words. She flipped the pencil upside down and erased ‘sleeping together'. That calmed her. Sleeping together was scary. That would last all night. With nudity and sex, she could have it over quickly, and then she would be alone and safe again.
Then she realized the overall timeline was back down to seven weeks. With a cry of distress, Georgina moved on to the second set of circles. Those were the tools she planned to use to achieve the deliverables.
More make-up
Highlights in hair.
Provocative clothing
Provocative behavior.
Her mind raced back to the bikini incident. Even in the privacy of her own office her cheeks burned with shame. With a few angry jabs she crossed out all four items.
Georgina pressed her lips together in frustration. Her IQ was supposed to be astronomical. She ought to be able to think up some ideas. How difficult could it be to seduce a man?
Different. That's what she'd offer. A Neanderthal like Rick Matisse would be used to the kind of bimbos she had thought of trying to become. She would be a contrast. Classy, cool, ethereal. She'd intrigue him, fascinate him, beguile him.
With renewed enthusiasm, Georgina wrote out a fresh sequence under the heading ‘Means to Achieve the Goal'.
Highlights in hair.
That was a compromise, since her hair was mousy.
Feminine clothes but classy.
Shorten skirts and look sexy.
Find opportunities for displays of physical attributes.
Her waist was tiny and her bottom was pert. She'd find occasions to drop things down and bend over to pick them up. Perhaps she'd buy one of those cropped tops that left her midriff bare.
And her legs were good. She noticed it every time she got a ladder in her tights and inspected them in the mirror to see if she could get away with the damage until the end of the day. She'd get some skimpy shorts, and paint her toenails red. And maybe she'd get an ankle bracelet, although it would probably scratch her skin and drive her crazy.
Her lips curved into a nervous smile. She had a game plan. All right, so she had never to her knowledge intrigued or fascinated or beguiled anyone before, but there was always the first time for everything.
What she'd written so far took care of the first four weeks. What should come next?
Personal grooming.
She'd exfoliate and moisturize like mad. And instead of shaving her legs, she'd buy one of those nasty gadgets that pulled the hair out by the roots. She'd even book a bikini wax, which according to Cosmopolitan was as painful as childbirth, although mercifully a wax job only lasted a few seconds.
Then what?
Learn about sex.
She wrote it down. It came against week six, which meant that she needed one more weekly action. She added ‘seductive behavior’ by the last circle on the right.
How would she learn about sex? Georgina frowned and tapped her fingernails against the desk.
Blue movies. She'd watch a couple of those. It ought to give her the basics, although she had no idea how she would ever muster up the courage to walk into a video store and ask for a blue movie. Perhaps she could check into a hotel again. They had had erotic channels blasting out night and day.
It had never really bothered Georgina that she'd reached the age of twenty-eight without ever having sex. Grandma Ethel would have disinherited her for any liaison before wedding bells, and wedding bells had never been on her agenda. And in the past two years, since Grandma Ethel died, Georgina had been too busy with work to think about men.
A new environment offered an opportunity for a new start, and this was an ideal time to do something about her personal life.
With a flick of her wrist, Georgina tore the page from the pad and folded it, and then slipped it into the side pocket of her briefcase. Her plan was complete. The next step was to put it into action.
* * * *
Georgina parked in the underground garage and climbed out, lugging her briefcase in one hand and hauling her handbag over her shoulder. Her thoughts