It was early on a Saturday morning when the doorbell rang. I opened the door to a guy about my age but thinner and about four or five inches shorter. He had a pleasant smile and a deep baritone voice.
"Hello, can I help you?"
"My name is Aiden Williams. Is Wendy here? I'm a friend of hers from college. She invited me to come this morning."
"She must have forgotten the invitation. She was out last night with friends and called to tell me that she had too much to drink and didn't want to drive herself home. She decided to stay overnight at a friend's house and will come home this morning. Why don't you call her to see if her plans changed?"
"I tried but only got voice mail."
"Just a minute, that looks like Wendy's car pulling up behind your car."
Sure enough Wendy, my wife of five years popped out of the cab and rushed to say hello to her friend. She threw her arms around him and gave him a great big kiss. Then, realizing that I was staring at them she looked a little embarrassed but quickly recovered.
"Carl, this is Aiden, the buddy I told you about who dated me on and off all through college. I forgot to tell you that I invited him to visit this week so we could catch up on our lives after school. "
There was a moment of awkward silence and then I realized that we needed to move this conversation inside. So, Aiden was invited in, offered a cup of coffee, and we retired to the kitchen. My insecurity was on high alert. Her greeting of Aiden seemed a little over the top. The coffee that I made earlier was still warm so that is what we had in mugs in front of us as we sat at the kitchen table.
I was still a little dazed and when I came to, I realized Aiden was explaining to Wendy how happy he was when he got her invitation. Their conversation was sexually charged from the beginning, with lots of references that began
"Do you remember the time we..." and,
"I still think about how you looked when you wore that..." Suddenly Wendy got up from the table. "Carl will you please get Aiden's bags from his car and bring them to the spare bedroom while I give him the royal tour."
Just what there was to tour in our modest cape house was not spelled out unless she meant herself. I was about to tell her it seemed like a lot of decisions were being made without my input, but she gave me a look like she knew what was on my mind and I better keep it to myself. I became the designated bellhop at Chez Wendy, and Aiden was to be ensconced in the bedroom directly across from the master bedroom.
I guess I should have been honored when he trusted me with the key fob to his Aston Martin Convertible that was blocking my car in my driveway. I collected his luggage and came inside only to hear lots of giggling coming from the back of the house. I dropped his luggage in the front hall, leaving his Callaway golf clubs in the trunk of his car. They are the same clubs I have had my heart set on but knew I could never afford. I wondered what the hell he did for a living to have such expensive clubs and a car that most guys can only dream about.
But that would have to come later as I hurried inside to find out what the giggling was all about. I found them at the back of the house, in the den adjacent to our patio. Wendy was trying to explain that we were saving up to put in a pool. Aiden showed no interest in what she was saying and instead was shockingly (to me) trying to get under her blouse to feel her boobs. Wendy kept giggling and playfully slapping his hands away but that didn't seem to deter him as he continued to try to feel her up.
I was stunned for at least the second time this morning and loudly walked into the room expecting him to stop. When he didn't stop, I got angry and said,
"Get your fuckin' hands off my wife. Go collect your luggage from the front hall and leave."
"Carl, I'm profoundly sorry that you have taken offense."
"Profoundly sorry my ass, you little prick? What else would you expect? Just get your profoundly sorry ass the fuck out of my house."
I could tell that Wendy was embarrassed by my colorful outburst, but I didn't care. She made the unilateral decision to invite a man into our house to stay as a guest and I was to like it or not. Well the answer was not. I threw his key fob back at him. But Wendy gave me a dirty look,
"I want him to stay."
"Well, I don't. His behavior is abysmal. And yours isn't much better. You both were behaving like teenagers right in front of me. If he can't keep his hands to himself with me present, how will he behave when I'm not around?"
"We just were so happy to see each other after five years. What if we both promise that we made a mistake, and it won't happen again? Can he please stay?"
"Let's talk about this visit that you arranged without talking to me first. Come out to the patio so that we can have some privacy."
Once outside, I reminded her that major decisions, like having a guest sleep over, were to be made together.
"I won't try to stop you from reminiscing with Aiden or even having him as a guest if he behaves himself. But based on what I've seen so far, I don't trust him to be alone with you. I will not be a gofer for him, and you better tell him, forcefully, if necessary, to keep his hands to himself."
At this point Wendy played the "Don't you trust me?" card.
"I saw him trying to feel you up, and all you did was giggle and play at pushing him away. It didn't seem like you were trying too hard to stop him. I know you told me that you had this long-term buddy when you were in college. The term buddy generally is reserved for a friend of the same sex. You never mentioned that your buddy was male.
"Aiden is a handsome man and based on what I've just witnessed your relationship was probably sexual not platonic. So finally, to answer your question, while I'm willing to trust you, I don't trust him, and I think I have every right to be concerned."
Wendy agreed that she would tell him no more hanky- panky, but she persisted and finally got me to agree to his staying as our guest. We went to find him and let him know he could stay. I walked up to him and got in his face
"Aiden, you better remember that Wendy is no longer a single college girl. She's a married woman now, so keep your fuckin' hands to yourself. if you want to keep your hands."
I meant it too as I've been working out the last two years, not only with weights but with both heavy and light bags and doing some martial arts stuff on the side.
Aiden thanked us and said he'd go upstairs and unpack. He looked at Wendy I guess hoping she would accompany him. As she started to move toward him, I stopped her from going by taking her arm and asking Wendy to put something together for lunch for her guest and us.
She agreed to getting lunch but said, "it's time for you both to apologize, shake hands, and let Aiden get on with his visit."
"I have nothing to apologize for but if he wants to stay, he better make his apology believable." And he did and we shook hands.
The conversation over lunch was more interesting than I expected. Aiden was a pleasant conversationalist and we found out that he was a venture capitalist. He came to our town to check up on several small startups in the area to see if any of them was worth his attention and investment.
"In fact, my first meeting with one of them will be over dinner tonight at the Marriott. I'm meeting with a husband and wife, co- owners of a small but seemingly profitable mosquito spraying company.
"They want to expand into several of the neighboring, towns but they need cash to do it quickly while the season is right. In fact, it would help in the negotiations tonight if Wendy would join me at the meeting since my meeting is with both husband and wife and I think the wife would be more comfortable if she wasn't the only woman at the table."
Uh oh, the whole idea sounded fishy to me. I didn't know of any mosquito spraying company in our town and asked for the name of the company. He ignored my question and told Wendy that they had a 7pm dinner reservation at the hotel with the company owners. He obviously expected to have Wendy join him at the hotel tonight. My objection was lost in her wondering what she should wear. At that point I realized I was fighting a losing battle with Wendy, so I reluctantly agreed and left them to talk about the meeting.
The afternoon went by quickly as they chatted about what their lives had been like since college. I listened to them but didn't join in until I noticed that he didn't mention his wife. I thought I finally got him since his luggage tags listed Aiden and Gloria Williams. But he said,
"I'm divorced and just hadn't updated my luggage tags."
I sulked the rest of the afternoon waiting for them to leave.
Wendy was all atwitter as she got ready to go with Aiden. She kissed me goodbye and thanked me for being so considerate. Off they went in his beautiful Aston Martin Convertible with the top down and the radio blasting. I didn't believe that there really was a meeting with this spraying company, and I had no intention of leaving them alone for a few hours at the Marriott. I decided to follow them to see where they went.
