Maggie the Gullible

"Totally," Richanda agreed.

"Yeah, she was something else," Sarah said. "What a little baby."

Maggie kept her cool and focused on getting her underwear and uniform on. Suzanne did not keep her cool. "Hey, wait a minute!" she snapped. "Molly didn't cry because you looked at her the wrong way, she cried because you guys were always picking on her! Calling her 'Roly Poly Moly" for one thing! And worse!

"Suzanne, you need to let these things go," Linda said. "I'm sure Molly has, wherever she is now." Looking at the others, she asked, "Did we ever hear what happened to her? She just disappeared after seventh grade, right?"

"Don't know, don't care," Richanda said. "Listen, everyone, before I forget, I think we've all agreed today should be Maggie's big day with Tom. Maggie, you're finally going to do it, aren't you?"

"Well, gosh," Maggie said. "Do you really think I ought to?"

"Totally!" Sarah said. "We're all dying to see how he reacts when you let him know how you feel!"

"Yeah, it'll be beautiful!" Linda added.

"It'll be a totally inappropriate relationship at best and sexual harassment at worst," Suzanne said. Having finished dressing, she was standing just inside the kitchen door now, and she turned back to address them all. "Women have to put up with this all the time without their friends encouraging it, you know, which is why I'm a feminist!"

The others, including Maggie, didn't even try to hide their laughter at Suzanne's outrage as she took her leave. "Well, Maggie?" Richanda asked. "You're going to do it, aren't you?"

Maggie looked at all three of them in turn, feigning pleasure at the situation. "Okay, I'll do it!" she declared, drawing cheers and playful pats on the back and shoulders from them all. "Just, please give me a few minutes alone with him when we get in there, okay?"

"Gladly!" Sarah said. "Go get him for us all, Maggie!"

"Oh, I will!" she said with a grin that wasn't fake at all as she stepped out into the kitchen.

Richanda, Linda and Sarah all waited long enough to give Maggie time to get out to the dining room before they burst into triumphant laughter.

With an hour or so to opening time, there was plenty to be done. Pam dispatched Suzanne and Maggie to set the tables in the front room. Richanda, Linda, and Sarah got the same assignment in the main dining room, where they had the perfect view of the kitchen door when Maggie cornered Tom there and asked him for a word.

"Maggie the Gullible is really doing it!" Linda squealed under her breath.

"God, this is too perfect!" Richanda agreed.

They couldn't hear a word either Tom or Maggie said. They could, though, see that she looked nervous and he looked happy. They could see that he nodded his head yes and then Maggie threw her arms around him with a joyful smile. They could see her draw back from him and hold up one finger, as if to say "one minute," and then vanish into the kitchen.

"Oh my god, it worked," Sarah said, a little too loudly."

"Shhh!" Richanda snapped. "He might overhear us! And we don't want Pam to know we know anything about it either."

"Where is Pam?" Linda wondered.

"In the front room with Suzanne," Richanda said. "You know she doesn't trust Suzanne to get the place settings right on her own."

"Which means..." Sarah said.

"She'll see if he follows her in there," Linda concluded. "Then their goose is cooked!"

As if on cue, Tom did follow Maggie into the kitchen presently. They couldn't see from their angle whether he took the right turn into the locker room, but they knew the lay of the land well enough to know Pam would be able to see from the front room. And they were all thrilled to see Pam rushing in from the front room just a moment later, following him into the kitchen.

With the coast now clear except for Suzanne, the three let out a triumphant chorus of whoops and slapped high fives with one another. "Serves her right!" Richanda proclaimed.

"Maggie the gullible," Linda chuckled. "Her own fault for falling for it!"

They all quieted down in anticipation that Pam would appear at any moment, ordering Tom and Maggie out of the building forever. When it didn't happen immediately, first Richanda and then the others turned back to doing the place settings halfheartedly, all of them stealing looks at the kitchen door every few seconds.

When five minutes had ticked by and the door still didn't burst open, they saw Suzanne come out of the front room, heading for the kitchen herself.

"Oh no you don't!" Sarah snapped, and she set off after Suzanne. "If she gets a front row seat, so do we!"

"No kidding!" Richanda agreed, and she and Linda followed close behind her.

They all burst into the kitchen as one, and had just enough time to realize there was dead silence in the locker room rather than the yelling and screaming they'd hoped for, before Richanda opened the locker room door. They all rushed in, and stopped in their tracks just inside the door at the bizarre sight that greeted them.

Maggie and Tom stood in the entryway to the showers, their arms entwined around one another, each of them wearing a broad smile and absolutely nothing else. Pam and Suzanne, both fully clothed, stood flanking them.

"What the..." Richanda's voice trailed away, both in confusion and in eager admiration for Tom's body. Linda and Sarah also gawked at him, not caring for the moment about anything else, and they were vaguely aware that Suzanne was also enjoying a hungry and hypocritical gander at him.

"Ladies," Pam said. "I'm sorry to announce that Tom and Maggie will be leaving us after today."

"I should hope so!" Richanda managed to remember the act she'd come in to put on. "Maggie, you should know better than to proposition a coworker."

"That's why she waited until after they both gave their two weeks' notice," Pam declared. "They gave it two weeks ago. Technically they broke the rules by not waiting until they were both out, but there's been no harm done. Not by them, at least," she said with a meaningful look at Richanda, Sarah and Linda.

"By whom, then?" Sarah asked defiantly.

"You three," Pam said. "Suzanne came to me a couple of weeks ago and said you were cooking up some kind of April Fool's trick."

"You were right," Suzanne said, at last tearing her gaze away from Tom's penis to address them. "You couldn't count on me to keep my mouth shut."

"You bitch," Linda muttered.

"Oh, I don't approve of what they did," Suzanne said. "But what business was it of yours?"

"Exactly," Pam said. "You three are lucky Tom and Maggie are quitting. It means I can't afford to fire you -- yet. But I will be making Suzanne head waitress."

"What?!" Sarah and Richanda snapped in unison, while Linda just glared at Suzanne. "You know she's not up to that, Pam!" Richanda added.

"I also know I can trust her, which is something I literally can't say for anyone else here." Turning to Maggie and Tom, she added, "No offense. Falling in love shouldn't be against the rules, even if it is. But you did hide it from me."

"We're sorry, Pam," Tom said. "We did our best to be discreet. Especially Maggie. Even I didn't know her whole story until just last night." Turning to face their three tormentors, he added, "You really ought to listen to this, you know. Just look at her." He stepped back, so Maggie had the spotlight to herself.

"It's kind of hard not to look at her," Linda grumbled. "She's the one you've heard about, who's been prancing around here naked all the time!"

"Yes, and Tom and I have both heard why she did that," Pam said. "Speaking of which, Maggie, I've been making out your paychecks to Margaret Holcomb. Would you prefer Margaret Baker on the last one?"

"Margaret Baker!" Linda stared at Maggie's lean, in-shape body in disbelief.

"Molly!" Sarah exclaimed under her breath.

"Yeah," Maggie declared. "It's me, girls. Roly Poly Moly." Turning to Pam, she said, "No, Margaret Holcomb is my name now. Holcomb is my mother's maiden name, and we both took it back when she kicked my dad to the curb. Molly Baker is just a bad memory now, ever since the lovely day Mom and I moved up to Boston the summer after seventh grade. I got a scholarship to a private school up there where you had to do at least two sports. Basketball and crew took the baby fat off at last, and with no one knowing I cried easily, the teasing finally stopped. And I learned to take better care of myself and to love my body, as you can see. I think I did quite a good job of it, too, wouldn't you say, Tom?"

"You're beautiful all right," Tom said, looking down at himself to acknowledge that he was hard as a rock. "Don't you ladies think so?"

"Mom got a promotion back to her old office," Maggie continued without waiting for the others to comment on her body. "So we had to move back here when I was halfway through college. I was hoping I'd never have to visit again, but I couldn't find a job in time and she heard they were hiring here. Imagine how delighted I was when I saw who I was working with! But at least you obviously didn't know it was me."

"I'm...sorry," Sarah said, while Richanda and Linda just gawked at their old nemesis in silence.

"No you're not," Maggie said. "If you were, you wouldn't have tried to get me in trouble with Tom and Pam."

"And you wouldn't have been calling her 'Maggie the Gullible' behind her back all this time," Tom added.

"This is just a woman thing, Tom," Suzanne said, "But maybe they were jealous of Maggie for winning your heart."

"Gee, do you think?" Tom let out a snort of sarcastic laughter.

"Yes, I do," Suzanne said. "You see..."

"Suzanne, can it!" Pam snapped. "Tom isn't stupid, he knew that already, that's what he's saying!"

"And I knew it too," Maggie said, giving the other three a triumphant look. "Do you think I didn't notice you all flirting with him?"

"But you did that too!" Linda whined.

"Yes, and which one of us is the gullible one?" Maggie replied. "Now get out of here and give Tom and me some privacy to get dressed again."

"Good luck to you both with the move," Pam said. "California, huh? I'm jealous! Linda, Sarah, Richanda, you're all on probation for three months, understood?"

"Pam, what's the harm done?" Richanda demanded. "They're leaving anyway, aren't they? And we were right about them dating behind your back!"

"Any more whining from you and you're fired," Pam said. "Try me!" Turning to Suzanne, she said, "Can you handle rearranging the schedules for this week, having the others cover for Maggie?"

"Of course," Suzanne said. "Pam, I just want to say I'm sorry you had to be dragged into this. I think society really encourages women to hate each other and pull dirty tricks like this, which is why I'm --"

"Oh, Suzanne, shut the fuck up!" Richanda shouted.

"That's it!" Pam said. "Richanda, clean out your locker. You're fired."

Richanda gave them all a glare of death, but said nothing else as she went to her locker and pulled out her street clothes. She tore her uniform off and threw it on the floor, pulled her own clothes on in a huff, and stormed out of the locker room without another word. Maggie and Tom, still stark naked, looked on in triumph as she did.

When the door had finally swung shut behind Richanda, Maggie turned to Tom and rubbed his chest playfully. "Think we've got time for a quickie and another shower before our last shift?"

Slipping one hand around her back and the other into her pussy, he whispered, "I might have to insist, my dear."