This is a very short story about a wife who feels justified in getting some payback on her cheating husband. It does not go as planned.
Mark Wagner took another slow sip of his drink before sitting it back down on the worn, dark table that separated him and his two very confused brothers-in-law. He looked from one to the other. They had strongly protested his decision to divorce their sister. It was easy to see their anger and confusion.
The brothers, Brad and Gary, had asked Mark to meet them at the quiet little bar in which they now sat. The high-back booth afforded them some privacy, but they still spoke in hushed tones.
Brad tried again, "Come on, Mark! You're not being fair. I know what our sister did was stupid, but you went along with it!"
Gary nodded his agreement, "While there's no way I would have left my wife with a group of guys I'd just met, you allowed it. She said you told her she could stay with them and have her dances. I don't know why you'd do that, but you can't punish her for it now."
Mark snorted, "I think you guys have been skillfully misinformed. Tell me exactly what Jill told you."
Gary gestured at Brad to respond, and Brad cleared his throat.
"Jill said you ran into some new friends you had met earlier at that resort you visited last week for your anniversary. She said they were a wild group, and you were all getting pretty drunk. At some point, you decided to call it a night and wanted to go back to your room, but she wanted to party more. You told her she could stay with them, but you'd had enough for one night and went to bed. Then, later, when she tried to tell you about it, you were all pissy and demanded that you both leave the resort a day early.
"She said you hardly spoke to her, and the two of you flew home. Jill said she tried to get you to explain why you were so angry, but you kept saying she'd made her choice. Then yesterday, she got divorce papers served to her at work!"
Gary had been nodding to confirm all that Brad had said. "What the hell, Mark? You're divorcing my sister because she stayed out a little later than you wanted? That's insane!"
Mark shook his head, took another sip of his bourbon, and sighed deeply. "Guys, Jill didn't lie to you, but she didn't tell you the whole story."
"Okay, well, tell us what she left out," Brad said.
"We'd spent the day on the beach. Jill attracted a lot of attention in the skimpy new bikini she wore. Several guys passed by our chairs for a better look, and a few even stopped and tried to strike up a conversation with her. She was obviously flattered and willingly engaged with a few who stopped to gawk at her while chatting her up. Several times, I had to more or less tell them to move along, and Jill got a little huffy with me about being rude to her admirers.
"I just kinda laughed and said I didn't want any of them to think my beautiful wife was available, so I suggested they find a single woman to chat up. I wasn't angry; I just wanted to spend some quiet time enjoying the beautiful beach with my wife. After I said that, Jill relaxed, but I could tell she didn't like me raining on her parade.
"We headed back to our room and jumped into the shower together (the brothers grimaced). Let's just say she teased me enough to get a RISE out of me but then exited the shower, saying we needed to get going to make our reservation for dinner.
"We shared a bottle of wine and had a romantic dinner. I was eager to get back to the room, but she wanted to go dancing. As you know, Jill loves to dance, so we went into the little lounge adjacent to the dining area.
"We danced a few times and then found a table. I went to the bar to get drinks, and when I came back, there was another table pushed up to ours with several young guys sitting around it and at our table. I walked up to the group and stood behind the guy who had taken my seat.
"Jill looked up at me, reached up to accept her drink, and then resumed talking to the young stud sitting in my seat. I waited about twenty seconds while they talked, then I sat my drink down in front of him and loudly told him he was in MY seat. They both stopped talking, and he shifted over one seat. Before I could sit down, Jill shifted to my chair, patted her former chair, and slid my drink over to that seat.
"I wasn't sure what she was doing, but I sat down, and she reached over to rub the inside of my thigh. I looked down at her hand and then turned to speak to her but saw only the back of her head. She had leaned over to talk to the guy who had been in my chair.
"She was fully engaged with the guy and was just using her right hand to keep me distracted. Well, it worked for a few moments, but then I got pissed and yanked her hand away. That got her attention, and she turned to face me. She quickly realized I was pissed off.
"Jill proceeded to introduce me to Danny, Jim, Steven, and Mark, the guys she had been talking to on the beach earlier in the day. She said while I was gone, they saw her sitting alone and came over to say hello. Before I could respond to her, she said she'd promised them each a dance, stood, and walked off with the guy next to her.
Gary interrupted, "So let me get this straight, she invited these guys to sit with you and accepted a dance with each of them without asking you about it?"
"Yep, I had no idea what was going on. I was at the bar getting drinks. I didn't want them there, and I sure as hell didn't want to compete with four strangers for my wife's attention."
"So what did you do?"
"I turned to the other three guys and told them Jill and I were there to celebrate our seventh anniversary, and I would appreciate it if they would give us some privacy and let us get on with our evening."
Gary sighed, "I take it they didn't take the hint?"
I shook my head, "Jill came back to the table with Danny. She was giggling as she sat down and chugged her drink. She then stood and asked me to get her a refill while she danced with Jim. I grabbed her arm and pulled her roughly back down into her seat. I told her she was done dancing with these guys and we needed to leave.
"She jerked her arm loose and said she'd promised each of them a dance, and she wasn't leaving. I reminded her we were there to celebrate our anniversary, and my fetching drinks while she danced with strangers, wasn't my idea of celebrating.
"Jill stood and said I needn't bother because she was sure one of the guys would get her a drink. She said she was just having fun and I was being a jerk because I didn't get what I wanted in the shower. At that, the four young guys all started laughing at me and commenting that I must not be able to show Jill a good time."
"Oh fuck," Brad said as Gary shook his head.
"At that point, I'd had enough. I stood and got into Jill's face. I said I'd had enough crap for one night, and I was leaving. I told her she could come with me and try to salvage the rest of our holiday, or she could stay and party with her new friends.
"I shoved her purse into her hands and stepped away from the table. I paused and looked directly at her, and she didn't move. I could tell Jill was really pissed at me, but I never expected her to do what she did next. She dropped her purse back onto the table and said she was going to finish her dances. She dismissed me by saying she had her own room key, so I didn't need to wait up for her."
"Holy shit," Brad said. "Okay, okay, granted, that's disrespectful, but is it really a deal breaker? I mean, I can see why you'd be pissed off, but she just danced with a couple of guys and then came back to the room. Did she apologize when she came in?"
"Had she done that, maybe we wouldn't have had such a big fight, but it didn't happen that way."
The brothers looked at each other and slumped in their seats. "What happened?"
"As you can imagine, I was very angry when I got back to the room it was nearly 11:00. I stormed around a bit, waiting for her to show up. I hit the mini-bar and drank a couple of beers. When I finished the second beer, it was almost midnight, and I knew the lounge closed at midnight. I decided to take a shower and try to cool down.
"She still wasn't back at 12:45, so I slipped on some shorts and went back down to the lounge. The overhead lights were on, and they were cleaning up. I asked the barmaid if she had seen my wife leave the bar. It took fifty bucks to refresh her memory, but she told me what happened after I left.
"She said two of the guys left, and Jill hung out with the other two, dancing and drinking until closing time. One of the guys bought two bottles of wine, and Jill left with the two of them.
"I asked her if Jill seemed okay, and she said Jill was laughing and hanging on the guys but walked out on her own two feet. It cost me another twenty dollars to get the suite number to which the wine was charged.
"I knocked on the door of the suite number the barmaid had given me. A shirtless guy was laughing about something when he jerked open the door. I pushed past him into the room. Jill was on the couch making out with Danny. She was dressed, but Danny had a hand down her top. Jill had a hand between his legs, rubbing his crotch.
"The shirtless guy yelled a warning, and Jill and Danny separated quickly. I wanted to smash the little prick's face, but he scrambled over the back of the couch and ran into the bathroom. Jill jumped up and rushed toward me, I stiff-armed her, and she fell on her butt. I then turned and walked out."
"Jesus Christ!" Brad exclaimed. "She sure as shit didn't mention any of that to us! She said she tried to assure you nothing had happened, and you shoved her away. She failed to mention she was in another guy's suite."
