The Opening of Melissa
By JustJake051
Chapter One
"Here guys, pretzels," "Melissa Stanhope said, setting the large bowl of snacks on the table in the tv room.
"Thanks, honey," her husband, Scott, said and took a playful swipe at his wife's butt as she walked past. The other three men in the room let out a chuckle or sneer, however one might choose to interpret it. Melissa took it as a sneer.
The problem was The Three Musketeers. She was forty-one years old, and she felt like she lived in a fraternity house with Scott, his brother Brad and Brad's buddies. When she married Scott six years ago, she didn't realize that she had also married his younger brother and his two old college pals, to boot. And she was getting tired of it. Her husband's brother, Brad, and his two buddies, were inseparable. They were always at the house, playing video games, watching sports, or just hanging out.
They called themselves "The Three Musketeers," but she privately referred to them as "The Three Stooges." Scott's brother Brad, Mark Herrington and Walter Miller, or Walt, as they called him, were always around. And Scott never did anything without all of them tagging along. And they certainly hadn't taken to Melissa when she and Scott first started dating. And when she first moved in with Scott, it was like she dropped a bomb in their boys' club and upset the balance of their little universe. And even now, after six years of marriage, the antagonisms and sarcastic comments were always directed at her. She and the boys just did not get along. And it seemed to be getting worse.
And it wasn't unusual for her to come down in the morning and find one or two of them asleep in the living room and one in the basement. The basement had a separate apartment, so Scott would let the guys stay there when a poker game ran late into the night, or a basketball game went into overtime. Brad, Scott's brother, was now staying in the basement for several months, while he was switching houses. Yet, Scott was always there for them. He always offered their home when they needed it. But with all that, Melissa never quite understood their open hostility toward her. "We're all a family and we need to get along," he would say, if she complained about Brad and the guys.
It wasn't that Scott Stanhope was a bad husband. He wasn't. He had a great job, was a good provider, and owned a local insurance agency on the outskirts of the city. Scott had inherited both the family insurance agency and the big family house in the Southeast. It was a house most folks could never afford, but Scott and Brad had been in it all their lives. Brad and his pals were five years younger than Scott, but Scott seemed to enjoy their company.
So, as this evening came to an end, it came as no surprise to Melissa that since the game ran long on television and into two overtimes, Walt asked to sleep over on the sofa. Melissa just went upstairs and went to sleep, leaving them to the game and the television.
The next morning Scott, Brad and Walt were gone, off to work and the house was empty. Melissa stared at her morning coffee cup on the table and wondered where she had lost her way. She used to be exciting, vivacious and the center of attention in her group. In college, grad school and at her job, she was always being noticed by men, and enjoyed the attention. When she entered a room, all eyes went to her, all the guys wanted her wink, her smile, just an acknowledgement that they might still have a chance with her.
Then she got married. Then divorced. Then she found Scott and she remarried.
Lost deep in self-thought this morning, she said, "Yep, and here I am." That was it, she realized - she was Ignored! "Bored and Ignored," she added aloud to herself. She hadn't wanted to give up her job and her career and the Rehab Center in Atlanta. With a degree in Psychology and a Masters in Rehabilitation and Wellness, Melissa thrived in her job. So much so that it often consumed her, around the clock, all her thoughts, all her energies. She had been good at her job, she remembered, really good. She loved running the Rehab Center and would have soon been up for a Regional Director job, in charge of six centers. But it was bad for her mental health and her first marriage. There was no work/life balance for her, just work. And that had ended her first marriage.
Then, an online dating service matched her with Scott, and it was perfect, a perfect match, except they lived in two different nearby cities. And she knew Scott would never move closer. After they were married, Melissa tried the commute, but it was grueling.
After six long months of commuting, Melissa decided she truly hated the drive, the stress, and the traffic. She'd had enough. It was only 85 miles to her workplace but that was 170 miles a day and it was awful. Scott urged her to quit her job, get her life back, and enjoy him and the marriage.
He wanted her to pay more attention to them and to give up her career to focus on home and maybe helping his insurance business, he suggested. It didn't work out that way after all. Melissa took a work-from-home job with a big pharmaceutical company, but that was disappointing. She wanted to work with people, face-to-face, with real people who needed her, like at the Rehab Center. She was now bored and tired of being ignored by her husband, so he could chum around with his younger brother and his pals.
Now her only solace was running. She ran whenever she could, as exercise, as therapy, as a way to stay in shape, and yes, as an escape. And she ran and ran and ran. The folks in the neighborhood would always see her out running, all the time, all weathers, her long brown ponytail swinging in rhythm as she ran. Her firm ass and tiny running shorts had caused quite a stir in the community when she first arrived, but by now the local men just smiled and waved when she ran past.
Melissa was 5 foot 5 inches tall, very fit and slim. The running kept her ass firm and taut and her legs gorgeous. "Not bad for 41," she thought to herself. She really didn't get into all of the glam, with the hours of makeup and such, but she had a natural beauty that suited her. Now, here she was, three weeks after celebrating her 41
st
birthday, Scott's perfect housewife and bored to tears. She took another sip of coffee and realized the coffee was stone cold. How long had she been daydreaming about her life and her state of perfectness - perfect boredom, rather.
"Oh, my God," she screeched. "The gutter guys!" The workmen would be here any minute to replace the gutters on the house. And she was still in her pajamas and hadn't even showered or put makeup on. Melissa ran upstairs to the bedroom, stripped down and started to head to the shower.
DING. DING. DONG.
The doorbell!
"WAIT A MINUTE," she yelled downstairs. "Damn!" she said to herself and grabbed a nearby pair of running shorts and a tank top and headed down the stairs. At the door, she opened it, just a crack, and stuck her head around the corner.
"Ms. Stanhope? Excuse us, we're here to..." one of the workmen said, and then was abruptly cut off by Melissa.
"RASHAD? Is that you?" Melissa yelped, and flung the door open, a giant smile on her face. Yes, it was! Rashad had been one of the men at the Rehab Center and Melissa had gone above and beyond to make sure that he would get help and find success.
"Oh, my God, it is you!" she said and leapt out onto the porch, throwing her arms around his neck, hugging him tightly.