Chapter 2

“So you’re not into Taco?”

“Not as a rule, no,” I took the wallet out of my purse, “here, seeing as you’re doin’ the walkin’ I’ll do the treatin’ just a burger and fries.”

She exited the bathroom a few moments later leaving me to contemplate this sudden shift in the wind. We weren’t the only ones in the bathroom, two of the cubicle doors were closed and while she hadn’t actually come out, dropping that comment in a place where women might overhear it could be tantamount to broadcasting on a loudhailer. Just as I stepped out of the bathroom, Dorothy came out of a cubicle, which was something of a relief because Dorothy wasn’t the type to open her mouth to all and sundry.

My appearance that day was to submit an indictment for a man arrested for embezzling company funds and because there was a lot of money involved we were also applying to have his passport seized. By curious coincidence he was also called Tony, something Laura had noticed when she helped prepare the brief.

“His wife paid the bond but he has to report every second day at his local precinct, let’s hope he don’t skip town.”

“You think he will?”

“I doubt he’s got the balls to cross her, I thought she was going to frog march him out of the court. Even the judge was trying not to smile,” I led her out of the courthouse.

“You look smart in that suit,” she ran an eye over me.

“I do?” I looked down at myself briefly. I’d gone for the pinstripe trouser suit look that day with a white blouse, “thanks.”

I learned a lot about Laura that lunchtime. She was one of four girls in an all-girl family, her parents were churchgoers but only one of their daughters was still attending church.

“Isobel is still in Senior High,” she told me, “but she seems to enjoy the youth group and this year she’s going to summer camp as a counselor.”

“So what turned you off religion?”

“I started hanging out with a different crowd at college,” she took a mouthful of Coke, “when you get exposed to a different way of thinking you either make your walls higher or open the gates and venture outside. I chose the latter because it was lonely inside my castle. When I told mom that one of my best friends at college was gay she warned me to stay away because it was contagious.”

“Yeah, been there, done that, I was straight until I was fifteen and then some gay girl sneezed on me and I’ve been gay ever since.”

Her laughter startled me because it seemed to come from deep within and when she stopped I had a slight grin on my face.

“You’ve got a cute smile,” she nudged me, “just don’t sneeze on me for God’s sake, my mom has the prayer circle working overtime to keep me from succumbing to the devil.”

Our lunch date was over soon enough but on the way back to the office Laura detoured via a record store. She’d said over lunch that she was thinking of buying the second Madonna album, Like A Virgin but first she wanted to listen to a few more tracks and in those days the only way of doing that in the store was in a listening booth. Thus, I found myself crammed into a booth with a small window set into the door and a pair of headphones on, Laura had a set on as well and here’s where it got intensely erotic.

The presence of the window prevented us from kissing but it didn’t stop her from walking her fingers up and down my leg. It was such an intense turn on because people were walking past the booth or looking straight at us, totally unaware of what she was doing. After a second track she slid her finger behind the placket of my fly. Eventually she pulled the headphones off.

“What’re you doing tonight?”

“Apart from work?” I looked at my watch, “I’ve got to work later tonight.”

“We’ll see about that,” she hung the headphones up, “I’m buying this record, I’ll see you back at work.”

Laura was as good as her word. I had a mountain of work waiting for me, my In Tray was always full but that day it was overflowing. Laura however was efficiency personified, it’s one of those aspects to her personality that I’ve come to love and hate, depending on the situation. She’s one of those people who pays her bills before they’re due, like who does that? And when it comes to work she can blitz through it in record time and yet she doesn’t look like she’s working hard. Laura has an unruffled approach to work, it’s just one step after another until you finish. She once summed up her approach to work when she described it as the whale procedure, meaning you could only eat a whale one bite at a time.

Despite that however, we finished just after six and as I prepared to leave she seemed anxious.

“Something wrong?” I asked her.

“This doesn’t mean we?”

“Fuck?” I smirked, “it’s on the agenda but first I want to eat and if we fuck afterwards then so be it but if not I’m not bothered.”

“Now that’s something I’ve never heard before,” she slipped a hand under her blouse, “so, if we had dinner and I decided to go home to my own bed we’d still be friends?”

“Of course,” I pulled the hair clasp from my hair and shook my hair loose, “is there any other way?”

“This could either be the best thing I’ve ever done or the worst,” she replied a few moments later as she fluffed her hair out, “but this doesn’t mean I’m coming out. My mom thinks it bad enough that I listen to Madonna. If I told her I’d slept with a woman she’d have a fit.”

“It’s not about coming out,” I replied, “some women know what they want from quite early on but others only come to that realization much later in life. Some women might be married for years and it’s only when their marriage ends that they finally gravitate towards women.”

“I’m not saying I’ve always been like that,” she frowned, “maybe I’m just pushing back against my upbringing. I was raised to believe that if I even thought about having sex outside marriage then it was as bad as having actual sex.”

“Imagine if that was even possible,” I grabbed my purse, “no tedious dinners with boring guys or women, no fear of falling pregnant or catching some horrible disease, just think about it and you’re done,” I opened the office door for her.

“And even better, you could do it at work and no one could fire you for having sex at work.”

She giggled at that.

“I must remember that one.”

“But seriously,” I continued as we headed to the elevator, “I get it. I was raised a Catholic and we’re not even supposed to use condoms or other forms of birth control. I used to listen to the nuns and priests at school raving about sex and the right way to do it and wonder who the hell died and made them bear bride. They’re fucking celibate for Christ’s sake, at least the Protestant preachers are married to a woman but the priests and nuns are married to the church. If you can’t walk the walk you can’t talk the talk.”

It set the tone for our conversation over a meal of pizza and wine. God, religion and morality.

“I was sent to the headmaster’s office for asking the wrong question.”

“What question did you ask?” I raised an eyebrow.

“If God loves everyone unconditionally, why does he throw sinners into a lake of fire? It doesn’t sound like unconditional love to me, which wasn’t an unusual question by any standard, but when I said that God was a psychopath I was marched up to the headmaster’s office. He lectured me for fifteen minutes and then suspended me for being obnoxious and I wasn’t,” she smirked.

“I was debating the asshole just the way I did in law school and that threw him. My mom was really pissed at me but dad kind of saw it for what it was, his daughter making her own mark.”

“Well that beats me,” I replied, “I just wanted to know where Mrs Cain came from. Did Cain screw his sister and if so, why didn’t God strike Cain down for screwing his sister?”

“Maybe God’s a peeping tom,” she grinned, “can you imagine being able to peek into people’s bedrooms all over the world?”

“You and I are definitely going to hell,” I leaned back and eyed the remains of the pizza, “when I came out to my dad he was cool about it but he warned me to never tell mom,” I stared up at the light.

“So, if she’s up there right now looking down on me I can only imagine what she’s saying.”

“Cervical cancer,” I replied, “it’s one of the reasons I donate a percentage of my salary to Planned Parenthood because they do free swabs and breast examinations.”

“Along with abortion.”

“Yeah, that too. Mom was always against it and dad just went along with it because she said so, but we’ve got four other girls besides me and only the oldest is what I’d call devout. The rest of us have more or less forsaken the faith but we love our dad, he sure as hell put up with a lot from her. It didn’t matter what he did, he was never good enough or holy enough for her, it used to drive me up the fucking wall,” I gesticulated.

“Nag, nag, nag, she was forever in his ear and my dad was a good man, he still is but in her opinion he was never good enough.”

“Sounds a lot like my dad,” she replied, “he was air force but he’s got two faces, the one he shows mom and the one he shows us when she’s not around. It’s always made me wonder why they’re still together, I’ve never seen a couple so badly matched as those two.”

“So, what do you look for in a partner?”

“Respect,” she replied, “I want to make it as an attorney but it seems that all the men I meet seem to think that once we get married I’ll give up my career and become this perfect little wife. It’s why I moved here, I thought that maybe men here were different and you do meet them here but I seem to have a target on my ass because I keep attracting these paternalistic types who want to put me under a glass dome and keep me there.”

“I’d at least have a dome with a door,” I chuckled, “what am I saying?” I slapped my forehead.

“Now that’s the burning question,” she swiveled to face me, “what are you saying?”

“I might have to take the fifth on that one, your honor,” I took another sip from my glass, “it just slips out when I’ve had a couple of wines.”

“So what happens when I get you started on the bourbon?”

“My legs open,” I chuckled, “I had my first taste of heaven’s milk when I was twelve.”

“I gotta go pee,” she leaned forward and put her hand on my leg, “don’t fall asleep on me.”

Not that I intended on sleeping I mused as she went to the toilet but by the time she came back the urge had come over me as well and I had time to think through my next few moves. I’ve always had this habit of thinking three or four moves ahead. It was something I’ve picked up from numerous chess games with dad. However as I studied my reflection in the mirror some time later I had to admit that I couldn’t think much beyond the here and now without scrambling my brain. This might have gone against her upbringing but I had my own rules and right up there with the usual rules like not stealing, killing or sleeping with your best friend’s girlfriend was my rule about sex with your colleagues. I know it’s one of those things we fantasize about and it looks cool on television but in the real world it’s a minefield. One false step and it’s all blown to hell.