I knew the fridge was empty so I made a shopping list during my afternoon break and on the way home from work I stopped at Safeway. I grabbed a cart, hit the courtesy counter to get my lottery tickets for that nights drawing and then headed for the produce section.
I am not a picky shopper. I know what I’m after so I pretty much grab and go. I’m not one to pick up a head of lettuce or a green pepper and roll it around in my hands minutely inspecting it before dropping it in my cart. The exception of course is eggs. I always – always! – open the carton and check to make sure that none of them are broken.
I’d picked up the makings for a salad and was pushing my caret over toward the fruit when I saw her. She was standing next to the tomatoes and she had one in her hand and was checking it out like her life depended on its being absolutely flaw free. She was pretty. Not a raving beauty, but not bad to look at from the waist up. But from the waist down? Oh my fucking God! I was instantly in heat.
My major turn ons have always been legs, nylons and high heels. She was fairly tall, maybe five eight, and it looked like four feet of that was leg. She had on a skirt that fell to just below the knee and she was wearing hose and heels and not just any old heels, but the super sexy heels that don’t seem to be much more than a collection of very thin leather straps attached to a sole and supported by a four inch heel. It was the kind of shoe worn by a woman who knew she had great legs and wanted to show them off.
My plan to get in, get what I needed and get out suddenly changed. I rarely got to see what this girl was showing and I decided that I was going to take my time shopping and do it not too far away from where she was doing hers. For the next twenty-five minutes I was never more than ten feet away from her as we wandered up and down the aisles. I ended up with far more in my cart that I had planned on getting, but I had to at least make the pretense of shopping as I followed her around and feasted on the visual treat she presented.
When it was time to head for the check out stands she got in a faster one than I did and I saw her walk out of the store as my checker took her time in ringing me up. I figured that I had seen the last of my leggy beauty. I had never seen her around before so the odds were that I wouldn’t likely see her again.
I finally cleared the checkout stand and pushed my cart out of the store and toward my car and I saw her again. She was parked about six cars beyond mine and she was unloading her cart into the trunk of her car. She was putting the last bag into the trunk as I started down the parking aisle toward her. She walked away from her cart, got in the car and drove off. I saw that she had left her purse in the small fold down tray that is in the shopping cart and I hollered at her and waved my arms to try and stop her, but she kept on going.
I got her purse from her cart, loaded my groceries into my car and then turned to go back into the store and turn the purse in at the courtesy counter, but first I decided to look in the purse and check out the girls drivers license to see if she lived close enough to me that I could contrive some way to see more of her. Just as soon as I had that thought it occurred to me that I had the means to see more of her right in my hands. To hell with taking it to the counter, I’d deliver it to her.
++++++++++++++++
I knocked on the door to apartment 3A and waited. I figured that she was home because I saw the car she had loaded her groceries into in the parking lot. It never occurred to me until after I’d knocked that the girl might not be single. Maybe some humongous hairy dude would answer the door. I guess it didn’t matter since I could hand the purse to him just as easily as I could hand it to her, but a big hairy dude was not what I had hoped to see as I drove over.
I saw the light coming through the security peep hole go away so I knew someone was on the other side of the door. I heard the security chain rattle – putting it on or taking it off I wondered – and then the door opened about six inches and I saw that it was the former. The girl looked through the gap at me and said:
“You’re the creep who followed me through the store.”
“Yeah, that was me.”
“You better get out of here before I call the cops and turn you in for stalking me.”
“I don’t think that you want to do that. They might ask me why I’m here and that could be bad for you.”
“Bad for me?”
“Yeah honey; very, very bad for you. They would ask me why I was here” and I lifted up her purse and showed it to her, “and I would tell them that you left your purse in your shopping cart and I brought it here to you. Then one of them – they travel in pairs you know – would say “Is that her purse?” and I would say yes and he would put out his hand for it so he could open it, look inside for your license to verify my story and that it was indeed your purse. He would be looking for your driver’s license, but he would find the same thing I did when I looked. Now I have no experience in these things so I’m willing to believe that the little cellophane bags full of white stuff are powdered sugar that you carry with you because you don’t like to put granular sugar in your coffee or tea, but the fuzz may not be so trusting. That is also the reason that I didn’t turn the purse in at the store. They more than likely would have looked for your license to call you and tell you they had your purse, but they just might have called the cops.
“I’m a leg lover honey and looking at your gorgeous pins as you walked around the store made my day and for that reason alone I don’t want to see you headed for a jail cell.”
I handed her the purse through the partially opened door and said, “Best be a little more careful with it honey. The next guy that finds it might not be near as nice.”
I turned and walked away without a back word glance. Fantastic legs and sexy high heels were not near enough to get me to spend time with someone who used what I found in her purse. Noooo thank you!
++++++++++++++++++++++
Two months later I was at a retirement party for Mark Whipple who had been my boss for the last seven years when I saw Adrianna again (I remembered her name from her driver’s license) and I wondered who she had come to the party with. She obviously knew how great an asset her legs were because she was showing them off by wearing a short skirt and four inch heels. She was talking to Mark when I walked into the room and she saw me almost as soon as I saw her. She said something to Mark and he turned and looked at me and then went back to talking with her. I couldn’t help but wonder what was up with that.
I walked over to the bar and ordered a vodka tonic and then set out to socialize and mingle. After I’d been there maybe twenty minutes Mark came up to me and said:
“You need to watch yourself Rob.”
“Why is that boss?”
“You have caught the attention of my niece Adrianna. She asked me all about you. If she comes at you be careful.”
“Why would she come at me?”
“No idea, but she did show an interest. Be careful son; she can be pretty overwhelming at times.”
I was thinking “Don’t I know it” as he walked away and I remembered what I’d found in her purse. I spent another hour socializing and then I got my coat and got ready to leave. The coat check girl was handing me my coat when I heard:
“You were really going to leave without saying hi to me?”
I turned and saw Adrianna standing there. “Why would I say hi to you? The last time I saw you you called me a creep and threatened to call the cops on me. What was I supposed to do? Walk up to you and say “Hi. Called the cops on anybody lately?” I don’t think so.”
“Oh come on. Cut me some slack here. Put yourself in my position. A man follows you around for almost half an hour in a store and then shows up at your apartment and knocks on your door. You would have had the same thoughts I did and don’t forget that you didn’t let me know that you were returning my purse until after you had me thinking that you were a stalker.”
“Oh yes; your purse. How could I forget your purse. Why would a one hundred percent straight arrow like myself want to speak to the kind of person who had what you had in your purse?”
“Maybe the person isn’t the kind of person you think she is. Maybe you could buy this person a cup of coffee at the Denny’s on the corner and give her a chance to tell you all about what you saw.”
I looked at her for a couple of seconds and thought “Why not? What could it hurt” and so I told her that I would meet her at the Denny’s in five minutes.
“I’ll go with you. I came with my Uncle Mark and I’ve already told him that you will be giving me a ride home.”
“That was taking a hell of a chance.”
“I didn’t think so. Any guy trying to keep me out of jail because he liked my legs would seem like a safe bet. Besides, you wouldn’t want to disappoint my Uncle Mark would you?”
On the ride to the restaurant I found out that she had lived with Mark from the time she was twelve until she got married. He was her only living relative when her parents were killed in an accident and he took her in and raised her.
“You are married?”
“Divorced. You?”
“Was, but it was many long years ago.”
“You over her? It took me a long time to get over him.”
“If the attachment was that strong why did it end?”
“He had forsaking all other issues.”
“Forsaking all other issues?”
“In that he didn’t. When he didn’t forsake my Cousin Beth I ended it. How about you?”
“With mine it wasn’t my cousin, but it was just as bad. He was my boss at the time. She told me that it meant nothing, that it was only just sex and she only did it to help me get me a promotion.”
“Did you get the promotion?”
“My chances for advancement died when I broke his nose, three ribs and caused him to lose one of his testicles.”
“And you didn’t go to jail?”
“He wouldn’t press charges after I told him I would sue him for alienation of affections and a half dozen other sexual charges. Did you know that you can sue for sexual harassment if your boss goes after your spouse promising to help you in your career?”
“Why didn’t you sue? Wouldn’t it have been just as satisfying to ruin him financially as it was hurting him?”
“According to the attorney I had at the time my wife, since we were still married, would have gotten half of it in the divorce settlement and no way was I going to let that bitch profit from cheating on me.”
In the booth at Denny’s I got the story about the cellophane packets that I had found in her purse.
“They weren’t mine. I was at a club with my girlfriend Gloria and the guy she was dating at the time. I was out on the dance floor so I didn’t see it, but apparently Gary, the guy she was dating, saw a couple of guys come in that he knew were on the narcotics squad. The problem was that they also knew him. Before they saw him he gave Gloria what he was carrying and she put it in her purse, grabbed mine and then came out onto the dance floor and told me that she needed to talk to me urgently. We went to the ladies room and she asked me to take the stuff and then she and Gary would leave and draw the cops off and while they were busy either following or searching Gary I could slip out the back door and meet them later and give the stuff back to them.
“I hadn’t gone back to the table so the cops wouldn’t associate me with Gary. She left the bathroom and I was supposed to wait five minutes or so and then go and sit at the bar until I saw her leave with Gary, but after she left I started thinking about how stupid it would be to sit around with a bunch of drugs with known narcotics officers in the building. I hid the stuff and then went home. I went back to the club the next day when the cops were gone and picked the stuff up. I stopped at the Safeway and went home. When you came to the door I thought it was Gloria until I looked through the peep hole and saw you. I do not use that stuff, never have and never will.”
“And it is important that I know this why?”
“Uncle Mark speaks highly of you so you can’t be all bad. You seem to really like my legs and you did try to keep me out of jail. A guy with all of those qualities just might be a good guy to know.”
“Can this be considered as you making a move on me?”
“See? Another good quality. You are bright and perceptive. What do you think? Want to give it a try?”
“I can’t remember the last time a girl came after me. In fact, I’m almost sure that it never happened. I just have to say okay if for no other reason than the sheer uniqueness of it. Then of course there are those sexy legs.”
And that is how my relationship with Adrianna got started.
++++++++++++++++++++
I’d already been through a bad marriage and I was in no great hurry to do it again. Gail and I had married after knowing each other for only six months. I don’t know if a longer relationship before proposing would have made any difference, but if I ever got married again I was going to know my bride a whole lot better than I knew Gail when I said I do.
Adrianna and I started out dating a couple of times a week and as we got to know each other better we saw each other more often. We kissed on our second date. I got my hands on her breasts on the fifth date and my fingers inside her panties on our seventh. When I took her home after our eighth she asked:
“How long are we going to dance around it? I’m past being ready for it.”
I knew what she was asking and said, “I’m more than ready too, but I was letting you set the pace. I didn’t want to push too hard and risk scaring you away.”
She was magnificent in the bedroom. Enthusiastic, energetic, responsive and she loved it all. I warmed her up with some pussy licking and clit sucking and she pushed me into a sixty-nine. We made love missionary, she sucked me hard again and she went cowgirl. And then she asked me to take her ass. The first time in my life that a girl wanted anal the first time we fucked and I had never – never! – had a girl ask me for it.
We fell asleep cuddled up to each other and in the morning she woke me up with a blow job and then climbed aboard and rode me cowgirl until we both got off. We showered together which ended up with us back on the bed which led to a second shower. She fixed breakfast for us and afterward she had me do her on the kitchen table. After that night we never went out that we didn’t end up in either her bed or mine.
Adrianna (or Ri as I called her) and I had an awful lot in common. We both liked to read, liked a full range of music from classical to bluegrass, liked hiking in the mountains and loved country western dancing. The only thing I didn’t like where Ri was concerned was that she had a few friends that I would just as soon she didn’t have. Gloria was her best friend and the fact that Gloria hung with drug dealers, druggies and other losers didn’t bother Ri at all, but other than finding reasons for not spending time around Gloria (had to work late, change the oil in my car, pick the lint out of my navel) I stayed away from the issue. After a few initial comments about it where I carefully mentioned that sooner or later Gloria was going to be looking at some jail time when she ended up being with her drug selling boyfriend when he got busted I wisely kept my mouth shut about things. I knew how things would go if I tried to come between her and her best friend.
On her part she absolutely detested my cousin Lou and didn’t care if I knew it or not. I didn’t much care because Lou was a bit obnoxious, but I was used to him. She did like my mom and dad and while they had been lukewarm where Gail was concerned they thought that Ri was an absolute gem.
++++++++++++++++
After six months of dating Ri and I decided to move in together. She gave up her apartment and moved into the house that I had managed to hang onto when Gail and I went through our divorce. After four months of cohabitation I decided that I would like to make things permanent and I proposed.
“Are you serious?”
“Sure. After ten months together including four as pretend man and wife why not?”
“I don’t know. I never thought about it. Things were going so well. Marriage would change things.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know. I just know that marriage changes things.”
“Well love, it is up to you. If you would rather keep things just as they are we can.”
“I’m happy with our relationship honey. I’m just scared to do anything that might change it.”
“Like I said Ri, it is up to you. I love you and I want to spend all my time with you with or without a ring on your finger.”
“I love you too honey. It doesn’t have to be a big wedding does it?”
“Not if you don’t want one. Is that some kind of a yes?”
“I guess it is.”
“Great. We can get the blood tests and license this week and I’ll line up a justice of the peace for next week.”
“No, not next week. Next week and the week after I’ll be involved in a large project at work and I’ll probably have to work late a couple of nights and maybe even a Saturday. Let me get that out of the way first.”
Three weeks later we took our vows in front of my mom and dad, her Uncle Mark and her best friend Gloria and her current boyfriend. I say current because her drug dealing boyfriend got busted and was in jail. Fortunately for Gloria she wasn’t with him at the time.
++++++++++++++++
The next five years flew by and my marriage to Ri was everything that I could have hoped for. Our friends all thought that we were the perfect couple and had the perfect marriage and as far as I was concerned they were right. Naturally there were problems, but not very many and most of them had to do with her job.
Twice her job had forced me to make some major changes in plans that I had made and it was always for the same reason. She would get put on a major project with an approaching deadline and she would end up working late and on weekends. The first time I’d scored some tickets to a concert and surprised her with them only to get the bad news that she was going to be working late the week of the concert.
The second time really pissed me off. A friend had signed up for a ten day cruise in the Caribbean and then had had a death in the family. He had paid in advance and the tickets were not refundable. I offered to buy them from him and damned if Ri didn’t have another project that she had to work. But what the hey, just some minor glitches and nothing to really lose any sleep over.
+++++++++++++++++++++
Everything was going great and then I let a few beers too many make me stupid and I invited the serpent into the Garden of Eden.
One night Ri was doing something with her Uncle Mark so I stopped after work to have a couple of beers and shoot some pool at my favorite sports bar. Jimmy and some guy I didn’t know were on one of the tables when I got there. Jimmy was one of the few guys that Gloria had gone out with that I liked. I challenged the winner and when Jimmy won we played. Jimmy was damned near unbeatable that night and I lost. I got out of the way of the next challenger who also lost. The next challenger was the guy Jimmy had been playing when I got there. He lost and joined me at my table and we introduced ourselves. His name was Paul and he was a good friend of Jimmy’s. We talked sports and drank beer as we kept challenging the table and losing.
Finally a guy beat Jimmy and he joined us at the table. When Jimmy sat down he looked from me to Paul and then back at me as he said:
“Weird that you two should find each other at the same table.”
“Why is that?” I asked.
“You are married to Adrianna and Paul used to be.”
“Used to be what?”
“Married to Adrianna.”
I turned to Paul, “Is that true? Are you Ri’s ex?”
“Fraid so. I heard that she married again. So you’re the guy huh?”
“Yep, and I want to thank you for it.”
“Thank me? Why would you thank me?”
“If you hadn’t screwed up Ri would never have divorced you and I would never have met her.”
“I screwed up? I don’t know what kind of bullshit she fed you, but I didn’t screw anything up and she didn’t divorce me, I divorced her.”
“She said that she caught you screwing her cousin.”
“She doesn’t have a cousin. Her only living relative is her Uncle Mark.”
“She wouldn’t lie to me. I can understand you not wanting to look bad, but I know her and she wouldn’t lie to me.”
“Have it your way. She wouldn’t lie to you. I’m the bad guy. For all I know she hasn’t seen Daniel since our divorce/”
“Daniel?”
“Never mind. You are happy with her so let it be.”
Well of course I couldn’t let it be. No way was I going to let the asshole cast aspersions on my wife so I said:
“No. Who is this Daniel and what does he have to do with this?”
He shrugged and said, “Okay. Daniel was her first love and for all I know he still is. They dated all through high school and he got her cherry and promised to marry her. Then his dad got a promotion that caused them to move out of state. She met me in our first year at college and we ended up getting married. Then Daniel came back to town, they hooked up and she cheated on me. It happened three more times over the course of the next five years only the third time she was seen going into a motel with him by my sister. My sister told me and I confronted Adrianna. She admitted it, but said that it didn’t mean anything. She really loved me, but she had a special attachment to Daniel. Besides, it was only every couple of years or so and none of the previous times had hurt us any.
“If I was a different kind of guy I might have bought into it and let her have her once every couple of years or so, but I’m not that kind of a guy. She was either mine totally or she wasn’t mine at all. Since she wasn’t mine totally she was out.”
“That just doesn’t sound like Adrianna. It doesn’t sound at all like something she would do.”
“Maybe she learned her lesson with me or then again, maybe Daniel never came back to town.”
“No, I’m sorry, but I can’t believe you. That just isn’t my Ri.”
“Tell you what. Meet me here tomorrow and buy me a beer and I’ll show you the divorce papers that say I divorced her cheating ass for infidelity.”
He could see on my face that I thought he was a liar so he said, “Let me ask you something. It doesn’t happen all that often, maybe once very couple of years, but does she suddenly get put on special projects and have to work late and on the weekends? If she does it means that Daniel is in town. If it hasn’t happened then one of the two things I mentioned are what has happened. She learned a lesson, or Daniel has never come back to town.”
I had a lot to think about as I drove home and the thoughts I was having were not good ones. If I hadn’t pushed I could have disregarded Paul’s assertion that he wasn’t at fault in the divorce as male bluster against being put in a bad light, but I had pushed and he had dropped “the working late on special projects” bomb on me and then there was that one little item that I had never picked up on even though I should have. How could he have been caught fucking a cousin that she didn’t have?
Now I had a head full of thoughts that I really didn’t want to have. Chief among them was the fact that Adrianna had done the “special projects’ thing to me three times over the past five years and the first time was just weeks before we married.
Ri and I averaged making love four times a week and we made love at the same frequency during the times she worked on her ;special projects’ which led to a disturbing thought – was I getting sloppy seconds during those periods? I hadn’t noticed any change in her behavior during those times. I didn’t see any lessening of love or affection during those periods nor did I see any increase that might have indicated some sort of guilty feelings on her part.
Yes indeed, I did have a lot of thoughts I wish I didn’t have. The only thing that I knew for sure was that there wasn’t anything I could do until it happened again.
++++++++++++++++
Sorry to say, but what Paul had said planted the bug in my brain and I started paying closer attention to what Ri was doing and what she said she was doing. Several times over the next year I followed her to see if she did anything that she shouldn’t be doing. I told myself that if she was cheating with this Daniel when he came to town why wouldn’t she cheat when he wasn’t around. Once a cheater always a cheater, right?
Every couple of weeks she would stop after work for drinks with her co-workers and I followed her a few times and all she did was have one or two drinks and then go home. She never once danced with any of the men there or spent much time talking with anyone of them in particular. Maybe half a dozen times I was outside her work place around lunch time to see if she left work with anybody to catch a ‘nooner’ and she never did, at least not on the days I was watching.
I saw absolutely nothing to indicate that my wife was unfaithful and I had to conclude that either Ri was not cheating and Paul had been pulling my chain or Paul was telling the truth and she only cheated with this Daniel when he came to town,
+++++++++++++++++++++++
It was just a tad over a year from when I had met Paul that I got my chance to find out what the truth might be. One night over dinner Ri said:
“I’ve got another special project coming up next week so don’t make any plans that will include me.”
“Why don’t they schedule those damned things far enough out so that people can plan around them?”
“It isn’t my company that sets the deadlines honey. The client calls, tells us what they want or need and when they have to have it and we have to respond. Believe me honey, I really would like more notice about these things than I get.”
Wednesday morning before I left for work Adrianna reminded me that she would probably be working late that night.
“The good news is that we should be done by Friday night so I shouldn’t have to work any this weekend.”
“Well at least that’s something. Maybe we can go to the lake this weekend.”
“That sounds lake a marvelous idea.”
She gave me a big kiss and said, “There, that should hold you until I get home. If you are still up your might get more.”
I was up when she got home. Not because I was horny and wanted to get laid, but because I wanted to make love to her and see if I could tell whether or not she might have already been laid. If she had I couldn’t tell. She didn’t feel any different or act any different. The only thing I noticed was a faint scent that I didn’t recognize. I wondered what it could be and then it occurred to me that it might be the scent of the soap used by the hotel or motel. But then maybe it could be the smell of some one she brushed up against in a crowded elevator. After all, she did work on the tenth floor of a tall building.
What is it that they say? That denial is not a river in Egypt?
Well, any denial on my part that my wife would cheat on me was dispelled at the two-fifteen meeting I had with David Sloan of the Morresy Security and Investigative Agency.
“Subject left her place of employment at 4:32 pm and proceeded to walk two blocks to the Starburst Lounge. Subject entered the lounge and proceeded to a booth in the rear of the room. Subject was greeted by a male later ascertained to be one Daniel Martin. The subject and Mr. Martin hugged and kissed each other, sat down in the booth and had one drink before getting up to leave. They left the Starburst and proceeded across the street to the Hilton hotel where they took the elevator to the fourth floor where Mr. Martin had a room. Subject entered room 412 at 5:10 pm and remained in the room until 10:20 pm. When subject left the room she was followed until she reached her residence at which time the surveillance was discontinued for the night.”
Well there it was. Paul hadn’t lied. I made some arrangements with the detectives and then returned to work. I didn’t get much done. I sat there and contemplated my marriage. It had been an extremely good one. I had been very happy with Ri and she had given every indication of being happy with me. Lord knows she did spoil me rotten. I was at a complete loss to understand how she could show me so much love and affection and then do what she was doing. I didn’t know if the marriage could survive, but I did know that I was going to do whatever I could to try and save it.
+++++++++++++++
I left work at three forty-five and went to the Hilton. I checked out the layout and saw which rooms would give me the best shot at what I planned on doing and then went down to the desk and asked if room 415 was available. I told the clerk that I tried to stay in that room every time I was in town since that was the room where I spent the first night when I married my wife. Luckily it was open so I signed in and went up to the room and settled in.
At four forty-five the detective called me on my cell and told me that the happy couple were on the way. I cracked the door a hair and when I heard the elevator ‘ding’ I looked through the crack to see Adrianna and Martin coming down the hall hand in hand. I closed the door and moved to the bed and turned on the TV.
Figuring that the time line for the night would be the same as the previous I shut off the TV at five after ten and then cracked my door and took a seat next to it. At ten-fifteen I heard the door to 412 open and through the crack I saw Adrianna heading down the hall to the elevator. When I heard the ‘ping’ of the elevator door opening I left the room and crossed the hall to 412. I knocked on the door gambling that he would open the door thinking that it was Adrianna coming back because she forgot something or remembered something she had to tell him or ask him.
The door started to open and I rammed it hard with my shoulder. The door slammed into him and sent him stumbling backwards and I entered the room and was on him before he could catch his balance. I was wearing a pair of leather work gloves to protect my hands and I proceeded to beat the living shit out of him. I worked on him until he was on the floor groaning and then I kicked him hard ten or twelve times. I think I broke a rib or two and I know that his stones were going to take a long time to recover.
He was in a bathrobe and his clothes were folded and lying on a chair. I went over and got his wallet out of his pants. I dumped the contents on the table and went through them. I copied down all of the information on his driver’s license. As I was doing that I noticed him struggling trying to get up so I went over and kicked him in the head and he went back down. I went back to going through his wallet and I found a picture of a very beautiful woman with two kids. I put the picture in my pocket.
I went back over to him and drug him over to the bathtub and horsed him into it and then turned on the shower full cold. I ran cold water on him until he was aware enough to hear me.
“Are you right or left handed?”
“What?” he mumbled.
“Easy enough question. Are you right or left handed?”
“Why? What are you doing?”
“I want to know which arm to break.”
“Go away” he whined, “I hurt. I need a doctor.”
“You aren’t hurting enough as far as I’m concerned. I’m giving my hands a rest before I start pounding on you some more. After which I’m going to break your arm and then you can go see a doctor.”
He started to push himself up and I backhanded him and his head went back and banged into the wall. He slid back down into the tub and I said:
“You aren’t going anywhere Daniel; at least not until I am through with you.”
He sniffed and whined “Why are you doing this to me? I don’t even know you.”
“No, but you know my wife and in fact you know her a lot better than I’m happy with.”
“Your wife?”
“Oh come on Daniel; you can’t have forgotten her already. She’s only been gone from here for about twenty minutes.”
I saw the understanding take place across his face and then a trace of fear in his eyes.
“Here’s the thing Daniel. I have this ingrained thing about violence toward women. It is just something that I can’t do, but I have all of this pent up rage inside of me over what the two of you have been doing to me and it has to come out. Since I just can’t hit a woman I can’t touch Adrianna therefore you have to take the full brunt of my anger. Surely you can understand that. Now, back to my question. Are you right or left handed? Because even though I’m extremely pissed at you right now I still want you to be able to feed yourself and brush your teeth. That will make you appreciate your arms that much more which will in turn make you to not ever want to have both of them broken at the same time and that is what will happen to you if you ever speak to Adrianna again. Now – which arm?”
“Please man no. Don’t hurt me any more. I won’t ever see her or talk to her again. I swear it.”
“I don’t know Daniel. You have caused me a lot of hurt and I feel the crying need to get back at you.”
I took the picture of the women with the two kids out of my pocket and showed it to him.
“How about instead of breaking an arm I get on an airplane and fly to Akron? While I’m there I can stop by 543 Meyers Court and pay this lady and the two kids a visit and share with them the anger I have over what you have been doing with my wife.”
“Oh man God no. Please don’t do that. It would kill her.”
“Yes, but then she would have a whole lot of anger and she would take it out on you and really Daniel that is what this is all about. Making you suffer.”
“No man, come on, please. Please leave her out of this. Go ahead and break my arm, but please leave her out of this.”
“You would take a broken arm to keep your wife from suffering? Maybe you do have a redeeming quality or two. Tell you what I’ll do Daniel. I’ll settle for what I’ve already done to you, but there is a price. You agree to it and I’ll get up and leave, your wife will never know and you won’t suffer any more physical damage.”
“I’ll pay it. I’ll do it. Whatever it is I’ll do it just please leave my wife out of it”
“Okay, but you need to understand that if you backslide on the deal your wife finds out everything and in addition I’ll put you in a wheel chair. You understand?”
“I told you I’ll do it. I promise. I’ll do it.”
“Okay Daniel, here is the deal. You will never see Adrianna again. You will never speak to her again. You will not email her; send her a letter or a post card or a smoke signal. There will be absolutely no contact between the two of you ever again. Are we clear on that?”
“Yes. I understand.”
“One more time. No contact in any way, shape, matter or form. If she calls you you will immediately hang up without speaking a word to her. If she sends you an email you will instantly delete it without reading it. If you get a letter you will toss it in the wastebasket without opening it. If she approaches you on the street you will turn and run – not walk Daniel, but run – in the opposite direction. And lastly, she will never know we had this little talk. Are we clear on all of this?”
“Yes sir. Perfectly clear.”
“You need to know that I will be watching and if I catch even a hint that you are not living up to your end I will know. Just like I knew about last night and tonight. I’ll know and I promise you that if you ever see me again it will not be in the least pleasant.”
I got up and left his room. I knew that he could call the cops, but then his wife would find out and it seemed that he did not want that.
+++++++++++++++++++
When I got home Ri was waiting up for me. “Where have you been? I was worried when I got home and you weren’t here and I couldn’t reach you on your cell.”
“Something came up at work and I had to work late. I drove over to your office to meet you so we could stop somewhere for a drink before we came home, but all the lights were off so I guessed that you had already headed home.”
I saw something in her eyes when I said that and I’m guessing it was something like “Oh shit!” but then the look changed to something that was probably relief as she realized she had just dodged a bullet.
That night she was as passionate as always and I wondered at it. It didn’t matter if Daniel was in town or not the level of her passion was always the same. She always behaved as if she couldn’t get enough. I fell asleep wondering if I had solved the problem.
The next night Ri was home by seven and when I told her I hadn’t expected her for hours she told me that things had all come together and they finished quicker than they expected. The others wanted to go out and have a drink or two to celebrate, but she begged off.
“I’d much rather be at home with you.”
I got the story the next day when the detective called with his report. Daniel had checked out at eight, caught the hotel shuttle to the airport where he boarded to 10:10 flight to Akron. He was walking with a limp and seemed to be favoring his right side.
Adrianna got off work at her regular time and walked over to the lounge. Daniel wasn’t there so she sat down and ordered a drink while she waited for him. After twenty minutes she took out her cell and made a call, but apparently got no answer. Fifteen minutes later she tried the phone again, but still didn’t talk to anyone. She waited another ten minutes and then she walked over to the hotel. She used the house phone to make a call and didn’t get an answer so she walked over the desk and spoke to the clerk and found out that Mr. Martin had checked out. She went back to the lounge, had one more drink and tried her cell twice more and then she had come home.
+++++++++++++++
It has been a little over eight years now and during that time Ri has not had to work any special projects that cause her to work late or on the weekends. I keep a pretty close eye on her and she has done nothing to make me even slightly suspicious. She still spoils me rotten and tries to fuck me to death three or four times a week.
Maybe some day when we are old and gray I might ask her about Daniel and her relationship with him and depending on my mood and the situation I might even tell her how I ended it.