Chapter 26 Arriving too late to save a drowning bitch
It was a beautiful morning, as the sun came up and the coolness of an early fall or late summer night gave way to the warmth of the coming day. It was a day where there were a few clouds in the otherwise bright blue sky. The clouds were mostly puffy and white, floating happily over the DC Metro, except for one small dark cloud that at one point did it’s best during the Husker’s morning run. Again he found himself running before the sun came up, down by the river watching a few stray crew teams that were actually starting to look interesting to him, just a little but more with each passing day. Some times lies can come to life, as he pondered how much fun it would be to be out on the water with a group of what he could only imagine to be friends working together pushing their bodies in the quest to gain a few fractions of a second better time. Brunch was a few hours away and it was with the exception of his morning run location, just like every other morning run. And after a run, coffee just to make sure his heart was really awake and would stay that way. Brunch today would be at 10:30 and Robert and Donna would arrive by 10:20 to start the introductions and socializing. The table was ready and as the rest of the group filtered in the chatter continued. As usual most of the group was at least 15 minutes late, but as the table filled there was only one chair that was blatantly empty. Christy had not yet arrived. She was chronically early but today she sat paralyzed staring into her makeup mirror questioning everything she thought she knew just a week earlier when she left for the weekly brunch. She kept reflecting on that conversation with Michal who was starting to seem more like a cryptic prophet than a political power player. Perhaps that was why he was shrouded in such mystery and myth. Her makeup was finished as she sat and stared at her perfectly pressed blouse that was going to accompany her Ellen Tracy suit. Standing there in her sensible and comfortable under garments and pantyhose that an old woman should be wearing, not stockings and garters, not a hint of sex or seduction despite a nice shape and toned body. She was not at all a sexual creature. Donna in contrast was wearing a beautiful soft and silk bra and panties a garter belt and hose and while dressed conservatively on the outside she felt sexy and beautiful in her Richard Tyler suit, she was sure of who she was despite being the newest member of the breakfast group. While Christy drove her Chevy Lumina around looking for parking and walked up in her sensible heels the Husker and Donna had gotten out of a cab forty five minutes earlier at the hotels’ door step and began greeting friends. So when Christy finally arrived, the Husker was two coffees into the meal, her 5:30 Friday meeting companion was three Mimosa’s into the gathering and the only chair left was between two staffers of little known party members at the far end of the table on the same side as Robert. She didn’t know half of the crowd, so it was impossible to tell who number twenty three was. Christy at first focused on a sharp dressed well spoken type in the middle of the opposite side of the table. He had to be twenty three, it was death at the table, not prosperity. As she pointed a polite but aggrieve line of conversation at him it turned out he was the lover of the woman next to him, she was on staff elsewhere. The moron worked for a liquor distributor. He was not a threat to her place in line. The meal began and the conversations wore on, this play, that bill. Reform here, misinformation there, the blessing and the curse of the media. The table today was mixed company, that both parties were well represented, it was the kind of thing we like to read about but never really see, the liberals and conservatives getting along…for the most part. It wouldn’t be an uneventful Sunday morning in DC with out someone’s nose being bent out of place, that said it was an uneventful morning. As people started to drift away, she still hadn’t really figured out who twenty three was until Robert stood up to leave and the bitch next to him stood up also. Christy was incensed, she just couldn’t believe it. He was making his way around the table saying his farewells, his hand placed gently on her back in a tender but guiding way. As they reached Christy, the Husker spoke, “Christy is my head of staff here at my capital offices.” Christy looked for a change in tone there was none. So who was she? Then it became all too clear, “Donna and I are going out for drinks later today. Would you like to join us?” Donna such a wicked name, Christy thought. My cousin was married to a woman named Donna she was a treacherous bitch, she thought as her heart raced.
“Not sure” she responded. “When and where?”
The Husker could see her face changing, she wasn’t getting what was going on so he thought he might connect a few more dots for her. “Seven thirty over by the MCI center, nothing formal just a few friends of hers and a couple of ours are getting together.”
The light went on! The bitch wasn’t after her job, or her place in his life, she was merely someone he was fucking! She laughed a relieved laugh. “Yeah, I’ll be there.”
That was why he had the new phone, that was why he was disappearing. He had found himself a socially presentable little Beltway set of holes to amuse himself with. She thought perhaps she should offer to start stocking condoms in his desk and case. A powerful man playing with a little whore wasn’t news, it was expected, “Hell” Christy thought to herself “I’ll be ordering the slut’s car ride home before long.” Donna on the other hand was nothing but polite and gracious. She had not yet stated her opinion of Christy, but one certainly was forming and forming quickly. As the couple departed shortly there after Christy excused herself. She reached into her purse and without looking or fumbling pulled out her cell phone. She couldn’t wait to get to the car to dial, was she still in church? Had she gone to the early service, what if she didn’t answer should she call her cell phone? All the anxiety was released when she picked up on the fourth ring. “Hello?”
“Hi this is Christy.”
“Good morning dear, how are you?”
Christy paused for a second to gather her thoughts.
“I know where he’s been going!” She blurted out excitedly as she closed her car door. Mother listened intently as Christy spun a tale of Robert’s lady friend. She feigned surprise and was quite the convincing actress as she questioned and pushed and prodded as one would expect a meddling mother to do. Christy didn’t have a lot of information to offer, but mother who knew far more than she would ever let on let when she was the sole keeper of a secret. As the conversation drew to a close mother couldn’t help but ask “Do you think it’s anything serious?”
This was a tricky question. How in the world was she going to tell her boss’s mother that her son was just acting like all the other little boys in town and playing their dirty little games with some whore? She chose to respond with “Boys will be boys ma’am, it might be that, but I just met her and it’s too early to tell.” Christy felt this was a fair noncommittal answer that was both true and open to interpretation. Mother paused and in her best hopeful maternal voice spoke “Well I can always hope, I certainly would like grandchildren.” Goodbyes were exchanged as mother smiled from ear to ear. She knew her son and if he brought a woman to breakfast with his contemporaries then she was not a tawdry little plaything and boys were not being boys. She believed that Robert had much different intentions, part of it was a mother’s hope for grandchildren and part of it was based on the fact that despite everything and her meddling, she did really know her son.
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