Carissa let out a dissatisfied grunt as she slammed another cardboard moving box on her desk. The box felt weak and easily broken, a perfect analogy for her current level of patience. Each item she placed inside—her collection of brightly colored pens, the framed photo of her and Charlie on their honeymoon in Italy, even the ridiculously oversized stress ball shaped like a spreadsheet—felt like another piece of her normal life being packed away and shipped off to oblivion. “The Annex,” they called it. As if it were some exciting new expansion, a step up. In reality, it was a dilapidated old warehouse on the far side of town, a place where forgotten inventory would be sent off to languish. And she, apparently, was going with it.

She slammed the lid of the box with more force than necessary, the sound resonating in the suddenly quiet space of her soon-to-be-former cubicle. Her colleagues had offered sympathetic glances throughout the morning, a few even whispering, “Good luck,” with a tone usually reserved for someone heading in for a root canal. They understood. Carissa understood. What she didn’t fully understand was why she had been chosen for this exile in the first place.

When the memo came out announcing the warehouse purchase three weeks earlier, it made a vague reference about a need for a couple of volunteers to relocate to the space to “keep the lights on.” The memo promised a spacious office for anyone interested. After looking over the photos of the worn-down building that had been attached, Carissa wondered if the lights came on at all. The place looked like a dump. There were promises to clean it up, but everyone knew the odds of that happening were slim. Referencing the memo, Carissa made it obvious to her manager that she didn’t want to go near the place.

And yet, here she was.

Carissa grumbled to herself as she continued packing. Of course they’d pick her. She was a data integrity analyst. Nobody knew what she did. Sometimes she wondered if her own manager even understood her responsibilities. In some ways, it really made sense. Ship off the girl with that weird job title. Oh, and while we’re at it, let’s ship off the obnoxious new guy too.

Joey. Just the thought of his name made Carissa’s jaw clench. He’d been hired a month earlier and had been driving her crazy ever since. He persistently buzzed around her desk every day, offering unwarranted compliments and provocative winks. His attempts at charm were so transparent, so utterly unwelcome. And now, thanks to the brilliant minds in management, she was going to be trapped in a confined space with him. Every work day. Alone.

With a defeated sigh, Carissa grabbed another box and began emptying her desk drawers. The stapler, the hole punch, and the emergency stash of chocolate—all going into the abyss of The Annex. She imagined her future, stuck in some cramped, dimly lit room with peeling paint and the faint smell of mothballs. And there, in the corner, would be Joey, leaning back in his chair, a smug grin on his face, ready with some insipid remark about their “exciting new adventure together.”

The drive to The Annex felt longer than it should have. The landscape shifted from familiar office buildings and bustling streets to a more industrial, forgotten part of town. Weeds sprouted through cracks in the asphalt, and the air hung thick with the smell of dust and something vaguely metallic. The warehouse itself was an uninspired, faded building with a loading dock that looked like it hadn’t seen a truck in years.

Carissa pulled her car into a weedy parking spot and stared at the building. This was it. Her professional purgatory. Taking a deep breath, she grabbed the boxes from her backseat, loading them onto the collapsible hand truck that the maintenance guy had kindly offered to her after she finished packing up. With the cart full of boxes in tow, she slammed the car door and made her way to the entrance.

Inside, the warehouse section of the building was cavernous and dimly lit, rows upon rows of industrial shelving stretching into the gloom. The air was cool and carried a faint echo. Following the haphazardly placed signs that read “Office,” Carissa navigated through the maze of items that had recently been dropped off, the silence amplifying the sound of her footsteps.

The office itself was almost exactly as she’d imagined, only worse. Two desks sat facing each other in a room that felt more like a crime scene than a corporate office. The walls were a sickly beige, and one corner sported a noticeable water stain. The single window looked out onto a brick wall. The carpet was nearly worn through in places. And there, already unpacking a box with a disconcerting air of enthusiasm, was Joey.

“Hey, Carissa!” He chirped, flashing a smile as his eyes traveled up and down her body. “Welcome to The Annex! Cozy, huh?”

Carissa stared at Joey with all the enthusiasm of someone who had just learned they needed an appendectomy as she rolled her boxes up to the unoccupied desk. “Thrilled to be here, Joey,” she replied, her sarcasm thicker than what remained of the carpet.

She began to unpack, deliberately placing her honeymoon photo squarely in the center of the desk, a silent but firm declaration. This was her space, and she was going to make the best of it, despite the unwelcome company. As she continued to put things into their new home, Joey wandered around the office with a tape measure, measuring various locations. After a few minutes of this, Carissa’s curiosity finally got the best of her.

“Okay, what are you doing with the tape measure?”

“Measuring, obviously,” Joey chuckled.

Carissa rolled her eyes, crossing her arms as she stared at him. “Seriously, Joey. We’re going to be stuck together in this stupid office for who knows how long. The very least you can do is give me a straight answer.”

“Fine, fine,” he ceded. “I’m figuring out where everything goes. Corporate said we were free to use the space however we wanted. I’m going to get a sofa, a mini fridge, maybe some bean bag chairs, and…”

“Okay, I get it,” she sighed. “Listen, I can tell you’re excited to be here, but I’m not. I don’t want to be here. Do what you want with the space. Just know that the first chance I get to go back to the main office, I’m taking it.”

“Oh, come on. Give it a chance. It might grow on you. Besides, you get to work with me, and everybody loves me.” Joey grinned, gesturing to himself as he spoke. Carissa just stared back at him in return. “Don’t worry,” he added, “I’ll grow on you eventually.”

Over the next few days, Carissa did what she could to make the best of her new fate. She brought in a few more pictures from home, an area rug for her side of the space, and even a couple of thrift shop lamps. Joey went all out, furnishing the space with everything he could to make it feel more like a living room than an office. Carissa had to admit that it felt cozier than her old cubicle, even if she was still unhappy to be trapped there.

She even found herself starting to chat with Joey occasionally. She still regarded him as an annoying nuisance, and she couldn’t stand his occasional glances at her body, but when you’re stuck in the same room with somebody day in and day out, you do what you have to do to keep yourself sane.

“You know, I could help with that,” Joey announced out of the blue one afternoon.

“Help with what?” Carissa scrunched her brow as she looked across her desk at her office mate.

“Your anxiety,” he replied matter-of-factly.

“What are you talking about?”

“It’s pretty obvious,” Joey replied. “I can always tell when you’re getting anxious. You get this funny look on your face, and then a few seconds later, you go for your secret chocolate stash in your bottom right desk corner.”

“Joey,” she snapped. “I can’t believe you sometimes.”

“What? You know it’s true. I'm telling you I can help you with your anxiety. I studied therapeutic hypnosis for years. I’m an expert at it. Just a few minutes of hypnosis per day could transform you into a completely different woman.

Carissa shook her head. “No way. First off, hypnosis is nonsense. Secondly, if it were real, the last thing I want is to let you have free rein of my head, making me cluck like a chicken or think that I’m a stripper or something. No, thank you.”

Joey laughed. “Oh, come on, I’m harmless. Besides, it doesn’t even work like that. Seriously, let me give it a shot. I promise it will help.”

“No, Joey,” she barked. “End of story. Now stop annoying me so I can get to work.”

For the next few days, Joey kept to himself. He didn’t bring up hypnosis; he barely looked in Carissa’s direction, and unless he was on a phone call or Carissa asked him a question, he stayed mostly silent in general. Carissa definitely got the impression that he’d been offended by how quickly and how coldly she rejected his offer to help.

By the fourth day of Joey’s silent treatment, Carissa found herself feeling mildly guilty about the way she’d behaved. Joey certainly had annoying tendencies, but it wasn’t like he was over-the-top obnoxious. In the two weeks since she was banished to The Annex, he’d been on pretty good behavior.

“Joey, can we talk?”

Joey didn’t look up from his computer screen. “I don’t know, Carissa. I don’t want to be an annoyance.”

“Come on, Joey,” Carissa sighed. “Look, I’m sorry that I was a jerk. I’ve just been pissed off lately. I still can’t believe Jeff banished me to this hellhole, and I’m probably taking some of that frustration out on you. It’s not your fault.”

Joey looked up, his eyes meeting hers. “All I was doing was trying to help. I’ve studied hypnosis for years, and I know I could help you deal with how you’re feeling. It was really hurtful to be shut down so harshly when all I wanted was to give you a little peace of mind.”

Carissa nodded. “I get it, Joey. I shouldn’t have snapped like I did. Here, let me make it up to you. If you still want to try your hypnosis thing on me, I suppose it wouldn’t hurt anything.”

“Really?” Joey’s eyes lit up like it was Christmas morning.

“Really. I still don’t think it will do anything, but if it would make you feel better, I’ll let you give it a shot.”

“Wow, Carissa. Thank you so much. That’s seriously kind of you,” Joey replied with cheer in his voice. “I’d definitely like to help you feel better, so let’s do it. It takes a few sessions before you’ll be comfortable enough for it to work anywhere. For the first session, in particular, it works best if you’re comfortable. Why don’t you sit on the sofa, and we can start there?”

Carissa gave her coworker a little smile and rose from her chair. She still thought hypnosis was silly, but if it would make working with Joey a little easier, she could throw the poor guy a bone. She moved over to the sofa Joey had brought into the space and took a seat. Joey sat across from her in his office chair and explained the induction process to her. After he finished with that, he leaned forward, extending a finger and panning it left and right as he calmly instructed her to listen to his words as she followed his finger with her eyes.

The next thing Carissa knew, she was blinking her eyes open, feeling as though she just awoke from a nap. “Oh gosh,” she replied, looking into Joey’s smiling face. “I must have dozed off for a second there. Sorry, Joey. You can get started again.”

“Started?” Joey chuckled. “We’re done. You’ve been under for a solid half hour. It turns out you’re a fantastic subject for hypnosis. So? How do you feel?”

Carissa looked up at the wall clock. To her shock, Joey was right. More than a half hour had passed. She could hardly believe it. On top of the lost time, she noted something else that was fairly astonishing.

“I feel… pretty good,” she admitted in mild disbelief. It was as if suddenly, being sent to exile here at The Annex wasn’t weighing her down anymore. She felt rested and awake, and try as she might, she couldn’t begin to conjure up the stress and anxiety that had been eating at her only moments earlier.

“That’s perfect,” he replied. “Of course, nothing lasts forever, so you should definitely keep doing these little sessions with me, probably on a daily basis for a while. If you can keep up with it, your stress and anxiety will all but disappear.”

For what might have been the first time since the day they met, Carissa gave Joey a warm, sincere smile. As much as she hated to admit it, his little hypnosis trick actually worked. She felt fantastic, and she didn’t come out of it barking or clucking or with some weird behavior like she’d seen with stage hypnotists. Maybe, she thought, it wouldn’t hurt to give this a try for a while.

Two weeks later, Carissa came strolling into the office with a giant grin on her face. “Look who’s here! Oh, and guess what I brought!” She held up the bottle of wine and two wine glasses as she strutted to Joey’s desk.

Joey smiled, giving the woman an appraising look. “What’s the wine for?”

“What’s the wine for?” She laughed. “Men just can’t remember anniversaries, can they? It’s our one-month anniversary of being sent over here, silly!”

Joey chuckled as Carissa sat on the edge of his desk, placing the wine and glasses next to his keyboard and smiling down into his eyes. “So it is. I guess that’s worth a little celebration. I’m glad you’re finally warming up to being trapped over here with me.”

“I really am,” she purred. “Thanks to you. Your little hypno-sessions have really helped me so much, in more ways than one,” she added with a conspiratorial wink.

It was true. Almost immediately after that first hypnosis session, Carissa had realized that being stuck across town in The Annex really wasn’t that bad. Even working alone with Joey had turned out to be better than she’d expected. The man she’d regarded as little more than a nuisance a month earlier had really grown on her, becoming a trustworthy friend and a confidant. She was a new woman, and she owed it all to Joey.

Her husband Charlie really owed a lot to Joey too, as she often reminded herself. Initially after getting sent to The Annex, Carissa shut down on Charlie, at least as far as intimacy had gone. Their sex life hadn’t been incredibly wild before that, but it was outright nonexistent after her frustrating relegation to the new facility. Ever since Joey started melting away those frustrations, though, it was like a match had been lit, setting her libido ablaze. Hardly a day passed without Carissa pouncing on Charlie or dragging him to the bedroom for a thorough fucking. Carissa knew this was all due to Joey, and she silently thanked him every time she orgasmed on her husband’s cock.

“Oh yeah?” Joey grinned. “I’ll bet that means somebody got some action this morning.”

“Somebody sure did,” she laughed. “I’ll bet you want to hear all the details, too.”

Joey gave Carissa an eager nod, and she went into describing every detail about her morning romp with Charlie. She loved having a friend and coworker so close that she could share everything with, right down to the most salacious details of her sex life. Joey was such a good listener, too, hanging on her every word as she described how she gave her husband a super slutty blowjob and begged him to fuck her as hard as he could. Occasionally, he’d even offer advice on things she could do with Charlie in bed.

After their morning gossip session, Carissa jumped into her workday. Working in The Annex had become such a great experience lately. Joey had nearly made it his mission to help her relieve stress in the last couple of weeks. He would even go so far as to give her lengthy back rubs or offer a foot massage after one of their hypnosis sessions. His attention to her comfort was incredibly sweet of him.

It was also incredibly arousing, she realized as Joey’s hands gently massaged her back after her daily hypnosis session. Joey was just such a handsome man. She’d never cheat on Charlie, of course, but having this stud of a man here, rubbing away her worries, was definitely a pleasurable experience. Before too long, Carissa found herself letting out little whimpers and moans as Joey continued his massage.

“I can tell somebody’s really enjoying this,” Joey said from his position behind her, a slightly jovial tone in his voice.

“I can’t help the noises I make when your hands are on me,” she purred.

“Oh, I’ll bet it’s more than just noises. I’d just about guarantee you that you’re turned on right now.”

“Don’t you wish,” Carissa groaned as he worked on a tiny knot.

“I can prove it,” he said. “I bet if I grabbed your boobs right now, those nipples of yours would be rock hard.”

“You wouldn’t dare,” Carissa whimpered, even as the thought started making her wet between the legs.

“Oh yeah? Well, I guess there’s only one way to find out.”

Carissa let out a little gasp as Joey’s hands traveled from where they had been on her back, reaching around and taking one of her breasts in each hand.

“See?” Joey laughed as he gently rubbed the woman’s nipples through her thin bra. “Hard as diamonds.”

“Okay, you caught me,” Carissa moaned. “You win.”

“I win? Does that mean I get to spend a little time playing with these?” Joey growled as he...