As always thanks to all who give meaningful feedback. I enjoy emailing with you.
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Peter Green: Don't ask me what I think of you, I might not give the answer that you want me to.
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The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Should I feel bad that I didn't fulfill all three of those conditions? I may not have nailed that 'whole truth' thing. Two out of three ain't bad. Oh well, life goes on.
Karen, my wife, is an up and coming investment manager and has her sights set on replacing her father, Lou, when he retires at the end of the year. Lou has, for the last thirty years, managed, what has turned into, a multi-billion dollar retirement fund for a state sponsored entity. A committee was reviewing applications for Lou's successor and, with Lou's input, had narrowed their choices to Karen and one other.
Lou is a pompous ass. He and I never hit it off. He is loudly opinionated and thinks very little of my career. The less time I can spend around him, the happier I am. When we got engaged, it was Lou that had a most punitive pre-nup drawn up. Basically, if adultery is involved, you get to keep your shadow. If there are kids, it gets even uglier. There is a formula for alimony. I was unfazed by it all as fidelity means a lot to me.
My name is Larry Trompeur. Karen and I were both 29 when we met at a conference, just under three years ago. I'm an executive for a company that creates and manages limited partnerships. Karen works for a company that provides investment advice. On the day of the conference, Karen was making a presentation on the tax benefits of some new investment products. At the dinner afterwards, Karen and her associate, Sasha, joined me at my table. Both ladies were very flirtatious and we decided to go dancing after dinner. We landed at a nightclub named Spread your Wings.
I enjoyed the company of both, on the dance floor, but after a while it was Karen who had claimed me for herself. I certainly didn't object as either one would have made me happy. Karen was certainly the driving force in our courtship. It was less than two weeks after we met when my nights became the stuff I had only dreamed of. It was a Friday and, as I got home from work, Karen met me at my place.
"Let's skip dinner and spend the evening in your place."
Once inside, she had me sit on the couch and did a very erotic strip tease. Her naked body had my cock straining against my zipper. Karen had me stand up then slowly undressed me, rubbing and kissing everywhere. When my boxers hit the floor she cooed.
"Niceeeee, I hit the jackpot."
She wasted no time in burying my cock deep in her mouth. I warned her I was getting close but she kept bobbing and sucking and I spurted repeatedly into her mouth.
I helped her to her feet and she led me into my bedroom. I tried to give her as much pleasure as she had just given me. I licked, fingered, nibbled, and teased until she tipped her hand.
"Oh gawd, don't stop, more, more, oh, oh, oh, ahhhhhhhh" then shook the bed, and my head, until she went limp.
I was already hard again so I climbed on top and slid my cock into her juicy wet pussy. I think I had four orgasms that night.
We would repeat that Friday night experience once or twice a week until our marriage started wobbling.
There was more to our relationship than the sex. Much like the night Karen claimed me, she was quite possessive at the parties we attended. With her line of work, there were weekly parties. She made it clear that she didn't like to attend these alone. The men, according to her, were always making crude remarks and brushing, bumping, or grinding into her. When we weren't attending parties we'd dine or dance or just hang out. There was very little time spent away from each other up until the end.
This was the first marriage for each of us. Lou put on a grand extravaganza for his baby girl.
Much of Karen's paycheck depended on her commissions. My paycheck carried us for the first year. We were starting to save for a house. About six months before the end, Karen landed some major contracts and her bonuses were big. She continued to have success but her demeanor also changed. She was turning into Lou before my eyes. All of a sudden I was not as good a partner as before.
Along with her work success, Karen and Sasha, who was still single, started doing a girls night out. They would do this about once a month. The place they liked to dance at was Spread your Wings, where we had danced when we met. The last few times Karen had come home fairly drunk and her clothes disheveled. I was having doubts about her fidelity.
At a recent family gathering, Lou had too much to drink and was tossing the insults at just about everyone. I left Karen with the car and found a ride home. She was more than pissed when she got home. I told her to deal with it as he's her father and, if he can't act civil, I would not be spending time around him.
It wasn't even a week later that I had a seminar at a downtown hotel. As I was checking in with the office, during a break, I saw Lou enter an elevator. Maybe nothing to it but the more I dwelled on it, the more sinister I thought it was. One of my friends, from work, has a brother who does investigative work. He cut me a deal to do a check quick on Lou. Turns out Lou likes to spend his good fortune with escorts. I gave the investigator a nice tip. Next time the asshole starts in on me, I'm going to blast his ass with this.
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There had been a few homes broken into in our subdivision. I asked my landlord if I could hook up one of those porch motion detector devices. He gave his approval so I installed it. When triggered, it would take a short video and, using our Wi-Fi connection, send an alert to the app on my phone. Karen was out shopping when I installed it. I tried to show it to her when she got home but, she brushed me off saying she had to get ready for her girl's night out.
I told Karen it was time to end the girl's nights out. We didn't fight about it but it was a spirited debate. She was having none of it. We went back and forth. I said her need to go dancing was not something a married woman should be doing. She dismissed it as just normal time away from me.
"You are jumping to conclusions and it's not what you think" was her dismissive comment.
Around 7 pm Sasha, in jeans, arrived. She and Karen, in a dress, left without saying much.
I decided I'd drop by to see how Karen acted on her night out. Friday nights were very popular at Spread your Wings. Finding a parking spot was the first challenge. It was so crowded I was forced to stand far from the dance floor. It took a while to find Karen on the dance floor and l wasn't thrilled with what I saw. She was pulled close to a guy and one of his hands was pressing the side of her boob while his other hand rested comfortably on her ass. After the song finished I watched them head to their table. Sasha and some guy had their chairs side by side. At least with jeans on, Sasha was making it tougher for her guy to invade her territory. Karen and her guy pulled their chairs side by side. Looked like all four had at least one hand under the table. Karen's guy pulled his hand up, sniffed it, licked it, then leaned in and said something to Karen. She leaned back into him.
I sent a message "I've seen enough. Get a room. I'm going home to pack."
I left and was just about home when I got a text back "Pack for what?"
"I'm moving out."
A minute later my phone sounded Karen's ringtone.
"What the hell is this all about?"
"From what I saw tonight it's not a matter of if you will cheat, just when. I'm guessing the when has already happened based on how you were acting tonight."
"Nothing has happened. Not tonight. Not any night. You are jumping to conclusions and it's not what you think."
"Well his fingers were dry before they dipped below the table. They weren't dry when I saw them again."
"Nothing like that happened. You are very mistaken."
"I can come up with no explanation as to why your hands were never on the table either. I need time away from you at this point."
"I have done nothing wrong. It was harmless flirting. You are jumping to conclusions and it's not what you think."
"When my wife has to flirt with strangers to feel like a woman, it's time for me to reconsider whether I should even be married."
"It's not like that. I've done nothing wrong."
"What you were doing didn't pass the spouse sniff test. This is going nowhere. I'm spending at least the next few nights in a motel. I'll be in touch."
I hung up as I parked by our unit. I only packed for a few days. I figured I could get back to the apartment in a day or two and grab more clothes. As I was waiting at the light, to turn onto the highway, my phone buzzed that someone was at my porch. I glanced, it was Karen.
Karen's ringtone again "You're really staying in a motel?"
"On my way. There was no reason for you to hurry home. I didn't mean to jump start your conscience. Poor dude, leaving him all worked up. Wait, maybe you had time to finish him off."
"Fuck you! Nothing happened. You are jumping to conclusions and it's not what you think."
"I wonder why he was sniffing and sucking his fingers?"
"Nothing like that happened."
"Well as long as you refuse to be honest, we are done. Goodnight."
I powered down my phone. I found one of those weekly stay places a few blocks from where I work. I paid for a week and settled into my room. I can't say it was a good night's sleep but, a little sleep is better than none. Almost dreading it, I powered on my cell phone. As expected, several voice mails and texts professing her complete innocence and my totally wrong imagination.
I sent her a text "How about a lie detector test? I'm getting checked for STDs today."
Her response took a while and was evasive "Waste all the money you want on tests."
"Great! When do you want to do the lie detector test?"
"I didn't say I would. Sasha says they are no better than a coin toss."
"OK. I flipped a coin, heads you've been cheating, tails you're being honest. Oh no, it came up heads."
"I can't believe you think that. All I've done is go out dancing. You are jumping to conclusions and it's not what you think."
"Your ass, tits, and pussy are supposed to be off limits. What I saw last night was none were off limits."
"It wasn't like that. I won't continue living like this."
"That's why I moved out. I think we should try a separation."
No calls or texts from Karen the rest of the day. Imagine my surprise when the porch video caught Karen leaving, in a dress, around 7 pm. Around 10 pm another porch video showed Karen arriving home. She was accompanied by a guy who also entered the apartment. He left about 30 minutes later. Maybe they watched the 10 o'clock news? I knew the marriage was over but I really needed to get my proof for the pre-nup.
I spent Sunday locating a supplier for bedroom surveillance equipment. Once purchased, I decided to take a long lunch on Monday and install it. The nice thing about being this close to work was the extra half hour to eat and get ready in the morning. At lunch I went back to my apartment, gathered some of our financial records, grabbed a couple of suitcases of clothing, and packed the rest of my bathroom stuff. The bedroom camera hooked up pretty easily to the ceiling light fixture. It would upload to the cloud using the Wi-Fi.