I was proud of myself Wednesday. I woke groggy from lack of sleep but it seemed to leave me after a couple of extra cups of coffee. Work moved at a fairly nice clip. When I got home I took the kids to the park for a hike and then we stopped at a nice but inexpensive restaurant for dinner. The kids were grateful for the change of pace. They were regular angels when we got home and did their school work and chores without complaint. I promised to take them to a movie on Friday night, making them both very happy.
Instead of going near my computer I played board games with the kids keeping them up just a little after their bedtime. They both said that I was "a real good dad." that night. Spending time with the kids was just what I needed. After they turned in I cracked a book and read adventure stories until it was time for me to turn in. I needed sleep and I was not going to subject myself to Brandon's games. I knew that Tammy loved me. Oh sure she would be tempted by all of the opulence and wealth that Brandon could surround her with but she was still in so many ways the woman she was in high school.
Back then , Tammy saw Brandon's flash as an attempt to compensate for a weak and insecure personality. I knew that Brandon had gained confidence over the years but he was still all about the flash. I knew one of his ex-wives. She had been a class ahead of us at Waterford High. We talked at a class reunion where she was a guest of somebody else. When Brandon arrived at the reunion, he gave her a wide berth. Sandy had more to drink than she should have. She cornered me alone at one point. She knew that Brandon hates me so she was trying to make him jealous by turning on the charm with me. I really wanted to get back to my table with Tammy but Sandy had me backed into a corner. We had gone out on a few dates before I had started going steady with Tammy and Sandy apparently wanted to see if I still found her attractive. Sandy told me that Brandon still thought that he could buy his way into any woman's pants and that as long as he kept giving her money, she would be happy.
"Brandon's real problem is that he really has no personality to go along with his big cock and thick wallet. He never learned how to give a woman what she really needs. Yeah he's great in the sack, but aside from business and economics he can't talk about anything of significance. Oh sure, he says he "loves" you, but you soon realize that he has no idea what the word "love" really means."
I dodged Sandy's attempt to kiss me and made a bee line for Tammy's side. I had forgotten about our encounter until today. I don't know why I remembered it. Probably from seeing my high school yearbook on the bookshelf. Remembering Sandy's words reinvigorated me. I was not going to fall for Brandon's tricks today. Tammy was a more complex woman than Sandy ever was. If Sandy tired of Brandon, what chance did he have with my wife?
Contentedly I read and read. I gave the finger to my computer from across the room and later slept like the dead.. The next morning I awoke alert and refreshed. I had had wonderful dreams of making love to Tammy. I just knew that she would come back to me. I also had a new inner resolve. Brandon was still a sleazebag, a fabulously wealthy and well hung sleazebag assuredly, but still a sleaze. I'm by no means perfect but I know how to love Tammy and he does not. Not even a month of his charms would alter Tammy's heart. I knew in a way that I did not previously that EVERYTHING Brandon was sending me was filtered through his own prism. Only Tammy could tell me the truth and Brandon controlled EVERY word of hers that HE let me hear. My terrific mood lasted all night.
Thursday passed in a blur. My good mood from Wednesday stayed with me all day long. Not even the kid's insufferable soccer matches could bring me down. When we got home I sat the kids down and asked them to think of a gift that the three of us could buy for mommy once she was finished "school." I told them it had to be something other than flowers or a card but, of course, we could get those as well. "We should get her something special that she has always wanted." I informed them. The two began rattling off a string of ideas. I told them each to make a list. I would make a list as well and we would see if we picked something in common. Tommy and Gretchen took to the project like ducks to water.
After the kids turned in. I headed for the computer, fear banished from my mind. I viewed Brandon as an emotion sucking vampire. Imagining my entire body as a garlic clove I opened the two video messages waiting for me.
Wednesday's began with a slow pan of Tammy's naked body on a blanket in Brandon's huge back yard the two shared a picnic lunch. I could not hear their conversation over the Brandon's boom box spouting romantic ballads. Whereas just a few days this vista would have filled me with fear and trepidation, now I just saw it as Brandon trying way too hard. Not even the picnic turning into an open air fucking session got to me. On the close ups of Tammy's face I saw pleasure but NOT satisfaction.
Tammy liked sex, a lot. I realized that I could not begrudge her being pleasured by Brandon, she was after all only human. As the two were going at it, recorded on a tripod mounted portable camera, I noticed something that Brandon, in his effort to hurt me, had missed. While Brandon was lying over Tammy, She put her hands together behind Brandon's back. It was the shape of a heart. It is the symbol we created in high school as a sign of our devotion and we still employ it today when we spot each other across a crowded room or to find each other in the stands at one of the kid's soccer games!
