Which Way the Wind Blows

Chapter 28

Warren’s stomach immediately bottomed out as he sank back into his chair. Lauren closed the door behind her and took one of the guest chairs in front of his messy desk giving him an accusatory glare. She knows what happened, he thought morosely. She knows and she’s here to yell. He’d forgotten that she was one of Kee’s best friends. And if Chris told Kee what happened, Lauren would easily find out. But Chloe’s assurances were still fresh in his mind and he was determined to cling to them.

He tried to keep his expression neutral as he waited for her to speak. Lauren was all business today and dressed the part in a smart black business suit, colored only by the scarlet red blouse peeking through her jacket. Her brunette hair was pulled back into a severe bun and her makeup was subdued and flawless. It made a stark contrast to the woman he occasionally saw with Tom over the weekend. Then she dressed casually and sometimes forewent makeup altogether. He remembered thinking when he first met her that she was one of those rare people who let the smile always reach her eyes. But she wasn’t smiling now.

“How could you do something like that?” she asked softly, surprising him. “I know we’ve only known each other for a relatively short period of time, but I always thought I was good judge of character and I pegged you as a decent guy.”

And just like that, she shaved four feet off of him making him feel about two feet tall. He felt the heat rush to his face and he looked away to the wall, the floor … anywhere but into her stern gaze.

“I didn’t mean to,” he muttered.

“But you did,” she sighed. “And you left him there like something used and worthless.”

Warren suddenly felt anger rise in him at that description. “I fail to see how it’s your business!”

“Perhaps you’d prefer I leave then and let Kee come find you instead.” She shrugged. “Just give a second to find the name of my gynecologist, though. When he’s finished, you too will be a woman.”

“Chris had it coming,” Warren narrowed his eyes and scoffed. “It wasn’t any worse than how he made me feel for six years!” he spat. Then he speared her with a hard glare and sat waiting for her shocked reaction. He waited in vain though. Lauren was no stranger to the male ego.

“So he made a habit of having sex with you when you were completely drunk?” she countered calmly.

“Well … no,” he replied.

“He forced you to admit you loved him while he fucked you?”

“N-no.”

She raised her eyebrows up in apparent confusion at that. “Well, then, help me out here Warren. How is it not worse?”

He felt his anger slowly drain away and sat in silence for a few minutes as he stared at his desk. “You have no idea how small and unimportant I felt when I was with him,” he said. He looked up into her eyes pleadingly … for understanding or forgiveness, he wasn’t sure. “All I wanted was for him to love me back. To acknowledge me to the rest of the world. But he wouldn’t.”

“Maybe he couldn’t,” she sighed leaning forward. “Look, I’m not going to lecture you about the past. I wasn’t there and I didn’t know either of you then. It’s not my right to pass judgment on that I didn’t witness.”

“Thanks,” he said.

“But I did bear witness to the aftereffects of what happened this weekend,” she added, her eyes growing hard again. “And I’m trying very hard to reconcile the Warren I thought was my friend with the one who left a man completely crushed and broken.”

Warren looked at her in amazement. Chris, crushed and broken? Who’s she talking about? Maybe he was hurt and embarrassed, but crushed? Warren doubted it. “I’m sure he’ll recover,” he said dryly.

“In time, I’m sure he will,” she said. “But you’re not off the hook. Not by a long shot.”

“What exactly did he tell you, anyway?”

“At first? Nothing. We waited almost two hours for him to get out of the shower though. Finally Kee and Joey barged in and pulled him out. The water was freezing and his skin was rubbed red and raw from him trying to scrub it clean.” Now she narrowed her own eyes at him. “And the last time I heard sobbing like that I was at a funeral.”

Warren gave her a look of such disbelief she shook her head in pity. “It’s sad really,” she said as she got up.

“What is?”

“That you can’t even see why what you did was so wrong.” She picked up her purse and walked to the door turning around before she opened it. “No matter how neglected and unloved you felt, you can’t deny one thing.”

“And that is?”

“That the person most responsible for keeping you in that relationship for so long was you.” She opened the door and looked at him. “How are you going to exact revenge for that one?”

She walked out of the room without letting him reply.

--------------------------------------------

Mindy went to the nearest department store after work to try to put together a few more feminine outfits for work. She was going to make one last try to get that promotion if it killed her. Still, as she wandered through all the different racks of clothes, she couldn’t seem to work out which was business dress and which was business casual. And what color would look best with her skin tone? She wondered if she should have paid more attention to the popular girls in school to learn about this shit. Pulling out a navy blue blouse she held it up to the mirror and tried to picture it on her.

“That shade makes your pale face look washed out,” a soft voice said from over her shoulder.

She turned to Victoria and stared at her in surprise. The woman looked as chic as ever … and pissed … really, really pissed. She could understand that though. Chris looked like hell when he’d left her apartment yesterday morning.

“Victoria … um,” she said uncertainly.

“Your brother’s a son of a bitch,” the black haired woman interrupted her.

“I talked to him about that,” Mindy sighed, looking down at the blouse in her hands. “I told him he was wrong.”

“You did?” Victoria sounded surprised.

“You think I’m going to defend what happened?” Mindy squeaked looking at the other woman in alarm. “Absolutely not! He had no right to take advantage of someone completely drunk out of his mind. I told him that, and I refuse to speak to him until he admits it!”

Victoria gave her a puzzled look. “I thought you’d back him up,” she said finally. “Apparently I misjudged you. I’m sorry.”

Mindy shrugged. “It’s not like I’ve given you any reason to think otherwise.”

Victoria nodded thoughtfully. “Fancy meeting you here, huh?” she quipped.

“Uh, yeah.”

“You look like you’d rather be anywhere else.”

“I would, but I have to figure out how to upgrade my look for work.” She grimaced. “I guess I should have read up on some style magazines before I came here.”

“It’s not that big a deal,” Victoria shrugged. “The trick is finding one designer that works for you and mixing and matching the clothes.” She shook her head at the blouse Mindy was holding. “That color is too dark to be worn on top, and the design looks like it should be on a woman at least twice your age.”

Mindy looked at the article of clothing and sighed. “I need help.”

“I have a minute or two.”

An awkward silence passed between them before Mindy took a deep breath. “Can I ask you something?”

“Why not?” Victoria replied looking resigned.

“Why did you sleep with Chris when you knew he was in a relationship with my brother?”

Victoria closed her eyes for a second and sighed. She’d known this would come sooner or later form someone. If not Mindy, then definitely Kee the next time she saw him. And truthfully she knew she had no excuses, so the explanation only made her sound like the shallow priss she used to think of herself to be.

“When I met Warren, I immediately knew he was too good for Chris,” she said, opening her eyes and giving Mindy a frank, no-nonsense look. “He was sweet and soft-spoken. We were still in college then. Senior year, if I remember correctly. They’d been dating for just over two years at that point.” She thought back to those days. “He was so shy it was painful to watch when Chris teased him.”

“Huh? It sounds like you had a crush on him.”

“I liked Warren a lot back then,” Victoria shrugged. “But my life had already been planned out for me: go to college, then get married to someone of our social class. My mother had informed me of that in high school.” She took on an irritated, pinched expression. “Chris and I didn’t start seeing each other until at least a year after we graduated. Until that time I was doing my best to find ways to break them up.”

Mindy frowned deeply at that. “I see.”

“No you don’t, really,” Victoria said. “Chris was womanizing up a storm the whole time, and Warren knew it. In fact, Chris wouldn’t even bother to hide it from him. I saw the pain he went through.” Victoria felt the guilt rise up again. “I knew he was hurting.”

“Did you talk to him about it?”

“Once. But he didn’t want to talk to me very much back then.” She looked away. “I think I reminded him of the reason Chris never wanted to go public with their relationship.”

“Reminded him how?”

“I was from a wealthy family. He saw us in as many society articles as Chris’ family. To him, I was one of them.”

Mindy nodded in thought. “Okay, but how did you go from that to dating his boyfriend?”

“Keep in mind that I’m not excusing my actions,” Victoria replied. “I was as wrong as Chris and I admit that.”

Mindy nodded. “Okay.”

“I thought that if I went out with Chris, Warren would eventually see that their relationship was going nowhere and would leave him.” Victoria put a hand up to forestall Mindy’s objection. “I know, I know! It was a shitty thing to do to such a sweet guy. But I wanted him to leave Chris.”

“You were set to marry the guy!”

“I was told that was what was expected of me,” Victoria said. “And I knew neither of us would delude the other into believing the marriage was anything but what it looked like. Convenience.”

“Sounds pretty inconvenient to me,” Mindy scowled.

“To us too, after Warren left.” She looked back at Mindy. “I never wanted him to be hurt, but I thought it was the only way to get him to see he deserved better than the guy Chris used to be.”

“You say that like he’s changed.”

“He has,” she replied resolutely. “He and I both know how shallow and cruel we were being.”

“What made you see it that way?”

Victoria smiled at the irony. “Warren leaving,” she chuckled. “It hit Chris pretty hard. I don’t think he realized he actually had such deep feelings for him. I know I didn’t. Shocked the hell out me when he started to unravel.”

“How?”

Victoria shook her head. “I guess it’s ancient history now, isn’t it?” she asked.

“Um, I guess.”

“Now, let’s see,” Victoria looked her over for a second then pulled a pale yellow blouse from the rack. “Let’s start with this one.”