1992 Christmas Party fight challenge
I can give the detail I know, although I need to warn you that the eventual fight was pretty darn anticlimactic, and also that I was a peripheral observer to all this.
The couple at the center of the action was a 26 year old Finance MBA named Andrew and his 23 year old "girlfriend" named Linda. Linda was a pretty red/blonde girl, maybe 5'7", very thin, always changing her hair color. Definitely someone you would turn your head to look at. Linda had dropped out of college but was working at the Boston real estate company where the drama played out because the company was paying for her to take classes towards her Bachelors in the city. Linda and Andrew were always breaking up and getting back together, and were totally annoying to work with, but I started paying attention when they went away for two weeks to the Summer Olympics in Bareclona, Spain, and Linda came back with a black eye. And p.s. they were broken up again--what a long, awkward flight home that must have been.
The office gossip was that Andrew had slugged Linda in Spain. But the story I chose to believe was that Linda had gotten into a catfight with a fiery short-tempered Spanish girl (or, even better, a Nordic Ice Queen) at a Barcelona dive bar. Either way, Linda got on my radar as a girl who wasn't afraid to throw down. I started paying more attention to her.
The "other woman" was a 25 year old Boston Irish girl named Eileen, who also worked in the office. Eileen was sandy blonde, frizzy hair which she tried to get under control with tight curls. She had a really nice chest, which your eyes were drawn to because of her freckly skin. I pegged her as a fighter--she had attended gritty Boston public schools until her great aunt "rescued" her by paying for Catholic school tuition. We knew she was from the city because she never drove--she mentioned that she had a license for identification only. She lived in the city, and expected to for the indefinite future, since she was the caregiver for her elderly great aunt. That's where the story gets interesting.
When Andrew and Linda broke up after Barcelona, Andrew transferred to our Danbury, Connecticut office. Linda started September college classes, and Eileen announced she was taking driving lessons. Hmm, that seemed odd--why was she learning to drive at 25? People would ask, and she'd shrug us off.
In November, Eileen's job was posted in the office. She couldn't deny the rumors about her anymore. She announced that at the start of the New Year, she was transferring to the Danbury office. Her great aunt's health had deteriorated to such an extent that Eileen had moved her into a retirement home, and Eileen was now free to leave Boston.
Also, she had a boyfriend in Danbury. A serious one. Andrew.
To Eileen's closest friends, all of these sudden changes seemed perplexing. Eileen actually had a good deal going, financially speaking, with her great aunt--no mortgage and no rent. And, Andrew? Really? Linda's odd ex? Why him? When they pressed her as to why the sudden life changes, Eileen said that she had saved a nice stack of money and that she felt Andrew was her "last chance" to have a "normal" married-with-2.5-kids life.
Eileen claimed she and Andrew were engaged, although Linda was quick to point out Eileen had no ring. The office split into Team Eileen and Team Linda camps, with Eileen and Linda throwing catty rumors each others' way via their surrogates. Eileen said she'd be vindicated when she brought Andrew to the company Christmas dinner--any doubters could quiz Andrew themselves.
There was an unspoken custom that if you didn't have a date, that you would skip the company Christmas Party. When Linda showed up single, she was clearly signalling to everyone, including Eileen and Andrew, that she was single and available. All eyes that night were on the Eileen-Andrew-Linda triangle. We were all hoping for a showdown that night, but the two women had a longer game in mind. The co-workers who quizzed Andrew got from him a confirmation that he and Eileen were, indeed, engaged, but that the ring was "on hold" at the jewellers pending payment from Andrew. (Team Linda took this as a sign that he was just using Eileen for her money, and that his true love was Linda, not Eileen.) And that we were all invited to the wedding in Connecticut "next summer some time". Ya, ok, Andrew--I'll mark my calendar.
This is where I lost the thread of the story, or at least any personal connection to it. Eileen did indeed transfer to the Danbury office. Followed shortly by Linda--who in doing so forfeited all her credits towards her bachelors. They were clearly in Connecticut duelling over Andrew. By February, the summer 1993 wedding was postponed, and by March, Eileen and Andrew were no longer a couple. Linda had won, by breaking up Eileen and Andrew. Eileen and Linda had a fistfight in June, and Linda quit the company, so Eileen presumably won the fight.
That's what I heard, at least.
