{With this story I give a nod and a tip of the hat to George Andersen and his tantalizing story "February Sucks" and his wife stealing villain Marc LaValliere}
In The End It Was Frank Walker's Game... By gstein.
As waiters and busboys bustled around him and hastily cleared the table of plates, saucers, cups, glasses and utensils; and, straightened the black table decorations that embarrassingly proclaimed that someone was now forty years old and over the hill, Frank Walker sat alone at one end of the long table where he and other partiers had just finished a lavish dinner.
A little ways down the table from him were a couple of partiers who were also still seated and engrossed in their phones. And, at the far opposite end of the table a handful people were standing around talking and laughing. But, except for Frank and these few stragglers, the dining table was vacant since the rest of the partiers had left to take restroom breaks, make phone calls or just stretch their legs before the dessert, after dinner drinks and coffee were served and the party resumed.
But at that moment Frank wasn't on his phone. He wasn't thinking about the party and the fine dinner they had just finished. And, he certainly wasn't thinking about the birthday cake that the waiters would soon be bringing to the table.
Instead, Frank was pondering the handwritten note a waiter had slipped to him that read...
"
Beware! Marc LaValliere is going to steal your wife. And beware of the two men who are with him, they will take you out if you try to stop him. He plays his wife stealing game here very often. Looks like you are the victim of his game this week. Nothing we can do but warn you and suggest that you and your wife should leave now! Sorry for your trouble.
"
The note was unsigned but read like it was from the management of the restaurant and lounge.
It was a sinister warning and after he read the note, and then read it again, he paid more attention to his wife who was, again, out on the dance floor with Marc LaValliere. And now what troubled him was that, for the second time, they had moved to the back of the dance floor and practically out of his view. But he did catch glimpses of them and it was enough for him to see that LaValliere was holding his wife very close and she appeared to be enjoying the experience.
Ever since they had arrived at the party Marc LaValliere had been coming to their table and asking his wife to dance. Frank hadn't objected and Brooke accepted his invitations to dance, every time.
But now Frank had had enough of LaValliere dancing with his wife and the note clinched his decision to go onto the dance floor and cut in. But, just as he got up from his chair the song ended and he saw that LaValliere and Brooke were coming off the dance floor.
Relieved that he wouldn't have to make a scene, Frank sat back down and waited for LaValliere to escort his wife back to the table. But this time, instead of bringing her back to the birthday party, they went to Marc's table where they stood and talked for a several moments.
Frank was watching them.
And after a couple of minutes LaValliere walked away from Brooke and his two friends and it appeared to Frank that LaValliere was leaving the restaurant and lounge. And, as LaValliere walked toward the exit, Brooke nonchalantly strode over to Frank, picked up her handbag, told him that she was going to the restroom and then she turned and walked away. But after she took a couple of steps, she stopped, turned around, and with a peculiar look on her face, she told Frank that she loved him and she would see him later. Then she turned and continued walking in the direction the restrooms.
Watching his wife move through the restaurant toward the hallway where the restrooms were located, Frank got the idea that there was something wrong about the way she said that she was going to the restroom. And the way she stopped and told him that she loved him and would see him later, seemed odd. Her demeanor was not that of someone going to the restroom. Instead, she looked and acted like a person leaving to go do something other than simply going to the restroom. So Frank got up from the table and went after her.
And he had not taken anymore than a few steps when, as the note had warned him, LaValliere's two companions got up from their table and intercepted him.
Now, Frank Walker made his living by handling situations for organizations. He was a corporate fixer. Almost every week he boarded an airplane and flew to somewhere in the world where he straightened out businesses, and other types of organizations that had run off the rails and were in some kind of up-side-down administrative, operational, or financial situation.
Almost everyday Frank dealt with ego and power driven top-level executives, officers, directors and senior managers who got to where they are through politics, backstabbing, lying, cheating, bullying and intimidation.
Almost everyday Frank had to deal with hard-nosed front-line managers and supervisors who bullied and intimidated workers, and took pride in being just downright ruthless.
Going into these situations, with the purpose of making changes that impacted people's lives and livelihoods, it was not uncommon for Frank to be confronted, intimidated and even threatened. One time he was threatened by a drug cartel because he working on a project to relocate an American manufacturer from Mexico back into the states. Frank didn't back down from their threats and his client relocated to Alabama.
Frank was good at his work and he thrived in those situations where people threatened him. He loved nothing better than taking on the egoist, power mongers, ruthless and the dangerous. In fact, it was his game.
So when Marc LaValliere's large and athletic but young and naive teammates confronted him it didn't take Frank but a few moments to turn the tables on them to where they were the ones feeling threatened. Never in their short young lives had anyone ever explained the consequences of their actions to them the way Frank explained them, and they didn't hesitate a second to step aside and let him pass.
So now, with Marc LaValliere's buddies out of the way, Frank hurriedly went on after Brooke and when he caught up with her she was almost at the rear exit of the restaurant and lounge.
"Brooke," he hollered.
Either she didn't hear him or she ignored him but regardless she didn't stop and continued to walk on toward the door.
Frank picked up his pace, shortened the distance between them, and hollered at her again.
"Brooke! Where are you going?"
This time Brooke stopped, turned around, faced her husband, she appeared annoyed and demanded, "Frank! What are you doing here?"
Frank looked at her and saw there was something about her behavior that wasn't right. She was cold to him and it was obvious that she was irritated that he had caught up with her.
"I'll ask you the same thing, what are you doing here?" he asked.
Brooke thought for a few moments before answering him.
"Frank, I'm going...," she said, but then stopped in mid-sentence.
Frank looked at her in the eye and asked her again, "Where are you going?"
Brooke looked away from Frank and thought, "Damn, this isn't supposed to happen. He isn't supposed to be here."
"Frank..."
Brooke started to speak again but stopped. Because she had to think about what she was going to tell him. She knew that there was no point lying, she had to tell him the truth. She had to tell him where she was going. But it would be awkward for her to tell and painful for Frank to hear.
Earlier in the evening Brooke had by chance met Marc LaValliere. Coming back from the restroom she passed near Marc's table. He noticed her, got up from his table and politely stopped her and introduced himself, and for just a couple of moments he engaged her in small talk. Then Brooke continued on to her table and joined Frank and the rest of the partiers.
A little later on, when the party was in full swing, the lounge band came out and started their first session of the evening. Then, not too long after the band began to play, Marc LaValliere came over to the table of partiers. Of course everyone was thrilled that the local pro-football star and sports celebrity stopped by. He was friendly, introduced himself, shook hands with all the partiers, made a few selfies and signed a few autographs and then he asked Brooke to dance.
Brooke was mortified and turned him down, but Marc was gentlemanly persistent, some the other partiers encouraged her, and Frank didn't say no, so she reluctantly accepted his invitation.
Needless to say Brooke was apprehensive as Marc escorted her from the party and out to the dance floor.
But once on the dance floor Brooke found that dancing with Marc was an experience she never imagined. He was a young, handsome, virile, pro-athlete and he could dance. And while she danced with Marc he touched her in the way she liked to be touched. He held her in the way she liked to be held. He talked to her in the way she liked to be talked to. He said things she liked to hear. Marc set her at ease and she never again turned down his invitations to join him on the dance floor.
And as the evening went on, and after more dances, and getting comfortable with one another, her attraction to him grew stronger and it was, unmistakably, a sensual attraction.
Then, later on in the evening, came the dance where he moved them across the dance floor and into the shadows. There he embraced her, kissed her, felt her, and told her that she had to be, that she must be, the perfect love machine and he had to have her. He told her that he wouldn't take no for answer. And he proposed that they leave and go to his home where in privacy and comfort they would, without any inhibitions, have each other. And he vividly described to her how they would have a night of debauchery and he would take her sexuality to a level of eroticism that she had never before experienced. It would be only one night, but it would be one night that she would always remember.
Brooke was spellbound.
And after that dance, while eating dinner with Frank and the other partiers, Brooke pondered Marc's proposal. It was unsettling for her to think about just leaving Frank and the party and go with a man, who was practically a stranger, to his home. But the titillating thoughts of spending the night with Marc LaValliere sent a shiver up her spine, and she knew, without a doubt, that she wanted to go with him.
But Brooke had a dilemma.
She had always been faithful to Frank. Never in their marriage had she ever thought about being unfaithful. Now that doesn't mean that handsome and attractive men had never caught her eye, because of course they had. It's just human nature to be attracted to trophy specimens of the opposite sex, or maybe the same sex. But, for Brooke, it had always been looking and never touching, until tonight.
Tonight she wanted to touch Marc and she wanted to be touched by Marc. But, of course, that meant that she would be unfaithful to Frank. She would break her vows to him. She would betray his trust in her. So, she needed to justify what she was about to do. She needed a solid rationale for her infidelity. A rationale that she could live with tonight and beyond; and, one which, she hoped, Frank would accept, as best he could.
So she reasoned that she was going with Marc because he was special. He was not your average man. Rather, he was pro athlete, a star player and a locale and national sports celebrity. But even more than that, in Brooke's mind, he was suave and debonair. Every time he escorted her onto the dance floor and took her in his arms she was swept away by his charm.
For Brooke, Marc LaValliere was what women call a dreamboat. He was the kind of man that women fantasized over. He was the stuff of romance novels. And this dreamboat of a man was offering Brooke the amorous experience of a lifetime and she would be a fool not to accept.
And she reasoned that Frank too would see it as an opportunity of a lifetime for her. And he would understand why, for just this one time, he should look the other way and let her have a sexual experience with this very special man. Of course he would be angry but he would accept it because more than being her husband he was her best friend and soul mate and he would want her to have this very special experience with Marc.
Brooke was pleased with her thinking. She now had a plausible rationale which she could live with and, hopefully, Frank could live with it too.
But, honestly, deep within her consciousness Brooke knew that the true reason she was going with Marc was because of how this young, powerful and virile man boldly told her that tonight she belonged to him and that he was going to take her to his home and have his way with her all night and into the next morning. And she decided that there was no way she was not going to have that experience. Because, she reasoned, over and above being married to Frank, she was a woman and the woman within her was not going to pass up this opportunity to explore such as thrilling sexual experience with Marc LaValliere.
