(Note: Thanks to all the kind people who wrote asking me to finish this story. I've wrestled all around with this thing and finally feel like I am starting to win. I have at least one more section to go after this -- I promise I'll get it done faster than this section now that I've figured out where to take it. Drop me a note if you liked this or have constructive criticism.)
Debbie came back two hours later with groceries plus some curtain stuff from one of those 'big box' stores. She called to me and put me to work unloading the car. It was like everything was perfectly normal -- except for the gut wrenching feelings I had every time I looked at my wife.
"Okay," she said as she wrapped up the last of those little plastic grocery bags. "We've both had some time to think about what I said earlier. I want to hear your thoughts, but first I have a couple of things to say. Is that alright with you?"
"Yes. I guess so."
"First, and most importantly, I love you. I want to spend my life with you. I pray that we find a way through all of this." She paused and looked at me. I just nodded. "Second, keeping this from you was killing me. I am so scared of what my revelations might do to us, but at the same time I am so relieved to get this out in the open."
"I can see that," I said.
"So, where do we stand?" she asked.
"I don't know. I love you. I've loved you since we met. I don't want things to be messed up either. I guess the bottom line is, you are no different today than two weeks ago. I still love you. I'm surprised, but heck, it is in the past. Whatever you did in the past created this lovely creature I'm married to. I think we'll be fine."
She smiled sadly at me and said, "But the creature you really married isn't what you bargained for. You bought a pig in a poke and it turned out to be an alley cat with low morals."
"Your past doesn't matter. It is our present and future that does." I pulled her into my arms and held her close. "That's all in the past. It doesn't matter."
She stiffened and pulled away. I saw tears forming in her eyes as she said, "But it isn't just the past that I'm talking about. It is the future. Don't you see?"
"Uhhh..." Mouth to brain! Mayday Mayday Mayday! Need immediate intelligent input! "But...I...you..."
Debbie motioned me to the couch and said, "Sit. Let me explain. We have to get the rest of this out in the open." She waited for me to sit back in the couch, then began pacing in front of me as she spoke. "I love our sex life. You are the sweetest, most considerate, passionate lover I've ever had. You make love to me and I love every second of everything we do."
Not a bad start. She tells me I'm a stud. That, out of all of her many partners, I'm the one that does it for her. I started feeling a bit better.
She went on. "Any time we are together, the loving is wonderful. But..." she paused her pacing and turned to face me. "but I think...no...I know I need something else. Something you can't give me."
"But you just said..." I began.
"I just said," she spoke over me, "that you make love to me like no one else. But it isn't a lover I need. What I still crave, what I have tried to deny since we have been together, is fucking. Hot nasty hard fucking. Not loving. I need to have some guy bend me over and ram my pussy with his cock as he slaps my ass crimson. You couldn't do that if you tried. Even if you were to perform the physical act, our love would still be there. Sex between us is sharing and loving no matter what we do. What I also need, have always needed somewhere inside me, is the sex without the love. Just the raw animal lust. It can't be just that with you and me."
How's that for a kick in the balls? I was building up a pretty good head of steam. All of those mixed feelings, the shock, the turmoil of the last week all started to coalesce into one very pissed off person. I went with it. "What in the hell do you mean by that? How's this supposed to work? Will you just take off weekends to go slutting around, or am I supposed to bring you and your lovers breakfast in bed? Oh wait, they aren't lovers are they? No loving here, just nasty sex, right? I guess I should have asked if I was to bring you and your fuckbuddies breakfast in bed." I recognized how mad I was and knew I had to disengage before I said something irretrievable. "Look Debbie, I love you, but I have reached my limit. We gotta stop right here. I'm too pissed off to say anything else. It won't be rational. Hah -- as if anything we've said today was rational. I'm going for a run."
I stormed upstairs and stripped to change into running clothes. I flung my jeans across the room, my shirt flew in the other direction. I threw on some running stuff and hit the road without looking back in at Debbie.
For me, running has always been where I meditate. I don't really think about anything. I just immerse myself in the moment and lose my connection with the rest of the world. Nothing exists but the next few steps. I sometimes get so lost in it I barely know where I am. This was one of those times. I had been out for thirty minutes or so when it started raining. I was only aware of the rain because it cooled me off.
Then, just as I was passing under a large oak next to the road, everything changed. I am told that the lighting hit the tree and then jumped to me. All I know is that one second I was running along and the next I was in the back of an ambulance. A passing motorist saw me go down and it was lucky for me that she knew CPR.
I spent the next 24 hours in and out of groggy consciousness. They must have gotten Debbie's number from me at some point. All I know is than when I finally really woke up and was alert, she was there holding my hand.
She hadn't left my side the whole time I was all fuzzed out. Once she realized I was really awake and alert, I got the waterworks. She cried and we hugged tightly. Both of us taking comfort in the contact with our soul mate. She eventually got control of the crying and we had a brief moment to talk before the doctor came in.
"I was so scared," she said. "I thought I had really lost you. I knew you went out to run so you could calm down and settle your thoughts and I was apprehensive about that, but then the hospital called. I don't want to live without you. Whatever that takes."
"I'm not leaving you. It will take more than a lightning strike to drive me off woman. We have things to work out -- adjustments to make. We have some serious issues to deal with, but there is no way we won't be together."