Initially, we were just neighbors who had moved into a new subdivision around the same time. The six of us were about the same age. My wife Claudine was six months pregnant when we moved in and the couple across the street, Sal and Kerry had a two-year-old with one on the way. Ginny and Jeff completed our sextet when they moved in next door, with their one-year old daughter.
As you can imagine, over the years with all of the mom's having children of similar ages the girls became close friends and we guys were pretty tight also. Within five years there were seven children in our little village and with coaching, PTA, school functions, pool parties and the like we were almost one big family. The kids were all close also but even over the twenty years there had been no blooming romantic relationships among them
Now, at forty-nine, I was the oldest and at forty-two, Kerry was the youngest, everybody else fell somewhere in the middle. Ginny and Jeff had two kids off at college and their youngest son was a high school Junior. Kerry and Sal's twin girls were seniors in high school. Our oldest, Chelsea was a junior at Penn State and our son Devin had joined the Navy after high school, so we were now empty nesters.
All of the wives had eventually returned to the work force and, although when we moved in to the neighborhood we all struggled financially, like most young couples. Now, to varying degrees, we were all financially comfortble
Claudine is a nurse practitioner and works at a large medical association in the area. Kerry is a bookkeeper for a lumber supply house and Ginny opened her own florist shop after working for a small shop where the owners decided to retire. Just a slice of middle America, some Democrats, some Republicans, all of us were at least, nominally Christian, except for Sal and Kerry who attended Catholic mass regularly. The rest of us were, what I called, holy day Christians, going to services on Christmas, Easter and special occasions.
We all genuinely liked one another and enjoyed each other's company. We had learned over the years to avoid conversations regarding politics and religion, except in the most general of terms. It wasn't like we didn't all have other friends and acquaintances, both within the neighborhood and without but we were a close knit group. As time passed and the kids moved on there was less dependency on one another and we branched out into other personal relationships. It was something that evolved with the decreasing need for sharing the responsibility of PTA involvement, picking up kids for athletic events, school functions or helping one another with babysitting duties.
At some point we realized that we were drifting apart and although I don't know who suggested it we decided to get together the first and third Friday of every month, for poker night. We didn't always play poker, sometimes it was canasta. We tried Bridge but none of ever got the hang of it or had the enthusiasm to get good at it.
The women, being better organizers, varied the themes, there were international pot luck dinners, chili cook-offs, trivial pursuit, classic movie nights and even, the old standby -- charades.
No one ever drank to excess but none of us were "tea-totters either so whoever was hosting had an ample supply of wine, beer and liquor. As familiar as we had become with one another there was still, little or no flirting, aside from an off-color joke once in a while. Sex was not a topic of discussion unless it was a story about the latest escapade about a politician or celebrity.
The women were all still attractive, a few extra pounds here and there, but they all kept themselves fit and dressed to accentuate their assets without being provocative. Of course, I am biased, but my wife was the hottest of the group. At 5'4", 115 pounds with short auburn hair, green eyes, and 36C breasts, she was "girl next door" pretty. We had been married for almost twenty-six years and aside from the great sex, at least twice a week, I could count on one hand the number of serious arguments that we've had over the years.
No, our sex lives didn't dwindle, neither of us traveled overnight, everything was honky dory until a month ago when I visited a client for a quarterly audit. I am a private practice accountant, specializing in small to medium corporate accounts. Most of my clients have under ten million gross earnings and I visit their offices every three months to review their general ledgers, prepare state and federal tax forms as well as workman comp insurance reviews.
I was at the offices of Max Tolson, one of my oldest clients, and someone that I considered a friend. He and his late wife, Sylvia, had been to our house many times for parties and us to his.
Max was out of the office at a meeting when I arrived at his place of business and his bookkeeper, Louise, set me up in the conference room to begin my work. Max came back about one o'clock and being engrossed in my work, I hardly noticed when he took a seat across from me at the large conference table.
Max is a rotund, gregarious guy in his late sixties and I have always enjoyed his company. He has an irreverent attitude towards most things and especially politicians so our conversations usually included our contempt of just about every elected official, local, state and federal. When I realized that it was him sitting across from me, I looked up and smiled a greeting but he seemed sad and hesitant when he finally spoke:
"Charley, I am so sorry about you and Claudine, I thought you guys were as solid as a rock."
I looked at him quizzically. My curiosity was piqued but I was sure that whatever he thought he knew, was erroneous.
"So, what did you hear." I said with a smirk.
He looked embarrassed, when he continued:
"Shit, did I just step on my own dick, here?"
It was a rhetorical question but I replied:
"Max, what did you hear to make you think that we weren't solid?"
By the look on his face, I think if he had an ejector switch he would have propelled himself through the ceiling and out through the roof.
"Max, I said patiently, we've been friends for many years, what exactly did you hear and who did you hear it from?"
Finally, he let out a long sigh and asked:
Are you and Claudine okay, you're not separated— — — — getting divorced, or something"?
I just shook my head.
"God damn it, he yelled, me and my big fucking mouth. Listen Charley, forget I said anything, I'm an asshole, I probably got my names mixed up. I ain't getting any younger you know. Sometimes I go into a room and forget why the hell I went in there. I'll know it was to get something but I'll be fucked if I can remember what it was."
