This is my first story published on Lit. Please go to StangStar06's site on here for the ending. He wrote a great one. I welcome anyone else to write an alternate ending as well. Many of the authors I write for have been bugging me to write a story myself. Hopefully, this will shut them up and make them realize I am much better at editing as I have no imagination for writing and no skills for it either. I am much better suited to proof reading. Do not hesitate to criticize -- will help get these vultures off my damn back.
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"What the FUCK," Pete screamed. He could not believe his eyes. His beloved wife of 10 years was lying in their bed with another man. "You fucking whore. How could you do this? And you are fucking a college boy? Do you have any morals, you bitch?"
Pete's flight was canceled due to bad weather in Denver where his meeting had been scheduled for the next day. It, of course, had been re-scheduled. He had thought he would surprise his wife and maybe do something special with her, since it was Halloween.
But here he was, standing in his bedroom, seeing his red haired, buxom wife in bed with what appeared to be a 20 some thing year old boy.
Howie jumped out of the bed and said, "Sir, please, these are extenuating circumstances that can never happen again. Please, listen to Ashleigh's explanation and keep an open mind. She does truly love you and only you." And with that, Howie slowly faded away.
"What the FUCK," Pete repeated. "What was that? What just happened? Did you drug me you bitch? How did he just fade away?"
"Pete, please calm down. This will take a while to explain. Will you at least calm down and listen to me? Baby, I love you so much." Ashleigh was desperate. She realized after all that had happened, that she truly loved Pete, though she had not known it until this very night. Until now, she had thought all she could ever have would be compatibility.
Pete looked at her incredulously. "I just saw a man disappear before my eyes, after I saw you fucking him. And you want me to remain calm and listen to you? Are you out of your mind or am I?
"Pete, believe it or not, there is an explanation. Please, let me get dressed and we can go downstairs and discuss this. Please, baby?
"I need a stiff drink. I will be in the den," said Pete.
Ashleigh got dressed and then went to make a pot of coffee. She knew that this tale would need them both awake and sober. She entered the den with the coffee in a thermal carafe with cups and creamer. She sat down on the leather sofa and asked Pete to join her.
"Pete, I am not sure how to begin, my love. Please know that I do love you with all my heart and soul. Especially after tonight, I know this to be true."
"Pete, you know a bit about my past. We discussed it briefly when we started dating seriously. I guess I should have told you more, but it was so painful to talk about back then. Howie was my first true love. We met in high school. We knew from the minute we first met that we were meant to be together for life. We were inseparable. We decided to save ourselves for our wedding night. In college, we did a lot of heavy petting, including oral with each other, but never that last step."
"As you know, Howie was killed in a bus crash taking the college football team to an away game. I was on the other bus with the cheerleaders, right behind the team bus. A tractor trailer, driven by a drunk, crashed across the highway and 10 members of the team were killed."
"I held Howie in my arms as he drew his last breath and listened to him speak his undying love for me. The paramedics had to pry me from his body. For the next year, I was inconsolable. My family and his were unable to get through to me. I ended up in a mental facility to help me because I lost a lot of weight and my family was afraid for me. They were afraid I was willing myself to die to be with Howie."
"With a lot of therapy, I was able to try to resume life. I went back to school and got a degree in teaching but I never dated. In fact, until I met you, I had never dated since Howie. It had been a little over 5 years since he died and no one had interested me until I met you."
"Pete, I remember that day as if it were yesterday. You spilled your McDonald's meal all over me when you slipped in the vomit of the kid who was having a birthday party with Ronald McDonald. The words you spewed were not for children's ears. But when you looked into my eyes and apologized, I saw the real you. Your eyes showed your compassion."
"And then you went to the manager and paid for the poor kid's party and made the manager promise not to tell who had paid. I knew then how sweet and wonderful a man you were."
"But, you have to know that what Howie and I had was wonderful also. We were connected on that frequency that some people never, ever, even know about. We knew we were to be together always. We knew that we would have kids, how we would raise them, what our house would be like, that we would spend our golden years together. And then we were robbed of that by a drunk driver."
"When I met you, I liked you very much. You were so sweet to the parents of that party. And you were so sweet to me, apologizing all over yourself. As we got to know each other, I gradually began to have feelings for you. I did not think that I could love anyone the way I loved Howie and I thought that I did not love you in that way. I loved you differently. The love I have for you now is a grown up love and not born of the expectations of youth."
"Let me explain how tonight came about."
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My name is Ashleigh and let me explain how we got to the situation above. I do love Pete with all my heart but I had such a longing for Howie. Here is my strange story. I hope you will read it and understand why I chose to do what I did.
As you have read previously, my first love was Howie and he was killed tragically early. I met Pete over 5 years later and gradually fell for him. I never really gave my whole heart to Pete, thinking that is should have been Howie. But Pete made me happy and I was determined to be the best wife ever to Pete.
But after 10 years and no children, I wondered if I had been cursed. We had been to many baby specialists who proclaimed us both healthy and able to have kids. At this point, I doubted myself. I thought that perhaps if I could not have kids with Howie, my body had decided to never have any.
We had a good life, good jobs, and a nice home but there was some thing lacking besides no children. I truly enjoyed making love to my husband, but the thought was always there -- 'what would it have been like with my Howie'.