Business

"And you just quit the group and worked with someone else. Those two nerd girls were really mean to me after you left. So anyway, that's where we are now," she said.

"Where's that?" I asked.

"The place where we discuss our issues and work past them," she said.

"So what do you hope to accomplish here?" I asked

"You aren't listening to me," she said exasperatedly. "I want us back to normal."

"And there we go again," I said. "Define normal. We are taking a 16 week class together, correct?" she nodded.

"We are roughly half way through the class, correct?" again she nodded.

"There are a lot of people in our class, correct?" she nodded.

"Do you get along with everyone in the class?" I asked.

"Of course not" she said.

"Is it not a fact that in only 8 short weeks or less, we'll be done with this class and probably won't ever see most of these people again?" I asked.

"Probably," she said. "But what's your point?"

"We worked together for a while. We came to a difference of opinion. We quit working together," I said looking at her.

"We go our separate ways. We both get good grades. The class ends, life goes on, roll credits, the end," I said.

"That would be a very depressing movie," she said softly. "But then again, I always get these things wrong anyway." She seemed really sad.

"Do you know how I felt after what you said to me?" she asked. "I felt really bad, mostly because it was kind of true, but not really."

"But by the next day, I felt something different." She had again scooted even closer to me.

"Angry?" I asked.

"Nope, not even close," she said. "I felt lonely."

"What?" I asked.

"I'm taking 4 classes right now," she said. "I hate Math, I always have." We were sitting so close now that our arms were touching.

"Ask me what my favorite class is," she said.

"It's your comp lit class," I said.

"How do you know that?" she asked.

"You told me that the first week," I told her.

"And you remembered?" she smirked. "But it's changed since then. Question number 2. What color are my eyes?" she asked closing them.

"Too easy," I said, "They're blue and they darken just a bit when you're stuck or frustrated. And they move from side to side, when you do numbers. And...."

"See what I mean?" she said, as if she'd made a great point. "Dan, you're my only friend here."

"There are plenty of people here that want to be your friend," I said.

"Nope, most of them just want to fuck me," she said.

"How old do you think I am?" she asked.

"Too easy, you're 23," I said.

"Know why it took me so long to get started in school?" she asked.

"I got married about a year after I graduated from high school. I came from a small town and I planned to work for a while before going to college. I met a guy and we dated for a while. Once we got engaged, my life got better because all the guys who'd been following me around got the message and backed off," she said. I was sitting there listening to her and wondering why she was telling me all of this. But I couldn't leave because I just liked being close to her.

"I'm not stupid. I know what I look like. But I really am not that kind of girl," she said. "I always try to make it on my brains and accomplishments but almost nobody gives me a chance. I was waiting until after we got married to have sex, but Steve was so persuasive." She got a slightly harder edge to her voice and I could tell that she was about to tell me something that she wasn't proud of.

"Our town had a traditional Harvest Ball dance. Two nights before the ball, I let him have my cherry. By the night of the dance everybody knew he'd had me. It was all over town. You know what his excuse was?" I felt bad for her. I could tell she was still a little hurt. I shook my head.

"He told me that it was such a special occasion, and so beautiful that he had to tell people about it. And he was doing it for me, because a lot of people in town thought I was a lesbian but he'd set them straight." I looked at her because I couldn't believe anyone would try a line that was so stupid.

"Anyway, I forgave him and we got married," she said. "He cheated on me on our honeymoon, with the maid. He said he'd never had sex with a minority before but she couldn't compare to me. All my life I just wanted to get married and have a family. Just be a wife and mother and maybe have a job I liked."

"I didn't find out until later that Steve didn't share my viewpoint. He insisted on using condoms and me being on the pill to make sure there were no "accidents," that could ruin his life. He was also, at the time, screwing most of my friends."

"He did it because even when we were dating, he was cheating on me and never saw any reason to stop. I overheard him tell one of his friends that I was a sex trophy, great to look at, but basically useless in bed. He'd won me, so he had the trophy but that was no reason to mess up his sex life."

"My supposed friends, on the other hand fell into 2 groups. Group A were jealous of the way I look and thought it was a hoot to sneak around with my husband behind my back. Group B were basically just sluts who would screw anything that moved, and Steve moved a lot."

"So, I divorced him and got a great settlement...What's fifty percent of nothing?" she asked. I had a completely different view of what her life must've been like after listening to her.

"I came here to start a career, and get a fresh start on life. And guys here are all the same. They have conversations with my breasts every day. No one gives me credit for having a single thought in my head. They just want a piece of ass. And the funny thing is, just like with Steve, if they get it, they tend to move on. They just plant the flag, tell the story, and move on to the next conquest."

"The nice guys are so intimidated by me that they rarely ask me out, and most of them are pretty much the same once you break through their shyness. And then there's you. You actually listen to me all the time and you remember things I tell you. And you look me in the face, not in the chest."

"Do you know I've caught you several times just staring at my face?"

"I love the time we spend together. My plan was for us to take more classes together after this one. As far as using you goes, I guess I did kind of do that. I let people think that you were in the boyfiend slot. But only because you seemed to be volunteering for the job." She looked at me again.

"I kind of thought that you liked me a little bit too. Then you just threw me away like I didn't matter and it really hurt me." She bit her puffy lower lip and my heart melted.

"So, I wanted to see if you'd get jealous about me working with those guys but I only got into trouble and you had to come and rescue me anyway," she said.

"Alex, I'm just not any good with people," I said. "First off, your measly 24 years of life is nothing. I'm almost twice your age. 6 years ago I went through almost the same thing you did. After being married for a long time to a woman I thought was my partner for life, she not only cheated on me but left me."

"At least you were strong enough to pick up your pieces and move on. I haven't dated or socialized, period, since then. I'm not sure I qualify as fit company, much less a friend to anyone."

So anyway Alex and I made up and we aced the trig class. And we started taking classes together. It was easy because we were both in business programs and had many of the same requirements.

Over the next few months, we always studied together, even when we didn't need to. She started suggesting that we needed to go to places sometimes to observe the way successful and also unsuccessful businesses did things. We also needed to research different types of operations, to see what type of business we each might be suited for. We went to restaurants, we went to museums and we went shopping together. Finally, she asked me to go to a dance club that someone had told her about in one of the few classes we didn't take together.

"Alex", I said curiously. "Shouldn't you ask someone else to go there?"

"Why would I do that?" she snapped. Her eyes got kind of narrow and by that time I knew enough to be careful how I phrased my next statement.

"Well, going to a dance club doesn't seem much like research." I said.

"What does it seem like?" she asked. Her eyes flashed letting me know to tread carefully.

"It seems more like a social thing," I started.

"You mean, it seems like a date," she said. She leaned back and put one tiny hand on her hip.

"Exactly," I said, "And I've already explained my position on socializing. I'm just not ready for that."

"Dan," she said looking at me the way you look at a four year old.

"We go shopping together don't we?" she asked. "We go out to museums, don't we? We go out to eat together all the time, don't we? Have you, in all of this time heard me mention going to do those things or anything else, with anyone else?"

I stopped and thought about it. "Well, I guess I just assumed you did," I said.

"Dan, we've been dating for months now, I think everybody knows about it except you," she said. "So why can't we go dancing?"

* * * * * * Dana

After getting over my shock at seeing my ex-husband with that girl, I stood there in the street for a few minutes. Actually I wasn't over it. I don't know what I'd been thinking. I guess in the back of my mind I'd began thinking that maybe, if Dan still lived in the area and wasn't re-married or maybe even if he was, there might be a chance for us. I knew that if I hadn't fucked things up we'd still be together today. But seeing him with that girl made me feel funny. Before I realized it I was following her into the café.

It was crowded and noisy, with some kind of music playing. As she made her way over to a table in the back, I watched her. She was certainly popular. And everyone there seemed to know her. It seemed as if half of the place spoke to her on her way to the table she sat at.

There were already people at the table she chose. She ordered something to drink. I watched as several men, boys, whatever approached her and asked her to dance. She just said, "no," every time. She talked with the people at her table, they were probably friends.

She also took out a pad and made notes on it from time to time. I had to admit she was a very pretty, very popular girl. That still doesn't explain what she's doing with my Dan. Maybe she's an escort or a hooker. That would explain a lot. Dan was so shattered after I broke his heart that he couldn't form normal relationships anymore and had to see hookers.

If she was the center of attraction in the café, I was the exact opposite. I couldn't even get a waiter. I guess I was expecting some kind of special treatment being a professor and all, but none was forthcoming. Apparently Intelligence was not the coin of the realm in this place.

A guy next to me saw me staring at her, and was obviously amused.

"That's Alex," he said. "She's really hot. But don't get your hopes up mama, I don't think she swings that way. You probably aren't the first woman to look at her though."

"She certainly is popular," I said.

"Not the way you think," he replied back. "Most of those people you see sitting with her or going to talk to her, work for her."

I turned to look at him more seriously. Maybe he could help me after all.

"Let's get a table and talk," I said. He looked at me dubiously.

"Don't worry, I just want to find out a few things," I said. "And I'll pay for your food and drinks."

That actually worked. He raised his hand, and a waiter appeared and pointed us to a filthy table, that was no where near my target. Yep, I called her my target, because she had something I wanted. I hadn't planned for anything like this when I left my apartment this morning. But in the space of a few minutes, my life was now focused on one thing. I wanted my husband back, very badly. And if I had to go toe to toe with some teenaged cheerleader to get him back; her pom-poms had better be fluffy, because I was serious.

I kept thinking, that in a serious academic comparison of life experience, or compatibility, I had to be superior to this girl. I also, because of my recent past, had to be far more experienced sexually. In my mind this would be a slam dunk. If I could just get Dan over what I'd done to him. We could start fresh and I'd never hurt him again. I would gladly spend the rest of my life making it up to him. It might not be that difficult. He had to be over his hurt by now. Maybe he missed me and might even forgive me. On the other hand if he was still bitter and angry, 6 years or so later, that only meant that emotionally he still had feelings for me. Otherwise he'd have let that anger go and gotten over me.

My initial assessment of the target was as I found out, flawed. My newly found friend, whose name was Mark, started filling me in.

"I already told you her name is Alexandra, but everyone calls her Alex," he said. "I think she's about 25, but with a body like that, nobody cares if she's a little old." His crack about 25 being old made me almost choke.

"It doesn't matter anyway though, because she's kind of not on the market," he said.

"See watch this," he pointed towards her table. A couple of guys approached her table and spoke to her. She shook her head negatively, and one of the guys said something else to her. She shook her head again, and the guy just walked off angrily. I also noticed that the guys at her table had stood up, as if they were in protection mode.

"See, she freezes everybody out," he said. "That's what I meant. She's kind of a 1 man woman. But that's not why everybody is after her. Most of them want to work."

"What do they do for her?" I asked.

"Her and her man are business majors," he said. "They started a business as a project for a class and it took off. It's brilliant actually. And so simple that you wonder why no one thought of it before now." I looked confused. Dan was no business genius. At least he wasn't when we were married.

"They have kind of a super-sonic temp service," said Mark. "I assume when they graduate in a few months, they'll go full time with it. They're already very profitable, you should see their cars. They have his and hers Mustangs, just sweet." He shook his head.

"What I wouldn't give to be that guy," he said. "He's old, but really nice and smart as hell. And she loves him like there's no tomorrow. Every time you see her, she's wearing his jacket or something of his. And they hold hands and junk. It's kind of sickening really. But I'd give my left nut to have her that sick over me."

His words washed over me abrasively. It was as if he knew exactly what things I most feared hearing and said every one of them.

I had to re-assess my situation. First off, I had to admit, she was prettier than I am. She's also built better. She was obviously also smart. And unlike my expertise in history, her business acumen was far more practical. Her skills worked in the real world, whereas my intellect was limited to purely academic settings. The worst blow of all though, was the fact that for years I'd over-looked Dan. I'd written him off as beneath me in intelligence when in his own way he was probably as smart as I am. And this girl had managed to see past the outward shell and find and help him to develop his potential.

As I watched, my Dan approached her from behind and leaned over her head so their heads were upside down to each other. He very gently kissed her in that odd position and she just soaked it up. Her arms went up to gently caress the side of his face. He sat down beside her and she snuggled in with his arm around her and her face just fucking glowed. I couldn't stand seeing that little bitch touch him. I think it showed in my face because Mark, whom I'd been ignoring since Dan arrived, stated talking again.

"I told you it was kind of sickening," he said. "But they're really nice, if you like that whole fairy tale kind of thing. The weirdest thing is they're really boring. I mean no wild parties, they just do stuff together. Kind of like some dull old married couple. She has their whole life planned and he just goes along with it." He shrugged his shoulders in kind of a "go figure," gesture.

"I dated one of their staffers and she told me something really funny," he said. He leaned over to me as if he was giving me some sort of secret information.

"Their plan is to graduate, get their degrees and then they'll keep their business going to raise enough money to get a bigger place. They'll get married and then she just wants to retire and start having kids." His voice rose as he said the last part as if it was the most foreign or the most ridiculous thing he'd ever heard.

"Can you imagine that, what a waste of an education," he said. "But I guess they know what they want. Me, I'm gonna travel the world, and make lots of money, have wild sex, and never stop for shit."

In the back of my mind I thought, after a few years you'll grow up and realize that all of the wild shit gets just as boring. Even worse, it starts to make you feel like shit. You feel more like a thing than a person. And you realize that you really don't matter much to anyone. Instead of having someone who really loves you and would do anything for you. You're just an object they can use to get off. Fucking and making love, are not the same thing. I've probably been fucked thousands of times but I don't remember the last time anyone kissed me like he kissed her. I came in here thinking she was some kind of hooker, now I realized that I'm the whore. And even worse that my ex-husband is in love again, probably a stronger love than the one we shared.

I threw a couple of bills on the table and got up before Mark's food even arrived. Blissfully, Dan had his mind on only one person in the café and never even noticed me.

* * * * * * Dan

Alex and I started officially dating. It was weird, funny, strange, odd and just wonderful all at the same time. We had so many things in common but also a lot of things that we just couldn't come to terms with. Usually, we just laughed and found a way to work around those issues or I gave in, or she did. The age difference was never really a factor. Mostly because I'm old and she's an old fashioned girl. We both had issues with trust and giving our hearts because of our pasts. We were kind of like 2 broken winged birds, who on their own, could never fly again but together, flying was not only easy, it was magical.

Our company DanAlex Inc. started as a class project. We were assigned to come up with a way to modernize an existing business plan or to make it more flexible.

We decided to set up a faux Temp agency. It would be a partnership between Alex and me. By this time we were beyond dating, but not quite intimate. We hugged and kissed a lot though. I guess we were both kind of gun-shy at that time.

The difference in our temp agency though was that we would make usage of an ever renewing resource. Our resource also had an extremely broad base to draw on. We were using college students to fill the jobs. Alex would handle the administrative aspects and I'd handle the management duties. She took care of the payroll, payments, taxes, billing, records etc. I took care of scheduling, meeting with clients, meeting with workers and arranging and making arrangements to secure both customers and workers. We had spread sheets, flyers, our business plan, and sample reports. We even went so far as to make letterhead and business cards. It was brilliant.

When we went to our pre-submission review with our professor, he reminded us that this was a group project. A group needed four members, 3 at the very least. But he liked our idea. He suggested a couple of bright students in our class who were in underperforming groups. We spoke to several and picked Darla Martin to work with us. We didn't make her a partner but she became a full part of the team. Our meeting with Darla was really funny. She was tall and thin and had a very bubbly personality.