The cell door opened and I looked up to see a Hispanic looking man being ushered into the holding cell.  The cell door clanked behind him and he took a seat on the bench along the opposite wall.  We eyed each other for a bit and then he said:

“Hey man, what you in for?”

“Beating the shit out of a cop.  You?”

“Back child support.  No shit?  You stomped a cop?”

“Afraid so.”

“Wow man, that’s heavy shit.  Why ain’t you all busted up and bruised?  Cops don’t like it when one of them gets fucked up by a civilian.  How come the ones that brought you in didn’t work you over and claim you resisted arrest?”

Good question I thought as I sat there and reviewed in my mind the events that led up to me being in that cell.

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

Wendy and I had been married a little over ten years.  Ours was a story book romance.  A blind date that resulted in love at first sight and from that moment on we were never very far apart.  We married four months after we met and life was ideal (at least as far as I was concerned) for the next ten years.

We couldn’t have kids because I was sterile – the result of some childhood disease or other – but Wendy didn’t care.  She said she would probably be a rotten mother anyway.  We had a great love life for a couple married ten years, three or four times a week, and we did it all.  Wendy especially liked anal and rarely a week went by that we didn’t do anal at least once.  My favorite was blow jobs and Wendy would give me one at the drop of a hat.  One time we were in a restaurant that had long table cloths that reached the floor and Wendy had said:

“Any one looking this way?”

I glanced around, saw no one paying any attention to us and said, “No, why?”

She giggled and went under the table and gave me a blow job while the waiter was asking me if we cared for some desert.

Wendy and I had the perfect partnership.  We discussed everything and never made a decision to do anything unless we were both on board with whatever it was.  We always seemed to be on the same wave length.  Was I happy with my life?  Damned straight I was!

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

Things started changing about four months after our tenth wedding anniversary although I didn’t realize it at the time.  I had gotten off work early and had driven over to pick Wendy up when she got off work (her car was in the shop for brake work) and as we drove home she said:

“You will never guess what happened today.”

“You are probably right about that so why don’t you just tell me.”

“I got a phone call today from Marcia Crowley.  She was my best friend from the start of middle school and all the way through high school until her parents moved away.  She has moved back to town.  I invited her over for dinner on Friday.”

Friday came and I met Marcia.  She was a very good looking woman, was intelligent and had a good sense of humor.  She and Wendy got involved in talking about old classmates and what had happened to them and so I quietly excused myself and left them to reminisce.  After that the two of them were on the phone to each other every day. 

The following Tuesday Wendy told me that she was going to meet Marcia after work and they were going to get together for drinks with some of the other girls they had gone to school with.  She got home about eleven, crawled into bed with me, woke me up with a blow job and then we made love before falling back to sleep.  The next morning over breakfast Wendy told me that she had enjoyed herself and the girls wanted it to become a weekly thing.  Wendy told me that from then on Tuesday was going to be a “girl’s night out.”  This upset me a little, not because I was against the idea, but because she hadn’t even discussed it with me.  Before we always talked things over before decisions were made, but this time she was unilaterally doing something to alter our life style without my input.

Every Tuesday for the next two months Wendy met with her friends.  At first she would be home around ten or eleven, but then it was eleven-thirty or twelve and then midnight or one in the morning.  And Wendy began to change.  The change was so gradual that it took a while for me to even notice it.  She became a little more pushy is the best way I can describe it.  There wasn’t anymore “Would you like to…” and a lot more of “I’m going to…”  We were not a partnership anymore and we were definitely not on the same wave length.

I started getting phone calls from Wendy at work telling me that she was meeting Marcia after work for drinks and that I shouldn’t wait up.  She started treating me like I was a piece of the furniture in the house; a necessary evil that she had to put up with.  The only thing that didn’t change was our love life.  It still held steady at three or four times a week, but it did change from once or twice each time to three and sometimes four times.  And she wanted more anal than we were accustomed to having.  The biggest change was in me eating her pussy.  It used to be a sometimes thing, but Wendy started wanting me to do it more and more.

I was walking around confused and wondering what had happened to my ideal life and then one night Wendy told me exactly what had happened to it.  It was a Friday night and we were having dinner at our favorite steakhouse and Wendy told me some of the things that the girls talked about on their night out.  She told me that the girls were amazed that she didn’t exert more influence over me, that she wasn’t more assertive.  The more they talked the more she realized that they were right and she had been putting some of the things they had told her into practice. 

One of the things they convinced her of was that she needed to take charge of her own sex life.  When she said that I might not understand or want to go along with it they told her that she needed to tell me that she was her own person and that I would just have to deal with it.  Then she hit me with it.

“I’ve decided to take a lover.  I’m getting a little weary of one night stands and parking lot romances.  I’ve decided that I need something a little more permanent and reliable.”

“One night stands?  Parking lot romances?”

“You act surprised.  Surely you know what I have been doing on my evenings out.”

“No Wendy, I’m afraid not.”

“Oh come on Rob.  As many times as you have eaten my pussy after some one else has played around in it you had to have noticed the different flavors.  And I know you had to notice how loose my ass was after following some one else into it.  You don’t really expect me to believe that you didn’t know you were getting sloppy seconds do you?”

 “I’m afraid that I had no clue Wendy.  I guess I stupidly thought you were a loving and faithful wife.”

“Why would you say that?  I am a loving wife honey.  I do love you with all my heart and I fully expect to grow old in your arms.  My extracurricular sex life in no way reduces my love and affection for you.  I’m just expanding my sexual horizons.  I’m telling you this now so you can become a part of it if you so chose.”

“This is a joke right?  You are putting me on?”

“Marcia told me that you would probably react this way.  The big thing, she told me, was to make sure that you understood that my taking a lover would not jeopardize our relationship or my love for you one iota.  I just need to help you understand that my sexual freedom will benefit our marriage by making me freer to try new things and be more responsive to anything that you might like to try.”

“Do you really believe this bullshit you are spouting?  That I will sit back and say “Have a good time dear” when you take a lover?  You don’t know me any better than that?  Has your opinion of me dropped so low that you think I’ll just accept a role as your cuckold?  Right now you are fortunate that I’m choosing to believe that you are joking about what you have said tonight.  I don’t believe what you’ve said about one night stands because I believe that if you really did do it I would have noticed something.  I think you threw all that out there to shake me up and to try and soften me up for this lover nonsense.  Our marriage is just big enough for you and me.  There is no room for anyone else.  Thank you for ruining the evening for me.  I think we will skip the drinking and dancing and go on home.”

“I’m sorry you feel that way.  Please remember that I asked you to be a part of it.”

“No Wendy; you remember that I said there is no room in our marriage for anyone else.”

The ride home was in silence as I tried to digest what Wendy had dropped on me that night.  Marcia and her circle of friends had apparently filled Wendy’s head with all manner of silly and stupid shit.  What I couldn’t understand was Wendy’s attitude toward me.  How could she possibly believe that I would accept her nonsense?  What really disturbed me was her telling me that she had one night stands and –how did she put it – parking lot romances?  And that she had me eat her pussy after some other guy had been in it.  If I really believe that our marriage would be over.  I HAD to believe that she was just saying that to sound me out on whether or not I would be open to what she wanted to do.

I know.  It is called denial.  But my choices were limited.  I loved her, but if I were to believe what she told me was true we were through.  My only other choice was to believe that she was just testing me and then hope to God that I never found out otherwise.

Wendy tried to “make nice” when we got home and went to bed.  She came to bed nude which was one of the signals she used when she was in the mood to make love, but for the first time in our married life I said:

“Not tonight Wendy.  I really don’t feel like it.”

She gave me a look that said, “You are being childish” and then she turned and went into the bathroom and came out a few minutes later in a nightgown.  She climbed into bed, rolled over on her right side and put her back to me and minutes later I heard the steady breathing of someone who was asleep.  I did not sleep well that night.

Over the weekend I kept myself busy on projects that would keep me out of the house and away from Wendy.  Saturday she had dinner on the table when I came into the house and we ate in silence.  After eating I went back out into the garage and worked on my car.  When I came in to go to bed Wendy was already in bed and asleep.  Several times on Sunday I almost went to her to talk some more, but each time I backed off because I was afraid that what I might say would make things worse. 

Sunday night was bad.  I’d had a bad day and very little had gone right for me.  It seemed like everything I did fought me and toward the end of the day I had smacked my thumb with a hammer.  It hurt like hell and I was in a snappish mood when I went into the bedroom that night.  Wendy said:

“Are you up to having some fun tonight?”

I snarled, “What would be the point?  You’ve been home all day so there is no way you can give me sloppy seconds and that takes all the fun out of it right?”

I regretted it as soon as I said it and I almost told her that I was sorry, but then I thought, “Bullshit!  I’m not the one who started this shit.”  When I came out of the bathroom she was in bed facing the wall and with her back to me.

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

Monday morning I was up early and out of the house before Wendy got out of bed.  Fortunately I was very busy at work that day and I didn’t have much time to dwell on my situation where Wendy was concerned.  Wendy had dinner waiting when I got home that night and we ate in silence.  As I was clearing the table to help Wendy with the dishes I said:

“I’ve been thinking Wendy, and I don’t think that it would be a good idea for you to have anymore girl’s nights out for a while.”

Her back was to me and her hands were in the sink so I didn’t see her facial expression when she said:

“Marcia said you would do that.  Try to stifle me.”

“I think you are listening to too much of what Marcia says and that is precisely why I don’t think you should go out with her anymore.”

“I’m a grown woman Rob and I am perfectly capable of picking my own friends.  I’m sorry that my taking control of my life is upsetting you, but Marcia and the other girls were right.  I was letting you control my life.  All they did was remind me that it was my life and that I should be in charge of it.”

“How in the hell did I control you?”

“You never let me do anything without sticking your two-cents worth in.  Whatever we did we had to discuss and then we both had to agree on it before we did it.  If I ever did something on my own you pouted because you weren’t part of making the decision.  I can’t even count the number of times I wanted to do something but didn’t get to do it because you shot it down during our so called discussions.  Basically, if you didn’t agree it didn’t happen.  Well Marcia and the girls opened my eyes and I’m going to be my own person from now on and I don’t know why that makes you feel threatened.  We love each other and we have a strong marriage.  Everything is going to be fine Rob.”

“I’m asking you not to go with your friends tomorrow.”

“And I’m telling you that I’m going.”

It was another chilly night in the bedroom and I was up and gone before Wendy got out of bed.  I stopped at the Waffle House for breakfast and when I was done eating I called into work and told them I was taking a comp day.  I spent the day doing some things I thought needed doing and then I went home and got busy.  I moved everything of mine out of the bedroom and into the guest bedroom.  I was in bed when Wendy got home at midnight.  About ten minutes after she got home I heard her try the handle and the guest room door.  When she found it locked she knocked on the door.

“Rob?  Let me in Rob.”  I just lay there quiet.

“Come on Rob.  This is so unnecessary.  Please Rob, open the door.”

I ignored her and after several minutes she went back to her bedroom.  I was again out of the house before Wendy got out of bed and about mid-morning I called an attorney and set up an appointment.  I had stopped practicing denial and had accepted that Wendy did what she said she had done.  It was a shame because I did love Wendy, but I could not live with the woman she had become.

 I had no idea of what strange influence that Marcia and the other girls had over Wendy, but it was obvious that Wendy was more interested in what they had to say than in what I had to say.  The woman I married would never have looked me in the eye and told me she was going to take a lover.  The woman I married would never have matter of factly mentioned having one night stands and fucking around in parking lots.  And the woman I married would never, ever have expected me to go along with that shit.  There might have been some tiny hope for us if she had given up her night out with Marcia and the other women in their group and stayed home so we could have worked on the breach that she had opened between us, but her adamant “And I’m telling you that I am going” ended it for us.

That night when I got home Wendy was waiting for me in a sexy black lace nightgown and high heels.  Dinner was on the table and the wine was poured.  I was tempted.  Looking at her I was most definitely tempted, but I looked at her and said:

“What’s the matter?  Didn’t get enough in the parking lot last night?”

She looked at me like I had just slapped her across the face with my bare hand and then she said:

“Please Rob, I love you and you know I love you.  Why can’t you accept that I am yours and you aren’t going to lose me because I’m a little curious?”

“I don’t accept it Wendy because you are not mine.  When you gave yourself to your first one night stand you stopped being mine and became anybody’s.”

I picked up a glass of wine and took a sip.  “Nice wine and a very nice get up you are wearing, but it would take at least six bottles of this wine to get me to where I would want anything to do with your unfaithful ass.”

I set the wine glass down and headed for the spare bedroom.

“We need to talk this out Rob.  Hiding in the spare bedroom isn’t going to solve anything.”

“I’m not trying to solve anything by staying in the spare bedroom.  All I’m trying to do is stay away from you.  As for talking, we did that already.  I asked you to stay away from Marcia and the other girls who have filled your head with all that horseshit you have been spouting and you basically told me to fuck off.  You chose them and their bullshit over me and all I can say is that I hope you are happy with your choice.”

I walked away and left her standing there.

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

I spent the next two days doing my best to avoid Wendy while I hunted for an apartment and talked with an attorney.  It turned out that we were a no-fault state and so barring any complications all it would mean is that there would be a fifty/fifty split of assets.  We had no children so child support would not be an issue and Wendy made as much as I did so there would be no alimony.  I told the man to go ahead and draw up the papers and use Irreconcilable Differences as grounds.

Friday afternoon around three Wendy called me at work.  The conversation boiled down to:

“Since you aren’t willing to work with me on this I would suggest that you don’t come home tonight until after eleven.”

As I hung up the phone I was shaking my head at the change that had come over Wendy.  I was having a hard time believing that she could believe that I would tolerate what she was doing and that our life together would continue on as it had gone on before.  Nothing I said seemed to register on her.  So I decided that since what I said seemed to go in one ear and out the other I would need to get the message across in a way she would have to understand.

The smart thing for me to do would have been to walk away.  I had already put the divorce in work and I should have just let it go, but I couldn’t.  Based on what she told me on the phone she was going to have a man in my house and on my bed while I was supposed to be off somewhere doing something to keep me busy until she was done with him.

No fucking way!

When I got off work I stopped at Riley’s Tavern for a couple of drinks and then went across the street to the Village in and had some dinner.  At seven-thirty I was at the house looking at the strange car in my driveway.  I stared at that car as I thought “The asshole that drives this is in my house fucking my wife on my bed and he knows she is married and he doesn’t give a rat’s ass that he is fucking over me.”

As I went into the house I could hear them and as I climbed the steps to the second floor the more I heard and the more I heard the more pissed off I got.  When I walked into the room the guy saw me and he jumped off the bed and headed for his clothes that were on a chair.  I reached for him and tripped him up and he fell knocking the chair over and his stuff fell on the floor.  In his stuff I saw a revolver in a shoulder holster and I saw him reaching for the gun.  I kicked him in the head and then I started working over him with my feet.  By then Wendy was aware of what was going on and she was screaming at me to stop.

“You are hurting him Rob, stop it.  Stop it now.”

I kept kicking the asshole.  In the head, in the ribs, in the balls; I just kept kicking.  Wendy was trying to pull me off of the guy and I back handed her and she fell back on the bed.

“You’re killing him Rob, stop it” she cried.

I turned and snarled at her, “You would rather he killed me?  He has a gun and he was going for it.”

“Of course he has a gun.  He’s a policeman.”

“You stupid cunt” I snarled at her and turned to kick the asshole in the nuts one more time.  I noticed blood coming out of his mouth and I turned back to Wendy.

“You had better call 911.  Your boyfriend don’t look so hot.”

I went over and picked up the asshole’s gun and took it downstairs with me.  I wasn’t going to chance the asshole having enough in him to get up and come looking for me with his gun.

I might have been pissed and in a rage when I walked into that bedroom, but I’d worked the rage out of me on the asshole and I was clear headed enough to know what to do.  Before the paramedics and the cops got to the house I called an attorney, told him what had happened and that I expected to be arrested.  I made arrangements with him to get me out on bail and gave him information I thought he could use.

Apparently asshole wasn’t very well liked; at least not enough that his buddies wanted to work me over.  The lawyer got me out of jail and then got all the charges dropped when the tapes from the nanny-cams I’d installed on the Tuesday I’d taken off work showed the asshole going for his gun.  I was acting in self defense my attorney argued and he managed to sell it.  Asshole was demoted from detective to patrolman and given a sixty day suspension without pay.

Wendy showed up at the jail to bail me out, but I was already out when she got there.  She called me at work and told me that I had reacted like a cave man which is just what Marcia told her to expect.

“It was totally uncalled for Rob.  Do you know that Stan is in the hospital with three broken ribs?”

“It is what he gets for fucking with another man’s woman.”

“See Rob?  Even you realize it.  I am your woman and nothing is going to change that.”

“Something already has Wendy.  Seeing that asshole between your legs changed it.  Now you have what Marcia and your other friends say you have to have.  Complete freedom to do whatever you want with your life.”

I hung up on her before she could ask me what I meant by that.

I had to pay a little extra to make it happen, but I had the divorce papers served on Wendy as she sat with Marcia and the other women at the Starlight Lounge.  While the papers were being served I was at the house taking everything I wanted and loading it into a borrowed van.  I was almost done when my cell phone chirped.  It was Wendy.

"How could you embarrass me like that in front of my friends?  And why are you suing me for divorce?”

“You can’t possibly be that stupid Wendy.  There is no way I would stay with you after you telling me about your one night stands and then me catching you in bed with another man.  As far as having you served in front of your so called friends, I thought it was only fitting that they should be able to celebrate with you since it was all of their wonderful advice that caused it to happen.  I hope that my having you served doesn’t damper the night for you.  I’d hate to think I might be responsible for keeping you from making a trip or two out to the parking lot.”

  I hung up on her before she could say anymore.  The phone started ringing ten seconds after I disconnected, but I didn’t bother to answer it.

She called me at work the next day and asked me where I had been when she got home.

“Check the closets Wendy.  I don’t live there anymore.”

“We need to talk Rob.  You are being totally unreasonable.  You have to realize that I love you.”

“Maybe Wendy, but it wasn’t enough to keep you faithful.”

She started to say something, but I hung up before she could get it out.  Wendy called me two or three times a day for the next three weeks trying to get me to talk with her and trying to get me to come home.  I finally got tired of it and I told her:

“You aren’t a wife anymore Wendy.  You are a whore, a cheap barroom fuck and a parking lot tramp.  You are a sleazy slut for anyone you meet in the bar who has a hard on and I want nothing to do with you.  Get it through your head that you fucked away your marriage and that I can not bring myself to stand the sight of you.”

She got the message and stopped calling.

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

Three months after the divorce was final I was sitting in Riley’s Tavern having a beer when someone slid onto the stool next to me.  I glanced over and saw that it was Marcia.  She motioned the bartender over and ordered a Tom Collins and told him to give me what I was drinking and then she said:

“Did you ever patch things up with Wendy?”

“You don’t know?  I thought she discussed everything with you and the other women in your circle.”

“We haven’t seen her since the night you had her served.  I’ve tried calling her a couple of times, but she told me that I ruined her marriage and that I should, pardon my French, fuck off and die.”

She was silent for a couple of moments and then she said, “I’m sorry.  I never meant for it to happen.  We were just having some fun with Wendy.  I’d forgotten how gullible she was.  We were always pulling her leg in high school and she always fell for it.  I swear to God that none of us ever thought she would do what she did.”

“I’m curious.  Just what did happen?”

“One night some one asked her something – I don’t even remember what it was – and Wendy said she would have to check with you and talk it over.  Then someone, I think it was Mary Alice, said, “You are a grown woman.  You don’t need some man’s permission to live your life.”  And then we all jumped on the feminist band wagon and spouted a bunch of bull crap about not needing a man to approve of this or a man to validate that.  We said no woman should need a man to give her permission to live her own life.  We told her she should be like us and take charge of her life and do what she wanted.  Sue Ellen pointed at Marsha and said:

“Take Martha for instance.  She was a virgin when she got married and after five years of marriage she started wondering what another man would be like.  She didn’t ask her husband’s permission to find out; she just picked out a guy and went for it.  The guy she tried was a dud compared to her husband so she tried two more and they were no better so she went home and told her husband how good he was compared to the others she had tried.  All her husband said was, “I could have told you that.”  The point being that a strong man has no reason to be afraid of a strong woman.”

 “Wendy didn’t know that it was all total bullshit.  As far as Marsha being a virgin when she married, Hah!  Marsha was the senior class punchboard and she knew full well that if her hubby ever even thought she might think about another man he would have kicked her ass out in a heart beat, but Marsha went along with it and said that her husband didn’t mind at all.  He knew that she would always come home to him.  Then Bev spoke up and said that when she told her husband she was going to take a lover all he said was:

“Just make sure that what he gets doesn’t lessen what I get.”

“Honest to God Rob; no one really believed that she was paying any attention to us.  We were all stunned the first night she went out to the parking lot with a guy.  When she came back Marsha asked her what she had done and Wendy said:

“Like you I was a virgin when I got married and for years I wondered what another man would be like.  I decided that you girls were right.  I should be in charge of my life so I went outside with him to see what he was like.”

“And?” Marsha asked and Wendy told us he wasn’t anywhere as good as you.  After that we toned down the rhetoric but the damage had already been done.  I’m sorry Rob.  None of us meant to destroy your marriage.”

“You didn’t destroy it Marcia.  You might have given things a push, but Wendy is the one who is responsible for what she did and the ease with which she did it just showed me that it would have happened sooner or later anyway.”

“Still, I do feel guilty.  I wish there was something I could do to make it up to you.”

“Maybe there is something.  Wendy told me that in high school you had the reputation of being a slut. Any truth to it?”

“More than I care to remember.”

“A guy I work with once made the statement that “Once a slut always a slut.  Any truth to that one?”

“Again, more than I care to think about.  Why?”

“The divorce was final three months ago and I haven’t been laid in over eight.”

“Do I get dinner and a few drinks out of it?”

“Absolutely.”

“Then why are we sitting here?”