Steven and Maria met for the first time almost a decade back. In business school.
Steven was of Chinese-American descent and Maria was Portuguese. They both met at the World Business School, Paris, while pursuing their MBA in finance.
Although they had worked together on several projects/ case studies while at the school, they had hardly known each other. Both of them had the most coveted finance jobs after graduating from World Business School and were positioned at Geneva now.
They first got friendly while working at the same firm. Love blossomed and soon Maria was moving in to stay with Steven in his apartment.
And, then in a couple of months Maria was pregnant with Steven’s baby.
Now, Maria’s parents were strict Catholics. So, when they were apprised of the pregnancy, they were furious with rage. Maria was their only child and they had raised her in a very strict Catholic way, while at the same time, providing her with the best of education possible.
The mayhem that ensued created a rift between Maria and Steven eventually. They decided to go their separate ways.
Maria’s parents got her married to a decent, educated Catholic business man settled in Geneva.
Steven, in the meanwhile, got married to this lovely lady from the same office.
However, Steven and Maria, both, just could not do away with their feelings and working in the same office did not help matters.
Over the course of next five years, their marriages fell apart…well technically, just Steven’s. Steven’s wife separated immediately after their baby was born. Steven and Maria had by then decided to quit their day jobs to start a business magazine. This was too much for his wife to handle, other than the regular night trysts Steven and Maria were having. So, she decided to file for separation and go stay in a distant, serene locality to raise the child.
Maria’s husband, on the other hand, was way too engrossed in his business to care about his wife.
Becoming business partners helped their relationship flourish like never before. They had their share of arguments and fights…but always on business ideas. Never on the state of their relationship. And whatever arguments they had always got settled the same day in office. Or, the same night in bed.
This went on for two years till Steven received an offer from the most prestigious business newspaper from the Wall Street to head their newspaper. Steven desperately wanted to return to the US. After all, he was born there and his entire family was settled there.
But he was also torn between his love for Maria and his choice for a career with the world’s greatest business newspaper. Sensing Steven’s dichotomy, Maria hardened up. In the first instance, she was disgusted to know that Steven was even giving this job offer a thought. She expected him to stay back in Geneva, run the magazine together and continue with their affair. So, when Steven told her that he had to send the newspaper guys a reply in a week, she was heartbroken.
To make him jealous she started flirting with the new editor of their magazine, Michael. Michael was suave, educated and he had a way with words. His mere presence was electric. This did not go unnoticed by Steven at all.
On the eve of the ‘d-day’, Steven came back home to find Maria in his bed. She was reading a book, Bill Bryson’s The Lost Continent: Travels in Small-Town America. Her long, lustrous hair was covering just the right amount of her fulsome bra-less bosom. She had pulled up the quilt up to her waist. Her pierced navel was peeping through the pages of the book resting on her flat midriff.
They were not looking at each other directly yet. Though they were aware of each other’s presence in the room. Steven gathered a chair from around a corner of the room and sat beside the bed. Finally, Maria gave up the façade and looked up to say, ‘What’s up?’
Steven gazed for a couple of seconds, and then pulled his trousers down.
They enjoyed this session like never. Probably, the best they had ever had. And, once it was over and Maria cuddled up to fall asleep in Steven’s arms, he strangulated her with a pillow.
Steven had decided to take up the new job at New York and he did not want Maria to be cozying up to any other man here in Geneva.
