Threading the Needle Ch. 11 - Sex Stories

Threading the Needle Ch. 11

... stopped dead in the middle of the hallway. "What the hell? Why did I think that?" she asked herself as she started walking again. The implications of her questions disturbed her enough that she struggled with putting them out of her mind. Throughout the day, they returned to haunt her. A twenty-minute phone call during lunch with Logan did nothing to help dispel them.

At the end of the day, Marika showed up at her cubical. The afternoon was a good one for her. To most of their coworkers, she seemed to have it all together today. Looking at her, Winnie still saw the brittle edges under her carefully erected façade. "I'm glad we are doing this. She needs some relaxing," she thought. Shutting off her computer, she was ready to go within a few moments.

"Where are we meeting Liz?" she asked.

"Oh, she's going to meet us at the bar around the corner. She's probably there already," Marika said as they started to leave. "She didn't have anything to do today, so it was easier for her to come here."

The bar was a common place for people from the office to go after work and Winnie was familiar with it although she wasn't a regular. Marika was right. Liz was there already, holding down a table for them. She gave her best friend a hug, while giving a friendly wave hello to Winnie. It was clear from the start that Liz knew that she was in on the secret.

"Have you heard anything more about the asshole?" she asked. Marika looked around quickly, wanting to make sure that there ...

... wasn't anyone else from work there. "Don't worry," Liz said. "No one knows what asshole I'm talking about. It could be Winnie's new squeeze for all they would know."

Something about the way she said it seemed to imply that it might be an appropriate appellation for Logan, and Winnie felt a spark of irritation. Not wanting to start something when Marika needed her support, she let it pass. "Besides," she thought, "I agree that Samuel is an asshole. How can he not see what he has?"

If there was some double meaning there, Marika missed it. "Just be quieter. Even when I tell people at work, they don't need to know the detail." She looked around once more before going on. "No, Yamile and I won't meet with her friend until next week. This week is all about the lawyer. I've got a couple of meetings with her."

Watching Liz more closely than Marika, Winnie noticed a momentary frown on her lips at the mention of Yamile. "What does she have against her?" she wondered. From everything she knew about Marika's widowed friend, she sounded very nice. She was also a huge pool of support for her. Even though she only learned of the situation today, Winnie wasn't sure what concrete things she could do to help, other than vague expressions of support. By connecting Marika with someone who could look into what Samuel was doing, Yamile hopefully would give her the ammunition she needed to force him into granting her a quick divorce without fighting her every step of the way. Although she ...