I've worked here for almost ten years now. I'm a techie, a computer geek, and proud of it. My manager is several years older, and a business type through and through. She's not bad, though. She knows she doesn't know what I do, so she tells me what she needs and gets out of my way. If I need something, I can go to her and she'll do what she can.

I used to work on a few specific things, but recently I've sort of ended up as the jack-of-all-trades in IT. In a rare moment of humor, she mentioned at my most recent review that my entire job description had become "other duties as assigned." One day I might be building a server, the next day I might be helping someone with an application issue.

But being a geek, it's all good.

Did you ever notice how, when someone you work with goes on vacation, everything that person was responsible for has problems? That's how it all started.

One server was down, and no matter what I did, it would not stop crashing every ten minutes. Naturally, the guy who normally babysat it was on vacation.

All day long I swore at it, taking it apart, reseating cards, running diags, and in general getting nowhere. And at seven o'clock, I stretched, looked around - and realized it was seven o'clock and I was the only one left.

My shoulders hurt like hell and my eyes burned. I rolled my shoulders, getting the kinks out, and decided to let off some steam.

"SHIT!", I yelled at the top of my lungs. Then, like an idiot, I started giggling, embarrassed that I'd let myself do that.

"It sounds like you need a break," came a voice from the doorway of the server room. I felt the color drain from my face. I knew that voice.

My manager has some sort of accent that I could never place. Not strong, not thick, but it's there. She's five foot nothing, if she weighs a hundred I'd be surprised, and her waist is probably as big around your average telephone pole. She is in the habit of wearing tailored suits which fit very, very well. Short dark hair, dark eyes. I do notice these things, despite the reputation geeks have.

So I turn around, and she's leaning against the door frame grinning. That surprised me so much I forgot to be nervous about my scream therapy. She was not a lean-against-the-door-frame type.

I tried to say something, but I didn't know whether to start by saying hi, or explain my outburst, or give me a progress report on the server issue. I ended up standing there flapping my jaw.

She looked at me for a moment, then her expression seemed to change just a little. Again, being a geek I don't read people well, and maybe if I wasn't so flustered I'd have thought about it a little more. But I didn't.

Straightening, she made a "come-here" motion with her index finger.

"Follow me. Please." She's my manager, she said follow - so I followed, starting to sweat, wondering if I was going to get in trouble for yelling SHIT in a supposedly empty building, or for not getting the server running.

It was always spooky, in a neat sort of way, to be the only one around at night. The lights were all off, it was very, very quiet, no one to bother me. But this time I was being led straight to her office.

"Sit down. Please." I tried again, and failed again, to place that ever-so-slight accent. I sat down in her guest chair, which made my desk chair look - and feel - like a boulder.

She stood in front of me, next to her desk, for a minute, as if trying to think of what to say. I still didn't know if I was going to get chewed out.

On her desk was one of those things with the steel balls on strings. You pull one and let it go, and the one on the far end bounces away. Then it comes back and the process repeats until it runs out of energy. The things were neat from a geek perspective, but I found them annoying as hell.

She tapped on the desk a few times, reached over and got the damn clicky-ball thing going. I tried to keep my teeth from grinding together.

Click, clack, click, clack.

Whoever invented those things should be given a science award, and then shot.

"Long day?"

She was looking at me now. I'd started watching the damn click balls.

"Very. Sorry about the profanity, I just... it's been.. man, what a day... I can't figure out what's wrong with the thing."

"You have not taken a break today, nor eaten lunch, have you?"

I had to think about it. "No, now that you mention it." And my stomach rumbled just then to emphasize the point.

Click, clack, click, clack. I wanted to jump out of the chair and grab the things and stop them. She wandered around her office, and her voice came next from behind me.

"You need to slow down for a while. Take a break."

"Yeah, you're right. I will. Thanks." It was not an observation that required much imagination.

When her hands first touched my shoulders I almost did jump out of the chair. "You are a good employee. It would not be good if you... what's the term... burnt out. I cannot let that happen."

She was actually squeezing my shoulders. I could not believe this was happening.

"One must learn to relax. It is something you must learn, must practice. Everyone knows how, you know how, you just need someone to show you that you know."

Huh?

"Sometimes the things we find most annoying are the things that help us learn the most in the end. We try to put things aside, and other things get put aside as well, until they are no more."

Between the damn click-clack, and trying to figure out what the hell she was talking about, and the utterly unexpected feeling of her hands massaging my neck and shoulders, I had no idea whatsoever to do.

"Because when things are no more there is focus. When nothing is in focus, things are. Putting things aside to focus on things leads to learning that the annoyances focus us on learning."

I was clueless as to what she meant, but every time she mentioned annoying things, I looked at the damn click-clack toy. And every time she mentioned focus, I tried not to listen to the noise, which meant I had to find something else to listen to. Her voice was a hell of a lot better than the damn click-clack-click-clack.

"Learning to relax lets your focus drift from thing to thing, until everything is put aside and the dream begins. In the dream there is nothing but focus, everything else is put aside...."

I remember staring at the damn click-clack balls and hearing her voice, and feeling her fingers gently, so gently, caressing my neck. At some point the words faded out even though I knew her voice was still there. I knew somehow I was drifting, like she'd said, or maybe dreaming. I don't know if the click-clack ever stopped or not, and I don't know if I heard it if it was still going. I pretty much faded out completely. Her hands felt so, so good on my neck and shoulders. I even imagined I felt gently caressing my temples, and that was a nice dream indeed.

There was a silence, and at some point I realized I could see. I was still in the chair. She was now sitting on the edge of her desk, in front of me. I shook my head and looked around. The damn click-clack thing wasn't moving. That was a relief.

"Do you feel better now?"

Then and only then did I realize I'd dozed off or something. Her massage must have been so relaxing that I fell asleep. Damn. Falling asleep in your manager's guest chair as she massages your neck. How embarrassing.

And... uh-oh... Hmm... how... um... Oh, hell, no. My cock started to stir.

I swallowed hard and squirmed. I needed to leave, but I could not stand up just yet.

"Uh... yes. That was... I don't know what to say... nice. Thanks."

I watched as she reached to one side and pulled on one of the steel balls. Oh, no. I had to go. I sat up straight.

Click, clack, click, clack, click clack.

How strange. I watched the two moving ones bounce back and forth. Back and forth. Back and forth. Click, clack, click, clack, click, clack. So annoying. Find something else to focus on. Was she talking? Yes, she was saying something....

"Do your eyes still sting?" she asked me.

I inhaled sharply. How much of the conversation had I missed? Damn, I must really be tired, I thought. I faded out while she was talking.

"Um.. pardon?" I asked. My mouth didn't work again.

"I'm sorry. I asked if your eyes were still stinging. Are they red?"

I had to chuckle. "Yeah, probably. I've been going cross-eyed staring at the monitor all day."

"Let me see," she said, sliding off the desk and kneeling in front of the chair. I remember thinking something like, wow, this is really strange, before my eyes met hers.

"Can you see the color in my eyes?" she whispered. Maybe she whispered. Maybe I just wasn't hearing well. I saw the color in her eyes. "Such a deep color... deep... look deeper... to see deeper... color... look deeper... see deeper... color.... deeper color.... deeper into my eyes... deeper..."

I had never seen eyes so large, or so deep. So deep. Deep.....

She was sitting on the edge of her desk again. I took a deep breath and tried to figure out what the hell was going on. She must have noticed my forehead crease as I tried to put things together.

"Does not knowing annoy you?"

Annoy. What did that remind me of? Out of the corner of my eye I saw her move. Annoy... what did that....

Click, clack, click, clack, click, clack.....

"You are very good at what you do," she was saying from somewhere behind me. Once again, I took a deep breath and mentally tried to bring myself to this point.

"You pay attention to all the small details that most people don't bother with. I like that, it shows determination, it shows you want to do things the right way. Is that true?

"Uh... Well, yeah, I guess it is. I always want to do things right."

"Good." Hands on my shoulders. Her voice, with that accent that I still hadn't figured out... My eyes closed by themselves, and I drifted.

She was sitting on the edge of her desk again.

"Do you know what I find very relaxing?"

"What?" I asked, after I got my mouth working.

"Having my nails done. Sitting quietly while someone very efficiently paints my toenails for me. Do you know anyone who would do that for me? Someone who pays attention to details, and is determined to do well for me?"

That's when I realized her shoes were off. One leg was crossed primly over the other, with the bare foot swinging gently in a short arc, back and forth. Back and forth. For an instant I imagined hearing the damn click click.

It took my eyes a moment to roam up and realize she was sitting on the edge of her desk, wearing only her suit coat and panties. Was that normal? Something seemed out of place. She spoke, her voice low, that accent haunting me, making me wonder again where she was from.

"You will do that for me, won't you?"

Someone had to. Why not me? Who could do it better?

"Yes," I said, wondering if it was really my voice.

I rose from the chair and sat on the floor below her. She handed me the various things I would need, and it never occurred to me to wonder why she had them ready.

For the next hour, I sat on the floor and painted each and every one of her toenails with sparkly metallic blue polish. She guided me during the entire process, and more than once I felt myself beginning to drift as the sound of her voice washed through my mind. I painted, I breathed on them to help them dry. I had never, ever, done anything like this before, but now I was being asked to do it, and dammit if I wasn't going to do the best I could.

Finished, I sat there, admiring my work as she wiggled her toes.

"Very good," she whispered. I was actually blushing, it felt really good to know she liked what I had done even though it was my first time.

"And now I have something for you," she said. Surprised, and happy in an almost childish way, I looked up. She reached down and took my hands, gently pulling me to my feet. I stood there, looking down at her, and she reached toward me, framing my face in her hands. I felt her fingers against my temples as she spoke.

"Do you remember what color my eyes are?" I looked into them and for a brief instant saw the color. Then her voice washed over me, my eyes closed by themselves, and I found myself drifting into nothingness.

When they opened again I was back in the server room.

I sat there for a moment, still not quite comprehending. Had I really just painted my manager's toes? Had she really massaged my shoulders and put me to sleep or something? Or was it a fatigue-induced dream, a hallucination I would look back on and smile about in an embarrassed, almost guilty way?

I knew it was time to go home. There was no way I could do any more.

All night long, I dreamed of eyes and toenails and clicking steel balls and soft whispers.

I got the server running for good just after nine the next morning. I hadn't even gone to my desk when I came to work, I went straight to the server room and started in. At one point I saw a very small shadow glide past outside the server room door, and I began to wonder again, and this time even to fantasize a bit.

Wandering slowly back to my desk, I met her coming the other way down an aisle. There was no way to hold back the fantasies upon actually seeing her, and I prayed I could just nod hello and walk by - quickly. Instead she reached out a hand and stopped me by placing it on my arm.

My arm tingled all the way down to my balls.

"I am told you fixed the server. Very good work. It is very good to know I have an employee that can, how do you say it... nail the problem and deal with it very efficiently."

I stood there, absolutely stunned. She smiled, patted my already- vibrating arm, and walked away.

Staggering back to my desk, I sat down and put my head in my hands. That was no coincidence, there was no way. Something had happened in her office.

Maybe I really had painted her nails.

Unconsciously, I shifted in my chair. When I realized I had shifted, and realized why, I had to grin.

Amazing.

That's when I noticed my daily planner looked strange somehow.

There was a small dab of what looked like red nail polish on today's page, at eight PM.

I hid in the server room from five until two minutes to eight. At that time, I began to feel a very strange sensation, like I was actually being summoned to her office. The need, the desire, to go to her built with every passing second. It wasn't an unpleasant sensation by any means, but it was very, very unfamiliar. I tried to wait, I tried to keep from going, just to see if I could - but the pull was so strong that I found myself sweating as I opened the server room door and headed to her office. I arrived at one minute after eight.

The door was open. She was sitting at her desk, waiting. I paused at the door and she motioned for me to come in. "Close the door. Please," she said quietly.

I did, my knees shaking. She glanced at the clock. "You did not want to come here?" How did she know I tried to stop myself?

"Ah... No... I mean... I want to... I didn't... I don't... Um..."

She smiled. "It is all right to be uncertain. You see? Even though you were uncertain, you are here now."

Yes, I was. I had no idea why I was here, but here I was.

She rose and slowly walked around the desk, reaching for my hands, and gently, almost casually, began stroking then with her fingers. "You do want to be here, don't you." It took me a second to realize she had said it as a statement and not a question.

"Yes," I whispered, feeling my face flush. I still had no idea what was really happening, but I knew that the only place in the world I wanted to be at that moment was right there.

"I know," she whispered, smiling. Her fingers brushed against my hands, up my arms, up my shoulders, up my neck, so gentle and soft. Anything those fingers touched just seemed to melt, and that feeling spread quickly to the rest of my body.

Her fingertips dragged over my cheeks, and at last I realized the connection between her actions and what was happening to me. My body was gone, her eyes were locked on mine. Soft fingers caressing my temples, eyes pulling me in, willingly, easily, completely. A voice that effortlessly erased any shred of remaining conscious thought. I stared into her eyes, listened to her lilting voice, and felt a sense of calmness and freedom I'd never known before. Those feelings became more powerful, more overwhelming, with every word she said, and with every caress of her fingertips. Her voice, her touch, her eyes - she was my world.

In that final instant, I understood. With a sigh, I let the feelings take me, and sank under her spell wearing a dreamy, contented, smile.