Christmas was just a few days away so Chyseis Kent, Head Librarian of the Acquisitions Department at the University Library, contemplated what to get her boss, the mysterious Ms. Pryor, as a gift for the holiday. Chrys knew Ms. Pryor, the Regional Manager of the Library, was a woman of means and really didn’t lack for anything. The two women had a tumultuous and complex relationship (which Chrys didn't even fully understand), but she still wanted to give Ms. Pryor a Christmas gift. After all, Chrys admitted to herself with a mischievous smile, she had had the best sex of her life with Ms. Pryor.

“Tumultuous and complex indeed,” Chrys thought as she reflected on her various encounters with Ms. Pryor. She recalled their first meeting, which occurred shortly after Chrys and another girl had broken into Ms. Pryor’s office thanks to the lock-picking skills of the other girl. That girl had been searching for a friend and was convinced that Ms. Pryor’s office contained a clue to her friend’s disappearance. Chrys, however, did not have a key to Ms. Pryor’s office, which was always locked up. In fact, emails from Ms. Pryor had made it clear that her office was “off limits” to everyone, including Chrys. Nevertheless, Chrys and the girl had entered the administrative wing of the Library and, using two metal strips, the girl had easily picked the lock, enabling them to gain access to Ms. Pryor’s office where they discovered a secret chamber under the office’s carpeting. Chrys shivered as she remembered the harrowing experiences she endured in that secret chamber – discovering priceless long lost books of antiquity, being clubbed into unconsciousness by an employee of Ms. Pryor, waking up to find herself stripped naked, tapegagged, crotchroped and tightly hogtied, and then being drugged by that same employee.

When Chrys had finally regained her freedom, she had found an email from Ms. Pryor which demanded that Chrys report to the Regional Manager's office to discuss disciplinary actions based on Chrys’s role in breaking and entering into Ms. Pryor’s office. Chrys entered Ms. Pryor’s office and was immediately struck by Ms. Pryor's beauty -- and the sexual energy that filled the room as they stared at each other. There hadn’t been any disciplinary action that night – at least not the kind Chrys had been expecting. Instead, Ms. Pryor ominously explained that she was a “keeper of secrets” -- right before she seduced Chrys with soft kisses to her neck, rendered Chrys topless, toyed with Chrys’s body and, finally kissed her passionately on the lips. Later that night, Chrys had ended up tied naked to a chair and harness gagged by Ms. Pryor, but, eventually, Ms. Kent had used her own sexual talents to wear out her boss. 

Weeks later, after Chrys had again contemplated breaking into Ms. Pryor’s office to see the relics in the chamber beneath her office, Ms. Pryor had, in fact, severely disciplined Chrys by strapping her facedown naked on a padded bench and taking a riding crop to Chrys’s shapely bottom. "Definitely tumultuous and complex," Chrys mused aloud.

Now, with Christmas days away, Chrys puzzled over what to give her boss for the holiday. As Chrys reflected on her few encounters with Ms. Pryor, the answer suddenly came to her. Ms. Pryor herself had said that she was a “keeper of secrets” and Chrys clearly knew that Ms. Pryor valued those secrets. As the perfect holiday gift, Chrys decided that she would arrange a way for Ms. Pryor’s secrets to stay secret.

 * * * * * 

While Chrys contemplated her experiences with Ms. Pryor, the very same Ms. Pryor was also considering what to get for her most troublesome of employees. Chryseis Kent had tested Ms. Pryor’s patience, ignored her warnings on several occasions, meddled in the Regional Manager’s affairs, disobeyed her orders, and involved others in the Library’s business. But, through it all, Ms. Kent had also given Ms. Pryor pleasure like no one else had in the past. So, with the Christmas holiday fast approaching, Ms. Pryor also struggled to decide what gift she could give to Ms. Kent. She thought hard about her long history with Chryseis and knew that theirs was a complex relationship, but she also knew, deep down, that she could trust Chrys implicitly. As the perfect holiday gift, Ms. Pryor decided that she would show Chrys the level of her trust.

* * * * * 

Christmas Eve Day finally arrived. Earlier, Chrys had sent an email to Ms. Pryor asking to see her on a matter of great importance shortly after the Library closed at 1:00 PM for the holiday.

At noon, Chrys stood in the Library’s administrative wing observing an employee of the Janus Lock Company as he replaced the lock to Ms. Pryor’s office. As her Christmas gift to Ms. Pryor, Chrys had decided to modernize the office lock, which had been so easily picked in the past. She hired the locksmith to replace the traditional lock with a state of the art electronic keypad. Ms. Pryor could then program the keypad so only she would know the sequence of numbers which would provide access to her office. Chrys stood nearby watching the locksmith, and ensuring that while he opened the office door when necessary, he never once stepped inside the Regional Manager’s office. Finally, at just before 1:00 PM, the work was done. The old lock had been removed and a technologically advanced lock had been installed in its place. It was the perfect gift, thought Chrys. She walked the locksmith to the Library exit, wished him a Merry Christmas and waited for Ms. Pryor to arrive.

At precisely 1:05 PM, Ms. Pryor appeared at the entrance to the Library and let herself into the locked building. Chrys waited for her down the hall in the lounge opposite the Library’s front desk, holding the plastic-wrapped manual for the new keypad security system. She had attached a red and green ribbon to the manual and thought to herself, “I really hope she likes what I did.”

Ms. Pryor walked down the hall where she spotted Chrys in the lounge area. She immediately fixed her eyes on the manual that Chrys held out towards her, clearly seeing an image of an electronic keypad on the cover of the manual.  As she offered the manual to her boss, Chrys thought Ms. Pryor looked very serious, even more serious than usual. Indeed, there was an expression in Ms. Pryor’s eyes that Chrys could not read, and it gave her pause. It was not a look of anger or surprise or disapproval. It was just a peculiar expression. Chrys handed her boss the manual for the new keypad security system and said, “Ms. Pryor, I hope you’re not too upset with me that I took it upon myself to modernize the lock to your office. It’s just that I know you value your privacy . . . and your secrets. Merry Christmas! I hope you like your gift.”

"You've changed the lock to my office door?" asked Ms. Pryor incredulously even though she had just heard the attractive dark-haired librarian confess to having done so.

"Yes, I did,” said Chrys. Ms. Pryor looked at Chrys curiously.

"And you took it upon yourself to do this without checking with me first?” she asked.

"Yes,” Chrys said in a quietly hesitant voice.  “I . . . I thought you would like knowing your office – and your secrets – were more secure with the new system in place. It's Christmas Eve, Ms. Pryor, and I did this for you. You can choose any password you like and not worry about me or anyone else intruding without permission," she added in a more confident and serious tone.

Ms. Pryor simply nodded and, unexpectedly, she smiled. She took Chrys’s left hand and pulled her from the lounge towards a nearby corridor. Silently, they walked with Ms. Pryor leading Chrys by the hand into the administrative wing of the Library. As they drew close to the door to Ms. Pryor’s office, they both looked at the brand new security keypad to the left of the door.

Ms. Pryor shook her head and turned to Chrys. “I have something for you too, Ms. Kent. For Christmas.” Ms. Pryor reached into her overcoat pocket and handed Chrys a small box that was also adorned with a green and red ribbon. “Open it,” ordered Ms. Pryor.

Chrys’s nervous fingers removed the ribbon and then lifted the top of the box to reveal a key sitting upon a cotton pad at the bottom of the box. Ms. Pryor gave a genuine laugh at Chrys’s puzzled expression as she took the key from the box. “It’s the key to my office, Ms. Kent. Or at least it was the key to my office. I wanted to save you the trouble of picking the lock or otherwise breaking into my office in the future.”

The two women looked at each other and they each smiled.  “Merry Christmas, Ms. Kent,” said Ms. Pryor.

“And Merry Christmas to you too, Ms. Pryor,” said Chrys Kent.

 THE END!

********

Giving credit where credit is due: This Ms. Kent story, of course, is based on the wonderful short story “The Gift of the Magi,” which was written by O. Henry and first published on December 10, 1905 in The New York Sunday World newspaper. The story is about a young married couple and how they deal with the challenge of buying secret Christmas gifts for each other with very little money. You can read the story here --  www.auburn.edu/~vestmon/Gift_o…

Happy Holidays, Everyone!