Discovering that your wife of twenty years has betrayed you can be devastating, especially if it hits you without warning. Perhaps a little explanation is necessary. My wife' Jessica and I met, courted and married over twenty years ago. She was the only woman for me, a fact I recognised after our first date. Way back then, she was an attractive blonde with a shapely figure and long legs and she still is. Standing at five six in her bare feet, she was only a couple of inches shorter than me.
To cut a long story short, within eighteen months, she became my wife, Jess Fuller. Over the years, she has retained that attractiveness and figure despite bearing me two sons, now both off our hands and making their way in the world. I told you she had retained her great figure and I wish the same could be said for myself. I had put on more than a few extra pounds and my hair, always on the thin side had started to get even thinner. I wasn't bald, but moving that way. Jess had complained occasionally that I was getting fat and encouraged me to take action to stop the slide and I had responded and started to shed a few pounds through regular exercise and diet adjustments. There wasn't much I could do about my receding hair line, but at least I was trying to restore my appearance and hopefully my attractiveness to my wife.
Our sex life was always gentle and loving, but lately I had sensed that she was less spontaneous in her response to my advances. I hoped that by making the effort, we could restore our love life to its previous levels. In our early years, we went at it like rabbits, but as the years slipped past, the frequency reduced as it does with most couples, but we both agreed that trading frequency and passion for care and tenderness, more than compensated for that.
I have read many stories on this web site and others about the husband being the last to know his wife was seeking to supplement her sex life elsewhere and the usual scenarios of how he discovered her betrayal. These range from the cliché, arriving home early and walking in on the act to finding out from behavioural changes. You know the kind of thing, more attentiveness and eagerness to have sex outside the normal pattern to mood changes or deprival of sex completely!
In my case none of the above fit the bill. No, in my situation, I watched it happen and despite my best efforts, I could not prevent the outcome. It all started perfectly innocently. After our sons, Andrew and Peter flew the nest we found ourselves with time on our hands and after a lot of discussion, decided to join our local amateur dramatic society. Jess had some experience of acting having been a part of the Am Dram scene in college. I had no experience of acting at all, but I was soon roped in, at first as a stage hand and then invited to undertake several walk on parts. Mostly, I had little to say or do, but when called upon, I responded and to my surprise discovered that I was pretty good. I think it was mostly because I never fluffed my lines and was reliable. Our society mostly did comedies or farces which were always well received by the audience.
All that was a couple of years ago and now Jess was taking second leads and sometimes the lead in some of the productions. Leo Bertram, our regular Director asked for a meeting with Jess and I the night before a scheduled meeting to discuss our next production.
After the usual preliminaries were completed he turned to Jess first and said, "Jess, I want to do something a little more risqué this time. It's going to be loosely based on The Graduate. I say, loosely because of the copyright laws. You must have seen the film, Anne Bancroft and Dustin Hoffman, older woman and younger man, there's an attraction and she seduces him and so on. It's a story about attraction and seduction and the impact it has on everyone involved. Our version, is not as dark as the film. I want to introduce some humour at the appropriate moment, but the ending will be a tragedy and I want you, Jess for the lead!"
Turning to me he said, "Tom, I want you for the role as her husband? As I said this is going to be more risqué than anything we have done before and I have to ask if you are prepared to accept Jess getting kissed and fondled by a much younger man?" "Fondled!" I exclaimed, "just what exactly are we talking about here? You'll need to explain this in more detail before we agree to anything!"
"Of course, of course I'll explain it all to you both, but rest assured the sex will only be simulated! There will be kissing, naturally and some tongue interchange. Maybe some breast stimulation, underneath her dress if possible, we need to demonstrate that the leading lady is attracted to the young man and that it develops into a sexual relationship."
I decided he was trying it on to see just how far I would permit this to go!
"So, you want me to allow some young lothario to seduce my wife in front of an audience and then........"
"No!" he interrupted, "It's a play! That's all. Yes it will stretch both you and Jess's acting abilities to the full. I have copies of the script with me and all I'm asking is that you read them tonight and let me know tomorrow if you are prepared to give it a go."
"Where are you going to get to play my would be lover. We don't have any young men in our present cast that would fit the bill?" Jess asked him. "I have that covered too. I know a man that teaches Drama at the one of the major schools in London. He has several young actors that are looking for the opportunity to develop their stage awareness and he thinks they would be delighted to spend the summer season working with us, unpaid of course. They should be at the meeting tomorrow night, I you want to meet your co-star before committing yourself, but I assure you, he is quite handsome, but also very young!"
We ended up agreeing to read the script and tell him our decision tomorrow regarding our participation. We did read the scripts and I was concerned about the love scenes. Jess, on the other hand seemed to quite excited at the prospect of setting out to seduce a shy young man, so much so that she nearly fucked me to a standstill that night.
In the morning we talked about the script and her excitement about the part was palpable. I knew then that she was desperate to do the role. I asked her about the sex scene and she said, "It's only a simulation! It's not as if I'm actually going to fuck him. As for the fondling, well, I get much the same kind of treatment every Christmas from the men I work with and I've learned how to handle them. Is this jealousy that's making you baulk at us taking the part or is it something deeper?"
Was I jealous of her role? After some thought I realised that, no, not really, but I was certain that I had misgivings about her kissing him and letting him take liberties with her beautiful body. Not just that, but in front of an audience, most of whom knew us! That was what was at the root of my problem. I loved Jess and trusted her implicitly, but even simulated sex in a public theatre would start the tongues wagging! Many of our colleagues from work would also be in that audience. What would they make of it all?
I explained my thinking to her and hoped that she would agree not to take the part, but she said, "I understand all that, but it's only an act! I really want to play the role and I think that you are being ridiculous in raising these stupid objections! I love you and you only. This is just too good a part to turn down!"
Seeing that she was so determined and that further procrastination was not going to sway her, I said, "OK, do the bloody role, but for the record, I'm telling you now, I'm not happy about it!"
I noted that she could hardly keep the smile from her lips as she asked, "You have nothing to worry about. You're my man and this play is just for fun. I want to see if I can still be attractive to a young man, even if he is acting a part like me. Now, are you going to take the role as my husband? I really need you to be there for me, it's important that I have your trust in this!"
I thought about and decided that this was one of those occasions that I would be wise to accede to her request, so I nodded my agreement. She came to me and gave me a hug and gave me a promise that I would get my reward after the meeting tonight. The meeting that night was predictable and short. Many of our regular actors were miffed because this play had only three main characters, myself as the cuckold husband, Jessica as the vamp wife in lead, Gerry, her toy boy and would be conquest. The remaining parts were of a walk on nature and no real importance to the story. Sonja and Jason, the other two young actors had small parts to play as well. Jess and Gerry seemed to hit it off right away and as the rest of us discussed the rehearsal programme, they sat quietly together exchanging ideas about how to present their affair on stage, or at least I thought that was what they were doing.
In an effort to appease some of the more vocal objectors, Leo asked for volunteers to understudy me and Jess. Mary Adams and Alan Ward took those roles and rehearsals planned. We had two weeks to the dress rehearsal and then the play would run for three nights Thursday through Saturday. Our experience gained from previous productions led us to believe that three nights was all that the local community would support, hence the short run. Before the meeting broke up Jason asked if anyone would like a lodger as the three young student actors needed a place to stay while in town. He was also looking for folk to feed them their dinner each evening. Jess started to put her hand up, but a quick squeeze on her arm from me stopped that.
