Love U

I don't want to give our ages away but let me simply state that our courting days were several years BE (before e-mail). In that old fashioned era, my wife, Faith, and I used a vehicle called the U.S. Mail for most of our correspondence. We were high school sweet hearts but we went to different universities. We couldn't afford a lot of phone calls so letters had to do the job of keeping our romance alive.

During this period, the post office issued its first "Love" stamp. We seized on it and began to use it on all of our mail to each other. One day I had a bright idea and, using a green felt tip marker I inscribed a "U" so that it framed the stamp. Get it? Love U! Being pleased with myself I mailed my letter to her and got it back the next day with a rather terse note informing me that use of previously canceled stamps was illegal. There was more than that in the note and I didn't understand. I took it to the post office and was informed that any marking on the stamp was equal to a cancellation. My "U" had just crossed the bottom corner of the stamp and therefore I was using a canceled stamp and that the use of a canceled stamp could be considered fraud. The postal clerk was kind and understanding, but he explained that I was unintentionally in violation of postal codes.

Undaunted, I created a new envelope, affixed a new stamp and carefully inscribed the "U," avoiding the stamp, and sent it on its way. When Faith received it she immediately recognized what it was. Ever since then, all of our letter correspondence has garnered a love stamp bordered by the letter "U." It doesn't stand out as much now because we often have to affix additional stamps to meet the newer postal rates.

Our college age children saw one of our old letters and after finding out what it meant, they later adopted it with their spouses. Between our three families, I believe we have one of the largest hoards of Love stamp in the country. Believe it or not, we still use the regular mail for much of our personal family communication.

Faith and I still get a kick out of our personal letters when either of us is away for more than a night or two. E-mail just seems so impersonal and mechanical. It also gives us a way of sharing our thoughts when we are away and unable to be with each other.

Let me get on, the story is not about our little love symbol; although it ends there. I wish it didn't.

We were married twenty-nine years ago and had two children, twins, a girl and a boy. They have both followed their father's profession and became attorneys. Faith was a stay at home Mom until the children were in high school and then she joined the work force. not being able to stay at home alone.

Faith has always loved furniture and on many weekends after the children were older, and we had nothing scheduled, she would drag me out to the furniture stores. I didn't have a problem, she didn't want to buy everything; she just loved looking at and studying furniture. By the time she went to work, she was very knowledgeable about furniture of all types. With her knowledge she was able to land a job that moved her quickly into the buyer's office of a state-wide furniture store chain.

Unfortunately, between our jobs, now one of us is often away from home. Faith makes at least four trips a year to North Carolina plus several other trips to other locations during the year. My work requires frequent overnight trips. Most of mine are one or two nights at most. Any way, between us, we often have periods of functioning like ships passing in the night.

Originally her trips to North Carolina were Sunday or Monday thru Friday night or Saturday morning (depending on flight schedules). Five months ago she called me on Friday night and told me she wouldn't be home until Wednesday. Of course, I was less than pleased but I didn't object and I don't recall now why the extra two days were needed.

On her last trip, a little over a month ago, she called on Friday again for the same reason. This pissed me off. Why all of a sudden are we having these last minute extensions? I let her know this was pushing things too far. I informed her that she had better find a way to stop these unscheduled extended trips.

You can't imagine my surprise when she readily agreed and said she would talk to her boss about it. I was doubly surprised when two days after she returned home she happily reported that she had been given a promotion and her new position would not require as much travel. She added that she would only be taking a few short trips and she would only be doing the North Carolina trip for, at most, the two or three days of the show.

She ended by telling me there was one little caveat; that with her new responsibilities she would likely be entertaining clients on a regular basis once or twice a week, like she had been doing on occasions for the past few months. She would normally be home between nine and ten.

It's funny how things work. With her news I had to tell her I would be traveling more during the coming year. However, the trips would still mostly be one night with a few two night trips thrown in.

I read Literotica and am fully aware of the warning signs of infidelity. Her extended trips had made me suspicious, but when she dropped the trips so readily and made a real change to her out of town trips, my suspicions quickly disappeared. Entertaining clients and being home at a reasonable hour didn't sound any alarms and I was satisfied.

Our lives returned to something like they had been before she went back to work and started making her trips. In fact there was a noticeable change to our sex life, and it was to the good. Nothing wild, but better than what it had been for several years. We have both crossed the fifty year mark, and though we are both in good shape, our sex life was definitely waning from what it used to be. And I was alright with the new change too.

I have been aware for the past year or so that my sex drive seems to be dropping some while hers seems to be rising. I don't know if it is the fact that the difference I perceive is due to me dropping a little and she is rising a little or whether I am dropping more rapidly and she is not changing. Whatever the case, it has been a little bothersome, but of no real concern and with her change of schedule I all but forgot about it.

However, now I was paying attention to the way she was dressing when she went to work. The change started soon after her last North Carolina trip. Until then, her dress had been to the conservative side. Now she was putting more effort into looking very attractive in her work dress. There was nothing extreme or even particularly sexy about her dress; she was just taking the efforts to look more attractive; business suits that showed her figure off nicely, heels, make-up including eye shadow and painted on lipstick.

When I complemented her on her new appearance and asked what it was about, she simply informed me that she was meeting important customers and suppliers now and she wanted to present a more polished appearance.

A few weeks after her promotion, she asked me if I minded her inviting an associate home for dinner. It was an unmarried male who had joined them recently and was living in a motel while the house he was purchasing was being completed. She thought it would be neighborly to invite him for a home-cooked meal.

I had no problem with her request and told her to go ahead. On the night designated, he arrived bearing a nice vase with cut flowers as a thank you. He was about ten to fifteen years our junior and a very fit and handsome specimen. Faith introduced him as Dana Johns. Aside from being handsome, he also had a very outgoing personality. I will tell you now that I was feeling considerably more than uncomfortable with him by the time he left.

He monopolized most of the conversation and gave me little attention. Every time I would ask a question wanting to know more about him, he would answer with something that led to another topic of discussion. It wasn't long before he was talking almost exclusively to Faith. On a couple of occasions I tried to enter into the conversation they were having. Both times I was met with an almost hostile response from him that didn't directly say it, but made it obvious that I was not welcome in the conversation. She was so engrossed with him and what they were talking about that she didn't even notice.

By nine o'clock I'd had enough of Dana and made an announcement making it clear that the evening was over. Faith intervened saying, "Oh Henry, the night is young. There is no need for Dana to have to go back to his lonely hotel room so early."

I gave her a look that she knew meant the subject was not open for discussion and said, "Honey, tomorrow is a work day and I have a hard one on the docket."

I escorted Dana to the door where he turned and thanked me and said that he was happy to have met me as I handed him his coat. He held out his hand for a shake and I simply put my hand on his shoulder, said, "Goodnight Dana," and gently guided him out the door.

As soon as he was out the door Faith jumped me and said, crossly, "Henry, what's wrong with you? I have never seen you act so rudely."

I took her in my arms and said, "Honey, I'm sorry. He may need a home cooked meal, but he is not welcome here again. I don't like him and if you want to talk about rudeness, let's talk about him. I consider it absolutely rude to come into a person's home and all but ignore one spouse and then effectively tell him to butt out when he tries to enter the conversation."

She asked what I was talking about and I related what had happened during the evening. She thought about it a moment and then said, "I'm sorry dear. I should have made sure you were included. But that doesn't excuse your actions as a host."

Then I told her about his aversion to answering any thing about himself. I concluded by saying, "Honey, I don't generally take a quick dislike to people. But I'm making an exception for him. He is hiding something. I think he is manipulative, and I don't want him in this house again. I'm sorry, but that's the way it is. In addition, it would make me very happy if you gave him a very wide berth."

She tried to convince me that my impression was wrong and that maybe we could get together again and I would see him differently. I told her to drop the subject. Her continued attempt to to justify his rudeness popped the red flag up in my mind.

The week after having met Dana, I was called out of town for two nights. As was my practice, I called home after supper the first night. I had a short chat with Faith and all was well.

However, on the second night I called and after a few rings I was transferred to her voice mail box. I left a short message and hung up. As I hung up, it hit me. I had connected to her cell phone. I must have hit the wrong speed dial button. I called again, being careful to call the home phone. It rang once and I was transferred to the voice mail box again. I didn't understand what was happening for a moment. I sat there looking at my phone when it dawned on me. She had put our phone on call forwarding and her cell phone was turned off. Strange? You bet your ass it was strange. Alarms and flags were everywhere.

About thirty minutes later my cell phone rang. It was Faith and she wanted to know if had called her earlier. I told her I had and she then explained that she had been in the yard watering. She knew the phone would stop before she could get to it and had finished watering before she called me.

I asked if everything was OK and if she listened to my message. She told me she was just fine and that yes she had gotten my message and that she loved me too. I decided not to let on that I was having suspicions and I told her I had been missing her and would see her tomorrow night. It was now obvious that she called me when she realized her cell phone had been off and she was trying to cover up. We talked a few minutes and then hung up.

I decided to check things out a little further. I waited a few minutes and, using the hotel room phone, I called the house again. Faith picked up on the second ring and I hung up. I knew she would not recognize the caller id number displayed on her cell phone. I waited another fifteen minutes and speed dialed her cell phone. I was about to hang up thinking maybe she wasn't hearing it, when she answered. She didn't sound normal and I asked if she was alright. She told me she had been in the basement doing laundry when she heard the phone. I made a mental note that I needed to get more phones throughout the house—just kidding.

She wanted to know if I had called a little earlier. I said that I hadn't that it was she who had called me after I had left the message. Next, I told her that the client had just called and that I was going to be away another night and wouldn't be home tomorrow. She told me she was very disappointed but please get home soon. She loved me and she missed me.

The uneasy feelings that I had been harboring since the long stay trips and then escalated with the encounter with Dana now jumped straight in my face. I had believed that I had no reason not to trust my wife. Things like I was beginning to suspect now only happened to others or were in fictitious "loving wives" stories.

I returned home, on my original schedule about two in the afternoon. I got a hotel room and then called her work. I didn't call her, I asked for Carla, one of our good friends hoping that she was a good enough friend that she would help me. Carla works in the financial department and I knew she handled expense accounts. When I got Carla I asked her to please not tell Faith about this call. I was working on a surprise for her and needed her help with some information. She asked me what kind of surprise and I found that I couldn't lie to her. If I expected her to help me as a friend, then I needed to be honest with her, so I told her about my suspicions.

Her reply was like a kick in the stomach. "Henry, I'm sorry to hear what you have just told me. I have had some concerns the past few months about her relationship with this new buyer, Dana Johns." She started to explain who Dana was and I stopped her, letting her know that I knew who Dana Johns was and that I had met him and that I had taken an immediate dislike to him. She understood and then went on to tell me that they seem to be awfully close. I suddenly felt sick and wanted to start hurting people. But I held myself control and asked Carla to tell me about her suspicions.

What she told me made me even sicker. Faith had met Dana about a year ago in North Carolina (at the time of the first extended trip). He was a manufacturer's rep. and Faith had told Carla all about him when she came back. Carla didn't know to what degree they had been together but she knew that Faith was more than pleased when it was announced that Dana was coming to work with them. The announcement had been made the week after her return from the last North Carolina trip. Since he arrived, the two have been very close. They often go to lunch together, or take breaks together, and they sometimes go out for a drink after work. In fact, yesterday, she (Carla) had to work late and she knew they worked a little late too and then went out to dinner. That was about seven o'clock.

A thought struck me and I stopped her. Since her promotion, Faith has been out entertaining clients at least one or more times a week; never late at night, but quite frequent. I asked Carla if she knew anything about that and she responded that if Faith was doing that, she was paying for it out of her own pocket, that she had only processed, and I could hear her shuffling papers, four expense claims other than the North Carolina trip from Faith in the past six months. Then she hammered a big spike in. She said, "You know? I asked Faith after her last two trips to North Carolina if she didn't have expenses to report for Saturday through Tuesday. She told me the manufacturers covered the cost. Henry, I'm so sorry. This doesn't sound very good, does it?"

"No Carla, it sure as hell doesn't. But thanks, you've been a big help,"

Now the picture was becoming quite clear. The client dinners were a farce, the extended stays were a farce, and so were the recent five or six overnight trips.

Before we ended our talk I asked if she could give me Dana's address and phone number. She said she shouldn't but as a friend and knowing what she now knew, she would. She gave me what I asked for and also added Dana's cell phone number.

I rented a car and drove home and parked a couple of houses away. I went in, collected my digital camera and enough clothing to last a few days, and then left before her time to come home. I slumped down in the seat of the car and waited.

At her regular time she came home. I had decided to wait and see if she would leave, and sure enough, she did. She was in the house about half an hour and when she came out she was dressed for an evening out. I followed her to Dana's address where she went in. I waited a bit. They probably hadn't had supper and either they would go out, or maybe he had fixed a dinner. In either case, it was too early to suspect there would be any action for a while.

After a short time (about seven-thirty) the two of them came out and I followed them to an upscale restaurant. The restaurant was not one where they would likely run in to co-workers or any of our friends. I determined that I could get in without them seeing me and I was able to sit where I could watch with little chance they would see me but I couldn't hear them.

I ordered a salad and drink and couldn't eat much for watching them. They were like two young lovers; touching and kissing ad-nausea. I finally had to leave before I got physically sick. In the car, I could just see them.

I decided it was time to start throwing sand into gears of this love machine. I speed dialed the house. In a moment I saw her shift around, obviously getting her purse and then she pulled out her cell phone and answered.

Obviously having looked at the caller id, she answered, "Hi honey, I'm glad you called."

The conversation that followed caught me by surprise in that she was able to so blatantly lie to me. We talked for a moment and then I said, "Where are you? You don't sound like you are at home."

She giggled and said, "I'm not. Several of us from work decided to go out to dinner. We're at Johnstone's. I put the phone on call forwarding so I would get your call if you called before I got home." Obviously she had prepared this response beforehand, but obviously there were not several from work, and this restaurant was not Johnstone's.

We chatted a few minutes and then I told her that I would call a little later. I was sorry, but it was looking like I might have to stay still another day, but no more. She tried to sound sorry, but she wasn't because I could see her happily mouthing something to Dana.

After supper I followed them back to Dana's. I gave them an hour and then I went to the house and into the back yard. It was about ten and dark. There was no moon and I don't think anyone could see me. My plan was to see if I could observe them through a window. If not I felt I could pick the lock to the back door and I would sneak in.

I was in luck. The kitchen window afforded a good view into the living room where I could see them. They were cuddled together, but nothing much was happening. It was getting close to ten-thirty and it occurred to me that they were waiting for my call before anything got started.

I waited another forty-five minutes and by now they were beginning to play around. It took another ten minutes before she got up and I could barely hear her say, "Damn it, I'm not going to waste time waiting for him any longer."