Nigel Scott was 40. He had been married for 15 years to the one true love of his life, Gloria. They'd met at college, had scandalised both of their families by shacking up together after their second date, but had then stunned everyone again by getting married just after graduation, both getting good, well paying jobs and eventually buying themselves a 'proper' home, after several small apartments.
A 'proper' home as in four bedrooms, gardens front and back and a two car garage. Ideal, they explained for when they decided to have children.
Gloria was also 40, had long blonde hair and was gorgeous. Well, Nigel thought so! So, sadly, did someone else. Or, to be more precise, so did more than somebody else.
One way that the sins of adulterers come to light in real life as well as works of fiction is that the poor, betrayed spouse accidentally discovers the love of his or her life fucking with someone else.
How it happened for Nigel was like this:-
Nigel had been working over regularly on a very important project for work. Gloria had not objected. In fact, she had sort of insisted that Nigel put the extra hours in.
It wasn't the extra money, though she admitted that would help, she felt, she told him, that because the project would bring about some socially beneficial results (virtually instant emergency houses for people who had been hit by fires, floods and tornado and hurricane damage) the sooner the project came to fruition, the better.
Nigel liked this as Gloria had never really expressed much of an interest in his work, a senior project manager at a multidisciplinary engineering solutions service provider.
That actually sounds much more complex than it was. Basically if you had any kind of major project that required some engineering input, MES would handle that for you, but at a handsome price.
One day Nigel's bosses called him in to a meeting. They told him that they had watched how he had grown and matured as an engineer in the ten years he had been with MES.
How it had not gone without notice that on at least several occasions he had managed to turn round the mistakes of some of his less able colleagues, saving the company many millions of Dollars.
They had decided that it was now time for Nigel to step up to the next level in the company's management structure, to become a director!
Grant Fieldstone, the company president said: "We know that it can't have been easy for you or your team, Nigel, these last several months. But especially for you!
"What with the UN Homelessness Council breathing down our necks, you put in way over and beyond the hours anyone could have reasonably expected you to put it.
"As a result, we are going to send you and your wife Gloria on a two week cruise. You'll start on a three week holiday as from now. The cruise is of the Caribbean. When you get back, you'll be in a new office in the director's floor. Your secretary Emma will be transferring with you.
"By the way, we know she has received help from counsellors after the death of her husband last year. We don't want you to break any confidences, you know that's not how we work, but how is she holding up?"
Nigel nodded. "She's not fully OK, not really, but she is doing so much better. But it'll take time. After all, it's not as if his death was expected, he was killed in a car wreck, as you'll recall."
They chatted, had a celebratory glass of wine and they insisted that Nigel left early to go home and tell his wife the good news.
He told Emma, his secretary of five years, what had transpired. She was genuinely thrilled by his news, which made him feel good. He was especially pleased by her reaction to the news that she was moving up the corporate ladder with him.
He packed his briefcase and went home.
He noticed that there was a car on the drive. The car was owned by Gloria's best friend ,Ruby Maxwell. Whilst he would have preferred to speak with Gloria in private, he didn't mind the fact that Ruby was there. Whilst Ruby was Gloria's best friend, her husband, Bob, was Nigel's best friend.
They'd met up as couples in the final year at college. Whilst Nigel and Gloria had decided not to start a family just yet, Ruby and Bob had twins, a boy and a girl, who were aged seven.
He parked his car in front of the garage, took his briefcase with him, locked his car up with the remote (nice, up-scale neighbourhood, but itinerant car thieves salivated for such easy pickings in suburbia) and walked in through the front door.
He turned right into the lounge of the house, only to find that his marriage had been over for some time, but nobody had had the decency to bother to tell him.
Ruby and Gloria were naked on the large sheepskin rug in front of the fireplace and were 69ing with a fury born of great passion and, he realised, much previous experience.
"What in the name of fuck are you two doing?" Shouted Nigel.
"Fuck!"
"Honey! It's not what you think!"
Nigel looked down at them, eyes burning coals of rage. "I mean, really? Husband catches wife with her mouth and her cunt involved in some adulterous lesbian sex and it's not what he thinks? Shit! You really are a stupid, fucked-up bitch, Gloria!"
Gloria has disentangled herself from Ruby, they both sat side-by-side on the rug. Gloria had tears in her eyes. "Please don't call me names, Nigel! Please! I'm sorry this happened, but please don't call me names!"
"Call you names?" said Nigel, an angry, sardonic edge to his voice. "You don't have the first idea of what I really want to call you and what I will be calling you!" He shook his head.
"Nigel," said Ruby. "It's not as if Gloria was cheating on you with a man. If she is with me, another woman, that doesn't count as cheating, does it? After all, if it did count as cheating, I wouldn't be here, with her, right?"
"No, you stupid slut!" shouted Nigel. "It isn't right! There was no get out clause in the marriage vows.
