The Résumé

Kyle is my brother. He's a couple of years younger than me and considered the wilder one. He wasn't really wild but he had chosen not to go to college. Kyle said he liked the outdoor work of construction jobs, which certainly kept him in good shape. He had what the girls call a hard body, and Kyle exploited his good looks. He always seemed to have nice looking girlfriends, and they always seemed crazy about Kyle. I could understand why because he was polite and respectful. Combine that with his good looks and his work ethic and the women seemed to flock to him. The thing was, Kyle wasn't looking to get serious, so he never seemed to stick with one. He wasn't looking to settle down. But that didn't keep the girls from trying, or sometimes coming back for a second try.

Max and I only stopped once for gas and a bio-break. We did a Burger King drive thru. Max was wagging his tail as we pulled up to the drive-up window. As the cute young girl looked out of the opening Max climbed on my lap and stuck his head out the truck towards her. He was acting like they were long lost friends, his wagging tail slapping the truck seat. The girl had a big smile on her face, and I noticed her name tag said "Kayla".

I was watching out for Max's wagging tail as he tried to climb further out the window towards Kayla. I laughed at Max's enthusiasm. "Yeah, she's a cutie," I said softly to Max.

"Kayla, this is Max. Max, Kayla." The introduction got a laugh out of Kayla, and she reached out with a dog biscuit and the dog eagerly took it. "Okay, Max, enough," I said, pushing him back to his passenger seat.

"One Whopper meal with a diet coke, one six piece chicken tenders and water. Have I got that right?" Kayla said politely with a big smile.

I paid and then we pulled over in the parking lot to eat our meal. Max seemed to love his chicken tenders. After walking Max on the grass for a few minutes, we were back on the road.

****

We pulled up to the house around 7pm. Max and I jumped out leaving the garbage bags full of my clothes in the truck. I knew Mom and Dad would wonder why Becky wasn't with us, and I had my white-lie story all prepared. As we walked in, I saw Mom, Kyle and some girl I didn't recognize. I presumed it was Kyle's latest; they sat at the bar area between the kitchen and the dining room. Dad sat at the large dining room table reading the paper.

Mom jumped up to give me a hug, and Kyle yelled Max's name then squatted down to give the dog a big hug.

After hugging mom, I looked over at the unknown girl. Kyle still rubbed on Max, so Mom introduced Tracy as Kyle's girlfriend.

"Nice to meet you, Tracy," I said, giving her a light hug.

I was thirsty and looked at mom. "Is there Diet Coke in the fridge? I'm dying for one."

"Of course there is, Jim. I grabbed some earlier because I knew you were coming, and god forbid we didn't have Diet Coke."

I popped my head into the fridge and grabbed one. As I opened it, I glanced at Mom, who was looking at me with a questioning eye.

"Jim, where is Becky? You said she was coming with you?"

"I didn't say she was coming, Mom. She decided to stay home."

"Jim, you said, we will be up later."

"Yeah, we are-- Max and I are here."

Mom looked at me suspiciously. She knew something wasn't right and I knew there was very little chance of me pulling something over on mom. The last thing I wanted to do was to burden her with my current situation. I just wanted to feel the stability of being with my family. People I knew loved me. I had no intention of telling them about Becky's cheating.

"Becky stayed in Oklahoma City?" I knew mom was confused. Becky had family in the KC area, too, and she had always come up when I did. In fact, it was usually her that had it all planned and communicated to both families, and we would always go out for a meal together at a bar-b-que place or a steakhouse.

"No, it was kind of spur of the moment for me. Becky had a business thing this weekend, so I decided to drive up. I was hoping Mom would buy my subterfuge, but I knew getting anything past her was almost impossible.

I looked over at my brother. "Kyle, I need to get Max some real dog food. Do you want to ride with me to the store?" If I made an escape, I wouldn't have to answer any more of Mom's questions.

****

After Kyle and I found Max's food at the local market, we stood in line waiting to checkout.

"Ok, spill it," Kyle said. "What's going on? Did you and Becky get into a fight?"

Oh shit, I thought. If I can't even hide it from Kyle, Mom's alarm bells must really be going off.

"Yeah, we had... a fight. Not a big deal," I lied. I still wasn't going to spill the beans on Becky's cheating.

We finished paying and walked out to my truck then got in.

"Bullshit, Jim. You came all the way up here on a spur of the moment thing. Something big has happened. Did you do something stupid? Did Becky kick you out? Did you cheat on Becky?"

"Hell no, Kyle. What makes you say something like that? You think I cheated on Becky?"

"I know how us guys are, we see a beautiful girl and sometimes it makes us do stupid shit. And Jim, your clothes are in garbage bags in the back seat of the truck, so you got out of there in a hurry." Kyle pointed to the back seat of my truck.

Okay, now I was getting mad. "Fuck no, Kyle, I didn't cheat on Becky! It wasn't me who cheated."

Kyle looked at me with a blank expression on his face. Then the expression suddenly changed to shock. "Oh, my god, Jim. You caught Becky cheating on you, didn't you?"

Kyle's eyes searched my face. I started to deny it, but then just couldn't speak. I sat there we a huge lump in my throat. I could feel the sad expression on my face as I looked at Kyle.

Without further response, I turned and started my truck. As I was backing out Kyle said, "Shooters, Jim. Drive us to Shooters. Let's grab a beer and talk. We can't go home yet."

"What about Tracy?" I asked. "You just going to leave her there with Mom and Dad?"

"She loves them, and they love her. Tracy is really the sweetest. Besides, she thinks that if she gets in good with Mom, I may take our relationship more seriously, so we are good for a while."

****

I didn't really want to talk but did as Kyle started asking me questions as we drove to Shooters. It was a local sports bar not far from my parent's house. We sat down at a table, and a cute girl in short shorts and a half cut top came up to wait on us. She recognized Kyle and got a big smile on her face.

"Look what the cat dragged in," she said. "I haven't seen you in like - forever. I guess the last time was probably when you dumped me for that blond bimbo?"

"Nita, be nice. That blond bimbo was your best friend. I think she still is if I'm not mistaken."

"Yeah, we made up. We decided that our friendship was worth more than some dude that doesn't know the first thing about being in a serious relationship." Her language was very pointed, but you could tell Nita wasn't really angry. Not much anyway.

"Guilty as charged," Kyle said smiling.

"Who's your latest victim?" Now Nita was smiling.

"Not tellin'. You would probably warn her, then what would I do?" They both laughed at that.

"You bet I would. We girls have to stick together, and a heartbreak warning should be tattooed on your forehead. Now, what can I get for you two?"

"Two Dos XX, please."

****

I told Kyle the whole story, but at first he didn't believe me.

"No way. I can't imagine Becky doing anything close to that," Kyle was astonished. "I mean, what the fuck? Is the guy rich or something? Do you think she is planning on dumping you for him and his money?"

"I don't know. He is way older than her, and I just can't see that. I just got the fuck out of there quick. Max and I spent last night at a hotel. Becky has been trying to call and text about every hour, but I shut off the ringer volume." I tapped my pocket realizing I hadn't felt it vibrate in a while. My phone wasn't in my pocket. Shit. I realized I had left my phone on the counter back at the house.

"Well, fuck her, Jim. I don't know what would cause her to do something like that, but there are plenty of more fish in the sea. Hell, Tracy has an older sister that is smoking hot, and she likes the more conservative guys like you. Plus, I heard she usually puts out on the first or second date. I could set you up, if you like.

"Kyle, that's crazy. I'm still married, and I'm not even thinking like that."

"Well, I'm figuring that you'll be dumping her soon enough, so when you feel like getting back in the saddle, ole' Kyle is here for you. I know it just happened, but fuck her man, life is too short to stay connected to a cheating cunt. I say, move on, quick!"

It felt like I should be defending Becky. My brother just called my wife a cunt, but I guess I basically felt the same way he did and at this moment, I wanted nothing more than to dump her as quickly as possible.

"You're right, Kyle. I will be moving on quickly. Fuck her." We both took big swigs of our beer. "She's just a bad mistake that will soon be in my rear-view mirror."

****

When we got back to the house, Mom was putting the food on the table. I looked for my phone where I had left it on the counter, and noticed someone had put it on a charger.

Dinner went fine. Mom is a great cook. She made beef stew and homemade rolls. It was delicious. Dad and I talked Royal's baseball and sized up our chances in the upcoming season. He was always more pessimistic than me. I guess you might call him more realistic. I had a habit of thinking each of the players would exceed expectations, and if everyone was at peak performance, we would have a hell of a team. Dad pointed out the odds of players doing X or achieving Y, and the analysis would point to a less than stellar season. Sorry to say, Dad was almost always right.

Mom was quiet during dinner and spent most of her time talking to Tracy. She would glance at me every once in a while, searching my eyes for my emotions. Dad may have been oblivious to my situation, but Mom wasn't. She knew something was amiss, but she wasn't engaging me on the subject in this mixed company.

I guess Kyle was right, Tracy really seemed to be chatting Mom up, trying to get on her good side. She may have been trying a little too hard but she seemed like a really sweet, beautiful girl. She was tall and slender with long straight brown hair and smallish breasts. I thought she looked like a model. As she spoke to Mom, you could tell she was very attracted to Kyle. I heard her ask Mom what Kyle was like as a young boy. She kept reaching over and touching Kyle's arm. You could tell she was smitten.

I don't know how Kyle did it. He always seemed to have the sweet, gorgeous girls falling all over him, and he never took any of them seriously. I wondered what it was going to take for that guy to settle down?

After dinner, Kyle seemed to rush out, saying he had to get Tracy home. That seemed unusual for a Saturday night, but I got a sense they were hurrying. I figured he also sensed that Mom was on to my situation, and he wanted to get out of the way.

After Kyle and Tracy left, I started to help Mom clean up the kitchen and put things away. Dad disappeared into the living room, and I saw him turn on the Royals game as he sat down in his recliner.

Mom was being unusually quiet as we cleaned up the kitchen, but that situation was short lived. Mom was the counselor in our family, and I could feel we were about to have a talk. As the kitchen was almost clean, Mom turned to me. I could see sadness and concern in her eyes. "Come on, Jim." Mom pulled a chair back from the table. "Let's sit here, and you can tell me what is going on."

"Nothing's going on, Mom," I said defensively as we sat down. "What makes you think something..." Mom, held up her hand and cut me off.

"Jim, when you went for Max's food, you left your phone on the counter. it was vibrating every fifteen minutes, like clockwork. I looked to see who was trying to reach you, and it was obviously Becky, so I picked it up. I thought it might be an emergency. At first, she seemed confused that I answered - I told her you left your phone on the counter. Then, I realized she didn't even know you were up here, so I asked her what was going on. She broke down crying. She didn't tell me a lot, but she did say she had made a terrible mistake and asked me to have you call her. Jim, I know what it means when someone's husband or wife says they have made a terrible mistake." Mom was now looking me straight in the eyes with sadness on her face.

I started to speak. I was going to tell her that I had caught Becky, but as I tried to speak, nothing came out. Words wouldn't come out of my mouth but tears filled my eyes, and the stoic face I had been trying to hold disappeared. I started crying. "Mom, I don't know, I don't know what is happening."

Mom came around the table and I stood up. We wrapped our arms around each other, hugging. I was crying and I felt like I was eight again, but I didn't care. Becky's betrayal had shaken me to the core, and I felt completely lost. At least there, in my mother's arms, I felt loved and in a safe place. I wasn't sure I could trust previously considered safe places, but I knew I could trust my mother's love and I knew she wanted to help me through my pain.

"What did she tell you, Mom? I haven't spoken to her since I caught her red-handed, screwing her boss."

"Oh, god. She didn't tell me that. All she said was she screwed up big time but that she still loves you and wanted to speak to you." We both stood as I tried to get my crying under control.

"Jim, I don't know what is going on, but she is desperate to speak with you. She told me she was going to jump in her car and drive up here but I told her that you still might refuse to speak with her. So she said she would wait."

"'I'm not sure I want to talk to her, Mom. Why would I speak with her? What would I say? All, I can think to say to her is: 'you are a cheating whore and I want a divorce'?"

"Jim, you can't speak to her that way. Even if you saw it, I taught you better than to speak to anyone like that. I find it hard to believe that Becky would even cheat on you. There must be some kind of crazy explanation. At the very least, you need to talk to her and find out her side of the story."

"What could she tell me that would change anything? What would she say? 'My boss paid me a million dollars to screw him'? Even that wouldn't matter, and I would divorce her anyway."

"I don't know Jim but you have to talk to her. Please, I know it will be difficult, but talk to her and get her side of the story. At least you will know what you are dealing with before you decide your next step. Speak to her privately at your house. Emotions will be high, and you want to be able to speak openly. But be careful, and try to not let your anger take over. That would not be good for either of you."

"Mom, I'm not going to hit her or anything."

"I know you wouldn't do that Jim, but believe me, for this conversation, both of you will need help keeping your emotions in check. These kinds of talks are very difficult. It will feel like your heart has been ripped out of your chest."

Mom sounded like she was speaking from experience. Had she and dad been through something like this in the past? I thought about asking, but I wasn't sure I wanted to go there, so I agreed with her.

"Ok, Mom. I guess you are right. I guess it's what needs to be done. I'm sure it's going to hurt like hell, listening to her tell me why she betrayed me. But I guess I've got to go through it, so I can get past it. I'll do it. I'll set up a time to talk to her."

Mom smiled at me. I could see the pain in her eyes. "Jim, this is going to be difficult for you. I'm so sorry you are having to go through it but don't give up on Becky before you hear her out. People make mistakes, we all do. We're all human. You need to hear what she has to say."

Mom glanced over at my phone and made a gesture with her hand. She wanted me to pick up my phone. I give her a quizzical look, but I knew she wanted me to call Becky right then.

"You should call and set it up right now. Waiting won't make it easier."

I grabbed my phone and hit "1" on my favorites list. Becky picked up on the second ring.

I heard Becky choke out my name. "Jim?"

"Becky" was the only word I could get out myself. I glanced up and saw Mom leave the kitchen quickly.

Suddenly, Becky found her voice. "Jim! Thanks for calling. Did your Mom talk you into calling? She said she would. Thank her for me." There was a moment of silence, then "I'm so sorry for what you saw. I can't imagine the pain I've caused you." I could hear her trying to hold back her crying. "Jim, you have to believe me, I'm so sorry that happened. I never wanted to hurt you." Now, she was crying.

"Becky, what the fuck! How could you? I'm not good enough for you in bed? Is that it? So you go and screw your fuck-head boss? Does he have a really big cock, or is it his really big wallet?"

"Oh my god, Jim, no. It's nothing like that." She was now crying loudly, having to pause between words. "It's all... a... big... mess. I've made such a big mess... of my life. I can't believe how badly I've fucked things up." She was sobbing and was trying to continue but I couldn't understand what she was saying.

"Yeah. A big mess. That is an understatement. And now you'll be getting a big divorce because I want out of your big messed up life.

"Oh god no, Jim. Please don't say that. I love you. You have to understand things just got out of control."

Max walked into the room slowly and stood next to me. He must have heard the tone of my voice and knew I was in pain again. He spun and laid at my feet putting his head down on his front paws.

"Becky. I don't know what got out of control, but I'm going to give you one chance to explain. I will drive back to OKC Monday morning, but I won't come home. I'll come to the house Monday night at seven. We can talk then, but I warn you, I want the truth. If you blow smoke at me, I'm leaving. And I won't be staying at the house. I don't think there is anything you could say that would have me just forgive you and come home. I'm willing to come by and hear you out, though."

"Oh, thank you, Jim. I just know if we can see each other and talk that we'll somehow find a way through this mess. I love you so much, Jim and I cannot live without you. Please tell me you still love me too."

"You love me so much, huh? Well you have a funny way of showing it. I guess you love me, but you especially love your boss's cock, huh?"

"Jim! Please stop. It's not like that. Please don't say things like that. I don't love anybody but you."

"Ok, Becky. I'll see you Monday night at seven." I didn't want to say I love you or even goodbye and I didn't need to hear it again from Becky, so I hung up abruptly. I dropped the phone on the table sat back, and stared into space. I really didn't want to meet Becky. I'm sure it was going to be like torture, but I guess once we talk, I can get things moving forward. I would let Becky know that divorce was inevitable and let her know to start preparing for it.

Someone's movement caught my eye. Mom was glancing around the doorframe into the kitchen.

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah Mom. Max and I are heading back to OKC Monday morning, and I'll meet Becky on Monday night."

Max rose when mom walked into the kitchen. She bent down and scratched him behind the ears. Then Mom noticed the dog food we bought leaning up against the cabinet. "Are you hungry, boy?" Max's tail wagged, banged against the leg of the table. Mom pulled a bowl out of the cabinet and poured the dog food into it.

She looked over at me, "Jim, if you are going to get past this and stay with Becky, you need to prepare yourself. It will require you to set aside your pride and open your heart to forgiving someone who has made a terrible mistake. I don't know why Becky did what she did but I could tell, from the few minutes we spoke, she's in terrible pain. Obviously, she knows she made a mistake, and she will beg your forgiveness. I know this sucks, but you are going to be the one who decides. You will have to decide either to break up your marriage or try to hold it together. You've been put in a terrible position, but you will be in the driver's seat. Just be patient and try to make decisions you won't regret afterwards."