We all knew Janet Shaw.
She was the wife of our boss, and was hard to miss. Even if she didn't drop by the office all that often.
Janet Shaw was tall, elegant, exotic, smart, funny, and very, very beautiful. Sexy, too. Her parents were from China, so she had those dark almond eyes, that soft pale skin, that long fine black hair. Growing up on an Ohio diet, she was large and healthy.
An odd fit for Andrew Shaw, a short fireplug of a man. He shaved his head and wore glasses and a thick blond vandyke beard. He usually wore gray three-piece suits at the office.
I was just a tall skinny kid intern. With less expensive glasses. And a much more scruffy beard. (This was a long time ago.)
"Tell Andrew I'm here, please, and that I'll be ready to go in ten minutes," Janet said as she swept into the office. We knew that the Shaws were going to a black tie party that evening. Andrew had been putting on more bits of his tuxedo outfit all afternoon.
Slow motion changing clothes.
Nevertheless we were all stunned at how great Janet looked - she was breathtaking. She was wearing an asymmetric crimson silk gown, low cut in the front and backless. Her hair was swept into great loops and falls using a series of clips that I still don't understand. And she wore knee-high black leather boots with four-inch heels.
I noted to myself that with those heels she'd be taller than him. I also noticed that she wasn't wearing lipstick, although her eyes had lots of make-up. I didn't have time to think that through before I went down a rabbit hole.
"Is Peter here?" she asked. Then she spotted me. "Ah. Come along, Peter." And she strode to the back of the office and into the file room.