A New Resolution Read Free Page A

hear and think we’re offerin’ our asses up to him. We’re either the sexually open whore or the virgin, whose body is idolized as a purely baby-producing machine and nothing else. Heaven forbid a woman have sexual desires and a brain.”
    “Please don’t start talking about sexual desires,” Maggie from accounting quipped as she popped her head into the break room. “Words like ‘sexual’ are the Bat-Signal for him, drawing Mr. Tiny Prick out of the dark and calling him to rise and harass the women of the office. It is his destiny.”
    Kathy laughed, adding on to the women’s ritual of making fun of their dissolute boss. “Yeah, but instead of rescuing the damsels, he makes them miserable. If I have to smell his nasty breath—”
    “Kathy.”
    The women froze. Mr. Tiny Prick himself, or rather their boss, Mr. Krueger, stood in the doorway watching them with a scowl. Krueger looked like an all-American good ol’ boy. The forty-year-old man was well formed, large, but in an athletically fit way. If Lore had passed him on the street, not knowing what a sick and twisted man he was, she would have thought him handsome, his dark eyes giving him an almost roguish quality that juxtaposed the all-American, football-player good looks. Now that Lore understood what he really was, his eyes appeared a beady black that reminded her of a bat in the dark.
    When Lore had interviewed for her current position, Mr. Krueger had looked her over in the way all men look over a decently attractive female. She hadn’t assumed anything of the passing interest and thought him the perfect example of professionalism and courtesy throughout the interview, as a supervising manager should be. It had taken less than a week at her new job to realize the pleasant Mr. Krueger was a misogynistic asshole. The smiles, good looks, and handsomely cut suits were a facade to hide his true nature.
    Lore knew men like him. The ones who treated you like a princess until you spoke your mind or disagreed with his way of doing things. To Krueger, women were ornaments to be hung where he pleased and taken down when he grew bored of them.
    Today his facade consisted of a slick-cut suit and royal-blue button-down shirt. His tie was a shimmering gray that pleasantly caught the light as he turned in its direction. Lore had complete confidence in her assumption he had paid an exorbitant amount of money to have such an ensemble custom made, just as she was confident he had come to the break room to pick a target. Lore caught Maggie looking pityingly at Kathy, Krueger’s favorite victim, and her gut churned for the poor woman.
    It never made sense to Lore why good-looking and wealthy men like Krueger felt the need to control those beneath them, especially the ones they thought were members of the weaker sex. During the course of his life, someone had taught Krueger to treat women like objects. In doing so he had become the scum of the earth. Now, more and more, whenever Lore happened on him objectifying a female coworker, she not only felt the unwelcome burn of rage but the need to do something about it.
    “Yes, Mr. Krueger?” Kathy asked after taking a moment to stall and sip her coffee.
    “I believe your lunch hour ended ten minutes ago.” His gaze didn’t scan a watch or clock to emphasize the point, just began its well-worn path of roving up and down poor Kathy’s body. The woman could annoy the hell out of Lore with her probing questions and suggestions on how she should live her life, but Lore would never have wished the unwanted attention of that slimeball on any woman.
    “I’m just cleaning up, Mr. Krueger.”
    “Well,” he said, adjusting his pants with a grunt. “Wash all the other stuff in the sink while you’re there, then come see me in my office. The employees in this office are pigs.” He turned to leave, but stopped as Kathy took a step forward, her hands tight around her coffee mug.
    “I have a busy agenda the rest of the day, sir. Can