Thread: Can She Rise To The Challenge (google and skittish_butterfly)

It was him, his voice. It irked Katherine as much on the phone as it had in person, but this time it was even worse, reminding her of the feeling she would get when trying to reach her father on the phone and he would chastise her for interrupting something important or not arranging a time by email with his secretary first. She didn't like it at all. And then to be passed off to the receptionist, probably to make her wait even longer. It had been hard enough for her to even pick up the phone to call under the circumstances, harder still to keep waiting on the line until he was finally ready, like he was some head of state or a University President. The receptionist was already on the line and starting to talk to her before Katherine realized the worst part of what he'd said. No! Wait! Michael! Put him back on, I want to talk to Michael! Katherine imagined the poor girl he probably had doing this job, probably between giving him blow jobs, imagined Michael had probably broken the poor thing's spirit pretty thoroughly by now, so she did feel a little guilty trying to use that to demand what she wanted from the girl. Even that didn't work. I'm sorry but Michael asked me to give you the address. You are to come here. That was exactly Katherine's problem. This ruined so much of what she hoped was her exit strategy. If everything had gone well, she would never even have seen the man again unless he started selling tshirts with his face on them to fratboys. But now he was only going to talk to her in person, presumably in the very place where he filmed his activities with the girls. His home turf. She thought about hanging up, but surrender was no better option now than it was before, even if it was more tempting. Katherine was so agitated as her mind whirled around the depressing situation she couldn't sit still on the bench. She was up and walking the path back to her room again as she tried for 5 more minutes to trick and connive her was past the receptionist, with absolutely no effect other than making the girl annoyed with her. Finally at the end of her rope with the secretary she resigned herself to the inevitable. She could still fix this, but she'd have to do it the hard way, face to face. Ok, I... I want the address. Can you just SMS it to me? I'm just finishing up a run. The receptionist asked what time Michael could expect her. You mean today? The receptionist's silence was the loudest possible of course Katherine could imagine. Well, I'm, I'm not dressed for... She wasn't actually sure how she was supposed to be dressed for something like this. Probably in a hazmat suit or in a suit of chain mail, something like that would be wisest, except she didn't have any of that. Well, I need to change. And he had made her wait on the line. Never mind she'd made him wait a few extra days, that was understandable, but in Katherine's opinion he was just petty and prone to power games she didn't want to give in to. The SMS arrived and she checked the address. Then she decided she could be just as petty as he was. No sense yielding the high ground when she knew she was the one who deserved it. Ok, tell him he can expect me in 90 minutes. She hung up, pleased with her wording that never actually promised she would actually show up in 90 minutes. Let him stew an extra 10 or 15 minutes like she had to! Katherine disconnected without waiting for a response. Ten more minutes back to her apartment at a leisurely pace, in no particular rush to be her usual punctual self. She kicked off her trainers, stripped out of the jogging shorts and tshirt, panties, sports bra and running socks and tossed them all in the hamper. Seeing in the mirror how sweaty she was, Katherine briefly toyed with the idea of going without a shower just to make herself less appealing. But she would see other people here on campus and on her way back, and worse, if she met any of the girls she was saving she wanted to make a good impression on them at least. Of course, the shower would burn a little extra time too, so she made sure she gave her hair the full shampoo and conditioner treatment, took her time with every shower ritual she had actually, changing the topic in her head anytime her preparations started to remind her of getting ready for a date. Out and toweled off her wardrobe selection was important. The right message was important here. She needed him to see that she was not some lightweight sexpot, not that she had much that advertised that kind of message exactly, but some of her tighter, shorter skirts did tend to draw leers from the guys around campus. Going full-on disheveled wasn't an option though, lest the other girls lose hope that she was the kind of person who could save them. In the end she went with a white cotton blouse, dark knee-length business pants suit, and a new pair of flats she'd bought. She checked her appearance in the mirror. Good. Then she took a hair band and pulled her dark hair back and twisted it in a rather severe bun. Last, she took the glasses she used only to avoid headaches when reading really fine print for really long periods of time and tried them on. She looked like a bank manager in her opinion, or maybe a tax auditor. She put the glasses in her bag with keys and phone and a few indispensibles. No makeup. After locking up Katherine got in her little Fiat and started the drive, again taking her time. Still 5 minutes out and already 5 minutes late she heard an SMS from her phone. Stopped at a light, she smiled to see it was from the receptionist. She didn't even bother reading it, just tossed the phone aside and made a turn to drive around the block one more time. Finally she arrived at the address, 12 minutes late. He should be grateful it wasn't 15. From the outside the building looked pretty big and rather nondescript, and she assumed he must be subleasing a small part of it. It didn't look anything like the den of depravity she expected, at least from the outside. It looked more like some sort of hi tech park. Chrome and glass doors opened easily and she stepped in, making sure she had the number right when she got a look at the woman behind the desk. Uh, this is... is this, Michael's... In her moment of stunned confusion she couldn't even remember the name of his production company. I'm Katherine, here to see Michael. He should be expecting me. At least that gave her a small smile.