Barry encounters Gloria at a welcome party
I was weary with trailing after RoseAnn while she shopped for a new dress for the evening's party. But she chose an attractive number that ended well above her knees and showed cleavage in front and shoulder blades in back. She called it the 'all-purpose little black dress'.
"They say every woman is supposed to have one of these when she needs to look sexy."
Back at the apartment, I made coffee and set out two cups while she changed into the dress, plus black nylons and three-inch heels. When she twirled in front of me, she literally took my breath away.
I blinked to break the spell, and made a wolf whistle. "You are so gorgeous, and so wonderfully tall!"
"You like me tall, don't you?" She smiled for me.
"Absolutely. You look terrific. But why are you dressing so sexy for an office party? I thought you said you want your co-workers to take you seriously,"
"My boss has the hots for me. It's useful to tease him a little."
"Is he someone I should worry about?"
She barked a laugh. "Not really. He's married with kids. I'm only his fantasy. If I made his dreams come true, I'd be gone in a month. Someone would let it slip to his wife, and he'd have to fire me."
"Hm-m. I see why you don't want me at the party. Messing with his fantasy could be risky."
She looked down at her coffee and nodded. "It's a tightrope between fostering his imagination and being able to work with my co-workers. Naturally, they think I only got the job because of my influence on the boss. The worst thing is, they're probably right. I'd like to be known for my work as an engineer. It's more gratifying and less risky than being an office wife."
I made us an easy supper of salad topped with cold shrimp, with cottage cheese on the side. I wasn't accustomed to rabbit-food diets. Perhaps there'd be food at the party. I washed the dishes while RoseAnn watched television. Afterward, I dressed for my own party. I hoped that a clean new shirt, tan slacks, and my all-black New Balance walkers would be right for this group. I'd take a tie and jacket in the car just in case.
* * *
At eight o'clock, we left in separate cars. I drove to a street full of ageing fraternity houses. It wasn't easy to find where the biochemistry party was being held. The street was choked with cars. Most of the houses had parties going as fraternity brothers and sorority sisters moved back in for the new academic year. The right house, when I found it, had its own group of people on the front porch talking and sipping beer from plastic cups.
Inside the door, a gray-haired woman sat at a table with a list and three boxes of name badges. She checked off my name and gave me a blank red badge and a marker pen. "Red badges for freshman and transfers," she said, "so people will know who the new folks are."
I wrote 'Barry' on the badge and pinned it to my shirt. As soon as I turned toward the room, I saw that a hierarchy had formed already. A cluster of red badges had formed in the corner next to the staircase, each one holding a plastic cup of beer or soda and looking hopefully around as if seeking friends, or a convenient place to hide. Knots of people with green badges had formed around a small number of older men and one woman wearing blue badges. I guessed the blue badges were professors.
I wasn't inclined to lose myself in the red badge ghetto. I walked through the house, looking for Gloria, or failing that, Arnie, the only two faces I knew. As I poked my head into a small room lined with books, I came uncomfortably face to face with a slender, almost emaciated man with wispy white hair and wrinkles. I glanced at his blue badge. 'Gruendlich', it read.
He was engaged in a conversation with a handful of green badges and a blue badge, but he turned to me as I approached.
"Dr. Gruendlich," I said, smiling. "I'm pleased to meet you. I met your daughter yesterday at registration. Until then, I didn't know you were at Stanford."
