This is a little different than my other stories but it was written with a little help from my own talented wife at the request of a persistent reader. You know who you are. Hope you enjoy.
***
Have you ever loved someone so much that loving them nearly destroyed you?
My name is Jake and I met my wife, Heather, in college. I know it sounds stereotypical, but I was the dumb jock, and she was the mousy brain. Our chemistry professor paired us together in lab, and I guess you could say we mixed a little chemistry of our own. Truth be told, Heather always hates it when I joke around and call myself a "dumb jock." Sure, I was on the football team and liked to party with my teammates, but I had been raised in a big Christian family - I had four older brothers and two younger sisters. Our parents had raised us to be respectful and old-fashioned in a lot of ways, so I was usually the one guy on the team who made sure no one did anything they shouldn't be doing. All I know is, I was taught a solid foundation of what was right from wrong, and as long as I stayed out of trouble and kept my grades up, I was on the right path. As far as my attitude toward women, I might have played around with a lot of gorgeous co-eds in college, but I was always on the lookout for that one special girl who would capture my heart and challenge my mind. I knew when I found her, I would treat her the way my father had always treated my mother - with absolute respect and total fidelity.
It's corny, really, but I still remember the first moment I laid eyes on that woman. It wasn't that she was all that pretty or even attractive. Hell, she wasn't even my type, which usually leaned toward the petite blonde. Heather was tall and had glasses, she wore her dark hair pulled back, no makeup, and wore the most god-awful, unflattering clothes. I can't explain it any other way than to say that I just felt this...tug whenever I looked at her. She'd felt it too, or so she later said.
I was a couple of years older than her, a junior to her freshman, and we couldn't have been more different, really. I'd been on the football team, popular, living large until the day my heart was captured by those innocent, luscious baby blue eyes of hers. Heather hadn't had a clue how gorgeous she was either. I found out later that her mother had died from cancer when Heather was only nine, and she'd been left with just her father and older sister Cassie, who had each worked all the time just to pay off medical bills, credit card debt and to save for Heather's college tuition. Basically, Heather had had to practically raise herself as a result and hadn't ever really been shown how to act and dress like most of her peers.
She'd hid herself behind those baggy clothes, no makeup and wild, unstyled hair. But her smile had been more genuine than any of those on the cheerleaders I'd dated before her, and when she spoke, I could hear how much more mature she was than others our age. When we talked, we talked about things we both really cared about, like family and friends and hobbies. I found myself telling her things I'd never told anyone before. And as cheesy as it might sound, yeah, she'd made me want to be a better man; Heather had been so damn naive and innocent, so needy for someone to love and love her in return. It had been a real chore to convince her I was really interested in her and not playing some cruel joke. The more I'd gotten to know her, the harder I'd fallen. I've thanked God every day since that she felt the same way about me.
All in all, I think it took me a year to convince her I was interested in her as more than just a friend. When I graduated, I enrolled in the Marines because my athletic scholarships hadn't covered my entire tuition, and my family was too dirt poor to be able to help me out. I figured joining the Marines would be a good way to pay off my tuition and, hell, I have to admit I was trying to impress Heather. We both cried the day I shipped off, and I knew then she was the woman I would spend the rest of my life with. We kept in touch through letters and talking on the phone, and even though the Marines damned near killed me at first, I doubt I'd be the man I am today if it hadn't been for that experience. It taught me discipline, patience, integrity, and most of all, not to take things for granted. One day while on leave, I drove three hours in the middle of the night just to propose to Heather in her dorm room. She couldn't hide the love in her eyes until she seemed to rethink and decided I had to be joking. It took me two damned months after that to convince her I was serious, only when I finally had enough money saved to buy her a decent ring and pulled a few favors with my old football coach. During halftime of the homecoming game, I joined the team on the field and in front of God and everyone else asked the woman to marry me over the loud speaker. I suppose such a public proposal had convinced her I was serious because she'd finally said yes with no more doubts in her eyes.
She came to our wedding bed a virgin, two months after she graduated college. Like most young couples, we struggled to make ends meet for a couple of years, but even though we were pretty much dirt poor, I don't think either of us had ever been so happy. Heather slowly worked her way up the corporate ladder as an accountant while I found a medium of success working with computer systems. I could have continued with a lucrative career in the military my record was so good, but Heather had been so damned worried about me all the time that I ended my career with the Marines after my two-year obligation and became an IT specialist. We didn't have much at first, but at least she didn't worry so much. At night, we would curl up together in our lumpy, tired old bed and make love until neither of us could keep our eyes open anymore. Sometimes when we thought we were too tired to make out, we would simply rent a movie and curl up together on the sofa to relax. Even so, it never took us long to start caressing each other, and we shared some pretty passionate nights frolicking on whichever piece of furniture we happened to be closest to.
I landed a pretty lucrative job about three years ago, and we were able to finally move into a fairly large house with nicer furniture. Heather really came out of her shell then, and I'd been petrified I'd lose her to someone else. She'd undergone a dramatic makeover...not that I'd cared, of course. I'd loved her just as she was, but I'd been proud to see her confidence grow as she'd developed a new style. The shy bookworm had metamorphosed into a sexy, sleek professional woman. She'd started turning heads, and I had gotten worried other men would try to take her away from me. But Heather...my dear, sweet wife...had smiled sweetly and sworn I had nothing to worry about. It was me she loved. She would never, ever think of being unfaithful to me, she'd sworn, and she'd even seemed quite shocked and angry that I would even think it was possible. She'd insisted she was making herself over for me, but I sensed she was also trying to prove something to herself and to her co-workers.
We both became in greater demand, career-wise, and even though we led busier lives, it didn't mean we loved each other any less. In fact, we were finally thinking of starting a family around this time last year. We'd never wanted to share each other with a child before, we'd both been so greedy for each other, but we knew we were reaching the point of no return. Heather was almost 30, and we wanted to be young enough to enjoy raising a child if we decided to have one.
Seemingly, our life together was perfect. Then, eight months ago, my wife came home one day with a sort of pole-axed expression on her beautiful face.
"Sweetheart, do you remember my old friend, Ty?"
Sure I did. He'd been on the basketball team in college and had gone on to play professionally for the Lakers. I knew she'd tutored him and had become friends with him before I'd even met her. I told her as much.
As I urged her to lay her tired feet in my lap for a massage, she said, "Well, he came into the office today. He's just moved to the area to start up a business, and he's hired Cox, Smith and Franklin to handle all of his accounting."
"Really? What kind of business?" I wondered aloud, quickly getting distracted by the feel and look of her long, sexy legs across my lap.
