Alex and Atie

ALEX AND KATIE: A VALENTINE REDEMPTION

Alex Denton tilted his head back and let the cold water from the showerhead batter his face and gradually he felt like he was coming back to life. The water cascaded down his neck and chest, then wrapped around his lower body and washed slowly to the stone floor and eventually down the drain. He massaged below his eyes in hopes some of the puffiness would be gone before he got to the office. He soaped up and watched the sudsy run-off spill clockwise into the floor drain. Without lifting his head, Alex reached for the shampoo bottle, squeezed some into his hand, and began to wash his hair.

He knew the routine by rote and could do it in the dark, except the white bathroom with its bright white lights, marble countertops, and glass-enclosed shower was what sold him on this house. Now, lately, he wondered if he was happier in the old house where he had to step into the tub and draw the shower curtain and bathe in a bit of darkness.

And right on schedule Katie opened the shower door and stepped in on his introspection. This, too, was rote.

Running late, dear, Alex said to himself.

"Running late, dear," Katie said.

Hope you don't mind.

"Hope you don't mind," Katie said, turning the cold water to lava hot.

Alex backed to the corner of the shower and continued to shampoo. Katie stepped beneath the warm waterfall and let it wash over her. She shaved her legs, armpits, and touched up her pubic-Mohawk as if he wasn't there.

Alex watched his wife go about her seven-minute dance. Katie's thin back and round ass made him stir; her strong legs reminded him of naked weekends and the time at the Bed and Breakfast the matronly owner took them aside and wondered if they could 'be a little more discreet'. Her soft strawberry-blonde hair was matted at the tips from the water. When Katie turned and faced him, her back to the showerhead, Alex loved her round breasts with his eyes. Tan areolas laid the perfect foundation for her pert nipples; the small mole on her left breast, nicknamed 'Burt' when they were in Law School, seemed fantastic and benign at the same time.

Katie moved the soaped washcloth over her flat stomach. Her head was down watching her hand rub in circular motions until her belly was awash with pink suds on a white background. Alex watched the soap run down her belly and part ways at the thin stripe of red pubic hair above her mound. Separated but soon joined, the soapy run-off came together half way down her vaginal opening, down her legs and to the drain.

Katie pressed a soapy finger into her pussy, moved it around, then spread her legs and inserted another finger. Alex watched. Once upon a time he would have had a huge erection and been saying things like 'I can take care of that for you' or 'Why two fingers when one prick'll do?' She pulled her hand out of her vagina, turned, pressed her breasts together, and rinsed off.

"I'll probably get my period in three or four days," Katie said.

Alex stepped forward, behind his wife, leaned his head beneath the showerhead, and rinsed as well. His cock was soft; it hung between his legs like a drugged lion at the zoo.

Katie turned, her erect nipples pressed hard against his chest. She kissed him.

"I'm late. God, I'm late," and opened the shower door, exiting.

Alex flashed on the time when shower fantasies were his thing. He looked at his cock, rubbed it, but it just stared at the floor.

Katie opened the shower door, suddenly dressed.

"Happy anniversary, Alex." Katie brought three fingers to her lips then rolled them away, blowing him a kiss.

"Happy anniversary, honey."

"Dinner at my dad's tonight, don't forget."

***

I guess we've grown apart a little, but all couples do, a little at least. I love Alex, always have. He's the only guy I've ever loved, I guess. But we are basically selfish people, I suppose. I wanted the big house, but I quit my job to become a teacher. Law would've got us there a lot faster, I know, and I take the blame. I knew in school Alex was never going to be the rich successful lawyer; he's always wanted be a voice for the little guy, but it turns out the little guy doesn't have a lot of money for attorney's fees. But we have the big house anyway, only now we have to work so hard to keep it. I don't know. I probably should have stayed a lawyer. I blame myself, but teaching is what I love to do.

My father helps out quite a bit, you know, when we are short at the end of the month, whatever. Alex hates it. I know I should tell my dad 'no thanks', but it's hard to tell my father anything. He enjoys helping, and I enjoy living here. And teaching, of course.

***

I know Katie's had a least two boyfriends in the six years we've been married. I caught her the first time in our bed in our old house. I came home early from court when my client didn't show up for his trial—you'd have to know my clientele. I don't know why she wasn't in school, it wasn't a holiday or anything, but there they were. Katie was on top of him bouncing on the biggest cock I'd ever seen. His hands were squeezing her breasts together and his thumb and forefinger were pinching her erect nipples. I just stood in the doorway and a strange calmness came over me. There was no anger. I just watched my wife of two years fuck this guy who had to be twice her age.

When they flipped over he grabbed her hips and shoved his prick into her time and time again. I'm sure they were both moaning, but I can't remember a word they said, which is odd because Katie has a habit of announcing her orgasms, or at least she used to. She numbers them. It's never, 'Oh God, I'm coming!' It's 'Oh, God, there's number one.' It's a turn-on, really.

Anyway, this guy slowed for a minute and let his cock slide in out very gently. In the time since I thought it was almost lovingly the way he pushed his dick in and out of Katie's vagina. Then they picked up the pace again. Katie raised her arms and pressed her hands against the headboard, slamming her pelvis at his swollen cock. I think she was crying, at least that's the way I remember it. When he came he shot load after load onto my wife's stomach and breasts. Katie massaged his white jizz into her tanned belly and licked her fingers.

***

When Alex got to the office he asked Alice to send a dozen roses to Katie's school with a card that read simply Happy 6th Anniversary, Love A.

"What about tomorrow? You know: Valentine's Day," Alice asked. She already keyed in the florist on the desktop.

"Tomorrow I may be sending you flowers," Alex said over his shoulder, on his way to his small office.

Alice had been with Alex since the day after he opened the small practice in offices above a Cajun restaurant downtown. When she interviewed for the job Alex typed her as a hippie chick who wanted to save the earth, the whales, baby seals, and of course, trees. After the interview he put her application in the 'no' file, but as the day lagged on he couldn't stop thinking about her. She'd worn a dark blue men's suit tailored with wide shoulders, a white shirt and a thin, dark, but not-quite-blue tie. Her brown hair was pulled back in a loose ponytail and hung to the middle of her slender shoulder blades. Alex called her after a late lunch of Blackened Voodoo beers and several Southern Comforts.

The next morning Alice knocked on the locked office doors at 6:59. She was wearing the same suit. Alex smiled to himself and unlocked the doors.

"Too formal," he said. "Too...corporate, I guess."

Alice looked down at the clothes she was wearing; indeed, the clothes she'd worn not only to the interview yesterday but to the eight she'd been on the previous week. Alex looked, too. On her running shoes he noticed Alice had placed a short strip of thick white tape to hide the flashing red safety-light designed for little kids or runners who get their roadwork done at night or in the early morning. "It wasn't my first choice, Mr. Benton," Alice said, still looking down.

"Alex, please. We're the same age," Alex lied. In fact, he knew Alice was two years older. "Go home and come back when you are dressed and ready to make this Law office a place where you are comfortable." He closed and locked the door.

When Alice returned it was 10 o'clock and she was wearing a pair of men's khaki Dockers and a short-sleeved mauve and crème blouse. Her brown hair was still pulled back, but a little looser, and she was wearing round-framed glasses and sandals on her feet. Her toenails were painted the same shade of purple as her blouse.

"And Alice," Alex said now. "What is that anniversary called that happens every six or so years. You know. Say you get married on a Friday, okay? What is it called when your anniversary some years later, and I think it is every six years, when the date of the month and day of the week are the same as the date and day you got married?"

"I don't get it?" Alice said. She was just about to punch the 'Send Flowers' button on her Apple.

"O.K. Katie and I were married on February 13th. Friday, February 13th, 1998. Valentine's Day, the next day, of course fell on a—"

"—Saturday."

"Sharp," Alex said with a sarcastic wink. "This year our anniversary is on a Friday, too, and Valentine's Day is tomorrow, Saturday. It's the first time it's happened since we've been married. Isn't there a name for the occasion when that happens?"

"Oh, I see," Alice said, trying not to show her smart-ass smirk. "It's like if you were born on a Saturday, there should be a special name for every birthday that also lands on a Saturday."

"Exactly," Alex said. He raised his shoulders, gave an exaggerated sigh, then slumped a bit with arms outside his hips and palms facing Alice, as if to say 'Finally'.

"I don't know," she said. "But I'll Google it," Alice giggled.

"Send the flowers first."

His receptionist hit the Send icon on her computer screen.

***

He told you that? Wow! He must have really been hurt if he told you that. You know, I never went out with Dr. Harris after that day. I worked the rest of the school year with him, had to refer kids to his office, sat on committees with him, but we both knew we'd crossed the line. Not so much the sex, I guess, but the fact we'd been in my bed, my husband's bed. Alex didn't sleep with me in that bed until we got the new house. Somehow moving made it okay for us to sleep and make love in our bed again. I guess we decided we'd left everything behind and started new once we got here.

God. Dr. Benjamin Harris. I haven't thought about him in a couple of years. Benny. That's what he wanted me to call him when we were alone. You know what? He was good for me. I was so scared my first year teaching. Law school doesn't prepare you for teaching elementary school. The kids look at you like you have all the answers and they just want to swim in everything you say.

I talked to Alex everyday, but pretty soon it was clear that he was trying so hard to break out of the corporate law profession my father'd set up for both of us and go it on his own that he didn't have any time for his lawyer-turned-schoolteacher wife. Add to that we were both scared to death about finances and what our decisions were going to do to our futures. You know? One day were driving past car lots saying we could buy this car and that car, and the next day we were in the grocery store buying Cottage Cheese instead of Ricotta because it was fifty cents cheaper.

Benny was a savior, in a way. He made me feel great about my decision to become a teacher. On Valentine's Day he sent every student and teacher a box of those sugary hard heart-shaped candies with messages on them. You remember those? Mine all said 'Be Mine' Every one in the box said 'Be Mine'. He had no fears, that man. Pretty soon we were seeing other at school all the time, then a cocktail after work, then a hotel once in a while. He made me feel good about me. I guess that's what I'd wanted for quite a while.

***

An aunt of mine died about a month before our third anniversary and left me about $30,000. It was the money Katie and I needed to get the house of our dreams. Well, maybe not the house of our dreams, but it gave us a chance to get out of the house we were living in. The house where she'd fucked that guy in our bed. We shopped all the best neighborhoods and found this house, the house we live in today. When our offer was accepted and we signed the papers, all I could think of was all the ways I was going to love my wife in our new home and sleep and make love to her in our new bed in our new house.

We finalized things in the morning. Katie's father was our attorney and things went quickly. Katie wanted to go back to school so she'd only miss half a day and I wanted to go have a drink. Well that's the honest truth. Instead I went to the office.

Alice was at her desk and looked as professional as I'd ever asked her to look. She was dressed casually staring into the computer screen. Her denim shirt was unbuttoned just enough to show she wasn't wearing a bra.

She was crying. "Paul McCartney called. He's been detained at Heathrow. He wants you."

I kept walking to my office. "Tell Mr. McCartney I'll take the next flight, post his bond, and tell him I expect him in my office tomorrow. And why are you crying?"

Paul McCartney was actually James Paul Beatie, aka, Jimmy Beetle. Heathrow was wherever the authorities were holding him.

I stopped before going into my small room. "Why are you crying, Alice?"

"I love Paul McCartney."

"The Beatle, not 'the beetle'," I said hopefully.

"Alex, did you and Katie buy that house?"

"Closed on it this morning. Have a drink with me." And we went into my office.

***

The prospect of going to Katie's father's house, a-fucking-gain, for their anniversary, weighed on Alex all day. Every year since they'd married, Alex and Katie went to Si's house on February 13th. Seymour, "Si", Lang, ESQ. He actually put the officious "ESQ" after his surname on all official documents, and, of course, any written correspondence with Alex.

Si's disdain for his son-in-law was less than thinly veiled. Katie played it off it front of her father to keep some sort of peace in the family, but more than one argument between Katie and Alex had everything to do with her father's attitude toward him. Usually the arguments started on February 13th at Si's house, with apologies coming the next day. It seemed to Alex that Katie waited for apologies from her father on Valentine's Day more than she waited for whatever small gift was forthcoming from him, and he resented it. The day after his fourth anniversary, Alex stopped buying anything for his wife on Valentine's Day.

When Alex knocked on one of the two twelve-foot doors at Si's house, he tapped politely twice, took a deep breath, and measured his drunkenness. He'd had too much, but could excuse it to exhaustion. "Over-worked" works every time for a lawyer; Katie would know the truth, she's known for a couple of years. Alex walked in and put on his best face.

***

That's the truth: My father never liked Alex very much. I don't know. He was working so much when my sister and I were growing up he missed it all. The dates, the proms, you know...Dad missed it all. When Beth died he cried; when my mother died he was all business.

"There are arrangements, and announcements, and...."

My dad worked so hard for everything he has, for everything Alex and I have...I don't know...I'm not sure Alex understands what it is like to lose a sister, a mother. And I'm Goddamn sure he doesn't know what it's like for my father to lose both of them in a year. My dad missed his girls growing up.

***

Back in the day, Indiana was the home of Drive-In movies. Katie and I met in college and in the summer we hooked up a couple of times. I loved the movies, and if you could see a movie in your car, great.

The sad truth is that ours was probably the last drive-in to close. It was late summer, getting cold, I guess, and I picked up my college friend Kate Lang at her front door.

It was the only time I'd met Katie's mother. In a year she'd be dead. Breast cancer.

Katie ran down the stairs in hurry. She kissed me, then whispered in my ear. "My mom says my sister has to go with us, or I can't go. She can go, can't she?"

I didn't miss a blink.

"Mrs. Lang?" I asked. "Would Beth like to come to the movies with us? If she wants to bring a girlfriend or something, that'd be okay, too."

Beth emerged from a hallway at the top of the long staircase leading upstairs. She'd made a noise to make us all look up.

Mrs. Lang watched her younger daughter dance down the staircase. It's hard to imagine she didn't notice that Beth wasn't wearing panties. Beth made sure I'd notice, though, flashing her too-long brown dress shirt, flaunting her soft breasts, and pink pussy parts.

"Have fun, kids," was the last thing I ever heard Mrs. Lang say.

After the first movie we all went to the concession stand and bought more sodas and popcorn. Katie was complaining that she was tired and wanted to go home. Beth pouted and said she wanted to see the second movie way more than she had wanted to see the first one and, of course, got her way. We stayed. When we got back to the car Katie got in the back seat and snuggled beneath a blanket. Beth sat upfront with me. Before the titles started Beth and I could hear the steady breathing of a sound sleep coming from behind us. We shared the bag of popcorn and a blanket.

It wasn't long before Beth was a little closer to me, rubbing my stomach. My cock rocketed to attention. Hesitantly Beth moved her hand to my crotch and rubbed the muscle that pressed against my shorts. In a minute she'd expertly unbuttoned me and was stroking my dick with a long, slow, smooth motion. Her hand was wet with butter from the popcorn. I pressed my hips forward and tried hard to watch the huge screen.

Beth turned in her seat and sat with her back pressed against the dashboard, facing me, watching me go slowly crazy, but watching for her sister, too. She unbuttoned her shirt a little and reached in to massage her right breast.

"Does Katie do this for you?" she whispered.

I nodded. Her small hand made my cock look huge. I felt harder than I'd ever felt. Her hand was steady, slow. I moved forward in my seat; my head was beneath the headrest. I alternately watched her hand and her eyes. She glanced into the back seat, then looked at me.

"Does she do this for you?"

Beth leaned to her right and pressed her face into my lap. I could feel her take me in her mouth. Her head bobbed up and down. Her tongue teased the head of my prick, then she swallowed me again. Beth licked the length of my swollen cock and suckled my balls. I tried to push even farther forward in my seat, to get flatter. She tickled my testicles with her tongue and stroked my shaft with her hand. My cock was wet with saliva and butter.

Beth adjusted herself again and pounded her mouth up and down on my strained cock. We had to making a lot of noise, but I didn't care. I thought about what it would be like to have both Katie and Beth ministering to my prick at the same time.

I tried to warn her I was going to come, but I think Beth already knew that. She moved her mouth to the head of my prick and sucked hard, stroking me fast. Her tight grip on my pulsing dick let me know she wanted to swallow every drop. "Here I come," was all I could say.

Beth took my whole cock deep into her mouth as I shot over and over again. I felt her swallow then suck hard. I pressed her head to my groin and bucked my hips. When I had nothing left she released my cock. It glistened in the light of the movie screen.

Beth straightened up and faced forward. Her legs were spread. I reached between them and found her pussy. She was soaking wet. I made small circular motions on her clit and she smiled. The car smelled like sex and we watched the rest of the movie.