Jackson shook her head. “It’s a workplace. There are rules. And we have to be shown respect at all times.”
“But you’re naked,” Carrie reminded her, showing some disbelief. She was having trouble with the concept. She told Jackson this. “I just cannot fathom being naked in an office in the city for eight hours a day, getting paid for it, and now you tell me that’s what you do and they have to show you respect…”
Jackson took a breath. “Give me a moment to explain. What was my job before this?”
Of course that they knew. Jackson fighting the good fight on behalf of the city’s sex workers. Going the extra mile, working the necessary odd hours. And enforcing protections and better conditions. Reflecting on that, Charlotte smiled in admiration. “You were amazing.”
“No, I’m normal,” Jackson complained.
Samantha shook her head. “Doesn’t seem normal to me. Nothing you do seems normal.”
Carrie summed up. “You’ve gone from associating with sex workers to working nude in an office where everyone shows you respect for doing it.” Jackson nodded at that while Charlotte broke into a grin which infected the others.
Amongst the grinning, Charlotte had to ask. “Any chance you can get me a job there? It sounds like paradise.”
Samantha stopped and scowled at Charlotte. Then attended to Jackson again. “Hold on, with your good intentions, you’re not going to convert the world are you? You’re not going to have all the women working naked. And all the men showing them respect?”
Carrie struck a thoughtful pose, looking at Samantha. “Are you saying that like it’s a bad thing? Surely that would be an improvement?”
Samantha raised her eyes to the heavens. “The world has gone mad.”
Charlotte chose to not look impressed. “I do have to point out that the videos do not quite suggest the female sexual office utopia you seem to all think is just around the corner.” She grinned at the reference.
Jackson hushed them down. “Originally they hired me to write the contracts. This is Australia, not The States. Let’s just say that the working conditions are mailgirl friendly. And the other girls are a great bunch. I think you’d like them.” Jackson looked around the table then stared hard at Charlotte changing her tone. “You’ve been looking at mailgirls videos, you naughty girl. And I’ll be you other two have too!”
Carrie had to check. “Are you in them?”
Jackson shook her head smiling. “They’re all made in The States. Even the one called Mailgirls of Melbourne or whatever it was. We had nothing to do with that, didn’t even know about it.” She leaned back in conspiratorially. “But we’re going to change things there too. We’re working on America. I have an infiltrator.” Then she remembered. “You saw the current affairs special?”
To her surprise, the other three shook their heads. They did not know. “Are you in it?” Carrie asked.
“Even if I was, you wouldn’t recognise me.”
“I might have to hunt it down,” Samantha sniffed. “I still cannot quite believe it. In, what, twelve hours time you’ll be walking into the office there, taking off your clothes and wandering around naked for the next eight hours.” She shook her head and then looked closely at Jackson. “I see you’ve muscled up.”
Carrie reached over to feel Jackson’s iron biceps. She smiled. “I’m really trying to see the downside here.”
Samantha was not having that. “There just has to be one, I’m sorry. And I don’t mean to demean you, Jackson. But I can’t believe it is all as good as you say.”
Charlotte scratched her chin. “But on the other hand, Samantha, Jackson looks perfectly okay to me. I’m sure if it was terrible she would be out of the place right away and doing the other stuff.”
Samantha went in from another angle. “You’re naked and available all day in your office, right? You must have feelings. There must be one man you enjoy being naked around?” Jackson’s three friends all stared at her, wanting to know about that. But Jackson wouldn’t be drawn, not even under that pressure.
“Does that sound like me?” she offered eventually.
Samantha could not help herself running with that. “More than one!” she exclaimed. Jackson bit her lip, said nothing. Eventually she gave into the others’ mirth and gave them an apparently agreeing smile. But of course there was one man. And she was nowhere close to sorting out what to do there. She tried to change the subject. “You’ve all barely told me about what you’ve been up to.”
Samantha brushed that off. “That’s all not important. Not compared with what we’re hearing about you.” She looked Jackson up and down. “I can’t believe it, our girl prancing around naked all day in front of strangers.” She shook her head because she really could not believe it.
Jackson kept her grin in place. She had not really thought about it like that. It had been something sort of private to her, something that she kept as a thing within the Harada Industries office. Within those boundaries. But now what had she done? She was sharing it with her friends.
*
Mitch was sitting at his desk wondering why he bothered, thinking of calling up Jackson on the app, get her into his office for a chat. Except he saw that she had the day off. He was woken by a knock on his door. Kimiko came in. “Hi,” he smiled, feeling a little bit lifted by her arrival.
“Hi,” she whispered almost shyly. She stayed near the door as if for once if she was unsure about what Mitch expected. She even lifted a knee to cover her bare crotch as if she was embarrassed to be there with him.
“Everything all right…” Mitch stammered.
Kimiko looked down at the floor. “Uh, yeah,” she breathed. She composed herself to look up at Mitch. “Shane needs to see you, something urgent in his office.”
“Shane?” Mitch asked, surprised.
“I don’t know what it is, but it’s not the usual.” Kimiko stared at Mitch, clearly hesitant. At which point Mitch remembered and checked his app. He clicked his acceptance then looked back to Kimiko. “Anything else?” he asked her, trying for some form of connection.
With her leg still obscuring her crotch, Kimiko leant towards Mitch and smiled. She blew him a kiss. And then sidling out of the door she was gone, leaving Mitch wondering where things were. He got up feeling unsteady, but ready to see what Shane wanted.
Despite his concerns about what Shane used it for, Mitch sat waiting on Shane’s office couch waiting to hear why he had called him in for this meeting.
Shane strode in, coughed politely. “Sorry, I got caught up. Did Kimiko look after you?” Mitch reacted with a look of shock. Shane noticed his response. “I meant she gave you the message? She didn’t tie you up or whatever she’s into at the moment?” Shane smiled, he had meant nothing sinister, and it appeared that he did not know. Mitch’s face returned to normal, Shane smiled. “I’ll get straight to the point. I saw a video,” he told Mitch as he went over to his desk and sat down to log back into his computer.
So what, thought Mitch, still mentally involved with Kimiko. “Another one,” he responded drily.
Shane smiled because he had more. “A different one. This video you should be interested in. A reporter showed it to me.” He looked hard at his screen. “I know it’s here somewhere.” Mitch stared at him from the couch, waiting to hear what was important about this. “Someone took this on their phone. So it’s a bit grainy. Jumps around a bit.”