Disillusioned by Cari Moore Read Free Book Online

potted plants. She felt no desire to
mingle among the other attendees, drunk as they would soon become.
Not that Tessa was a teetotaler, but she
could never comprehend the sheer idiocy of people who paraded
themselves in front of coworkers and bosses with the
unpredictability brought on by inebriation. Not the brightest of ideas, she
scoffed. Contrarily, Tessa determined to sip on a single glass of
wine all night, a trick she had learned in order to avoid standing
out in a crowd of drinkers. She had come
to the conclusion that abstainers made drinkers feel guilty.
Regardless of others' opinions, however, Tessa would not subject
herself to the vulnerability that came from drunkenness.
    From the reflection off the glass, Tessa
could make out a few faces that she recognized. She saw Merritt's
administrative assistant, Paula, a woman of generally good
character, though Tessa sensed a deep ambition in the lady. Behind
Paula, the unexpected face of David Brabham peered out into the dim
room. Tessa had not expected the other vice presidents to attend
the Phoenix party, and she felt a particular dislike for David
Brabham. For some reason, the man had made a bad initial impression
on Tessa, and she had never quite recovered her good opinion of
him.
    Next to David stood Walter Theodore Johnson,
President and C.E.O. Of Pericorp Communications. Unlike David, Walt
Johnson had never exuded any negative vibes to Tessa. He seemed
smoother than she would have preferred in a man, but she sensed
that he just held the salesman's ability to work a crowd. The fact
that she so easily spotted the veneer almost made her less
concerned about Walt, regardless of his creepy speeches about
“loyalty” to Pericorp.
    Unwilling to deliberate any more on the
subject of her husband's fellow executives, Tessa turned her
attention to the “less important” people. Occasionally, she spotted
a familiar face, and she graced its owner with her rather striking
smile. As much as possible, however, Tessa tried to fade into the
transparent windows.
    Blending in had never come easily for Tessa -
not that her looks drew excess attention, her being attractive, but
not beautiful. Tessa thought that the best thing about her physical
appearance was her elegant height. Other than that, she saw nothing
remarkable about her misty, dark blue eyes, which, though large,
were a little too close together to be classically beautiful, her
straight dark-brown hair, pretty but not envy-worthy, or her
heart-shaped mouth which didn't match the current trend of large
full lips. Her looks merely pleased, not intrigued those who saw
her. Rather, though Tessa could hide for a while, she inevitably
drew attention by her tendency to ask challenging questions.
    Never comfortable with the constructs of
society, Tessa had an internal radar tuned to detect the social
inconsistencies that most people glossed over for the sake of
civility. She couldn't understand why some incompetent or
unscrupulous people rose to prominence under the auspices of a
supposedly “civilized” society. Part of her antipathy for parties
grew from the profusion of such characters in attendance – men who
relied on bloviating speeches to prove their intelligence and women
who used masculinity to establish equality. In reaction to their
presence, Tessa's restraint tended to dissolve at inopportune
moments.
    She worked hard to constrain her tongue at
Merritt's parties, forcing herself to behave around his coworkers
in a way she would not have countenanced in other settings. Over
the years, she had learned that her lack of social propriety could
hurt her husband's career. Whenever she spoke her mind, without
fail, she managed to do so at the wrong time and with the wrong
person.
    Though she sometimes grew frustrated that
Merritt overlooked his coworkers' hypocrisy, she had known what to
expect from him since she had met him. In fact, he had turned what
began as her disdain into admiration; he had transformed his