I engulfed my boss with one arm, and sectioned her off from the bar with the rest of my body. I call her my boss because technically that's what she is, but she is also my friend and mentor and occasionally my ward.
I am large for my position in life--27 years old and female, but I am also 6 feet tall and I outweigh most grown men. She is pushing five feet and might manage a measurement of 100 pounds if she jumped on the scale with everything she had.
Rewind to when she was sitting on my lap. This is well after both of us have downed several drinks; well after the conversation where I imply she should bury her face in my cleavage, and well after I ask what her type of woman is. She answers, "Lipstick lesbians," then asks, "So when are we going to hook up?" and I tell her, "Literally the second your fiance is alright with it."
The office manager pushed her way into our conversation, drunk and spitting, boss/friend/favorite still sitting on my lap. Office manager greeted me, then my boss, then said to my boss/friend/favorite: "I like you but you need to stop being so mean."
I whirled around and said, "What?" unable to hide the contempt.
Boss/friend/favorite apologized for seeming mean, then dismissed herself to the bathroom to cry while I redirected office manager to anything else in the world.
Fast forward to an hour after that and office manager is making her goodbye rounds. I see her making her goodbye rounds. I see boss/friend/favorite see office manager making the goodbye rounds, and I see boss/friend/favorite's tiny body tense up with anxiety. That's when I tell boyfriend to hold my drink so I can wrap one hand around boss. I use the rest of my body to form a blockade between office manager and boss, and I suddenly act very interested in the silence she is dispensing. Boss/friend/favorite pulls out her phone to give the appearance of showing me some pictures, and whispers in my ear, "Thank you so much for doing this. I'm about to cry right now."
Office manager attempts to say goodbye to boss/friend/favorite and can't because I am in the way. She leaves without anymore noteworthy behavior, and later I overheard boss/friend/favorite telling another boss, "I don't give a fuck what [office manager] said, she's a bitch, but I think it's amazing that the response from Amanda was immediate. That's what I'm choosing to focus on. How much my friends love me."
Something to remember: that is always what we should focus on. Boss/friend/favorite kissed my cheek as we left.
"Love you," she said, and that's what I choose to focus on. That's what I choose to remember.