Switching Positions In The Workplace (Part 1) (Patreon)

This is the start of a new body swap series that will probably end up being a little bit smuttier than my usual works and focuses more on the post-swap events than the switch itself. I hope you enjoy it!

When the clock struck twelve and the small army of employees in the CavTech Ltd customer care office left for their lunch break, there were a few raised eyebrows when Curtis Barnbury and Paul Erswell elected to stay behind and continue working. While both were known to be hardworking and somewhat competitive, nobody could have guessed the reason that the two men had spent much of the past hour speaking in hushed whispers. Now that they were alone in the office (and had been for a very eventful fifteen minutes), the pair had the freedom to speak openly.

“Okay, so ground rules,” Curtis started, peering down at his own body as if he’d never seen it before. Truth be told he hadn’t, at least not from this angle and not even from a mirror. The experience was nothing like seeing a simple reflection, especially since he couldn’t recall a time where his own reflection had caused him to have a shiver run down his spine. After all, he had no control over his own body at that moment - he wasn’t even the one occupying it! No, even if he was staring down at his body, he was actually making eye contact with Paul, one of his coworkers at CavTech Ltd.

The most immediate thing he noticed about being in Paul’s body was just how tall he was considering he was now looking down at his own five-foot-ten body from Paul’s usual six-foot-two vantage point. The world around him felt ever so slightly different with the extra inches of height, not to mention the extra weight this body carried. Paul wasn’t in all that terrible shape for a man of forty-six really - perhaps not in the same league as Callum, another of their coworkers who was currently living out of the gym, but his body was nothing to be ashamed of. For one thing, he still had more firm muscle than Curtis was used to, but that truly wasn’t saying much when Curtis had arms as skinny as twigs and still wore size small boxer briefs. He’d never felt bad about his lack of muscle or size, nor had he felt the need to hit the gym as some of his co-workers did, but he couldn’t deny that he was strangely curious to find out what it was like to have some real strength for once.

“You mentioned rules?” Paul prompted, surprising Curtis with his Bristol accent. To foreign ears it sounded strange and almost forced, so much so that he had to hold back a surprised laugh. Is that really what I sound like to the rest of them? He’d moved to Boston, Massachusetts shortly after his twenty-second birthday and even three years on, his hometown accent was as thick as ever. It helped set him apart from his peers and have even scored him a beautiful girlfriend: a curvy redhead named Jenny, who liked to refer to him as “her very own Harry Styles” despite Curtis sharing very few similarities with the singer other than being born on the same island. He didn’t mind though because Jenny was sweet and the sex was decent, although Curtis himself admittedly wasn’t as adventurous in the bedroom as his girlfriend might have liked.

Paul’s reminder snapped Curtis out of his thoughts and pulled his attention back into the present moment. “Yes, rules!” he exclaimed, still stunned to hear Paul’s deeper voice and Bostonian accent speaking his words. “I mean, there’s the obvious, right?”

The other man raised an eyebrow, which allowed Paul’s sarcastic personality to bizarrely shine through Curtis’s facial features. “Obvious?” he queried drily.

“Well, I mean, I don’t want you screwing Jenny,” Curtis pointed out, feeling his cheeks flush as he spoke. He didn’t think Paul was the kind of guy who’d even attempt it - although truthfully Curtis didn’t actually know all that much about his older coworker other than that he was something of a recluse and was the most tenured person working in their office - but there was a voice in the back of his mind that insisted on voicing such a restriction. He’d actually sent a text to Jenny when the idea had first come to him but he hadn’t checked his phone since then to see if she’d acknowledged it. Besides, he was almost positive that she would have thought he was telling a crazy joke about body swapping rather than it really being a possibility.

A look of surprise flashed across Paul’s face (or what was technically Curtis’ own) - Bugger me, this is confusing, the Brit remarked to himself - before he grinned and nodded. “Of course. I’ll keep my skinny British hands off Jenny, you got it,” Paul agreed, raising said hands in a display of apparent innocence. “Any other demands, your highness?”

Curtis glared as he buried himself back in thought. He was sure there were plenty of rules he could come up with but Paul was being so laidback about everything that the younger man was beginning to think that he was just being neurotic. Nothing about Paul suggested he was anything other than a stand-up guy: he brought cakes in every Friday, was the captain of their office quiz team and told a surprising amount of dad jokes for somebody who wasn’t even married, let alone a father. Still, Curtis wouldn’t be himself if he didn’t overthink things. Not that you currently are, a voice in his head reminded him, threatening to send him down a confusing whirlpool of thought. In order to stop that from happening, he forced out another rule: “No wanking either!”

“No wanking?” the other repeated, his lips spreading apart as he laughed loudly. Curtis was glad that it was during lunch hours and they were alone in the office, otherwise their coworkers definitely would have glanced over. “Yeah, that’s fine. Don’t worry, I’m keeping my hands off your tallywhacker or whatever the hell you Brits call it.”

Curtis squirmed, the sight and sound of his own body and voice both managing to make him uneasy. He’d never been so insecure about how he looked and sounded until he was outside of his own body! Now he was honestly wondering why he’d never taken the teasing from his coworkers more seriously before. He really did sound like a bit of an idiot with that thick accent and as for the ears that stuck out a little too much… well, he could see why they all found them so easy to pick on. He wasn’t exactly horrible to look at - in fact Curtis thought he was actually rather handsome in an unconventional way - but there were definitely things that stood out to him more now that he was looking at himself from a third person perspective.

“We don’t call it a tallywhacker, you pleb,” he hissed in return, somewhat concerned at how strange it sounded for Paul’s voice to be saying words that normally only he would say. “Just call it a dick. Don’t be weird!”

Paul snorted. “Weird? You’re one to talk. This was your idea after all!” he retaliated. He wasn’t wrong there either. Curtis had been the one to suggest that they switch bodies for a week but he couldn’t help himself after Paul had been cocky enough to suggest that he had it easier than other people at CavTech, himself included. That was a load of bollocks and Curtis felt like it was necessary to prove it to the other man, which was why they’d decided to undergo this challenge without telling anyone, not even their nearest and dearest. As far as the rest of the company knew he was Paul Erswell and that was seriously strange to think about. He was going to be expected to act as an office veteran who was buddies with their direct manager and… well, it was a whole load of shit he probably wasn’t ready for.

“Fine, that’s it. Those are my two rules,” he declared, unable to drag things out any longer. They only had a limited amount of time before the rest of the guys got back from their lunch breaks and Curtis really didn’t want them to walk in while they were still having this discussion. He was confident that he’d be able to pull off a perfect Paul Erswell impression while he was in the office at least and he was also curiously excited to see what the man’s home life was like. Was Paul the type to have drinking buddies who reminisced about their high school days? He was pretty sure he’d overheard the man talking about having a couple dogs before…

“You’re on, old man!” Paul replied, flashing Curtis a toothy grin in the process.

Although it was a comment that he had thrown Paul’s way several times in the past, being called old was certainly a strange feeling for Curtis. He supposed it was a deserved comment given the grief he’d given the other man. He was now a full two decades older than he was used to and if all the media he’d consumed over the years to go by, his temporary body’s old bones and aching muscles would soon certainly make him aware of that fact!

Although he still felt confident that he’d be able to prove to Paul that the older man’s job really wasn’t as difficult as he made it out to be, there was something a little disconcerting about giving somebody else access to all areas of his life, even someone trustworthy like Paul. Curtis himself was a rather private person and he barely let anybody in to such an extreme extent that Paul now had. He had to remind himself that it was only for a week though - how badly could Paul ruin his reputation in such a short span of time? It was all going to be fine…

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Paul had bad intentions. Not the kind of intentions that would break either of Curtis’ rules - although he confessed that he was a little sad he wasn’t even allowed to try jerking off but whatever, he’d let the Brit have that much at least. It wasn’t as if what he was planning was less exciting than that anyway because why stick to pleasuring yourself when you could get somebody else to do it for you? Curtis’s only stipulation was that it couldn’t be Jenny - but that was fine, there were plenty of other candidates that could help him out!

The middle-aged man’s life had been in something of a rut in recent months. He’d heard whispers around the office suggesting that he was experiencing a midlife crisis and although he’d initially been offended by the concept, he had slowly come to realize there was some truth in it. His life wasn’t what he wanted it to be. It was dull, repetitive and unrewarding, even with the fat paycheck that landed in his bank at the end of each month. A body swap with his handsome younger colleague seemed like the perfect way to get a little more excitement back in his life. He wasn’t getting laid, he was working ridiculous overtime hours simply because he was the most experienced person in the office at the job and honestly he was beginning to wonder whether he even enjoyed his job anymore. He knew that working at CavTech Ltd was a dream come true for many but it was beginning to feel like there was something missing and he needed to find it if he was going to keep working there for much longer.

Paul had actually goaded Curtis into the argument about whose workload was more difficult (“What are you talking about, Paul?” Curtis had exclaimed hysterically earlier that day, “You’re mental if you think you do more work than me!”) because he knew the younger man would rise to the occasion as he always did. Curtis was predictable like that. It wasn’t necessarily a fault of his own, it just made him very easy to manipulate and Paul had never shied away from manipulating people for his own benefit. Despite hiding this manipulative streak under a smiling exterior, Paul didn’t see himself as a horrible person for it because usually his choices benefited others too. Maybe Curtis wouldn’t see how good this situation was for him right now but soon enough he’d learn to appreciate it a lot more!

There was a lot of weird science behind their swap that Paul didn’t quite understand but he couldn’t help but be curious. It was some strange invention of CavTech that Curtis had gotten his hands on, although Paul wasn’t sure how the younger man had managed that. The device itself was a rather unremarkable box with two handles on opposite sides, one for each of them to grab onto. The moment they’d wrapped their hands around them, the switch had activated and deposited them into each other’s bodies. Paul was a naturally curious guy and one who always liked to feel like the most knowledgeable in any given room but this was past even his area of expertise. It was a highly unique science, one that very few people understood so he was forced to trust blindly and take things for what they were.

He had half expected their accents to travel with them as part of the swap and yet here he was speaking as if he’d been born and raised in Bristol like Curtis had. It was a little disorientating to hear an accent so different from his own whenever he spoke but weirdly enough it actually turned him on slightly. He’d always thought Curtis was cute in his own individual way and while they all gave him shit for his accent or his ears, Paul had never had a real issue with either of them. In fact he was rather fond of them which was why he had no issue with having both for himself at that very moment in time.

Besides, it would be a lot more difficult to convince people he really was Curtis and there was nothing different about him if he didn’t have the Brit’s accent. That was the goal after all, convincing the rest of the company that he really was Curtis Barnbury and had just turned over something of a new experimental leaf. Sure, he could still have a bit of fun if people found out the truth but it wouldn’t be quite as sweet as it would if he succeeded in keeping things secret. He’d have to convince Curtis to keep his mouth shut but he was already beginning to think of a few ways he could make that and more happen.

This week was going to be all about new experiences for Paul but he had one main and very simple goal in mind: he was going to get fucked as often and by as many people as possible. It wasn’t as if Curtis had banned that in his rules, was it? He wasn’t getting himself off nor was he planning to make a move on Jenny, so technically Paul wasn’t even doing anything wrong at all! He was just exploiting a loophole, no harm done. Honestly Curtis was a blind fool if he thought that Paul was going to play along innocently because how could he resist with a golden opportunity like this?

Oh well. It wouldn’t be long until Curtis was thanking him for everything that was about to unfold throughout the week. First of all though, Paul had his eye on some of the colleagues now flooding back into the office. All he had to do was find a way to get one of them alone…