Swap With Me

Chapter Seven. Emily is put to bed

CHAPTER SEVEN 

Emily had an unsettled night after her dinner date with Scott. She had returned to her flat and couldn't get to sleep. Thoughts of the unsuccessful sex romp consumed her mind. The sex had misfired, with Scott's technique going wrong and the loss of his wood. Emily felt sorry for him and wondered what the problem really was. 

The next day, Friday, and Emily walked into work. 

It didn't go well. Her boss took every opportunity to cast his roving eye over her and make suggestive remarks. Emily wished she hadn't worn the short skirt. It shouldn't have made any difference to the attitude of the man. No other men in the office gave her a second glance. She resolved to teach Mr Bossman a lesson.

Without thinking through the consequences, Emily located a suitable Asian porn site on her desk top computer and scanned it into an email as an attachment. To disguise the source of the email away from Emily, she linked to a new hotmail address and sent it to the boss from there. There was a high chance that Mr Bossman would open the attachment because of the way it was worded, ''Lonely housewife wants sex.''

Half an hour later, it became obvious that Mr Bossman had opened the attachment and the contents were embedded and wouldn't go away. Emily could see his alarm every time she passed his office, which was frequently. She knew what would happen; it stayed on his computer and porn images popped in whenever he pressed a button on the keyboard. An IT consultant was called but the damage to Mr Bossman's reputation had taken a beating. Everyone in the office knew about it.

Later in the day, at four o'clock, Emily was called into his office. There was a second person there from Human Resources. Emily became aware she had made a mistake in not applying a masking tactic to prevent IT finding the ultimate source of the attachment. She had been found out and was immediately fired.

Tem minutes later, Emily stood outside The Department of Health and texted her best friend. 'Jess. Help. Been stupid and lost my job. x'

Twelve seconds ticked by. 'Em. come round NOW. x'

'What's that?' said Jessica, who pointed at Emily's lap.

'A shoe box containing my personal items from my desk.' Emily looked inside and pulled out a mirror and then a pencil sharpener. Next came a pair of thin leather gloves. A tampon. A spare key to her flat. 'And my pen. It doesn't work.' At that, Emily started to cry.

It was nice to have Jess put her arm round her. The reassuring closeness made everything look better and the way Jess produced a tissue to dry her eyes, gave Emily an increased heart beat. She hadn't paid much attention in the past, but her longing to be nearer Jess became stronger. Emily fleetingly wished Jess would kiss her. 

After a while, Emily felt better. 'I only got caught because I forgot to delete the hotmail account.' She wiped her eyes again.

Jessica burst out laughing. 'That's really funny. You're the computer genius and you forgot to cover your tracks.' She hugged Emily with both arms as they sat together on Jessica's sofa.

Emily sipped her tea and looked at Jessica. 'Why aren't you at work?'

'Bit slack at the moment.' Her face didn't hide the truth and Emily guessed Jess wasn't getting enough work.

'How slack is slack?' 

Jessica paused.

'Don't lie, Jess.'

'Zero work. I think my agent has given up on me.'

'So we're both out of work.'