Prologue to a Problem - Continued

This story is the continuation and conclusion to 'Prologue to a Problem,' a short 750-word story entry from several months ago. Please read it if you haven't, as it is essential for introducing the characters and plot for this story.

In all my stories a conflicted female main character engages in a torrid affair, but in none of my stories does she initiate it. I tried once to write a story where the wife was the instigator, but I eventually put the project aside as I could not find the words.

I have no data, but I wonder if that is largely true in real life, where the cheating wife's descent into another man's bed is mostly unplanned and opportunistic.

As it relates to the wife's cheating, in my story 'FS-The Details Matter,' the husband knew about the infidelity. It played out in front of his very eyes. In 'I Need a New Plaything,' the husband never knew. In this story, the husband knows deep down, but has no proof. I think I feel sorry for this husband most of all.

Enjoy.

Chapter 1

The silence was indeed awkward.

It was also short lived, as Ann's phone lit up with an incoming call.

"Oh my God. Judy how are you! I've been meaning to call but we've been so busy."

Ann spent the next few minutes of the drive home catching up with Judy, an old friend from college. The call ended with the promise to get together soon.

"Who was that?" Phil asked.

"Do you remember my sophomore college roommate Judy? She was at our wedding."

Phil's face remained blank.

Ann persisted. "She's a little taller than me. Striking features. Long blonde hair. Beautiful. She was very popular at Oklahoma. All the boys wanted to go out with her. I was always enamored with her and, to be honest, also a little jealous."

Still nothing from Phil.

"Really? You don't remember her? She got married right out of college. She married Steve Johnson, a swimmer at OU?"

"She's not ringing a bell," Phil said.

Phil, however, was lying. He remembered Judy very well. Phil started dating Ann winter of senior year at Oklahoma. By this time Ann was no longer rooming with Judy. For some reason that he couldn't remember, he and Ann went separate ways for spring break that year. Phil road tripped with some fraternity brothers and Ann spent the week with Judy at her parent's lake house on Lake Texoma, a large man-made reservoir that straddles the border between Texas and Oklahoma.

Rumors of what happened at the lake reached Phil's ears the moment he was back in Norman. It was supposedly an epic party with lots of drinking and lots of hook ups. Phil pressed Ann hard for details back then, but she demurred.

Yes, there were a lot of people and yes people got drunk, Phil remembers Ann telling him. But no admission of sex.

Denials aside, that party gnawed at Phil ever since. Maybe at the time it was the insecurity of being a relatively new boyfriend and girlfriend. Maybe it was the insecurity given Ann's looks. She was petite, 5' 4", slim, rich brunette hair, beautiful brown eyes, fun loving, and always up for and adventure. Maybe it was the insecurity of knowing that most of the rumors swirled around the OU swim team. Phil at 5' 8" was an engineer and an occasional golfer. Never in his life had anyone mistaken him for a serious athlete or, as in the case of college swimmers, thought of him as a gorgeous male specimen.

Whatever the reason, Phil never shook the deep unease he felt when he thought back on that spring break. In the weeks that followed his return from spring break he couldn't think of anything else. Needing to know what happened that week consumed him. And yet, he was stymied. Despite all his efforts, he couldn't get any firsthand information. The only person he knew that was there was Ann, and she wasn't talking.

So eventually, he dropped it and would have let it be if it hadn't been for the fact that it came up on two separate occasions long after college.

The first was his bachelor party. He was with his friends in Scottsdale playing golf and drinking. One of his groomsmen knew Ann had been at the party and drunkenly brought it up one night. That spark was all it took to get his friends going, with each sharing some half-remembered, tall-tale rumor of the mythical "Lake Texoma orgy." The teasing was good natured, and admittedly made-up as none of the young men had been present at the party, but for Phil it was like ripping a scab off an almost healed wound. He knew his friends were busting his chops, but he also knew that inside salacious gossip was often a kernel of truth.

He desperately wanted to know what happened that week, and for some reason Ann's reluctance to talk about it, and her unwavering insistence that nothing happened, made things worse not better.

The second occasion was several years ago in Dallas and much more troubling than the first. His electrical engineering firm did work across the Midwest and southwest and had offices in Omaha, Dallas, and Phoenix. At the firm's annual meeting in Dallas, he had found himself at the bar after the company dinner with John, a colleague that worked out of the Dallas office. John was about Phil's age and had swum collegiately at SMU. When he learned Phil went to OU, he said he had never been to Norman but was friends with some people who swam there.

He also commented that OU girls were hot and easy. To support his contention, he said one of his OU swim buddies had invited him to Lake Texoma for a spring break party that was, as he put it, "just sick." He said he was only there for one night but had slept with one girl and had seriously made out with a second one. "It was nuts," he had said. "And, if I had stayed, I am sure I could have fucked every girl there," Phil vividly remembered him saying.

When Phil got home from his trip, he had attempted to good-naturedly bring up the party with Ann. He didn't mention his colleague by name, but he did say that over drinks folks were swapping spring break stories and he had told them how his wife had so much fun on her spring break that he wasn't even allowed to know about it.

Ann didn't take the bait. In fact, she was perturbed and told him as much, "I don't know what you think I did that week, but I'm getting tired of having to defend myself. For the last time, nothing happened so please drop it" she had said as she turned her back on him and left the room.

Phil was no athletic god, but he was an excellent engineer, and he knew instinctively when things did not add up.

Something had happened at that lake party, of this Phil was certain. Yet throughout their entire marriage, Ann refused to tell him what that something was.

And that, in a nutshell, was Phil's dilemma: believe Ann, confront her and call her a liar, or push all his personal torment way down in his psyche and leave it be. Up to this point, Phil had chosen the latter.

But now that wasn't possible. Now, all these years later, Judy's call to Ann ripped off his protective seal, and brought all the lingering doubt Phil felt towards Ann flooding back. All his past anxiety, fear, and jealously was rapidly bubbling to the surface, not five minutes after Ann told him the only reason she wouldn't cheat was because she was busy and didn't want the stress of potentially being caught.

"Well anyway...?" An exasperated Ann continued in the car as she rolled her eyes. "Judy was my sophomore roommate. She and Steve have two boys like us, but hers are older, 23 and 20. The oldest graduated OU this past spring and the other just finished his sophomore year. She's been sick. Cancer. The good news is she is in remission. I've been keeping up with her on Facebook, but I'm so glad she called. She invited me to come out to her place this summer at Lake Texoma," Ann said, hoping desperately that Phil would not make the connection to the long-ago spring break party and start up again with all his uncomfortable questions. "I'm feeling the need to go. She's going through a lot and I want to support her."

After a somewhat pregnant pause, Phil said, "fine," as he pulled into the driveway after a very unsettling evening, but his words were the opposite of what he felt.

Chapter 2

"Oh my gosh it is so great to see you! Thanks for coming. How was the drive up from Dallas?" Judy asked. She was sitting across from Ann outside on the patio in an oversized Adirondack chair with a blanket draped over her and the fire pit going. Ann was similarly decked out, having just put her things away after driving up from DFW that evening.

The weekend plans to visit Judy at the lake house had come together fairly quickly after their call two months ago.

"It was okay for a Friday afternoon," Ann replied. "As you know there is construction all through Dallas, but I made good time."

The two old friends sipped wine well into the evening and caught up on each other's lives.

"I like what you've done to the place," Ann commented.

"Yeah, it's a bit of a work in progress," Judy answered. "Mom died five years ago, and Steve and I have been slowly updating it as best we can time permitting. When was the last time you were here?" Judy asked knowing full well the answer.

Ann hesitated. "It was that spring break party you had our senior year."

Neither woman said a thing for a while as they both revisited that week in their minds.

"Do you miss it?" Judy asked suddenly.

"What do you mean?"

"Oh, you know, being carefree, being beautiful, being with 22-year-old, over-confident, chiseled, energetic college boys," Judy answered with a tipsy giggle.

Ann laughed nervously. The fact was since she had learned of Karen's affair, she had thought a little else. She thought about her life in general. The choices she had made. The new lines on her face. The dreams she had when she was young and how her life had turned out.

And, of course, a lot about sex.

Sex for Ann had always been complicated. She had plenty of boyfriends in high school, and had fooled around a bunch, but was still a virgin when she enrolled at Oklahoma as a freshman. A combination of fear of pregnancy and her Baptist upbringing had kept her from going all the way. College changed that. After her first awkward experience her freshman year, Ann found she enjoyed sex, but it was always with a boyfriend, someone in a committed relationship, and never a one-night, impulsive hook-up.

Judy on the other hand, seemed to hook-up all the time. The entire time they roomed together sophomore year, Ann couldn't remember a steady boyfriend, but there was no shortage of boys in their apartment. To Ann, Judy's sexual behavior was counter to everything Ann thought she held dear. Ann, of course, was not a prude. She had learned, for example, to rationalize sex outside of marriage, but she had never allowed it outside a relationship.

In Ann's eye's Judy wasn't a slut. Rather, she was the embodiment of someone that Ann could never be, someone that lived in the moment and didn't seem to care about societal norms.

And if truth be told, it was those exact societal norms that haunted Ann's thoughts these past two weeks since she learned of her friend's affair.

Ann knew she wanted something different. She wanted to feel different. She wanted to try new things. She wanted to let herself go, before she was too old to care. She longed for something outside her normal routines.

But sadly, she just wasn't sure how to get something different when the person you're with is the same.

And that, in a nutshell, was Ann's dilemma: be content, confront and ultimately deal with her feelings, or push all her personal torment way down in her psyche and leave it be. Up to this point, like her husband Phil, Ann had chosen the latter.

Ann finally broke free from her reverie, remembering Judy's question from a few moments ago.

"Why Judy!" Ann dramatically teased with her best southern accent. "Are you saying I'm not beautiful?"

"No, of course not," Judy corrected while giggling. "You're gorgeous, but you know what I mean, right?"

Ann's smile faded as she thought about Judy's question about "missing it." She wasn't prepared to answer Judy's question directly, so she deflected a little bit. "I think I do. The night you called a couple of months back we had just learned that one of our best couple friends were splitting up due to an affair."

"Oh, do tell," a perked-up Judy replied.

"Well, we've known them for as long as we've lived in Omaha. Great couple about our age. You know the drill. Same church. Kids on the same ball teams. She's a stay-at-home mom and he works for a successful high-tech firm. Anyway, we are good friends. Turns out she was sleeping with her husband's boss. He came home early from work one day and found the two of them in bed together. The affair had been going on for a while."

"Have you talked to her since you found out?" Judy asked.

"Yes. I took her to lunch a few weeks back. I haven't even told Phil this."

"What'd she say?"

"Well according to her, he came onto her. She said he was tall, fit and handsome. About eight years younger than her. He was very wealthy, having started the company where her husband works. He also oozed confidence and was apparently a big flirt, which she found extremely flattering. At a company function, he maneuvered her away from Richard, her husband, and kissed her. She said she was shocked, and she should have pushed him away right then and stormed back to her husband, but she didn't. She reasoned that she didn't want to make a scene and had had a couple drinks, so she questioned whether she had sent the wrong signals. Also, she admitted that the kiss was so unexpected, assertive, and yummy that she fell into it and kissed him back."

"Damn," said Judy. "That's kinda hot."

"I know, right," answered a now tipsy Ann. "Anyway, about a week later he was at her door, ostensibly to apologize, but of course he didn't. The affair started that day, and continued without interruption for over a year until her husband caught them."

"Wow," Judy commented. "That's some story. How often did they connect?"

"Well, that's the thing. Apparently, it was a lot. She said she knew it was wrong and self-destructive, but she said she couldn't stop. She said once the affair started, she was helpless to end it. She compared it to crack cocaine. She said she was addicted to the sex, the thrill, his seemingly unquenchable lust for her, his newness, how alive she felt, even the adrenaline and danger of being caught.

"She said he would call her sometimes during working hours and ask her to come to the office to relieve his stress when he couldn't get away," Ann said using air quotes around "stress." "She would then drop everything and obediently drive to the office and meet him in her car in the parking deck just a couple floors below where her husband was working. One time she said he snuck her into the building during the day and they did it on the couch in his office, which I happen to know is adjacent to her husband's office."

"That's just fucked up," Judy added.

Ann nodded her agreement. "Mostly, however, it was at her house. He knew her husband's schedule and how many meetings he had. So, on days her husband was busy, he'd call. They had worked out a routine where she would go pick him up at the Target parking lot to keep him from having to park his car in front of the house. She'd then drive home and pull into her garage with the boyfriend ducking in the front seat, close the garage door and walk inside the house completely hidden from prying eyes."

"How again did they get caught?"

"She didn't say anything about it, but I heard from my other friend Susan, that he caught them in the act in the middle of the day. Can you imagine having your husband find you in bed having sex with another man?"

Neither woman spoke as they independently processed the image in their own mind.

"Did you notice anything different with your friend during all this?" Judy wondered.

"No. Not really," Ann replied. "Karen's about your height. Super cute and fun. Susan, the other friend I told you about, and I did have one conversation about her appearance. This may sound catty and I don't mean it to, but about the time the affair started we both commented on just how good Karen looked. She had gained some weight over the years and then all of a sudden, the weight was gone. She was wearing cute new clothes, nails always salon perfect, new hair style, working out. She glowed. We were kind of envious. I think Susan even quoted that line from When Harry Met Sally, "I'll have what she is having"."

Both women laughed.

"So now what?" Judy asked.

"Well, he kicked her out. She found an apartment in town. She didn't talk specifically about the divorce, but I believe they are heading towards one."

"Did she offer any other tidbits about why she did it other than being swept off her feet by a kiss?"

Ann paused at Judy's question. Karen had indeed spoken quite a bit about what she had been thinking leading up to and during the affair. The troubling thing was Karen's state of mind had been eerily similar to Ann's of late.

"She talked a lot about her husband Richard. She didn't blame him, and in fact went out of her way to praise him. She said he was a good man, great husband and father. He was a good provider that worked hard for his family. And yet, she said she felt trapped," Ann said.

Ann paused and thought for a moment. "No. That is not quite right. Karen never used the word 'trapped,' I think she said 'confined.' Yes. That's closer. She talked a lot about comfort and routine. Comfort with her schedule. Comfort with her role as a wife and mother. Comfort with the daily conversations she had with Richard and her friends. She talked about being less carefree. Less creative. Less willing to dream. Less alive than her younger self. She talked a lot about insecurity with her age. Her looks. She even shared a little about her and Richard's sex life."

"Well, that's interesting," Judy said. "What all did she say?"

"Mostly that it was stale. The same old thing, just less and less of it. Again, she didn't blame Richard. She acknowledged that she was just as culpable as him. She said that all of these doubts, longings, what-ifs, were piling up inside her like a giant haystack, and then a younger, handsome, wealthy, confident man waltzed into her life and lit the proverbial match with that first kiss and burned the whole thing down."

"Wow," Judy said. "That's some story."

In the ensuing silence, Ann reflected on just how close Karen's description of her sex life with Richard, was to hers and Phil's. In their marriage vulnerability was avoided. Don't rock the boat. Don't set yourself up for embarrassment, or worse, ridicule, Ann recited in her mind. She remembered once when she laughed at Phil when he tried some new sexual position. She didn't mean to, the giggle just slipped out. He was immediately deflated. On another occasion, she had gone out of her way to dress sexy, and he just ignored her. Both episodes were humiliating. Both stark examples of why sex between them was now mostly, like Karen and Richard, constrained to safe routines usually with the lights off.

"Would you cheat?" Judy suddenly asked.

Ann's face showed surprise.

"Did I say something wrong? I seemed to have touched a nerve," Judy said as she studied Ann's reaction.

"No, it's just that Phil asked me the exact same question."

"So, what did you tell him?" Judy pressed.

"I told him that I did not want to risk my marriage for a new thrill and also who has the time."

"That seems honest," Judy said smiling. "How'd he take it?"

"He got a little pissed and then he got quiet."

"Does he know about spring break?"

"No."

"Has he ever asked you about it?"

"Yes. Are you kidding me? Initially, he wouldn't shut up about it. He asked me all the time and wouldn't drop it. Lately, never, but I know he hasn't forgotten it, and I'm guessing he still desperately wants to know what happened."