ACT I: She's A Superhero
"I told him straight out: 'You cannot take those trees out. You have to keep that preserve. It's the heart and soul of the entire area. The whole project fails without it. Everything flows out of those walking woods.'"
"So what did he say to that?" asked the female voice at the other end of the phone.
"He just gives me that 'dumb guy' look. He knows better than to fight me on this."
"You don't think you'll get in trouble standing up to him?"
"He knows I'm right and to respect my opinion. I'll whip his ass into shape! Besides, I do too much for him to ever fire me. I told you I was making my job my life."
An uneasy pause. "You think that's the wise thing to do?"
"Sure. It's a special situation we have here. You just don't understand."
But her friend did understand: You break the rules of life you're going to pay - nothing so costly as shortcuts!
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ACT II: Living (Someone Else's) Good Life
Sticking up for her rights!
The real estate community is a tight one and a very Republican one. Samantha was a proud Democrat who fought for her principles, savoring her self-perceived reputation as fearless moral steward of mother earth and all that's good. And yet, her marriage to her labors was in discord with nature. Crisis point approaching!
As the consummation between life and work intertwined deeper and deeper, so grew Samantha's appetites to fill the emptiness work could not fill. Her Boss - the one whom she was going to whip into shape - was an ardent supporter of the Good Life. Good time money meant trips to New York for champagne and caviar. Broadway shows, first class everything, Jimmy Choo shoes and La Perla lingerie seduced her into a world she convinced herself her hard work deserved.
This made Samantha even more determined to be useful - or was that "used"? She devoted herself to new skills, longer hours and duties beyond her Project Manager title. Though defiant in her principles, she spoke of her Boss in godlike terms.
Samantha slipped into her favorite character once more on the phone. "My friend Danny was in town in last week. He was tellin' me how he wanted meet Boss Hoss and I was like, "No way! Not just anybody can meet him!"
Phone Friend was duly awed. "Wow, he must really be something else!"
"I was telling Shelley the receptionist about it and she said no way Danny would be able to handle meeting Boss Hoss!"
Boss Hoss was a living god to be worshiped, she inhaling jet fuel fumes of his elitist breath, slowly brushing against fine rich leather with sweaty bare skin. Samantha left no doubt to her usefulness. "I'll never say no to you. You can take me any time." Now she had it all in her mock marriage: companionship, purpose and raw lusty sex. What made it perfect was Boss Hoss's marriage taking away all responsibility - and from his wife he assured he had permission to play around on a "limited basis".
Self-perception or self-deception?
After a particularly steamy session, Boss Hoss sensed a time to test Samantha's resolve. "About those trees. You know how many houses I could build there. That's a lot of profit to give up!" Slyly he'd said "I can build" but not "we can build."
Samantha's eyes narrowed as she looked up from between his legs. "You have to do the right thing even if you think it hurts you. You're missing the bigger picture. I'm not going to let you rape that land!"
"You're not, huh?" Boss Hoss feigned defeat, bribing her with victory.
"You're damn right!"
"I can just rape you..."
Samantha's first instinct was to get up, get out and never return again, freeing herself of the ties that bind. Her second instinct was to remember the view from the Four Seasons at night in New York. And like an addict's syringe, he gave the rush she needed more and more, her loins contracting in dry puckering at the thought of his departure. So Samantha took the path most traveled.
"Yes, you can rape me - but not the trees!"
Boss Hoss gave off the impression of silent acquiescence.
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ACT III: Embracing The Inner Slut
The next day was when she had the conversation with her Phone Friend, telling a (censored) version of her heroic stand against her boss and for the trees. But she also went on to share a daring giggle.
"I'm thinking of buying some of those really low cut jeans. You don't think I'm too do you?" she asked expecting only one correct answer.
"As long as you look good it's fine. Doesn't matter if your over forty at all! You gonna wear panties with them?"
"I don't think you're supposed to..."
"But won't your crack show?"
"Oh, I don't know," she lied in clever self-deceit. "I'll make sure that won't happen. I'm not some twenty-something slut!"
But when Samantha excitedly got her pair home, first thing she did was practice sitting in front of the mirror to see how low she could get her jeans to go. "Oh, everyone's going to love this!" Then she imagined sitting obliviously in a restaurant, baring herself to the world, completely "unaware" it was even happening!
She even had that same pair one when she met her Phone Friend at a liberal public park. A woman in a yellow thong showed up, thinking nothing of baring her wares, moving as easily as if she were fully dressed. Samantha was infuriated.
"Would you just look at that? Put some clothes on, slut! This isn't some nudist colony!"
"Why would she even treat herself like that?"
"I have no idea! It's women like that who make it so hard for us feminists."
****
ACT IV: It's A Pig's Life
Boss Hoss was bragging to his business buddies. "I make total use of her alright! I'm tearing that shit up!"
"She's loyal to you as a dog."
"I fuck her like one too!" All the piggies laughed.
"What about keeping that tree preserve? You know the investors won't stand for that. How're you going to keep your godlike status and still mow down that forest?"
"I'm working on that. She's so damn dumb, thinking she has me under her thumb. She's got this whole I'm-so-naive innocent act going on I can put practically anything past her."
The lawyer had to know: "How much do you think she really believes all that? Isn't she at least worried about your wife."
"The bitch has a lie for every day of the week. I'm not worried about it. She's so worried about impressing me and proving she's not just-a-girl and so much other horse shit no one cares about. What's truly funny is I hear talk to this friend of hers on the phone feeding her the same sort of bullshit I feed Samantha!"
"That's when you know you've really got her!" The room laughed again. The lawyer still looked concerned.
"I don't know, Hoss. She could go all Fatal Attraction on you. I'm serious about this. She gets in too deep you'll have no way out."
"That's OK. I'm making her more Republican with every thrust!"
The room howled in laughter but the lawyer still didn't bite.
*****
ACT V: Money Rapes Everybody
When the economy crashed and tore down the real estate market with it, the gluttonous Boss found himself with his pants down, exposed by loans he could not repay. Forced to sell off vacation homes, cancel luxury trips abroad and even sell his office building, Boss Hoss and Samantha were like nomads conducting what little business they had left in a spare room of the lawyer's office. This put everything on hold.
The freefall rained down on every aspect of their lives. Hoss's wife explained she was tired of him "fucking the hired help" and put her foot down. His answer was to get a new girlfriend and openly brag about it in front of Samantha, feeding her the humiliation he knew she craved but would never admit. Boss Hoss had no illusions about what living a lie meant.
Samantha started visiting The Lodge, an executive resort and ersatz sex parlor. Ostensibly going there just to "rest up and relax" she somehow always ended up getting drunk and engaging in wild sex that literally left her body bruised. "It's not like I planned it!" she sold to her friend. Boss Hoss later gave Samantha punishment sex on the properties owned by the men she fucked. But as she put it, "I don't think he realized where we were. He can be so naive sometimes."
But it was when things got better things became the worst.
Slowly emerging from the economic ashes, Boss Hoss returned to the bribery of yore, buying Samantha's soul with a flat screen HDTV. The tree preserve project was at last fully funded so he asked her once again about tearing down the woods for more houses in the subdivision. Samantha relented. "Fuck it. What difference does it make?" Boss Hoss congratulated her on seeing the light, his face glowing like a heroin dealer who'd hooked a new client.
He touted his victory his friends, saying he'd gotten "that bitch on a leash." When asked what he was going to do now he said, "Oh, I'll use her for a while till she's all used up then there'll only be one thing left to do." Faces of wolfish anticipation imagined that orgasmic moment - even the lawyer satisfied.
*****
ACT VI: The Bill Comes Due
Samantha was on top of the world to her phone friend. "Boss Hoss and I are stronger and tighter than ever! I did double duty all during the downturn, now he really owes me. Hahah! I even went ahead and gave in on the tree preserve just to make him feel good...I know, I really wanted them too but it really is all about the money. No one can defy Boss Hoss!...Of course I know what I'm doing. You were the one saying he was going to fire me all this time. I told you it's special between us. And like I said, he needs me too much for the business plus his moral obligation to me too...What do you mean that's why he'd get rid of me?"
Boss Hoss's behavior changed to be even more abusive. He'd always been condescending and cutting to the quick, testing her and probing her, but now he took it a whole other level, flinging papers in her face like a flunky and coldly barking orders. He had her on his chain and Boss Hoss was determined to have his fun yanking it before the Final Moment came.
And when it did come, he never savored a moment more ever in his life, memorizing every look of horror on her face, every wrinkle of incredulity, the dawning realization of reality's bill come due. His explanation: He needed someone who'd fight for the tree preserve. It was a story he told over and over as Boss Hoss returned to the plush parlors of yore - now sans Samantha. It was killing him to be a pig and keep up his piggish ways but die a pig he would!
Samantha screamed into the phone. "That fucking bastard! I can't believe he did that to me. No way can I get another job in the industry. I'm blackballed and I'll never have that kind of salary again. That fucking bastard! I did everything for him! He can't do this to me! He's got to take me back! He can't do this! That fucking bastard! After all I did for him! I worked for him, I fucked for him, I LIVED for him. That fucking bastard! I did every fucking thing he wanted!"
The voice on the phone was cool. "Maybe you should consider doing something for yourself. Make your own life."
"I don't want to make my own life!" she furiously denied.
"Then why did you ever expect to live?"
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