A Poisonous Echo
his approval had been flattering . Privately , he admitted to being attracted to her sexually , but he would never have acted on it if she hadn ’ t forced the issue .
One evening , when his barely remembered one night stand was a month old , his last meeting of the day had badly over-run . Wearily pushing his papers into his briefcase , at the end of the session , he had checked his watch , the weather and the timetable and realised that he had three hours to wait for the next train . His wife always worried when he used the car in icy road conditions ; so that morning , with great reluctance , not wanting to add to her post-natal depression , whatever that was , he ’ d agreed not to drive in , so with no car available he had no choice but to wait . One of the typists was sitting on the outer office desk ... he could see her long slim legs swinging as she waited for someone out of his line of vision to finish a telephone call . Walking past , on his way out , he realised that it was Joyce trilling away to whomsoever was on the line , “ Nothing elaborate – just a re-heat in the microwave ” and then , covering the mouthpiece , she had smiled at him . “ As my place is so near I ’ m making eats for a few weary souls . Would you like to join in ? You could probably use a drink .” He had hesitated , eyeing the other girl who , taking advantage of the interruption , eased herself off the desk . “ See you ,” she said , waving to Joyce as she departed . He had naively assumed that she was one of the other guests and had accepted the invitation ; anything was better than a long wait at the railway station .
Later , sitting in her otherwise empty apartment , he asked with surprise where everyone else was . The invitation he had obviously been meant to hear had certainly not been for that night ... except for him alone ! They must have been seen leaving together an hour earlier so he was already guilty in the eyes of the world and after all , he was only human . Now look where his
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