I really can't talk about the specifics of my last job. I can tell you that my supervisor was a prick. He was egotistical, selfish, and always looking for a way to win over his superiors. For the sake of this story, we will call him "Bob". He was one of those shorter than average guys who thrust his weight and chest around like he owned a place. It became apparent after working with him for nearly ten years that he ran his home the way he did work.
His wife, Heather, was a loving and devoted woman who took as much of his verbal nonsense as she could. Through it all, she smiled and did the duty of a loving wife. Everyone in the office thought she had the patience of a saint. I had seen her from afar quite a bit but I never got within a few feet of her. That changed one Wednesday afternoon as I was summoned into Bob's office after I had misplaced a file. A file he found on his desk under the mound of paperwork that he had not filed yet with his boss. As I pointed this out to him, he rose his voice about me challenging him. Anyway, about three minutes into his rant, Heather comes in to have lunch with him. She had brought him a home made meal, so that they could talk about something that was on her mind or some problems between the two of them. The moment that she came into his line of sight, he grew silent and bore into her with eyes possessing intense anger.
She nearly stopped in her tracks. Her head lowered and she came into the office, slowly and almost afraid of what he was going to do. I wondered if he was abusive. The bastard.
That was when I finally got to see her up close. Heather was a little taller than me, long blonde hair that went down to the middle of her back. I would discover she was a year older than me and had been both a model for Liz Claiborne and an extra in several off-Broadway musicals before she met and married Bob. She reminded a lot of Cindy Crawford, body wise but her face was a cross between Kathy Ireland and Jewel Staite. She wore a gorgeous sun dress that covered her slender legs and hid some, but not all of her womanly frame.
She looked at me quite curiously as if to say something, but she remained silent. All three of us were either angry or frightened. I assume that a lot of different messages were being sent out. Turns out I was right. I left them to talk and he closed the door behind me.
I thought I was done with my work day but got picked to stay late. It was becoming something of a habit, staying late with the boss.
This pattern continued for three more work days and I was able to leave work on time that following Tuesday. I snuck out in hopes that I would avoid Bob. I was successful. I opened my door, took off my damned jacket and threw off my fucking heels. I gritted my teeth and growled, glad to be home and free of him. I had found out that I would be assigned to a group going to the Katrina-devastated regions for an audit. Yay me, right?
I reached into the fridge and pulled out my wine bottle. No glass. Straight from the bottle. It had been one of those days. I began unbuttoning my blouse when there was a persistent knocking at my door. I was surprised to see Heather at my door. I wondered how she had discovered where I lived. Turns out that Bob took his work home with him every night and left employee files out in his home office. That would come back to bite him in the ass very soon, by the way.
She apologized but she needed someone to talk to. While I had this gorgeous woman at my door, I was annoyed that I had not even unwound from work and now work was at my doorstep again. I invited her in and sat her down. I asked her if she wanted something to drink and she refused.
Turns out that Bob had been spending increasing amounts of time "at the office" recently. Heather was becoming suspicious and had driven past our place of work several times before hiring a private investigator. A few photos had incriminated me as his mistress and when she saw me in the office that day, she wondered even more about me. Our silence as she entered did not hold well either. The private investigator had apparently been focusing on me for a few days and reported his findings to Heather. I was in the clear.
Because I was a senior official, she figured I might know more about what was going on. I told her that I was sorry but I couldn't help her. I knew nothing about any affair.
She began to cry and I wiped the tears now streaming down her cheek and held her hair back from her face. God, she was beautiful. And Bob was an asshole for hurting this wonderful creature. I tried to comfort her as best I could, reaching for a nearby box of Kleenex. She looked at me and asked me if that offer for the drink was still good. Of course it was, I told her.
We spent the next two hours talking about life. I told her about my divorce and the affair that led me to it. She seemed amazed that I could have turned away from a marriage of 20 years and start from scratch. I told her that I had no choice. It was toxic and draining me. As I talked more about how I discovered myself and how much I came to look at that dark time of an abusive marriage as a growing period, she seemed to warm up more to me.
I discovered she wasn't just a beautiful looking woman, she was lovely on the inside as well. She had a laugh that could make even Ebenezer Scrooge become lighthearted. The way her eyes lit up in moments of suspense or fun was amazing. I sat there looking at a woman who was not very different from where I was eight years earlier. Luckily, I had John. She had no one to turn to. Not yet anyway.