I ran out of time so I didn't have time to have a proper edit done on this one. I hope it is at least readable.
I was finishing up the last of the paperwork for the three-million-dollar contract I had closed just before lunch, and I was trying to get out of the office early. I wanted to stop at the market on my way home to pick up a couple of ribeye steaks and baking potatoes for celebratory dinner. I couldn't wait to surprise my wife Jan with the news about the Foster and Simons contract. Jan and I thought that our planned vacation to Italy in September would be a great time to start working on making a baby, and thanks to this contract, my second quarter bonus would be enough to pay for our trip.
It was almost four o'clock when Jeff Hanson, my friend, and work associate, stepped into my office.
"Congratulations on landing what is probably the biggest contract for the office so far this year. Do you always have to make the rest of us look bad?" Jeff said with a big smile on his face. "How did you manage to pull that off on the last reporting day for the quarter?"
"You know what they say about blind squirrels, sometimes even they find a nut," I said.
"Who are you kidding? You always find all of the nuts, the rest of us are the blind squirrels," Jeff joked. "Have you told Jan yet?"
"Not yet. I am going to wait until we are home before I tell her about it."
"Are you going to take her out to celebrate tonight?"
"No. I think we'll have a nice quiet dinner at home and then celebrate in our special way," I said.
"I can understand that. If I had someone like Jan waiting at home for me, I would do the same thing."
"You do have someone like that waiting at home," I said.
"I know, but I don't have anything to celebrate tonight."
Jeff was about to say something else when my phone rang. It was Barb, the Boss's secretary.
"Bob, Mr. Ransom would like to see you at 5:00."
I didn't say it out loud, but I was thinking, "Ah shit."
"I'll be there. Thanks, Barb."
I looked at my watch and saw that it was only 4:10. "Shit, I have to hang around until 5:00 because the Boss wants to see me. I was hoping to get out of here early," I said.
Jeff, who was still standing at the door, said, "Guess I'll head home now. Leaving early on a Friday is a perk us losers get while you heroes get to stay late to meet with the Boss."
"You know you're an asshole, don't you?" I said.
"And proud of it. Have a great weekend."
"Yeah, you too, Now get the hell out of here so I can get some work done," I said.
"Can't fool me. As soon as I leave, you'll be watching internet porn until you have to go upstairs."
My plan to celebrate with a nice steak dinner was not going the way I had hoped. If I left before 4:30, I could get to the store and still get home before Jan, who typically gets home around 5:30. When I leave my office at 5:00, I get home at 6:00.
Meetings with my Boss, John Ransom, seldom last less than an hour. With Friday rush hour traffic being what it is and leaving at 6:00 with a stop at the market, I would have difficulty getting home before 7:00. If I still wanted to have a steak dinner, I would have to ask Jan to do the shopping, which would ruin part of my surprise.
Jan seldom, if ever, leaves her office before five o'clock, so on my way up to Mr. Ransom's office, I sent her a text asking her to go to the store.
Barb saw me approaching the office, picked up her phone, and called John to tell him I was waiting.
"Go right in, Bob."
John was sitting at his desk staring down at some papers. He looked up at me with an angry expression on his face.
"What the hell are you trying to do, bankrupt the company?" John said. "How can I afford to have you working here if I have to keep paying you these huge bonuses?
I sensed that John was joking, so I said, "You don't have to pay the bonuses if you just give me half of the business."
John was now smiling. "At the rate, you are going, you may end up owning the whole place.
I just wanted to congratulate you on closing the Foster and Simons contract. That was a fine piece of work. You know I told Mark that you were trying to close the deal before the quarter closed, and he bet me ten bucks you couldn't do it." Mark Watson is the VP of marketing. "Here's your half of the winnings," John said and handed me a five-dollar bill.
We talked for another five minutes, and then John said, "Bob, I think you have done enough for today, so why don't you go home and enjoy your weekend?
When I left John's office, I didn't know whether to call Jan and tell her I would go to the store or let her go. I looked at my watch, and it was already ten after five. Jan was probably already on her way to the store, so I headed home.
Jan was not home when I got there, so I assumed she was at the grocery store picking up the steaks and potatoes for dinner. I was sitting in the family room reading when I heard the garage door opening at almost 6:30. I thought that Jan wasn't going to be happy that she had to shop during rush hour on Friday, especially when she finds me at home. I assumed that she could get to the store and still be home by 5:30.
Jan came in through the kitchen, and when she saw me, she said, "I'll be back in a minute. I have to pee so bad if I don't go right now, I will wet myself." Then she disappeared into the downstairs bathroom.
While she was in the bathroom, I wandered into the kitchen to preheat the oven for the potatoes, season the steaks, and then fix us a drink. There were no steaks and no potatoes. I wondered why she was so late getting home if she didn't go to the store.
When she came back from the bathroom, I ask her where the steaks were.
"What stakes?"
"I sent you a text just before five and asked you to stop and pick up two ribeyes and a couple of baking potatoes."
"You sent me a text? I never saw it. Let me check my phone to see if I got your text."
Jan opened the large handbag she always carried and searched inside it for a minute.
"I can't find my phone." Jan looked panicked for a minute, then said, "Oh crap. I left it at work. I'll have to go into the office in the morning to get my phone."
"If you didn't go to the store, why were you so late getting home?" I said.
"We had an awful day. The air conditioning broke down around 11:00 this morning. A bunch of us decided to take an early lunch, and we went over to McCarthy's to wait for the AC to get fixed. It still wasn't working at 2:00, so we all stayed at McCarthy's. I had a report that I had to finish for Mr. Johnson, so I was writing the report on my phone, then at 4:30, I went back to the office to copy the report over to my computer and proof it. I finished that around 5:30 and rushed out of the office to get home. I must have left the phone on my desk.
I was disappointed that we wouldn't be having steak for dinner, but it wasn't necessary. I decided that I would get the steaks tomorrow, and we would celebrate Saturday night.
"You want me to order a pizza for dinner?" I said.
"How about Chinese?"
After dinner, Jan and I settled down to watch a movie on HBO. Jan fell asleep about halfway through the movie, so I woke her up and sent her up to bed when it was over. As I waited for another movie to start, I picked up my cell phone to check e-mails. I had ten notes congratulating me for getting the Foster and Simons contract. After reading my e-mails, I remembered that our phones both had an app for locating our phones if they got lost. I had never used it, so I decided to try it out and see if it worked.
The app was easy to use, and it quickly located Jan's phone, which put a knot in my stomach. Jan's phone was not at her office. It was on the other side of town. When I zeroed in on the location, I got an address on Belmar Avenue on the west side of Brodricksburg. Jan's office is in the Berkley building that overlooks the Delaware River on the eastern edge of town. According to Google Maps, Jan's phone was seven miles and a twenty-minute drive from her office.
Did Jan lie to me? That was the question I was asking myself. Is she having an affair? Or, is there a less terrible explanation for her lie? One way or another, I was going to know the truth before the end of the day Saturday. Before I went to bed, I got on my computer and went to the County Tax Records website. I looked up the address on Belmar Avenue and found out that the property belongs to Vincent Morrison. I met him in McCarthy's Bar a couple of times when I met Jan for an after-work drink. I never got the impression that he and Jan were even friends.
I didn't sleep much as my mind worked on the problem. What will I do if Jan is having an affair? Forgive her? Probably not. Divorce her? Maybe. I ran several scenarios of how to handle this in my head. In the end, I decided to give Jan enough rope to hang herself if she was guilty.
I was up early Saturday morning and sitting at the kitchen table with the morning paper and my coffee when Jan came down. I offered her a cup of coffee as I fought to remain calm and not give away my state of mind.
"What do you have planned today?" I asked Jan.
"I have to go to my office to get my phone and then do some shopping."
Maybe I'll go with you." I saw Jan stiffen when I suggested going with her. That confirmed to me that she knew that her phone was not in her office. I was hoping that she didn't know, and there was some other explanation for why her phone was at Vincent Morrison's house.
"I have a couple of things to do while I am at the office. I'll be there for a couple of hours. I am sure you can find something better to do."
"Is there something better than spending a lazy Saturday with my sexy wife?"
"I'll be home in time for lunch. Maybe you can think of something to do after lunch that includes your sexy wife."
"That will depend on the mood I am in when you get home."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing. Go run your errands. I'll be here when you get back."
I estimated the drive from our house to Morrison's house to be about fifteen minutes, so I waited twenty minutes and used the phone finder app to see if her phone was still at Morrison's. It was still there, which didn't tell me anything. If the phone had been somewhere between Morrison's and the Berkley Building, it would mean that Jan went straight to Morrison's house, picked up her phone, and then headed to her office. The phone still being at Morrison's left me to wonder if Jan was visiting the house on Belmar Avenue.
I rechecked the location after an hour, and it was still at Morrison's. When I checked again twenty minutes later, Jan's phone was halfway across town. The question now was, did she pick up the phone herself, or was Morrison bringing it to her. I called her office and got no answer, so I called her cell phone, and she answered on the third ring.
"Where are you?"
"I'm in my car, and I'm heading to the store."
"I thought you said that you had a couple of hours of work to do."
"I got finished faster than I thought. I'll see you in about noon."
"More fucking lies," I yelled to no one. It looked to me like the lying bitch went to Vince Morrison's house first thing this morning and stayed there with him for more than an hour. What was she doing during that time, having a quickie?
I started pacing around the house as my mood alternated from pain to sadness and then to flashes of red hot anger. Jan was not going to enjoy our lunch conversation. I went up to our bedroom, sat on the bed, and tried to convince myself that there was some other explanation for why Jan lied to me, but I could not think of one. Why would she do this to me, to us? I thought we had a great relationship. I guess I'm the fool.
We were going to start our family this year. We bought our house ten months ago so we would be ready to have kids. The house we purchased even had an in-law suite complete with a kitchenette so the grandparents would have a comfortable place to stay when they visit.
If we end up getting divorced, what we do with the house. I was not too fond of the idea that we would have to sell the house because we have very little equity, and neither could afford the mortgage payments by ourselves.
How do we tell our parents? What are our friends going to say? Will they take sides? All kinds of thoughts were going through my mind, and all of them were negative.
As I wandered around, I was remembering how long we debated about buying this house. It was larger and more expensive than anything else we had seen. The in-law suite was the feature that convinced us that this was the house for us.
I checked the time and saw that it was almost noon. Jan would be home soon, and I still hadn't decided on how I would handle the confrontation that was coming. Before I could even think of how to start the conversation, I heard the garage door opening.
When Jan came into the kitchen, she was carrying a grocery bag. "I got the steaks and potatoes you wanted me to get yesterday. We'll have them for dinner tonight," Jan said as she emptied the bag and put the steaks in the refrigerator.
I stood watching her with a knot in my stomach. I thought about putting off the talk until after lunch, but since I didn't know if I would be able to eat anything, I decided to go ahead and confront her.
"So you got your phone?"
"Yeah, it was right where I left it," Jan said.
No lie there, I thought. "So, did you go over to pick it up, or did Vince Morrison bring it to you?"
I had no expectation of how Jan would react to my question, but I sure as hell wasn't expecting her to fall to her knees and start crying. "I'm sorry. I am so sorry," she cried. "I never meant for this to happen."
"You didn't intend to fall in love with him, is that what you're trying to tell me?"
"No, I am not in love with him. I don't even like him."
Before Jan could continue, I jumped in again. "If you're not in love with him, why would you have an affair with him knowing that I would divorce you if I found out that you fucked him?"
Jan looked up at me with tears streaming down her cheeks. "It wasn't an affair. It only happened one time."
"You expect me to believe that when you so easily lied to me when you came home yesterday? I can't talk to you right now," I said and headed upstairs.
I went up to our bedroom and sat on the bed to think. Looking around the room, I realize I wasn't going to sleep in there with Jan, so I started moving my clothes to the in-law suite. Jan came upstairs, and when she saw what I was doing, she just looked at me and said, "Please don't do this."
"I have to get away from you until I can control my anger. Right now, I want to hit you, but I can't let myself do that."
For the next two weeks, I avoided Jan and only spoke to her if I had to. Finally, on Friday night, I decided it was time to get everything out in the open. We sat in the living room facing each other, and I told her what I wanted.
"I need you to tell me how this started, how long it has been going on, and what you are planning to do about it. Just know that if I think you are lying to me, there will be nothing more to talk about."
"I won't lie to you. Please give me a chance to explain what happened."
"I'm listening."
"What I told you about that Friday was partly right. The air conditioning did break down, and several of us went over to McCarthy's for lunch. We kept checking with the office to see if the AC was working, and at two o'clock, our boss said that the AC would be out for the rest of the day. I had a report that I had to finish for my boss, but Vince invited everyone to see his new house and have a little party. Instead of coming home, I went along with the others to Vince's house.
"Vince opened a couple of bottles of wine and made a cheese and cracker plate. Everyone but me went into the living room to listen to music and drink wine. I sat at the kitchen counter, writing my report on my cell phone. It took me two and a half hours to finish it and e-mail it to my boss. By then, everyone else had left.
"Vince said that since I had spent my whole time working, I should sit down and have a glass of wine with him. Vince and I started talking and getting to know each other a little better. Before I realized it, I was on my second glass of wine and feeling relaxed. I told him that I should get going, but he persuaded me to stay for one more glass of wine. I was enjoying the buzz from the wine and just relaxing when Vince lit up a joint.
"I hadn't smoked pot since college, so when Vince offered me the joint, I took a hit. Then I took several more. I was so stoned that when Vince kissed me, I responded without thinking about what I was doing. Things progressed from there. I never had any intention of having sex with him. I know I should have left when the others did. I should never have taken a hit on that joint. I hate that this happened, but I can't undo it. I'm sorry."
"You're sorry? If you were sorry, you would not have gone to his house again in the morning and spent more than an hour with him. You didn't get enough of him Friday night, so you had to go back for more."
"I didn't go back to his house. I went to my office and called him and asked him to bring my phone to me. Vince wanted me to come to the house and said that we could fire up another joint and have some more fun. I told him that I was not coming to his house and we would never repeat what happened Friday. He finally agreed to meet me at Starbucks and give me the phone."
"That story is pretty hard to believe."
"It's the truth. You have to know that I would never have intentionally cheated on you. I know you are angry with me, and I am angry at myself. I can't believe I let that happen."
I had promised myself that I would not ask Jan these questions because I knew the answers would not help me. But, in the heat of the moment, I blurted them out.
"Was he better than me? Was his cock bigger? Did he give you multiple orgasms? Did he leave a big load of his cum in your cunt? Is that why you ran into the bathroom as soon as you came into the house? Did you need to clean yourself up so I wouldn't notice the mess?"
"Oh my God, no. It wasn't like that. Please don't make me talk about this."
"Why? You afraid that you are going to hurt me more than you already have?"
"No. It wasn't like we were making love..."
"Don't say it was just sex."
"I don't know what to call it," Jan said.
"Tell me the truth. Did you enjoy it?"
"At the time it was happening, yes, I did. But..."
"Did you enjoy it more than when I make love to you?" I said.
"No. It was just different."
"Different? How was it different?"
"Do we really have to talk about this?"
"If you want to have any chance of saving this marriage, you need to tell me everything."
Jan bent her head and shook it back and forth for a moment. When she looked back up at me, tears were streaming down her cheeks.
"You want to know what it was like? Okay, it was fun, and that is all it was."
I started to say something but Jan held her hand up to stop me. "You wanted to know, so you have to let me tell this my way. Remember when we were in college, and we smoked pot? Remember how it affected me? I would get silly and giggle or laugh at everything. Well, that is the way that joint affected me. We were talking, and everything struck me as funny. When Vince kissed me, I started giggling and couldn't stop. It took me a couple of minutes to settle down, and then Vince stood up and took his pants off. His cock was already hard and sticking straight out in front of him. When I saw it, I started laughing at him, and I asked him, 'What are you planning to do with that thing?'
"He said he was going to stick it in me, and I told him to keep that thing away from me unless he put a condom on it. Vince went and got a condom and put it on. Then he started to pull my pants off. I was laughing so hard while he struggled to get my pantyhose off that I could hardly breathe.
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