Samantha

He was full of contradictions and as changeable as the wind. He'd left Samantha lying on the sidewalk, in the rain, with her mini-skirt bunched around her hips, revealing her buttocks and genitals because of what Ed, Joe, and Lou had said to her and because he didn't want to be called the same names they'd called her. What a hero! he castigated himself. What a knight in shining armor. He'd imagined himself as Sam's rescuer, but had left her lying on the sidewalk, in the pouring rain.

Of course, her cock and balls had shocked him, as they had everyone else. Samantha had been the talk of the office since her mishap. The female employees were a little less cruel than the male, but they also ridiculed Samantha behind her back. Ed, Joe, and Lou not only gossiped about her behind her back, but they were also unkind to her face. On the elevator, they called her "freak," "queer," and "wannabe woman." In the office, they made faces at her. Whenever they accepted a memo or a form or a letter from her, they took the document by its corner, between the thumb and forefinger, as if it might be contaminated. James did none of these things. Instead, he avoided her. He wasn't guilty of insulting her. His sins were sins of omission, rather than sins of commission. He failed to offer Samantha friendship, sympathy, or moral support.

James was amazed at Sam's courage. Although she was obviously hurt by the cruel and insulting comments that Ed, Joe, and Lou heaped upon her and by the gossip among the female employees, she seldom exhibited her feelings, and she never lost her temper. She didn't cry, either, or quit her job. She never approached her boss to plead with him to put an end to her coworkers' abuse. She endured it, perhaps because, unlike James, she knew and loved herself well and was true to who she was. Other people's opinions might annoy her, but she wouldn't live her life by what others thought of her. She had valor. She had honor.

She was beautiful, too, as beautiful as the first day James had seen her, and he found that he continued to think about her and to fantasize about her.