Who Is She?

Just a short tale that has been spinning around my head for a while demanding to be let out. No sex, as usual. No one under 18 is even noted in the story. Sorry if that disappoints. FS

Who Is She?

Dan Templeton, age 31, came into the house, as usual, after work to find his wife, Janie, sitting at the dining room table with an angry countenance.

He stopped in the opening from the kitchen to the dining room and looked at his wife of seven years with a quizzical raised eyebrow but did not speak or even say, "Hello."

Janie had worked herself up into a righteous frenzy and had been waiting for Dan since she had arrived home an hour previous. Weeks of little to no romance, loving touches, suggestive innuendo, or even kisses were wearing on her and it was time to find out what was happening to their marriage.

Janie didn't greet her husband either, just jumped into it. "Who is SHE?"

Dan didn't even look guilty or even surprised by the question but decided to jerk her chain a little. "She, Who? What do you mean?"

Janie almost spat out the accusation. "Who is the bitch you have been fucking, Husband of Mine?"

Dan shrugged his shoulders and went on through the dining room and living room and headed for the bedroom down the hall. He wanted to change from his grungy dirty clothes and maybe even sluice the grime from his body before getting into something more comfortable. Gathering from her initial comments, Janie was going to make this into a major fight.

He was right. Janie was on his heels as he moved down the hallway. "Answer me, dammit, who is she? How long have you been fucking your little slut? I deserve to know!"

To make Janie even more angry, Dan continued to ignore her and continued to the bedroom. Janie was so perturbed that she didn't even notice that he didn't try and shut the door in her face. She didn't get the satisfaction of slamming the door open since it was still wide open as she entered the bedroom.

Dan was pulling off his clothes and putting them into the hamper that Janie had insisted he put his work clothes so that they didn't make her soiled clothes dirtier from cross contamination. His putting clothes into the correct hamper seemed to make her even more angry. Spittle flew from her mouth as she tried to criticize his effort to do as she had bidden.

"God Damn it! Quit ignoring me and answer the question! How dare you just walk away from me! And quit putting your fucking clothes in that hamper! I don't want you to put them there."

Dan turned and gave her another quizzical look but still didn't respond verbally. Janie wiped her mouth but the spittle still flew from her lips as she continued to yell. "You know what I mean! How dare you do as I want! You are deliberately pissing me off! Now where to you think you are going?"

"Actually, I am going to relieve my bladder and then take a shower. Since you hate to watch me piss, you should stay out here until I am finished." Dan responded with a low voice as opposed to her rant.

Janie sputtered but followed him into the en suite bathroom. Dan paused and started the shower before moving to the toilet and raising the seat. He gave Janie a chance to back out as she always retched and looked away if he even said he needed to urinate or defecate. She was not now, or ever, interested in Golden Showers or Scat play.

Today she didn't flinch or back out. Dan shrugged his shoulders and released his urine into the bowl. He had a good stream so it made quite the noise. Janie flinched and got even redder in the face, if that was possible. "What the hell! You know how much that disgusts me. Why can't you hold your water until we get this matter settled? Damn you all to hell!"

Dan shrugged his shoulder as he finished peeing and then shook his cock a few times to get that last dribble out. "I told you what I was going to do. YOU insisted on following me in here." Dan flushed the toilet and put the seat down just as Janie was getting ready to berate him for leaving the seat up. Her usual rant about that particular afront to her femininity lumped Dan in with "all asshole men who deliberately leave the seat up in hopes that a woman will dip her butt in the water" died as a sputter. How dare he do as she had demanded over and over again until she thought she was going to go mad!

Dan ignored her some more by turning and stepping into the shower and pulling the colorful curtain closed. He turned fully around in the stream of fairly hot water to wet himself before bending down to get the bottle of liquid body wash. Janie took that exact moment to fling the curtain open thus catching the deflected spray in her face and down her front. Her angry words sputtered again as she jumped back from the water.

Dan stood, looked at his wife, smiled a little as though he had planned the drenching, and pulled the curtain closed again, stopping further water from exiting the shower stall. Janie immediately moved to the bedroom and removed her soaking wet blouse and threw it back into the bathroom to land on the floor next to the shower. It would serve him right to step out and slip on the wet blouse, she thought.

Not knowing how long her wayward husband would dally in the shower, Janie pulled on a dry blouse and went back to the dining room and resumed her seat.

It took Dan fifteen minutes, to Janie fifteen long, long, almost interminable minutes, before he exited the bedroom and made his way back to the kitchen. He ignored the fuming wife sitting at the table while he went to the refrigerator and pulled out a beer and opened the bottle. He made sure that the cap went into the recycling bin instead of the trash. After all, he didn't want to make his wife angry by sending a small amount of metal to the dump. (Never mind that their progressive city had recently admitted that recycling was no longer performed and all waste was sent to the landfill.)

Dan came back into the dining room and took the seat opposite his wife. He decided that Janie looked close to having a stroke due to elevated blood pressure if he didn't get this argument over and done with. He opened the conversation with, "So what is bothering you?"

That set her off again. Yes, spittle accompanied the blast of invective that came across the table. "What is bothering me? What the hell! You obviously have been having an affair and you wonder what is BOTHERING me! How dare you act like this is just a trivial little thing, like forgetting to take out the trash or something. NOW, WHO THE HELL IS SHE?"

Dan shrugged his shoulders and quietly stated, "I have no idea what you are talking about. Who am I supposed to be fucking and when do I have the time to go out and get some strange?"

Janie waved her hand dismissively. "You haven't touched me in weeks. I don't know when you actually gave me a kiss or even said, 'I love you' the last time. Hell, even when we are home together you don't speak or even try to have a conversation with me. Ergo, you are getting your dick wet somewhere else and I won't stand for it. You have a lot to answer for, Buster, and you had better get with it. Confession time. Who, what, when did it start, and why. If you want to stay married to me then you had better come clean and come clean quickly before I get to a lawyer and make your miserable life a lot more miserable."

Dan took a sip of his cold brew. "Let's skip who for a minute as I have no idea whom that person is that I am supposedly having an affair with. You are accusing me of having an affair so we have answered the what question. Let's get on to when. When did I supposedly quit trying to touch you, say 'I love you' or try to kiss you?"

Janie fell into the trap. "I guess I started to notice the lack of touching, the dearth of kisses, and attempts to get me to have sex just about a week ago, but the realization made me try and remember the last time you told me that you loved me and that must have been weeks ago. It started me to think about little we converse and I talked it over with Jill and Tammy and they thought it sounded like you might be having an affair. I more I thought about it, the more it made sense. So, confess and I might just forgive you. No confession, and I see an attorney tomorrow."

She crossed her arms and made a satisfying noise as she leaned back in her straight back chair. Their dining room set didn't really lend itself to relaxed posture but she tried anyhow.

Dan took up the train of thought. "Hmmm, let's see." He stood and went over to the calendar where they wrote important events and turned back the pages to show a few months before. He tapped a date that had a small mark up in the corner. "There it is. Two months, three weeks and an odd day or so. That was why I made that mark on the calendar." He returned to his seat.

Jane had noted the date. It held no specific importance to their life. "What happened on that date that you felt you needed to denote the day?"

"Oh, that. That was the day that I decided to quit trying. Increasingly you had made disparaging remarks about my work, my take home pay, how I looked when I chewed my food, how I never seemed to get my dirty clothes into the correct hamper, how I 'always' left the seat up on the toilet, how much I snored, and every other reason to pick a fight or just nit pic me until I gave up." Of course he used air quotes around the word: always.

He paused and held his hand up to stop her rebuttal. After a sigh, he continued. "That particular day we were here together and I came up behind you and tried to just give you a hug. You know, kind of like we used to hug when out together while dating and we would stop and talk with someone we knew. Then you would allow me to put my arms around you and you would then pull my arms tight and we would just stand there together as we talked to people, usually your friends, if I recall correctly." He paused and Janie smiled a tiny smile as she remembered those signs of affection.

"But that day in particular, you slapped my hands away and told me in no uncertain terms 'to quit pawing me. I can't stand it when you grab me and expect sex all the time. Leave me alone!' So, I decided that you were done with me. I then decided that, what the hell, there was no reason to leave my comfortable home yet so I would just wait until you made the decision to end what little marriage we had left. It has taken you over two months to finally bring it up."

Janie shook her head. This couldn't be right and said so.

Dan shrugged his shoulders at her. "Janie, what was my job when we met eight years ago?"

She shook herself from her attempt to recollect her comments on the day he had marked on the calendar. "What? What are you talking about?"

"I repeat, where did I work when we met eight years ago?"

"You worked, and still work, for your father in the machine shop. I believe you call yourself a metal fabricator."

"Thank you, that is correct. I have a couple of other questions for you, if you don't mind answering them." He paused and waited for her nod to continue.

"Okay, first who earns more of our combined wages, you or me?"

"Look, you know you do. My part time job as a stenographer at the attorneys' office doesn't pay that well."

Dan acknowledged her. "Thank you for your honesty. Next question, were you ashamed of my profession when we first started to date?"

"No, you know I am not ashamed of what you do. I just didn't like the machine oil smell of your clothes and your skin after a day at work."

"I understand. I know I don't have quite the same scent as your lawyer friends but I do try to change as quickly as possible and shower so that your sensibilities are not affronted every day. Next question. Do I spend too much time at work, or with my friends and little time with you?"

"I guess not. Since the shop started to work seven days a week and you went to a ten hour day for four days a week, you seem to be around the house a lot more. I just hate it when the rotation puts you at work when I am off."

Dan nodded. It was an old argument with no change in the conversation. He worked three days straight, then three days off. Every employee worked the same so that everyone worked his (or her) share of the weekends. The shop always closed on major holidays so every employee could celebrate with family.

It was time to drill down a little. "So, let's recap a little." He ticked off the points with his fingers as he made them. "First, I contribute more monetarily to our household than you. Second, you are not ashamed of what I do for a living. Third, I try to reduce my odor when I get home from work. Fourth, I get a full three days off each week when the average person only gets two days off per week but you don't think that I am with you enough. Good, so far?"

Janie shrugged her shoulders. She still didn't understand what this had to do with Dan having an affair and not confessing. She said as much.

Dan gave her a smile. "Oh, I am getting to that. Just be patient and all will be revealed."

Just saying that almost got Janie yelling again but she tried to suppress her ire and listen. Dan resumed his questions. "Do I drink too much? Do I get drunk all the time and embarrass you?"

Janie shook her head. No, that was not a fault of her husband. Hell, even those dapper lawyers would come back from their long lunches and leer at her with their slurred, alcohol laden speech. Thankfully not all did that.

"So, we start to get to the crux of the matter. You say that you are not ashamed of how I make my money." He paused and she nodded. "Can you remember how you introduced me to the new attorneys at your last holiday party?"

Janie blanched a little but shook her head. Dan cajoled her. "Oh, come on, you remember. You told all of them that I spend my day cutting things, as though I was still in kindergarten and cutting out paper objects. I think that Devlin Rawlings had a good laugh with you when you said that."

Now Janie colored but still shook her head. Dan ignored her denial and continued. "Yep, that was the night that I decided to start to watch and, if necessary, chronicle your attitude, and your activities. I believe that evening, before we went to the party, was the last time you told me that you loved me or gave me a real kiss, not just a peck on the cheek."

Janie shook her head more forcefully. "No, that can't be right. I refuse to believe that."

Dan nodded his head. "Yes, actually, the last time we had real loving sex was about a week prior to the party. Since then there were a couple of nights where I asked if you would like to make love and you sighed and said, 'Go ahead and get it over with.' I gave up then. Masturbation seemed a better option than fucking a dead fish. I haven't touched you since. Our conversations became just you telling me about all my shortcomings. Yeah, I could pay all the bills and keep you in the luxury that you demanded but I just couldn't compete with a dandy like Devlin."

While Janie was still fuming Dan went to his desk and pulled out a couple of manilla envelopes. He returned to the table and resumed his seat. "You have stated many times in the past few months about how little time we spend together. I know you usually take care of paying the bills and such from our joint account so I haven't paid too much attention to it. As long as we had enough money I was happy. After you started working an extra day here and there I decided to look at the account. Just so you wouldn't notice me digging through the non-existent files for the statements, I went directly to the bank and looked up your pay deposits. It is amazing that, not only did your pay not reflect those extra days, your overall pay went down. How did that happen? Were you demoted somehow?"

Janie shook her head. She was no longer looking at her husband and her hands were flat on the table. This couldn't be happening. They had taken so much care to make sure no one knew.

Dan just held the manilla envelopes. He made no attempt to open or show them to her. She knew they had to contain something she didn't want to see but she also would not demand to know what was in them.

"Well, anyhow, this stupid jerk who 'just cuts things all day' kept looking and watching. Do you remember who introduced us at one of your company's parties?"

Janie thought and suddenly blushed again. She nodded. "Thank you for remembering. I thought it had completely slipped your mind. Yes, Daniel Simmons, one of the original partners, introduced you to me. You were the new hire that spring. Daniel really liked you and thought we might just make a good pair."

Janie managed to croak out. "That must mean that you knew him, didn't you? I never put it together then or after. I was so taken with you." She shook her head.

"Yes, Dad and Daniel are old fishing buddies. Daniel decided it might be a conflict of interest to be Dad's attorney so he recommended someone else but they have been staunch friends since I was knee high to a grasshopper, as Daniel always says. He is actually my godfather but doesn't brag on it. I am actually named after him since he and Lucille could not have children."

Janie had become pale. "No, no, no. Oh my god, no."

"Yes, I think Mr. Rawlings fibbed when he told you that he was living in the apartment where you meet. Actually, it is owned by the firm and is usually reserved for out-of-town clients or witnesses as needed." Dan opened one of the envelopes and extracted some pictures. "These were taken by a camera in the apartment." He handed them to Janie to peruse.

Janie glanced at the top one and shoved them all back before screeching and grabbing them and ripping them all until there were just fragments left.

Dan shrugged his shoulders again. "You know these were copies from a digital source. I can ask for reprints at any time I wish."

Janie gave him a superior look. "You can't use these in a court of law. They were illegally obtained."

"Who said I took them or even that the camera was mine?"

"What? What do you mean?"

"I made a little phone call to my godfather and he took it from there. By the way, Mr. Devlin Rawlings is being investigated for false claims on his expense account. It seems he has been billing the hours he has been sticking his dick into you to some of Daniel Simmons' best and oldest clients. I imagine his days are very numbered. His wife has been called in and Daniel has offered to represent her pro bono. I wasn't that lucky. I had to get my own attorney."

Janie's mind was in a whirl. How did this conversation go so wrong. Devlin and her girlfriends were sure that Dan must have been cheating on her. And now, he was throwing her affair with Devlin in her face. Oh god, she might get sick. Dan noted that she was starting to look a little green around the gills.

Well, life goes on. Dan continued. "So, anyhow, to conclude our little tete-e-tete, this other envelope contains a copy of our pre-nuptial agreement that Dad demanded we have since I am his only heir and the shop is worth a nice sum. You know, I was going to insist on a ten year sunset on the pre-nup but Dad knew better and said it should not ever end. He and Mom think the world of you but understand that anyone can be tempted to cheat. Thankfully we don't have children to muddle the divorce."

That word got her. "Divorce... what do you mean divorce? I love you. I don't want a divorce."

"You know, I might have forgiven the sex. Well, maybe. No, it was the pillow talk during and after your sex escapades that decided me. Hearing you make fun of me, telling Devlin that you fake orgasms with me, letting him make you cut me off from sex, planning on getting pregnant by him and me raising the bastard child as though my own, and everything else you disrespected me these past months made sure that I had to get free of you."

He tossed the envelopes to her. "There is a memory stick in the one with more photos that chronicle your trysts along with a transcript of your deep conversations. The other contains divorce papers and the pre-nuptial agreement. Expect a formal serving of the papers at work one day soon."