The Home Wrecker

I would love to thank an anonymous critic for such encouragement. He emailed me a few times and let me know how much he enjoyed my stories. Thank you very much. i wish you could have not this were i could thank you more formally. But i suppose it is to be said. Again, thank you and this one if for you.

Lee

Chapter 1: Roy's Story

It was around 24 years ago when I first set eyes on the woman who would later become my wife. Janice was waitressing at a Denny's restaurant where I, Roy Brown, had gone for a meal. She was dressed in standard Denny's uniform: dark brown skirt, light blue printed blouse, panty hose, and black shoes. Her brown hair was pulled back in a French braid that went just past her neck, and her hazel eyes were fiercer than anything I'd ever seen. I was smitten.

I didn't immediately fall in love, because it takes time to get to know someone that well. Nor did I lust after her, although her ample bosom and perfect ass were worth drooling over. I just knew that I wanted to make her my wife.

Janice was in her last year of college, working as a waitress to help pay the bills, while I had just graduated with a good steady job ahead of me.

She must have thought I was some sort of stalker because I pursued her from the jump, even before I found out that she was available.

I eventually won a date with her. I took her to a bar with a dance floor, and we hit it off immediately. To humor me, Janice wore her waitress uniform. She was an energetic and passionate dancer, drawing admiring glances, despite her waitress attire. Whenever I left her side, to visit the restroom or purchase more drinks, she was hit on and asked to dance, however, she didn't dance with anyone but me for the entire night. That was when I started to fall more heavily for her.

A few days later, I called at Janice's home to pick her up for our second date. I was waiting for her in the front room when she got a call on the house phone. Although I wasn't eavesdropping, I did overhear a snippet of the conversation.

"Hi David. I'm a little busy right now." Pause. "I'm getting ready to go on a date."

Listening to her call it a 'date' was music to my ears.

Laughing, she continued, "No, I don't think so." Pause. "No David, I don't think my date would appreciate my ex showing up. So, no." Pause. "Hey, I have to go. I need to get ready." Click.

When she walked into the room wearing a nice blue dress, once again with pantyhose, she took my breath away. She was a dream to look at; totally enchanting.

That night we went to dinner at a steak house followed by a movie at a unique theater. What made it unique was that, instead of theater chairs, we sat on lounge chairs arranged around a small table. There was table service, and we ordered a bottle of wine and two glasses to enjoy while watching the movie. The movie was forgettable, but being with my lovely companion more than made up for that.

After the movie, I took Janice home and walked her to the door where she turned and kissed me. I will remember that kiss for the rest of my life. Her lips were soft, moist, and plump with just enough pressure against mine. She tasted wonderful and her smell was intoxicating.

Finally ending the kiss, she gave me a dazzling smile, before proceeding to walk into her house.

I floated home in a daze after what had been the best night of my life.

We continued to date and, although we hadn't agreed to be exclusive, she only dated me. However, I continued to date other women. On a day I had scheduled a date with one of Janice's waitress colleagues, since I had some time to spare, and Janice was free, I asked her to breakfast before I picked up Wendy.

We had the most fascinating, unreserved conversations on that breakfast date. We really clicked and were oblivious to our surroundings. After we'd finished eating, I went to pay the bill at the register.

The hostess asked, "Was everything ok?"

I replied, "It was great!!!" of course.

Then she asked, with a knowing smile, "Would you have noticed if it wasn't?"

Janice chimed in with, "No, we wouldn't have ... like at all..." with a smile that lit up the room.

I really hadn't noticed that we were all that lovey-dovey, but I guess we must have been.

After that breakfast, I felt what Janice and I were building was special, and I wanted to see where it could go.

I decided that I should call off the date with Wendy, but wanted to let her down gently.

When I got to Denny's, I took a seat and waited for Wendy to finish her shift. While I was waiting, Janice arrived for work. I was surprised, since I didn't know she was scheduled to work that day.

I was worried that the situation would become awkward, and was relieved when Wendy walked out with one of her girlfriends. The girlfriend gave me a 'fuck you' stare that could kill, and Wendy shot me a look that said, 'I'm sorry but I have better things to do'.

I guessed that Janice and Wendy had sorted things out behind the scenes.

I smiled, paid for the coffee I didn't drink, and left feeling pretty great, actually.

Janice and I never mentioned exclusivity after that; it was just mutually assumed.

I rented a one-bedroom apartment and Janice moved in with me right away. It all happened quickly, and I was in heaven. I wanted her so much.

Janice was a terrible cook. She was the only person I had ever seen manage to burn boiled eggs. Seriously, have you ever seen burned boiled eggs? Yet, despite being an awful cook, she kept trying. I had to respect her perseverance, and I loved her more for it. I ate things that were barely edible, just to show my appreciation of her efforts.

One evening, about a month after we moved in together, Janice came home from work horny. I was asleep and was woken by this ethereal vision of beauty, as she mounted me and began riding enthusiastically.

I came inside her with a vengeance, and she laid down on me as I recovered from my orgasm.

"Holy mother of god, baby doll. That was great but, tell me ... did you put your diaphragm in before you did this?"

"Oh... I knew I forgot something."

"SHIT!!"

She desperately wanted to get pregnant, and I was woken that way six more times during the month. Of course, she missed her period. And the next.

Three months after we realized that she was pregnant, I asked Janice to marry me. Her reply was, "No! I don't want anyone to think I trapped you into marriage."

It seemed that she wanted to get pregnant, but didn't want to be married to me. I felt that she had just used me for my seed, and didn't want me as a person. I wondered whether she was merely a lonely woman looking to fulfil her maternal instincts. I moped for weeks until she started wanting sex several times a day. She told me that being pregnant made her horny as hell. I could never resist her, so I never turned her down.

In due course our daughter, Jessica Ann, was born.

Since we were both college graduates with stable jobs and, even with Janice taking maternity leave, we had enough money to buy a house with a fifteen-year mortgage. Our little family moved in and we had never been happier.

We brought our daughter up together, making the most of each day. Sometimes we argued, sometimes we couldn't get enough of each other -- but every day we loved each other. We rarely raised our voices, or disrespected each other with insults. No matter how heated our disagreements, we always cast aside our egos and placed our love on a pedestal.

Janice and I had many friends. We valued their friendships and were always happy to help when it was needed. For example, when one friend, Ken, went through a disastrous divorce, losing his wife, home, and even his job, we took him in and gave him a place to stay for almost a year.

Another good friend, Jerry, got laid off his job, so we made the mortgage payments for three months, until he got himself another job. When he was back on his feet, he told me he wanted to pay it back -- we told him to pay it forward.

Yet another friend, Abdullah, needed a few thousand dollars to buy an eighteen-wheeler for his business. When asked about the repayments, we suggested that he send the money to his extended family in South Africa, as they were in great need.

We could afford to be generous because both Janice and I had good jobs. I was working for a company that paid very well and was running a booming business. For some unknown reason, my bosses loved me, and I moved up the corporate ladder relatively quickly. I became head of the offices in around ten years, which might seem like a long time, but those years flashed past. My bosses eventually retired, and I took over, as part owner and partner, eighteen years after I started.

There were three department heads who I worked with, but my most reliable support was Tina Billings. Janice and I regularly socialized with Tina and her husband Bill, even travelling on company trips together, on occasion. Tina and Bill knew how much Janice and I were in love.

I was discussing my marriage once with Tina, and made the statement, "I feel really secure in our marriage. Our love is so strong that I think it would even survive an affair, but I'm not going to test that theory."

Tina broke down and started crying, explaining that Bill had cheated on her once when he was travelling on business. I held Tina for a long time.

Naturally, Janice had friends of her own. I liked that she had people she could confide in. Kathy was her best friend. Kathy and I got along quite well. We flirted with each other sometimes, but only in front of Janice, who I let know that it was just for fun. Kathy was a very good-looking blond -- but not nearly as attractive as my wife.

Kathy was married to a man named Bryan. When Bryan and she eventually divorced, Kathy was an emotional mess. Janice was all over her, providing support and comforting her, while I stayed on the sidelines. On several occasions Kathy stayed the night with us, too upset to be alone. Also, while her divorce was playing out, Kathy stayed with us for an extended period, which was fair, since we'd supported other friends, but it significantly reduced my sex life.

When Janice and I first got together we'd often make love several times a day. After Jessica was born, the frequency was closer to five or six times a week, then to five or six times a month. Eventually, our couplings reduced to, maybe, twice a month -- and less when Kathy was staying over.

I tried many things to get the spark back. I suggested counseling to pick up our sex life, but Janice wasn't keen. I even visited adult bookstores and online sites, buying toys, massage oils, and other gimmicks. Janice loved some of the toys, but our sex life didn't change much.

It wasn't like I took her for granted, at all. From the beginning of our relationship, I had always made a point of romancing Janice. I kept track of our dates on a special calendar that I had at work, marking date nights with stars. Tina was the only other person who knew about the calendar and the stars. I made sure that the dates were a surprise for Janice, varying the days on which we went out, and varying the time between dates. To Janice, it would seem random, but it wasn't. I had it all drawn out on the calendar. I wanted to mix up the dates so that she regarded them as a nice surprise, instead of becoming an expectation. I was determined to prevent our romantic life from becoming mundane or boring. I wanted to keep Janice happy as possible. I guess that my 'spontaneity' and good intentions eventually failed as she had stopped taking as much trouble to dress for our nights out over the last year or two.

September 1st, 2017 will forever be a scar on my memory. It was a Friday -- the end of the working week, but there were some chores that I had promised the partners I would finish on the Saturday. The 'partners' are all semi-retired and show up occasionally to make sure no one cheats them out of their six-figure paycheck. I don't begrudge them their income, because they worked their butts off to be in that position but, as for 'partners', well, they don't provide much support.

I arrived home, glad that it wasn't a date night, as the last date had been a disaster. Janice had worn jeans to a five-star restaurant, and we received dirty looks the whole time we were there. It was so embarrassing that I was relieved to get to the theater. When we returned home, Janice told me she had been bored all night. There was no sex that night, of course. That was three weeks ago. Since then, however, I had gotten sex several times. I couldn't believe my luck each time she came home from work and seduced me. I was hoping that our life was changing for the better. Little did I know.

I came home that fateful Friday night calling out, "Hello I'm home."

"Upstairs in the bathroom," Janice called out.

Wearing my best smile, and hoping to get laid again, I walked into the bathroom. There she was in a stunning dress. It was a beautiful midnight blue and hung just above the knees. There was a slit up the side of the dress that showed her entire leg and upper thigh. She was wearing stockings that stopped below the slit on the dress.

I about came in my pants looking at her.

Then she turned and I saw the front of her dress. While it wasn't low cut, there were openings in the dress that showed off her cleavage in a way that made me want to see more. I could tell the bra was black and see-through. I had never wanted her more than in that moment.

She was applying makeup when she turned around and said, "What do you think?"

My heart was pounding in my chest, as I drooled out an, "I have never seen you more beautiful. Janice I am in love with you."

"That's the look I was going for, except I don't want love, just lust," she giggled.

"Is it new?"

"Yes. I bought it today. I played hooky after lunch. A guy I met asked me out tonight," she said.

I stood there trying to make sense of that statement.

"Asked you out???"

"Yea. A man I met at lunch asked me out for tonight. I bought the dress to impress him. I'm glad you like it."

My throat closed on me. My stomach sank. My face reflected in the mirror seemed to have a gray pallor. I backed up and sat on the commode. It was one of those moments you're not even sure is real. "You're... You're... You're going... out with... with... with... another man????" I managed.

"Yep. Don't stay up for me. I know I'll be late. Then tomorrow we can get some yard work done together," she said, placing the makeup in her purse, and starting out the bathroom door.

I spun around, fell to my knees, raised the toilet seat, and started to puke. Soon, I had nothing in my stomach, so nothing but bile came up. Regardless, I kept throwing up.

When I was able to stand, I staggered to the door, and yelled, "The hell you are!!"

There was no answer, of course.

I made it downstairs but couldn't see her car, and I knew she was gone. I sat at the kitchen, shaking and teary-eyed. My wife, the only woman that I had ever loved, the mother of my daughter, my soul mate was going to see another man. I envisioned her with some faceless man, kissing him, laughing with him, making love to him. I rushed to the kitchen sink to dry retch some more.

After I had recovered somewhat, I pulled off my wedding ring for the first time since she'd placed it on my finger on March 2nd, 1994. Twenty-three wonderful years of marriage, evaporated in a moment. What the hell did I do wrong? What the hell happened?

I finally started to come to my senses. My first thought was to track her phone, and find out just what the fuck was happening. I'd grab the son-of-a-bitch and kick his ass. I worked out three times a week and practiced kick boxing on the weekends for an hour, so I wasn't a fat chump, but beating him wouldn't stop her from wanting him.

I was so confused, unable to comprehend why she had decided to do this to us. We hadn't argued in months, so I didn't think that she was having an affair to spite me. I wept in my helplessness.

I decided to just get the hell out of the house and stay away until I'd had a chance to think things through, get some help, and plan my next steps. I pulled some suitcases out of the garage, packed my clothes, and loaded them into my pickup. I walked around the house seeing all sorts of reminders of happier days, and wept with frustration again. The photo wall of our vacations was in the den. Several cruises to the Bahamas, Mexico, one to Alaska. Trips with our daughter to Disneyworld, Carlsbad Caverns, Washington DC., the Grand Canyon. I left the room as the pain of loss overwhelmed me. It's funny that, no matter how bad things get, the day everything comes to a close, you start remembering the good times.

I drove my pickup to a cheap motel, not far from where I worked, checked in, and settled into my room.

My next action was to call Jessica.

"Hi dad..."

"Did you know?" I asked, my voice cracking with emotion.

"Know what?"

"That your mom has a boyfriend."

"WHAT!!!!"

"Your mom has a boyfriend..."

"No, she has a boyfriend? No, not mom... Something is wrong. What's the joke???"

"No joke, Jess. I arrived home to find her in a sexy new dress, then she walked out after telling me she had a date with a man she'd met at lunch. She said not to wait up for her...."

There was a long pause.

"Daddy...," she cried, her voice breaking.

"Daddy are you... are you ok???" she finally asked.

"Don't worry about me, Jess. I love you. I just wanted to know if you knew."

"No daddy, I didn't know. I'm going to call her and give her a piece of my mind..."

"No Jess, don't do that. Mom is going to need you. You're her family. It's me she doesn't want, not you. Whatever you do, don't stop talking to her and loving her. Please. This may destroy our marriage, but don't let it destroy your relationship with her."

I breathed out heavily for a few seconds, trying to regain my composure.

"Baby, please, promise me that you won't punish your mom. Give it a couple of days before you call her. Tell her you love her, even if you don't like what she has done. Jess, we never stopped loving you when you were bad. Don't stop loving your mother."

I could hear Jessica breathing and trying to control her tears. Finally, she moaned, "DADDY... I LOVE YOU..."

"I love you too," I responded, then ended the call, unable to continue speaking.

There was one more thing I had to do. I had to call Tina, but only after pulling myself together. I walked from the motel and found a liquor store. I bought a large bottle of Jim Beam and returned to my room. I poured a shot and downed it, followed by two more.

I called Tina.

"Hello boss. What's wrong???" Tina was smart. I never called her at home unless something was very wrong.

"I can't co..." I caught myself choking on the words. "I need ..." I choked out. "Tina... My wife is having an..." I cried with overwhelming emotion. "Tina... I can't.... I can't..."

"Where are you Roy?" she demanded.

"Motel by work..." I got out.

"What room number?" she pressed.

"114," I choked out.

Before I could say anything, she said, "I'm on the way." Then she ended the call.

I knew she would arrive quickly, so I unlocked the door and propped it open, then laid in a fetal position on the bed and sobbed.

I lost track of time, and the next thing I knew Tina and her husband Bill were in the room. Tina came to my side and tried to comfort me.

"Roy, I called Janice, but her phone went to voice mail. So, I called Jessica, and she told me what happened. I'm sorry Roy. I know what you're going through, and I'm not going to leave you alone tonight. So, don't even ask..."

Together, they got me up and into Tina's car. Bill drove my pickup to their house, following Tina and me. They showed me to their spare room and put me to bed.