Doing Business, Part 9 (Patreon)

Nine

Memo to all employees: We like to take the occasional moment to shine a spotlight on members of our staff that we feel have gone above and beyond in their work. And this week, we’d like to shine a spotlight on Ava Barton, Assistant to our VP of Product Development, Neve Beaufort.

“Ava is an absolute dream of an employee,” Neve says. “She manages to exceed my expectations every day. In fact, just yesterday, she managed to exceed my expectations two or three times within a single hour.”

—

“There’s a few ways we can check his diaper,” Ms. Heller said. I wondered if she was talking directly to Lyndie, or if she would’ve said this regardless. “For one, sometimes a baby will just let you know that it’s time for a change.”

“That’s not as exciting,” Lyndie mused aloud from her seat.

“I don’t necessarily mean that he’s going to walk up to me and tell me he needs his diaper changed,” Ms. Heller replied, sounding like a teacher. “Sometimes the communication is more subtle. Maybe he’s being antsy. Maybe you can tell that he wants to ask something, but he can’t quite find the words.”

It didn’t seem likely that she was talking about her direct experience with me, seeing as how we had only been playing this game for less than a week now. But I wondered if this was her experience with her last baby, Hillary.

“If you’re feeling brave,” Ms. Heller continued, “you could always just stick your nose up to his bottom and take a whiff. You might not catch every soggy diaper, but if there’s something else in there, well, you’ll know it.”

Lyndie giggled behind her hand. “Do you think that would actually happen? Him…pooping his pants?”

Ms. Heller smiled mischievously. “Oh, he didn’t tell you about the other day?”

“Oh my god,” Lyndie said, giggling again. “No, he did not!”

“Perhaps I’ve said too much,” Ms. Heller said to me. “I sure hope you can trust her with these secrets.”

“Uhm, me too.”

“You can also tell just by looking at a diaper,” Ms. Heller continued. “Even a damp bottom has a way of revealing itself. Mr. Ashburn, if you’d be so kind as to remove your pants for us?”

I was ashamed to say that both women had seen me in a diaper with my pants pulled down before. Yet both at once still felt like way too much.

“Clark?” Ms. Heller said again, noting the delay in my response.

“Y-yes, sorry.”

Of course I was going to pull my pants down regardless of how I felt about it. She had that sort of pull over me already. I quickly unbuckled my belt and unfastened my pants. With a hand on either side of the waist of my slacks, I pushed them down to my knees.

“A-ha,” Ms. Heller said, patting the back of my diaper. “Do you see? Wet. You can tell just by looking at it.”

“I, uhm, might have seen this before,” Lyndie said.

“Oh? He showed you his diaper, did he? I have to admit, I didn’t think he would do something like that.”

“In his defense,” Lyndie said, “once I caught a whiff of his powdered ass, I didn’t really give him a choice.”

“A woman after my own heart,” Ms. Heller said. “I might have use for someone like you.”

Lyndie’s eyes lit up. “Yeah?”

“Perhaps. We’ll have to see if Clark takes my job offer.”

Lyndie’s curious eyes wandered back towards me. I felt like an asshole for not mentioning it sooner, even if I wasn’t completely sure why I hadn’t.

“Well I’m interested,” Lyndie said. “Keep me in mind for whatever you need.”

“I shall. And as for this baby-boy here, it’d probably be for the best if he got his diaper changed.”

“I guess we should go back to your office?” I asked.

“I bet we could do it right here,” Ms. Heller said, looking around our small room. “Do you have a fresh diaper, or do I need to get one from my office?”

I nervously glanced towards Lyndie’s smiling face before answering–I just knew that she was dying to hear my answer as well.

“I…have some things in my bag, yes.”

I waddled back to the table that Lyndie and I shared as a desk, pants still around my thighs, and pulled out my messenger bag. First I pulled out the diaper–one of the extras that Ms. Heller had given me the day before. I was tempted to leave it at that, and just say that was all I had. But there was more in my bag, and I couldn’t help myself. I needed to show Ms. Heller what else I had brought along with me.

Next came the package of baby wipes I had stowed away in my bag. I plopped them onto the table next to the diaper. Again, I paused, contemplating if that was all I wanted to show them or not.

“Is there more?” asked Ms. Heller. Of course she knew.

I sighed and reached into the bag again, drawing out the pacifier. Not my new orange one–that was at home still. This was the one she had given to me. But that wasn’t all that I had, though this last item was the one I was most nervous to reveal.

“Go on,” Ms. Heller said. “What else did you bring in your diaper bag?”

The words ‘diaper bag’ hit harder than I thought they would’ve. I had laughed at myself in the past for carrying around a messenger bag with me to my internship. As if I had things to take to and from the office. And now that I did have something to carry around with me–it was just my diapers.

I pulled the white bottle of baby powder out from the bag.

Both women laughed.

“You’ve thought of everything, I see,” Ms. Heller said.

“Including the desire to smell like a baby,” added Lyndie.

“Now, now,” said Ms. Heller. “Baby powder is a very important part of the diaper change, regardless of how it smells. Especially for bigger babies like Clark here. Could you even imagine having to sit at a desk all day while suffering from diaper rash? We just want to be safe.”

Lyndie nodded, but wasn’t ready to back down from her point: “But the scent…”

“Yes,” Ms. Heller said with a laugh. “Big babies do like being reminded how little they are. Nothing does that quite as well as having the scent of baby powder following them around.”

I cleared my throat, my attempt at subtly reminding them that I was still here.

“Right,” Ms. Heller said. “Let’s get this baby changed. Lyndie, be a dear and clear off your table for us?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

It was almost amusing to hear Lyndie swallow her anti-establishment tone for the sake of Ms. Heller. Either she had been all talk, or there was really something about Gabrielle Heller that had commanded Lyndie’s respect. The latter certainly made sense.

Lyndie did as she was asked, quickly closing up her laptop and sweeping aside the documents, newspapers and coffee cups that occupied our workspace.

“Why don’t you hop up there, baby?” asked Ms. Heller.

I briefly considered the logistics of climbing atop the table and whether or not it would support my weight. But I had stubbed my toes against the heavy metal legs enough times to be sure that this beast of a table was more than suitable to support a diaper change–regardless of the size of the baby.

I kicked my shoes off and shimmied the rest of the way out of my pants, leaving them on the floor as I stepped up, first, onto my chair and then onto the table. I slowly eased myself down onto my back.

“He’s very obedient,” Ms. Heller said. “This may be the thing I like about him the most.”

“Maybe it’s your position?” Lyndie asked.

“How so?”

“I mean…maybe more people than you think would be compliant if their company’s CEO told them to put a diaper on.”

“Would you put a diaper on, if I asked you to?” Ms. Heller asked her.

Lyndie thought about it for a moment and shook her head, laughing. “No, probably not. I’d just quit.”

“There you go,” Ms. Heller said. “Besides I have given Clark here many opportunities to walk away, and yet he keeps coming back. In fact, if he were to say to me right here, and right now, that he didn’t want to wear diapers, I’d accept that. I’d turn around and walk right out that door without another word.”

Both women paused, staring down at me, as if waiting to see if I’d say anything. I had nothing to say.

“And if he didn’t want to have his diaper changed in here, in front of his coworker, he could simply say that to me.”

Again, they stared at me. I sighed. I knew what I had to say if I wanted this humiliation to end. But I said nothing.

Ms. Heller stepped closer, flashing me a smug smile. Reaching down, she tore at the tapes that bound the diaper together. I would never not find that sound to be humiliating–the sound of the tapes being pulled from their tight grip was so loud. I wondered how far away from this room the sound could be heard. I just imagined some woman sitting at her desk, drinking some coffee and suddenly recognizing the tell-tale sound of a diaper being opened.

“Have you ever changed a diaper before?” she asked Lyndie.

Lyndie shook her head.

“I suppose you find diapers–and actual babies–icky, don’t you?”

Lyndie laughed and nodded. “I’m not sure that I’d use the word ‘icky,’ but…children really aren’t my thing.”

“Understandable,” Ms. Heller said, picking up the package of baby wipes and opening them up. “They’re all sticky hands and chaos. But I find babies of this size to be much better.”

“You’re still dealing with diapers, though.”

Ms. Heller shrugged as she opened my diaper, revealing my shriveled cock and the soaked interior padding of the diaper.

“You may find this hard to believe, but a diaper change is quite possibly one of the most intimate experiences two people can share. For our baby, Clark, it’s about exposure and vulnerability. Take diapers out of the equation for a moment, and you still have a young man lying on this table with his manhood–for lack of a better word–exposed.”

She playfully lifted my legs into the air, lightly slapping my ass cheeks.

“Here’s his ass. It would be too hard to look right up the baby's back door if you really wanted to. That’s quite exposing. What a vulnerable state to have to be in with other people present. And that’s without mentioning the diapers. Or the things he’d be doing in that diaper, that are just as much on display.”

Ms. Heller, still holding my legs up in the air, tugged the wet diaper out from underneath me, setting it aside. She drew a wipe from the package, carefully unfolding it into her hand before running down my inner thighs and between my legs.

“And likewise. He needs to trust me to take care of him. He needs to know that whatever dreadful mess he’s made, I can take care of it. I’ll clean him. I’ll make him feel safe. And, if he’s a good boy, I’ll reward him.”

She wasn’t just talking to Lyndie. She was talking to me.

“But the other thing to consider,” Ms. Heller said, “is that hand-soap is very much a thing that exists. You will never encounter a mess so bad that you can’t just wash your hands after.”

The damp cloth was worked around my flaccid cock and another was run down my ass. Not because she thought it needed to be cleaned, I suspected, but because she enjoyed doing it. Or…because she knew I enjoyed the feeling of it.

“I feel like you’re trying to convince me to start changing diapers,” Lyndie said.

Ms. Heller shrugged. “We could always use a hand.”

“We?” asked Lyndie. No doubt, she was still thinking about the conversation we were having before Ms. Heller dropped by. The secret baby cult.

Ms. Heller smiled. “There may be an opportunity available for an open-minded young woman. Think about it.” Turning her attention back to me: “Now then. Let’s get you into a fresh new diaper.”

A new diaper didn’t just appear in her hand. It was handed to her by Lyndie. Maybe it was nothing, or just a small polite gesture. Maybe it was a show of interest on Lyndie’s part. If it was the latter, I’m sure it wasn’t lost on Ms. Heller.

The new diaper was unfolded and laid flat on the table underneath me before being slid into place. Only then were my legs lowered back down, reminding me of how malleable I was in her hands. Her baby.

“Are you doing okay, Baby?” she cooed.

“Yes,” I said.

Ms. Heller laughed and shook her head, though I could find no immediate reason for her to find that exchange so comical.

“So you can’t call me Mommy when Miss Lyndie is here?”

Never one to skip an opportunity to laugh at my expense, Lyndie immediately giggled.

“Yes…Mommy,” I said, feeling my cheeks burn as they, no doubt, turned a vibrant shade of crimson.

“I suggest you get used to addressing me as such, company or not, when you know it's appropriate.”

“How will I know when it’s appropriate?” I asked.

“I’d say that during a diaper change, regardless of who is watching, is a good start,” Ms. Heller said, grinning. “But you’re a smart baby. I think you’ll figure it out.”

Lyndie handed the bottle of baby powder to Ms. Heller. It wasn’t even asked for. Had I missed some signal or communication? Telepathy? Would Ms. Heller have skipped the powder if it wasn’t handed to her? They were questions that didn’t really matter now. This was happening. I’d smell like a baby for the rest of the day once more.

A few hearty shakes later and the new diaper was fastened around me, taped tightly in place. With a playful smack to the diaper, it was done. I was as good as new.

“Now then,” Ms. Heller said. “I trust you know how to put your own pants on?” She checked her watch. “I’m running late for a meeting, it seems.”

I wondered if people ever remarked on her own baby-scented aura as she walked through these halls or while joining meetings late. Surely, she was carrying around some residual traces of baby powder. Was it her position that helped her skirt gossip and speculation? Or…was it that anyone in a position of speculation was already well aware of what she was doing in her free moments?

“I trust you’ll come see me later if your diaper needs changing?” she asked me.

“Yes,” I said, nodding. Remembering the conversation we just had, I quickly tried it again: “Yes, Mommy.”

“Good boy. I’ll be seeing you. And you, Miss Lyndie. It was a pleasure to meet you.”

“Likewise. I hope that we get to see each other again?”

“I’m sure we will.”

As quickly as she had first entered The Closet, she exited–just a blur heading right out the door and into the sea of cubicles again.

For a few minutes, a silence hung in the air. It didn’t seem particularly awkward. More like there just wasn’t that much to say. I swung myself around to the end of the table, sliding off it as my fresh diaper crinkled the whole way. Back on my feet again, I pulled my pants up and over the diaper. Lyndie watched me the entire time, looking incredibly entertained.

“Well there you go,” I finally offered, breaking the silence. “You got to see that in action.”

She closed her eyes and exhaled, shaking her head. “I take back everything I’ve ever said about the corporate world. It’s so much better than I thought.”

“I’m not sure Ms. Heller is indicative of all executives.”

“No, but… Damn, I just want to be her, you know? That power. That control over a room.”

“So happy I could introduce you two.”

I had a thought that I had been working on since Ms. Heller walked out the door. I wasn’t sure if it was a good idea yet or not, but I felt like I needed to throw it out there and see what happened.

“Hey. Are you…doing anything tonight?”

She smiled. “I’ve never been asked out by a baby before.”

“I’m not asking you out,” I said. “I just…this has all been a lot. I don’t have a lot of friends, but maybe we could just go and get some dinner or something? I’m just not sure I want to be left alone with all this uncertainty.”

I was impressed with how quickly she was able to wipe away her smug smile, replacing it with a more sincere one. “Yeah, let’s do that.”

“Thank you.”

“I don’t think I’ll be changing your diapers though.”

“I…I don’t think you’ll have to do that.”

But I could already feel a new round of discomfort in my bladder. Sooner or later, someone was going to have to change my diaper again.