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Shame, Shame, Shame!

By: StangStar06



Hi folks, here's another tale of love gone wrong. Another somebody done somebody wrong song...I mean story. Anyway this time, you'll be helping me out with the ending. Nope I'm not doing that two endings thing, because some of you hate that. I'll explain how we're doing this at the end of the story. But for now. Thanks to Mikothebaby for everything she does. For compassion, for words of encouragement and even for kicking me in the butt when I need it and especially for editing these things. Okay, here we go. SS06

*   *   *   *   *   *

I'd waited two weeks for this evening. I'd gone through two weeks of repressing my anger and pretending that everything was fine. In a small town like ours, where everyone knows everyone else, it was easy to get help taking care of my problem. It was especially easy when the problem was caused by one of our own. But it was also very difficult to keep everyone else from knowing that I had one.

   The grunt of my electric blue 2011 Mustang GT's FlowMaster exhaust system was like music to my ears as I drove towards the high school. I'd graduated from that school, as had most of my friends. I volunteered like everyone else in town whenever the school needed anything. My wife taught at the school.

  Tonight was one of those nights where it seemed as if all of the stars lined up. Just this once, two very special occasions happened to coincide. The high school's annual "Adult Evening," which was one of my favorite nights, happened to take place on my wife's birthday. 

  I'd been planning a special present for her birthday for two weeks and tonight was the night that she'd receive it. We were supposed to have dinner with her parents in one of the town's nicest restaurants. What happened before that was the reason I enjoyed the "Adult Evening" so much. 

   Back in my youth, I used to play in a band with my four best friends. We often played talent shows and concerts at the school. As we improved, our shows became big events. We were playing a concert tonight at the "Adult Evening."

   Actually we often got together to rehearse, even though we'd all been out of school for a long time. I'm thirty five years old and have a seventeen year old son who attends the school and will be graduating this summer. Our rehearsals aren't really anything serious. We'd all given up our dreams of being rock stars years ago as real life intruded on our dreams. 

   Back in the day, we did have a record company or two sniffing after us. But college and kids and jobs and girlfriends who in most cases became wives took away the single minded focus that you need to have in order to climb to the top of the music business.

   I put on my turn signal, checked my rearview mirror and moved into the passing lane. Then I put my heavy right foot down and the car surged forward. My pony loved to stretch her legs and this was a great chance for it. As I watched the road with one eye on my speedometer, we shot past a white Dodge Challenger. The guy driving the car looked over at me and waved and then tried to keep pace. 

   He didn't have a chance. His car was great and if he was chasing anything in town other than my Mustang, the results would have been different. But with my car being almost two hundred pounds lighter and having over a hundred more horsepower, it simply wasn't a fair comparison. 

   As we hit the series of twisting turns leading into the town proper, it became laughable. I'd modified my Pony's suspension and steering with Ford's Track Pack handling system. It included many of the same suspension components that made the 302 Boss such a dream to drive.

   I also had several things on the car that were unique, including functional side scoops that channeled cool air to cool off the brakes. That, added to cross drilled and slotted oversized rotors and huge brake calipers that were painted the same electric blue of the car's body panels and my car could stop halfway across a dime. 

  The ability to stop faster meant that I could brake later and get back on the gas even sooner. That was a deadly combination in maneuvering through sharp turns at a high rate of speed. The charger was soon just a distant dot in my rearview mirror. It didn't matter since we were both going to the same place. I needed to get there before he did though. And for him, getting his ass kicked on the road, yet again, was only the beginning.

  A few moments later I drove past a gate and into the large parking lot that surrounded the school. I got out of my car and hot footed it to the back door. Ordinarily this door was used for deliveries, but during special events and performances it was the stage door. I fumbled in my pocket for my security badge, but the chief of security, who was normally the school's bus driver/ security guard waved me through. 

  "Good luck, Danny," he said. The expression on his face told me now sorry he was for me. I tried to smile as I nodded but I'm not sure I made it. Even two weeks after the fact, I have trouble wrapping my head around the idea.

  I scurry further into the school and away from the door as the sound of another car skidding to a stop alerts me to the fact that I'm not that far ahead of my ex-friend. I duck around the corner and lean back against the wall to listen as he starts screaming and whining about not being allowed in.

  I almost laugh as he shows his security badge and is told that he isn't on the list of performers.

  After a few moments of listening to his frustration fueled anger, I've had enough fun. I head into the back stage area to see the other guys in the band. 

  I'm the last to arrive and the other guys look up when I walk in. No one says anything. I guess they're trying to gauge my mood. Friends do that.

  "Hey, Mike," I say as he looks across the large room at me. "Are ya ready to get out there?"

  "Are you sure that you want to do that song?" he asks. Mike and I, in fact all of the guys and I have known each other since kindergarten. We played little league together, we played football together. We were all at each other's weddings and now that we've grown up, at least age wise, we  bowl on the same team and play golf together. 

  Mike's concern stems from the fact that he thinks I'll be embarrassed if everyone in town finds out what I'm going through. I guess in his mind, this is the kind of thing that should be handled quietly and perhaps privately.

   "Mikey, they say that the truth shall set you free," I told him. "Anyway, the town is so small that everyone will know sooner or later anyway. It's better for me to get out there ahead of this. At least that way I can let everyone know that I might be hurt by it, but I won't let them, or it, beat me."

   He nods at me and tries to smile. Pete starts to twirl his drumsticks and he pats me on the back as I go by. "This actually makes things better," he said. "Instead of kicking him out of the band, we ought to be kicking his ass, though."

   "I don't like the bastard anymore and I'll never trust him again," said John. "But I still don't see how his absence makes things easier."

   "Johnny, Johnny, Johnny," laughs Pete. "When we play golf, it's weird because we're always a five-some instead of a foursome. What about bowling? The whole league is set up for four man teams, not a four man team with a rotating alternate. Everything will be easier now. And truthfully, now that we know what a God damned snake he is, do you really want him around your wife or your daughter?"

   "Not on a bet," said John. "It's just odd. I mean we've all been friends for so long that it's strange. It feels kind of like finding out that your brother has been stealing from you. I mean you know that it's wrong. You're also pissed about it. But deep down inside, he's still your brother. So you keep wondering why he'd do it, that's all."

   "Look guys," I said. "I really appreciate you standing by me like this, but I don't want this to be anything that anyone doesn't feel good about. If you want we can take a vote about this and figure out something else. It's not too late to go out there and bring him back here and you guys can still play the show."

   "Danny, there's no need for you to try to be a martyr," said Mike. 

   "I'm not trying to," I said. "Did you notice that I said, "You guys could still play the show? They don't have a stage anywhere in the world that's big enough for him AND me."

    "I'm just amazed at how well you've kept your cool," said Pete. "If it had been me, I would have gotten into his ass from the very beginning. Both of us would be all beaten up right now..."

   "I wanted to," I said. "And there's a very real chance that it may still happen like that, but sometimes an ass kicking alone isn't enough."

   "The worst part of it is the betrayal," said Mike. "It could have been any one of us. We're always at each other's houses. Remember when I had to go to Nebraska for that executive training seminar a month after I got married? Right now I don't think anyone of you understands just how glad I am that I asked Danny to look out for Leanne instead of Greg. I mean at the time Greg was already married to Amanda and you were still single, Danny. There was also the fact that Greg lived right down the street from me then. But it just didn't feel right even back then."

    The door opened and my son, Jordan, walked in.

    "Everything is ready, Dad," he said. "Are you sure that I can't...."

   "Yep Jordy, I'm very sure. I really appreciate your help and I hate to drag you into this...Anyway all we have to do is push the button right?" I asked.

   "Yep," he said shaking his head. I reached into my pocket and handed him some bills.

   "What's this for?" he asked.

   "Why don't you forget about all of this crap and take Selena to see Pacific Rim like you've been talking about?" I smiled.

   "Thanks Dad," he gushed. 

   "Uhm, where will you be tomorrow?" he asked tentatively.

   "Jordy, the town isn't that big," I smiled. "Just look for the electric blue Mustang GT. If it isn't in our driveway, it'll be somewhere else."

    A few moments after Jordan left the four of us filed out of the changing room and into the area behind the stage. Hank Hill was on the stage doing his magic act. Hank was in his sixties and had been our science teacher back when we attended the school. As we watched Hank I noticed a tiny energetic woman running around the area with a clipboard. She couldn't have been taller than 4' 10" or 4' 11" but she drew most of the attention in the back stage area. Her long mane of honey blonde and her sparkling eyes gathered the attention of every man in the building.

   As we stood there watching Hank attempting to pull a rabbit out of his hat, my eyes were constantly drawn to her. I almost didn't pay any attention to the fact that she'd walked up to us and was talking to me.

  "I thought there were supposed to be five of you?" she said. "I only count four. What's your name, Handsome?" 

  "He's sick, babe," said Mike. 

  "First off, Michael Rogers; to the best of my knowledge, I am not now, nor have I ever been your BABE," she said sharply. "But, I could be mistaken. Just to make sure it isn't me in the wrong I'll ask Leanne about the whole "BABE" thing, Monday at work, okay?"

  "Rhonda, I would be ever so grateful, if you could possibly refrain from doing that," gulped Mike. "Please forgive me. I allowed the excitement of the moment to carry me away."

  "Very well," she spat. Then she looked directly at me for some reason. Then the moment passed and she looked over her shoulder. "He apparently doesn't know that he's sick. Isn't that him standing out in the audience holding a guitar and trying to get your attention?"

  Mike opened his mouth, as if he was about to say something. But he couldn't think of a thing to say.

   "I don't need to know," she said looking at me again. "I just needed to make sure that there was a band here and ready to go on. Who's in the band is above my pay grade and below my level of interest. Break a leg or whatever you say at times like this."

   And then she was gone, clipboard in hand and her tiny but proportionate ass undulating from side to side with every step.

   "Bitch," hissed Mike.

   She immediately turned on her heel nodded at him.

   I thought that Mike would piss on the floor he got so scared. "Do you think she heard me?" he asked.

   I turned my attention back to Greg. He was waving his guitar over his head and trying to get our attention. Somehow we all managed to pretend that we didn't see him. It was really hard for me not to laugh. "Look at that asshole," smirked Pete. "He has no idea of what's about to happen."

   *   *   *   *   *   *

   Greg

   The entire day had been like a nightmare. First, my boss had asked to see me and then had rescheduled the meeting for Monday morning. From the expression on his face it didn't seem like it was going to be the kind of meeting where he have me the raise that I'd been asking for. Then he sent me out in the field to evaluate a new sales rep. The rep was just completing his probationary period and we'd have to make a determination on whether to hire him permanently or not. As the sales manager, normally I didn't go in the field. The sales rep had an experienced rep who'd trained him. Usually we'd send a different rep to evaluate him. We did that because the guy who trained him would probably want him to succeed, so he'd be far less critical. And since the rep who trained him would also get a bonus if he made it, it would be even more likely that the new rep would pass with flying colors.

  The whole thing just felt like my boss wanted me out of the office or out of town for something. Then suddenly I remembered another time when he'd acted like this. When he'd promoted me to Sales Manager, he'd sent me out of town on some stupid errands so he could get some feedback from everyone else then too. I started to feel better. The only thing that sucked about it was that being out in the field meant that I'd missed the sound check.

  It's not like it was a major deal. George, our sound man would probably just set the levels of my amps and the PA by having Danny play my guitar through my amps. We'd done it before.

  But then to make things worse, I got here with plenty of time to double check the sound if necessary but that asinine security guard wouldn't let me back stage. I actually had to buy a ticket and go in through the front door. My friends were probably really pissed at me. I figured the security idiot had probably been at the sound check and had only seen four guys in the band. It was a fucked up situation, but he was only doing his job.

  Then I caught a break. I saw all of the guys together off the edge of the stage. They were talking to a woman that I hadn't ever seen before. She was absolutely tiny, but she was beautiful too. If I didn't already have my plate more than full when it came to women, I might start talking to her. Shit maybe I would anyway.

   The guys seemed to be looking for me. I jumped up and down and waved my guitar. I wish that I could yell or something, but old man Hill was doing his lame magic act. If I started yelling they'd kick me out of here for sure.

   I tried to push my way up closer to the stage but a bunch of people would let me pass. "Hey, I'm supposed to be in the show," I said.

  A guy in front of me started laughing. "I used to do that same thing back in the nineties," he said. "I'd take a guitar to a concert and try to get people to let me get up near the stage or even back stage sometimes. I actually got to meet Bon Jovi that way. But it ain't working for ya tonight buddy. So calm down before I call security and have you thrown out of here."

  A few moments later, I felt someone tap me on my shoulder. I looked over and saw Betty Martin. Betty was Danny's wife.

   "Hey, Bet," I said casually. Betty was tall and thin with collar length curly blond hair and glasses. Like the guys in my band, I'd known Betty for most of my life. I had to be really careful around her. In a town as small as ours where everyone knew everyone, it wouldn't be a good thing for anyone to see us together and notice that we were perhaps a bit friendlier than the norm.

  "Happy birthday," I said. I noticed that no one was paying us any attention. "Sorry I didn't get you a present," I said. "I've been really busy."

  "Don't worry about it," she said. "You gave me what I wanted at lunchtime yesterday anyway."

  "And there's more where that came from," I said.

   "So what's Danny going to get you?" I asked her.

   "Some type of jewelry and a trip to Hawaii," she gushed. Just mentioning Danny always made her smile.

   "How do you know that?" I asked.

   "Danny loves me, Dumbass," she said. "He tries really hard to make me happy. All I have to do is drop a few hints and he starts working overtime or raids our savings to get me what I want."

   "What a schmuck," I said. "Too bad he doesn't know that what you really want is to have your ass beaten. Or that you like to have a vibrator in your pussy while I pound your ass and twist those tiny little tits of yours."

  "Shut up asshole," she hissed. "Someone might hear you." But I could tell by the way her voice wavered that I was turning her on.

  "Too bad my old buddy doesn't know that his wife likes it when I show up with a stranger or two to run a train on her. The funny thing about it is that he really doesn't know that I was fucking you before you ever met him," I said.

  "If you keep flapping your mouth, everyone will know," she said. "Why aren't you up there on the stage?"

  "I couldn't get in the back way," I said. "I'm just waiting for the intermission between the magician and us, so I can let them know I'm here. I've got my guitar and everything." 

   "Oh," she said.

   "Bet, who is that woman with the clipboard?" I asked her.

  "I can't stand that little bitch," she hissed. "Her name is Rhonda Barbie and she's..."

   "She's hot, is what she is," I said.

   "Keep it in your pants Cowboy," she hissed. "The only woman you're having sex with outside of your wife is me."

   "Maybe I'm ready for a change," I said. "Maybe I feel guilty about sneaking around behind Danny's back. He is my best friend."

   "And you've always been jealous of him," she said. "Every time he got something, you wanted something exactly like it, but you always felt like you were second best. And every time you got something, he always ended up with something better." Even as she spoke I felt a burning in the pit of my stomach.

  "You guys have a band," she said. "He's the lead guitarist and you're the backing guitar, right? And he has that Mustang and you got a....what is that thing you drive, anyway? I forgot what it's called, but once again it's almost as good, right?" She was really pissing me off.

 "But I think the thing that really hurts, is me isn't it?" she asked. "You had me first, but you were ashamed of me. All you ever did was to take me out in the woods and fuck me. Then you met Amanda and the two of you got married. But when Danny and I met, he treated me like a princess. I fell in love with the fact that he loves me so much. So now he has ME too. And all you have is your fat little wife and a string of second bests. And if you go after Rhonda or I even think you've tried to replace me with her, someone might mention to Amanda that you're doing it and...."

  My mouth dropped open in shock as the huge screen behind the stage lit up. It started showing all kinds of images and then the band was on stage. My fucking band was playing without me. I've played every show that band has ever done since we were fourteen years old and just made noise. I had spent hours listening to tapes of us doing every song in our repertoire. 


Shame, Shame, Shame...My Ending



I have gained stangstar06's permission to write my own ending using his characters from his "Shame, Shame, Shame" story. I pick up where he left off. If you didn't find the story that hints at what happens with Danny, he married Rhonda, the next woman in his life like most of stangstar06's stories. That's not what happens here. Hope you enjoy! 

*

Danny:

It was a little after 2 P.M. on the Thursday that Betty's and my divorce was final and we'd had lunch together. I was filled with a myriad of emotions as I sat in my Mustang in the cool of the lower level of the parking garage I was in. I had seen Betty's pain as our marriage was finally ended, had a brief moment of weakness remembering all the good things we'd had during our marriage, and asked her out to eat. I had sat and listened to her explanation of why she'd done what she'd done with Greg and gotten angry all over again. If she'd wanted to start doing that kind of sex again, why hadn't she come to me with it? I might not have been able to do all the disgusting things I'd seen them do together, but we could have tried some of the tamer yet kinkier than we'd ever indulged in stuff. I had loved her with all my heart once and would have done almost anything to keep her happy. I had hidden my anger from Betty well enough that she'd gotten the idea we could be friends with benefits like the one I'd had with Amanda. 

I wasn't going to tell her that the previous day's late afternoon tryst Amanda and I had shared was the last. I had explained to Amanda after we'd finished that there was no future for the two of us as a couple and we needed to end our sexual relationship. She hadn't been happy and left my house angry and hurt, vowing never to speak to me again. That memory had made me a little sad and before I could stop her, Betty had ran over me with the idea that there was a chance for us to get back together. 

I didn't have the guts to tell her straight up that was never going to happen. After seeing her lay there and let Greg urinate on her, I'd vowed never to go near her naked body with any of my body parts and I was going to keep that vow. How could she think I'd be able to be intimate with her after seeing that? Yes, soap and water had removed his urine from her body long ago, but nothing short of a stroke or death was going to erase that image from my head. I also couldn't tell Betty that after the way I had publicly embarrassed her there was no way we could get back together and remain in the small town we lived in. Getting back together with her would make me look as bad as they had and no one would respect me in that town again. 

I was confused, sad, angry, frustrated, and excited all at the same time. I didn't know how my date with Rhonda the next night would go, but I was excited by the thought of seeing her. I had seen that she wanted me sexually when she'd asked me out to celebrate my divorce being final. Betty may have still shown it to me when we were still together, but if she had; I'd not noticed it or had been so used to seeing it that it hadn't excited me the way seeing it in Rhonda's face had. I was ready to get on with my life without Betty in it and maybe Rhonda would be the woman that I could begin the next phase of my life with. 

Thinking of my new life made me realize I needed to begin securing mine and Jordy's futures so I called Judy, my assistant at work, and asked her to call Mr. Slaton's secretary to set up an appointment for me to see him the next morning at his earliest convenience. He had assured me the Monday following Betty's birthday dinner that no matter what happened between me and his daughter; I had a future in his company and I was too valuable for him to lose.

I had accepted the responsibility of two jobs without the monetary compensation because I was his son and had anticipated being his son in-law for the rest of my life. I wasn't his son in-law anymore and it was time to find out how valuable I really was to him and his company. 

The one clause I was adamant about in our divorce was the one that set Betty's alimony at my present salary and any increase in salary couldn't be used to increase her alimony. Her lawyer had initially balked at the clause being included in the final divorce papers, but Betty had insisted that it be left in for some unknown to me reason after resisting everything about the divorce for so long. I told Judy that I wouldn't be in for the rest of the day and she could call if anything came up that needed my attention at the plant. I decided to drive over to the high school and see if Jordy would like to spend the afternoon with his dear old dad while hoping to see Rhonda and confirm our date for the next day.

I arrived at the school at 2:45 and stopped at the office to let them know I was in the building before walking toward the area I thought Jordy's locker was in. I had to pass Betty's and now Rhonda's classroom and remembered Jordy saying he had a class that Rhonda taught, but couldn't remember what period it was. I stopped and looked in to see if Jordy was in the room when I reached it. Rhonda must have seen me because she excused herself to the students and came to the door. 

"Hello handsome, looking for me?"

"No, I was looking for Jordan; I thought he might be in your class right now."

"No, he's in one of my earlier classes. Last bell is about to ring so if you wait a few minutes, I can take you to where his locker is and maybe he'll still be close by."

Rhonda closed the door and went back to her seat in front of the class. She hadn't gotten completely settled before the last bell rang and all of her students made a mad dash for the door. I stood as close to the wall as I could so I wouldn't be crushed by them or the rest of the frenzied horde of teenagers trying to leave the building for the beginning of a rare three day weekend with Friday being the extra day instead of Monday. I walked into Rhonda's room and saw that look of wanting I'd seen when she'd asked me out and couldn't resist kissing her and caressing her left breast. Her moan of desire brought me back to my senses.

"I shouldn't have done that. I'm sorry, Rhonda, and I promise it won't happen again." I exclaimed

"Listen up, Daniel Martin. It had better happen again and many more times after. Now, let's go find Jordan before he gets out of the building." She excitedly replied back at me.

I walked out into the corridor and as soon as we were out into the wide hall, Rhonda grabbed my hand in hers with a firm grip. We had only gone a few feet down the hall before I saw Jordan and Selena coming towards us. Jordy was nuzzling Selena's neck as she held his head to her shoulder. He turned red with embarrassment when he saw Rhonda and me there in the corridor. I felt my face get hot and knew I was turning red also.

"I see my little talk with Selena's parents seemed to help. I'm glad to see you two back together. Don't worry about them forcing Selena into going to another school after graduation. I think they'll see that it'll be better if they let things work out for themselves."

"Uhm, thanks Dad! We didn't know why they'd changed their minds about us being together. What are you doing here; shouldn't you be at work?" My still red faced son asked me.

"The divorce was final today so I took the rest of the day off. I thought you and I could do something together this afternoon."

"Well, Selena and I were going to go to the house and study, Dad. Can we maybe do something together this weekend?"

"Sure, no problem. I guess I'll see you at the house in a couple of hours."

I watched as my son and his girlfriend walked past Rhonda and I down the corridor toward the front door. Rhonda hadn't let go of my hand the entire time we'd been standing there. She squeezed my hand to get my attention.

"I think if we go back to my apartment and "study" what they'll be studying, it'll take longer than a couple of hours."

"What do you think we can study that they'll be studying?"

"Human anatomy and sex education are the two that come to mind. Although from what I've heard, you're fairly proficient in both of those already. Come on, Danny; let's go back to my apartment. I want you, you want me, and we're not a couple of teenagers who are still trying to figure out the whole sex thing. I'll make you forget about that disgusting, cheater of an ex-wife you have."

I don't know why it bother me as much as it did, but what Rhonda said made me angry enough that I wanted to hit her and I'd never ever had that feeling before toward a woman not even Betty. I grabbed her wrist with my right hand after stepping back away from her and squeezed it hard enough to bring a yelp of pain from her and for her to let go of my hand. 

"OOW! WHY DID YOU DO THAT FOR?"

"She may have hurt me more than she'll every know and I'll deny it till my last day on this planet if you repeat it, but I still have a small bit of love for Betty and probably always will. Don't you ever say anything like that about her to me again or you can forget about us having any future together. I'll see you tomorrow at 6:45, okay?"

"Yes Danny and I'm sorry. I'll never mention her again, I swear."

I stomped down the corridor out to the one female in my life that hadn't let me down or hurt me, yet. I started her engine and revved it up before yanking the gear shift into drive and tromping the gas, leaving a twin set of black streaks on the pavement as I fishtailed out of the school's parking lot. I decided to drive out to the curve heavy state road not far from town. Driving through them at speed required concentration and would take my mind off of everything for a short while and had always relaxed me in the past.

********************

Betty:

I should have been feeling lower than a snake's belly after my divorce from the only man I ever loved and would ever love was final, but instead I was elated. That same man had given me hope that we could be friends with benefits and I knew once I had him back naked in my arms, I could win his heart like I had our senior year of college. I would do anything and everything he wanted sexually and might be able to introduce him to some of the lighter things that Greg and I had indulged in. Even the brief panic I'd felt when he'd told me of his upcoming date with that little bitch, Rhonda, couldn't ruin the mood I was in. She might have those 34 D boobs that looked so big on that tiny frame of hers, but she wasn't me and I knew she wouldn't be able to win Danny's heart. I decided that I also needed to repair the damage my affair had done to my son, Jordy, and my relationship so I headed to the high school to see if he'd spend the afternoon with his dear old mom.

No one tried to stop me as I entered the school right at last bell. I pressed myself against the wall as the classroom doors burst open and the stampede of teenagers who wanted to exit the building as quickly as possible swarmed past me. I watched to see if Jordy was among the throng, but didn't see him and when the wave of humanity had past me, I headed toward his locker hoping he'd still be close to it or we'd meet in the corridor between where I was and it.

I had to pass my old classroom and couldn't help but look into it through the open door. What I saw inside made me stop dead in my tracks. Danny, my Danny, was in a clinch with that bitch that had taken over my class and was kissing her with a passion he used to kiss me with when we were married and which had not diminished until the last couple of weeks we were together. I saw his right hand massaging her left breast and heard her moan of desire as they kissed and he caressed her breast. 

I turned and ran back the way I'd came as the tears began to run down my cheeks and I struggled not to scream in anguish. I didn't stop until I was in my car where I finally let all of the pain out in a bout of uncontrollable sobbing and yelling of obscenities. The elated state I'd been in before had been completely shattered and the realization that I might not be able to win my husband back hit me like the punch I'd seen him land on Greg at the restaurant that fateful Friday night. I finally managed to get enough control of myself to start my car and leave the school property.

I drove to my parents' house and called Danny's cell as soon as I was in my old room. I left a message on his voicemail to call me then called my old house and left a message on that machine as well. I picked at the food my mom had fixed for supper and went back to my room to wait on his call. I cried myself to sleep after realizing he wasn't going to call when 11 P.M. came and went; Danny's usual bedtime. When I awoke the next day, I started to call him again, but decided I wasn't going to act like a teenage girl who kept calling her old boyfriend after they'd broken up and vowed I'd wait on his call or for two weeks whichever came first. I began sending resumes to school systems one hundred miles from my present home. It'd be a hell'va a commute, but I needed to find a job before my father kicked me out of his and my mother's home.

******************

Danny:

I was going through the first set of curves when my phone rang. A quick glance showed that it was Betty calling so I ignored it. I was in the third set of curves when it rang again; but my glance that time showed that it was Jordy so at the next turn out, I pulled over and retrieved my voice mails, erasing Betty's without listening to it.

"Jordy, I can't help it if your mother got upset seeing me kissing Ms. Barbie. I'm single, Ms. Barbie's single, and if we want to kiss each other, we can. Your mother and I are divorced now so I don't care if she gets upset by anything I might do or not do. She caused the divorce and now she has to live with it. I'm not married to her anymore so I don't have to call her if I don't want to, don't have to explain myself to her anymore, and don't have to have anything to do with her if I don't want to, which I don't. If she calls again, don't call to let me know what she said, I'll get it off the answering machine when I get home. Bye son." 

I finished driving to the top of the hill, turned around, and headed home. I had no intentions of calling Betty when I got there or at any time in the foreseeable future.

I was in my office at 7:30 A.M. the next morning like I always was. My appointment with Mr. Slaton was at 9 A.M. and I knew what I wanted to say. Everything that I had to say would be the truth and I hoped at the end of the meeting, mine and Jordan's futures would be secured. I arrived in the outer office where Mrs. Slaughter held the keys to the big man's inner sanctum with an iron fist at five minutes to 9 A.M. No one knew her exact age only that it was in the sixties and she'd been with Mr. Slaton from the very beginning of the company's start and was very protective of him. She looked at me with that look that everyone in the company had seen and got her the nickname "Mean Old Sourpuss Slaughter". She buzzed my boss and told him I was there for my appointment and was told to let me in.

"Danny my man, you don't have to make an appointment to see me. Let's have a seat over in the corner where we can be more comfortable."

"No Mr. Slaton, this is a business meeting and not a social one. Would you have Mrs. Slaughter come in here and take notes so that there won't be any misunderstandings later?"

"Danny, what's this about? I told you that Monday after Betty's birthday dinner that you'd not have to worry about your status around here after the divorce."

"Yes, and I appreciate everything you've done for me, but I need some changes for me to stay here. Please have Mrs. Slaughter come in here."

Mr. Slaton did as I asked and tried to get me to tell him what I needed before she got into the room. I kept stalling him until she was seated in the chair beside his desk then sat in the one in front of him.

"Mr. Slaton, we both know I've been doing two jobs here in the factory. I'm doing the director of Quality Control's duties as well as my own as director of Manufacturing. I've also been doing them for less than the normal salary for one. That was fine when I was your son and the possibility of me becoming the next CEO was almost a sure thing."

"But Danny, that possibility is still there. The divorce hasn't changed that. Besides Betty talked like there might be reconciliation for you two in the future."

"Everything we say stays in this room unless it's about my staying here, Mr. Slaton. Will you agree to that?"

"Yes Danny, but..."

"No buts and I think you need to start addressing me as Mr. Martin. I didn't have the guts to tell Betty when we had lunch that we would never be together again the way she wants. I can't depend on verbal and vague reassurances from you as to mine and Jordan's futures. I'm here today to either get definite, solid, written, and notarized documentation of our futures or I'm leaving the company and taking another job at one of the other factories not in direct competition with yours. I've had numerous offers in the last six months and can start Monday with the same benefits and bigger salary than I have here."

"What do you need to stay, Mr. Martin? I told you money wasn't a problem the night you tried to resign. Whatever you need, I'll do it."

"I need an immediate $100,000.00 a year raise, last year's bonus that I turned down for the good of the company, and a company car with the company picking up the insurance and maintenance on it. That's the easy part. Here's the one you might have trouble with. I know you have 41% of the company stock, your wife, Mildred, has 10%, Betty has five and because of the divorce I have five. Through proxy, you have the control of Millie's and Betty's so in all honesty you have the majority of the stock. I need you to will 21% of yours and all of Millie's stock to Jordan and to sell me the remainder of your 20% at a dollar a share to be concluded by end of business a week from today. You will have control of 36% of the stock until you retire or die and I'll have 25%. If I agree with what you're doing with the company during stockholders meetings, I swear I'll vote my shares with yours. If I don't agree, then I'll vote them the way I see fit. Those are my terms and there is no room for discussion.

"You'll have to hire two guys to take my place and you won't know how good of a job they'll do for six months to a year, but if you think your company can survive while they get up to speed, turn me down and I'll wish you good luck and be on my way. I'll give you until 1 P.M. to make your decision. I'll be in my office or on the factory floor for the rest of the day. Remember, not a word about what I said about me and Betty leaves this room. Good bye and have a nice day!"

I arose from my chair and left his office before my former father had a chance to recover from the shock that had hit him after hearing my terms. I fully expected to be out of a job by 5 P.M. that day. I did have other offers, but my being at work on Monday in one of them was a bluff. I knew it would take a couple of weeks to get situated in a new job and Mr. Slaton probably knew that too.

I went back to my office and began tying up as many loose ends as I could before security came to escort me from the building. I ate lunch at my desk then wondered down to the shop floor to talk to some of the people I'd gotten close to down there over the years. I was surprised to hear my name being announced over the PA system and being directed to Mr. Slaton's office. I walked right in when I found Mrs. Slaughter missing from her post. I saw why when I noticed her sitting in the same chair she'd been sitting in when I'd left. I sat back down in the chair in front of the big man's desk and braced myself for the bad news.




Shame, Shame, Shame...My Ending



"Mr. Martin. Oh, forget that! Danny, I've talked to the company's attorney about having all the necessary paperwork done to give you what you want. The raise and bonus have already been direct deposited into your checking account. The papers that will allow the transfer of the 20% you want will be ready by Tuesday of next week. You'll have all the other paperwork by then for you to review before they are notarized and become binding legal documents. Danny, you didn't have to do it this way! You could have come and talked to me man to man and we could have worked this out between us. I would have been more than willing to meet you somewhere in the middle. Jordan was going to get all mine and Millie's shares when I retired without your strong arm tactics."

"I needed to make sure. After Betty finds out that there's no future for us, she might remarry and give you more grandchildren. This way Jordan gets the company even if that happens. I'm sorry you feel like I strong armed you into this, but it was the only idea I could come up with that insured Jordan's stake in the company. I hope there are no hard feelings and this was business, not personal. I'll continue to give the company my best efforts so that it continues to thrive for Jordan's future. If there's nothing else, I need to get back to work." 

"No, there's nothing else. Danny, I want you to know that I still think of you as family. Please, next time you have a problem, come talk to me so we can work it out together, okay?"

"Okay, Bob. I need to go now."

I went back to my office and finished out the day. I left at five to get ready for my date with Rhonda. I was nervous when I knocked on her door at a quarter to seven. I realized that I was on a date for the first time in over twenty years as a single man and hoped I would be able to relax and not make a fool out of myself. 

"Damn you, Betty. I'm not supposed to be starting over at thirty five." I thought to myself as I stood on the stoop waiting for Rhonda to open the door.

Rhonda was beautiful in the slinky, black dress she was wearing when she opened her door for me. She asked me to make myself at home while she finished her face which, to me, looked perfect the way it was. She must have decided it looked good too because she was only a couple of minutes in her bedroom and had a black wrap around her shoulders when she exited her bedroom. We walked arm in arm to my Mustang and I held her door for her as she got into the passenger seat. 

She hadn't stopped talking the entire time I'd been in her presence and continued the chatter as I drove to the restaurant. I by-passed the valet and parked on the back row in the middle space of three empty spaces there. I gave the valet a ten and told him there was another where that came from if no other cars were parked in the two spaces beside mine when I was done eating. Rhonda had that same silly grin on her face that Betty would get whenever we went out and I tried to take extra care of my other love by parking her away from other cars. 

Rhonda couldn't stop talking the entire time we were in the restaurant; telling me about her younger years, her students, and any and every other mundane topic that came into her head. I didn't interrupt, tried to interject comments where appropriate to show that I was listening, and got more and more irritated as the meal went along. I had forgotten how awkward first dates could be and hoped after we'd gone out a few times; Rhonda would relax and not feel she had to fill any silences with her own voice. We went dancing after our meal and at least the music drowned out her constant talking.

We went back to her apartment after a couple of hours of dancing together and I knew that she wanted me from the way she'd rubbed her breasts and crotch against me during the slow dances. Being a foot shorter than me, her breasts had been rubbing into my stomach and her crotch had been rubbing against my legs, but I still had gotten an erection from her actions. I accepted when she invited me in and we began making out on her couch. We kissed and caressed each other through our clothes for a good fifteen to twenty minutes before Rhonda broke the tongue wrestling kiss we were enjoying.

"Danny, take me to my bed and make love to me, please. I've fantasized about you for so many years now and can't believe I'm going to have those fantasies come true. I'm all yours tonight to do with as you will."

With an invitation like that, how could I refuse? I picked her up and carried her to her bedroom and stood her up beside the bed and started to undress her, stopping her when she tried to reciprocate. When she was naked, I lay her in the middle of the bed and began kissing her while massaging her breast flesh before moving to her nipples with my mouth on one and fingers on the other. I kissed down her belly to her sex and began to use my lips and tongue on her labia and clit. After giving her a scream filled orgasm from my oral ministrations, I stood, removed my clothes, and re-positioned myself between her legs. I rubbed my cock up and down her slit, coating it with her secretions and teasing her at the same time. I placed it at her opening when she whimpered in frustration and sank to the hilt inside her with one easy stroke. We kissed as we moved our pelvises together in that centuries old dance of love. I lifted up on my arms when Rhonda urged me to and began to stroke in and out of her faster and harder as both our climaxes rushed to overtake us. We came within seconds of each other. When we were finished, I lay down beside her and pulled her onto my chest so I could kiss her and hold her tight. I made love to her twice more before leaving around 3 A.M. promising to stay all night the next weekend night we were together. 

I awoke Jordan when I opened the garage to put away my baby for the night and he swore to me Selena had left at a decent hour when I asked about his evening. I slept until past ten the next morning, something that I'd not done in a long time. I ate a light breakfast then went for my morning run. I spent the afternoon washing, waxing, and cleaning the interior of my Mustang. Jordan and I fixed supper together before he left to see Selena, leaving me alone in my own home for the first time since the divorce. I didn't feel sad like I thought I would and turned in an hour earlier than normal.

********************

Amanda:

"Damn you, Danny. You showed me how good sex can be and now you don't want me anymore." 

I'm so mad right now I could kill Daniel Martin if he were in front of me. It's been three days since he told me we weren't going anywhere in our relationship and he was ending it. After getting the best sex I'd ever gotten from him two or three times a week for the last six months, I'm also horny, frustrated, and confused on top of being angry. I think I was falling in love with Danny, but I still love that dumbass of a husband that I have. I told Danny I'd never have sex with Greg again, but I'm seriously considering inviting him back into my bed. If I do, I'm going to take Danny's advice and turn Greg into the kind of lover I need and not the one he was before! Why is life such a bitch?

****************************

Greg:

Amanda has let me move into the spare bedroom since I got my old job back. I don't know why he did it after what me and Betty had done to him; but Danny had raised enough of a stink with my old boss and company that they'd given me my job back and half of my back pay. 

I heard through the town gossip that the reverend at John's church had resigned and was moving away because of Danny giving him grief, also. I'm hoping that Amanda will eventually let me back into her bed and I swear I'm going to be a better lover with her than I was in the past. I had to find out the hard way by her getting so much pleasure from another man that it was me and not her that had been the reason for our lousy sex life before.

*********************

Betty:

The two week waiting period for Danny to call me was up and he still hadn't called so I bit the bullet and called him.

"Hi Danny, it's me Betty. You never called me so I'm calling you. If you don't have any plans tomorrow night, how about us going out to dinner? Please, call me back when you get this message."

It was two hours later before he called me back.

"Hi Danny, thank you for calling me back. Are you busy tomorrow? Can we go out to dinner, my treat?"

"Betty, I can't make dinner tomorrow, but how about I buy you lunch tomorrow? Will you meet me at the "Blue Plate Diner" at 11:30? I can call and get us a table in the morning, Dennis owes me a favor."

"Well, I'll be there even though I was really looking forward to us having dinner together so we can start dating again. I'll see you tomorrow morning."

"Bye, see you tomorrow."

Danny hung up on me after saying bye like he always had in the past. It had irritated the hell out of me back then, but brought a feeling of sadness to me now. Funny how much you miss even the little things that used to piss you off in the past, but now you'd gladly accept them every day if the person that did them was still back in your life. I wasn't feeling very confident either because of Danny's changing my plan for us having dinner to lunch and at a place only a couple of blocks from the factory. It would be filled with people from the factory on their lunch breaks and I knew Danny wouldn't allow me to get close with all those people watching us. 

The last twenty hours had felt like three days. I arrived at the diner at 11:25 and saw Danny already sitting at a table in the back corner away from the crowd and right next to the short corridor that leads into the back of the diner. At least it's the opposite corner from the one that leads to the restrooms. I feel that rush of love and desire I always feel when we've been apart for any length of time and hope that Danny is feeling it too. I know things aren't going to go my way when Danny doesn't even stand when I get to the table like he had in the past. I couldn't read his emotions as I sat down across from him. He pulled his hands away and placed them below the table when I reached to take one on top of the table.

"I already ordered for us both since you always get the same thing when we eat here, Betty. We'll talk after we eat."

The food was at our table only moments after I'd sat down. This was beginning to feel less and less like a date and more and more like the end and I wasn't happy. I pushed my food around on my plate while Danny dug into his fresh garden salad. He ran every day rain or shine, had never had problems with his weight, and yet he still ate like a former fatty afraid to eat real food so as not to regain their weight. I asked how Jordan was doing and how things were at work, but Danny gave me curt answers and I could tell he didn't want to talk to me. I took the hint and sat there in silence until he'd finished eating. He looked at me with the saddest expression that I'd ever seen on his face and I knew what was coming.

"Betty, I shouldn't have given you any hope the last time we had lunch together. I was hurting from the divorce, shocked that you'd figured out that Amanda and I were involved, and lost in my own thoughts when you started talking about us dating each other or having a "friends with benefits" relationship like the one I was having with Amanda. Notice I said was. Amanda and I are no longer getting together for sex and I hear from the gossip around town that she and Greg have started having sex with each other again.

"Betty, I've always been honest with you so here it is. I cannot, will not, or even want to have sex with you ever again. You hurt me too much and I'll never be able to touch you again with the images of you being pissed on and spit on by Greg in my head. I'm not going to therapy to try and remove those images nor am I going to try and suppress them on my own. I don't love you anymore, don't trust you anymore, and don't want you sexually anymore. You need to accept the fact that we're done and you need to do whatever you need to so you can move on with your life."

I sat there in shock as Danny told me how he really felt. I realized that my dreams of us being together again were never going to come true. The pain of losing him forever finally hit me and I had to run from the diner with my tears streaming down my cheeks. I choked back my sobs until I was in the car where I let it all out before starting the car and heading out of the parking lot.

**********************

Danny:

It's been six months since that fateful day at the diner. The police report about the accident only said that Betty pulled out in front of the tanker truck without looking and was dead before the flames from the tanker's load of gasoline reached the interior of the car. Betty's parents had what little remains there were cremated and with Jordan went up into the mountains to scatter her ashes there. 

Rhonda and I lasted only a couple of months before I broke it off with her. She was too hyper for me, always talking, moving around, or jumping from one thing to another. I seriously thought she had undiagnosed ADHD. She didn't take the break up well and moved away when the school year ended even though the school board tried to talk her into staying.

Mrs. Slaughter had a stroke the same month I broke it off with Rhonda and was placed in a nursing home by her only daughter. Judy, my former assistant, had replaced Mrs. Slaughter as Mr. Slaton's personal assistant over my objections and pleads not to. It worked out in the end though because if she hadn't moved up to his office I never would have met the new woman in my life. 

Rebecca Morrison had applied to become my new assistant, but I had to turn her down because of the clause in the company rule book that prohibited people in management dating subordinates. I knew she was the one for me the minute I saw her. 

Becky was tall and slender, with long auburn colored hair, and with breasts that were D-cup in size, but the clincher was the Mustang charm that hung on the bracelet around her right wrist. It was the solitary charm on the bracelet and large enough in size to be noticeable. I knew from her application she was a widow who'd only recently moved to our little town from Chicago. She'd been working in the secretarial pool for only a few months when the position to be my assistant came open. I think she was shocked when I told her the reason I couldn't hire her as my assistant was because we were going to be dating each other and we couldn't do that if she worked for me. It took me two months to get her to go out with me and that's when I found out why she had that Mustang charm on her bracelet. 

It had drizzled rain most of the day the Friday of our first date so I was driving the Ford Fusion that Bob had purchased and given to me for a company car. The two car garage attached to the bungalow sized house Becky lived in looked new and was almost as big as the house. That's why I was wondering why the late 80's, early 90's two door Nissan Sentra that Becky drove to work was parked on the street. 

I pulled into the drive and walked up to the garage door in front of me to get a peek at what was parked inside of it. I could feel my member hardening when I saw the pair of Mustangs inside the garage. A 1966 red with a white convertible top was on one side and a 1968 dark green fastback like the one from the movie "Bullitt" was on the other. I knew right then that I'd found the woman for me and vowed to myself to do everything in my powers to win her love. I thought of painful (physical) things to ease my erection before going to her door. 

(I had worked hard at suppressing the most painful event in my entire life and didn't want to use it at that moment or my date and vow would both be ruined before they even had a chance to be successful.)

Becky was beautiful when she opened her door for me though she was showing signs of nervousness as she invited me in. Her hair had been styled to frame her face which was au naturelle except for the burgundy lipstick around her mouth. Her brown eyes had a sparkle to them that I'd either not seen before or not noticed. Her dress was simple yet sexy on her slender body with only a slight plunge of the neckline in the front. It had four inch sleeves, a mid-calf hem, and a bodice to support her D-cupped breasts. I hoped to discover the numerical size of her breasts in the next couple of dates. I couldn't stop from continuing to day dream of us being a couple for a very long time.

"I peeked in your garage before knocking at the front door. Are both those Mustangs yours and who did the restorations?" 

"Yes, they're both mine now. The '66 was restored by my dad as a sweet sixteen present for me. I've only had to do some minor repairs over the last sixteen years. The '68 was restored by me and my late husband and it was mainly his car after we'd finished it. It's not totally original though. George, my late husband, installed disc brakes all around on it, modified the suspension for a smoother ride, and installed an AM/FM, cassette player with stereo sound. It was the car we took on trips or when we wanted to joy ride. I love them both, but the '66 is my favorite."

"I hope I get the chance to ride in both of them some time. Are you ready to go eat?"

"Yes Danny, I'm starved. I'm ready when you are."

I followed her to the door and preceded her out of it so she could lock it behind her. She stopped and frowned when she'd turned around.

"What's wrong? Have you changed your mind about going out with me?"

"No, but I was expecting you to be in that awesome Mustang, not the company car!"

"I don't bring her out in weather like this. We can still go to dinner and have a good time. I promise our next date will be on a clear day or night so you can get your ride in her."

"You're being awful cocky there, big boy. Assured we'll have a second date when the first hasn't even started."

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to sound like a cocky SOB. I've been thinking about you a lot since you came in for that interview to be my assistant. I promise to be a gentleman tonight and hopefully our date will go well enough that you'll want to continue dating me."

"That's okay Daniel. I'll forgive you for being cocky. Not trying to change the subject, but if you promise you'll bring your Mustang over and help me clean the '68 on Sunday afternoon, I'll let you drive me to dinner in it. Please don't think of me as being a snob, but I'd much rather be seen out on the town with you in a Mustang rather than that "Mom and Pop" sedan the company gave you for a company car."

What could I say but yes to a win-win proposal like that? "I whole heartedly promise to come over Sunday and help you clean your '68 if you'll return the favor and help me clean mine at the same time and please call me Danny."

Becky unlocked her front door and we went back inside so she could get the keys to her '68. We went into the garage from the connecting door in the kitchen of the house and I held her door for her before she handed me the keys to the car. I started it up and heard the rumble of the exhaust and knew that the modifications to the car hadn't been restricted to the suspension only. I couldn't resist the urge to rev the engine but let up on the gas quickly when Becky gave me a scathing look of displeasure.

"I'm sorry. Damn, I seem to keep saying that tonight. I'm not doing so well on a first date, am I?"

"It's okay, Danny. I'm a little nervous, too. To be honest, this is the first date I've been on since moving here. Please, be gentle with me and my car tonight and I'm sure everything will go better when we've both gotten more comfortable with each other."

I backed out of the open garage door and waited until it was completely closed and didn't show signs of opening back up. I drove Becky's car more sedately than I would have my own as we headed to the best seafood restaurant in town. Becky didn't order the live lobster that I expected she'd do when she realized what type restaurant we were in. She had a 6 ounce steak and grilled shrimp combo while I had the grilled salmon steak. I ate Becky's salad which came with her meal when she told me she couldn't eat it. I offered to get her a different appetizer but she declined. She did eat everything on her plate where I on the other hand had to get a doggie bag for my entry. We were really enjoying ourselves after the first few awkward moments and it felt like we'd known each other for a long time instead of a couple of months. 




Shame, Shame, Shame...My Ending



After our meal we walked arm in arm to her car and I couldn't resist the urge to kiss her before I opened her door for her. The feeling of peace and calmness that came over me surprised me and before I realized what was happening; the kiss had been transformed from the first tentative kiss between a couple unfamiliar with each other to a passion filled one that long time lovers might have shared. We kissed like that for what seemed like an eternity but were probably only five to ten minutes in duration. We were both breathing hard when we finally broke the kiss.

"Danny. What happen just now? You must think I'm easy after a kiss like that." She said between breaths.

"I'm not sure what happened, but I'll never have any type of negative thoughts about you as long as I live. I hope you felt the same things I felt when we kissed now. Becky, I know it's only the first date, but I feel like we are meant to be together forever. Will you be my woman from this day forward?"

"Yes, oh my, yes. I did feel something strange and wonderful during our kiss and feel the same as you. I don't know what you'd planned for the rest of the evening; but please take me home now. I promise you won't be disappointed."

I helped her into the car and ran around to the driver's side. I didn't peel out of the parking space like I wanted to because we were in her car, but I did drive us back to her house in a much quicker manner than I had the drive to the restaurant. She grabbed me by the back of my head and pulled me into another passion filled kiss when we were back in her garage before I could jump out of the car to open her door. She was already standing beside the car by the time I got around to her side of it. We stood beside it kissing and caressing each other like we'd been together before and not like a first date couple. 

Becky was the one to break the kiss and grabbed my left wrist with her right hand and pulled me from the garage to her bedroom. She became the aggressor after we got to her bedroom and began stripping me of my clothes while continuing to kiss and caress me. She stopped me when I tried to undress her.

"Please, let me show you how much I want you, Danny. You'll get your chance to return the favor in the near future, I promise."

I stopped trying to undress her and gave myself to her to do whatever she wanted to do to me within reason. I was fully erect and painfully so by the time she'd gotten to my belt and the snap of my slacks. She yanked my slacks and briefs to the floor in one motion, sinking to her knees in front of me as she did so. My rock hard cock slapped her on the cheek when it cleared the top of my briefs. Becky had it in her mouth without hesitation and began giving me one of the best blowjobs I'd ever received. She was able to take my full length into her mouth and down her throat after the first few pleasure filled sucks of my cock's bulbous head. She began bobbing her head up and down on my cock from base to tip and back. I hadn't had sex with anyone for a couple of months and knew I wasn't going to last long.

"I'm going to come very soon if you keep that up, Becky."

I saw the twinkle in her eyes when she glanced up at me when she drew back to my tip. She looked back down at my cock and sped up her bobbing up and down on it instead of stopping like I thought she would. I couldn't hold out any long.

"I'm going to come now." I moaned seconds before the first spurt of my semen shot out of the head of my cock and into her mouth. Becky surprised me yet again when she remained glued to my cock and sucked all of my cum into her mouth and down her throat. I surprised her when I yanked her to her feet and kissed her hard after she'd milked the last of my ejaculate from my shaft.

"My turn to show you how much I want you." I said to her after the kiss.

I began to undress her with an urgency I hadn't had since early in my marriage to Betty. She tried to get away from me and kept begging me to let her turn off the light.

"NO! I want to see your beautiful naked body in all of its glory."

I didn't expect the reaction that my statement would illicit from Becky. She went rigid in my arms and began to cry.

"What's wrong? What did I do or was it something I said? Please Becky, tell me what's wrong and I promise I'll do whatever I can to make it right."

I held her against my chest until she'd quit sobbing so hard and was only sniffling. She finally pushed me away and looked into my face.

"You won't think my body's so beautiful if you see it in the light. Please Danny; let me turn off the light."

"No, I want to see you when I make love to you. Nothing about the way your body looks will change the way I feel about you."

"Okay then, but don't forget I tried to warn you."

Becky stepped back away from me and slithered out of her dress. I would have been focused on the lacy black bra and panties set she had on except for the sight of something I hadn't expected. A large scar was across her belly only inches above her bellybutton. It was red and ridged above the surrounding flesh of her flat stomach and I couldn't lie to myself; it was ugly. I looked into her eyes and saw the pain within them. I pulled her into my arms and kissed her as tenderly and lovingly as I could.

"Becky, I'll never lie to you or try and hide my feelings to try and save me from hurting yours. That scar on your belly is ugly, but the rest of your beautiful body more than makes up for it. I still want to make love to you and see all of you while I do. Will you let me make love to you?"

"Oh Danny. There's nothing in the world I want more than you to make love to me. I was afraid you wouldn't want to when you saw my scar." 

I started kissing and caressing her curvaceous body as I walking her toward her bed and fell upon it still in each other's arms. I began kissing my way down her body, stopping for a few moments to lick and suck on her bountiful breasts and nipples which were hard and soft at the same time. I kissed my way down her stomach and resisted the urge to lick her scar; continuing to kiss and lick her lower belly before reaching her mound and my final destination.

I spent a few minutes kissing her inner thighs and the outer lips of her moisture covered pussy before swiping my tongue from the bottom of her slit to the top again and again, avoiding her clit with each pass. When I her the moan of mixed frustration and desire, I concentrated my oral ministrations on her clit and had her thrusting pussy against my mouth in only a few seconds as I lashed her clit from side to side with my tongue then grabbed it with my lips to suck on it. 

Becky screamed as her orgasm overtook her and I had to wrap my arms around her upper legs to keep her in place so I could continue to lick and suck on her clit. She thrashed above me as her orgasm reached its peak and she released another louder, longer scream. 

I released her legs and crawled up her body when she relaxed and placed the head of my cock to her still pulsating pussy. I ease the head into her opening and was taken by surprise when Becky wrapped her legs around my back and pulled me into her while driving her hips up to meet mine.

"Fuck me hard and fast. Please, I need it and fast." Becky yelled at me.

I began to slam my cock into her as hard and fast as I could like she'd ask and we were both on the verge of cumming in a few short minutes.

"It feels so good. It's been so long. Yes, Danny. Yes, yes, yes." Becky screamed at me as her second orgasm hit her.

I continued to slam into her for only a couple of seconds more before my scrotal sac tighten and I began to shoot my sperm laden semen deep into her body. After the last spurt left the end of my cock, I collapsed down upon her heaving chest and joined her in gasping for breath. 

Becky cradled my head to her breasts while whispering "Thank yous" and other terms of appreciation to me. I started to roll off of her when my flaccid penis flopped out of her, but she held onto me while telling me she was fine and to please stay where I was. We lay like that for an indeterminate amount of time before the urge to urinate, which happened to me after every ejaculation, became too great and I had to extract myself from Becky's clutch and run to her bathroom. I cleaned my crotch, washed my hands and face, and then returned to Becky's bed. I lay on her bed while Becky used the bathroom and admired her beautiful naked body when she returned to the bed. We made love twice more and I didn't make it home until mid-morning on Saturday.

Becky and I became a couple after that wonderful night. She was my equal except for the strength necessary to do certain things when it came to working on a car. We were spending almost all of our free time together, found that we could talk to each other easily about any and all subjects, enjoyed each other's company, and were having the best sex I'd ever had. When I broached the subject of her moving in with me three months later, I was mildly surprised by her answer.

"You may think I'm being silly due to the fact that we spend more nights together in the same bed than we do apart, but I can't move in with you until we're married. I'm not trying to push you into asking me to marry you and if I wasn't too old fashioned; I'd ask you to marry me, but I can't do it. I know that I love you and I think you love me, but until I'm your wife, I can't move in." Becky told me with a very serious tone and an expression mixed with hope and fear on her face.

I had honestly thought about asking her to marry me, but was still a little apprehensive about getting married again after what Betty had done to me. I had been honest and open about almost everything else in my life with Becky except for that small kernel that I'd kept to myself. I decided that I should go ahead and tell her the truth.

"Becky, I have thought about asking you to marry me, but after the pain and heartache that Betty's affair and our divorce; I was afraid to ask you. I don't think I could go through that again and survive." I said to her in as neutral of a tone as I could manage.

"I understand, Danny. I would never, ever do what she did to you and I'm a very patient person so I can wait until you're ready. I'm not going anywhere so take as long as you need." Becky told me before walking to where I was standing and throwing her arms around me. "You need to know, though, that it has to be a package deal, me and my cars, and all three of us need shelter from the weather and your garage ain't big enough. Just a little food for thought."

I thought about it for a week and decided that my love for her was greater than my fear so I went and got her an engagement ring with the stipulation to the jeweler that he'd give me the full price back if she didn't like it. I also drew up plans for enlarging my garage to accommodate her Mustangs before taking them to some contractors I'd met and become friendly with through my work at the plant and picked one that gave me the shortest length of time to get the addition done and assured me it could and would be done in that time.

Becky didn't like the engagement ring I picked out for her; she loved it and agreed to marry me. We made our wedding and honeymoon plans so that we'd return from the honeymoon on the same day the addition would be finished. Everything went off without a hitch and eight months later I was carrying my new bride across the threshold of mine and now her home after returning from our honeymoon. The garage was finished ahead of schedule and we already had plans to move her cars from their old home to their new one beside mine in our new four car garage. (She had two classic Mustangs to my one newer, but eventually classic, Mustang and I knew I'd have to even things up sometime in the near future.) 

****************

Epilogue:

I heard the rumble of the powerful V-8 motor long before I saw the car coming around the last curve of our driveway. My beautiful wife squeezed my right hand as my equally beautiful five year old daughter squeezed my left in excitement while she bounced up and down on her toes. The orange fully restored and immaculate 1972 Mach 1 Mustang pulled to a stop and the driver started climbing out of the car as his passenger began doing the same. My daughter managed to slip her hand from my grasp and started running toward the car.

"Ordy. Ordy. Ordy." She yelled as she ran as fast as her little legs could go before launching herself toward the young man who had exited the car. 

I always cringed when she did that even though my son and her big half-brother had never failed to snatch her out of mid- leap into his arms. They were both laughing hysterically to each other as my daughter Selena grinned at their antics. As Selena walked around the front of the car that had been mine and Becky's wedding present to them when they'd married two months after graduating from college, I could see the bulge in her belly and began to realize I was going to be the first grandpa in my group of friends at forty one years of age and started laughing.

"Why are you laughing? I think it's great that Selena's carrying my step grandchild." Becky asked me.

"I saw our next Christmas party with the gang and their Christmas presents for the two of us and it made me laugh." I explained to her.

"Oh yeah. What did you see "I'm Mister Clairvoyant"?" My wife Becky asked me.

"A pair of rocking chairs for us to sit in on the front porch with grandpa and grandma engraved on the top." I answered her.

"That's not funny. I'm not old enough to be called grandma." Becky said with a tad of anger.

"Actually you're not because like it or not, we're fixing to be grandparents." I told her as I continued to stand there admiring my family and wishing that these little get togethers could occur more frequently. 

After Mr. Slaton had his fatal heart attack, I'd become the CEO of his old company and the responsibilities that that job had fested upon me left little time for quiet family get togethers. Jordan's refusal of my job offer and his subsequent acceptance of a job offer 700 hundred miles away after graduating college limited even more the time we were able to spend together. 

I couldn't help, while standing there, playing the "What If" game in my head. I knew it wouldn't get me anywhere and couldn't change anything about my life as it was at that moment, but I seemed to be unable to not play it on occasion. Even after she did what she did and was now gone from this earth, I still had a tiny bit of love in my heart for Betty. I have been able to forgive her for what she did to me with the help from first Becky and then the birth of the light of my life, Destiny, my five year old daughter. 

"Life is good." I thought to myself as I turned to follow my family into the backyard and the barbeque that was already in full swing. Becky leaned into me and whispered in my ear.

"Your Christmas may come early for you, Danny. I think I've found another Mustang for us to restore to replace the '72 we gave to Selena and Jordy. It's another '72 Mach 1, but it's going to take a lot of work. Unless you learn how to delegate at work, I guess I'll fix it myself; but I swear you'll never sit in the driver's seat if I do that. I love you, Danny, but I mean it; no workee, no drivee. Do I make myself clear?"

"Loud and clear, boss lady. I'll find some talented people to help me out at work, I promise. Now, let's go enjoy the party and no more talk about work. I love you and I'll promise to try harder to let go and let someone else carry the load. We'll be working on that car together, I promise."

I pulled Becky into my arms and kissed her lovingly while thinking I really lucked out the second time around. I didn't know where my life was headed, but I knew that I'd found the perfect woman to share it with as the sunlight faded and the darkness of night approached. I again thought to myself that life was good and even though parts of it had been painful, very painful; I wouldn't change a thing about it if I could.

The End



Shame, Shame, Shame!



Two things leaped out at me right away. The first was that the song wasn't one that we normally did. The second was that the band had never sounded better. I don't know what it was. It couldn't simply be the fact that I wasn't on the stage with them; could it?

  "What the...?" began Betty. 

  "Shut the fuck up!" I hissed. I needed all of my faculties to examine what was going on. I needed to examine the sound. Danny and I often argued about out approaches to equipment. We had completely different tastes when it came to guitars and amps. I preferred Fender combo amps and liked to mic one amp and direct the output through the PA. I also only used vintage stomp boxes through an effects loop. I played only vintage Les Paul guitars. 

   Danny on the other hand preferred BC Rich guitars that were painted with different themes that ranged from women to cars. He used a full rack of all digital effects. His amps were vintage 50 watt Marshalls. And he loved using at least two amps. This time he had four heads and four cabinets. I had to admit that he had never sounded better. 

   The thing that astounded me the most was that I expected that the band would sound thinner with the missing guitar. Instead they sounded not only fuller, but tighter than ever. I realized instantly why that was happening. Danny had often experimented with running his guitar rig in stereo and directing one side of the feed to each side of the stage. It also allowed him to pan and sweep his guitar lines from side to side for interesting echo effects. He had also doubled the number of amps he was using. 

    John had also upgraded his bass rig and was placed a lot louder in the mix than ever before. The stage also seemed roomier with only the three of them in front instead of the four of us. Danny was running around like a man possessed and Mike was picking out women in the audience and singing to each one. God I wanted to be up there. By midway through the song which I recognized as Dokken's song, "Breaking the chains," the audience was singing along with them. 

    Then I noticed that a lot of the images on the screen behind them, blown up to more than twice life size, were pictures of Betty.

    "Why are..." said a feminine voice from behind me.

   "I told you to shut the fuck up," I growled.

   "EXCUSE ME GREGORY?" she said and I immediately realized my mistake. I turned and stared into the angry eyes of my wife Amanda.

    "Sorry Honey," I thought you were Betty.

   "Why would you talk to Betty that way?" she asked.

   "I was trying to concentrate and she was getting on my nerves," I said.

   "The band sounds great," she said. "Why aren't you up there? Danny looks hot. Look at Rhonda. She looks like she's ready to eat him alive. I think she dropped her clipboard. Betty looks like she's ready to beat Rhonda's ass. Do they know each other?"

   "Yeah, yeah," I said. "Whatever."

   "What is this song about?" she asked. "Does it have something to do with slavery?"

   "No," I said tersely. "It's about getting out of a relationship with a woman who treated you badly."

   "Oh, I get it," she smiled. "That's why he's breaking the chains. But why are there all of those pictures of Betty on the screen?"

   After the song was over they got the biggest round of applause I'd ever heard and then they launched into a favorite of Danny's. They ripped through an absolutely killer version of Black Sabbath's "Paranoid." I was even more upset then. Danny was going nuts. Usually I was the voice of reason. I held him back to keep him from turning every song into one long guitar solo. But without me there, he had to play all of the rhythm parts which only allowed him to throw in quick lead lines, here and there. It worked beautifully. Since he only had a couple of measures each time, it meant he had to be very frugal with his bits. Almost too quickly the song ended.

  It left me wondering what they'd do next. Danny and John stood directly in front of their amps and aimed the pickups on their guitars towards the speakers. I know there'd be feedback and there was. John stayed facing the speakers and kept the feedback going. It was brilliant and the audience loved it. A spot light came up then and the video screen showed....Danny's house?

   I wondered why he'd want to show his house. Then I noticed that it wasn't his car parked in front of the house, it was mine and I started to feel afraid. 

   "Honey, that's your car isn't it?" asked Amanda. I just nodded.

  "Danny started to play a very bluesy opening line over John's feedback. It was just the two of them on that stage with the audience in the palms of their hands. Then the tone of Danny's guitar changed to a more distorted, more aggressive sound and he started riffing as Pete's drums kicked in and John started the heaviest bass lines I'd ever heard from him.

   "Mike's voice actually sounded both nasty and pissed off as he began to sing.

   "I'm knocking at your door but there's no answer." he ran across the stage and pretended to knock on the door of Danny's house even as my heart beat so loudly in my chest that it threatened to overwhelm Pete's cannon like drums.

   "I hear the moans and groans of your nasty laughter," sang Mikey, as Danny punctuated each line with soulful atomic blues fueled guitar. Each and every note he played seem tinged with raw emotion. I could hear hatred, anger and pain pouring out of him through his guitar.

.    Even louder though, was the sound of a woman's giggling and moaning her pleasure. And there on the giant screen was Betty. The moans were hers and she and I both knew it. We looked at each other in abject horror. There was a huge censored banner over Betty's naughty bits but everyone in the building knew that she was naked. Betty and I both knew who the man in that picture would be when he was shown and she screamed and tried to run. The crush of the crowd trying to get closer to the stage held us in place though.

   Amanda looked at Betty and put her hand over her mouth in shock that her friend would allow herself to be filmed and shown in front of a crowd of strangers.

  "I'm kickin' in the door as your breathing gets faster," sang Mikey on the stage. The audience was torn between watching the scandalous little scene on the screen and the band's performance.

   "Your trail of clues is leading to disaster," sang Mikey. And I knew then that for my own good, for the future of my marriage and family, I couldn't let them finish that song. 

   Mikey and Danny came together to punctuate the changes in the music as they reached the bridge. Mikey had moved across the stage until he was directly in front of Betty, who didn't have a clue of what was happening.

   "Once I looked into your eyes, I thought that they were true," he sang. Danny was riffing feverishly next to him in mute agreement with the sentiment of the lyrics. The pure pain on Danny's face cut through to Betty and she started to cry. But she had no idea how bad it was about to become.

   "Innocence can turn to lies and now the finger points at you, baby," sang Mikey and his tone changed from pleading to chiding as he plowed into the simple repeated one word chorus.

   "Shame, shame, shame," he screamed at the top of his lungs. "You should've known better."

   He was pointing his fingers straight at Betty and the audience was beginning to put two and two together. 

   "Than to cheat on me," sang not Mike, but Danny directly to Betty. There was no doubt in anyone's mind that what was on that screen had actually happened. People around us were pointing their fingers at Betty too and she was trying to get away but again the mass of people trying to get closer to the stage wouldn't let her get away. She'd have been better off trying to get to the stage and sneak out that way.

    Mikey summed everything up. "You've got your own self to blame. Now it's time to feel the pain, of your twisted little game. It's such a crying shame, shame, shame." As the audience started pointing fingers at Betty and laughing at her, I finally recognized the song. And I realized that my instinct was right. I had to stop them from finishing that God damned song. Danny had made his own wife the object of ridicule and scorn. They were humiliating her even now. If they made it through the second verse, my marriage probably wouldn't survive.

   "Did you do your poses in the mirror?" sang Mikey, accompanied by lightning fast guitar lines from a now smiling Danny.

   "Did you tell him baby, baby please?" Both Mikey and Danny looked me straight in the eyes and the faces that had always shown me nothing but love and friendship were devoid of any shred of compassion. I realized that they knew and there was no iota of forgiveness left for me. I dove for the edge of the stage. I figured that I could snatch out Danny's guitar cord or the main cord from Mike's microphone. Both of them used cordless transmitters, but Danny's transmitter fed to a receiver that was linked by guitar cables to his array of triggers and stomp boxes on the floor. 

   As I landed roughly on the edge of the stage, my fingers were only inches away from the chain of effects pedals that were linked by thin and extremely vulnerable quarter inch guitar cables. 

   Before I could manage to grab the cable and stop the guitar signal from getting through, Danny, my best friend, almost since birth stepped over and kicked me in the face so hard that I fell back off of the edge of the stage spitting teeth as I fell. I saw the look on his face just before he struck me and there was nothing in it but joy. He clearly had no remorse for what he'd done. 

   Before my body had even settled, the security men had grabbed me.

   Back on the stage Mikey threw another knife in my back. "Did you twist his tongue and bend his ear up?" he sang. "Did you have him begging on his knees?" That was the worst moment of my life as my sweet innocent wife looked away from me for just a second when she realized that the naked man cavorting on the screen with the new town whore was none other than her own husband. She launched herself at me and scratched the shit out of my face before the security men snatched me away from her in their haste to throw me out of the building.

   Since Amanda couldn't get to me, she turned her fury on Betty. Betty is at least four inches taller than Amanda but Amanda has thick arms and thighs. She forgot about being a lady and just threw the hardest and best pure punch I've ever seen at Betty's unprotected face. All I remember before they threw me, bodily, out onto the hard concrete surface of the parking lot, was Betty's head snapping backwards as Amanda's fist hit it.

*   *   *   *   *   *

Betty

      I couldn't believe that one song had put my entire life in jeopardy. 

      But the fact was that the past few days had been off. I don't know why I never sat down and thought about it before now. But lying there flat on my back while two security guards prevented an enraged Amanda from stomping me into the ground obviously wasn't the time for deep thinking.

      I struggled to get to my feet with my head spinning. All of the people in the crowd who were near enough to see what was going on were jeering at me and someone spit on me. 

      It was hard for me to believe that this was the town I'd grown up in and worked in and had raised my son in. I looked towards the stage and saw that my husband was still there performing with his band while half of the women in the audience screamed and tried to get closer to him. Before this moment I'd have laughed at them because Danny had never loved any woman except me. I'd grown up kind of wild, but my Danny had always been a boy scout. 

      I screamed his name out. I needed to look at him and see the expression on his face. Danny was easy to argue with because even when he was so angry at me that he didn't want to talk to me, I could always just look at him and he'd melt and forgive me. That was how much he loved me.

     We made brief eye contact as he launched into his guitar solo. It felt strange. It was as if an alien consciousness had taken over my husband's body. As our eyes met, I felt nothing coming from him. There was no love, no forgiveness and barely any recognition. It was almost as if I had looked into a stranger's eyes. 

     But before I could even begin to think about what had happened I was pushed away to the side of the crowd by people trying to get closer to the stage.

     "Hey!" I shouted angrily.

     "Shame, Shame, Shame, stupid bitch," replied an obviously drunken woman. I looked closer at her and realized that she was the mother of one of my students. I had to get out of there before more people started to put the pieces together. I was hurt. I was angry and my face was throbbing where Amanda had hit me. I needed to talk to Danny. I had to beg his forgiveness and try to put this behind us. 

     I figured that the smartest way to handle it would be to go backstage and wait for him. Then I'd convince him to go somewhere that we could talk this all out. I also needed to figure out exactly what he knew, so I could determine what to say about it. I also wished that I had some way of getting to Greg so we could synchronize our lies and avoid tripping over each other. It would also be good to know what Amanda knew and when she found out. But I think it was pretty obvious that Amanda had only found out during the song. If she'd known any earlier she wouldn't have defended me when Greg told me to shut the fuck up.

     Then I remembered that today was my birthday and that after the concert, Danny and I were supposed to be meeting my parents for a birthday dinner at my favorite restaurant. I didn't want my parents brought in on this if it could be avoided. At that moment something else came to mind; my son Jordan. This morning when I'd reminded him about the birthday dinner, he'd looked at me crazily. I should have realized something was off then. 

     Jordan was so much like his father that it was uncanny. He'd flipped me one of those cryptic remarks that teenagers are known for and I hadn't understood it at the time.

     "Jordy make sure you're not late getting to the restaurant," I'd said as I tried to hug him. He'd moved away from my hug and threw a sarcastic comment over his shoulder as he left. 

     "Like I'm going to be anywhere near there," he'd smirked.

     At the time, I'd chalked it up to a nearly eighteen year old boy trying to assert his independence. My little boy is growing up, I'd thought. He was trying to distance himself from his mommy as part of him getting ready to leave the nest and go off to college. I'd smiled at the time and thought it was funny. But now I understand that even my son knew about this. I wondered then if he had played a role in his father's humiliation of me in front of all of those people.

     As I tried to move myself towards the door, the song ended and the crowd went crazy trying to get the band to come back for one more song. As I looked towards the stage, I could see that John had already left the stage and Pete was walking away from his drums. Mike and Danny were talking to that little bitch Rhonda. It gave me a chance to catch him.

    I pushed my way through the crowd, forgetting all about politeness and decorum. This was an extreme situation. Outside of the building, I noticed that a crowd was watching as Greg whined and begged for Amanda to talk to him. They didn't notice me as I made my way around to the back of the school. I walked up to the door and opened it. 

    "Hi Ollie," I said with a smile to the man seated just inside of the large metal door. "I have to talk to Danny. We're going to dinner with my parents for my birthday. Which way should I turn?"

    Ollie was short for Oliver Wendell Douglass. Ollie was both the school's armed security guard and bus driver. He also coordinated security for larger events like the adult evening.

    Ollie and I had been friends for a long time, but I sensed something different about him then.

    "You can TURN your ass around and go back the way you came," he said evenly. "No one is allowed backstage unless they're on my list and you aren't."

    "But Ollie," I whined.

    "Butt, is what I call my ass," he spat. "Do you remember Nina?"

    Nina had been Ollie's fiancé until she ran off with a salesman who'd been passing through town. It had taken Ollie a long time to get over her and what she'd done to him. The funny part about the story was that he'd moped over her for more than a month. No one could cheer him up though we all tried. Danny and the guys had taken him fishing. They'd bowled with him and tried to teach him to play golf, but nothing worked. 

    What finally got him over her was the one thing that none of us had thought about. It was closure that brought him back to life. Nina had dragged her sorry ass back into town about six weeks later and begged him to take her back. She'd had all kinds of stories about how she'd been lied to and how she just wanted to see what life away from a small town was like. She swore to him that she had her head on straight and it would never happen again.

    Ollie had smiled at her, but it was a weird crooked smile. Then he'd told her, while smiling that same smile, to get the fuck out of his life and stay there.

    From then on he was back to being the same gentle, kind man that everyone knew and loved. He'd married one of the local farmers' daughters and they had a couple of kids. Ollie did have one blind spot though. It was women who left their men. I guess he'd extended his description to include me, although I would never leave Danny.

    "Yeah, I remember her," I said quietly. 

    "Shame, Shame, Shame," he said.

     Nothing else needed to be said. I turned around and left the building in time to see Greg getting into his car and spinning his wheels trying to get out of there. Someone had painted the words "Cheater, Backstabber, and Asshole," on Greg's prized muscle car.

    I felt a vibration coming from my pocket. I reached down and looked at my phone. My mother was calling me. She probably wanted to make sure what time we were meeting.

    "Hi Mom," I said.

    As I'd predicted she wanted to verify the time and make sure that nothing had changed.

    When I ended the call, I called Danny. I was shocked. He answered the phone and he didn't sound depressed or upset.

    "Danny, Honey, we need to talk," I said. He didn't reply. 

    After what seemed like hours he said, "Maybe we should talk after the dinner with your parents."

    "Perfect," I said. I knew that gave me a chance. I'd spend the dinner being as solicitous and charming as I could. I'd do all of the things that I knew Danny loved. I'd make it extremely hard for him to just write me off."

    "I'll be waiting for you out front, Honey," I said.

    "You're going to have to get there on your own, Betty," he said. "I drove the Mustang."

    "Danny, I know that car rides rough, but you love it so much that I don't mind riding in it. Maybe we could talk a bit on the way to the restaurant," I said.

    "No, Betty," he said. "You can't ride in my car anymore."

    "So that's my punishment?" I asked. "I don't get to ride in a car that I don't like anyway?"

    "Betty, I'm not trying to punish you," he said. "You're a grown woman. You can make your own decisions. It's not up to me to punish you. I just said that you can't get in my car. It has nothing to do with punishment."

    "Then why can't I ride..." I began.

    "Because it'll void my warranty," he said. 

    "Hunh? How?" I asked.

    "Apparently it's a new thing," he said. "Ford sent me a letter saying that riding around with a whore in your Mustang renders the warranty non-valid." He hung up then.




Shame, Shame, Shame!



I looked like hell when I got to the restaurant. I ended up walking the three miles. No one would stop for me and I got splashed with mud a couple of times. I walked in and stood by the desk waiting for the hostess to seat me. She seemed to be really busy, even though the restaurant wasn't. She leaned on her desk and doodled in some sort of notebook, while I stood there patiently waiting. Nothing like this had ever happened to me in that restaurant before. They were known for their great service. 

    I got to see some of that service a few moments later when a couple arrived. The hostess was so sweet to them that it baffled me. When the woman asked why I hadn't been seated yet, when I'd arrived before them, the Hostess just smiled and said, "Shame, shame, shame," as If that explained it all. As she walked away with the couple to show them to their table, I noticed my parents sitting at a table in the back. 

    "Fuck you, little bitch," I mouthed silently at the hostess. "It's a shame, shame, shame that you have a fucking job." I walked over to my parents' table and hugged them both as I sat down. 

    "Oh there's the birthday girl," said my dad. He got up and hugged me tightly. "Where's my manufacturing director?" he asked.

    "Uh, he's driving over himself," I mumbled. "He had to pack his stuff after the concert, but he'll be here."

     And five minutes later he was. The hostess walked him over and pulled out his chair for him. She got him a menu and put his bib on for him. It wouldn't have surprised me if she'd gotten on her knees and blown him right there in the restaurant. I was tempted to ask if she didn't have any more customers to hover over when she just stood there behind his chair. Luckily another group came in but she promised to come back.

    Danny stood up and shook my Dad's hand. Then he walked around the table and hugged my mom. "I'm going to miss you," he said to her. 

    My dad, who didn't miss much, arched his eyebrows. "Okay, let's order," he said.

    Danny reached inside of his jacket and pulled out a long jewelry box. "We may as well do this first," he said handing it to me.

   I opened the box and saw a beautiful diamond necklace and a bunch of tightly folded papers. I knew the papers were the arrangements for our trip, but the necklace was so beautiful that I had to look at it. 

   "I really hate doing this but under the circumstances I don't have a choice," said Danny to my Dad. "It'll be easier for you this way, Sir." Danny handed my dad a set of papers too.

   I watched as my dad opened his papers. I decided to open mine and see where we were going on our trip.

   "No," I screamed. "You said we'd talk after dinner. Danny, we have to talk about this. Everyone is supposed to have a second chance. I'm sorry. I don't want a divorce."

   At the same time that I started screaming, my dad threw the papers on the table and started himself. "What the hell is this about?" he yelled. "Is someone offering you more money? I'll match it."

   "Dad, this has nothing to do with money," said Danny. "I don't want to resign, but I just figured that with the divorce, it would be better for you. Betty is your daughter after all. It's unfair to put you in the middle."

    "What divorce?" asked my dad.

    "I filed for a divorce," said Danny. My mom looked at him in shock. Just then everything changed. The door to the restaurant slammed open and Greg stomped in.

    "Why Danny?" he screamed. "Why couldn't you keep this between us? We've been friends for our whole lives. Why couldn't you come to me like a man? Why did you have to sneak around and make all of your shitty little plans behind my back?"

    Greg's entire face was swollen up. He was slurring his words. At least three of his front teeth were missing and he was still bleeding from his mouth. He was so angry that his eyes were flashing.

   "You mean the way you snuck around with Betty behind my back?" asked Danny calmly. Danny even seemed to be smiling.

   "Betty, you cheated on Danny?" asked my mom in shock. "But, Betty, he loves you and he's so good to you."

   "Because of you, Amanda is divorcing me," screamed Greg. "I'm locked out of my own God damned house and I can't even see my kids. You've ruined my life."

   "I ruined YOUR life?" laughed Danny. "If you hadn't been screwing my very soon to be ex-wife, none of this would have happened. You ruined your own life. And if Amanda IS divorcing you, it all works out for you."

   "I'm kicking Betty to the curb too. So the two of you can be together," said Danny. 

   "Are you crazy?" asked Greg. "She's a fucking whore. I don't want to be with her. I've been fucking her off and on since before you met her. Amanda is the only woman I've ever loved and you ruined it. We have three kids, Danny."

   "They're better off without you, Greg," said Danny. "Did you think about her or your kids while you were doing Betty? Of course you didn't. You're a piece of shit and the two of you deserve each other."

   Greg was so enraged that he dove at Danny. Danny moved and Greg ended up sprawled across our table. Greg got to his feet and staggered over to Danny. He took a wild swing at Danny who stepped back, and another. Danny punched him in the stomach so hard that Greg folded around Danny's fist. Then Danny punched him in the mouth and laid him out on the floor.

   "Once upon a time, we were friends," said Danny. "Never again. From now on, anyone who's your friend isn't mine. Shame, shame, shame!"

   Danny started to walk away but my dad stopped him. "Okay, you two are getting a divorce," said my dad. "That's personal. Right now, we need to discuss business. I feel bad about what my daughter did to you, son. But my business needs you more than it needs her. She doesn't work for my company. I'll see you at work Monday morning."

   As Danny walked out of the restaurant, I got up and ran after him. He got into that car of his and drove away. I've seen him get into that car and drive away from me literally hundreds of times. But this time it was different. It felt as if he had taken my heart away with him. I sank to my knees and just started crying.

    *   *   *   *   *   *

    Greg

    I woke up in a holding cell. I looked around the cell and discovered that I was alone. My face hurt badly and one of my eyes was swollen shut. But more than the pain in my face, my heart hurt. Not my physical heart, of course. I was thinking about the metaphysical heart that represented my soul. If it was possible for something that probably didn't exist to feel as though there was a gaping hole in it, then that was what I had. Actually mine had two holes in it, and I wasn't sure which one of them hurt most. 

   I had been with a lot of women over the course of my life. My friends were nothing like me. While they concentrated on their careers and sports and music during college, I had dabbled in those same pursuits. But while I wasn't with them, I tried other things. I tried BDSM. I tried the whole swinger scene too. While each of them was dating and scheming on trying to make it with a college girl, I was screwing everything that wasn't nailed down. I never told my friends about it because they would never have understood. They were all so normal when it came to sex. They had all of these dreams of finding their special women and living perfect lives. But to me all women were just whores. Some were harder to get than others, but under the circumstances, all of them could be had. I met Betty years before Danny did. She was one of the freakiest bitches I ever met.

    Betty would literally try anything with anybody. It was wonder that she didn't have any diseases. I once saw her on a night when she couldn't get into the swingers club, so she fucked a bunch of homeless guys in the park. I didn't like to get attached to women in those days so we fucked a few times, okay a lot of times, but there were never any emotions attached to it. She had a nice body but so did a lot of other women. We lost track of each other after a while. I never missed her. She and I had never actually dated. Everyone who knew her knew the kind of girl she was. I didn't want to be associated with her. It would bring too much trouble. I didn't see myself walking around with a woman that anyone could fuck. There'd be problems then with guys looking at me and laughing because they'd screwed my woman. Besides, once again, I had no feelings for her. There were better looking women all over the campus.

    On the other hand, my friends, Danny and Mike especially, were my family. We'd grown up together, we went to school together and we graduated together. The strangest thing happened though, in our last two years at school. During the summer between our second and third years at college, I met Amanda while on summer vacation. Her family had just moved to town and I was hooked. I didn't know what it was about her. I'd had every type of woman and she wasn't any type of raving beauty, but there was just something about her. 

   When it came to sex, she was awful. She acted like her pussy was gold plated. She barely ever gave me any, but she had me hooked. By the summer before my senior year, she was pregnant and we got married and I couldn't have been happier.

   When we went back to school for our last year, Danny somehow met Betty and they both fell head over heels for each other. Betty and I pretended that we didn't know each other. The thing that amazed me the most though, was that she really did love Danny as much as she claimed. She completely stopped doing everything she used to do. She was totally faithful to him. We'd talked about it a couple of times and I told her that if she ever hurt him or cheated on him, I'd make her life a living hell.

    They eventually got married and they were really happy. Life with Danny caused Betty to blossom. She changed from being just another tall, skinny blonde with barely any tits to a really nice looking woman. She carried herself really well and after a few years of marriage, she went back to school and became a teacher. She and Danny were the happiest couple I knew. And after Jordan was born they were the perfect family. I have to admit that though I loved Amanda, after our three kids were born she just never seemed to lose the baby weight. I found myself looking at Betty and wishing that I'd ended up with her instead of Amanda. All of the people around school who knew what a whore she used to be didn't live in our small town. Here at home she was just another wife and mother. 

    About that time I'd started to take stock of my life and noticed that I was always, always second to Danny in almost everything we did. Just once I wanted to beat him at something. So I started talking to Betty about the old days. Then I started putting pressure on her. I can still remember the day she cried her eyes out and refused me. She'd been sure that I was going to tell him about our past, but I didn't. As badly as I wanted to fuck her, I couldn't do anything that would cause Danny any pain. I told her that I'd only been testing her faithfulness to my best friend. 

    It took a few years after that, but all of the stars aligned and once while Danny was out of town on business with her Dad, the two of us got drunk and ended up fucking. It opened up something in both of us. We were both in love with spouses who didn't share our need for kinky, unbridled sexual expression. There was again no love involved. I had no desire to be with her or to leave Amanda for her, and she claims that she doesn't even like me. But she needs what I give her as much as she needs Danny's romantic lovemaking. She always told me that Danny filled her heart and her soul, I just occasionally scratched an itch.

    Over the years we'd begun to take things for granted. That was probably why we got caught. And now because of something that was as natural to us as Danny's need to wash his car every other day, my life and happiness were in jeopardy.

    I guess that on some level, I had regrets. Mostly I suppose I regret being caught. But I also regret being humiliated. Shit, I may as well tell the truth. I was pissed that the guys had played the show so successfully without me. I was also upset that my wife had thrown me out of our house. It was times like those that let me know what was really important in life. I was prepared to do anything I had to do to get my wife and friends back.

    "Alright, buddy. You can go," said the fat cop who acted as the jailer.

    "Where?" I asked. "I can't go home my wife...."

    "Look, Dude, you don't have to go home, but you can't stay here," he said. "If you're looking for some place to go, I'd start with the Dentist," he laughed. I checked into a hotel and made an appointment to see my Dentist early Monday. Then I remembered the meeting with my boss and schedule it for Monday afternoon. 

    When I woke up that next morning, I decided that the best thing to do would be to go and apologize to the guys. I was sure that Danny wouldn't be at the bowling alley. He'd be heartbroken and disconsolate. But I could start with the guys. If I got them to forgive me and got them on my side, they could help me with Danny. If Danny forgave me, I was sure that would help with getting Amanda back.

    With that in mind I showed up at the bowling alley early. I waited for my team nervously. They all walked in together. I was shocked to see Danny there. The four of them talked as if nothing had happened. As they passed me, not one of them made eye contact. They signed in, played their games and went on their way. I tried to speak to them several times and they ignored me. I went back to my hotel room. The next day I showed up on the golf course and got the same treatment.

    Monday I went to work and went to the meeting with my boss. He fired me. He said that my carrying on with a married woman brought the company's public profile down and they had to let me go. When I looked at him, I realized that he'd known about Betty and me since before Friday. He'd been about to fire me then but had decided to let me stew over the weekend.

  I knew immediately that I was being fired because of what I'd done with Betty. I was also sure that Danny had something to do with it. My now former best friend was systematically taking my life apart. And I had to admit that I deserved it. Danny wasn't a perfect person. He had his faults. But he'd always been a perfect friend. He had always had my back whenever I needed him throughout our lives. One of the things I hated most about Danny was that he was happy with what he had. The man seemingly had no ambition. 

    In fact, when we were younger and really serious about the band, it had been Danny who'd convinced us all to go to college first before trying our hands at going to California to become rock stars. He'd been right of course, because we played mostly Heavy Metal and right when we would have gone to California, music changed. Metal bands couldn't get arrested. All anyone wanted to hear was alternative rock and EMO. We would have starved and came home with our tails between our legs. 

   The only things that Danny really wanted were his Mustang and Betty. I always laughed about how much he loved her. At first whenever I'd get pissed at him or jealous of him, I'd think to myself, "If he only knew what kind of slut she used to be?" 

   Lately it had been worse. We're in our mid thirties now, and this is a time in life where we're not old yet, but we're not young anymore either. It's a time where a man tends to look at his life and take stock of what he has and where he wants to be. I guess I had looked at my life and found that I'd fallen short. But Danny of course was so happy he glowed. And that happiness showed. People liked Danny. They tolerated me. Even if you looked at our little group, Danny and Mike were clearly the focal points. If we were the Supremes, Danny and Mike would be Diana. I wanted to be Diana.

    And it was more than that. Even among ourselves, Danny was just happy with his God damned life. We all know how guys talk. But we could go to a movie or watch a football game on TV and invariably they'd show some hot gorgeous woman on the screen. As guys, we would naturally have to comment on her. But Danny could always be counted on for a comment like, "She's pretty, but she's just not Betty. I wouldn't know what to do with her." 

   What was even more stupid was when we'd see movies or TV shows about women who did slutty things, no matter how beautiful the women were, Danny could always be counted on to say something like, "I could never be with a woman who would do something like that." Sometimes it was all I could do to avoid bursting out laughing and then coming clean about the fact that his perfect angel used to give blowjobs to bums in public. 

  I hated Danny. But at the same time, I'd have killed anyone who looked at him funny. When Danny was displeased with me, it hurt me so badly. But when he praised something I'd done or said, it lifted me to the heavens. Far too late I realized that I loved the idiot. Danny was the closest thing I had in the world to a brother and I had betrayed him in the worst possible way. The poor bastard only cared about two things, that God damned car and his wife. And I had ruined his relationship with her. And knowing what a boy scout Danny was, he'd never forgive her. He'd probably spend the rest of his life lonely and alone. I had ruined the poor man's life without meaning to. What had been pure recreational sex for me and Betty had ruined two marriages. When you threw in the four children we had between us, eight people were hurt. And when you considered just the guys in the band, five families and nineteen people were affected. And it was all because of Betty and I being selfish. 

    *   *   *   *   *   *

    Betty

    Monday morning I awoke and quickly dressed. I was already late and I was acting on automatic. The fact that I was in my parents' home instead of my own wasn't lost on me. After being there all weekend, I just needed to get out of there. My parents had been very nice to me, considering the situation. But the looks of suppressed anger and disappointment in their eyes, was painful. My mother tried to hide her disappointment in me and also the pity I sometimes saw on her face. My father on the other hand was simply angry at me. He tired really hard to hide it, but I couldn't blame him. 

    Men are different from us. They take pride in things that we never understand. And much the same way that Danny loved his Mustang, my father felt about his business. He'd started and built it up from nothing into a growing and successful company. Danny's expertise in manufacturing and quality control was a very big part of that success. I had a feeling that if Danny didn't show up for work this morning, my father would have my ass. He'd kick me out in the street or come very close to doing so. I was his daughter, but that company was his heart. And with no sons to leave it to, all of his hopes for the family continuing to own and run it rested on Danny and my son Jordan someday. Jordan was far to young to even consider right now, and we didn't have any idea of what Jordan would want to do with himself. 

    The weekend had been the most horrible three days of my life. I found myself wishing that it had all been a dream. But waking up in my parents' house brought home the fact that it was all true.

   After the horror of both the concert and then the dinner with my parents on Friday night, I'd awakened Saturday morning and reached for Danny only to find out that what I'd truly hoped had been a bad dream was real. I had immediately called him, both on his cell phone and the house phone. He hadn't answered either of them. I left messages on both hoping that maybe he was out running in the woods near our home as he usually did. When a couple of hours had passed without hearing from him, I called again and again. I then decided that he was too angry at me to speak to me. So I decided to go to the house to speak to him in person. When I drove up in my mother's car he barely batted an eyelash. He was washing his car as if nothing was going on.




Shame, Shame, Shame!



I couldn't believe him. My heart was torn in two, and he was calmly washing his car. As I walked over to him, he continued applying his wax or whatever he was rubbing on the car.

    "I'll be leaving in a few minutes," he said. "I wasn't expecting you, but we may as well get this over with. For today please don't take anything that isn't yours personally. By next weekend I'll have some of those little pink and blue stickers."

    "What?" I asked. I had no idea of what he was talking about.

    "You know," he said. "Anything that you want to take you put a pink sticker on it. If I want it, I put a blue sticker on it. If something has both colors on it, we argue for it when we have the meetings with the lawyers..."

    "Danny, we don't need any God damned stickers," I said. "That's not what I'm here for."

    He didn't say anything. He calmly picked up a bottle of some sort of Turtle Wax product. He sprayed a small amount of it on the car and started polishing it in.

   "What are you here for?" he asked calmly. "I already gave you what you asked for."

   "I'm here because I want us to work this out. I want to come home...." I said. "What do you mean you gave me what I asked for?"

   He dropped his rag and stood up. "Do I have to send you a copy of the video?" he asked. "It's almost like what I heard you telling Greg the first time I caught you. You told him that you wished the two of you didn't have to sneak around anymore, remember? You told him that the two of you could get rid of the boring people in your lives and then he could get all the pussy he wanted. So I'm giving you the divorce you want. I gave it to you for your birthday. I gave you the papers myself to save you any further embarrassment. I didn't realize that there would be that many people at the concert...sorry."

    "Is that really what you think?" I asked. He turned away from me and got a fresh microfiber towel out. Once the first one had touched the ground he wouldn't use it again until it had been washed. He worried about dirt particles scratching his car.

   "Danny, none of that shit was true. It's just trash talk. I didn't mean a word of it and neither did Greg. You're the only man I've ever loved and Greg loves Amanda. We just..."

    I made a huge mistake then. I reached out to touch him the way I had literally thousands of times over almost twenty years. I hadn't counted on the revulsion he felt for me at that moment. Before my hand even landed he'd violently lurched away from me.

   "Get the fuck away from me," he yelled suddenly. "You don't love me. I don't think you ever have. If you did you wouldn't have...." I saw it then. The confidence, how calm he'd been, the seemingly unconcerned demeanor, it was all a facade. As the mask faded I saw the anger, and all of the pain he'd been hiding behind his Mr. Macho mask. I saw the tears that he was trying so God damned hard to blink away. I knew this man far better than anyone else did. I had lived with him and slept with him and shared his joy and his pain for almost twenty years. I had hurt him worse than anything else ever had. His pretending that he was fine with what had happened and pretending that he didn't care was his only way of holding onto his pride.

    I had been so busy worrying about my own feelings and the pain I was going through that I had failed to consider what I'd done to Danny. Then I started to realize the full scope of what was going on. I knew then that this was not going to be a quick fix. An apology and a blow job were not going to come close to fixing this. I would be very lucky if this didn't end up changing my marriage forever. The easy loving relationship I had enjoyed with Danny and the knowledge that there was nothing he wouldn't do for me was probably gone. It might take years for us to even come close to that. We would probably be a lot closer to some of the other couples we knew. We'd be lie the couples who lived together and stayed together for their kids or because they'd been together for a long time. I had always felt superior to them and sorry for them at the same time. Now I'd be lucky just to be one of them.

    "Danny, I know how hurt you are," I said. "And as much as I don't want it, you probably need some time to think. I'll give you a few days and then maybe we can talk."

    "If you're really interested in what I need, you should get a lawyer so we can move the divorce along," he said without facing me. "I really won't feel better until I get you out of my life."

    He had just hurt me more than anything ever had. I wasn't him. I saw no need to cover up my feelings so I let the tears flow. I had nothing and no one to blame it on except myself.

   I went back home and sulked. I was hoping that time and distance would give Danny a chance to think about what we stood to lose. I hoped that he'd begin to miss me and think about giving me a chance to work things out. 

   On Sunday things got worse. My mom convinced me to come out of my room. I was sitting on their back porch thinking and trying to figure out anything I could do to get Danny to talk to me. My dad came out and looked at me. He shook his head. 

   "So how are you feeling?" he asked.

   "Like Hell," I said.

  "Imagine what Danny feels like," he said. "At least you knew what you were doing, I guess. Put yourself in his shoes. He probably feels like shit right now. Imagine feeling like you weren't enough for your wife so she had to go out and...."

   "Shut up, Dad," I screamed. "Danny is more than enough for me, this was...."

  "How's he supposed to know that?" he asked. "And imagine how embarrassing this is for Jordan. Everyone in town knows about it now. I wonder how my grandson likes being the son of the town whore?" he saw the shock on my face and just shook his head again.

  "You haven't even thought about Jordan have you?" he asked. "Shit, the only thing you're worse at than being a wife is being a mother. At least call him to let him know you're alive."

  So that was what I did. I called him. And like his father, he didn't answer the phone. I started to worry so I got my mom to call him and he picked up on the first ring. 

  I listened in on their conversation. He sounded fine. He was spending the day with friends and had slept in the house as usual. Since neither he nor his father liked to cook they'd gone out for breakfast.

  As soon as she handed the phone to me, his demeanor changed.

  "Hi Jordan," I said. "How are you doing?"

  "I'm fine," he said. "Shouldn't you be worrying about Dad? At the end of the summer, I'll be out of here. And after college, I'll probably live somewhere else. Dad will still have to live with what people in this tiny town think of what you did and how it makes him look."

  "I know Jordan and I'm sorry. I'd do anything to make it up to both of you but..." he interrupted me.

   "Mom, so you really want to do something for me?" he asked.

   "Yes, Honey, anything," I said.

   "Then don't call me again," he said and he hung up. I started crying even louder then.

   "Betty, he doesn't mean it. He's just embarrassed and hurt," said my mom. "You guys are a strong family. Just give it some time and you'll all be back together before you know it

   I didn't feel like eating dinner last night. I stayed in my room. So this morning I was ready to get out and do something. I needed to do something other than sit there and think about how stupid I'd been. The drive in to work was odd. I got my mom to drive me to the house so I could pick up my car. She'd called Danny the day before and he had no problem with me taking the car. He reminded her that in his proposed divorce settlement we each got to keep our own stuff.

    My plan was to get there just before he usually left for work. I hoped to speak to him or even just to tell him to have a good day. I thought that anything, even just the small courtesies would remind him that I did love him. But we weren't in luck. Danny was already gone.

   "Oh nuts!" said my mom. I just stared at her and smiled.

   "I was going to invite him to dinner, darn it!" she said.

   I just smiled and hugged her. Sometimes I wished that my life was as simple as hers. My mom thought that any and all problems could be solved over dinner.

   I took a deep breath, got onto my car and drove away. Twenty minutes later, I was driving into the teachers' parking lot at the school. I got out of the car with both hands loaded up with books and my laptop. Even thinking about something as stupid as my computer made me think about Danny. My laptop was light years ahead of what they gave most teachers. It had, of course, come from Danny. He'd been given the laptop at work although he didn't really need it. He had a great desktop on his desk and another one at home. Of course, he actually needed it once at a meeting. 

   He took everyone at the meeting to his office to show them his designs. They loved them of course, but after the meeting my dad pulled him aside.

   My dad told him that meetings like that one were the reason he'd gotten him that tricked out laptop that could connect to any projector via Wi-Fi. He told my dad he'd pay for the laptop. My dad just looked at him and started laughing. "You gave it to Betty didn't you?" he asked. He just shook his head and told Danny to have IT get him another laptop.

   I had to sit back down in the car, because suddenly I was crying again. It took me a while to get myself back together. Had it only been 72 hours previous that I'd been happily living a double life? I'd been cheating on a man who loved me more than anything and thinking that I was the smartest bitch on the planet. I didn't think that there was any way I would ever get caught. I never considered what I could lose if I did. 

  Before I met Danny, I never gave a damn about any of the guys I fucked. They were just dicks to me. I was addicted to dick. Danny was the cure. I'd spent my life leading a double life. At home and around my parents, I was daddy's little girl. Up at school I was one wild assed slut. 

  For the past couple of years, I'd had my double life back. Ninety-five percent of the time, I was a very happily married wife and teacher. The other five percent of the time, I was a wild assed slut again. I had risked it all for some sex on the side and my whole house of cards had tumbled. 

  I needed to stop staring at the cards. I had two choices. I could just pack the cards away and move on with my life. Or I could pick them up and rebuild my house. That was the option for me. And I'd build it taller and stronger and even more filled with love.

  Just thinking about what I was about to do filled me with power. I began to look at winning back my husband's love as a sacred quest that I had to undertake. At the end of the quest I'd have my Danny back. My back was a little straighter and my gait was a little quicker as I walked down the hallway. I felt empowered.

   Then I saw her walking down the hallway coming from the direction I was heading in. That bitch has hated me for almost twenty years. She smiled at me as we approached each other. Then she stopped to talk to me. "Don't worry Betty," she said very sweetly. I was shocked. With our past, Rhonda was the last person I'd have expected sympathy from.

   "I'll take really good care of Danny. A year from now, he won't even remember you...Oh...which side of the bed does he like to sleep on?" 

   If I hadn't been so shocked, I'd have strangled that bitch in the hallway. I shook my head to clear it as the sound of her laughter echoed down the hall.

   I got to my classroom with a couple of minutes to spare. I opened the door expecting to see most of my twenty students there. Of course there would be a couple who'd be late, there always were.

   I was unprepared to step into a classroom with only two students there. It was especially bad, since they were two of my worst students.

   I sat down and arranged my stuff and they didn't even look up.

   A few moments later there was a knock on my door. My boss the principal stepped into the class room. He looked at my students and shook his head. "Why don't you two pull out your phones and text someone?" he said.

  "She doesn't let us use our phones in class," said Seth Wyatt.

  "Well, go down to the study hall and text your hearts out," he said.

  With the sound of two kids screaming and running down the hall in the background, he turned back to me.

  "Betty, we have a problem," he said.

  "Does it have anything to do with why the school is empty?" I asked.

  He looked at me and shook his head. "Betty the school isn't empty. It's only your class that isn't here. I got calls from the parents of eighteen out of your twenty students. I have the feeling that the other two kids' parents don't give a flying....well you know what I mean. Anyway the parents all want to pull their kids out of your class. A few of them were either vague about it or didn't give me a reason, but most of them claimed that they didn't want their kids to be taught by the town slut. I guess there's no easy way to tell you this..."

  "I'm fired, right?" I asked.

  "No," he said. He looked down at his shoes. "To be honest, I wanted to fire you, but our lawyer told me that I'd have to consult with the Teachers' union first. So for the next couple of days, you're going to help out in the office."

   "But, what about my class?" I asked.

   "Miss Barbie will be taking over your class," he said. "She's probably our most popular new teacher and she doesn't have a home room class of her own yet."

  "But she's only been here for a year," I said. "Your rule says that we don't get a homeroom class for three years."

  "Office, Betty, he said. I was pissed.

I spent the day in the office. I filled out forms and did other tasks that were both inane and mundane. Most of the women in the office didn't speak to me, even though I'd known them for years. I also noticed that the only people who dealt with me, we're the ones who were in a hurry and then only when everyone else was busy. Some of them immediately grabbed the large bottle of hand sanitizer after touching any paperwork that I had handed them. I thought that was really funny, since I hadn't made any actual direct contact with them.

   It didn't matter. It was only a job. I just did what they wanted. I used the time to think about ways that I could work on getting my husband and my son back. At the end of the day I had several plans in mind. I drove back to my parents' house and as soon as I walked into the house, my mom handed me the phone. 

   "Betty this is Dennis Colton. You got out of here before I got a chance to speak to you today. I have some good news for you," he said.

    "I can go back to my class tomorrow," I beamed.

    "Uhm, No!" he said. "But you don't have to wake up early tomorrow to come in here."

    "You're letting me go?" I asked. "But I'm...."

    "Unfortunately, that isn't the case either," he said. "The union members voted and they agreed to allow us to terminate you, but our lawyers thought that we might be letting ourselves become vulnerable to some sort of wrongful termination lawsuit. So while they're investigating the legality of the matter, we're putting you on what they call "Administrative Leave." You will still be paid and it leaves you free to sort out your personal affairs. I would appreciate it if you could forward all of your grades to Miss Barbie."

    I hung up the phone in shock and headed back to my room.

   When dinner time came I told my mom that I wasn't hungry. My dad came up a little while later to tell me that a friend of mine was on the phone. 

    "Who is it?" I asked. I desperately needed a friend at that point.

    "How would I know?" he asked. "She sounds really nice though. She has the nicest Southern  accent."

    "Hello," I said into the phone.

    "Betty, can you please e-mail me the grades for my class," she said. I knew it was Rhonda. It seemed just like her to try to kick me while I was down.

    "Well I guess you're happy about all of this," I said. "Are you so happy you're about to burst? I guess stealing my class is the highlight of your week, huh? How many times did you fuck old Colton to get him to give you my class? Did you go around telling everyone in the school about my problems? So is this it? Is this your revenge for what happened back in college?"

    "Betty, get over your-self," she said softly. "I'm a professional educator. I didn't ask for your class and I tried to turn it down, but Mr. Colton insisted. Why would I want to put myself into a situation where the outcome is so unfairly tilted? Those children loved you. Now they're confused and hurt and they feel betrayed. I'll be compared to you at every point. At the same time the parents will be putting me under a microscope to make sure I'm not doing the same types of things you did. Who'd want that? And as far as the past goes...Yes, Betty, I hate what you did to me. Hunter was an ass. But he was my ass. I guess I should be grateful to you in some ways because if you hadn't started fucking him behind my back I might have married him and he was probably the same kind of man your fuck buddy Greg is. It could very well be me sitting around crying and wringing my hands over a man who wasn't worth two dead flies."

    "I really should be grateful to you, but at the same time you knew that Hunter was mine, but you fucked him behind my back anyway. And you did it for months. The only revenge I want against you won't be through a bunch of innocent children. I'm going to hit you in the same place you hit me. But I'm going to be open and honest about it. I want Danny. But I'm going to give you the courtesy you never gave me. I'm going to wait and see how things play out between the two of you. He needs some space and some time to sort out his feelings."

    "Rhonda, that's...that's more than I deserve. I'm sending you the grades now," I said. I got out my laptop and e-mailed the grades then we hung up. A few seconds later the phone rang again. I picked it up.

    "Did you forget something?" I asked.

    "Yeah, I needed to tell you one more thing," she said in that same soft southern accent.

    "Okay, what is it?" I asked.

    "Suck it!" she said and hung up.

    *   *   *   *   *   *

    Danny 

    It had been nearly two weeks since the concert and the dinner with Betty's parents. Since then my son and I had pulled even closer together. I had tried to get him to speak to his mother. I'd told him over and over again that what she'd done to me had nothing to do with him. 

    Once she'd come over to retrieve some of her belongings and had asked to speak to him. I told her that she didn't need to ask my permission to speak to him. He'd be eighteen in a matter of days. He was an adult and could do whatever he wanted. He had just chosen to stay home with me because it was the same house he'd always lived in.

    She explained to me that he hadn't spoken to her since before the concert and even when she had used her mother to get him on the phone he'd asked her not to call him again and had refused to answer the phone when she called.

    She said that she wanted the chance to apologize to him for any problems her actions might have caused him.

    I called him downstairs. While we waited for him to come down, she tried to make small talk. 

   "So now are you feeling?" she asked. I just shrugged my shoulders.

   "I know exactly how you feel," she said. 

   "No, you don't," I spat. "You have no idea how it feels to have the person you wanted to spend the rest of your life with want someone else and..." I had to stop talking because Jordan was coming down the stairs. 




Shame, Shame, Shame!



When he saw her he started to turn around and go back up to his room.

   "Jordy, wait," I called.

   "Jordy, what happened between your mom and me, has nothing to do with you. She loves you just as much as she always did. I'm the one she stopped loving so you should at least try..."

   Betty turned to me with tears running down her cheeks. We never got to say anything though because Jordan erupted. I had never heard my son curse before. I had also never even dreamed he would ever scream at either one of us, but obviously this had affected him more than I'd ever thought. He had clearly inherited my ability to pretend that things didn't bother him, so the fury that he unleashed on Betty was unexpected.

   "So you love me huh, Mom?" he yelled. "You love me so God damned much that you didn't even try to call me until two or three days after the concert. And where in all of that love did you ever consider how small this town is? How do you think it feels to be the son of the town slut? How do you think it feels to have people staring at you and pointing fingers at you everywhere you go? Mom since you love me so much, you probably remember that I've been crazy about the same girl for the past three years. We finally made a connection. We were going to the same college and we even went out a couple of times. But that's over mom. Her parents have refused to let her date me anymore and they're sending her to a different college to keep her safe from ME! Thanks for the love mom, but I'd be better off without it." He turned and ran back up the stairs.

   "Danny, everything you said was wrong," she said. "You are the only man I have ever loved. There has never been anyone even close to the way I feel about you. I made a terrible mistake. But love had nothing to do with it. It was sex pure and simple. And it wasn't even sex. It was just....it's a very long story and you need to let me explain it to you."

   "Betty, the best way for us to talk will be if you get a lawyer so we can work on this divorce. We'll have to have several meetings to discuss the settlement and we'll be talking then. If there's anything else you need to get off of your chest, I'll give you a whole meeting where you can talk and I'll just listen once we get the whole thing worked out."

   "I love you Danny," she said. "And I always will."

   A couple of evenings later, Jordan told me that he was going out for the evening. He and some of his friends were going over to Greg's house to watch movies and play video games on Greg's 70 inch flat screen TV. He noticed the concern in my eyes.

   "Don't worry Dad," he said. "He doesn't live there anymore. Amanda asked me to watch her kids while she goes out to do something. She's a victim in all of this too. She doesn't deserve what happened to her anymore than you and I do. Maybe, all of the innocent people in this situation need to start supporting each other." I was glad that he was going to get a chance to have some fun.

   Less than thirty minutes after he left someone knocked on my door. I opened the door to find Amanda standing there with a pizza and a bottle of wine.

  She went into my kitchen and having been there literally hundreds of times over the years, knew where everything was. She got a couple of glasses and plates out of the cabinet and placed them on the table.

  She kept her coat on but sat down across from me. "Danny, how did you find out?" she asked without preamble.

  "It was by pure luck," I said sadly. Talking about it was still painful but she deserved to know. "I guess I loved Betty too much. I had a laptop that our IT department had spent a lot of money configuring for me. I gave it to Betty. I thought that it would help her as a teacher far more than the cheap ones the board of education gives teachers. So I was using a flash drive to carry my data and drawings from my office computer to my home computer. One day, I forgot the flash drive. 

    I decided to dash home to grab it and go back to work. I thought that Betty was at school as usual. When I got home Betty's car wasn't in the driveway, but Greg's Challenger was. I didn't even think about it. Greg often skipped work and hung out in my garage. All of the band's equipment was there and he'd stop by to play." Amanda's face stiffened and her lips got tight when I said that.

    "Danny, Greg and I have three kids to support," she said. "You didn't think I needed to know that my husband was skipping out of work?"

    "Amanda, he's....well he WAS my best friend," I said. "At least I thought he was. Anyway my plan was to go into the house and grab the flash drive and then go out to the garage and scare the shit out of Greg."

    "I went into the house and headed for the office to grab the drive. As I got close to the den I heard noises so I looked in. They were so busy that they didn't even know I was there. Amanda I don't want to...."

    "Danny, I need to know," she said. She reached across the table and patted my hand.

    "He was fucking her. It was awful. He was fucking her...other hole. The sounds they were making weren't like moans of pleasure, they were just grunts. He pulled out of her, and pulled off the condom he used and jacked off over her and then shot his sperm all over her face. Then he peed on her. She writhed under him like it was the best thing in the world. She stood up and found the used condom on the floor and started licking it. He got behind her and started licking her ass."

   "Amanda, it was like two animals going at it. They had plastic sheets on the floor to protect it from the piss. They took turns spitting on each other. I was in shock. My first instinct was to go in there and beat the shit out of both of them. But I realized that if I went in there, I'd probably kill one of them or both of them."

    "It didn't make any sense to me. They kept calling each other names. He kept calling her a fucking whore and she just smiled at him. They talked about us...you and me, like we were only there to prevent them from having their fun."

    "You want to go again?" he asked her. 

   "We can't, we both have to get back to work," she said. "I hate having to rush like this. I wish we were free to just fuck whenever we wanted and for however long we want." 

   "I hear you," he said. "But someday."

   "For now though, let's get back to the boring people who make our lives hell," she said. "I hate going back to them."

   "Anyway, I got out of there. I didn't know what I was going to do but I knew that Betty and I were done. Men always get screwed over in a divorce, so I knew I had to be careful. Over the next couple of days, I avoided Greg. If he was somewhere, I didn't show. It was harder with Betty, but I pulled it off. I pretended that I needed to work later and found ways to be away from home."

   "The odd thing was that the other guys in the band noticed that there was something wrong with me long before Greg or Betty did. It was actually them who helped me come up with my plan for the concert. I'd also decided to give Betty the divorce papers that evening for her birthday. That way at least SHE would be away from one of the boring people. I never expected for people to react to her the way they have. I just figured we'd divorce and I'd never speak to Greg again. End of story."

   "Aren't you leaving a few things out?" she asked.

   "Like what?" I asked back

   "Like getting Greg fired," she said. "Like kicking his ass twice and getting him arrested?"

  "Amanda, I didn't get Greg fired," I said. "I didn't want to do anything to hurt you or your kids. And as far as everything else, Greg was trying to disconnect my cable to stop the show so no one would know about his part in all of this. I was playing, so I couldn't use my hands to stop him so I kicked him."

   "Danny," she smiled. "I know you. I've seen you and heard you talk about the way you handle drunks and people at bars while you guys play. Greg is the one who always talks about kicking people. You always say that you stepped on their hands and waited for security."

   "Okay," I admitted. "I was pissed at Greg and I lost my temper, but he started it."

   "What about the restaurant?" she asked. 

   "All I wanted to do was quit my job working for Betty's dad and give her the divorce papers," I said. "Greg ran into the restaurant yelling and screaming about me ruining his life. He tried to grab me and took a swing at me, so I punched him and left. Again he started it. I was done with him. My entire plan for revenge involved embarrassing him at the concert and ending our friendship. I didn't get him arrested or anything else. I thought that getting him embarrassed and kicking him out of the band was enough. That and losing the best friend that he'd ever had and ever will have, but of course I lost my best friend too."

    "So what about Betty?" she asked. "Betty was going to get away with just being embarrassed?" 

    "No, Betty and I are done," I said. "There's no chance."

   "The other guys won't have anything to do with Greg either," she said. 

   "They feel betrayed by him too," I said. "They don't trust him. We're all friends, but Greg and I were BEST FRIENDS. They figured if he'd do that to me, there's no way anyone else could trust him. I don't blame them."

   "I wish it was that simple for me," she said. "You and Betty both work. Your son is a grown man who's about to leave for college. Greg and I have three small children and only one income. I want my kids to grow up in a normal family with a mother and father, so as much as this hurts me, I'm going to take him back."

   I looked at her in shock. I just shook my head.

   "Oh it's not like you're thinking," she said. "I'm going to keep him on a very short leash. We also won't be sleeping together. I'm taking him back for the kids only. My lawyer came up with an extremely specific contract for exactly what will happen if he ever cheats on me again. And we will never have sex again. I only want him back until the kids are grown, but I'm not telling him that. I'll be going back to school too. So that when I do divorce him, I'll be able to support myself."

   I nodded my head. I guess I could understand her position. And I noticed that she was still looking at me.

   "There's one more thing," she said. "I need to get my revenge on him too. And I need your help."

   "Amanda, as much as I'd like to kick his ass, he and I have tangled twice already. And neither one of them made me feel any better. I actually felt worse. Do you know what it's like to lose the person you love most and your best friend at the same time? A part of me wants to run to him to cry on his shoulder about losing Betty. But at the same time, I can't go to Betty to talk about how much I miss sitting in the garage playing guitar with Greg or practicing our golf games. I don't want to do anything else to him," I said.

   "I don't want you to do anything to HIM," she said. She stood up and opened her coat. She was naked under it. My eyes opened further and my mouth dropped open as the coat hit the floor in my kitchen. "I want you to do something to me," she continued.

   Amanda is totally different from my wife Betty. Betty is taller and thinner with small breasts and incredible long thin legs. 

   As soon as the coat fell my eyes were drawn to her large heavy breasts. Her stomach was rounded and sagged a bit. Her legs were far shorter and thicker than Betty's but rather than imagining her wrapping them around me; I wanted to feel myself being crushed by those powerful legs. 

  "I think we should take this upstairs," she said thickly. Even as I stood there looking at her I could see her nipples extending. And when she turned I noticed the way her big soft ass jiggled. She turned back and grabbed my hand since I seemed to be frozen in that spot. That contact and the look in her eyes made up my mind. I was still waging an internal debate but my body had already decided.

   "But Amanda, if we do this, we won't be any better than them," I said,

   "I've already spoken to them," she said. "There are a lot of things going on that you don't know. But trust me this has been going on for a long time. They started this. They did this to us. We need to do something to get our self respect back and to prove to ourselves that there's nothing wrong with us. Beside that we're normal healthy people and we need sex too."

    Mentally, I still had my doubts, but my heart was beating so fast that I couldn't concentrate on anything else. "Danny, there are other reasons for us to do this," she said. "If you're really done with Betty, you'll need someone even if it's not that often to have sex with. On the other hand since I'm not going to take Danny back if this doesn't happen, I'll bet you I could make that asshole beg you to fuck me." 

   She smiled then. "Danny you're a good guy," she said. "You're a far better friend than Greg deserves. You're still trying to come up with a reason why we shouldn't do this. Do you know why I'm smiling so much?"

   I shook my head nervously. "Because I can tell you want to fuck me really badly. I can see your dick tenting those pants. Greg, as much as he loves me, he doesn't ever look at me like that. And I want to feel that. There's no way I'm leaving here without this happening." 

  "Jordan," I said. "What if he comes home?"

  "That's why I have him babysitting," she smiled. "Plus he might need to get used to my kids anyway. But he can't come home until I go home, so come and get it." She bent over and jiggled her ass and something snapped in me. I grabbed the bottle of wine and followed her up the stairs.

  I started taking off my clothes on the way up. By the time I got there she was lying on my bed with the sexiest look I'd ever seen on her face.

   She patted the bed next to her. "Come on up here," she said. "I can't wait." 

   "You're going to have to," I said. I put the bottle down on the table beside the bed and took her in my arms. For a few moments I just hugged her. I gently rubbed my hands up am down her sides becoming accustomed to the he differences in texture and density between her soft flesh and Betty's tight skin. She started humming and moaning. 

   I gently took her cheeks in my hands and pressed my lips against hers. She sucked my tongue into her mouth hungrily. I trailed kisses down the side of her face and down her neck. Then I grabbed the bottle and poured it over her huge soft breasts. I licked and sucked my way over every nook and cranny of those fleshy melons. She was wiggling her legs and trying to rub her pussy with her fingers. I pulled her hands away firmly and replaced them with mine. My tongues circled and sucked one of those fat nipples even as my fingers eased their way inside of her. She was so set already that I had no trouble inserting a second finger while the palm of my hand covered and massaged her clit. In only a few minutes her eyes opened wider and she started quivering. 

   "That was so good," she said. "But I need more." She pushed me onto my back and inserted my dick in her silky tunnel. Even before she rode it all the way down, she started moving her hips back and forth. I grabbed two big handfuls of booty and tried to slow her down because her movements were becoming frantic. 

   "Honey, slow down and enjoy it," I said. "We aren't in a race. Let's take our time and make this last. It'll be so much better."

   I rolled her back over without disengaging. I pulled her hands over her head and began to slowly but firmly thrust in and out of her juicy tunnel. Her fat pussy lips squeezed my dick with each sliding movement. I lowered my torso and let go of her arms. She immediately wrapped them around me and we started kissing again. It was magical.

   Long before I wanted to, I could feel the tightening in my balls telling me that I couldn't last much longer. 

   I started to pull out and in the back of my mind I pondered shooting my seed on her like Greg had done.

   "No, Baby," she said. "We aren't like them. This isn't a sport. Do it in me. I want to feel you painting my insides. Cum inside of me." And I did. Afterwards we lay together kissing and cuddling. The look in her eyes was strange. She had the same expression on her face that Betty always got. It made me start thinking again. Was it fake or genuine? Was Betty's similar look genuine? She got up to look at the clock. Seeing that big butt while she was on her hands and knees did something to me. Her tits were so big that they touched the mattress. I got behind her and shoved my dick into her still gooey pussy. I reached around and grabbed those boobs and gently squeezed them as I fucked her. She started pushing her ass back against me and she spread her legs even further apart. 

    "Ooh, ooh, harder," she gushed. Her sopping hole made squishy sounds each time I pumped into her. "Get that pussy," she moaned. We both started thrusting harder and faster until I flooded her insides again.

    "Danny," she said languidly as we lay together. i was still gently squeezing one her tits while my other hand grabbed her ass.

    "Are you just fascinated with my tits because you like them, or because Betty doesn't have any?" She asked.

   "Neither, Amanda," I said. "Nothing we did has anything to do with Betty. This was just you and I sharing ourselves. And like you said, it made me feel better about myself." 

 "Mmm," she moaned. "Danny, sometime during the last hour or so, this changed from revenge to something else. Can you do something for me next time?"

    "What do you mean NEXT TIME?" I asked.

    "Danny, I'm not a whore," she said. "But this was very special. Before tonight I've only had sex with one man, Greg. We've been married for longer than you and Betty have but we waited to have our kids. In all of that time, he has never made me feel what you did tonight."

    "Most of the time, I just feel like it's something I do because Greg wants it so badly. Sometimes I feel like a slut and other times I feel like just something for him to fuck. But you made me feel...LOVED. I felt special. I felt desired. You made me feel sexy. And for a fat old woman like me, that isn't something I can give up very easily."

    "I have all kinds of things I want to try before I tell Greg what's been..."

    "What?" I asked. "You're going to tell him?"

    "Of course," she smiled and kissed me again. "Think about it. Think about all of the pain he caused us. He deserves some pain too. And I can't think of anything more painful for him than knowing that while he isn't fucking me. Someone else is fucking the shit out of me and making me feel things he never did. It would be even more painful if he knew it was you. But I'll leave that up to you. I have not yet even begun to pay Greg back. I'll also let you decide whether or not we tell Betty.

    Over the next few weeks, things escalated between Amanda and me, until one day she told me we needed to have a talk.

    "Danny, we need to figure some things out," she said. "I'm a woman, but I'm not like Betty. I can't do the things that you and I have been doing without there being some type of feelings. Either you need to marry me and adopt my kids or we're going to have to back way off. Have you even realized how often we get together? I was over here five nights last week."

    "I know," I said. "I find myself thinking about you all the time. And I dream about us. I'm not just talking about sex either."

    "Danny it's far worse for me," she said. "I've been married to Greg for all of that time and he and I only tried anal once and it was a disaster. You've gotten me so used to having little Danny in all of my holes. Greg is going to be so shocked to find out that someone else has been somewhere that he hasn't. I give him blowjobs as a special treat because I hated doing it. I love sucking your dick. Danny, you dream about us lying around together and dating. That makes me feel warm but Honey, I've been dreaming about you giving me a baby. We need to step way back or decide to be together.