Friends With Benefits Becomes Love

Me and my friend Kate

My name is James David Wilson, Jim. I am half an inch shorter than six foot. I knew Katherine Jensen, Kate, a fellow teacher, three years before ever meeting my wife, Janice. Kate and I had been friends in college, and for a short time, had been 'friends with benefits'. Kate and I decided we were better just friends than 'friends with benefits', and we vowed to NEVER tell any one of our 'benefits'. We felt being friends was more important. I had to admit that I did miss our intimate times, but I did cherish our friendship, so I settled into a platonic friendship.

Kate and I supported each other from then on.

She told me when a girlfriend was wanting to use me as a 'place holder' (until the girlfriend found a richer guy and would then either drop me or worse yet, divorce me if we got that far depending how long it would take her to find a poor rich sap). Must have been Kate's woman's intuition. I would pick Kate up when a date would go south, and when she needed a white knight. I had to 'talk' to a few guys, who did not treat Kate with respect. I was one of the groomsmen at her wedding. Kate was one of Janice's bridesmaids.

Our young careers

Both Janice and I got work right out of college. Janice got a job in a bank, and me, I got one teaching. Janice's job would eventually lead to a managerial position. For my career, I had my eye on educational leadership, so that meant more school, which meant more tuition money was needed.

Kate, being a compassionate person, was aimed at school counseling, which also meant more school, and that meant tuition money was also needed,

Kate's divorce

I had told Kate when I found out the asshole she married, had cheated on her with someone from his work. It was not a clandestine investigation; I saw him all kissy face with the rich Barbie. He was about to become an up-and-coming junior executive at his company. It looked like Kate's husband was looking to replace Kate.

Kate did very well in her divorce settlement— an 'Alienation Of Affection' lawsuit against the Barbie girlfriend, who was a rich bitch. Kate's lawyer also got what her husband's company called a 'relocation fee' because they did not supervise their employees according to their policies. They did it to keep things quiet.

Kate then had 'extra' money from her divorce.

My divorce

Just two months later, I found out that Janice, my wife of four years, was having an affair.

I found out from Kate. Again, it was not a clandestine investigation, Janice and Kate had a mutual acquaintance, Sue. Sue, actually, was a friend of Kate's, and she told Kate. She knew that Kate was a very, very good friend of mine, and she was disgusted that Janice would do that.

They both worked at the same bank; Sue actually got passed over because of Janice's fucking! The guy was Sue and Janice's boss, Paul Sciatto! What helped was that Kate got the whole lowdown on the who, the where and when of every time she fucked this guy, even the why!— she was trying to fuck her way to a promotion.

Sue did a good job of making Janice think that she was her friend.

At the time, we all were living in North Carolina. The hardest part of the divorce was establishing the pattern of adultery without Janice finding out I knew. I had Kate as a witness, but it was not strong enough because it was second hand, and Sue was afraid that she'd be fired if she blew the whistle.

I hired a private investigator to follow Janice on her 'fuck' days. The PI, a woman, was as good as advertised. She got all the shit I needed for my lawyer (the same lawyer Kate had used); the lawyer wanted a slam dunk. After three weeks, she had her slam dunk— a PI report with pictures, even! They had met and fucked four times in those three weeks! The PI was also a process server, so my lawyer and the PI arranged to have my wife served along with her fuck buddy as they walked out of the motel room. Oh, there was a video of it!

One reason the boss was served was because he also was married and, 'somehow' the word of his infidelity got to his wife, Cynthia, and she used my lawyer. Imagine that.

Janice's bank allowed the boss to quietly resign, and he was able to bounce back with a job at another financial institution. He ended up with a large child support payment and a large alimony payment because of their prenup— two kids and a stay-at-home wife will do that!

He did 'luck out' when Cynthia remarried years later, when the kids hit their late teens, and he didn't have to pay alimony, but the judge increased the child support—

Karma

.

Sue told Kate that Janice was not so lucky, as she was promptly fired, and that her infidelity and fraternization story followed her. Her career in the financial world was over.

It was quite a 'cheaters-type' circus— one, because they were caught off guard; and two, Cynthia was waiting in the parking lot, SHE was the one who shot the video!

Kate and a couple of her friends showed up on that day to Janice and my rented house and packed every last bit of Janice's clothes and belongings into moving boxes. We were only renting because as a teacher just starting out, we could not come up with enough of the down payment with my and Janice's salaries; if it had been another year, we would have had it.

Janice's dad drove up to pick up her stuff. He growled at me. I gave him the PI's report; he skimmed through it until he came to the pictures. He hung his head as he said sorry and finished loading Janice's stuff.

To make a long story short, North Carolina is in the Bible Belt; Cynthia and I got the same judge that Kate had. Our hearings were back-to-back, and we had some of the same witnesses. The judge was old school and she, herself, had just divorced a cheating spouse. The 'divorce circus' turned into a 'victory parade'. The same judge presided over our lawsuits, What can I say?... Small town not too many judges. We made out like bandits.

Both Cynthia and I got some 'Alienation Of Affection' lawsuit money. Cynthia got part of Janice's half of 'our home' down payment money we had put away. I got the rest of it because I was the 'injured spouse', basically wiping Janice out. I also received a larger amount from her boss. Plus, my lawyer got me a 'relocation award', just like Kate did, from Janice's bank; it was really hush money, you know, it being the Bible Belt, her bank did not want the illicit behavior known.

Janice wanted counseling, and she was actually trying to reconcile! She felt it was just sex. Just sex! Since it was just to get us more money, it should be okay. Her fucking was how we were going to afford MY SCHOOLING! She tried to say how a promotion would help us, especially when we would start having kids. Even the counselor could not believe her!

"Having kids! Only if they were mine!"

"Oh, I was on the pill."

This was at our last session. I ended it by saying, "Janice, you whored yourself out, you are nothing but a prostitute!" I got up out of my chair and blew her a kiss. "I loved you and I don't know, I might still, but you threw my love away!"

She asked me one last time, "Can't we reconcile?"

I said, "Okay, just un-fuck your boss and I'll take you back." And I left!

My divorce was over the week after school let out for summer. I decided that I could not stay in town because it was really Janice's town!

Go west young man.

"Go west, young man, and young woman," to paraphrase Horace Greeley.

I decided to take my newfound 'wealth' and move west. I asked Kate if she wanted to go with me...

She said, "

YES

!"

She had the same whose-town-is-it, feelings as I did. We had established an extremely better friendship, than when we were in our friends-with-benefits days, due to the divorces we both were involved in. Supporting a hurt friend, that can be quite a bonding experience.

My sister had finished college and now lived in Tempe, Arizona. She forwarded info on jobs in the 'Valley of the Sun' (Phoenix Metropolitan area). She said that even the district she lived in needed teachers.

Both Kate and I applied for teaching positions. We sent out letters of recommendation, transcripts, personal narratives and we received letters of acceptance. We both knew we would pass any and all background checks. We had all our ducks in a row.

The Trip

We stayed in motels on the way to Arizona, where the teaching jobs were waiting for us— in the same school district!

For me, it was math, and for Kate, it was English. It took Kate and me five days to make the trip. I was driving a big U-Haul truck and Kate drove a smaller one. Our vehicles were safely behind us on car haulers. We used some cheap walkie-talkies and CBs (citizens band radios) to keep in contact with each other. If one got out of range, they would wait for the other to catch up.

A couple of truckers asked if 'Mr. Tangent', my CB handle, if he knew 'Miss Verb', Kate's CB handle.

In the mornings, we would stop at a Denny's for breakfast; lunch was either McDonald's, Burger King, Jack-in-the-Box, or Taco Bell; dinner was either Olive Garden, Applebee's, or Texas Roadhouse. What the hell, the exes were indirectly paying for our move. We went cheap on the motels, as all we wanted was a place to sleep.

Our trip itinerary:

Day one,

Monday— Birmingham, Alabama (597 miles), a long, nine-hour day, to get as many miles between us and North Carolina as possible.

Day two,

Tuesday— Fort Smith, Arkansas, (532 miles), just over seven hours.

Day three,

Wednesday— Tucumcari, New Mexico, (549 miles), just under eight hours.

We did a little shopping in Albuquerque, New Mexico. We picked up some groceries, sleeping bags, sleeping mats and some things from Home Depot.

Day four,

Thursday— the Arizona Rim Country, (481 miles), just over seven hours.

I was told by friends it was a truly beautiful area, and it was we had decided to camp in Arizona Rim Country. I did a MacGyver and made a screen to cover the back roll-up door of the truck, so we could enjoy the Arizona mountain air and still be protected if it rained.

Day five,

Friday— Tempe, Arizona, (114 miles) just over two hours, and the end of the road.

Even though we were sleeping in the same bed at a couple of the motels, we kept our hands and bodies to ourselves, until the third night in Tucumcari, New Mexico, when the dam broke, as we realized that best friends could be lovers, again!

We started out spooning; before long, I knew Kate could feel my cock getting hard, so I moved a little away, and Kate moved right back up to me. Kate turned her head to face me. At that moment, I saw an expression that said 'kiss me' in her eyes. I leaned into her and touched my lips to hers, like I had done so many years before. Without a single word, we moved our bodies into an embrace. I kissed her lips, earlobes, her neck. We were holding our bodies together, the only things between us were the shorts and tees we wore to bed.

Kate, in a whisper, said, "I want this... Do we want this?"

I said, "No, we need this... Why did we ever stop?"

Kate said, "We read in a book that... friends could not be lovers..."

I responded, "I hope that fuckin' book is in a trash can back in North Carolina!"

We must have kissed for thirty minutes before we began to remove clothing. We were naked, caressing each other, when a simply great idea popped into my mind.

I asked, "Kate, how well do we know each other?"

"Well, we sure know each other better than we knew our cheating spouses!" replied Kate.

I continued, "I know both of us haven't been divorced long—"

Kate interrupted, "Feels like yesterday and a decade ago, all at the same time!"

I was feeling a lot of emotion. "How the fuck did we get into this mess, instead of being with each other...? How do you feel about you and me making this thing we have... more permanent...?"

With a twinkle in her eye... "Well, you and I need to say something to each other first."

It was like a lightning bolt hit us! We both said at the same time, "I LOVE YOU!"

With that, we began to make love— it felt like a new experience. We were then not just having sex with a friend... we were connecting with our soulmate!

My Sister

When we arrived in The Valley of The Sun, Phoenix, we first drove to the address my sister had given me, it was a gated community. We knocked on the door, and a pregnant Ellen jumped into my arms. With a red face, Ellen explained she had not told me she had gotten married because I was going through the divorce.

She looked at Kate with a puzzled look. "Don't I know you...? Wait...You,... You, you are Kate! Are you guys back together...? Wow... since college, Mom always loved you, she never understood why you two never married, and why Jim married that fuckin' bitch, Janice! Oops, sorry, my mouth. When Jack gets home, I'll have to introduce him to my brother, and his—"

"Fiancée," we interrupted. "We will be buying a ring, Monday."

Ellen grabbed her phone on her desk and hit speed dial. "Hey Becca, what kind of deal can you give my wonderful brother on an engagement ring?"

Becca must have known about the divorce because Ellen replied, "Yeah, but he is here with his gorgeous girlfriend from college, she must have opened his eyes up... today? Well, they just got here, I'll ask them, ciao.

"They will stay open if you get there before closing, Jack has a business account with them."

We parked the trucks in the back yard, and Ellen said, "By the way, you are staying here!" And she set us up in the pool house.

At about 4:00pm, we piled into Ellen's SUV and drove to Becca's jewelry store. Becca was the owner of the store after inheriting it from her father. Becca made us a deal that was out of this world. She told Ellen she was selling us the engagement and wedding rings at cost. The markup we didn't have to pay must be out of this world also!

As I found out, Jack was the luckiest son of a bitch on the planet financially, (his words); he sold just before a stock market crash,

on a whim!

He sold a shitload of stocks (pre-crash monies), and decided to reinvest his holdings, a couple days later, when he was able to free up his money. On a hunch, he invested in a bunch of low-cost stocks. His portfolio currently included— Nike, Home Depot, McDonald's, Walmart, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon and Lockheed Martin. When he had bought Amazon and Apple, they were worth almost nothing. (He has been investigated by the SEC and has come out clean as a whistle every time.)

How Ellen became a wife and mother.

Ellen had been an analyst for Jack's company, but at the bottom of the company food chain. Jack's wife died of a very aggressive lung cancer at age twenty-four, she never smoked but her parents did, leaving Jack with two very, very young, motherless children, the oldest not even two yet. Jack is a bit older than Ellen. Ellen volunteered to help Jack by working from his home while watching his kids. An honest romance grew from simple volunteering.

They'd been married for eight months, and Ellen is around seven months along.

That night, I met Jack. He was quite the happy-go-lucky fellow. So, I looked at Ellen's baby bump, and in a fatherly tone, I asked Jack, "Just what are your intentions with my sister...?

My dad told me I had to say that if he couldn't

... ha-ha."

Jack laughed his ass off. We took my car off the car hauler, and I told Jack I'd get Kate's car off tomorrow.

School

The next day, we showed up at the school district's offices. We needed to change Kate's name on the paperwork— all they did was had her fill out everything again on new forms. Sure

,

enough, both Kate and I were teaching at the same school. We then drove to the school. We walked to our rooms, and when we reached them, the Head of Maintenance, Mr. Wilson, was installing my name plaque on my door. He turned to and asked Kate how to spell her last name.

"Well, today it is Ms. J-E-N-S-E-N, but on Monday, it will be Mrs. W-I-L-S-O-N."

Without looking up, he said, "Oh, like his name?" He then looked up and caught us in a quick kiss. He said, "Oh... OH... OOOHHHH." He shook my hand, and took Kate's hand in his, and just held it in a very gentlemanly way, as if he could break it if he shook it.

"My name is Sam. I have been the head of maintenance for fifteen years and in the maintenance department ten years before that."

I asked him what brand of beer he liked.

He looked at me kind of funny.

"My dad told me nothing helps getting a job done and right, then a six pack of beer... a case if you help the worker."

Sam laughed like we were old friends, and we became friends.

We drove home and found Ellen had our bags unpacked, Kate's car off the car hauler, and both trucks gone! I looked at Ellen, and she had an oops-I've-been-caught expression. "Jack sent a crew over to take care of unpacking and dropping off the U-Hauls. Jack will pay them for their work."

Friday

Ellen's stepchildren came running in, attempting to carry their suitcases. Both were cartoon style, the one that was Bobby's had Spiderman and Diana had Kermit the Frog. Diana was having trouble with her suitcase, so I told her I'd carry it for her. I started to sing, in my best Kermit impression,

Rainbow Connection

.

When I hit the last verse, "...

Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection. The lovers, the dreamers, and me...

" I got a big giggle from Diana.

Then a whisper from Ellen, "You are now her favorite uncle!"

"Hey, I am her only uncle!"

My SUV was large, it could fit all of us— Kate, Me, Ellen, Jack and our ring bearer and our flower girl and suitcases for all. Both kids told us they had experience from their mommy and daddy's wedding. I teared up a little hearing the kids calling Ellen,

mommy!

In Vegas, the women camped out in the suite, where Jack and I did a 'little' gambling— it was my

bachelor party.

Jack could play blackjack with one hand tied behind his back as his poker playing was out of this world. In blackjack, I finished twenty dollars ahead; Jack was

five hundred

dollars ahead. Jack then hit a poker table. Jack could

really

play poker with his eyes closed, AND his BOTH hands tied behind his back. I just watched from the gallery. When Jack left the table, two guards escorted him to the cashier's cage, and he cashed in over 19,000 dollars in chips. I had a new hero! We had only been gone from the room for four hours. The guards then escorted us to our suite. Jack tipped the guards a hundred dollars each.

It was a two-bedroom suite with two children's beds wheeled in. There were two sleeping children and two giddy women in the suite. They had planned for us to be married tomorrow by an Elvis impersonator, who was a Presbyterian minister moonlighting, so God was invited.

With an Elton John impersonator singing 'Blue Eyes' (we both have blue eyes), the ceremony lasted thirty minutes, ending with the Elvis impersonator minister singing 'Can't Help Falling in Love'. We kissed each other and headed to the free buffet that was included in the wedding package. The kids got kid-friendly food, the Las Vegas version of a happy meal, and we got steak brought to our table (some buffet).

After an hour or so, the kids were hitting the wall, and to tell the truth, the adults were about to, also.

Kate and I consummated our marriage; after both of us climaxed, we both fell asleep with me still inside her.

We returned to Tempe and our pool house 'cottage'.

Monday and Tuesday was time to set up classrooms. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were mostly devoted to meetings.