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Chapter 11
December 23rd 2005

After the talk, the guys all had found excuses to vacate and stay away from one another. As far as everything had gone, it seemed fruitless to beat it to death so it was best to just move on.
AJ had taken Latecia and Win sight seeing and had been enjoying a lovely afternoon with his girls when Win remembered that she had a meeting back at the hotel. She hurried back, apologizing to AJ and Latecia, promising she’d hurry back and meet them at the Eiffel Tower as soon as she was done.
When she got to the hotel she asked at the front desk if anyone had come in for her, and there were, a smart looking professional couple, waiting in the lounge. Win tried to make herself look dignified and went inside to greet them.
“Hi, how are you, I’m sorry to have kept you waiting, why don’t we take this upstairs, I’m afraid I don’t have any of my files with me.” They nodded in polite agreement and followed her upstairs.
After hastily, and supremely unprofessional manner, Win managed to gather her files and paperwork she’d been handling, she sat them down at the table.
“I really, have to apologize, once again, I really didn’t mean to be so unprofessional.” Win laughed at herself and they nodded again. The woman looked nervous, and as though she had been crying earlier. The man, though composed, did seem to give off a nervous energy as well.
“Uh, could I offer you anything, coffee, tea?” Win asked, trying to remember how to be a good host.
“No, thank you, we’re fine,” Mr. Pastor said with a smile.
“Okay then, then let’s get down to business. I believe Mr. Pastor told me he worked in the Law department at Princeton, and you Mrs. Pastor in the English department of the same college?” Win asked.
“Yes, we do.” Mrs. Pastor replied nervously.
“Actually, our name is Bastar, there must have been a mix up on the phone,” Mr. Bastar said with a nervous grin.
“Oh, I am so sorry, you know with those cell phones,” Win’s voice trailed off as the realization hit her with the force of a two ton truck. The room was silent as she sat there, her eyes immediately fixing on a point above their heads. No one moved, no one breathed and not a word was said for almost five solid minutes.
Win finally found her voice, and still not looking at them asked,
“What did you come here for?” More silence answered her, mocked her.
“To, to explain,” Mrs. Bastar said shaking slightly.
“Explain?” Win asked, thoroughly confused.
“Yes, Winifred, you see, we,” Win would not listen.
“I think you better leave,” she said stonily.
“But we just want to talk to you and-”
“I think you better leave.” Win stood, hurried to the door and opened it for them. Mrs. Bastar looked at her husband then at the door, tears pooling in her eyes. She got up and hurried out of the door, hitching a sob as she rushed past Win.
Mr. Bastar was slower to move. Before he got up he fished out something from his pocket and left it on the table. He walked to the door and stopped before going out, but Win kept her face averted.
“We just wanted to explain things. Maybe help you see our side of the story. Our intentions. We never wanted this to happen. As you could understand, we can’t have this sort of thing, hanging over our heads, our jobs, you know. But I understand you’re feelings. If you ever want to reach us, I left a card on the table. We won’t bother you again, I’m sorry for interrupting your holiday.”
When he was gone Win closed the door and ran to the table to shred the card and then throw it off the balcony. The wind blew fiercely when she opened the doors to the balcony and she looked at the tiny pieces of card that were shredded in her hand.
“Damn you,” she whispered, shaking her head and tossing the pieces into the wind.