All fictional, ingredients are in the tags.
Edited: 2022-12-25
Corrected some sentences, the story is the same.
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Anna was dragging her heels when climbing the stairs up to Matilda's apartment. Their Saturday get-togethers started to feel like drudgery to her lately. Every week, she was getting more tired of listening to Matilda's monologue while trying to not to show how she felt.
Anna was in her 30s, working as an HR professional in a local company. Since her handsome husband Tom was away most of the time doing his sales representative work, her life was getting monotonous at home. She wasn't a very social person and it was hard for her to start conversations with other people, it always had been so. She found it entertaining when Matilda invited her for a coffee for the first-time, months ago.
Matilda was a 45-year-old housewife. According to Anna, her life had to be even more dull. Such times together could be good for both of them.
But their Saturday coffee meetings first turned into four-hour shifts. Then this got worse, due to the increasing duration, starting with breakfast, until her husband Martin returned home. Martin owned a car sales / dealership business, who was an arrogant and rude man. Anna didn't want to see him, so she never stayed until his return.
At first, Matilda was mildly gossiping and telling interesting stuff about people living in their building. Then the stories started to become more detailed, mostly about their secrets. She knew everything going on in that building. It took Anna more than a few months to find out how sneaky and dangerous she was.
She was making her companion talk and learn their private stuff during that conversation.
Anna had a good marriage and she was a good wife since they got married. Matilda already knew most of her secrets when Anna finally decided to be careful around her.
She made the other party talk by revealing some of her own intimate secrets. She was talking about her marriage, her relationship with her husband or even their love life. But in time, Anna noticed that these weren't real secrets. She wasn't telling others anything which could make her look bad. She was good at making people talk.
Many times, Anna listened to her about how her husband loved her legs, ankles and feet, how he liked her to be in nylons all the time, that he also loved her boobs and plump ass.
Anna had no doubts about her husband's interest in her. She saw her wardrobe full of various dresses and the cabinet which was reserved only for her slippers. She couldn't count those slippers; flat ones, heeled ones, open toes or fluffy ones. He had to be into her legs and feet, otherwise this could make a man angry.
She was anxious when it occurred to her that she was the only one giving away some secrets, which had to be kept as secrets forever.
The worst one was about her relationship with Tom. In their first year, when they were dating, Anna had an affair. She fell for one of the assistant instructors at the university and she had sex with him for two months. They weren't that serious with Tom at that time but he definitely wouldn't go on if he learned. And she hated that she told her that.
She finally understood that Matilda was talking about her sex life with Martin, just to chat her up. She witnessed her doing this with other women in the building too. This was her way of making others talk, to learn their private lives, their inferior thoughts and most importantly, their personal problems.
On the other hand, she never witnessed her using such information against anyone, except when she argued with them.
A few minutes later, Anna and Matilda were having coffee at Matilda's house.
There was another thing bothering Anna. Matilda never visited Anna, she liked to be the host. Lately, Anna was somehow intimidated by Matilda, she had an insight, telling her to be careful not to contradict with her in any way. They spent so much time together, before she understood that she was someone you wouldn't want any quarrels with.
Anna witnessed that she was quick tempered a few times. In one of those times, Matilda thought that someone was belittling her. Anna was there and she knew that this was all her imagination, nobody disrespected her. But she confronted that woman vilely. Without letting the other one talk, she started shooting like a machine gun with all her sensitive thoughts about her or implying things about the other one's secrets.
That wasn't the only time that she thought Matilda was intimidating.
She had that attitude against women. Women who crossed the line. She never did that to Anna but Anna never did anything disrespectful to her or anyone in the world.
In Matilda's eyes, Anna was a timid, naive woman. This made it harder to communicate with her, because Matilda started to see herself as something like a spiritual leader of Anna. She thought she was her mentor and probably that the stupid naive girl would be lost without her advices or teachings.
Even if she didn't show, Anna was a bright girl and she knew that most of Matilda's logical perception or implications were wrong or shallow. But her aggressive side and her social comfort made Anna even more timid, making Matilda behave even more upfront. It was a vicious cycle.
One day, Anna and Matilda were again having coffee, the doorbell rang.
Matilda looked at Anna and said "Did you call someone here without asking me?"
This was a good example showing what kind of things Anna was enduring to stay calm. She didn't want to confront her but she also couldn't start ignoring or avoiding her to cool this relationship off. Doing that could make her angry. She was stuck with this nonsense.
"Of course not."
"OK, check who disturbed us."
That was new.
Anna first felt uneasy to see that she started to talk to her like she's her housemaid but then she thought that this could also be due to how intimate or comfortable she felt with Anna. She was more than a guest in that house and she was younger than her, so, this wasn't that awkward.
Anna went to the door and opened it to see Sofia.
Sofia was the hot Latina stay-at-home-all-day-when-not-shopping trophy wife of their rich neighbor James. She had an almost perfect body and she was very beautiful. She was in her twenties. Her good-looking playboy husband James had recently gone bankrupt and he was struggling to pay his debts. She dropped university when she nailed the husband and she acted like she owned the universe.
"Hi, Anna. You're practically living here, huh?" while she walked by her smirking.
Anna felt the anger building inside her. She hated her since she first introduced herself to them, ignoring Anna and giggling when talking to Tom. "I have a career, I'm at work all week, I come here once a week, you useless moron!" she thought. She slightly smiled. Her thoughts were distracted with the purse handed to her by Sofia.
"Mattii!" she shouted while going near Matilda to hug her. Matilda was happy to see her and they quickly started to talk and giggle. Sofia sat on Anna's chair. Just when Anna was about to sit on another chair, Matilda raised her hand towards Sofia to pause her and said "Anna, dear, please give some coffee to Sofia too." and turned to Sofia "Sorry, dear, you were saying..."
She was the only working woman among them and those housewives were treating her like she was their maid.
Anna thought about leaving the place but she couldn't. It would be a too inferior behavior. She served Sofia coffee but Sofia only turned her head to look at the coffee, not Anna, to say "Milk please." and turned back to Matilda to continue chatting.
When Anna sat down, they were in the middle of a gossip. She couldn't understand who they were talking about at first.
Sofia was making all kinds of gestures while talking about a woman saying "The janitor saw her too. A guy dropped her late at night. Her schmuck husband was sleeping probably."