Chapter 7

Her heart was in her throat and it wouldn't be too much to fear that she was going to throw it up in that very second. Erin leaned against the door to her apartment, panting heavily. It was another normal day at work, except for when Abby figured her out and she had to tell her everything. And then…it all went to shit. After he told her he remembered everything they did, she bolted out of there, grabbed her purse and jetted as fast as she could. How could he just remember like that? None of the other men did, but then she hadn't tested the long term effects on them like she was with Mr. Leslie.

How could she screw up like this?!

As soon as she pulled back into her apartment complex, and after sitting in her car for over an hour, she had received a very long message from Mr. Leslie, about two minutes long, this after he had called her cell about six times. She was deathly afraid to listen to it, how could she? This could be him telling her he's having her fired, or possibly arrested, who knows! He could be so angry with her there's no telling what lengths he'd go to to make sure she'd be punished for doing something, in hind sight, so stupid.

"I'm going to be sick…." She muttered, as she slid to the floor in a heap of anxiety. "What am I going to do?"

She screamed in panic when she felt and heard a loud banging coming from the other side of the door.

'Shit, shit, shit, shit…he followed me home?!'

"Girl. Open this damn door and stop being so dramatic."

"God. Damn it, Abby!"

Erin got up and grabbed the door knob in a huff and swung the door wide open. "Is your purpose in life to give me a damn ass heart attack?!"

She smiled sweetly, she was dressed up as usual, red pencil skirt, tight white blouse tucked in said skirt, making her chest the focus of her attire. Her hair in the best messy bun she had ever seen on a human being, and for some reason, beside the mound of makeup she was wearing she had her old glasses on today. She must have ran out of contacts again, still, she looked as beautiful as ever. She didn't look like she had just worked a 9 hour day.

Damn, she hated her best friend sometimes.

"Ok, first of all, loose the attitude, hoe, I'm here for your benefit." She breathed as she walked in and closed the door behind her. "Mr. Leslie asked me to come and check in on you after your dramatic exit"

She swallowed hard. "How did he look when he talked to you?"

"I mean, kind of pissed but kind of worried at the same time. It was a weird mix but he wanted to know where you went. He wants to talk to you. Immediately."

Her stomach was doing Olympic styled somersaults and it was making her dizzy, she quickly grabbed hold of her couch before falling into a heap on top of it. "Did he say anything, anything of worth to you?"

"Of worth?" She asked, while sitting on the opposite couch from her agitated friend.

"You know!" Erin didn't mean to yell but she was about to have a legitimate heart attack. "Like, something that would sound like he was going to fire me or something, come on Abby!"

She smiled, and her teeth looked even whiter behind the red lipstick she wore, a trademark of hers for sure. "Girl, listen, you know what you were doing was fucked when you drank that mess. And yeah we've gotten some great feedback and our funding for the next few years, but what you did was wrong. I'm not saying I'm judging you!" She said, her hands up in defense, "but you had to of known that you were going to either screw up or get caught, right? I'm proud of you for finally getting that ass of yours tapped but there are other more legal ways of doing it, you know."

Erin took her remote and threw it, hard at Abby's head.

"Hey!" She laughed, ducking just in the nick of time, "don't be mad at me! You did this all on your own."

"As I recall you were proud of me when I told you what I did."

"Um, yeah after I yelled at you for being an idiot and doing this in the first place. And, like I said I wanted to know how good sex was with Mr. Leslie. I told you he had a big dick. And you loved it, didn't you? Don't you dare sit there and act like you didn't enjoy having him pull your hair, while he had you pressed up against that wall, while he pounded the absolute shit out of that humdrum pussy of yours."

Her face felt like a burner turned on full blast, and all because Abby was one hundred percent right. But she couldn't get distracted by thoughts of Mr. Leslie's red, throbbing, vein exposed, and dripping with pre-cum cock waiting to enter her exposed crotched right now. Even though sex with Mr. Leslie was and most likely be the best she will ever have, The desire she had for him, mixed in with his experience and force, brute force, made sex loud and fun and painful and addicting, can she be blamed if she wanted more? She wanted more of him, to this day she wanted to fuck him again, but now, she didn't know if she could even look at him again.

"Well now you know after the fact what I did and what was going on, which means…"

"Don't you dare," Abby leaned forward, her finger in the air.

"You know, after the fact, which means," Erin uncrossed her legs and leaned forward to meet her friend in the middle, "you are an accessory after the fact. Which means….you'll go down with me, maybe not as hard but oh, you'll go down Abs."

This time it was Erin's turn to duck from the flying black remote that was launched at her head.

"Ok. Ok, look," Abby breathed, fixing her blouse, "all you have to do is go in, explain to Mr. Leslie that you were just a lonely, horny girl who wanted to be with him and didn't know how else to do it, blah blah blah, ok? But you gotta sound pitiful, otherwise he ain't gonna buy it."

"You really are a great friend, you know that?"

"Look, I'm not trying to lose my job just because you got hot and bothered, alright? Girl I love you but you got to fix this before we're all screwed."

"Oh, so it's a problem now because now you might get in trouble?"

"Erin!"

"Abby!"

They would have argued longer if Abby's phone didn't start ringing.

She picked it up then showed it to Erin, "Its Mr. Leslie."

Erin jumped off the couch and tried to grab the device out of her hands, but to no avail. Abby hit the green button then had to mute it as she had to physically wrestle Erin away from her face and hands.

"Abby…..don't!"

"No," she slapped her friend's hand away for the fifth time, "this ends today, Erin."

"Ow!"

Abby pinched her friend on her right breast then jumped up and answered the phone. "Hello? Yes, hi Mr. Leslie…..yes, I'm here at her apartment right now. Mmmhmm, she's fine, well, as much as she can be given the circumstances."

This was it, Erin was going to start plotting Abby's death as soon as she got off the phone.

"Yeah? You want to speak with her?"

Erin threw a pillow at her, but for some reason, Abby was surprisingly agile in her heels today.

"No." She mouthed, teeth clenched.

"Sure, she's right here….Erin, its Mr. Leslie." Abby smiled as she passed her phone to her friend.

Erin felt her entire body lock up, but at the same time she felt like someone had poured hot water from the top of her head all the way down to her bare toes.

She slowly reached up and took the phone from her friend's extended hand. Her mouth was dry, her lips shaking, she put the warm phone to her ear and after clearing her throat three times, she finally spoke.

"Hello?"

"Erin."

"Hey, Mr. Leslie."

He stalled for a minute, making the awkward moment even more stressful. "I need to talk to you, I-…we need to talk ASAP, can you please come back to the lab?"

She stuttered. "Oh, Mr. Leslie, I don't-…"

"I remember everything."

She gagged. "I know, you told me."

"Yes." He whispered. "I remember all of it Erin, please, you need to come back here, I need to speak with you face to face."

Abby was leaning down close to her so she could hear, she wanted to know what was going on just as badly.

"Ok, I'll be right there."

It took him a while to respond, yet again, but when he did it was just above a whisper. "Thanks Erin."

Erin pressed the red 'End' button and groaned while falling back down on the couch, grabbing the grey blanket that hung on the back of it.

"Well, he sounded less pissed when I talked to him after you left, this is good! Maybe he just wants to figure out what to do next. Don't worry hon, maybe it won't be so bad." Abby picked up her distraught friend and held her on her lap, cradling her like a baby.

She knew Abby was probably right and the only way to end all of this, this insanity was to suck it up, head into the lab and face Mr. Leslie like an adult.

She pulled the blanket off of her with a sigh. "How fast do you think I could get a job working fast food?"

Abby laughed. "If you can flip fries like I'm sure you flipped Mr. Leslie's dick, I'd say a few days tops! OW!"

Erin punched her friend in her left breast, hard, really, really, hard.

"I gotta change." Erin sighed for the hundredth time.

This was going to end, whether that meant the situation or her entire life and career, either way, it was going to end today.

The elevator *Ding* made her chest hurt as she stepped inside and pressed the button for her floor. This was the longest commute she ever had in her life, not to mention she was so nervous about this meeting that she pulled in too close to the wall in the parking lot and hit the bumper of her car. Another problem on this already horrible day. On her way in she passed by Ty, even though she was hoping that one of the other security guards would clear her to come in. They had their normal type of conversation, he even gave her a quick hug, no erection, no kiss on the head, no nothing. Things were nice and normal for them, as if nothing had happened. Why wasn't that the case with Mr. Leslie? How is it that Ty acted as if he didn't try to screw her right then and there in her lab that night when she first tested the drug? None of this made sense, but then again, she shouldn't have done any of it in the first place.

The elevator doors were about to close and she almost missed her floor as she was in such deep thought, and, rightfully so. While walking back into the lab, Erin made sure she acted as normal as possible, talking with her friends and other colleagues, answering some quick questions, being excited about their new grant for their lab, all normal. It wasn't until she looked up from speaking with a co-worker that she saw Mr. Leslie. He was standing at the front of his office with this door open, an invitation for her to come right in. She excused herself from her other conversation and headed straight for him. She walked right into his office without saying a word, but noticed that his blinds were already down, meaning that he wanted absolute privacy, for the obvious reasons.

Erin sat down quickly, her usual attire of frumpy clothing, long sleeved button up shirt, buttoned all the way up to her neck, a skirt that came down to her shins and shoes, flats really that were such a boring color of brown. She wanted to go back and be the invisible girl she once was before all of this happened. Before she took the biggest risk of her life and wanted to be someone else.

"Mr. Leslie-…"

"Why did you do it?"

She looked away from his gaze after they both sat down, him behind his desk and she sinking down in the chair across from him. "I don't know."

"Don't do that, Erin," he cut her off quickly, "don't. Ok? We're adults, we're scientist, you don't do something like that, take such a huge risk of your safety and career and come in here and say 'I don't know.' "

He was right.

"Mr. Leslie….If I tell you the truth, if I tell you the reason why I did it, you're going to hate me."

"….I could never hate you Erin."

She looked up from her hands in her lap, he said it so, compassionately.

"I can't."

"Yes, you can, Erin you have to tell me, because I can't just let this go, actions must be taken here. Do you know how serious this is? I mean, we got the grant, the drug, your supplement, all of our hard work, it all works. We set out to do what we wanted. But you singlehandedly came up with something that's out of this world, something that would change how we as humans interact with one another, I have to know why you did this and if we should pursue with the knowledge we know, or scrap it so no one else can get their hands on this and-…"

"Mr. Leslie, I'm in love with you."

He was rambling, she had to stop him and say it before her words turned into fear then turned into vomit.

"Erin…"

"I don't know how you remember everything but at this point it doesn't matter. I wanted to take the supplement because I wanted to know what it's like to be wanted. I know that sounds stupid, and that there are other safer ways to have this feeling, but it was such an amazing discovery that I wanted to test it out on myself. I wanted to know if it would work on humans, and it did! It worked wonders! And for a while I was so happy, happy to get the attention that other women, like Abby get all the time. But," she stopped and held her head down, "when it came to you, I wanted to use this 'drug' on you, for you, because I wanted…" she sighed again, "I wanted to be with you. Mr. Leslie, I've been in love with you for so, long, since I first started working here. You've always been so kind to me, so patient, you treat me like an individual and we get so much work done, so much great work done. I just, I know it was stupid but I wanted," she looked up at him then looked back down again, "I wanted, you."

Erin had her head down and didn't see Mr. Leslie get up from behind his desk. She heard him walk around to where she was sitting and her heart started to dance.

'Is he going to hit me?! Oh God, maybe he's going to tell me to get out! That's it, I'm fried, this is it, I'm done.'

Erin felt her breath catch in her throat when Mr. Leslie gently took hold of her wrist, making her look up at him. He leaned back a little, signaling her to stand with him, then held her other hand in his. She was breathing so hard she was shaking, and she hated it because she was sure she must have looked ridiculous.

"Erin."

She didn't know what to say so she didn't say anything.

Mr. Leslie smiled softly then brought her to him and hugged her, hugged her tight. Erin stopped breathing completely but then slowly found her air again and hugged him back.

"I'm sorry." She whispered.

"I know."

Mr. Leslie pulled back and took her face in his hands, smiling as usual while whipping her tears with his thumbs. He didn't even give her time to prepare, he leaned down and kissed her, softly and just enough.

Erin pulled away slightly and the look of confusion on his face made her feel worse. "You can't."

He laughed. "Why not?"

"T-The supplement, it should be out of my system but you could still be under the effects-…"

"Erin, I know what I'm doing. And I can't believe you're blushing right now after all the times we've slept together."

Mr. Leslie laughed again when her face started to look like a grape tomato. "I told you before that I remember everything, I don't have all the answers yet but I'd like to find out, if you'd be comfortable with working with me that is."

"You, you still want me to work on this project? I-I'm not going to be fired or sent to jail?!"

This time he laughed out loud, while still holding her in his hands. "No no, you won't be fired, whatever evidence there was about what you've done here will have to be erased of course. And, not for nothing but we're going to have to move you to another lab."

"W-what?"

"Well, there are rules about bosses dating their employees after all, and we can't have gossip ruin this laboratory, we have work that needs to be done."

Erin took a step back and almost fell over the chair behind her, thankfully Mr. Leslie caught her before she tumbled over. "I, have to go to another lab?"

"Well, yes, heh, did you hear what I said before that?"

Erin had totally tuned out everything he said besides that, she was so happy to not only not be fried but not arrested either. She could continue on with their work….just not in the same lab. Which in the end wasn't so bad, since she had caused so much trouble in the last few weeks. And since she would be….

'Dating?'

"Dating?" She finally repeated. "Who?"

"Well are we dating or aren't we? Wouldn't want you to think I was some kind of cheap floosy, who just happened to be your boss."

Her mouth fell open, "are you, sure?"

"Erin," he brought her back to him with another hug, "I wasn't sure how I was going to react or what I was going to do when you came in here today, but, after hearing why you did it and knowing you for being the truthful person that you are, I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy all of our time together. I would like to be with you as well, but without the aid of a drug. And what the hell, if it doesn't work out, then we can still both have our jobs and it will end amicably, why ruin a good thing we have here, in this lab? What do you say? Want to have sex with me when I'm not under your supplemented spell?"

This time it was Erin who laughed, and she finally hugged him back with all the desire and love she'd been keeping hidden from him all this time. Erin leaned back and kissed him, her new boyfriend and old lover, her Mr. Leslie. It was everything she dreamed it could be all over again, because now it was real.

Wait until Abby got a load of this.

The End.