was already home, and probably had been for a few hours.

There was nothing specifically wrong with her husband's shorter hours. He he worked in marketing, and she knew he did his job well. However, often his seeming lack of ambition, compared with her eagerness to get ahead, bothered her. Worse still, as much as she hated to admit it, the fact they made roughly the same salary but he was home an hour and a half earlier then her bothered her. Still, she told herself, if at some point she got promoted, they could move out of their house into a far larger one, and they'd have the life she wanted without his needing to move up.

She opened the door. Much like the outside, the inside of their house was comfortable, but modest. The door opened right to a living room with a soft couch and an old tv, and behind it was a white tiled kitchen. Her husband was already inside, cooking dinner. The smell of roasting meat and thyme came toward her.

"Hey babe," he said. "How was your day?"

"Oh you know, frustrating as always," She said. She decided not to tell him about the pantsing incident. She bent down to undo her shoes, and struggled with the laces.

"Oh, when you're done, can you help me with this? I wasn't able to get all the dishes done, and we'll need them for dinner," he said.

She stopped what she was doing and sighed. She knew it was fair for him to ask, and he was clearly doing his share of the work by cooking, but coming home after a long day only to have more work when she got there was always frustrating. "Of course, honey, just give me EEEP!"

She felt a sudden coldness on her behind, and bolted straight up. She turned to see her husband behind her, having pulled down her pants and rested a hand on her.

"Sorry, I saw your thong peaking out and couldn't resist," he smiled. He began rubbing his hand up and down her, feeling the lace of her underwear.

She blushed. "Oh uh... yeah I wore those for you," she said. She tried to smile. However, her mind kept going back to the incident at the office.

"I know, after dinner do you want to..."

"No," she said. Immediately she thought of all her coworkers seeing her, and couldn't stomach it. "No, sorry Ben. I think I need to go to bed. I'm just tired. Do you mind?"

His face fell. "Oh, ok. That's alright sweetheart. I'm going to stay up a bit later and see you in the morning, ok?"

"Sure," she said. She pulled up her pants and began to walk away.

"Oh, another thing if you want to see. They said in the news there is going to be a big star we can't normally see up. Only visible for two nights every five years! Isn't that amazing?"

"Uhh... yeah, it is" she said.

She walked down the short hallway into her bedroom. They both shared a double bed with a quilted comforter and a single, open faced closet. Aside from that, the room was mainly empty. She walked to the closet to undress, and quickly replaced her thong with panties that covered her entire back, then pulled on her pajamas.

She looked out the window at the night sky. Only home for half an hour, and it was already dark. It felt like entire days went away at the office, with no time to herself. 

A single, large star was out. It occurred to her that it must be the one her husband was talking about, and she had to admit it was beautiful to see.

She paused. She had a thought, so silly it made her blush. However, she had nothing to lose. She checked over her shoulder to make sure her husband wasn't watching and began, as she remembered hearing as a kid.

"Star light, star bright, first star I see tonight. Wish I may, wish I might, have this wish I wish tonight." She inhaled.

"I wish my life was easier. I wish my husband took care of me and everything and made enough money for the both of us, and I didn't have to work so much." She paused. "Actually, I wish I didn't have to lift a finger or put effort into anything, Ben should just take charge and do everything for me. Also, I wish I'd never get exposed in revealing underwear like that again. Maybe if Ben liked me as much in underwear that was thicker and actually covered my ass, and people at work didn't think I was the kind to wear something skimpy and slutty" she said. 

She shook her head, and put the silly thought out of her mind. It was silly, she knew. She walked to the bed, crawled under the covers, and fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

Far above her, in the night sky, a star blinked three times.