This is the fifth installment in a series under this title. This chapter picks up where the fourth chapter stopped and concludes this series. This story is a work of fiction. While the story has some basis in reality, any similarities to any real person or entity are entirely coincidental and unintended.
_________
The school year after the trip on which we met Christy and Rob was Terry's last year as a high school coach. The day after the school year ended, Terry was busy setting up her new business. She couldn't find a suitable building to buy, but found a building which she could lease that had been used as a basketball facility, so it already had the hardwood floors. Carol, Terry's sister Sherri, and I kicked in some capital and she got going. Since Terry had a good reputation for sending players on to play in college, a lot of her coaching friends referred players to her. After a year in business, she was actually showing a small profit. I know because Carol and I helped her keep her books.
Terry had just gotten past the one year anniversary of her business when Brandt announced that he had been hired as assistant women's volleyball coach at a major university in North Carolina. That left Terry very conflicted because she was really attached Brandt and didn't want to lose him, but also didn't want to leave "home" or give up her business. Brandt did not, in my opinion, help Terry any by pressuring her to move to North Carolina with him. Love finally won out. Terry sold her business for very little, sold her condo for more, and left with Brandt for North Carolina at the end of July.
Carol and I had both come to like Terry a great deal. We were sorry to see her leave town, but were happy that she had found Brandt. Initially, Carol and Terry talked frequently on the phone after Terry's move. After about six weeks, those conversations dwindled until the two women rarely talked. We assumed that Terry was simply too busy with her new life and wished her well.
It was a snowy Saturday in mid-February, a bit after 6:00 p.m., when a car came up our driveway (Carol's home before we married.) We weren't expecting anyone, especially in that weather. We always stayed nude at home. I usually let Carol answer if someone came to the door because she's just a lot better-looking than I am. However, if it is a stranger, I was usually right behind her.
It was too cold to go out on the porch nude. We peered through a window as the car parked in front of the house. As a single figure, bundled in a coat, got out, Carol said, "What the fuck? That's Terry Cole!"
As Terry came up onto the porch, Carol opened the door, exposing both of our bare bodies to a blast of very cold air. "Terry," Carol said, "please, come in. What are you doing here?"
Terry just looked at us for a moment. Carol had to grab her arm and pull her inside before one of us got frostbite on a nipple or a dick. I could see from her face that Terry had been crying.
As Carol closed the door behind Terry, I took her snowy coat and asked "Where's Brandt?" The look on Terry's face made me wish that I had bitten my tongue instead.
Carol put an arm around Terry and began to guide her to the kitchen. "Do you want coffee or wine?" Carol asked Terry.
Terry's first words to us were "Uh, can I have both?"
"Of course," Carol replied.
I put Terry's coat in the mud room and walked into the kitchen. Terry was on one of our barstool chairs leaning on the island. Carol had put a glass of red wine and a cup of coffee in front of her. Terry took a sip from each.
"I'm sorry to just barge in like this," Terry said. "I didn't know where else to go."
"What happened?" Carol asked.
Terry took a deep breath. "Well, it started almost as soon as we got to North Carolina. You remember that I stopped talking to you on the phone not long after we got there?"
Carol nodded her head.
"That's because I didn't want you to know how bad things were going," Terry said.
"What happened?" Carol asked again.
"Well," Terry said laboriously, "we got there and got an apartment together. Brandt was busy getting to know his players and getting ready for the season. I couldn't find a job and was getting really bored. I wanted to find a nudist group over there so I'd have someone I could let my hair down with but Brandt wouldn't let me. He said that it would hurt his career if people found out that his girlfriend was a nudist."
Terry took another sip of wine. "Brandt didn't want me to go nude, but he sure wanted me to dress sexy when we went to any athletic department function. At one of them, the guy who is the AD over there got a bit drunk and started hitting on me. I wasn't the least interested in him. I thought Brandt would tell him to back off, but Brandt just let him go. Even when the guy grabbed my tit Brandt just stood there smiling."
Terry sipped some coffee. "Anyway, I was bored out of my mind. The only thing Brandt would agree that I could do was workout. Shit, I'm probably in the best shape of my life."
Terry paused. "Of course, I expected that Brandt would be gone a lot once practice started and when they got into their season. Brandt was still gone a lot after the season ended. He'd get home very late, usually after I had gone to bed. I didn't think anything of it. I thought that he was working hard, trying to prove himself at the college level. Uh, well, one of the seniors on the team called me a couple of weeks ago."
Terry took a sip of wine and a sip of coffee. Carol and I waited for Terry to tell her story at her own pace. "I'd gotten to know this girl a little bit. A senior. Nice girl and a really good player. Anyway, she asked me to meet her at a Starbuck's in town, a little away from campus. To get to the nut, she told me that Brandt was fucking one of the younger players. They started a few times on road trips during the season and have kept it up since the season ended. I know the girl. Jesus, she's thirteen years younger than I am. She's gorgeous, sexy, in great shape, and so damned young and fresh. My first thought was 'well, of course Brandt would rather fuck her than me if he could get her.'"
"Driving home from the Starbucks," Terry continued, "I started thinking that Brandt was being a real shit. I'd trusted him. I sold my business and left home to follow him to North Carolina and he was cheating on me because he has access to a younger, tighter ass. Also, she's his player! Brandt's abusing his influence as her coach to get her to fuck him. I knew the whole situation was wrong, but I didn't have the courage to confront Brandt."
Terry drank some more wine. "I think Brandt sensed that I was upset about something because he's been home earlier the last couple of weeks and has been a bit nicer to me. Until last night that is."
"What happened last night?" Carol asked.
"Well, Brandt got back to the apartment about 6:00 p.m. I could tell that he'd been drinking. As he walked into our dinky kitchen, a piece of paper fell out of his pocket. I picked it up. It was a receipt from a motel just outside of town over there, dated that day. I handed it to him and asked him if he'd gone to the motel with Natalie, the player he's fucking."
"Brandt admitted it," Terry went on. "That just set me off. I let it all out about how he'd ignored me, hadn't helped me find a job, cheated on me, wouldn't even let me go nude. Well, Brandt picked up on that last one. He told me that he hadn't grown up as a nudist. He just told me that when we first met because someone had told him that I'd become a nudist. He thought that if he claimed to be one also, he'd get into my pants faster. Shit, he was right about that. He said that he'd hated all the times we'd spent together nude and thinks that the two of you are perverts. He just played along with it so he could keep fucking me."
Terry shook her head and was quiet for a moment. "After he told me all that," she said, "he went into the kitchen and poured himself a glass of bourbon. He drank it and said, 'Well, I've got to go out.' I asked him where he was going and he told me that he was also fucking Marge Kelsey; she's the associate AD for women's athletics over there. I just looked at him. He smiled and said "job security.' Then, he said, 'you know, I wouldn't have to fuck Marge if you'd fucked Ralph Baswell.' Baswell is the AD who hit on me. After he said that, he walked out."
Terry sipped some more coffee. "I was hurt and pissed. I felt like Brandt wanted me to whore myself to advance his career while he used that career to fuck younger, tighter women than me. I didn't know what I was going to do, but, when Brandt wasn't home by midnight, I said 'fuck it.' I gathered up all my stuff and tossed it in the car. I got on the road about 1:30 this morning. I just wanted to go home. It was snowing in the mountains on the North Carolina-Tennessee line. I didn't care. I just wanted to go home. I crawled along at 20 miles an hour, barely seeing the semi in front of me. It wasn't until I was passing Lexington that I realized that I didn't have anywhere to stay when I got here. I'd sold my condo. I probably should have gone to Sherri's but it just seemed natural to come here. I'm sorry."
"No," Carol said, "you did the right thing. Of course you should have come here. You're always welcome here. You've been driving since 1:30 this morning?
"Straight through," Terry said. "Only stopped for gas."
"Have you eaten?" Carol asked.
Terry shook her head.
"Well, we were just fixing dinner," Carol said. "There's enough for the three of us. You'll stay here tonight. Is there anything in your car that we need to get out tonight? It's going to be cold."
"No, I think my stuff will be ok in the car until morning," Terry replied. "Uh," she said, "may I take my clothes off?"
Carol was actually surprised at that question. "Of course," Carol replied. "You're usually naked when you're here."
Terry stood up. "You guys are great," she said as she pulled off her boots. Of course, I watched Terry undress. She knew that I was watching and smiled at me several times. Terry had always had a firm, athletic body, but she was right that her months of working out in North Carolina had gotten her in fantastic shape. I couldn't help thinking that Brandt had really screwed up by letting Terry get away. She wasn't Carol, but she was damn sexy and desirable.
The three of us ate nude around the island in the kitchen. Almost as soon as we finished, Terry said, "Jesus, the wine is getting to me. Despite the coffee, I'm falling asleep!"
Carol responded, "Well, you've had a very long day. Why don't we take you up to the guest room and let you get some sleep? Harry and I will clean up."
Carol led Terry upstairs. I followed carrying Terry's clothes. I have to admit that it was wonderful watching two very beautiful bare female rear ends going up our stairs.
While Carol and I were washing the dinner dishes, Carol said, "Terry is a really great person and I love her dearly, but she gets into some really crappy situations. I have to believe these events are taking a toll on her. Maybe someone should watch out for her."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"Well, for one thing, I'd like to know that the guy who's fucking her isn't also fucking her over," Carol said.
"That would be nice," I said without much thought.
"Well," Carol said, "there is only one guy whom I really trust in that regard."