This is very likely the shortest story I will ever write. I enjoyed cobbling it together. Kudos to Gamblnluck and CurrentParameter for their helpful remarks.
Growing up in my family home, my brother, Gordon, and I often fought over the stupidest things. You might say that we were very competitive. Since he is two years older than me, I seldom win but that never dampens my spirit. When we entered high school, our competitiveness never waned. He was captain of the football team, I was the leading scorer on the basketball team. He could bench press more than me, I could pin him in a wrestling match. The one area that we strangely didn't compete in was our dating life. Of course, for the most part, we dated within our grade level. That may also have been due to the senior girls he dated having no interest in lowly sophomores like me. Call me odd, but I was never interested in his cast-offs anyway. The thought of making out with a girl that he had French kissed was unappealing to me even though he was my brother, perhaps especially because he was my brother. Call me weird but that's the way I'm wired.
During my senior year of high school, Gordon was in his second year of college pursuing a Business Administration Degree. I met Desiree in Biology when we were assigned to be partners in a lab project. She happily delegated the dissection duties of the bullfrog to me while she brilliantly made us both look good with organ identification. She'd caught her boyfriend cheating with one of her friends and was still nursing her emotional wounds. By the end of the school year, she and I, Alex Whitcombe, became an item as we happily dated as exclusive partners. She was my prom date which garnered us a lot of votes toward Prom-King & Queen, but not quite enough to win it. I give her the credit for most of our votes because Desiree was a looker and I was just an average Joe. We were madly in love and everyone knew that we would marry one day. After graduation, we were both eighteen and had the world by the tail. Our parents held a combined graduation celebration for us both. It was there that I proposed to her and her gleeful acceptance made my heart soar. We became intimate soon after that. We were not surprised that our entwining compatibility extended itself in the bedroom as in all other ways between us. We could not have been a happier couple.
Desiree's older sister had become a radiologist technician at the local hospital after graduating from the local technical community college. Desiree, anxious to follow in her footsteps, had already signed up to enter the two-year program in the upcoming fall session. Not willing to be apart, I signed up for a four-year HVAC program at the same technical community college that Desiree would be attending. My Dad worked in commercial HVAC and loved his job which inspired me to become trained in the same field. Since I would be expected to contribute what I could toward my education, I took on a summer job working as a helper at the same company as my Dad. Desiree's parents had already paid for her first year's scholastic expenses so she decided to take it easy and enjoy her last carefree summer before jumping feet-first into life. Each weekday evening, she would already be at my house waiting for me to come home from work. I'd grab a quick shower and we'd either watch a movie at the house or go out on a date.
It was during the third week of the summer on a Wednesday morning at work that we were dispatched to a call on a sixty-five-ton air conditioning unit serving one section of a department store. The hermetic reciprocating compressor windings were suspect but Dad wasn't ready to pronounce the compressor in need of a rewind job without confirmation from his meg-ohm meter. He'd just replaced the batteries in the meter but had inadvertently left it at home. As the helper, I was sent to our house to pick it up for him to use which I was happy to have the break from the summertime rooftop heat.
When I entered the house, I quickly located the meter and was about to exit when I heard some giggling coming from upstairs. My brother, Gordon, was home for the summer on break from college. Hoping to embarrass him by catching him with his girlfriend, I quietly sneaked upstairs and listened outside of his door. I wish I hadn't. I instantly recognized the female's voice as that of my fiancée, Desiree. The sounds of intimacy were unmistakable. I had no idea that a man could experience heartbreak and rage simultaneously. I lived it in that moment. I tiptoed into the room and was grief-stricken at the sight before me. Unaware of my presence, they were locked in the throes of carnal bliss. Her arms and legs enveloped his body as he plowed her furrow. This was a consensual act. She was not being forced. With them yet unaware of my presence, I grabbed her left wrist and jerked the engagement ring from her ring finger. Startled, she screamed at the unexpected intrusion, and recognition of disgust registered on my face. Gordon looked shocked at my sudden appearance and awareness of their degeneracy.
Without a word, I stuffed the ring in my pocket and made a quick exit from the house. I heard them both scream after me but I paid them no attention. Neither of them was about to run outside after me naked. I quickly returned to the job site and handed Dad the meter. He saw the red in my eyes and could tell that something was wrong.
"What's going on, son? You look pained."
I motioned him away from the other technicians. "When I went to the house to retrieve the meter, I caught Desiree and Gordon having sex in his room. I saw them with my own eyes. She wasn't being forced and it sure didn't seem like it was their first time together. They were way too familiar."
"Damn! That's terrible, Alex. We raised your brother to be better than that. And it shocks me that Desiree would betray you like that. Why don't you and I go home right now and have this out with them?"
"That would be a bad idea, Dad. Right now I want to kill them both with my bare hands. I can't be around either of them for a while. I need some time to cool down."
"That's probably a good idea. You go ahead and take the rest of the day off. I'll tell the supervisor you're feeling sick. Don't worry about it, son."
Since I ignored multiple calls to my cellphone from, first Desiree, and then Gordon, I began receiving repeated texts from them imploring me to call either of them to talk. That wasn't going to happen. At that moment, I hated them both more than I thought imaginable. I couldn't go back home with either of them there. I called my best friend, Brent. He was at home playing a game online and told me I could crash with him for as long as I needed to. He couldn't believe that Desiree could do that to me and tried to lift my spirits by playing games. I tried to re-plan my entire life as my original plans had just been upended. I hardly slept a wink that night as my brain worked overtime trying to make sense of the double betrayal. The next morning, after showering, I put on the only clothes I had with me, partook of an IHOP breakfast, and returned to work on time.
"Alex, I'm glad to see you show up for work today. We've all been very concerned about you," my Dad offered.
"If it's all the same to you, I don't want to talk about it, Dad. Can I just do my job and get through the day?"
"Of course, son, I respect that but sooner or later you're going to have to face life. You can't just run away from it," he advised.
He was right. I knew he was right but I was still so angry that if I saw Gordon right now I'd choke him to death. I took on every hard challenge of the day doing all of the grunt work without being asked. I needed to exorcize some demons and exhaustion helped. We had to wrestle that compressor from its housing and drag it to the side of the roof where a crane could pick it up and set it down on the back of the work truck. It was a stroke of luck for me. The compressor would have to be rewound and the customer was willing to pay overtime to turn it around ASAP. As the low man on the totem pole, that meant that I would make the six-hour drive to the closest rebuild shop where I would be waiting at their loading dock the next morning to unload it. That meant that I would be spending the night out of town away from home. That suited me just fine. At least I would be reimbursed for meals and the hotel room. I kept my phone charged but turned off. I had no desire to speak to anyone about my failed love life. My mood left a lot to be desired.
Fortunately for the customer, the rebuild center happened to have a rebuilt compressor in their shop ready to go. We simply traded in the damaged compressor for the rebuilt one. I wrote them a purchase order to cover the exchange fee and I was on my way by 9 am the next morning. I called ahead providing my ETA so they could schedule the crane service. Mid-afternoon, my truck was relieved of the weight of the compressor as it rose to the sky. I helped wrestle the rebuilt unit back into its housing as the mechanics installed new gaskets and attached the service valve connections. After a quick leak test, the vacuum pump was turned loose on the system to evacuate all non-condensable vapors overnight. We made it home by 10 pm. After my shower, I locked my bedroom door and watched TV in my room until I fell asleep. Gordon knocked on my door and called out but I ignored him. I heard Dad warn him away.
The physical and emotional exhaustion led me to sleep in until 9 am Saturday. The house was eerily quiet for a Saturday. After dressing, I cracked my bedroom door and heard some murmuring downstairs. I'm certain that they heard me go to the restroom and flush. I went downstairs and was shocked to see the living room full of people. In addition to my family, Desiree was there with her parents, the pastor of our Church, and three of my best friends. I knew that the shit show was about to begin. Desiree had the good sense to avert her eyes and remain seated.
Dad began, "Alex, I'm not happy about confronting you like this but everyone else thought it best to get everything out in the open so this problem can be dealt with and put behind us."
"That's right, honey," Mom chimed in. We're all aware of the unfortunate scene you walked in on and your brother and Desiree are here to apologize."
Gordon began, "I'm sorry, Alex, that you caught us together. We, we just happened to come together is all. Nature took its course. You know how it is that one thing can lead to another. In a moment of weakness, I came on to Desiree. It's not her fault. I take all the blame. Hate me all you want but Desiree is a good girl and you need to forgive her and move past this. If any two people ever belonged together it is you two."
My silence unnerved the group. My look was burning a hole in Desiree until she finally spoke. "It meant nothing, Alex, I swear. I don't know what came over me to allow me to do that with him. It was the first time, in case you're wondering and it will never happen again. I'd rather die than ever see that look on your face again. I'm apologizing to you before God and all these witnesses. Please forgive me and let me have my ring back. Saying 'yes' to you was the proudest day of my life and saying 'I do' while standing next to you will make me the happiest girl alive." Her parents, who had always been kind to me nervously smiled in support of their daughter but wisely said nothing in defense of their daughter's recent behavior.
"You're swearing that it meant nothing?"
