The Secretary fluttered an eyelid and signalled her to come forward.

He whispered as she reached him “I am watching the video we produced at the Towai Resort. I am looking at your naked body lying on the bed and suddenly you came and knocked. What a coincidence.”

He took the earpieces off and stood up. The groin area of his trousers was bulging.

“I am looking through your clothes and reminiscing about your seamless body in my mind’s eye.”

The Secretary held her in his arms as she muttered, “Stop this dirty sermon.”

The Secretary hissed, “I cannot change how my mind works. You are always on my mind. Did you work puripuri on me?”

“Delete the video, please,” she pleaded. 

The Secretary grabbed the folder she was holding and dropped it on his table.

“Those are Australian aid documents for the engagement of the external IT adviser,” she said.

“Later.”

He placed his hands on either side of her buttocks and pulled her towards him but she was much taller than him and he had to stand on his toes to raise his fat lips to give her a good kiss - but his bulging stomach pushed her away.

Salina looked down and saw her face mirrored in his shiny bald head as he struggled.

“People will come and knock anytime, please boss, enough. This is not an appropriate place for this.”

“But it feels good,” whined the Secretary.  

A gecko was chirping. It was resting on the picture frame of Sir Mikal hanging on the wall.

“Look, even the geckos are watching.”

The Secretary stopped and looked in the direction of the gecko while his hands rummaged around her abdomen.

“We can go to Kookaburra Resort at Six Mile. It is now 2:30 pm. I will clock off early and wait for you on Soare Street. The spot where you picked me up last week,” she proposed.

The Secretary looked up with exhaustion and slurred, “My dear, you are too good to me.”

Salina was 21, beautiful and from Tutu Settlement. She had come to work with the Department last year but nobody knew how she was recruited. The human resource division was tight lipped but the gossip was that the Secretary appointed her to the vacant substantive position of senior IT officer.

Salina was a product of the esteemed Ensisi Catholic Girls High School. She was a tomboy and therefore assigned to work in the sacristy during senior high school. At times she would hide and help herself to the sacristy wine.

Upon completion of senior high school in 2013 she attended Santa Barbara Business College in Moitaka, obtaining a certificate in accounting.

Another lady in the department gossiped that Salina had married her grade school sweetheart and they had a son. Her husband, Kamna, was unemployed but drove for a gang in the Tutu Settlement.

Since working for the Department, Salina had been undertaking a lot of duty travel with the Secretary. She even flew abroad once with him for a meeting in Brussels, which had nothing to do with the job she held and was talk of the week among the ladies.

Rihanna and some of the ladies said they had university degrees but were still junior while Salina had just come in, been appointed a senior officer and travelled more than all the women in the office put together.

The talk became even more bitter when the women learned Salina had no university degree and no experience in IT.

“You reckon, I am a gender champion,” asked the Secretary as he lay on top of her.

Salina, pushed his chest up with her hands and complained, “Yeah, you’re a gender champion for opening legs. I heard you opened Rihanna’s legs during the national IT conference at the Bendown Motel.”

Rihanna was one of the procurement officers of the department.

The Secretary farted in his struggle to stay up and roared, “Rihanna flirted with me but you are my only true love. I want to promote gender equality and you will be the IT manager of the division soon.”

Salina raised her head and kissed the Secretary and cradled him.

“You are truly a gender champion,” she sang, and kissed him.

The Secretary was acrobatically pushing below, ‘‘Aaa... aah, my gosh,” moaned the Secretary and flopped on her with fatigue.

“Are you done?”

“Crrr crrr crrr crrr,”a mobile phone in her handbag rang.

Salina rolled the Secretary on to his side and grabbed her bag.

She looked in the direction of the Secretary and placed her index finger on her lips. The Secretary blinked his eyes in obedience.

“What?” she answered.  

“Junior is crying, where are you now?”

“My dear husband, I am at the bus stop and will soon be home”

“Bestie, try and hurry up, please. I have to pick up the street boys because we will be heading downtown in 25 minutes time for an operation.”

In the background Salina heard her son crying.

“Bestie, if you have some extra coins, get a spear (cigar) for me,” begged Kamna and switched the phone off.

Salina stood up and dressed. The Secretary was lying on the bed watching as she put on her clothes.

“Taxi fare,” she barked and sprayed herself with perfume.

The Secretary searched in his wallet and gave her two K100 bills.

She grabbed them without saying thank you and ran out of the room and resort.

The Secretary, dazed with fatigue, took a nap.

Salina jumped into a taxi and shrieked, “The meeting went beyond schedule, shit, Tutu settlement driver, and please hurry.”