Growing into the Job, Post 575: Intervention, p2

“Ok, ciao,” said Melissa Monroe, Administrative Director of the new Far Horizons Evolution Center, as she continued marching down one of the hallways of the administrative wing. She hung up on her conversation with Lucia, pleased with how the ‘Boss-Girl-to-Boss-Girl’ conversation had gone. She’d made herself clear - all business decisions between Incarnato di Lucia and Jay would need to go through her, and the model’s team was excited to work with both Jay and her soon. All like it should be. She was learning: she could be soft, but she could be iron-willed when needed. Especially when it came to protecting him. There will be other new restrictions on him soon.

The phone felt small in her hand. Many things did, these days.

She slid the phone into her pocket and picked up her pace down the quiet hall, deep in the administrative wing of Far Horizons, headed to her meeting in one of the new conference rooms. Her heels hit the tile with a little more force than was necessary -  enough that the recessed lighting panels trembled overhead, enough to crack some of the grout between the new tiles. Luckily, not the tiles themselves.

Her blood ran hot. Maybe too hot, she knew.

But still…Jay. Running from the office, running from home. Running from us, running from ME. 

Unacceptable.

Crying out for me in the woods. Falling asleep on me like he trusted me with all his bones.

Sigh.

Shrinking again.

NNnnngh.

I love him so much.

But she knew: he needed structure. He needed rules. He needed her, holding his reins. Or, rather…

Maybe his leash.

<crack crack crack!> thundered her heels.

He needs me bigger, she thought before she could stop herself, Bigger fixes everything.

The idea caught in her throat, and she exhaled sharply, trying to ground herself the way Dr. Chou had taught her.

In for four, even as she walked, Hold two. Out for six.

It helped.

A little.

The glass walls of offices around her flickered with her passing reflection - and those of other women in tailored blazers, passing glances of uncertainty, a few deferential nods. She was just returning to the office now, after the bomb scare. They all felt her mood like barometric pressure.

Mallory, the curvy girl from accounting tossed out a nervous, “Afternoon, Melissa! Love the pants!”

Melissa smiled back at her, but didn’t respond. She’d just changed into these fashionable yellow trousers - an extra set she kept in her office here - and crisp blouse, one she’d grabbed along with a new bra from the laundry room before she left home. Her hair, fright that it’d been, was now up in a reasonable - if messy - bun, atop her head. She’d also picked up a pair of reinforced white heels from home, and they were now responsible for the thunderclaps of her footsteps through the hallways.

Below her blouse, she felt her large breasts quaking in her custom-made bra. The rest of her figure - her hyper-musculature - had thankfully deflated from swelling up this morning, from her exertions at Evolution and the stresses of his disappearance. If I was still in ‘Missy the She-Hulk’ mode, she mused, there’d be no way I would’ve fit into these pants. 

By the time she reached the meeting suite, her jaw was aching from how hard she was clenching it. There was the bomb scare that she needed to discuss. She forced her shoulders back.The girls had caught her up a little through texts. She pushed a loose strand of hair behind one ear. She needed to be a manager, today. She practiced a smile that didn’t look like it had teeth behind it.

She opened the door to the conference room to three pairs of eyes:

Lakshmi, standing, looked up first - serene, luminous, grounded. A laptop was open on the table beneath her but it was immediately forgotten.

Shanette had been leaning back in her chair, arms folded and looking thicker than usual, but now sat up straight, attentive to her friend of many years.

And Randi, sitting atop the edge of the conference table’s far end, perked up, watching Melissa enter with the narrowed eyes of someone assessing a seismic threat.

Three pairs of eyes, three women who knew her well.

Melissa stepped in, and closed the door behind her. The air shifted and she noticed how all three - in perfect synchrony - went very still. I’m starting to have that effect, she thought to herself, wherever I go.

The three young women watched as she pushed another strand of hair behind an ear. Melissa’s ability to glow-up from her messy morning and run through the woods, they saw right away, was as superhuman as the rest of her. Her mask of fresh makeup, new clothes, and confidently powerful posture was an impressive disguise. It was a veneer, though, one that these women, some of her best friends, could see right through.

Shanette broke the silence first, almost under her breath: “Wow girl. What happened?”

Lakshmi, gentle but firm. “Sit, Melissa. Please.”

Randi lifted a brow. “You’ve got a leaf in your hair.”

Melissa swallowed. Hard. And for the first time since the forest, she felt her anger tremble instead of surge.

She kept it down. She’d told herself this earlier: you’re the manager, here. You’re the boss.

“I’m fine,” she said, stepping further into the room and checking to see if she'd closed the door behind herself. She had. They would need privacy in this room, she thought, just as built-in shades that would block out the wall-of-glass to the hallway somehow automatically began to close. She tilted her head, looked at them-

“No, you didn’t close those yourself, Supergirl,” Randi said dryly, holding up a remote control, “Fancy new offices we got here.”

That brought a half-smile to the Amazon, but did not do much more to quell what was still seething - even if a little less hotly - inside her. First, she knew they had to address the bomb scare.

Lakshmi, in her pale blue scrubs and standing beside the table was composed, with long. thickly dark hair clipped loosely but neatly away from her face. She pulled a chair out for Melissa. Come sit. 

Melissa obeyed - or rather, she let her body move toward the chair. Her footsteps thunked heavily even on the thick office carpeting; she saw the slight tremor it sent through the water glasses at each seat.

She sat, straightening her tight pants over her thick thighs in the oversized chair which still somehow felt too small. Her hands curled in her lap. She felt enormous, too large for the room. She didn’t hate the feeling. 

“Okay,” Shanette said, sitting back in her chair in her light-chocolate, ruched dress, legs crossed, arms still folded over her midsection and hoisting her large breasts, “the bomb.”

Randi scoffed, under her breath. “The dud, you mean.”

Lakshmi stepped in. “Let’s go through this from the beginning.”

Lakshmi opened her laptop a bit further, far enough to be able to glance at the screen while standing. “It sounds like it was a pretty crude thing,” she said, tone warm but factual. “One of the males from downstairs caught it - your guys’ old boss Jerry, actually - and alerted Nadia at the front desk. Wiring was incorrect so it did not go off.”

“But if it did?” Melissa asked. 

“It was pretty big.” Lakshmi answered, “It would have probably destroyed y-…destroyed the statue in the atrium. And the desk…” She paused. “…and hurt a lot of people.” 

None of them said anything for a moment.

Randi was perched on the table’s far edge, blazer hanging open over her white tube-top, the heel of one black pump dangling off her toes as she regarded Melissa like a scientist observing a slowly overheating reactor. She watched her friend’s jaw flex. 

“Who?” Melissa managed, coldly.

Then Lakshmi breathed in - softly. “Working theory? Some group called the ‘Sons of Resistance’. Or at least a splinter group.”

“Some pissed-off loser who’s watched too many YouTube videos,” Randi seethed, adding: “PR here - Lexi and Kori and those new ones - are labeling it ‘nonfunctional’ and ‘symbolic.’ In other words, ‘pathetic’.”

“Stupid people being unpredictable. But still dangerous,” Shanette amended, making Randi roll her eyes and then let out a short exhale before she cut in. 

“Marketing has built a whole, like, narrative already,” Randi said, lifting her old paper coffee cup and wagging it gently for emphasis. “They’re going to be branding this as an example of ‘rising male aggression’ and the need for ‘firm, united female leadership’.”

“I talked quick to one of the reporters, from Channel 5,” Lakshmi said, sitting down now, “they seemed to be thinking the same thing.”

Shanette smirked. “Girl, they’re going to be using this place as their new poster child for ‘see what men do when women get too successful?’’”

Randi snorted in agreement. “Yeah, security loved that idea,” she shot, “That big Russian thug - Dinara? From Evolution? - she was here, asking questions. She seemed more excited than nervous, like the rest of us normal people.”

Lakshmi gave a small sigh - she didn’t understand the political machinery but accepted its inevitability. “Yes. We do not have a lot of security here but now there is talk of bringing in a more…visible presence.”

“Female?” Melissa asked. 

“Of course,” Randi answered, “A flex of strength.”

“Reassurance for the staff, patients, the public,” added Shanette. 

Lakshmi clasped her hands. “Yeah, already taking it seriously. There was talk of a new screening protocol for all male visitors.”

Melissa nodded, maybe too briskly. “Good. They should. We can’t have any little men-” She stopped. She inhaled through her nose. The idea of a stronger security, a visible force, a protective team under her direction. Something that could start out small but then…well, the idea had its appeal. “Yes. Good. Necessary. Let’s do it,” she concluded. Her pulse tapped harder at her throat.

Shanette saw it. Lakshmi saw it. Randi saw it. They all shared a glance. 

“Don’t get too excited just yet,” Randi warned with a raised brow, though part of the idea was, honestly, darkly appealing, especially with the plans that had been brewing in the back of her mind these past few days. “It’s just sorta PR buzz at the moment. Let’s take this one step at a time.”

Melissa forced her shoulders to relax, which they did. Slightly.

Lakshmi looked at Melissa - her huge, utterly gorgeous manager - with soft, earthly-calm eyes. “Are you okay, Melissa?” 

A pause, during which Melissa didn’t answer. 

“Because we can tell you’re still running hot,” Shanette said, leaning forward in towards her friend, big boobs squashing against the table’s edge. 

Melissa nodded. She tried a small smile. It felt too tight on her face, so she nodded instead. 

Lakshmi closed her laptop. “All right,” she said gently. “That is the situation with the bomb. Everyone is safe.”

“Speaking of,” Randi queried, brow knitted, “Where’s Squirt?"

Melissa blinked - slowly, heavily. Jay. Jay in the woods. Jay running from her. Finding him, scolding him, entrapping him. Tying him up. Watching him shrink. Her breath hitched, just once. 

She realized they were all watching the flashes of emotion across her face. She watched them exchange a knowing glance.

Randi hopped down from the long table, straightened her pencil skirt, adjusted her tube top under her smart black blazer. She turned, bent to fill a paper cup from a water cooler, and stepped to hand it to Melissa. She leaned a hip against the table near her friend, arms crossed.

“Now, Miss, can we talk about what really has you stewing like you’re about to bust up the building?”

Melissa thought about throwing the cup of water at the wall, but instead took a breath, then a sip. 

Through the breath, and the sip, she felt the girls watching her, and looked at the cup in her hand. It felt tiny in her grasp, so fragile, like she was pretending to drink from a doll-sized cup. She tried to rest it on the table softly, but even “soft” made the surface thrum under her palm.

“Sure…” She breathed in. “Okay.” She looked at the three young women, each in turn. “And, really, I’m okay.”

She was not. Her friends, two of whom had known her long before she could crack tile with a heel, didn’t even blink at the lie, she could see that. They were wary.

But Melissa pressed on, lifted her chin. Tried for ‘relaxed’ - shoulders loose, fingers unclenched, thighs not flexed tight enough to threaten to rip her custom-tailored yellow trousers. She wanted to look like a woman in control.

She could tell from the three matching doubtful looks that it wasn’t working.

I’m trying.

“So,” she said, smoothing a palm over her blouse as if brushing away invisible lint, “first, I really… I really appreciate you all looking after Jay since yesterday.” Her voice wavered once, a tremor under the words she pretended not to hear. “You know - bringing him shopping, keeping him safe, getting him to work. Making sure he ate. I’m just…really grateful. That I have friends I can count on.”

Shanette’s eyebrow rose in a soft we love you but also, girl, what? kind of way.

Lakshmi gave Melissa a small, validating smile.

Randi softened a little, unfolding her arms from under her full bust.

Melissa felt herself relax by a titch. A single titch.

“And during the evacuation,” she continued, pushing through the fragile calm and keeping her voice measured, “where was he? Through all this?” Her voice stayed low. Too low? A warning hum was beneath it, for sure. “Was he with one of you?”

The three friends exchanged a look. Not a good one.

Lakshmi answered first. “Um…from what we can tell, he was with Angie.”

A click sounded deep in Melissa’s jaw. “Okay…” 

Angie had considered herself a friend of Melissa’s, and - before all this started, before Far Horizons - the feeling was basically mutual. But recently, Melissa felt, Angie’s behaviors had been a little…disloyal. Plus she’d gotten into that girl-fight with Amelia. And now this?

Shanette elaborated, shifting slightly in her light-chocolate dress, the ruching pulling as she leaned her elbows onto the table. A big bloom of black bosom bulged beyond her bodice, out towards the group. “Jewel said she dropped him with Angie when she had to go help evacuate some male patients from the research wing. So…it made sense.”

“Mm-hm,” Melissa said, a sound that was neither agreement nor understanding. More like a wordless threat she swallowed at the last moment.

Randi had hopped up to sit on the table aside Melissa, and now swung her dangling heel back onto her foot. “We found his scrub top later,” she said, tapping two fingers on the table. “On the stairwell headed down to the basement.”

Melissa’s gaze sharpened. “You found his…shirt.”

“Yeah.” Randi nodded. “And it smelled like that weird new perfume of Angie’s.”

Lakshmi added gently, “It was…very strong.”

Melissa’s nostrils flared. Once. “Where is Angie now?” she asked, too calmly.

Shanette clasped her hands in front of herself. “Not here. We saw her leaving the building during the evacuation. Without him.”

The room held its breath as Melissa did not move, as it saw her face didn’t change. But something in its air tightened, drawn like a bow.

“And?” she asked.

Randi sighed. “We’ve been texting her. Calling her. DMing her.”

“She’s leaving all of us on ‘Read’,” Shanette confirmed. 

Lakshmi quietly opened her laptop again.

The cup of water next to Melissa trembled once in the silence. Not from footsteps. Not from HVAC.

They all saw it.

They all waited.

And Melissa, sitting perfectly still in her too-small chair, stared at the table’s surface like she could see through it and was trying to track every step Angie had taken. She didn’t blink. “When one of you hears from her,” she said, voice level as a plumb line, “I want you to tell me. Immediately. I’d like to speak with her myself.”

None of the girls moved.

“Of course, Melissa,” Lakshmi said gently.

“Sure thing,” Shanette added, keeping her tone light, her posture relaxed, everything about her body language designed to not agitate the barely-contained supernova sitting four feet away.

Randi simply nodded, but she watched Melissa like she’d watch a live wire. “We’re sorry we let him out of our sight,” Randi apologized, “It won’t happen again.”

Melissa inhaled - long, slow, deliberate. She nodded. Had she accepted their explanation? “I found him in the woods,” she said. 

All three froze. They’d sort of known that. She’d told it to them thru text earlier. 

“I followed his scent,” she continued, as if giving an operations report. “He ran far. Too far, in the wrong direction. In the middle of November, in the rain. If I hadn’t gone after him…” Her lips thinned. “Anyway. I found him. Crying. Half naked. Cold and dirty and scared.”

Her voice had softened for a fraction of a beat, but began hardening like cooling iron.

“I took him back to my mom’s house. Put him to bed. And I-” She exhaled through her nose. “I attached him to the bed. With my bras.”

Silence.

Randi’s eyes narrowed just slightly. “Okay…and…how was he? When you left him?”

“He was…fine. Safe.” Melissa thought for a moment. “He was tired. He’s probably sleeping.”

Lakshmi’s brows nudged together in a calm, clinical curiosity. “And you said you… attached him? To the bed?”

Melissa didn’t flinch. “Yes,” she replied, “With my bras.”

Shanette leaned back slowly, as if easing pressure off a fault line. “Attached him like…metaphorically? Or-”

Melissa didn’t know what that word meant, but she knew what Shanette was implying. “No, I tied him to the bed for real. Leashed him to the bedposts, by each arm and leg.” Melissa folded her hands in her lap. “I couldn’t bring him with me here, if it wasn’t safe, if there’d been a bomb.”

None of them breathed for a moment.

Randi set down her empty paper coffee cup with exaggerated care. “Okay,” she said softly. “And - can I ask - why did tying him up feel necessary?”

Melissa’s lashes lowered. She tried to look thoughtful, composed. Instead she looked dangerous.

“Because,” she said, her voice deepening, “He may have wanted to run again. I couldn’t let him. He can’t just - run. He can’t just leave. He’s tiny. He’s vulnerable. Anything could  happen.” Her voice cracked, then sharpened. “Do you understand that? Anything.”

The metal blinds that obscured the glass wall rattled. 

Lakshmi looked at them, opened her mouth, then closed it again.

Melissa leaned forward, tension radiating off her like heat off asphalt. “He needs structure. He needs, like, guardrails. We all know that. He needs someone watching him at all times. I’m thinking - no more driving for now. None. And he shouldn’t be left alone in the building, or anywhere. But even so I can get a tracker - one of those little wearables we can sew into all his clothes or, like, skin.”

She saw how wide her friends’ eyes had gone. “Just until things settle. Just until I can trust he won’t bolt again.” She paused. “Then I can give him back his keys.”

The words came faster. Louder. Edged.

“And maybe we rearrange his schedule. Limit which parts of the building he can be in. And his phone - maybe I keep it during the day. I mean, really, what does he need it for except distractions? If one of us is always with him? And he should check in with me at set times. And-”

“Under his skin, Missy?” Randi finally said. 

That made Melissa pause. She though for a second. “They have those, right? For, like, pets?”

Randi exchanged a look with Lakshmi.

Lakshmi exchanged a look with Shanette.

Shanette exchanged a look with both.

Three women, each thinking the same thing:

She’s spiraling again.

Shanette was the first to say something. Very slowly, she uncrossed her long legs beneath her light-chocolate ruched dress, leaned forward, and let her voice soften into that velvet-heavy register she’d been using on nervous patients and her boyfriend Scottie. It came out like a song, hitting the air like warm syrup - subtle but unmistakably supernatural:

“Melissaaa, honeyyyy…breathe. Just for nowww….”

Melissa’s eyes snapped to her. “Don’t you dare use that on me.”

The words weren’t shouted, but they vibrated, deep enough that the conference room’s lights flickered and the water cups on the table rippled again. Shanette’s mouth shut instantly, and the room froze. Shanette’s eyes widened. She hadn’t meant to-

“Sorry, girl…habit, trying to help,” she murmured, hands raised in surrender.

Randi broke the tension immediately, motioning like a referee calling time-out. “Okay, ladies, new team rule. No using our powers on each other.” She pointed at Melissa with two fingers. “I’ve been actually low-key afraid this whole time that you’re gonna shoot laser beams out of your eyes at me.”

A muscle in Melissa’s cheek twitched. She forced both hands flat on her knees, grounding herself.

I can’t shoot laser beams from my eyes. 

Not yet.

But okay.

Lakshmi waited for Melissa to nod, and the air to settle, before moving. She reached across the table and - boldly for her - took one of Melissa’s hands in her own. Her voice was smooth, soft, but never condescending. Deep water moving over river stones.

“Melissa… look at me.”

Melissa did. Carefully.

Lakshmi gave the gentlest smile - full of honesty. She waited for Melissa’s eyes to soften, just a bit. 

“We are all getting stronger, but you are powerful,” she said to her. “More powerful than any of us can understand. Even just two weeks ago - could any of us have guessed you would become what you are today? You are stronger every day, every hour. Everyone can feel it.”

Melissa’s eyes sparkled - almost shyly. Flattery, with Melissa, tended to work wonders. And she loved hearing about how powerful she was getting. 

Randi saw it, and snorted once. “Girl, it’s true. The interns in accounts receivable literally stopped talking when you walked by this morning. You're like their g-…well, their hero.”

“You’re just saying that..,” Melissa muttered, but her posture softened by a fraction of a degree, and she was fighting back a smile. 

“It’s true,” Shanette countered gently, looking her longtime friend in the eyes, “it’s totally true, Missy.”

“And you need to hear it, clearly,” Lakshmi picked back up, “Physically, emotionally, socially - Melissa, you are…ascending. You are beautiful and intimidating and magnetic in a way that is not normal anymore.”

“You walk into a room and the temperature literally changes,” Randi said, “What the fuck is up with that?”

Shanette leaned her elbows back onto the table, put her chin in her hands. “Half the people you meet want to be you, and the other half want you to pick them up in your big-ass arms and carry them like kittens.” She shrugged. “And honestly? Same.”

Melissa’s eyes glimmered in affection. 

Lakshmi continued - softening the edges but not reducing the truth.

“When people say your name now, Melissa,” she told her manager, “they do not say it the way they used to. There is admiration. Fear. Awe. You are becoming the kind of woman other people orbit.”

Seeing her Amazonic friend quietly swelling with pride, Randi took a sip of her bitter coffee and jumped back in, more blunt:

“You have presence now, Missy. It’s not just the bod. You’ve always been hot enough to, like, break OSHA regulations. But now you’ve got that-” she made a vague spiraling gesture around Melissa’s face “- that glow. That…whatever. Magnetism. Confidence. Yeah…presence.”

Somewhere in Melissa’s chest - somewhere that had been locked up tight - something warm unfurled a little.

“And listen,” Shanette added gently, “we get it. You want to protect him. You want to protect all of us. And you could. You absolutely could, just by being strong. Just by being powerful. But…”

But.

The word hung between the four women. 

Lakshmi folded her hands. “…fear can twist power. Even in the best people.”

Randi nodded, and picked right up. “And you? Girl, you’re running nuclear reactors under your skin. But you still feel things like the rest of us. You get scared, or jealous, or panicked, or threatened…but unlike when it happens in us, or normal people, when it happens in you everyone in a five-mile radius feels it.”

Melissa’s jaw flexed again, but slower this time.

Shanette dared a small, warm smile. “Us? Other girls here? We’re also just figuring out how to manage it all, these things we can do. Strength-management. Anger-management. How to handle our bodies so we don’t, like, crush doorknobs or brain-melt patients-”

“-or bust up our boyfriends,” Randi added, looking at Shanette, who was now maybe thinking of Scottie. He had been seen with some bruises on his face, apparently from her nipples. “But she’s right - part of this new world, for all of us, is figuring out how not to break things when we don’t mean to.”

Randi came closer, heel clicking lightly on the carpet panel. “Look. We get why you, like, tied him up. We get why you’re mad. He scared you. And when you’re scared, your brain goes straight to crazy lady mode.”

“Hey…” Melissa began to argue, but with just a cock of Randi’s brow, quieted. Ok fine yes. I can get worked up sometimes. 

“But honey-” Randi continued. She could tell her friend was listening to her, and taking this conversation seriously. She tipped her head. “We understand. Fear makes people do some wild shit.”

“Things they don’t mean,” Shanette added.

“Things that…are not good,” Lakshmi finished.

Melissa’s breath stuttered, just once. She arched her back. As strong as she was, there was no denying the weight of them, or the responsibility that came with them. She leaned into the table…

Lakshmi likewise leaned over the table towards Melissa, closer, hands still together, anchoring the giant woman. Her voice was soft but unwavering. “If Dr. J is afraid of you…that is not love.”

Something in Melissa’s breath caught - silent, sharp.

Randi reached out, resting a cautious hand on the table near Melissa. Not touching her - smartly. As long as she’d known Melissa, their relationship had never really been tender. But they were close enough to connect.  “Show him choice, Missy. Let him want to stay. That’s real power.” 

Shanette added, almost under her breath, but intentional: “And not just him, Missy. Show everyone choice.”

Melissa blinked. “What?”

Lakshmi glanced at the other girls, and saw it was hers to explain. Her voice was honey-warm. “People are looking at you as more than Dr J’s girlfriend. More than a manager. They are starting to look at you like a leader. A symbol. If people come to you willingly, because they believe in you - because they feel safe and inspired by you…that is the strongest power a woman can have.”

Randi nodded slowly. She dared, and hesitated only a half-second before placing a hand to rest on Melissa’s powerful shoulder; Melissa put her own hand over it. Randi was aware that if Melissa flinched wrong, she could snap her wrist. “Control is addicting, Missy, we know. But trust? Trust is…sovereignty.”

The room fell quiet. Melissa didn’t speak. Didn’t move. Didn’t quite understand that word either. But something in her expression - something deep - shifted. A tremor not of anger, but of realization. And the girls let the silence sit. Let it breathe. Let it work on her

Her shoulders lowered, her breathing steadied. The hand which had been tight in Lakshmi’s relaxed. The other, on top of Randi’s, gave a gentle squeeze. 

Randi withdrew her hand from Melissa’s shoulder only when she felt the tension ease under her palm - not vanish, but soften.

Lakshmi exhaled once, slowly, as though the air in the room had finally become breathable again.

“Melissa,” she said gently, “there is something else we want you to hear. And it is important.”

Melissa blinked at her, lashes heavy. “Okay.” These are my friends. I love them. 

Shanette tucked her legs back under her chair, smoothing the chocolate-colored fabric of her dress over her hips before leaning in again - carefully this time, no trace of her lullaby in her voice.

“Things are changing,” she said, her tone warm but firm. “Like…everywhere. Everywhere.” She gestured wide with her hands. “People are watching women rise and men…not. Men are slipping, some are starting to panic. Women are stepping forward, and now they’re stepping over men.”

“Or on them,” Randi added. 

“Sometimes, yeah, recently,” Shanette agreed, “Not just you. It’s not just us, in this building. It’s all over the city. All over the country-”

“All over the world, Melissa,” Lakshmi continued, “And it is not random. It is not isolated. It is becoming organized. People are talking about it online, in the news, in group chats, on social media - everywhere.”

Randi hopped up to sit on the edge of the table again, letting her blazer fall open over the white tube-top beneath. “You’ve seen the videos, Missy. The compilations. The ‘Amazon Sightings.’ The ‘Couples’ Size Difference' challenges. The ‘Who Is She??’ clips.” She pointed at Melissa like accusing her of being famous. “Girl, you’re now in half of them, the new ones at least.”

Melissa’s cheeks warmed. “I am not.”

Shanette snorted. “You totally are. Yesterday someone filmed you lifting that box of printer paper like it was a cotton ball. It had three million views by lunch.”

“I…I felt that one, people watching…” Melissa admitted. Lots of squirt. 

Lakshmi smiled gently. “People all over the world are watching women like you - women who are changing, in different ways. Growing. Leading. And they are reacting. Some are afraid. Some are inspired. Some are…hungry for more.” Her dark eyes softened. “And you are becoming one of the faces they look to.”

Melissa swallowed. Hard.

“Faces, and pairs of tits,” Randi quipped, “lots of looking there.”

That made her blush. 

Randi lifted her cup of cold coffee and swirled it idly. “There are men out there - men you’ll never meet - constantly leaving comments like ‘please let her crush me,’ or ‘smother me’ or ‘be my Mommy’.”

“That’s nothing new,” Melissa offered. It was true. Men have always been funny with me that way, from my very first public posts. 

“But, Missy, now it’s becoming: ‘I want Melissssy in my life,’ or ‘I’d feel safe with her.’ It’s not just kink stuff anymore. There’s something else that’s, like, instinctive. They want protection. They want structure. They want strength.” Randi’s husky, smoky voice had a new quality in it, a latent excitement. 

“It’s like they’re looking to the strongest woman in the room like they want her to be the one to tell them what to do, protect them, keep them safe,” Shanette said, then raised her brows at Melissa. “Honey, you’ve already got fifty guys living in the basement, picking up after you, serving you. When you walk by they’re basically wagging their tails.”

“Or getting on their knees,” Randi added. 

“This isn’t even about hotness anymore, Missy. It’s fulfilling something, like, instinctual for people,” Shanette added, “You radiate…authority. You walk by, and men straighten up or shrink down automatically. Women straighten up too, but for different reasons.”

Lakshmi nodded. “There are women here, women everywhere - young women, older women - who are watching you very closely because they want to know how to be strong in this new world.” Her eyes were deep and kind, like dark water under moonlight. “Some of them want to protect rather than crush. Some want to lead rather than…subjugate. Some want to keep the peace. Some want…more. But they look to you. They already do.”

“Women are looking at you like…like a blueprint, hun,” Shanette offered, “A path. A possibility. An ideal. The way you move, the way you treat him, the way he…the way the world responds to you - it gives them permission to want more too.”

Lakshmi tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “People are seeing you as more than a manager of a medical clinic. More than a local celebrity. They areseeing you as…symbolic. An icon. A sign of where things are going. Or could go.”

Melissa’s throat tightened. She was, as best she could, trying to be thoughtful and contemplative. Her brow furrowed, considering her day, and what had happened scant hours earlier. “But - bombs. They’re using bombs against me.”

Lakshmi knew this would be a concern. “Melissa…it is true. Some men out there will not want to feel like they need a protector. Some will fight. Some will try to tear down what women are building.”

“We saw that today,” Shanette said, “That bomb? That’s what fear looks like. Not strength.”

“But yeah,” said Randi, acknowledging the danger, “they may not always be duds. They’ll try to come at us in different ways, I’m pretty sure of that. So, some men might need, like…harsher handling.”

The girls all shared a look. Some of them, some of the girls - like Marisela, Stephanie, Amelia - were already preparing for this. Sharpening the weapons.

“That’s reality,” Randi finished.

Melissa’s gears were already turning. “These men. I woul-”

“But that is not your job today,” said Lakshmi, stopping Melissa from speaking up.

“Let us worry about that, for now,” Shanette offered, “Seriously. Let us.”

“You? You have one job. One mission. One person.”

“Dr. J…” Shanette continued, “is not part of that, he’s part of us. He’s connected to you. You’re becoming what he needs you to be.”

That made Melissa’s breath waver in her chest.

“It is true,” Lakshmi agreed, “In the deepest part of himself, you being the biggest, strongest, more powerful thing to ever live is what he wants. He just does not know it. And he feels he has to resist it, fight it.”

Randi pointed at Melissa with the empty paper cup like a prophecy. “So here’s the question, Missy.” She leaned in closer, voice dropping, eyes lighting with something both dangerous and sincere. “What if all this - your promotions, your new powers, your growth, your future - what if it could become even greater if Squirt isn’t fighting it?”

Quiet. Perfect quiet.

Randi set the cup down, leaned in even more. “What if he chooses it? What if he’s a willing participant in making you the biggest thing this place has ever seen?”

The words hit like gravity shifting.

“What if he…helps?”

Melissa blinked, once, slowly.

Lakshmi, Shanette, and Randi watched her with steady, almost reverent silence.

Melissa’s cheeks warmed. Her heart thudded, deeper than before. She was picturing it. “Randi…”

But Randi jumped in before she could deflect. 

“What if this could be even better? What if all of this - your powers, your strength, your leadership, your size. Not to mention us. What we can do. How many of us there are  - what if it all just…exploded, if Squirt helped?”

Melissa swallowed. The room felt smaller again, but not in a threatening way. More like the gravity had thickened. Big decisions were being made, here in this little conference room. Randi offered up what they’d all been thinking:

“What if what he really needs is a god?”

She, Shanette, and Lakshmi all watched her with quiet, serious expectation.

Melissa’s breath had stilled in her chest. She wasn’t saying anything. 

Randi pressed on. “What if that’s what the world needs, and he knows he can help?”

Melissa didn’t answer at first, as something both warm and frightening was flickering across her expression - a slow, dawning wonder she tried, and failed, to hide. Could this be coming true? Her throat bobbed once. Then, quietly, almost shyly:

“What if he really did want this - and helped me make it come true?” Not my pet. My partner. 

Her voice sounded different -  lighter, uncertain, like a woman letting herself dream for the first time instead of bracing for a fight. 

She stared down at her hands, massive in her lap, flexing slowly as though seeing them in a new way. “What if he…” she tried again, a tremor slipping into her voice, “…worships me? Not because he has to. Not because I’m stronger and he’s afraid not to. But because…”

She swallowed.

“…because he chooses it.”

Melissa blinked, breath softening.

Shanette spoke again to her friend. “Go home to him.”

Lakshmi did as well. “Go be a protector. Be the woman he loves.”

“And be the bigger person,” Randi told her, “Not the girl who ties her boyfriend up when she panics.”

“Can you do that?” Lakshmi asked, her eyes warm and full of love, “Can you go home, untie him, and… not pop his head like a grape?”

Melissa lets out a shaky, almost-laugh, the other women watching her with cautious pride.

“I think I can…” she replied, “thanks, girls.”

Randi looked down at Melissa, proud of her friend, and put a single hand out. “Here, let me get that leaf out of your hair,” she said, sharing a smile as she reached for her friend…

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