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She has no idea how beautiful she is. It’s her eyes. Those soft brown eyes that give everything away.
Bill brought her to the office party, and she clung to his arm like she was afraid he’d blow away if she didn’t hang on. Of course, Bill hardly noticed except it kept him from flirting with every other woman at the party, especially me. She saw the way he looked at me, and the heartbreak in her eyes made me turn away.
I want to tell her he isn’t worth it, but I know she’ll never listen.
He follows me around the office like a dog after a tasty ham bone. It’s annoying, especially when he gets close enough that the scent of his aftershave gets into my clothes. He hasn’t laid his hands on me yet, but when he does, I’m going to use one of my best taekwondo moves on him, see how he likes that!
Oh, who am I kidding? I won’t even report it to HR. Our supervisor is well aware of Bill’s behavior. I’m not the first woman he’s fixated on.
I wonder if she knows? She has to. She can’t be completely blind to her husband’s proclivities. There must have been too many nights when he came home late with another woman’s perfume on him. He isn’t exactly discreet.
How can she give that big heart of hers to a man like that?
I saw her today. She went into a nail salon, and I couldn’t stop myself from following her in. So stupid, she’s going to think I’m a stalker or something.
Her hair is lighter. Seems to me the more insecure she feels, the lighter her hair goes. It’s a shame, the warm, honey blond suited her better. The style was nice, though, the way it framed her sweet face, and flowed down to her shoulders.
She kept darting glances at me. I wanted to believe that she might think that I’m pretty too, but I could see the fear in her eyes. I wanted to reassure her that I have no interest in Bill. Hardly! But all I could do was smile, and nod at her as I left the salon.
Bill asked me out for drinks after work. Oh, not in a crude way, he said, har, har, har. Just colleagues!
It sure wiped the smug look off his face when I said, sure! Let me see if Eddie and Tanisha would like to join us.
We ended up with eight people at a couple of tiny tables pushed together. Bill found himself crushed between Eddie and Miles. He stared holes through me the entire time while I had fun with Tanisha and Joan.
He slapped me on the ass during the Fourth of July picnic, the bastard. And I couldn’t call him on it because he did the same thing to a couple of the guys who were also playing softball. I turned around, and there she was, not ten feet away, a stricken look on her face. She walked off before I could go over and apologize, or make an excuse, or something! Anything to get that look off her face.
Bill’s lucky I didn’t pick up a bat, and clobber him with it.
I keep thinking about the one time we talked, the first time we met. It was a holiday cocktail party a couple of weeks before Christmas. They have a beautiful home, and she’d outdone herself with the decorations of red and silver, with greenery draped over the banister on the stairs, and on the mantelpiece above a roaring log fire.
I made a point to go over and tell her how delicious the hors d’oeuvres were. The spicy shrimp were to die for! Her eyes lit up with the compliment, and she actually blushed. I was blown away when she told me she’d done most of the cooking herself. She said that she loved to cook, and had hoped to one day be a chef in her own restaurant. Then that lovely smile dimmed when she told me that Bill made enough money so she could stay at home. She didn’t need to work. Isn’t that what every woman wanted?
Before I could tell her no, Bill walked up and slung an arm around her, and started to smarm all over the place. I wanted to keep chatting, but Bill wouldn’t shut up. The more he talked, the more she seemed to shrink, right in front of my eyes. She listened to every word he said like it was gospel.
I think that’s when I started to hate him.
I went to a dinner party last night at my supervisor’s home. His wife is a tiny stick of dynamite, a lawyer with one of the leading law firms in the city. I wonder if she knows about Bill, and if she ever talks about his roving eye with her husband.
The dinner was catered, and delicious, so I used that as a conversation starter when I finally got Bill’s wife to myself. Have you ever considered catering instead of opening a restaurant?
She said, I can’t believe you remembered that! We managed a stilted conversation for all of five minutes. Okay, it was longer, but time flew by so fast! I never felt so tongue-tied in my life, but thankfully I kept my side of our exchange going through fits and starts.
Then Bill showed up like the yearly audit – inevitable, yet still annoying.
Cue the entire world revolving around Bill, while his wife disappeared into his shadow.
A knock at my door in the middle of the night woke me up. When I looked through the peephole, I couldn’t believe it was her.
I let her in.
Her eyes were red from crying, and she kept looking around as if Bill might pop out of my bedroom. She finally noticed I was in a nightgown and robe, neither one of them sexy.
I never imagined she’d be standing in front of my big, picture window, looking so beautiful against the backdrop of the city lights. I think in that moment she was just as aware of me as I was of her.
Then she began to speak, and broke my heart.
With your auburn hair, and emerald eyes, you could have him, she said. You could take him with a snap of your fingers. He talks about you in his sleep, and I can’t blame him, you’re everything that I’m not. Please understand, I know you have your choice of men, but I’m begging you to let him go. He’s the only man I could ever love. My happiness depends on you.
The words came out in a rush. As soon as she was done, she rushed for the front door.
I didn’t try to stop her.
I put in for a transfer the next day. Fortunately, there was an opening in Chicago, and I snapped it up. I honestly didn’t care where I ended up, as long as it was far away from Bill.
I doubt my leaving will save their marriage, but I’m tired of the whole thing. I don’t want to be in the middle of it anymore, and she’s made it clear that Bill is her choice. I’m sure that deep down she knows he’s a dog, and that I’m not to blame for his behavior.
I sold my condo, packed my bags, and –
“Jolene.”
There she stood with a hopeful smile, and her suitcase. Hesitantly, she sat in the seat next to me.
“I thought he was the only one you could love?”
“No. I said he was the only man I could love. I also said my happiness depends on you.”
I reached out, took her hands, and smiled.
The End