A tale of sex, vengeance, and much more sex told in four parts. I would like to thank a friendly cowboy for giving me the idea for this story. I hope he finds the reading as enjoyable as I did the writing. I would also like to thank Bella Mariposa for donating her valuable time to edit the piece, and highlighting some of my more idiotic typos and grammatical errors.
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MONDAY
Felicia's green eyes stared dispassionately back at Leosha, betraying none of the seething hatred she had for her stepmother. Leosha stared back at her stepdaughter with equally hidden contempt. It was another of their 'Shakespearean' conflicts, one of at least a hundred that have played out between the two ever since Leosha married Felicia's father, well over fifteen years ago.
Seeing that look now on her stepdaughter's face, Leosha knew this was all wasted effort on her part. Felicia would never see clear to grant her a favor, no matter how insignificant. Yet, she had to at least try for her friend, Monica.
Leosha decided to try logic first, "Look, I know from Stephen that your receptionist is going on temporary maternity leave and that you're going to need someone to answer the phones. Monica needs this job. Just for a little while until she gets back on her feet. It's win-win for everybody. You need someone to man the phones, and she needs a job. She knows it'd be temporary, and that's okay with her. She won't expect any special privileges either, no time off, or retirement set-asides, or crap like that. Just give her the job, that's all I ask. Please, Felicia, I don't ask much and I don't ask often."
"No," was Felicia's curt reply. So much for logicβas if there were any other options between the two women.
"Why not?" Leosha exploded, "Why in the hell can't you just give her this job? Shit, she can answer the damn phones as good as anyone. You don't have to be a brain surgeon to do that..."
"You know why," Felicia answered dryly, cutting her stepmother off in mid-diatribe, "And swearing at me's not going to make your case any better."
"It's the wedding thing still, isn't it? You're going to have to get over that eventually, baby doll."
"Don't call me that, I'm not your baby. And no, it's not just the 'wedding thing,' as you put it. It's for a lot of stuff you did to me over the years. But let's say it is. Let's just say I'm still mortally embarrassed by what you and Monica did. Why should I help either of you after you both showed up at my wedding acting like a couple of Babylonian harlots, wearing those trashy dresses cut down to your navels and almost exposing your...," she couldn't quite bring herself to say the words, and so started on another track, "...Plus, they were white."
"They were off-white," Leosha corrected her.
"They were still white!" Felicia yelled back, "Only the bride's supposed to wear white. You wore those dresses in front of my family and friends, in front of my pastor, my congregation, even the choir; all done just to embarrass me. All the men were ogling you, all the women talked behind my back about my white trash stepmother and her white trash friend..."
As what usually happened when these conversations go on for too long, both women were no longer listening to the other.
Felicia continued to speak, "...I don't trust either of you as far as I can spit, and I certainly don't trust her to work for me..."
"Baby doll," Leosha started to say while purposefully ignoring Felicia, "That was five years ago. Let it go, already. What do you care what a bunch of stuck up 'holy rollers' say about..."
"Because they're my friends..."
"Monica and me are real sorry for that. Truly we are. Both of us wish we could take it all back. We've told you we're sorry a whole bunch of times, if you'd cared to listen. You've got to quite carrying this grudge around..."
"Don't tell me what I can do..."
"This grudge thing is going to eat you up inside. Besides, it's not very Christian of you..."
"Don't you dare use that against me. For all the things you've done to me over the years I think I've been more than Christian toward..."
Leosha heard the venom in her voice and saw the fire in her eyes, and knew she had stepped over the line with her stepdaughter. She held up her hands as a gesture of appeasement before apologizing, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said that," when she saw that Felicia was beginning to settle down, Leosha tried one last bluff, "Okay, if this is the way you want it. Be a stick in the mud for all I care. I'll just go ask Stephen. It's his company. He'll give Monica the job if I ask him."
For the first time that day Felicia laughed, and said, "You and me both know that you wouldn't be here if daddy was going to give her the job. Daddy has many talents, but running the day-to-day operations of his business isn't one of them. He leaves that to me, because he knows I do a good job. So go ahead and ask him if you haven't already, but he's just going to tell you to go talk to me about who I should hire."
Leosha was about to counter, but Felicia got the pre-arranged phone call from her receptionist, so she waited...And waited. Felicia saw the bile rising in her stepmother as she continued to blab into an empty phone. Finally, Felicia put her hand over the mouth piece after she thought Leosha had waited enough, and said to stepmother, "I have to take this."
Before Leosha could protest, Felicia wheeled around turning her back to her stepmother.
It was a rude dismissal. Leosha had guessed that the phone call was a fake, but she had bit her tongue just in the off hand chance she could continue to plead Monica's case. However, Felicia's curt dismissal while turning her back to her was adding insult to perceived injury. Leosha felt impotent. Nothing she could do or say now would change Felicia's mind, and that's what pissed off Leosha the most about the situation. Felicia was good at her job. She knew it, her husband Stephen knew it, and Felicia knew it herself. Her snotty, goody two-shoes stepdaughter held all the cards.
Out of frustration, Leosha slammed her hand down on Felicia's desk, making a water glass and various desk accessories clink. The slap also made Felicia flinch, but she still kept her back to her stepmother talking into a dead phone.
Leosha leaned over the desk, and with slow, venomous deliberation said, "You're such a bitch!" before storming out and slamming the office door after her.
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Monica, the object of Felicia and Leosha's heated conversation, sat in Leosha's car in the parking lot. Like Leosha, Monica knew it was a futile gesture to ask a favor of Felicia, but loved her all the same for trying. When she saw Leosha coming out of the building and saw the look on her face, Monica knew things didn't go very well.