Thanks to angel-love for her help in editing Parts 1 & 2.
As I wrote this story, I kept looking for a place to break it into two or three parts. It didn't seem to work so here is approximately half of the story. Part 2 is right behind. Remember, the mind can only accept what the seat can endure, so you might want to read this in two or three settings.
For those of you who want a hang em' ending, sorry. For those of you who want a happy ending, maybe. For the rest of you, please enjoy.
As I sat there in the dark family room wondering what the hell had gone wrong, I tried to bring myself back to the matter at hand. It was clear to me now that my wife was cheating on me big time and apparently had been for some time. I didn't know who she was doing or for how long, but I was sure of what she was doing. I only had to figure out how to find out the who and the where.
My name is Charles Sonders. I am 48 years old and my wife Ilene is 45. She and I have been married for 18 years just last month. We have a wonderful son Anthony who is 20 and away at college. We had adopted after finding that Ilene was unable to have children. We tried AI but after two attempts gave up. It was Ilene's idea to adopt and I quickly agreed. We went the private route and when we saw Anthony, it was love at first sight. He had some medical problems but with our love and care, he developed into a magnificent young man. He was 4 years old when we adopted him so that explains his age.
I had no idea why Ilene would be cheating on me. We had a wonderful life and our sex life was frequent and quite satisfying, at least to me. She had never once indicated through actions or words that she was unhappy about anything. We both worked, but only because we chose to. I had a good job and she could stay home but she was happy in her job with an Advertising firm. She was an account executive and also did quite well. Our combined income was in the mid 6 figures.
I worked for a Media Consulting firm that handled large corporate accounts. I was in charge of the department that put together media presentations: we made small to medium length documentaries about the clients' business or products. My department consisted of me as Director and 7 artists in all of the necessary mediums. I reported to the VP of Media Development, Peter Atkins. I was 10 years older than he and I often resented reporting to someone younger and less experienced then I but that was whom management picked. I had little choice but to make do.
I had just last week returned from a scheduled trip to Minnesota to meet with the Marketing Manager of a medium sized Consumer Products Company that wanted to do some short films to use in training their sales people. We discussed the concepts and I and two of my specialists traveled to their plant to make preliminary notes and take some films of the operations for later editing. We had all we needed to begin work, but for some reason, Peter wanted me to personally fly out to meet with them again to firm up the contracts and to put together an outline of our plans. I didn't know what I could do that hadn't already been done, but he was the boss.
I made arrangements to meet with them on Tuesday morning at their plant. I would fly out Monday afternoon and return here to Columbus, Ohio on Wednesday afternoon. I would be gone for two nights and two days of wasted time as far as I was concerned. I went to the airport Monday as planned but while waiting for the plane I received a call on my cell. It was Aaron Parks, the Marketing Manager I was supposed to meet. He filled me in.
"Charles, I'm so glad I caught you. You haven't left yet?
"No Aaron, my plane doesn't leave for another 45 minutes. We haven't started boarding yet."
"Great! Can you cancel this trip? I have to make a presentation to the board of director's tomorrow afternoon and I won't have time to meet with you at all. I don't want to put you off onto someone else."
"That's no problem Aaron. I'm only coming at my boss's request. I don't think we need to meet at all so this is no big deal for me."
"I couldn't agree more. Let's cancel and delay any reschedule. How's that sound to you?"
"Great. Consider it done and good luck on your presentation."
This was really a break. I hadn't been looking forward to this trip at all. I wondered if I should call Ilene, but remembered that she said she would be in meetings all day today. I would just see her at home this evening.
I decided to call a cab since Ilene would probably be late coming home. I never drove to the airport since parking was such a hassle. The company paid for a cab, just no limos. I could be home by 4:30 and could relax before she got home. Maybe I would call for a pizza so she wouldn't have to cook. Since I was to be gone, she probably hadn't planned anything anyway.
I got the cab and was home in no time. I took my suitcase up to the bedroom and unpacked my clothes. I put the suitcase away and went back downstairs to get myself a beer. This was the life. I called for a pizza to be delivered at 6:30, which would be just about right if Ilene was a little late. All was right with the world.
By 7:00 Ilene was still not home so I decided to call her work number to see if she was still there. I called but got no answer. Her voice mail didn't have any message so I called her cell.
"Hello?" She answered on the forth ring.
"Hi, honey, it's me. Where are you? I called your office and you didn't pick up."
"I'm here at home you nut. Where did you think I would be? Did your flight get in on time?"
Now, wait a minute! Here at home? I was here at home and she wasn't. Did my dear wife just lie to me? All of this hit me in just the time it took to come back with a smooth reply.
"Yea, everything went off as planned. I wasn't sure where you would be and I called the home phone but you didn't answer. I thought maybe you were still at work." Let's see how she fields this one.
"I must have been out on the back porch. I took a beer and sat down on the glider to try to unwind from this whole day. I am exhausted."
"Guess so. Well I won't keep you but I will try to call later tonight if you want me to." I could guess this answer.