It Started With a Lie

by H. Tanhide

Being the only male within the small team of seven accounts clerks, Melvyn Hart had spent his first two weeks in his new job feeling somewhat inadequate at times. It wasn’t that he was incapable of doing the job he’d been hired for, but more with having to listen to his five female colleagues and manageress constantly criticizing the men in their lives. Mel sometimes thought their comments were directed at him, just because he was a man and there to take whatever flak the vicious-tongued women could throw at him. On the reverse side, there were good measures of all things pleasant, such as ramblings about fashion, make-up, food and what their respective neighbours had been getting up to – all the gossip that Mel had never been subjected to in the other, male-dominated jobs he’d held. It was interesting to listen to what was being said and of how his female co-workers formulated their opinions, ideas and suggestions, for better or for worse. Of the six women, three are currently at various stages in their marriages, one is divorced and the remaining two vehemently object to being tied down because they have better things to do with their lives than to become homemakers! Melvyn quickly worked out that two of the unattached women were actually lesbians and seemed to flirt with one another quite frequently; one was his thirty-something boss, the very demanding Ms. Karen Van Heel, Department Manageress, and the other was a 28-year old Scot called Lexi Ferguson, the joker of the pack who liked being the centre of attention. It became evident that she’d taken it upon herself to take charge of the office whilst Ms. Van Heel was in her own office, next door. Whilst the married women had no apparent interest in seeking extra-marital affairs, what with their children and husbands to look after, that left the mostly quiet, hard-working, Miss Olivia Deering as the only available candidate if Mel ever mustered enough courage to ask her on a date. He fancied her rotten. But why would he feel he needed to ask a woman, Miss Deering in particular, out on a date? Quite simply, Mel was a 32-year old man who still lived with his parents. He was never top of the class for his looks, but kept himself neat, tidy and presentable at all times, mainly because his matriarchal mother deemed it so! She’d also spent the past year trying to encourage her son to start looking for a wife and was desperate to see him move out of the family home, just as his big sister had done many years before, eventually settling down in New Zealand with her wealthy, rugby-playing husband. Mel was desperate to please his mother and, although he quite liked the 29-year old Olivia, she was a very serious woman who seemed to put every ounce of her concentration on her tasks. It was clear she was dedicated to the work she was doing and that made it harder for Mel to pluck up the courage to ask her out.

173 pages, Paperback

Published May 4, 2017

About the author

H. Tanhide (pseudonym) is a male in his early fifties and has over 30-years experience in electrical and mechanical engineering. He has been married for over 25 years to his high school sweetheart and enjoys the pleasures of living an alternative, female-led lifestyle. Since his early teens, H was thrown into a situation where he was living under the control of his strict, Scottish mother and, because he was the only male within the household, had to quickly learn to take on the responsibilities of the 'man-of-the-house'. At home and at school he experienced corporal punishment and has developed a desire to live under the control of strict, dominant females ever since. 2014 was his debut year for publishing fiction and to date has 10 self-published works. For fans of dominant females, there is more to come in 2017!!!