I’m Bob, division manager for a large chemical company. I’m 47, married and have two daughters. I took this job about three years ago. This division was losing money, and they hired me to turn it around.
Before I took the job I wanted to meet with the leadership team to see what I had to work with. The inventory and shipping manager, Tim, was a man who seemed capable enough.
The office manager was a strikingly good looking young woman, Lana, in her mid to late 20’s. I wondered how she got such an important job at her age and then I remembered her looks. I am a very serious minded professional and I hire people only on their abilities. That is how I have gotten to where I am. I mean it’s a plus if they are attractive, but I would never hire someone based on their looks alone.
The maintenance manager, Dan, seemed a little unsure of himself. I would have to evaluate him more later.
The lab manager/facility manager, Dianne, was the glue of the organization. She was an extremely intelligent young woman, 34 at the time. She was not unattractive, but I was glad her looks would not be a distraction because we would have to work closely together.
So I accepted the position and got to work. The division had been poorly managed for years. There was a lot of low hanging fruit, and we soon stopped the bleeding. I found these were willing hard working people and had not been given any recognition or encouragement.
I told my team if they were willing to work hard we were not just going to stop losing money but our goal was to excel. They had been so frustrated by the previous lack of leadership they jumped at the chance.
As we began our journey, Tim performed his duties well, and we ended up becoming friends. Despite my first impression, Lana was adequate, while a little unsophisticated and brash, she was not a hindrance to our goal, for some reason there was always a distance with her. Perhaps she had been hit on by previous managers. Dan, I had to replace.
Dianne was fantastic. She was even more intelligent than I had been told or imagined. Not to boast but I have an above average intelligence, and it was nice to have someone who could keep up on my level. I soon considered her a close confidant and relied on her heavily. Often I would consult her on most issues, even personnel decisions, and financial decisions. I had decided that she mentally was my equal and we would even spar intellectually, match wits and occasionally poke fun at one another. In all my years managing companies I had never had this and was really enjoying the interaction. Our division was improving rapidly and we were elated.
Dianne and I worked closely together, she often would spend hours in my private office alone if we were working on a project, but there was no sexual tension or impropriety.
I honestly had never felt any sexual desires for her, well there was this one blue blouse that she would wear and it accentuated her breasts nicely which caught my attention a time or two. But she didn’t wear makeup, and dressed plainly. She really did nothing to bring attention to herself. Honestly I hadn’t even noticed how nice her breasts were until she wore that blue blouse.
Well one night I had a dream. In the dream, I was at my desk, she walked up to me naked and said “isn’t it about time we had sex?” I sat straight up in a cold sweat and a raging hard-on. Where did that come from I thought. I am a married man and have never cheated on my wife, and wouldn’t.
I was all business and so was Dianne, so why did I have this dream. I surmised that we had become so close that somewhere subconsciously, I had come to feel as close to her on some level as my wife and my mind had confused the two. Surely that was it, I didn’t have a desire for her, did I?
Well I tried very hard to continue our relationship as before and put this out of my mind. And I had, almost, and then I received word that our division had improved to the point that my team would receive a very nice bonus.
I was downstairs in the public hallway when I saw Dianne and told her the good news. She was overjoyed and said, “Oh thank you for coming in and helping us turn this around, I could tell you were the right man for the job. I could kiss you right now.” I was taken aback, didn’t really know what to say and thought, where did that come from? And immediately my dream popped back in my mind. Trying to deflect, I said, “Yes its wonderful news isn’t it.” and fled to my office.
What was going on? Did Dianne have the same thoughts about me? Had she been sending me some subliminal messages I hadn’t been picking up on? No, I’m being ridiculous. Dianne is married too, they don’t have any kids, but she told me that she and her husband didn’t want any. That was probably the most intimate conversation we had ever had up to this point. Everything else was about work. That stupid dream, I wish I had never had it.
I tried to carry on as before, but small insignificant things; I would have never noticed before, caught my attention. The way she beamed when I came to see her in her office over a matter. I had noticed what a nice smile she had before, but now it seemed broader. The way when I was showing her some financial results on my computer she seemed to lean closer. Her breast pressed against my arm, which seemed intentional.
No, I’m being stupid, get over this Bob. Get a hold of yourself.
I had managed to get somewhat back to normal. I pushed any crazy thoughts away as soon as they arose. Then one day the vice president of the company came for a visit. We all showed him around the facility with pride. He was very pleased.
When we were back in my office just he and I, he said, “you have done a fantastic job here Bob.” I quickly told him my team deserved most of the credit, “they have worked very hard” I said.
I then went on and told him how helpful Dianne had been and she was perfectly capable of being a division manager herself. He recognized her value, reminded me that he had told me she was very smart, and then said, “you know when I first saw her I didn’t think she was much to look at, but as you get to know her better she is quite attractive, I guess it’s her personality.”
Damn him, he was right, I suddenly realized I did find her more attractive physically. She would not win any beauty contests, but she is pretty. And she did have a great personality; she was always happy, positive, willing to be helpful, funny and witty.
After his visit I started to notice her body more too. She was slightly overweight, but I liked full figured women, I never found those skinny model types attractive.
She had a full round ass, larger than she wanted I’m sure because she often talked about dieting, but it was not too big. Actually it was nice. And her breasts I think are larger than I thought. It’s those baggy clothes she wears that hides her features.
Stop it Bob, you’ve got a job to do here, I said to myself. You’ve got a job to do here and while it is going well you haven’t achieved your goal, and you won’t be able to do it if you don’t get a hold of yourself.