The Poor Punching Bag

Every Thursday after work, Mary goes to the gym. She usually does this to work on her stamina or flexibility (yes, for the reasons you're thinking of), but not today.

No, today she was taking her anger out on a poor, innocent, defenseless punching bag.

"Fucking Brittany. Fucking Matt. Fucking Tina." The gym was pretty empty, and most people that were around were too distracted by their music to care about this angry woman.

Or maybe they valued their lives. Who's to say?

But there was one brave soul who walked up to the enraged Mary.

"What did the punching bag do to you?"

Mary recognized the woman. She's been at the gym everyday, but they've never spoken before.

"It exited." The woman chuckled at this.

"Come now, what could possibly have the Mary Vander so angry?" This caught Mary off guard.

"You know who I am?"

"Of course I do. You and your husband are the power couple in town. Everyone knows you." This made Mary blush.

"I'm not anything special. Noah is the great one." The woman laughed out loud.

"And I'm sure that Noah would say the exact same thing, but about you." The woman then held out her hand.

"Sarah Zimmerman. Nice to officially meet you." Mary smiled and shook her hand.

"Same here. So, what made you decide to come talk to me today?" Sarah leaned against the punching bag.

"Because this doesn't seem like you. I figured you could use someone to talk to about what's going on." Mary raised an eyebrow at this.

"Yes, I'm a therapist. But I swear I'm not trying to get you to hire me." Mary sighed and sat on a weight bench.

"You got me. I have an employee that I can't get rid of because of office politics, who keeps getting on my nerves. She's great at her job, but only does enough to keep her dad off her back. At least she's not insulting my husband with every breath, but she's still inferiating to be around." Sarah sat across from Mary and just listened.

"And then theirs my brother and his wife. She's a gold digger and is always talking down to Noah. And my brother refuses to even acknowledge that Noah exists. It's terrible!"

"How does Noah feel about this?"

"I can tell that it hurts him, even though he refuses to make a big deal out of it. He doesn't really have a family, so mine treating him so poorly cuts pretty deep." Mary sighed and pulled out her phone.

"That's not everything either. His childhood friend is staying with us. I trust Noah, but she looks like this." Sarah's eyes widened when she saw the picture of Emily.

"That woman is with your husband right now?"

"I couldn't turn her away, she had no one else. Besides, like I said, I trust him. But that doesn't mean it's not nagging me."

Obviously, Mary couldn't tell Sarah everything about her situation.

"It sounds like you need to talk to your husband. And from what I know, you'll be fine." Mary smiled at her new friend.

"Thanks for everything. I should probably get going. It was nice meeting you." The two women shook hands.

"Likewise."

Once Mary walked out the door, she got a message.

Sophia: Congratulations, you discovered another Harem Member. Sarah Zimmerman is Orange.