[Spoon-business] Sex and the Nomic, Chapter 2

["Glotmorf" <glotmorf@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

{{ _Sex and the Nomic, Chapter 2_

[[

Eventually I departed.  I went home and crawled into bed.  I tried to sleep.

The morning, however, was relentless, insinuating its light between my curtains, through my blanket, under my eyelids.  I got up and dragged myself into the shower.  The bruisings I noticed at my wrists and ankles were slight; they would be covered quite adequately by a long-sleeve shirt and dress slacks.

The impressions left on my mind, though, didn't fade as handily.  Her eyes were what I saw as I drove toward the office; her hands were what I felt as my jacket slid off my shoulders; her lips were what I tasted of my first cup of coffee.

And the smile, of course.  Always the smile.

Restless, I prowled the hallways, giving a cheerful nod and start-of-the-day word with people I encountered, while I scanned over heads and shoulders for her.  Idly I looked over purchase requests shown me, made or broke appointments for meetings, exchanged the latest freshly-emailed joke.  No one saw me sweat.  No one saw that my breathing was perhaps too controlled.

No one but her, perhaps, as she finally appeared coming up the hallway I was headed down.  If she noticed, she gave no sign.  She gave no sign of even noticing me.  A hundred casually veiled morning-after lines sprang to my mind in the minute it took us to come near each other in the corridor.

And on she passed, without a word, without a glance.  Only a smile, and not even that for me.

It was all I could do to keep on walking toward my office.  I shut the door, stood there with knob in hand as my thoughts churned.  Of course, office relationships were never thought well of in today's society, so perhaps what I saw was discretion...discretion I would do well to copy.  Still, I didn't see how she could be so casually aloof after what we'd shared...what she'd done to me.

I tried concentrating on my work.  My designs and my projects were my obsession, but not my obsession at that moment.  My eyes were trained on papers that might as well not have been on my desk, for all the impression they made on me.  I rose, circuited the office, stared out the window, fidgeted at the bookshelf.  Headed for the door.

In the break room I found a package of popcorn and set it irradiating in the microwave.  I drew another cup of coffee and prepared to immerse myself in caffeine and buttery flavoring.  I leaned against the countertop, brooding over each sip of coffee.  Popping sounds commenced in the background.

She walked in.  She could not have not seen me, but she strolled on by, to the snack machine across from me.  She bought a Snickers, unwrapped the end with a wistful smile, then turned and looked at me.

She put the bar in her mouth and bit, pulling back slowly on it, leaving strings of caramel draping down, as her eyes studied me.  She started to approach me, her jaw working, still a trace of a smile on her lips.

She stopped in front of me, taking another bite of her candy bar.  The roaring in my ears may have been my pulse or the crescendo of the popcorn popping.  She reached a hand up to me.

She buttoned my collar.

Her eyes gave me a last once-over as she nibbled the Snickers.  Then she turned and walked out.

My coffee had cooled and my popcorn had burned by the time I pulled myself together.

Back in my office I applied myself with fresh determination to the workload.  Designs I reviewed, comments I made, approvals and denials I wrote.  The time went by, the inbox steadily emptied.  I wasn't going to be staying late at the office that night.  I had a place to be that night.

The place was already occupied by the time I got there, this time with a dance band and a crowd of writhing bodies on the dance floor.  I looked over at the table -- our table -- but it was unoccupied.  I made my way over to the bar and ordered a drink.

Turning and sipping it, I finally saw her.  Out on the dance floor.  With Phil.

I stood, paralyzed, watching them dance.  Him with a dopey grin he was trying to cover over with suave, her with a touch of a predatory smile.  His attention was on his good fortune; hers was on her prey.

The number ended.  They spoke briefly, and Phil started for the bar as she went to the table.  I forced myself forward, toward her, no idea what I would say.

She took the lead, then, as her eyes found me.  Her smile slid into humor. "Hey, Blue Eyes."

"Hey.  What are you doing here?"

"I'm having a good time.  Aren't you?"

"You came here with Phil?"

"Is that his name?  He hadn't managed to tell it to me yet."

I took a breath. "I thought we'd be getting together tonight."

The smile went from simple humor to amusement. "And why did you think that?"

"Well...after...last night..."

"What, you thought you owned me?  It seemed more like the other way around to me.  You do remember who was holding the leash, don't you?"

I remembered. "But...I mean...God, Phil's an accountant!"

"Is he?  That explains why he adds up for me.  Anyway, he's a player, and I'm here to play."

"But I thought I was your player!"

"You are, Blue Eyes.  But you're not the only player.  And you don't make the rules, remember?  I do.  You just make proposals that I think about." Her smile came close to disappearing, but re-emerged with a suggestion of viciousness. "In fact, I think I'll make a rule right now..."

]]

{{ _Infidelity_

Once a proposing entity has made a proposal, it can't make another proposal until at least one other proposing entity has made a proposal.

}}

[[

I blinked. "What does that mean?"

The smile sweetened. "That means just because you see me one time doesn't mean you see me the next time.  Players take turns.  And it's not your turn tonight."

Her smile shifted with her eyes, leaving her looking at me as if at a dear but dimwitted puppy.  She reached up and undid my collar, then chucked me under the chin.

Phil stood uncomfortably at the table, watching all of this come to a close, a drink in each hand.  She turned back to him, accepted one of the drinks, laid a finger on his lips as he started to speak, and gracefully settled into a chair.  He sat down with her, his eyes locked on hers.  Neither of them paid me any further mind.

Eventually I departed.  I went home and crawled into bed.  I tried to sleep.

]]

}}


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