This story doesn't have much sex, just enough to move the story along. If you're looking for a lot of revenge there is only a little. Sit back read and enjoy, or for some of you - don't. If you're cerebral you may catch an underlying theme. Again, feel free to comment, it may help with future stories.
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I sit on this stone bench in a sea of people. I should get up and get some water, Gatorade, Powerade, - something to alleviate my thirst in this heat. If I do though I will lose my seat and I would have to stand like most of the people here at this party. It was a decision I have to make, sit here on this hard stone bench or stand, lose my seat and have to go through the rest of the party on my feet. I'm choosing to continue sitting.
The host of the party, our head honcho, was barbecuing over an open pit. People were lined up to get theirs. BBQ as hot as it was, mid-August in the deep south. I had to be here. He required it. He knew something was bothering me so he made a suggestion. "Problems sometimes seem more manageable if you write it down. It forces you to really think about it and evaluate your thoughts on it." He even supplied me with a notebook and pen to write it down. That was one of the few times I can say he seemed actually human to me. Usually he would just dismiss me and my problems. He definitely wasn't a nice person.
So I sit here on my aching ass, writing down what has been going through my mind over and over since that fateful day.
My name is Kurt Bennett, I'm 30 years old, married (5 years) to Robyn. No kids yet but we were planning on starting a family this year. I went to Notre Dame and when I graduated I obtained a great job in sales at Siemens in their medical health care division. With the baby boomers flooding the market with their health needs "my future's so bright I got to wear shades."
I'm on top of the world. Some people say I've led a charmed life. I say that I didn't make the bad decisions other people did. I've known a number of people like that, my brother is one of them. I don't understand how two brothers, twins, raised in the same house, by the same parents, at the same time, can turn out so differently. I guess it proves nature over nurture.
During our formative childhood years mom and dad would say, "Brush your teeth after every meal." I did, he didn't. Today I have great teeth, he has a mouth full of fillings. "The stove is hot, do not touch." I didn't, he did, and made a trip to the hospital for burn treatment. "Look both ways before crossing the road." Although he never actually got hit there were a number of close calls that I witnessed from the side of the road. I think you get the gist.
This continued throughout our teen years and into adulthood. I don't know how many times I heard my parents say, "Keith, when are you going to learn your lesson?"
That question really became the crux of my story. You see I never learned my lesson because I never tested anything. I didn't try smoking, my brother got sick and puked his guts out. He was 14 when he got drunk for the first time, stealing beer from a neighborhood grocery while they were getting a delivery. Again he puked his guts out and also got in trouble for stealing - grounded for 2 months. I can't tell you how many cars he totaled, either from speeding, drunk driving, or both. Again I think you get the gist. I never did anything wrong so I never learned my lessons.
That all changed one fateful day, I was making my rounds to my current customers checking to insure deliveries were correct and on time. I also would see what new plans they had in the works so I could anticipate needs and have proposals made up ahead of time.
I was visiting a senior center facility in a high class part of town when I saw my wife's car, I knew it was my wife's car because of the "I Love Dolphins" bumper sticker, it was in the driveway of a huge home, it must have been 6000 square feet, all brick, on a lake. I wish I had a house like that and the money to go with it.
She worked about 15 minutes away from here for an upscale sports/exercise apparel store. She must be making a delivery. I slowed down to say "hi" and parked along the curb about a ¼ block up the street. I was just about to get out when the front door opened. "Perfect timing" I thought to myself. She started out the door then turned around and gave the man standing at the door a huge kiss, tongue and everything. He grabbed her ass with one hand and her breast with the other as he returned the kiss. I guess he was the one making a delivery.
I sat there stunned. Luckily she pulled from his driveway and headed the other way down the block. I turned around and slowly drove by the house. I wrote the address down and then drove out of the neighborhood. I drove back into the city and stopped at a bar. I needed time to think. I ordered some nachos and asked the waitress, "What's a good drink to drown my sorrows in?"
Again, I was a good guy. I rarely drank. She said, "Whiskey seems to be the drink of choice around here for that."
"Well, I've never gotten drunk before but today seems to be the perfect day for it. Give me one of those." I said.
"I'll give you a 7 and 7, that should do you well. I don't think that if you have never been drunk before you should drink straight whiskey.
After the second one (quite tasty by the way) I could feel it. I gave the waitress my brother's phone number and told her to call him after I was passed out drunk. I also gave her a fifty for the drinks and her tip. "For going above and beyond and being so nice about it."
I don't remember anything else except waking up puking my guts out in a toilet. I had also vomited all over my shirt too. After I tried to force my stomach out of my mouth with dry heaves for the one hundredth time I laid down on the cool tile and passed out again.
When I woke again I had a splitting headache. I was lying on a bed almost naked. It wasn't my bed. My brother came in a couple minutes later after he heard me groan in pain.
"Well, the good brother is not so good after all." He said.
"Shhh, not so loud." I said.
"So do you want to tell me why you, of all people, were sitting in a bar getting drunk?" He asked softly.
"Robyn is cheating on me."
"What?? The perfect marriage of the perfect couple is having problems?" He said. I could hear the sarcasm in the tone. I guess I deserved that. I had not been kind to my brother with all the trouble he had brought upon himself growing up.
"So how does it feel to have problems and wake up with a hangover and puking?" He asked.
"I'll never do that again, I've learned my lesson."
Keith had called Robyn last night and told her I was feeling under the weather and I was going to stay at their place overnight. I sure am glad he did that. I wasn't ready to face her yet. "So tell me what happened." He said. So I told him the day's events that led to my drinking in a bar. I pulled out my wallet to retrieve the address so I could look up the bastard's name. I opened the wallet and noticed all my cash was gone. I had given the waitress $50. I should have at least $100 left in there.
"Dammit, someone stole money from my wallet!" I said a little too loudly and my head started pounding again.
"The bar wasn't even close to full when I got there. The waitress did have a huge smile on her face as I took you away." Keith said.
"Bitch! Another lesson learned, you can't trust women." I said.
I found the address in my wallet and looked up the ownership of the house. I got the name and then looked him up. There was a picture online, that was him, I'd recognize his face anywhere. He was an executive at one of the large tool and die companies in the area. I didn't know how, but he would pay for what he did.
Now that I know all I needed to know I told my brother I was going to crash for a couple more hours and then head home. It was a Saturday, Robyn would be at work most of the day, probably making special deliveries.
When I got home I started packing up my wife's things. Packing is not quite correct. Putting everything in 55 gallon trash bags is what I really did. As I was putting the last of it on our front porch her car pulled up in the drive. She got out and walked toward the front door with a puzzled look on her face.
"What is all this? I didn't know we had this much trash." She questioned.
"This is only part of it. The main trash is right in front of me." I said.
She again looked puzzled. "What? Are you feeling okay?"
"No, not since yesterday afternoon when I saw what I thought was my loving faithful wife kissing and being groped by another man. This is all your clothes and jewelry take them with you when you go."
A shocked look came over her face and her hand went up to cover her mouth. "No, Kurt, please don't do this."
"Just take the shit and leave! I'm sure Dan Sherwood will let you sleep with him in his house again." I said forcefully.
Her eyes got wide. She got a stern look on her face and resorted to her usual way of dealing with people when they made her mad. She started putting me down. "He's twice the man you are or ever will be. You're so boring and predictable. Mr. Goody-Two-Shoes. You can't be surprised that I would want to be with a real man!"
