Author's Note:
-- This story was inspired directly from
X-Rated
by BigGuy33
-- Again, I am indebted to BlackRandi1958 for editing this story and providing valuable
insight on composition, organization and flow.
-- This is no character described or referenced in this story that is less than 21 years
old.
Characters:
Russel Dawson: Financial management expert
Deanne Dawson: Russel's wife
Dionne Reynolds: Deanne's identical twin sister
Gary Reynolds: Dionne's ex-husband
Lucy, Gina and Rory Dawson: Russel & Deanne's children
Thalia Starling: Russel's lawyer
Phil McLeary, Dewey Holt, Dave Gray: Former adult film stars & gigolos
ESCORT
Most marriages go through ups and downs over the years, but end up being positive, meaningful lifetime experiences. Some might even have major interruptions, disconnects and perturbations and still survive to become successful lifetime liaisons. We know by statistics, however, that many marriages don't survive for one reason or another.
Up until a year ago, I thought I had a rock-solid, ten-year marriage. I loved my wife, Deanne, and my three children. I had no reason to believe that things would not go on as they had until the end of time. Never in my wildest dream did I suspect that my marriage would crash and burn so fast and so completely--especially for the reason that it did.
I'm Russel Dawson, Russ to my friends. I'm forty-one years old. I didn't marry until I was thirty-one so I'm a little behind the average man who marries in his mid-twenties. I'm married to Deanne Lewis, now Deanne Dawson who was twenty-five at the time and is now thirty-five. We've been married for ten blissful years and have three children: Lucy, Gina and Rory are nine, seven and five respectively.
I'm totally devoted to my family. I am an only child. My father died when I was in grade school and I was raised completely by my mother. Although Dad's life insurance was helpful at first, my mother worked hard as a dance instructor to provide those things we needed to keep our head above water. In high school, I had a job that contributed to the family income. After high school, I attended junior college because we could not afford the tuition at a state university. I finished school with a BS in finance. My grades were such that I was able to get a good position at Fidelity Investments. I managed to get an MS in financial management and planning while on the job. In the twelve years that I have been with Fidelity, I have worked my way up to a senior investment's counselor level. I now manage dozens of accounts that are individually worth millions of dollars each.
My kids mean the world to me. I wanted to have more, maybe five total but Deanne said that three was enough for her. My mother, now retired, lives nearby and loves the dickens out of her grandkids. I am well enough off now, financially, that I take care of my mom and make certain she is in need of nothing. It is the least I can do for her devotion to me when I was growing up.
I met Deanne while at a ski resort two years after I started working for Fidelity Investments. It was my first real vacation. We were with two different groups of people that seemed to mesh into one large group for both skiing and after-skiing socializing. We were both pleased that we were from the same city and made arrangements to see each other after we returned home. We dated, became exclusive and got engaged. A year after we met, we were married. Since then, life has been idyllic--up to last year.
I know when it started. It was the night Deanne received a telephone call from her identical twin sister, Dionne, in Burbank, California. She had fallen and broken her ankle. She said she called just to let us know that she was all right. Her lower left leg was in a cast, and after a few more days in bed she could get up and use a walker and then crutches. She would be in a cast for six weeks.
Deanne asked how she was coping with the two kids, both of whom were in grade school like our two oldest kids. Dionne said that Gary, her ex-husband, was being very helpful but that she expected to be pretty well maxed out, even with his help, trying to take care of them while she was a partial invalid.
It was obvious to me that Dionne wanted Deanne to come to California and help her out while she was recovering. Deanne and Dionne were very close as sisters, especially since they were identical twins. They were only separated after I married Deanne and moved to Reston, Virginia, to work in the local Fidelity office. The sisters kept in constant contact. All of our vacations seem to center on getting together with Dionne and Gary in California, or with them visiting us in Virginia. If we went anywhere else, it was always a second vacation.
"I have to go to California," Deanne announced as soon as she hung up from her call. "Dionne needs me."
I knew better than to argue with her, regardless of the fact that I would have to make some arrangements to be mother and father to my own kids while she was gone--which I knew would be several weeks. The next day,
Deanne made arrangements to fly to LA. She packed two suitcases in anticipation of a long stay. Two days after receiving the call from Dionne, I put Deanne on an early morning United Airlines, non-stop flight from Dulles to Los Angeles.
While Dianne was preparing for her flight to California, I was making arrangements for my kids to get picked up from school by a neighbor who had children in the same school and same grades. She would watch the kids until I returned home from work each weekday. I enjoyed the time I had to bond with my children. I became more active in their everyday life, as well as picking up the responsibilities normally done by Deanne. My mom was a great help, too.
Deanne had been gone for about four weeks when I received a text from Gary, Dionne's ex-husband of two years. Gary and I had been the best of friends when he was married to Dionne, and I missed seeing him when Dionne vacationed with us. I did see him from time-to-time when we visited Dionne in California. He was also very solicitous of his kids and was often at Dionne's house for dinner and other activities, or to pick them up for his weekend with them.
Gary's text simply read, "I've arranged a Zoom link for you and me at 7PM this evening. It's important. Have a bottle of your favorite bourbon nearby."
I fed the kids a little early and had the baby in his bed by 6:30pm. The girls were playing quietly in their bedrooms so that by 7PM, I was ready for Gary's Zoom meeting.
We checked in online and were immediately looking at each other over the internet. We greeted each other and did some small talk about our kids.
Finally, Gary came to the point of his call. "What do you know about our divorce?" he asked.
"Well," I said, "it was a surprise to me. I thought you and Dionne had a rock-solid marriage. You seemed to love each other and appeared to be happy with your two kids. Your divorce was startling news to me. I'm not certain how much Deanne knew of your situation. If she knew you were separating, she never mentioned it to me until the divorce was well underway."
"Do you know why we divorced?" Gary asked.
I replied, "I was told it was due to irreconcilable differences."
Gary continued, "I suppose that was a good general reason for the divorce, but it wasn't the exact reason.
"The first few years we were really happy, especially with our kids. However, Dionne became increasingly unhappy with our lifestyle. She wasn't pleased with the income of a high school physics teacher and part time water polo and swim coach. Even with her additional income as a part time bookkeeper, there was not enough money to afford the lifestyle she wanted."
"So, you split up over money?" I interjected.
"Yes and no," Gary responded
"One evening after I came home from coaching the B-team in water polo, I found Dionne waiting for me at the dining room table with a glass of wine in her hand and a glass ready for me. I sensed that this was not good and I knew it wasn't good when she said, 'Honey, we have to talk.'
"She reiterated why she wasn't happy and then told me that she had found an opportunity to make a lot more money. I didn't think she was talking about a lucky promotion or a new job, so I waited for the shoe to fall."
"I have applied to become an escort," she said flatly.
"'You what?'" I finally said.