Author's note: This is a long story, some 68,000 words in total. If you don't like lengthy stories, please pass this one by because you will not enjoy it. The remainder of the story will be posted in 3 additional Parts, submitted one day apart.
Thanks to Blackrandl1958 for her editing skills. I would also like thank Harddaysknight for taking a lot of time and energy to beta-read this tome and show me where to improve it. Both have helped me immensely and any errors that still exist below will be there because of mistakes I alone have made. I sincerely appreciate the sacrifices the two of them have made to help me get back in the game—after all, it's only been twelve years since I last posted a cheating wife story.
* * *
Flyover Country, Part 1 (of 4)
By Longhorn__07
CHAPTER ONE
The placard on the frosted glass door read, "Mathew J. Singletary, Director of Corporate Systems Analysis." That's me: Matt, to my friends. I'm darn near six feet tall, heavy set, blue-eyed, confident, and a fairly well respected businessman to boot. At the ripe old age of twenty-nine, I was, so far as I knew, the only holder of that particular title in the whole business world.
I used to shrug when asked what the title actually meant; no one ever explained it to me either. What was clear was my role in the corporate structure. My function? Well, if the business world was a Louis L'Amour western, I was the gun-handy cowhand who rode into the territory to clean it up and make it a wonderful place for pretty schoolmarms and lady ranch owners.
My boss, the owner of the self-named Reese Donnellson Enterprises, used me like a hired gun, sending me out to his various operations with carte blanche to analyze the operation of each activity from top to bottom. I had the authority to make a lot of changes on the spot. If it was more appropriate—for instance, if I was recommending a top executive be canned for cause—I'd send Mr. Donnellson my recommendations. He almost never declined my suggestions and when he did, he sat me down and explained all the whys and wherefores.
I wasn't sure if I was technically on the top rung of management, or at the lowest rung of the executive group, but it didn't really matter. The only person who had any kind of supervisory control over me was the big boss. More than one intramural pissing contest was settled by a quick call to the boss man's private number. I had it in my contacts list, and many of his senior staff did not.
I had certain God-given talents that allowed me to spot inefficiencies, identify bottlenecks and root out corruption that cost Mr. Donnellson money. I used those skills daily in Mr. Donnellson's behalf. I was good at my job, very good, and I was known as someone you didn't want to get on the bad side of, because I could spot deceit and double-dealing in a heartbeat. At least, I could do these things in my professional life—unfortunately, not so much in my private life.
* * *
It was the day after Independence Day, and I was busily gathering everything I needed into my briefcase. It was only 10:30 in the AM on Friday, but all of us were getting an early start on the weekend because old man Cummings had just announced he was shutting down the office and sending everyone home.
The boss man said most of the businesses we depended on for material support (and, in fact, most of the downtown companies) were already closed. His reasoning was none of his employees were going to be able to get anything done, so it wasn't worth keeping the lights on. Sounded good to me!
Closing the strap on the side of my briefcase, I closed my office door and patted the sign on the door in mock affection. Because there were people watching me, I pretended to use the cuff of my right sleeve to buff off a smudge that wasn't there.
Seeing a crowd moving toward the elevators from down the hall, I broke and sprinted that way as if in a panicked race to get there first. There were chuckles and some of the guys and gals began running just as hard to beat me. It was all in fun. Donnellson's was a family business and we in the headquarters building got along very well together.
* * *
At home by 11:10, I'm pretty sure my eyes were shining with excitement as I rolled out my new toy, a Shabah drone. It was probably one of the most superbly equipped drones available and had the longest range in the world of drones, inside or outside the military. From reading the owner's manual, I knew "Shabah" meant ghost in Arabic; it was what they'd called the F-117 stealth fighters in the Gulf Wars. This drone model was named Shabah because it was one of the quietest, stealthiest drones on the market, according to the manual.
My wonderful wife, Faye, had somehow picked up this jewel on one of those bidding sites for just pennies on the dollar, somehow outbidding someone else by exactly one cent, just a fraction of a second before the auction closed. And now, it was all mine, given to me for my birthday last Sunday!