This is a conclusion to a story written by TQM called "Lost Her to the Ex". It was the most popular story on another erotica site, so of course I had to read it.
And I found I rather enjoyed it on some level. But it was just the start of the story, and not the end. Melanie felt that life was beautiful. She was fucking the cock of her life AND had a husband to dote on her.
Life isn't like that. The Wheel Turns.
So, for those who do not like having to read the prior story, there is a summary so you can get the gist. Anyone who has read LW stories already knows the plot. All I'm doing in adding a few names and details to get the ball rolling. TQM was kind enough to give me permission to write the story.
There IS sex in this story...but not too much.
Many thanks to TQM for writing the original and for giving me permission to write this follow up.
****
"Honey, have you seen my gray mini skirt?"
That question may seem rather innocuous to you, but that was actually the opening salvo of a war.
****
Let me step back a bit and explain. I've been married to Melanie, a third grade school teacher, for a few years. We had, heretofore, had an excellent marriage. Then Tanner happened again. Tanner was my wife's long term ex-boyfriend. To me he was just a name.
He came back to town in July for a short term job and asked after Melanie. My bitch of a sister in law, Beth, gave him all her contact information. In fact, looking back, she took a certain amount of glee in doing so. Beth told me that I needed to tread softly because Tanner and Mel had been quite an item. So when Mel asked about having lunch with him, I was a big dope and said yes.
To cut to the chase, my wife started seeing (read fucking)Tanner almost every day during long lunches during his job while she was on summer break. After a month or so of this, she came to me and confessed.
It seems they had a very long, very steamy relationship that he broke off when he got a job a long way away. He dumped her and she had been devastated for a long time. She started putting her life back together, seeing someone seriously again. Then Tanner visited for a week and destroyed that relationship after she fucked him for three days straight. She eventually met and married me. Needless to say, I did not know any of this history until she confessed to me after telling me that she'd been fucking around.
We fought. We cried. I wanted to know what she intended. She refused to promise to stop fucking him. He was 'sexual perfection'. She swore she didn't want to lose me, and said if Tanner asked her to leave me, 'she'd go out of her mind'. Isn't that sweet! She wouldn't stop seeing him for me, but she'd feel conflicted if HE asked her to stop seeming me.
I started raising hell and Beth, the SIL called and bitched me out, as much as telling me if I didn't let this happen, I'd lose her totally.
Mel also told the son of a bitch that she told me. Since I had not immediately dumped her, she would now use her freedom to see him after work and over weekends, though she swore to be discrete and 'still loved me'. At this point I didn't want to lose her, but I felt helpless to stop this assignation without the nuclear option of divorce.
She set up an immediate meeting and wore the special gray mini skirt we had bought together during a date. When I protested it was mine, she said she wanted to look good 'for him' as she walked out the door
I felt I had lost her to the ex.
***
I felt as low as I ever had when I walked into the bar. My friend Keith had some marital issues with infidelity in the past and he had suggested that I look up Ed. He was a bartender.
Walking into the bar, I almost immediately walked out. The place was moderately full. A woman laughed. It was a full and throaty laugh and reminded me of Melanie and, of course, that reminded me of what she was doing and probably laughing about right now with Tanner. Merriment conflicted with my mood.
Keith had been adamant though, that I talk to Ed. So I tried not to cringe and went to the bar. Ed went for a very traditional look on a barkeep: a white shirt, a black vest and a mustache. I almost looked for those stupid armbands that you see in the old black and white photos, but obviously he wasn't THAT obsessive.
He took one look at me and then just shook his head. He grabbed a couple of bottles from under the counter and started pouring. He set a shot glass in front of me. "Drink up." I looked at him questioningly, but he just gestured to the glass.
Gamely, I took a swig and immediately almost spat it out again. "My GOD! That was awful!" I almost shouted, looking at him accusingly. I almost reached over to grab his vest and put my fist through his face. I looked at the glass instead. "What is that?!?"
He grinned at me. "Yeah. It should be. It's olive and onion juice with a bit of chili and bitters."
I glared at him some more. "What did you do that for? I'm not paying for that!"
"It's on the house. But I got you angry instead of glum. You aren't looking like a whipped dog and I bet that you haven't thought about...whatever for the last two minutes."
I thought about it and he was right! Of course, just recognizing the fact brought it all crashing back. But it was hard to focus on that when I wanted to take a cheese grater to my tongue.
"I'm Ed. You look like you need to talk."
Did I ever! It was hard to relate the details of my cuckoldry to a stranger, but Ed had an answer to that too. He lined up four shots of alcohol (I checked what bottle he was using. He just snickered that it was a good thing that I could learn) and told me he'd be back to chat after I finished them up.
I went through them pretty quickly and we started to talk about innocuous things first: my job, my car, what teams I liked etc. He pointed out a few nice looking ladies and we made suitable chest thumping male statements about their physical attributes on the sly. Standard guy stuff. I got a sick expression after a bit. "Wonder how many of them are leaving stupid husbands at home?" I said bitterly.
"Bingo." Ed said. He excused himself and went to a dark end of the bar. He had a few words with the patrons there and they smiled at him, finished their drinks quickly and left. He returned. "Why don't you sit over there? The night is young and the people are thirsty. When things wind down, we can talk about it a little more."
So that's what I did. He kept me professionally lubricated enough to soften the edges of my grief without pushing me over the edge of consciousness or into maudlin displays. A couple of times, I felt like getting up and leaving, but I recalled my promise to Keith.
A couple of hours later, the last patrons were leaving. Ed gestured to one of the waitresses and she sighed. "Jeez, Ed. Do you
ever
close up? I think your therapy sessions are just an excuse to avoid clean up." She was smiling as she said it.
"Don't sass me Reba, or I'll fire your ass."
She rolled her eyes. "Promises promises." She dropped off a couple of coffees before she emptied the carafes and started setting things up in the back of the bar, leaving us alone.
We started slow. I started talking, only saying that my wife was cheating on me. Slowly, he started asking questions, quietly and just waiting for me to answer. I didn't really want to talk about it. It's humiliating in our day and age to reveal that you are sitting there accepting this kind of situation. I was just going to relate the bare minimum of facts.
A funny thing happened though. I slowly but surely told more and more to Ed. It didn't all come spewing out in one go. No, it was like lancing an abscess. Occasionally, he had to ask question, massaging the wound and a bit more pus would come out. At a certain point, he'd ask a question which would rip my heart open again.
It's okay, sir. We're just cutting a bit deeper to get the last of it out. This won't hurt a bit...
What made me do it was compassion. His expression didn't have a trace of pity or even sympathy. Those would have made me clam up in an instant. No, it was one of compassion. I was suffering, so he was suffering. I could see my words wound him almost as much as they did me. A strange word to attach to another man, but it seems I was learning a lot these days.
I wound down and just sat there, embarrassed.
