Don't Judge A Book - Part 1 (Patreon)

A multi-caption commission for Ryan.

These pictures were sent in before my decision about how to deal with pictures going forward, so, of course, I'll be using them despite them not having a watermark. I was unable to figure out the origins of the first two, but I do know that the woman who shows up in the last picture is Marina Lee so I can at least link to her and tell you to check out her work if you like the last picture. 

'Don't judge a book by its cover' was a phrase Kelly - like most everyone - had heard plenty of times, although it took her quite a while before she realized how many things it could apply to. Obviously, it could be used to talk about people... That was the main usage, really, other than, perhaps, actual books. There were times when the cover told the story fairly accurately, however, just not to the fullest degree...

For example, it was easy enough to tell that her new boss, Lindsay, was pretty strict and stern; looking at her would make that clear, if the stories about her didn't reach you first. While Kelly knew she should give the other woman a chance, and see for herself, that didn't make the prospect any less scary, so she tried to avoid being put into a situation where she could do that. After all, she was just a lowly intern, someone whose career here could be crushed by someone like Lindsay before it had even begun.

It was impossible to completely avoid the woman, no matter how hard Kelly tried, and efforts to do so only made her more anxious when she did run into her. Kelly was a smart, fairly capable young woman, but, in the wake of Lindsay, she always wound up feeling like a clumsy little girl.

It all came to a head one day, while Kelly was setting up a conference room for an important meeting. She'd carefully printed out reports for everyone, put them in order, set them in front of all the chairs, and was in the middle of laying out coffee cups for them as well when she heard the door open.

She wasn't sure who she was expecting - though she did feel a jolt of fear that she'd gotten the start time wrong, and she was running late - but it certainly wasn't Lindsay. The woman was standing there, staring down at her, arms crossed.... Kelly gasped, blushing as she flinched backwards, knocking over one of the cups of coffee she'd just set down, while dropping the one she was holding, sending black liquid flooding across the table, soaking into the papers she'd worked so hard to get ready, and over the edge, dripping down onto the pristine, white carpet.

"Oh, no!" she gasped, frozen in place with fear. This would have been bad enough on its own, but to have done it in front of Lindsay... "I-I'm so sorry!" she squealed, after what felt like an eternally long silence. "I-I can clean this up, I just need..."

"Before the meeting?" Lindsay raised an eyebrow, making the girl's cheeks heat up further. "You know how important this is, don't you?"

Kelly felt her heart thumping in her chest as she nodded. This was it, she thought... After everything, she was about to get fired, and there really wasn't any way she could stop it, other than to repeat, "I'm sorry... I-I didn't... I mean... Please, I really need this job, a-and... I'll do anything! Please, give me another chance!"

Lindsay looked into her eyes, making the girl squirm in place, knowing the mess behind her was only getting worse the longer she waited to do anything about it, yet she was too terrified to turn away from her boss. Finally, Lindsay asked, "Anything?", and Kelly nodded. "I'll make copies of this," Lindsay stepped forward, brushing against Kelly, making the girl gulp nervously, to grab one of the dry copies of the report, "and change the meeting to another conference room. You'll bring coffee in once we've started, and apologize profusely for being late. By the end of the meeting, I expect this table to be spotless, and for you to have janitation on cleaning the carpet... If you can manage that, we can talk about what else you'll need to keep your job."

The mercy was unexpected, to be sure, although the real surprise came when Lindsay saw that Kelly had actually managed her task. "Well, then," she said, "I'm going to need you to come over to my house this weekend. You'll be staying with me the entire time, but there's no need to bring any clothes. You'll be free to go at any time, however, that will mean our deal is off. Do you understand?"

Kelly thought she did, but only until she arrived at the woman's house that Friday evening, to be greeted with a folded, disposable diaper and a pacifier; then, too late, she realized how much she'd misjudged the whole situation.