Falling For Mr. Greenfield

§ 12 § (BWWM)

GOSSIP

"Marie, what happened to you last night?" Paige insisted.

"I was out of town. Why?" Marie inquired in a somewhat disingenuous manner.

"I attended the annual ball held by the Dallas Bar Association and you will never guess who showed up?" The woman stated with a little too much pep in her voice.

"Paige will you please get on with it!" Marie was in no mood for foolishness. The only reason she hadn't feigned some issue or another to get off the phone was that Paige was a good friend.

"Asher was at the ball..." The woman said as her friend interrupted her.

"Why would you call with this kind of BS. I don't care what Asher does. He is no longer my problem." She lashed out.

"Will you just shut it and listen. He showed up with a young black woman as his date. She was absolutely gorgeous, and he told everyone that she was his girlfriend. I don't know who their stylist is, but they were dressed to the nines. They looked so good together everyone received them as if they were movie stars." Paige continued to ramble about how they were fawned over by those in the upper echelons who were also present at the party. The woman energetically emphasized that her editor announced that the couple were such a moving presence that they would be featured on the cover of the Dallas Bar Association magazine.

Marie slammed the phone down on the receiver. Even though her friend was still talking, she refused to listen to another word.

She was convinced that stupid cow called fully aware this bit of tinder would light a fire-alarm under her day. In her mind, Paige's real reason for calling was most likely so the other woman could revel in successfully destroying the rest of her afternoon.

Anyone who knew Marie was well aware of her inability to take criticism or bad news. With the intimate knowledge that her so-called friend had of her, why would she then call knowing her account of the ball would cause a volcanic eruption in Marie's soul?

As soon as an opportunity presented itself, she would make that heifer pay for not calling her the moment the incident happened. By now, she would have already gotten to the bottom of this mess by putting out the gossip bonfires destined to sprout up all over town.

Just when the day began to take an upturn, this crap was dropped squarely in her lap.

§§§

RESPECTED ESTABLISHMENT

"Why are you leaving the Arias' home so late?" Sorrow stopped by one of her client's houses as one of her workers exited the home a full two hours after she was scheduled to return to the office at the end of her shift.

Zolla Bouchette had been referred to the company by Sorrow's mother.

Apparently, one of Binnie's friends had a daughter in desperate need of employment. It had never been her typical hiring practice to employ friends. She made it a point to go through the proper steps when hiring and firing personnel to prevent mishaps associated with hiring those who might believe themselves to be shielded from company policy. Often hiring a friend of a friend made the employee believe they had extra benefits not extended to others. This type of behavior could lead to far too many problems and Sorrow was having none of that.

Working for her company required a certain level of professionalism from everyone no matter how they became employed.

With that being said, Zolla seemed to think none of the rules applied to her. But it was unfortunate that she would soon learn the importance of following those rules.