Sophia

Author's Notes:

Thank you for even opening up this story. I hope you enjoy it. I was once again, effected by gamma radiation from my desk lamp, so it's not my fault if it sucks. But I will, of course, take all credit if it is liked.

In this story, you will notice and probably get sick of, the number of meals that I describe. I myself thought, that I might be overdoing things a bit, with the descriptions. But on further thought, I decided to leave them in. I find meals, especially homemade meals to be a terrific way of binding people together. There is something primal about it.

I wanted to show, how the two main characters of the story fall in love together. There are of course other ways, related in this story, that are not food related. In many stories, on this website, and good stories too. Boy meets girl, they fall in love, they have wild sex. With no real description of the events, big and little, that cause them to fall in love.

With this story, it wasn't a case of compulsion, I didn't have that much of a choice. I tried to show some of the factors, that caused the two main characters to fall in love. Again, I hope you enjoy the story and I hope that it doesn't suck, too much. And yes, the adulterous wife, gets hers in the end. But not the way I expected, damn gamma radiation.

Thanks for reading.

Oh yeah, disclaimer time. This story is entirely fictitious. Everything is made up. Including, but not limited too, various musical groups like The Beatles, the city of Seattle, the Cascade Mountains, the lodge referred to in the story, horses, and vehicles with internal combustion engines.

I haven't lived, in the mythical city of Seattle, for over twenty years. Don't abuse me too much, if my made up facts; disagree with your made up facts.

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Sophia, Part I

I love my girls. We had just finished singing along to AC DC, Dirty Deeds. They really like the "high voltage" part. "Okay, what to you want next Queen, Meat Loaf or The Beatles?"

"Dad, when are you going to get some new music? All you like, is old music and old movies." Came a plaintive voice, from my oldest Megan.

"Old movies have class and character. Not like the movies, made today. The only thing they got, is special effects. Pretty soon, that is all movies are going to be, special effects, even the actors."

"Yeah, yeah, Dad, we've heard it before. Your favorite movie is the African Queen. Your favorite actor is James Cagney. Your favorite actress is....."

"Queen, queens are you talking about gay people, like Rock Hudson?" My youngest Robin interrupted.

"Rock Hudson was not gay!"

"DAaaaad" My two girls harmonized. "Everyone knows......"

"I'm not listening to this, La, La, La, La, La." I used my right hand to cover my right ear, cause I needed the other one to drive.

"He sounds like a Teletubby now." Stated Megan.

"Isn't one of those gay, too?" Asked Robin, from the sound of her voice, I just knew, she had one her classic big grins.

"That is it! You're both out of the will. I'm going to leave my vast fortune, to the Save the Chipmunks Foundation."

There followed a fierce conversation between Megan and Robin, about which Chipmunk might be gay. I love my girls. Of course, I sometimes want to strangle them. But I would lovingly strangle them. Eventually they wound down, and I asked them again about music.

"I want the Moody Blues. Blasting, billowing forth with the power of ten billion butterfly sneezes." Sang my youngest, Robin.

"You're back in the will Robin. Megan you're still out, no desert for you tonight."

"Then no more kisses for you Daddy."

"Oh yuck, kisses from girls can give you cooties. But, okay you're back in the will, too."

I love my girls. My marriage of twelve years was lie. The type of sex, that I was dying for, she gave to everyone else. I lost at least two million dollars. I'd been branded a willing cuckold. It was all worth it, because I got my girls out of the deal! We started singing, Nights in White Satin.

Two and a half years ago, I found out the truth about my wife. That she had been cheating on me, for at least three years with a lot of different men. I've never been a very observant guy, when it comes to human interaction. Frankly, it takes a couple of hits with a clue bat, to even begin to think that someone might be deceiving me. I'm a better than a middling programmer, but about people forget it. I take people at their word and I trust them, until I get hit with the aforementioned clue bat, several times.

When I confronted my wife with her adultery, her reaction was, "well, duh". Even though we had never agreed to or ever mentioned an open marriage, even though she had been deliberately deceiving me, even though she well knew my obtuseness. She said "well, duh". No apologies, no crawling back to me, no request for marriage counseling, no promises to stop cheating, no nothing. I doubt any of that would have worked anyways. But it would have helped my self image, if she would have at least tried. She was Clark Gable at the end of Gone with the Wind. She didn't give a damn!

So I filed for divorce based on adultery. My attorney told me that it would have no effect on the property division, but I wanted it for the principle. I wanted it known that I had been an unwilling cuckold. Then I made a big mistake, on the financial end of things. I tried to be completely, honest and transparent in all our finances, expecting my wife to behave the same way.

We had almost eight million dollars in investments, that I had carefully nursed over the years. Even though my wife was in banking and I was a programmer, I was the one handling our long term investments. My wife had done an analysis of my financial performance versus the pros, there was no contest. The amount of research I would do, before making a decision was mind numbing. I always had plans, at least, two and three tiers deep for any market change in relation to our investments. Frankly, I just cared more about our money, than they did. I worked harder.

What I should have done, was immediately convert all our investments into cash and put them into certificates of deposit. Three million was fairly conservatively invested. Five million was invested in more risky ventures. Nothing to bad, I knew when to sell and I thought we could maybe make another half million, before I liquidated.

Well my wife's lawyer requested the Judge to freeze all of our assets. The court issued the order and our broker was notified. I started to worry at that point. So I sat down with my wife, Barbara, an explained how within the next couple of months we should sell those stocks. She listened politely and ignored me. I went to my attorney and explained things. He tried to get the freeze lifted, and was denied. I started to panic. I raised a fit with the judge, I was nearly held in contempt of court. The judge brought in a professional. Guess what, he was associated with the same bank, my wife worked at. This man got on the stand, and swore all our investments were financially sound and that selling now, would lose us almost two million dollars in certain gains. Four months after I filed for divorce, we were three million dollars poorer.

Wait it gets better. There was now approximately five million left, plus the house and a few smaller assets. I already agreed that my wife would get the house. After finding out, how many of her lovers had been there. I swore to never enter that place again. Of course, only after I got all my stuff out.

The house was easily worth over six hundred thousand. So how did the judge split our remaining assets. She gave my wife 3.2 million and I got 2.2 million. The judge said that because of circumstantial evidence, that I might have hidden some funds, she was awarding my wife one million more than me. No where, no when in the case, had anyone made allegations or presented any evidence that I had stashed some money. I had complete records of all our income and investments, there was nothing unaccounted for. I still don't understand what happened. First my wife and I, lose three million, then she gets a half a million of my remaining share.

My lawyer advised against challenging the decision. He told me.

"You've been screwed, you can turn bitter and fight. Spend at least a hundred grand and probably two years on appeal. Get ulcers, lose sleep. Or walk away, and instead of living two years dwelling in the past, spend two years building your future. Knowing you're an honest man, regardless of what this dumb ass judge says."

And that wasn't the end, when Barb's attorney challenged the divorce grounds of adultery. He claimed, that I knew my wife was cheating. He said, I had to have known because so many of my family, friends and coworkers were aware of my wife's adultery. Heck my wife had, had sex with a lot of my coworkers and friends. That revelation, caused four more divorces. They brought in, witness after witness, including my two older twin sisters. That admitted, they had known about my wife's affairs. Most of the witnesses said, they thought I had known too. Did I mention, that it takes a clue bat. They characterized me as a submissive guy. Shit, that is what I get for being nice and polite.

Even my daughters, at only nine and eleven, admitted that they had some suspicions. I was so pissed, when my wife and her attorney put them on the stand and the judge allowed it. They brought in some therapist, from the Children's Welfare Department, that testified that it would not hurt my girls. And it would empower them, to make them part of the process. A year after my divorce I heard that, that shrink was fired and had to move out of the state to get another job.

Megan and Robin, later explained to me that they hadn't really understood the situation and were just trying to get us to stay together. They said their momma told them she wanted to stay with me.

Barbara wanted me to publicly accept being a cuckold and come crawling back to her. That cheating cunt!

But I did get one thing out of the deal, I got shared custody of my girls. That is the most important thing in the world to me. I've got an apartment in the same school district. Actually I own the apartment building, it is a small one. I live two miles from my old home and one mile from the school. The girls might spend one night at my home and the next at Barb's. I might hate her cheating, lying ass, but when it comes to my girls we stay in communication. Barb and I, both know where they are at all times, aren't smart phones with GPS wonderful. I don't trust Barb worth a damn, but there was no way I would be able to get sole custody of the girls, so I hadn't even tried. Barb, on the other hand, knows I would willingly die for either Megan or Robin.

There was a lot of fallout from my divorce. I told all my ex-friends to burn in hell and I told my older twin sisters to fuck off and die. My sisters still try and contact me. I think it is because they miss, having a free financial advisor and handyman.

Did I mention that I'm a tool addict. I just can't help myself, some women by shoes, I'm a guy who buys tools.

I quit my job with no notice. It turns out my boss and two of my subordinates had played, hide the salami with my wife. I couldn't sue my employer, because of the judge's decision that I must have known and tacitly agreed with my wife's behavior.

At my old job, we had been working on a completely new revision of our primary retail software product, our biggest profit maker. It was completely new code from the ground up. If you know anything about programmers, quite a few of us do extra work at home. It is a dumb thing, because we are not adequately compensated for the extra work, but we do it anyways. Well, there were some add-on features and modules that I had been developing, solely at home.

These were things that our sales people were quite excited about. I had kept things separate because I had wanted some extra money, for once, for the additional work I had been doing. I planned on extorting a bit of money, when my boss asked for the additional code. I would point out, how not one line of code had been written on company time or on company equipment. I would also point out, how it was not even part of the original project design. Marketing had wanted it, but the CEO and president had decided it wasn't feasible. Now, that they knew I was close to delivering, they were thrilled. Oh, did I mention that the company president, had done my wife too?

Marketing had even started a massive advertising campaign, about the new features my added code offered. Then I found out, how my employer had been screwing me over for the last few years, by screwing my wife. I was not pleased. The day after my divorce, I packed up my office, gave my boss the finger and walked out.

They did try to get that additional code. At first they demanded it. Then they threatened legal action. They even went to the police, but I had everything documented. There was not one scrap of evidence, that I had ever worked on that code during company time or on company equipment. Mind you, I couldn't sell it to anyone else, but I didn't have to give it to them.

They asked me my selling price. I gave them two choices. First choice, fire everyone that had ever fucked my wife. Giving them no golden parachutes, since they had violated company policy. I would then sell it to them for a half a million. You see, the new program was scheduled to be released in two months, they even had the new packaging. Second choice, pay me two million dollars.

They chose neither, I hear the CEO is still kicking himself. One year later and their attempt to reproduce my code, still sucked. Two years later and their market share was so small, as to be nonexistent.

So, I quit my job, making eighty thousand a year. Lost two million. Severed all ties with my family and ex-friends. But I had my girls, it is good to be a winner.

I had Megan and Robin, make a solemn oath. My private life was my business, and they were not to discuss any of it, with their mother or their aunts. Everyone had kept me in the dark about her. Now that we were divorced, they had no damn right to any knowledge of my personal life. I also told them, that I didn't want to know anything about their mother. I phrased it as diplomatically and gently as I could. But it still came out pretty damn hard, especially when telling nine and eleven year old children. It was not something, I should have inflicted upon them. But I was so mad and crazy at the time, about how everyone had kept silent about Barb. Then they all turned around and said, I must have known, assholes!

Oh, the CD is starting to play "I'm Just a Singer in a Rock and Roll Band". The girls really like to belt that one out. So, I've got the girls for another weekend. I pretty much have the girls for every weekend.

Their mother does take them on some very nice long vacations, Europe and such. It has made me a bit concerned about how much money Barb is spending. She quit her job after the divorce and instead of investing her share of the money, and living off the interest, she has been spending the principle. All of the vacations, she has taken the girls on, have been first class. Her new car, I think is about $160,000.00. Well if she spends it all, I am always ready to take the girls full time.

We're going to a small lodge in the mountains. In the winter, the place is packed with skiers. In the off season, they shrink the operation a lot and have horses and a barely adequate 9 hole golf course. Both Megan and Robin are mad about being eques, equestr.., they love to ride horses. I just like to sit and view the fall colors in the mountains, with the smell of pines, and a good book.

I had been hoping to beat the rain storm to the lodge. I really enjoy sitting by a fire and watching a storm out the windows. The storm was supposed to pass a bit north of us, but it had swung suddenly south. My SUV is good one, it ain't new but it is reliable as all hell. With these muddy wet roads and driving wind, I'm happy about the all wheel drive.

I'm driving slow because of the weather and poor visibility. I catch a glimmer of light out of corner of my eye. But I'm too busy paying attention to what is right in front of me, to give it any serious attention.

"Dad, there is a car in the ditch back there." Shouted Robin.

"Huh," I slowly stopped the car.

"What Honey?"

"I saw the lights of a car in a ditch, back there."

I checked my rear view mirrors and there was nothing behind me and no lights either. Both Megan and Robin were busy looking out the back and side windows.

"Are you sure?"

"Positive Daddy!"

I thought about it, a car being in a ditch was nothing new. But the culverts on either side of the road were particularly wide and deep. They were at least ten feet deep and someone could be seriously hurt. Then there was the cell phone reception, which sucked where we were. I slowly started to back up the car. Then stopped with that stupidity. Visibility was so bad, that I couldn't be certain that I was backing up in straight line and I didn't want to chance turning around in the current conditions. I pulled over to the side of the road and turned my emergency flashers on.

"Robin, hand me my rain suit from on top of my tool box, please." I classified clothing like my rain suit or my Carharts as tools. Did I mention I love tools. I struggled putting on the suit, in the confines of the front seat.

"Honey, please hand me the big flashlight, it is by my tool box in back." Robin struggled to dig out my battery spotlight and pull it out. It weighs close to fifteen pounds. "They called me submissive. Hey, I'm a manly man, don't you see all the big tools I got?" I thought to myself.

I stopped for moment and thought about the situation. I'm pulled over on the side of the road. I'm leaving my two precious girls behind, visibility is poor, and there are always idiots on the road. Any sane person should be driving slow in these conditions, but there is always some moron out there. A friend of mine had a car break down in a similar situation. He came back an hour later to find his car had been rear ended and knocked over a cliff. On the other hand, someone could be in serious trouble back there, and there is no safer place for me to park.

Then I remembered, some tools that I had purchased years ago and never used. JUSTIFICATION!! I haven't wasted money. I've hauled them around for years with my jumper cables and they thought I was mad at the academy.

"Robin, in the back there is a bag, that holds my jumper cables. Could you dig it out, please. " With much groaning and grunting, she dug out the bag from beneath everything else back there. Good thing she was strong. She handed me the bag.

I pulled two road flares and a yellow flasher with a magnetic base, out from the bag.

"Robin I'm going to stick this flasher thingy on the roof. You roll down the back window a little bit and I'll pass the cord to you. Just plug it into the rear cigarette lighter, okay?"

"Got it Dad."

"Megan I'm going to check this out. We haven't seen anyone else driving on this road for a half an hour. I'll only be back there, about a hundred feet or so. If you have any problems, just honk the horn. Now, I'm off to get wet." I looked out at the driving wind and rain, and turned again back to Megan and grinned. "I wish I had packed my scuba gear."

"We packed our swimsuits for the sauna and the whirlpool baths. How about if we have Robin change and send her, since she saw the light?"

"I'm not going out there....."

With that playful discussion going on, I forced open the door against the wind. Stepping out of the car, I realized that I had forgotten to change my hiking boots for my mud boots. Ah well, these boots were pretty tough too.