165 comments/ 144438 views/ 61 favorites I Stop Losing By: FD45 This is a conclusion to a story written by TQM called "Lost Her to the Ex". It was the most popular story on another erotica site, so of course I had to read it. And I found I rather enjoyed it on some level. But it was just the start of the story, and not the end. Melanie felt that life was beautiful. She was fucking the cock of her life AND had a husband to dote on her. Life isn't like that. The Wheel Turns. So, for those who do not like having to read the prior story, there is a summary so you can get the gist. Anyone who has read LW stories already knows the plot. All I'm doing in adding a few names and details to get the ball rolling. TQM was kind enough to give me permission to write the story. There IS sex in this story...but not too much. Many thanks to TQM for writing the original and for giving me permission to write this follow up. **** "Honey, have you seen my gray mini skirt?" That question may seem rather innocuous to you, but that was actually the opening salvo of a war. **** Let me step back a bit and explain. I've been married to Melanie, a third grade school teacher, for a few years. We had, heretofore, had an excellent marriage. Then Tanner happened again. Tanner was my wife's long term ex-boyfriend. To me he was just a name. He came back to town in July for a short term job and asked after Melanie. My bitch of a sister, Beth, gave him all her contact information. In fact, looking back, she took a certain amount of glee in doing so. Beth told me that I needed to tread softly because Tanner and Mel had been quite an item. So when Mel asked about having lunch with him, I was a big dope and said yes. To cut to the chase, my wife started seeing (read fucking)Tanner almost every day during long lunches during his job while she was on summer break. After a month or so of this, she came to me and confessed. It seems they had a very long, very steamy relationship that he broke off when he got a job a long way away. He dumped her and she had been devastated for a long time. She started putting her life back together, seeing someone seriously again. Then Tanner visited for a week and destroyed that relationship after she fucked him for three days straight. She eventually met and married me. Needless to say, I did not know any of this history until she confessed to me after telling me that she'd been fucking around. We fought. We cried. I wanted to know what she intended. She refused to promise to stop fucking him. He was 'sexual perfection'. She swore she didn't want to lose me, and said if Tanner asked her to leave me, 'she'd go out of her mind'. Isn't that sweet! She wouldn't stop seeing him for me, but she'd feel conflicted if HE asked her to stop seeming me. I started raising hell and Beth, the SIL called and bitched me out, as much as telling me if I didn't let this happen, I'd lose her totally. Mel also told the son of a bitch that she told me. Since I had not immediately dumped her, she would now use her freedom to see him after work and over weekends, though she swore to be discrete and 'still loved me'. At this point I didn't want to lose her, but I felt helpless to stop this assignation without the nuclear option of divorce. She set up an immediate meeting and wore the special gray mini skirt we had bought together during a date. When I protested it was mine, she said she wanted to look good 'for him' as she walked out the door I felt I had lost her to the ex. *** I felt as low as I ever had when I walked into the bar. My friend Keith had some marital issues with infidelity in the past and he had suggested that I look up Ed. He was a bartender. Walking into the bar, I almost immediately walked out. The place was moderately full. A woman laughed. It was a full and throaty laugh and reminded me of Melanie and, of course, that reminded me of what she was doing and probably laughing about right now with Tanner. Merriment conflicted with my mood. Keith had been adamant though, that I talk to Ed. So I tried not to cringe and went to the bar. Ed went for a very traditional look on a barkeep: a white shirt, a black vest and a mustache. I almost looked for those stupid armbands that you see in the old black and white photos, but obviously he wasn't THAT obsessive. He took one look at me and then just shook his head. He grabbed a couple of bottles from under the counter and started pouring. He set a shot glass in front of me. "Drink up." I looked at him questioningly, but he just gestured to the glass. Gamely, I took a swig and immediately almost spat it out again. "My GOD! That was awful!" I almost shouted, looking at him accusingly. I almost reached over to grab his vest and put my fist through his face. I looked at the glass instead. "What is that?!?" He grinned at me. "Yeah. It should be. It's olive and onion juice with a bit of chili and bitters." I glared at him some more. "What did you do that for? I'm not paying for that!" "It's on the house. But I got you angry instead of glum. You aren't looking like a whipped dog and I bet that you haven't thought about...whatever for the last two minutes." I thought about it and he was right! Of course, just recognizing the fact brought it all crashing back. But it was hard to focus on that when I wanted to take a cheese grater to my tongue. "I'm Ed. You look like you need to talk." Did I ever! It was hard to relate the details of my cuckoldry to a stranger, but Ed had an answer to that too. He lined up four shots of alcohol (I checked what bottle he was using. He just snickered that it was a good thing that I could learn) and told me he'd be back to chat after I finished them up. I went through them pretty quickly and we started to talk about innocuous things first: my job, my car, what teams I liked etc. He pointed out a few nice looking ladies and we made suitable chest thumping male statements about their physical attributes on the sly. Standard guy stuff. I got a sick expression after a bit. "Wonder how many of them are leaving stupid husbands at home?" I said bitterly. "Bingo." Ed said. He excused himself and went to a dark end of the bar. He had a few words with the patrons there and they smiled at him, finished their drinks quickly and left. He returned. "Why don't you sit over there? The night is young and the people are thirsty. When things wind down, we can talk about it a little more." So that's what I did. He kept me professionally lubricated enough to soften the edges of my grief without pushing me over the edge of consciousness or into maudlin displays. A couple of times, I felt like getting up and leaving, but I recalled my promise to Keith. A couple of hours later, the last patrons were leaving. Ed gestured to one of the waitresses and she sighed. "Jeez, Ed. Do you ever close up? I think your therapy sessions are just an excuse to avoid clean up." She was smiling as she said it. "Don't sass me Reba, or I'll fire your ass." She rolled her eyes. "Promises promises." She dropped off a couple of coffees before she emptied the carafes and started setting things up in the back of the bar, leaving us alone. We started slow. I started talking, only saying that my wife was cheating on me. Slowly, he started asking questions, quietly and just waiting for me to answer. I didn't really want to talk about it. It's humiliating in our day and age to reveal that you are sitting there accepting this kind of situation. I was just going to relate the bare minimum of facts. A funny thing happened though. I slowly but surely told more and more to Ed. It didn't all come spewing out in one go. No, it was like lancing an abscess. Occasionally, he had to ask question, massaging the wound and a bit more pus would come out. At a certain point, he'd ask a question which would rip my heart open again. It's okay, sir. We're just cutting a bit deeper to get the last of it out. This won't hurt a bit... What made me do it was compassion. His expression didn't have a trace of pity or even sympathy. Those would have made me clam up in an instant. No, it was one of compassion. I was suffering, so he was suffering. I could see my words wound him almost as much as they did me. A strange word to attach to another man, but it seems I was learning a lot these days. I wound down and just sat there, embarrassed. He sipped at his coffee for a while. "So...what do you want to see happen out of all of this?" he asked delicately. "I want this to have never happened in the first place! I want Melanie back! I want..." I wanted Tanner eaten alive by rabid dachshunds, but how exactly do you verbalize that to someone else that you just met. "I want my life back!" "Your wife. She isn't cutting you off from sex?" I shook my head. "So...can you come to grips with this? Just accept the role as the back up cock?" he said softly. I winced visibly and shook my head vigorously. "Good. At least you have some self respect. But you don't want to leave her?" A final shake. "If I just go, he wins everything! But I've already lost! He's won her!" "Horseshit!" Ed said angrily. "He didn't win anything! There wasn't a contest! You were fighting to keep your wife. But your sister was and is fighting you to let her sister do this. Tanner, of course, wants to keep fucking a woman he doesn't have to pay for, and your wife, the one who should be fighting to keep you two together, is fighting on his side! You, my friend, are outnumbered and they are trying to sucker your head into accepting that this is all normal; that the wisest thing in the world for you to do is accept her little 'fling'." "But WHY?" I wailed. Yes, I wailed, I'm ashamed to say. "Because your wife doesn't think she's going to experience any loss. May I see her picture?" Slowly, I pulled my wallet out of my pants and handed it to him flipped open to the photo. "Ah. Yes. Very pretty. Any man would love to have sex with her. No wonder." "No wonder what?" I said dully. "No wonder she thinks she can do this. She thinks she's not going to feel any pain, that she is the package that any man would want and that you'd be a fool to throw her away. What you need is a plan to cure her of that delusion." "But what if I lose her?" Yes. I wailed again. I was beginning to hate the fact I was sounding like a big pussy. "Why did you marry her?" Ed asked, looking at me with a raised eyebrow. "Because I love her. Because she's beautiful. Because we were really good together, emotionally and sexually Because I loved how she made me feel about myself." I answered as honestly as possible. "Do you still love how she's making you feel about yourself?" We stayed up late that night, making the plan. **** I found myself at home the next day on my couch. I had never been one for heavy hangovers but this one had left me with a sizeable headache. I wandered into my kitchen, with the beating of my head synchronized to the beating of my pulse. Throb, Throb, Throb. If I had the ability to count at this point, I'd know my pulse rate. I thought back over what Ed and I had discussed so late into the night. Heck, I even had a pad with some notes on it. That was a mistake right there! Part of the plan was supposed to be that this should sneak up on her. I quickly hid it under the file drawers in the bedroom cum office. *** "So...you want to keep her?" Ed asked me again. "I want to try. I'm not quitting on this marriage." "Okay. That means you can't give her an ultimatum. She's made it quite clear that you can't ask her to give up this Tanner ass, but he could ask her to give you up. If you give her that ultimatum, which frankly, you already pretty much did, though you framed it pretty weakly, then even if she gives him up, she'll resent you for making her. And that is likely to put the kibosh on the relationship just as thoroughly as her running off with this ass. Likewise you can't do something stupid like kill his cheating ass, or even beat him. But we'll talk more on that last later." "So what do I do do?" We were a bit deep in our cups. "You stay put and try to remind her of all the things she loves about you. You need to make the choices very stark for her. This might cost you a bit." he warned. "It's already costing me my marriage and self respect. What's some money?" I said morosely. "Are you saying to just stay with her, and when he's finished fucking her, that I just act like nothing's happened?" He frowned. "Is that what you want to do?" "NO! I want to win!" "Well, there's winning and there's winning. You are hanging around long enough for her to come to her senses. Everyone makes a mistake. What you are going to do is give her chances to make the right choices." "What if she makes the wrong choice?" He looked sad and shrugged. "Then you get to make some of them too, well aware of what is going on. And you give yourself time to prepare." "Prepare?" But he wouldn't say any more on that. *** My first stop was to a stationary store. This was something I wanted to do for myself, not something I discussed with Ed. I was carrying the large "Year at a Glance" Calendar to the register when I walked by the rack of pens. The colors caught my eye and I took a look at the display. Finally settling on my selections, I picked up the red and blue Sharpies, paid and left. At the apartment, I put it up in the bedroom set as an office. It got put into the wall with washers and screws drilled through the heavily laminated paper and into the studs. I was feeling a bit of anger and I didn't want this just disappearing. Plus using tools made me feel in some small way more manly. Then, starting on January 1st, I started marking every day with a little blue check in the corner of the day. This went on for quite a while, but it distracted me from the fact that Melanie still wasn't in the apartment and was over at Tanner's, fucking him senseless in the gray skirt I bought her. I made a mental note of THAT little detail. When I got to July, during the lunch that I foolishly allowed her to go to with Tanner, not knowing the history of their relationship (the relationship she hid), I started to draw in small red Xs in the corner of the day. They were nothing huge. But if one was focusing on the calendar, one saw a sea of blue and then...red specks which got more and more frequent. Every single time I thought or suspected she was with Tanner, the day got an X. I finally got up to The Day, that horrible day that my wife, my beloved wife, told me that she was cheating on me and that she wanted to continue cheating on me. I stared at it...and finally, I drove the red Sharpie right through the calendar and into the drywall! Dammit! So much for subtle. Now I'd need to go back and replace the whole thing. *** At this point, we were sipping foreign beers, Ed and I. Because we were in strange mental territory. Okay, it made sense at the time but we were both half in the bag! "I'm a bit curious about the timing of her revelation." Ed said slowly. We were both talking slowly now and Reba just kept giving us the evil eye every once in a while. "How do you mean?" I asked owl eyed. "You said she was fucking him at lunch when you were at work. He tuk...took long lunches." I nodded. "Yup! She was home. It was summer. She's a school teacher," I said helpfully. "And she tol-d you at the end of August?" "More the middle." I said, not sure where he was going with this. "When does the school year start?" he asked significantly. I felt like some giant was squeezing my chest, expelling all the air from my lungs. She'd come to me, professing her love and her guilt, saying that she respected me too much to continue to 'cheat' on me (but certainly not enough to stop making me a cuckold). My face must have paled as well, because Ed said "Ah...you see it too now." And I did. She was telling me in August because the school year and her duties were starting soon. She wouldn't be free to go out with Tanner and fuck him during his lunches because she's be busy at school, teaching and watching the children during lunch period. I wasn't sure where the fucker lived, but I doubted very much he lived close enough for more then a few strokes with her limited lunch time. And if she saw him after school, then she ran the very likely risk that I would come home early and note her gone. "I'm being played. She doesn't love me at all." My stomach felt full of acid. "Well, I'm not sure that I'd go that far. 'All' is a strong word. But she certainly is conflicted and is treating you badly. She seems to be making more efforts to stay with you then she did in the past, if that means anything. What she should be doing is end it with him or end it with you, not torture you over this half on, half off mess." Tortured. Yes, he'd hit the nail on the head. That was exactly how I felt. Whipsawed by mad hope and crushing doubts about my masculinity, her love and our future. "If she luh luh loves him like this," I was close to breaking down again, I'm sorry to say, "Why doesn't she just go?" He sighed. "Could be a lot of things. But if she was veritably his stalker in the old days, then you know there's some kind of reason. You'll just have to see if you can figure it out. *** She came back from her weekend tryst. It was a tense couple of days after that. She didn't discuss it, though she tried to act normally. I watched a lot of television and drank some beers. I can't say I tried to be warm about it, but as Ed had said, I tried very hard not to be an asshole. All that would do would be to drive her away and hurt me too. I needed to keep holding the moral high ground. If she wanted to wallow with the filth, that was her decision. I needed to show her how bad that decision was. She needed to feel a sense of loss. We didn't have sex. I didn't feel the desire, and she, for whatever reason, didn't approach me either. Then again, after a couple nights of sex, she was probably all fucked out. Things were starting to approach 'normal' or at least the new 'normal'. We were discussing chores and work and things to do around the house. "Honey," she asked. "Have you seen my gray miniskirt?" "Why?" "I wanted to wash it and I can't find it in the hamper." She was carrying a large basket of laundry. "That's because I already took care of it." "It's not in my closet. You really need to hang it up so it doesn't wrinkle." she chided lightly. This was a perennial tease between the two of us, criticizing how the other dealt with the laundry, the ironing, the folding, where the specific items went. A couple thing. "Which drawer did you put it in?" "I didn't. I put it in a dumpster." I sipped my soft drink. "Why did you throw away my skirt?" she said, starting to get angry. "Because it wasn't your skirt. It was my skirt. You gave it away. And when I looked at it, it was stained and soiled and I never want to see it again." She watched me with hooded eyes for a while. "Is there anything else you want to throw away?" she said with a pointed tone. "Not at the moment, no." I didn't look away from the television. I decided to lay a few more cards on the table. "You said you'd be very discrete. That it was just sex. That's all well and good, but I am taking 'discrete' to be 'absolutely fucking secret'. If I hear that anyone has seen you with him, if I find you've been walking in the park with him, I am going straight to a lawyer. I want to be clear on that. You've made my place in your heart perfectly plain." She held her hand up to forestall me, but I continued. "You have! You want to feed his ego and make him feel like a conqueror. That is so incredibly hurtful, I can't begin to tell you. So if you have any hope, a single prayer of us staying together, you go to his place and fuck him, and that's it!.This is nonnegotiable. If this is a sexual fling, you better keep it that way! But if you start to date him and take him out in public, it's over. Period." I Stop Losing *** "How often do you fuck during the week?" Ed asked me out of the blue, halfway down a bottle of vodka. "Excuse me? Before Tanner or After?" "Whatever." He waved with his hand for me to get on with it. ""I dunno. Three, four, five times a week." "And how long does it last?" "That's sort of personal." He just cocked his head at me. "Okay. Call it a half hour or so a day...a session? Sometimes two or three sessions a night." My mind went to her telling me she spent two hours fucking Tanner day before yesterday. "So call it three to six hours a week at best." "Yes." "There are 168 hours in a week all told. So most of the relationship is actually spent out of bed. You want to try and keep her. So that means you need to deny her a chance to forge a non-sexual relationship with him. Give her an ultimatum." "Yes, but sex in bed includes watching some TV, massages, cuddling...conversation." He shook his head. "I know. And she'll probably dine and watch movies with him. There's nothing you can do about that. But she doesn't get to show off her 'boyfriend.' She doesn't get to share him with anyone. It's better if she's stuck in a room with him." "But she said she's been fucking him almost daily for a month!" "Hopefully the glamour will wear off for one or both of them soon." "And if it doesn't, or if she lies and starts taking him out?" I pressed. He shrugged helplessly. *** She seemed to think about this. "Okay...if it has to be that way. That's pretty much all we do anyway." she said, twisting the knife. Why was she acceding to this so easily? This just raised more questions. She watched me for a few more minutes and went to the utility room. She stayed there for a while. When she left, she went into her room, changed clothes and went out the door. She didn't tell me where she was going, but I knew. She went to Tanner. I wearily pushed myself up out of my chair, went into the office, picked up the red Sharpie, and put a small red X on today's square. *** That was, as they say, the opening salvo. I showed her the stick. Now was time for the carrot. That isn't quite accurate. My time not spent at work was a mixture of the carrot and the stick. It was time to go shopping and be proactive. For a change, she came home after work and went straight to me on the couch. "I'm sorry. That was uncalled for. And I promised to let you know where I was going and when so I broke the deal." She wrapped her arms around me and gave me a long lingering kiss. Thank God I tasted toothpaste! Deal. There was no deal. There was her doing what she was doing over my wishes and her justifying it to herself! But now I could see she wanted to continue telling me things, so I decided to break her train of conversation and get my licks in first. "Yes. And I wanted to apologize too. Here." I brought out a large gift bag. She gave a gasp of surprise and opened it. Inside was an attaché case she had pointed out a while back as a potential birthday gift. Since I was pretty thick with gift hints and insinuations, she had to be pretty direct and told me exactly what she wanted. "I just wanted you to know that I valued you a hell of a lot more then anyone else does." And it would be a cold day in hell before I bought her any more sexy clothing just so she could wear them for that ass. She caught sight of what I was working on. "Wait a second. That isn't your old laptop..." "Nope. Guilty as charged." I said with a bland look. "Since you aren't going to be around so much, I figured I needed something to keep me distracted." I stared at her, daring her to make a single comment. I'd gone to Best Buy and gotten one of the most expensive models and put it on our card. She looked steadily at me, and I could see a million comments whirling through her brain. "Well...it certainly looks nice." She paused again, fighting herself. "Well, you've been such a good sport about Tanner. I guess I can't really complain, can I?" "No, you can't." I said directly. This was going to be some expensive fucking of hers. "And I'm not a good sport. I still want you to stop seeing him." She hesitated and pretended she didn't hear that. A very nice talent. "Well, what do you want for dinner? Oh...by the way..." she started again. I cut her off again. "Here." I said, thrusting an envelope into her hand. She blinked in surprise. "What's this? There's more?" "Oh, it isn't much. These are a set of tickets I got to see Blue Man Group at the theater this Friday." Mel stared at me, obviously shocked AND conflicted. "I wish you had given me a bit of warning. I had already made plans for this Friday." She actually looked me in the eye when she said this. *** "That feels like I'm bribing my wife." I said glumly. Ed winced. "Well, how many women do you see who marry skid row bums? Women want providers. People who see to their needs. Sex is just one of them. You need to make sure you see to hers. Do you think he's giving her gifts? Do you think he's spending a penny on her? She's free pussy to him." "So you need to make sure that you wine and dine her, get her socialized, and take her out and make sure he can't do the same." He took a long swig and continued. "Besides, if all your friends see you doing all this for her and things go awry..." he trailed off and I nodded. *** Twice that week I took her out for dinner and dancing. Twice that week, she told me she was going to haul Tanner's ashes. Mostly she was gone only for a few hours. After all, these were work days and she had a lot to do during the day. Each day after she returned, I went into the laundry, and that outfit and those undergarments went into the trash. I don't think she noticed, at least not yet. She acted a bit guilty every time she came back and wouldn't describe what she did. I didn't press for details. I simply asked "Did you go out with him?" And she always said "No." That sufficed...for now. The next afternoon, Melanie was sitting in front of a huge pile of papers on the kitchen table, rushing to correct them. As a school teacher, she had a lot of homework to bring home and correct. She had tests and lesson plans to make and she'd had a busy week so far. She saw me and smiled, and scooted out the chair next to her as she started to divide the piles. In the old days (Damn her that they were the old days) we'd sit together and I'd help her wade through them, making funny comments about her students and checking each other's math. It was one of our many bonding moments. I walked to the refrigerator and grabbed a beer. "Honey, I'm so glad you're here! I'm just swamped! I have to do three lesson plans and there is a test tomorrow and I got backed up with my homework." From her expression, she hadn't made any connection. This was something we did. It was a couple thing and it put me in a quandary. I enjoyed helping her. I enjoyed supporting her. This was one of those little things we shared together. But if I helped her, I'd make it easier for her to go fuck Tanner. "Sorry honey, I'm sort of tired and I had some stuff I need to do on the computer," I said regretfully. "Babe, I could really use your help!" "I know. But I'm tired and the reason you're behind has nothing to do with me." "Wait just a minute! You took me out twice this week. It's just as much on you as it is on me." Frowning slightly, I considered this. Then I picked up the papers and put them in a pile. I skiffed off a quarter of the pile. "You're right. I'll do this in the office. And any time me taking you out puts you behind, I'll be glad to help you out. But only then." "Can't you just sit here and do them?' she asked sadly. Okay, I relented. And I did more then I offered to do. We had a nice time, but the gargoyle that was looming over our marriage was in her mind. And I only relented that time. *** Friday came and she dressed in one of her sexiest outfits again. I sat there, reading a book as she walked through the living room. "This is your last chance. Blue Man Group is only here for this weekend. I can promise you you'll have a much better time with me then there. You get Dinner, Sex AND a show." She just smiled wickedly. "Yeah, sure. Honey, I don't see why you don't just switch the dates to Saturday. I'm only going overnight tonight." "I can't." I didn't get into the details of why. "Well, I already made this promise, so..." I made a mental note to draw in a red X for today. She gave me a kiss on the lips and walked out the door with a little overnight bag. Yes, I was seething with frustration. But I put my game face on. I had places to go and things to do. *** I woke up late the next morning and surprise, surprise, Melanie had graced me with her presence. I untangled myself from the sheets. Her side of the bed was undisturbed, so she hadn't actually been to bed with me. But she was cooking breakfast. I checked the clock. A late breakfast. I wandered into the bathroom for some bladder relief and to brush my fangs and wash my face. While scrubbing away with the tooth brush, I heard our landline ring. I could hear Melanie answer it. She sounded upbeat for a few moments, and then I heard a catch to her voice and her tone instantly changed. She quickly wound up the call. I saw her in the mirror, gazing at me in an indescribable fashion. "That was Abby. She said they had a great time at Blue Man Group with you yesterday." She stopped. "You didn't tell me that you invited Abby and Ryan to go as couples." "Nope." I squirted some shaving cream and started to lather my face. "She wanted to know why I wasn't there. They were surprised when I wasn't. You didn't tell them I was busy?" "Nope." I started to run my Mach 3 razor over my skin. "What did you tell them?" she asked carefully. "I said that you had other plans that you couldn't change. They couldn't do Saturday so I left things as they were. We had a great time." "Damn it! I could have made arrangements if you'd given me the whole story! Not played these mean little tricks." "Nice. Real nice. It wasn't enough to go out with your husband. It has to be your husband...and something else. That isn't a mean trick and you had every opportunity to do the right thing and come with us. I didn't tell them until I showed because I was hoping that you'd get an attack of the smarts and reschedule your fuck session. Tanner is in town longer then Blue Man Group is." Mel was taken aback by this. "I guess he is..." She rallied "But that still doesn't change the fact that you blindsided me! Why didn't you cancel when I didn't change my mind?" "Why? Would you prefer I stay at home weeping because my wife found it more important to fuck some other guy then to go do something social with her husband and friends? Sorry. Not wallowing in grief. I had a wonderful time." I lied. I spent most of the evening deflecting well intentioned questions and couldn't stop thinking about her at Tanner's place. I guess I was a better actor then I thought. "Besides, it would have ruined their evening too. Exactly how many lives do you want to ruin so you can screw around?" I asked. Now this was nonsense but it sounded good in my head. She stopped a second, closed her eyes and shook her body. "You know what? I'm not going to worry about this, because you aren't going to let anyone find out about this." "I'm not letting you do anything." And I kicked the bathroom door closed in her face. Damn it, I nicked myself. Then I went into the shower and had a good cry. She was getting even more contemptuous. *** All day Saturday, things were pretty chilly around the apartment. She didn't go out, but she wasn't talking to me. Sometimes I wished we had moved into a bigger place. When the tension got too thick, I'd take a few laps around the block. Sunday was something different. Again she made breakfast and she behaved a lot warmer to me. Small touches. Little jokes. The things that couples do. I invited her to a walk in the park, and she accepted. No mention was made of Tanner and I felt slightly better. Later that evening, she cooked one of my favorite meals and asked if I could wash the dishes. I agreed and I heard her run the shower. I was just drying the last dish when I felt a puff of warm air in my ear. "I've been neglecting you and I want to make up for it. Go hop in the shower and I'll be waiting." I turned and she was dressed in a very nice negligee, a soft green color which complimented her skin. Now I know what a lot of guys would be thinking. That I should cut her off. How the hell could I stick my dick where another guy has been? Well, I already was. She hadn't been a virgin when we met and she'd fucked Tanner a lot before we met. This was nothing new. And cutting her off would be cutting her off from a key aspect of relationship intimacy. Maybe I wasn't as good as Tanner in the fucking department, but I knew he didn't love her as much as I did. Every guy who did a one night stand, or was with a girl with serial boyfriends was doing the exact same thing that I was. Why should I sexually deprive myself? Why give Tanner a monopoly? She might be illegally subletting her pussy, but I had conjugal rights damn it! Granted I was starting to lose my temper. Did she think throwing me sloppy seconds was going to make up for the blatant disrespect, particularly since I was getting less sex then before that no good dirty cock-in-the-mouth showed up? Besides, it was the carrot and the stick... I got out of the shower and lightly dabbed a bit of scent on. I was smoothly shaven and I even fixed my hair, even though it was going to get mussed up very soon. Very quickly, I checked to see if her toothbrush was wet. It was. She was lying in bed, leaning on her elbow, with her legs decoratively positioned to show them to best effect. God I missed her! I mirrored her on the bed and put my hand on her hip. Then we both leaned in, and touched out lips, just lightly. The passion would come, but it would build slowly. We just lay there, only our lips lightly massaging each others. Occasionally one or the other of us would cheat and we'd feel a flick of tongue against the sanctum of our teeth, teasing one another. We continued this for a few minutes, then my hand came up and I pushed my fingers through her hair, releasing a floral cloud of the scent from her conditioner, a scent which said 'home' to me. My fingers lovingly massaged the back of her skull as we stopped being coy and started to explore one another's mouths. We worked our way to breathing hard and I started to stroke the nape of her neck with my fingers while tracing my tongue down the other side. At this point, I was getting a bit impatient and pushed the strap of her nightie down of her shoulder. The hemisphere of her breast was exposed, with just a trace of nipple showing, so I gave it my attention, kissing the skin on the top, using my lips to make little squeezes on the skin. She gasped as the satin slid off her nipple, revealing it to my tongue. Small light tweaks caused her nipple to harden. "Harder, harder' she whispered as I continued light and gentle. I licked the underneath her breast, where there was just a trace of salty sweat and she hissed, running her fingers through my hair. She started to press down on my head, and I complied, going lower, lower. I lounged a moment, worshiping her bellybutton with my mouth, the curve of her belly, the breadth of her hips. Her silky smooth skin whispered under my tongue and lips, the light flavor of her skin lotion a familiar tang. At the top of her mons pubis, I kissed her lightly and then I ducked my head even lower then she was pressing. My lips traced up from her ankle, little nibbles, licks and kisses up her calf and to the back of her knee. A broad, full tongue lick went up her milky thigh as her hips rolled under the stimulation. "Yes...yes...yes." she gasped encouragement. I started up her other leg, to a small groan of disappointment, following the same trail to the Promised Land. She firmly grasped my ears and started to drag my face toward her labia. I looked at it. It was newly bare. I put my cheek against her inner thigh and rubbed against her tender skin. Even freshly shaved, she could feel the rasp of my rougher skin and it always ignited her. I looked up at her closed eyes and her placid face. I blew warm air on her labia, causing a few drops of her nectar to leave little trails across her lips. Then I tugged my head free and pulled myself up toward her face. She looked at me puzzled. "Honey...you weren't done." Reaching across her body, I opened by nightstand drawer and dug underneath my latest book to grab the foil packet. Glancing over, she saw what I was removing. "I'm still on birth control..." she protested. "I know." I had checked her prescription. She gasped for breath, but I don't think it was in passion. I rolled the condom on me and pushed inward. She didn't resist, though she did make a little grunt and a choking noise which was impossible to interpret. I slid in and out of her, holding her knees, looking at her face, which was turned to the side with her eyes pressed closed. For some reason, she didn't seem to be having a very good time. After I rolled to the side, I skinned the condom off my penis. She rolled over to the side, shuddering. "That...that was hurtful! That was....just...awful." "I see no need to compete with sexual perfection." I don't think she had an orgasm and I didn't care. She rolled over facing me. "At least Tanner is man enough to not mind licking..." her mouth suddenly made an 'O' and her face revealed its shock. I stood and started walking toward the bedroom door. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" she screamed to my retreating back, knowing that she had done something unthinkable, something she had strenuously avoided except when I had pressed her for details early in this catastrophe. I walked into the living room and started clearing some magazines from the couch. She ran in behind me. "Honey, I said something stupid! So stupid! Please, please come back into the bedroom. Please! You have to forgive me. I just...talked without thinking. I'm not doing this to hurt you! I just can't..." She was tugging on my arm and pressing herself against my back which made the task take twice as long. I had finished and looked at the couch. Then I turned and started to walk back to the bedroom. "Oh thank you, thank you! Let me make it up to you. I haven't had a chance to give you a really good blow..." she trailed off as I picked up my pillow and went to the closet for the spare blanket. "You're being..." she started hotly, but was finally smart enough to shut her mouth and just watch me leave. I hate sleeping on the couch. It's lumpy and cold and narrow. But it was better then sleeping next to her that night. I still felt like I was losing, but I wasn't the only one if the sounds that came out of the bedroom were any indication. *** The next week was surrealistic. I perused the newspaper every day to find interesting things to do together. Museum, plays, dances, etc. And for the first three days, she agreed to anything. I mean a planetarium for god's sakes! I was just desperate to make sure that we were sharing things together as a couple. That she saw that a cock, however good, wasn't worth this relationship. Every so often she'd take phone calls which she'd answer, chat for a minute, and hang up...then she'd suddenly need to use the bathroom or run to the store for something. I wondered if she thought she was fooling anyone. It was Thursday night when there was an unexpected knock at the door. Melanie had gone to the store. I opened it. Outside was a seriously pissed off looking Beth, her sister. I Stop Losing "What the hell do you think you're doing?" she said, pushing by me. "Well good evening to you too, bitch." "Melanie is not happy. She feels guilty and conflicted and..." "She's staying at home." "She's upset. She's trying to get him out of her system but you keep being an asshole to her." "An asshole? What an interesting description. And please tell me why, pray tell, her sister is encouraging her to fuck around and telling me to suck it up instead of rooting for her happy marriage?" She glared hard at me. Then her face softened in a very unconvincing fashion. "Look...we've been through this before. The last couple of times, the relationship didn't end well. There wasn't any..." she searched for the word, "closure. This time, she's trying to work it all out of her system. She doesn't want to leave you! I've been talking to her and she's hysterical at the idea! But she needs...room. She needs to put her demons to bed." "The only thing going to bed is her with that asshole." I opened the door. "And you've taken sides and you aren't on mine. Don't call me any more with your 'suggestions'. Don't come over here anymore unless your sister invites you. Don't worry, if she does, I'll make myself scarce." Her face twisted into more anger "You are making a big mistake! She'll leave you over this!" "The only mistake I made was letting you talk me into this in the first place." "Do you know what she's doing right now?" she said spitefully. "Maybe. And the only thing sadder then that fact is the satisfaction you are getting that it's happening. Isn't that odd?" She left in a huff. Melanie got home a half hour after Beth left. I watched her with her bags of stuff. "Have fun dear?" I asked. "Yeah. The store was a madhouse." "And how was Tanner's?" Silence. "I swung by...but only for a half an hour." I just grunted. We were back to the lying by omission again. I didn't believe her, but she was still being honest to direct questions. "I've been a good wife all week. I was thinking..." "Yes?" "I was going to go to Tanner's Friday night." "That's an interesting definition." "Of what?" "Never mind. You want to go out Friday? Another overnight?" "I'm not sure. I just wanted to...I don't know. Take the edge off." "Take the edge off. Well, we can't get in the way of that." I said with as little sarcasm as I could muster. "Okay, I'll get my own, dinner and watch a movie or something." She gave me a sharp look. "You aren't going to call any of our friends, are you?" "Nope." *** Friday evening came around. She seemed merrier then I'd seen her for the last week. Don't get me wrong. When we were doing things together, she seemed happy enough. But there was a little extra pep in her step. A Lightness of Being that seared my soul like a laser. True to her word, she cooked herself a light meal, offering to cook for me, which I declined. I offered to do the dishes later so she could get ready, an offer she readily accepted. I jumped into the common bathroom and spruced up while she used the master bath. When she came down the hallway, she looked ravishing. Her hair was done up and teased. She wore a sheer sleeveless top which was low cut and a tight new miniskirt which I hadn't seen yet. Interesting that she was hiding clothes from me. It was a smallish apartment. Stocking graced her succulent legs with some black heels with a little gold metallic bow on the front. She was carrying a bolero jacket for the brisk weather. I was seething inside. First the fact she was so happy, and second she was expending WAY more effort on this dipshit then she did on any of our outings. She headed for the door a little before seven and was surprised when I joined her at the door. We headed downstairs for the car park. "Where are you going tonight?" she asked. "Mitchell's Steakhouse." I said as I swung into the car, putting the key in the ignition. "That's a very expensive place! We've been spending so much money already." she started to complain to me. "You're telling me. And it's worse since I'm treating your parents." I shut the door. I was already rolling backward when an absolutely white Melanie staggered behind my car, holding up her hands as she struggled in her heels and miniskirt to get behind it before I pulled away. I can't describe the look of horror on her face. She quickly ran over to tap on my window. I rolled it down, a bit exasperated. "You're just joking, right?" she said desperately. "No. We hadn't seen them in a while and I hate to eat dinner alone. So I invited them out when you made your plans." "What did you tell them?!?" "Nothing. I didn't' say you were busy. I didn't even say you'd be there. Do you mind? I'm already late." "Did you tell them I wouldn't be there?" she almost screamed. "No. I didn't think it would matter." "You ASSHOLE!" "Calm down. The neighbors are watching. Do you want me to tell them why you can't come to eat with them?" Her chest was heaving as she gulped in large breaths. In other circumstances, I'd have been a bit aroused. How far we had fallen. "You've got to call them! You've got to cancel!" "No. I don't 'got' to do anything. This goes three ways. I go to dinner with your mom and dad. They are probably close to already there. Second option is you join us. As my wife you're always welcome in my plans. Third off, you can call your mother and cancel yourself." "But she'll ask questions!" This thought truly terrified her and I had no idea why, though you can be sure that I'd be thinking about it. "Okay. Come with me." "I can't go like this! I look like a whore!" "Yes you do." I said blandly. She shot dagger eyes at me. Wasting no time, she pulled out her phone and started strutting away from me toward the apartment. "Hi, mom? I'm sorry, but HE is just so late today..." was what I heard as she started to jog up the steps to our place, bouncing as she went. It seems someone forgot her bra... *** Dinner didn't go too badly. The ride there had been positively glacial. She'd put on one of her interview suits and replaced her make up with something a lot less 'lady of the evening'. It had taken her every minute of the drive over to remake herself. At one point while we were still being seated, her cell rang and she jumped as if touched with a live wire. She just reached over and silenced it...then turned her cell off. I got a lot of surreptitious glares from her. It was obvious that her mother caught her tension immediately. She asked after her a half a dozen times. I liked her parents. Wait, let me modify that. Compared to how I felt about their slut of a daughter and her pimp sister, the mild tension of socially interacting with the two people whose daughter you are banging was a piece of cake. It was funny. Every time the subject changed, and I decided to start or ask a question, Mel got very tense, unsure what I'd be saying. More grist for the mill. It was obvious that unlike their other daughter Beth, they had no idea about what she was doing and she was terrified I'd tell them about it. Of course, the subject of grandchildren came up. "We're not ready." I said flatly, startling the three of them. While we were still young, I'd been on the baby bandwagon from the beginning. "What he's saying is that there's some trouble at his job and we want to make sure we're financially secure." Melanie tried to rescue. Of course we heard the old bromides of how no one is every financially ready for children and things just adjusted naturally. I nodded and ordered another bottle of wine. Hey, at least the steaks were good. If I thought the drive over was cold, the drive back could liquefy carbon dioxide. "How could you do that to me?" she hissed as soon as we were in the car. "She asked me all kinds of questions in the bathroom!" I nodded. "I told her we were going through some tough times." "Well at least you didn't have to lie." That pretty much was the end of the conversation there. When we got home, she ran inside and was out in five minutes with a bag. "I'm going to go and fuck him until his cock falls off!" she snarled at me when she passed me on the steps and she left. "Please do." I muttered to her back. "Maybe the fucker will bleed out." *** Ed's place was hopping like normal. I'd been back a couple times when Mel was fucking Tanner, just to touch base, keep him advised and to get some moral support. The atmosphere of the place had grown on me and I wasn't as depressed as I was before. It made a lot of difference knowing someone was in my corner, that I wasn't alone. Ed put a gin and tonic in front of me which I sipped at delicately before I drank it. He just grinned at me. "How are things on the home front?" "Her parents don't know. I'm not sure if it's the fact she's cheating on me or the fact that she's cheating on me with Tanner, but she was terrified I was having dinner with them tonight." He rubbed a glass in a cloth. "So what does that suggest to you?" he asked, watching me closely. I sighed. "Nothing. If I have to blackmail her into being a good wife, then the marriage is dead already and I might as well have the papers dropped off today." I took a drink. "But isn't that what I'm doing now?" The bartender frowned a bit. "It seems like it, but there is a difference. You are simply making her aware of the natural consequences if and when this gets out. You aren't threatening to expose her as much as making her uncomfortable inside her own lies." "She doesn't think I have the guts to expose her and throw her worthless ass out. But she doesn't want this to get out." Ed winced. "Well...that's something else for you to mull." I nodded, finished my drink and left. *** I was surprised as hell to wake up the next morning to the feeling of lips on my cock. The drink must have put me down harder then I thought if she could drag the sheets and blankets off of me without waking me. I checked twice to see if it was actually Mel. Isn't that sad? And yet it was, her brunette locks hiding the action as her head bobbed up and down. I rather cynically watched her and my mood made her have to work for it. But a blowjob is a blowjob and after rather more effort then she expected, I shot down her throat. She looked up at me with a smile plastered on her face with a twinge of regret. "I'm sorry what I said yesterday. You just..." I saw a surge of anger leave a wake across the surface of her face, "took be by surprise is all. You keep making this harder then it already is. I want to try to fix things. Make them like they were before." Again with a winsome smile and it broke my heart. I laid back on my pillow and looked at the ceiling, no longer able to look at her face. "Okay. I wasn't intending on telling them anything, you know." She crawled up my body, wedging her head in the crook of my neck while her thigh nestled between my legs, rubbing slightly. "Can we fix things? Have we broken things so badly that we can't make it right?" "Maybe." I paused. It was easier if I didn't look at her. "I had a trip to Memphis planned for this coming weekend. You and me. A nice hotel near Beale Street. Barbeque, live music, a steamboat ride." "That sounds wonderful...Honey, can we afford it?" "Probably not." She tensed for a moment and then nuzzled a little closer. "Okay. Let's do it. When do we leave?" "I'll drive you in to work Friday morning and pick you up after school." It was a good day. She made breakfast again and did the pile of laundry. She seemed a lot more attentive of that lately, probably because she'd lost half of her sexy clothes. I'd cancelled her Victoria Secrets card and she hadn't said a word. Lunch was quiet and I decided to putter around, doing oil changes on our cars, more for something to do. My mind had a lot to consider. She hadn't said a word about Tanner after the revelations of this morning and I didn't want to ask. After I finished, I took a shower and considered. She hadn't made any promises. Was this about her parents? Was it guilt? Regret? Love? After I finished, I approached her in the kitchen. She was starting to set up dinner. "How about we just grab a couple of hot dogs at the movie theater?" I offered. "What?" She looked at me searchingly. "Why don't we go to the movies? Go on another date. That chick thriller you wanted to see came out last week and we haven't had a chance to go." She smiled after a brief hesitation. "Okay! It will save me from doing the dishes." The movie was what you'd expect. There was a ghost and a murder and a poor put upon wife. A movie about revelations and knowing things about people. It was pretty obvious before the second reel started that the husband did it. It was a revelatory movie for me too. During one scene, the on screen wife went to a cabinet which reflected the room behind her. She opened it and picked up a small box. When she closed it, there was an obviously dead woman reflected in the glass. The director didn't run any mood music to lead up to the shot, so it was a total surprise. Melanie didn't jump. I'm sure there were a lot of explanations for that, but I went with the simplest one. I was done clinging to straws. She approached me in bed that night, and I put her off. "It's a bit early for me yet." She looked sad. "Let me know when you're ready." I rolled over and slept well. *** Memphis was all I could hope it would be. Not exactly a tourist Mecca, but the food was good, Beale Street had a nice pedestrian walkway with bars lining up and down the street, always available for drink and company. The music was phenomenal. It would have been perfect except I'd have liked to have gone with someone. Friday afternoon, I had carefully loaded up my bags and driven to the airport, quite neglecting to stop by the school first. It might seem petty, but strangely, I didn't care. In the interests of not wasting my money, I turned my cell phone off so I could enjoy the trip without distractions. Still, by Sunday morning, I felt somewhat guilty so I changed my flight to an earlier one using one of Mel's credit cards to pay the fee. Arriving home, I turned on my cell and noted that I only had six messages. When I got back to the apartment, I found her filing her nails on the sofa. She glared at me while I set my bags down inside near the kitchen nook. "How could you do that to me? I had to call a cab. At work! Do you know how embarrassing that was?" "I can venture a guess." "No you can't! I was so happy we could reconnect! I was looking forward to that trip! Then you never showed up!" "You mean I ran off to have fun all by myself without regard to how it would hurt you? Yup, I have no idea how that feels at all." She looked like I had slapped her face, then it reddened in anger. "Why are you being difficult about that? I told you I was getting him out of my system." "No. You were getting him INTO your system. You spent a lot more time fucking him then you did with me, and I know you've been dating him and going out." Her eyes darted back and forth. "What are you talking about?" "That movie. It was a thriller and you never jumped at any of the scary scenes. Not once. Why is that?" She shifted gears. "You're changing the subject. Why are you trying to drive me away into Tanner's arms? I would think if you didn't want to lose me, you'd treat me with more respect." I looked at her for all of five seconds. Then I laughed in her face. Her face twisted up in disbelief. "You WANT to lose me?" My face felt like it was sneering. I wasn't sure about my expression. "Lose you? You know...for a while there, I thought I was losing you to Tanner. That this guy was cleaning my clock as a partner. But you know what? I was wrong." I tried to put my thoughts into words. "The Greeks used this little garland to denote victory. And the only person who can put it on your head is your partner. So I was never losing to Tanner. I was never fighting Tanner. I was fighting you. You plucked that wreath from my head and choose to put it on him. And that tells me all I need to know about our relationship." "You...!" she began. "Save it." I sneered. Yes, I was definitely sneering at this point. Then I flicked my fingers in a dismissive gesture. "Go on...run off to him. Because I've been thinking a lot about what you said to me. If everything you said is true, I don't have a thing to worry about. If Tanner wanted you for a wife, he'd have had you a long time ago. He doesn't. He's had every chance. Your first relationship, your second little fling and now this one. So I may need to worry about you running off with Tanner. But I don't need to worry about him taking you. He just wants to fuck you...literally and metaphorically. I'm sure it's a real turn on for him to come in and destroy your relationships and you're obviously a stupid enough to let it happen." Her face turned ashen and her mouth opened and closed a number of times. "You...you don't know what you're talking about," she finally choked out. "Of course not." I turned and got a beer. While my back was turned, I heard a rustle of cloth, the rattle of keys hastily grabbed, the drag of her purse off the counter and the slam of the front door. I sighed. Like a dog returning to it's vomit. I'd had a lot of time to think about all she said and how she acted with Tanner. Every time he came into her life, she dropped everything and ran off to become his whore. Then he went away. This thought niggled in my brain. SHE never left him... With a muttered curse of my own, I grabbed my car keys and headed to the door... *** Even on a Sunday afternoon, Ed's place had a respectable crowd. The jukebox was spitting out tunes and the man himself was tending his bar, talking quietly to a couple of patrons. He broke off when he saw me so upset and headed over to the waitress station to meet me. I was seething with rage. "How's it going...." was all he had time to get out before I reached over and grabbed his stupid black vest in my hands, half dragging him over the counter. "You knew! You knew from the start!" I almost screamed at him. When my words were done echoing, I realized that the rest of the bar was quiet except for the music warbling from the jukebox and the unmistakable sound of a whole lot of chairs being pushed back from tables. The hairs on the back of my neck rose up of their own accord as I felt a large looming presence behind me. "Everyone calm down." Ed said mildly. "My man here is having a bit of a rough day." I slowly released him and held my open hands in front of me, signifying the fact I didn't want any trouble, particularly not in the wholesale quantities that the patrons seemed ready to unload upon me. Ed looked over at Reba, who was in the midst of putting a bottle back on the shelf. "Jesus, Mary and Joseph! You were going to hit him with a bottle of Glenfidditch? He isn't that good a customer! HE gets the stick. If you're going to hit anyone with a bottle, smack that lush Lenny! He's keeping the place afloat!" There was a trill of laughter from the crowd and things seemed to calm down. I didn't feel that I'd be unceremoniously dumped into the alley anymore less or less intact. He gave me a look and motioned me into the dark corner. He set a drink in front of me. "Care to enlighten me what that was all about?" he asked carefully. He was peeved and I can't say I blame him, but I was still upset myself. "You knew!" I said in a scarce restrained whisper. "You knew he always left her. You had to have seen it! You figured out the school thing! You knew that she wasn't going to...to..." I felt like crying again. Not for Melanie, but for the treasured dream I had lost. The time before Tanner. What might have been. What I wanted to be again. Somehow in the last few weeks it wasn't about Melanie the person anymore but about wanting to regain the dream. Melanie the Idea. I Stop Losing Ed sighed and rubbed the top of the bar with a rag in a nervous tic. "I'm afraid I wasn't being honest with you. This was never about getting the two of you reconciled. I knew that was a pipe dream." "Then what was it about?" I asked bitterly "It was about getting you to a point where you could get on with your life. These...choices. These tricks. I wanted you to have a metric...a way of counting things. Every time she decided to go out, every time she chose not to be with you, I knew it would help you see what you needed to do. I never really had any hope for your marriage. Not listening to you. But you maybe I could help. By making her choices so evident, I didn't allow you the comfort of false hopes where she was stringing you along with half promises and assurances." "Then why didn't you just tell me to divorce her?" "Would you have?" I thought about how I was thinking a few weeks ago. "No." I glumly admitted "But you helped Keith's marriage!" I almost wailed again, but I'm proud to say that I didn't quite get there. "Keith's wife had a short, three time affair with a co-worker. Yes, she did wrong but she felt guilty. And he was competing against a real person. It wasn't a month long secret affair with a dream lover of long ago. How do you compete with a dream? How do you guilt a person who's without remorse? " I took a drink and slowly blew out. "She's an addict." I said. Ed nodded sagely. "If you look at it as if Tanner was heroin, then it all makes sense. The sneaking, the choices she made, the lies when she started to get pressured...but how does someone get addicted to another person? Is he that good in bed?" I asked. Ed shrugged. "He's probably pretty good. But there was this scientist guy named Lorenz. He worked with baby geese. He hatched some eggs and they imprinted on him instead of a goose. They treated him like he was their mother simply because he was the first thing they saw. I gather that Tanner was her first and she's reacting...somewhat strongly. Sex is a powerful stimulus. I don't know enough psychology to know what exactly is going on, but she seems like an addict." "So, what do I do now?" "What happened?" So I explained matters to him. "So she ran off to Tanner." I nodded. "But that isn't exactly unexpected. She made it clear." "But now you know that that was always her choice too...and one only SHE could make. Not Tanner. Not Beth. You weren't fighting with Tanner. You were fighting with her. And how can you win that fight?" Sadly, I just shook my head. *** I only stayed another hour or so. Ed and a few of the guys commiserated with me and I actually felt some closure. I was surprised when I pulled into our parking spot when I saw her car was parked there. I frowned. This was unexpected. Even more unexpected was to have a crying black haired form grabbing me around the waist and holding on as if her life depended on it. "Ooohh Gahd! It was..." Sob wail cry 'He...he...he...I went there...whine sob cry...and he said to call, but I didn't call because..." torrent of tears. If you're having trouble following all this, you'll be sympathetic to the fact of what I was going through trying to get sense from her sobs, glub sounds, and the fact that she was pressing her face into my collar when she was saying all of this. Eventually I got her calmed down enough for a semi rational discussion. "I was so mad at you for saying those...anyway, I went there and he wasn't expecting me because I was supposed to be going to Memphis with you and it was just too humiliating to let him know that you'd..." "Get back on track," I said curtly. "You drove me over there." I let this go to find out what's wrong. "So I went into his place because he's a guy who doesn't need to lock his door...and...and..." "Yeah?" I was already getting bored. "And BETH was there fucking him!" She started to wail some more. I pursed my lips and nodded knowingly. "So that was her angle." "What?" She looked up at me from her Kleenex. "I was wondering why she was pushing you to fuck him so much. Why she was trying to get me to roll over." "What?" She said again. Was she always this stupid or was I just now noticing it, blinded by her good looks? "I mean that he was probably fucking her first and she was supposed to give him your digits since you two had such a history. I guess if she wanted Tanner cock, she had to run interference for you." "Why would she do that? She knows he's mi..." She clamped her jaws shut. I gave her a look of disgust. "I guess someone couldn't shut her fucking mouth about how he was 'sexual perfection' and good old sis wanted to give that a try." She was obviously devastated by this and I was trying to muster a glimmer of sympathy but wasn't raising a spark. "And?" I pressed. She looked at her hands in her lap. "And nothing." "Really? A guy like that, who demands to fuck you anyway he wants, who is crowing about how he's putting the horns on me and has you buying hot outfits for him with MY money...he didn't' have any clever suggestions?" She glowed beet red. "He...he...he..." she started wailing again. As I thought. Good old Tanner wanted to take the opportunity for Melanie to make a meat sandwich with him and Beth since she burst in unannounced but licking her sister's little clit was probably a bridge too far for Mr. Sexual Perfection. Hence the sobbing wreckage on the sofa, looking at me with the first bit of honest emotional longing I'd seen from her in a long while. I knew what was coming and I wasn't disappointed. "Honey...we can fix this. I can't...I just can't look at them any more. They...he...betrayed me so horribly. But we're still good. You can still have me. I don't mind...don't mind the condoms. We can counsel or something." "Honey...?" *** I moseyed up to the bar. Yes, I moseyed! Deal with it! Ed had my drink there already. I was now a regular, though I wasn't turning into an alcoholic. I came for the companionship. When I packed my things, I'd taken my wall calendar down, put the legend on it: Blue Check: Faithful Wife, Red X: Tanner's Slut, and mailed it to her folks. She needed help but it wasn't going to be from me. Her parents invited me to dinner not long after that. They were more sorrow then anger, though when the rage poked out, surprisingly it wasn't at me for disparenging their little girl. It seems that the first time Melanie had hooked up with Tanner was in school and he'd used her, lived at her apartment, and was such a bad influence that she'd struggled for a couple years with her grades. When he got a job and left, she'd tried to chase him halfway across the country using her parent's credit cards. It wasn't only our relationship she'd disrespected over him. The second time, she'd been engaged until she'd left her fiancee' for three days with Tanner, playing floozy to him in public. And he just left afterward, leaving her broken hearted and alone again. They were disappointed in Beth the most. She knew how vulnerable her sister was and to dangle Tanner at her like that was reprehensible. I had the sense that any reconcilliation with either of them and their parents would be a VERY long time coming. They shook my hand, gave me a hug and wished me well. There was no question about what I'd do. The only surprise they showed was how patient I'd been with their daughter. "She didn't deserve you." her own mother said. I can't think of a worse criticism from your own kin. Three times she'd had a chance to stand up to her hormones and not take in an abusive piece of shit and three times she'd failed. I'd been patient. Everyone makes a mistake but she seemed to continue to make them and I wasn't going to be the filler fuck between the times that Tanner was in town. I wasn't losing to Tanner. She was. Speaking of Tanner, I went to Ed to provide me with an alibi. He turned me down flat. "You can't do that?" "Why not?" "Because it's bad for your soul." I considered this. "I'm generally a pretty good person. I think I'll risk a bit of tarnish." He looked at me. "Vengence isn't any good. Now Justice is another matter..." It seems that as soon as he'd heard the details of my little problem, he'd taken a couple of his patient/patrons/friends (the distinctions really blurred in this place) and they'd done a bit of research. It seems Mr. Tanner, besides being sexual perfection to rather weak minded women, was also a civilian contractor for the local military base. They were responsible for refurbishing their entire IT structure in some buildings and, surprise, surprise, they were way behind schedule. Jim, who worked on base, thought that was a suspicious crying shame and he discussed the matter with Fraud Waste and Abuse. Long lunches aren' exactly a crime in the military...except when people start to pay attention. Suddenly, the soldiers and other civilian contractors were being asked a good many questions. Things started to tighten up. People had to work harder and explain themselves more. This caused a ruckus where he worked and since Mr. Tanner's abuses were mentioned by name and he'd been bragging about his midday activities, he got blamed by his co-workers for messing up a good gig. Ed had a word with a Congressman whose son he'd helped with a nasty relationship and the Congresscritter had a word with the base commander. The company had been put on notice. Tanner's name was mentioned prominently. Hank, a long haul trucker, had stopped by the town that Tanner had originally relocated from. Since he was only here temporarily, he thought he'd poke around. Seems Tanner had a steady girl back there who was pretty serious with him. So much so that he made monthly trips back to see her. From what I understand, Hank decided to regale a couple of strangers in a coffee house about this cock-hound named Tanner was banging girls left and right on the job in Columbus. The fact that his girl was at the next table was purely a coincidence. If her comments and questioning of Hank were any indication, she had a much less agreeable and long suffering nature then Melanie. "So that's it?" I asked Ed. "For my marriage, he might lose his job and he might lose his girl? Seems a pretty poor trade for my marriage." Ed shrugged. "I understand how you feel. But we do what we can, not what we'd like. And Karma has a way of dealing with the Tanners of the world. Besides, it wasn't just him." I nodded. Melanie was getting her own karma. She didn't take the divorce well, less so when she found out how much debt we had accumulated. It seems that, like adultery, if your partner accepts your purchases, then they have to be applied equally and except for some cash advances she didn't know about, we now had a good deal of debt. My job had a lot of upward potential. A teacher? Not so much. Psychologically she was a wreck too. When Tanner left virutually overnight and pretty much at the same time I did, she didn't take it well if the hospital insurance claims are to be believed. I would like to believe that it was because I left her, but I was no longer into self delusion. Since her parents had practically disowned her after being foolish enough to throw away her marriage for Tanner, she had to move in with her sister. I wished them all the mutual recriminations that they deserved. As for me, I got over Melanie rather quickly. I've been going slow with a girl named Tess. She isn't quite as good looking as Melanie was, but she makes me feel good about myself, she's fun to be with, and her idea of sexual perfection is to have me in her bed. And that's a definition that I can live with. But you can be sure we talked a great deal about our exes. *** Epilogue I finished my drink and decided it was time for a bite to eat. Tess was busy tonight and I was stag. After my meal, I decided to see a movie. I was in line for the ticket when I saw him. He was a guy with a lost look in his face. He had on a wedding ring but he was at the movies alone. The trace of self loathing was far too familiar. I wandered over to him. "Hi. You don't know me. But I know you. I was you. You look like you could use a drink. Why don't we toss these stupid movie tickets and go see this guy I know. His name is Ed..."