Girl Networks

Edna corners me, one Sunday afternoon. (Every town, of any size, has an Edna. Edna has no real life, just a sort of shadow existence in the reflected light of the lives of others. Despite her miserable existence, Edna has a lot of political power with the girls and even the ladies of the town. Edna needs to be handled with care.)
I get us a couple of glasses of wine and we sit down.
Edna starts her interrogation off by stating, “Jake Hall, you dated Jean, for awhile.”
I lecture, “I make my living as a computer programmer analyst. I have to live in a real world, since it’s a requirement of my job. However, I was, for a time, drawn into her insane world, by Jean. Jean sort of slunk into town, with no money and no job. She quickly got a job as a temp secretary. Then I met Jean, through a girl that I worked with. Jean had an actual film star face, a slightly too slim body and the ability to handle people. I fell for Jean. I fell for the film star face, her people handling ability and her very real intelligence. I managed to get a date with the film star looks girl. I took her to a nice place and treated her like a lady. I actually talked to Jean and not just about her film star face. I knew a little about where she had come from and some of the people that she had worked with. We had a real conversation and it was apparently a change from the boys that Jean had been involved with. Things went well.”
I got a second date with Jean and the alarm bells started to go off. She wanted me to pick her up, at work, because the apartment that she shared with another girl was undergoing a complete renovation. Why this would be a problem, wasn’t clear to me. However, it resulted in a situation where I would date her on Friday, not Saturday. But, hey, look at me! Plain ol’ Jake is dating a by damn film star looking lady. Hot damn!”
Edna jumps in,”So, that was what Jean was to you, a film star face?”
I laugh, “Much more than that. Jean wore school girl clothes, on our dates. However, she could conduct an adult level conversation and she could handle people, as few others could. We had a few more dates. Jean’s clothes really didn’t improve. I could understand that she was new in town and had little money. However, clothes are a girl’s best friend and I wondered why she didn’t upgrade her date clothes, at least a little. Then, something happened that was a key to my understanding Jean, although I didn’t see that, at the time. Jean had some sort of small cyst on her chest. It wasn’t on the girl parts, but not too far away. One night, Jean told me that she had saved enough money to get a small cyst removed from her chest. The operation was a complete success and she was almost completely healed. Like a fool, I assumed that the cyst money was why she had been unable to upgrade her date clothes. Then I found out that Jean had health insurance, through her temp agency, and that the little cost of her cyst surgery would have been almost completely covered by the insurance. I managed to talk to a couple of ladies and found that Jean’s cyst surgery was just above the level of popping a pimple. The healing would indeed be quick and leave no scar or, at worst, a tiny pin point scar.”
Edna asks, “Did you talk to Jean about the matter of the cyst surgery?”
“I thought about the matter, but confronting Jean seemed to be counter productive. I then got a key piece of information. One of the technicians at work told me that he had seen Jean with some guy, at a low class bar, on Saturday night. I then talked with Jean about us dating Saturday night, instead of Friday night. The repairs on her apartment must be finished by now.”
“Jean told me that she was going out with the girls, Saturday nights.”
“I realized that Jean was playing me for a fool.