Working Girl
Jenny rolled her neck, trying to shake out the stiffness.
“Haven’t been sleeping well?” Blake asked her from where he was leaning over her desk, signing some papers that she’d thrust in his face when he’d walked off the elevators.
“Ugh, no. I haven’t been able to for the last week and it’s killing me. Don’t know if it’s how I’m sleeping or something I’m doing through the day. I swear I haven’t been doing anything crazy different lately.”
“I could always try to hypnotize you.”
“What?” Jenny lifted her head to look at Derek, an amused smile already prepped on her face, waiting for Blake to crack some joke. It slid off her face slowly when she realized that he wasn’t.
“I could hypnotize you to try and help you sleep better. It’s used all the time for various purposes such as to try and quit smoking, help weight loss and even insomnia.”
“I don’t have insomnia.”
“I didn’t say you did, but it won’t hurt. The worst that happens is I put you to sleep in my office from boredom.”
“We’re going to do it here?” Jenny asked, not even realizing that she was talking about it in present tense and not as a possibility.
Blake shrugged, looking nonchalant but his eyes didn’t leave hers. “Good of a place as any. So, do you want to give it a try?”
Jenny bit her lip but then finally nodded. “Yeah, like you said,” her words shook a little bit, “the worst that can happen is that I fall asleep.”
Blake chuckled, easing the tension in Jenny’s shoulders a little bit. “That’s the spirit. Let’s get started after work. You don’t have any plans tonight right?”
Jenny shook her head. It was the middle of the week and Jenny always like lazy weekdays at home after a tough day managing Blake’s schedule. He was the CEO of a fortune 500 company and Jenny had never realized how much daily work went into it until she started working as his assistant.
“Alright.” Blake pushed the papers onto Jenny’s side of the desk and straightened up. “Come into my office when you get off work then and we’ll get started.”
Blake looked up when Jenny walked into his office without knocking. She hardly ever did unless he made it clear he didn’t want permission or was in a meeting with someone else. While the office did have a professional dress attire, that was the most formal they ever got at work, everyone else being called by their first name and no one thinking twice about it.
“Ready?” Blake asked. His face was smooth but welcoming, helping soothe the rest of Jenny’s worries.
She smiled though it was still hesitant. Hypnosis was something she’d never really thought about before, but was always leery about possibly giving up control. Even when Jenny got drunk, she made sure to know exactly where she was getting drunk and made the choice beforehand if she even wanted to.
“Ready as I’ll ever be.” She clasped her hands in front of her. She’d left her purse and everything ready to go on her desk for when she left, knowing the rest of the office had already left. It was a skeleton staff today due to most being at a conference, and everyone else on the floor had already waved goodbye to Jenny.
Blake smiled and waved to the couch. “Go ahead and sit or lie down, whichever is more comfortable for you. Sorry if it’s a bit too psychiatrist for you but I unfortunately don’t have a big easy chair in my office.”
“That’d be a bit awkward just sitting around,” Jenny agreed as she settled onto the couch, choosing to sit.
“Go ahead and get comfortable, maybe kick your shoes off, but just make sure you’re comfortable and there’s no immediate nuisance that you can feel.”
“Are we starting already?”
“Do you really want to sit around and talk about starting?” Blake asked. He’d moved at this point so he was no longer behind his desk but know in the seat aside from the couch Jenny was using. “I figured you’d rather just get into it and not think too much about it.”
Jenny nodded. “Yeah, you’re right, let’s just do this.”
Blake smirked a little bit, resting his hands together. Jenny’s mind had been going three hundred miles an hour since Blake had brought it up this morning and it seemed like Blake knew it. She was grateful to not have to think about it anymore. If that was even possible.
“I have no idea if this is going to work.”
“You won’t know until you try. Now, take go ahead and close your eyes. I want you to take a deep breath for me.” Blake began, talking Jenny through various breathing exercises until her body felt like Jell-O, completely sunk into the couch. She briefly regretted not having chosen to lay down before the thought drifted out of her head just like Blake had recommended.
“Letting all thoughts go, you can think about them again when you wake up but right now I want you to think of nothing besides my voice and how relaxed you are. Breath in slowly. Hold it. Breathe out.” Jenny exhaled and sank further into the couch. She didn’t even know that was possible.
The exercises continued until Jenny wasn’t even sure what exactly was happening. All she knew was that she felt relaxed and calm in a way that she never had before. Words kept floating in and out of her awareness, leaving her warm and content.
“You will trust me… You like being hypnotized… You want to be hypnotized again… Hypnosis makes you happy… You like how hypnosis makes you feel…”
Warm words that she could so easily agree with. They felt like her own thoughts forming in her mind, so simple and so right.
“Breathe in. Breathe out, letting my words surround you and think for you. You trust me completely and know that you can trust my words since you are trusting me inside your head. My words are right. My thoughts are your thoughts. My thoughts are your only thoughts, replacing any older thoughts until you can’t even remember what they were before. Until you can’t even remember you had thoughts before my thoughts. Until you can’t even remember they were never your thoughts in the first place. Breathe in. Breathe out…”
Jenny sank deeper.
“Now when you come out of this trance you will feel warm and content, not remembering any of my suggestions consciously but following all of them without thought. You trust me. Repeat.”
“I trust you.” The words are thick and heavy against Jenny’s lips but taste so good and so right.
“Good. Now take a deep breath and I am going to count to three. Remembering to forget. Three. Breath in slowly feeling yourself starting to come awake. Two. Feeling yourself waking up, happy and content, trusting my words. And one, wide awake.”
Jenny blinked her eyes open, taking a minute to orientate herself. Blake was now sitting next to her on the sofa. She wondered when that had happened but the thought quickly fluttered out of her mind, leaving her with a pleased smile on her face. “Wow. Was I really hypnotized?”
Blake shifted back in his seat, a pleased smile on his face. “I would definitely say you were. You went incredibly deep for me.” Jenny smiled at those words, feeling oddly proud. “What do you remember?”
Jenny looked around the room, noticing that it was now dark outside. “Nothing besides you telling me to breath in. Are you sure I wasn’t just sleeping?”
“Do you feel like you were just sleeping.”
Jenny shook her head. “No. I never feel this good when I just wake up.
Blake smiled. “You’re welcome to feel this way anytime you want again. All you have to do again is ask.”
“Are you sure? I wouldn’t want to impose.”
“You wouldn’t be imposing at all. Hypnosis has always been a hobby of mine and it’s always nice to be able to have the chance to use it.”
Jenny bit her lip. “I might actually take you up on that offer. Even if I’m not able to sleep tonight, just these past few hours left me feeling so well rested that I think it makes up for my lack of sleep anyways. I don’t know if I’m even going to be able to sleep tonight. I feel like I could run a marathon.”
Blake stood, holding out a hand for Jenny. “Well, I don’t think I would go that far but I did leave a few suggestions for you tonight that will hopefully help you sleep better and we can continue this tomorrow to strengthen them.”
“Strengthening?”
“All hypnosis suggestions need strengthening for them to last. If we didn’t they would just slowly wear off and hopefully settle as a habit but it certainly doesn’t hurt since you’ll be seeing me every day to reinforce them. You don’t mind?”
“No, of course not. I love being hypnotized. I trust you.”
Blake’s smile turned pleased. He squeezed Jenny’s hand so fast she hardly felt it. “I’m glad to hear that. Don’t want you thinking I’m doing anything untoward with your mind.”
Jenny laughed. “No, but I do find myself curious. I didn’t think I wouldn’t remember anything at all.”
“Does that bother you?”
“I thought it would but I’m fine. I trust you and know that anything you’re doing is only to help me.”
“That’s right.” Blake squeezed her shoulder and opened his office door for her. “I look forward to hearing from you in the morning about how your night went.”
Jenny smiled. “Don’t worry, you will. I doubt I’ll hardly be able to contain myself.”
“Have a good rest of your evening.”
“You too.”
Jenny couldn’t stop smiling the rest of the way to the lobby, her purse over her shoulder and papers in her hand. She figured with all the extra energy she had she could use the time to catch up on a little of her work.
“Well,” Blake asked the next morning when Jenny walked in. “How’d your night go?” She was normally in the office before him, but he was already typing away at his desk when she came in, calling her into as soon as she put her things down.
“It went so good,” Jenny couldn’t help but gush. “I don’t think I’ve ever slept that good in my life. What the heck did you do? It practically felt like magic.”
Blake chuckled, leaning back in his seat with a pleased smile on his face. “I’m glad that my suggestions took so well. You were quite the good subject; I didn’t expect anything to work that well after only just one session.”
“Do I even need another session? I feel great.”
“As I said before, no suggestion is permanent. They always need to be reinforced, however they certainly won’t get worse. I’m sure you’ll notice knew things each night. All I did for you last night was ensure that when you went to sleep you would be able to sleep through the night and feel well rested when you woke up in the morning. If you would like I could place some suggestions to help you establish a nighttime routine. Every good sleep expert will tell you that the best way to get a good night’s sleep is to establish a routine to follow before you go to bed, but a lot of people have trouble following this.”
“You could do that? Just tell me to do something and I would?”
“It doesn’t quite work that way,” Blake replied easily, leaning forward, an open expression on his face. Jenny leaned forward as well, taking in his words. “I can’t just hypnotize you and tell you to do something. We need to establish trust. A rapport. You trust me which is part of why you were able to go so deep for me the first time. I doubt it would have happened so well if a stage hypnotist tried to put you under. It’s called a post-hypnotic suggestion and is just what it sounds like. An idea for you to follow awake that was left in your subconscious mind.”
“I trust you.” Jenny replied quickly. She always had, he was one of the best bosses that she’d ever had and with what happened the night before she only trusted him more. “Would you be able to leave a suggestion tonight? Like another one that would really give me proof this is working?”
“Last night wasn’t proof enough for you?”
Jenny shrugged sheepishly. “It’s not that I don’t believe you, obviously I do. But I don’t know, I want… proof I guess.”
“What type of suggestion would you want then?”
“I don’t know. Just something that I would notice. I would notice it right?”
Blake nodded. “Of course. How about we do it right now so we can leave it in for the day and I’ll take it out tonight when you go home.”
Jenny blinked. “Um… right now?” she glanced around the room. “We have time?”
“I am the boss after all. It will only take a little while. Maybe a half hour and then you’ll get straight to work, no harm done. Most of the time spent will be me sending you into trance. You said that you wanted proof. No time like the presence. You trust me right?”
Those words slammed into Jenny and she found herself nodding before she’d finished processing the words. Of course she trusted him and it was silly that she was spending so much time thinking this through. She trusted him and he was only doing exactly what she was asking. “Yes, of course.” She walked over to the couch and laid down on it after removing her shoes. “Let’s get started. What suggestion are you going to put in?” It didn’t even cross her mind to give him the suggestion herself.
Blake smiled at her, settling himself in the chair opposite her. “Why don’t we just wait and let it be a surprise.”
“Okay.”
“Good girl. Now take a deep breath in for me and let it out slowly, letting all of your attention focus on my voice once again…”
Jenny inhaled when she woke up, slowly pushing herself up to sitting.
She looked over at Blake who was already smiling at her. “How do you feel?”
“Really good, Sir.” Jenny blinked and chuckled awkwardly. “Um. That was really weird, Sir.” Her eyes widened. “Why do I keep saying this Sir, Sir?”
Blake laughed, a full belly laugh that had Jenny smiling despite the slight tension in her stomach. “I would say that the suggestion is working perfectly.”
As soon as he said those words Jenny remembered exactly what they’d been doing and the request she had made of him in the first place. This was his suggestion. Her body relaxed, amusement coming over her as well along with a sense of pride over how well she had received her suggestion. “That’s crazy, Sir. Sir. Sir. Wow, I can’t even say your name, Sir. All I can say is Sir, Sir. I think you’re going to get very tired of hearing Sir soon, Sir.”
“I don’t know,” Blake said, leaning back into his chair. “I’m kind of starting to like it. Maybe I should make all of my employees call me sir from now on.”
“I wouldn’t get too used to it, Sir.” Jenny folded both of hands onto her lap, both feet on the floor directly in front of her. She forced herself not to say anything else. Now that the surprise had faded she found that she really liked the suggestion, it gave her a bit of a thrill every time she said it, knowing that she couldn’t stop it even if she tried. That thought sounded a bit odd to her, but she pushed it to the side in favor of simply savoring the moment. “And you’ll leave this in all day, Sir?”
“I’ll leave it in as long as you would like me too.”
“I might have you leave it in longer then, Sir.”
“I would be more than happy to. Just remember that just like your other suggestions it will need to be reinforced. In this case, just calling me sir will do that, a constant daily conditioning if you would.”
“So the longer I say it the harder it will be to stop even after you take out the suggestion, Sir?”
“Exactly that. That doesn’t bother you, right?”
Jenny shook her head, pressing her thighs together. It sounded a lot better than she would have thought at the idea of calling him sir.
“Of course it will stay longer and more firmly if I reinforce it along with your other suggestions to get a good night’s sleep but that is up to you.”
Jenny nodded. “I might have it stay in a bit longer than but I’ll think about having you reinforce it, Sir.”
“You’ll be reinforcing it yourself every day, anyways.”
Jenny nodded again, not even thinking twice about what he had just said. “Wait Sir, what’s going to happen for work? I can’t be calling you Sir to every one of my co-workers, Sir. They’re going to have no idea who I’m talking about, Sir.”
Blake smirked. “I wouldn’t worry too much about that. I’ve already taken care of it. You can trust me.”
“I trust you, Sir.”
Blake stood. “You are taking to your suggestions incredibly well but I think it’s time for both of us to finally get to work.” Jenny glanced at the clock noting that it was about forty-five minutes past her usual work start time. “If you like I could also put in a trance trigger tonight so you’ll be hypnotized much quicker and we won’t have to waste time just hypnotizing you.”
“You can do that, Sir?”
“I’m surprised you’re still questioning me when you’ve said sir more times in the last five minutes than you probably have in your entire life.”
“Well?” Blake asked the moment that Jenny walked into his office at the end of the work day.
“That was amazing, Sir,” Jenny breathed out, “I was addressing you by your last name whenever I had to talk to anyone about you. I couldn’t even try to not say your name; it was like I had to address you each time you were brought up, Sir.”
“It’s good to show proper respect to your superiors.”
Jenny froze, and swallowed. Those words sounded so right.
“Now,” Blake said, not giving Jenny any time to respond. “What would you like to work on tonight? I’ll help with sleeping again. Would you like me to take out the ‘sir’ suggestion?”
“Um, no, Sir. Could you reinforce it, Sir, please?” She forced herself to meet Blake’s eyes and not duck away.
“You want me to reinforce it? I thought you’d be more than ready to get it out.”
“I, um, I like it, Sir. It reminds me that your suggestions are working and um, like you said, Sir, it’s good to show respect.”
“You want complete reinforcement? Like I said this morning, every day that you say it will continue to reinforce it, you don’t really need me to do much more.”
“I want you to reinforce it hypnotically, Sir—just extra so I know that it’s working. I just want to be the best employee that I can be, Sir.”
Blake grinned. “Very well. Take a seat and get comfortable. I’ll also be making sure that I have a nice trigger in place so we can go about this a lot quicker. You like that, don’t you?”
“Yes, Sir.”
“Good girl. Now take a deep breath in for me…”