Patricia's Gauntlet

By the time the third pot of coffee had made it's way around the fourth floor Marketing offices of Ledtech Medical Software Inc., the four women inhabiting the crowded work space were finally focused enough to get on with the day's work. The fact that each of them had just endured the same soggy and cold early November morning commute didn't help their collective moods in the least.

"At least we're all here on time," Patricia Kinney proudly chirped between sips of her Maxwell House. "Our department has the best attendance and performance marks in the whole Memphis branch."

"Yeah...so what," the youngest and easily most boisterous of the group, Tamara Rizzoti, interrupted.

"It won't get us a better room while we're down in Tampa at the Conference next weekend will it?" the 24 year old full blooded Italian spitfire added.

"They'll probably give our department a nice plaque at next year's company picnic or something," Patricia cracked in return, admiring Tamara's energy and full bore take on things. "Research and Development gets all the Conference perks and the best setups down there."

"Yep...they're the ones with multiple degrees...and its their ideas we're selling...we're pretty much replaceable," Sarah Miller, the de facto Mother figure of the group, subtly interjected.

Sarah had given up her career 19 years earlier after getting married and having twins, but with both of them off to college, the tuition payments combined with a second mortgage, she had decided to dive back into the professional world. Having been a mother figure and family caretaker for that long however, it humored the other three women in the office just how doting and active Sarah tried to be in their lives.

The fourth member of the group, the one Patricia had the most respect and admiration for, was a 27 year old single Mother named Renee Bellows. Like Patricia, Renee was the only other girl in the group that had been through a divorce and there was a definite kinship between the two, knowing what it took to pull themselves out of that life altering rut.

One of the traits Patricia was especially envious of Renee was her ability to sit and patiently listen to a conversation, dissect it and then come out of nowhere with a clever quip or sensical statement of clarity to put everything in perspective.

"She should be the one running this place," Patricia often caught herself thinking when the burdens of being the interim manager of the department began to wear her down.

Not that Patricia didn't enjoy the step up on the corporate ladder, and the bump in salary that went with it, the problem was in how fast it had came about. Only 29, she envisioned herself stepping into the limelight by the time she was maybe 35, not cast into it less than three years after she joined the company.

Eight months into the elevated position, after the original manager of the department had been sidelined with his second heart attack, Patricia could clearly see how a person could succumb to the stress that came with the responsibility of the job. Still, the position and all the accolades that went with it was something she had earned and she knew if she could string together a couple more years of quality service, she'd be able to write her ticket anywhere she wanted.

Twice divorced, the first time when she was 20 to her high school sweetheart who had promised her the world only to discover that she wasn't at all crazy about his view of that world and her place in it, and the second to an older man who had, on one hand, been the stabilizing panacea to the first marriage but in the end she felt helpless, bored and unchallenged living as the old fashioned and docile wife that her second husband had expected her to be.

Four years after those second divorce papers were signed and sealed, the subsequent confidence, knowledge, and life enriching enlightenment that came from seeking her own niche in the world had served Patricia well and presented itself as a wonderful model to her friends and co-workers as they struggled to find a foothold in life as well.

"You know who's gonna be down at the Tampa conference too... don't you Pat?" Tamara snidely broke the silence of the room.

"Who?" Patricia looked up from her computer screen.

The two relative veterans of the office, Tamara and Renee, each snickered slightly from their boss' response.

"Will," Tamara smugly insinuated, causing Renee to smile and laugh out loud at her desk.

"Who's Will?" Sarah interjected with baited curiosity.

"Oh...that's right," Tamara salaciously drooled. "You weren't here for the last conference were you Sarah...Our willing and faithful leader over there has a one-man fanclub named Will down at the Charleston office."

All three women's eyes brightened and locked like laser pointers onto Patricia as she shook her head at her desk.

"More like a one man nuisance club," Patricia coughed, clearly wanting to divest herself from the conversation.

"What's he a jerk?" Sarah interrogated.

"Yeah...he's a jerk," Tamara howled. "But he's a fucking God!! Muscles on top of muscles... really short jet black hair...tall.....a face like the boy next door with a strippers body...and...."

"...and what?" Sarah begged to know.

"....and well...he's just got this gleam in his eyes and this tone in his voice that he knows how to use ...it," Tamara giggled, now twirling her fingers through long curly hair as if what she was picturing inside of her mind's eye was starting to turn her on.

"...Oh ...I get it," Sarah replied, staring to blush just a bit as the veiled content of what Tamara was trying to imply sunk in. " And he's got the hots for you Patricia...what's wrong with that?"

"You've been married too long," Patricia laughed. "I've been single again going on almost 5 years...every single guy that I meet thinks he's God's Gift...Will's just another guy who's looking for a notch on his bedpost."

"He could pin me up on his bedpost anytime," Tamara replied with saucy effervescence.

"Then why didn't you go after him Tamara?" Sarah quizzed.

"SHE DID...Guys like Will don't like the easy kill," Renee finally spoke up. "He likes to go after the biggest challenge in the room and if he fails at that then he just works his way down the food chain...when he sees somebody like Tamara here fawning all over him...he knows he can always get her as a last resort...and Miss Bosslady here told Loverboy Will "No Thank You" enough times last trip down to totally drive him insane."

"So Renee...would you do him?" Sarah pointedly asked, the word 'do' sounding slightly unusual coming out of her normally buttoned down and proper mouth.

"Humm...,' Renee replied honestly.

"I don't know...I guess a girl could certainly do worse than Will," Renee continued before staring back at Patricia and breaking into sarcasm. "But I don't steal other women's men!"

Which, in turn, elicited a wry smile and extended middle finger from her boss in the process.

* * * * * *

The flight from Memphis down to Tampa had thankfully been uneventful. Patricia had been lucky enough, in fact, not to have anyone seated to her left or right for the whole trip down, giving her ample room to spread out and read two novels she had been neglecting as well as a chance to study the sketched down notes she had made for the two speeches she was scheduled to present at the conference.

Occasionally during the flight, Patricia would steal a glance at the other passengers flying coach, the company had been too cheap to spring for First Class.

In the process of looking around, Patricia couldn't help but be a little envious of Tamara's energy. Seated across the aisle, one seat up to her right, Patricia watched as Tamara bounced around in her seat, humoring an older business man who had the fortunate luck to be stuck next to Tamara for the whole flight to Tampa.

Not that the gentleman seemed to mind being placed next to a very good looking girl that was easily half his age, but it was clear from the expression on his face, and his inability to get a word in edgewise, that he was just a plaything for Tamara to pass the time with.

After seeing the gold band encircling his finger on the way back from the bathroom earlier, Patricia couldn't help but wonder what the gentleman's wife would think when she smelt the residue from Tamara's perfume when she picked him up at the airport, that would be after he stopped at the Airport concession stand, of course, to pick up a package of aspirin from the surefire headache Tamara was currently giving him.

For all of Tamara's obnoxiousness at times, Patricia did adore her nonstop spunk and inquisitiveness. Often times at the office when Patricia's vigor would be waning , all she had to do was look over at Tamara buzzing around the office like a butterfly on crack to get her own second wind. Patricia just knew the men in Tamara's life must have felt like they had been run over by a steamroller after she had finished with them.

Having been on the big-boned side of healthy her whole life, Patricia was also jealous of Tamara's compact stature. The type of girl that could eat one of everything at the buffet and still lose 5 pounds in the process, Tamara always seemed to have a new man in her life, whether it was because none of them could ever seem to keep up with her or she simply tired of them and constantly needed a new challenge, was still a debate that raged inside of Patricia's head.

Sarah, on the other hand, was the complete opposite of Tamara.

Casting a friendly smile back towards Sarah as she sat in the seat behind Tamara, Patricia could see her 43 year old married coworker was just as amused with the antics going on in front of her as she was.

Rather than jumping from one failed relationship to another, as many of Patricia's cohorts had, she especially admired and was more than a little jealous at how easy things seemed for Sarah. She had met the man of her dreams while she was in college, married him and even though she had a marketing degree when she left the University of Tennessee, she gladly gave up her career for the time being when her doctor informed her she was carrying twin boys.

With her two kids off to college now, Sarah kept that long made promise to herself that when the time was right, she would return back to work. It did gnaw at Patricia, as it would any sane and feeling person, how she could have meandered her way through two failed marriages when someone else clicked immediately with their chosen mate as Sarah had with her husband.

Deep down Patricia knew everything wasn't as rosy as it appeared with Sarah and her homelife, but it was certainly more stable and fulfilling than anything she ever experienced.

"What did you say at the office the other day?" Patricia asked across the aisle. "This trip is the first time you and your husband have been apart for more than one night at a time ...in 20 years?"

"Yep," Sarah half giggled as she flipped through a back issue of Redbook. "Larry's playing golf all weekend anyway...I don't really think he's gonna miss me all that much."

"I don't know...a four iron doesn't keep you that warm at night!" Patricia quipped.

Turning her attention to the third member of her group, Renee, Patricia sensed from day one the curvaceous 27 year old natural blonde was a completely different animal than most women she had ever met.

A model, in fact, while she had been in her early teens, Renee had been born to a pageant Mom and her big claim to fame was being in a series of local tv commercials when she was 14, for a couple of the car dealers in the Memphis area. In many ways however, Renee had fallen into some of the same early relationship traps Patricia had. Getting married her Freshman year of college to her high school sweetheart, after she had found out she was pregnant, Renee was forced to quit school for a while and not long after her Daughter was born, the piece of trash she had married was shacking up with another woman.

Renee's first instinct was to take him back, but she had found a reservoir of courage and perseverance she didn't know she had and filed for divorce, in the end never seeing one red cent from her Ex while she raised her now 9 year old little girl.

Thanks to a lot of help from her family, Renee was able to stay on her feet and when Jeneene, her Daughter, was old enough to start preschool, Renee went back and finished her college degree and started at LedTech about a year after Patricia had.

Even though Renee had maintained her model-like looks facially, the subsequent effects of having a baby had subtly filled out her figure, giving her what one guy so aptly, and crudely, described when he had drunkenly tried to come on to her at a bar one night while she was out with the girls as, "A body built for the bedroom!"

Renee could have had her choice of almost any man in the room but Patricia especially adored Reene's ability to often stay above it all, picking and choosing very carefully the men she would even give the time of day to without being outwardly snobbish, in the least, in the process.

* * * * *

The first two days of the visit to Tampa had been pleasantly uneventful for Patricia and her companions. Having gotten her two main presentations out of the way, Patricia was finally able to let her hair down a little a head out with her three friends for a girls' night on the town.

The four women had hopscotched several of the clubs on Tampa's waterfront and Tamara, Renee and Patricia had all gotten quite buzzed as 11 o'clock approached. Sarah, by the grace of God, wasn't a big drinker and had agreed to be the designated driver for the evening, chauffeuring her comrades around in their rental car, thus saving a ton of money they would have wasted on a cab.

The fifth establishment they had ended up in was thankfully in the lobby of the Marriot where they were staying. After several long days of boring speeches and non stop chitchat, the energy level of three of the four women was steadily beginning to ebb. Tamara naturally was still buzzing around a mile a minute.

Deciding to take an empty booth along the back wall of the club, Renee and Patricia sat down and ordered a drink while Tamara and Sarah disappeared together in search of a restroom.

"Where's Tamara?" Renee asked when Sarah returned to the table without the youngest of the group.

"Oh...I think she's big enough to look after herself...the last I saw of her she was making her way up to the bar...for God knows only what," Sarah deadpanned before taking a seat.

When Patricia looked up through the dimly lit room in search of Tamara, her stomach turned when she saw the one person she really didn't want to see, walking towards their table right beside Tamara.

"Will?," Renee gushed upon seeing the look of trepidation in Patricia's glassy eyes.

"This is the last thing I need to deal with...and we were having such a good time...two whole days without a trace of him...and now this," Patricia mumbled before savagely snuffing out the remnants of one cigarette and lighting another.

"Hi Patricia," Will smiled broadly. "Didn't even know you had made the trip down this time until I bumped into......,"

"Tamara," Tamara filled in the blank for the slightly inebriated man she had ferreted over to the table.

"Yeah...when I bumped into Tamara over by the bar...I thought I'd just come over and see you," Will beamed between sips of his draft beer.

"Thanks a lot Tamara," Patricia internally burned.

"Well 'Hi' to you too Will," Patricia curtly replied, wanting to leave the conversation right there.

"I put a request in with the DJ a few seconds ago...he's gonna play a song for me ...I'd love it if you came up and danced with me," Will offered, making searing eye contact with Patricia seated below.

"Oh...I don't know...I'm beat," Patricia replied honestly, quickly declining the offer. "Why don't you go out there with him Tamara...you've got all the energy tonight...and besides Will...she's the best dancer of all of us... by far."

Before Will could even object, Tamara eagerly dug her fingernails into his wrist and briskly tugged him out onto the dance floor.

"Phew...that was creative," Sarah laughed. "I really don't see why your so quick to turn him down though Patricia...he is pretty good looking...and he seems pretty damn determined too."

"And just look at how good he moves out there on the dance floor Patricia," Renee added, continuing with the teasing Sarah had started.

When Tamara stayed out on the dance floor for a second go around with Will, Patricia was sure she had finally gotten him off her back.

It was too good to be true however.

When the couple finally returned to the booth, both Will and Tamara were covered in a glaze of sweat from the humid surroundings.

Giving Tamara a soft peck on the cheek as if to say "Thanks for the dance...now get lost", Will sneaked into the open seat beside Patricia and got close enough so that only she could hear his voice over the roar of the club's sound system.

"So...are you ready to dance now?" Will anxiously demanded.

"What...you mean she's not enough for ya," Patricia shock her head in amazement.

"Tamara...she seems like quite a handful ...Hell...all of you girls seem like quite a handful...but its you I want Patricia," Will cockily whispered.

Having Will that close to her for the first time, Patricia felt guilty, to the point of almost being sick, that a tingling and lasting jolt of arousal had slithered up her spine.

"I don't think you could handle Tamara," Patricia sniped back with as much bravado as she could muster. "I bet you can't handle your women any better than you can handle your alcohol!"

Will lazily swiveled his head to the side as if he was sizing up Tamara and then cast his confident gaze back to Patricia's waiting eyes.

"I could have her anytime...and ...anyway...that I wanted," he soberly surmised.

Flushed, Patricia was at a loss as Renee, Sarah and Tamara looked on from across the table, wondering what the private conversation between Will and their boss was all about.

"So...Patricia...are we going to get together on this trip or not?" Will asked with brazen nonchalance.

Several moments of anguished tension dragged out for Patricia, hating like Hell the helpless feeling that had overtaken her. If it would have been up to the 90% of her body from the neck down, she would have taken another sip of her drink for courage and asked Will how soon they could get up to his room.

Even as her libido stewed, Patricia was able to maintain her bearings until she came up with another way to take the power back from unrelenting stud seducing her.

Leaning over, Patricia cupped her hand to Will's ear and felt his body rumble with unease beside her when she made her spontaneous and truly not well thought out counteroffer.

* * * * *

Thirty minutes later, all four women had retreated upstairs to the room Patricia and Tamara were sharing for a light nightcap before everyone went to get some sleep for the early flight home the next morning.

The only one sober enough to notice such things, Sarah, could tell that something was suddenly troubling Patricia on the ride up the elevator and subsequent few minutes back in the hotel suite. She just assumed the ordeal Patricia had been put through with Will down at the bar was still weighing on her, not to mention the exhaustion two long days of work and one long night of drinking had taken.

Still, there was something about the far away and distant look in her boss' dark brown eyes, and the way she kept blankly staring at Tamara as if she had something to say to the young girl but just couldn't find the right words and or moment to do it.

* * * * *

Will was extremely lucky he was alone in the elevator for the entire ride up to the floor where the women had their rooms. If someone else had been there to share the ride, they most certainly would have called security first chance they got to report a tall and rather well built gentleman continually talking gibberish to himself as he took the ride to the 8th floor.