Chapter 5: Dana

For about 3 weeks I settled into my new life. I taught classes, checked papers, met with students, checked more papers, attended faculty meetings and staff training and CHECKED PAPERS.

I made a few friends, most were too new to be considered true friendships though. I looked around and tried to reach out to some of our old friends from my married life. The few that I could find, still wanted nothing to do with me. Time apparently doesn't heal all wounds no matter what the old saying claims.

I went out to a club that was 50 miles away to make sure that I wouldn't run into anyone from the school or my new life. Very few of the men approached me early on but as it got later, I got a few bites. Finally I allowed one big burly guy to take me to a place that was more comfortable. It turned out to be the back of his car. What a romantic. He whispered sweet nothings into my ear in place of foreplay. His words were so poetic they drove me to tears. He said, "Come on baby, gimme that pussy."

Then he just rammed his dick in me. 3 or 4 strokes later, he pulled out and with a grunt squirted his load all over my face and my brand new sweater. I was still in pain from the initial un-lubricated penetration, and he was done.

He used more of his flattery to ensure a 2nd date at some point in the future. He said, "Look bitch, it's getting late and I gotta work tomorrow so see ya."

I knew then that he was my soul mate. Not! He made a night with my vibrator seem like a honeymoon.

But he really did help me more than I knew at the time. My session with him was in fact a view in microcosm of all of my relationships since I destroyed my marriage. So I went through the motions of life, but mostly I just ached.

As I taught my classes or passed through the halls, I never saw Dan or his bimbo. But I heard about them constantly. I'd pass a math class and the professor would ask, "What is symmetry? Describe something symmetrical."

Some pimple faced nerd would raise his hand and with a smirk say, "Alexandra Stanton".

And I saw those damned DanAlex T-shirts on everyone. Even some of the faculty wore them.

I fucking hated DanAlex with a passion. One of my new friends Melva Bryant decided that living like a hermit wasn't good for me. So she decided that she and I, and a couple of the other female faculty members needed a girl's night out. We decided to meet at, strangely enough, the same bar/club I'd gone to the week before, oh joy. But at least I'd be getting out.

We decided that I'd ride with her and meet up after class the next day. She called me a hour before the meeting and told me she'd be a few minutes late because she had to turn in her list, and as a new proffesor she thought I might find it interesting. I really don't think she knew.

As I entered the staff office, I heard her voice in her cubicle. I thought she had students so I sat down outside to wait. She saw me and motioned for me to come on in and I heard her voice say, "This is the new history professor I was telling you about."

As I entered the cubicle time slowed down drastically. I remember seeing tanned and toned female legs that were at least a mile long. That damned streaked tawny hair cascading in waves halfway down her tiny little back. She must've had at least a yard of cleavage in a low cut sweater, and those crystal clear eyes. As she looked at me there was no recognition. There shouldn't have been because we'd never actually met.

But Dan knew me instantly and lurched backwards, his snarl of revulsion wasn't covered up nearly quickly enough for anyone not to have seen it. Before any words were even spoken, the little bitch jumped up and moved between me and my Dan. As if she needed to, or could protect him from me.

That was when I decided that the bitch had to die.

Melva quickly tried to defuse the situation though she didn't know what was going on.

"Dan Patterson, I'd like you to meet Dana Woodruff-Patters ... oh shit!" said Melva.

"Exactly," said Dan. "Melva, can we do this tomorrow?"

"Call Alex in the morning and you can reschedule." He was leaving too fast to even talk.

He never made eye contact with me. He just backed away, as if I was a rabid dog he had stumbled onto while out for a run.

Alex eyed me as they left, obviously sizing me up and in her little mind finding me lacking.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't know," said Melva.

"Actually I still don't know," she said. "Let me guess, sister, cousin, sister in law?"

"Ex-wife," I snapped.

"Holy shit, I didn't see that one coming!" exclaimed Melva.

"I just figured it had to be some kind of nasty incest thing from all of the tension in the air. It's still so thick in here that you can feel it and they're gone," she said. "It's funny though, you don't seem like his type."

"Why, because I'm not a 20 year old cheerleader with huge tits and no brains," I snapped.

"Never underestimate her, she's pretty damned smart." said Melva. "And if she thinks you're trying to come between them, it might get ugly. Did you see her put herself between you guys?" I just nodded. I was still too shocked to comment.

This is a story that I must hear," she said.