How To Win

“Who’re you busy—with?”

“The Davies are having their annual picnic. I’m helping get it organized.”

“It was fun last year. Since I’m—was married to you, do I get to go this year?”

“No.”

He had coaxed, “We had a good time last year.”

“How nice.”

“Let’s have coffee tomorrow. I’ll come by your office and get you.”

She wasn’t encouraging. “I’ll be busy.”

“Not...that...busy. We need to talk.”

“My other phone’s ringing. Take care.”

And she’d hung up.

Oddly enough, the stiff, aloof exchange had made Tyler exuberant! It was the first time she’d talked to him in a long while!

His counterself had said a sour: Goody.

And he’d replied to his counterself, Well, we exchanged words. Those were the first exchanged words that weren’t about divorce!

In spite of his counterself, Tyler had gone to bed that night with a smile. His dreams had been erotic. He’d been faithful. He had dreams. He wakened with the stimulation. And he lay and wondered if that hungry body of hers dreamed like his. His sex was named Godzilla. Yeah. He’d done the naming at age fourteen. Half his lifetime ago.

At the office, since his divorce, he referred to Barbara as Miss Nelson...relentlessly.

She told him, “You needn’t be so formal.”

He smiled at her and replied, “I’m being formal. You’re my boss. To call you by your name would sound pushy.”

“I don’t mind...pushy.”

“It isn’t businesslike and respectful.” He was adamant. So he went right on calling Barbara, Miss Nelson.

For a while she sassed back by calling Tyler, Mr. Fuller. But he accepted that term with a slight, serious nod. So she went back to calling him Tyler.

If Barbara had been any younger she would have torn her hair. But she just waited.

For Tyler, her waiting was a whole lot like realizing a big spider knew where he was and was watching him from some crack in the wall. It was scary.

He shared that fear with Jamie.

Jamie said, “Tell me which crack, and I’ll take care of it for you.” Jamie said that not even looking up from his papers.

So Tyler told Barbara, “Jamie admires you.”

And she asked, “Jamie...who?”

Tyler blinked. She really didn’t know which man was Jamie. So Tyler was gentle. “We share an office. He’s Jamie Oliver. A fine lawyer. He looks at you with admiration.”

Barbara slitted her eyes and watched Tyler but she didn’t respond, so he went off. He could feel Barbara Nelson’s eyes under his clothes all the way down the hall. He shivered.

So then Barbara-who-was-now-referred-to-as-Miss Nelson met Tyler in the hall. She asked Tyler to lunch with her.

But he said earnestly, “I’ve a meeting with Kayla. She has a problem.”

He hadn’t even said thank you or looked directly at the woman. And he just went on off down the hall.

And he didn’t dare to look back to see if the prickles down his backside were actually from her lascivious stare.

He called Kayla at work and said, “If you have any sense of compassion at all, you’ll have lunch with me today. That barracuda who is Barbara Nelson has her eye on me.”

In a dead voice, his ex-wife said with no emphasis at all, “How exciting.”

“Don’t be nasty. You could help out a little. You owe me something.”

“I owe you something? I do not!”

“Kayla, you are the most compassionate woman I’ve ever known. I’m not asking you to come back home and get into my bed—” And the very idea of her doing that ruined his breathing. He was silent.

She sighed into the mouthpiece and said, “Okay. This once.”

He left his office early to avoid walking out with Miss Nelson...and having her glued to him for the lunch hour...with Kayla. No way.

At the bank, Tyler went to Kayla’s office before she was ready to leave it, and he sat patiently in the waiting room until Kayla came to fetch him.

Kayla groused, “Everybody in the building knows you’re here! They all think we’re bonding. This has got to be the last time I see you.”

“Why?”

And Kayla sighed with great patience and reminded Tyler, “We’re divorced!”

He told her logically, “We married because there is a bond between us. WE understand each other—”

“Oh, no, we don’t!”

“—most of the time.” He had continued. “You tend to be more structured in your conduct and not open to new ideas—”

“I will not see you again!”

“—but we are friends.” He finished his words.

Kayla was positive, “No. We are not.”