My boss throws a Christmas party every year at his house.
When I was a simple intern, learning the ropes under Ms. Woods, I wasn't invited.
Now that I have her job, my boss can't very well exclude me, can he? Even after what we did, or should I say, I did, in his office a few weeks back? Wouldn't it look insane for his secretary not to be there?
The invite came a couple days ago and I immediately RSVP'd. I wasn't going to miss this for the world.
More than anything, I wanted to see what my boss had run off to, what the other woman looked like, acted like, what she was. What she had that I didn't.
I reach out and ring the doorbell as I stand in front of the rather large door on this rather large estate house. When I pulled up just a couple minutes ago, the first words out of my mouth were, "Holy Fucking Shit!"
The door is answered by a butler. I'm wondering how the fuck my boss can afford this place as I hand him my coat and take my purse back from him. I've chosen my red sequined gown for tonight's occasion. I like to think that it's stunning on me. I've yet to get a complaint. Men seem to go crazy about the plunging back and the slit up the side.
I step into what I guess passes for a living room and take in the sight. There have to be at least fifty people here already, with fifty more probably still to come.
And I spot them over by the wine cabinet, shaking hands and smiling and waving to other people. I try to catch my boss's eye but he's too busy with everyone else, gladhanding and what-not.
But it's not so for his wife. She's a blonde, just like me. In fact, she almost looks like me for a half-second and maybe it's just me imaging myself in her place but I don't think so. She turns away from her husband and starts toward me and I see she's not exactly like me. She's pretty as hell, though.
And then she's standing in front of me. "Anna Kellogg," she says. It's not a question.
"Yes?"
"Dan has told me so much about you," she says. "I didn't think I'd be able to pick you out of a crowd like this but, like I said, Dan's told me so much about you, I feel like I know you."
"Good things, I hope," I say and then laugh a little. A man with a tray of champagne comes over and Dan's wife and I take a flute each.
She sips and I follow and then she says, "Mostly. But he told me about something else. And I just can't believe him. So I've come to ask you about it."
My heart is leaping again, just as it was a few weeks back. She's going to ask it, I know she is. And then she does.
"Did you really fuck? The two of you, I mean."
Dan is a bit of a liar, isn't he?
How do I say this? Do I just say, "Well, ma'am, actually, I just blew your husband. Then he ran off and went to dinner with you"? I can't believe that he actually told his wife. What kind of guy is my boss anyway? Shit, I don't even know his wife's name.
So I just go for it. "Actually, what's your name?"
"Cynthia," Dan's wife says. I look at her face as she tells me her name. She's not knitting her brows or scowling or anything. In fact, her face remains passive as she sips on her champagne.
"Actually, Cynthia," I say, "It's a long story."