Many thanks to snowbear for editing this story.
*
My name is Thomas Dahl, an average Scandinavian guy, forty-eight years old and married to my pretty wife Alexandra for twenty-three years. Our two children have left the nest. Emma is twenty-one and began her studies to become a lawyer at Southern University. Elliot is twenty and is in the navy working for a career as navy officer. I'm working with purchasing at the leading industry in our small town and Alexandra is working at the city hall where she is responsible for the economy of the school administration.
The empty nest is still a bit new for us and the house seems so big and lonely and silent now. But, we are going to keep it so can have space enough when the children come to visit us with their families. But, both of them are still living an intensive single life, which gets my wife a little worried sometimes.
During the years we had witnessed many of our friends split up their once happy marriages but we are happy to been able to avoid such problems. At least until a character named Bernhard Edelman appeared in our town and in our lives.
I had never seen him or ever known that Bernhard existed on this earth before he appeared at a garden party held by one of my neighbors been a childhood friend to this Bernhard who had left town with his family when he was fifteen and now, thirty-one years later he had got a job in our town and moved back.
My wife Alexandra had grown up in the same area and as soon as our host told that to Bernhard, he lost his interest in mingling with the other guests and spent most of the evening so close to Alexandra that I got some funny comments about her "big band-aid".
One of my friends at the party told me that Bernhard had been drunk and bragging at the local pub about his seductions of middle-aged married women, who, in his opinion, used to be very grateful to him afterwards. Another friend had heard rumors that Bernhard had been fired from his job and dumped by his wife after some kind of scandal.
When the dance began later in the evening, he danced the two first tunes with her and even began the third tune when I interrupted them by asking if it was okay for me to borrow my wife for a while. During our dance we had a little argument when I told her that people had noted her obviously close relation to Bernhard during the whole evening.
She replied, "People have dirty minds because we have only been talking about what the kids who grew up in our neighborhood are doing today. Anything wrong with that?"
"Not at all, but why doesn't he talk with our host who obviously knew him and his friends much better than you did back then?"
Alexandra snubbed me off by saying, "Why don't you ask him?"
"I won't hesitate to do that if your silly show goes on."
"Don't dare to be so jealous about my innocent small talk with an old childhood friend."
"I bet you hardly ever talked with that old friend during your whole childhood."
She refused to dance the next tune with me and went to talk with some other ladies sitting around a table. When Bernhard saw her sitting there he immediately went and asked for a dance but she said "no thanks", which caused him to ask loudly, "Did poor hubby get jealous?"
Then he went to the bar tent without asking any of the other ladies for that dance.
I could have challenged him right at the bar tent, which probably would have ended in a fight and been regarded as a scandal among the other guests. However, if that man were a skilled pussy hound who for some reason regarded Alexandra to be easygoing enough to be his first prey back in this town, then we would sooner or later meet without any witness.
We were among the first couples to leave the party. Alexandra accepted two more dances with Bernhard but kept him at a fair distance and thereafter suggested me to head home. Back home she accused me of being a jealous nerd. I replied by telling her to act as a simple prey for that horny pussy hound.
No sex that Saturday night.
Alexandra wasn't a bad choice for a skilled seducer. At forty-six she still looked at least six years younger and was in a good shape, tall and slim with nice long brown hair. Her easygoing manners, sweet smile, and ability to be well dressed magnified the impression of a classy woman.
Married and faithful to the same man for twenty-three years and with few experiences of other men before we met could be an advantage for somebody who wanted to tempt her to try new challenges before it was too late. In my opinion this Bernhard would be too clumsy and simple minded to be successful with Alexandra if he had plans for seducing her so I decided not to worry about him.
But that was a mistake. Bernhard had not forgotten Alexandra and he knew how to use simple tricks. On Tuesday evening he rang our home phone and, when Alexandra took the call he invited her for dinner at a popular Greek restaurant on Wednesday evening. He knew that though she could hardly accept his invitation, it would create some argument between Alexandra and me that would be an advantage for him. It did.
It was very unusual that any of Alexandra's fellow workers at the school administration in the town hall went to a bar for "after work" on Fridays. But, the same week as the dinner invitation she left a message on the phone that she would do that this week. It was up to her if she went out for a drink with her friends, so I had no reason to care about that. At least not before it was six o'clock and we were invited to some friends for dinner at seven. I tried to call her cell but it was turned off, so I took my car and went to the most popular bar where I found her sitting in a booth with a laughing Bernhard. They had bottle of white wine and two glasses on the table. I poured a nearly full glass of wine on his lap and dragged Alexandra out with me.
The fact that Bernhard had not made any attempts to pay back for the wine on his pants convinced me that he was a coward who didn't dare to try anything face to face. However, I expected him to be a skilled con man who from now on would be using all kinds of nasty tricks against me behind my back.
In the car I asked Alexandra what the hell she was doing with that poor coward at a bar when we had accepted go to a dinner with friends.
She was rather tipsy and babbled, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry I didn't notice the time and forgot the dinner, I'm sorry, I'm sorry."
After a cold shower I got her dressed and, after a slight delay, Alexandra and I were ready for the dinner. She avoided alcohol during the evening, so it went without any further problems with her.
Back home, after the dinner, we got involved in a serious argument when I demanded to know how far she intended to go with Bernhard. She replied by shouting that I had turned to a sick jealous jail warden who denied her average human rights to see and talk to whoever she wanted because somehow I had got Bernhard as a ghost in my sick mind.
I had a good reason to believe that my wife didn't like me very much for the time being.
Though Saturday and Sunday were quiet days without any arguing, the interest in making love could be regarded as non-existing for both of us.
