I was waiting to board an airplane that would take me from Atlanta to home.  I’d been sitting and people watching when she came into the boarding area and took a seat.  I recognized her right away even though it had been twelve years since I’d last seen her.

Shayleen Murphy had been my fantasy girl from the time I’d first laid eyes on her the first day of class at the start of the eighth grade.  As she sat and fiddled with her cell phone I watched her.  In fact I could not take my eyes off of her.  She noticed and after maybe five minutes she got up and came over to me.

“Why are you staring at me?  Do I have something in my hair?”

“No.  I was just admiring your beauty.  I thought you were perfection in high school, but I was wrong.  Perfection means as good as it gets, but you are definitely much, much better now.”

“High school?  Do I know you?”

“Maybe know of me, but you didn’t actually know me.”

“Care to explain that to me?”

“I was just one of the 186 in our class.  I was around and you would have seen me, but I don’t remember you ever speaking to me from the eighth grade on.”

“You’re kidding me.”

“Not in the least.  You were the most popular girl in our class and you ran with the cheerleaders and jocks.  I was with the nerds and geeks.  The two groups never socialized and even if they would have I wouldn’t have been there.  I had to work in the family business after school so I never was wherever it was that you went to socialize after school.”

She took a step back and looked me over and then said, “You have to be pulling my leg.  If you were really in my class I would recognize you even if we never socialized.”

“Try to imagine me with coke bottle lens glasses, forty pound heavier and with a hair cut that looked like a bowl had been placed on my head and all the exposed hair had been cut off.”

She stared at me for a bit and then said, “Frank.  Frank Dalton.”

“Close.  Frank Denton.”

Before she could say anything the announcement came that they were boarding rows ten through fourteen.

“That’s me” I said as I picked up my carryon bag.  “Nice seeing you again Shayleen” and I headed for my seat.

The airplane was only half full and I had the window seat.  We were at altitude and I was looking down at the ground through breaks in the clouds when some one sat down in the aisle seat.  I looked and saw Shayleen sitting there,  Since rows one through eight were first class and I hadn’t see Shayleen walk past my seat when the plane was loaded I assumed that she was sitting in first class.  She saw the question on my face and said:

“Tell me more about my having improved on what you originally thought was perfection.”

“What can I say?  You were my dream girl.  The girl all my fantasies were built on.”

“Oooooh, that sounds good.  Tell me more.”

By the time our flight had landed Shayleen and I had exchanged our vitals.  She had finished college and had gone to work as a CPA, gotten married and then divorced.  She was currently single and not looking.  From me she found out that I was twice divorced and was running the family business that my grandfather had started and where I had worked since I was fourteen.  As we taxied to the gate I asked:

“Would my dream girl have dinner with me some evening?”

“I’d like that.  I’m usually free most nights except Wednesdays.  That is the night I play cards with some of the girls who were in my sorority.

“Would this Friday work for you?”

“Yes it would.”

We exchanged phone numbers, she gave me her address and I told her I would pick her up at six-thirty.

++++++++++++++++++++

As I drove home from the airport I was thinking about the odds of my ever getting a date with Shayleen Murphy.  It was a given that the teenaged goddess  would never have given the teenaged geek a second look, but laser surgery had eliminated the coke bottle lens glasses and my first wife Glenda had been responsible for all of the other changes in me.

I met Glenda during my freshman year at State.  She had the seat next to me in Introduction to Business Law and we started talking while waiting for the instructor to show up.  Later that day I was in the student cafeteria and she came in and saw me and asked if she could join me.  We talked and got to know each other.  I liked her and she seemed to like me and we started spending time together.  Not dates, but things like joining each other in the cafeteria and studying together in the library.

By the time I met Glenda my eye problems had been taken care of, but I was about forty pounds overweight and I had absolutely no sense of style.  My mother had taken off when I was about six leaving dad to raise me.  He did his best, but he was busy trying to run the business that my grandfather had left him and I had a succession of nannies and baby sitters until I was about twelve.  He put in late hours and I was pretty much left on my own.

By the time I was twelve I was fixing my own breakfast, making my own lunch and more often than not I was handling dinner also.  Quite naturally I was eating what I liked and, also quite naturally, what I liked was fattening and not really good for me.

Dad gave me a pretty hefty allowance and it was understood that I was supposed to take care of things like clothes and haircuts with the money.  I learned early that in order to have spending money for the things I really wanted I needed to buy the cheapest clothes I could find and wear then until I had absolutely no choice but replace them.

Tommy was my next door neighbor and one day I was bitching to him about the high cost of haircuts and his mother overheard us and she told me that she would cut my hair for a third of what the barbershop charged.  She did Tommy’s hair and it looked okay to me so I jumped at the chance to put more spending money in my pocket.  My haircuts looked okay to me, but some of the kids laughed and told me that I looked dorky, but I didn’t care.  I might have looked dorky to some, but I was still able to get dates and the girls I dated made out with me and  after Pauline French took my cherry as an eighteenth birthday present and I was getting laid on a fairly regular basis I didn’t care one whit about what others thought about my hair.  Of course I found out later that I got the dates because I had the money to spend and a lot of other guys my age didn’t.

Anyway, back to Glenda.

After three weeks of spending time with Glenda I asked her out.  I was pulled up short when she told me that I needed to make some changes before she would let herself be seen with me on a date.  She was uncomfortably blunt about it.

“You dress like you get all of your clothes out of a rag bin and your hair looks like you stuck your head in a fan to get it cut.”

She saw the look on my face and said, “No one else ever told you how you look?”

“Not really.”

“Who buys your clothes?”

“I do.”

“Figures.  I’ll bet that you don’t go to a real barber either do you?”

“No.”

She contemplated me for a bit and then she said, “I’m appointing myself your style coordinator.  Think of it as my being your personal trainer for clothes and appearance.”

She took me in hand and in our free time she drug me around to stores and picked out things for me to buy.  She forced me to go to a regular barber and after a week or so she was done with me and she said:

“You’ll do.  Where are we going on our first date?”

We started making out on our third date and a month later we made love for the first time.  Glenda wasn’t my first piece of ass, but she gave me my first blow job and I ate pussy for the first time.  Glenda was really into oral and sixty-nine became a regular occurrence when we made love.  Glenda was also the first one to do anal with me. 

After we had been making love for a couple of weeks Glenda told me that I needed to lose some weight.

“No girl wants to have a big belly lying on top of her.  I guess it is time for me to go back into personal trainer mode.”

She came up with a program for me that included running every day and she was ruthless in making me follow it.  Follow it I did and the pounds came off.  Slowly, but they did come off.  I fully admit that I did all of what Glenda wanted because I was pussy whipped.  We were making love four and five times a week and we were doing it all.  Glenda was especially into oral and anal and I was getting as much as I could handle.

Just before finals in our freshman year Glenda came to me and told me that we had a problem.

“I’m pregnant Frank.”

“I thought that you were on the pill.”

I am, but I think that the medicine I took when I had the flu screwed things up.  What are we going to do about it Frank?”

“We will have to get married.”

My dad’s response to that was, “I think that you are too young to be getting married Frank, but then I guess that you do have to accept the responsibility.  I was your age when I married your mother and look how that turned out.  There is one thing though.  Your lady is going to have to sign a prenuptial agreement exempting the business in the case of a divorce.”

“I don’t know if she will do that.”

“Then I won’t leave the business to you.  I’ll leave it to your children.  It is going to stay in the family.  All of it.”

Glenda did sign the pre-nup and we were married in a civil ceremony.

++++++++++++++++++

Three months after we were married Glenda miscarried.  She had gone to Michigan to visit her sick grandmother and had fallen down some steps.  Two weeks later I found out that it was all bullshit.

I had purchased a digital voice activated recorder for taping classes since it was easier for me than taking notes.  I was sitting at the kitchen table in our apartment listening to it when the phone rang and I pushed the stop button and answered the phone.  It was some guy trying to drum up support for someone running for office. 

When I hung up the phone I looked at the clock and saw what time it was.  Glenda was bringing her friend Tara home with her and I had promised to take care of dinner.  I had intended to order pizza, but had forgotten.  I called the pizza place and placed an order to go.  I was leaving to pick up the pizzas when Glenda and Tara came into the apartment.  I gave Glenda a quick kiss and then left to go pick up dinner.

We ate and socialized with Tara and after she left Glenda and I went to bed.  Glenda was really horny that night and I was exhausted when I finally was able to go to sleep.

The next day I had a thirty minute break between my first and second class so I went to the cafeteria, got a cup of coffee and a sweet roll and sat down at a table to review the recording of the last class.  I didn’t fully rewind because I still had yesterday’s last class on it.  I rewound to where I thought the start of the day’s class would be and hit play.

“….did you get Frank to believe that you were at your grandmother’s?”

“He isn’t too bright.  I mean he did buy the phony pregnancy.”

The first voice was Tara’s and the second was Glenda’s.  Phony pregnancy?  Not too bright?  I must have left the recorder on and their voices had activated it.  I kept hitting rewind and play until I got to where the two of them came into the kitchen.  I heard the front door close behind me and then Tara said:

“You did a good job on him.  I’d probably even date him now.”

“Oh no you don’t you slut.  He’s my gravy train.”

“Listen to you.  Calling me a slut.  The girl who spent a full week in Roger’s bed.  How did you get Frank to believe that you were at your grandmother’s?”

“He’s not too bright.  I mean he did buy the phony pregnancy.  I needed an excuse to be gone a few days so I could have my miscarriage without anyone seeing that it was phony.  Besides, Roger has a great cock and I love fucking him.”

“The plan still the same?”

“Yep.  Wait six months and then get pregnant for real.  Either by Frank or Roger; it doesn’t really matter which one does it.  Then Roger sees to it that Frank’s old man passes on and leaves the business to Frank.  After a decent interval Roger will see to it that something happens to Frank and I’ll inherit.  Worst case is that Frank’s father’s will will be written to leave the business to Frank’s kids, but as their mother I’ll control things until they are old enough to take over.  I’ll never be poor again.”

“There are a hell of a lot of ‘what if’s’ in there.  You getting caught cheating on Frank with Roger for one.”

“Never happen.  I’m way too careful for that.”

The rest of it was them talking about other things until I got home with the pizzas. 

Well ‘Way too careful Glenda’ I thought, one of those ‘what if’s’ just bit you on your ass.

I skipped the rest of my classes that day and went to see my dad.  I played the tape for him.  He called our attorney and I went to see him and played the tape for him and he called an assistant district attorney that he knew and we played the tape for him.  The net result?  After everything was over and done with I had an annulment and Glenda was doing a year and a day in the can.  Roger was arrested, but made bail and skipped town. 

But I did owe her for my makeover so I sent her a carton of cigarettes.  She didn’t smoke, but I’d heard that cigarettes are used as currency in jail.

++++++++++++++++++

Friday I picked up Shayleen at six and asked her what her preference was when it came to eating out and she said anything but oriental so I took her to Carl’s Chop House.

Over dinner we talked and she told me the sad tale of her marriage.  She had married Todd Lucero who had been the star quarterback at our high school.  He had gotten an athletic scholarship and had gone off to become a stand out college quarterback.

 Shayleen had gone to the same university and they had hooked up, gone steady and gotten engaged.  They got married when they graduated.  Todd was drafted by the Denver Broncos and he looked like a sure bet to make the team as a starter.  He did start the second game of the pre-season. But a hard tackle had blown out his right knee and his career was over before it even got started. 

He became a bitter and abusive drunk and the second time he sent Shayleen to the emergency room she got rid of him.

“Since then I have dated some, but have devoted most of my time to my career.  What’s your story?  Two ex-wives already and not yet thirty?  Should I even be out with you?  Were you some kind of monster to those two girls?”

She said it with a grin, but I knew that for her it was a really important question and a lot hinged on my answer.  I told her about Glenda and how that had turned out and then I had to tell her about Gloria.

When I graduated with my Bachelor’s in Business Management I did not go into the family business right away.  It pissed off my dad no end, but as I told him I had never worked any place other than the family business and I wanted to experience a few other things.  I would try a few other things and after two or three years I would join the family business. 

I sent out a couple of dozen resumes and when Apex Industries offered me a position I took it.  I was in my second week there and I was sitting in the break room having a cup of coffee when a very good looking redhead came over and asked if she could join me.  We introduced ourselves.

“You must be new.  I’ve not seen you before.”

“I started two weeks ago.”

“Where do they have you?”

“I’m in Asset Management.  What do you do for the outfit?”

“I’m in Accounting.”

I glanced at my watch and saw that it was time for me to get back to my desk so I told her that it was nice meeting her and that maybe we could have coffee again some time.

Over the next couple of weeks we ran into each other several times in the break room and either I joined her or she joined me.  We had coffee and talked and then one day I asked her to have dinner with me and she accepted.  We had a fun date and I asked for another and she again said yes.  The second date led to a series of dates.  We had been dating for two months when one night when I brought her home she gave me a kiss and said:

“It is time for you to fish or cut bait Frank.”

“What does that mean?”

“You either like me enough to take things to the next level or you don’t.  Which is it?”

We took things to the next level and then again three or four nights a week for the next three months.  Then I asked her to marry me.  She said yes and again my father insisted on a pre-nup and Gloria signed it without saying a word.

We were married and I thought that we had a good and strong marriage.  Silly me.

After two years I left Apex and went into the family business.  Six months after joining the business I went out of town on a buying trip.  I was supposed to be gone three days, but I managed to get everything done in two and the evening of the second day I caught the late flight home.  I called Gloria to let her know I’d be home early, but got the recorded message.  I tried to get her on her cell, but it went to voice mail.

I got home and let myself into the house and before the door even closed behind me I knew what was going on in the bedroom.  I knew what I was going to find so I put my cell phone in picture taking mode and walked into the bedroom.  I got three shots before they noticed me and another four while they scrambled to separate. 

I put the phone in my pocket, picked up the man’s pants and took out his wallet and read the information off of his driver’s license.  I dropped the wallet on the floor and waited to see what Barry Wasour was going to do.  He looked ready to fight so I said:

“This is the way it goes down asshole.  This is her house as well as mine so she has every right to invite people in.  If I attack you I go to jail for assaulting you in a place that you had a right to be.  You can hit me if you want to and I won’t even defend myself until you get two punches in and then I’ll half kill you and you will be the one going to jail for assaulting me. 

“That does not mean that you will get a free ride out of this.  What it means is that I know your name and where you live and I’ll be seeing you down the road somewhere.  So either get dressed and get out or take your best shot.”

He hesitated and then shrugged, got dressed and left.  While he was dressing I told Gloria to get dressed and get out.  She dressed without a word and then left.

I saw an attorney the next day and filed for a divorce and Gloria didn’t fight it.  Three weeks later a man in a ski mask beat Barry Wasour so bad that he had to go to the emergency room at County General.  The police paid me a visit, but fortunately for me Josh Barnum was able to tell them that Mike Mattson and I were helping him change the engine in his truck at the time of Barry’s assault.

I told the story to Shayleen and added, “I never spoke with Gloria after she left the house that night so I have no idea of the why of it or how long it had been going on.”

Shayleen smiled and said, “Would you like to know?”

“Not really.  I don’t think my ego could handle it if the reason was that I wasn’t getting the job done.”

“I don’t think that was the reason at all.  I told you on the plane that I was a CPA but I didn’t tell you that I was the head of Accounting at Apex.  Gloria Marcella worked in my department.  For some reason known only to God and the Human Resources department all the employees in Accounting are women and women are terrible gossips when there are no men around.

“Gloria was engaged to be married to Barry Wasour and whenever the girls talked about men Gloria positively gushed over Barry.  He could do no wrong.  He was perfect in every way.  He was the love of her life.  As far as she was concerned their love was planned by the Gods.

“One month before the wedding Barry told Gloria that he wasn’t going to marry her and he left town.  She was devastated and was pretty much a basket case for the next couple of months and then suddenly her mood changed.  She had met another man.  You, being a man and not used to noticing such things, probably didn’t notice that you and Barry look a lot alike.  Same size, same hair coloring, close to the same features.  You got Gloria on the rebound and most likely it was because you reminded her so much of Barry.  Then she got married and we didn’t hear about Barry anymore.

“About two years after she got married she came into work in a really bubbly mood and when one of the girls asked her what had her on such a high she said, and as I recall it, these are her exact words.”

“My Barry is back and he wants me.”

“Two weeks later she was telling every one that she was getting divorced so she and Barry could be together again.  So two weeks is probably the answer to how long and the fact that you weren’t Barry is probably the ‘why’ of it.  She is still at Apex.  She isn’t a very happy lady.  Barry dumped her and she realizes she screed up the good thing she had with a man who loved her in order to be with a man who didn’t.”

I shrugged and she went on.

“What seems odd to me is that you and I never saw each other.  I was in that break room two or three times a day.  You would think that we would have run into each other at least once in the hallways, lobby or parking lot.”

“I guess the fates weren’t ready to put us together at that time.  They must have wanted me to be rid of my baggage before they put us together.””

“The fates?  You think we were fated to meet in Atlanta?”

“Absolutely.  What are the odds on my fantasy girl showing up in the boarding area where I was sitting and then getting up and coming over to me because I couldn’t take my eyes off of her?  How many times have you gone over to talk to men who looked at you because they were so taken with your beauty that they couldn’t take their eyes off of you?  I’ll bet that the total would be one and that one was that day in Atlanta.  Am I right?”

She smiled and said, “I’ll never tell.”

After dinner we went to The Boom Boom Room for drinks and dancing.  Dancing with Shayleen was a dream come to life.  She fit.  It sounds simple, but it was true.  She fit into my arms like she was made for me.  It was a great evening for me and as I drove her home I told her how much I had enjoyed her company and that I hoped we could do it again.  I was stunned when she said that she hoped so too.

Consider my mindset at the time.  Two disastrous relationships with the opposite sex.  I was probably the most insecure man in a six state area and the girl I had dreamed about all the way through high school just told me that she would like to go out with me again.  Add to my insecurities that I considered Shayleen to be way, way out of my league and it was no wonder that I was stunned.  I stared ahead at the road as my mind raced and then Shayleen said,

 “Well say something.”

“I’m thinking, I’m thinking.  Do you like classical music?”

“As long as it isn’t opera.  Why?”

“There is an all Beethoven concert at the Civic Center Auditorium Wednesday evening.  Would you like to go?”

“I would indeed.”

I was walking on air as I escorted her to her door ad then said goodnight.  She went up on her toes (I was 6’1” and she was 5’2”) and kissed me on the cheek and I felt as if I had just won the lottery.  I slept very well that night.

+++++++++++++++++++

We had a grand time at the concert and when I took her home I asked her to go out with me on Friday and she said yes.  That began a relationship that had us dating two or three times a week. 

On one of those dates I picked her up from work because her car was in the shop.  As I got out of the car to open the door for Shayleen I saw Gloria come out the front door of the building.  She stopped when she saw me holding the door for Shayleen and she stood there and stared.  I maybe wrong, but I thought the look on her face was one of sadness.

After the second week the kisses were on the lips instead of the cheek.  I ached for Shayleen.  I wanted so badly to make love to her that it was driving me crazy, but I was always conscience of the fact that I thought that Shay was way out of my league and I didn’t want to do anything that might scare her off.  And to be absolutely honest in the back of my mind was the thought that I’d had two wives and something had to be wrong with me because both of them had gone to other men.  Roger in Glenda’s case and Barry in Gloria’s.  What if I tried with Shayleen and disappointed her and she wouldn’t see me again?

I was driving Shayleen home from an evening of country/western dancing when she said:

“Are we going anywhere?”

“Just home unless you have somewhere else you want to go.”

“That isn’t what I mean and you know it.  Is our relationship going anywhere or are we going to be just friends?”

The question caught me flatfooted and I didn’t say anything.

“Talk to me Frank.”

I took a deep breath and then said, “I want it to go somewhere.  God knows that I want us to last forever, but I’m afraid.”

“Afraid of what?”

“That I won’t be man enough for you.”

“And why would you think that?”

I explained my fears and she said, “Those stupid girls really did a number on you didn’t they.”

I shrugged and said, “Girls are always joking about how fragile a man’s ego is, but even though they are joking it is still a truth.  Between what Glenda did with Roger and Gloria did with Barry my ego is so low that it is keeping company with whale shit and as you know that is on the bottom of the ocean.  If I were to be a disappointment to you I don’t know that I could ever recover from it.  With those thoughts on my mind I’ve been afraid to try and take our relationship any farther.”

“If I am understanding you right you are saying that you want me, but are afraid that you won’t be man enough for me right?”

I nodded a yes.

“Well it might just surprise you to know that I have the same fears.  I’m afraid that I might not be woman enough for you.  The only way either of us is going to find out the answer is to make it happen.”

She said that just as we were pulling into her driveway.  I parked and looked over at her and asked:

“Are you sure?”

“Come on in and find out.”

I can’t speak for Shay on my performance, but she was more than woman enough for me.  We made out like teenagers on her couch until she pulled away from me. Took my hand and led me to her bedroom.  We undressed each other and then she got on the bed and waited.  I saw her face register surprise when instead of mounting her I settled in to eat her pussy.  I munched on her until she panted:

“I want you in me Frank.  Please Frank.  Please make love to me.”

I moved up and slid into her and then made slow gentle love to her until she cried out:

“Harder.  Fuck me harder.”

I did as she asked and I was rewarded for my efforts when she had a screaming orgasm.  An actual loud screaming orgasm.  Glenda and Gloria had orgasms when we had sex, but never loud screaming ones.  I came and held myself in Shay until I softened and then I rolled over and settled in beside her.  She rolled onto her side, put her arms around me and held me tight.  After a bit she murmured into my chest:

“If you don’t ask me to marry you after that I’ll kill you.”

I held her tight and said, “I’m too young to die so I guess I’ll have to do it, but I won’t ask until I have the ring and can do it in the traditional way.”

“We can shop for the ring in the morning.”

She slid down, took my cock in her mouth and we made love twice more before falling asleep in each other’s arms.

I woke up alone, but I smelled the coffee and I got up and followed my nose into the kitchen.  Shay smiled at me, poured me a cup and told me where the cream and sugar were and then asked me how I liked my eggs.  I told her scrambled and then sat down at the kitchen table to sip my coffee and watch her work.  After a minute I asked:

“Did last night really happen or was it just a dream?”

“You bet your sweet ass it did and I’m holding you to it.  The malls open at nine and we are going ring shopping.”

++++++++++++++++++

One the way to the Miracle Mile Mall I asked Shayleen, “Why on earth were you afraid that you wouldn’t be enough for me?”

She was quiet for several seconds and then she said, “If I was woman enough I should have been able to pull Todd through his depression and give him a reason to work at keeping me happy.  I couldn’t do that and I finally had to give up on him.

“After my divorce I dated several guys, went to bed with a few of them, but after a couple of times they dropped me and moved on to other women.  I became the female version of how you saw yourself.  Always asking myself what was wrong with me/”

“All I can say is that if there was a problem it was with them and not you.”

She looked away from me and stared out the passenger side window for about a minute and then said:

“I’m not being completely honest with you.”

“What are you not being honest about?”

“Let me ask you a question.  If you had feelings for a woman wouldn’t you fight for her?”

“Of course I would.”

“Well apparently I wasn’t woman enough for the guys I was interested in to want me enough to fight for me.”

“I don’t understand what you are trying to tell me.”

“Todd threatens every man I seem to take an interest in.  He catches them alone some place and tells them to stay away from me if they know what’s good for them.  Most just stayed away from me after he talked to them, but two of them told him to stuff it and he beat them up pretty badly and then warned them that if they pressed charges he would find a way for them to ‘accidentally die’ when he got out of jail.  They must have believed him because they never called the police.  They did call me and tell me that they couldn’t see me any more and why.

“I called the police and then tried to get a restraining order, but I was told that there was nothing they could do since I wasn’t the one he was threatening.  They did urge me to try and get the men he threatened to come forward, but none of them would.”

“He hasn’t done anything to you?”

“Not since the last time he sent me to the hospital.  He did call me once or twice a month to ask me if I’d come to my senses yet and was ready to come back to him.  I told him it would be a cold day in hell before we would ever get back together.  He hasn’t called in almost four months so I guess he has finally accepted things.  Either that or he has moved away.”

“We have been seeing each other for three and a half months and I have not seen him.”

“I just hope he is gone and I never hear from him again.”

“Not to worry my love.  Even if he shows I’m not going anywhere.  You are stuck with me for life.”

We found the ring she wanted at Zales and it was in her size so I paid for it and put the box in my pocket.  I intended a romantic dinner that evening and for dessert have the ring brought to the table on a silver tray.  I would then get on my knees and ask her to marry me, but as we walked past the fountain in the mall’s center court I changed my mind.  I stopped Shay and turned her to me and then took a knee.  I took the box out of my pocket, took out the ring and held it out to her and asked her to be my wife.  She got down on her knees, hugged and kissed me and said she would love to marry me.  I slipped the ring on her finger and then we raced home to celebrate.

+++++++++++++++++++++

We had both gone the big wedding route before and decided that we didn’t want to do it again.  We decided that a simple civil ceremony would do it for us.  We went for the license and the blood tests and then sat down and talked thing over.  We decided that she would sell her house and we would keep mine.  She moved in with me and put her house up for sale.

Even though we had decided on a civil ceremony we knew we would have to do something for friends and relatives so we started planning a celebration/party/reception and sent out invitations.

It was a Monday night and Shay was in Memphis doing an audit on the Apex facility there.  I was sitting on a stool at Frank’s Place, a bar close to work, and enjoying a cold beer.  I had been coming into Frank’s Place since way before I was even old enough to drink.  I used to come in with my dad after work and drink a Coke while he and some of the men from the plant drank beer and talked.

I was on very friendly terms with Fred who was the bartender.  Fred also owned the place and why it was named Frank’s Place and not Fred’s Place is something that I could never get Fred to tell me.

I was nursing my beer and watching Monday Night Football on the TV up on the wall at the end of the bar.  The Bronco’s were playing Kansas City and so far it was a scoreless tie.  A guy sat down on the stool next to me on my right which I thought strange since there were four open stools to my left and there had been five empties to my right.

The guy ordered a Bud and when Fred set it down in front of him he took a pull, swallowed and then turned to me and asked:

“Do you believe in promises?”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Do you believe that promises should be kept?”

“I guess I do, but I guess it would depend on circumstances.”

“Like what?”

“Were they made jokingly or seriously?”

“Ones that are made seriously.”

“Then they should be kept unless something happens to make it impossible to keep them.”

“That’s not the way I see it.  A promise made in a serious situation should be kept no matter what.”

“Why are we having this conversation?”

“It is simple really.  In front of God and eighty-six friends and relatives Shayleen promised to be mine until death do us part.  She also promised to be mine for better or worse and I’m holding her to those promises.  You need to stay away from her.  Her getting a divorce is meaningless.  She is mine until we are parted by death.”

“Sorry, but I don’t see it that way.”

“You had better because if you don’t I’ll beat you half to death and I’ll keep on doing it until you get the message.”

I waved Fred over.  “Are we on good enough terms that I can ask you for a huge favor?”

“You can’t have my wife. But I guess I’m open for just about anything else.”

The bar stools we were sitting on were the swivel type and I picked up my beer as though I was going to take a drink and then I swiveled and threw the beer in Lucero’s face.  His hands went up to his eyes and I grabbed my beer bottle by its long neck and swung it hitting Lucero hard on the side of his head.  He fell off the bar stool onto the floor and I got up and kicked him twice in the nuts and once in the ribs.  I turned to Fred and said:

“The favor I need is for you not to call the cops.  This asshole is Shay’s ex-husband and he just warned me to stay away from her or he was going to kick my ass.  I’m going to take him out to the alley and have a little talk with him.  Okay with you?”

“Not a problem Frank.”

I grabbed Lucero by his shirt collar and drug him to the back door.  Fred opened the door for me and held it open while I pulled Lucero out into the alley and then proceeded to beat the living shit out of him.  I broke his nose, dislocated his jaw and I think I broke a rib or two.  When I got tired I sat him up against the brick wall and said:

“Listen to me asswipe.  Pay very close attention.  You stay away from Shay and you stay away from me.  If I see you again I’ll take care of that till death do us part thing that you think is so important.  I’m as serious as death here.  You come anywhere near either of us and I’ll put you in your grave.  And don’t bother going to the police.  You saw how Fred acted.  He will back me when the cops show up.  You came in, started an argument with me and then hit me.  I defended myself and you lost.  The rest of the people in the bar know me and will back me up.  What you need to do is go away and stay away.  Understand?”

He didn’t say anything so I grabbed a handful of his hair and slammed his head back against the brick wall and asked again.

“Do you understand me?”

“Yes.”

“Yes what?”

“I understand you.”

“Best that you do Lucero; best that you do.”

I went back into the bar and bought a round for the house (all four of them) and then sat down to watch the game.  I didn’t tell Shay about my meeting with Lucero because I saw no reason to possibly upset her.

++++++++++++++++++

I try very hard not to be stupid.  I realized from what Shay had told me of her ex that he was quite possibly unstable and prone to reckless behavior and I knew that he wasn’t very happy about the outcome of our meeting.  I decided that it would be best if I were to be prepared in case there was a second meeting with him.

Frontier Firearms had just what I was looking for.  I purchased a Llama .380 which is a small copy of the Colt 1911 A1.  I had to wait two days for my background check to come back and then I took delivery of the pistol and went to an indoor range and got familiar with it.  I took the eight hour class necessary to get the certificate needed to get a concealed carry permit, took it to the sheriff’s department, got the permit and then hoped that I had wasted my time and money.

Several weeks went by with no sign of Lucero and I began to think that I’d read the man wrong.  It was a Wednesday night and Shay was off playing cards with her sorority sisters so I had the evening to myself.  Because I had no place to go and nothing to do I decided to stay late at the office and clear up some paperwork.

It was seven –ten and already turning dark when I left the building and headed for the lone car in the parking lot.  Three men came around the corner of the back of the building and headed toward me.  One of them was Lucero.

“About time you came out asshole.  This time it is your turn to be a punching bag.”

“Don’t think so asswipe.  I told you that if you ever came near me again I’d take care of that death do us part thing you were so concerned with” I said as I reached under my sports coat for the .38o in the hip holster.  I pulled it out, pulled back the slide and released it to chamber a round and then I pointed it at the three men and pulled the trigger.

 The sound of the shot split the silence of the night.  I’d deliberately aimed the shot into the space between Lucero and one of his buddies, but they didn’t know that.  As far as they knew I was shooting at them.  I saw the wet spot appear on the front of Lucero’s pants before he and his two pals turned and ran back the way they came.  I fired another shot into the air to spur them along and they got to the end of the building and turned the corner and they were gone.  I policed up my brass, got in my car and took a quick look around and didn’t see anyone.  With any luck anyone who heard the shots wouldn’t associate them with gunshots at least not in that neighborhood.

I went home, broke the weapon down and thoroughly cleaned it.  I tossed the clothes I was wearing into the washing machine and then I got in the shower.  I scrubbed my right hand and forearm with a brush a couple of times.  My hope was that I could get rid of any gunshot residue in case the police did come to call.  Even if no one saw what happened I couldn’t be sure that Lucero wouldn’t be stupid enough to tell the cops I’d shot at him.  If he did he was setting himself and his buddies up, but I didn’t give him credit for having much in the way of brains.  If the cops did show up and couldn’t find any evidence (GSR featured big on cop and CSI shows) it would be my word against his and he did have a history of screwing around with the men who saw his ex-wife.  I would claim that he made it all up to get me tossed in jail and have to put the wedding off.

+++++++++++++++++++++

I was in bed asleep when Shay got home, but that didn’t stop her from waking me up with a blow job.

“Sorry baby” she said when I was fully awake, “But I’m horny as hell and I need you to do something to take care of the problem.”

I of course did what was needed and then we snuggled up and fell asleep.  In the morning I asked her what had fired her up the previous evening.

“I can’t tell you.”

“Why not?”

“Because what the girls talk about while we play cards stays with us.  All I can tell you is that what one of the girls told us last night turned me on something fierce.”

I kept trying to get it out of her, but she wouldn’t budge other than to say if we kept talking about it she would keep thinking about it and that would have her trying to fuck me to death.  Needless to say I decided to bring the subject up often.  What I didn’t realize at the time was that there was going to come a day when I would wish that I hadn’t.

++++++++++++++++

When I got to the office in the morning I did something I should have done the day after my first encounter with Lucero.  I made an appointment with a private investigator.  That afternoon I saw him and gave him the information I had taken from Lucero’s driver’s license and then told him that I wanted him to find out whatever he could about Lucero.

A week later I got a call from the PI and he told me that he had what I wanted.  I dropped by his office and got the report.  The over four months that Lucero hadn’t called Shay to ask if she was ready to come back to him were because he was in jail.  He did ninety days for something to do with marijuana and when he got out he got into a fight in a bar and got another thirty days.

He wasn’t working.  He couldn’t hold a job because he was incapable of taking orders from his bosses and he kept getting fired.  I had been right in my assumption that he was unstable and I decided that I needed a permanent solution to the Todd Lucero problem.  It cost me a few bucks and a few favors and a few favors called in, but the job got done.

  Following a phone tip the cops pulled Lucero over and a search of his vehicle found enough grass and cocaine that he went down for possession with intent to distribute.  As a bonus he got in a fight with the cops that pulled him over and that got him additional charges.  In jail he got into a fight with another prisoner and ended up breaking the arm of one of the cops that tried to break up the fight and that got him even more time.  I smiled knowing that if he kept it up he would never get out.

I never shared any of this with Shay and just let her think that he had given up on her and had left town.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Shay and I married and I received a surprise at the party following the ceremony.  Shay had issued a blanket invitation to all of the girls she worked with never for one minute thinking that Gloria would come, but she did.  The party had been going on for an hour when Gloria walked up to where Shay and I were sitting and asked Shay if she would mind if she danced with the bridegroom.  Shay said “Enjoy” without batting an eye.  I more than likely would have said “No thanks” if I would have been sitting there without Shay or if I would have spoken up before Shay, but it was Shay’s night and if she was okay with it I wasn’t going to do anything to spoil the night.

I got up and walked out onto the dance floor with Gloria and as we positioned ourselves for the slow waltz – me being a touch on the stiff side – Gloria said:

“Don’t be pissed at me Frank, but I had to do this.  It has taken me forever to work up the nerve to face you.  I need to apologize to you for my actions.  I never did talk to you after that day when you walked in on me and Barry.  Too happy at first and then too ashamed later.”

“Too happy?”

Just then the music stopped and Gloria asked if we could go off to the side and talk.  I have to admit that the “Too happy” remark had made me curious so I walked Gloria back to where Shay was sitting and told her that Gloria and I were going to find a quiet place to talk.  Shay smiled and told Gloria:

“Just make damned sure that you bring him back.”

We went outside on the patio, sat down on a bench and Gloria said:

“You did nothing wrong Frank.  You were a marvelous husband and I really did care for you, but you were not my first choice.  I never told you about Barry.  No reason to because he was in my past, but to understand what I did to you you have to know that past. 

“Barry was my soul mate.  It may sound corny, but to me our love was written in the stars.  Barry was my everything.  He could do no wrong.  We were fated to grow old together.  I’m serious Frank.  Every atom in my body ached for the man.  We were together from the seventh grade on.  We planned on being married when we finished college.  We graduated and Barry was offered a job in Los Angeles.  I’d been to L.A. and I hated the place.  I told Barry and told him that we wouldn’t be happy there.  He looked me right in the eye and told me that he was going.  With me or without me, he was going and then he walked away from me.  Just that quick.  Less than a five minute talk and he got up and walked away leaving me sitting at the table in the restaurant.

“I was more than upset.  I was steaming and I wouldn’t talk to him for a week and then when I felt that I had punished him enough I called him only to find out he had already left for California.  I was crushed.  My other half, the yin to my yang had walked off and left me.  I was crushed.  I don’t know if you have ever had a love like that Frank, but I was left with a completely empty feeling.  I was dead inside.  It took me a while to get over it and come out of my shell.

“Then I met you and fell in love with you.  I honestly did fall in love with you Frank, but it wasn’t the bone deep love that I had felt for Barry.  I was happy in our marriage Frank; I really was, but then Barry came back and called me.  He told me that he had come to realize that he wasn’t complete without me.  I’m ashamed to tell you that I didn’t once think of you Frank.  My Barry was back.  My Barry was back and he wanted me.  When you caught us it was our first time since he had come back. 

“When you ordered me out of the house my mindset was “I’m free to go to my love” and I left the house without a word.  Unfortunately, while Barry was gone he had changed.  Or maybe not.  Maybe he was always that way, but I was too blinded by my love to see it.  Whatever.  When I left the house I moved in with Barry and within three months I was saying to myself “I gave up Frank for this?”  It was a classic case of “Be careful what you ask for because you might just get it.”

“For what it is worth Frank I have missed you and I’ve missed what we had, but I also realize that the blame for losing both rests squarely on me.  None of it was your fault Frank.  You did nothing wrong.  You were the kind of husband that most girls search for and never find and I had it and I threw it away.”

She stood up and said, “Thanks for letting me get that off my chest.”  She bent and kissed me and then walked away.  I watched he walk away and then I got up and rejoined my new bride.

“What was that all about” Shay asked.

I told her what Gloria had said and then I said, “I guess she felt like she needed some sort of closure.”

“How about you?  Did you need closure?”

“No.  I had my closure when I told her to get out of the house.”

“Come on sweetie; give the girl a little credit.  It took some guts for her to do that.”

“So what?  So now she feels a little better?  That doesn’t change the fact that she ripped my guts out when she did what she did with Barry and left me to live with the pain and self doubts.  First Glenda and then Gloria?  I spent one hell of a lot of time asking myself what was wrong with me because of that.  Her saying “Sorry” doesn’t erase any of that from my life.  None of it has instantly disappeared from my memory because she said she was sorry.”

“You’re right.  Forget I mentioned it.  Now, since it is our party, you need to get me out onto the dance floor.”

I met the girls that Shay played cards with at the party and I commented to Shay on one of them.  Her name was Mary and besides being a sorority sister she also worked at Apex.  Mary was pregnant and at seven months pregnant she looked like sex personified.  I didn’t doubt for one second that the room wasn’t full of men with hard ons after seeing her and yes, that included me.  I mentioned it to Shay and she smiled and said:

“She certainly does have that effect doesn’t she?”

It was a remark that would come back to haunt me.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

The next five years were the happiest of my life.  We spent those years going places and doing things and then one day Shay said:

“It is time for me to be a mommy.  Are you up for it?”

“When have I not been up for you?”

“Right thing to say sweetie, but what do you think?”

“I’ve just been waiting for you to say that you were ready.”

“Okay then.  The pills go into the trash today and we will start working on making it happen.”

Two months later over dinner Shay said, “Guess what happened today?”

“You won the lottery?”

“Close.  I saw the doctor today.  The rabbit died.  You are going to be a daddy.”

Shay had always been gorgeous, but a pregnant Shay positively glowed and looked sexier than ever.  I couldn’t keep my hands off of her and our sex life jumped from three or four times a week to almost daily and often more than once.

That ‘glowing sexuality’ is what caused what happened next.

Unless she was out of town doing an audit Shay usually beat me home.  It was a Tuesday and Shay was in her seventh month.  I came home to find her sitting at the kitchen table going over some papers.  She didn’t smile at me when I walked into the room.  She pointed at the chair opposite her and said:

“You need to sit down Frank.  We need to talk.”

Sensing that it was something really serious I said nothing and sat down.  I looked at her and she said:

“I’ve tried to think of a way to soften this, but I can’t think of a thing so I’m just going to have to put it out there.  I’ve done a really stupid thing and it can’t be undone.  I’ll leave it to you to get the divorce.  There won’t be any alimony and only minimal child support and only while I’m of work on maternity leave.  We will have shared custody of the child.  I’ll move into one of the spare bedrooms until I can find a place.”

“Divorce?  What the fuck are you talking about?”

“I told you Frank.  I did a stupid thing and it has bitten me on the ass.  I’m just trying to make things as easy as I can now rather than wait for you to throw me out.”

“Will you please just cut out the shit and tell me what the fuck is going on here?”

When she finally started telling me the story it shocked me.  It started years ago at one of her card nights.  The girls let their hair down and shared things with each other that they would never tell anyone else.  One of the girls, Mary, told the rest of the girls about something that she had done.  She had always wondered what sex with a black man would be like.  She had heard so much about their size and stamina that she had always wondered if any of it was true.

“I was already pregnant so I didn’t have to worry about condoms or condom breakage so when Travon, a black man who worked over in Asset Management, made a pass at me I decided to satisfy my curiosity.  One time and no one would ever know right?”

One of the other girls, Nancy, said, “Travon made a pass at you?  You are six months pregnant girl.”

“He told me that pregnant I was still sexier than two thirds of the other girls he knew.”

“Did you do it?” Beth Ann asked

“I did.  Dave (her husband) was out of town on business so I took Travon home with me.”

“And?”

“And what?”

“Was any of it true?  The size and stamina thing?”

Mary had laughed and had said, “I’m not telling.  All I’m going to say is that for the three nights Dave was gone Travon was in my bed.”

“Are you still seeing him?”

“No.  I satisfied my curiosity.  No one for me but Dave any more.”

I shook my head at that.  Mary had seemed like a sweet and innocent girl to me when I met her at our reception.  I did remember commenting on her sexuality.

“So what has any of that to do with this divorce stuff?”

“Remember those Wednesday nights when I came home from my card game and damned near fucked you to death?”

I nodded a yes.

“It was because I was so turned on by what Mary was telling us.  The pure wickedness of it was exciting to think about.  A married woman, six months pregnant, fucking a black man just to satisfy a curiosity.  I imagined his black body on top of her pregnant white body and it made my juices flow.”

“So it made you want to try a black man?

“No.  No it didn’t.  At least not then.”

“But you have since?  Is that what this is all about?  You found yourself a black lover and you are dumping me for him?”

“Good God no!  There is no way that I would ever leave you for another man.”

“Then what is this all about?”

“Curiosity.”

“Curiosity?”

“I was pregnant and Travon started making passes at me.  You need to understand this part Frank.  I know that you are always telling me how sexy I am pregnant, but you love me and you are going to say things that you feel will make me feel good.  But that doesn’t mean that I take you seriously.  You say you see a sexy wife, but when I look into the mirror I see a bloated whale so when another man starts telling me I look sexy I eat it up.

“Three weeks ago when I was in Baltimore to do the audit Travon was part of the team that I went with.  We were there for three days and the entire time Travon was telling me how sexy I was and how much I was turning him on.  And I admit that when he started coming on to me I remembered what Mary talked about on our card nights and I got curious about the same things she was curious about.  Over those three days in Baltimore that curiosity built up.  The last night we were there I convinced myself that I wouldn’t hurt you or us if I satisfied that curiosity because it would be a one time thing and you would never know.

I went up to Travon’s room with him.  I let him undress me.  I let him suck on my breasts and then I watched him undress.  He cock was hard when he got naked and he walked over to me, took my hand and put it on his cock and I started stroking it.  He put his hands on my shoulders and started to push me down so I could take him in my mouth.  I started to go to my knees and about halfway down a voice in my head screamed out:

“What the fuck are you doing?!!!!”

I straightened up, told Travon that I just couldn’t do it.  I just couldn’t cheat on you and I started to dress.  He tried to stop me and I kneed him in the balls, finished dressing and got the hell out of his room.”

“Well I didn’t know until you just told me.  The question is why?  Why tell me now?”

“Because I owe it to you to get it from me and not from somebody else.”

“Who else knows besides you and this Travon character?”

“I don’t know that any one else knows.  I haven’t told any one; not even my sorority sisters.”

“Then why did you think that you had to tell me?  Who was going to blow the whistle on you?”

“Travon.  The asshole had a camera set up somewhere in his room.  He came to me yesterday and told me that I had hurt him when I kneed him and that I had to kiss it and make it better.  I told him to fuck off and die and then he said I’d better do it or he would send you the tape he made.  I told him bullshit and he showed me some video captures that he had.  They were pretty explicit.  One showed both of us naked with my right breast in his mouth and one showed me with my hand on his cock.  He said besides you he was going to see that copies were passed around at work.”

“So what are you going to do?”

“I told him you were going out of town over the weekend so I would see him Friday.”

“Why Friday?  I’m not going to be out of town so what does that have to do with it?”

“It has to be Friday.  If I do it Wednesday or Thursday he would be missed when he didn’t show up at work or call in.  Someone might get curious and go check on him.  If I do it Friday no one will miss him until Monday or Tuesday.”

“Miss him?”

“I intend to cut his cock off and watch him bleed to death.  I’ll use Saturday and Sunday to go through his place and find any hidden cameras and any film I can find.  I figure that if he filmed me he filmed others.  I’ll take mine and leave the others.  When the police find the body and the film of the other women those women and their significant others will be who the police investigate.  It is a gamble and I know it, but the asshole picked the wrong woman to try and blackmail.”

+++++++++++++++++++++++

When Travon opened his door Friday evening and saw Shayleen standing there his face lit up in a big smile.  It only lasted a few seconds though.  The pepper spray she shot into his face wiped the grin away and as his flew to his face I stepped from the side of the door frame where I couldn’t be seen if he looked through the door peep hole and moved into the room.  His hands were still rubbing his eyes when I buried my fist into his stomach.  It took the wind out of him and made it easier to handle him.

I moved him into his kitchen, sat him down on a chair and then used zip ties to secure him to it.  Shay got some towels and a wash rag and cleaned his face and then sat down across from him.  I just looked at him and waited.  Finally he said:

“Who are you?  What do you want?”

“I’m Shayleen’s husband and what I want is to cause you some extreme pain for the pain you caused me.”

“How the fuck did I cause you pain?  I don’t even know your ass.”

“You fucked up my happy marriage and now you have to pay for it.”

“Bullshit!  It wasn’t me.  She was willing.  All I did was offer her what she wanted.  I didn’t chase after her.”

“Sure you did.  When it came time to fish or cut bait she said no, but you just had to come after her.  That was your big mistake.  The thing about blackmail is that it doesn’t work unless the person you are trying to blackmail cooperates.  In this case Shayleen isn’t cooperating.  You threatened to tell me and she said “Fuck it” and told me herself.  Even though she didn’t go through with it the fact that she started out to do it probably will have a major impact on our marriage.  A marriage that I was extremely happy with until I found out about that trip to Baltimore.

“The thing is, I would never have know if you would have just accepted that no means no and had left Shayleen alone.  But you didn’t leave her alone so here I am.  In a way you should be glad that I’m here.  Shay’s original plan was to show up here tonight, cut your cock off and then watch you bleed to death.  I couldn’t let her do that although I do think it would be a fitting punishment for you.  But I don’t want my child to be born in a prison hospital.  However, I can’t see letting you off Scott free so I talked Shay into going along with my plan.

“It would embarrass me no end to have pictures of Shay showing up anywhere.  People would be looking at me and thinking things like “You poor boob.  Being married to a slut like that.”  I don’t want stuff like that to happen so my solution to the problem is to get the material in question.  All of it.  The originals, any copies you may have made.  Sounds simple right?  The problem here is that I don’t trust you.  You could say that I have it all even though you have other copies stashed somewhere or maybe even a duplicate tape.  So what I am going to do is adapt Shay’s original idea.”

I opened up the tool box that I had brought with me and took out a pair of bolt cutters.  I held them up in front of his face and then said:

“I’m going to start with the little toe on your left foot and then work my way across until I get to the little toe on your right foot.  Next will be the fingers on the left had followed by the fingers on the right.  Hopefully, before I get to the point of putting out your eyes you will have given me what I want.  What I want is the location of every camera in this place.  The location of every recording device in this place and the location of all the material that you have.  Video, still, digital or whatever, I want it all.”

I opened the jaws of the bolt cutters and placed them around his little toe and said, “Start talking.”

He sneered at me, laughed and said, “Who the fuck you think you are kidding.”

I nodded at Shay and she covered his mouth with a towel to muffle the scream and I cut off his little toe.  I gave it a minute and then I nodded at Shay and she removed the towel.  He was blubbering and moaning:

“Oh fuck!  Oh Jesus!  You did it!  You fucking did it!  It fucking hurts.  Stop the bleeding man; stop the fucking bleeding.”

“Forget that toe Travon; it is gone and it isn’t coming back.”

I moved the bolt cutters to the next toe and said, “Okay; let’s try this again.  Talk to me Travon; talk to me” and talk he did.  While Shay bandaged his toe I went looking and found everything right where he said it would be.  We collected all the cameras and recorders and behind a false wall in a closet we found all of the blackmail material.  Shay raised an eyebrow as she looked at some of it.

“Travon has been a very busy boy.  If this material falls into the wrong hands he would be in big trouble.”

“How so?”

His bosses wife AND his bosses daughter.  My bosses wife and a half dozen other women who work at Apex.  God help Travon if the husbands of these women were to see this stuff.”

The conversation took place in front of Travon and I looked him in the eye and said:

“Here is the way it plays Travon.  If the police show up at our place asking questions about what went on here tonight we will make all of this material available to the husbands, boyfriends, fathers and brothers of these women.  Just accept that you fucked up and tried your shit on the wrong woman and write it off as a learning experience.”

I told Shay to take all the stuff out and put it in the trunk of the car and when she was gone I cut Travon loose from the chair and said:

“One more thing.  I didn't want to say this in front of Shay, but if I hear that you ever try anything with her again I promise you that they will never find your body.  Take care and have a nice weekend” and I walked out of his place and joined Shayleen in the car.

To be continued.