He leaned back against the headboard, propped up by pillows and tried to get into the book he was reading, but it just couldn't hold his attention. The question that Shawna had asked in the kitchen was still sitting on his mind. Was there a chance for them? Could he ever get by what she had done? He wanted to; he really did want to. He loved Shawna and he always had. He had loved her from the very first moment he had been introduced to her. She had been the light in his life for over sixteen years. For fifteen of those years she had been the perfect wife; all that any man could ask, wish and hope for.
He thought back to the day his sister had introduced him to Shawna. Shawna had offered her hand and as he had taken it he had felt a tingle, a little spark and he knew in that instant that she was the woman he was destined to spend his life with. He was stunned when Shawna had asked:
"Did you feel it too?"
He knew exactly what she was asking and he nodded his head yes.
"Am I missing something here" his sister had asked and he and Shawna had laughed.
From that moment on he and Shawna had been inseparable. They had dated for two months before they had slept together and like everything else about her it had been perfect. They each seemed to know instinctively how to touch, where to touch and what to do to bring the most pleasure to the other and that had not changed through fifteen years of marriage. Unlike some of their friends who had grown complacent as their marriages went on he and Shawna had kept things fresh and exciting and still had been making love three and four times a week. That is they had been until THAT night!
Her confession had crushed him. He had wanted to curl up and die. The enormity of it had stunned him. A quick drunken indiscretion he probably could have handled. He would have been angry and upset at her and probably even disgusted, but one time he could probably have worked through. He could see how, given her low tolerance for alcohol, that it could have happened. It would have taken some time but he did love her and he would have eventually been able to put it behind him. It would have been a long time, if ever, before he would have been able to trust her out of his sight at a party or similar type affair, but he would have gotten by it.
But how in God's name could he get by what she had confessed to? Why couldn't she have just told him about the first time and how sorry she was to have let it happen? But she hadn't just told him about the first time; she had told him everything! How many times and what she had done each time and how the hell was he supposed to get by that? What happened that night was bad enough, but three times the next morning? And while she was talking to him on the phone?
Now she wanted to know if there was a chance for them. He wished that there was. He missed her. He missed everything about her, but how could there be a chance for them when every time she touched him he saw an image of her on her knees taking another man's cock up her ass. An ass that she had never given him. How could there be a chance for them when every time he saw her with a phone in her hand he saw the image of her talking to him on the phone while the asshole she worked with fucked her from behind?
He loved her, God knows he did, but he just could not get by those images that played in his head. There was a way that he maybe, just maybe, could make it happen, but he could not bring himself to do it. It was his sister's suggestion. He and Marie were very close and he had no secrets from her. She noticed the dynamic between him and Shawna and she had asked him about it. He told her the story of what had happened and his inability to get by it and Marie told him that the answer was simple.
"Find yourself a willing woman and have a one night stand. Yours cancels out Shawna's."
"You make it sound easy, but that is just something that I can't do. I'm not that way. I'm married and to have sex with another woman would not be right."
"Well you have to do something George. You love her and everyone knows you have since the day you met, and what's more she loves you and you know it. Have you asked her why she did it?"
"I told you. She said that Glen took advantage of her when she'd had too much to drink."
"That's how it started George, but why did it continue? Why did she do it the next morning after the effects of the drinks had worn off?"
"Does it matter Marie? To me all that matters is that she did it. That's what I can't accept. A drunken one time indiscretion is one thing, but what Shawna did is more than I can ignore no matter why she did it."
"You have to do something George. You either have to forgive, move out or toss her out, but you can't keep going on the way you are."
"Toss her out? I thought she was your friend?"
"She is George and if you do toss her out I'll probably offer to let her stay with me until she can get set up some place, but you are family George - you come first. I don't know what George, but you have to do something."
Marie was right, he did need to do something, but for the life of him he couldn't think of what. He had thought about Marie's "one night stand" suggestion. He had even gone so far as to check out a few of the women at work and there were several who were sexually appealing. One night he had stopped after work with several of the people he worked with for drinks and a couple of the women had shown a little interest in him; nothing really overt, but he could tell they were checking him out. But every time he worked himself up to make a move on one of them he chickened out at the last minute. He just wasn't that way. He was a faithful husband even if it was to an unfaithful wife.
God, his head hurt. Every time he thought about it his head hurt. He put the book down and tried to go to sleep.
+++++++
"Good morning sexy lady."
She looked up from the spreadsheet on her desk and saw Glen standing there. "How about it" he asked, "Is today going to be the day?"
As she looked at him she thought of the way George had responded to her question the previous evening and she thought of the six months that she had hungered for George's touch, just the touch of his hand even, and the six months that he had given her nothing to hope for. She was a healthy woman with a healthy woman's wants and needs and it was now obvious to her that she was never going to get what she wanted and needed from George.
She looked at Glen standing there smiling down at her and expecting to be told to go away from her and leave her alone and she said, "Sure, why not."
She saw the disbelief on his face and he said, "You mean it? Today is the day?"
"I mean it."
"You want to meet someplace after work or can we leave here together and I'll bring you back for your car?"
"Neither. I have to go home first and fix dinner for my family. I'll meet you some place around eight."
"How about Bud's Bar?"
"No, I'm not interested in drinking. Let's make it the lobby of the Marriott. It will save some time if you already have a room."
"Eight o'clock at the Marriott it is" and he walked away whistling and with a smile on his face.
At the dinner table she told Sarah and Julie that they had to do the dinner dishes that night, "And make sure that you have your homework done before you settle down in front of the TV.
"Can you help me with my math homework" Julie asked.
