69 comments/ 56190 views/ 11 favorites Objects in the Mirror By: StangStar06 Hi Folks. Here's the debut of another editor. Let me know what you think about him. His name is Sir Charles5150 and he volunteered for the job. Carholi I've tried to reply to your emails at least twice but you have to send me a valid email address. I also need to warn you guys that it's October so this is the last normal story you're going to get for about a month. The rest of the month will be Halloweeny (is that a word?) SS06 * * * * * * My mind drifted. My thoughts were miles and years away. In my thoughts, I saw a man smiling at me. He had a shaved head and a bushy beard. I think the thing that seemed to be the most magical about the daydream was the amount of love that I felt coming out of him. His eyes were aglow. I remember reading shit like that when I was a girl, but here in the daydream, I finally understood it. The smile on his face and those glowing eyes were his reaction to me. That man loved me more than anything else in the world. "Loves me," I mumbled absent mindedly. "I don't know about love but I'm sure fucking the hell out of you," he sneered. The sound of the voice drew me out of my daydream and back to reality. I looked up and saw a big sweaty guy that for the life of me I couldn't remember. He was dripping with sweat as he fucked me. He sawed his dick in and out of me and I panted back in response to his thrusts. I was breathing in and out heavily which was what made him think that he was fucking the shit out of me. But in reality it was pure physics. A two hundred pound man humping up and down on a hundred and forty pound woman forces the air out of her on every downward thrust. The heavy breathing that made him think he was Casanova was simply my lungs exchanging gases. "God damn she's into that," said another man. "I'm next." As I looked at the line of men waiting for me and some waiting for other women and vice versa, I had an epiphany. "Uh...don't you guys think that the guy who brought her should have a turn," said a slim guy who came up to sit down next to me, and watch the guy screwing me. He pulled out his dick and started rubbing it as he watched. There was no sign of anger on his face. He wasn't jealous in the least. He just wanted his turn. He'd been off screwing some of the other women here, after all that was the point of swinging. The guy on top of me noticed Bryan next to me and realized that the two of us, Bryan and I were there together. The thought of screwing a man's woman while the guy watched, really turned him on. He started pounding me harder and harder and surprisingly it was all I could do not to yawn. He suddenly slammed his pelvis against mine so hard, I thought he was going to crack my pelvis. I could see myself now showing up in the emergency room for x-rays. Some doctor would come out and tell me that I had a broken pussy. The thought of it made me laugh. I looked into the guy's cum face and that also made me laugh. Then I looked at Bryan yanking on his dick so hard it could have come off, while another man fucked me. The whole thing was just stupid. Suddenly, I pushed the man off of me while he was still coming down from his orgasm. "Hey!" he yelled, falling over as I pushed him off of me. "If you want to screw your old man, just say so. But you don't have to knock me down to get to him," he yelled. "I thought the point of joining the club was for variety. You know to add some spice. You guys can fuck each other every night. That's not what we come here for." He got up and walked away. Somehow, the lesson he was trying to impart was less effective coming from a naked man with a shrunken dick. Bryan kept yanking away on his dick. He was really going at it until he noticed my face. I couldn't hold it anymore and I burst into tears. He looked at me and stopped what he was doing. "What's wrong?" he asked. "Can we go?" I asked. He looked at me crazily. "Oh, Alex," he said as if his best friend had just died. "We haven't been here that long. It's easy for women to hook up; especially when they look like you. It takes the guys longer." I was really upset and he didn't seem to care at all. "Look Bryan, if you take me home, I'll fuck you. However you want, for as long as you want," I said. He looked at me as if weighing his choices. I guess the thought of having sex with me was so routine that it no longer registered as a special event. "Alright," he said finally. "I guess I should probably check on Ellie anyway." A few moments later, we were dressed and on our way out, leaving a bunch of ticked off guys who were hoping to get a piece before I left. I didn't worry because there were plenty of other women in the club they could screw. "So what's wrong? He asked. "What's with the tears?" "I don't know," I lied as the tears started to fall again. I got into the passenger side of his truck and he got in on the other side. After turning the key and starting the engine he looked at me with concern on his face. "We're still gonna fuck,right?" he asked showing me exactly where his concern lay. We drove to his house as usual. He checked with the nurse who watched his wife two days a week, and told her that she could go home. Mina Harker was an older woman who'd been a nurse for twenty three years. As much as she loved her patients, she loved her family more. So the chance to get home early was great for her. As we watched her go I looked down at the bed and actually looked at Ellie. For the first time in years I tried to actually see if there was anything left of the beautiful young woman that Bryan, Dale and I knew. Seeing her lying there in her bed was one more log on the fire of emotions that burned in my heart. "Okay, everything's good," said Bryan. "In a few moments she'll be out and she'll sleep for hours. Sometimes I really can't tell the difference between when she's asleep and when she's not." He took my arm and pulled me towards their guest room. We walked into the room and I took off my clothes and lay down on the bed. Bryan came over and got on top of me. He started rubbing my sides and moved on to my breasts. I moaned although I didn't really feel anything. I did it just to spur him on so we could get things over with. He believed the reaction, so he kept going. It taught me a lot about Bryan. One of the things I learned was that even after all of the years we'd known each other and the three years that we'd been having sex, I really didn't know him. I felt like I was seeing him for the first time and I didn't like him. Bryan had his dick out and he pushed it into me. It wouldn't go in so he started pushing harder. Bryan didn't give a fuck about me. The only one he cared even less about was the shell of the woman that he'd married. It hurt like hell but I deserved it. I felt no pleasure at all in the sex. In a crazy way, I enjoyed the fact that I didn't enjoy it. In my mind I was paying. Bryan humped away at me. He panted and gasped and sawed away at me like the piece of meat that he saw me as. His eyes were tightly closed and he was making his cum face. He looked ridiculous. I didn't move my body at all. I just lay there like a block of wood. He never noticed. Just before he came, his eyes opened up a fraction of a second and he saw me staring at him, unmoving. "I'm gonna..." he said. I pushed him with all of my might. He fell back and we disengaged but it was too late to stop his seed from shooting out of his rapidly deflating dick. "What the fuck, Alex?" he yelled in confusion. "I wanted to..." "I want to go home," I said. "I'll drive you around the block as soon as we're..." he began. "We're done already," I said. "And by home, I meant our home town." he just stared at me open mouthed. "Okay, Alex," he said. "What's this all about?" "Bryan, I made a mistake," I sobbed. "I made a really big fucking mistake. I don't know why it took me three years to realize it but I don't belong here. I think I've ruined my life." He just looked at me and I could see the wheels turning inside of his head. "Alex, you're just feeling a little down," he said. "Maybe you're bored. We should probably find a way to spice things up. Remember when we first..." "Bryan, that's not it at all," I said. "You are totally off base. Apparently even after all of this time you really don't know me. I'm serious. I want to go home. Don't you? Don't you miss it? We don't even have any friends here?" "Oh Alex," he said. "You're exaggerating again. We have plenty of friends here. What about the place that we just left. We know the people at the club far more intimately than any mere friendships." "Hah," I scoffed. "That's where you're wrong. Your own words are coming back to haunt you. When we first wanted to join the club your argument was that going there and being with those people was only sex, there were no relationships and no emotional ties." "You know what I mean," he said. "No, Bryan, I don't," I told him. "Were you lying then or are you lying now?" He couldn't think of anything to say, so he remained silent. "Bryan, don't you miss the people we grew up with. Don't you miss going fishing or playing golf with your friends? I'm talking about real friends. I mean people you've known all of your life not just a bunch of strangers that you get together to have sex with and then go your own way." "But, they can be more than that," he said. "We just have to..." "Bryan, they're never going to be more than they are right now. We're all a bunch of selfish people who sneak around doing nasty things with other people like ourselves. And then we sneak back to our lives. And really Bryan, we don't have actual lives. What we did was so God damned stupid, that I can't believe we did it." "You were in favor of it at the time," he snorted. "Bryan, I wasn't thinking clearly. I was becoming an empty nester. I know now that what I was going through is really bad for women psychologically. Your children are all gone so you begin to question yourself. You start to wonder what your purpose is and you question your attractiveness. It's almost as bad as when we go through the change. We just don't look at the facts rationally." "Bryan did you know that the average person who lives to be 70 years old, spends about four months of that total having sex. Oversexed people like you and me might spend five or six months of that seventy years fucking; that's it. That means we spend the other sixty nine years and six months doing other things. But somehow we reversed the importance of it. We actually made that four to six months more important than the other sixty nine pus years. We gave up our lives for something that should only be a small part of it." "Okay, maybe you're a little bit depressed,"' he said. "You'll get over it. You always do. Besides, we really can't go home. They practically ran us out of town on a rail. Maybe they would have, if we hadn't left before anyone got wind of what we were doing." "Bryan, it's been three years," I said. "They're over it." "You mean HE'S over it, don't you?" he asked. "Or at least that's what you're hoping for. That's what this is all about isn't it?" "Bryan, I'm sorry but..." I began. "Alex you were always supposed to be mine. You know that," he snapped. "We just made some bad choices. And he's just so God damned selfish. He's the one who's selfish. He just never learned to share. That was all you asked. You just asked to give me, his best friend and yours, one small thing..." He stopped talking and just glared at me. "He treated you like you were property. He was always trying to stop you from doing things." "Bryan, he loves me. He didn't want me doing things with guys because he got jealous. I guess he wanted to be the only man in my life," I said. "Bullshit," said Bryan. "He didn't want you around Della or Elaine either." "Della and Elaine were the two biggest sluts in town," I said. "Look at how they ended up. Della moved to Vegas and her daughter is ashamed of her. She's an illegal prostitute working the strip. Nevada has ways you can be a legal prostitute but she chooses to risk getting arrested, selling her ass in hotels and casinos. Elaine tried to hook up with the wrong guy at one of those sleazy motels out near the highway and was beaten to death. Her poor husband has never gotten over it, they say. So Dale wanting me to steer clear of those two, kind of makes sense. He just loves me and he wants the best for me." . "I do too," he snapped. "Or have you forgotten that? We met you on the very same day. Both of us wanted you. You just made the wrong decision when you picked him." "Bryan, it's time to tell the truth," I said. "You keep trying to throw this in my face. But I never picked Dale. I loved both of you. I couldn't actually choose between you. You took the problems away from me when the Miller girls moved into town to go to college. You went after both Ellie and Arlene. The two of them didn't argue over boys and Ellie liked you a lot. She had longer hair than I did. She had bigger tits and she was willing to do anything she had to do to get you. You forgot about me like yesterday's news. Dale only got me by default. I don't know how things between the three of us would have ended up. In a lot of ways I kind of hope that we'd have just been a threesome, like those people in that movie, "Savages." the two of you could have stayed best friends and both of you loved me." "He never would have gone for that," quipped Bryan dejectedly. "He was the most generous guy I ever knew, but he just didn't know how to share. He'd buy you lunch if you didn't have any money, or he'd give you his, but he wouldn't share it with you." "I seem to recall him buying or doing a lot of things for you over the years," I said. "Remember when you lost your job? He got you one with the company he worked for. Remember when Ellie threw you out for cheating on her? He let you move in with us and stay with us for months until Ellie took you back, and we never charged you any rent. And how did you, his best friend, repay him? You kept trying to get me to fuck you, every time he wasn't around." Even as I said the words, I hadn't thought or spoken about those times in over ten years. I guess I'd blocked them from my mind to keep me from thinking badly of Bryan. Maybe I was the truly selfish one of us. Maybe we were all just human. We all had our faults. But I was beginning to see Bryan's far more clearly. I could also see mine. They say the best way to see things is in the mirror. What's that thing they print on the rearview mirrors in cars? Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear. I could see everything so clearly now and I realize that I've fucked up. Bryan is truly selfish and he also always has to have his own way. He's like a spoiled child. He has to have the best and the biggest piece of cake. I remember when we were kids, if he and Dale both bought toy airplanes, Bryan would always insist that his was the best, but he was reckless. Bryan always flew his plane into a tree or slammed it into the ground. When he destroyed his plane, he always wanted Dale to trade with him or share. He always used the same excuse. You've got lots of planes, I only had one. And it was true. Dale always took care of his things. I don't know why I didn't see that before now. Objects in the mirror, I guess. "That wasn't just me," said Bryan. "You were throwing a lot of vibes my way, Alex. I was scared and lonely and except for you letting me feel on that big ass to tease me, nothing really happened." I thought about that too and it dropped me even lower in my depression. "I don't care, Bryan, I'm going home this weekend with you or without you," I said. He looked at me with an expression I'd never seen on his face before. It was part curiosity and part anger. "Bryan, it's been three years," I said. "Maybe he's forgiven us. Have you even come close to having a friend like that again? You used to say that he was a better brother to you than your actual brother was. Isn't that worth the risk?" "Alright, I'll get my niece to watch her aunt for one weekend. Who knows, if things go well, maybe we could start going home once a month or so." Poor Bryan. I didn't bother telling him that if things went well, I wasn't coming back. * * * * * * Dale My eyes popped open as sleep was ripped away from me by the most pleasant sensation ever. The ripples of pleasure started in my lower abdominal region, went down my legs until my toes starting twitching and then rocketed up my spinal cord to my brain. The outward signs of it were echoed all over my body. My hands gripped the sheets tight enough to nearly shred them. A smile broke out unbidden on my face. My back arched and my brow started to heat up, as perspiration appeared on it. "Oh, shit!" I gushed. "Oh, God!" In a matter of seconds I'd gone from unconscious to having my blood boil into sperm that was threatening to shoot out of the end of my dick at nearly the speed of light. I imagined it shooting skyward like a fountain and staining the freshly repainted ceiling of our bedroom. As the tension ratcheted up, I noticed the outline of the head bobbing up and down under the sheet. I pulled the sheet away and saw an ocean of cascading orange curls undulating with every stroke of the head. At the top of one stroke she paused evilly and looked up at me. She squeezed the head of my straining penis and smiled at me. The expression on her angelic face was as innocent as if she'd been sitting in the first pew at church. But the line of spit that trailed from her smiling lips back to my dick looked anything but innocent. "You like it when I do this don't cha?" she asked. "Mmm Hm," I managed to get out. She ran her tongue slowly and lovingly around the head of my dick and then just seemed to inhale it. The roof and sides of her mouth, as well as her cheeks seemed to caress every square inch of my most sensitive flesh. I saw the side of her cheeks hollow in and that was all I could take. Although I know I didn't release very much actual fluid, it felt like she swallowed a gallon of my sperm. Not a drop escaped. It felt like it came up from the soles of my feet. I came so hard, I was expecting the top of her head to fly off, but it didn't. And when I came back down to earth, there she was, stretched out next to me, smiling like a Cheshire cat. "You really do like that, huh?" she smiled. "Don't you like it when I do you?" I asked. She smiled nervously and nodded her head. "I love the way it feels, but I can't understand why the hell you do it," she said. "There is no way I'd put my mouth on some chick's crawdad. And you get your tongue all the way up inside of me. It's almost as if you like smelling me and pulling those hairs out of your teeth." "Annie, you really don't have much hair down there. I love that fire crotch. And if you had a forest of thick, black, scraggly hair down there, I'd still do it and like doing it because it gives you pleasure, and I L..." I began. "You what?" she asked. Her smile brightened the room. "What were you about to say?" I smiled but I stayed silent. I'd come so close to telling her, but she already knew how I felt. "I'm going to the market," she said. "In case you've forgotten, there's something going on this weekend beside the car show tomorrow." "Like what?" I asked. "Like meeting your daughter and son for the first time," she said. "Get serious, Annie," I said. "You've spoken to her on the phone for over a year. She already loves you." "I still have to clean the house from top to bottom and get most of the food ready," she said. "This is important. I have to get started." "Now? But what about...?" I whined. I pointed at my lower abdomen. Objects in the Mirror "You'll get as much as you want, tonight," she smirked. "If you're good today. This way I know you'll be on your best behavior." I frowned and folded my arms across my chest. "No pouting," she said smiling. "That's not good behavior and I don't give bad little boys any pussy." "Bad little boys just take it," I said, grabbing her and throwing her across my lap. I swatted her round little butt a couple of times, rubbing her ass at the end of each stroke. With each stroke her legs opened a bit more. On the last stroke my fingers lingered and grazed her vagina. My fingers came away wet. Her eyes appeared to have glazed over and she looked at me as if she was expecting me to continue. "You...you're not going to stop now are you?" she asked. "Yeah," I said. "We have to go out for our run." "Not me," she smirked. "Market, then hair dresser." "But I need you to run with me," I whined. "No you don't," she said. "I slow you down. You just like watching my ass in those tiny shorts." "I do love those shorts," I gushed. "But I love what's in them even more." I took another playful swat at her ass. * * * * * * Alex We had driven nearly the entire night. We had checked into one of the motels on the edge of town. Despite the terrible conditions, I had to admit that I was very excited. In my mind I saw this weekend as a chance to put my family back together. My daughter usually never mentioned her father on the rare occasions that we spoke. But when she'd called me a few days ago, she'd let it slip that he'd be at the town's Labor Day picnic and celebration. Of course he would. Dale always did love the car show they had as part of the festivities. I remember him staring for hours at those cars when we were younger. Dale was always fascinated by Mustangs. I remember so many things about those years, now. I remember when Dale and Bryan stopped competing for me. Bryan was getting all of the sex he wanted from Ellie. He walked around with a smug look on his face as if he was rubbing it in Dale's face. I kind of expected Dale to go after Ellie's sister, Arlene. In fact, I asked him about it. "Why would I do that?" he asked me as if I was making no sense. "Well, she's pretty. And she has really big tits," I said. He just sat there scratching his head. "Alex, I've been crazy about you, since before I even knew why I liked girls," he said. "There are lots of girls in the world. But there's only one you. I'm actually glad that Bryan found Ellie. That means that I don't have to share you anymore. You're kind of special, you know?" I could tell that he meant every God damned word of it. I felt even worse, then because I had given or let Bryan take my cherry a few months before that when I turned eighteen. Dale had never pushed me for sex and in that moment I realized why. For Bryan, I had only been a target. I was just sex, but Dale loved me. It's funny how now in my late forties I realize that I knew more about life and love when I was eighteen than I do after almost half a century of life. What I really hope is that this weekend gives me a chance to get back what I so foolishly gave away. When I look at my life now, I realize that I don't have one. I don't have even half of what I gave up to get...nothing. I live in a rented apartment. I work very hard at a job that requires no skill and has no opportunity for any type of advancement. The man in my life is married to someone else and shows his affection for me, by letting other men fuck me in front of him. My daughter barely speaks to me and blames me for the destruction of our family. She looks at me as if I'm toxically stupid. She never gives me any type of information on her father. In fact no one does. When he broke his leg two years ago, I didn't find out about it until he'd recovered. More than anything else, I knew that I'd been stupid. I also knew that I didn't deserve a chance to make things better. I did not deserve forgiveness. But more than anything else in life, I wanted it. I prayed for it. I hoped for it. I had dreams about my husband forgiving me and I would do anything to make that happen. When I think about what I wanted my life to be like when I turned fifty, I was nowhere close. I dreamed of sitting on the porch of a cabin in front of a lake, with a man who worshipped me. I saw barbecues and grand kids running around for me to spoil. I saw us traveling and seeing places together, I saw it all. I think the thing that was most important though, the thing I miss the most in my life right now is the love. A few years ago, there had obviously been something wrong with me. I can see it now, but I didn't then. Call it a midlife crisis. Call it the change or menopause or empty nest syndrome. Call it abject stupidity or any of the other three million names that we use when a woman makes a really stupid decision. My greatest hope is that it's not too late to fix it. I have nothing to lose by trying though. What's the worst thing that can happen? I can try to get Dale to forgive me and take me back and he can say, no. Then I'll be miserable. But I'm already miserable so how much worse can it be? Okay, it can be much worse. Right now, I'm miserable but at least I have hope. At least I have something to dream about that makes the misery bearable. I had left the motel room for two reasons. The first was to find something to eat. I walked down the aisles of a huge new superstore that hadn't been here when I lived in this town. The second reason I'd left the motel room was to get away from Bryan. He was trying to turn this trip back home into just another fuck trip. He used any excuse or any situation to try to inject some newness into a situation that had gone on for far too long. It's really ironic that I only ended up with Bryan in the first place because I was bored with plain old married sex. I wanted excitement and spice in the bedroom. But after doing and trying almost everything there was to do, I now find myself more bored than ever. In fact I crave the one thing that's missing from all of the sex I got. That would be feeling. Feeling like what I'm doing is more than just letting some asshole who doesn't know or care to know my God damned name, hump me until he cums and I go. Sometimes, I hate Bryan for conning me into this. Now that it's too late to take back some of the things we said and did, I realize that Bryan did all of this for his own selfish reasons. It's the same old story. He broke his airplane and now he wants Dale's. He blew me off for Ellie until she got sick. Then he suddenly decided that he needed to share me with Dale. The only thing that was different was that this time, Dale said, "no." That alone should have told me something. Dale isn't like that. He'd normally do anything he could to help anyone, especially Bryan. It took me far too long to realize that Dale loved me too much to ever share me. It took me far too long to realize that like Bryan, I was trying to have my cake and eat it too. I just hoped that enough time had passed that Dale would at least talk to me. And if Dale did, my daughter, Karen, might as well. I was thrown from my thoughts by the impact. The cart that I'd grabbed when I came into the store, simply because it seemed right, had slammed into another woman's cart. Her elfin face immediately erupted in a smile. "Sorry, I wasn't paying any attention to where I was going," she said. "Me neither," I replied. "I have so much stuff to get, that I don't know where to start," she said. "I have no idea of what I want," I supplied. She was tinier than I am. She was wearing yoga pants and had the body to make them look good. Her boobs rocketed away from her rib cage and while not overly large, there was enough jiggle there to keep any guy happy. Her round little butt and curvy hips made the yoga pants almost obscene. But the thing that most people probably noticed first about her was the explosion of red curls that fell almost to her waist. Only a slight crinkling around her eyes gave any clue to her possible age. She could have been anywhere from her late twenties to my age and probably appealed to men from both age groups. "Are you having a special dinner?" she asked. "What I really want is just to sit down and have a nice conversation with my husband and daughter," I said. "That would be the most special thing possible. I really don't need much to make things special." "Well you're ahead of me," she said. "I spent years on a man who wasn't worth half of the tears I cried over him. He was always telling me how much he loved me and how hot I was. Then he'd go out and spend his entire paycheck on liquor or get caught fucking some other woman. The smartest thing I ever did was refusing to marry him. But now I live with a man that I'd marry in an instant, but he never mentions it, because he got burned once. Today I get to meet his grown up daughter, who will be comparing everything I do to her sainted mother. I don't stand a chance. The only thing I can do is to try to make things as pleasant as possible and not give her any ammunition to use against me." "Holy shit, that sucks," I said. "Tell me about it!" she smiled. "But, I can't say I blame her. It has to be hard as hell seeing your father with another woman. I guess it's only human nature to want to break them up. I just have to keep myself from doing anything stupid enough to give her a reason." As we walked down the aisles of the store next to each other, we became friends of a sort. We traded ideas about things to cook and the holidays and men, back and forth. When it was time for us to part, I gave her my phone number so she could call me to talk. Since I was seriously considering moving back to town, it might be good to start out with a new friend. The problems started as we left the store. I noticed Bryan walking towards me. He didn't seem to be interested in me at all though. His eyes were riveted to Anne's rapidly receding form and I recognized the look in them. "Who was that?" he asked as he reached me. I wondered if he realized how obvious he was. "Just a new friend," I said cautiously. "We can always use new friends," he mumbled. "Do you have a way to contact her?" "Why do you care?" I snapped. "Are you tired of me already?" "Oh, Alex, don't act like you don't understand the game. That woman is no threat to us. It's only going to be sex." "Bryan, do you realize how stupid you sound?" I asked. "Remember what you told Dale. You told him that what went on between us was no threat to my marriage, because it was only sex. But Dale didn't take it that way and that's why..." "And that's why you dragged me back to this tiny assed town to try to get him to forgive us," he snapped. "We didn't do anything wrong. He's the selfish one. He's the one who acted like he owned you and didn't want to share. Hasn't he heard that Lincoln freed the slaves a long time ago? Instead of us crawling back here, he should be crawling to us. We're right. He's wrong." For the first time I realized that Bryan really didn't have a clue of what was going on. He still viewed things with the morals of a spoiled eight year old. "But I'll make a deal with you," he smirked. As I looked at his smiling face, I felt a sense of dread. I was sure that he'd want me to do something that I wouldn't be comfortable with. "You call your new friend and get her to hang out with us," he said. "I'll go and talk to Dale and try to smooth things over. I'll do whatever it takes to get him to sit down and talk with us." "You go first," I said, not trusting him. "After we talk to Dale, I'll call Anne." "Deal!" he said loudly. As we headed back to the motel I felt that sense of dread returning. I also felt guilty. I was selling Anne out for a chance to get back with my husband. I know it was wrong, but I'd do it without the slightest hesitation. If I had to chose between hurting a woman who had never done me wrong and even the slightest chance of merely talking to Dale, Anne would lose every time. "I'll go now," he said. "Stay by the phone. I'll probably call you soon with good news." As he walked out of the motel room, my feeling of dread dissipated. It was replaced with a feeling of elation and a feeling of anxiety at the same time. It had been three years since I saw him. Did he still look the same? I had picked up three or twenty pounds. Would he still love me the way I love him? Would he be willing to put the past behind us and start again? I was too excited to do anything. If we did talk I'd be willing to swear to him that if he forgave me I'd become the perfect wife for him again. I'd swear on my life that no other man would ever touch me for the rest of my life. I rushed into the bathroom to bathe and make myself ready. I needed to be as pretty as possible. I wanted Dale to take one look at me and want me back. I took a long bath and thought about all of the good times that we'd had together and the things we'd talked about. We'd been a perfect family, but even then, even before things had blown up when my daughter had left the nest, I'd felt that something was missing. Perhaps what I'd missed was the excitement of having those two guys competing for me. I think, in the back of my mind, I felt kind of cheated by the fact that there had never been any kind of true resolution of the conflict between them. It was so great having two best friends trying to outdo each other to earn my favors. Maybe, when I'd gotten older, I'd wanted to relive that excitement, but it had gone terribly wrong. I lost track of time sitting there in the tub, thinking about my past. I thought about what I had done wrong and how I'd fix it, if given the chance. I thought about what I wanted out of life and how I wanted my life to be from then on. I realized that although there hadn't been any more competition between the two men, there was already a clear winner and I had picked the wrong man. If given a chance to rectify my mistake, I'd jump on it with both feet. The objects in my mirror seemed to be getting closer and closer. I could almost reach out and touch them. I was just about to get out of the tub anyway, when my phone rang. I picked up the phone and heard my daughter's voice. "Hey, Mom," she said. "Are you enjoying your holiday?" "I'm more nervous than you could ever imagine," I said. "Me too," she said excitedly. "Maybe we should get together and talk about it," I said. She laughed at that. "That's easy to say when you're almost 800 miles away," she laughed. "I'm not sure how I'd feel if you were closer though." "Karen, I'm in town, Honey," I said excitedly. I swear I heard crickets chirping in the sudden silence over the line. "Karen...uh, Karen?" I said. "Are you still there?" "Mom, why are you here?" she asked. From the sound of her voice, it was as if my visiting was the worst thing in the world. I felt like I was her four hundred pound, snaggle toothed aunt showing up at a beauty pageant, wearing a thong. But then to save me from embarrassment, my call waiting tone chimed in. "Karen, I have another call," I said. I was amazed at the tension between us. "Is this Alex Evans?" asked a voice. "Who wants to know?" I asked. "My name is Clara Barton. I'm a nurse at the local hospital and we had a man brought in this afternoon. He's in pretty bad shape and wanted us to contact you. His name is Bryan Jones." "What happened to him?" I asked. "Are you his wife?" she asked. "Not exactly," I said "But..." "Then I can't exactly give you any information," she snapped. "But you should probably get over here. He's going into surgery in a few minutes." * * * * * * Bryan Things couldn't have been better. As usual I got the best end of the deal. I had no idea why my luck never seemed to run out. I guess it's like they say good things happen to good people. But then I have to admit that the saying isn't always true for everyone. If you want to be successful you have to be willing to put yourself out there and ask for what you want. In some cases you have to extend yourself and take what you want. Most people just aren't willing to do the work. Most people don't have the audacity to take the risks. They're simply too afraid to risk offending someone. Me, on the other hand; not so much. I really couldn't be bothered to even partially give a fuck about offending someone else's delicate sensibilities. Other people's senses of morals, fairness and manners aren't even a blip on my radar. If I had to have one of those moral creeds mine would be the one they had in that Vin Diesel movie, "The Chronicles of Riddick." The Necromongers believe that you keep what you kill, and so do I. It has done me no harm up to this point in my life, so why change. In fact for most of my life it's kept me happy, fat and sitting pretty. When my best friend, Dale and I used to play with our toys, I learned a lot about people. If I broke mine, I'd simply whine and mope until he either shared his, or gave it to me. Dale, like most people didn't want to see his best friend unhappy, so he gave in every time. Every God damned time. The man must've been related to Mother Theresa. I'm telling the boy had to have been a saint. If it had been me, I'd have let my little ass whine and cry all day. I'd have taken the time to educate me on the dynamics of water balance in the human body. I'd have looked deeply into my little eyes and said, "The more you cry; the less you pee." And that would have been that; but not Dale. After a while it got to the point where my toys were for learning what not to do and Dale's were for sharing. When we got older, the sharing thing continued. And nowhere was it more obvious than when it came to Alexandra. During high school, the three of us were a trio. We did everything together. We even went to our prom together. I got the first dance with her and Dale got the last one. We all turned 18 a few months after that. From talking to Dale the way that best friends do, I realized that the two of us saw things with Alex differently. Dale had her up on some kind of pedestal, but to me she was just a girl. Dale got a job between high school and college, so for a lot of that summer, he worked during the day. That threw Alex and me together a lot of the time while Dale was working. As usual, I seized the opportunity and got her cherry. She made me swear not to ever tell Dale, because she didn't want him hurt. Actually, I think she just liked playing the two of us against each other. And she knew that if Dale found out about it, he'd step down. He would have refused to have anything further to do with her, because he'd have thought that the two of us had something special going. Actually, nothing could have been further from the truth. Dale had always seen Alex as someone special. I just saw her as someone I could fuck. She was okay looking and built okay, but nothing special. Most guys seem to have an innate sense of which girls we can get. And I had always known that when the time came, I could get Alex to give up those panties. So one afternoon, while poor Dale was slaving away doing all of the shit jobs at the local home depot, I got between his dream girls thighs and became a man. After that, instead of considering Alex as just a girl, she became more than that. She became practice. Once again Alex was just Alex. She wasn't some hot chick or a mind blowing fuck, she was just practice. I think that was when Alex started to realize what was going on. She realized then that between the two of us, Dale treated her like a princess and I could care less. It was way too late by then, but she cut me off. But soon after that I met Ellie and her sister, so it didn't matter. They were better looking and built better anyway. Objects in the Mirror Dale was only too happy to pick up the pieces with Alex, and from what I gathered, she convinced him that he had been her first. But I was sure that if I ever wanted her, Alex would still fuck me. I enjoyed rubbing in her face the fact that I had something on her. I wasn't surprised when a couple of years later, the two of them got married. A couple of years after that, she got pregnant and gave him a kid. They had a nice boring life. I visited them often. We were a big part of each other's lives, as we always had been. I was Dale's best man and he was mine when I married Ellie. I'm Karen's God father. I've always been a little randy and Ellie threw me out when she caught me cheating on her. Dale and Alex took me in for a couple of months while we worked things out. There was another time when I got really pissed at my boss and quit my job. Dale got me a better job at the company he worked for. I stayed there for about a year or so and moved on from there too. My whole life had been tea and crumpets until Ellie got sick. We'd been married for more than twenty years and she'd been a good if dull wife, so I couldn't divorce her. That was when I just reverted to form. I started to think more and more about Alex. Sure she had married to my best friend, but she'd been mine, first. I'm not going to lie about it. Over the years, I'd cheated on Ellie a lot. I'd gotten caught once. I just looked at it like getting caught was life's way of telling me that I wasn't being careful enough. So it was like second nature to me to start hitting on Alex. What wasn't second nature was for her to turn me down. I was shocked, but it didn't stop me. I always have multiple levels in my approach to every problem. So I apologized to her for even suggesting that she'd cheat on Dale and started telling her how much pain I was in from Ellie's illness. Then over the next few weeks I kept telling her how much the three of us had always shared when we were younger. At the same time I started dropping hints about how boring it can be doing the same things over and over again. I had already heard her telling some of the nurses when she can by to visit Ellie, how she had no clue of what she'd do with herself since her daughter had gone off to college. After a few weeks I just started talking about swinging. I made her think that Ellie and I were into it and how it had invigorated our marriage. None of that was true but I was pretty sure that Ellie wasn't going to wake up from her coma and call me a liar. To be honest, I wasn't breaking any new ground. I just tapped into some feelings of doubt and ennui that a lot of women our age have. I mixed that in with reminiscing about how exciting it had been to have two men competing for her, which was the way she saw it. She fell for it hook, line and sinker. As usual the only caveat she had was that she didn't want to hurt Dale. And that was where my plan went off the rails. I was so sure that I'd be able to work Dale the way I always had when we were young. But we weren't young anymore and not only did Dale not go for it, he flipped the fuck out. He took one look at us and from that look he saw that Alex had been aware of what I was hinting about. "Is this something that you might be interested in too, Honey?" he asked her. "Well maybe we could try it," she said. "So have the two of you already discussed this?" he asked her. "I guess we have," she said. "But all we've done so far is talked and I wasn't going to start without talking to you first." "You're a full grown woman, Alex," he said. "You can make your own decisions without me. If you think things are a little bit boring between us you have every right to try whatever you want. But thanks for considering me." "So we can do it?" she asked. "That's up to you," he told her. "I'll talk to Jim first thing in the morning. Is that soon enough?" "What are you talking about?" I asked. "Jim Baho is my lawyer," he said. "If she wants to be with you our marriage is obviously over." "No Dale," she said. "Dale, buddy, you're my best friend. I'm not in love with Alex. This isn't about love. This is just sex. It's purely physical." "He's right Honey," she said. "We're getting older. Our daughter is out of the house. It's time for us to explore some things." He turned and glared at her. "I've got a great way for you to start exploring things," he said. "You can't explore the world from inside, so both of you should get the fuck out of my house. Alex started crying and reached to him. "Okay, forget it," she said. "I can't believe that you're so selfish," I said. "My wife is dying and you won't offer me a little bit of stress relief. Some best friend." "Dale we don't need to talk about this anymore," she told him. "Having sex with Bryan isn't..." "Don't you mean having sex with Bryan again?" he asked. We both went into shock. "What are you talking about buddy?" I asked. "Bryan you've never been anywhere near a buddy," he spat. "I've played dumb for years, but no more." "But we've never..." began Alex. "Alex, I know that you've lied to me for years about me being your first. I played dumb because I loved you so much. I wanted to be with you no matter what the circumstances. I also know that Bryan was your first choice, even though he didn't love you half as much as I did. But I tried harder and I hoped that someday, I'd be the one who was first in your heart. I also know that he hit on you back when we let him stay with us, years ago. I'm really not sure of anything happened or not. That was why we went through that rough patch back then. I didn't know whether or not I could trust you." "Dale, I swear nothing happened," she said with tears filling her eyes. "I told him no." "But you never bothered to even mention it to me, so strike two anyway," he said. "I think maybe you just liked the attention. Well you can have all of the attention you need from now on. This makes strike three. You're out. I don't ever want to see either of you again." Then he turned and headed up the stairs. Alex tried to follow him but he turned and the look on his face stopped her cold. Dale had shaved his head bald and had grown a beard. He looked pretty menacing although he was a puppy. But that day I felt real fear as I looked into his eyes. "I'm going out of town on business tomorrow," he said. "While I'm gone I'll expect you to get all of your stuff out of here." "Dale you're over reacting," I said. I was in shock. "Look I just thought it would be like old times. I just wanted some fun." "Even the old times weren't that much fun, Bryan," he said. "As usual you got what you wanted. You wanted to fuck her. You won. She's all yours. Now get out of here because the next time I see you, I'll hurt both of you. Now GO!" I haven't seen Dale in the three years since then. And to tell you the truth, I missed him. I guess if I had the choice to choose, I'd have picked him over Alex any day. I have no close male friends. As Alex mentioned, I have no one to go fishing with or watch football with. That was the main reason I agreed to go and talk to him. I was sure that Alex wanted to talk to him about their daughter, Karen. Alex was always talking about how she wished that she and Karen were closer. She thought that Karen was stuck in the middle between her parents. Maybe if Karen could see her parents getting along, or at least being civil, she'd forgive Alex too. I knew exactly where to find Dale. He was as predictable as the seasons. The day before the big town picnic they had the car show in town. Dale would be there with his Mustang. I drove into town with a smile on my face. If things went well, not only would I have my best friend back, but I'd get a chance at having a hot new woman to fuck as well. Alex would have to keep her word and introduce me to that hot little redhead. If I hooked up with the redhead, maybe Dale could have Alex back. I was getting bored with her anyway and her whining was beginning to get on my nerves. As I walked through the exposition area where the cars were on display, I saw several interesting cars. There was one section that had a lot of Mustangs in it. I looked around but I didn't see Dale. On one side, near the center of the group, I saw a beautiful charcoal gray Shelby GT 500 convertible, with red trim. I guess before seeing that car I never really thought of gray and red as complimentary colors, but they worked well together. The car had oversized Brembo brakes with red calipers. The interior of the car was red leather with gray trim. The supercharger and everything under the car's hood was chrome plated. As I admired the car, I noticed that its owner looked at me. There was something familiar about him and I smiled. He stood up and came towards me. Oh shit, I thought. I don't have time for another gear head to come over and talk to me about his God damned car. That was one of the most annoying things about these shows. Every one of these guys acts as if you're as much into cars as they are. I glanced left and right and didn't see Dale's bald head and beard anywhere. I turned back towards the guy approaching me and realized that if I listened to him babble about his Mustang for a few minutes I could ask him if he knew where Dale was. As he got closer to me I recognized him. He'd shaved the beard off and grown his hair back. The guy coming towards me rapidly was my childhood best friend. "Hey buddy!" I said with a huge smile. "I wanted to talk to..." Before I could even finish my thought, the blackness descended on me. * * * * * * Alex I was angrier than I remember ever being in my life. I'd been talking to my daughter on the phone. I was trying to figure out her reaction to the surprise revelation that I was in town, when I found out that I had to march my ass down here to this hospital because Bryan had apparently done some dumb assed thing and ended up in the hospital. I looked around and saw one person sitting at the nurse's station. "I'm here for Bryan Jones," I told her. She clicked away at some keys on a computer next to her. She looked up at me with professional concern and said. "Second floor...O.R. 3. He's still in surgery." She immediately went back to texting on her phone. I took the elevator to the second floor and got directions to the lounge outside of their surgery suites. I sat down and started thumbing through magazines while trying to decide if I should even bother to wait. Dale could call me when he woke up from whatever stupid thing he'd done. Arranging to meet my husband was much more important to me than Dale's condition. I had been sitting there for about twenty minutes when she walked in. She looked worried. The ever present smile was gone. "Anne," I called out to her. She looked over to me. "What drags you in here? Are you visiting someone?" "Sort of," she said. There was a weird tone in her voice. "What are you doing here?" "That asshole I came here with, is trying to ruin my plans," I said. "My life couldn't get any worse if I planned it. I'm thinking about running the fuck out of here and leaving him to deal with his shit on his own. I hate that bastard sometimes." "That's nothing," she said. "My sweetie is the kindest, gentlest, most loving man I've ever known and he..." "He isn't bald with a beard is he?" I asked. "Hell no," she said looking at me strangely. "But he's never so much as said a harsh word to someone before today. But today for some reason he punched some guy's lights out and then turned himself in to the police." "Uh Oh," I told her. "It sounds like your sweetie is in trouble. I hope it's not too bad. He'll probably get off with a fine if it's a first offense. Unless, the guy is a real asshole." A nurse walked over to us. "Which one of you is here about Bryan Jones?" she asked. "I am," we both said at the same time. "Well he's out of surgery and he should be waking up any second now. They're trying to wake him up because they want to rule out a concussion," said the nurse. "Concussion?" I said. "What happened to him?" "Uhm, my sweetie apparently hit him," said Anne. "That's why I'm here." "Somehow, I'm sure Bryan did something to cause it," I said. "He sometimes...make that, usually, finds a way to rub almost everyone the wrong way. Tell you what. I'll take care of it. He won't be pressing any charges, if that's what you're worried about. I'll see to it. " "Thanks so much," she said. "Don't worry about it," I said. "Friends have to stick together." "Exactly," she said. The nurse came back in then. "He wants to see you now," she said. I grabbed Anne's elbow. "Come on. You can apologize for your boyfriend," I said. She nodded nervously. As we walked into the room, there was one older nurse with one of those computers on a rolling cart. She looks at us and then rolls the cart out of the room. "He can't talk," she said as she passed us. "His jaw is wired shut. Have him use that writing pad to communicate until the pain pills kick in. After that he'll be able to talk a bit if he keeps his jaw immobile." Bryan did not look happy. He glared at me. He hadn't seen Anne behind me since the screen that separated the beds in his semi-private room was closed. He tried to speak and then grabbed his jaw in obvious pain, while making a moan of agony. He picked up the pen and scribbled angrily on the pad. Then he held it up so I could see it. I looked at his angry scribbling. "TOOK YOU LONG ENOUGH," he had written. "Maybe I shouldn't have come at all," I snapped. "Maybe I should be out with my daughter and my husband, like I planned. You have no sense of gratitude. You can't seem to see that your incident has ruined all of my plans for this weekend. Can you just once think about someone other than yourself?" He started feverishly scribbling on his pad. "MY JAW WAS SHATTERED! ENOUGH SACRIFICE. WE CAN USE IT TO HELP YOU," he wrote. I looked at him in confusion. I had no idea what he was writing about. At that moment Anne stepped from behind the screen. "Sorry," she said. "But I really need to get back. I just wanted to say that we're sorry for what happened. He's usually not like that. He was probably just in a bad mood. We'll do whatever we can to help you." Then she turned to walk away. Even as she left the room, I noticed Bryan sitting up in the bed watching her ass twitch as she walked away. "You're an ass," I hissed at him. "NO," he scribbled. "SHE HAS AN ASS!" "Why am I wasting my fucking time on you?" I grumbled. "BECAUSE WE CAN BOTH GET WHAT WE WANT," he wrote. The look on his face was pure evil. "There is nothing that we both want," I hissed angrily. "CALL HER. TELL HER I'LL DROP ALL CHARGES IN EXCHANGE FOR TWO MEETINGS. I GET TO TALK TO HER WHILE YOU TALK TO HER BOYFRIEND. IF THEY ACCEPT, HE GOES FREE RIGHT NOW. IF THEY DON'T HE CAN ROT IN JAIL." "Why would you do that?" I asked. "TWO REASONS. ONE, IT GETS YOU OFF MY FUCKING BACK. TWO, IF HE CAN GET HER, AS BORING AS HE IS, I KNOW I CAN CHARM THE SHIT OUT OF HER." "Bryan you probably started this whole thing with her boyfriend," I said. He laughed under his breath. He shook his head and started writing. "ALL I DID WAS WALK UP TO HIM. HE TOOK ONE LOOK AT ME AND PUNCHED ME." "He only hit you once?" I asked. "He must've been really big or really pissed. But I still won't have anything to do with this." "I'M DOING IT FOR YOU DUMMY!" he wrote. "No thanks," I said. "Anne is my friend. I won't help you get your hooks into her." He laughed again and suddenly my stomach did flips. "IS YOUR NEW FRIEND MORE IMPORTANT THAN YOUR HEART?" he wrote. I just looked at him as I'd he was crazy. He lay there in his bed laughing at me. "YOU'RE GOING TO DO IT. YOU'RE JUST AS EVIL AND SELFISH AS YOU THINK I AM," he wrote. "Not on my worst day," I said. "HER BOYFRIEND IS OUR OLD FRIEND, DALE," he wrote and he started laughing. I almost lost consciousness. I turned and walked out of the room and out of the hospital. The objects in my mirror had not only gotten dangerously close, they had rear ended me. And that asshole Bryan seemed to actually enjoy putting me into this situation. Forcing me to choose between throwing a totally innocent woman into his clutches and losing my chance at getting my family back was right up his alley. I pulled out my cell phone and dialed my daughter's number. "Karen, why didn't you tell me?" I asked. "Tell you what?" she asked. "Why didn't you tell me that your father was seeing someone? How serious is it?" I snapped. "Mom, I didn't think that what happens or happened to dad was any of your business. It took a long time before I even answered the phone when you called, remember? Mom you chose what happened between the two of you. Dad was literally shattered. You weren't acting like the mother I grew up with at all. For a long time daddy never left the house. He even moved away for a while and got a job working for a different company. I tried to keep in touch with him but he was like a balloon with all of the air let out of it." "But I didn't..." I began. "Shut up, Mom," she hissed. "Even during those times when my heart bled for Daddy, I missed you too. But I didn't miss the woman who'd run out on her husband and daughter, I missed the woman who bandaged my scraped knees and made me PB&J sandwiches. Finally when I realized that she was gone, I started talking to you because I figured that you're as close as I'm going to get. So when I started talking to you, I made a rule or two. I never forgave you for destroying our family. I just started over with you as if you were a different person. Daddy never had any interest in what was going on with your life, so we never talked about you. And I never answered any of your questions about him. I pretended that I didn't know anything. That's why I never told you that he'd moved back. I figured that it wasn't any of your business. After all you chose not to be with him. So when he brought Anne to town with him, I'd been speaking to her on the phone for over a year and I feel like I know her and I like her. They've only been in town for a few days. They haven't even had a chance to unpack all of their things. But Mom, if you want to keep the relationship that we have now, you need to leave them alone." "Karen, your dad is in jail. In order to get him out I'm going to need your help," I said. "What happened?" she asked. "Your Uncle Bryan went to speak to your Dad and things..." I began. "That asshole is NOT my uncle," she hissed. "I don't know how you can even mention Daddy in the same breath as that bastard. Mom don't you have any feelings at all? How the hell could you send the man who stole you from Dad to talk to him? That was amazingly stupid. Why would you want to hurt him all over again?" "I guess I never saw it like that," I said. "I just wanted to..." "Why the fuck, are we always talking about what you want?" she asked. "Last time you wanted some strange dick and you tore up our family to get it. Now you feel guilty or something or maybe you just wanted something else, so you sent the man that Daddy hates most in the world to talk to him. It just doesn't make sense. Do you ever think of anyone beside yourself?" "Karen, I just wanted..." "Mom, no one cares what you wanted," she hissed. "Karen, I'm not the bad guy here. Your Unc...I mean Bryan wants a chance at Anne and..." My daughter's high pitched laughter almost took my head off. "Mom you can forget about that," she said after she was done laughing. "Anne would never do to Daddy what you did. Bryan hasn't got a chance. She loves Daddy too much. She'd die first. I have to go. I need to call someone who can really help Daddy." Objects in the Mirror * * * * * * Dale The quiet of my cell gave me time to think. But for the life of me I couldn't understand why Bryan had walked up on me. My actions were, of course, totally wrong. I regret hurting Bryan, but not that much. I guess my mind is twisted. I see Bryan as two people. I see the boy that I grew up with, who was almost like a brother to me. And then I see the slick, smiling asshole who wanted to share my wife with me. He was the one I wanted to knock the fuck out of. So when he came towards me, anger just took over. I haven't been in a fight since I was a teenager. As much as my actions had shocked me, the emotions behind them puzzled me more. What reason did I have for going off on Bryan? Was it simply anger at his betrayal or did I still harbor feelings for Alex? I wondered sometimes where she was and what she was doing. We're they still together? Or had he cast her aside, the way he did everything else when he was tired of it or found something shinier? My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the cell door opening. I saw Johnny Walker, our town Sheriff, and one of his deputies, Greg Bennett. Johnny is an old friend of mine and Greg is my son. Both had puzzled expressions on their faces. "Dale why are you in here?" asked Walker. "There's a hell of a lot of confusion going on here." "I hit Bryan," I said. "No shit," said Walker. "I heard you shattered his jaw and knocked him off of his feet with one punch. I also heard that he hit the back of his head on the concrete and they were worried about a concussion." He had a twinkle in his eye when he said it. There had never been any warm feelings between Johnny and Bryan. "So I turned myself in," I said. "And caused me a hell of a lot of problems," he said. "I have all kinds of people calling the office and calling the Mayor to find out why you were arrested. Everyone in the whole damned town knows that asshole was the one your wife ran off with. A little bit of anger in a situation like that, is probably justified. I can't say that I wouldn't have taken a poke at the bastard myself if I'd seen him first, and he didn't run off with my Lulu. Besides, you're not a flight risk, so I see no point in locking you up over the holiday weekend. Go home to that little redheaded spitfire of yours." "John, I'd love to nothing more than that," I said. "But I don't need to cause you any problems. Bryan has always been a shit starter. I don't want him going out and getting a lawyer and coming after you for letting me go." He shook his head. "See, that was always the difference between the two of you. Dale, you always looked at how things affected other people. But Bryan only cared about himself. Maybe this time he gets a taste of what he deserves. But I wouldn't worry too much about me. First off, there haven't been any charges filed. And secondly there probably won't be for two reasons. The first is because...look Dale there's no easy way for me to tell you this so I'm just going to come out and say it. Don't hit me because I didn't start it, I'm just the messenger. Alex called and..." My gut twisted itself into knots just hearing her name. Johnny noticed and he waited until I was calm enough for him to go on. "She left her phone number," he said. "I think she wants to offer you some kind of deal. As your friend, I'd say call her and listen to what she wants to say. Consider it some kind of penance. But don't worry if it's just Bryan trying to run some of his snake oil. The Mayor wants me to run the two of them out of town as soon as Bryan can get up. The nurse at the hospital assures me that by Sunday or the following day, he'll be released. Since Monday is the holiday, he won't be able to do anything at the courthouse anyway. But like I said, the Mayor wants the two of them out of town on moral grounds. This is a small town and we take morality pretty seriously. We also take care of our own." A few moments later, I walked out of the cell and started walking back to the fairgrounds. Before I'd gone a block, I heard the rumble of a powerful car engine. A few seconds later my Mustang pulled up alongside of me. Anne was hugging me, seemingly before the car had come to a complete stop. She left my door open and the car in the middle of the street. As we got back into the car she held my hand, which made it really difficult for me to shift gears but I understood. She was feeling a little scared by everything that had happened and didn't want to let go of me for a second. We drove home and she kissed me and then leapt into action, getting everything for Karen and Greg's visit. I pulled out my iPhone and called the number Johnny had given me. Her voice didn't have the same vibrancy that it always had when we were together but the timber was the same. "Hello," she said. "What do you and the asshole, want, Alexandra?" I asked. * * * * * * Alex His voice was almost the same as I remembered it. But the tone was different. Even as my heart grew wings upon hearing that voice, my mind realized what the difference in the tone was. In fact, the tone wasn't different at all. It was just one that had never been directed at me. Dale was using the tone that we all reserve for times when we're dealing with difficult or tedious people that we'd really prefer not to speak to. "How are you Dale?" I asked. I really wanted to know how serious things with Anne were. But I didn't dare ask. "Alexandra, I only called you to find out what you and Bryan want, not to make pleasantries," he said. "Dale, it's not what I want," I told him. "This is all Bryan. He wants to offer you a deal to prevent him from pressing charges." I was becoming afraid. I didn't want him to blame this on me and be less willing to talk to me. He snorted. I know my husband. From the way he reacted, I knew that he didn't need any deals from us. "What's the deal?" he asked. "A talk," I said. "It's the real reason I came back to town in the first place. He was supposed to be asking you to sit down and talk to me, not getting into a fistfight with you. All I wanted was just to sit down for a few minutes. That's all. And while we talk Dale can talk to Anne and...." "Annie is off of the table," he hissed. "If that bastard ever looks at her I'll hit him even harder. I'd rather go to jail than have him say hello to her." I was taken aback by the vehemence in his voice. "I don't need any deals from Bryan but to get this over with once and for all I'll offer you one. Let's do this the way it started. The way our marriage ended. The way things always were. The three of us will sit down and talk together before you guys leave town. Take it or leave it." "But I have no idea when Bryan and I are leaving town," I said. "It could be weeks. I don't want to wait that long." "We're having Karen and Greg over for a barbecue, this evening," he said. "Tomorrow is the big town picnic. Monday is the actual holiday. I guess that's supposed to be a family time even though they're still going to be celebrating it in town. If things go well this afternoon I'm sure Annie and Karen will probably get us together Monday too. But how about if the three of us get together Monday morning before you two leave?" "Dale, Honey, I can't speak for Bryan, but I was kind of planning on, or at least hoping to stay," I said. He snorted again. "Do you want the meeting or not?" he asked. "We'll take it," I said, knowing that Bryan would be pissed about not getting a chance at Anne. "Dale is there any chance that I could come over and see Karen?" "Alexandra, if Karen wants to see you, it's fine with me. But as far as coming over to my house today...that's not going to happen," he said. "So, I'll see you at 9 a.m. Monday morning in Bryan's hospital room. Or we'll meet at the bandstand in the park if he's released sooner. Then he hung up. If I had envisioned a chance for us to talk and try to rekindle what we used to have, it hadn't happened. He seemed to be holding onto some anger towards both Bryan and me. A tear slowly rolled down my cheek as I realized that my plans might not happen. "That went well," said Bryan from his bed. Over the last few hours the pain in his jaw had receded to the point where just moving his head didn't hurt him. Of course it could be the fact that he was on IV painkillers too. At any rate he could talk through his teeth although his jaws would stay wired shut for the next six weeks. "So, when is my little redheaded Goddess coming?" he asked. "She's not," I said flatly. "Dale's exact words were that he'd hit you even harder if you so much as looked at her." I saw a tinge of fear in his eyes when I told him that. "We are getting the meeting, kind of," I said. "But the meeting will be the three of us." "That really does make sense," he said. "It's kind of poetic. Like closing the circle, or starting the circle all over. If I know Dale, he's going to keep her out of things while we discuss the two of you getting back together. Remember the way he used to hide his new toys while he tried to trade with me to get one of his old ones back?" I smiled when I remembered that. "But if that's true why does he still seem to be so angry?" I asked. "Ooh that's a good sign," he said from between his teeth. "It means he still feels strong emotions about you. He wants you back. Think about it. If he was truly happy with red, he wouldn't give a damn about what happened with you and me anymore. He wouldn't be angry enough to take a poke at me. I see a threesome in our future." "I don't think so Bryan," I told him. "I want to believe you about Dale wanting me back, but even so, he's really too straight-laced for anything kinky. I just wish I didn't have to wait two days to talk to him and I wish he'd let me go over to the house." "Shit, go anyway," he said. "You know he doesn't want you around the redhead because he doesn't want to compare the two of you side by side." "What do you mean?" I asked, "Damn it, Alex. Were you married to him for all of those years or was I?" he asked. "Dale always makes decisions with his heart. The man is ruled by sentiment. He somehow stumbled onto a much hotter woman. She's prettier than you are and built better..." "My tits are much bigger than hers," I said. "And so is your gut," he quipped. "It's all about proportion. Anyway, Dale doesn't care about any of that. All he'll think about is the fact that you guys had all of those years together, you have a kid together and you're still married. Plus you were his first love. He's a sucker for that kind of shit. Once the two of you are back together, I'll help the redhead get over being dumped. And I'll still get to fuck you every once in a while. It's the best of both worlds." "Go on, go over to the barbecue. He'll be pissed but your daughter will be happy to see you." Even as the words came out of his mouth he was falling asleep. I took his advice. I also took his car. I drove his eight year old Chevy truck back through town until I got to our old neighborhood. I decided to stop and pick up a bottle of wine and maybe some beer, so I wouldn't just show up empty handed. As I walked into the store that was located about three blocks from the home I'd shared with Dale and our daughter for so many years, I felt good. It was like old home week. There were so many familiar places and things that I had forgotten about that returning brought back to my mind. I knew exactly where the beer was. And I knew that the wine display was in another part of the store. As I looked through the wine something told me to look up. When I did, I noticed several faces staring at me. I waved, but they didn't return the wave. One of the women who been looking at me went up to the counter and said something to the woman behind the counter and then left. A few moments later, one of the boys who'd been stocking the shelves came over to me. "Can I help you find anything ma'am?" he asked. "Nope, I just need to find the right bottle of wine," I said. He looked nervous and looked around. "Well maybe I can help you find it FASTER," he said. He looked at me as if he was pleading. I suddenly got the message. They wanted me out of the store, ASAP. As I deposited my items on the counter, I sighed loudly. I spoke to another boy who was working the register, as a group of women around my age just stared. "When I lived here they were nicer to strangers," I said. "We are nice to strangers," whispered one of the women. "She's not a stranger," whispered another one. "She used to live near here." "Yeah," said another. "But even when she lived here, we didn't like whores." I paid for my drinks and ran out of the store, almost in tears. I drove the rest of the way to the house without looking at anything or anyone that I passed. Coming back to this town might be harder than I thought. But if I got Dale back, nothing those harpies could do would chase me away. I calmed my nerves as I parked in front of the house. I parallel parked because there were already three cars none of which I recognized in the driveway. By simple deduction, I could tell who they belonged to though. The car closest to the garage, was a beautiful charcoal gray Mustang with red trim. Beyond the shadow of a doubt that had to be Dale's latest Mustang. The car was obviously some kind of special edition. It looked like it was on steroids. Tucked right in behind it was a charcoal gray Ford fusion. From the pink dance shoes hanging from the mirror, it had to be Anne's car. The last car was an older SUV. I figured that the SUV had to be Karen and her husband's car. As I walked towards the house I could hear the sound of quiet voices talking and laughing. I noticed flats of plants that had just been bought. They weren't put in the ground yet. They were in all kinds of colors. I suspected that Anne had bought them. She was already trying to make changes to my house. I heard my daughter's voice, laughing. I couldn't resist trying to peek through a hole on the fence to see what was going on. As I watched, I looked at two couples. A young man, who was obviously the son I'd never met trying to light the grill. The coals refused to light though and my daughter found it hilarious. She leaned over and hugged Anne and pointed at something that her husband couldn't see. Her father was videotaping his son in law failing at lighting the fire. Dale looked different. He had hair and the beard was gone. He looked much younger than he had in our final days together. He and Anne were never far away from each other. They were constantly touching each other and reaching for each other. I was watching more than two couples. I was watching a family. I was watching a family that I should have been a part of. Both my husband and my daughter seemed to have moved on with their lives without me. I'd expected to have to fight Anne for my husband, but stealing my daughter was below the belt. I angrily rang the doorbell. Anne opened it a few minutes later and the smile fell from her face the second she saw me. She stood there not knowing what to say. "I thought that we were going to be friends," she said slowly. "I didn't know that..." "You didn't know that I was the woman you were trying to replace. You home wrecking bitch," I yelled. "Mother, what the fuck is wrong with you?" screamed my daughter. "Why are you even here?" she stepped in front of Anne almost protectively. "Why are you screaming at Anne, in her own house? She spent the entire afternoon telling me how sorry she is that things worked out this way and how nice you were." "Karen, I just...I just saw you guys laughing and having a good time. It looked like you were...it was like you were close. Not like she was just someone your dad just met," I said. "Mom, Anne and I have known each other for more than a year. She and I started talking on the phone as soon as she and Dad met. She's helped me through more dark places than you can even imagine. She was the one who suggested that I start taking your phone calls instead of just ignoring them. She was the one who told me that no matter what is going on with you and Daddy, you're my mother and you always will be. She told me that I needed to find room for both of you in my life. And as far as you spying on us, if you had just come to the door and asked, maybe we'd have let you in. And I got the gist of what you were trying to say. When you said we looked like we were close, you meant we looked like a family. Mom you were a part of that family, but you chose to walk away from us. You have no one to blame but yourself. You're as manipulative and selfish as Bryan is, so don't blame Anne for your mistakes, now, bye." I could tell my daughter was pissed at me. As she started to slam the door, Anne held it. "Alex, I really didn't plan any of this," she said quietly. "There's room for both of us in Karen's life. And Dale is free to make his own choice. I just want him to be happy. I understand that you were with him for a lot of years, so if he chooses you, I'll just go away. But if he chooses me, I promise you that you'll still be welcome as a friend. I would never try to shut you out." "Goodbye mother," said Karen closing the door. As I walked away from the house, I couldn't help crying. When I thought about the way Anne had reacted to the way I treated her I realized that my daughter was right. Two long days later, I was walking into the hospital when I heard a rumble. I looked up and saw Anne driving Dale's steroidal Mustang away from the hospital parking lot. She had all of that red hair tied back and she wore sunglasses. As tiny as she was, she looked at home in the big car. She shifted the gears effortlessly as though she'd had lots of practice. I ran inside the hospital and over to the elevators. If Anne had already dropped Dale off, he might already be talking to Bryan. I didn't trust Bryan not to try to cut me out of the deal and blame me for everything that had happened, so I rushed to the room. Unfortunately when I got to the room Dale was already sitting down in the chair next to Bryan's bed. The nurse had just delivered Bryan's breakfast. It was soup and juice. Bryan wouldn't be able to get solid food until they unwired his jaws. I heard Bryan trying to use that persuasive tone that seemed to be so effective when he was trying to get his way. Suddenly in the middle of Bryan's pitch, Dale stood up and spit into Bryan's soup. Then he slowly picked up the glass of juice and poured it all over Bryan. "Bryan, you're full of shit," he said. "But then you always were. I put up with it for years because I thought that we were friends. Now that I know we're not and never were, I have no reason to listen to your shit. I also heard that Johnny told you to leave town as soon as you're released. And Bryan, the next time, I see you, I won't be so nice." He turned and walked straight to me. "You're late," he said. "It's just as well." We took the elevator downstairs. He directed me towards a seat in one of the outdoor cafes on the hospital's first floor. A waitress came over as soon as we sat down. He smiled at her and she returned it. "We probably not going to be here long enough to eat," he said. She turned away towards another table. "You've got the mic," he said. His voice was a mixture of curiosity and resignation. There was a fire in his eyes that I never thought I'd see again. The objects in my mirror had come home. I had a feeling that I was very close to getting what I'd always wanted. "I want us to be a family again," I said. "I want it more than anything. I want the three of us to start again. I love you Dale. I never knew how much until you were gone. And I know that you love me too. You've never loved anyone the way you loved me. You've loved me for most of your life. I want to be friends with Anne too. She's a nice woman. She deserves to be a part of our family. We'll find someone for her and..." Objects in the Mirror He held up his hand. I got a good look at him for the first time. He had abandoned the shaved head look. His hair was cut short. It wasn't a crew cut but not much longer. There was at least as much gray in it as there was black. Maybe there was more salt than pepper in it. The beard was also gone and he looked much, much better without it. I think I fell in love with him all over again. Suddenly, it all made sense. My heart lurched as I realized that I had lost him a long time ago. Every little clue should have told me that. The first was the car. Dale had always driven Mustangs over the years. He had NEVER let me drive one of them. He obviously loved Anne more than he had ever loved me. The second clue also had to do with the car. If he was going to choose me, he'd never have let her drive off with that car. Giving her the car was his way of telling her that the two of them would still be together after our talk and beyond. The most insidious clue was the hidden one. Ever since I'd seen that car, I'd wondered about the color scheme. The two colors didn't seem to go together but fit so well. Who put charcoal gray and red together? It was so obvious now. He'd painted that God damned car to match their hair colors. "Dale, when you're out driving around in your car and sometimes when you're lying in your bed at night, you think about me. You wonder where we went wrong and why we didn't work," I said. "You think about me because you still love me. I'm the biggest part of your life. Anne, as nice as she is, can never be me. She's a band aid over the gaping wound that I left in your heart. You can't get away from me because I'm that object in your rearview mirror that you see everywhere you go. Do you know why you almost killed your best friend? That was me, Dale. You got so angry at him for taking me away from you that you channeled all of your rage into one punch. He never had a chance. And you'll always see me in your rearview mirror because I've always been the closest thing to your heart. Just like it says on the mirrors on that fancy car of yours. Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear. That means that I'm probably not only close to your heart, I'm still in it." "I came here out of curiosity more than anything else," he said. "I guess I hoped that you were sorry for abandoning us. I guess I wondered if you'd realized that picking sex over your family was sometime that you'd want to apologize for. I guess you're more like Bryan than I ever thought. Maybe the two of you always did belong together." "I'm not like him," I screamed. "We're objects in the mirror, Dale. Look at the mirror." "I guess I expected this to be hard," he laughed. "But it really isn't. You're just a burned out old whore who wants another chance that she doesn't deserve." "Look in the mirror dammit," I said. "Anne is not in your mirror." "Of course she isn't," he laughed. "Is Ellie gone yet? Maybe you should marry Bryan when she passes." "I can't marry Bryan and I wouldn't if I could. You and I are still married so you can't marry Anne either. We're still married. Objects in the mirror, Dale." "I divorced you under abandonment, more than a year ago," he said. "I'm marrying Anne as soon as I can get her to a church. Karen is pregnant. Anne is going to be a grandmother. That's what they were laughing about when you were spying on us. And for God's sake stop ranting about objects in the mirror. I'm willing to admit that you and Bryan are the objects in my mirror. But maybe you should take a look at my mirrors on your way out of town and out of my God damned life. Goodbye, Alex." I was in shock. He was actually walking away from me. I had tried with everything I had to get him back and he had laughed at me. He had never even considered taking me back. He had also divorced me without my knowledge. I had never thought that was possible. Abandonment, I hadn't abandoned him, had I? I thought that I had just left while he calmed down. The biggest blow had come from my daughter. Karen hadn't even bothered to share with me the fact that she was going to have a baby. Maybe she was still angry about the other day. As I watched the man I love and had given away walking away from me, I heard the rumble. Anne appeared out of nowhere, piloting the brutish car as if she was made for it. She locked the car and ran to leap into Dale's arms. They had obviously made plans before the meeting because they walked down the street holding hands and chatting. It should have been me walking away with him. But then I never should have left him in the first place. I'd always been so sure that I could have him back whenever I wanted him. As they walked away, my curiosity got the better of me. I walked over to the car. I'd seen a Mustang or two in my lifetime, mostly Dale's cars over the years, but I knew what to expect. This car was different. Almost every detail of the car had been customized. Almost nothing on it was stock. I looked at the mirror and saw the familiar letters there. But even that was different. I understood it instantly. Dale didn't want me anymore, because unlike me he only looked forward. Dale wasn't stuck in the past the way I was. My time with Dale had been the best part of my life. He was looking forward to the future. The message on his mirrors told me all of that. Instead of, "Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear," his read, "Objects in the mirror are losing." The end.