Register Now!







        When he asked me to come into
    his office at the end of the day, I thought he was going to fire me. The
    idea was a relief, but a numbing one. I sat down and he fixed me with
    a look that was speculative but benign, for him. He leaned back in his
    chair in a comfortable way, one hand dangling sideways from his wrist.
    To my surprise, he began talking to me about my problems, as he saw them.

        "I sense that you are a very nice but complex
    person, with wild mood swings that you keep hidden. You just shut up the
    house and act like there's nobody home."

        "That's true," I said. "I do that."

        "Well, why? Why don't you open up a little
    bit? It would probably help your typing."

        It was not really any of his business, I thought.

        "You should try to talk more. I know I'm
    your employer and we have a prescribed relationship, but you should feel
    free to discuss your problems with me."

        The idea of discussing my problems with him was
    preposterous. "It's hard to think of having that kind of discussion
    with you," I said. I hesitated. "You have a strong personality
    and . . . when I encounter a personality like that, I tend to step back
    because I don't know how to deal with it."

        He was clearly pleased with this response, but
    he said, "You shouldn't be so shy."

        When I thought about this conversation later,
    it seemed, on the one hand, that this lawyer was just an asshole. On the
    other, his comments were weirdly moving, and had the effect of making
    me feel horribly sensitive. No one had ever made such personal comments
    to me before.

        The next day I made another mistake. The intimacy
    of the previous day seemed to make the mistake even more repulsive to
    him because he got madder than usual. I wanted him to fire me. I would
    have suggested it, but I was struck silent. I sat and stared at the letter
    while he yelled.

        "What's wrong with
    you!"

        "I'm sorry," I said.

        He stood quietly for a moment. Then he said, "Come
    into my office. And bring that letter."

        I followed him into his office.

        "Put that letter on my desk," he said. I did.

        "Now bend over so that you are looking directly
    at it. Put your elbows on the desk and your face very close to the letter." Shaken and puzzled, I did what he said.

        "Now read the letter to yourself. Keep reading
    it over and over again."

        I read: "Dear Mr. Garvy: I am very grateful
    to you for referring. . ." He began spanking me as I said "referring."
    The funny thing was, I wasn't even surprised. I actually kept reading
    the letter, although my understanding of it was not very clear. I began
    crying on it, which blurred the ink. The word "humiliation"
    came into my mind with such force that it effectively blocked out all
    other words. Further, I felt that the concept it stood for had actually
    been a major force in my life for quite a while.

        He spanked me for about ten minutes, I think.
    I read the letter only about five times, partly because it rapidly became
    too wet to be legible. When he stopped he said, "Now straighten up
    and go type it again."

        I went to my desk. He closed the office door behind
    him. I sat down, blew my nose and wiped my face. I stared into space for
    several minutes, every now and then dwelling on the tingling sensation
    in my buttocks. I typed the letter again and took it into his office.
    He didn't look up as I put it on his desk.

        I went back out and sat,
    planning to sink into a stupor of some sort. But a client came in, so
    I couldn't. I had to buzz the lawyer and tell him the client had arrived.
    "Tell him to wait," he said curtly.

        When I told the client to wait, he came up to
    my desk and began to talk to me. "I've been here twice before,"
    he said. "Do you recognize me?"

        "Yes," I said. "Of course."
    He was a small, tight-looking middle-aged man with agitated little hands
    and a pale scar running over his lip and down his chin. The scar didn't
    make him look tough; he was too anxious to look tough.


      

                        

      





    Commentarium (21 Comments)

    Sep 19 02 - 7:32pm
    HBF

    I dont know if this story is true or just another letter from Penthouse Forum. The only time I have ever playfully spanked a woman is standing next to her while playing around after showering, standing together at a nude beach before plunging in or when she is on top of me as I grasp and slap her buns to push her over the top to climax. BDSM is not what my girlfriends were enthused about other than light swatting. Nipple tweaking and kissing is great, and I am pretty good at it which I am well rewarded. Oh yeah, light spanking over my knee for being so naughty, naked, in heels, excites some babes, but I never come on too strong or kinky. I guess my sex life is well within normal. Some women love to squeeze and spank their mans buns too!

    Sep 24 02 - 6:40pm
    br

    feedback

    Oct 02 02 - 1:08am
    CMH!

    I think the lack of feedback on this story speeks volumes.
    Horrible story. Long. Bad plot. Author should consider becoming a street sweeper.

    Oct 05 02 - 12:04pm
    JSF

    I liked the honesty.

    Oct 15 02 - 10:03pm
    Dp

    to be totally honest.....this sstory sucked.it failed to capture this reader's interest and i did try and hopethat it might but it was totally a wate of ink....unbelievable that someone was paid to write this.

    Oct 18 02 - 7:37pm
    sb

    more feedback

    Nov 05 02 - 4:23am

    The above feedback folk sure did get excited by the story...He/she certainly used it to talk about all their sexiness. Nice.
    The story had all the quiet and awkard descriptions to make it interesting. Debby became a believable and likable character through the author's making. I liked the complex view of someone's first encounter with a different kind of sex.

    May 21 10 - 7:46pm
    buy cephalexin

    No impedir

    May 22 10 - 4:24am
    online pharmacy cephalexin

    The cmax butylparaben 60%

    May 29 10 - 12:23am
    buy methotrexate

    Llame a pump m

    May 29 10 - 12:47am
    buy ventolin

    Sus s

    May 30 10 - 7:38pm
    purchase cheap relafen

    Dose infiltrations should indicate in uterinas of up to 75

    May 30 10 - 10:34pm
    biaxin xl 500 mg

    Hable potted toxify m

    Aug 02 10 - 1:00am
    davyalcan

    oscillation areas seeding

    Aug 20 10 - 4:30am
    fitzjamesh

    agriculture added country comments

    Aug 21 10 - 7:27am
    Chinnanethy

    I enjoyed reading your blog. Keep it that way.

    Sep 01 10 - 10:10pm
    eddisgelle

    various economic fourth

    Sep 11 10 - 3:03am
    jeneesalce

    made total clouds

    Feb 29 12 - 2:35pm
    Kat

    do most of the commenters not know what this story is? it's not some flash-in-the -pan first time attempt from an unknown author who "should become a street sweeper", and it's not a letter from penthouse forum. mary gaitskill is an amazingly talented and very well-known writers, the above story was excerpted from her first book of short stories, published in 1988.
    anyways, i love the secretary, i think it's incredibly well-written, and i, like gatskill, felt the movie version was just awful.

    Apr 17 12 - 4:59pm
    MikeyM

    I disagree, I thought the movie was far more deep and interesting than the short story. The lawyer here is totally flat and gruesome. There is a very real element of beauty in bdsm, an element which is captured and explored in the film and totally absent here.

    Sep 08 12 - 5:58pm
    Carol

    This is a great short story. Mary Gaitskill has a unique talent and I do enjoy her writing. The collection of short stories this comes from is called Bad Behavior, it is still in print in paperback and even now available as a kindle book. I think its a shame that the entire story is reprinted here without it being clear that this is a piece of contemporary fiction that has been published, and actually it is a disservice to the author to have it entirely available for free here. But if it leads to futher interest in the work of Mary Gaitskill then it is useful. There is new interest in this short story because of the similarities between the movie Secretary and the 50 Shades of Grey novels. The man is named Grey, he has copper colored hair (like Spader), he is closed and complicated, and the woman is brunette and in the end it turns into a positive relationship (in the move and 50 shades, not this story). I am a fan of the movie and this story and 50 shades just to see what all the fuss was about. The memoir that 9 1/2 weeks was based on was worth reading as well...

     
    promotion
    buzzbox
    partner
    links