Shelly Carter was about three minutes and forty-five seconds away from being fired. Rightly so. After all, she had just inadvertently flashed her boss, Mrs. Kaden. Not just a manager, but the CEO-level boss. Granted, she had her bra on when the flash of her chest happened but flash her boss she did. Shelly didn’t work in HR, but she knew that exposing herself at work, even accidentally, would not be great for her employment status.

“I need to see you in my office. Right now.” Mrs. Kaden’s tone was ice cold. Shelly could feel her job floating away with every breath. This was not good.

“Mrs. Kaden—” Shelly attempted, but her plea to explain the very good reason she was changing shirts was met with the backside of a dark blue pant suit.

“Shit,” Shelly blew out a breath, causing her blonde bangs to fly around wildly. Not that it mattered. They had lost the curl she had painstakingly put in mere minutes after she’d finished. Her straight hair would never be the beachy waves that she tried for years to achieve.

Straightening her shoulders, Shelly fastened the buttons of her dress shirt as fast as she could and followed Mrs. Kaden. Her face was as red as the ketchup stain on the shirt she’d just changed out of.

As much as Shelly wanted to believe this sort of workplace insanity was a fluke, it wasn’t. Unfortunate things always seemed to happen to her. She wasn’t a klutz, per se, she just always seemed to be behind the 8 ball. Fumbling her way through life. Try as she might, she was never one to catch a break. From life in foster care (which was just as awful as you would think) to a string of underwhelming men who stayed around long enough to bed her then ghost, to landing this job years ago and never being able to advance her status because the one year she was up for promotion, she flashes her bra at her boss. It never failed. The Universe hated her and didn’t want to see her happy.

She’d be fired for sure this time. It’s one thing to forget to mail an extremely urgent document or always arrive to work six minutes late, or inadvertently send a nudie shot to Kevin in the mailroom instead of the Kevin she’d been dating at the time. There was no way they’d keep her on now. Upper management would think she was some form of an exhibitionist. Which couldn’t be further from the truth.

She hated her body, as most women do, but was only playing the nude game out of desperation to find a guy that might like her for the hot mess that she was. Here’s a shocker, Kevin didn’t text her back after the nude. Either one of them.

Mrs. Kaden had long legs, so she was several paces ahead of Shelly. Desperately, she tried to tuck in the shirt she’d just changed into. Her cubicle walls were high enough that no one should have seen her change. Shelly always kept a spare dress shirt in her drawer, because, well, she knew herself. Today, it was the ketchup of a hot dog that ruined her light pink dress shirt. Admittedly, she shouldn’t have been eating said hot dog at her desk at 9:47 in the morning, but she hadn’t gone grocery shopping and there were leftovers from the company picnic in the fridge. Hence, the need to change her shirt. To be more presentable. Not to flash the boss.

Should she have changed in the bathroom? Of course, yes, but that would have meant walking across the office with a bright red blob right where her nipple would be so it would have looked like she was flashing the entire office. Shelly couldn’t seem to catch a break.

In the seven years that Shelly had worked at Kaden’s Inc., she had seen her boss, Mrs. Kaden, all of three times. Once the day she was hired, again at a holiday party about four years ago, and today. Likely to become Shelly’s last day of gainful employment.

Not that she relished working at Kaden’s Inc., in the Financial Asset Management Department. It wasn’t as glamorous as it sounded; especially when your job was little more than Data Entry. Soon, her job would be irrelevant, once they figured out a machine that could run the scanner in her stead. To be fair, she also crunched the odd number or two, but nine times out of ten, she wasn’t needed for her brains, she was needed for her ability to hit buttons. It was soul-crushing work.

She longed to be some sort of creative person. Painting, writing, hell, maybe even dance. Anything but pushing paper all the livelong day. She’d never quit though. She couldn’t afford to. A rock and a hard place. That’s where Shelly lived. While she hadn’t had a raise in four years, despite the cost of living skyrocketing, she didn’t dare to ask for a pay bump. She was too afraid they’d look at her work history and the overwhelming number of tardies and fire her and pull in the next grunt fresh out of college who would be happy to make the 42K a year. In between rent, utilities, and an unaccounted expense like a hospital bill, and well, you ended up in a position of not wanting to rock the workboat. The job was the only thing holding everything together and keeping the head afloat.

And now Shelly was walking to her doom. Her lifeboat was about to be sunk. And she didn’t have a life jacket. Because of course, she didn’t.

As she walked toward Mrs. Kaden’s office, Shelly wrang her hands absently. She caught a few sets of eyes peering at her from over the tops of their cubicles. They all seemed to say, ‘Been nice knowing you.’

Shelly watched Mrs. Kaden disappear into her office. Letting out a quick breath, Shelly walked to the threshold and stood in the doorframe, unsure if she should knock or not. Playing it safe, she gave a loud knock on the jam.

“Enter.” Mrs. Kaden’s voice was cold. Angry.

Swallowing down her fear, Shelly went inside. It was the first time she’d seen the office from this close-up, and it was exactly as she imagined. Dark mahogany bookshelves filled with pristinely labeled binders of yearly quarterly reports. A large desk of the same color sat in front of a wall of windows overlooking the city, and behind it was the beast herself: Mrs. Kaden. The only thing out of place was a small delicate painting opposite the bookcases. It was modern and colorful. While the colors were as vibrant as any she’d ever seen, the abstract nature of the painting, of what Shelly took to be a man. His arms, or what looked like arms to her, were absorbed into the wall behind him. His chest seemed to be willing his body forward, but he was trapped by caged arms and the floor as well. The ‘legs’ of the man appeared to pin his soul in place. Forbidding him to take a single step. He looked to her like the saddest creature on the planet. A thin black box outlined the figure, symbolically locking him in. She felt exactly like that. Trapped in the hamster wheel of her life. Shelly wasn’t an art aficionado, but that piece was captivating. It encapsulated everything she felt about herself. A creative, passionate woman, trapped inside this place. The painting in her office made so much sense now. This is the company where wishes and dreams go to die.

“Sit,” Mrs. Kaden said from her chair, forcing Shelly’s eyes to refocus on why she was there. Mrs. Kaden’s lips were painted blood-red, which popped against the perfectly tailored navy-blue pantsuit she wore. Her jewelry was tasteful and gorgeous. She oozed success. And terror.

As Shelly walked to the chair in front of Mrs. Kaden, she tried to plead her case. “Look, about what you just walked in on—I just want you to know, I don’t make a habit of taking my blouse off at work. There was this stain, you see…”

“I’ll ask the questions if you don’t mind,” she replied. The directive was clear. Shut it.

Shelly nodded and quickly put her hands in her lap as though being reprimanded by a parent. She knew from her past that when an adult was angry it was best not to make eye contact or make any sudden movements. Sometimes, if you were lucky, all you’d get was a tongue-lashing. She doubted she’d be so blessed this time, but she had to try.

“How long have you worked for me, Ms. Carter?” Mrs. Kaden’s voice was calm. Measured. The killing blow would come soon.

Clearing her throat, Shelly answered. “Seven years. It will be eight next month, ma’am.” Shelly felt herself cringe. Was it okay to call her that? Was there something else she should be addressing her as? Her great CEO-ness?

“Ms. Carter, I am about to ask you a series of personal questions that, legally, I’m not allowed to ask. If you run to HR to rat me out for asking them, I’ll deny it. They’ll believe me and you’ll be relieved of your job. Understood?”

“Um…yes?” So far, this meant Shelly still had a job. That was a good sign. However, Shelly knew she didn’t have any sort of repercussion should she screw these next few moments up. Her word against the CEO would mean nothing. Surprisingly, Shelly found herself intrigued. What could her boss possibly want to know about her personal life that would be so invasive?

Mrs. Kaden leaned forward in her seat and looked Shelly dead in the eye. “In the seven years in my employ, is it true that you haven’t managed to marry?”

She felt herself blink a few times at the randomness of the question. “Um, Yeah. That’s true. Still single, sadly. Know anyone?” she laughed then instantly regretted it.

“Are you a lesbian?”

Another round of blinking. Shelly found herself answering mostly out of curiosity about where the hell her boss was going with this line of questioning.

“No. I prefer the penis.” Shelly clapped her hand over her mouth in horror. “Sorry. That slipped out.”

“And how old are you?” Mrs. Kaden gave nothing away in her expression.

“29.”

Mrs. Kade’s eyes narrowed. “Do you want children?”

Shelly felt her eyebrow raise. What did this have to do with anything? Unless… was she going to be promoted? Was Mrs. Kaden pumping her to see how devoted she’d be to the job if she were? No husbands or kids to distract her? Is that what she was dealing with?

Or was it the opposite? Was Mrs. Kaden annoyed that she wasn’t already married with kids? Did her single status somehow affect unwritten company protocol? Shelly sensed that if she got this question wrong, it would be the end of the discussion. If only she knew the right way to answer. She opted for the truth.

“I don’t know. Maybe. One day. If I meet the right guy. I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be rude, but what does this have to do with me inadvertently flashing you a second ago?”

“Absolutely nothing.” She leaned back in her chair and touched her red lips thoughtfully.

Shelly was so confused. If she wasn’t getting in trouble for the flashing thing, what the hell was she doing here? She didn’t have to wait long for her reason.

“Do you have plans for dinner this evening, Ms. Carter?”

Shelly’s mind was playing tricks on her. She wasn’t being fired, but was, instead, being invited to her house for dinner? Was Mrs. Kaden asking her on a date? No. That couldn’t be. Could it? Mrs. Kaden had been married to a guy before he passed away. She couldn’t remember what of. It was before her time. But maybe she was bi? It was weird to think of her boss in that way. Shelly shook her head to clear her thoughts.

“Was that a ‘no?’ Did you just refuse my invitation?” Mrs. Kaden asked, taken aback.

“What? Oh, no, I was just trying to clear my head. I thought you were bringing me in here to fire me, not to ask me about my dinner plans. Which is going to be a Lean Cuisine that’s been stuck in my freezer that probably should have been tossed six months ago. Unless you have a better offer,” Shelly laughed, then instantly regretted it. Mrs. Kaden was not the sort of woman one joked with.

“Be at this address at 7:00 PM. Dress in something elegant.” Mrs. Kaden slid a business card across her desk and then stood up. “Do not be late. Understood?”

Shelly looked at the card absently before picking it up to look at the address written there.

“You may go now.”

For a moment, Shelly just sat there, looking up at her boss like a deer in headlights before she finally was able to snap out of her confusion and make her way back to her cubicle.

She knew that people were staring at her as she made her way back, but she couldn’t meet any of their gazes to either confirm or deny her employment status because, truth be told, she had no idea what the hell had just happened.

One thing was clear, she was going to that dinner. If only to solve the mystery of what the hell her boss wanted from her. Knowing her luck, it wouldn’t be good.