Free Aphrodite's Reject: You Can't Lay Off Love by Mairsile Leabhair Page A

contract will assure that you get the six month’s severance pay.”
    Sally looked from Rita to Mr. Taylor, then back to Rita. “Does this mean we’re not going to dinner this weekend, Rita?”
    “Of course it doesn’t.” Rita declared.
    “Um, I’m afraid it does, Rita.”
    Both women looked at Taylor incredulously.
    “You know the rules. A person representing our Human Resources, can’t be associated with the employee she has just laid off. It would look bad.”
     
    Fuck him! Sorry. It’s me again, and I’m so angry I could spit nails. There is no such rule like that, and he knows it, the bastard! I think that’s what I’ll call him from now on. Bastard! And his first name will be Mother Fucking! Okay, enough venting, let’s get back to Sally.
     
    “I’ve never heard of that rule, Mr. Taylor.” Rita shuffled the papers together, “I’ll be sure to document it properly, for the corporate lawyers.”
    “Oh, uh, that’s fine, Rita. We can overlook it this one time. Well, I have an executive meeting to get to. Sally, I am sorry about this. Good luck to you.” And with that he left them alone in his office.
    “What a prick.” Rita said.
    “So, do I really have to train my replacement in order to get my severance?”
    “I know it’s cruel, but they do have the advantage Sally. Take the two weeks, and use it to say goodbye to your friends here.”
    “You mean to my family. This place is my family, and has been for twenty years. Had been. Now everything and everyone I knew are gone, in an instant.”
     
    Oh I can’t listen anymore, or I’ll be blubbering too hard to speak, and I need to tell you that soon, very soon, Sally will have a new family, that will love her like she’s never been loved before. Let’s meet her intended, shall we.
    There she is, over there, sitting in her apartment, leering out the window, at the neighbor who just took her laundry to the laundromat across the street. Living on the third floor, gives our hero an angle to, um, shall we say, see more than people on the street, want her to see. But this time, for a change, she wasn’t looking at the neighbor’s breast bouncing as she walked, though she certainly should have been, considering they were bouncing all over the place, just asking to be fondled. Oh, uh, but I digress. This time, Teo was comparing the woman’s size and weight, to her own.
    You see, Teo, Teodora Roma, at age fifty ‒six, had recently dropped eighty pounds, thanks to exercise and diet, and looks thirty years younger. She’s feeling quite the stud. No seriously, she was strutting around her apartment, naked as a jaybird, and grinning ear to ear, every time she looked at herself in the mirror. Which was almost as many times as I looked back at her in the mirror, yowza! Hey, settle down. I’m not a peeping Tom, or Tammy, as it were, it’s just part of the job.
    Teo owns her own business, and her family are her employees. She’s a chef. An Italian chef. Can we say delizioso? And I’m not just talking about her food. The woman is tall, with long, thick, black hair, light blue eyes, and skin the color of cinnamon. Magnifico!
    Her daughter, Sophia, whom I wouldn’t be so cruel as to say was an accident, was indeed an accident. You see, Teo, in her younger, college days, enjoyed many an Amaretto, and one time, had a little too much of the sweet juice. Well, the frat party got crazy, and so did Teo. Yep, she ended up pregnant. Oops. And the kicker is, that Teo has always known she was a lesbian. Oops again. Not to worry though. She has never put liquor to her lips since.
    Anyway, Sophia, and her two children, who are the love of Teo’s life, of course, live just down the street, in Teo’s house. Teo had bought a condo over her restaurant, so no one else could have it. Pretty savvy if you ask me, not that you did, but you should have. Anyway, I know what Teo can’t admit. She’s lonely, and wants to be married, and grow old with her soul mate. And