Southern Nights 09. – Perfect Satisfaction.
Jim Mallory again! No deep screw this time either, but enough to embarrass everybody, or at least those of them who understood the situation well enough to now they
should
be embarrassed. Mary included. Still; in spite of all his physical and mental imperfections Mary kind of liked him - after all. He was clumsy, true enough, sometimes terribly clumsy, but generally good-tempered and even quite hard-working. Completely different from Eric. And naturally her boss was too preoccupied with his own appearance to recognize the fact that they were most likely loosing grip of the situation right now.
Mary knew that the right thing would have been to ask her to hold the presentation. Or rather – ask her to revise the whole basis for the study, using an entirely different statistical method.
She had problems concentrating – almost as usual these days – even though she new she had to keep her focus well enough to avoid further stab-in-the-back attempts from Eric.
Even now it was all because of a woman. But at least not some docile teen-ager as before. This time it was her good old friend in need Angela. And Mary had good reason to have problems with her focus. She still couldn't believe what she had done. Telling her friend in almost plain words what she'd been up to on her latest vacation in Alvarez! Well, not exactly telling – hardly even hinting – but still crossing a line she knew would bring her good friend straight on the track. Angela wasn't stupid. No friggin' way. Then she wouldn't make it as far as she had done up the corporate ladder of Wiley & Brooks. Just in some five years or whatever it was. Sure she could be a despondent ass-licker to get on upwards, but she possessed the blessed ability to do it in a way that presented her as a solicitous Madonna to the people she just walked over. Heaven knows how many times she had envied her that quality. Why couldn't she succeed in getting around Eric that way? Now the situation was rather that she would be torn along if he for any of several good reasons should tumble off the chair he clung on to.
Anyway, tonight she would see Angela in Chester Lodge, a hotel bar close to the restaurant where she had her first serious talk with Linda. There she knew she would be interrogated from head to toe. Angela had had like five million questions on her phone already, all indicating that she was more than passionate about her hunch. Still Mary didn't want to reveal much more than her initial hints. First of all she quite enjoyed keeping Angela a bit in the dark. Secondly – and much more important – it was still quite embarrassing to talk about this, no matter how much intimacies they had shared in the past. All those things had been about men, and quite ordinary things about men. And they were close enough to admit any kind of sexual arousal without the faintest touch of embarrassment when it came to that. No problem at all. But attraction to women – not to mention much younger women - that was an entirely different ballgame, and something they had
never
vented in their heated discussions on various sexual adventures. Angela's persistent pursue of more details about her latest off-time endeavours had caught her a bit off-guard, and she felt a certain need to kind of disarm the whole situation once they sat down to talk it over. Maybe she would be left totally embarrassed, and with one close friend less in her life?
Still, her gut feeling told her that Angela's interest was genuine - even passionate - in a way that sent a million inconspicuous signals about her immense curiosity about these kinds of lady-girl encounters. Consequently Mary found herself in a situation where she would have to keep a delicate balance between safeguarding her own dignity and satisfying her curiosity about Angela's real desires in that area. How wonderful it would be if she could come out as a friend in need even there! Someone to share even these kinds of very secret passions with. Not that she actually felt the need to share it with anybody at all – she was perfectly happy with the way things were at the moment – but still there was this need to just talk to
someone
about all the wonderful things that had happened in her life the last few weeks. It was a frustrating thing to feel so good and so cherished, and not being able to tell everybody about her happiness! So, Angela would have to be her 'someone', at least if she would prove broad-minded enough to handle it.
Broad-minded or not; she was late, as usual. As she finally came rushing in the door, Mary had been there for almost half an hour, already downing two stiff drinks as she waited nervously, thinking back and forth about how to put things the right way. She wasn't angry at all. Actually she felt she needed the extra time for some additional thinking. And she knew anyway that Angela always ran late, no matter what agreements they made. That was just an integrated part of her. And another thing that constantly kept her wondering how on earth she managed to get so easily ahead in her career.
Angela slumped down opposite to her with a flushed face and slightly untidy hair, breathing heavily from what looked like at least a one-block run. Still, her beauty was undisputable even in this state. The woman was a ravishing blonde; tall, exceptionally sexy, with heaven-blue eyes under unusually long and languorous lashes. She was married the second time, and as far as Mary knew it worked quite well this time. At least so far. Her husband had made it quite big in real estate development, and the partnership shares from his ventures were worth enough to ensure them a good and wealthy life whenever he should choose to retire.