Triangle Choke

********************

Thorne and Andi added the topic of Hag and Steve to their dinner conversations. Sometimes Thorne joined Hag and Steve on dates and sometimes it was Andi. Hag and Steve both pushed Thorne to ask Andi to join them but he wouldn't.

Steve and Hag took a trip to New Orleans, and when they came back, Hag told Thorne and Andi separately how Steve had proposed at a fancy restaurant in the French Quarter.

"He said he would marry me but there was one condition. The wedding invitations and the preacher were only allowed to say Haley. I said I'd think it over."

She laughed loudly.

"No I didn't. I barely got out 'Yes,' before I fell apart and made myself a spectacle in front of all the strangers who were clapping."

******************

Andi spent a lot of one-on-one time with Hag. Hag told Thorne that Andi had become interested in desert warfare and was reading books about combat training and bombarding her with questions. Whenever another member of the team was in town, Andi invited him to dinner and asked more questions.

"She wants to know everything. I told her I couldn't tell her about any of the missions, but that didn't stop her. I think she knows as much about our training and preparation as some people who've served."

He noticed that Andi was talking a lot less when they were together, either at the academy or their occasional dinners. She didn't seem interested in telling him about her work, and he wondered if she was going through a rough patch.

Even though they spent a lot of time eating in silence, when they were done, she always asked him to have a last drink together and sip it slowly. She looked into her glass and not at him while they were sipping. He had the feeling she wanted to say something, but she never did.

For three weeks, she didn't call him, and she didn't roll with him either, although she greeted him warmly at the academy. He finally asked Hag if something had changed with Andi. Hag said yes and for him to be patient until Andi worked up the courage to tell him. He figured Andi had met someone.

It was two weeks after Hag told him to be patient that Andi called and asked him if he'd be willing to have dinner at her place. He didn't answer right away, but something in her voice told him he needed to say yes.

She didn't say much during dinner. When she served him coffee and a piece of his favorite cake, she sat down, took a sip of coffee and a deep breath and told him what she'd been holding back.

"I'm leaving town."

"Why?"

"Because I can't go on like this. I'm not satisfied with what I have. I'm going for the next level."

"By leaving town?"

"Not just that. I have to start my life over again. I already quit my job, and I'm leaving the industry."

"What will you do?"

"I don't know, but it'll be something completely different."

"I don't understand."

"I've been studying the last six months. Maybe Hag told you. I learned a lot from her and your other friends, too. Now it's time to use those lessons."

"You're joining the military?"

"No. I didn't study the killing lessons. I studied the living lessons. I learned about how you and Hag and the others think. You tried to tell me before, but I didn't listen.

"I've chosen to end this life and begin a new one. It's not just about you. You're the reason I started to study. The more I learned, the emptier my life appeared to me. I'm happy to give it up.

"Don't get me wrong. I'm still the Andi that you know. I'm going all out to win. The only difference is I'm using new techniques."

"Why can't you do that here?"

"I've got too much history here. I need to cut myself off and start from scratch. I'll be back for the wedding. After that, I'll see how it goes.

"I'm trying to reinvent myself into someone I like a lot better than I like myself right now. I hope you'll like that person better, too."

"I don't think I can like you more than I do right now."

"I said that wrong. I mean, I hope you can love that person and allow her back into your arms."

"Oh."

*******

Six months later, they were placed next to each other at the wedding dinner. As she sat down, he looked at her.

"I see you're wearing an engagement ring," he said.

"Want a closer look?"

She lifted her hand to his eyes.

"Where did you get that?" he demanded.

"I picked it up at Benny's Jewelry yesterday. Hunter told me about it. It's the most beautiful ring I've ever worn. I think of it as a friendship ring."

They danced at the wedding, but mostly they sat next to each other and didn't talk much. Valerie was there, too, but she was seated at another table and didn't come near them.

*******************

Two weeks after moving, Andi had written to him that Valerie had asked her if it was all right to date him. She not only gave her permission but also her blessing.

Andi's entire email was an advertisement for Valerie and how her life had changed since the night that everybody wanted to forget. Andi had shared some of her lessons with Valerie, and Valerie was starting to use them at work and was scaring the others to death because nobody could figure out her angle.

She informed him that Valerie was volunteering at a home for abused women and children, and she was the one who worked with the few abused men who came there. She said Valerie was warm and affectionate and she hoped that they would connect on a human level. She started to write that she hoped he wouldn't think of her as a cow to be serviced but stopped herself.

Thorne read her email twice. At the end, Andi had encouraged him to call Valerie, but he never did. However, when Valerie called him a week later, he went on a date with her.

As he got to know her, he realized that Andi hadn't exaggerated Valerie's virtues. He grew to love her, and he took her to bed, but neither of them suggested living together.

One night, almost at the same time, they told each other they loved each other but they also knew their relationship wasn't permanent. They ended by encouraging each other to find someone else, but they didn't.

Although Andi didn't write to him, he knew everything about her life from the reports Valerie gave him. She had settled in a medium-sized city more than a thousand miles away and applied for a job in floor sales at a department store owned by national chain.

The human resources manager said that she had no opening for someone with Andi's background, but Andi begged her to try her out for whatever position was open.

It turned out to be in clothing for older women. The department manager was friendly, but the four other women in mature active wear soon hated her. They were all at least thirty years older and within a few weeks, all their regulars were asking for Andi. Customers glowed from the attention this beautiful young woman was giving them. She sold almost as much as the others combined during her first month.

Andi told Valerie she hated doing that, but she needed to get their respect. After the first month, when customers came in and asked for her, she began telling them that she was sorry but she had some paperwork that she needed to do. She introduced them to one of her colleagues and told them the saleswoman was an expert in what the customer was looking for. She strongly hinted at what the saleswoman should show the customer.

The saleswoman was resentful and insulted, but she didn't want to lose the customer. She first tried Andi's idea before going on to a better one, except Andi's idea always made the sale easy.

For the next month, Andi turned all her customers over to the others. After the fifth week, they came to her together and said she needed to take a turn for herself or she would be fired. She told them she thought of a way they could work together and all do a lot better.

The women started meeting once a week to discuss everybody's experiences and brainstorm. First they just listened to Andi, but with her prodding, they soon they began to come up with their own ideas.

A month after the meetings started, they were the Department of the Month for the first time, and from then on, they were always in the top three.

When the department manager had to move because her husband was relocated, the assistant manager and the others, except for Andi, stormed into the store manager's office and demanded Andi be their new boss or they were all going to resign.

Within a year, she was the manager of the most productive store in the chain and was the featured speaker at the managers retreat, explaining how collaborative selling made more money than competitive selling.

She began dating. The men who were interested were judged by certain criteria. She told Valerie what the criteria were, but Valerie decided not to tell that part to Thorne, because it might have embarrassed him, since the qualities she was looking for described him, including the one about being an imaginative lover.

Andi was never upset when one of her men turned out to present well but lacked the things that were important to her. Valerie told Thorne that when Andi described her break-ups, she sounded more relieved than angry.

A few of the candidates passed her stringent tests, and she enjoyed being with them. One of them wanted to get serious, but she told him she wasn't ready yet. Her dating slowed when she was promoted to a position where she traveled often, troubleshooting at stores around the country.

One year and five months after she saw him at the wedding, she wrote to Thorne.

"I'll be there next week, and Valerie tells me you'll be in town. I'd like to talk to you if you have the time."

"I'll look forward to seeing you," he said when he called her. "What night should I make reservations?"

"I've got a full schedule each day, including dinner meetings. I won't have any time until Thursday after dinner. I'd like to come over, but I can't stay long because I have a breakfast meeting Friday morning and fly out around noon."

"I'm disappointed, but I'll be ready with your favorite vodka martini."

"I can't wait to see you."

****************

They touched glasses, took a sip and looked at each other. They hadn't talked since the wedding.

She looked nervous as she put down her glass.

"Tonight may be the last time I see you," she began. "I've done what I set out to do. I'm a lot less mercurial than I used to be, and I've come to accept that I can't have everything I want.

"The position I'm in now, I can live anywhere. I'm setting it up so it's mostly video conferencing and not much travel.

"I think they like me where I am, but if they want to promote me, I'll tell them that I can't accept unless they let me live where I want.

"It will be unusual but not unprecedented. They had a CEO a while back who only showed up to headquarters for a couple of days every two months. The board didn't like it, but she didn't want to pull her children out of their schools and she made them a lot of money.

"I haven't changed much. Despite my collaborative style at work, I still fight to win. And I'm still a ruler of men away from work. They try to please me, but whatever they do to make me happy, I find ways to outperform them.

"The right man is not going to stand a chance. Whatever moves he makes won't work. He'll have to submit to his role as the receiver and let me be the giver.

"I've got the advantage, because there are things I'm going to give him that he can never give me. They're small, but they grow and they bring you incredible happiness -- heartache, too.

"There's a lot more I could tell you, but I've got to go. Before I leave, though, I have one request."

He looked at her with clouded eyes. She waited for him to ask her. He cleared his throat. When he spoke, his voice sounded cracked.

"What is it?"

"I'd like you to give me a second chance. If you don't want to do that, I'll accept your decision. We'll still be friends but I won't move here because when you have a family with someone else, I couldn't take it.

"So it comes down to this. I'm leaving tomorrow but I have a day free next week between two cities close to here. I would like to ask you for a date that day.

"It would be the first step, and I don't expect things to be easy. I just hope you'll give me a chance."

She stood up, picked up her purse and pulled out the keys for her rental car. He didn't say anything.

"I've got to go," she said, brushing her hair nervously from her face. "You can think about it and let me know."

"I don't need to think about it," he said as he stood up. "I'll give you a chance, but there's a condition."

"What's that?"

"You've got to take that ring off right now and return it to Benny on the way to the airport. He'll give you your money back."

"I've been wearing it for a year and a half. I don't think he'll take it back."

"He'll take it back."

"How do you know?"

"Because I know he can sell it again," he said as he went to her. She threw her arms around him in a hold that he knew he would never escape.

For background on the stories of edrider73, see "Author Interview: edrider73" by Literoticauthor. Tag: "author interview."