Open Mike Night

I looked to the back of the room where Bree sat with Marge, Sally, Nancy and the rest of her usual group minus Frank Miller and saw Bree giving me a big smile.

So since blond jokes are out any redheads here tonight? No? Okay then:

"There was this redhead who called her neighbor and asked him to please come over.

"I have a killer jigsaw puzzle and I can't figure out how to get started."

Her neighbor asked, "What's it supposed to be when it is finished?"

"According to the picture on the box it is a rooster."

The neighbor decides to go help her with the puzzle. She lets him in and shows him where she has the puzzle spread out on the table. He studies the pieces for a moment, then looks at the box, then turns to her and says: "First of all, no matter what we do, were not going to be able to assemble these pieces into anything even remotely resembling a rooster. Why don't we go out on the porch, sit in the swing and enjoy the sunset. Then we can come back in here and put the corn flakes back in the box."

When the laughter died down I said, "And now to start us off I'm handing the mike to Josh Barnum who comes to us directly from Andy's Automotive where he appears from eight to five every Monday through Friday."

I passed the mike to Josh and instead of taking my usual seat at the bar I joined Bree and her group. I saw smiles and not hostility when I sat down which I thought was a bit strange since Bree had done what I'd told her she had to do. She did go into work and file sexual harassment charges against Miller and it turned out that he did indeed have things in his file from other female employees. He had gotten away with it before because the Human Resources manager had been his cousin and his cousin had managed to bury it. But Cousin Ralph wasn't there any more and his replacement was a 'brook no nonsense' woman who immediately called Becky into the office. Becky tearfully confessed and two hours later Frank was looking for a new job.

Becky was allowed to keep the job, but was informed that she was on sixty days probation and was going to be closely watched to make sure she could really do the job. Bree was transferred to a different department and was assured that coming forward wouldn't affect her job or chances for promotion.

Then Bree made a pretty gutsy move or at least I thought it was. She had a sit down with Marge, Sally and Nancy and spelled out what I had demanded of her and then she told them she had to do it in order to save her marriage. The three said they understood and only Nancy was upset over it.

A call to Marge's husband found that he and Marge did indeed have an open marriage and he did give Bree some pointers to use to try and convince me to give open marriage a try. When Bree asked me if I wanted to hear them I laughed at her.

A call to Sally's husband was a waste of time as Sally had gone home after her talk with Bree and had told hubby dear that she knew he was cheating and that she had gotten even with him a couple of times over. Then she asked him where they were going from there and I guess they are trying to work things out.

The call to Nancy's husband got an unexpected response.

"She what? I'll be damned! Thanks for the heads up. I've been wanting to tap my secretary for a year and now I can do it without feeling like a guilty asshole."

I guess that Nancy accepted that as her due and the two of them are still together. Where their marriage is going is anybody's guess, but Nancy does spend a lot of time talking with Marge about the open marriage thing.

The cheers and applause signaled the end of Josh's routine and I leaned over and kissed Bree before getting up and going back to the stage.