38 comments/ 131166 views/ 16 favorites Jumping to Conclusions By: Just Plain Bob I left the apartment at my usual time and pulled out of the parking lot onto the street. I turned and headed down Cortez to the stop sign at Monte Vista and then hung a left. Twenty minutes would have me at work and if it was a normal Friday and the day had no surprises I would be able to leave work early and head for the lake. I had the tent and the rest of the gear in the back of the pickup and all I would need to do is stop and get ice. I reached over and turned on the radio and caught the last of George Jones doing 'The Cold Hard Truth.' The song ended and the DJ said: "Nobody does it like 'Ole Possum' and now here is Susan with traffic and weather." Susan told me that there were no tie-ups on my route and that my weekend would be warm and sunny. After a half dozen commercials for services I would never use and products I would never buy the DJ came back: "Good morning. It is 7:06 on this beautiful Friday the ninth of June and you are listening to KXYZ. Here is Rhonda Vincent to take you for a ride on 'The Bluegrass Express." I love Rhonda Vincent and The Rage, but I reached over and turned the radio off. The ninth of June. I'd totally forgotten that the day was the ninth of June. How the hell could I have forgotten that? The ninth of June. The day my marriage ended. It had taken some time to try and put that day behind me, but the memory was always there and as I drove to work it all came back to me. ++++++++++++++++++++ It started with a business trip to Chicago. I'd kissed my wife Shari goodbye, told her I'd call her as soon as I got to Chicago and checked into the hotel. The flight was uneventful and I took the courtesy bus to the hotel and then called Shari to let her know where she could reach me. I sat at the table in the room and reviewed the papers I would be going over with the customer the next day and around seven I headed down to the hotel restaurant to get a bite to eat. After a fairly decent top sirloin I went into the hotel lounge to listen to the live band and have a drink or two. I was sitting at the bar nursing a vodka tonic when a throaty voice behind me said into my ear: "Want me to suck your cock honey?" I quickly turned and saw Annette Carlson standing there. Annette had been my steady girlfriend during my first two years of college. We had torn up our share of bed sheets during those two years and had parted somewhat amicably when she told me that she wanted to fuck other guys. Her exact words were still burned into my memory. "I like you a lot Frank, but I was a virgin when we met and I want to experience some life while I'm still young." Until the moment she laid that on me I was actually considering getting a ring and going to a knee in front of her. The quickness with which I dropped that idea told me that it probably wouldn't have been all that great an idea in the first place. I heard later that she had developed a reputation as 'an easy piece' around campus. And here she was fifteen years later standing behind me in a hotel bar in Chicago. She threw her arms around me, hugged me and told me that it was so good to see me and then she invited me to join her and her husband at their table. I told her no thanks, that I didn't want to intrude and she said: "Nonsense. Come on" and she grabbed my arm, pulled me off my stool and led me over to where her husband sat waiting. On the way to their table she leaned close and said: "You don't have to mention my greeting to you. Harry wouldn't understand." "Too bad. I was giving some serious thought to taking you up on your offer." That of course wasn't true. I had never cheated on Shari and I never intended to, but it seemed like the thing to say at the time. Annette introduced me to her husband and then we proceeded to bore the poor guy to tears as Annette and I went through the old friends ritual of "Have you heard from_______," "Whatever happened to_____" and "Did you hear about_____." Harry got up to use the men's room and Annette watched him walk away. When he was out of sight she said: "Why did you ever let me get away?" "As I remember it I didn't let anything happen. You just flat out told me that you wanted to sample the male population at school and you said goodbye." "Biggest mistake of my life. I already had the best and didn't know it." "Thanks; I think." "Its true baby and you know it. Besides being a super nice guy you had the best cock that I've ever had in me and I was stupid to let you get away." "That isn't a nice way to talk with your husband just down the hall." "Harry is a sweetheart and I'm glad I have him, but he is only so-so in the bedroom. He is what I picked and I knew what I was getting when I got him, but that doesn't mean I have to flush memories down the toilet." Harry came back and the conversation turned to things that included him and we sat there, talked and drank for about an hour. The Annie's cell phone rang and after saying hello the conversation went: "I suppose." "I'll have to ask Harry." "Hey! You remember Frank Corbett?" "He's sitting across from me right now." "Hang on; let me check." She turned to me. "You remember Mary Ellen Frasier?" I nodded a yes. "She's Mary Ellen Watson now. She's having a party and there will probably be a few others there you know. Want to go?" I had nothing better to do so I said yes. Then I said that I needed to run up to my room first and Annie asked me if she could come up and use my bathroom. "I'd rather use a real towel to clean up with instead of the paper towels in the ladies' room here." As we walked to the elevators Annie, who had taken on a few more drinks than I had giggled and said: "I hope that no one who knows me is seeing this." "Seeing what" her husband asked. "Me going up to a hotel room with two men." Her husband said, "It will probably look even worse than that. They will see your husband leaving you and letting you to go up to a room with a strange man. God knows what they would think about that." "Why? Where are you going?" "To get the car. I'll meet you out front." He went off and Annie and I got on the elevator. As the door closed behind us Annie giggled again and said: "It's a good thing I love my husband or I'd make good on my earlier offer right here in this elevator. Would you let me baby? Would you let your old girlfriend suck your dick?" Knowing that she was just being playful I said, "You bet your sweet ass I would." Let me be honest here. Annie was one hell of a sexy looking woman and she had been superb when it came to sucking cock so even though I had no intention of doing anything her looks and the memory of her magic mouth had given me a hard on and she noticed. She reached down and touched the bulge, stroked it and giggled as she said: "It remembers me. Can I see it? For old times sake?" and she reached for my zipper. I was just reaching down to push her hand away when we reached my floor and the elevator door opened. Annie snatched her hand away, but not before the couple waiting for the elevator saw it. The woman looked away embarrassed and the man gave me a knowing grin as we exited the elevator and Annie giggled and said "Oops." We entered my room and Annie used the bathroom while I got my address book and a pen out of my briefcase. I wanted it so I could enter the addresses and phone numbers if there were a lot of people at Mary Ellen's that I knew. Annie came out of the bathroom and I went in and checked myself in the mirror and saw the 'five o'clock' shadow. I grabbed the electric razor and did a quick clean up, left the bathroom, got Annie and headed downstairs. Harry was waiting out front and we drove over to a house on Chicago's south side. Besides Mary Ellen I knew a good half dozen of the people there from my college days. It was a very enjoyable evening and as far as I was concerned it was over too soon. I told several that I wanted to stay in touch and I put their phone numbers and addresses in my book. Harry and Annie drove me back to the hotel and I went to bed. +++++++++++++++++++ The next day went well and I called Shari and told her I would be home by eight. In a husky voice she said: "Then I'll expect you in our bedroom at eight-oh-one and you had better be ready for a hot welcome home." Thoughts of the feast waiting for me had me hard as a steel bar when I walked into the house at seven fifty-six. I dropped my suitcase and briefcase on the living room floor and headed for our bedroom. I walked through the door and saw Shari spread on the bed in garter belt, high heels and nylons just as I was grabbed by several pairs of hands. I was caught off guard and the four men had forced me down on a chair before I could even begin to struggle. When I did begin to yell and struggle a pair of socks was stuffed into my mouth and then with rope that they already had handy they tied me to the chair. Shari got off the bed and walked over to stand in front of me. "Do I look good baby?" Do I look hot in your favorite garter belt and nylons? How about my heels? They are your favorite 'come fuck me' pumps. I wanted to look my best for you as I give you your very own private porn show." She turned and walked to the bed where the four men, one of whom I recognized as a guy she worked with, now sat naked with hard ons. She went to her knees in front of the one on the left, looked over at me and winked, and then she went down on him. Until then I had been struggling in a vain attempt to get loose, but when her mouth closed on the man's cock all the fight went out of me and I died inside. Shari worked her way along the line of sitting men always looking at me and smiling before she took the man in her mouth. She spent about two minutes on each man and then went back to where she stared and ran the line again. Next she got on the bed and spread herself wide and took the four men on one after the other and when all four were finished they took a break and went into the kitchen for I'm guessing some refreshment after which they came back. Shari got on the bed and took them on two at a time. While one fucked her she sucked on a second one while the other two played with her breasts and kissed her on the neck and ears. Then one took her ass while another fucked her in the cunt. I could see that her nipples were hard and the men playing with her tits moved to suck on them. There was no slow ands easy fucking. The men fucked her hard and she was very vocal in her appreciation. After they had all cum a second time they adjourned for more refreshment. When they came back Shari took off the garter belt and the by now laddered and cum soaked nylons, but she slipped her heels back on. She looked over at me and said: "Thank you for this. I'm having more fun than the law should allow and I owe it all to you. I don't know if you enjoyed that whore you had in your hotel room as much as I'm enjoying this, but thank you for giving me the opportunity." She turned to go back to her herd and as I looked at her back as she walked away I was confused. I gave her the opportunity? Then it hit me! "The whore in your room last night." Somehow she had learned about Annie and had totally misread things. I was being paid back for a wrong that I had never committed and Shari would never know it because after what she was now doing I doubted that I would ever speak to her again. When she got back on the bed she said to her crew, "I want to try something that I've read about. Any of you guys heard of making a girl airtight?" One of them smiled and said, "Dibs on your ass" and Shari laughed as the four men moved her into position. The guy who called 'dibs' on her ass laid down and Shari moved over him and eased his cock into her ass as she settled onto him in the reverse cowgirl position. Then she leaned back and another guy moved into her in the missionary position. The two men started working into her trying to establish a working rhythm. The guy under her supported her with his hands so her hands were free. The remaining two men took a position on either side of her and she looked at me and winked before she took the one on her right into her mouth and the one on her left into her hand and started stroking him. After that it was just bodies moving around as the four men used her and she moaned and screamed and had orgasms. Then it was over and the four men dressed and left. "Just a little longer baby" she said as the last of them went out the door. "I need to clean up and then we will have a little talk." She went into the bathroom and I heard the shower start. It was almost a half hour before she came back into the room still naked. She had combed her hair and put on fresh makeup and she walked to the closet and got a robe and put it on. She came over to me and took the socks out of my mouth and as she started to untie the ropes holding me to the chair she said: "What you just saw baby is what I'll do every time you cheat on me. I'm almost -- notice I said almost -- hoping that you might cheat a lot. It was awesome. I could get used to it if I let myself." The ropes fell away and I tried to stand, but hours of being tied so that I couldn't move had their effect on me and I staggered and almost fell and had to grab the chair to keep from falling to the floor. Shari said: "Come over here and sit down on the bed and we will talk." I ignored her and stumbled toward the bathroom, but didn't make it before I fell to the floor. Shari came over to help, but I snarled at her to get the fuck away from me. I took a long overdue piss, splashed some cold water on my face, dried off and then walking a little better I left the bathroom and walked through the bedroom to the stairs and started down them. Shari was behind me. "Where are you going? We have to talk Rob. We have to get some things straight." I ignored her and walked to where I had dropped my suitcase and briefcase when I'd gotten home, picked them up and walked out of the house. Shari was standing in the front doorway calling out: "Where are you going Rob? This isn't helping any. Get back here. We have to talk." She was still yelling at me as I backed down the drive, turned right when I got to the street and drove off. I found a motel close to work, checked in, left a call for six in the morning, got into bed and fell into a troubled sleep. ++++++++++++++++ When the call from the desk came I got up, showered and then headed to the Village Inn for breakfast. While eating I made a mental list of what I needed to do that morning. At eight I called my boss and let him know that I was back in town, but had some personal business I needed to take care of and that I'd be in around noon. By nine I had cleaned out the bank accounts and taken every thing of value out of the safe deposit box. I walked down the street to a different band and opened new accounts and got a new safe deposit box. By ten I'd cancelled all of our credit cards except for my American Express and one Visa card that was in my name only. I called Shari's office and asked for her and as soon as she said hello and I knew that she was at work I hung up and drove home. By eleven I had every thing I needed to get me through the next couple of weeks. When I got to work the receptionist handed me a stack of message slips and two thirds of them were from Shari. I separated them from the pile and dropped them into the trash can sitting next to Carol's desk. Then I told Carol that Shari and I had separated and not to take any more messages from her or put any of her calls through to me. I stopped in at Ben's office and brought him up to date on my meetings in Chicago and then told him I might have to take some unscheduled vacation time. I told him that Shari and I had separated and I needed some time to find an apartment and move in. He asked me if I could hold off on taking the time off for a couple of days. "I need you to go to Atlanta and handle a situation there. You will probably be gone four or five days." I told him "No problem" and it really wasn't. It would get me out of town and away from anything that Shari might try. I would almost bet that by the time I left Ben's office Shari would have been declined on her credit cards. She wouldn't be able to get me by phone so she would probably come to my office, but by then I should be in the air on my way to Atlanta. I cautioned Ben and Carol against letting Shari know I had gone out of town and then I hit the motel, got my stuff and headed for the airport. As I waited for my flight to be called I grabbed one of those free apartment finders magazines and started going through it and making a list of places to check out when I got back to town. About halfway to Atlanta it occurred to me that I had forgotten something important. I used the in flight phone to call Ben and tell him to take my paycheck off of 'direct deposit' and hold it for me until I could get back and change it to my new bank. While I had him on the phone he told me that he had talked to Shari. When she couldn't get me on the phone she insisted that Carol put her through to Ben. She tried to badger Ben into making me take her calls and Ben had told her that I had told him we were separated and then he told her that communication between her and me were not a company problem and he was not going to get involved and then he had hung up on her. +++++++++++++++++++++ When I got into Atlanta I checked into a hotel, got a good nights sleep. The next day was spent putting out fires at the Atlanta office and when I got back to the hotel I called my parents, my brother George and my sister Mary and brought them up to speed on my separation from Shari. I didn't go into detail, I just told them I came home from a business trip early and found something that I didn't care for. My mom told me that Shari had called and asked mom to have me call her which of course I didn't. The next morning at nine I called Ben to give him an update and he surprised me. After telling me that he had seen Shari the previous evening, "I guess since she couldn't get you on the phone she decided to wait in the parking lot for you to get off work" he said: "How do you like Atlanta?" "I've only been here a few times, but it seems like a nice place." "Is your separation from Shari a temporary thing while you try to work some things out, or is it something that will end up in a divorce?" "There is no chance of us getting back together." "Then how would you feel about moving?" "What do you mean?" "This is the third time I've had to send somebody to Atlanta to fix things. I'm going to let Falstaff go. Would you like the Atlanta office?" "Hell yes I would." "Okay then, you have it. We will work out the details when you get back." It was a hell of a boost to my ego and as I sat there smiling it occurred to me that a move to Atlanta would take away the hassle of trying to avoid Shari and it would have been a hassle. If she was going to sit in parking lots and wait for me what else would she try? I wasn't afraid to face her; I just didn't want to. From the way she had talked as she untied me it was obvious to me that her mindset was "Okay, now we are even and we can put this behind us" but there was no way that was ever going to happen. If she had gone out and screwed some guy in a motel room and then come home and told me "Okay, now we are even" our marriage would still have been over, but for her to do what she did with four men and expect me to accept it? No way! No fucking way! All a face to face would accomplish was I would probably spit in her face. I knew why she had done it and I wasn't at all happy with that. She didn't trust me enough to give me the benefit of the doubt until she could talk with me? Fuck her! No sir, better to just walk away. I wasn't going to go for a divorce! I was just going to walk away. Jumping to Conclusions "Jill has a butterfly tattoo right alongside her snatch." Brent whispered to me, the first moment he got me off to the side. He had a big smirk on his face. I looked at him in shock, the world turned red. My reaction was without thinking. He must have seen it coming because he did try to turn his head, but it wasn't enough. Down he went, right through the middle of Dale and Charlene's glass topped Coffee table. I only got one kick in before someone grabbed me. I managed to shake myself loose and headed out the door. Our brand spanking new RS Camaro only has the little 323 H/P V6, but she will haul balls and light the tires nicely if I punch the trac control button. It also has that paddle shift which lets me peg her to redline if I want to. And in a rage, I wanted to! Jesus fucking Christ! It had only been 5 fucking days! How in the God damn hell had Brent managed to get my Jill into the sack in just 5 fucking days? The last thing I saw was Jill coming out the door, a startled look on her face as I tore off down the street. No point in sticking around to talk, I was done with the bitch if she was that fucking easy. +++ I had known Brent for a good half dozen years, I think it was our junior year that his family moved to our town. He was an OK guy but a bit of a braggard. Always yapping about seducing women, no end to that. The rest of us guys wanted to be seducing the girls in our school, but I doubted any of us ever succeeded. I know I sure as hell didn't. Brent was after the girls in our school all of the time, that started the second day and never stopped. How he had them laughing and smiling all the time beats me, but they seemed to all get fluttery when he was paying them attention. Brent did have that line of bullcrap but he also treated women he was dating like shit, so a person would think he would get nowhere. Yet without fail, he seemed to show up with one stone fox after another. As I got to know him, I figured at first he must be packing serious meat. Then I saw him in the showers back in high school, so it wasn't that. If anything, I had him by a little bit there. Brent was a good looking guy though, muscular, cocky. He drove a nice car, his family clearly had money, things like that matter to females I suppose. I met Jill in our senior year at a dance She was a cousin of one of the other girls in our class and went to a different school. I asked her to dance, she smiled like she was pleased that I asked. We also talked, for some reason it wasn't like trying to talk to most girls, where a guy has to think of what to say and then try to say it while the tongue is stuck to the roof of our mouth. I liked Jill, and I liked the way she looked. She appeared to like me right back, so talking was easy. My poor attempts at being funny brought giggles, she reached out and touched my hand as we chatted several times. Great confidence builders, things like that. We dated, became an item, and married just a year out of school. All perfectly normal, we got along fine and she was as pure as the new fallen snow the first time we made love. That part I was completely sure of, and it was her idea when we finally did. She met Brent during the period we were dating, of course she did since he was around all the time. She told me later that she thought he was a bit of a pompous ass. She even got up and danced with him a few times at parties, telling me later that she only did because he was my friend and she didn't want to hurt his feelings. Then she asked me if she could just say no if he asked again, because she didn't like him. That was when she mentioned him being a pompous ass. I tended to agree, and due to his obvious success with the ladies I will admit he made me nervous, my Jill was quite a catch. So her not liking him much pleased me deep down inside. Oddly, Brent never made any attempt at all with Jill that I knew of, probably because of me. Jill was mine and I was hers, that was clear to everyone. But then Jill did dance later with Brent at parties, on our nights out. Mostly fast ones, that was one thing he could do well. On the rare slow ones, there was always a good six inches between them. I also danced with some of the other women around, it was all just friends stuff. More than once I overheard some of them telling Jill how lucky she was, that I was the world's nicest guy. +++ My sum total of experience with sex was perhaps a month before Jill and I met, a girl named Sherry. She had the reputation of being a bit easy, so I asked her out and she accepted. Yes, I was thinking that maybe, just maybe? After all, I was a young and virile male, and it seemed like everyone I knew had already done it with someone. I was sort of the odd man out when it came to relationships during that period, so when I asked around Sherry's name popped up. As it turned out, the things I had heard were true and I lost my cherry with her. I was thinking perhaps I might get a rerun, I liked that. It had been in the back seat of the giant Dodge I drove back then, lots of room in that old gun boat. Sherry did a few things that I had no real idea people even did, it was exciting and I liked it. But when I asked Sherry out again, she told me no thanks. I asked why not, she told me in no uncertain terms that I was a little bit quick and she didn't get anything out of it. Then she turned and walked away. Hell, Sherry was our school round heels and SHE rejected me?? Man, did that hurt my feelings! I even mentioned it to Brent, he laughed at me. Then he told me a whole bunch of things to do to women once I got them started, I mean, in detail! That was when I figured he was perhaps not just full of bullshit, otherwise how could he even know about all of that stuff? How to go real slow, clench my butt when things started to go off too soon. How to touch and tease, how to lick them and where? Earlobes and the back of the knees, I mean, who would even think of messing with women there? I mean why should they be all that different, us guys just grab the end of our dicks and rub? Yet women we have to tickle, tease them, whisper in their ears and stuff like that? Rub their butt hole gently while sticking the other finger in them? Lick one nipple real gentle while rolling the other one, barely touching? I had heard of some of the things like that of course, but none of it entered my mind when I got Sherry's blouse off. The panties came off real easy because she helped, at that point all I wanted to do was stick it in there, so I did. Probably less than 90 seconds from the time I got her knees apart until I was all done. Hey, it was my first time, I think all men go through that. After Brent gave me lessons, I went to the library and read every book I could think of. Some of them had drawings and went into great detail. There was a lady at the desk, perhaps 40 or so, she had her hair in a bun and glasses. She was looking at me with a huge smile as I kept checking out those books. After spending a full dozen afternoons studying up on love making techniques, I decided I was ready. The library lady was sure smiling at me. I even thought about trying to talk to her but she was way too old, at least in her 30's and I figured she probably wasn't interested any more. I did notice that several times I could see part of her bra when I went up to her desk. Knowing what I know now, I will say some of those books could have been better. There were signals from the library lady and I completely missed those. Finally I thought I had it all figured out, I could hardly wait for my next opportunity. All I had to do was convince Sherry to give me another shot. Then I met Jill. Sherry was forgotten. +++ We did do the typically learning curve dating bit. Which was no touch the breasts, hands off the legs. Kisses were OK and my hand on the waist, that was it. Even dancing, she would not let me rub up against her like lots of the other girls would. Somewhere in there we fell in love, I am sure I was first to think that by far. Come Fall, things finally progressed to letting me pet her outside of her clothes. I told her I loved her, she told me the same. Then one night after the movies, she was snugged up right beside me on the way home. I will always remember that day, it was in October. My 20th birthday was the next day. "Danny? Will you take me to a motel?" She whispered in my ear. I damn near wrecked the car. "I went on the pill last month, so I want to find out about...you know?" She was blushing furiously. So we did, and I did everything I could remember from reading and from what Brent had told me. I did almost blow that because I was in the bed when Jill was in the bathroom, she came out wearing this filmy thing that I could almost see right through. It was clear she had this planned because that had to have been in her purse. One look at her body framed with the light behind her and I shot off a little bit. I thought I had ruined things, but being young and virile, it didn't even go down. In fact, that probably helped my endurance because when Jill opened her legs shyly and I got to look, I had to force myself to not just ram myself in there. The one part I had read about licking like doing the alphabet was in my head, and I was making sure they were all capital letters, as slow as I could go and still be moving. Jill whimpered, her face looked like she was in agony. I expected that to taste awful, it didn't. She smelled and tasted like nothing I had ever even imagined, wonderful. There was a hint of some kind of perfume, overpowered by female. I made it to "E" and then stuck my tongue clear inside of her, my nose buried in her pussy. When my tongue came out, I licked upwards over her and she began jerking and groaning, her fingers digging into my shoulders so hard it hurt! Then Jill passed out cold? That scared me, it was just for a few moments but I had a cool damp towel by then and was dabbing at her forehead. "My God. I didn't know, I didn't know..." She mumbled over and over. Then she grabbed at me like she had just fallen into the water and was drowning. We lay there and held each other, my body pressed to hers. I stayed hard as a rock the entire time. Somehow I got the wisp of cloth off of her, her hand slid down and wrapped around my erection, a soft sigh escaped her lips. Then there were tiny touches, strokes, everywhere. Both of us knew this was special. It was an hour or so later before we actually did it, she didn't pass out any more but she sure did go nuts. Her initial hesitation, her slight modesty was long gone by then. She became very noisy, I half expected someone to show up at the door yelling at us, but no one did. Then Jill got on top of me on the bed, on her knees so she could look at me, feel me. The lights were out, she got up naked and turned them on, came right back so she could see me. She sat on my knees, one leg on each side of me. It was like she was fascinated with my equipment. I guess I understood, I did the same thing right back to her. I reached out with both hands and spread her open so I could see everything as she grinned down at me with a crazy wicked expression on her face. Then she asked me if I wanted her to put it in her mouth, I nodded and she did. I expected her to make a face or something, she didn't. It was like she thought it was a lollipop or something. I wriggled around until my face was between her legs, what a view! She squealed when I stuck my finger up her butt, then she got the idea and did that right back to me. We must have spent a whole hour just doing that, licking and poking each other. That was it, we were clearly going to be together forever. My lessons, my reading everything I could find had paid off. I had read that sometimes there would be pain, some blood, but there wasn't any sign at all of that. +++ Things were fine for a long time, Jill and I were crazy about each other. I even got two speeding tickets coming home after work in the first month. But after we had been together for a few years, things settled down. I could always tell when Jill was in the mood, she went to great lengths to make dinner wonderful, she would leave a button undone, and more than once dinner came later. Jill loved sex, and so did I. Things were great between us. +++ We had a neat circle of friends, parties all the time, things like that. It seemed that there were a lot of those, and everyone gave each other gifts, small ones but it was fun. Little things like hilarious knick knacks, the sexy joke kind or crazy figurines. I remember that Brent was the one that started that, and it grew until we all did it. For my birthday the year before, Brent gave me a battery powered digital clock, that was probably one of the nicer gifts. We had one in our bathroom. Things like that were normal, Brent was over often, sometimes with a female, sometimes not. None of his relationships ever lasted very long. +++ Then one Saturday Brent was visiting and he was doing his usual bragging. He was a regular over at our place, often just him. It was drink a couple of beers, swap some lies kind of stuff. Jill was in our kitchen making some of her pastries, she would make up a bunch of those ahead of time and freeze them for later. Back in high school she had worked in a local bakery, man was she good at making that stuff. Brent loved those, and Jill would bring out some hot ones for us to snack on. Of course Brent always brought along some beer, so he and I were sipping on those and shooting the shit. They say that pastry and beer don't go together, but I have to say we both liked that. Especially the ones she wrapped Bacon inside, some folks will say that doesn't work either, but it sure does. Brent got a little bit tipsy, on the normal side there. He was talking about some woman he had just seduced, and how he got her on their first date. I mentioned that it wasn't all that easy with some women, I was thinking about how long it took for Jill and I to take that final step. Then he bragged how he could have any woman he wanted, it really was easy. "Not the married ones." I countered. His constant bragging was getting to me. We were working on our third beer, and his tongue always loosened up when he got a couple of them down. "Hell, the married ones are the easiest." He argued. "Not all of them." I said. "Yes, they are." He insisted. "Oh, bullshit!" I told him. "Take your old lady for example. I could have had her in the sack in a week, it's just that you got to her first. I even thought about it but decided what the hell, toss you a bone!" He snickered. That irritated the hell out of me. I just happened to know that it took many months, and we had to be in love first. My Jill was a one man woman, just like I was a one woman man. "Bullshit!" I countered again. "I suppose I could prove it to you, I just don't want to piss you off." He laughed. "No way in hell can you bat with me!" He added with a smirk when I didn't respond. "How in the fuck could you prove it anyway? I wouldn't believe you. Hell, you yap a good game but I know better." Brent was now bruising my ego. I was by then rather proud of my love making abilities. "How about a little bet? I get her in the sack, tell you something about her that would be a secret?" He grinned. "Like what kind of secret?" I asked. "Oh, a mole, a scar, something like that, that is always covered up. Maybe she shaves, maybe she doesn't? What her tits look like? I bet she has something about her that no one else knows. Want to bet, or don't you?" That was a clear challenge the way he said it. "Oh yeah? How much?" I was right on the edge of popping my cork. "A hundred bucks!" He told me. "Fuck that, make it a grand!" I growled at him, bluffing. No way would he go for that, I was sure. "You are on!" Brent said. I looked at him, Brent always acted like he had the upper hand, this was one bet that no way in hell could he win. Jill only tolerated Brent because of me, that I knew for a fact. "You got it! One fucking week, that's it. And yea, there is one thing about her, if you don't come up with it, pay me!" I said, sticking out my hand. Brent leaned over and shook mine. OK. A few drinks, a dab of macho, and some stupidity and there we were. But I knew Jill, Brent would get nowhere at all. There was one secret that only Jill and I knew about, she had a tiny little butterfly about the size of a dime right next to her pubic hair line, she kept that trimmed into a shallow "V" shape so it would show but only when she was nude. She had always wanted one, so I had a woman at a tattoo shop do it for her for her birthday. Her plan was for one of those in the small of her back but I always found those ugly, so we compromised. There was just one way Brent could ever know about that, Jill would need to be naked because that did not show even in her tiniest bikini. It was right on the spot where if I licked her as a tease she would often go right through the roof. +++ Imagine my shock when Jill and I were at Dale and Charlene's party the next weekend. The fucker knew about her tattoo!! As far as I knew, Brent had never been by the house all week, there was nowhere he could have even seen her unless at the supermarket perhaps. So how? My reaction was instant and uncontrolled. I belted him, even though I had been involved in creating the situation myself. Yes, all hell broke loose, Brent tried to react, duck, but I got him dead square. He didn't even twitch when he hit the floor. My kick got him solid in the ribs, if it had been a football it would have scored from the 50 yard line. There was lots of yelling, I got the hell out of there. I went to a motel, got a room. It was the very same motel that Jill and I had first made love in, but a different room, thank God. I didn't own a cell phone although Jill did, the one I had was in the Camaro, On Star. It was ringing before I even got to the motel, of course it was. I pushed the off button on the radio as soon as Jill's voice came on. "Honey? What's wrong? Why did you hit Brent?" She said, just before I pushed the button. The rest of the night I spent in the chair in the room, my head whirling. The next morning, I decided to go get something to eat. I was just pulling off the lot, that is as far as I got. Next thing I knew, I was in handcuffs. +++ "Bail was posted, you are free to go. Stop at the desk and pick up the paperwork, and your hearing date, bud." An overweight policeman told me. "What are the charges?" I asked him. I already knew, of course, but I was being defiant. "Get yourself a lawyer, bud." He told me with a glare. "I ain't your bud." I muttered. "Shut the fuck up or I will throw your ass back in there!" He growled at me. Mean bastard. I went out front, there sat Jill. She jumped up when she saw me, a look of concern on her face. It was all puffy, too, she had been crying. I turned to the desk, ignoring her, got the paperwork for my release done. "How is your boyfriend?" I demanded as soon as we were outside. "Boyfriend? What? You mean Brent? What in the hell are you talking about?" She came to a stop, staring at me. "Look. I know you slept with him, how in the fuck do you expect me to react?" I raised my voice. "What? Honey, no! I didn't, you know that. How could you even think that? What are you talking about?" Tears welled up in her eyes. "I don't know anything. Except he just happens to know all about your tattoo!" "No, he doesn't! No way, he hasn't even talked to me. What did he say? Honey, he has to be lying!" Jumping to Conclusions "Damn it Jill! There is only one fucking way he could know about that, he had to have seen it. Tell me the truth, what happened?" "I don't know! Honest, you have to believe me. I never let him touch me, I never would." "Get in the fucking car!" I told her. She meekly went around and got in, but her face had now taken a set. She sat there looking out the window all the way home. No protests, no denials, no "I'm sorry." Nothing. Her face was like stone, she wasn't crying. She just sat there, silent. Jill went into the bathroom the moment we got to the house, not a word. She was not reacting at all like I would have expected. I went into the bedroom and started packing a suitcase. Jill came in, stood there with her arms folded across her chest and watched without saying anything. "So you are leaving, then?" She asked finally. "What do you expect?" "I expect you to believe me when I am telling you the truth, Dan." She was now sounding angry. I stopped and looked at her closely. Her manner was wrong, she was not showing even the slightest sign of guilt? "Jill, Brent knows about your tattoo. How in the hell could he know about that if he never saw it?" I demanded. "I don't know. But tell me, why would he even mention it in the first place?" "He was..uhh.. bragging, he said he could..seduce you." I stammered a little bit. "So just how does that bring up my tattoo?" She demanded. "We made a bet." "What? You made a bet? About that? You BET on if I would cheat on you? With that little weasel?You asshole, you son of a BITCH, so help me God....!" Jill turned and stormed out. She came right back in a few seconds with her overnight bag. "God damn you! I am the one who is leaving, I am going to go stay with Mom. This is bullshit, I didn't sleep with your asshole friend!" Jill was yelling now. I had never heard her swear before, not really. But Brent knew, he did! That meant just one possibility to me. "Jesus fucking Christ! Is everybody around here lying? What in the FUCK is going on?" I yelled right back at her. "I don't know, but until you get your head back on straight I am leaving. You can just handle your legal crap yourself. You broke Brent's jaw, and a bunch of his ribs by the way, so he is pretty mad at you." "Good!" I yelled at her. "Good!" She yelled right back. Then she was out the door with just that over the shoulder bag. I heard the Camaro start, ran outside but it was too late, she was gone down the street. That pissed me off even more, now I was stuck with my old pickup. +++ "Assault, 2nd degree. Bodily harm adds to it. You can't even claim he asked for it, hell, because of the bet you gave him permission to do your old lady. I would bet you get 18 months, restitution, probably out in 4-6 months." "Damn, you really fucked him up from this medical report." The lawyer added. "Good." I muttered. "Probably not, this guy is going to have thousands in medical bills." "The guy seduces my wife and I have to pay his fucking medical bills?" I aksed. "Yep, afraid so. We can try but this doesn't look very good. Anyway, I will need three grand for a retainer, five more if we go to trial." I wrote him a check, hoping that Jill hadn't cleaned out the account. +++ As soon as I got home I called her, it went to voicemail. I also called the car phone, it just said not available. To hell with her, I went into the bathroom to take a shower. When I got out, I reached for a towel, in the process I accidentally bumped the digital clock we had sitting on the counter. I looked at it, it had stopped, the battery must have gone dead. I picked it up, shook it but nothing. Thinking I would change the battery later, I set it down. Then it hit me! Brent had given that to me for my birthday, months before. In fact, he was the one that noticed the old one we had was stopped. Looking closer, I spotted the tiny hole. I went into the other room, got a screwdriver, flipped the thing open. It was a camera! A fucking spy camera! Sitting on our bathroom counter for months? Brent was over to the house a lot, he used our bathroom. It would be easy for him to take out the little card and replace it. That dirty little son of a bitch! Drying myself off and getting dressed, I went in and pulled out our laptop, hooked up the player. It was an older style, it had a tiny little Zio cameramate with a cord that had to be plugged in. The first few photos were of me, sitting on the toilet just partly in view, getting in and out of the shower. The next ones were of Jill, dozens of them. Dressed, then nude, also taking a shower. In several of them I could see the tiny little butterfly tattoo! In a couple of the photos, she was sitting nude on the edge of the tub, one leg hiked up as she was shaving herself. If that little prick had seen any photos like that, Jill had no secrets from him at all! One quick call to On Star, I gave them the number and they told me where my car was parked. I got into my truck, taking the digital clock and laptop with me. At Jill's Mom's house, there sat my Camaro so I knew she was still there. "Jill!" I was yelling, pounding on the door. "Go away!" She yelled back through the door. "Honey? I found out the truth, please! Let me in." Finally the door opened, she stood there blocking it with her arms folded across her chest. I must have sounded like an idiot, trying to explain in a jumble of words. "What in the hell are you talking about?" She asked. "Let me show you these." I finally told her. She opened the door, let me in. I sat down and hooked up the laptop, ran through the photos. "That dirty little bastard!" She said finally. "Come on, let's go home." I told her, hugging her. She let me, but she didn't hug me back. "Honey?" I asked. "No. I told you, you didn't believe me and I told you the truth. I thought you loved me, how could you not believe me? I need some time, I have to think." With that, she pushed me out the door. I stood there on the porch for several long minutes in shock. My God, what had I done? +++ Brent dropped the charges as soon as he was confronted with that evidence. He was careless and managed to get a few shots of himself messing with the camera. After all of the upset, he had no way to get in and take care of the digital clock camera, which I might never have noticed or even thought about except for the battery running down. It would not have been enough all by itself, but word got around. Several in our group had gotten one of the little clocks. Confronted, he folded. In exchange for his dropping the charges, I dropped what would have been my own. Brent was a pervert, he loved to set up hidden cameras to spy on people. Dale and Charlene also found one in their own house, as I found out later. But Jill? I apologized, did everything I could think of. She refused to come home. "I told you the truth, yet you didn't believe me. You are my husband, yet you believed Brent over me. Even worse, you made that awful bet, like all I am is a piece of meat? I just can't deal with that, I just can't." I did everything I could think of to make it up to her, she was adamant and would not budge. One thing I did know about Jill, she was stubborn, once she made a decision she would stick with it come hell or high water. The end came when a man knocked on the door, handed me a manila envelope. "You are served." He told me. I collapsed onto the floor. +++ I knew that she was terribly hurt, but her reaction seemed to be way out of line for what I had done. So I had been sure Jill would come around, given time. She didn't. Even when I protested in court, and the Judge ordered counseling, Jill would not budge. She insisted that since I had not believed her, there was no way we could ever have a trust in each other like it was before. When the subject of the bet came up, both Jill and the therapist gave me scathing looks. There comes a time when it is enough, and a man can give up. I gave up. +++ Jill didn't ask for alimony, she kept the Camaro and the house. I got half of the bank account and that was it, it was over. The circle of friends I had went away, the parties and gatherings were no more. At least, I was not invited anyway. I went to work, and I went home to the small house I had rented outside of town. The garage began to fill up with garbage bags, piles of clothing were strewn around the house. Nothing was dusted, nothing cleaned. The landlord never came by, I mailed the rent check to him, that was probably a good thing. I just could not get up the energy to do anything about that. Beer cans? There must have been a thousand of them strewn here and there, the living room became a hallway. I did manage to get to work, and do my job, somehow. Then I went home, doing nothing. I had seen Jill around town a couple of times, once walking into the grocery store. I almost pulled in and ran after her, but managed to not do that. Once I saw her sitting on the passenger side of a late model Mercedes, a good looking man behind the wheel. She saw me too, her face didn't change expression as they went by. I sat and cried about that when I got home that night. I now knew she was dating, and I knew what that probably meant. +++ Then one morning nearly a year later I woke up, managed to drink some water before getting sick. Who knows what creates a change in a man? But that morning did it. In the fridge I found 5 bottles of beer, I opened them and poured them down the sink. Then I began to clean up, I made six trips to the dump with my truck, loaded to the hilt. It took me all weekend, but suddenly things looked...normal? At the tiny store where I bought my beer, a full case every other day, the woman looked down at the fruit juice I set on the counter, and grinned at me. +++ With my new haircut and business suit, the staff at the office noticed right off the bat. I went right to work, I had plans of getting my life back on track. Life has some kind of Kharma, I think so anyway. One afternoon, I stopped by the gas station, to fill up my old truck. "Hello, Danny." I heard her say from behind me. There stood Jill, filling the tank on the Camaro. I hadn't even noticed it when I pulled in. "Hi." I barely managed, my voice catching in my throat. "You look good." She told me. "Thanks. So do you." We both nodded, stood looking at each other for several seconds, then paid for our fuel and left. From that moment on, Jill was right back in my head. When I got to my house, I fixed myself some food, went into the living room. I reached for the phone, wondering if Jill still had the same number. I guess I started to call and hung up at least a dozen times. I clicked on the TV, scanned the programs, not really seeing any of them. Bedtime was miserable, it always was. Just a few weeks before, I might have spent the night in my chair like I often did. I went into the bedroom, stripped the bed and put on fresh. Just as I was starting to go to bed, my phone rang. "Danny?" It was Jill's voice. "Danny?" She said my name again when I didn't answer, for a moment there I couldn't. "I...hello?" "Can we talk? I mean, sit down and really talk?" She asked. "Yes, of course. When?" "Right now." I glanced at my watch, it was nearly 11 PM. "All right. Where?" I asked. "Can you come here? To the house?" She asked. I could and I did, breaking a few traffic laws on the way. Jill opened the door before I could knock, she showed me to the couch. My house, OUR house? I looked around, it wasn't mush different. "My Mother passed away a few weeks ago." Were the first words out of her mouth. I hadn't heard, and it was not what I expected. "I am sorry to hear that." I managed. "Before she died, right there at the last, she told me I was being silly." "Silly? Why?" "Because, she knew I have not been happy. I tried, I really did, but it wasn't working." "Tried what?" I asked. "To find...you. She told me that it was what I was doing, going out with...men, trying to find....you." "Me? But I was right there, at my....?" "Someone like you, that is what she meant. There isn't anyone." Jill broke into tears. I thought I knew what she was trying to say, but I didn't answer. "Honey, I know I didn't believe you, and that stupid stunt I did hurt your feelings. When you told me that Brent was lying, I should have believed you. But I apologized, and you wouldn't accept that?" That came out of me before I could stop it, I had some bitter feelings still mixed in with everything else. "I know. I am sorry too." Her face was screwed up, she was trying to not cry. "So, where are we then?" I asked. "I want to...start over..try?" "Yes! I want to also." I reached out to hug her but she held up one hand. I wasn't quite getting it. "Danny, I dated some guys, several in fact." She said. "Yes, I know. It's OK, I understand." "I am not sure you do, a couple of them....I let make..love to me." She said. "I see. Well, we were divorced, so I guess.....?" I began. "I am sure that you...you probably did the same?" That was a question. "No. I didn't. I haven't even been out on a date." I told her. "Really? Do you think you and I..? Can we maybe get past it all?" Jill asked. "Yes, I think so." Jill slid over and hugged me. I suppose I could say here that we made wild passionate love, we didn't. I did spend the night, we fell asleep right there on the couch. I moved in the next day, that took most of a weekend. Sunday afternoon, after everything was put away Jill and I finally did make love. It was almost like both of us were trying way too hard? +++ It has been a year now, Jill and I get along fine. Life is not parties, one after the other. Things are OK, I suppose. But some things are always there, some things a person can't take back. I violated Jill's trust, her reaction was more than I would have expected, but knowing her, I should have. My wife is no longer as pure as the new fallen snow, if she ever was. I think about our first time, was she then? I have to admit it does enter my thoughts. She did have lovers during that year and some change we were apart. Who and how, I don't know. I didn't ask. Were they as good as me, better than me? I admit I do wonder sometimes, but we never talk about that. But Jill did come back to me, so in my mind they were not. She did say she looked for someone like me, and found none. It is odd how things can mess up a relationship, and I do have to say things were better before. But, we are getting there, it's one day at a time. And some things? They are always there. Jumping to Conclusions ++++++++++++++++++++ I finished up in Atlanta and headed for home. I left the airport and checked into a hotel close to work and then I went in to the office and brought Ben up to date. We talked about my taking the Atlanta office and set a timeline for it to happen. Then I took a couple of days off to take care of some personal business. I was parked down the street from the house when Shari went to work and as soon as she turned the corner I punched a number in on my cell phone, said we were good to go, and a couple of minutes later a Ryder rental truck driven by my brother George pulled onto the drive way. Behind it a car pulled in and parked and Skip and Cory, two very good friends of mine, got out and joined George and me. In two hours I had everything I wanted out of the house. I took all of my personal things, the home desktop computer, printer and enough furniture to set me up in an apartment in Atlanta. I saw an attorney and had him draw up a power of attorney for my brother and then I put a copy of it in an envelope along with a note that said: "Call George when you are ready to sell the house. He will act for me." I didn't bother to sign it and I dropped it in the mail. She would get it in about two days and by then I would be on the road to Atlanta. I didn't care about the house. We had refinanced to put in the swimming pool and tennis court and I doubted that there would be any equity to speak of when the costs of selling were deducted from the proceeds. I had one more stop to make and I told the man what I wanted, gave him some money and then I drove over to the place where I had rented the truck and they hooked a car hauling trailer on the back. I drove to George's house and loaded my car on the trailer and a half hour later I was Atlanta bound. ++++++++++++++++++++ I called Ben and let him know that I was in place in Atlanta and he set his plan in motion. He flew into Atlanta that night and the next morning he went into the office and terminated Falstaff and sent all the people home for the day after telling them there would be no loss in pay and for them to return to work the next morning. I'd spent the day checking out apartments and had settled on one by the time I met Ben for dinner. Over dinner he told me that Shari had been in the parking lot almost every day and sometimes twice a day -- in the morning trying to catch me coming in to work and then again in the evening to catch me when I got off. "Once she even stopped Carol and offered her a hundred dollars to get her past the security guard in the lobby and get her up to your office. It appears that she still doesn't know that you are gone." The next morning we were in the office to great the staff when they came to work. Ben brought them up to date on what was happening, wished me luck and then headed for the airport. The next week and a half were spent moving into my new apartment, gathering the reins of my new office and getting to know my staff while they got to know me. ++++++++++++++++ On the last Friday of the second week I received a package in the mail and I set it aside for review over the weekend. My apartment was on the second floor and had a small balcony that overlooked the swimming pool. I bought a small patio table and two chairs for use on the porch. Saturday morning I sat at the table drinking coffee and going through the contents of the package I'd received. It had cost me a pretty penny, but I felt that it was well worth it. Operating on the assumption that Shari had enlisted Steve (he was the co-worker that I had recognized) to help her organize the gangbang and that they had set it up in a day I was sure that he used some of his buddies to fill out the gang. I gave the private detective all that I knew about Steve and then I gave him the physical descriptions of the other three men that had been there with him that night. I told the detective that I wanted him to follow Steve and see if Steve met with anyone who fit the descriptions and if so get me the information on them. The results were way better than I expected. Steve had indeed met several times with three men who fit the descriptions that I had given the detective and a stroke of pure luck confirmed that the three were the men I wanted to find. The operative that had been following Steve saw him meet the three in a sports bar and he had gotten the booth next to them. He overheard them discussing the gangbang and talking about when they could do it again. He didn't hear if it was going to happen because he had gotten up to call for help in following the three when they left the bar. It had been hideously expensive, but I had the names, addresses, and places of employment of all four of the assholes. I began to make plans. ++++++++++++++ It was three months before I was able to arrange a weekend trip. I drove -- no airline trail for anyone to follow -- and I carried extra gas in cans so no fuel stops would trip me up. When I went into work on Monday morning I was carrying the satisfaction of knowing that it would be a hell of a long time before Steve Bowen used his sexual equipment again. Cast iron pipe applied repeatedly to the crotch area sometimes had a detrimental effect on the male reproductive organs. It seems that a hooded man had caught Bowen in his apartment parking lot and stomped the shit out of him before taking his watch, rings, wallet and everything that was in his pockets. Three weeks later the same thing happened to Archie Mellon and Jeff Montrose. By the time I made my third trip Norm Reed had apparently figured out what Bowen, Mellon and Montrose had in common and he took a job in another state and got the hell out of Dodge. Pity, but three out of four wasn't bad. I debated hiring a private detective to find him, but then decided not to. The next five months went by and the job was going well. I'd met several of the bikini clad ladies that lounged around the apartment pool and I got to know a couple very well. One, a flight attendant named Brandy, managed to find her way into my bed and when she wasn't flying or visiting her folks she was keeping time with me. It was a good arrangement for both of us until the day she told me that she was getting married to one of the captains she regularly flew with. I guess when she wasn't in my bed she was in his when they overnighted somewhere. As a parting gift she did set me up with another flight attendant named Gloria and we hit it off. Gloria let me know up front that she wasn't interested in anything but a friends with benefits relationship which suited me just fine. I was in the dumps for a couple of days after losing Brandy and before hooking up with Gloria and then it got worse. I got home from work one Tuesday night, pulled into the parking lot, shut off the car, got out and heard: "Hello Rob." I turned and there stood Shari. I just stood there and stared at her. "Surprised to see me?" "More disappointed than surprised." "Disappointed?" "I hoped that I'd never set eyes on you again. The way I left you should have told you that." "Maybe it would have if you had filed for divorce. The fact that you haven't made me hope that we could patch things up and get on with our life together." "No chance of that. Your gangbang put an end to that." "How can you hold that against me after what you did?" "I don't even know what it is that I'm supposed to have done." "Bullshit Rob. I told you that I was getting even with you for having that whore in your room when I called." "I didn't have a whore in my room Shari." "Don't give me that Rob. I called you and a woman answered the phone. I asked her who she was and she told me and then asked who I was. When I said I was your wife she giggled and said: "Oh, you are the lucky one who gets his great cock all the time" and then she hung up on me." "So you, without bothering to talk to me about it got stupid and had a gangbang to teach me a lesson. That about cover it?" "Exactly!" "First of all Annie wasn't a whore. She and her husband were waiting for me to use the bathroom in my room and then they were going to take me to a party where there were some people I went to school with. Annie had taken on a few more drinks that she probably should have and she was probably trying to be cute when you called." "Get off it Rob; she flat out as good as told me that she was aware of your cock size." "She was. Annie was my girlfriend through my first two years of college and then we broke up. Again, she was with her husband. All of that you could have found out if you had bothered to talk to me before ruining our marriage. As far as divorcing you is concerned it was in my best interest not to file, but let you do it." "How do you figure that?" ] "I would have had to split our assets equally with you if I had filed before I left." "You will still have to even if I do file." "Maybe, but the assets we would have to split would be the assets we held jointly at the time of filing and as of right now that is only the house and there isn't enough equity in it to waste time on." "If you are going to wait on me to go for a divorce you've got a long wait coming. As long as we are married there is always a chance." "No Shari; there isn't a chance in hell. You showed me what you really think of me when you put on your display of pique. You showed me that you have no trust in me and you showed me that you thought I was a spineless wimp who would just accept what you did and say: "Sorry; I'll be a good boy from now on." "You killed the marriage Shari and there is no way in hell that it can ever be resurrected." "You are wrong. I don't think you are spineless. I expected you to be outraged just as I was when that woman spoke to me on the phone. I know you aren't a wimp. That's why I had them tie you to the chair to keep you under control. I love you Rob. I love you, want you and need you." "That's just too fucking bad Shari because I don't want you. Not after being tied in that fucking chair and watching you for hours. You know what struck me the most as I sat there? The ease with which you did it and how quick you managed to set it up. As if it was something that you had done many times before. You seemed very comfortable with those four guys. It was almost like you were attuned to each other. Relieving a shared experience as it were." Her face paled. "Oh no, oh no Rob. Never. I swear to God, never before." "Unfortunately Shari I don't have any trust in you anymore so I don't believe it. But no matter; the once was enough. Look on the bright side. You did say it was awesome and that you could get used to it so now you can. Call your four studs and have at it." "I couldn't even if I wanted to." "Why not? I'm certainly not going to be in the way." "You know why not. You know what you did and even if they can't prove it they know it was you." "Sorry Shari; I have no idea what you are talking about." "I'm not stupid Rob. When three of the four end up in then hospital emergency room and the only thing they have in common was that evening with me it wasn't all that hard to figure out who was responsible." "Only three? Why not four?" "Because Norm figured it out too and moved out of town before you could get to him." "Any idea where he went?" "Why would you want to know?" "Just curious." "You aren't that good a liar Rob." "So those four aren't available so what? You came up with those four quick enough. It shouldn't be all that hard for you to come up with some different guys." "I don't want any other guys. I want you. I've put the house up for sale and as soon as it is sold I'm moving here to Atlanta." "Why in the hell would you want to do that?" "To be close to you. There isn't anyway we can put things back together if we are six hundred miles apart." "Haven't you heard anything I've said? We will not be getting back together. You being here and me seeing you from time to time will only remind me of you and your four fuck buddies and that is a memory that I am trying to get rid of not reinforce." "Say what you will Rob, but I intend to get you back. It might not be easy and it might take a while, but I am going to do it." "In a pig's ass" I said as I turned from her and went into my apartment. I never did ask her how she'd found me. Hired a private detective I suppose. I did wonder why I hadn't heard the phone ring when she called. It must have been when I was using my electric razor. +++++++++++++++++++ She did sell the house and move to Atlanta and she managed to get an apartment in the same apartment complex where I lived. Not in the same building thank God, but still way to close to suit me. It seemed like every night when I came home from work there was a note slipped under my door telling me that she was making one of my favorites and inviting me over for dinner. Notes inviting me to go to this or that with her or to meet her after work for a drink. I ignored all of them, but the one I found last night had me thinking. It said: "We both like sex and I haven't had any since you know when. How about a friends with benefits relationship? Or forget the friends and do a neighbors with benefits. What do you think?" I thought about it most of the night and part of the morning. Shari was damned good in the bedroom and .... Suddenly I woke up to what I was thinking, shook my head to clear it and muttered "Fuck no!" I made a mental note to call Gloria when I got back from camping and then I reached over and turned the radio back on and listened to Toby Keith sing about how much he liked a bar.