Better

Chapter 13: Michael

I shouldn't have been surprised that the time I spent away from home with Andrea would eventually catch up with me. I just didn't expect it to happen late Saturday morning after breakfast and after the kids went off to spend the afternoon with their friends at the club.

"There's someone else, isn't there?" my wife, Kathy, asked.

I didn't know what to say, but the silence I let fill the void between us across the kitchen table shouted a resounding "Yes."

"How serious is it?" she asked.

I didn't know what to say. There was no denying it, but I couldn't lie and just say it was just a fling. Over the past few months, I knew in the back of my mind that I loved Andrea but I just couldn't get myself to admit it. I couldn't tell Kathy that. But I had to find out what she knew, whether it was just her woman's intuition or if she had hard proof, and deal with it from there.

After sitting in silence and avoiding looking at each other, I asked her, "What do you want to do?"

"We could try couples counseling, which would mean you'd have to open up about what's going on and is something you obviously have no interest in doing," she said.

Good. She was fishing. What I wanted to say was, "Geez, give me some time. You're only 10 minutes into your ambush."

Instead, I said, "I'd really like to invoke the 24 hour rule and sort through what we need to say to each other."

"Fine," she said as she got up from her chair and walked out of the room. It wasn't like, "Fine, that sounds reasonable and fair." It sounded more like, "Fine. I've got you're your balls in my purse anyway."

I spent the better part of the afternoon holed up in my study assessing the pros and cons of really making my marriage work, or if I could find smarter ways of being with Andrea, or if I should leave her for a fresh start with Andrea. Yes, the kids were a factor -- a big factor -- but it wasn't as if they would be irreparably harmed by a divorce. Lots of kids my kids went to school with came from divorced families and were pretty unscathed by the experience, or so it seemed. I really didn't know. Would Kathy trash my reputation and standing with the kids or make it hard for me to spend time with them? I doubted that, but Jess was at an age, 13, when I've heard girls tend to strongly side with their mothers and rarely took to the "new woman." I could see her doing that and I wasn't sure of putting Andrea through that. Michael Jr. was 9 and close to his dad. I could see him getting a little weepy about dad not being there all the time.

But having Andrea made such a difference in my life and the man that I had become. Sure, the sex was a big part of it, but it was the everyday things that we shared that made the bond between us so warm, close and open. Both aspects were something Kathy and I didn't have. We didn't get excited about those little conquests we had during the day, and quite frankly, we never shared them and never inquired about them with each other. Kathy was there like a piece of furniture and I had to admit that I treated her that way ... as she did me. Our sex life hadn't changed much in the 18 years we were together -- once a week, starting off with cuddling after the kids were in bed and finishing in the missionary position. In other words, we did the "duty" almost as if it were a job. Sure, I tried to change things up -- usually with something that I had picked up with my time with Andrea -- but she was hardly a willing participant. Whenever I was able to slip a little something in, it just never felt right, at least not the way it felt with Andrea.

Was having a great sex life and always having that feeling of falling in love really that important? It was something I really hadn't missed or thought of all that time with Kathy before I met Andrea. With Kathy and the kids, I had happiness of different kinds -- family holidays and vacations, watching Michael Jr. play baseball, going to Jess' piano recitals and swim meets, and having Kathy on my arm at charity events. They all weren't all bad things. In fact, I was fortunate to have that life and be able to provide it for my family. But the same kinds of things I did for Kathy as I did for Andrea -- like surprising her with concert or show tickets, overnight and weekend getaways, or even just a day at the spa -- were expected, assumed and taken for granted. With Andrea, they were the kinds of things that put a gleam in her or made her want to have sex with me after a night on the town. Even a random phone call out of the blue was enough to put some happiness in Andrea's voice.

I drifted off to sleep in my desk chair and started dreaming about the time Andrea and I spent in Cabo. I felt as if we were actually back there again, watching her walk the beach with me just before the sunset. She wore a thin white cotton dress that showed off the silhouette of her body against the golden sun in the pre-dusk horizon. I was mesmerized by the stride of her gracefully shaped legs and her slender, rounded ass. I started thinking about what those legs could do -- point out, up and wide at 45-degree angles or wrap around my back when I deep-sticked her or fold themselves in between our chests as I completely plowed myself inside of her. I thought about when we first checked into the room and as soon as the bellhop left, she sat on the edge of the bed, lifted one leg almost straight in the air and bent the other one flat on the mattress, leaving that magnificently glistening pussy open and available to me. I felt as if I couldn't stop licking her lips and as deep inside as my tongue could reach. She kept coming and coming over and over again with seismic force. I wasn't sure if she was already primed or how much I had to do with making her gush almost the moment my cock made contact with her G-spot, but it was one of those moments I'll never forget and I'm sure few men ever had.

My cell phone rang and shattered the dream and memory I was having of Andrea. My hand kept subconsciously stroking my cock until I saw it was Kirsten, the creative director at our bank's agency. Out of decency, I slipped my cock back in my pants to take the call.

"I hate to call on the weekends, but I just got done taking a closer look at your friend's book and my budget," she said. "Is there any chance that she could do a Skype meeting early in the week?"

"I'm sure she'd be happy to," I said.

"By chance, do you know what she's making?" she asked.

I gave her a number of what I knew she typically pulled in on a daily rate. Kirsten said she could do better than that on a full-time basis, with benefits, stock options, and a cost of living adjustment. I told her that I'd get word to Andrea right away and have her follow through with the arrangements.

It wasn't until I got off the phone that I was fully awake and realized what I had gotten myself into. I owed Kathy a discussion about plans to rebuild and move forward with our marriage, but I couldn't deny Andrea an opportunity to move forward with her career or a chance to have her be more in my life.

My mind drifted back the time I had with Andrea in Cabo. This time, I thought about the way her past-the-shoulder brunette mane blew in the wind that came off the ocean that evening, the same locks of hair I ran through my fingers when I whisked her back to the room that evening, the way the strands fell over her face when she smiled and looked down over me and straight into my eyes. I thought about the way her hair looked almost more than I thought how she slid onto my cock and commandeered it slowly and luxuriously as if to make the pleasure last all night long. When I wanted even more of her, she understood my urgency by just one good, strong tug of a handful of that soft, beautiful and shiny hair.

I came just as hard with the pulse of my hand as I did with her that night six months ago. I knew I had to make this work.

"Call me ASAP. Urgent," I typed on the keypad of my phone.