Archive of Our Own

So the earnings call could've gone worse.

It could've gone better, too—Sadie's not saying it couldn't or arguably shouldn't have, but she's trying (and mostly failing) not to judge herself too harshly.

The good news is that thanks to Katherine's abjectly alarming announcement that Payne's latest offering will retail for a mere $10,000, the revelation about her $20 million signing bonus will likely become little more than a footnote in most reporters' stories about what any half-sane person would deem an impossibly low price for a car, and Sadie lives to fight another day.

Of course, now they have to figure out how to retail the Pika for $10,000, so there's that.

--

"It's a disaster, isn't it?"

Sadie winces. She's been tiptoeing around Katherine since yesterday, trying to get Cyrus and the others to come around, and now that the two of them are alone in Katherine's office, Katherine's finally acknowledging what she knew to be true in the first place.

"Why didn't you tell me what an incredibly bad idea this was?" Katherine demands.

"I tried!" Sadie protests. "You told me to believe in you, so I told everyone else to believe in you, and then I said the blue carpet would be a better choice than–"

"Believe in me within reason," Katherine clarifies, her voice rising. "I need to be able to trust you, even if that means telling me the hard truths. Can you do that?"

Sadie swallows. "Yes. Sorry. I will... I will try to be better."

"Thank you." Katherine eyes her appraisingly, then tilts her chin. "Now, tell me: How are you feeling about what happened at the Chop House?"

"The–" Sadie blanches. "Um, in the… in the bathroom?"

"Oh, you must be confusing what happened in the bathroom with what happened on the table in front of the entire board and everyone else at the restaurant," Katherine says drily, affixing her with a withering look. "Of course in the bathroom."

"Not sure that was necessary," Sadie mutters under her breath, and Katherine purses her lips.

"Answer the question."

"I'd rather not."

"For fuck's sake," Katherine snaps, "just tell me the truth for once."

"Truthfully? I feel weird about it!" Sadie explodes, and she knows her voice is doing that thing where it randomly goes up, like, five octaves, but she's way too agitated to care. "This has never happened to me before! I went to college to get this job! I've never so much as flirted with a colleague, let alone a superior, not even when my bosses were all middle-aged men who would've taken any opportunity to–"

"Ugh, been there," Katherine intercedes sympathetically, which– yeah, while Sadie doesn't doubt that, she's on a tirade right now and doesn't appreciate the interruption.

"And it's not like you gave me the chance to make an informed decision! You just came up to me and kissed me and–"

Katherine raises her index finger. "After I agreed to pay extra for the privilege, let's not forget that part."

"–and everything's been messed up ever since."

They regard each other silently for a few seconds while Sadie does her damnedest to pull herself together.

"You know," Katherine begins, leaning back in her chair, "this wasn't some Machiavellian scheme I concocted specifically to make life difficult for you. I saw you sitting at the bar, I followed you into the bathroom, and…" She trails off. "Well, like I said, money makes me horny."

"Horny for me, though?" Sadie practically wails. "Why did it have to be me?"

Katherine spreads her palms. "I'm not sure what you want me to say here. Would it help if I gave you a refund?"

Sadie considers this for a moment. "Wouldn't– wait, wouldn't I be the one giving you the refund, because I was– I mean, you paid me to–" She takes a deep breath. "I think the blue is tacky."

Katherine raises an eyebrow.

"I know you think it's Bahamian or whatever, but it's not giving island flair, it's giving hospice care."

"Sadie, I think you're lashing out right now," Katherine says calmly, like that's the only reason to choose the gray over the blue that she can fathom. "You're hurt because I yelled at you, you're embarrassed about what happened the first time we met—I get it. It can't be easy to service someone in a bathroom stall and then have to call them ma'am the next day."

"...I call you Katherine."

"Right, but I'm your boss, so ma'am would also be appropriate."

Sadie slides all the way down in her chair. "Noted."

"Listen," Katherine clicks her tongue. "As much as I'd love to continue shepherding you through this little existential crisis you're having, we have a $10,000 car to pitch to the board in, what, three hours, and last I heard, Cyrus still needed to shave off $700, sooo…"

Sadie leaps up, positively giddy at the opportunity to end the conversation. "Yeah, let's put a pin in this and circle back later. Or not! We have enough going on with the Pika and everything, so if we keep that pin in there forever, it'll probably– I'd say that'd be fine."

Katherine gets to her feet, seeming pensive. "You know, when I was at York, we used to cite this study that said sex helps people think more clearly, ergo boner pills have the potential to boost creativity."

"The study said boner pills boost creativity?"

"No, but the way we presented the information made people infer that."

Sadie sighs. "OK, what are you getting at?"

"I think we need to get creative if we're gonna make this $10,000 Pika a reality," Katherine explains smoothly. "In other words, maybe you and I should fuck again."

--

While Sadie's brain fully shuts down and proceeds to reboot, the expression on Katherine's face remains so blasé that Sadie sincerely wonders whether she could've misheard an invitation to get some fresh air out on the Executive Terrace or something.

"Isn't Cyrus the best person to go to for ideas on lowering the price tag?" Sadie asks weakly, and Katherine looks at her like she's a moron.

"Come on, we both know he doesn't swing that way," Katherine says disdainfully, as if lowering the price tag is code for something not safe for work, and Sadie feels her chest start to tighten.

I don't swing that way either, she almost shoots back, but every time she revisits the memory of Katherine's cunt spasming around her fingers, she becomes less and less sure that's the case. "I– where would we– it's 11 a.m."

"We can use the executive bathroom," Katherine tells her briskly—then, off her blank stare, "You didn't know about that?"

--

The executive bathroom looks exactly the way Sadie would've envisioned, from the marble cabinetwork to the gold faucets. Judging by the interior design, the space predates Katherine's tenure at Payne by a good three decades, and Sadie can easily imagine various members of Wesley's family sneaking in there for trysts with their secretaries. She wonders how the company's forefathers would feel about her and Katherine using it—probably shocked that they're both female executives and relieved that they're both white.

"You need a restricted-access keycard to get in here, so this'll be a lot less risky than it was at the Chop House," Katherine announces pragmatically when the door closes behind them, and Sadie watches her dumbly as she perches on the edge of the countertop. "Oh, and let me make this clear: I'm not paying you this time."

"Of course not," Sadie says faintly, as if the payment aspect is what's truly ridiculous here, not the fact that Katherine's suddenly eyeing her like she's an entrée.

"Well?" Katherine demands impatiently. "What are you waiting for?"

"I– to be honest, I'm…"

Sadie doesn't know what to do with her hands right now—doesn't know what to do with any part of her body, come to think of it, but Katherine's sitting in front of her looking flushed and expectant, so, like, what choice does she have?

--

"God, that's good," Katherine veritably growls into Sadie's ear not two minutes later.

With one heeled shoe planted firmly against the marble and the other hooked around Sadie's waist, Katherine shudders and sighs as Sadie finger-fucks her—and although Sadie's largely following a fake-it-till-you-make-it mentality here, the choked-off sounds she's eliciting make it clear she's on the right track.

"Yes, yes, just like that," Katherine babbles, and Sadie would be lying if she claimed that she doesn't get off on this, that she doesn't love having Katherine in the literal palm of her hand.

When she idly swirls her thumb across Katherine's clit, the resulting gasp makes her feel omnipotent, and while a not-insignificant part of her wants to dip her head and lap worshipfully at the apex of the other woman's thighs, she doesn't think she could face pitching the Pika to the board with Katherine's taste lingering in her mouth.

"Like this?" she asks instead, curling her fingers, and is gratified to receive a moan in response.

Katherine's eyes are bright and glassy, her breaths shallow and shrill, and Sadie quite seriously considers taking advantage of the situation to request her own insane amount of company stock before ultimately concluding that what's happening between them is the sweetest possible eventuality—that Katherine came to her for this, not to Richard or any of the myriad men with whom they share the building.

"What if I actually do want that refund?" Sadie inquires as casually as she can muster with the other woman quivering beneath her.

Katherine flashes her eyes at Sadie, then screws them shut and comes.