Part 2: Denise's Story
Copyright 2009, All Rights Reserved
Author's note:
I was overwhelmed by all the kind words shared in feedback. Though, I hadn't planned to do it, I offer this story as a result of "popular demand". I do enjoy a good sex story as much as this next guy, but this isn't it. Those looking for sex...or revenge, for that matter...won't likely enjoy this story.
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Hello. My name is Denise as I'm sure you already know. Mark is....was?....my husband. He was my world from the day we met. Let me tell you a little about me and about how this mess came to be.
I guess I should first describe myself to you. I am 5'10" and weigh 148. I have dark blonde hair and green eyes. My breasts are 36B, which I guess is not noteworthy one way or the other, though I'm certainly satisfied with them. My legs seem to get the most attention, particularly from those that are fans of legs.
One of the things that I have taken the time to learn to do is to walk well in heels. I know a lot of ladies think they can walk in heels, but very few look truly comfortable and confident doing so. It truly presents a markedly different picture of oneself, in my opinion, but I digress.
I have always been confident, but not arrogant, and have been fortunate enough to not get tangled up in some of the more shallow and petty issues that are so prevalent, particularly with younger people. I'm smart and reasonably articulate, but also down-to-earth, and approachable. I think most men that have a reasonable level of confidence would feel comfortable approaching me and having a conversation and would enjoy it.
Obviously, being tall and attractive, there are many that would assume I'm "out of their league" and choose not to approach me. On one hand, that doesn't bother me, since I don't seem to have any problem making friends and finding interested and willing men to date. On the other, I wish it were not so because I don't like to think of myself as shallow and it would disappoint me to know that someone else might without giving themselves a chance to know otherwise.
I never really knew my biological dad...or "sperm donor" as my brother, Jeff, and I like to refer to him. We grew up on the outer edges of Tucson. My mom went through a series of husbands, none of which were remotely close to filling the role of a father to Jeff and me.
You may get the wrong impression about my mom. She had a very hard time holding a relationship together, but she was and is my absolute best friend. She is one of the smartest and most articulate ladies I've known. I love having a discussion over a cup of coffee with her. Unfortunately, she has never had a lot of ambition in terms of her career or the standards she sets for herself in men.
I had a normal social life in school. I wasn't one of the "popular crowd" in high school, but probably could have been if that kind of thing interested me. I think I was lucky to have been "mature" enough at that time that I allowed myself to be young and felt that boys and relationships could wait until later. I wasn't Uninterested in them. They just weren't my priority. I had what seemed to be a normal amount of interest from boys, though my friends told me that I had more than my share.
Like many teenage girls, I lost my virginity to a boy who was a year ahead of me in school and had neither the knowledge nor interest in making the experience pleasurable for me. I finally started to understand that boys were particularly interested in me my last year or so of high school. Being pretty tall, I guess I stood out, and maybe the boys started to have a chance to catch up to my height by that time.
Though, I didn't and still don't consider myself "high maintenance", I did take the time to dress nicely as well as wear a flattering hair style and use cosmetics in a tasteful manner. All in all, I guess you'd say that I didn't have the easiest childhood, but there were many that had it worse. I'd rank myself highly in terms of how I looked, intelligence, and self-confidence if I can say so without seeming arrogant.
I attended college at the University of Arizona (who could have seen that one coming), majoring in Spanish and doing reasonably well with grades, though not well enough to graduate with honors. I graduated in the requisite 4 years without any real idea what I wanted to be when I grew up.
Though I dated and had a couple of long term relationships, no guy came along that was a priority for me. Thankfully, I found that sex was, in fact, a pleasurable experience since a couple of my boyfriends were considerate lovers.
You may have noticed I use the term pleasurable rather than comparing it to fireworks or anything of the like. I definitely enjoyed it and wanted it to be part of my dating relationships...and even wanted it in general, but still hadn't met anyone with whom I really felt the "fireworks" type of chemistry.
It was frustrating not to know what I wanted to do for a career. So many others seemed to have everything all neatly planned out, but I just couldn't settle on what would interest me on a daily basis. I took pride in my appearance and was definitely good with people. I felt like I was reasonably smart, but didn't feel like I had any particular talent or interest.
A couple of my girlfriends, Laura and Maggie, and I decided to take a trip to a city which we had never visited before after graduation to celebrate. Maggie wanted to go to San Francisco, Laura wanted to go to Chicago, and I couldn't decide. Both cities had great museums, great food, and of course, great night life. In the end, we decided on San Francisco, since we figured there was more of a chance any or all of us could visit Chicago sometime in the future.
We had a great time planning our trip and researching flights and all the things that go with taking a vacation with friends. Time seemed to pass so slowly those last few weeks of school, but eventually we graduated and the time for our trip arrived!
I hadn't been on a plane in so long that I remembered very little about the experience. I find that interesting now because I had the time of my life...and all before we landed in San Francisco. Maybe I'm like a little kid, but that simple flight was great fun for me and the crew on the aircraft was so nice and so professional that I was inspired.
So much so that now I knew what I wanted to do for a career! We had a wonderful time in San Francisco, but I wasn't able to enjoy it as fully as I would have liked because I was anxious to find out how I could apply for a flight attendant position as soon as I got back.
I know it probably seems silly for those with high powered careers, particularly if you have to travel for your job and look at it as a chore, but different strokes as they say.
I unpacked when we got back and threw my dirty laundry in the general direction of the washing machine, then immediately got online and started to find the web site of each airline that I could think of and started to apply. As it happens, having a college degree, while not making me an "automatic" certainly made me very competitive.
Being fluent in Spanish also gave me an edge. Between those two, my application got the attention of the flight attendant recruiters at three of the airlines which I applied and I had a phone interview with each of them!
The first occurred within a couple of days of applying and the next two were scheduled the following week. I'm sure glad it turned out that way because I was completely unprepared for the first interview. I had confidence in myself and was just convinced that I would do a great job if they just gave me the chance and told the interviewer as much.
It's an interesting thing, though. Can you believe that every other person they interviewed felt the very same way and told him something very similar? I guess my looks wouldn't help me any in a phone interview. Yes....I was now very much aware that I could use my looks to my advantage if I chose to do so. I never made a point to do it, but if that helped me and all other things were reasonably equal, who was I to complain?
Armed with my newly and painfully acquired interview experience as well as the memory of questions I thought the other recruiters were likely to ask, I started doing "homework". I now knew that most of my interview questions were likely to start with, "Tell me about a time when...., or "Give me an example of....," so I was in fairly good shape to prepare and didn't take anything for granted.
After a number of hours practice, I felt like I was in better shape for the next two phone interviews. Apparently, I was right because I did very well on both! I was invited in for in-person interviews with both airlines.
As you have likely concluded, I did get at least one offer. Actually, I got two and chose the one that seemed to allow me to interact with Spanish speaking passengers a little more often, thus giving me the feeling that my years in college were worthwhile and my degree was being used. Everything is seniority-based with airlines, so those of us from the most recent training class got our choice of those bases that others had left for more desirable locations.