The Strongest Woman, Part I

The strongest woman that I ever saw was born thirty-four years ago, to loving parents who doted on her, told he of the great places she’d go. She was popular all through high school, never failed to pull down straight A’s, was taught to be strong, and never take crap, a path for women she would blaze. She had not a head for the hard sciences, but in business she quickly excelled, got her MBA from the finest of schools, a master of finance, and of what sells. Moving to the city, she got a good job and proclaimed one day she would be in charge, she brought in accounts all through her twenties and was rewarded with a salary large. She shot up the ranks, quickly at first, found herself in the office by my desk, though we were in different departments it was clear, she was one of our best. But when she turned thirty she seemed to slow, though she stood by her stated goals, and every so often I’d find her staring distractedly out of her office window. All of it charged starting one fall day when she went up for a big promotion, but her numbers were down, and it went to a workaholic named Danny Bagosian. This spurred her on to work overtime, by coincidence I was doing the same, alone in the office we got to talking, what she asked me nearly fried my brain. She said,”I’m here sixty hours a week, I’ve no time left for relationships, and though this may sound inappropriate I want to ask your opinion on this. “I could use a friend-with-benefits to relieve stress and have some fun, you’re a handsome fellow and it has been three years since I have had one.” Now I suppose the right thing to do would be to run down to H.R. But a woman like this has a way with men, and I said,”I’m game if you are.” So began a secret and torrid affair that no man could ever forget, in hotel rooms and there in her office… let’s just say that I have no regrets. But as the months went on something did grow as often happens with ‘benefits-friends,’ at some point we dropped the charade, no longer willing to pretend. And in her I sensed something new, a sadness I’d not before seen, it came out into the open late a night when she woke me from a restless sleep... CONCLUDES IN PART II.