Wearing The Boss's Anklet: A Sequel
I would like to thank biggie79uk for giving me permission to write this sequel to his story, "
Wearing the Boss's Anklet
." This is from the husband's perspective and picks up during the wife's company Christmas party.
I would also like to thank those who offered comments and constructive criticism on my previous stories.
And now, the disclaimers:
For those who want to say this or that would never happen, remember this is my universe, a place where nearly anything can, and often does, happen. At least on paper... In addition:
Characters in this story may participate in one or more of the following: Smoking, consumption of adult (meaning, alcoholic) beverages, utterance of profanities.
All sexual activity is between persons 18 years of age or older.
Statements or views uttered by the fictional characters in this story do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of the author.
Please refer to my profile for more on my personal policy regarding comments, feedback, follows, etc. (Yes, I DO moderate comments) And please remember, this is a work of fiction, not a docu-drama...
...
This is turning out to be the worst Christmas of my entire life. Why? Simple. I just witnessed my wife having sex with her younger boss during her company's Christmas party. I managed to get enough of the action on video to support my upcoming divorce.
The sex was bad enough, but the flagrant disregard and disrespect shown to me by both her and her boss pissed me off so much I wanted to hurt them -- bad. Instead, I went back to the couch where she thought I had passed out and sat down to wait for my next planned move.
My name is Joseph Parker, Joe to my friends and family. I've only been married to Theresa, or Terri, as she likes to be called, for a little less than a year. We dated for about a year before we got married and at the time I thought I had hit the jackpot.
A few months after we got married, she started working at a coffee shop that sat in a busy shopping center just south of the freeway that went through town. I work as an investigator for a nation-wide insurance company and make pretty decent money, so there was really no need for her to work.
But I understood she needed some adult interaction and I figured this would let her make some "mad" money for her to use as she saw fit. I've been by the shop a few times and liked the coffee. It was just a bit bigger than your typical Starbucks and seemed to draw quite a crowd. Most of the customers were younger, college-aged kids, and most of the people who worked there were also a bit younger.
The guy who owns the place, Paul Dansing, seemed to be a rather nice young man somewhere in his twenties. Terri and I are a bit older -- I just turned 31 and Terri is a couple years younger than me. I won't bore you with the details of our courtship, because those are irrelevant to this sad little tale.
A couple months or so after she started working there, I noticed a little anklet on her left ankle. I had never seen it before and wondered where she got it, so I asked.
"Where'd you get that?" I asked. I figured she might have bought it with her money, but her answer stunned me.
"My boss, Paul, gave it to me," she said. "He likes to give one to the women at work he likes to call 'his ladies.' What do you think?"
I looked at her a bit funny. Why would her boss give jewelry like that to women he calls "his ladies?" What kind of a boss is this? I didn't follow up, but what Terri asked next raised more than one red flag.
"Do you know what it means when a married woman wears an anklet?" she asked. I shook my head.
"No, what does it mean?" I asked. She shrugged her shoulders.
"I was just wondering if you knew," she said with a wave of her hand. After dismissing me, she walked off with a little smirk on her face. Why wouldn't she tell me? What was she hiding? This certainly didn't bode well.
Naturally, my curiosity was piqued. Surely she knew I wouldn't just let something like this drop. I am an investigator, after all. So, I did a Google search. And I didn't like what I found. I stopped at the coffee shop a few times when Terri wasn't working and looked to see if anyone else wore an anklet.
Sure enough, two of the ladies working in the shop wore one just like Terri's and I noticed they were on the right ankle. I also noticed their wedding rings. Several of the sites I had read suggested an anklet on the right foot of a married woman meant she was open to having an affair.
During one of my visits, I watched the interaction between Paul and these women for a while as I sipped my coffee and pretended to read an article on my laptop. I saw Paul give one of them a sly smile. She smiled back and the two of them disappeared into the back of the shop.
About 25 minutes later, she came back out looking flushed. I think the actual phrase is, "well-fucked." One of her co-workers gave her a knowing smile and they continued on as though nothing happened. Paul came back out and whispered something to the other woman, who smiled at whatever it was he had told her.
Over the next couple months I noticed something else -- the frequency and the quality of the sex between Terri and I dropped off significantly. I knew that as married couples matured in their relationship that sex generally dropped off, but Terri and I hadn't even married a whole year. By all accounts, we were still in that "honeymoon" phase.
On top of that, it seemed like she was just putting out to do her "wifely duties." Sex between us had always been invigorating and fun. But now it seemed as if she was just going through the motions. She didn't even like to cuddle together the way we used to afterward. She would just roll over and go to sleep. I tried talking to her about the situation a few times, but she simply waved off my concerns.
"Is everything alright?" I asked.
"What makes you ask that?" she responded.
"You seem... off. Like there's someplace you'd rather be. Even in the bedroom. What's going on?"
"Dammit, nothing's going on!" she exclaimed, causing me to reel back. "I'm sorry," she said, seeing the look on my face. "You didn't deserve that. I just have a lot on my mind with work and all." I wondered what part of her work could make her so short-tempered. All she did was take orders from customers and make coffee. Or was there something else going on she didn't want me to know about?
"Is something happening at work that shouldn't be?" I asked. "Are you being sexually harassed or something?"
"No, of course not," she said.
"Because if you are, we can take steps to deal with that, you know," I added, hoping to get more information from her. "Have you thought about quitting your job?"
"I'm not quitting my job," she said defiantly. "Please. Just... back off, okay?"
"Yeah, sure," I finally said, walking away. Why is she so defensive, I wondered to myself, shaking my head. Whatever it is, I thought, the truth will eventually come out. Things were a bit frosty in the house for a few weeks but seemed to get back to some semblance of normal by Thanksgiving.
During that time, Terri and I only had sex a couple times, but I could sense it was just because she thought it was something she had to do. She was there, but only physically. Mentally, she was somewhere else. Maybe she was thinking about doing her nails or something. I don't know.
We went to visit with my parents on Thanksgiving and the place was packed with family. We enjoyed a nice meal and I was sitting in the front room with Dad and a bunch of other guys watching football. My cousin, Jacob, a student at the college, leaned over to me during one of the commercials.
"I hear Terri's working at that coffee shop over by the school," he said. I nodded my head.
"Yeah, she's been there for a while now," I said.
"Better keep an eye on that place," he told me. "I know a guy who works there. Tells me there's a lot more than accounting that takes place in the back office if you know what I mean."
"Oh?" I asked.
"Yeah. From what he tells me, the owner is a real pussy hound. Especially likes the married women. The other guys who work there also get in on the action. Or at least, that's what he claims."
"Think you can put me in touch with this guy? Maybe introduce him to me?" I asked.
"I'll try, if you want," he said. "Might take a couple weeks with the holidays and all."
"Thanks, I appreciate that," I told him. Jacob was true to his word and a couple weeks later, I met with Alan James at a diner not too far from the college. He was very young, maybe 19 years old. He was tall, lanky and sported long hair. We sat down after shaking hands and introducing ourselves. I pulled an audio recorder from my jacket.
"I hope you don't mind if I record this," I said. "I want to make sure I get everything right."
"I'm not in any trouble, am I?" he asked nervously.
"No, I'm just looking for some background information on a claim," I said.
"Alright, then, go ahead and record if you need to," he said.
"Thank you, I appreciate your help." I pulled out a photo of Terri and showed it to him. "Do you know this woman?"
"Terri something or another," he said. "She works at the same coffee shop as I do."
"The Beanery?" I asked.
"Yeah, that's the one. All the kids from school go there. It's pretty popular in this area," he said.
"They make a pretty good latte as well," I said with a smile.
"Oh yeah, they're the best. Even got an award once," he said.
"So, you work with this Terri?" I asked. He shook his head.
"No, she usually gets off work when my shift starts," he said.
"So, how do you like working at The Beanery?" I asked.
"Oh, I love it," Alan said with a big smile. "We get paid pretty good for what we do, and Paul's a really neat guy. Lots of fun to work for and he takes good care of us."
"Good benefits, then?"