Something a bit different from my usual fare. Remember, this is a work of fiction and not a docu-drama. All constructive comments are welcome and appreciated.
*****
It was mid-January 2003 and in three weeks, my wife, Addie, and I would be celebrating our first anniversary as a married couple. Of course, that was assuming we were still married. As of now, I wasn't too sure that would be the case.
I thought back over the last year as I drove down the freeway to my next service job. To me, Addie was perfect in almost every way one can imagine. Standing at 4 foot 10 inches, she had a great figure with well-toned legs and a perfectly proportioned set of breasts - not too big and not too small. Her dark brown hair came past her shoulders, framing a face that lit up when she smiled. Even her eyes seemed to twinkle when she looked at me.
I met her a couple years ago in college. I was getting a degree in electronics and IT and she was finishing up her nurse's program. We met in the school library quite by accident. She was having trouble getting her computer to do something and was becoming quite frustrated. I was sitting just a few places down from her, so I went over to see if I could help. It turned out she wasn't clicking the right thing. No problem - I helped her and got a hug in return.
We spent the rest of our time in the library talking and before you know it, we were out on a date. One thing led to another and we ended up married.
I was hardly a virgin when we became exclusive, having spent four years in the service. Addie, on the other hand, was a virgin, and insisted on waiting until our wedding day to have sex. That was fine with me. In fact, it made me respect her even more.
After graduating, Addie went to work for a hospital and I got a job doing field service for a local company fixing everything from copiers and computers to printers and fax machines. My day was usually spent on the road going from company to company, but at least I was home every night. Addie's schedule, on the other hand, could vary wildly from month to month.
We got married a few months after graduating and were able to take a few days from our jobs for a honeymoon. At the time, she was almost 23 and I was 26. We ended up driving to Las Vegas and had a great time together.
Except for one thing.
It turned out that Addie had some peculiar ideas about sex, thanks to her mother. No, she wasn't wild and crazy - just the opposite. Apparently, her mother had taught her that "good" girls never let a man see them naked. And "good" girls only have sex with their spouses once or twice a month to procreate. That's it. Anything other than missionary sex for the purpose of procreation was forbidden in her view. That meant no oral - nothing. It was simply, 'get in, get out, quit fucking about,' if you know what I mean.
The idea of a couple bonding together in the act of love was taboo to her.
Addie was even horrified that I would want to sleep in the same bed as her.
"I love you dearly, Joe," she said, "but I don't think I can do that."
What the hell, I thought.
"Didn't your parents sleep together?" I asked her.
"No, mom and dad never slept in the same bed," she told me. I couldn't believe what she was telling me. I realized that I had my work cut out for me. I loved this girl with all my heart and there was no way I'd leave her or cheat on her, but this really threw me for a loop. What was I to do?
After thinking about it, I decided to work with her and maybe show her what it was husbands and wives do...
"Addie, you're a nurse, right?" I asked her. She nodded.
"Of course," she said.
"So you know how the human reproductive system works, right?"
"Don't be silly," she said. "You know I do."
"Well, dear, how do you think you came into the world?"
"I know, my parents had sex. But you don't understand. My parents never slept in the same bed, ever. They only had sex a few times to have children."
Wow, I thought.
"And how many children did your parents have?" I asked.
"Just one," she said. "Me."
"What does that tell you?" I asked. She shrugged her shoulders.
"Maybe they would've had more kids if they actually slept together. Tell me, how close were they?" I asked. I never met her father since he died a few years ago, but I had met her mother. She was nice enough to me - polite, even - but didn't seem like the type to be overly friendly or loving. By the time we were married, though, she died from a heart attack.
"I don't know," Addie said. "I never saw them fight or anything, but they never seemed to be real close. They basically tolerated each other and that was about it. He went to work, came home and watched TV and Mom would cook and clean the house. That's it."
"Did either one ever cheat on the other?" I asked. Addie seemed horrified.
"Not that I know of. They both hated cheaters with a passion."
"Surely you've seen enough on television and in the movies to know husbands and wives sleep together, right?" I asked. She seemed to be embarrassed.
"Maybe, but I never really thought about about it. Mom was pretty uptight about stuff like that," she said.
Talk about an understatement. After a bit more coaxing, she agreed to sleep with me but only if she could wear her pajamas.
"Can we just, you know, cuddle and kiss and maybe watch some television for a while?" she asked.
"Okay," I said. I loved cuddling with her, but I had been hoping for more - much more.
It took some doing but I was finally able to coax her into letting us have sex, but only if I wore a condom. I took it slow and easy with her so it wouldn't be painful. She insisted on wearing a long t-shirt and wouldn't let me touch her pussy. Her mother told her that was something dirty that only sluts and whores let men do. Needless to say, our first sexual encounter would have had to improve to suck.
Still, I loved her so I decided to be patient with her. I figured it wasn't her fault that her mother raised her to be frigid.
I got more insight into the problem after speaking with her only living relative, a cousin named Mario who was about 13 years older than her. He and his wife, Jenny, owned a strip club on the outskirts of town. It so happened that he had purchased all of his office equipment from the company I worked for, so I got a chance to see him every so often whenever he needed something fixed.
"So, how's married life treating you, Joe?" he asked one day.
"Okay, I guess," I told him.
"Who are you trying to convince?" he asked. "Me or you? Come on, spill it."
"Well, things aren't too good in the bedroom, if you know what I mean," I told him.
"Not surprised, really," he said. "My aunt had some real strange ideas about sex, you know. I honestly don't know how my Uncle Orville put up with it for so long. She didn't even let him sleep with her. I'm not sure where she got her ideas from, but I'm not surprised that Addie's taken after her mom a bit. At least she lets you sleep in the same bed.
"You know, if you really need to, you can hook up with one of the girls here," he told me. Mario had good tastes and the girls who worked for him were the very definition of "hot." I shook my head.
"Thanks, Mario, but I could never do that to Addie," I said. "I love her too much and I'd never cheat on her."
"Good answer," Mario said. "Look, I know it's hard, but just be patient with her, okay? And if you need to talk, just come by."
"Thanks, Mario, I appreciate that," I said.
I thought about what Mario said on the way home and considered ways to get Addie to open up a bit.
Addie could sense my frustration and once asked me tearfully if I regretted marrying her. Of course, I didn't. I love her more than life itself, I told her. And it was the truth. It still is, for that matter. But I wasn't going to go my whole life living in a sexless relationship, I decided. Nor would I ever cheat on her. That was out of the question. She even suggested it to me once.
"I know you have needs," she said as we sat on the couch watching television, "and I'm sorry I'm not able to meet those needs. If you want, you have my permission to go have sex with another woman. It would hurt, but I would understand."
I looked at her and noticed the tears in her eyes. I held her to me tightly.
"No, Addie, I'd never do that to you," I said. "I love you and I took a vow to forsake all others and stay with you for better or worse. I'd never hurt you like that." She began crying, hugging me tighter.
"Joe, I love you so much. Thank you for being so patient with me," she said. "I'm sorry I'm such a failure as a wife."
"You're not a failure, Addie. You're the best woman a guy could ever want. You're kind, considerate, loving, not to mention beautiful. We just have some issues we need to work through," I said.
Except for the lack of any meaningful sex, things were good between Addie and I over the next few months. We got along well, hugged and kissed each other every chance we got and Addie was always attentive to my daily needs. I knew the lack of sex bothered her so I didn't make an issue of it, and neither did she, although we did discuss seeing a marriage counselor. She was open to it, but it never happened.
That's because her shift changed, drastically, as it did from time to time. Now, she was working a split shift - fours hours on, fours hours off and another four hours on. She left for work at 8:00 am, worked from 9:00 - 1:00 pm, then went back to work from 5:00 - 9:00 pm. It was 10:00 pm by the time she got home, which was about the time I went to bed.
That's when things started to get, well, strange.
The thing about working field service is that you never know where you're going to be from one hour to the next. There were a few times I was fairly close to the hospital where she worked. I tried to arrange my lunch so I could swing by and surprise her with a quick mid-day "date." I was unsuccessful most of the time but one day a couple months after her shift change I made it into the parking lot just a little after 1 pm.
What I saw threw me for a complete loop. I spied Addie coming out of the hospital wearing a short dress that didn't look like anything she would normally wear. It was extremely short and showed off quite a lot of cleavage. I had never seen her wear anything like that before since she normally wore long nondescript dresses or jeans, so I took a couple photos with my phone, which was quite clunky compared to what we have today.
As I watched, she threw her scrubs into the back seat of her car, then drove away. I followed her for a bit but had to break it off so I could get to my next call. I had no idea where she was going or what she was doing. I tried calling her cell phone but it went straight to voicemail.
I sent her a text telling her I wanted to meet for lunch but just missed her. I got nothing in reply.
"What the hell is going on?" I asked myself. "Is she cheating on me? And if so, with who?" At that moment, I felt like my whole world was crumbling around me. I could never imagine Addie cheating on me, but if she was, that would mean the end of our short marriage.
I finished the rest of my day but my mind wasn't on work. I decided to take Mario up on his offer and stopped at his club on my way home.
