“I know what you’re doing..!” I blurted into the phone, alone in the accounting office, my voice alr
“I know what you’re doing..!” I blurted into the phone, alone in the accounting office, my voice already risen above where it should be, “You’re t-trying to…do what you always do! Manipulate! Control! Get rid of her!” My pulse was racing, a tremble overtaking my speech. I didn’t want to sound like this, arguing with her, but I did. I sounded shaken, but I pressed on “Well, Sheryl, it’s n-not gonna work..!”Seated in Doris’ chair, I was met with a cold silence from the other end. Just five minutes earlier, standing outside in the hallway, I had overheard Doris on the phone with my wife, Sheryl. They had been talking about Melissa, behind my back. Finally, I couldn’t take it anymore and I marched in, took the phone, and sent Doris and Marjorie out. I had asked them to close the door.“She’s been working hard and sh-she’s…she’s perfectly capable!” I carried on, vexedly defending my decision to hire my new manager, which I’d been doing to myself for weeks, “and maybe some people just don’t like her because she’s…she’s…”Just then the door opened and Melissa walked into the office - short grey skirt, pink silk top. My eyes goggled, my heart skipped - I didn’t want her to hear this. My hand went to cover the receiver.“‘…Because she’s just a big pair of boobs’?” Sheryl finished for me, her voice on the phone just cracking the calm chill of well-practiced negotiator, “Because she has more in her bra than on her resume? I think that is why people don’t like her, and it’s exactly why you hired h-”“This c-conversation is over, Sheryl.” I stated, as plainly as I could, my eyes meeting Melissa’s concern as I abruptly hung up the phone. My heart felt like it might explode, my face flushed. “Omigod are you alright?” Melissa asked, eyes wide in immediate empathy as she came towards me.“Yes, s-sorry,” I answered, still recovering, turning away in the chair at the small desk - I didn’t want Melissa to see me like this. “That was my wife.”“Yes I figured,” she said with understanding, placing a file down on a side cabinet and moving in, around me, making me talk with her, “everything okay?” The wave of strong, pleasant perfume she brought with her settled over me. “Oh, it’s…yeah,” I answered, running my hand over my face, forced in the moment to notice how her skirt cinched her tiny waist. “She’s just upset with me over…something.” Jesus this girl’s body is…distracting. “Awww,” Melissa cooed, “anything you want to talk about? Maybe I can help?” She placed her right hand down, fingers settling on the desk next to me.“I don’t know,” I replied. I knew immediately I should watch what I say, lest I just get myself into deeper trouble. But, as my eyes drifted up her body, over her imposing shelf of bosom to her sympathetic smile, framed by a mane of thick raven hair, I felt my tongue already begin to loosen. “Sheryl’s just been kinda…tough recently.”Perhaps sensing my reticence, Melissa inched in closer to me. “Oh, sweetie, I’m sorrry,” she said, as a fresh waft of soft perfume filled the air between us, “tough how? Tough on you?” “Uhh..”Did she just call me ‘sweetie’?Stunned a bit, for the moment, I blinked as I looked up at her. I was unused to this type of thoughtful compassion from a woman. Feminine sympathy. It felt…nice. My eyes dropped. “…yeah, a little,” I continued, staring at her enormous thigh. I knew, despite myself, I was letting my guard down. Her proximity, the warmth of her smile, the undeniable appeal of her curvaceous body…it was making it hard to do anything else. And she, obviously, was eager, eager for me to confide in her. “Oh, sweetie,” there it was again, “you can talk to me.”My eyes were unable to leave the leg. She was tall, strong, healthy…beautiful. And I had just been belittled on the phone, I felt shamed and vulnerable. “Well, uh,” I began again, leaning back in my chair as she slowly moved her thigh towards me, “she, uh…”I glanced away to my right. I was letting her see me weak. The emotional wound of the scolding I had just taken from Sheryl was still fresh, and I had trouble facing Melissa’s confident composure.“Shhhh…..” she hushed, with intimate empathy, “it’s okay…” Her left hand came to my right shoulder, as if to center my attention back on her, where she wanted it. I couldn’t help myself, I looked up at her breasts, at the underside of that great chest stretching the dark pink silk of her blouse. I immediately imagined some superbra, firmly supporting the giant swells beneath. And then I looked at her right arm. “Talk to me, it’s okay,” she said, calmly urging me to open up. “I…I…uh…” I took a deep breath, and started to gush. “Sheryl is so…smart, she’s so…capable,” I began, watching as Melissa’s right hand began to reach down, towards mine, “She’s strong, she’s driven, she’s so…successful.” Speaking of my wife this way, the woman who had just emasculated me on the phone, made me feel…small. “That’s right, talk to me,” Melissa encouraged.“She’s an educated…amazing woman, really….” I admitted. Melissa took my hand in hers, clasping it. My hand looks small in hers, I saw, a sight which stopped me in my tracks, derailing my train of thought.“Keep going, sweetie,” she urged, holding my hand tenderly now with both of hers, supporting me quietly, “tell me everything.”“I…I’ve been with Sheryl for so long,” I continued, “We’ve been married for almost thirteen years.” I took a deep breath. “I love her, still…” I said, softly, “…I think.”She heard that.A new wave of Melissa’s perfume, like a warm feminal tide, spilled out from her, filled the shrinking space between us. I breathed it in, taking it for solace. Though she said nothing, still waiting for me to continue, I heard her breath catch as she watched me.My heart raced. What was I doing?? Am I an idiot, confiding in her like this?? But as I did, as I opened up to this young woman, I could tell…I could tell I was calming down. I knew I had to be careful, but everything about Melissa right now made me want to trust her - her perfume, her smile, her soft, strong hands around mine. .“Sheryl. She…helps me run things,” I said, looking at our linked hands, doing what I could to describe Sheryl’s role without saying too much, “and sometimes she…questions my decisions.”“Aww, is that why you’re upset?” Melissa asked, watching me pause, and then nod. “Now, why would she do that?” she continued, sensing it was now her turn to speak, “You are one of the smartest, brightest, most compassionate people I know. You’ve built a practice around yourself by yourself and have the support of so many people…” Her hands still held mine. If only that were true...“…and if Sheryl can’t allow you to continue making what you think are the right decisions for your business, well…” she said, with placating absoluteness, “…she just doesn’t see in you what I do.”My heart was just about to break from my chest. So much of me at that moment wanted to throw my arms around her wide hips, sink my face into her. “She’s always been there…” I explained, voice quavering, “she’s always been…a h-help.”To that, Melissa smiled, and crouched to her knees to look me in the face. “Well, now you have me.”urk.I was stunned, stunned by the sudden brilliance of her beauty, of her youth and vigor, staring me in the face, inches away. “I, uh…” I didn’t know what to say, and just barely kept myself together, enchanted by the scent of her shampoo, the mane of her thick hair, and the glimmering magic in her eyes. She smiled, seeing my reaction. “I’m sure, sweetie, when you get home,” Melissa said with confidence, raising my hand to her lips for an inspirational kiss, “you two can work it out.”home…“Heh well,” I replied, just barely able to break her gaze, look away, “she’s pretty mad, said she won’t be home…” I felt myself put on my bravest face. “She’s going out tonight.”“Well then, so are you,” was Melissa’s reply, one hand up to grab my chin, recenter me on her, “you’re going to come out with us tonight.” “I, uh…”“Nope, you’re not going to say no,” she stated with certainty, with the finality of a girl who gets her way. “A few of us going home to change first, get more casual, and then meet at the cowboy bar down by the river.”I knew. I knew I knew I knew the last thing I should do, was this, go out drinking on a Wednesday with the same girl my wife and I were just fighting about. But then, as if reading my mind and wanting to crush all resistance, Melissa upped the amps of her megawatt smile. “We’ll make sure no one tells on you.”
#denise milani