How to Get a Divorce . . . with loot.

I was staring in the mirror, looking at myself. What was wrong with me ? I felt unhappy. My husband is snoring in the background and I look at him. Whatever did I see in him to agree on his marriage proposal ?

My head was clearing, I needed to get out of this marriage. I needed to break free. However, it is easer said than done. When me and Phil married, it wasn’t only the mutual attraction that existed, my family’s business and Phil’s benefitted by our nuptials, even to that extend that a merger was planned once we inherited.

I got dressed, put my long blond hair in a pony tail and got ready to leave our house.

‘Honey, I’m off, Dad asked me to come over to discuss stuff’ I lied

‘Okay, talk to you later’, Phil grumbled.

 

My father always made time for me, so even though he wasn’t expecting me, he greeted warmheartedly.

‘Hello Susan, what good wind brings you here’ he quipped

‘Dad, I want a divorce’

His face fell in a shock, his happy faced transformed in a worried one.

‘Oh my, please don’t do that. Or at least, just like that. Get some professional counselling before you start anything’ he warned me.

‘Can’t you help me daddy?’

‘See a lawyer, I can’t help you much there, you know I love your mother most of anything in this world’

I reflected on this fact, indeed mom and dad where as tight as could be, I felt ashamed my marriage didn’t work out as good as theirs.

‘But I don’t know any good lawyers’ I sighed.

‘Wait,’ he replied, ‘Denise, she got divorced recently. And as I remember, she drew the long stick. Her ex is devastated, she got everything except the clothes on his back and the job he had’.

He pushed a button and Denise d’Arcy, his secretary promptly appeared from her little office next to dad’s. She was dressed in a blue tweed suit, her hair permed short and a big pearl earring in each earlobe.

‘Denise,’ Dad inquired, ‘when you got divorced, what firm did you employ?’

Denise looked startled, ‘ Euh, Clifford & Cook. You know, they’re located in the Fogarty Building’

‘Thank you Denise’

Denise departed, her heels thicking on the marble floor, her neatly permed hair cut neatly above the collar.

‘There,’ said Dad, ‘I don’t think I can give you a better address’.

‘Thanks Daddy’, I bowed over and kissed him on the cheek, ‘I’m sure not to do anything rush without knowing what I’m into’.

As I left the building, I saw Denise standing at the entrance of the company’s building, she was lighting a cigarette and waved goodby as a whirl of grey clouds whirled from her nose.

 

 

I finally arrived in front of the Fogerty Building. It was a 40 floor office building. Clifford & Cook were situated on the third floor. I buzzed the office bell and a voice chimed over the intercom, ‘Clifford & Cook, how can we help you ?’

‘Hello, this is Susan Bachman’, I replied, ‘I want to acquire your services on a delicate matter’.

‘Bachman as in the Bachman Ironhouse Company?’

‘The same’ I replied.

There was a loud buzz and the door opened. I entered the lobby and went for the lobby as a young woman exited, ‘Miss Bachman’ she smiled as she put out her hand.

I shook her hand and took a good look, to my surprise she looked very similar to Denise d’Arcy. Her hair was just as neatly permed and she also was wearing pearl earrings and a grey skirt suit. Having a closer look, she wasn’t as good looking as Denise, she also was a lot younger.

‘My name is Linda, I’m the assistant to Mister Cook’

She lead me to the elevator, which brings us to the third floor.

I follow her into a small waiting room.

‘Please take a seat’, Linda said, ‘I’ll see if I Mister Cook is ready to receive you’.

There wasn’t much choice, so I sat on the leather sofa and took an old magazine from a nearby table.

Linda reappeared, ‘Can I get you something to drink? Coffee? Tea ? Mister Cook will see to you shortly’

‘Coffee, two sugars and cream’

And off she went, reappearing later with a cup of lukewarm coffee.

I sip it, it tasted awful.

I browsed through the Town & Country magazine. But there’s not much interesting to my taste. So I took a quick look at my watch, 15 minutes, that’s long. I have taken in the surroundings and find it doesn’t appear to be that posh. It tries to be high class, but it’s failing, how did Denise find this dump? I wonder.

I got up and was ready to leave as suddenly an elderly man appeared. ‘Hello Hello Mrs Bachman, how can we help you?’

‘Miss Bachman’, I corrected, ‘or if need be Mrs Turner’

‘My apologies,’ the man replied, ‘I’m Steven Cook, C E O of Clifford & Turner. How can we be of service?’

‘I heard from Denise that your firm handles divorces’

‘Denise, Denise’, he muttered, ‘Ah, Denise d’Arcy he replied, yes I seem to remember she worked for The Bachman Ironhouse Company’

‘She still does’

‘Yes, yes, well, we did a very good job there, I thought she didn’t need to work with all that money we made for her’

‘I think my father is very glad she’s still there, she’s a good assistant’

‘Yes, yes. So how can we help you?’

‘Well, I’m here to get legal counsil, I’m considering to get a divorce and need to make sure I will not be losing anything, a lot on stake’

‘Yes, yes. That’s always tricky. And your husband ? Turner you said ? I hope not Turner as in Turner Roadworks Incorporated ?’

‘Bingo, that’s the one’ I replied.

‘Yes, yes, I can see you would want to get legal advice before endeavouring into such a thing. Lucky for you, you came to the right address as Miss d’Arcy can attest’.

‘And that’s why I’m here’.

 

We talked about legal fees, our nuptial agreements and stuff like that. After I promised to send him a copy of the documents, we shake hands and Linda guides me out of the office. As I leave the building, I see Linda doing something similar as what Denise did a few hours ago, she lit a cigarette and waved me goodbye.

 

Several days later I received a message on my cellphone, the message read ‘Hello Miss Bachman, we went through the documents you supplied and would like to make an appointment to plan our strategy’.

Phil was still shaving as he was getting ready to leave for the office, so I waited until I’m certain he’s gone. I put on my coat and headed out on the street to a small coffee bar nearby. A few latte’s later and a long phone call and an appointment was scheduled for the afternoon.

Again I went to my father’s office. Denise was standing in the entrance, she hurriedly extinguished the cigarette and threw it in the ashtray.

‘Hi Susan, what good wind brings you here?’ she inquired.

‘Oh, I have an appointment with Mr Cook this afternoon, so I have some time to see what my father thinks’

‘Well, it’s a bit lean this time of the year, so I’m sure he’ll have time for you.’

‘Mr Cook told me he did a lot for you, he even said you don’t need to work anymore’.

‘Oh yes, technically I don’t need to, but what can a woman do with her spare time. Besides, I love working for your father, he’s such a nice respectable man’.

I nod in agreement. We enter the building and go to the office. Father is idly sitting at his desk, staring at the computer screen in obvious boredom.

‘Hello Daddy, bored ?’

‘Susan,’ he smiled as he got up and kissed me on the cheek, ‘it’s just the time of the year. Everybody’s on leave. It’s nice of you to come and visit your old father’

I immediately took the bull by it’s horns, ‘I have an appointment with Clifford & Cook this afternoon and came to fill you in and see what you’re thinking. Though I haven’t got much to report as yet.’

‘Well, I know your nuptials had some weird stuff in it, Gary and me, we wanted to protect our individual companies, once you had kids we could plan a merger, but as long as that didn’t manifest we opted to keep our separate companies’

‘I should have taken more care before I got involved with Phil, he was such a charmer,’ I reflected

‘He was’

‘What about grabbing some lunch ? ‘

‘That would be nice, Daddy. As long as can make my appointment, I’m all yours’.

‘An early lunch in that case ‘

 

So at half past eleven my dad and I occupied a table at a nearby restaurant. We had ordered and were enjoying our aperitifs. On the other side of the read, we saw Denise d’Arcy quickly moving . Her butt elegantly dancing in her tight tweed skirt. She turned the corner.

‘Wasn’t that Denise? ‘ I asked.

‘Yeah, that was Denise, she didn’t realize we would be sitting here and took advantage of my departure to take a long afternoon break.’

‘Is that allowed ?’

‘Technically not, but she’s good, so I let it slide. She changed a lot after her divorce. I think she started smoking at that time.’

‘Well, at least she is smoking’

‘I think that’s why she goes home during lunch break, there she won’t be bothered if she lights up another one’.

‘Was she always that prim and proper ?’ I asked.

‘Oh no, another thing that started after her divorce. Or was that even before, I don’t recall, in any case it was around that time.’

‘I heard she doesn’t need the job anymore’

‘I suppose so, but I’m glad she’s still with me. She’s efficient, even more after her divorce’

The meal was delicious and before too long, it was time for the appointment.

 

 

I was again let in by Linda. This time she didn’t let me wait but brought me straight to Mister Cook’s office.

He stood up and greeted me warmly, ‘Hello Susan, please have a seat’.

I did as I was told and asked ‘So what have you found to help me’

He settles in his chair, ‘Well, we studied you case very carefully and unfortunately, the contract is pretty tight in that sense that the person that files for divorce gives up half of his inheritance to the other party, of course unless if proven that the other party wasn’t unfaithful. I hope you aren’t unfaithful’

‘Oh no, nothing like that. It’s just that the marriage doesn’t work out, he rarely talks to me, focusses on his work and leaves me alone most of the time. I don’t remember having sex for months now’.

‘Yes, yes. I understand. Well, let me ask you two things, first, why was he attracted to you, what does he like in you.

‘Well he loves my long blonde hair, my modern style of dressing, my easy going nature.’

‘Yes,yes, Like most men I fear’, he interjected ‘and what does he hate in other women?’

‘He hates short hair, dominating women, especially if they’re a bit posh, and he absulotely hates cigarette smoke.

‘Yes, yes, that’s something we can work with, yes, yes, that will work fine.’

‘How come ?’

‘Well, we can go the same route we went with your friend Denise d’Arcy’

‘She’s my father’s assistance, not my friend’

‘Yes, yes, Anyway, that doesn’t matter. What we did with Denise is change her so her husband didn’t like her anymore, to the point he’d give up everything just to be free of her’.

‘Oh, so, she permed her hair’

‘Yes, yes, and started smoking, her husband was very similar to yours’

‘I see, well, I’ll have to think about it. Do you have any other suggestions ?’

‘Not at this time’ he admitted, ‘but we’ll keep looking’.

 

 

When I left the office I noticed I could still catch up with daddy before he’d go home.

I arrived and Denise was cleaning up her desk. I smiled at her sweetly and looked her over. She didn’t look too bad, a bit too serious, a bit too prim and proper. I went into daddy’s office and greeted him.

‘Hi Daddy’, I greeted, ‘I have some news from the appointment.’

Father sat that with a broad smile ‘I hope it’s good news’.

‘Well, apparently, you were right, I have to make Phil divorce me. But Mister Cook came up with an idea.’

‘He did, did he ?’

‘Well, it’s the same thing as what he did with Denise’

‘And that is ?’

‘He made her change so she’d become unattractive to her husband’

‘Oh dear, that explains her sudden change’

‘Yes, so if I’d look more mature and earnest and perhaps start to smoke, hopefully he’d grow so disgusted he wants to get rid of me’

‘That’s an idea of course. You know, you mother looks prim and proper and I have to admit, Denise is a lot more sufficient since she’s changed her wardrobe. I don’t know about the smoking though.’

‘Yes, that’s what I find most disturbing as well’

‘You know, I was thinking about launching a new business venture, catering for the need of women like your mother and Denise, that’s why I was considering to make Denise CEO, she’d do great. Maybe you could work for her as an assistant, would prepare you for when you’ll have to take over my place’

‘Oh Daddy, you’re still young, you have many years left here behind your desk’

‘Hopefully, but it could get you started and give you and excuse for your sudden change’ and he pushed the button.

Denise rushes in.

‘Hi Denise, as you probably have guessed, my daughter has one husband too many, just like you did.’

‘Oh, ‘ Denise said, ‘I was thinking as much when you asked for my lawyers, mind you, I took them because they were affordable and because they are very discrete. It turned out a lot better than I expected’

‘Well, it’s good to hear they’re discrete’ I intermitted.

‘Anyway Denise, I’m much impressed with your work lately, so I was thinking of making you CEO of the new firm I am planning to start. You know my wife Paula is always complaining it’s so hard to get quality stuff, so we want to cater for those people, people like you, people like my daughter Susan’

‘Susan?’ Denise wondered ?

‘Yes, Susan, she’ll be joining the prim and proper club. Your lawyers suggested the same route as the one they used for you’.

‘Oh, well, it worked for me,’ Denise admitted.

‘So tomorrow, you’ll start up with the new Louise d’Arcy company, specialising in high quality materials for the high end clients’

‘Oh, really, that sounds great’ Denise blushed.

‘Normally I’d organize the launch by the end of this season, but feeling the urgency, I think we can announce tomorrow. Your first job is to hire Susan as your assistant and to transform her so she fits the target public’.

‘Thank you Mister Bachman, I never expected that, but my work here?’

‘I hope I can find somebody to fill your shoes Denise, but honestly, you’re too competent for this job. I’m sure the firm will survive and even grow a lot stronger with our new subsidiary.’

‘Denise, can you help me transforming into what’s needed?’

‘Sure, I’ll make an appointment with Edna, she does my hair’.

‘Thank you Denise’

We all depart to our respective homes ready for a new tomorrow.

 

 

I met Denise in front of Edna’s salon. To my surprise, it’s not a big salon, only two chairs and one hairdresser as far as I can see.

Denise lit a cigarette and offers me one

‘No thank you, I don’t think I’ll need that’

‘Oh, but that’s the best part of the change’, she smiled, ‘It’s so relaxing and helped me a lot to get through the difficult time. It didn’t go as smooth as you think’

Reluctantly I take up the offer. She lit it and I inhaled as if I smoked for years. Clearly I didn’t.

‘At first it’s hard, but once you’re used to it, it comes naturally’

I tried a little less, I wasn’t planning to become a real smoker.

We stood outside for a while until Denise finished her cigarette.

‘We can’t smoke in the salon, but you’ll see, Edna smokes like a chimney and before too long we’ll be having another one in the garden.

We entered the salon and Denise greeted Edna warmly, she kissed her on the cheek ‘Hey Edna, I’m here for my touch up, and this is my assistant Susan, you know, I told you about her, she needs to get a proper haircut for the new company we’re launching at the start of next month.’

‘Hi Denise, hello Susan, ready for a bit change ?’

‘That’s what I’m here for Edna’ I answer.

‘So you want a proper look, what’s your fancy? A nice short cut, a curly look, a bouffant, that would work as well’

‘No, I think I need to go very short and very curly, a bit like Denise, but shorter. Oh and if possible, I’d like to go darker, chestnut if you please’

‘Oh dear, that’s a big change, are you sure ? You have such lovely long hair’

‘Yes, I’m sure’ I said firmly, but inside my stomach was turning.

‘The colour is going to be a little tricky I fear, but we’ll do our best. Denise, do you mind I start with with Susan?’

‘Not at all’.

I’m directed to the chair closest to the window, a big white cape with red stripes is thrown over me. I nervously try to find a good posture in the chair. Edna comes over and ties a paper towel round my neck.

‘Just a little protection my dear, nothing to worry about’

I nod. My stomach starts turning, oh dear did I sound confident? I really was very nervous, luckily it didn’t show.

Edna ties my hair in a thick ponytail . I heard the hum of clippers as she tried to plough through my the thick bunch. My head tugs lightly forward as the tail is finally severed. I look in horror to the butchered hair on my head.

‘Don’t worry, we’ll tidy that up’ Edna laughted

She starts combing through my remaining hair and start cutting it to a length of about three fingers and half. ‘You said very short, so it’ll be the red rods for you.’

I nod, not knowing what she’s talking about.

Schnick schnick schnick the scissors go on my dry hair, tears are starting to swell in my eyes, I try to hold them back, which is hard as I see all my long blond hair slowly sliding to the floor. It doesn’t take long before she’s finished cutting, she directs me to the washing basin and I follow meekly, taking the opportunity to wipe the tears from my eyes, the hardest thing is done, the long hair is gone.

She wraps a towel round my hair and before too long I’m back in the styling chair, cape back in place and a new paper towel applied. She starts to roll my hair in little red rods, like little red bricks they’re rolled in my hair, away from my face. Denise is assisting her providing perming papers as needed. A little sniff and I’m looking at a scared young woman with a lot of tightly wrapped rods in her hair.  Cotton is draped around my hairline over my ears and tied in the back of my neck.

A vile ammonia odor tickles my nose, Edna has just opened the bottle with strong perming solution.

‘We need to do a cold wave if need to color it, unfortunately, it smells bad, but it will look great.’ Edna comforts me.

A timer is set and I’m sitting waiting in the chair. In meanwhile, Denise’s hair is washed. Her blonde curls look even curlier than they did before. A towel is wrapped around her hair and Edna makes the smoking gesture, Denise nods and beckons me to follow.

So we’re outside in the shade on a small patio behind the salon. Edna is already lurking her cigarette, Denise offers me one, I put it in my mouth and three women are silently smoking. Two are clearly enjoying their break, I’m still struggling, trying not to inhale too much.

Two cigarettes later – at least for Edna – Edna signals it’s time to get back to the salon. I’m back in the styling chair and she checks a rod, and another one and yet another one. She slightly pulls her shoulder as if to say, well, we’ll see how that worked.

She directed me to the washing station once more. ‘It’s a little overtime, but as it’s your first time, I think we can get away with it. Damn those cigarettes,’ she mutters.

My hair is washed thoroughly. When Edna is satisfied, she blot dried my hair and refreshed my cotton.

She pours the neutralizing solution in a bowl and adds a gooey substance in it. ‘Dark Chestnut, ‘ I hope that was the color you asked. I nodded in agreement.

She applies the neutralizer with color using a sponge, making sure to get to each and every strand of hair. A plastic wrap was put over the hair and I was left at the washing station.

Swiftly Edna started working on Denise’s hair. ‘we cut it only the day before yesterday I believe, I think the cut is still fine, just need to set another set’

Denise agrees as she handed over rollers from the tray in front of her.

It’s clear Edna’s been doing this for a long time, in a few minutes – or maybe a little longer – Denise’s hair is rolled. A hairnet was put over the rollers and Denise takes place under a big oldfashioned hood, Edna flicks a switch and the dryer starts gently humming. Denise took a magazine and started to read.

Edna was back working on me, she gently starts to wash my hair. While a lukewarm stream of water was cascading over my head. I finally started to relax a towel was wrapped around me head and I was guided back to the styling chair. As Edna removed the towel, I gasped in shock. My long blond hair, all gone, what was left was a very short curly mop of hair. The hair was dried with a towel.

Again, Edna made the universal sign for a smoke break. Denise was in a trance and didn’t see she was clearly enjoying her magazine, or was it, may I wonder, the soft genly hum for drying.

So it’s just me and Edna on the patio, she offers me one of her cigarettes, as she puffs she touches my hair ‘That turned out very nice, I know it’s not what you expected, it never is when you’ve been that attached to a style, but you’ll be loving it in not time, it’s so easy to get ready each day, though you’ll need to maintain it, I suggest you come over twice a week. Mind you, it’s best not to wash it or do anything with it for the first five days, so best come back next week’

I nod as I put the cigarette in my mouth.

‘Oh dear, you’re a novice, I can tell, see, this is what you have to do’, she inhaled deeply and then slowly released the smoke through her lips.

I tried to imitate it, I felt like coughing, I succeeded in holding back. I felt the smoke entering my longs and suddenly I got it. Slowly the white smoke left my nose as I released it from my lungs.

‘That’s the ticket’ Edna said. She looked at her clock.

She put out her cigarette, I did the same and we returned to the salon. The dryer had stopped buzzing and clearly Denise was awakened from her reverie. ‘Oh, you went for a smoke without me,’ she sobbed.

Now it was Denise’s turn in the styling chair. Swiftly Edna brushed through her hair and it didn’t take long before Denise’s hair formed the perfect shape. She was handed over a plastic eye shield as a thick layer of lacquer was sprayed to lock it. After a short rest, a second layer was applied and Denise emerged with a big broad smile on her face. She looked into the mirror, softly touched the hair. ‘Perfect as usual Edna, perfect. Smoke ?’

‘Let’s first finish poor Susan, I bet her hair has dried by now. It’s so short and curly’

She glided with her hands through my hair, I felt a slight arousal. It must be very short as it feels like she doesn’t have far to travel to reach my skull.

I was back in the styling chair, looking at the unfamiliar face in the mirror, a short haired woman was staring back at me, dark brown hair on her head, very curly and very short. But why did that woman appear to have my face.

I hear a click and the grumble of clippers. Edna pushed my head forward. The clippers were put in my nape and started to move up, the pitch changed as she went up. This is repeated on the left on the right, ever closer to my ears. For the first time I could see my ears without having to pull up my hair, they were so void of hair, my clip on earrings became very visible. Edna reached for a comb which she used to remove all little tufts of hair out of place. I didn’t take long for me to have a very short, very dark, very curly tight hallow of hair.

Edna wasn’t finished yet. She gently pushed my head forward again, and I felt her lather up my neck and above the ears. She clicked open a straight razor and before I could say anything she was scraping my neck and well above my ears. My arousal climaxed as she cleaned up my after the shave and she gently touched my now bare skin.

I looked at myself in the mirror and finally beamed. I could get used to the girl in the mirror, she looked very brave. The earrings disturbed me so I removed them once the cape was taken away.

‘Now we can have a smoke I said, unfortunately, I have nothing to offer so I’ll have to bum again’

My court ladies smiled and each offered me a cigarette. I took both of them ‘Let’s make it two’

On the patio we were smiling and laughing. I felt so relieved the ordeal was finished. I gently touched my remaining hair

‘Well, that’s really nice, you really should some better suiting earrings,’ Denise suggested.

‘I think I still have some pearl studs,’ Edna replied, ‘I could shoot them for you’.

‘Yes,’ I answered as I took a deep inhale from my cigarette.

It didn’t take long for Edna to produce the piercing gun and two painful pricks later, pearl earrings adored my ears.

I looked at my reflection in the window. ‘Nice, very nice, but my eyebrows, they do not match my hair anymore, it looks awful’.

Edna took a look, ‘You’re right Susan, unfortunately, at this time there’s little we can do except shaving them off and drawing them with a pencil’

‘Let’s do that, this is really disturbing,’ I answered.

We were back in the salon, some shaving cream was applied and in a few short strokes Edna removed my eyebrows. My reflection looked even weirder. Edna quickly drew in new ones, they matched my image perfectly.

Denise and I left the salon, I felt like I was on cloud 9. Denise told me she had still a lot of budget left for the rest of the transformation and we went on a late night shopping spree.

When I entered my house I was dressed in a traditional brown tweed skirt suit. I even was wearing traditional underwear. Nothing flowed as freely as it used to. I had chosen for the girdle and was wearing some dark brown stockings. I even walked in traditional black pumps. Luckily I was used to them as I had worn them often.

‘Honey, I’m home,’ I yelled.

A familiar head appeared, I could see the shock on his face. ‘Susan, what did you do ?’

‘Do you like it? It’s for my new job, you know, Louise d’Arcy’, I smiled, ‘you know, the new company Denise is starting’. I swirled around to show off my new style. I opened my purse and took out a cigarette and lit it.

‘Susan, Susan, what are you doing? You don’t smoke.’

‘I do now,’ I grinned, ‘Denise implored me, it’s a great stress reliever, it really is’

‘But not in the house’

‘But Phil, this is my house, I can smoke if I need to’ I insisted.

Phil redrew and slammed the door as he headed to the spare bedroom.

Hey, it looks like this plan might work after all.

 

 

Three months later, Louise d’Arcy was launched successfully. It was hard struggling, but things were going as planned. The thing that didn’t work out as planned was getting Phil divorce me. It was clear that he didn’t fancy me at all anymore. I guess, he too was fully aware of the consequences. Too bad for me. Fortunately, I enjoyed my new style. Especially my regular visits to Edna, Denise always accompanied me. We enjoyed doing stuff together, most of all, we enjoyed our smoking breaks.

Alas, I never got the opportunity to grow my eyebrows as needed, but shaving them off each day and drawing them in with a pencil wasn’t hard and I was getting used to it. I even was considering getting them tattooed, but then I would lose versatility, now, I could do them according the occasion. I mostly drew them in very thin.

During the weeks I noticed that my bushy bush also didn’t fit my ‘natural’ new hair, so I have them regular waxed completely . Strangely I enjoy the pain of the pull, it reminds me that I do have control over my body.

The next thing I tried was wearing old fashioned glasses. Phil didn’t like that either, unfortunately, he obviously knew about the nuptials. Ha, well, even this life was better than my old one, he really didn’t bother me that much anymore as I rarely saw him.

Clifford & Cook went bankrupt after a while. We picked up Linda, apparently her last name was Gearson, as she also looked the part. She was glad to be offered a new job, perhaps less happy she had to upkeep her appearance. Tough luck Linda. We also hired a few young girls, Wendy, Sarah and Tracey. They didn’t know yet, but their tresses would be heading a similar way.

 

 

One day I entered my home and noticed that Phil wasn’t there, as usual. I also noticed he had forgotten his business case. It was locked, I tried to guess the numbers I needed and I wasn’t amazed it opened at the first try, Phil was so predictable. I browsed through the contents, a diary with strange notations, very often there was an S put on some of the evenings he was absent. I also saw a pack of condoms. Why the hell would he need those, we hadn’t had sex in months, if not years, then a little light bulb appeared. It would be hard to prove, another brilliant idea came to me. I took a long thin needle and gently pushed it through each and every pack of condoms. I was pretty sure he wouldn’t check them in his eagerness. I quickly put everything back in place and closed the case.

Happily I searched for my bed for a nice dream and a good sleep.

 

The next day I hired a private investigator to follow Phil discretely. It was expensive but it didn’t take long to get a result. I was shocked, the girl he was seeing was Sarah, one of the girls we hired recently.

Unfortunately Phil was very careful, and though we could put them together, we couldn’t prove they had a relationship, let be they had sex.

 

 

After four months Denise and me evaluated the company. Results were better than expected. Clearly we have found a viable niche in the market and sales were going very well.

I suggested it was time to solidify our relationship with our employees and would drag them into the fold. All three girls were shocked when they heard the instructions. We wouldn’t force them to smoke but they needed to get permed and wear suitable clothes to make our clients feel at ease when they were visited. Clients needed to identify with our staff. The girls were dragged into Edna’s salon and half a day later three woman emerged in the office, Wendy with tight red curls, Sarah with a similar blonde do and Tracey jet black. It didn’t take long before they got used to it.

 

Next monday, Sarah entered the office crying. I took her aside and asked her what was the matter.

‘My boyfriend broke up with me’, she cried, ‘He didn’t like my new look’.

‘He’s a fool,’ I said, ‘he knew the company you work for, so he could expect a look like that’

‘He was the one suggesting I’d get a job here’ she muttered.

‘Did he? Still. It’s no biggie, you have a steady job, a good income, you’ll survive’.

‘But I’m pregnant,’ she uttered. ‘And when I told him he said it couldn’t be his, that he was always careful and always used protection’.

Success I thought, got him, he’s cooked now!

‘We’ll take care of you, and we’ll take care of the baby. We’re a family’.

I consoled her and she relaxed and she must have felt secure as she uttered ‘Thank you, you’re the best boss’

‘I’m not the boss, but I’m sure Denise will agree’ I replied.

Seven months later, the baby was born, a bright young girl. Sarah named her Elisabeth.

I filed for divorce on grounds of Phil being unfaithful.

The smug idiot thought he could escape his fate.

Having hired the reputable firm of Anderson & Andersson the case went to court. Clearly the DNA test of Elisabeth proved beyond doubt that Phil was the father, and I was awarded everything I was due and even more.

Now it was Phil who was left with only the shirt on his back and his job – oh no, I think he even lost that, as the only reason he got it was because he was the son.

I don’t think the relationship with his father blossomed as Turner Roadworks was assimilated in Bachman Ironhouse Company as it couldn’t survive on it’s own with most of the shares in my fathers possession now due to the Nuptials.

That night our little company went out to celebrate. Sarah was relaxed and felt really at ease, she had also opted to go for the dark hair color, and was already in a new relationship with a loving man named Tom. Tracey & Wendy also brought their better halves. Linda had a flashing light relationship with Mister Cook for a while, but quickly realized she would have to support him, so she was out for a new guy. Even Denise had found love and even contemplating marriage to Wilson.

I sat at the bar smiling, enjoying everything, life blossoming and everything turning out better than I hoped. A nice young man approached me, ‘Excuse me aren’t you Louise d’Arcy’

‘I’m sorry,’ I corrected him, ‘I’m Susan, the assistant to Denise d’Arcy, the boss of Louise d’Arcy? There’s no real Louise d’Arcy, it’s just a commercial name’

He sighed with relief, ‘I’m glad, you caught my eye, but I wouldn’t dare to approach the boss or owner’

Little did he know my father was the real owner, but I let him in the dark.

‘Will you have a drink with me ?’, he softly asked.

I gazed into his eyes, he gazed into mine. He gently tapped my curly locks. It seemed like the drought was over.

 

The End