We had a babysitter for the evening. Claire wanted to go out. I had hopes that this would start a good direction. We had been having more and more arguments lately. I was gone on sales calls at least half of the time. I knew she was lonely when I travelled, but I had to work to support us. When we got to the restaurant, she seemed nervous and preoccupied. After we were seated and ordered our drinks, she glanced around and said,
"Barry, I want a divorce."
"What?"
"You heard me. I want a divorce."
"So you got a sitter so we could go out and that is all you have to say? Why didn't you say this at home?"
"I was afraid you would make a scene in front of Danny."
"What do you mean 'make a scene'?"
"Look," she said, "I need to find myself and I can't do it with you. I will always love you, but I am not 'IN LOVE' with you anymore."
What a low chicken shit way of telling me she wanted out. She wanted to make it easier on herself and used our son as an excuse for getting me in a public place. I knew things had gone from bad to worse, but I attributed it her unfulfilled career choices. She wanted to be a graphic artist, but she did not have the drive or training to succeed at it. I encouraged her whenever I could, but her attempts at selling any of her pieces were unsuccessful. I do not know much about art, but I could see why her work was not a commercial success. Everything was a lame copy of something she had seen in the galleries. No one was interested in a very poor copy of a print that was already affordable to most middle class collectors.
My name is Barry Appleton. I grew up on a small farm in western Alabama. I was shy, but smart. I went off to junior college and paid my own way. I lived at home and worked on the farm as a way of paying rent to my parents. They are good people. Rural people. My dad had a job as a maintenance man in a small factory. He knows a little bit about every building trade and taught me how to work with my hands. Growing up, I made straight A's in school and I continued that academic success in junior college. After receiving my associate's degree, I went on to a smallish college in state. It certainly did not have the prestige of some of the large state schools, but I could live at home and commute three days a week. The other two days, I worked on the farm and studied.
I am 5'-7" tall and usually weigh around 140 lbs. I am not strong, but I did swim in high school so my muscles are long and toned pretty well. I only dated a few girls in high school mostly at school functions where it was understood that the boys and girls were to find dates with each other. It never materialized into a true relationship and I hung with the guys part of the time.
I met Claire in college. She was a freshman when I was a junior. She was a friend of one of the girls from my home town. I saw Sally occasionally on campus and asked generally how she was or how her brother was. Her brother was in my graduating class so I knew her somewhat. One day I saw Sally walking with Claire and she noticed me. They came over and she introduced Claire to me. I was smitten immediately. She is very cute. Maybe not in the model type looks, but she had a positive air about her that made her seem very approachable. She drew the conversation out of people and was pursued as much for her bubbly personality as her wholesome good looks. She is 5'-4" tall so that attracted me also, being a little short myself.
Along with her girl next door type looks she has a wonderful body. Her ass is just a little past petite and her breasts while not overly large are perfectly cone shaped. She never had to wear a bra. In addition to that, her areolas are also a puffy cone shape and her nipples get very hard and pointy when she is aroused.
They invited me to a mixer that one of the church affiliated unions was having. I thought this was great because I was not going to be very successful finding wild and sexy women. I went to the mixer the next night and was awed as she moved effortlessly through the crowd. You would think that she was a junior sponsor instead of an incoming freshman. As the evening wore on, I worked up the courage to ask her out and she accepted.
We had our first date the following Saturday evening. We got a pizza and went to the movies. When I drove her back to her apartment, I walked her to her door and she made it plain that I was to kiss her goodnight. I was impressed that she sensed my nervousness and initiated the first kiss. We dated the rest of the semester. When grades came out, her parents gave her one more semester to adapt to college life and start studying. She always kept me in suspense about her intentions. I knew that she hung out with other people and also dated other guys although she said that she just had some guy 'friends'. I would have expected her to dump me with this type of relationship, but she never did. We had the usual fights about her dating, but she managed to keep me at bay. Since I spent a lot of time studying and she spent very little, it was impossible to keep up with her.
At the end of her freshman year, she only had six credits and her parents pulled the plug. She was forced to move back home and get a job. She was attractive and had a very pleasant personality so she landed a receptionist job. Every company wants a cute young receptionist and she fit the bill. We continued our long distance relationship for the summer. I visited her several times when I got a chance. I sort of knew that she was dating other guys and decided to take a chance and propose to her. She accepted and we got married mid fall semester of my senior year. She moved in with me. The sex was great to start with and soon she was pregnant. Our son Danny was born just after I graduated.
When Danny was about two years old, Claire was back in shape with her sexy body looking like she never had a baby. She started dressing a little more shall we say sexy. Not really sexy, but she was showing more cleavage and more leg under her shortening skirts.
During this time I had taken what finally worked into a good job. I went to work for an oil service company. I worked hard and long hours to begin with. Since I had grown up working, the physical side of the job was no problem. I was out on oil rigs often and leaned about every valve, tool and what not. I was one of the few people who had a college degree. My coworkers thought I was crazy for working in the field with my educational background. My mechanical abilities and my work ethic finally paid off when I was promoted to sales. After two years in sales, I was making the kind of money that I had only dreamed of. Claire was working also and Danny was in a good daycare.
I suggested that she quit her job, but she would not do that. I figured that she enjoyed working, so what the heck. As long as she was happy. We bought a new house and things were going good. After we were able to resume our social life somewhat, we would get a break from babysitting from her parents and my aunt who lived near us. Our sex life never fully recovered after the birth of our son, but I expected it to pick back up. She was dressing so sexy that I thought it was just a matter of time.
The first crack in our marriage came when we were about to go to a party given by one of the vice presidents of her company. She was still the pretty receptionist and everyone seemed to love her at these company functions. This particular evening, just as we were about to leave, I got a call from one of the service technicians at our main repair facility. There was a problem on an oil rig in the gulf. It looked like we were going to have to helicopter out there. She was not happy, but she said that she could call a coworker and get a ride.
I changed clothes and headed to our large repair facility. On the way, I got a call from our technician on the rig and we did some troubleshooting verbally. I told him that we would be there in a couple of hours and gave him some things to try. I had already told Claire that we would probably fly to the rig and I would be gone one day or more. As we loaded up our equipment, we got another call from our man on the rig. He had solved the problem and we would not need to go out there. I talked to the platform manager and he assured me that everything was fine.
I was dressed okay for the party still, so I changed shoes and headed that way. I called Claire's cell phone, but got no answer. Danny was spending the night with her parents so we could stay out later. I was looking forward to surprising her. I left her a message and shortly I was at the VP's home. The party was still in full force. It was around midnight. I was looking for Claire when one of her coworkers recognized me and said that she thought I was out of town. I explained the situation. She said that Claire got a ride home with a coworker named Cal. It seems she wanted to go pick our son up at her parents. I knew that he was spending the night, but I wondered if something had come up. She had not answered her phone or called me back.
I was a little concerned so I rushed home. Claire still was not answering her phone. I arrived at my house and saw a strange car parked in the driveway. It did not belong to my in laws and I did not recognize it. I pushed the garage door opener and saw that Claire's car was still in the garage. After I parked, I went inside through the kitchen. The lights were on, but Claire was not anywhere to be seen. Suddenly she came running out of the master bedroom in her dress but no shoes. Following her was a six foot four handsome stud of a man.
"Oh, my god, Barry, you scared me to death. I thought you were out on a rig."
The young man came forward and offered his hand, "Cal White, Barry. Pleased to meet you. Claire was just showing me some of her prints."
"Uh, yeah, that's right. Cal was interested in seeing some of my work and he offered me a ride home. Uh, what happened to the rig problem? Do you still have to go? Uh, well I guess you can tell me after Cal leaves. Uh, thanks so much for the lift, Cal."
Both of them looked like they had seen a ghost. Or more likely dodged a bullet. Once Cal left, she continued to stammer and fumble over words. I asked her about picking up Danny at her parents.
"No, Barry, you know that he is spending the night with Nanna and Papa."