This is another departure from my usual fare. I hope that you like it and your constructive comments are welcome. I cannot thank my editor, Todger65, enough for his help.
Julie and Tess
An epic friendship saves a straight wife and her lesbian friend.
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Julie sat in her kitchen deep in thought. She was nearly desperate with loneliness. She needed the intimate touch of someone that loved her. Her husband Bob was around some evenings and part of the weekends, but he never treated her as a woman anymore. She felt like in his mind she was a somewhat useful utility. She was good for occasionally getting his rocks off and keeping his shit cleaned up. He never touched her romantically anymore. Sex was Bob rolling on top of her after kissing her for two minutes, then fucking her as fast as he could until he came. She couldn't remember the last time she had an orgasm with her husband.
What really bothered her, and hurt her feelings deeply, were his visits to the strip club with his friends. He rarely looked at her but was almost rabid about looking at strange women naked. His weekly visit eventually turned into Friday and Saturday nights, and often on weekdays. He rarely made it home before 2:00 am on the weekends. His day shift at the factory ensured that he was home by midnight during the week. Julie saw him at dinner, where what little he said was most often a complaint about his wife. A few minutes after dinner he left to go to his favorite bar, or the strip club, and Julie was left alone at home.
She understood that Bob needed to unwind after a tough week in the factory, but why couldn't he unwind with her? He used to, but five years of marriage had changed both of them. He began to unwind with his friends while Julie became more reserved and passive. She also became more depressed.
Her saving grace was her friend Tess. She had met Tess through her work. Tess was an outside sales rep for a local steel company, and she visited Julie's factory twice a month. Julie was the steel buyer for her factory, and she worked closely with Tess to ensure steel supplies were maintained. The two women had lunch together a few times before both realized that they enjoyed each other's company. Soon after, they were meeting away from work at one or the other's home. They talked about everything with each other, absolutely everything.
It took Tess a while to finally tell Julie that she was gay and always had been. Julie, rather than react negatively, became curious. She had never met a lesbian and she had tons of questions. Some were naively insulting, but Tess didn't mind. Julie began to understand, as best a straight woman could, Tess's sexuality. Once she did, she was embarrassed about her early questions.
Tess was lonely too. Her lover of ten years had suddenly left her, and a year later she was still gun shy. Tess was tall and beautiful. She got hit on a lot, by women more often than she would like. Staving off the men was easy. She wasn't interested in them anyway, although she tried to camouflage herself as a hetero professional. Sometimes her camouflage backfired, giving the impression that she was available to some random male.
The hardest ones to push away were the women. Some extremely attractive women had shown interest in her, but she always shied away. She knew inside that she couldn't take another lost lover. It would destroy her. She thanked God that she and Julie were friends. Tess knew that without Julie her depression might have led to her leaving this life much sooner than she should.
Julie was straight and that made her safe in Tess's eyes. Julie would never try to become romantic with her. Talking with Julie was like being in a sea of calmness. Tess knew that no matter what they talked about it wouldn't lead to dangerous territory. Tess could let herself go with Julie and because of that she craved their time together.
It wasn't difficult for Julie to meet with Tess. Bob was aware of their friendship, and harbored fantasies about his wife having sex with Tess. Outside of that, he gave their friendship no thought at all. The two women always met when he was out of the house anyway. It wasn't like Julie was not doing her wifely duties as she should. If she was home when he was, as she should be, then he could care less if she had a friend.
Bob was an easily influenced idiot. At one point in his life, he had not been a bad man. His intentions, while less than perfect, had been basically good. He married Julie because he loved her, then things changed. Too much talk with idiots at the factory, and his drinking buddies, had changed Bob from a loving husband into a domineering asshole. They had convinced him that a woman needed putting in her place. It was bullshit of the highest order and he bought it hook, line, and sinker.
Julie's attempts to talk to her husband about their marriage were always rapidly shut down by her husband. He was perfectly happy with the way things were. Why waste time talking when he could be having a beer with his buddies. He should have known better, but his buddies kept reinforcing his behavior. It didn't occur to him that none of his buddies were in a happy marriage. All of them had been divorced at least once. Some of them had been divorced multiple times. His best bud John had been divorced five times and the guy wasn't even forty years old.
Bob wasn't nearly as smart as he thought he was. He was on a path of his own choosing. A path that could lead to a surprised husband being served divorce papers. Said husband having no clue as to what he had done to deserve such humiliation, because in his mind he had done nothing wrong.
The odds were heavy against him changing back into the husband that married Julie. Doing that would be his only chance to save his marriage. One of these days Julie was going to get her backbone back, and when she did, she would set herself free. As painful as it would be for her, she eventually would reach a point where she said, "Enough."
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Julie and Tess were sitting in Julie's kitchen. It was Friday night and that meant that the two women had hours to hang out and talk. You would have thought the words would have run out by now, but they never did. The two women had reached a point where they could, and did, spend time together in near silence. They watched movies, swam in Tess's pool, and relaxed in the glow of each other's presence. They were each other's anchor. Being in close proximity to each other gave them comfort.
On this evening Tess wanted to focus on Julie's failing marriage. Her motive was pure. She wanted her friend to be truly happy again, and Tess knew that Julie never would be until she escaped her marriage.
Tonight, the drink of choice was wine. Tess sipped from her glass of Chardonnay and looked over at Julie, "We have been over this countless times and there is not much more that I can say. I have one shot left in me and that is a question for you. Are you happier when you are with Bob or when you are not?"
Julie sat in silence, her eyes looking at her feet. It was obvious that she was uncomfortable, and vulnerable. She finally screwed up the courage to look at her friend, "I... I don't want to talk about this."
Tess's reply was accompanied by sternest face Tess could put on, "It is time you were honest with yourself. You are miserable and you know why. You never answered my question, but you don't have to. I know. I know as surely as I know what day it is. When you can admit to yourself that truth, you will do what you need to do."
Julie took a long drink of her wine, "You're telling me to get a divorce."
Tess was livid, "Hell no! I never once told you what to do. I know what you need to do, but have never said it, and I sure as hell haven't said it now. You need to make up your own mind, without having the excuse that you were influenced by me. You need to decide what your future will be, not me. You decide. Either the so-called life you have now, or something else. Something new."
Julie's face was transforming gradually as she desperately forced some confidence, "He won't let me divorce him. He'll go crazy and I don't know what will happen."
