Being in the annex office four out of five days of the week,
I’m not privy to the latest gossip until it’s already old on Tuesdays. My
immediate supervisor who is privy seemed surprised when I looked shocked at the
rumor about her (not my supervisor) and one of the owners, and that this was
general knowledge around the rest of the main office.
I had suspected something when I saw her flirting with him
several times after meetings and saw the look on his face during the meeting
when she brought up very provocative story ideas. We could count on her to come
up with risqué suggestions, some of which even actually eventually made their
way into print – if in a modified form.
Other than such vague associations, I had no way of knowing
the truth to such gossip – the main office is a treasure trove of such rumors, not
so much about her, but about everybody, which is one of the benefits of my
working elsewhere most of the week, even though I often feel completely out of
the loop for accessing necessary information to do my job.
She has also become much more wary lately, either because
she still sees me as a threat or possibly has found a new enemy, I know nothing
about.
I do believe my Mary Ann (my old friend going back to grammar
school) that she needs to feel in control and must manipulate the situation to
allow her to do that.
How much control she has now, is anybody’s guess? She spoke
a few times about trickling up and so the boss might be a logical next stepping
stone to the top.
Rumors said she had been involved with one of the layout
people on the first floor. So, it is possible she has moved up floor by floor
until she reached the top of the heap, making each of us a member of the
special selection she invited up to Cloud 9 from time to time, nearly all of
them married.
She told me early on that she never cheated in a
relationship, but that men who she got involved with sometimes did on their wives.
“I can’t control what they do,” she said.
She once told me that during her five years of marriage she
never cheated once, despite the fact that her husband constantly suspected she
was, and then did not have sex for a long time after the marriage ended. Two of
her friends, a man and a woman, deliberately seduced her to get her out of that
funk.
“They knew I needed to break out,” she said, calling it “delightful
and fun.”
Maybe she has gotten wind of the rumors about her and the
owner, which would explain the fresh batch of dark looks she gave me during the
meeting, maybe even thinking I’m the source. I did email her last Saturday
after she claimed she was to meet with the owner on Friday to ask for a raise.
“I can’t keep taking money from my father to pay my bills,”
she told me.
In my email I asked if her attempts to get the raise were
successful. She never responded.
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