Sex was missing from Vanessa Wordsmith's life in the last year or so. She thought about it a lot, but something inside had died when she caught her husband of ten years with another woman.
He hadn't come home on time, nor had he phoned or texted. The call Vanessa got came from a close girlfriend who waitressed at the steak house. She said that Eric was with a shapely, well-dressed young blonde, whom he was touching intimately right in their booth.
Vanessa knew who it was, having seen her at the company Christmas party. Deidre was Eric's secretary and the two of them were getting over-friendly on the dance floor. Their hands were all over each other as both of them ignored their spouses.
They fought about it later, Vanessa's husband using the drunken defense. But the company Valentines party was pretty much a repeat performance. Vanessa was seething and told Eric in no uncertain terms that he had run out of chances.
She wasn't going to let this pass for the third time, so she immediately drove to the restaurant. Her girlfriend pointed out their booth, and Vanessa circled around from behind. Sure enough, they were pressed tight beside each other, Eric's hand under the woman's skirt. Her hand was cupped over his cock, slowly squeezing and releasing. Their food was mostly untouched.
"You son-of-a-bitch Eric! What the hell is going on here?" Vanessa hissed as she came from the side.
Taken completely by surprise, the offending pair quickly slid apart and tried to appear innocent. People nearby heard her challenge and turned to watch what was happening. Vanessa made that pretty clear with her raised voice.
"This is my husband Eric with his secretary Deidre again. She's married too," Vanessa announced. "I warned you, Eric. Now I'll see you in divorce court, you cheating bastard!"
With that, Vanessa stormed out of the place and headed straight home. Eric returned about an hour later to find his clothes strewn across the front porch. Vanessa had left a couple of empty suitcases and some garbage bags for him.
Eric found all the deadbolts and window locks in place, so he slept at a motel that night. The next day when he was at the office, she had all the locks changed and took half the money from all their bank accounts, before contacting a particularly savage lawyer.
Sex had been missing from Vanessa's life, but she had dumped her cheating husband. There would be no looking back now.
****
Vanessa Wordsmith was a self-confident woman in her early thirties. Attractive and well-educated, she was a popular teacher at the local high school. Her poured herself into her world history classes, spending hours preparing high-interest lessons built around discussion and research. Students flocked to her elective courses for senior students.
Her ex-husband Eric was an accomplished, educated guy too. They met at university and the two of them were inseparable. They married soon after Vanessa had earned her teacher certification. Eric seemed like the perfect husband, always attentive and fun-loving. Between her model husband and her dream career, Vanessa thought she had everything a woman could want. It stayed that way for several years.
Then Eric was afflicted by the 'seven-year-itch' and became restless within the confines of conventional suburban life. They were career people and had taken precautions to remain child free. But, now they moved in opposite directions, with Vanessa talking about balancing motherhood with a teaching career. On the other hand, Eric wanted to 'break out', suggesting they should broaden their active sex life to include others.
Vanessa gradually relented a little to keep him happy. On a vacation to a tropical 'adults only' resort, Vanessa had agreed to sunbathe topless, and ultimately got naked at the 'clothing optional' beach. With her long hair and tall, sexy body, she turned heads. Eric loved the attention she was getting, and in the evenings made sure she dressed seductively for the bar and dancefloor. Other men gaped, but she firmly resisted Eric's hopes to swap partners.
They lived in a large metropolitan city with every kind of entertainment. Vanessa gave in to her husband by occasionally accompanying him to known pickup bars and nightclubs. She couldn't understand why he would want somebody else to have her, and eventually refused to go to these places.
That's when Eric introduced couples' porn at home. At first Vanessa enjoyed it and the hot sex which inevitably followed. But, more and more she could see there was a frequent theme: man shares wife. Eric wanted to watch it, then roleplay it. She didn't enjoy his sex games and eventually suggested marital counselling.
.
There were no more porn movies after that, and considerably diminished sex too. Eric claimed frequent evening meetings, but Vanessa could smell the telltale alcohol and cigarette smoke when he came in late. Sometimes she could smell perfume too. She threw herself into her work, spending long hours crafting her perfect lesson plans. The once-happy couple was slowly drifting apart.
Eric's continuing affair with his secretary Deidre came as no real surprise. Vanessa's network of friends kept her up-to-speed concerning her wayward husband. 'Eric and Deidre' sightings came with increased regularity. The phone call from the steak house was simply the end of a long road downhill.
****
It had been a dozen years since Vanessa Wordsmith lived on her own. The apartment was lovely, with a fine view out across the river, one of those nice old buildings so hard to find. Apparently, her timing was perfect, because the elderly man who had lived there had moved to a retirement home. It needed a good cleaning and painting, but the landlord agreed to finish it before she moved in.
The landlord was long on promises but short on delivery. A superficial cleaning was all that had been done by Vanessa's move-in date and she was understandably angry. The apologetic owner offered to pay for the paint and reduce the first month's rent to compensate for her labour. There really wasn't much she could do. Vanessa certainly didn't want to move in with Eric again!
Vanessa had most of her furniture moved into the middle of the largest two rooms and covered with plastic tarps. Then there was the real cleanup before painting. A couple of teacher friends came to help, and to cheer her up, knowing that divorce had taken her from her nice suburban home.
"Vanessa, I found these old books in the closet. Are they of any use to you, or should we just toss them out?"
"Books? What are they about? Anything interesting?"
"Old history books, I think. Here's a set, 'The Story of Civilization'. Oh my! Eleven volumes. You probably want them, right?"
"Definitely! Maybe I can use them for school. Just pile them in one of those cardboard boxes and I'll take a closer look at them later. Thanks, Marie."
It was just a stack of dusty books left behind by a tired old man going to his final home. Nothing very significant. Marie probably would have just thrown them in a dumpster if it was her choice. But these musty old history books form the basis for this story.
The box sat in the closet for most of the first month after Vanessa took her apartment. It always seemed to be in the way as she painted, and each time the box was moved, a cloud of dust rose from the books. Cleaning off these treasures marked the end of Vanessa's moving, cleaning, and painting. Now she could arrange her furniture and really start to enjoy her new place.
During that first month Vanessa met some of her new neighbours. They were a friendly lot, and most of them knew Old Man Talmann, who had just moved out. They said he kept to himself a lot, but was rather strange. He had a sinister look about him, always dressed in black. They figured that he was either an ex-clergyman, or mourning a wife from years ago.
These people ranged from older 'church ladies' to a pair of heavily-tattooed men who looked like bikers. Vanessa decided to get to know them better by hosting an open house the first Friday night after her work was completed. She slid invitations under the doors along her short hallway and was surprised when a dozen people turned up.
Vanessa hoped her get-together would go well. But there were a few characters whom she regretted inviting into her apartment. One man stared at her chest all night. He just couldn't seem to look Vanessa in the eye when she chatted with a group around him.
A pair of brothers, who seemed like a shiftless drunks, quickly downed most of the beer. Fortunately, the two bikers went back to their apartment and returned with more supplies. The superintendent dropped in without an invitation, but he seemed like an alright guy who could take charge if necessary.
The next day Vanessa cleaned up and relaxed before her girlfriend Marie came for afternoon coffee. Both of them knew that she was there for moral support, a good friend helping someone get off on the right foot. But, she did have a little bit of news that she thought Vanessa might appreciate.
"Guess what happened to Eric the other day, Vanessa," she teased.
"He got into a serious traffic accident, right? Or, he fell off the bridge," Vanessa replied sarcastically.
"Almost as bad. Deidre's husband Frank punched his lights out. Decked him. He was arrested, but said that it would be worth anything that the law could do to him."
"Remind me to shake Frank's hand. I'm still pretty bitter about the whole thing."
Marie didn't really want to get into anything too deep about the divorce so she changed the topic.
"Hey, have you read any of those old books yet?"
"You know, I almost forgot about them lately. Thanks, I'll take a closer look, maybe tonight?"
And she did. After supper on Saturday, Vanessa dragged the box out of the closet and began to read. She loved history and the box was a treasure trove. Vanessa completely lost track of time as she devoured page after musty page, starting with the Civilization series which Marie first noticed when she found the box. She read stories about the ancient past:
"....A new freedom was breaking down the old ways and the ancient family discipline. Roman women now moved about almost as freely as men. They dressed in sheer silks from India and China, and ransacked Asia for their perfumes and jewelry. Marriage vows were broken and women divorced their husbands as readily as men their wives. They played, they sang, and they danced...."
