My name is Allen Culbertson and my wife is named Crys. We have been married for twelve years that I can honestly say we have been very happy. I work at a major manufacturing company as the department manager in their mechanical engineering department and Chris is a demographic analyst for an advertising agency. We have no children yet. But today, I have a problem; no, I have a major problem. Through a series of errors in judgment, I have put my marriage and my career on the line and the piper is about to demand his due.
It would be very easy to blame the whole thing on fate or someone like my long time friend, Jerry Altiori; but like most things in this life, that would be a failure to admit my own responsibility. I guess I need to tell you about Jerry and I and it will take awhile.
He and I met in college. I was in the mechanical engineering program and he was in the electrical engineering. We met in our freshman year as roommates and then became friends. He was typically Italian and outgoing even to the point of being a little brash. On the other hand, I was more soft spoken and reserved. Our friendship allowed me to open up a little and I could also say that I could temper his ultra-enthusiasm on a number of occasions. At least three of those occasions occurred when he was certain that he was deeply and madly in love with a girl who I knew was at best a serial flirt and at worst, a slut.
To my benefit, his personality forced me out of my shell frequently and as a result, I had a social life during college. He would easily pick up a girl in a club or even in the student center. She usually had a girl friend nearby and I was the designated cover man to insure him time to work on his primary target. As a consequence, I met a number of very attractive and nice girls and we often found enough similarities to enjoy each other's company for a month or two. My sex life was probably double or perhaps triple what it would have been had I not been Jerry's cover man.
This more or less came to an end in our senior year. He set his sights on a beautiful advertising major named Melissa. Truthfully, I almost wished that she would be turned off by his enthusiastic rush and that I would have gladly made an effort for her attention too. Unfortunately, that did not happen; she ate his charm, wit, and banter up like a platter of hot wings. In the background was a quiet blonde named Crystal who preferred to be called Crys. She was majoring in Statistics with a minor in Marketing. She already knew that she wanted to get into demographic analysis. She and Melissa were also roommates.
The upshot was that the four of us spent about 90% of our time together outside of class. We went through graduation together and then went on a weeklong celebration to Aruba together. When we came back, Jerry and I started working at the company where we are still employed today. A month later, Melissa was hired by an advertising agency in town and Crys found an entry level position with a television station in their programming department. We continued to get together as Jerry and I shared an apartment and Crys and Melissa did likewise. The difference was that more often than not, Crys came to our apartment while Jerry went to their apartment. This gave Crys and I enough alone time to finally get to know each other better on a personal rather than just a social level. We discovered that we liked each other a lot and that turned into love. We got married the following spring with you know who as best man and maid of honor.
Jerry and Melissa waited another six month before they tied the knot at a big, splashy Italian wedding. Crys and I served as their primary attendants also. With that, our lives lost some of its spontaneity and exuberance. All of us were very involved with our jobs and careers and had begun to assume more and more responsibility as well. We still got together almost every weekend though. Jerry and I continued to see each other daily at work and Crys and Melissa got together for lunch a couple of times each week since the station and Melissa's agency were only a few blocks apart.
In our third year of marriage, I got my first big promotion and a raise that allowed us to buy our first house. Jerry was also promoted and they decided to move to a high rise condo in the upscale part of downtown. This highlighted the difference between us. Crys and I preferred the slower and less hectic life in a suburb rather than the flashing lights of downtown. Our drives to work were farther, but we felt better with a yard and garden and our own solid ground.
During our fifth year together, Crys was approached by a major advertising support company to join their expanding demographic department as the manager of their growing internet business. She was basically at the top of her potential at the station until her boss retired which was at least ten years in the future. She took the job offer and took over a department of young hot shots eager to conquer the internet. At 28, she was the old woman of the department. Somehow, she was able to get and hold their attention well enough to turn her babies into a very effective group. Two years later, her company merged with Melissa's growing agency and once again the two roommates were together on a daily basis.
After two more promotions, I was the head of the mechanical department and Jerry was at a similar level in electrical. In our new capacities, we spent more time reviewing projects than doing hard engineering. We also had to travel frequently to the home office to present status reports and the like to our ultimate bosses. Our joint get-togethers became more like monthly get-togethers because of our travel schedules. When we were in town, Jerry and I usually had a boy's night out while our wives had a girl's night out. I couldn't speak for our wives, but Jerry and I usually used our time out together to blow off some of our stress at ball games, golf, and things like that. We would revert to our college personas and bullshit each other and look at all of the available girls and offer our commentary on their potential. Neither one of us acted on anything, but reliving those days of freedom was therapeutic for both of us.
Personally, Crys and I were happy in our house, but during one of the frequent housing upheavals and recessions, we found a bigger house that was on the verge of foreclosure and we were able to arrange a deal to buy it at a greatly reduced price and were able to move while having a mortgage that was virtually the same as our previous one. Our smaller house sold quickly as many people were urgently trying to downsize. Now we had a larger house, a larger yard, and a swimming pool with hot tub to relax in. We also lived less than a mile from the lake and that allowed us to pursue a dream that both of us shared. We took sailing lessons and loved it. The next spring, we bought a 25 ft sailboat and kept it at the local marina.
Melissa and Jerry had also moved, but into a larger condo in downtown and they were frequent hosts of dinner parties for Melissa's clients. We were often invited, but only accepted about half of those offered.
That pretty well describes how our two families were locked and interlocked on the fateful day that all of this started. It was in early spring when the trees were just beginning to bloom and thankfully, the weather was finally into the 70's consistently. I had returned from a trip on a Friday afternoon. That night, Jerry and I went to one of the first baseball games at the stadium. We fought the Friday traffic and were seated behind the dugout when the game started. As most early season games were, there were a lot of mistakes and a few good plays. Ultimately, we lost in the ninth inning when our reliever gave up three straight gopher balls that disappeared into the night.
As we started the drive back to town, Jerry asked, "Have you seen the gift from heaven that dropped into our laps this week?"
I looked and sounded confused. "What are you talking about? I didn't get back until noon and didn't even go into the office."
"My friend, we now have a drop dead gorgeous blonde working in the engineering department as of Wednesday. Rumor has it that she spent a month at corporate and then was sent here. I just caught a glimpse of her this afternoon and she will definitely get your motor running."
"Crys gets my motor running and you know it."
"I know; I know, but this is the stuff that fantasies are made of, especially for guys who have been married for more than ten years."
"Keep it in your pants, Jerry. This is beginning to sound the Jerry who chased anything in a skirt in college. I will tell you right now, don't; I repeat, do not fall in love with this fantasy. Melissa will cut your balls off, Crys will cut you into little pieces, and I will be required to bury you in five or six different places."
"I know, but wait until you see her first. I'll tell you what; she was looking for you today about an old project. You will probably see her first thing Monday morning. Meet me for lunch and tell me that I am wrong. If you can that, I will let it go."
"Fine, I will be happy to meet her and tell you that you are wrong."
"We'll see." He grinned that grin that I knew all too well. He had a target in his cross hairs. We changed the subject until he dropped me off at 11:30. Crys was still up after having spent the evening with Melissa and one of their sorority sisters.
"Hi. How was your evening?" I asked.
