Note: This story was dynamically reformatted for online reading convenience.
 
 WARNING: This story includes sexually explicit material.

   Please note any unfamiliar spellings and phrases may be due to the fact
I am English, not American.

   I would like to thank the proof-readers for all their help

   Any comments, including constructive criticisms, would be most
appreciated.  Please send to artemis55@hotmail.com

   This work is copyrighted by the author.  You may download and keep one
copy for your personal use as long as my by-line and e-mail address and
this paragraph remain on the copy.  Any posting or reposting on a website,
other than the archive or Dejanews, or to a newsgroup requires my
permission first (but I'll probably say yes).  This story should not, under
any circumstances be used to make a profit by anyone other than the author

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REPOST NOTE: I did think I might have made my main character's reactions to
her situation a little far fetched, but I got a surprising amount of
feedback from women who had gone through a similar experience saying I was
spot on.

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   Exposed Chapter One

   Kate nervously wet her lips and hoped she did not look as out of place
as she felt.  The studio lights relentlessly poured out heat and she could
only marvel that the thick make up plastered on her face didn't slide off
on a wave of sweat.

   She wished she hadn't let Debbie talk her into this.  She had at first
firmly refused but to her surprise her husband, Harry, had added his
persuasions to the argument and she caved in as usual.  After all, it was
an all expenses paid trip to San Francisco.  Debbie desperately wanted to
appear on TV and she thought a talk show discussing friendships was the
ideal opportunity.  Debbie and Kate had been friends since high school so
they could be considered experts.  Debbie promised that she would do most
of the talking and all Kate would have to do was nod occasionally.

   Now trapped on the studio platform in the glare of the audience and
cameras, Kate could only marvel at how comfortable Debbie seemed.  She was
answering the suave presenter's leading questions and explaining how their
friendship had started when they were toddlers living next door to each
other.  The presenter called himself Bob Uncle and he seemed to be trying
to speak with an English accent.  Kate didn't know which was more annoying,
his mangled vowels or the false smile permanently plastered on his face. 
He leaped onto the platform and draped his arms around Kate and Debbie's
shoulders.

   "Now we have a bit of a surprise for you, Kate," he announced, favouring
the cameras with a flash of his teeth.  "The real reason you're here, Kate,
is that Debbie has a secret she wants to tell you.  Any idea what it could
be, Kate?"

   Kate dumbly shook her head, trying not to cringe away from Bob's arm. 
The overwhelming smell of too much cologne and stale sweat coming from Bob
made her head swim.  She wholeheartedly wished she was safely back at home
and could switch channels and never see Bob's smug face again.  She had no
idea what silly rigmarole Debbie had come up with to ensure her fifteen
minutes on the small screen but Kate wished she was no part of it.  Debbie
gave a giggle and tossed her hair back self-consciously as she turned to
face Kate.

   "I don't know how to tell you this," she began, "but I've been having an
affair for over two years now."

   "Before you were divorced?" Kate asked hesitantly, unsure how she was
supposed to react.  Debbie's sex life was her own business, after all. 
Kate wasn't under the illusion that someone as pretty and flirtatious as
Debbie had been celibate for the last eighteen months.

   "I'm afraid so.  The thing is, my lover is someone you know," Debbie
announced, looking earnestly at Kate.  Since they both shared pretty much
the same circle of friends this wasn't exactly a surprise, so Kate said
nothing.  She supposed she should act outraged, but couldn't bring herself
to perform for the cameras.

   "I tell you what," Bob cried cheerfully, "why don't we bring him out and
you can tell us how you feel about it all.  You can tell me, after all..."

   "Bob's your uncle!" the audience roared enthusiastically.  Hundreds of
eyes and three cameras were avidly fixed on Kate's face, ready to track
every emotion.  To a fanfare of music Kate watched Harry walk out onto the
stage.  Her first reaction was relief that he was there to divert some of
the attention from her.  It wasn't until he sat down and exchanged a
passionate kiss with Debbie that Kate grasped the significance of his
presence.

   "This is Harry, everyone," Bob introduced him.  "Now explain your
relationship to these two lovely ladies sitting either side of you."

   "Well, Debbie here is my lover," Harry said smugly.  Debbie twined her
hand around his and leaned closer.  Kate could hear the sudden silence as
the audience held its breath, anticipating Harry's next words.  "And Kate
is my wife."

   The audience went crazy, booing and yelling at the full pitch of their
collective lungs.  In the midst of the entire hullabaloo Kate sat rigidly
in her seat.  An icy hand seemed to have closed around her heart when Harry
and Debbie had kissed, and the numbness had spread outwards.  She was
frozen in her seat, trying desperately to convince herself that this was
some kind of practical joke.

   "Well, Kate," Bob said, almost slavering in anticipation of watching her
suffer, "is there anything you would like to say to Harry or Debbie?"

   Kate swallowed hard and looked around for some kind of escape.  She was
surrounded on all sides by human monsters, eagerly waiting to see her pain.
She had a momentary pang of empathy for the ancient gladiators in the Roman
amphitheatres.  None of these people actually cared that her happy secure
world had just been torn apart.  They just wanted to see her agony.

   "Your husband and your best friend have been having a passionate love
affair for the past two years," Bob pointed out, verbally prodding her for
a reaction.  Kate forced herself to look at them.  They seemed strangely
proud of themselves, and they, too, were waiting to see what Kate would
say.

   "If either of them were really my friend or cared the slightest bit for
me they would have found a better way to tell me than this," Kate said at
last.  The crowd howled joyously as Debbie bristled indignantly.

   "We've been wanting to tell you for so long, but we couldn't figure out
the best way," she protested.

   "And this," Kate indicated the studio with a wave of her hand, "this you
thought was the best way."

   "Now don't be like that, honey," Harry began, until Kate froze him with
a contemptuous look.

   "I think the less you say, the better, don't you?" Kate asked.

   "Now Kate," Bob intervened.  "I think we should hear what Harry has to
say.  After all, he is the one caught between you two friends.  Why don't
you tell us how you feel about all this Harry?" he invited unctuously.

   "I guess I'm mostly confused," Harry confessed.  "Kate's my wife and I
love her.  We will have been married for ten years this April." To Kate's
disbelief the crowd murmured approvingly.  "I never meant to get involved
with Debbie, I don't really know how it happened."

   Kate couldn't help laughing.  Immediately the cameras focused on her
face.

   "What do you find amusing, Kate?" Bob asked.

   "The idea that a grown man doesn't know how he ended up in bed having
sex," Kate drawled sarcastically, feeling her anger slowly building.

   "You don't understand," Debbie said.  "We couldn't help it."

   "Oh, you mean someone stripped your clothes off and forced you both
together at gunpoint?  Or was it magic?  Some wizard made your clothes and
morals disappear.  Or wait, maybe you were hypnotised." Kate fed her anger,
feeling it insulate her from the nightmare she was trapped in.  As long as
she felt angry, she didn't have to feel anything else.  Kate looked Debbie
straight in the face until Debbie looked away.  "You're right about one
thing, I don't understand."

   "Why don't you explain to us, and Kate, why you started this affair
Harry?" Bob suggested.

   "Well, Kate's a good wife but she's not very, um, adventurous, if you
know what I mean," Harry explained.  "Whereas Debbie is unbelievably sexy."
Debbie preened under Harry's admiring gaze, tossing back her mane of blonde
hair and re-crossing her long tanned legs.  "To be honest, Debbie can turn
me on more with one look than Kate can naked.  I guess everyone is
different.  Kate just isn't very highly sexed.  I have needs that Kate
wouldn't meet.  I don't know about anyone else, but I like to make love
more than two ways."

   Even though she was entombed in her anger, Harry's words still managed
to hurt her.  Kate tried not to cringe in her seat.  It was unbearable that
the man she had loved and trusted for so long was casually telling
strangers about their love life.  She knew she was more inhibited than
Harry would like, but she was not a self-confident person.  She had tried
to please him and follow his directions, but some of the things he wanted
to try she found completely disgusting.  For a moment she wondered if she
should have at least attempted some of the perverse things he had
suggested. Then she indignantly realised she was blaming herself for
Harry's infidelity.  Huddling her anger around herself like a shroud, she
resolved not to say another word until this whole ordeal was over.  Bob was
trying to get her to react to Harry's explanation but Kate just stared
stonily straight ahead.

   "Well, folks, what do you want to happen now?" Bob asked at last, when
it became obvious that Kate wasn't going to respond.

   "Well, I love both my women and I don't want to lose either of them,"
Harry replied piously.  The crowd hummed approvingly.  "What I would like
would be for Debbie to move in with us.  And then maybe she could help Kate
to loosen up a bit, teach her how to be sexy.  After all, we've all been
friends for so long, it seems like the best solution to our problems."

   Kate heard his words as if from a great distance.  His ludicrous idea
wasn't even worth listening to.  She vaguely wondered how she would find a
lawyer and how long a divorce would take.  Debbie and Harry stated their
point of view several times, but when it became obvious Kate wasn't going
to react Bob let the audience ask a few questions.  Kate managed to ignore
the fatuous comments until one eager plump woman assured Kate that she knew
exactly how she felt.  Her anger had become white hot, cremating her from
the inside.

   "Do you?" Kate demanded of the woman.  "You've been dragged onto a tacky
talk show by two people who are supposed to care about you so they can tell
you that they've been having some sordid affair?  Have you had that happen
to you?" The woman shook her head.  "Well, until you, or anyone else, have
been in my circumstances, don't tell me that you know how I feel or give me
advice."

   Taken aback by her vehemence, Bob swiftly moved on to some new victims.
Kate couldn't escape, however, and had to sit in the spotlights while two
more people confessed secrets to their nearest and dearest.  Even when a
scuffle broke out, she continued to sit numbly in her chair.  Eventually,
the end of the show arrived and the cameras and lights shut down.  Slightly
disorientated by the sudden dimness, Kate meekly followed a girl back to
the changing rooms.  To her relief neither Debbie nor Harry were there. 
She collapsed into a chair and finally let herself think about what had
happened.
   Copyright Vickie Morgan, June 1999 E-mail artemis55@hotmail.com