The Joe

I'm Frank, my wife is named Marie. If you read "The Joke", then you have an idea what is going on, if not, then this will probably be confusing.

If you don't like stories about wives straying, making mistakes then you won't like this much, just a warning.

Back when Marie and I first began dating, my goal was simply to get her panties off, plain truth there.

That was something I had done with a few others back then, doing the learning curve bit about females.

Marie had one of those nice round bodies, round where it matters and nice and flat, solid where it counts. She wasn't real shy, I saw her wearing a a T-shirt with no bra many times before I ever asked her to the movies.

The guy that got into the mix somehow, Allan Thompson was the same age as we all were, and he was the hilarious overly fat kid that lived next door to Marie. I remember when I showed up in my noisy Chevy Nova for the first date, there he was, on his porch. I waved, he waved, that was it.

Marie answered the door, oh YUMYUM! Pretty, bright smile, yep, I had plans for her.

It took quite some time, three, maybe four dates, finally I did manage to get my hands inside her bra and found she had no need to pad anything at all.

I liked that, and the truth is so did she. There was quite a bit of necking, finding out what each other liked.

Somewhere in there she became mine and I became hers, that just happened all by itself.

We almost went all the way one night, she got so hot that when I started rubbing her panties they felt simply soaked. Her own hand had found it's way inside my slacks, I swear to God I think she orgasmed the instant she touched bare flesh.

I damn near did myself.

Then barely in time she squirmed away, got me stopped. That was because she saw me pull a rubber out of my glove compartment.

"Frank, we can't. Please? I love you but we just can't." She told me, tugging at her clothing.

I stopped of course, no meant no to me. Then I held her for a long time. Later I took her home. The way she looked standing on her porch that night, both of us not wanting the other to go sort of did it.

The very next day I went down and bought a ring, drove directly over to her house. I was barely past being a kid if that, it didn't matter.

I wanted her all to myself and I was not going to take any chances.

She said yes, hugging me and crying about it.

Our parents basically shit a brick, we sat stubbornly holding hands through hours of lectures about being too young and all of the pitfalls of married life.

All four of them got us trapped, hell, a person would think that their own lives were pure hell.

My parents cuddled all the time, I saw that. They couldn't fool me, I knew how happy they were with each other.

Still, it was Marie's Dad that finally gve up first. He reached for his wife's hand Marie's Mom was a spitting image of Marie at the time.

"You and I were barely 20, honey. We did OK." He told her. Everybody looked at each other, there were some smiles. I had Marie's hand in mine.

Then my Dad looked at my Mom, he grinned too.

But by then there was not a single doubt in my own mind, Marie was the one and she felt the same way.

We married just two days before my 20th birthday.

Now, I am 54, in all that time I have never touched another female, there simply was no need.

Look? Sure, I am male, human. But sex with another? No, no way. I could not cheat on her, she was simply far to precious to me.

Marie did though. Just once. Which is what this story is about.

+++

Our life together was good, right from the gitgo. Once Marie and I got through our wedding night without too much hassle, it very quickly became obvious that she loved sex as much as I did.

Marie loved to tease me, she loved to try and get me going. That worked too, I always did have a little bit of pervert in me. Looking at women was a favorite past time. Marie figured that out in no time at all and went to great lengths to make sure that it was HER I looked at most of the time.

Kids? We were never blessed and we had 20 years in together before I found out why. We could have gone and gotten ourselves tested I suppose, maybe we should have.

Why didn't we? I don't know. We did talk about it but never did. Then came the bad time, Marie was barely into her forties.

That thing they cut out of her, the thing that turned into very bad news was the size of a tennis ball. It lay there inside her for years, benign, growing slowly until one day it was no longer growing slowly. A few times she mentioned a dull ache but it always went away.

Following was more bad times, she lost all of her hair, and she was very sick for over a year.

Things had been slipping some already between us, for one thing she moved into our spare bedroom which I did not like one bit. She wasn't feeling well, but she did try to hide that. I knew though, and I was hoping she would come out of it.

The mood swings began rather early, I guess around age 34-35. She was skipping her periods and then having very difficult ones, when one day I came home to find her in bed and miserable I no longer tried to coax her into seeing a Physician.

I think she had suspicions by then that something was serious, but she stayed in denial for way longer than she should have.

So I just loaded her up and hauled her in there, finally there was not much protest.

After the surgery, then Chemo, the Doctors told us they could no longer find any signs of her disease.

I was thinking, hoping that the situation at home between us would improve.

It didn't, not really. We did make love, a bit rarely, usually after some aggression on my part. Slowly, very slowly I was getting my Marie back to almost normal.

I thought so anyway.

Still, she slept in the spare bedroom.

+++

One evening Marie and I were reading online, one of my outlets now was erotic stories, I liked the ones about a wife showing off, the teasing ones.

Marie used to do a little bit of that back when we were kids, I liked it. She really was good at getting me fussed up.

I had even attempted to get Marie to perhaps dress a bit nasty when we went out, like she did when we were crazy kids but she was having none of that.

Marie kept claiming that she was too old and no one was interested in her any more, which I was completely sure was not even slightly true.

120 pounds on a busty 5'4" frame is not out of shape, I don't think.

We had reached that impasse, me still very interested in sex, Marie showing little signs of interest.

I have to say the situation was not good, that was not a happy time for me.

I did manage to get her on a beach just once after she was once again feeling good, she wore a one piece bathing suit because she was totally concerned about anyone seeing the scar on her lower belly.

I had seen it, a person would need to get down and peer at it to know what it was, but there was no convincing her otherwise. It's difficult for a man to completely understand what a woman feels like losing her female organs.

Maybe if we ever heard a Doctor tell us he was going to remove our testicles, then we might get it?

"I just don't feel like a woman, I don't feel sexy, honey." I will bet I heard that 30, maybe 40 times.

Anyway, we were on that beach and a couple of women went by with no tops on, bare breasts bouncing happily.

I looked. Of course I looked.

Marie started crying. Of course that ended our outing. There were quite a few incidents like that, out shopping, driving down the street and I would take a second look.

Men can't help that, at least most men can't.

+++

So sitting there that night that started all the trouble, I was floored when Marie asked me why I had never given her a "Hall Pass."

She used that teasing tone of voice that was so familiar, but one I hadn't heard from her in a very long time. I knew very well she was not actually asking me for anything, not really.

At that point it was just something she read in a story, so she teased me.

That's what gave me the idea, I made one up as a joke, and was sure it would be a good one.

No point in rehashing all of that and what happened, except to say Marie took me seriously, or it looked like that. It was a long time later that we discussed that, she told me she planned on the spur of the moment to tease me with it later, and the thought of actually doing something never even crossed her mind.

I am reasonably sure she was telling me the truth. I never did catch her in an outright lie, she was far more likely to just not say anything at all.

Kind of like the time I was late getting home one hot day. I had stopped at a park to get a drink of water, there was a fountain there. I spotted a pretty woman lying on a blanket, then it hit me she had no panties on.

Yes, that made me twenty minutes late getting home, I sat on a nearby bench and pretended to be watching some Squirrels. I never told Marie about that, so was that a lie?

The movie, the silly story she read fresh in her mind, about a "Hall Pass? Most would not understand, could not know how her mind works.

Yes, she would use it, but she would just wave it at me if she caught me checking our some hot gal with a grin.

So I told you in the last story about how that came about. Stupid stuff, a combination of events.

+++

That ended up with my Marie in her childhood friend's room, stoned and drunk to boot, vulnerable, but...trusting him? Still feeling that she was not attractive like she used to be, and she had witnessed Sally and Margaret, their responses to seeing me.

Allan's compliments, the man himself in love with her added to that, made her feel something that had been missing.

Then somehow naked in a hot tub and sex for the first time in her life with someone other than me.

Full of guilt, Marie changed and began to go out of her way to please me. During that period, I knew something had gone on, of course I did.

Necking maybe? Petting?

Yes, I knew there was something.

But not for sure if that makes any sense.

Why didn't I say anything, ask? I was waiting for her to tell me, then time went by and it passed from my mind, mostly.

+++

It was a full year later, we got the next class reunion thing from our classmate Margaret.

That was what brought it right back out into the open.

My Marie had held her guilt about that night in Reno inside herself the whole time, it all came out that night.

I had some of my own upsets, but not being sure and not wanting to press her in her still vulnerable state, I didn't ask.

When It finally did, and it all came pouring out of her, I guess I should have been shocked, upset? I wasn't shocked, I was upset.

I already was reasonably sure I knew.

I know. I was supposed to shoot her, divorce her, take all the money and leave her shoeless and alone. Maybe skin her alive, pour battery acid on her and drag her behind my Toyota pickup by one leg down the street?

Then go beat the hell out of Allen, who probably DID have it coming, assuming I could even manage that without using a Golf club or a gun or something.

Allan, now rich, no longer fat, always in love with Marie which was something I did not know at the time.

Had I known that, there is no way in hell I would have ever let her go to that dinner without me there, that "just to catch up" fucking dinner.

A future without my Marie? Alone? That was not something I could ever survive. So I held her that night when she confessed, I held her in my arms for hours. Then we went to bed, we didn't make love, we just slept.

She had her arms around me so tightly I was uncomfortable but I didn't make her move.

The next morning we did make love, I think they call that make up sex? Maybe that is what it was, because it was a silent joining. Neither one of us said a single word, we just did and it was beautiful.

+++

As it turned out, Allan loved Marie too, so much so that in all that time he never married. In all that time he never acted on that, he never tried to contact her. His own life ran the gamut of brief affairs, none satisfying.

That is some crazy stuff right there, a man pining away for about three decades over a woman he grew up with? Fat and lacking confidence, he had never asked her out or even kissed her.

He never knew that if he had, perhaps Marie and I might very well have not ended up together.

How do I know? Because I called him on the phone, to give him a piece of my mind, warn him to never touch or even see my wife again?

I never got to the point of cursing him, making the threats I had rolled around in my head because he asked me to meet him for lunch so we could talk.

I went, I don't know why. Partly because I was mad at him, hated him. Who knows? Besides, I wanted to look at the guy more closely, I wanted to see what it was that could seduce my wife.

I would have wagered every single thing I own that no man on Earth could do that.

Allan apologized to me, calmly and quietly. I don't care how mad a person gets, when no one is mad back, it's tough to stay furious.

He me he really had no intention at all of trying to seduce Marie, that the last thing he would ever want would be to cause trouble in her life.

But he had always loved her, even way back when he was just the funny fat kid from next door.

That night? He had some pot, he and Marie had sneaked off and smoked some lots of time way back when they were in high school. When he asked her if she wanted to do some, Marie was already pretty tipsy.

Of course the pot was in his room, giggling at the idea of doing that again after so many long years, Marie went with him to his room.

She went from a mild depression into a high. Once stoned, they got to talking about how as kids they had skinny dipped in the pool his Dad had in the back yard.

Somehow she ended up in the hot tub, when Marie laughingly slipped off her clothes and climbed into the tub he joined her.

Mostly unconcerned because they had skinny dipped before as children, innocent friends. But now, high on some pot, drunk enough to lose the normal reservations, one thing led to another and he kissed her in the pool.

When they climbed out, Allan had gotten a towel, he was drying her back. He reached around and put his hands on her tummy, she tipped her head back, his hands came up and fondled her bare breasts.

From that point on, there was no turning back.

After, they both had felt guilty. He asked her to never tell me, it would be their secret.

He said she told him she had to, somehow.

Allan was not really a bad guy, in fact, I had always liked him, everyone did.

"Marie loves you more than anything on this planet, Frank. You are the luckiest man on Earth, I would give anything, everything I own to trade places with you and have her love me like that." Allan looked completely miserable, the first time I had ever seen him that way.

OK. You want to hear screwy, something fucked up?

I drove home that afternoon feeling a little better about everything, after having talked things out with a man who fucked my wife?

Yes, his fault, her fault...and partly mine.

I will hazard a guess I analyzed and overly analyzed the why of what happened in my mind, until finally I came to terms with it.

Yea, sure I did.

But it is not that easy, it never is. Deep inside, I was still upset with Marie. But I also could not face a future without her.

That is why when she handed me a copy, well, almost a copy of that same stupid "Hall Pass" thing, I folded it up and made a show out of putting it in my wallet.

"I will do anything you want me to, if you will just keep on loving me!" That is what she told me.

I had no idea how long she had that silly piece of paper in her purse, trying to muster the courage to tell me about that night.

There was no joke this time, the look on her face was fear.

I guess I was thinking that now I had things back under control, I had the upper hand.

Stupid again.

+++

Margaret and Sally were both in the walled off hot tub at the resort when we arrived at the class reunion.

It took me a few seconds to realize they both were naked, because everyone was underneath the water when we walked in.

"Frank! Marie! You guys made it, great!" Sally stood up.

Bare breasts, dripping water. I felt Marie squeeze my hand.

"I see the party has already started." I managed.

"Yea, come on in, the water is fine." Margaret called out, hopping up onto the edge of the pool.

I could see she was no longer bashful about having tiny little titties because she was naked too.

And so was George, his huge belly hanging out over a mass of hairy pubes.

"We need to go check in." I said, and Marie and I did just that.

"Maybe we shouldn't have come, this looks like it will be kind of wild." Marie said as we were unpacking.

"This is one of those alternative resorts, they have the coed tubs and the private ones too. Massages here, nudist areas, but there are family spots so you don't have to do anything you don't want to, honey."

"Ok. I guess it will be all right." Marie didn't sound convinced though.

Later, we went to the dinner, suffered through Margaret's typical presentation. No photos of me this time which I was grateful for.

Marie and I stayed within about four feet of each other the entire evening. Like all class reunions, there was mixing and wisecracks about all the things that happened back in the day.

It was kind of fun to see everyone, Marie appeared to relax and enjoy herself. I did notice she drank nothing but Ginger Ale all night.

We were just getting ready to go to our cabin and get some sleep when I felt Margaret touch my arm, heard her voice.

"Look who is here, guys!" She said.

I turned and there was Allan Thompson. Marie saw him at about the same time, I felt her hand grip my arm.

The guy had on running shorts and a T-shirt, he looked about the same as he had the year before.

Margaret had a death grip on his elbow.

"Frank. Marie, how are you." Allan asked.

"We are doing good." I said. Margaret had a huge grin on her face. Did she know? I didn't have a clue.

It was an awkward moment. What had happened the year before came flooding right back into my mind.

"Well. I guess we should go mix, see everyone." Allan said, holding out his hand. I shook it, not wanting to. Then he nodded at Marie and he and Maggie left, she still had a solid grip on him like she had him caught for the night.

"I'm sorry, honey. I didn't know he was coming." Marie whispered to me.

"Don't worry about it." I said back to her. We left and went to our cabin, went to bed.

The bed we have at home is one of those California Kings, we settled on that because I still have a tendency to move around a lot at night and that helps since those things are huge.

The bed we had in the cabin was a standard size, tiny in comparison. Several times we bumped into each other. At one point Marie's hand slid across me, I felt it stroke my chest, then move lower. I was barely awake, then her hand found the waist band of my briefs, she managed to slide it inside.

I started to react and then I heard her giggle quietly. Outside, there were some tall street lights, they lit the room barely, enough to see.

I reached over and slipped the covers down, exposing Marie's bare breasts. Her hand became busy as I gently fondled her, she turned more my way. I pulled the covers down even further.

This was nice, Marie reaching for me in the middle of the night just like she used to do.

I looked down at her, perfect breasts capped with dark nipples, already snugging up into tight little circles like they always did when she was excited.

It flashed into my mind that Allan had seen her like this, touched her like this! I tried to shove that thought out of my head but it would not.