[Insider] Toxic Attraction Chapter 18 Alpha Draft
Added 2024-05-17 21:09:21 +0000 UTCHello, my friends, and happy Friday. I am excit
Comments
I think you're on the right track. They both are upper level professionals and at their ages of 40 and 35 will certainly have progressed in their careers. Sarah's very qualified and has been proven effective but she doesn't have an education or experience running an enterprise, so its to be expected that Thornhill with his turnaround experience is the better choice. So that does raise the question as to why it was implied that she had a good shot at the CEO job. Its one thing to administrate and keep organized on a task basis. Its quite another to lead and strategize. Did the interim CEO lead her on for a reason? My impression is they live in a pretty good neighborhood with good schools. The layout of the home implies probably four bedrooms. They drink a lot of wine as suburban people seem to do (LOL) but note that the vehicle she drives is pretty mid-level, not really fancy, probably a soccer Mom type of car. One thing about her clothing--that lingerie has got to be costing some money, and she wears pretty nice clothes and shoes to work. But as for finances, early on as we saw the devlish Lester's intentions my real-life thoughts (and not fictional fantasy) were "if it is so tight financially why not sell the house and bank your equity and move in with one of the parents, or downsize the budget into an apartment while working things out?" Even if Dan started working from home and building his own business he'd be so much further ahead than where he is right now. And maybe one of the relatives could have helped out financially while his business got off the ground. Moving away from one's wife and children is always a recipe for disaster. Of course they had the best of intentions, and despite their careful apartment shopping they ended up with the worst possible roommate.
Sigma
2024-05-24 13:31:11 +0000 UTCPotentially unpopular opinion alert! Lol In the early chapters, the general setting was that we had sympathy for the financial hardship that Dan and Sarah were going through. Their jobs were vaguely described. Sarah was a hospital administrator, probably a lowish paid general dogsbody. Dan's job was even more vague, he did something but we never quite knew what early on. As the chapters progress, their jobs are described in more detail even if we're not given job titles or salary info. But Sarah isn't a lowly hospital administrator. She is senior management. Attends the important meetings, reports directly into the CEO, is looked up to by the department heads like she has more sway than them. Her next logical career progression step apparently is becoming CEO. This is surely a highly paid job. Arguably upper 5 figure, maybe even a 6 figure salary. And Dan is definitely a senior project manager at the very least, has a niche specialist skill in sustainability making him more valuable, works on the most key client projects indicating quality and seniority, reports directly to the company owner and isn't stuck in the middle of a management structure with layers of managers between them. And was previously paid more than Sarah seemingly. So before losing his job he must have been very well paid, and he must have still got good money in Chicago even if the job wasn't as good. Arguably even with his forced 40% pay cut he's probably still on a mid 5 figure salary surely. Does this make anyone else wonder why they're in such a financial mess, why they can't pay his Chicago rent, and just make them much less sympathetic overall? Just an observation of the premise of the story being a bit shaky as lots more detail comes out in the story. It will be an unpopular take, I'm sure! Haha Edit: I'm from the UK so I don't know what the salaries for these types of jobs are in the US or the states this story is based in. But in the UK, if they were being paid even averagely for what their jobs appear to be they'd be in the top 5% of household incomes in the country. Not the kind of people who get sympathy when they drop down a rung or two on the financial ladder.
Gabriella J
2024-05-24 10:05:19 +0000 UTCI think maybe D might surprise her by coming home unexpectedly and catching L in his bed with L .
Mel
2024-05-23 21:32:19 +0000 UTCI've been rereading some of the first chapters and recognize how they're pretty tight, they recognize the sacrifice Dan's making from the family. There are references to Dan's love of his family, his girls. And there's a shared sacrifice of both Dan and Sarah for the long separation that at times goes weeks between them seeing each other. But over time, Sarah's desire to go to Chicago wasn't so much for Dan but for her sexual fulfillment. So its an interesting contrast in 18 that she claims Dan's pimping her out for rent contrasted with accusing Dan that he isn't there for them, The reality is, she loves pimping herself out. Its not Dan, its Sarah fulfilling her sexual fantasies, fetishes, and selfish desires but she gets to blame it on Dan. And to further try and justify her adultery she claims it is Dan who is selfish when all along his Chicago job and his efforts for side work are all on behalf of the family. Quite a contrast. Then, when the shit hits the fan at work and wants some husbandly comfort that he can't at the moment provide, her immediate and I mean immediate action is to text Lester. Why? Because addicts need to kill the pain, and she's addicted to Lester's smell and sex and she's going to kill her emotional pain and guilt with him. Only now that she's doing all this without Dan's permission or awareness, all she can do is try to justify it by him being out of town and accusing him of not caring - which simply isn't true. Now, there's no justification for her. Its very possible the next few chapters are going to go pretty quick, because once the dominos start to fall it won't stop.
Sigma
2024-05-23 20:38:13 +0000 UTC
