I couldn't pull the trigger right away. I needed time. I still wanted to be sure. I didn't want to be with her any more, but I wanted to know for certain if she'd cheated on me
before
swapping with the Harmons. That would do a lot to determine how I handled our divorce.
Many people believe that hate is the opposite of love. I don't agree; I think that it's indifference. I hated what she'd done, but I would probably always have some love for her. I just wanted to know why she'd put us on this path, and then move on.
That being said, I wasn't going to give her any of my money as a reward for wrecking our marriage. It would all come down to the division of assets (No-fault state, remember?). I was working on a strategy to prepare for that.
I also had to find out what Steve Harmon's role in all of this had been; if it was even remotely what I thought it was, then he had to pay. Heavily. That was why I couldn't afford to go off half-cocked. I needed information, and I needed time to prepare.
On Sunday, Carol wanted to talk. I knew where this was headed: 'Reclaiming my territory' - some psychological mumbo-jumbo for swingers that made no sense to me. I never thought of Carol's body as my 'territory', but if it was, then why was she giving it away to another man?
I got tired of it fairly quickly, so I pulled her up off the couch, put her over my shoulder, and carried her up to our bedroom.
- "What are you doing?"
- "Reclaiming my territory."
I threw her on the bed - from so high up that she bounced. I flipped Carol onto her stomach. From behind, I undid her jeans and pulled them off her. I did the same for her panties.
I pushed her forward, so that her face was smushed into the pillows, and lifted her ass a bit higher. She was wet enough that I could push a finger inside her, and then a second.
It took only a moment to get my zipper down and fish my erection out. No oral, no foreplay. No gentle preparation, no attention to her first orgasm. I pushed my dick into her, grabbed her by the hips, and started vigorously fucking her.
Carol turned her head, but she didn't lift it off the pillow.
- "Unnh." she grunted. "Oh - Oh! Waoww ..."
I wasn't trying to hurt her. I just didn't want to waste any tenderness on her, or even look at her face, so I used her like a whore. And she enjoyed it: Carol came before I did.
"Oh my God!" she said, afterwards. "What got into you? Talk about reclaiming your territory!" She was lovey-dovey for the rest of the day, but I claimed fatigue to avoid a repeat performance.
On Monday I contacted a good divorce lawyer. Maria Fusco wasn't a merciless shark, but she came highly recommended. She asked if it was a matter of life and death urgency; when I said that it wasn't, she made an appointment to see me on Friday.
I contacted my partner, Andrew. Then I let Carol know that I had go back to see him.
- "For how long?" she asked. It was a three hour drive, one way, so she knew that I would be staying over at least one night.
- "Couple of days, probably."
- "Will you be home by Friday?"
- "Most likely." I said.
Carol fidgeted a bit. "It's just that ... I was talking to Steve - to the Harmons, and they're having a small backyard party with some close friends of theirs, and they want us to come."
- "Another swap?"
- "No!" she said. "I mean ..."
- "But they're swingers. Part of the 'lifestyle'."
Carol admitted it. "But this is just to meet them, Chris. We don't have to do anything. It's really just a chance to meet some new people."
New people that want to fuck us. She already knew, which meant that she and Steve had discussed it, but she was only telling me now. Carol was so impatient. She had no idea of how to win me over slowly, or gradually. She just pushed her agenda.
- "I should be back by Friday."
Three hours alone in the car was almost therapeutic. I didn't listen to music, or to a podcast. I just thought about my money, and how to protect it.
Andrew knew, of course, that something was up. We didn't really need a face-to-face business meeting at this point - and we certainly didn't need two or three days for it.
- "Trouble?"
- "Yeah. I'm probably going to divorce Carol."
- "No! Really?"
I told him what had been going on. Andrew was shocked, and disappointed.
- "I can't believe it. Shelley won't believe it, either. We thought the world of her."
- "Can you keep it under your hat for a bit? I don't know if you and Shelley could keep it a secret if the four of us have to get together."
- "So you might change your mind?"
- "I won't. But I'm not 100% sure yet how hard I want to go. It may not be scorched earth. But one thing is for sure: I don't want to give her any money as a reward - and I certainly don't want her to get any of yours. So I have a few ideas."
- "Wait." he said. "D'you have any cash on you?"
I did. I showed him my wallet.
"What are you doing carrying cash around, these days? Nobody does that anymore."
- "You never know." I said.
He took a five and two ones from my wallet, and put them on his desk.
- "Alright." he said. "There's my retainer. I'm now your lawyer. Anything you say is privileged."
- "Good. First things first. I want you to buy out my partnership."
- "Chris, I don't know ... we've put a lot into this expansion. I'm not really in a position, financially, to buy you out."
- "Sure you are." I said. I picked up the five and a one from his desk, leaving a single dollar bill behind. "That should cover it."
Andrew was quick to catch on. I wasn't trying to accumulate money; I was going to shed it. I was going to lose or give away so much money that Carol would get half of next to nothing. First, though, I wanted him to own all of our business, so that Carol couldn't touch it.
He was smarter than I was, though.
- "Okay, we'll draw up a contract stipulating that I'm buying your share for - really? Six dollars? Shouldn't we make it something more convincing?"
- "No." Then I thought of a judge scrutinizing the details. "Alright. Whatever you think best."
- "Fine. We'll both sign and date it, and I'll call in Ed and Rita to witness it. But we'll also draw up a second contract, where I agree to sell you
back
your shares for ... one dollar more than I paid for them."
- "One?"
- "Inflation. I sign and date the second contract, and have it witnessed. But you don't have to sign it until you're ready to re-assume your shares. How's that?"
- "I would have trusted you to sell them back for me." I said.
- "You're not thinking clearly. I'm your best friend, but I'm not a saint. Don't tempt me, Satan."
- "Shelley would have your head."
- "Yeah, probably. So talk to me. What else do you have up your sleeve?"