He listened to the squeaks and noticed the accompanying sharp clicking high heels beside him. She walked beside him now, just like she had stood besid... him, worked beside him and finally failed beside him as the papers were signed and initialed and notarized, authenticated, registered, stamped, filed and whatever else that happens with this sort of thing. It was odd, he’d failed before… two failed marriages, before that several colleges had asked him to leave, but this, this was different, this. They're probably going to be talking about me, behind my back for hours, and I don't like it. I didn't even do much wrong. Everyone keeps treating me like my father does, and I'm sick of it."Is that you, Matthew?" someone says, their feet crunching over the gravel driveway as they walk up to me.Surprised, by the voice I hadn't expected to hear, I turn to see Justin, standing awkwardly near me. I don't know why he's here after all this time, but then I spot the gift bag in his hand."What the. Jennifer was a dangler. She had one leg crossed over other and one high-heel dangled from her foot as she swung her foot back and forth. Her pantyhose had reinforced sandal-toes; her soles and toes encased in darker but still sheer nylon. She absentmindedly reached down and scratched the sole of her foot; her bright-red fingernails whispered along the nylon, the hissing sound was nearly lost in the background din of the office.Nearly lost that was. In the adjoining cubicle forty-five year old. Or air force. There were rumors, but I didn’t have the courage to ask about reality. It might shatter the illusion.And the appeal of an S&M retreat was the illusion, wasn’t it? Everything that could interrupt it was done in advance. S.T.D. testing. The contract-only rooms. She’d laid out the rules so clearly when she’d pitched the retreat. Down to the layout of the convention hall and where sex was forbidden.“And not in a cutesy way, either.” She’d taken the e-cigarette between her thumb and.