Here's another little story for you all. It's long, at 14,000 words, and I'm putting it in Novels & Novellas because it crosses boundaries between erotic couplings, interracial sex, and lesbian sex. If any of those categories bother you... well you found your way here, you can find your way back.
DWC.
A Little Pussy.
Tom.
"Bye Daddy!" shouted Abigail, my thirteen-year-old daughter; Noah, her younger brother waved, "Bye Dad."
"Thanks for this," said Gemma, "It means a lot to them, this 'family time'. I'm sorry things didn't work out between us." She hugged me briefly and stretched up to kiss my cheek. "I'm proud of you, Tom, the way you've picked yourself up."
"What we show them now is important," I said, kicking at a piece of turf at the pavement edge, "I don't want them damaged by us falling out."
Gemma squeezed my shoulder and climbed into her car, "See you in a fortnight. If the kids want to see you in between, I'll get them to ring first, OK?"
I nodded, and she smiled and started the engine, waving as she drove away. I waved at Abi and Noah until the car turned at the end of the street.
I felt my shoulders drop as I turned to walk into my tiny, one bedroom house. The strength I showed Gemma and the kids was a front and, only a few years ago, Gemma would have seen right through it.
***
We'd been the 'Ideal Couple'. Both successful in our own fields, me in computer systems, Gemma in teaching. We had two wonderful, active kids and a love life that seemed to put most of my mates to shame, judging by the comments they made.
It was only a year earlier that I'd started to notice a difference. Gemma was more distant. She began to stay out with friends more, drink more. Our love life all but stopped.
"Gemma, there's something wrong...with us...please talk to me," I'd said to her.
"It's nothing, Tom."
"You've changed," I paused, wanting to ask, but afraid of the answer, "Is there someone else?"
I saw her freeze, then she grabbed me and hugged me close. I could feel the sobs racking her body as she squeezed me.
"What's his name?" I asked, "Do I know him?"
"It's not..." she mumbled into my chest.
I pushed her away from me a little and she looked up at me through her tears.
"Tell me," I said, torn between hugging her close and pushing her away from me.
"It's not...a man."
My befuddled brain tried to process that piece of information, and failed. "What? What do you mean, it's not a man?"
"It's a woman," she whispered, burrowing back into my chest, "I'm so sorry, Tom. It was a game, an experiment, but I've fallen for her!"
"Who?" I said.
"Cindy."
Cindy. Cindy Groves. I knew her from the school gate, the Parent/Teacher group, the sports days. She was a single mum. Not your stereotypical single mum, Cindy ran her own shop, and sported short, spiky black hair and a number of piercings through her nose, lip and tongue.
"Is it serious?"
"Yes," she whispered, peering up from under her eyelashes, "Yes, it is."
We talked for a long time that day. Gemma had found a side of herself that loved women, or at least one woman, and wanted to explore it, to honour it.
"Will.....Will you leave me?" I asked, my own tears falling unchecked now.
"I don't know what to do, Tom. I love her, but I still love you too."
"Can we share you?" I asked, clutching at straws now.
"I don't know, I can ask. She's quite possessive."
I laughed then, bitter laughter. I was married to Gemma, I'd offered to share her, as a last resort, and she tells me her girlfriend is 'possessive'!
"I need to go for a walk," I said, standing and making my way to the front door, "I'll be back later."
I walked for about half an hour, trying to figure out how my life had gone from happily married to this shit in an hour or two. I found myself outside the King's Head pub, and walked into the public bar.
"Usual, Tom?" shouted Billy, the landlord. I nodded and pulled out a bar stool.
"You look like you've lost your puppy," said Kevin.
"Something like that," I said, taking the pint Billy gave me and handing him the money.
"What's up?" said Kevin, moving to the seat next to me.
"Gemma."
"What? You two fallen out?"
"She found someone else," I said.
"Another bloke... Gemma... No!"
"No," I said, "A woman."
Kevin grinned, "That's so hot! Maybe you can get the two of them in bed together."
I clenched my fist, but held my anger in. Kevin was OK, as drinking buddies go, but was about as subtle as a brick through your window.
I downed the last of the pint I'd been sipping and stood up. "I need to go home," I said.
"Yeah! Go get 'em stud!" shouted Kevin.
I walked outside and took a deep breath, then walked home.
Gemma pulled me into the lounge as soon as I walked in the door, sitting me down on the couch.
"I asked Cindy, she said that if I want to be with her, it's her and her alone. I'm sorry Tom, I wanted to save something, but I can't walk away from what I've found out about myself."
"So that's it? We're over, just like that?" I said.
"I'm sorry, Tom, it's not what I wanted to happen, but yes. Cindy wants me to move in, with the kids."
"Will I see them?" I asked.
She hugged me to her again. The mixed messages were driving me crazy now. "Of course, you're their dad, you'll see them as often as you want."
The divorce was settled quickly. Gemma admitted adultery and we split everything down the middle. The house was sold and, with my half, I just managed to buy my tiny bungalow. I saw the kids once a fortnight, Gemma coming too so they had what she called 'family time'.
***
I switched on my TV, mostly for background noise, then went to make a cup of tea. I made myself do these days out, for the kids' sakes. To me they were torture. A reminder of what I'd had...what I'd lost. Children giggling together, Gemma making a show of being with me, the touches, the smell of her perfume, the conversation. Mostly we talked about the kids, of course, but she couldn't help herself from asking after my love life. I guess she'd feel less guilty if I found someone new. I didn't want someone new, I wanted her.
She'd been the girl next door, literally, as we grew up. We'd been playmates, deadly enemies, then mates. Somehow mates had moved into a boyfriend/girlfriend thing. We'd attended the same university, just to be together, and married at the age of twenty-two. Now, here I was, a reluctant divorcee at the age of thirty-six.
The doorbell rang and I went to answer it. I opened the door to find Gemma's mum standing there with a casserole dish in her hands.
"Hi Tom," she said, breezing past me and heading for the kitchen, "I'll pop this in the fridge for you, you just need to microwave it."
"Um, thanks, Sheila," I said, "What is it?"
"Oh, some beef casserole, I made too much again."
I smiled, Sheila made too much of something pretty much every week, always bringing it round and leaving it in my fridge. I knew from experience that there would be enough for two dinners in the dish.
"You don't have to, you know," I said, "I can cook."
"Yes," she said, switching on the kettle and pulling out a chair from my tiny two-seater table, "But you don't."
I sat down opposite her, and she took my hand. "How're you doing?"
"OK."
She raised her eyebrows and looked at me.
"Alright, not great," I admitted.
"Maybe you should stop Gemma from coming with you on your weekends, Tom."
"No, she's right about the family time for Abi and Noah, I won't take that away from them."
She sighed and stood to make herself tea.
Gemma's mum and dad, Sheila and Bill, were like parents to me. They'd consoled me when, with Gemma and I not long married, my own parents' house had burned down, killing them both. A faulty phone charger, the fire service investigator had told me afterwards. Mum and dad had never seen their first grandchild born.
"This can't go on, Tom, it's tearing you apart," said Sheila.
"I'll be OK. Work keeps me sane, mostly...Why do you do this, Sheila...look after me. Is it guilt at what Gemma did?"
She smiled. "No. You're a good man, Tom, a good father to Abi and Noah, and you were a good husband to Gemma. Bill and I love you like a son." She paused for a moment, then continued.
"Gemma struggles with seeing you almost as much as you do with seeing her. She does it for the kids too. I like Cindy, she's good for Gemma, but I wish they'd never met."
She stared down into her tea cup and I reached over and lifted her chin with my finger.
"Thanks."
"What for?"
"Telling me the truth. I have to accept that she's never coming back, and get out there again, don't I?"
Sheila nodded, "For your own sake, yes."
* * *
Gemma.
I parked the car on the drive and let the kids out of the back. "Abi, Noah, shoes off please!" I shouted. "Yes, Mum." they replied.