Chapter Seven
Clarity rang the doorbell of the Stevenson household, ready for dinner. Cynthia lived in a very nice upper middle class home, which was very well kept, by a gardener Flake knew, Lowell. Jill Stevenson answered the door and smiled at Clarity.
"Come in, Cynthia is out with her friends from Pepperdine." Clarity rarely met Cynthia's friends, they seemed to hover in a different landscape, living in a land of convertible beamers, beach talk or beach homes, surf trips, and varsity cheerleading. Jill led her inside and Clarity sat down, noticing the nice table cloth and cutlery. Jill served a vichesoise soup, which tasted delicious to Clarity.
"So You like your clothing optional days at Stevenson, Clarity?" asked Jill. The question aroused Clarity.
"It's not bad, I like to feel naked, I mean to be naked once a week at work, there's just less politics going on at Stevenson since the new policy has been implemented. I'm pretty comfortable naked." Bill drank a small sip of red wine and turned to Clarity.
"So what would you say if, and I say if, this is all hypothetical, we said we'd like you to be our naked assistant a couple of days a week, simple stuff, nearly just being around the house and keeping company to Jill."
Clarity felt a rush to her head, but made an effort to feel and talk in a cool way, cool as in not hot and bothered.
"Seeing a woman naked keeps Bill very calm, he's very loving to me when he sees a woman naked around him. But we don't want this arrangement to interfere with your work."
"I guess you are his wife, what happens between you two?" Clarity was surprised at the nerve of her question, but certainly, the conversation was heading in new avenues of both corporate and personal positioning.
"I like her," said Bill.
"I like to be naked around the house sometimes," said Jill. She began smiling, but she wasn't being frivolous, this was all very serious to her. Clarity went ahead with a question she had not solved yet.
"Why did you suggest to Mr. Stevenson that Stevenson Garden be clothing optional? I notice Mr. Stevenson keeps his clothes on on clothing optional days."
"I guess things will come, right dear? We don't have an open marriage, but the idea is moving along."
She turned to Bill Stevenson, who smiled.
"She's more liberal than I am, but it does help with staying calm at work. I want you to be comfortable with this."
He changed topics, asking Clarity how she would increase sales at Stevenson. The question took Clarity slightly offguard. She remembered overhearing Martha in marketing talk about new markets, and she pitched an idea to sell gardening equipment where it made sense, where there were large gardens and people willing to pay substantial amounts to keep them tidy, large estates in the Caribbean for instance.
"The Caribbean, new market, luxury, yeah," said Mr. Stevenson, "I'll think about that, after China maybe, thank you Clarity." They finished dinner and Jill walked Clarity to the home entrance.
"Drop by whenever you feel to do so Clarity, just give me a call and we'll get you undressed around the house, someone else will do the cleaning, don't worrry about that, I want to learn about what goes on at Stevenson, maybe you can teach me some marketing. We want to do this when Cynthia is not around."
Clarity said good bye and looked at her watch. It was eleven thirty. Walking away from the Stevenson's porch one hundred feet, she saw the familiar shape of her old chevette, with Taimi in the driver's seat. The flirtatious lifeguard drove her car at times and was waiting for her inside. They switched seats leaving Clarity driving the car.
"Right on time," said Taimi, "Flake is waiting for us at Stevenson."
"Good, let's move along to the office, they're finishing dinner, we're safe," said Clarity, "you were right, they're pretty open about their marriage."
"This is the right way to go, you're going to end up with a promotion," said Taimi mischievously.
"I don't want a promotion, just want to do Cynthia's dad, with her stepmom watching."
They left the car a few blocks before the company entrance of Stevenson's office building. Clarity walked on the company's lawn with Taimi, reaching the outdoor shower area. Flake was waiting there for them, holding a spare key which opened water access to the shower. He greeted them with a mushy handshake.
"Remember, nobody knows that this key exists, you gotta return this key tomorrow," said the gardener.
"We'll return it in three days," said Clarity. Flake pulled out his closed hand and Clarity held his forearm for a few seconds, alledging they needed a few days to build credibility with the new shower use. The gardener gave in and opened his closed fist, letting Taimi grab the key.
"Three days is a lot of days," said Flake, "all right, come to the security area three days from now, and drop off the key early in the morning, I don't want trouble with Packwood or with Mr. Stevenson."
Clarity nodded, satisfied with the thought that no one at Stevenson knew they were inside the premises of the company at night. She wanted to reopen the outdoor shower, to show Packwood that they weren't intimidated by his actions, and that an outdoor shower was all right, if no one showered. The shower could still be used as watering can, Flake would just have to redirect the shower head towards the lawn. She saw Flake watching them, as they began to walk away. When they were five feet away, Flake quipped an unexpected comment.
"Have a good one, Heather is coming by at twelve thirty tonight," said Flake. Clarity was startled when Flake mentioned the name of the human resources assistant.
"She's coming to the office, here at Stevenson you mean?" Flake looked at his watch.
"In about ten minutes, just letting you know, so that you know, she's meeting Atkins, the son of the mayor, he's coming as well." Clarity looked at Taimi, incredulously. That was a lot of people meeting around Stevenson Garden Products at night, on the same night.
"What? How do you know this?"
"Atkins offered a free gas tank to me so that I would let him and Heather in, and also to prevent me from saying anything. I think he likes Heather, he saw her at the court house the other day."
"Why are you telling us then?" asked Taimi.
"Because maybe I can get another gas tank refill for free from you guys, if you ask me not to let them know what you're doing," he said. He wasn't smiling. Gas tank refills were important to Flake. Clarity put a hold on a joint decision with Taimi to offer twenty dollars to Flake to fill his car gas tank, and based their final offer on whether Heather and Flake would actually show up. She continued with her questions.
"We trust you with our clothing optional effort," said Clarity, noticing her own exhibitionist subconscious had spoken those words pretty casually," where are they meeting?"
"Human resouces," said Flake, "I'm going to give them the key, a different key from the one you got."
"We'll take care of that," added Clarity, "tell them you opened the door for them."
Flake nodded and gave Clarity a second key, the key to open Brock's office, after ensuring his second refill of gas for his car, was nearly certain, pocketing five dollars offered by Taimi. Clarity took the elevator with her friend, and used the key from Flake to open the human resources office door. They split positions, not knowing where Atkins and Heather would talk. Taimi hid under Heather's desk, while Clarity hid under Brock's desk in his office, hidden from view of those looking in from the office door, by a wood panel placed below the desk. Eight minutes later, Clarity heard two voices whispering and several steps moving close to Brock's office. Heather turned on the office lights.
"What do you think?" asked Atkins, "what should I write in this report?"
"Write something unfavorable for Clarity, and even for Brock, but don't mention the meeting you had with them."
"Yeah, I was thinking something along the lines of saying that because she acted the way she did, Clarity was irresponsible while being an employee of Stevenson, she probably shouldn't be there working. Corporate nudity is not something appropriate at work."
"
Not bad," said Heather, "yeah, do that, then something good about me or human resources."
Atkins got a sense that he was important, that what he was doing made a difference, a difference with Heather, whom he liked. Whom he liked to see naked, that is, he specially liked the idea of seeing her without some clothes, while she was working. He was still feeling good about having had the nerve to call Heather at work, earlier that day. After knowing who he was, she agreed to talk to him, and the relationship was already business-like, not a bad starting point to get her into bed. They agreed to keep the city hall complaint alive for as long as it would take to turn Stevenson into a regular clothed company. Atkins pressed Heather on the issue that was hovering in his mind, whether he could see her naked without panties or underwear on the day of his visit to Stevenson, during clothing optional day.
"Let's see what happens with Clarity first, I want her out of the way first, Brock is paying too much attention to her, this woman makes my work a lot more difficult, this shower is creating a lot of problems."
"What about now? Do you want to take your clothes off?" Clarity was curious to see whether Heather would say no again, or whether she would use the question to her advantage.
"Yeah, I'll do it, you want me across the desk, without panties?"
"Yeah, you're saying that, I bet you don't dare," said Atkins.
Clarity heard Heather undress, seeing her bare legs and feet after a few seconds.
"This is not bad," said Atkins, "wow, you've got a nice body, can I take a photo?"
"Of my bum, not of my head, it's just for you, this isn't going to instagram."
"Nah, it's just for me."
Atkins zoomed in on Heather's vulva, which showed a small tuft on the other side of her body, nearly hidden.
After a few seconds of modelling, Heather put her clothes back on, and they both left the office, turning the lights off. Clarity breathed deeply and sighed. The local paper, maybe she would be able to have a say in what they would publish, so that the article which Atkins would write would not look too bad on her or on Stevenson. She got out from under Brock's desk and looked at her watch, thinking about her bed. First a quick stop with Taimi to open the outdoor shower water supply access pipe with Flake's key, and then right to bed, to her light cotton quilt.