I'd like to thank cageytee for allowing others to continue his story. Please be sure to read the original so you have the proper background for the characters.
I found Ted to be a very complex character. I hope I have done him justice. This story picks up immediately at the end of the original.
There is no sex in this story, sorry!
*****
I sat for a long time after Rob left and pondered his parting comment to me. He'd called me a wimp! Boy that pissed me off! I may be a lot of things, asshole or stubborn come to mind, but a wimp? NEVER!
As more time passed I calmed down and realized that Rob meant well and it had probably been his frustration with me that had caused his outburst. After all, we'd gone back and forth for almost an hour and had gotten absolutely nowhere. Rob kept reminding me that Jenny had not gone to bed with Craig and I kept telling him that it didn't matter to me. The problem I had with Jenny, that Rob didn't understand, is that there is more than one way to be unfaithful.
One of the dictionary definitions of infidelity is lack of fidelity or loyalty. The bottom-line for me was Jenny was unfaithful to our marriage. Oh sure, she didn't have sex with the guy but she deliberately met, ten times over three weeks, with a man who was not her husband and most of those meeting were when her husband was out of town. I had even seen her with Craig one time and I didn't think anything of it because I couldn't conceive that she would *ever* do what she did.
The last time I saw her she'd told me that she'd strung Craig along, kept going out with him, while she worked out her plan to make me jealous. After three weeks she'd called it off because she couldn't figure out how to make it work. You would think that admission would have worked in her favor but to me it said that if things had worked out differently, if she'd been able to come up with a workable plan, she'd have kept on dating Craig and that was something I couldn't forget.
I had to believe that if things had worked out she'd have kept him on the string as long as he fit into her plans. How she would have handled the request to go up to his room I have no idea, but I firmly believe that she'd have found a way. Jenny is nothing if not resourceful. Given that the FBI arrest of Craig was imminent at the time she probably would have been caught up in the middle of that as well. Wouldn't that have been embarrassing!
What is really disappointing to me is that Jenny actually thought that her seeing another man and trying to make me jealous was a good idea! It's not as if we hadn't discussed our feelings about marital fidelity before we got married. Hell, we discussed it to death before we specifically wrote into our pre-nuptial agreement how we would divide our assets if either party wanted out of the marriage rather than go behind the other person's back. I'd made it perfectly clear that there would be no second chances, and Jenny expressed similar sentiments. At the time of our marriage there couldn't have been two people who were more on the same page as we were on this point.
The first time Jenny felt that I wasn't living up to my half of the marriage she talked to me about it, as she should. I don't know whether it was the fact that I had fallen back into old patterns, at least in her eyes, or she misinterpreted my reaction to that first time I saw Jenny with that slime ball. Whatever it was Jenny actually thought getting involved with Jerry Craig was a good idea. Not only did she make a bad decision in the first place but her choice of tool couldn't have been worse.
When she'd come home that Wednesday night she told me she considered Craig to be an asshole, an assessment that I wholly agreed with. I suppose when you are basically a good person you project some of that onto the other person. I firmly believe that Jenny never thought Craig would lie about their relationship and she was probably as devastated as I was when I had first heard the rumors.
What Jenny also forgot was her admonition to me, before we got married, about inappropriate behavior in front of her staff and how it could damage her reputation. I guess damaging my reputation didn't cross her mind. As Shakespeare said in 'Julius Caesar', "Caesar's wife must be above suspicion." My employees looked up to me and knowing that my people were not only aware of her actions with Craig but some had actually witnessed some of their meetings angered me. How was I supposed to look my people in the eye? I guess it didn't matter to Jenny as long as she made me jealous.
