Two guys most involved in one woman's life reflect on their lives with her. It is not a BTB or revenge story nor does it contain graphic sex scenes. If those are your forte, then you might consider moving on to another story.
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Stephen:
About a decade ago, I was a 6'-1", 155 lb, 5th year senior college student in electrical and computer engineering major with a business minor. I have gained some weight since then. With my glasses on, I sort of looked like a tall Bill Gates, who by the way is 3 inches shorter than me. No, I am not delusional in thinking I would ever make any where near that much money. My life was all about technical interests. I could figure out computers and electronics but people have a non-deterministic element to them so they are much more difficult to work with. If only they would operate in a logical way.
Michelle and I met in a ballroom dance class that I was taking to complete my long delayed PE requirement so I could graduate. It also was a dare by some of my friends who thought I might get socialized and learn to walk without tripping over my two left feet. I think they were betting I would flunk out of a class that everyone else would pass.
At that time, Michelle was a liberal arts major studying languages and education. She liked to travel, read books, meet people, and dance, but was completely technically challenged. She was totally the opposite of me in every way imaginable. She loved to work with people of all ages, but she was frustrated with computers. They did not have an expressive or emotional side to them.
Michelle was a little bit taller than most girls at about 5'11". She was outgoing, slender, a pretty face with eyes that sparkle, a smile that would melt the heart of any grouch, flowing hair, and nice boobs that are maybe C size. That's just a guess since I could tell you more about the processor in your computer than breast sizes. By comparison sizing, her breasts are more than a handful but quite a bit smaller than Dolly Pardon's bundle.
Dancing was her way to do something that was physically expressive in an academic world and she did it most chances she could. She had taken all the available dance classes offered at the university. As an advanced dancer who loved to encourage others in dance, she often came to the beginner classes to help the teacher by being dance partners with the class members giving them tips and hints how to improve. She could look graceful dancing with the most clumsy partners. Those she danced with would learn quicker because they were not being tripped by their partners who were normally other beginners. When dancing with someone, she made that person feel like they were the only one in the room. Too bad she was helping everyone and not just me.
For some reason I never quite understood, Michelle seemed to like me, calling me her favorite nerd. Other guys in the class would try to woo her, but she would politely decline them all. I just tried to always be nice and polite. It was like she felt safe with a naive guy over one who was trying to get her in bed. Her defense mechanism was to avoid the guys who were too eager to get to know her.
One time when I was walking from the bookstore to the cafeteria, she waved me over to where she was studying. That was the starting point of our relationship. I hardly ever knew what to talk about with girls, especially ones who weren't very tech savvy. She had a way of keeping the conversation going by asking questions that required more than a yes or no answer. She even listened to technical answers as if she was interested. I think she just like to hear what made others tick or get excited about.
I really didn't think I was her type of guy or good enough for her, but she always seemed excited to see me. Later I learned that she had a couple pushy boyfriends prior to me that just wanted to bed her. Now she avoided anyone that might be like those guys. Over a couple months our friendship grew to include casual dating. I fixed her computer a couple times, once when it had some problems with the power supply and another time when viruses caused all sorts of trouble. A quick kiss at the end of the evening was as far as I got with her, mostly because that was all I tried to do. I was too scared to try anything more. She said one of the reasons she liked being with me was that I was safe to be with.
One weekend, she was babysitting a couple small kids at the house of one of her professors, while they went on a weekend getaway. She called me and asked if I wanted to watch a movie after the kids went to bed. Never to turn down her requests, I went over there as quickly as I could get there. The kids were already fed and bathed when I got there. They were watching a cartoon before bedtime. Finally they were in bed, the bedtime stories were read to them, they got one last drink of water and we checked for monsters under the beds. Kids sure take a lot of effort to get them to go to sleep. She was very patient and loving, and treated them like they were her own. The kids could see that too.
A half hour later, Michelle and I were snuggled together on the sofa watching our movie. Well, we weren't really watching the movie. It was some chick flick and we were paying more attention to each other than the movie. After the movie, I ended up in her bed, staying until morning. I was no longer a virgin after that night. When I paused a moment to let her know that I didn't have any condoms, she said to not worry because it was a safe time of the month. It was obvious that she was experienced with sex because she helped me by showing me where to touch her to help her climax.
A couple days later, I purchased condoms for the first and only time in my life. We had sex a few times over the next couple months. One evening, she came to me looking very nervous and said she needed to tell me something, so we went for a walk. She said that she did one of those home pregnancy tests and it came out positive. She apologized for not being more careful that one time while baby sitting, but evidently it wasn't as safe as she thought that night.
Since I was the only one she had sex with in over two years there wasn't any question about who the father was. We talked about our, actually her, options. Her final decision was based mostly on the fact that she could never hurt a human life, so she really wanted to keep the baby. After seeing how she interacted with those kids and how much she liked to take care of and help people, I knew she would be a wonderful mother. I wondered how her keeping the baby would affect me and if I would or could be a good father.
Since I wanted to do the right or responsible thing, I proposed marriage a couple days later at a Friday night dinner date. I felt like I loved her more than anything, maybe even more than computers. We were both finishing up our degrees in a few more months and I was starting a new permanent higher paying job in the Summer. I figured that could cover the basic financial needs and provide the health insurance she would require. Michelle was planning on starting to do some substitute teaching after the baby gets old enough to leave with a sitter, so we would have extra in the budget at that point. With all this, we expected to have no trouble getting started in our life together. It all seemed like the logical thing to do. She accepted all that reasoning and moved in with me.
We got married at the courthouse the following week so it would be before she was showing. We had our honeymoon over that following weekend at a small inn in a nearby town on the coast. It was only a weekend because we both had important classes to attend on Monday and we didn't have much money to make it longer. It was a nice time, and we learned more about each other, our bodies, and our dreams. I felt a little out of place, but was gradually learning to be more attentive to her when she was talking about how she felt about various things. We seemed to be growing as a couple more in love each day. We agreed to never use the "d" word when we might have some marriage difficulties.
A little over two months later she had a miscarriage. It was particularly hard on her, but also on me too. I was getting excited about becoming a father. It was hard for me to know what to do to best comfort her. We mostly just held each other while she cried. She blamed herself even though I doubt it was anything she did.
Everything had changed so fast in my life over the past few months. After getting past the loss of the baby, we decided to hold off starting the family until we were more established in our finances. There was no question regarding our marriage in our minds. We had common dreams for our future and a plan on how to reach them. I would work as an engineer and she would teach languages in the schools. We would save up for a down payment on a house, then start the family. Therefore, she went on the pill. Maybe it was all too logical.
My job went well for a couple years. We were about to start looking for our first starter home. However, a downsizing at the company put those plans on hold. Since I was the newest employee, I was one of those who was let go. The severance package was a couple months pay. While trying to determine what to do next, Michelle encouraged me to try my dream and use the funds we had been setting aside to start our own company. It seemed like a scary idea, since we were only a couple years out of college, but with her teaching job it sounded like we could at least get by. I had a number of ideas that I had been working on and settled on security systems, with a key in how to determine intrusions into networks.
We went ahead with that plan and started building software and hardware that other companies could incorporate into much larger systems. Business really took off, and the company grew steadily to include 3 other employees over the first few years. Our personal lives together slipped to ok at best. Stress and long hours in our startup company took its toll, however we did squeeze in some little dates here and there. But we were tired most of the time and the dates weren't very romantic. We were making significant progress to replace the savings that were used to startup the company, so our dreams of buying a house and starting a family were starting again. This gave us hope for the future.