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It's so hard to find good help (dominant_minded X Nurse_K)

"Yes sir," she said somewhat dismissively when he said to only direct urgent things to him. She was trying really hard to make it seem as if she cared just as little about what he thought of her as she had on her other two days here. She wondered how strange it was to people that both she and the boss had been gone for two days and both come back, seemingly exactly the same as they'd been when they left. She typed away at the computer, answering e-mails, checking dates, making appointments. By the time lunch rolled around she'd filled up his calendar for at least a month.

She didn't bother to tell him though, he should be checking his schedule sometime during the day. She would inform him of his jam packed calendar sometime over the weekend. That would give them less time together during the week, but she thought maybe a little distance would be good for them. They'd become stuck together, like they couldn't live without the other. That could end badly.
 
Nick made a couple of business calls to check on the status of a few things he knew were pending. The Mergers & Acquisitions group had nothing new to report on the two deals he had them watching, the stock prices for the other companies involved weren't quite right yet. He told the company portfolio manager about the stock buyback he was about to press the board for, the man seemed pleased but had asked Nick if Accounting felt the same enthusiasm. He answered truthfully that Accounting was the next department on his list of calls.

After telling them about the amount of cash the company was going to need to shell out to gently extricate a group of voting shares of company stock from Jennifer's Father, he told them that he was approving a pay advance to his executive assistant. The head accountant didn't even blink at the amount of $300k, instead she asked Nick, "Is this actually going to your exec. assistant, or is this a small project that you're trying to creatively name, Nick? Not that the IRS would notice such a small amount with all our other expenses, but I'd like to know so that I can have other paperwork necessary to avoid fraud charges, should it come up."

On the other end of the phone, Nick closed his eyes and smiled. He loved this company, loved it. No one had people like he did. Oh there were the typical politics and ambitious personalities, but the professionalism and quality, especially in his department heads like Amy, was exactly what he wanted. They worked hard and they knew their stuff, and they were honest. Honest enough that they hired other honest people to fill out their departments.

"No Amy, it's actually going to her. Just calculate the cut from her check for a ten year payment period, no interest. Send someone by with a cashier's check and instructions not to hand it to anyone but me. Thanks, Amy," he answered her and hung up the phone. He looked at his watch. 11:15. Not much time before lunch. He tapped the intercom, "Elsa, could you come in here for a sec?"
 
"Yes, Mr. Anders," she responded to his intercom call. She finished typing up the e-mail she was sending to, of all people, her mother. Her mother, over the last few days, had completely inundated her with e-mails asking about her life. It was strange that she would do that, she and her mother didn't talk often anymore. But now she was spouting something about Elsa coming to visit, how Massachusetts is beautiful right now and she's dying to see her youngest daughter again. She pushed it off with something about work, mostly because she knew that if she went somewhere, Nick would probably want to go with her, and despite her deep and unshakingly love for him, she wasn't sure it was time for him to meet her parents yet.

She clicked out of everything on her screen so that no passers by could see any of his information. She stood up and walked the short distance to his office, opening and closing the door quietly. She advanced up to his desk, her heart thudding a little as she remembered the last time she'd been in here with him and what had happened. "Did you need something?" she asked him, keeping her professional air up.
 
He waited until she had closed his office door before saying very quietly, "Hey babe," choosing instead to drop his professional air. She looked just the slightest bit tense, and it made him feel a little twinge of pain when he guessed why. He moved his mind in a more pleasant direction. "I have an errand for you to run over lunch, if you don't mind," he said with a pleasant smile. He pulled out one of Colette's business cards and set it on the far edge of his desk, in front of her. He continued, seeming to change the subject, "I was wondering if you'd join me for dinner and the symphony this evening, Elsy. I have box seats, and they're playing Beethoven, my favorite composer. I can get us reservations at Mark's for dinner beforehand." He smiled broadly and winked, "They have the best cuisine you'll find outside of New York."

"Of course, that brings us to the errand. I made an appointment for you at Nordstrom this afternoon to get a new evening gown," he explained, gesturing towards the business card in front of her. "Jenkins will be here in about 30 minutes, driving something more subtle than the limo, to pick you up and take you over to the Galleria. All you need to do is go to the ladies' counter and ask for Colette. She'll take good care of you, even set you up with the salon for your hair and nails. What do you say?"
 
Elsa was caught between a rock and a hard place. While she thought it was extremely sweet that he was going all of this, she still felt like he was taking too much care of her too quickly. They weren't married, they didn't live together (though it was obvious to her that he wanted her to live with him), and yet he seemed to crave taking care of every single expense she had, as well as adding on extra expenses just for fun. She felt that they really needed to address the issue. Just because they played around with submission didn't mean that she needed him to control all of her finances (as much of a genius at them he claimed to be).

She walked over to his desk and picked up Colette's card. She sighed softly and sat in the large chair in front of the desk. "Of course I'll go to dinner and the symphony with you, Nick." but then she paused for a moment, staring down at the card while she tried to think of the best way to speak her thoughts. "But...I really don't need a new dress. I just went shopping, and I can assure you that I have gowns at home. My home, my house." she slowly raised her eyes to look him straight in the face, "And I think it would be a good idea for me to sleep in my own house tonight. And you to sleep in yours. You understand why, don't you?"
 
He took in a deep breath and put his hand up to his face, looking up at the ceiling in what he hoped was a thoughtful sort of look. Truthfully, he was hiding his face because he couldn't stop the grin from forming, and he didn't want her to think he didn't take her seriously. She was absolutely priceless. Any other girl would be letting herself get swept off her feet, and becoming boringly predictable in the process. Not Elsa. Not his Elsa.

Alright, so she needed some space, and she needed to slow down. He could do that; he could be patient. He composed his face before looking back at her. He started to answer her, adding a somber note in his voice, "Alright, Elsy, I understand. I can find a way to survive some nights without you. I don't want you to think I'm a tyrant. You need some turf that's your own. I can see that." I'd even love an invitation to join you there sometime, he thought.

He paused, thinking about her thoughts on the gown. He wondered what kind of gowns she might own, what she might choose. He thought about his plan, and decided this was going to be too much fun to chance it. Would she compromise on this point after he had conceded what he knew was the more important matters? He thought of a way to talk her into this that might work. "Elsa, I know I'm hardly a normal boyfriend," he began carefully, "but would you normally accept roses from a regular guy who was trying to charm you?"
 
She was glad that he was at least beginning to see where she was coming from. He was going to give her some space, that was good. They hadn't been together long, and their relationship was rocky at best. They fought, they made up, they fought, they made up, and then they fought again. Things were topsy turvy all over the place with the two of them. She needed life to be a little normal before she could jump into anything serious with him. She didn't know his thoughts on marriage and whatever, but she knew that if they were going to continue their relationship the way it seemed to be going, she was going to need some more concrete commitment from him.

She narrowed her eyes a little. "Yes, I would. But roses don't cost upwards of five hundred dollars. Roses don't need to be tailored to fit a woman's body, and roses don't cause people to turn and stare. I don't need an evening gown for you to charm me, you know that."
 
He smirked a little. She knew already what he was trying to do here, and she was trying to anticipate his arguments. "I know that, love, but it doesn't change the fact that I would like to give you one," he said cooingly.

Time for another tack then... He paused for a moment, staring at her, fully knowing she wouldn't budge but wanting to seem as if he were trying to get her resolve to slip. Then he slipped his hand in the pocket of his trousers and pulled out the key to her place that he'd taken from her the last time they were at her place. He put it on the desk in front of him, grinned broadly, and let out a sarcastic sigh. "Alright, fine, you win, Elsa. I'll buy $499.99 worth of long stem roses and drop by to let the florist arrange them in your living room before you get home. They'll be the dominant feature in your decorating for over a week, and you won't be able to get the smell out for over a month... Or... of course... you could change your mind on the gown and go see Colette during lunch," he finished, stifling the grin for a moment and trying to look pleasant. He didn't want to give her too much of a reason to get angry and dig in her heels.
 
At first, she thought she'd won, and she was ecstatic. Especially when he pulled out the key to her house that she'd actually forgotten he head. But then he turned his words around on her, like he did almost always. She listened to him speak without saying a word, just staring at him. When he was done and he gave her that pleasant look she shook her head and sighed. He'd won, and he'd known he was going to win from the very start, despite how much she'd been convinced that she herself would win. She stood up and grinned a little. She leaned over the desk and took the key, slipping it into her blazer pocket. Then she walked around his desk and stood with her hands on her hips, almost like a teacher chiding a student.

"You're an asshole. But I love you." she grinned wider and leaned down, kissing him softly. She pulled away, but then kissed him again. She wanted to kiss him forever, but finally pulled away and took a couple of steps away so that he couldn't grab her and keep her there like she wanted him to. "I'll go downstairs and wait for Jenkins. He should be here in a few minutes." and then she walked to his door, but she turned around and smiled at him before opening the door and leaving.
 
He just grinned at her as she chastised him. When she kissed him, he teased her. "Why Elsa, that's hardly office appropriate behavior..." he started, but he was cut off as she kissed him again. His eyes closed and his lips moved against hers warmly. He sighed softly as she broke the kiss again and stepped away from him. He watched her leave with a huge, pleased smile on his face. She was so incredibly exciting. She had gone before he really processed what she was saying. When he finally came to himself and realized that she had left he looked down at his watch. He jumped up and grabbed his keys. If he wasn't careful, he was going to be late for the board meeting, and he had more than one place to go over lunch. Plus, he needed to get to all of these places quickly, so that she didn't get too suspicious.
 
She grabbed her purse and went down to the first floor. She waved to the woman at the front desk and went out the door, seeing Jenkins waiting for her in a fairly non-descript car, though it was obvious that it was expensive. She got into the backseat and smiled at Jenkins, "Hi Jenkins. I assume Nick told you where to go," and he just nodded to her and took off back into traffic. They were at Nordstroms in less than ten minutes. She went to the women's section and asked for Colette, who came running out to meet her.

"Hello, you're Colette? I'm Elsa. Nick's...friend." she felt a little awkward, but the woman was friendly enough. She followed her to the gown section, prepared for an hour of tediousness. She decided to try to cut Colette off at the start, to make her rules known. "Colette...Nick has some pretty extreme tastes. I...don't. I would appreciate if you wouldn't try to push me on anything."
 
Colette flashed a broad smile at Elsa as she explained her 'rules', a bubbly smile that only those perpetually happy, upbeat people wore. It was exuberant... It was infectious... It was annoying...

"Ahhh, Mademoiselle Elsa, let us have fun, no?" she began to answer Elsa, using a mixture of what was obviously native French and learned Texan accents that combined into something sugary sweet and bouncy that was impossible to take as argumentative. She took both of Elsa's hands in hers before continuing. "We will find you something grand," she said then leaned in closer to add a little quieter, "and with your magnifique figure, that will not be so hard a thing to do. Come, mademoiselle, let me show you some things that will make you feel radiant." And with a little wink she was leading Elsa towards a private dressing room with mirrors along all the walls and a rack of gowns.

Nick was evidently good at estimating a woman's measurements (and had apparently sneakily given them to Colette), because everything on the rack was already fairly close to Elsa's size. Colette was no fool either. She picked up one of the gowns that was hung near the end of the rack, something she felt sure that Elsa would reject, based on Nick's description of her. The more likely choices were hidden closer to the middle of the rack where Elsa couldn't really get a glimpse of them, waiting for Colette's instincts about Elsa's reactions to cause one of them to be pulled out. This had the effect of making the whole rack look like it was full of nothing but very skimpy gowns, based on what one could see on the ends.

The first one up was a black number, and terribly revealing. "Try this one, Mademoiselle Elsa. Let us see how it fits your frame."
 
And Elsa was, in fact, about to argue with the woman that there was no need for a private dressing room, but the woman's exuberant manner and bustling quality took Elsa running after her as she made her way to the back. She sighed and decided that it was best to just go along with the woman's antics for awhile. She seemed harmless really, just extremely bubbly and over joyous. She eyed the rack of dresses warily, seeing less fabric there in total than what she was wearing now. She sincerely hoped that Nick had had nothing to do in picking out the actual dresses, as she would never be able to take him shopping ever if that was the case. He obviously thought more for the bedroom than for the public.

Elsa's eyes widened in horror as Colette pulled out the first dress. It was made of a sheer silk material, so sheer that you could almost see through it. It was a beautiful black and looked as if it would drape across a woman's skin. That is, the skin that it would cover. It had a deep plunging neck line and couldn't come down to even the middle of her calves, never mind the enormous slit that went up the side. Elsa wouldn't be caught dead wearing that out in public, she'd be hard pressed to even wear it in the bedroom.

Elsa shook her head politely at the tiny bubbly French-Texan woman, "I'm sorry, Colette. I don't think I can even try that on. It's...it's too bold for my taste. Wonderful for someone a bit more avant garde than me, but nonetheless, not me."
 
Colette let out a small sigh, but kept her bubbly smile. "Not even to try it on, mademoiselle?" she asked sweetly, but there was no hint of a push in the question, only mock surprise. There was something honest in the way she was going about this, as if she wasn't trying nearly hard enough to cover what she was really up to. She winked at Elsa as she hung the garment back on the rack, all but coming out and telling her that she had known that the dress was going to be rejected. "We must give you some courage, Elsa," she said sweetly and encouragingly. Her tone took on something as she spoke, a hint of passion for her work, and an unspoken, knowing message that wasn't quite clear...

"So beautiful a woman should not be - how do you say? - like the scared rabbit that runs from her beauty," Colette said exuberantly, but with a deeply sincere undercurrent. She chose another dress. This one was red, and in some ways a bit tamer, but in others not so much. "Perhaps this?" Colette asked, watching Elsa's reaction.
 
The red dress was hardly better than the black. It had more material, but the material was in folds around the hips that draped down the thighs, passed the knees, and to the floor. So her bottom and legs would be covered, but without even trying it on Elsa could tell that it would be a tight one. It would fit her, but it was meant to be tight. She sighed and took the dress from the woman without a word, going into one of the dressing rooms to change. She took off her work clothes and slunk into the dress, groaning and muttering under her breath as she felt the red silk cling to her.

The dress was beautiful, that much she could not deny. It clung to her curves like glue. It accentuated her hips, went up her torso and clung to her ribcage. Her breasts protruded out of the top, as they were supposed to. It was backless with the thin straps gathering at her neck. She opened the dressing room door warily and shook her head at Colette. "No, Colette. The fabric is hardly fabric. It's more like tights.
 
"Ah but you look stunning in it, Elsa," Colette said beaming. "What does this dress say to you?" she said, pausing. Again her voice conveyed some message beyond the words she was actually speaking. "Does it not say 'adventure'? Perhaps too much adventure, yes? It says 'Dangerous'. And we are not a dangerous woman, are we? No, it is stunning, but something else." Colette was now a brimming bundle of energy and passion. She seemed to love this... to love the clothes. She waited for Elsa to give her back the red gown and then carelessly flung it over the rack.

She moved towards the center of the rack and thumbed through the gowns there until she found a deep blue colored one. Everything in Colette's demeanor changed. It was all to clear that this was the first real try. The dress was less revealing than any of the others that Elsa could see, but it still had its bold points. "What does this one say to you, Mademoiselle Elsa?" she said with more serious tone than she had used before, spreading out the beautiful blue fabric. "Does it not remind you of something? Someone? Someone's features, perhaps?" Colette gently handed Elsa the dress, taking a step back and smiling politely, as if she didn't necessarily expect an answer to the questions.
 
She had to stifle a few laughs as the woman fawned over her and the dress. She was right, the dress did say adventure and danger, but those were two things that Elsa did not want to convey with her dress. She wouldn't say that she wasn't ever dangerous, but she didn't want that to be known by everyone. She would rather conceal her dangerousness and pull it out when it would be most effective. She got out of the dress as quickly as possible and gave it back to Colette, who almost immediately thrust another dress at her. This one caught Elsa's eye, it was going to be a lot harder for her to reject.

She blushed a little when Colette insinuated that the dress was the color of Nick's eyes. It was. She slid her own eyes over to Colette and shook her head, "Colette, it seems that you know Nick very well. Not too well, I hope. Don't tell me if you are." she was aware that Nick had slept around with quite a few women, but she didn't want to know about it. She took the other dress and pulled it on, gasping softly when she saw herself in it.

The dress was the exact same blue as Nick's eyes, the exact same. The dress was tight, but not like the red one had been. It draped along her curves elegantly, tight enough just around her chest that her breasts were pushed up and presented nicely. The neck line had tiny crystals along it going all the way up to the straps. The straps connected in the back and left most of the back open. The dress went down to the ground softly. She opened the dressing room door silently and raised her eyes up to Colette, wordless.
 
Colette only giggled, a bright, effervescent sort of giggle, when Elsa wondered aloud about Colette's relationship with Nick. She spoke while Elsa changed, "Ah no, mademoiselle, he is quite a doll, but the only passion he and I shared is for clothes," she said, then sighed melodramatically as if she were fainting, "but his wardrobe... That man has tastes, but look who I am telling. After all, you seem to have caught his eye, no?" She snickered.

When she heard Elsa gasped, she fell silent, smiling to herself. She waited. When Elsa opened the door, Colette put her hand to her throat and flashed a smile that was broad even for her. "Elsa, this is it, is it not? It will say much to him, no? And to everyone who sees you next to him?" she said giddily and stepped forward and gently led Elsa up onto the step in front of the 180 degree mirror set up. She teased Elsa's hair a number of ways quickly. "The color is perfect for a brunette like you, mademoiselle. It needs to be taken in here and here, but we can have it done before Maria is done with your hair. What do you think?"
 
She giggled when she said that this was the one. It was the one, and she could tell. She stepped up into the 180 mirror and twisted sideways a couple of times to view herself completely in it. It really was perfect. There could be no other dress for this occasion. She was sure that there were plenty of other beautiful dresses that she would like on the rack, but as she'd told Nick earlier, she didn't even need a new dress. She was just doing this to appease him. Elsa turned from the mirror and beamed at Colette.

"Thank you, Colette. I'd never have found this dress without you." she stepped off of the mirror platform and flung her arms around the woman, giving her a tight hug. Then she stepped back and giggled again. "Do you think you could find me some shoes?"
 
Colette let out a chorus of giggles as Elsa reacted to the blue gown and turned to hug her. As Elsa broke the hug, Colette took both of Elsa's hands in hers, as she had before, and held them. "Ah, now we are having fun, Mademoiselle Elsa, no?" she said when Elsa mentioned shoes, her smile broad and her eyes glinting with obvious thoughts about styles.

But she stopped the wheels turning in her head for a moment, still holding Elsa's hands. Her tone was light, and her smile was still the sweet bouncy smile she had worn, but something in Colette's eyes expressed a bit of seriousness as she spoke now, "He is... different... about you, Elsa. I could hear it in his voice." She locked her gaze to Elsa's for a moment without saying anything. She didn't want Elsa to be uncomfortable, but she had come to regard Nick as a bit of a friend. She spoke again, quickly and cheerily, in a tone that almost contradicted the words she was speaking, "He has been alone for a very long time, mademoiselle. As long as I have known him, and he has been sending his 'friends' to me, I think. He does not tell me this, but I know it. But he is different when he speaks about you." She smiled and then giggled, breaking even the light seriousness that she had allowed and added, "Perhaps he is not so alone anymore?" She winked at Elsa.
 
She blushed deeply when Colette mentioned Nick. She had figured that he had either had his time with Colette or he did a lot of business with her. It seemed that it sent all of his little toys to her. But, it also seemed that Colette did not think she was a toy of Nick's. Nick hadn't presented her as a toy. She smiled beamingly at the small bubbly woman, perhaps more over joyed in this instant than she had been all day. Nick had been right to push her to come see this woman. He was usually right anyway.

She looked down at the floor for a moment but then met the woman's gaze. "No, Colette. He's not alone anymore." she fidgeted a little and then heaved a sigh, pushing passed this moment, glorious at it was, and on to the next. "So! About those shoes. Pick any you think will work. I can do up to four inch heels without falling over. Size six." and then she rushed into the changing room to change back into her normal clothes. She looked in the mirror was she was in her business suit and frowned a little. This outfit that had been so appealing to her a couple of days before now seemed frumpy.

She hung the dress quickly and opened the door, handing it to Colette. "Could you direct me to Maria?" she said sweetly.
 
Colette simply squeezed Elsa's hands, which she still held, when Elsa confirmed her feelings towards Nick. But when Elsa started really talking shoes, she was all excitement again. "Magnifique! I have just the ones!", she said boisterously and launched into a description of a pair of shoes that included words like 'strappy' and 'dainty' while Elsa changed back into her work clothes. She only stopped when a dinging sound from her cell phone announced a new message. Colette looked down and saw who it was from. Her eyes widened and she clapped her hands as she read Nick's text message, saying 'magnifique' again as if she were trying to say it under here breath. She quickly closed the phone before Elsa opened the door to the changing room.

She took the gown from Elsa with a bit of a smirk to her now familiar broad smile. "This way mademoiselle, this way. I will get your shoes while Maria works her magic," she said as she arranged the gown on the hanger and led Elsa from the VIP dressing area. After dropping the dress off with one of the other clerks, she led Elsa out to the nearby salon and introduced her to Maria. After relaying a quick description of the dress they had picked out to Maria, she turned back to Elsa, "I leave you in her capable hands, mademoiselle. Together she and I will make you the envy of every woman in the city tonight, no?" She winked at Elsa, gave her a friendly smile and then hurried out. Finding the shoes was no longer the only errand she had to run...
 
Elsa was whisked into the salon and carried away to another back room. She was sat down into a a salon chair and her hair was pulled out of its bun. A bevy of women swarmed around her, brushing her hair, washing her hands and feet, massaging her face and lotioning it. Nearly an hour passed by before she could even breathe steadily for a moment. She was spun around in the chair and shown herself in a mirror. She giggled softly and sighed, her hair'd been cut, styled, and dressed. Her face was made up, her nails were done, and her skin was extra soft with lotion.

She thanked the women and walked out of the salon. She'd been instructed to go back to Norstrom's and pick up her dress and shoes from Colette.
 
Colette had everything ready and waiting for Elsa when she walked in. The dress had been tailored and was in a nice garment bag to keep it from getting rumpled, and the shoes were out, waiting for Elsa to try them on. Colette had an absolute fit over Elsa's hair and nails as soon as she saw them, "You are - what do they say? - SENSATIONAL, mademoiselle Elsa! That Maria, she is trying to show me up!" and she let out a stream of excited giggles. She wouldn't let Elsa touch the shoes as she carefully placed them on her feet, explaining she wasn't going to risk ruining Elsa's nails. They fit well, and Colette looked quite pleased with herself. She gathered up all of Elsa's things and insisted on carrying them out to the car for Elsa. Jenkins took them from her at the door of the car and carefully hung the garment bag in the back seat of the sedan that he had driven her over in.

For the briefest of moments, a sleek black sports car could be seen pulling into a parking garage on the opposite end of the mall, but then it was gone. Colette turned to Elsa and lightly kissed each of her cheeks, saying "Go and knock him dead, mademoiselle." Then she gave Elsa a little bit of a mischievous wink that seemed to hide something, and waved goodbye to her. From inside Elsa's purse, her cell phone went off as Nick finished sending a short text message to her:

"Nothing to do at the office. Your boss isn't there, take the rest of the day off. Can I pick you up at your house at 6?"
 
Elsa sighed a deep sigh of relief once she was in the backseat of the car and Colette had left. She opened her purse and opened her phone to see what Nick was saying to her. She smiled at the text and leaned to the front seat and Jenkins, "Hey Jenkins. Can you just take me home? Do you remember my address?" Jenkins nodded and assured her that he knew exactly how to get to her house. She settled back into the seat and sent Nick a text back, "Okay babe. See you at six." and tossed her phone back into her purse.

When she got home ten minutes later she let Jenkins take all of her stuff inside for her. Then she lounged on the couch, knowing that she couldn't take a shower or bath for fear of her make up and hair to get messed up. She had three hours, but didn't want to eat and end up not being hungry at dinner. After a few minutes, she fell asleep.
 
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