Part 1
As a power user of a software product which had led to its adoption at my law firm, I was invited by the developer to come to their Midwest headquarters to be part of a working group. They occasionally held meetings at legal technology conventions where we were wined and dined. The developer introduced some concepts for an upgrade and as part of the beta some power users were invited to their Grand Rapids headquarters to test it out.
Although I'm usually way too busy, the opportunity to spend 3 days in a city in the upper Midwest where I have a lot of friends, paid for by the software developer with plenty of food and drink, was too much to pass up. As it was I didn't even see any of my friends, but I still had a fantastic time. I was told that there would be a small group of similar users coming to the meetings, which would last two full days.
It was late July. Hot and muggy from the moment you stepped off the airplane. Coming in on Sunday night I had a light dinner, did some reading and went to bed. On Monday morning I drove to the headquarters, which was in a suburban office park, and housed about 4,000 employees.
I was the last to arrive. There were eight invitees, three men and five women. All of the women appeared to be in their late 20s or early 30s, younger than my 41. All were reasonably attractive, although I was more concerned at first with trying to wake up with the three hour time difference from Seattle. My coffee did not kick in at first. After a brief welcome and orientation in a conference room we were brought into a classroom-style training area. There were four desks, each with two laptops. The instructors were waiting at the front of the room.
My assigned spot was at the far right on the row of four desks. One of the women sat down to my left. I introduced myself. She introduced herself as Erika. We began to chit chat while waiting to begin.
Erika is about 5' 5" tall. She has brown hair that falls just past her shoulders, parted on one side and combed back. Erika's skin was tanned with a few freckles showing through. Erika had on a navy blue striped suit with a white blouse underneath. She didn't have especially obvious breasts, and from first glance had nicely rounded hips. She weighed about 120 pounds and appeared to be fairly trim. Her frame was wider than some women, and she was obviously athletic.
Erika told me that she had just made partner at her firm in the upper Midwest. She was recently married yet for some reason there was a sadness about her when she related that. I learned that she was a bird hunter. Her eyes glowed when describing the joy of being in a blind at 5 am. I told her about my maritime law practice, that I was divorced without children, lived in a large house overlooking the water, and that my tastes leaned toward eating game, not hunting it.
We spent the day reviewing the new product, offering suggestions about what could be improved, and asking why certain changes had been made to the look and feel. There were some very nice features that would likely help with paralegal productivity.
I did not talk much to Erika during the day, thinking that I owed the company a good day of work for their trouble before enjoying myself at dinner. Erika offered intelligent and thoughtful criticism and discussion all day. Her product knowledge was first rate, she had some coding experience that provided practical advice, and was the most impressive of the invitees. I continued to chat with Erika at different times during the day but didn't learn much more than that we were all at the same hotel.
Everyone drove their cars back to it before dinner. The software company had arranged dinner at a nearby steakhouse at 7. When I returned to my room I found a note stating that the hotel's wireless internet was down but that the front desk could offer a limited number of Ethernet cables for guests. Fortunately I travel with my own cable. I changed from my suit to casual slacks and a buttoned shirt, then met the crew downstairs. We had agreed to take two of the cars to dinner. I drove one of the cars. Erika shared the backseat with another guest.
Dinner was pleasant - an excellent rib eye, some Barolo, and pleasant conversation with seven other intelligent people and two people from the developer.
I sat at one end of the table. Erika was on my right. She had on her suit skirt and her white blouse. The skirt was cut just above the knees, and had a modest slit front and back. While walking into the restaurant I had a nice view of Erika's bottom, and lovely it was, with a fine curve to her hips. I also noticed that her stomach was flat, always a plus in my book. Her breasts were relatively small 34s.
Early in the dinner Erika commented that she had wanted to check her email but the desk had loaned out all of the Ethernet cables. I offered to let her use mine. She accepted with appreciation but said that she would check with the desk when we returned to the hotel.
Erika and I spent most of the dinner talking about our practices and ourselves. I left her personal life out of it. She said hardly anything about her personal life, even when she had the opportunity to discuss it, and she seemed down about it. Erika had three glasses of wine, while I kept it to two because I was driving.
When we returned to the hotel she stepped over to the front desk to ask about the cable. They had none. Erika asked if she could borrow my cable. I agreed.
Everyone else had gone directly to their rooms. We took the elevator to my floor. Erika entered the room, I unplugged the cable and gave it to her, telling her that I didn't need it that night and could just get it in the morning. She thanked me, slightly tipsy, wished me good night, and left.
I read for a few minutes but realized that I was on West Coast time and decided to go down to the atrium bar for a drink with that day's New York Times crossword.
About an hour later I was polishing off my glass of wine and the puzzle when I saw Erika enter the bar. I was sitting at a round booth near the back side of the bar where it was a bit quieter and the one light made it easy to see the puzzle. Erika had my cable. "You weren't in your room," she said, "so I thought you might be having a drink."
"Please join me," I said, and gestured for her to sit.
She sat down in the booth, not directly opposite me but in from the other side at the round table. The waitress took her order and brought a glass of wine. Erika again looked sad. She may have been crying. I didn't want to go there, but I had to ask, "Is something wrong?"
"I don't know how to say this, but I'm pretty sure that my husband is divorcing me."
I was stunned that anyone would want to leave this intelligent, attractive woman. "I hope you don't mind me asking, and please don't tell me anything you want to keep private, but I have to say that I cannot imagine any reasonable, intelligent man wanting to divorce you."
Erika gave me a half smile, thankful for the compliment, and said "I can't tell you how horrible it has been for the past four months." She burst into tears. I offered her a cloth napkin for her face.
She caught herself fairly quickly, then began telling her story. Her husband had been a good friend from college. They had dated for a while but never slept together. A couple years after college they ran into each other and started to date again. After a year he proposed, and thinking that it was a pretty good deal she accepted.
They had never lived together. His family had a lot of old money, and they treated her like a daughter, showering her with gifts. The wedding was huge and it fulfilled all of her dreams. But that night it all began to unravel. Erika tastefully did not divulge any of the details of what went wrong, but she said that he lived like a pig, acted like a pig, and was altogether not what she expected him to be as a husband, friend and a man. It was sad to listen to her tale of woe.
"So what makes you think he is divorcing you?"
"I asked him to go to counseling to save our marriage. What was I supposed to do? I thought I loved him, and sometimes I still do, but most of the time I can't stand him and I told him that. He said that we didn't have any other choice, that his family would never allow us to go to counseling and that he would have our marriage annulled if I tried. He sent me an e-mail from his lawyer which had attached to it the papers they were going to file tomorrow."
