Linda Adair was wonderful-soft-gorgeous-intelligent-warm and she loved me. We met at a frat party my Junior year. She was there with a group of her sorority sisters. They were from a different college in town, but on the female-deficient Tech campus they were always welcome. We talked all night. Shortly we were an item.
After we both graduated the following year, we moved into an apartment together. That November Linda had the flu and was prescribed a strong antibiotic. On January 3rd when I walked in she met me and pulled me to sit beside her on the couch. She looked like she had been crying.
"Jack, I'm pregnant."
"Are you sure? I thought you were on the pill? What happ -?" I realized that I had started badly and I paused. "Linda, I love you."
"You know those instruction sheets with the long lists of side effects that they give you with prescriptions?"
I nodded.
"At the bottom of the Cipro sheet it says: 'may make oral contraceptives ineffective.' I didn't read it." Her lip was trembling.
"You're the best thing that ever happened to me. Marry me, please?" I slipped to the floor in front of her on one knee. We had talked around this issue and I had been thinking about a romantic getaway over Valentine's. Now this would have to do.
"Really! Oh, Jack!" She flung her arms around my neck and squeezed her body to mine.
We arranged a small wedding at a nearby church for the first week in February. The honeymoon in Jamaica was cancelled after two days. Linda's morning sickness lasted most of the day and exhausted her. We went back to the apartment and she slept the rest of the week.
The first week in March I practically skipped home.
"Linda!" I grabbed her and swung her around. "I've been promoted! I'm the Southeastern Regional Support Manager."
"Oh, Jack, that's wonderful. Tell me about it."
"I'll be supervising the field support teams here in Atlanta, in Mobile, Baton Rouge, Tallahassee and Miami. Of course I'll have to travel to those places some, but I got a big raise."
"You'll be away with the baby coming?"
"It'll just be a couple of days a week and they already said that I could stay in town when the time is close. With the raise we'll be able to buy a house for us and the baby."
We went house shopping the next two weekends and before the end of April we were moving into one of the new McMansions in the suburbs of Atlanta just north of the Buckhead area where my office was.
The house next to ours was occupied by a couple about four years older than us and so far childless. Frank and Becky were friendly and outgoing. Since Linda was past her morning sickness, we went out with them or shared a barbecue almost every weekend.
I was in Tallahassee in late June when my cell phone buzzed.
"Is this Mr. Jack Williams?" An efficient voice that I'd never heard was on the other end.
"Yes. Can I help you?"
"Mr. Williams, this is Northside Hospital. Your wife has been admitted with complications from her pregnancy."
"What's wrong? Tell me what's happening!"
"I'm sorry. I don't know any more."
"Tell her I'll be there as soon as possible. Is there a number to call?"
I found out the next flight back to Atlanta was in less than an hour. I left my motel key with the office secretary and had one of my guys drive me to the airport. In about three hours I was at the hospital talking to the doctor.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Williams. Your wife had an ectopic pregnancy. We saved her but the fetus died."
"We can always have more children," I said.
"Mr. Williams, I am sorry, but that's not possible. When the Fallopian tube burst, a large portion of the uterus tore also. Your wife can't have any more children."
I took her home two days later and spent the next week with her, using up all my vacation. Linda was very depressed. Losing a new life is bad enough but never being able to have any more makes it ten times worse. We went to two counseling sessions but Linda refused to go to a third.
"Jack, it just rubs everything that's raw right now."
"Honey, it's natural to be depressed. The counselor will be able to help you through this. Do you want to go without me? Do you need to say things that you're afraid I might take wrong?"
"I don't need to say anything at all! I don't want a stranger telling me how I feel! I'M NOT GOING BACK!" She shouted at me and ran to our bedroom slamming the door behind her.
It was six weeks before we could make love again. When it was over she cried.
"I wanted us to be a normal, happy family and now I've ruined everything."
"Babe, it's not your fault. These things happen. Now we'll get to adopt a child that isn't being loved by anyone and give him all the love that he needs."
"I wanted our own child." She cried herself to sleep.
I traveled as little as possible but summer was the busiest time and I was gone two or three days a week. After Labor Day I had to resume a normal schedule. Linda was still depressed but as fall progressed, she seemed to come around. Things, including our sex life, got back to normal.
On a rare week I did no traveling, but that didn't stop the paperwork. The first Wednesday in November I was sitting in front of the TV trying to finish a report on my laptop. When the phone rang, Linda picked it up.
"Honey," she began after the call was over, "do you mind if I go over to Becky's? I can see that you're tied up for a while."
"Nah. Go ahead. I'll probably spend all evening on this." I really wanted her presence, but I didn't want to be selfish.
I had just closed up the laptop about 11 o'clock and was fixing a short cognac when she came back home.
"I'm baaaack." She did a bad Arnold impersonation and then leaned over to kiss me.
I savored the softness of her lips and inhaled the sweetness of her smell. It was fresh, like she'd just gotten out of the shower. It was wonderful how she could go all day and still have such a great scent.
That week on Friday Linda called me at work. "Come straight home. We're going to dinner with Frank and Becky and then hit some clubs."
"I'll be there, babe."
Linda was already dressed when I got home. Frank and Becky were in the den talking and enjoying a pre-drinks drink. I dashed through a shower and into the clothes that Linda had laid out. Then the four of us went out.
I'm a tall, lanky guy: 6'4" and a little over 200 pounds. Linda is tall for a woman at 5'7" but Becky is even taller, 5'9" maybe 5'10", and with the three-inch heels she had on, she could grind her ass into my crotch on the dance floor. Which she had been doing for about five minutes now. I'm sure she could tell the effect her dancing was having and I tried to back off.
"Hey, don't leave me," she giggled looking over her shoulder right into my eyes. When she backed up, my hard-on nestled right between her cheeks. Her breath brought the tang of lime and tequila from the third margarita she had downed. "It's a compliment to a girl when a guy reacts."
"I'm not sure Linda would want me passing out those compliments."
"Hey! We enjoy a little teasing. Just look at Linda and Frank. But tonight we'll be hot for our hubbys. It affects us, too."
I looked around for my wife. She was grinding on Frank and he didn't look like he was backing away.
"You can participate, too. See how Frank is holding Linda." Becky's spicy perfume, aided by the heat of the dance floor, circled my head. The two scotches I had killed made me see the logic in her argument.