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Gina Giordano sighed as she looked down from the tenth-floor offices of Casella and North Investments, watching as piles of snow continued to rise on the streets of lower Manhattan. The storm had already deposited nearly a half foot on the ground, and according to the last weather report, they'd see over two feet by midnight -- not a very promising prospect. In fact, the only good thing that was being said about the Blizzard of '78 was that, since it was a Friday, the city had the whole weekend to dig out before the start of a new work week.
Which mattered little to Gina, because her current work week still had almost another hour to go. Lacking seniority, the twenty-three year old brunette hadn't been included among those allowed to go home early, and to make matters worse the storm was moving faster than originally predicted so all bus service was going to be suspended earlier than planned. A fact that didn't seem to impress Joan Hendricks, the office manager who, among her other responsibilities, supervised the girls in the secretarial pool. In fact, Gina was half certain that the thirty-one year old buxom redhead enjoyed telling her the bad news.
When she had first gotten the job six months earlier, Gina had been living with her boyfriend in a really great studio apartment in SoHo. A twenty-eight year old lawyer who worked in his father's uptown firm, David De Luca had been everything a woman could want in a man, intelligent, good-looking, financially secure, and even great in bed. And as far as he was concerned, Gina was pretty much all he wanted as well. Five foot five and a trim hundred and fourteen pounds, she had a firm, rounded bust that perfectly matched her frame, complementing a figure that even the simple blouses and skirts she wore to work -- today's were white and grey -- couldn't hide, not that she ever tried to do so. While not as educated as most of the girls he dated, she more than made up for it with an exuberant lust for life that he found refreshing, especially in the bedroom.
After almost a year together, Gina had been sure that a marriage proposal would soon be forthcoming. It wasn't that she was in a hurry to settle down, but having a ring on her finger would be a major step up from being a girlfriend and she would settle for that. In fact, with their one-year anniversary coinciding with his grandmother's seventy-fifth birthday party, Gina believed David would use the gathering to pop the question in front of his friends and family.
It was at that party, however, that Gina, having had a bit too much to drink, inadvertently offended Regina De Luca by expressing a few opinions on a wife's role that ran contrary to the conservative matriarch 's core beliefs. Views which, in her opinion, casted serious doubt on her suitability as a granddaughter in law.
At first, Gina wasn't really concerned about Regina De Luca's disapproval. After all, who was David going to listen to, an old woman who still looked at the world as if it was the nineteen thirties, or the babe sharing his bed who was fucking his brains out every night? In fact, it was only last night that, in anticipation of her imminent betrothal, she made one of his most cherished fantasies come true by letting him fuck her in the ass. There was no way he was going to give her up, or at least so she believed.
But Gina had seriously underestimated how much sway the elder Mrs. De Luca had over David, especially since the old lady still controlled much of La Familia De Luca's inherited wealth and had already disinherited one grandson after he'd exhibited what she considered an unnatural interest in other young men. Not only would there turn out to be no proposal, but in less than a week Gina found herself back in her parents' home out in the far end of Queens. A move that traded a two-stop commute with one that was not only an hour longer, but also required transferring to a city bus for the last third of it -- a fact now uppermost in her mind, as it was doubtful that she would make it to the transfer point before the buses stopped running.
Not being able to afford Manhattan rents, many of the employees still at the office also lived in the outer boroughs, which put a number of them in the same quandary as Gina. The big difference, however, was that they had been here before and knew how to make the best of it.
They'd already made plans for an impromptu Snow Bash at Clancy's Bar just down the street, said party starting a half hour after the close of business. Afterwards, they would all fall back to their various offices, where sleeping arrangements, and possible companionships thereof, might be worked out.
Gina had been invited to the Bash by several of her male co-workers, and even one of the other secretaries, but had declined all of their invitations. She'd been to a few of the regular Friday afternoon libations, and almost without fail they had ended with some tipsy idiot trying to talk his way into her pants. Not that she had a problem with guys trying to get her in bed, but lately it always seemed to be the wrong guys.
No, a better use of her time, she decided, was to stake out a claim on one of the couches in the employee break room. Twice, while working late, she'd had occasion to try and nap in an office chair, and knew that they were near impossible to get comfortable in. Not that the couch was much better, but at least she could stretch out.
As she turned away from the window, a flash of inspiration suddenly came to her. Early last month, Gina had run into David at a birthday party for a mutual friend. It had been the first time they'd seen each other since the engagement that wasn't, but much to their mutual surprise it turned out not to be as awkward as one might have expected. In fact, if nothing else, it proved that the sexual spark between them was still there and they'd wound up back at David's apartment.
Even as they stripped for bed, Gina hadn't been under any illusion that their coming romp was going to lead to any sort of reconciliation. Still, she was willing to take it for what it was, a chance for a more satisfying orgasm than she was getting from the battery powered toy hidden in her night table. Not only had it not proven up to the job of late, she could only use it after her parents had gone to bed, and then only very quietly -- which sort of defeated the point.
Stepping over to the desk she'd been working from, Gina dialed David's number from memory. It rang almost a half dozen times and she was about to give up when an unfamiliar voice abruptly replaced the ring tone. To her dismay, it was the voice of another woman.
"Hello?" the voice, which sounded vaguely familiar. said, the salutation more a question than a greeting.
"Is David there?" Gina asked hesitantly, foregoing any pleasantries as she hoped she might have simply dialed the number wrong.
"Sure, hang on a moment," the still unidentified woman said, her voice dimming as she lowered the receiver and said, "David honey, it's for you."
As a more recognizable voice came on the line, any hope that she had misdialed faded, as did the thought that she might have found more comfortable accommodations for the evening. Their conversation was cordial but brief, and left no doubt that not only was this not a good time to call, but it was highly doubtful that the future would hold a better one. Gina lied and simply said she was just calling to say hi, and wished him luck.
Holding the phone in her hand, Gina suddenly remembered where she had heard the woman's voice before. It belonged to the new receptionist at Dawson, Davis and De Luca, a bleached blonde who had been sniffing around David almost from the day she was hired.
Gina had never thought of herself as an intellectual, but Brenda Bailey prided herself on never reading beyond the entertainment or gossip sections, and the next opinion she expressed on anything of import would be her first. She was, therefore, exactly the sort of wife material that Mama De Luca would undoubtedly approve of.
