SubscribeStar Story: The Presentation, Part Three

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Part Three

“Get out of my chair,” I said.

It was bad enough that Blaire had been given an unnecessary position in my department. She had already succeeded in creating an image of authority as an assistant manager, but this was the first time she had ever gone so far as to make herself at home in my office. “And someone help me with these stupid mittens. Like I tried to tell Vivian, I’m not going to be able to get any work done like this.”

“There’s a perfectly good chair right there,” Blaire replied. She gestured to the one on the opposite side of the desk. There were normally two; Megan had moved one of them to sit more on Blaire’s side. “Have a seat, Aurora.”

“I mean it, Blaire,” I said, well aware that I didn’t exactly exude my usual authority or maturity in my current state of dress. It didn’t help that I rarely needed to reprimand Blaire, since she was always playing her ‘innocent’ corporate games. Except now, she was literally sitting at my desk. And while it felt a little childish to say ‘that’s my chair’ multiple times in a row, it was about more than the chair itself. “Get up. This is my office.”

“Aurora. You agreed that we would need to restructure things for the presentation tonight. Now that you’re the model, I’m going to have to step in and take your original role. And Megan said that she’s willing to take mine. As you know, interns are always looking for ways to prove themselves; Megan is really stepping up today.”

Okay, but that had nothing to do with my office. “Yes. Restructure things for the presentation,” I said, repeating her words back to her, “My role here hasn’t changed. And I’m not just the model; it’s important that I speak tonight.”

“That’s not what you said earlier,” Megan chimed in.

“Listen, Aurora,” Blaire said, “While you were getting diapered, we’ve been doing exactly what you told us to do. Restructuring. We already made an announcement out there. Everyone’s fine with me running things today. If you still want to be involved, that’s fine. Just stop wasting time with pointless arguing. Okay?”

She made an announcement? About what? Regardless, I couldn’t believe her. This was- Wait, had Blaire set me up? What if the way she volunteered to wear the diapers herself was to bait me into insisting I would be the better model? She was certainly capable of such manipulation, and it was probably a better approach than directly saying, ‘Hey, you’re small,’ and trying to talk me into the outfit.

That, or it was a win/win for her. Either shamelessly rocking the outfit and flaunting her body that was annoyingly curvy compared to mine, or setting it up so I ended up undermining my own authority by letting everyone in our department see me like this. Fuck.

I couldn’t call her out, either. This was just another example of her office games, albeit more extreme. If I tried to put my thoughts into words, I’d end up sounding paranoid and/or ridiculous.

When I failed to come up with a reasonable response right away, Blaire gestured to the empty chair again. “Have a seat, Aurora. We have a lot of work to do.”

“Fine,” I muttered. As frustrating as the concession was, harping on the seating situation was going to make me come across as whiny if I wasn’t careful. Though I was letting Blaire get away with this bullshit in the name of not undermining my own authority by making a scene over something trivial, I wasn’t planning on giving up my control entirely. “Take these off, Megan,” I instructed the intern.

Megan tilted her head slightly. “I don’t think you’re supposed to take those off?” she said, with a small uptick at the end. Unlike Blaire, she didn’t seem as keen on casually defying a direct order. At the same time, the two of them had worked together frequently enough that she was also used to deferring to Blaire.

“She’s not,” Blaire affirmed, “The mittens are part of the model’s outfit, Aurora. I think it’s best if you wear the full ensemble, so you can get used to it. We don’t want you fidgeting on stage later, do we?”

“Okay, but I literally can’t work like this,” I said. Seriously. There would be no writing, or typing, or anything productive when I wasn’t able to use my hands.

“Sure you can,” Blaire replied, “Just use your words. Megan and I will take care of the rest. It’s not that different from delegating as a manager, is it?”

Not really. I wasn’t the type of boss who lounged in my office while everyone else did my work. Did Blaire seriously expect me to only participate verbally for the next few hours?

“Oh!” Megan chimed in, “I grabbed this from the kitchen.” She held up one of those water bottles that included a straw.

“See?” Blaire smiled, “You’re fine, Aurora. Just sit still, hydrate, and behave. We’ve got this.” When she saw my little scowl in response to the patronizing words, she just chuckled and rolled her eyes, “Come on, I’m kidding. Loosen up a little. Dressing up like that is supposed to be fun. That’s why I was going to do it.”

Easy for her to say. This is a lot more than I thought I was signing up for. “Whatever. Just show me what changes you’ve discussed for tonight.” At least my computer was password protected. Blaire was using her laptop, albeit doing so behind my desk rather than at her own station.

Blaire went on to explain that we could actually move forward with the initial script and game plan, for the most part. It was simply a matter of making those ‘adjustments’ she had mentioned, and I had vaguely agreed to before leaving to work with the research girls. She would basically be taking all of my lines, with the minor edits revolving around her title in our department and whatever else wouldn’t make sense for her to say as an assistant manager. Then Megan would be taking Blaire’s spot, with similar tweaks that worked for an intern rather than a higher role.

“Hmm, I don’t know if I should take credit for that,” Megan said.

“What are you talking about?” Blaire asked, “You did way more leg work than the other interns. As for the next line . . . delete it, maybe? We don’t need to get into all the details.”

The two of them had such a natural rhythm, part of which existed because they were both looking at the same screen. Meanwhile, I was across the desk, unable to see the document they were editing. “Delete what?” I asked. I was trying to use my words, per Blaire’s annoying phrase, but it was difficult to include myself when they were moving so quickly by themselves.

“The long-winded part about your process. Remember, this is supposed to be engaging all of the party guests. We need to make it interesting, and concise. It’s better to save this kind of stuff for meetings.”

“Okay, but-” I started to say.

“Deleted,” Megan nodded, “And you’ll take Aurora’s next line, right?”

“Of course,” Blaire said, “That one can stay as written.”

“Wait, slow down,” I said, “Which lines are you talking about?”

Blaire just waved her hand dismissively. “We’ll show you afterwards. Just relax, Aurora. You’re the model tonight; all you have to worry about is standing there and looking cute. Plus we’re in the home stretch. All the hard work is done, right?”

Yeah, done by me. And I had already expressed multiple times that I needed to be more than just the model later. “Yes, but-”

“But nothing,” Blaire said, “And you’ve barely touched your water. It’s important to stay hydrated. Tell you what? Finish that whole bottle, and you can take a peek at our edits. How does that sound?”

That sounded stupid. I was an adult; I didn’t need to be reminded to hydrate, nor did I need such a condition to check the work that I was supposed to be in charge of.

Before I could express as much, Megan commented on something that she was looking at on the screen in front of them. Blaire agreed, and suggested they change the wording slightly, and it was suddenly like I didn’t exist as they bounced off each other with ideas.

Normally, I wasn’t such a pushover. As a young woman in a more corporate position, I was used to standing my ground and speaking up when necessary. Except that was normally when I was perfectly put together in my business attire, rather than wearing diapers and a onesie. No matter how much I tried to focus on Blaire and the current situation, there was no getting away from feeling the bulky padding between my thighs every time I shifted, or how my peripherals constantly picked up the pink fabric and all the bare skin I was showing.

It was enough to keep me on my back foot and slightly flustered as the two of them made rapid-fire edits to the presentation I had spent so long putting together. The only reason I wasn’t exploding on them was because nothing they did was permanent; a single click was all it would take to get the original document back. I also needed to keep myself under control because I had worked so hard to not let Blaire get under my skin. Not showing it outwardly, anyway.

I reluctantly leaned forward and took a sip from the straw. It felt like such a concession, particularly how I couldn’t use my hands to pick the bottle up without risking dropping it. I wasn’t drinking just because of the annoying terms Blaire had just set up. It had just been nearly two hours since lunch, and I hadn’t had anything to drink since I left my office earlier.

No matter how I tried to drink in a dignified way, there was no getting away from the fact that I was leaving the bottle on the table because of the mittens. Trying my hardest not to blush, I told myself that the upside to playing along was that Blaire wouldn’t have any more excuses to leave me out of the decisions she and Megan were making. As soon as I was done with the water in front of me, I’d be able to see how different the new draft was from what had already basically been finalized a few hours ago.

Every thirty seconds or so, I was tempted all over again to tell Blaire to get up and get out. This was my office. She and Megan could work just as easily anywhere else with that laptop. I continued to bite my tongue, since I didn’t fully have a grasp on what she had told the others in our department. And I wasn’t eager to head out there looking like this to reestablish the natural order of things, when walking past everyone the first time had been embarrassing enough.

As I sat back, trying to process the back and forth between the two girls without having the visual to help me, I was hit with a small signal from my body. I had to relieve myself? As in, more than just peeing. It mostly caught me off guard because my body was pretty regular, and it was rare for me to have such needs in the middle of the afternoon. Partly because I had somewhat ‘trained’ myself through routine to only do that in the mornings and the evenings. Like many, I preferred the comfort of my own bathroom at home.

Well, I was going to have to hold it for a bit. Actually, fuck. Now that I was thinking about the bathroom, I was hit with another problem that I hadn’t considered. First, there were the mittens, though that could be solved by getting someone to remove them. Mostly, it was that undoing the onesie and the diapers by myself was going to be tedious, and putting them back on would be even worse. I didn’t have any experience with protective padding, and I had to imagine Vivian was telling the truth about it being better to have assistance with that process.

A private bathroom would be ideal as well. I wasn’t sure if we had one on our floor that was truly private, mostly since I had never needed anything beyond the women’s room. Then there was the same problem that wasn’t going to go away until people started leaving around 5 PM–As long as I was dressed like this, I much preferred the cover of my private office.

“That’s when we’ll have Aurora step forward?” Megan asked.

It was more than enough to snap me back to attention, even if the casual question was directed more towards Blaire. “Mm hmm,” Blaire hummed, “Wet diapers and all. Mind helping out with that part of the demonstration? I can stay at the microphone.”

Right. Wet diapers. I was still worried about the present; I had temporarily forgotten that part of the deal was to use the diapers and briefly wear them between then and the end of the presentation. It had seemed tolerable at the time, when I was only thinking about the evening’s schedule, rather than how things during the workday would go after making such a decision.

“Of course,” Megan nodded, “I can handle our little model.”

This time, I felt the need to speak up. They were talking about me right in front of my face, and one of our interns couldn’t refer to me like that.

As I opened my mouth to assert my authority, I was cut off, and not by Blaire or Megan. This time, it was my abdomen that awkwardly growled in the slight pause after Megan’s response.

I couldn’t help but be embarrassed by the sound that the two of them clearly heard. More importantly, it was starting to feel like the urge I felt a minute or two ago was more pressing than I had anticipated.

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