This Was Going To Be The Last Time

I love California. Living here is like cheating. At least that's what I thought as I guided my Screaming Yellow 06 Mustang GT through the darkened streets. If I was still living in Michigan, there's no way I'd still be driving my car on New Years Eve. I'd be driving my Jeep through ass deep snow and freezing, instead of heading back to my Sister in Law's place after a beer run.

I didn't mind the beer runs, every chance I got to get behind the wheel of my little toy, was a pleasure. What I did hate though was the fact that I always had to make 2 or 3 of them. It was always the same thing, "Danny, we didn't get enough beer, could you go and get some?" Off I'd go through the twisting and turning avenues of their subdivision. I had it down to a 35 minute round trip. Ten minutes there, ten minutes back and maybe 15 minutes tops inside the liquor Store on Arcana blvd. So if I went, there'd be beer or whatever in 35 minutes. If anyone else went it took much longer.

I just wish she wasn't so fucking cheap, why not just make a list and let me go and get everything in one trip. It was almost as if there was something else going on. That's what the average guy probably would have thought, but not me. You've all heard the expression "Ignorance is Bliss?" Well Danny Masterson, that's me, must've been living an extremely blissful life, because I had no idea of what was going on.

I jumped out of my Stang with a smile on my face and a song in my heart. I was actually fucking whistling as I walked up the walkway, both arms full with stacked cases of beer. What a fool I was. I put the beer down so I could open the door and heard the music blasting before the door opened. I stepped into the living room. I looked around for my sister in law Jane, and saw her huddled in the corner with one of the guys she worked with. What a fucking whore, her husband was a cop and he got stuck working tonight, protecting the city. So how does she repay him? She sits on his couch sucking face with some scumbag, while he's at work. I slammed the cases of beer down on the table right next to her.

"Get your fat ass up and get your own beer from now on," I yelled at her. I looked around the room for my wife Cara, and didn't see her. I started pushing my way through people. For some reason a lot of the people there seemed to want to talk to me but I wasn't in a talking mood anymore. I just wanted to find Cara, let her know what her fucking sister was up to and get the hell out of there.

I started looking from room to room and couldn't find her. So I went upstairs. A couple of guys tried to block my way and were not successful I easily slipped by them. I noticed Jane coming up behind me, with a scared look on her face but I didn't have time for her to explain her bullshit to me right then. Finally outside of Jane and Randy's bedroom I heard voices. It sounded like Cara so I opened the door. The room was dim, but not so dim that I couldn't make out the scene on the bed. There must've been 5 or 6 guys gathered around the bed, while a woman on it stroked 2 of them off with her hands. Meanwhile another guy was humping her to beat the band. She reached up and took one guy's dick in her mouth. I took a couple of pictures with my phone and filmed a short video.

"Flip her over so I can fuck her ass," said one of the guys waiting.

I stepped forward and kicked the nearest guy to me in the nuts. He screamed and fell to the floor grabbing his junk. The people on the bed hadn't noticed yet but the ones gathered around it started to scatter. I snatched an ink pen off the desk and jammed it into the ass of the guy humping her. "You want to stick something up somebody's ass so badly," I shouted. "How about something up yours." He screamed in agony and started jumping up and down.

The other 2 guys started grabbing their clothes and denying things as they noticed me. Cara just sat there in shock.

"Don't bother coming home," I told her, "Ever."

"Danny, please wait," she screamed at me with tears running down her cheeks.

I turned and got ready to leave, and ran into Jane.

"Danny," she began.

Your whore of a sister can stay here with you from now on," I said calmly.

"But she's your wife and she loves you. This was going to be the last time," she said.

"You really need to shut the fuck up, before you get into trouble yourself," I snapped. "I have pictures of you in action too. How do you think your husband will feel when he sees them?"

"Danny, please don't show him, he'll never understand, it doesn't mean anything. It..." she was interrupted by Cara running out of the room, and trying to grab me.

"Danny please, you've got to believe me, I..." there were tears running down her face as I just turned and walked down the stairs. I heard her coming after me but by the time she dressed and got to the door, the rumble of my Mustang's V8 was fading in the distance.

I drove over to our neighbor's house, since their teen aged daughter was watching our two boys.

"Hey mister M," said the pimply faced sleepy eyed girl. "It's not even 11o'clock, I thought they were going to stay all night."

"Well I got bored," I said cheerfully. "I thought if I came and got them early you might be able to go out and have some fun yourself. How much did Cara say we'd pay you?"

"Well she said 50 dollars," said the girl nervously. I was sure she was lying, but I gave her 75 which brought on a giant braces filled smile. I escorted the 2 sleepy boys into the back of my car and drove away. As I drove I didn't stop to consider how hurt I was, or why, or any of the other three thousand things that were going through my mind. I just concentrated on what my next move was. Obviously my first move was to take care of my kids. My parents lived about an hour out of town so I called them before it got to be too late and told them I was coming over. My cell phone had about 10 messages from Cara already and 1 from Jane. I called Jane and told her to give me the night to think about it.

"What the hell do you need to think about, that girl loves you," she said, "Okay so she made a mistake, BFD get over it, and at least talk to her."

"Jane, you are not in a position to dictate what I do or don't do," I snapped. "I'm still considering whether or not I'm letting your husband know about you too, so just shut up and listen to what I called you for."

The phone line was silent, I could tell she was pissed because Jane wasn't used to listening to anyone. I could also hear Cara sniffling in the background.

"Tell your sister," I began..

"You mean your wife," she interrupted. "You're angry at her and I guess you should be, it's probably going to take some time for you to forgive her, but Danny don't ever think that what you saw was anything more than a little holiday fun that just went too far. And please never doubt that she loves you, and you loved her enough to marry her."

"Not anymore," I said. "Just tell her that I need a couple of days to think this through, and I'll call her and we can talk after that. You should also tell Doug Martin, Fred Simmons, and the other guys that were in the room, that they need to call me soon, or I'll be naming them in the divorce, and who knows what that will do to their marriages. If they're still there I'll tell them myself. Put them on the phone."

"Danny, the party kind of broke up after you left. Two of them had to go to the hospital anyway." Then I heard even more crying from Cara in the background.

"Danny, please tell me you aren't serious about divorcing her. It's just a New Years Eve thing, for God's sake. It's never hurt you before. And this was going to be the last time."

"What the fuck do you mean it's..., you mean she's done this before?" I snapped. "How long has this been going on?"

The phone went silent and I heard Cara's tearful voice come on the phone, "Danny," she said. Her voice sounded so sad and so miserable, that it almost made me feel sad too. Then I remembered my last vision of her and I just hung up the phone.

The boys had fallen asleep in the Mustang's cramped rear seats. Luckily they frequently visited their grand parents so there would be fresh clothes already there for them. I really didn't know what was going to happen over the next few days but I needed to insulate my boys from as much of it as possible. I pulled into my parents' driveway and the porch light came on before I had even stopped. My mom and Dad came out and met me, and mom guided the boys into the guest room while Dad and I talked.

"What's going on," he asked me.

"Dad for now let's just say that Cara and I are having a disagreement and leave it at that," I said.

"Well what did you do?" he asked me, "Is it so bad that flowers and a serious ass kissing won't work? I always thought that girl was too good for you."

"I'll call you tomorrow Dad," I said as I got back into my car and drove home. The phone was already ringing as I got inside. I looked at the caller ID and saw Cara's cell number. I turned the phone off. Then I went and slept in the guest room. Somehow the idea of lying down in a bed we had just been in together a few hours earlier didn't appeal to me.

The next morning was New Year's Day, but I wasn't in the mood for football games and Holiday food. I called the boys first thing in the morning to see how they were doing. They were having a great time and didn't seem bothered by it at all. The next thing I did was to call Ernie Banks, my lawyer and leave a message in his voicemail. I told him that I knew that he was out of his office, but it was a dire emergency and I needed for him to call me back as soon as possible. I got on the internet and Googled locksmiths, I scanned ad after ad until I found one with a 24 hour emergency line. I called the guy and got him over to the house to change the locks immediately. Then I did the usual banking things. I cancelled all of the joint credit cards, and transferred half of our available funds into accounts in only my name. Even though Cara didn't work I thought that leaving her half of our money was fair. Since I intended to go for full custody of my boys, I wanted the house.

As soon as I hung the phone up it started ringing again. I picked it up out of habit and as soon as I heard Jane's voice started to hang it up.

"Danny, I need to talk to you, first now that you've had time to calm down, can you please talk to Cara. She couldn't sleep last night at all. She wouldn't even lie down she just paced all fucking night. She won't eat, she feels awful about what happened last night. She just sits there crying."

"Get a bunch of guys for her to fuck, that'll get her into bed pretty fucking easily, I snapped. "It's been less than 12 hours, so her not eating is hardly serious and it wouldn't be my problem if it was."

"Danny, please don't tell Randy about me, I swear I've learned my lesson. Randy is a cop. It could get really bad for me and a lot of people who were at the party."

"Jane I was looking for Cara so we could get the fuck out of your party and go home, last night when I found her during her performance. Did you notice that most of the people there were not fucking around on their spouses? Most of them were at your house to have a good time; either with the person they love, or to meet someone, they might possibly love. You and Cara and her fuck toys were the only cheaters there. I really don't care what happens to you, but I will tell you this, if you help me. I won't rat you out," I told her.

"Doug wants you to come to the hospital to see him, or he'll call you, he's really afraid because his wife has all of the money in their marriage," she said. The others have all left you messages because your phone was turned off."

"Danny, do you really want to ruin 6 other marriages because you're pissed off at my sister? Are you really that selfish? Are you really that cruel?"

"Jane, you ignorant slut, I loved your sister more than anyone else in the world. She was my life, my heart and my soul all rolled into one special person. There is nothing I wouldn't have done for her. For taking that away from me, people are going to have to pay. So yes it's highly possible that there may be 6 shiny new divorces to start the New Year."

"But Danny no one took her away from you, she's still right here and she loves you so much, this is tearing her apart. If you divorce her, it'll just destroy her."

"You mean the way she destroyed me last night when I came into your room and found the woman I loved fucking 5 guys? Is she feeling that bad Jane?"

"Well what if she gives you a wild card? You can pick some woman anyone you want and fuck them, and when it happens she doesn't get to say a word about it."

"Well Jane, wouldn't it have to be 5 wild cards? And who knows how many times this has happened, so I could be forced to fuck half of Southern California just to get even. And then you know what we'd have? Whatever it is it wouldn't be a marriage. I only need one woman, who loves me and wants to be with me. Who wants to raise our kids together and grow old together, that's all I want."

"But Danny, that's me," whined Cara into the phone, I immediately hung up.

I called Jane's call phone and she picked it up. "The next time you try that bullshit, I'll have a meeting with your husband and I won't do it at your house. I'll arrange to meet him at the fucking police station and in front of all of those other cops, show him the video I took of you playing tonsil hockey on his couch." I snapped.

"What did I do?" she asked, obviously afraid now.

"I already told you I don't want to talk to your whore of a sister, period, not at all," I said. "Next time I'm talking to you and I even hear her fucking voice I'm calling Randy."

"But it wasn't my fault she just picked up the phone, she's so desperate to talk to you," Whined Jane.

"Your problem, not mine," I snapped. "Maybe you should explain to her that the best thing for her to do is to give me some space for a while, because every time I hear her voice I get angrier."

After I slammed the phone down, I stood back and just breathed. I let all of the tension out and thought about my marriage and where I could have gone wrong. We'd been married for 8 years, and I loved her more now than I had when we first got together. Cara and her sister had both been kind of wild when we first met and I guess I had fooled myself into thinking that she'd given all of that up for me. At first I had kind of expected her to do something, so I often came home unexpectedly in the middle of the day. But the only thing I ever got for my trouble was lunch or sex or both.

After a while and two kids I guess I let my guard down, and I never expected that she'd do something when I was with her and in a public fucking party no less. Our sex life was never what you'd, or at least what I'd consider boring we were always trying different things to keep it spicy. I was willing to try anything she came up with as long it only the two of us were involved. After seeing her with all of those guys, obviously I just wasn't enough for her. So though I loved her so much that my heart hurt right now, I just could not see the possibility of continuing to be married to her.

I was brought out of my thoughts by a knock at the door. I got up and went to answer it and my anger all came back. It was Joe Stephens standing there looking at the ground.

I opened the door so he could come in. "Why the fuck are you here," I snarled at him.

"Well Jane said you wanted to talk to me, about last night. I know you're pissed. So before you try to kick my ass, can I tell you my part of this?" he said.

"Well you're here, so go ahead," I snapped glaring at him.

"Danny I know that we aren't close but I've always considered you a friend. I've known Jane and Cara, since way before you guys got married. They've always been kind of out there, and I guess I never expected either one of them to settle down. Then when you met Cara she just seemed to become happy, happier than I've ever seen her but I didn't expect it to last. She never stayed with one guy for more than 3 months including me, in her entire life. When I say including me, I mean that. I was her first real boyfriend for the 6 weeks that it lasted. And she was the first girl I ever had sex with, but I wasn't hers." he said.

From the look on his face as he said all of this I could tell he was telling me the truth. So I started to calm down. "Hold on let's sit down, while you tell me this. I think I'm gonna need a beer. Want one?" I asked him.

"I will sit down, but after last night, no more alcohol for me," he said.

After I returned from the kitchen with a Corona for me and a Pepsi for him he began talking again.

"When we found out that you were going to marry Cara, I felt sorry for you, because you seemed to be a great guy. But I knew that you were headed for a heart break. She's just never been the girl I'd expect to settle down with one guy and stay faithful. I mean, I wished you both the best and I was at your wedding, but I never expected you to see even one anniversary. Cara and Jane have had a tradition since just after their College days of having a big party for New Years Eve. It started when Cara was 22 and Jane was 24, so it's been going on for about 14 years now. At that party it didn't matter who they were going out with, those two would always fuck any and all of the interested guys who were there. Some of the guys fucked both sisters, those girls didn't care. Once they got married I expected it to stop. Especially since I believe that Cara really does love you, but to my surprise, it didn't." he paused here and took a sip of his soda and looked at me and then he started to talk again.

"You got married in the summer, I've forgotten the month and the year, but shit I can barely remember my own anniversary let alone someone else's. Anyway that same year you'd been married less than 6 months and I found out that the party was still going to happen as usual. I was kind of shocked and I ran into Cara a few weeks before the party, and asked her how your marriage was going, and she was all smiles and just fucking lit up when she talked about it. I simply couldn't imagine a woman that much in love doing what she did, but it happened. Both she and Jane made it seem like you and Jane's husband knew about it. In fact that's why Jane's husband is hardly ever there for the parties. She said he accepts that she needs to do this but he doesn't like to watch it or be there. Cara even said you were fine with it. I mean you even go to the parties with her and you keep the liquor flowing. Now I'm beginning to see the true picture." he said and he sighed.

"Danny for your own piece of mind, you need to do what your conscience tells you to. I got married 5 years ago and I really love my wife. When I got married I stopped participating at the parties. Two years ago if you remember, I got to ride in your Mustang because I went on the beer run with you. But this year, my wife Dorothy was out of town visiting her pregnant sister, so I was alone and feeling lonely. I was also drunk, so I admit I got in line. I didn't get a chance to even touch Cara before you got there and I was lucky enough to get out before you did anything to me, but I'm sure you got at least one picture of me, so that's why I'm here." he still had trouble looking at me, and I felt the pain in his voice.

"Danny you don't have to worry about telling Dorothy, because I'm going to tell her myself and hope she'll forgive me. I didn't actually do anything, but I had intended to, and when I look at you and Cara I can see where that might have gotten me. We'd be in the same places only reversed. I'd be Cara, sitting there crying my eyes out because I'd done some stupid thing for a few moments of pleasure and lost a lifetime of happiness. And my Dorothy would be you, miserable and betrayed for reasons that just don't make sense when she had never done anything to deserve it. For what it's worth, again I want to tell you that I did not even touch Cara last night. I also want to tell you that there are only two reasons that I was even in that position, first I was very drunk, which is why I've given up liquor for good. And second because this was for some kind of closure, it was the end of a chapter in my life one way or another." he paused again.