“It’s right there in the Lord’s Prayer: ‘Give us today our daily bread. And Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.’ The whole concept of receiving forgiveness and forgiving others is baked right in. It is probably the most important technology embedded within Christianity.
“Gentlemen, I know you’re pissed because to one degree or another, our wives have injured us by building secret relationships with that prick Emile. I ask that you would seriously consider forgiving your wife. Emile was charming, deceptive, convincing, and he was in authority over them. He duped them all.
“Christmas is the celebration of the Incarnation: we celebrate the fact that Christ became flesh and dwelt among us. He came to earth to bring us forgiveness. Although I am personally supremely pissed at Quiara, in the spirit of the coming holiday, I’m going to try my hardest to take a soft approach. I am going to make every effort to find a way to forgive her so that we can reconcile. I hope that you men will embrace the spirit of the season as well.
“If you don’t and choose to be a hardass about it, you are declaring that you choose to live in the ‘might makes right’ world. And I will remind you all, in that world, your wife now belongs to me.”
Greg stood up, walked over to the door, and opened it. There was a member of the wait staff waiting there. “Are you ready?” he asked.
“Yes sir,” announced the head waitress.
Greg stood back out of the way and the waitress rolled in a cart filled with desserts. A second cart came in with a couple of magnums of champagne chilling in ice buckets.
Greg addressed the group again. “As a gift to the group and as an apology for ruining your Christmas party, I took the liberty of acquiring a few magnums of Veuve Clicquot champagne for the group.”
Greg watched as the women blushed and made furtive eye contact with each other.
“Gentlemen, you don’t know this, but each time that Emile took our wives to the Le Coucou to enjoy a gourmet meal, he asked the wait staff to bring out an unopened bottle of Veuve Cliquot in an ice bucket. Emile told the women that if they chose to spend the afternoon making love with him, that he’d pop the cork for them to celebrate. It was an extremely powerful manipulation, wasn’t it ladies?”
Several women blushed. None of them responded.
“As a fitting way to celebrate the removal of Emile from your lives and as a thorn in our sides, I bought some Veuve Cliquot for the group.”
With a pop, the first magnum was opened.
Flutes were quickly filled and passed out. There were quite a few shocked faces looking into their glasses of Champagne.
Greg raised his flute and waited for everyone else to do the same. “To husbands and wives!” Greg pronounced.
The group repeated, “To husbands and wives!”
As everyone started to drink Greg said, “All of them members of my harem!”
He drank his flute down and said, “I’ll leave it to you to discuss how to handle Emile. Merry Christmas everyone.”
***
Greg was waiting in the car for quite a while before he saw the Language Department members come out bundled up in their coats. In pairs, they got in their cars and left.