Miranda gives in to temptation and trades an A for a lay.
Enjoy..
******
Miranda looked up at a light tapping on the frosted glass of her office door.
“Come in,” she replied while leaning back in her chair and rubbing her stinging eyes.
She’d been grading essays and exams for the past three hours and whoever was at the door, and whatever they wanted, would be a good excuse to take a break.
“Hey, girl!” Susan came through the door, and Miranda could have kissed her when she saw the Extra-large Dunkin Donuts Coffee in her hand. “Brought you some inspiration!”
“Have I told you how much I love you?” Miranda plucked the coffee from her hand.
“What if I told you I had them add a turbo shot?” Her fellow professor and longtime friend asked.
“I’ll kiss you right here, with tongue.” Miranda took a sip and rolled her eyes back.
She really shouldn’t be getting this much pleasure from a coffee, but not like she’d had much else going on her life lately.
“Can my husband watch?”
“If he brings me food, he can join in.” Miranda took another sip and sighed. “You’d think after a while you’d get used to grading the finals.”
“Nah, no matter how many times you do it, it’s still panic and crunch time just like it is for the students.” Susan sat down in one of the two chairs in front of her desk. “But hey, this is your last time, at least here anyway, so enjoy the rush.”
“True,” Miranda nodded, brushing her long curly blonde hair from her face. “You’d think I’d get lucky and on my last go round I’d get some decent essays. New year, new kids, same topics and meh writing.”
“I still can’t believe you’re leaving us.” Susan tapped her chest. “Leaving me, we started teaching at North Providence High the same year, and you came here to URI a year after me.”
“Maybe you can follow me now,” Miranda suggested.
“I don’t think Tim wants to go down to Florida, he hates the heat.” She took a sip of her own coffee and gave her a knowing smile. “You were never a fan either, but you need a new start, I get it.”
“You’re right.”
“Even though that’s not fair. That scumbag cheated on you, gambled away almost everything you two had in the bank, and you’re the one that’s leaving.” Susan scowled. “He should be going somewhere, like with bars and no windows.”
“We’ve been over this.” Miranda rubbed her red rimmed brown eyes. “He cheated on me for years, and with Linda my goddamn best friend next to you, and all his friends knew it. A lot of people knew it. He made a fool of me.”
“I know, but I hate that it looks like you’re running.”
“Susan, I’m a laughingstock to a lot of people. Miranda was too dumb to know her husband’s sticking it to anything that moves, especially if it was half his age.”
“That’s why I never knew where Linda fit in, she’s your age.”
“Linda has money, well her family does. He wasn’t just using her for sex, but as a stake once I made it hard for him to get his hands on anything I made so he needed a new source.”
“Ugh. I’m glad your lawyer managed to get you what was left from the sale of the house after his debts were paid and he couldn’t touch any of it.”
“Shame it’s just enough to get me moved down there and into a condo, but I guess that’s enough,” Miranda shrugged.
“You leaving just because of the people who knew?”
“Mostly. He was banging his interns, scoring girls at club by flashing money around when he won a bet. Fooled around with Linda. For fucks sake, Sue, I found out he’d been screwing the girl at Starbucks that I saw every morning on the way here for months before I found out.”
“That’s why I brought Dunkin,” Susan forced a smile.
“Everywhere I look I wonder; did he fuck her? Does that person know Nick was cheating on me?”
“You’re right, it just sucks.”
“Yeah it does.” Miranda agreed and went back to sipping her coffee.
“Know what really sucks?” Susan leaned forward. “You never got even.”
“This again?”
“This again,” Susan repeated. “You and Nick hadn’t been having much sex, he kept saying he didn’t feel good, and wasn’t what he used to be, and you were understanding, and truth was he couldn’t get it up anymore from…”
“Really, Susan? I need to hear what I already know?” Miranda waved her hand in disgust. “See? Another reason to leave. I kicked him out six months ago, divorce was final two months ago and you still talk about it.”
“Sorry, I’m mad for you. You should have gone out and fucked someone and made sure he knew about it.”
“That’s mature,” Miranda scoffed.
“It’s payback. You should have found some kid half his age and gone for a real ride and rubbed it in his face.”
“So he can try to say I was cheating? Knew the kid all along?”
“Within two days of finding out he cheated you had legal separation papers filed. It would not have been cheating.”
“It wasn’t going to make anything better or change what he did.” Miranda pointed out.
“It would make you feel better. You were going to bed alone and killing batteries while he was picking up hookers out of town on his ‘sales meetings’. You should be out there getting what you need, and just happen to make sure he knew about it.”
“Like he’d care.”
“That type cares,” Susan told her. “They think it’s great to bang everything that moves because they’re the man. But they find out their estranged wife is getting it from someone? They get mad and butthurt, like you’re still his ride. You being alone is what he wants. Thinks he ruined you.”
“Financially he almost did.”
“Don’t play tough girl. He broke your heart, betrayed your trust, humiliated you and now you’re leaving everything you know to start over. That’s winning in his eyes.”
“Maybe,” Miranda mumbled, but already knew how her friend would respond.
“No maybe. He’s living with Linda, and God knows what that woman is thinking, but snakes like him are like car salesmen, they sell a lemon like it’s a Cadillac.”
“Getting laid doesn’t take away anything you just said.”
“But you’d get what you need!” Susan’s voice rose with her frustration. “Miranda, you’re 45 not 65 and you need to get some of that frustration out.” She laughed. “Boys aren’t the only ones who have to drain the poison you know.”
“Okay, mom.”
“What’s the problem the last couple of months? Divorce is final, you’re staying in Mary’s inlaw, so you have your own space.”
“I’m not jumping right back in. I want to be alone for a while.”
“Who said dating? Get dressed up and go get messed up! I joke about the young kids but find a guy and have fun. Get some of that anger out, cut loose and go wild. You always said even before Nick started turning you down he couldn’t keep up with you. Go be someone’s porn star for a night.”
“Then what? I end up with someone who keeps calling. Who wants more? Maybe they’re married? ”
“You’re leaving in two weeks. You really care?” Susan raised her eyebrows.
“That will be part of my new start, how’s that? Once I get down there, I’ll hook up.”
“Then you will have to worry what you hooked up with. You’re out of here soon, go out with a bang, girl! Find them, fuck them, and hop on a plane and forget them.”
“A true romantic you are.”