The world was moving she was right there with it (and she was)

            Sue looked around the office, her office now, anyways. It had been Vanessa’s office. Vanessa had bequeathed it to her along with her former job. Sue- Susan B. Anthony (yes her parents did have a sense of history and humor as it turned out) was now an Ad Exec. She had reached the top of the food chain at last. Well not the top but very close to it. She was cubicle fodder no more!

            Sue felt like getting up on the desk and declaring this loudly to the entire office. Maybe it she had had too much to drink? Nah, she told herself and looked around again. The desk dominated the office, It was a mahogany and some Asian wood affair, big and heavier than her car. This thought reminded Sue that she would need to trade that mini coup in on a SUV some type to match her salary increase. Not for the first time she had to smile, Vanessa losing it that day many months ago had began her own climb to this office. She felt bad for the woman, she had admired Vanessa audacity and drive but then the woman had simply turned her back on all this and given up everything that mattered to Sue- and for what?  The word of some homeless guy who had snuck into her office to turn her world upside down; life was amazingly weird sometimes.

            Vanessa’s parting gifts had been very generous if not offhanded, Sue’s favorite would have to be Vanessa telling Steve that Sue was the “best man” for the job she had just resigned from. Steve had stood there caught somewhere between dumbfounded shock and amazement gawking at Sue like he had never seen her before. She suspected that Steve still believed that Vanessa had only quit because she had gone to work for one of their major competitors. Still, after much grumbling, hedging around and general bull-headedness, Steve had conceded that Vanessa was right and offered Sue the job.

            Sue knew that she could do the job as well as Vanessa had done it. No, she would be better at it than her former boss and friend. She now had the wardrobe, jewelry and makeup to accomplish it with. She was not about to let Steve give it away to some up and coming punk. NO, she would not let it come to that.

            She crossed over to the desk and walked around it letting her hand trace it’s smooth surface until she came to the chair. She spun it around to look out the window. What had Vanessa seen out this window that had made her take this man at her word? No, she chided herself, she was not going there. Instead, she spun around feeling a slight thrill at seeing her office spin back in view. With a satisfied moan she spread her hands across the wide desktop, it was hers- all hers. Her fingertips traced the surface of the desk which was smooth and slick thanks to the high gloss upon it. Then the fingers encountered the unexpected.

            Sue sat up suddenly aware that something was wrong, really wrong with her desk. Nervously she reached out towards the outer edge of the desk and tentatively felt around for the interruption on the desk’s smooth surface. At first she couldn’t find anything and was about to relax when her fingers found it again.  She could not quite make it out from her angle so she got up and jogged around the desk to take a closer look. Sure enough there was a rough, bumpy patch near the forward edge of the desk, right where the dark mahogany met the other wood, maybe it was teak? She bent to take a closer look. She inwardly curse and swore that she would find the overzealous member of the office cleaning crew and make him pay for over cleaning a coffee spill. What she saw sent chills down her spine.

            “No, no, no- not the desk.” Sue thought as she began to rub at it. “please not the desk.”

Steve decided to stick his head in like he usually did.

            “We on for lunch?”

Sue gave a yelp and spun around to face him. Steve looked surprised too. She sat back against the desk and felt the anomaly in it push up against her butt. She swallowed, unsuccessfully and blinked a few times, but the lump of unbelief stayed lodged in her throat. To her rising horror, Steve came all the way into the office.

            “What’s that?” He asked trying to peer behind her.

            “Nothing- it’s nothing.” She straightened as he came to stand beside her, knowing she was trapped she turned around and together they looked down at the anomaly. Steve blinked and then bent over to take a closer look. Sue felt herself reaching out to cover it with her hands even though she did not know what “it” was.

            “It kind of looks like…” but he trailed off, obviously not know what it looked like.

            She managed to get his attention by shifting her boobs which (thank the stars) where showing a lot of cleavage this morning under her new white blouse under his nose. He grinned and momentarily distracted looked away from the desk and up to the general vicinity of her face.

            “Up here, Steve.” She said pointing up at her face. “I will meet you at the elevator in five minutes.”

            Steve’s eyes drifted away as he seemed to struggle to remember what had gotten him to look down but he didn’t break contact with hers.

            “Oh, Okay I will see you there then.” He nodded once then twice and left.

            As soon as she was sure he was gone, Sue gave herself a small shake. She took another look at the bump on the desks surface, there was a distinct shape to it, it almost looked like someone had force a seed down into the seam between the two woods except the woods itself appeared to have grown together there as if wanting to blend together. She had never seen it before- she was almost sure anyway.

            Sue straightened, took a deep breath, walked over to her hutch and gathered her purse and sun glasses. She paused by the mirror by the door to check her hair and lipstick. After a moment she unbuttoned a few in order for her cleavage to show more- best to keep Steve interested in something other than her desk for the time being. As she walked out, she wondered if Vanessa was having the last laugh after all.