Suspicion Ch 14 15

Chapter 14.

Getting the new business up and running

Then we spent the next six weeks getting our new company up and running.

We hired on most of the people who had been in my old department. I knew where I could modify our practices to be more efficient, something that the old corporate structure wouldn't let me do. The transition from my running the department as an internal function to running it as an outside company went very smoothly, and by the end of the year, Eric, the G.M. looked like a hero. A lot of the other divisions made a mess of it, and were not only not saving that 10%, but were actually spending a lot more.

Since I was no longer part of Equity Corp, I could also pursue other work, and within the year I picked up several other maintenance contracts. In a strange coincidence, the contract that gave me the most pleasure was a subcontract with Butler & Sons, when they won the rebid for the CableNex business. Most of the work that K.G. Construction had been doing, was now part of my subcontract.

As for Karl Gerring, his company went under, and none of us ever heard anything about him again. Kathy absolutely promised me that if he tried to contact her, I would know about it immediately. Of course, one must consider that by this time, she was fairly certain that he was completely crazy, if not dangerous.

To return to Kathy and I, we did manage to reconcile, but it wasn't easy. I was up front with her that it would take some time before I was sure that we should continue together, or whether we should divorce.

We did attend marriage counseling with Bill Wattler together, and that helped.

After Kathy was cleared of the little STD that I'd given her, we resumed having sex together, and that

really

helped. I guess because of the circumstances, we were willing to put more effort into our sex life, both in terms of making sure that we had time together; but also we were also both more willing to experiment and try new things. I think that when I decided to seduce Kathy that first day that she returned home, it marked a change for the better in our love life.

I never wanted to know the details of Karl and Kathy's affair, but Kathy insisted that I should know enough not to let my imagination run away with me. She told me that she and Karl had rather mundane sex together; that she never did anything with him that she hadn't done with me, and that a number of things, like anal, she never did with him. She said that although she would suck on him, she wouldn't let him orgasm in her mouth or swallow, something she did for me on a regular basis. She told me that because of her conflicted feeling about Karl, combined with the interruptions that seemed to occur whenever she was with him, that they didn't have sex terribly often. The infrequency was something that pissed off Karl (too bad, I was really crushed at that news,) and she mentioned that after the Friday afternoon when I had knocked her socks off sexually speaking, she was almost completely uninterested in sex with Karl, and only did it the last couple of times out some sort of sense of obligation.

I think that Kathy was quite surprised when, a couple of weeks after the run-in with Karl, we were at her 'going away' party with the CableNex staff. She was genuinely liked by her co-workers, and they were sorry to see her leave; although by then she could tell them that she was helping me with our own start-up business, which I think many of them, not 'in the know', thought was her real reason for quitting. She didn't contradict their impression.

But Kathy didn't understand when Jill Jones came up and gave me a big hug; she didn't know that I knew her. And I think that her hackles rose a little when Amanda Demmings, Jill's boss, and Kathy's replacement-to-be as H.R. Director, a lady I had never met in person before, came over and spoke quietly into my ear.

What did she say to me?

"I hope that it was as good for you as it was for me, Paul," is what she whispered, and then smiled at me with a sly grin.

I just nodded at her and smiled back.

Chapter 15.

Matthew's Home — 1 Year Later

It was the one year anniversary of the day that Kathy was diagnosed with gonorrhea, forced to resign from her job, and had her final confrontation with Karl Gerring. That day was the beginning of our new life together.

The business had been going gangbusters. With the Equity Corp contract, and the subcontract doing work for CableNex as our foundation, we had the revenues and cash flow to expand at a reasonable pace. And truthfully, Kathy is a great businessperson. She took over managing the administrative functions in a way that allowed me to manage the operations, and even spend some of my time out acquiring new business.

The kids have gotten over the trauma of that day — I'm not sure that they even remember it. I do. Kathy does.

That evening was cool, and I talked to Kathy before we left for home.

"It's kind of chill out tonight. Let's stop and pick something up for dinner, and later on, we can have a fire," I suggested. 'Have a fire' was one of those code phrases that we had that meant cuddling on the couch, having a hot buttered rum, or eggnog, and climbing into bed and checking out what could happen under the covers. We hadn't 'had a fire' since before Karl.

Kathy smiled at me,

"We can stop at the Best Eats Bodega and buy one of those pre-cooked meat loafs you like, with some rolls, mashed potatoes and veggies! Real comfort food," she stated, even though it was really a question.

We did, and then had one of those typical evenings in the Matthew's household. Dinner, homework, yada, yada! That evening we lit up a fire with one of those composite pressed logs that light easily, burn brightly, and last for hours. My kind of fire. The kids even sat with us for awhile before bed time.

Finally we were alone.

I turned to my wife, who a little more than year before I wouldn't have laid even money I would still be married to today, and said,

"Kathy, it's been a year or so since I stopped the divorce from continuing. I stopped by my lawyers again today," bringing out a legal sized envelope, and putting it on the coffee table in front of us. It obviously contained divorce papers.

"Paul?" Kathy stammered, fear and tears suddenly coming to her face.

"I thought that we should burn these in the fireplace together tonight." I replied, unprepared for the lunge that Kathy made at me, grabbing me and kissing me. We sort of slowly fell over onto the carpet.

"Don't ever do something like that to me again. My heart almost stopped!" she whispered into my ear, while nibbling at it, "I love you so much, Paul Matthews."

And a couple of minutes later, we took the papers out of that envelope, and fed them into the fire a couple of pages at a time, and when the fire had died down, we crept upstairs and messed around. We stayed up later than we should have, and we would probably be late for work the next morning, but heck, we were the bosses, so nobody could fire us!

Waxing Philosophic

I know that not everyone would agree with my decision to reconcile with Kathy. I read a lot, and thought a lot about it myself. At this point, though, I'm sanguine that I made the right choice.

Most folks would think that I had punished Karl and Kathy enough. I pretty much destroyed Karl, and if Kathy came out of it better, it was only because she decided to side with me and abandon Karl. And she had still received harsh treatment: She had been fired from her job; she'd been humiliated by having to openly admit to having a serious STD, she had been badly frightened by having her one-time obsession turn viciously on her, and frightened again that I might reject her as well. I'm surprised that she didn't have ulcers, or that her hair hadn't gone white! Kathy is also completely aware, that to stumble again and stray is to end our marriage.

Because Kathy and I work together now, we always know where our partner is at any given time. I know if she isn't in the office ASAP, and she keeps my calendar, so there's no room to roam there. Another aspect is, that she isn't involved in a position where she is in contact with strange men, most of her day-to-day contacts are limited to our employees. It certainly enhances the 'trust' situation.

Honestly, I don't think that I ever had to worry about 'men' in general. Kathy had a specific attachment to one man in particular, Karl Gerring. If we'd had a little luck, Kathy wouldn't have run into him, and the whole problem would have never occurred. We talked about that in marriage counseling, and I asked her about it point blank: are there any other old boyfriends out there who I need to know about? By then, she was actually able to laugh about that. No, she assured me. She hadn't seriously dated anyone except Karl, first, and then me.

Finally, I know that my assessment is also based on something I accidentally overheard once, several months after we had become strictly a couple again. I overheard Kathy praying one night,

"and Lord, thank you for Paul, the wisest and finest man I've ever known. Thank you for giving him strength when I was weak; for his forgiveness and fortitude to bring our family back together as it should have always been. And let me live in such a way, that every day I show Paul and the children my love, that I earn their trust and affection, and that I am never tempted to stray from the rock that is my happiness and life, Paul. Amen.

You know, my prayers seem to have been pretty much answered too.

The End.