Nancy or Claire - Heart or Mind

Life has many crossroads, and you are at one of them.

Claire Richer

Claire and you have been working together for 2 years now. In a mix environment, she choosed you instead of other female workers to pass time with during breaks, to sometimes have lunch, to share her stories, her fears, her stress, and her little facts of life.

You are not sure how it got to be that way, you could guess little by little, but it happened. Either you passing at her desk to have a quick chat about the latest movie or her stopping by with a coffee to tell you about her weekend has been a regular and comforting thing that you both really enjoyed in your busy professional days. Your connection was somehow immediate and natural. She’s highly communicative and not afraid of small meaningless physical contacts, of sharing her facts of life, her feelings, and her private details including the fact that she’s in a bad week. She’s an open book but still full of hidden pages. She laughed when she one day explains to you, coffee in hand like if she was talking about the weather, how she constantly struggles to find a fitting bra for her small 5 foot and hundred pounds frame and her therefore relatively large C Cup breast. She also openly shared how she would love to have kids one day, clock ticking, but how her boyfriend does not. She’s kind, good-hearted, but slightly naïve. She loves animals, dogs in particular because of their loyalty and their focus on the present. She’s not that open with other members of your team or with anybody else at the office; she seems to have all naturally choose you.

You know for a while now that Claire is in a relationship with a man named Rob, who works in construction. You understand Rob to be slightly controlling, and maybe easily jealous as Claire simply can never make it to any after-work activities, or to see you, talk or chat with you outside of work. You never met Rob, though you can picture him through her statements; broad, manly, slightly controlling, a man’s man who accordingly to Claire prefer to talk about cars and boats rather than philosophy and life struggles. But Claire, to you, always dealt with that side of Rob with ease as his small jealousy and manly manners always made her feel precious and feminine.

Nancy Smith

You, on the other hand, are in a long-term relation with Nancy, a teenage love that somehow made it far into more. Nancy and you have been through all the stages of life together; high school, college, discoveries, early adulthood, university, financial struggles, first real vacations, travelling, and so on.

She’s always been there for you and you for her, and you both have always worked hard to make things works and keep the flame sparking, which was easy to do when you were younger but has been harder to do lately. Because of heavy medical issues that threaten her life several times while she was between 8 and 13 years old, Nancy is not fertile and has no reproductive cycle. You and her have never explored other possibilities for kids; first of all, she was never really interested in having her owns, and second to that as you were younger you both took it as an advantage; you liked to travel and everywhere and anytime you would want to, without protection, not needing it; you were both your first sexual partners, and the only person you both ever have been with since you met in high school.

Your late teen years and early adulthood ones have been a pure bliss of experiences, travelling, fun, , university studies and parties, and about enjoying life in all ways possible; She’s been perfect until she reached 25. Aware and worried of her image, you know she was lately trying to save to maybe have breast implants to fix her small breast, but it’s a discussion that you both still have to get too.

Since approximately her 25th year and since she has started to work at the children’s hospital after university graduation, her libido has incredibly decreased and it is a source of frustration that you shared with her and that she tried to amend too but with more or less success; she’s never going to make the first moves anymore and prefer to spend all her evenings, and free time to relax in solitude usually with a good book but with you nearby. She cuddles a lot and she appreciates your strong and affectionate presence but her sexual drive, by itself, is becoming inexistent. You are aware of her medical history that affected her hormone levels, of course, so you always understood and try to adapt to it. It is not the first time that you would need to re-sparkle that old flame and you always have been successfully doing so, but as you two grow older and more professional it is become more and more obvious that you are both evolving into quite different personalities; Where you want things to move, she likes them still. What she wants, you mostly by nature do not, and vice versa. Love is still there when you cuddle in the bed at night.. Just cuddling. But you are starting to question yourself if it is still not there simply by habit and or by memory. You still desire her deeply, but you always need to try to light her up yourself, which was not used to be the case when you were younger. You both never been truly with anybody else, except for small sexual experiences that you made with friends at the university, where you quickly shared each other’s for a single night but also together. Friends that are now long gone from both your lives. You and she have always been a reference and something amazing for all your friends and families; meeting at high school and still together and still going strong. But they never understood and knew the struggle and the hard work behind it all.

You both talk regularly though and share your professional days. She knows you work with Claire, and that you have coffee together sometimes, just like she does with male colleagues, and you have both been perfectly fine and healthy about it all, jealousy never having been part of the issues you have.

**

All that was OK and for the most part it was fine until Claire showed up bruising one day at the office, bruises that she tried to hide. You did not press, but you saw not only the marks but also the effect on her personality. More Insecure, she now obviously started to delay as much as possible on her return to home, and spent even more time with you, even initiating more small physical contacts including asking for a hug one morning.

Then, a couple of days later Claire does not make it to the office 2 days in a row, so you decide to call her on her cell to check on her. The person who answers is her mom Charlene, who recognizes somehow your name, and tells you that Claire is busy but also asks you to come to her house to help her with some heavy lifting; They are moving her out in an emergency and would appreciate your help.