With FIFA World Cup games airing in the deeps of the night and the early morning, the question at Winona’s office this week, is, who is going to win? Who is going to be brave and daring enough…to call in sick on Friday after the 2 AM game, New Zealand versus Paraguay?
Winona breezes in with the unpatriotic freshness of someone who doesn’t much care for football and has had a good night’s sleep. Both her part-timers are not in on Friday. The force majeur of the office, Largeman, goes for the goal and calls in claiming food poisoning. The second in command, Nervberg, is pale green with exhaustion. With this freedom, Winona takes the opportunity to coax Willow out for a long lunch.
Over spanakopita, Winona starts by apologizing. “If I had known that Wayland was your ex, too, I wouldn’t have let him through the door at that party we had. No wonder you left early. I hope you’ll forgive me.”
Willow blushes and murmurs that of course it wasn’t her fault. Then she does a double take. “Too…does that mean you went out with him? But I thought it’s always been you and Will!”
“Oh, well, we had a little spat in our third year at uni and saw other people for a while. And I wound up with Wayland. He was gorgeous then, but utterly mad. I broke up with him because he was dealing tinnies using the phone in my flat. It was before mobiles, that’s how long ago it was. Then he dropped out mid-semester. Will and I got back together soon after that. How on earth did you meet him?”
“Online.” Willow, all upper-middle class innocence, had been swept off her feet. He left the tepid graduate student companions of her past in the shade with motorcycle rides and kitchen-floor ravishments. Then the requests began. A loan until payday. A hand getting a grant for the business. He’d never eaten when he came by. When he asked her to be a co-owner of a business, Willow finally balked. His response was three weeks of alternating silent treatment and cruelty that turned her into a human jelly. Just before she had gotten enough bottle to break up with him once and for all, he had left her for another woman. Who he had also met online.
By the end of this, Winona is swollen up with indignant fury, a blend of the sisterly and the Amazonian. Willow, shyly gratified that someone is so angry on her behalf, dares to admit, “It didn’t work out with the other woman, he tells me. I think maybe he wants to get back together again. But…”
While she chooses clip art that afternoon, Winona tries to decide what’s more important: building Willow back up. Or bringing Wayland seriously down.
…tinnies?
also, i can’t wait to find out what she decides.