Hardheads: Fran & Mary Revisited

I'd like to take this time to thank Just Plain Bob for his generous permission in allowing me to use his characters and to change the outcome of the original story. If you haven't done so already I urge you to read his story first, so the differences in our stories will make sense to you.

I'd always felt that Frank got the dirty end of the stick in the original story. Even his parents sided with his wife but she did a number of this that she never explained to my satisfaction. So I wrote this story where Frank gets his questions answered. I hope you enjoy.

**********

Hi, my name is Frank. I've been married 5 years at the time of this story. My wife, Mary, and I are currently separated. We separated because of an incident at a party we'd planned to host. Mary had to take care of her mother so she wasn't at the party. I admit it, I got very drunk; so drunk I didn't remember going to bed. Mary got home early and found a woman's bra and panties on the floor and lipstick on my underwear. To say that she went ballistic would be an understatement. She called me every rotten name in the book, packed a bag and left without telling me where she was going.

It didn't take long to determine that I'd been set up. The bra belonged to a newlywed friend of ours and there was no way she would go to bed with me when she was leaving on her belated honeymoon the next day. I spent the balance of the weekend cooling off and sobering up. I planned to see Mary that Monday, explain everything and we'd both have a good laugh.

Again, I was massively disappointed. Mary wouldn't give me a chance to explain. She got so angry she threatened to get a restraining order and call the cops if I didn't leave her alone. Her attitude really pissed me off. Here I was, totally innocent, and my wife wouldn't even listen to me. I left her alone, of course, if she didn't know me better than this, if she could convict me without even hearing my side of the story, I didn't need her or her attitude.

Not long after Mary left my friend, Bill, stopped by my place to cheer me up since he'd heard about the separation. When I told him the reason why he confessed that he and the newlyweds had set me up as a joke. They'd never meant for Mary to see it as she wasn't supposed to be home early. I made Bill go with me to explain to Mary and we searched every place in town where Mary or her friends hung out. We found her but, again, things didn't work out according to plan.

Bill had told me that Mary had been out with a guy the previous week and we found her dirty dancing with another guy, an old boyfriend. I waited to see what would happen and when I saw them deep into a game of tonsil hockey I walked over and told her she was a cheating slut and our marriage was over. While I still loved her I couldn't trust her nor could I respect her if she could treat me like she had.

I moved out of our apartment, put her crap in storage and left no forwarding address. I was determined to move on without her cheating ass. I guess being caught with a guy got her attention because she finally decided to get the facts straight as she started to stalk me, begging to talk. It's funny isn't it; I try to explain myself and I get threatened with the cops but now that she wants to talk I'm the bad guy because I tell her to stick it where the sun don't shine.

She tracked me to my new apartment and camped out, finally making such a ruckus that the cops were called. They convinced me that I should talk to her so we met at the bar where I'd seen her with her old boyfriend. Not only had she dated the two men I knew, she'd dated two guys I'd never heard of. I let her have her say and told her I didn't believe a word she said. You can't tell me that a beautiful woman can dirty dance all night, letting the guy fondle her ass, kiss him like a long lost lover and he's not going to get lucky. I'm sorry I might have been born at night but it wasn't LAST NIGHT! She begged and pleaded. She said she was sorry and she loved me, that she was only trying to get back at me, to make me feel what she'd felt. Since no one had bothered to tell me she'd been shacking up with all these guys I told her that her efforts had been wasted. She told me that she'd talked to our friends and she knew she'd been wrong. She actually had the balls to tell me that since neither of us had cheated, I still wasn't swallowing that one, there was no harm no foul!

I guess she'd forgotten that I'd caught her with Tim on Friday night and she didn't show up until six o'clock Saturday night to tell me she hadn't done anything. I asked her if it had taken that long to get out of Tim's bed since what I had said to her obviously hadn't bothered her.

I walked out of that bar then. I told her I loved her but I'd get over it. I couldn't trust her, for one thing, but the worst part was I couldn't get over how easily she'd believed I'd cheated on her and how quickly and adamantly she'd given up on our marriage. Until she could prove to me that she'd actually been faithful all that time and that she could prove to me she was truly sorry for how she'd treated me I was done with her cheating ass.

Which brings me to my current situation. Mary wasn't going to take "no" for an answer, not like I did I guess, and she enlisted my parents and siblings to get me to change my mind. My sisters called and nagged me about being stubborn and my brother told me I was a fool. I told them all that they didn't know the whole story and I wasn't in the mood to tell them so they'd better keep their noses out of my business. I guess they didn't expect me to tell them off like that and they backed off for a while. Things came to a head the next week when I went over to mom and dad's place for dinner. The meal was a distinctly cool affair. My mother had always liked Mary but I'd never known her to take sides like this before. I ignored the attitude I was getting and kept the conversation to neutral subjects. After dinner I grabbed a cup of coffee and headed to the den to watch a little TV before heading home. My dad hung back at mom's request but it wasn't that long before he joined me in the den.

"Son, I know you think we're taking sides but you have to admit you're being pretty stubborn. Mary told us she's apologized and you refuse to talk to her. You're going to lose that girl if you don't smarten up. Everybody makes mistakes. You know she loves you, why can't you forgive her?"

"She loves me all right, Dad. She loves me so much she packed a bag without giving me a chance to explain. She avoided me when *I* wanted to talk. She threatened me with a restraining order and arrest if I didn't leave her alone! Did she tell you any of *that*, Dad?"

My father looked at me like I had three heads. "What are you talking about Frank? Mary wouldn't do that to you."

"Oh, no? That's exactly what she did," I said sarcastically. "I don't know what line of crap she's fed you and mom but you seem to want to believe her and take her side over your own son. Why is that, Dad? Why are you even taking sides?"

Dad sat down in his chair and looked up at me, a sad expression on his face. "Sit down, Son, please."

I glared at him to let him know I was still pissed at his attitude in this whole mess.

"Mary told us that you'd cheated on her and she was angry with you. She said you'd gotten angry with her and she felt afraid..."

I jumped out of the chair and started pacing. "Afraid? What the hell did she have to be afraid of? I've never laid a hand on her and she knows that! As for cheating on her I didn't and I never would. As soon as I had a chance to sober up from the party I figured that the whole thing was some kind of set up. The bra was from her friend, Mary Ellen. She just got married and her husband was with her. She wouldn't have been with me that's for damn sure! What other BS has she been feeding you?"

"She said that she'd decided to give you a second chance but that you had found her dancing with a friend and had flown off the handle and wouldn't talk to her."

"Dancing with a friend, huh? Did she tell you that her 'friend' was her old boyfriend Tim Spangeler?" The look on dad's face told me this was news to him. "I figured as much. Yeah, Bill came by that night and told me he'd seen her out earlier that week with Tony Conners. He said that they'd been dirty dancing and he had his hands rubbing all over her body and ass. Bill and I finally tracked her down and there she was dirty dancing again but with good old Tim. He was running his hands all over her ass and pulling her into him so tight she you couldn't get an atom between them. That got me angry but it was nothing compared to what happened next. They went back to their table and started kissing like long lost lovers. I swear, Dad, if his tongue was any farther down her throat it would have come out her asshole! Does that sound like she was faithful to me, Dad? She didn't even know I was there so it wasn't an act she was putting on for me, I know that!."

I sat back down but I the anger was rolling off me in waves. My dad just sat there, stunned. I guess good old Mary had fed him a line of crap and he'd fallen for it. Now that he'd heard the other side of the story he didn't know what to do.

Before he had a chance to say anything my mother poked her nose into the room. I guess she couldn't wait any longer to see if my father had gotten me to change my mind.

"Well, have you changed your mind about forgiving Mary yet?" she said with contempt. "She's a good woman and you're going to lose her if you don't change your ways."

"No, Mom, I haven't changed my mind. Dad and I have been having a nice little chat and I find out that Mary has been lying to you. She's not only told you one side of the story, she's not even bothered to tell you the whole of that one side. Know this, Mom, Mary walked out of my life and refused to even let me explain what turned out to be a practical joke. She's been dating four different men and no matter what she says she's spread her legs for at least one of them, her old boyfriend! She didn't want to hear what I had to say but she'll believe the same "friends" who set me up. She says she loves me and she's sorry but her actions and her words tell me a whole different story."

"What do you mean by that?" she asked. I guess she wasn't ready to believe Mary might not be the little angel she'd thought she was.

"I mean that after five years of marriage where I have done everything I can to make that woman happy she comes home and finds me in a compromising position and she walks out. I could accept that, it did look bad, I'll admit it. But the next day she threatened to call the cops on me if I didn't leave her alone. Then she starts dating right away, four different men in two weeks, Mom, and her excuse is she wanted me to know how it felt. I'm sorry, Mom, but that's not love. The kind of love I had for Mary wouldn't let me do that if I'd found her in a similar situation. I've gone to bed every night and woken up every morning thinking how lucky I was to be married to her. I've shown her every day how much I love her by treating her like the precious gift she was. How do I get repaid for that love, Mom? I'll tell you. I get called every nasty name in the book. I get threatened with a restraining order and the cops and I find out she started seeing other men almost as soon as she was out the door. She's got a lot of gall to say SHE loves ME, that's for sure. If she can do all that and claim she loves me I don't want to be around if she started to hate me."

My mother flopped down the couch next to my dad. It looked like she'd been hit in the stomach and she was sick at what she'd heard.

"She did all that?"

"Yeah, Mom, she did. The people at this party were all our friends and she didn't seem to care which one of them stabbed her in the back. She didn't even make any effort to find out! If she'd taken two seconds to look at that bra she'd have know it could have only come from Mary Ellen and she'd have known it was a joke, but she didn't. She couldn't get out of our place fast enough. She couldn't start dating fast enough. She was looking to get out of our marriage and this was a perfect excuse to leave and blame me for it. I tried everything I could to get her to see reason. Now that she's been caught red-handed by me and that I'm NOT going to beg her to come back she's decided to turn my family against me. I'm only going to say this once. I did not cheat on Mary. I did nothing wrong. I was called every name in the book by a woman who I loved more than life itself. I WILL NOT be treated this way by her *or* by you. You wanted to take sides in a marital dispute where you should have stayed out of it. I want you to take sides now. If you want to side with Mary I'll respect your decision but this will be the last time I set foot in this house. Well, Mom, Dad, what will it be?"

You could have cut the silence with a knife. My parents looked at me, each other, back at me, then back at each other. It was my mother who spoke for the two of them.

"We're sorry, Frank. You're right, we should have stayed out of this whole mess. We should have had more faith in you, or at least asked for your side of the story before we stuck our noses in. Can you forgive us, son?"

I breathed a sigh of relief. I was glad my parents believed me. I got up and hugged my mom. "Of course I forgive you, Mom. You were trying to help and Mary mislead you. I am disappointed that you listened to her without asking for my side but, as dad said, we all make mistakes."

"What can we do to help, son?" dad said.

"Well Dad, I think that since Mary came to you for help you should help her."

"Huh? What do you mean?" mom said.

"I still love Mary, I probably always will but I'm not in love with her right now. She says she wants me back. I want you to tell her that she's got to prove to me she didn't cheat while she was running around with those guys. I don't care how she does it, but I want proof. She's also got to get counseling for her temper. She's got to have concrete answers as to why she treated me like she did. I'm not going to accept any psycho-mumbo jumbo either. If she can do all that to my satisfaction then she'll have proven that she really loves me and I'll give her that second chance she wants so badly."

My mom hugged me and said "All right, Son, we'll pass along your request. I really hope you two can work it out."

"Me too, Mom, but I'm not holding out much hope. I honestly didn't think I'd ever see Mary like she was that morning. She wasn't the woman I married and she wasn't the woman you know. She was a vindictive harpy who couldn't leave fast enough. She didn't care enough about me to save our marriage then and I don't think she does now. She's sorry she got caught, that's all."

I kissed my mom good night, shook hands with my dad and left.

*****

My sisters and brother stopped bothering me but it was obvious they still felt I was being unreasonable in my demands. Mom and dad were better because they forced Mary to be honest with them. She'd confirmed what I'd told them, for the most part, so they cut me some slack. They did pass along my requirements to Mary and, to my surprise, she actually tried. She went into counseling and I hope it helps her. She had more trouble with getting proof that she hadn't spread her legs for Tim and all those others.

Bill tried to tell me that Tim had said that Mary had done nothing but cock tease him that night but I wasn't buying. Tim may be a big pussy hound and a braggart but I've known too many men who have been threatened with being cut off if they opened their mouths and Tim knew a good thing when he saw it since he'd lost Mary to me and she wasn't a virgin when I married her.

I don't know if any of that got back to Mary but I never did hear any more about her boyfriends not getting any from Mary. I don't know if I was more surprised or saddened by that. Either Mary didn't care enough to try to ease my concern or she couldn't get the guys to talk to me.

Six months later I got a call from my mother. She told me that Mary wanted to set up a meeting. I was curious to see what she had to say so I told her I'd meet her at the bar that started all of this a week from Friday at 7.

*****

I was sitting at the same table where Mary and Tim had been swapping spit so long ago sipping my beer. It was two minutes to 7 and Mary walked in. She was a beautiful as always and I almost wished she hadn't left. I stood up and greeted her.

"Hi, Mary, you're looking really nice."

"Thanks, Frank, so do you. May I sit down?"

"Please, would you like something to drink?"

"Yes, please, a beer would be good."

I signaled the waitress, ordered Mary a beer and we waited until she came back with it before we started talking.

"OK, Mary, since you asked for this meeting I guess it's your show. I promise I'll try to listen and not interrupt."

"Thanks, Frank. I appreciate it. I don't know quite where to start but I guess I'm sorry is the best place. I'm so sorry I treated you like that. After your parents got done telling me how you felt I realized how badly I'd treated you. You're right, I didn't give you a chance to explain. I convicted you based on the evidence of my eyes and I lost it. I didn't think you would do anything like it looked like you'd done and I was devastated. I was so hurt that you would cheat on me that I felt inadequate. I had to get out of there. I did a lot of stupid things but going out with four guys in the course of a week and a half was the stupidest. I told you I did it to get back at you so you'd know how I felt but you were right. Nobody was going to tell you what I was up to. I was fooling myself so that I could ease my conscience."

She paused, took a sip of her beer and looked at me. She had a sad look in her eyes, like she'd lost something and only now realized it.

"You were right again when you said I didn't even bother to figure out who might have been with you. I didn't care. I didn't care that a woman at that party, who I thought were my friends, might have screwed my husband with her husband in the same apartment. I mean, how stupid is that? I didn't need to know who it was all I needed was the knowledge that you'd done it. It gave me the excuse to do what I'd been wanting to do but hadn't realized that was what I wanted."

I took a sip of my beer and let out a sigh. So, I had been right. She had been unhappy in out marriage, even if she hadn't been actively looking for a way out. Seeing me in a compromising position had been the catalyst and once she'd had it she didn't need to be confused by the facts. I still wasn't sure why she'd begged to come back but I hoped I'd find that out before she finished her story.

"Please, continue," I said.

"Your suggestion of therapy was what I needed, Frank. It really helped me figure out what I'd done to you and what I wanted. I have to tell you that you scared me that night you caught me with Tim. That's why I tried so hard to get you to forgive me. I had a good marriage and I knew that I'd treated you badly too. I wanted to make it up to you but you wouldn't let me. I even turned your family against you for a while, I still can't believe I did that.

"Anyway, after talking through everything with my therapist I realize I was feeling restless. You know I'd dated a lot before we got married and I really wanted to settle down. I loved you, or at least I thought I did and being married to you was the best, for the first four years. I started to feel that something was missing from my life but I didn't know what it was. When mom got sick and I came home early and found you like that I figured you were unhappy in our marriage and it hit me that I wanted out. I left and stayed with a friend and I was out with Chad the next night."