Chain of Respect F/F Ch. 01

Fuck's sake it's 8 in the morning. Lori scorned. "Need anything from me."

"Thought I told you to lose the heels," Agatha said coldly as she poured some alcohol into her coffee.

"What..." Lori said. "Oh...yeah...Sorry I forgot. I'll wear something else tomorrow."

"Lose them."

"...I will."

"Now." She looked up at her, her cold face menacing. Then took a sip from her coffee-whisky drink.

Lori looked down tightening her lips, determined to keep her cool. She kicked her heels off, then stooped down and grabbed them, standing anxiously on her stockinged feet. This was the first time ever that she stood in this office without her heels, and the thought made her anxious. She didn't feel better when Agatha's eyes widened at noticing her. She took her lip off the rim of her glass as coffee splattered out of her mouth. She put the glass down, unable to hold off her chuckling. "Holy crap..." She cackled as she looked at the red-faced Lori. "You're a midget. Like an actual midget."

Lori's arms instinctively crossed at her chest as her face got all red and tight, resisting the urge to shout.

"I always thought you wore heels cause you were so devoted to the corporate image or some stupid shit like that." Agatha managed to control her cackles enough to deliver her mean remarks. "Should've known, you insecure about your height honey. Lori the dwarf." She giggled before she smirked at her.

Lori couldn't help but feel some of her suppressed sadness and anger turn into tears at the corner of her eye. She was supposed to be watching a movie with her man who loved her, instead, she was here, getting belittled and made fun of. "Is that why you asked me here..." she said, her tone uncontrollably coming out whiny and weak. She hated that she was showing weakness, that she was letting Agatha know she succeeded in hurting her, but she could no longer hold it in. "To make fun of me."

"...Yes." Agatha nodded animatedly, but her smile was replaced by a cold curt stare. She seemed angry, for some fucked up reason only a sociopath like her would know.

"Well that's nice to know..." Lori nodded and her ag. "Do you need anything else, or can I go sit on my desk."

"Go..." Agatha nodded towards the door dismissively. "Fuck off."

"Yes Miss Santana," Lori said and stormed out of the room, holding her tears in and slamming the door shut behind her. She threw herself in her chair and buried her head between her arms, fighting off tears.

The day proceeded uneventfully. For six hours, Agatha hadn't called her in once. She kept her out there waiting, and Lori spent the time either staring silently into the office door or watching something on her mobile. She got up every now and then to get herself a snack or a drink, but mostly she just kept to her chair, growing uncomfortable by the unusual silence of the office, as there was no one on the floor but her and the devil inside.

While she was watching some Youtube video, her eyes glanced randomly to the office's window, to see that the sun was going down, and realized she'd been here for almost 7 hours, doing literally nothing, missing on what was supposed to be her relaxing day of the week. The door opened. She watched with dull eyes as Agatha walked out of it, her steps a bit staggering, making Lori think that her mess-of-a-boss was obviously drunk. "Oh..." Agatha slurred as her lazy eyes met Lori's dead ones. "Totally forgot you were here."

Lori could only snicker out of pain, but she was relieved to see that Agatha had her purse and was probably going home, which meant that she could go home and have what remained of her Saturday. "Heading home boss," she asked as she wiped down her grimy face.

"Both of us are..." Agatha slurred with a nod.

"Great--" Lori nodded before she shook her head in. "What do you mean...I'm going to mine and you to yours or are we both going to yours?"

Agatha froze for a second, like she was making sense of the question, then said. "That would be the latter."

"..." Lori stood up. "Why?"

"I need your assistance at home...call it overtime, It's paid hours don't worry about it."

"...Boss I'd really appreciate it if I can just...go...home...please." She said. "I'm tired and...and...tired." She pleaded, but in a firm aggressive tone that made it sound like a demand.

Agatha smiled drunkenly, before she beckoned her close with a wave of her hand. "Come here...little one, come."

Lori frowned, but walked close nonetheless. She stood close but still kept some distance, waiting to hear what she had. Agatha, for some reason, walked closer, closing the gap between them and invading Lori's personal space. Lori looked up as Agatha's menacing face loomed over her. The silence became awkward as both of them just stood there, and Lori could only keep the loaming blue-eyed stare for so long before she looked down and to the side. The sight of the woman was just too smothering to look at. Agatha had an imposing presence, and standing this close to her made Lori feel... small, powerless, inferior. And the sharp stench of cigarettes and whisky didn't make her feel any better.

The next thing she knew, she felt Agatha's hot breath on her neck, which made her shiver. "My sister called me...asking me if I could take it a bit easy on you..." Agatha whispered with a drunken light giggle. "You happen to know anything about that."

Lori shivered. Was this what was it all about? "Miss Santan--" she mumbled and got quickly interrupted.

"You..." Agatha said. "Bad...mouth me to my sister--to anyone, again, you'll have only yourself to blame."

Before she could get a chance to respond, she felt a sharp and narrow pain dig through the top of her barefoot, making her yell in pain. She squirmed in her stance as she looked down and saw Agatha's heel grinding on her foot. To her luck, Agatha wasn't wearing her high heels, but ankle boots, but still, their thick solid heel hurt like hell against her toes.

"Miss--" She yelped but only felt the heel dig harder making her cry out in pain. "BOSS." She sank instinctively to her knee, with Agatha's hand pushing her shoulders down. She grabbed at Agatha's leg and tried to wiggle the woman away from her position and quickly failed. "Bo--Ahhhh." The heel left then slammed again against her foot, and Agatha pushed her head harshly downwards until it touched the ground. Agatha took her foot off Lori's toes, only to step on the top of her hand that was now on the floor, grinding her fingers to the ground. Lori felt her cheek rub against the cold floor, before the dirty sole of Agatha's shoe rested against her head, pinning it to the hard floor and twisting.

Lori sniffled, as her tears gathered at the corner of her eyes. She didn't know if she should cry from the sharp pain or the humiliation that she'd never thought would experience. Her head lay literally under another woman's foot, squashed into the ground. "Take your foot off." She shouted, her shout coming out strong in volume but weak and pathetic tone. "Take it off...now." She shouted again, but Agatha's foot didn't shift in the slightest.

The sharp sickening sting at the top of her stomach made her want to cry but she held it. Agatha just stood there, pinning her to the ground effortlessly, and kept standing there for a while, to the point where it became awkward. All could Lori hear were her own heavy breaths and Agatha's, and all she could see was Agatha's shoe stepping on her soring fingers. A wave of shame ran through her, at how easily Agatha had managed to render her powerless.

Since shouting had got her nowhere, she tried to talk with a polite, calm tone that came out all weary, "Boss...I'm so--"

"...You're like..." Agatha said from above. "You're like a bug..." She ground and twisted her foot, putting heavy, sharp pressure on the corner of Lori's head. "A bug...that I can squash."

"I'm..." Lori whined. "I'm sorry I talked bad abo--"

Agatha spat and applied more pressure making Lori yelp. "Shut up...slut."

Lori gulped another insult as clenched her eyes closed, determined not to let her tears fall.

"I think there's a fact you need to make your peace with..." Agatha said. "As long as you work here...you're under my thump..."

"I know," Lori said. She did know. Elia had explained it perfectly to her just yesterday, in much kinder means.

"You could leave any fucking time you want to, but something tells me you're here for the long haul...I'm I right."

"Yes..." she whined.

"Then know this...you'll get nowhere, without my say so. I can keep you in your place--and lower--till the last miserable day of your career...Not only in this company...but as long as you wanna work in this industry, on a respectable level, you'll have to deal with my foot on your neck." She said and gave another twist of her foot to emphasize. "I own you...You're my bitch." She uttered the last word clearly. "Got that."

Lori sniffled. She didn't know if she was supposed to answer but she didn't want to. She didn't want to answer that question. Agatha had one foot on her hand and the other one on her head, literally pinning her helpless and unable to move, but even if she could move, what would she do. That woman still held her career between her fingers. It wasn't like Agatha said something new, but to state it out loud, to give that form of acceptance wasn't something she was that eager for.

She felt the solid sole being grounded harder into her already sore skull. "Got that?"

"YES..." she said aggressively through gritted teeth. "I got that."

"What are you?"

"..."

"What are you?"

She gulped. "I'm your...bitch." Hearing those words come out, as a pathetic weak whine, made her want to crawl up in a ball and disappear.

She gave a relieved yelp as the hard sole left her head, and the other one left her hand, allowing her to bring it closer to her face and examine the blue bruise on her knuckles.

Before she could say anything, she saw Agatha take one step back, keeping her right foot planted forward. "Kiss my shoe."

She knew full well of how messed up the situation she was in was. And knowing the woman in front of her better by now, nothing could surprise her, but this line did. Kiss your shoe. Who did she think she was? What kind of woman would ask--demand such a thing from another. Lori eyed the black ankle boot extended in her direction while Agatha stood there in dead silence. Her eyes reddened at the realization that she was going to do it. Lori giving her verbal approval of their new relationship wasn't enough for Agatha. Lori admitting what she was and what she was willing to do wasn't enough. For some reason, Agatha wanted her to show her submission by humble acts.

She wiped her sleeve on her runny nose as she sniffled, before she leaned down and propped herself by her palms on the ground. She got her face closer until her lips were inches away from the toe of Agatha's boot, then pushed her puckered lips against it, hearing the smack of her lips on the leather.

She sat back on the ground, the idea of rising to her feet not even crossing her mind. Agatha's gentle hand caressed her messy hair, petting her like she was a fucking dog, reminding her of how messed up her situation was. She sobbed silently under the woman's gentle fingers toying with her hair. "Hussh," Agatha hushed, patting her tear-filled soggy face. "You love this job don't you?"

"I do," Lori said with a choked-up throat.

"You have a promising future here," Agatha said, seeming to try to talk with a comforting tone but it ended up all heavy and drunken. "You just have...to accept your place, under me."

The kind tone her words held somehow made Lori feel more uneasy than before. It looked like even a woman like her, wouldn't be cruel to someone who'd just humbled themselves at her feet. Who could've known that all she needed to do to get on Agatha's good side was get on her fucking knees and kiss her shoe like some kind of ancient time's peasant. She couldn't bear to look up at the eyes of the woman whose shoe she'd just kissed, so she just looked to the side, pushing her glasses up the sweaty bridge of her nose, and nodded weakly.

With that, Agatha patted her head one last time then turned and walked away, leaving her on her knees. "Go wash up, then meet me at the car."

Lori stormed into the bathroom wailing, her legs barely holding her and threw her briefcase near the sink. She propped herself in front of the mirror and stared at her miserable state. Her hair ruffled up and missy, her make-up running two black lines down her soggy face. She sobbed freely as she knew Agatha couldn't hear her.

Had she always been this weak and pathetic, or was Agatha just too strong of a woman to oppose. If Agatha had managed to stomp on her head this easily, then maybe her head deserved to be stomped on, maybe it belonged under there. She'd chosen to fight this fight. She refused to bend, and maybe Agatha saw that and didn't like it, and so decided to break her.

She never imagined she'd experience what she'd just experienced, but even if she had she wouldn't have probably imagined it to be this sickening, this nauseating. To have someone she hated that much humiliate her this heavily, and be so powerless to get back at them. She felt like throwing up. She had no way of getting back at that woman, while Agatha was free to keep hurting her.

When she'd started this, she had set a limit to how much shit she'd accept in order to keep working here. Looking at herself now she realized she'd let herself bypass that limit, by far. But it didn't matter anymore did it. She wasn't going to quit now. She couldn't harm her tormentor, but she could at least suck it up until she'd get what she'd been promised. Her dignity wasn't that relevant anymore; How much dignity and self-respect did she truly have left after she'd kissed another woman's shoe anyway. That kiss meant something: acknowledging that woman's superiority over her own.

She sniffled at her messy face in the mirror and opened the tap, splashing her face with water. If she was going to do this, she'd do it without being a sobbing pathetic mess all the time. She would have loved to rise in her career with her dignity intact, but it looked like Agatha wasn't providing that option.

"Take this turn here," Agatha mumbled with coffee in her mouth, pointing to an exit.

Lori drove into another exit, entering another residential street. Even in her miserable state she couldn't help herself but marvel at the fancy area she'd been driving in. While Agatha drank her coffee and laid in the passenger's seat like a numb lump, Lori explored her surroundings with curious eyes. Every street had a giant, well-lit mansion on either side of it, and each mansion was surrounded by a vast garden and softwood or stone walls. It was both a formidable and beautiful sight; Lori often dreamed she'd live in places like this one day, but now, she felt uncomfortable even driving near them.

"Park right...there." Agatha pointed to a big house at the end of the street, a two-story, cubic house, with giant glass windows and a couple of oak trees rising above it.

Lori nodded, gulped then drove the car through the open wooden gate. What was she even doing here? She parked the car on the opening in front of the house, then sat in her seat and looked at Agatha. Agatha returned a lazy stare, and took another sip of her coffee before she said, "What are you waiting for."

She took that as a sign to get out, so she did, and after standing in front of the car for some time, and seeing that Agatha hadn't even opened the door, she bit her lip in suppressed irritation, then walked to Agatha's door.

She opened the door for her and gestured respectfully with her hand like a proper chauffeur. Agatha smiled and extended her hand out of the car.

Un-fucking-believable. Lori forced a smile on as she took her boss's hand and helped her out. "Madam," she said sarcastically.

"Good girl." Agatha patted her cheek and handed Lori her purse before walking up to her porch.

After wrestling with jamming the keys in the lock for about a minute, and brushing off any attempts from Lori to help her, she finally managed to get them in and shove the door open.

Lori walked silently behind her, her eyes darting around the spacious living room that could easily contain her house. Agatha seemed to have decorated her office similarly to her house: modern Paige furniture surrounding a wide, wooden coffee table, Paige walls and hardwood floors, dim orange lighting.

With a mixture of shame and relief, Lori looked at the neat, sparkling clean living room and thought, Great, at least I know I'm not here as a maid. She watched Agatha meander her way to the couch and throw herself on top of it, before putting her cup of coffee on the table. She reclined her head against the backrest before her eyes settled on Lori who stood at the door in silence. "Kick your shoes at the door, house rules."

You just walked in with yours on, Lori thought while she kicked her heels and put them near the shoe rack.

"Now come help me out of mine." Agatha shook her foot lightly as she let her back sink lazily into her couch.

Forcing herself to smile, not thinking about protesting, Lori walked to the couch then kneeled in front of Agatha and grabbed her extended foot. She put one hand on top of her boot, one hand on her heel, then started pulling; the task proved itself harder than Lori had thought, as the ankle boot clung to Agatha's foot. Lori wrestled with it for a time, and pulled harder, until it flung off causing her to fall on her back with the shoe in her hand then get back up again.

"OHhh," Agatha sighed with relief and wiggled her toes inside her gray socks. She kept her foot extended in Lori's direction, making her grimace at the disgusting sight.

She looked with weak eyes at the dark, wet spots of sweat at the sole of her boss's socks and made sure not to let her disgust appear on her face. After Agatha crossed her legs, extending the other boot in Lori's direction, Lori did the same with the other one and wrestled it off. She put the two ankle boots neatly on the ground then kept to her place on the floor, speculating that Agatha would ask for a foot rub next. Since she was sitting awfully close, with Agatha's dangling foot a couple of inches from her face, her nose wrinkled as it smelt the sickening stench of spring and roses.

"You owe me...big time." Agatha sighed as she wiggled her socked toes near Lori's face.

She couldn't resist asking. "Why?"

"I wore ankle boots just for you." She snickered, nudging her shoulder with her toes. "They feel like an oven on my feet, all so I could give them that spring scent that you love."

Lori winced, her eyes darting between the wet stain of sweat on the ball of Agatha's foot and Agatha's tormenting smirk, and her mind torn between playing along and protesting. Given how all her previous protests had ended, she chose the former, although reluctantly. "...Thanks..." she mumbled. "That's really generous of you."

Agatha's smile widened, then a light cackle escaped her. She shrugged and rolled her eyes. "Anything for my little assistant."

Lori nodded with a polite smile, determined to keep her outrage in.

"Well?" Agatha rose an eyebrow, as she dangled her foot in front of Lori's face.

"...Well..." She breathed through her mouth. "What?"

"Don't be shy," Agatha said, curling her toes, positioning them closer to Lori's nose so that they were straight under it. "Take a sniff."

Loir chuckled nervously as her hands shot up and grabbed the foot holding it away from her, wincing as her hands touched the moist fabric. "I'm good...thanks anyways." That bitch really doesn't know when to stop.

"Suit yourself." Agatha shrugged, seeming indifferent. "Go grab me an ashtray, and the bourbon bottle from the cabinet, this coffee tastes plane."