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I dedicate this story to Walter from Southern California.
Author's Note: This is a true story with a happy ending for Jay but a sad ending for Ruth. Even though Ruth was wrong for doing all that she did to Jay, he was wrong for doing all that he did to Ruth. Instead of divorcing early on, they allowed the marriage to continue and while she cheated on him, he cheated on her. Their open marriage worked until Ruth was bringing her work home with her and waving her sexual affairs not only in her husband's face but also in their neighbors' faces too.
*
Always suspecting her of having sexual affairs behind his back, Jay catches his wife, Ruth, red-handed and naked with her young lover, Chris.
The only fly in his ointment, the only thorn in his side, and the only pain in his ass, was his drunken whore of his not so loving wife, Ruth. Some loving wife she turned out to be. A woman who has sex with every man in the neighborhood and beyond but for him. Rejecting him, her own husband, she does sexual things to men she just met that she's never done with Jay. How dare she? Why would she? What's wrong with her to mistreat him in such a bad way?
A selfish, self-centered bitch, she was such an annoying, argumentative cunt. He needed to get rid of her. He needed to divorce her drunken ass. If she wasn't yelling and screaming at him, she was droning on and on about some nonsense that happened yesterday, last week, last month, last year, or years ago. When she's unable to drink in the way she'd like to drink and get drunk whenever he was home, she was mad with anger and mad with lunacy. She was on edge from her withdrawal from alcohol and he's on the verge of finally divorcing her. Enough is enough.
Always belittling him, instead of complimenting him, she had a way of making him feel small and insignificant. Even though he was successful in his career, she made him feel like a loser. When she was the one at fault in the failure of their marriage, she had a way of turning everything that was wrong with their relationship around and pointing the finger of blame at him. How dare she? How could she? More importantly, why did he allow her to get away with that bad behavior for all of these years? Maybe he was more than a sap. With her nothing but a cheating, drunken wife, maybe he was a cuckold husband indeed.
Always throwing it back in his face to start the same argument all over again, she never forgot the slightest provocation, the smallest transgression, and/or the one unthinking, insensitive comment he made against her. Finally now, after all of these years, he saw through her ruse. She started the same, never ending argument because she wanted him out of the house. Whether going to work or traveling, he'd think twice about coming home early. She didn't want him there. She just wanted his money. It was always only about the money.
"Money, money, money," he said mumbling under his breath.
He thought of Pink Floyd's song, Money, from the album Dark Side of the Moon. Then, he thought of ABBA's song, Money, Money, Money. He thought about the band Dire Straits, Money for Nothing. Seemingly the world had gone made with money. Everything and everyone was all about money.
Forget about love, if Jay didn't have money, he didn't have love or in his case, if he didn't have money, unable to pay his escorts, hookers, call girls, and prostitutes, he wouldn't be having sex. Forget about money, if he didn't have money, he'd have nothing and no one. Then, on the flipside of that coin, if he had too much money, instead of being happy, he'd be sad. Obviously with neither of them happy and with neither of them having any close friends, people only wanted them and liked them for their money. Whether it was his wife, his daughter, his employees, or the women of the night that he had sex with, they all wanted his money.
"Money, money, money," he mumbled under his breath again.
Once she was in a mood for a fight and started her shit, able to block her out, especially when he was sitting in the living room wearing his headphones, he no longer listened to her drunken diatribe and poisonous pontification anyway. Yet, unable to cut the tension with a knife, it was so thick with hatred, the atmosphere was poisonous. Surprised she never tried to murder him in his sleep, without her even saying a word, he could feel her lunacy, her anger, and her rage.
His safe harbor was not when he was at home but when he was in his car, at work, on a plane, or in a hotel room. His loving person was not his wife but a call girl, an escort, a prostitute, or a hooker. He received more interaction, intimacy, and sex from female strangers than he ever did from his supposed loving wife. Even though the never ending line of women of the night made him feel good, as soon as he returned home, his wife made him feel bad. He felt so free when he was traveling the country and the world to only feel so trapped once he returned home.
He dreaded coming home to her. Hoping she wasn't there but staying over some man's house that she was fucking and sucking, he dreaded even seeing his wife again. Instead of loving her, he hated her. He hated the disappointed and intolerant look she always had on her face. He hated the sound of her voice. The sound of her voice was like having to listen to ten, obnoxiously loud women all talking at him at the same time. Truly, with his wants, needs, and feeling not making her list of important considerations, everything was always all about her.
After having watched so many reruns of Ozzie and Harriet, Father Knows Best, The Donna Reed Show, Leave it to Beaver, and the Walton's, he had imagined living that life with his wife one day. Only, his home life wasn't a made for TV family show. Even though he comfortably lived the good life in a big house in suburbia, because of Ruth, sometimes he felt as if he lived in Hell. He even checked his address to make sure that the number on his house wasn't 666.
Ruth was a drunk and a whore. He wished she'd leave him. He needed to leave her. He wished she'd go for good. He needed to go for good. He wished she'd die. She made him wish he were dead. Only, if he had to see her in Hell when he died, then he wished he'd live forever.
* * * * *
Because of his upbringing and how he perceived a marriage should be, he had an impossibly difficult time making the final decision to divorce her. No one in his family divorced, not his grandparents, nor his parents, nor his brother, nor his sister. Even though they were all unhappy, miserable actually, for the sake of the house, the children, and money, they stayed together as they vowed to do. Only, he wanted something more than dread and misery. He wanted love and happiness.
"...Until death do you part," he said shaking his head in sadness.
No doubt, the end of their marriage would have happened years ago, had he not quit his job as a college, physical chemistry professor to take a more lucrative position as the President of a Fortune 500 company. The fact that he traveled so much and was seldom home, made their relationship much more tolerable. With him not home to listen to her shit, he'd be off having sex with young women in the way that she'd be home having sex with young men. Quite by accident, with her doing her thing and him doing his thing, their marriage had morphed from the worst marriage possible to a dream marriage.
Just as Ruth became impossible and his marriage became intolerable, he was on his way out the door to the airport to catch a flight. Just as he thought he'd go mad having to listen to Ruth talking to him and complaining at him, he was living out of a suitcase in some hotel or motel with a paid escort by his side. Then, whenever he returned home from traveling, a happy ending he enjoyed having, he imagined her not being there. He imagined coming home to an empty house. He imagined living alone or living with a woman who truly loved him for the man that he was. He wouldn't even care if Ruth took all of the furniture, just as long as she'd leave and never return.
"Bye! Good riddance! Don't worry about the door hitting you in your ass, I'll just kick your ass to the curb," he imagined saying to her.