I originally entitled this story SWIB 05, Too. That title was rejected as too similar. (One of my ideas which apparently was too clever, by half). Since I introduced the first title in SWIB 05, I decided on this compromise -
SWIB 05 and 05, too are about one husband talking another's wife into trading up. As SWIB 05 revealed, the wandering hubby's sales pitch was far less than sincere.
SWIB 05, Too
is the story of Dan Collins, the husband of the wife convinced to trade up. The BTB crowd should be happy by the end, too.
Both
5
and
5, Too
are told in time sequence. However, the stories are independent, events which occurred in one story may not be repeated in the other story. I have tried, in
5 Too
, to make clear where it fits in the other story, where required. Telling two stories independently which occur on the same timeline is complex enough.
The basic characters are the same: Anne and Mike Walters and Elizabeth (Betty) and Dan Collins. Mike, a serial philanderer, is trying to make Betty his most recent. She resisted and he upped the stakes until she waivered.
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I don't know where to start, really. My name is Dan Collins. As this tale starts, I have been married to Elizabeth (Betty) nee Daniels Collins for five years. We are both from the same small town in rural Ohio. Both of us are the first in our family to have graduated from college. Both of us are the only ones in our family to have left our hometown in search of a better life in the big city.
We were twenty-one and freshly out of college when we married. We'd known one another our whole lives. We had a stormy beginning if you count third grade as our point of beginning. Betty decided I was her boyfriend. I decided she had cooties. She tried to kiss me - I all but cried rape. I embarrassed her. I was on her shit list for quite a while after that.
Both of our families were poor, at least relatively poor. She had a brother and sister. I had a brother and two sisters. College was not in the cards unless we paid/borrowed our own way. For whatever reason, at an early age, both of us decided we wanted out of small-town life. We wanted a college degree and a chance to make our mark in the world.
There were a couple of scholarships available, in our town which were awarded to outstanding students. There were also National Merit awards and other sources. Both of us spent most of our high school years assuring we got scholarships, and we both did.
That's how our romance started. Kids in high school do high school things. They go from being children to near-adults. Moving toward adult activities without any of that pesky judgement. Everyone we knew was being a highschooler, we were dedicated to being students. Neither of us dated much, so we were not on anyone's A (or B or C) list. When there was an event, I asked Betty.
We were thrown together as the two poor kids aspiring to be more. But our romance turned into so much more. Being a serious student doesn't impact hormones. So, when our bodies wanted to learn about becoming adults, we were always together.
We had such common interests and goals. I guess if you polled one hundred high school kids, on a Friday night, not too many of them would be excited about how well they had done on the physics exam. None would talk about reading Nathaniel Hawthorne or Charlotte Bronte - but we did. Our interests were the same, our plans the same. Falling in love was easy.
Our families got along well. Remarkably similar kinds of people. By the time we were juniors, everyone knew we would marry.
Fate dealt us a bad blow. She got a partial scholarship to the University of Cincinnati; I got a similar scholarship to Youngstown State. We were from South-East Ohio she went to school in South-West Ohio, and I was in North-East Ohio. Before we left for college, we gave each other our virginity. Then, we were on our separate ways.
Many young romances break up with that kind of distance. But for us, college was much like high school. We were students first and had little time for anything or anyone else.
Each time we got together; our romance grew. Oh, how I loved her. She was pretty, smart, and funny - what a sense of humor. We loved a lot and when we weren't loving, we were laughing. We planned our future.
Unfortunately, life doesn't highly regard the plans of 20-year-olds.
We weren't offered our "best" job in the same city. We decided we'd take my offer since she had an acceptable offer in that city as well. I got lucky. The first assignment I had was remarkably successful and I was offered a promotion and transfer to Charlotte. Betty was glad to go, her job was not what she wanted.
The move was good and bad. I was making 50% more, she was making nothing. She needed to work, and we needed the money. But we weren't desperate, she didn't need to settle as she had with her first job.
A week passed, then a month, then three, she was getting anxious, and I feared she was looking for anything. I decided I'd try a different tact. "Sweetie, I am making a lot more money now. Being in the HQ, I am liable to be promoted again before too long. Why don't we move our plans up a few years? You stop taking the pill and we'll see if we can't bring some more Collins into this world."
"Dan, we can't. There is no money yet for a house down-payment and we don't want to raise our children in an apartment."
She was right, unfortunately. I was in an outstanding position for potential advancement but making too little to support a wife and child. Betty needed to find work and now was nearly two years out of college, unemployed, and having never really held a job for which she was trained.
"Something will turn up. I am being pickier this time." The words came easily to her, but I knew she was not an optimist, nor was she patient. Something needed to break and break our way, fast.
I kept encouraging her to go with what life was giving us. She was going to find something better. Our life was still exciting. Maybe, thinking about it, my life was still exciting. My job was becoming larger and larger. I was working on a new method to store energy created by solar, or wind for that matter. We couldn't get the development done, fast enough. My workdays got longer and that meant more time alone for poor Betty.
Two people can agree the best logical move is to favor the career of one of them. Sound logic doesn't help when you sit at home alone, with a meal you'd rather not have prepared, in the first place, and hubby is late, again.
One day, I came dragging in about eight o'clock. The apartment smelled wonderful. I couldn't tell what she'd cooked, but from the aromas, it was to be a feast. She ran to me and almost knocked me down.
"I have wonderful news. Wonderful!"
"You found something?"
"Not just something. I am to be the assistant to Mike Walters, the CEO of Home Excellence."
"Wow." I paused, "wow! what does that mean?"
"Dan, it is the craziest thing. They had an opening in their sales department. I interviewed with some woman, and we were getting along all right - though, I was not too impressed with the job. Suddenly, this man walks in and introduces himself. Mike Walters, himself."
"So, what is this Mr. Walters like?"
"Well - he's about ten years older, I'd guess, handsome, but what is impressive about him is he has this energy."
"Energy?"
"Let me tell this. Mike asked what we were doing and Doris, who was interviewing me, told him the job she was interviewing me for. He got curious and wanted to know what my qualifications were. She handed him my resume."
"He just took over?"
"Da-yan," she has a way of stretching my name into two distinct syllables when she grows impatient, recently, that was too often. "In a flash, he asked if I would be interested in working for him, for more money. Doris didn't wait for my answer. She merely asked if he needed her and didn't wait for that answer, either. She walked out of the room."
She looked toward the kitchen, "Oh, I have a bottle of Cabernet open. We are having boeuf bourguignon at eight thirty."
We had a glass of wine in hand, and she continued, "Mike said he had an assistant, who mostly did secretarial work for him. But he had envisioned a role which would require someone who could help him put his deals together. We would keep his current assistant, but she would become my assistant."
"He is bringing you into his company right at the top?"
"Yes!"
"Betty, that is amazing. This is just what we were hoping for."
Dinner was great that night. Dessert was better. It was served in bed and served in three separate courses. We awoke with a new attitude and celebrated a little more. Who could blame newlyweds for being a little late?
Life was great. Betty was soon making more than I was. I thought we could bank all her money, but she was spending a lot on new clothes - to fit her new station in life. None-the-less, we'd have a significant down-payment, maybe as high as 40 or 50%, in two years. Our dreams were coming true.
Betty told me Mike could go a little overboard in his relationship with her. She also told me not to worry, I was her guy. I had full faith in her and I watched what money and power can do. Her appearance changed: hair, makeup, clothing, shoes, and accessories. My wife is a natural beauty and now she is as glamourous as any woman, anywhere. She loved it and seemed to stay grounded.
As time passed, we could see our way to a family, but it was complicated. We wanted our children to have more than we had. It was logical to wait another few months, then a little more. Occasionally I asked about Mike and got a hearty laugh. "No, he seems to have stopped. I guess some people can take no, for an answer."
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Our time together suffered a little, but we were so excited when we were together, we didn't really notice. One day we were both due home early. I saw a brand-new Lexus in her parking place. I walked in and asked, "Whose car?"
I'd never seen that look on her face, "It's mine, Dan. Sit down. I need to talk to you."
"What is it?"
"Dan, I'm confused. I don't know another way to explain it. Mike has started after me, again. Now, he says he is in love with me. He can provide for our children better."
I decided I did need to sit. I almost fell into my chair. "Your talking to me tells me you love him, too."
"Dan, he got me an apartment and a car. He says I am confused, and I need time to find myself. I came home thinking he was right, but I can't leave."
An apartment? A car? Find herself? I can't breathe. My vision is narrowing. Who is this woman? This morning we burned up the sheets, we could not get enough of one another. Well, I couldn't get enough of her.
She was saying good-bye.
The bitch.
