She’s a feisty one!

According to Sheila, Mia Meadows was the wife of a rich businessman. Despite not having to work because of her husband’s wealth, she still had a part-time job as a fitness instructor, and it showed in how lean and fit she was, belying the fact that she, like Sheila, was a mother of two.

(Were you a housewife if you had a job, albeit part-time? Barry decided not to think about it too hard right now.)

Her hair was of a boy’s length, and dyed(?) a fiery red, contrasting with Sheila’s strawberry blond. The juxtaposition didn’t end there as while Sheila was, as some say, ‘thicc’, and had a very ample bosom, Mia didn’t have those curves (though very few did, admittedly). What she did have, though, was an ass to die for, as well as a fit body as mentioned earlier. Barry noted that she even had visible abs as she opened the door dressed in a gray gym get-up, looking at him with a face of…

Disdain?

—

“—and Sheila can be such a ditz sometimes, which explains why she’d agree to something so stupid. Poor dear was probably too nice to you, and you used that to play her like a fiddle, right, Sheila?”

“Uhm, weellll…” Sheila started, and trailed off as she couldn’t string her words together. “Maybe so, but Mia—”

“I don’t want to hear it!” Mia crossed her arms and looked away pointedly, disapproval radiating from every fiber of her being. “Look at him, all meek and quiet! Pathetic. Seriously, Sheila? This is the guy who fucked you good?”

Her description of him was true, at least up till that point. Barry had remained silent while Mia was on her mini-tirade, his mind working furiously.

One of the tenets of communication was figuring out what your interlocutor wanted, deciphering the meaning behind what they said and how said say it.

Barry wasn’t particularly good-looking, but what made him so successful at growing his collection was his charm and intelligence. He was adept at finding the right buttons to push and finding the right way to use them.