It is a dark and stormy night. Now, how often have you heard a story start out that way? However, it is true; this is one of those late autumn, or early winter, nights. The sun sets early. At the end of a work day people make their way home in near darkness. Dark, really dark, skies happen when the cloud cover is so dense none of the light, from whatever phase the moon happens to be in, can penetrate the clouds and every star is completely hidden by the dense masses of building clouds overhead. Far off in the distance can be heard a few rumbles and the sky shows an occasional flash of lightening. Any one listening to the rumbles would know the storm is coming nearer. Cate doesn't really mind the thunder, but she knows her little dog, Chipper, doesn't like the weather and will be cowering in a corner of the living room, or under the bed, anticipating more thunder and rain.
When she finally opens the garage door, it is just before a still distant, but bright flash of lightening, lights up the interior of her garage almost like mid-day. Breathing an inaudible sigh of relief, she drives her car into the garage and closes the overhead door. She collects her handbag, suit coat, and overstuffed briefcase, carrying them inside, and dumping everything on the kitchen table.
First things first, right? It is a struggle. She feels bad that she must force the small dog to open her mouth, but she finally gets half of a tranquilizer tablet down the dog's throat and moans to herself, as the little terrier slinks away to cower in fear and find her bed in the corner of the den, where she will sleep for the next few hours. Tomorrow Chipper will be friendly, but sluggish, for more than half of the day. But at least she will not have a heart attack, caused by the stress of trembling, panting, and agitation, a result of the night's disturbed weather.
My turn, Cate thinks, as she takes her suit coat, handbag, and briefcase, and walks across the den where she leaves the briefcase on one end of the couch. Another flash of lightening precedes the rumble of thunder, a little louder than the previous ones, as she walks down the hall to her bedroom and begins to undress, wishing, perhaps, she could find a similar escape from the storm. After hanging the suit on the closet door, so it will air out, she puts her blouse and underwear in the hamper and turns on the water in the bathtub, but changes her mind and pulls the showerhead diverter instead. She stands under the hot water for longer than usual, trying to relax and loosen the tense muscles in her shoulders.
Eventually she makes it to the kitchen, where she opens a can of soup and makes herself a toasted cheese sandwich. She cannot think of anything else to fix on short notice and is not very hungry anyway, but if she does not eat something, she will be hungry before bedtime. Lunch was late and there was too much of it, probably adding to the sluggishness she felt all afternoon. Through her kitchen window, she looks at the skies, silent lightening flashing above the low cloud cover. She does feel much better after eating something and is finally beginning to relax.
Making herself comfortable in her favorite chair, Cate opens her newest book to the first page and begins to read. The dark sky is still reverberating with the low rumble of distant thunder and is lit by an occasional flash of lightening. A light splatter of rain falls and then stops. She tries to give little concern to the storm as it gets nearer. Her world around her should keep her from harm. She is now safely home for the evening, hoping she will not need to go anywhere for the weekend either, although there are several things on her "To Do Today" list. Besides, she is so engrossed in her book she is not giving much attention to anything but the steamy situation, in which the heroine has found herself.
The book is an escape mechanism Cate often uses when a full day of stress ends with dissatisfaction, when she can do nothing about the accumulating mess in her office. She is finished with a day of too many telephone calls, too many details that are still to be decided upon, and a week when no one seemed to be helping. Instead everyone seemed to add additional paperwork to the already too full file that has to be reduced to a ten page report she hopes will be read. Maybe a quiet weekend will get it all into some kind of order inside her head and she can begin to assemble something that will spark an interest in the few people who will bother to read it. Her supervisor should be putting the report together, instead of leaving it on Cate's desk with a note, "Fix this trash. I'm out of town Monday."
The sudden ringing of the doorbell startles her and she jerks. She jerks again as a loud clap of thunder sounds as if it is only a few blocks away. Then she chuckles at herself as she pushes herself out of the overstuffed chair to see who is at the front door. When she looks through the small window in the front door, she recognizes Henry Tierney, one of the company partners, with whom she has little more than a nodding acquaintance. In such a large company, it is not surprising, people at the lower end of the middle management staff, have no opportunity to know the executives on the two floors above her much smaller office.
Cate opens the door and greets one of her bosses, "Good evening, Mr. Tierney. Can I help you?"
"Yes, you can invite me in before I am struck by lightening", he says, with a light hearted grin, as a long low rumbling comes from the dark sky. He looks behind him and says, "That thing's getting closer all the time."
"Oh", she opens the door wider. "Wow, it really is getting worse. I haven't been paying much attention. I'm sorry, yes, please come in."
She moves back and takes a few steps into the large, dimly lit, living area and asks, as politely as she dares, "Ah... is there something I can do for you?"
"Well, probably a couple of things, but just one for this visit."
Although he looks at her when he speaks, it seems to Cate that everything he says is spoken to some area below her chin rather than looking her in the eye, as she would have expected from someone in his position. She is also somewhat nervous, not expecting anyone from the company, much less one of the partners, to come to her home.
When she glances down, she realizes she is wearing only a thin nightgown. Her nipples are very prominently showing through the sheerness of the lacy material. Trying to disguise her movements, she slowly crosses her arms across her chest and watches the friendly smile on his face change to a look of disappointment. "Ah, you said you need something, sir?"
"Yes, well ... you see, I have these new sales totals... ah... that I wanted to make sure were included... in that report ... the report you've been working on." While stumbling around for words, he is pulling several sheets of paper from the inside pocket of his jacket.
"Oh, okay", Cate says holding out her hand for the papers, which Mr. Tierney does not seem to be willing to let go of. "Those are probably what I was looking for earlier today."
"Did you bring that file home with you?" he wants to know. Both of them jerk and look toward the patio doors as a boom of thunder is heard and the back yard is lit by lightening.
"Yes sir, it's in my briefcase", she says a little louder than necessary. And then she lowers her voice, to add. "I thought I might find a little time this weekend, away from the constant ringing of the telephones, to try to sort through all of it." While saying this she walks across the room, turns her briefcase over and unzips the sides, laying it flat on the ottoman in front of her reading chair, without realizing she is giving him a good view of the low back of her nightgown and her rounded bottom.
