An Honorable Deception

Jen came through the outer office doors with fire in her eyes, "Where's my miserable fucking bastard!"

Elizaveta looked up at her and slowly shook her head, "He's not here, Jen. He said he wasn't feeling well."

"I'll just bet he doesn't. Do you know what he did?"

"I've worked here for eight years, Jen. There isn't anything that happens here that I don't know about...or in this case, at least can make a damn good guess. If it's any consolation, I'm upset, too."

Liz watched the woman breathing heavily. They both knew the expected fight had only been delayed.

Having lost her purpose for being there, Jen looked around the refined office, suddenly aware that if Greg's partner, Ron, was in his office, he could probably hear her. Hell, most of the people outside of the exterior office doors had probably heard her...some on the street, too. She hoped not. Fortunately, Liz was the only person she could see at the moment.

"Shit!" she thought. She really didn't want other people to know her business, their business -- especially since Greg and Ron managed their local branch of the successful financial advisory firm. She briefly flushed and decided to try and make a stealthy retreat, but not before genuinely saying, "He'd be lost without you, Liz. I think this whole office would be."

"He really does love you, Jen."

"He has a shitty way of showing it."

Liz watched the angry woman as she prepared to push open the door. Pausing for a sec, Jen turned to look at Liz, shook her head, and then she was gone.

Liz picked up her phone and texted her manager who also happened to be her very good friend, "She just left."

______________

In her car, having calmed herself a little, she opened her phone to check Greg's location. Whereas he appeared to have been offline before she went storming to his office, he was online now, at home.

As Jen drove towards their house, her emotions were roiling from one extreme to the other. They ranged from "How could he do this to me?" to "I'm going to neuter the bastard."

It had been about an hour earlier, after returning from her usual, as of the last few months, bi-weekly on Wednesdays, long-lunch engagement and was sitting in her office, that she had received a text from an unknown number.

It said, "Your husband is cheating on you with my fiancé."

She rolled her eyes upon receiving it and immediately swiped to dismiss it. Greg cheating on her? Please. He was as loyal as a yard dog. She figured it was spam or some other attempt at getting her to provide personal or banking information. A minute later she was irritated when she received another text from the same number, but a picture was included. When she tapped the notification to see it, she bolted upright in her chair.

It was a picture of her husband being undressed by a scantily clad young blonde woman. THAT had her attention.

Suspicious, she replied, "This is a fake."

The next text she received said, "I wish it were. This link has the video of their romp this morning."

Jen texted, "Who are you?"

"1POSOB -- One pissed-off son of a bitch."

After making sure her virus protection was up to date, Jen felt like her world ended when she typed the link into her laptop. The video was only five minutes long, but it contained enough imagery to damage her.

It showed her husband of twenty-five years entering a room with some young, big-tittied bimbo wearing a barely-there dress. Of course, Greg was wearing his red power tie and newly purchased double-breasted suit she had teased him about. While he looked nice, she had told him he looked like he was trying to go back in time twenty years.

The bimbo was hurriedly trying to undress him, and Greg was mostly wearing a scowl. Over the next five minutes, she saw various scenes captured by, she guessed, a hidden camera near the head of the bed. It showed him receiving a blowjob, eating out the bimbo, fucking the bimbo missionary, and then doggy style while pulling her hair. This wasn't love-making. He was power fucking or hate-fucking her, and the young bimbo was getting off on it. The last scene was a few seconds clip of him with his suit back on walking out of the room.

The overall video quality wasn't the best, but it was clear enough to see what a cheating bastard he was.

Arriving at her home, she could see Greg's Acura SUV in the garage, and she parked next to it in her Mercedes. The door from the garage opened near the kitchen, and as soon as she stepped inside, she could smell something baking -- probably cornbread if her nose was guessing correctly.

Having recovered her senses enough to calm herself back into her role of a refined tax attorney, her heels purposefully clicked on the tile floor toward the kitchen.

Greg heard her approaching and turned to say, "Hey, Honey. You're home early."

"I am. It was a difficult day and thought it best to leave a little early."

While she pulled her phone from her purse, he replied. "I know. I had a pretty shitty day too."

She finally opened her messaging app and clicked on the link that had been provided. She thrust her phone towards Greg and said, "I'll bet it wasn't as shitty as mine."

Greg looked at her phone for a sec and kind of shrugged his shoulders. "What's up?"

The video wouldn't play. She got an invalid link error message.

She muttered, "What?"

"Was there something you wanted to show me?"

"Uh." Frustrated, she tapped on the picture that had been sent to her and said "This! See this?"

He simply replied, "Oh. Yeah. I was going to tell you about that."

Incredulous, she exclaimed, "I'll just bet you were. You fucking prick! The link isn't working now, but there was a short video earlier of yours and that slut's greatest hits. You miserable bastard! How could you do this to me? To us?"

"I didn't have a choice."

"You what? There is always a choice. The correct choice was to say, 'No."

"I was being blackmailed."

"Blackmail? Blackmail! I don't believe it. How was that bimbo blackmailing you!"

"Do you remember when I went to that conference in Charlotte several months ago?"

She just looked at him like, "go on."

"I guess I had too much to drink because before I knew what was happening, Eva, the CEO's daughter had me in a men's room stall giving me a blow job. The next day as the conference was breaking up, she pulled me aside and showed me a picture she had taken of us after we had finished. I don't even remember her taking the picture. She instructed me not to say a word to anyone. That wasn't hard because I hardly remembered any of it."

"Even if I believe that story, which sounds more made up than not. Aren't you forgetting one small detail?"

"What?"

"You forgot to tell your fucking wife! While I'm not the type of attorney that could represent you, I work for a firm that has nearly two floors full of attorneys that could represent you."

"Right. That is the CEO's daughter. That would only end one of two ways -- me walking out with a fat check or me being fired with nothing."

"That may be true, but how do you not even bring it up to me. We could at least have discussed it."

"Oh right. Like we spend so much time talking about things as is."

That lit the fire back under Jen. "Don't go there. This was important. We could have...should have talked about this. And since we didn't, you allowed yourself to be led, willingly or not, into a hotel room this morning for what appeared to have been a rather good fucking."

"I didn't want to be there."

"I'm not sure why I can no longer see the video, but from what I saw, I can almost believe that. Still. You cheated on me. You. Cheated. On. Your. Wife."

Greg could easily see how angry she was. Good.

"Look. I'm sorry..." was all he could get out.

"Sorry! You bet your ass you're sorry. Sorry, isn't going to cut it."

Now he was getting his dander up. "Fine. Yell at me. Scream at me. Tell me what a sorry piece of shit I am...and on and on. Then. Then! Tell me where we go from here."

"I want to know what's going to prevent this from happening again."

"Well, obviously now that you know, she can't hold anything over us. Can she?"

She was flummoxed by that reply; off-axis that they were even having this conversation. She seriously doubted that she was getting the truth, at least not the whole truth. She was so furious with him. She was having difficulty keeping her anger in check and popped off, "What I meant was -- is there anyone else that you're fucking that I should know about? Are you and Liz spending long lunches in your office with the door closed? Though given some of her young stud muffins you and she have told me about, I don't know why she would want you."

Greg watched her eyes grow wide realizing her mistake as soon as it left her mouth. She immediately began back peddling. "Wait! I take that back. I'm so sorry. That was out of line."

"You're absolutely right. How could someone in their mid-thirties ever be interested in someone in their mid-to-late forties? Not possible. Right? Hell, you're almost my age and you're not interested in me either."

So upset with her previous line of interrogation, she completely missed the direct barb thrown at her, believing he was truly suggesting that nobody would want him, not that someone ten years younger did want her.

"No. No. I didn't mean it. I'm just angry. Even if you were interested in her, I know Liz. I like Liz. She'd kick you, or any other married man, in the balls for hitting on her. I know her story. She isn't a cheater. Unfortunately, my husband is."

She could tell this line of conversation was wearing on Greg. She asked, "What happened to my caring husband, who would do anything for me? When did I lose you?"

"Probably when you started losing calendar dates that were important to us -- like birthdays, anniversaries, and important work dinners with your husband. You kept saying you would make it up to me, but you never have. Never even tried. You didn't fucking care."

"Is that what this is about? I have to work on a few days that overlap events that can be made up and now you get to cheat on me? Does me saying 'sorry' now mean that you can just say 'Oops. My Bad,' and this all goes away?"

"No. All I'm suggesting is that we were having big problems even before any cheating happened."

"...and the cheating may be the end of our problems...the end of us."

Greg didn't flinch at her saying that. He knew this could be the end, too, looked directly at her, and coolly replied, "It may be."

Now they were both fuming.

The silence built for several seconds, and he said, "Look, nothing positive is going to happen here tonight, so I'm going to stay with my dad for a few days to let things cool down before we talk. With Mom gone, he'd probably appreciate the company." His mother had passed several years earlier.

"Fine."

As Greg began walking towards their bedroom, he called over his shoulder, "There's some fresh soup and cornbread on the stove; your favorite."

She smirked, "If he thinks he can sway me with food, he better have another think coming."

Five minutes later he was gone. Wordlessly. Both were still livid.

Several hours later, hunger finally got the best of her, and she decided to try a little of what he had prepared. Unsurprisingly, it was delicious. She sighed. He really was getting to be quite good in the kitchen. She needed to find a way to get home sooner to enjoy it with him...assuming they could work their way through this catastrophe.

She ate in silence except for the happy memories that still seemed to echo off the walls and throughout the house. Their eldest, Matthew, was just out of college and doing well. Their youngest, Zoe, was a junior in college and had moved out three years earlier. Now? Without her husband there that seemed like a decade ago. She needed to get a better handle on her hours.

At that moment, it felt like the great big house in their prestigious neighborhood was about to swallow her whole. She could almost see herself shrinking, lost amongst the wonderful memories of their early years and nearly two decades of happy children growing up there. With the kids gone, she often felt like the only thing she had going for her was her work. They had both taken each other for granted.

She wouldn't allow her timeline of memories to dwell on the last several years of neglect nor particularly the last few months, which would have weighed prominently on her mind. She flicked on the TV to distract her from those haunting thoughts.

Later that night at his father's place, Greg received a text from Liz, "Are you okay?"

He replied, "As well as can be expected. I'm at my dad's place."

"Let me know if you need anything."

"Will do. Thank you, Liz"

__________________

During the next couple of days and on the weekend, Jen checked her phone from time to time to confirm that Greg was either at his father's house or very close. No real danger of the CEO's daughter, or whoever was that bimbo, meeting him there.

She sighed again. She'd been doing that a lot since Wednesday. Cheating destroys the trust that is built up over years and decades. She wondered if she'd ever be able to trust him again.

She was relieved not to be near a mirror when she had those thoughts, certain that her reflection would be giving her a scornful look decrying 'hypocrite!'

On Monday she received flowers at her office from Greg. She wasn't moved.

In the evening as she left work at her normal time, late, she checked again, and Greg was at home.

Upon entering the kitchen she could smell seafood and saffron. Jen let out the briefest of chuckles because this truly was her favorite -- seafood paella.

She really was looking forward to sharing it with him. Those cooking classes that Greg took continued to pay off. He enjoyed cooking for something to focus on besides work and their problems. She enjoyed the results. Unfortunately, she had expected to join him for each of the thirteen weekly evening classes. She only made it to three.

This time upon seeing her husband, she hugged him. "Smells good, Baby."

"Thanks. Wine's breathing on the table."

They had a good chat while eating, completely ignoring the six-hundred-pound gorilla in the room. After they finished, Greg was washing dishes, and she asked, "Greg, how did we get here?"

No term of endearment -- just, "Greg."

He turned around and leaned against the counter, "I don't know. I've been wondering that myself for the last several months. My best guess is that at first, we were so focused on careers and then the kids, that we never really made time for us. Apart from birthdays and anniversaries, most of our discussions were about moving the household or the kids forward. I don't think we did a very good job of nurturing our own marriage. What do you think?"

"I don't know. I know I love you. I do. And I know you love me. But like you, when I thought about it over the last few days, I'm stunned at how little we actually talk to each other, anymore. Why did we allow ourselves to drift so far apart?"

"I don't know. I want to blame your work, but honestly, I think that is more a symptom rather than the actual problem."

She resisted the urge to go ballistic over his complaining about her work, again. She did say, "You do realize that an associate partner is expected to put in and bill a lot of hours, even if we are also expected to help manage part of the firm, too."

"I know that. Look I don't want to fight over your job, but the trial that consumed you for several months earlier this year really hurt us, and I'd argue that we were in trouble even before then."

That trial had been particularly stressful requiring her and another top attorney at her firm to work closely together for long periods of time. She would go back and undo some things regarding that relationship if she could.

With more bite than she intended, she barked, "Trouble? Trouble? You were the one that started making important decisions without discussing them with me. I'm not even talking about you fucking that bimbo, either. Or the blowjob she gave you. I'm still not over that, nor may I ever get over that, but I view that as a symptom, too. Even before that, you redirected to Liz's son, Jonathan, the remaining $30,000 and change out of what was left in the kids' college fund."

He bit back, "Our kids' school was all paid up. We didn't need it, but Liz did because Jonathan, her only child, was just starting college. And if she could pay all four years upfront, they were going to give her a $20,000 discount, plus now, she doesn't have to worry about the cost of tuition going up. Besides, combined, we make that in just under a month, so it isn't like we are going to miss it."

"No. We won't miss it, but what hurt me so much then, and what's pissing me off now, was that you told me after the fact. If you had simply said that was what you wanted to do, I would have been fine with it. I've always liked Liz and Jonathan. But like you fucking around, I found out after the fact."

"Well, it was important, and given where our relationship was at the time, I didn't want to take the chance on you saying 'No' because I was going to do it anyway."

She exclaimed, "Jesus! We're so far apart right now, how are we ever going to get back together?"

He asked, "Honestly, do you even want to?"

She couldn't believe those words came out of his mouth. "Of course, I do. Why would you even ask that?"

"Because on the list of priorities in your life, I feel like I'm not even in the top five. I know you like what you do, and you like the money and prestige even more, so I'm not expecting to be number one very often, but I'd at least like to feel like you wish I could be number one in your life from time to time.

She rolled her eyes again, but he cut her off before she spoke. "No, really. If you really want a husband in your life, or hell, even just a friend or fuck buddy, you have to act like it, and I haven't seen that, nor much of you in a long time. Speaking of seeing you - when is the last time I saw you naked?"

She let out a short huff, "We made love..." He watched her trying to do the math.

After she spent a few more seconds trying to remember, Greg did his best Ted Bridges from Caddyshack imitation, "Well, we're waiting..."

"Fuck you! So it's been a few weeks. I'm the one that received a video link of you screwing around on me." She still hadn't been able to access that video again.

Greg said, "The answer to the question is that it was a little over six weeks ago, the night we actually used our reservation to eat at Il Cucina."

He could see her simmering over the fact that he knew the exact date.

Softening his tone, he asked, "Would you like to go to counseling and see if we can figure this out? I would. I love you, too, and we have a lot of years invested in each other. I'd hate to see us lose that if we can avoid it. I'm sure the kids would, too."

"I've been thinking about that, too."

"Do you want me to quit my job?"

"What? No. You love your job. Why would I want that?"

"The CEO's daughter? I'm sure we'll bump into each other from time to time."

She let out a long sigh. "God, I didn't even realize that she was out of college yet. Jeez! She's probably the same age as Zoe or Matthew." He could see that lit the fire again.

"No. Don't quit because you aren't going to ever have another affair with her or anyone else. At least you better not. If you do, then we're history anyway."

Greg didn't speak for a few seconds and was looking at her. Hard. She thought he looked like he was waiting for something.

"What?"

Not getting the response he was hoping for, he replied, "If the counseling goes well maybe we could renew our vows," she smiled at that, and he continued, "and get a postnup."