Chapter 1
College degrees definitely meant something in this day and age. Karen Wells found that out the easy way.
She was sitting in the personnel office of The Parasol Insurance Company, one of three females left of the hundreds who had applied for a job as supervisor. She and the other two females in the room, sitting in stiff-backed wooden chairs, were the only three with college degrees. There might have been others better qualified for the job, having worked in the claims departments of other insurance companies, but the person who did the hiring at Parasol had been instructed to find people with college degrees. Now there was one supervisory position left, and Karen desperately needed it. The job paid better than two-hundred-and-seventy a week to begin with, and there would be annual raises. Yes, Karen needed this job if she was to get ahead in the world.
Karen was not a tall girl, about five-feet-four inches in height, though her curly almost chocolate-brown hair seemed to stand higher, making her look at least two inches taller. Her skin was milk-white, and she had sparkling brown eyes, a short, straight nose, and a glamorous close-mouthed smile. She tried to avoid opening her mouth whenever possible. Most people who spoke to her took it as a sign of intelligence, but the truth was, there was a wide space between Karen's two front teeth, and she felt a little embarrassed. One day she would get her front teeth capped.
Her body was solid, compact, with full breasts, very full breasts, a narrow waist, wide hips she would have to be careful of later in life, and full thighs that led to slender knees and ankles with nicely swollen calves between them.
The person in charge of hiring at Parasol Insurance was a woman, and as a result, wanting to emphasize that she believed in Women's Lib, whenever a male and female of equal worth applied for the same job, the female was hired. Unfortunately, the other two people competing for the job with Karen were also female, and they were also college graduates with degrees in business like herself.
She was therefore pleasantly surprised when the other two females were told to please apply again at a future date and she was accepted. She was glad because Forest City, where the insurance company was located, was only twenty minutes away from the new apartment she had taken in Randalltown.
Karen was led to the third floor of the three-story building, and there she was taken to the pediatrics claims department. This was going to be the department of which she would be in charge. She was introduced to Mr. O'Dwyer, who was head of all the various claimy units, and he, in turn, called over a man known as Frank. He told Frank to show Karen all there was to know about the claims department, including the processing of claims.
Frank, not wanting to be bothered with training someone new, especially since he had a six-day backlog of work, called over a long, skinny man known as Ed Lancer. So Ed set about teaching her how to hand out the work to the four processors working under her. There were also assistant processors, each of whom worked with a particular processor. All of them were female.
Right from the start Karen realized the work was going to be difficult. She had to not only oversee the four processors and assistant processors, but she had to know their work, as well. She was expected to double-check everything and make certain the girls didn't give out too much or too little money when the claims came through.
Each girl handled an average of sixty claims a day, which meant she had to make certain two-hundred and forty claims went out correctly. Mr. O'Dwyer had explained to her that he wasn't interested in excuses. Mistakes made by the girls had to be caught by her. She was the one responsible.
It didn't take long for Karen to be confused, and she knew she didn't dare keep asking Ed questions. After awhile he might get the idea she was incompetent, and as a result she might be fired.
The head of the dental processing unit was a man by the name of Harry Greco. His real last name was something like Grecopoulous, but everyone called him Harry Greco. Harry was not young by any stretch of the imagination, and if he wasn't bad-looking, neither was he good-looking.
Harry had the habit of relating everything to sex, but his superiors never complained because his work was good and his was the best unit at The Parasol Insurance Company. He had dark, almost piercing eyes, and when he looked at a woman, any woman with them, he was mentally undressing her. The girls who worked under Harry did their best to avoid talking to him, since he was always making some snide remark about a portion of their anatomy.
However the day came when Karen was unable to handle a whole set of particularly difficult problems, and Harry was the only one in the room who would be able to help her without word getting back to her superiors. Karen needed the help badly, very badly.
"Harry," she said, walking over to him. "I have some problems, and they need straightening out."
Harry smiled, a bright glimmer in his eye as he said, "Well it took you long enough to speak to me, Karen. Let's see these problems."
Karen handed him a sheaf of papers, and Harry began looking through them. After about five minutes, he said, "You know, if this had happened in my own department it would take me a good three days to straighten all this out. A novice like you might be lucky to straighten it out in two weeks, assuming you don't get additional problems."
"Oh God! Harry, I need help. Can I have the loan of one of your girls to assist my girls?"
"Come with me," Harry said to her.
He led her into the little room where the girls went on their two coffee breaks. There was no one in there at the moment, and Harry smiled at her and said, "Look at it this way, Karen, if I lend you one of my girls, then my own department is going to slow up and fall behind."
"But your girls can catch up. You're so good at catching things they almost never really fall behind."
"True," Harry nodded. "Very true. But before I agree to let you have any of my girls, I think you and I ought to come to some kind of understanding."
"What kind of an understanding?" she asked.
"Don't pretend to be naive, Karen. You're in a deep hole right now, and I'm the only one who can quietly extract you. If you want my help, you're going to have to come to some kind of an agreement with me."
"Wh-what kind of an agreement?" Karen asked.
"Here we go with 'What kind' again. Do I really have to spell it out for you, Karen?"
"Yes," she nodded.
"All right. S,E,X, sex."
"But Harry, you're married."
"No honey, my wife is married. I'm still free as a bird."
"I don't want anything to do with married men,"
Karen insisted. "There's no future in it."
"There'll be no future for you, here at Parasol, unless you fool around with this particular man," Harry mocked, running fingers through some of the iron-gray strands of hair on his head.
"How old are you, Harry?" Karen asked.
"I'm thirty-eight, why?"
"Well, you look more like fifty-eight. Maybe it's all the fooling around on the side that's aged you. Sorry, Harry, I'll muddle through without you."
"Fine with me," Harry shrugged. "Just remember one thing. If you want my help from this point on, I'm not going to be as generous as I was willing to be now."
"Generous?"
"I was willing to settle for a roll in the hay. Not anymore, honey. You'll see what I mean when you come to me again."
"Don't bank on it, Harry."
"You will, Karen, you will."
Karen walked away from him and returned to her unit. She spoke to two of the other supervisors, but they were so overloaded with work, none of them had any real time for her, and as the day wore on, her unit became mired in more and more work.
By the time Friday rolled around, Karen realized she was going to be in big trouble. Word had filtered down that a week from Monday there would be a quarterly audit of all departments. Once they saw the mess her department was in, she would be fired immediately, and she needed the job more than ever, now. Little by little she was furnishing her apartment, and she had bought things she had not fully paid for, yet. If she lost this job, she would not only lose everything else, but would probably lose her apartment. She would be out in the cold with no one to turn to now that her parents had moved to Florida. Karen was alone, completely alone, and she knew it.
Harry didn't approach her. He didn't even look at her, but she realized with more and more certainty that Harry was her only hope. His department was the only one current up-to-date. He was the one supervisor in the entire building who really knew his business. She had no choice. Besides, she would be surrendering her virginity in a good cause. It wasn't as if a twenty-two-year-old was expected to be a virgin, anyway.
On Friday, when all the girls went on their three-o'clock break, Karen walked over to Harry. Hanging her head, she mumbled, "All right, Harry, you win. When do you want your roll in the hay. Just as long as you help bring my department up-to-date by the end of next week."
'That's a tall order," Harry laughed. "Your department is so mired down, it would normally take a month to make it current."
"You can do it in a week," Karen insisted, "and it won't take away from your own department."
"You're right," Harry nodded. "I can do it, but not for a roll in the hay."
"But you said.. . "
"I said I would have settled for a roll in the hay the last time. This time I want more, a whole lot more."
"What do you want?" she asked.
"A whole weekend alone with you, to do with as I please."
"But what about your wife.. . "
"My wife has gone to Arizona for the next two months. My house is empty. Suppose you come over for the weekend."
"After that, what is there to guarantee that you'll keep your word, Harry? You might use me, and then tell me to go to hell."
"Do you want references?" Harry asked. "Talk to Sue in the next department, or to Terry, or Carol. Harry Grecopoulous never goes back on his word. I'll have your entire department current by next Friday, if.. . . "
"Why this, Harry?"
"Hell! My wife is away. I have to get my pussy from somewhere. You happen to be especially delicious-looking. Why not you."
"I don't seem to have much choice. All right, I'll meet you in the parking lot after the day is over, and I'll follow you to your house in my car."
"Excellent, and to show my good faith, I'll lend you Kathy, my best assistant processor. She'll start to work on some of the things that have been lousing up your own APs. Just don't think of backing out, Karen."
"I keep my word, too, Harry," she murmured. "Just kind of take it easy on me, huh. I've never done anything like this with a man, before."
Harry Grecopoulous smiled. Except for his wife he'd never had a virgin, before. This one was going to be a treat.