Corporate Secrets

Chapter 1: The Beginning

It's not that I didn't trust her, I didn't trust her judgment.

Happy hour just started and people were already lining up for the free wine tasting. Behind the mahogany bar lay hundreds of wine bottles neatly stacked in rows.

The bartender, a skinny middle aged blonde with very wrinkly skin and frizzy hair, was pouring. I could see five bottles of red on display. People in their suits and slacks were lined up for free tastes while they chatted away.

We were sitting in a leather couch in the wine shop, a bottle of the house red in front of us.

This seemed like a good moment. They had just broken up. She confided that she didn't think he was "all in" in this relationship anyway.

She swirled her wine glass as she told me how he had been talking about moving out to live with her but something always comes up.

I don't know if it was the wine but I knew that he was stringing her along and I was starting to be angry with him. She's been saying for over a year that he is ready to leave his wife and yet...he is "still" looking for a place. I mean, how hard can it be??? 

He is a Senior Vice President of a large company for crying out loud...his daughter is in college...his wife is barely home...he can afford to move out if he wanted to.

I looked at my friend, she's moved on to talking about a house they looked at and how it, apparently, ranged in the millions. She was describing in detail how many rooms and bathrooms there were.

Yawn.

Okay, I wasn't jealous at all...this is what she had wanted. To hook a rich, powerful man and live happily ever after.

I couldn't get rid of the feeling that he is stringing her along though. Did he pick up on her motive? He did, after all, receive his law degree from an ivy league university.

She stopped talking to take a sip.

"What do you think I should do?" My gaze fell on the bottles of red wine neatly arranged in a wooden shelf. I swallowed.

Newsflash - there is no such thing as happily ever after.

"Do you love him?" it was all I could muster.

"At first it was just physical, you know? I told him that. And - "she looked away.

I don't know if I even want to hear this. In fact, I know I didn't want to hear it.

"And we agreed that is all." She took another sip.

"And?"

"And I have kids and so does he"

"He has one." I corrected her and she nodded.

"You know what I mean..."

"And?"

"And I do love him." She finally admitted and covered her face with both hands.

Dammit. She got into this affair thinking she would be the one in control and now she's in this mess. Damn him. Perhaps this was all my fault. How we kept it to ourselves for this long, I don't even know. He begged me not to say anything. We both knew that this would destroy her. We both promised to not get emotionally attached to each other.

He wasn't my first choice. Tall, blonde, well educated, comes from an affluent family, very well connected, and charming. You know, Type A personality. His "kind" was threatening to me...the kind that girls go after. I was looking for Type B.

My friend, Nina, was his administrative assistant. Tall, brunette, olive skin, genetically-blessed, model material. She's the life of the party. She loves being around powerful men and the two of them hit it off. She started inviting me to their after hour get togethers and we all started hanging out outside of work. At first, I didn't really talk with him except for when we got together for dinner parties, which were regularly held at her place. She would either cook or order food, we would bring wine.