Beating cats

[deacsoft]

So after a while of discussion and such I've agreed to let my girlfriend have her cat come to live with us. She's agreed to take full care of it (meaning that I have no cat responsibilities what so ever). The issue is that I'm alergic to cats and otherwise have no problem with them, but certainly don't need some cat driving me crazy while I'm trying to work. I don't care if the cat is living with us as long as she keeps it and the house clean of cat hair and such. And I do not want this cat coming in to my office and bothering me while I'm working. I basically don't want the cat near me but I also don't want the cat to run and hide in terror every time it sees me. How do I train the cat to leave me alone but not fear me? The only way I can come up with to keep it away from me it to give it a good, savage beating. However I don't want to hurt the cat, the girlfriend would get pissed, and the cat would forever fear me. I just need to get it accross to this cat they we can have a good "don't mess with me; I won't mess with you" relationship. Any help here?