The party

This is chapter two in the the story, " For the Love of Coffee."

Chapter 1 is linked here.

Chapter 2; The Party

During the short walk to the boutique all Susan could think about was Jonathon Roland. The way he walked, the way he talked, his smile, his eyes, his clothes, everything about him fascinated her. She couldn’t remember any man that made her feel the way she felt in his presence. It was if the room was charged with electricity during their meeting.

She touched her hand as she walked and could still feel the heat she felt when he had touched her there. It felt as if his fingers had imprinted onto hers. She thought that she could become strongly attracted to this man but she knew this was the one thing he did not want. He’d said that he didn’t want personal problems to effect the way they worked together.

Susan promised herself that she would keep away for the sake of their working relationship.

She thought, “He must have scores of women fighting just to be near him anyway.” and refused to let her physical attraction jeopardize her career.

When Susan walked into the boutique, Tina was at the back of the store telling an elderly woman how good she looked in striped shorts. The women looked ridiculous! Tina noticed Susan as she walked in and held up one finger, to say just a minute. Susan was amazed when Tina’s customer bought three pairs of the striped shorts.

After the lady left the store Tina, smiling from ear to ear, asked Susan, “Well, how did it go? Did you steal his heart and pocket book?”

Susan frowned at her, for this was Tina. She was always telling Susan to use the gifts that God had given her to steal what she could from a man and leave him broken hearted.

Tina saw the frown and said, “Sorry love. How did it go, really?”

Susan couldn’t hold it in any longer and almost shouted, “I got the job. I leave for South America Thursday morning.”

Tina’s face dropped, her chin fell to her chest, she looked like a Halloween mask.

“No,” she said.

“Yes,” Susan replied, “I started today. I’m on my way to do some research when I leave you. Do you have time to have lunch with me?”

“Yes, of course,” Tina said before calling back to the storeroom to let her helper know that she would be leaving for an hour.

Tina was Susan’s best friend in the world. They had met jogging on the U of T campus shortly after Susan had left her small town on the east coast to attend university in Toronto. They met when Susan was still a young girl of seventeen and lost in the big city. She remembered Tina telling her that she liked her from that first meeting, saying that she had never met anyone with so much beauty and so much innocence.

They were both working on degrees in business so had a lot to talk about. They spent all their free time together. They studied together and partied together, jogged together and ate together whenever their schedules didn’t clash. Susan was the young girl and Tina the experienced woman, although Tina was only one and a half years older.

When Susan came to U of T she was a virgin, Tina most certainly was not. They spoke of sex quite often but Tina did most of the talking. This was a subject that Susan didn’t know much about. Tina told her that her body and incredible beauty were formidable weapons that could be used to get whatever she wanted in life.

When Susan left university with an MBA she was no longer a virgin but neither was she an experienced woman. She had made love a total of three times in six years and didn’t think it was everything Tina had made it out to be.

Tina had finished school one year ahead of Susan and took a year off to visit her brother, Michael, in Spain. When she returned to Toronto, Tina immediately contacted Susan and for a week they spoke of nothing but the pleasures of Spain and Latin lovers. Less than a month after returning home, Tina’s sister contacted her with an irresistible offer. She wanted to open a boutique in Toronto and wanted Tina to run it. When Tina hung up the phone she was beyond excited, she and Susan celebrated into the wee hours of the morning.

Tina begged Susan to join her at the boutique, promising her that within five years there would be a chain of stores across the country. They would become fabulously wealthy and move to Spain and spend their days basking in the sun, money and lovers with names like Miguel and Jose.

Susan refused to join in this fantasy, stating it wasn’t for her. She wanted something a little more believable than Tina’s dream.

So when she heard about the personal assistant position at Roland Enterprises she immediately put in her application. She was actually quite unprepared to be interviewed by Mr. Roland himself. But when he had asked her to start today, she had to pinch herself to make sure she wasn’t dreaming.

But now as she sat on a park bench with Tina, looking out over Lake Ontario it was finally setting in. She knew this was the opportunity of a lifetime and would do everything in her power to impress Jonathon Roland with her dedication to the job.

After walking Tina back to the store and agreeing to a small celebration at their apartment that night, she went to the library and immersed herself in the South American coffee growing business. She spent the rest of the day researching the coffee industry, trying to understand the business before her next meeting with Jonathon. Susan wanted to impress him fully on Thursday with her knowledge of coffee and its growers. She decided to research one grower at a time and started with the first name on the list, Carlos Sanchez, a small grower from Colombia.

By time she got home that night at seven, Susan was exhausted and had forgot all about Tina’s little celebration. When she got off the elevator on their floor she heard the thumbing of loud music in the hallway. She opened her door and was amazed and annoyed to find at least fifteen people drinking and dancing in their small two bedroom apartment.

She greeted the people she knew and made her way down the apartment’s only hallway, struggling to get past the line of people outside the apartment’s only washroom, trying to get to her bedroom so that she could change. Just as she reached her bedroom the door opened and Michael walked out and stopped in his tracks when he saw her. He looked at her for a second with anger in his eyes before saying, “Sorry I needed to change,” and pushed past her to get to the living room.

Susan’s heart was in her throat as she quickly entered her room and closed the door behind her. Her body was trembling uncontrollably as she thought, “What the hell is he doing here. He promised he would never come here if I was home.”

It had been over six months since the last time she saw him. She would never forget that night and what Michael had done, it had lived in her nightmares ever since. How would any women ever forget waking up in the middle of the night to find her best friend's brother standing over her masturbating?

She stayed in her room not knowing what to do until Tina came in and asked her, “Are you okay? Everyone is waiting to congratulate you. We have a cake and presents and your favourite snacks.”

Susan felt cornered and didn’t know what to say. She couldn’t tell Tina what Michael had done; it would destroy her relationship with her brother.

She looked at Tina with a fake smile and said, “Sorry, I just needed to rest a little. I feel worn out. It’s been a long day. I’ll just change my clothes and be out in a minute.”

Tina looked at her with concern before speaking, “Ok, but hurry up girl. Everyone is waiting for you to make an appearance.”

The last of the guests didn’t leave until one in the morning and Susan was glad it was over as she was dropping. She was upset that Michael would be spending the night but what could she say that wouldn’t upset Tina?

Susan woke up at nine in the morning feeling like someone had kicked her in the stomach as she slept. She couldn’t understand why she felt so hung over as she was sure that she’d only had three or four drinks all night. Her memory of the party was spotty at best but she pushed her thoughts aside as she rushed to the bathroom to throw up and pee. She was in a hurry as she didn’t have much time. She needed to get back to the library and continue her research. She sat on the toilet thinking about what she needed to do before her trip feeling an annoying pain in her groin. As she reached down to wipe herself she noticed a bruise on her inner thigh and thought, “What the hell? Did I dance that much? Why can’t I remember?”

It took her twenty minutes to get cleaned up and dressed before walking to the kitchen to grab a cup of coffee. She was just finishing her coffee when her phone started to ring at the same time as the apartment door opened.

Michael walked in the door holding breakfast sandwiches in his hand. He had a look of pure joy on his face as he spoke, “Good morning beautiful. Did you have a good sleep?”

Memories of the party started to surface as soon as he spoke.

Susan stared at him with fear and disbelief for a few seconds before answering her phone.

“Hello, this is Susan speaking.”

She stared at Michael with tears in her eyes as she listened to the voice on her phone,

“Good morning Susan, this is Jonathon Roland. I know it’s short notice but do you think we could meet for coffee in about an hour? There’s something I want to discuss before our trip.”

*** Chapter 3 is linked here.