Last night you couldn’t stop thinking about her, and you went home beating off in your own hand thinking about all the dirty things you want to do to her.
The sandwich was his usual, spicy chicken with cream cheese on a bed of lettuce. He had always loved this sandwich, and the only other one he loved was peanut butter, one of his childish loves that he has never gotten over.
There was a knock on the door, and he looked up to see Frank standing there.
“Hi,” he said. “Can I come in?”
“Yeah, of course. Have a seat. I’d get Nora to get you a coffee, but she’s not here. She’s gone out to lunch.” I don’t know where, or who with, and it pisses me off. She’s supposed to be single.
Rex didn’t like his sudden need to know everything about her.
“I know where Nora is. The question is, do you?” Frank closed the door, and took a seat opposite him.
“She said she had a lunch date that she couldn’t cancel.”
“Has she asked you about a reference lately?”
Rex tensed up recalling her question yesterday. “Yes, and I told her she didn’t need to worry. She loves working here.”
“Actually, she loved working here. Past tense. I had a very interesting conversation with sweet little Nora yesterday. I can tell you for a fact that she is currently sitting down at an interview with a rival firm. Now if it was anyone else, I would be worried, but I know Nora is as loyal as she is hardworking. She would never spill anything about us, and I trust her. Also, I told her that she would never need to worry about a reference, but I want to know from you why one of our fucking team wants to leave when she was so happy.”
Rex was in shock. He had reached out to her yesterday, and he’d not said anything bad. “How can you offer her a reference? She sent me to the wrong places on purpose!”
“If you got your head out of your ass, and stop believing the worst in people, she made a mistake, and like I said before, she made sure that nothing came of her mistake. You landed Peterson. Now answer me. Why does she want to leave when she was happy?”
Rex recalled Nora’s attempt to excuse her behavior. She had held up that damn notebook diary he had made her use. Not to mention the fact there was a new computer delivered to her, and everyone had told him that she had called to double check all other appointments. He hadn’t wanted to hear any of it. Still, he could have been wrong. Maybe. He didn’t know. “I don’t know what the problem is. I really don’t. She was fine yesterday.”
“One day of being nice to her against all of those others, and you think for a second that she wouldn’t want to leave? You’ve been treating her like shit, punishing her when you’re really pissed at me.”
Rex didn’t say anything. When Frank was on a roll, everyone tended to shut the hell up, and listen to what he had to say. Rex had seen him in court, and once he got going, it really wasn’t pretty.
“You wanted to continue to fuck around with stupid women who were no better than whores. They were here to fuck, not to work. Now Nora, she’s not the kind of woman you’re used to, huh?” Frank didn’t even raise his voice as he spoke. “Nora is the kind of woman that you’re loyal to. She’s the kind of woman that you feel guilty if you ever fuck another woman when she is yours.”
Rex had already figured that out. Nora was the kind of woman you settled down with. She was the woman that you thought about a future, kids, and everything in between. To Rex, she had always represented a life that he had turned his back on, settling instead for meaningless fucks.
“She’s leaving?” he asked. He didn’t like the spark of pain that shot through him.
“I don’t know. I guess that is entirely up to you, isn’t it?” Frank stood. “You know, I’ve always liked you. You’re a mean little shit, and you’ve made me a lot of money. I never thought I would be sorry to see Nora go either. My biggest mistake was handing her over to you.”
Rex watched as Frank left his office.
Placing his hands on the desk, he didn’t know what to do or what to think. Nothing made any sense anymore, and yet it made perfect sense. Of course Nora would leave. He had been the meanest bastard in the world.