A special thanks to Leslie Jones for her editing and feedback.
I had hoped to have this done much earlier, but two days after posting part 1, my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. Thankfully it was caught very early and the prognosis is very, very good. For obvious reasons our lives have been turned upside down as we adjust to the new normal of doctor visits, treatment and other appointments every week.
I worked on this as time and drive allowed and am very surprised that the direction the story has changed considerably from what I had originally conceived. I'm not from the 'Once a cheater, Always a Cheater' camp. I think under the right (or wrong) conditions some people will yield to temptation and when faced with the possible consequences afterwards, will see their mistake, learn from it, and never make the same mistake again. That's how we learn...it's how I learned not to touch a hot stove when I was 4 years old!
I also believe that compassion and forgiveness (when warranted) are among the greatest of human traits and are a sign of strength, not weakness.
If you're looking for a BTB story then I would suggest you find something else to read. I am open to constructive criticism, but if you're going to be rude or ignorant and hide behind anonymity, expect your worthless blathering to be deleted.
If you choose to continue past this point, I hope you enjoy what I have written; I have certainly enjoyed writing it!
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A Little Story About Jack and Diane, Pt.2
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Diane was gob smacked; she stared at Jack for a moment as if he had just uttered incomprehensible nonsense.
"What?" She finally managed to say. "You can't be serious! Where the hell did you get an idea like that? I have never told you any such thing in my life, EVER! If this is some kind of sick, twisted joke, you need to stop now."
In a pleading tone, sounding almost like she was about to cry, she continued, "Jack, if you're doing this just to get me to listen to what you want to talk about, it's worked, OK? I'm listening! Let's talk about our intimacy issues, let's talk about what we need to do to fix things, but please, drop this nonsense about having an affair, I know nothing good could come of it. I know the kind of man you are and I know it would kill you inside if you went through with it...it would kill US!"
Jack carefully regarded Diane for a moment, observing and analyzing all the details.
He heard the hurt and fear in her voice, he saw the distress his words had caused, the quickening of her breath, the trembling of her voice, her eyes on the verge of tears. He saw it all and, for the briefest moment, considered taking this whole thing in a completely different direction. He had gone over this moment a thousand times in his mind, but it couldn't fully prepare him for the reality of the situation. It would be easy to stop now, to not continue down this path that he knew would break her heart...and his too, but he loved her too much for that.
With a loud sigh, Jack let out the breath he didn't realize he was holding. "You're right Diane; I did want to shock you. I wanted you to feel a little of what I have been feeling for the last couple of weeks so that we can see if this is something we can or want to work through."
Reaching over to the seat next to him, Jack picked up the television remote and pressed one of the buttons as he said: "And you're also right in that you never told ME that having an affair would be a way to get my sexual needs fulfilled."
The romantic music that had been playing on the television suddenly cut off and was replaced with the voice of Jill Ackman, Diane's very best friend since childhood.
"Diane, you can't be serious! What in the hell were you thinking?"
In a sorrowful voice Diane responded, "I don't know, Jill, I don't know. I didn't mean for it to happen, it just...happened."
"Damn Diane, this is really messed up. Never in a million years did I think you could do something like this."
"I know, Jill, I fucked up so bad, what am I going to do?"
Diane's head whipped around, looking for the source of Jill's voice. As her eyes focused on the television, she saw the words of their conversation displayed on the screen as if it were the transcript of an emergency 911 call.
Her hands shot up to her mouth as she cried out "No,no,no,no,no, oh god No! Jack, turn it off, please turn it off! Oh god, turn it off!" she wailed.
Diane jumped as Jack slapped his hand down hard on the table, rattling the plates and utensils. She brought her hands up to her face as she bowed her head and broke down, sobbing "Please, Jack, nooo..."
Jack turned up the volume to drown out Diane's sobbing.
"I don't know, Diane, I just don't know. Tell me everything that happened and let's see if we can sort this out."
As the playback continued, Diane's thoughts went back to the events leading up to her call with Jill.
--Diane's story--
Diane's company worked with the local college to bring in some business major students each summer for an 8-week internship. The interns would rotate every two weeks to each of the company's four main departments: administration, finance, marketing, and sales. It was on the fourth rotation that Tyler joined in the finance department where Diane worked as the assistant to the Chief Financial Officer.
As Tyler was introduced to the team, Diane took a few moments to appraise him.
He was attractive in a 'cute guy nextdoor' way. He was tall, maybe 6'-4", and he had a nice strong build, like he had grown up working hard or playing sports. He had an open and honest face, a nice smile, warm hazel eyes and a relaxed friendly attitude. He was the type of person who was immediately liked by almost everyone.
Diane was thankful that Tyler seemed to be a nice guy since she would be working with him quite a bit over the next two weeks to prepare the fiscal year-end reports needed for the upcoming board and investors meetings. Printing, collating, and binding the 450 reports that were needed was a lot of work and Diane was thankful she would not have to do it all by herself. Putting together the financial reports was Diane's least favorite job and she liked to get it done as quickly as possible. Since she could only spare about an hour each day to work on the reports, so she had to make the most of her time.
Eliminating the myriad of interruptions she typically had each day was paramount, so for the last couple of years Diane had taken to using the large archive/storage room in the basement. It was a large, well-lit room with several large tables she could use to collate all of the various documents for the reports, and most importantly, there were no disruptions - no one ever came down to the storage room!
Because Tyler was there to learn all of the various aspects of the financial department, it was decided that he would assist Diane with the reports for the last hour of each day. Diane was a meticulous planner, so she spent the first day explaining to Tyler her process for putting together the reports, making sure he understood each step and why they were doing it that way. Having to go back and fix 450 reports because of a miscommunication was certainly NOT an option!
Tyler proved to be very adept and needed little instruction as they worked on the reports each day. Diane found Tyler very easy to talk to and he seemed to enjoy telling her about his school, family, friends and hobbies. He didn't talk about any girlfriends or such which was fine with Diane as she didn't think a young man talking to an older female coworker about such things was appropriate.
On the third day that they were working together, Diane noticed several times that Tyler seemed to be staring at her and would quickly look away if she happened to catch his eye. She didn't think much of it except that the last time it happened, she noticed that Tyler was doing his best to hide an erection! Although she felt a little embarrassed, Diane also found it very flattering when she considered that a handsome young man like Tyler seemed to find her attractive.