Snowstorm From Hell

Preface: This is a work of fiction and there are no sexual situations where anyone is under the age of eighteen. It's a bit of a slow burn but there is some straight sex. Enjoy.

*

"Alright, sure hon... let me call Gabby and see if we can set something up," replied Leslie, or Les as she preferred to be called.

Les was my wife and we had been married for nearly four years. With no kids yet, we were still in the "fun and playful" stage of our marriage. We had just decided to open our marriage up this morning before work and try swinging with the neighbors that live a couple of miles down the road. It was an early Christmas present to ourselves. Their names were Paul and Gabriel and they had invited us to dinner a few weeks back. The dinner had been an interview of sorts and they had clearly decided we had passed whatever their tests were. After that and a good deal of wine, they made their pitch, asking if Les and I would be up to joining their swinging group. At the time we had politely declined but the seed had been planted.

Of course, living in upstate New York, everyone in our "neighborhood" had money. Some more than others, the mansion sitting on the property that separated Paul and Gabby's plot of land from our own coming to mind. A semi-famous rock-n-roll couple lived there, rich from their albums, merchandise, and concerts. Their mansion sat on over forty acres, complete with a stream and a small pond. Our property was only ten acres and Paul and Gabby's only had five in comparison. Still, none of us were hurting for money.

So now, a few weeks later and my wife and I had agreed to try it, a simple swap with Paul and Gabriel. It's not that our sex life was suffering or that we were pulling apart or anything, it just sounded like exciting and harmless fun if no one got too attached or jealous. Besides, it was late in the year with snow on the ground and a chill in the air, keeping us from getting out of the house as much as we usually did in the summertime. And Paul and Gabriel had been doing this a long time and had assured us that they would guide us, helping us avoid the potential pitfalls of swinging.

I honestly didn't think we had anything to worry about. Les was a beautiful woman, twenty-eight, two years older than me, and sexy as hell. At five-foot-six, she had long wavy blonde hair, dark blue eyes, and a cute button nose on a classically gorgeous face. She also stayed fit, teaching Zumba classes in town as a rather profitable side hustle to her primary job, as a marketing consultant. It's not that we needed the money, but she loved it and it kept her in shape. Her pert tits, slim stomach, and tight ass were all testaments to that.

As for me, my name is Xander. I am a junior executive at the same marketing firm where my wife consults. We claimed the second largest client list in the state, and I was working hard on taking the number one spot. Don't get me wrong, I put in forty hours a week and not a minute more. I had watched my father work sixty-to-seventy-hour weeks and then die of a heart attack four months to retirement. That wasn't going to be me. However, when I worked, I worked hard, fast, and efficiently. It also kept me moving in a typically sedentary job and the normal hours allowed me to hit the firm's gym after work each day. That kept me in great shape. I'm not so conceited as to say that I'm handsome or sexy. I'm six-foot-one and weigh two-ten with short dark-brown hair, brown eyes, and a clean-shaven face. I've had a few appreciative looks from several ladies and even get hit on occasionally, so I must not look too bad.

Paul and Gabby are older than us, in their early forties, but have kept themselves in good shape. Some grey hair and a little extra flab but nothing major. They still looked good for their age. Paul was about five-nine with graying sandy-brown hair and Gabby was maybe five-even, making her D-cup breasts look even bigger on her small frame. Long black curls framed her cherubic face and her dark blue eyes always seemed to have that "come-hither" look of smoldering sex appeal. Still, she didn't hold a candle to my Les. I suppose that's why I felt safe about swapping with this couple. They would be fun for sure, but not so fun as to cause friction between my wife and me.

"Love you", I said as I kissed my wife goodbye and headed out to work.

"Love you more", she replied as she headed into her office.

She worked half-time from home and half-time in the office, so I'd usually have lunch with her in the afternoon. It worked well for us. The drive into work took about forty-five minutes, which was typical.

I was sure glad we worked on the same side of Syracuse from where we lived. I drove into the parking garage of the squat glass and steel building where we worked, shaking my head for the umpteenth time at the irony of a marketing firm being in such an ugly nondescript structure. I spent much of the morning catching up on paperwork and meeting with my marketing team on a new proposal. The time flew by and I headed downstairs to prepare for lunch with my wife.

When she arrived at Tony's Bistro, our favorite sandwich shop that happened to be located on the first floor of the building, she was beaming. I had already ordered for us both, so she didn't have to wait for her food, a chicken salad sandwich, her favorite. As I started in on my tuna melt, Les leaned forward and whispered under her breath.

"We're on for tonight," she said, her eyes sparkling with desire. "Paul and Gabby jumped at the chance. I'll head over to their place and Gabby will meet you at ours. They're cooking lasagna for us, so Gabby will be bringing half of it over with her. Make sure you have a bottle of Tuscan red breathing before she comes over at six, okay?"

"Uh, okay," I mumbled, practically choking on my tuna melt. "So, that was fast..."

"I know, right," giggled my wife. "I guess it was meant to be."

The rest of lunch went well, and I escorted my wife up to her floor, giving her a quick kiss in the elevator before continuing up to my floor. The rest of the day went slowly, meeting after meeting causing my mind to drift to the night's event. I was excited but also anxious for some reason. The way I felt made the day drag on even longer until it was finally over, and I raced home to prepare the wine and make sure the house was tidy.

Traffic was heavier than normal, and I only had about an hour to prepare before Gabby was due to arrive. I assumed my wife was already at their place as she got off work a little before I did. Not for the first time, I wondered why I hadn't opted for working remotely part-time. I knew it was because I was ambitious and looking to go places. The more you're seen, the better your odds of rising through the ranks, or so I figured.

Finally, at home, I showered, shaved, and changed into a nice casual button-down and slacks. I prepared the wine, letting it breathe in a bucket of ice, and picked up a couple of things that were out of place. Then I put on some soft music, lit a few scented candles, started up the fireplace, and waited.

Five minutes after gabby was set to arrive, I started to wonder if everything was alright. Twenty more minutes and I was starting to get aggravated. Just as I got up to put out the candles, the doorbell rang. Breathing a sigh of relief, I tried to calm down and answered the door with the most pleasant smile I could muster. Abby stood there smiling and holding a pan of lasagna in her oven-mitt-clad hands. She looked nice but hadn't dressed up half as much as I had. Trying my best to mask my irritation, I reached for the now-cool pan.

"Here, let me take that," I said. "Come on in and please follow me while I put this in the dining room."

She let me take the lasagna dish and followed me inside. I set the pan down on the placemat I had ready for it and turned to smile at her.

"What a lovely home you have here," she said as she looked around. "I can see why Les raves about this place so much. Paul and I are a little jealous that you two scored the much nicer lot and house. I guess the consolation prize is that our mortgage is a bit smaller."

We both laughed as she said the last in a joking manner. I started to warm to her and my earlier frustration at her lateness soon dissipated.

"Are you hungry?" I asked, trying to get the evening moving along.

"Sure, let's eat," she replied.

I quickly poured each of us a glass of wine to loosen us up and served up a conservative portion of lasagna for each of us. A couple of slices of garlic bread and some stewed carrots rounded out the meal. I made sure to keep the portions small. The last thing I wanted was either of us falling into a food coma while the night was still young.

Gabby turned out to be a skilled conversationalist and before I knew it, over two hours had passed, and I could feel the first signs of sleepiness setting in. I figured it was now or never.

"So, how about we retire upstairs for the remainder of the evening?" I asked, giving her a lusty stare and smile.

"Oh, you're such a cad," she replied. "I had a lovely evening but I'm not the type to do that sort of thing on a first date."

"Wait, what?" I asked, confused. "But my wife is at your house with your husband right now and every indication I had was that she wasn't waiting."

Gabby stared at me hard for a moment before standing up and throwing down the napkin she had just cleaned herself up with. "Well, I'm not your wife and this isn't a cheap transaction. I'm sorry if I don't meet your expectations. No, actually... I'm offended that you'd think that of me. Thank you for the wine, now do you have a guest room with a lockable door, or am I going to have to go home?"

I stared right back at her for a moment, knowing that I had been had. Rather than make a scene, which wouldn't accomplish anything, I pointed her in the direction of the guest room and walked back to my bedroom to get some sleep. Luckily, the wine and long day overcame the seething rage that coursed through me and I eventually fell asleep.

By the next morning, I awoke to the front door opening. I looked at the alarm clock which I hadn't set, and it said 9:38. I was confused for a moment before the previous night came rushing back in. Then I heard a voice from downstairs that made my blood boil.

"Honey, I'm home!" she exclaimed, yelling up the balcony stairs. "I hope you had as good a night as I had."

Our room was at the top of a set of curving stairs and a hallway that overlooked the entryway and the living room ran off to the left. Three bedrooms and two bathrooms were attached to that hallway. I stepped out of our room, still dressed in my clothes from the night before, and looked towards the guest room down the hall. The door was ajar, so curiosity got the better of me and I walked down and looked inside. The room was empty, and the bed had been remade. This was feeling more and more like a set-up and I fought with myself to get my anger under control. I didn't want my wife to think that anything was bothering me.

"Yeah, it was alright," I called down, buying myself some time to pull it together.

Once I had finally calmed myself as best I could, I found my wife throwing some of her clothes in the laundry hamper. I didn't know which ones, because she was dressed in the same outfit as yesterday. I pretended not to notice a thing.

"Hey hon," she said, smiling sweetly, or was it smirking. I couldn't be sure. "I'm gonna run upstairs, take a quick shower, and change. If you want, you can come up and help me. Maybe I'll give you a little present."

"Nah, you go ahead," I said, suspicious of everything she did or said. "I'm still trying to wake up and I have to head into the office this morning."

"Oh," she said, sounding dejected before brightening back up. "Then why don't you join me in the shower?"

"That's okay," I lied. "There's not going to be anyone else there and I kind of just want to get it over with."

"Alright, if you have to," she replied as she walked up to me to kiss me goodbye.

For the first time since we had started dating in college, I ducked her kiss. "Sorry, hon, but I've got terrible morning breath. Raincheck?"

Not waiting for an answer, I hurried down the stairs, grabbed the keys to my Challenger from the bowl, and headed out the door without another word. Getting into the car, I turned off my cell phone and went for a drive, turning up my playlist and trying to drown out my devastated feelings with some angry rock and roll. The music didn't calm me, it wasn't meant to. It did help me to focus and get my head on straight. I wasn't one-hundred percent sure, but it was a good bet that my blissful marriage was now over. The first thing I needed to do was protect myself and my assets if it wasn't already too late. The second was to find out what was really going on. I'd worry about what to do next after I got my answers.

Even if everything was somehow on the up-and-up, I was still pissed off by the whole bait and switch that they had pulled on me. The more I thought about it, the more I convinced myself that this whole thing was a set-up. I decided I needed a second opinion before I did something I couldn't take back.

Calling one of my buddies, Wells, I set up a time to meet up with him at a roadside tavern just off the main drag between Syracuse and our home. Wells, short for Wellington, was waiting for me when I arrived. That was mainly because he only lived five minutes from the place. Leaning against his shiny black Camaro, he had his arms crossed and watched as I pulled in. There were only three other cars and a pair of pickup trucks parked in the dirt lot outside of the large wooden building. It was old but had been kept up, so it had a lot of character.

I pulled my Challenger up next to Wells's Camaro, got out, and Wells came in for a big hug. After a couple of hard slaps on the back from the big man, we walked into the tavern and grabbed a couple of chairs in the corner. A cute but bored-looking waitress with long brown hair pulled back into a ponytail arrived at our table carrying a platter with a couple of glasses of water. We thanked her and she wandered off after dropping a pair of menus on the wooden table in front of us.

"So, what's going on?" said Wells, getting right to the point.

I started at the beginning, telling him about the swinging discussions, and made my way through everything I could think of, especially my concerns. It was embarrassing to talk about this kind of stuff with anybody, but I'd known Wells for years and trusted he would keep his mouth shut. More importantly, he and Les had never gotten along, so I figured he'd have my back over any of my other friends. For his part, he took it all in, ordered us a couple of pints of Guinness when the waitress finally came back and rubbed his chin deep in thought.

"Well, I can't say that I ever really liked Les much," he began. "But I never thought she'd turn out to be such a bitch. The way I figure it, you're definitely on to something and you need to find out the truth before things get any more out of hand."

"So, I'm not over-reacting?" I asked.

"Heck no," said Wells. "She played you, that's for sure. There's more to this than you know, that's what I'm thinking."

"Thanks, bud," I said, feeling both vindicated that I wasn't imagining things and appalled at what my wife had done...no, was doing to me.

We ended up talking late into the afternoon, eventually ordering something to eat, steak and fried potatoes for the both of us. It was the best thing on the menu. Although, he liked his well-done, like jerky in my opinion, while I preferred mine a little bloody in the middle. I had to admit, it was nice catching up with Wells. We hadn't hung out nearly as much as we used to, ever since I married Les. I decided right then and there to rectify that if I did nothing else. However, I really didn't see things turning out to be 'nothing'. I wasn't about to let my wife's treatment of me go unanswered.

We finished up, paid, and out in the parking lot, I gave Wells a firm handshake. He quickly pulled me into another hug, and we promised to do this again soon. I was feeling a little better about the way I had acted with first Gabby, and then my wife. Having Wells agree with my assessment did wonders for my state of mind.

After the goodbyes with Wells, I left and went to my bank before it closed for the day. Luckily, my wife and I had never really got around to combining all our accounts, so other than lowering the credit limit on our joint credit card, there wasn't much else I needed to worry about other than removing her access to my checking and savings accounts. The bank wasn't busy for a Saturday, so it only took me twenty minutes to make the changes.

After that, I decided to head home. I couldn't avoid her forever and there wasn't much else to do at the time. Still, I took my time driving home and arrived just after dark. I parked the Challenger in the garage and entered through the mudroom. I found my wife sitting in the living room on the sofa, working on her laptop and nursing a glass of red wine.

"Evening babe," I said, not really feeling it but also not wanting to tip her off how angry I was.

"Hey hon," she replied. "Did you get everything finished at work?"

"Not quite," I replied. "I'll have to go in tomorrow for a couple of hours as well. We've got a couple of new accounts that got mixed up by one of our interns and I need to finish sorting it out. How about you, got any plans for tomorrow?"

"Nope, nothing specific," said Les. "But I'm sure I'll get something to come up, so don't worry about me. Just get your accounts sorted out."

"Sounds good," I said. "I forgot my gym clothes, so I'm going to go for a walk before it gets too cold outside."

My wife went back to her laptop and I bundled up for the chilly weather. Once I had some protection from the early winter nippiness, I put in my earbuds and started the playlist on my phone before stepping outside.

The music got my blood pumping, so I got a nice stride going, walking beneath the dark sky and darker evergreens. I followed the road, not wanting to walk in the six inches of snow on the ground.

Between my gloves, hat, and jacket, and the good pace I had set for myself, I was able to stay warm enough. Within a few minutes, I passed the rock couple's mansion, admiring it from a distance. Though large, it was built in a Tudor style, more aligned with houses owned by the middle class these days. It wasn't ostentatious at all, a tribute to the building's designer, in my opinion. Idly, I hoped they weren't having the same marital issues that I was.

Passing by the place, it wasn't long before I came to the driveway to Paul and Gabby's house. I could see a few extra cars parked in their driveway through the leafless trees in front of their property. Apparently, they entertained quite often. I briefly considered stopping by, but quickly dismissed the idea. Between the way Gabby had left and not knowing exactly what I would say to Paul, it wouldn't accomplish anything worthwhile.

We all lived on a loop, about six miles long, and I walked it like I usually did, returning home over an hour later. When I returned home, I saw a note on the coffee table.

"Hey hon," she wrote. "You seem like you want to be alone, so I decided to go out with some of my girlfriends from work. I'll see you later tonight. I love you. Yours forever, Les."

That nearly sent me over the ledge, so instead of losing my mind, I decided to walk for a second loop to calm down. I didn't really have anything else to do anyhow. Since I was still bundled up, I restarted my playlist and headed out into the chill again, too angry to notice the temperature drop.

This time I walked the other way around, so by the time I came back around to Paul and Gabby's place, another hour had passed. Looking through the trees, I was only mildly surprised to see my wife's car parked out front. She had said "yours forever" but I had a distinct impression that I had already lost her. At this point, I was cold and tired and in no mood for a confrontation, so I continued home.