Thread: Saving Elizabeth {The Gothic Temptress and Alan23}

It was typical of Hannah, reflected Tris Ramkin, that she was feeling too timid to enter her boss' office with the shampoo test reports. She got that way now and then. Collapsed in a frightened, trembling state of panic, tripping over her own feet, and stumbling over her words. She was, he knew, terrified of Ms Dwight. In fact, he reflected, as he took the folder from her, and smiled to show her yes, it was fine, he'd happily take it in to her, nearly everyone in the company seemed to be. Everyone deferred to her, seemed to shrink in her presence, seemed afraid to contradict her, even if she was wrong. Which, he had to admit, wasn't often. But it wasn't never, either! All the other clerks had, as usual when there was the risk of having to carry a message to her, made themselves scarce. This wasn't the first time he'd seen the phenomenon. previously, since he'd been new, they'd made the same suggestion to him. But this time, a new thought had struck him... that if anything, women like Elizabeth Dwight fascinated rather than scared him, and that, therefore, it made perfect sense for him to carry out what others didn't dare, and front her in her office. Certainly the way Hannah was looking at him, her eyes wide with gratitude showed him he'd done one person a favour at least. He took the folder, checked the contents he'd look a right fool, and so would Hannah, if she'd accidentally put the wrong information in, and she was scared enough that this was likely, but in fact it was exactly what it purported to be and approached Ms Dwight's door. Normally, he regarded knocks on a door as pointless unless they were loud enough to be heard, but Hannah had begged him to knock softly, or Ms Dwight was liable to fly off the handle and, interesting as he'd have found that, once again he knew it would rebound back on Hannah, Therefore, he knocked gently, and if the percussive noise of knuckles on an oak door could be described as respectful then this knock, which contained just the right mixture of deference and professionalism, certainly fitted the bill. At her instruction, he opened the door and entered. Immediately, he registered, it was like being in another world, another universe. The Bauhaus-style look, all in blue and white, so that the irrelevant thought struck him that if some medieval mystic had been drugged and brought here, he might fast gain the illusion he had been brought to some kind of celestial afterlife... save that Elizabeth Dwight was far from anyone's normal conception of an angel. She'd put on her glasses. He wondered if there was a certain amount of vanity there, for she seemed to remove them whenever she didn't actually need them. Or was this just his imagination? They seemed to magnify her large, green eyes he'd always had a weakness for green eyes - red hair, too, come to that but he knew better than to look too overtly at her and give her any excuse to criticise him and later punish the unfortunate Hannah. He'd have preferred her not to have been behind the desk - he knew she had great legs, and on the few occasions he'd encountered her, had more than drunk his fill of them. Putting legs like that behind that massive, pretentious desk, he felt, was a massive mistake. Oh well, he mused, you can't have everything you want in this poor old world! Good morning, Ms Dwight, he said, confidently for he was buggered if he was going to smarm to her. If she didn't like it that a lowly clerk wasn't shit-scared of her, it was her problem. Hannah asked me to bring you in the testing report for the new formula for 'Brightlocks' shampoo. It's all here, and I can confirm it's just been updated to add the overnight test results. He knew this as it had been his responsibility to distribute the email from the lab to a specified mailing list. I might mention, too, that there's a folder of press clippings from 'Cleo' and Cosmopolitan,' concerning the previous formula. They've both published reports you might feel you'd like to see. They were both far from complimentary, saying the substance had a strange smell, and made hair brittle. And Hannah asked if you'd like coffee now, or after your phone call to Bairstow and Leek, which is due in seven minutes, he added, on the blonde's instructions. Oh, why won't you come out for behind that stupid desk? he thought. Show those lovely legs.