“I don’t agree with adultery. I have turned down many women because I loved Dorothy and I thought she loved me. Now I know I was bloody mistaken!
“The answer to your footballer question is simple, that marriage, if it continues, is irrevocably changed and not for the better. There’s the betrayal, humiliation and breach of trust to begin with. Add their personalities to the mix and you have a toxic concoction.
“He may fuck her but he won’t be making love to her. He will be using her to dump his sperm.
“Not one of you took a moment to consider me, you went along with Dorothy’s idea. You may have been the ones to convince her to have an affair. Maybe when I’m not here you all have an orgy. That would explain Dorothy being upset I was home in time to be here tonight. I spoiled her fun.
“Well, I no longer consider any of you friends. Friends would have told me what was happening.
“Dorothy, you wanted my answer. You have a choice to make. For clarity, our marriage has already changed.”
I stood up and walked away without looking back. As I collected my coat, the manager asked nervously, “Are you still paying for everything as usual?”
I snarled, “The bastards can pay for themselves!”
I took a taxi home. I was furious. I never saw this coming. I wasn’t home more than thirty minutes before Dorothy came marching in. She was mad.
“You fucking bastard! Not only do you humiliate me in front of our friends but you cancelled my cards so I couldn’t pay for the evening.”
I replied calmly, “They’re your friends. They covered for you. Friends tell other friends when shit is going on behind their back. I won’t be paying for them again.”
She snarled, “You can fucking sleep in the spare room.”
I laughed, “I’m sleeping in my bed. If you don’t want to share it, you go to the other room.”
Dorothy smiled but it didn’t reach her eyes, ” I did dress for you. I had thought to make love with you tonight but you can forget it. I admit I yanked your chain, caressing Mike. It wasn’t going any further. He loves Yvonne. She knew what I planned. I haven’t been intimate with anyone.
“I wanted to make you stop and consider where we are. We’ve stopped being a couple. Instead, I got a lecture on morality.
“When you said I never loved you, that hurt. I do love you. I just don’t love what we’ve become.”
I replied angrily, “If you wanted to discuss our problems, you could have spoken with me. Suggested counselling and I would have been happy to do it.
“What you did was deliberate. You planted the seed that you were dressed for someone else. You suggested taking a lover. You played with another man’s penis. You set out to humiliate me, determined to force me to agree that you can fuck around.
“If you loved me, why would you do that?”
Dorothy was angry, “I hate being alone all the time. I hate that you care more for your work than for me. You want me to consider what my actions will do to you. How about you consider what your actions have done to me?”
“I do. I don’t go flouting women in front of you. I turn down all advances. You deliberately flaunted Mike. From the looks of everyone, this wasn’t a one off. This was you saying, “FUCK YOU!””
Dorothy reacted, “It’s my fucking body. I’ll say who has access and your access privileges have been cancelled until further notice!”
She stormed into the bedroom. I followed.
“Dorothy, you’re right. It’s your body. You grant access to who you wish. It doesn’t mean, it doesn’t have a cost. You fuck someone else, I will go nuclear. If you don’t want that, let’s file for divorce and when you are free, you can fuck who you like.
“I’m not waiting in wondering who you’re off fucking and what diseases you’ll have.
“Hell, if I had posed the same question to you and that group, you’d have cut my balls off for suggesting I fuck someone else.”
As she looked away from me, a thought came into my mind and out my mouth immediately, “I forgot to ask, “Is the bare cunt for Mike?”
Dorothy spun round, “You fucking bastard. I did it for me. I’ll do what I want with my body.”
Those were almost the last words we spoke until Wednesday. I did try to speak to her the next morning but was shot down so never bothered again. I wasn’t going to break the impasse. I made sure I was home early each day. I did start to arrange a few other things as well.
She had come in and threw her car keys at me and told me to fill her car up and top up the water bottle. I normally did that.
“Do it your fucking self. You’re in charge aren’t you?”
If looks could kill, I wouldn’t be here.
On Friday I was home by 3.30pm. I had spent some time with my solicitors, looking at all options. If she committed adultery, she would be the one to suffer.
At 6.30pm she came downstairs. She looked good enough to eat. The dress clung to her showing she wasn’t wearing a bra. It came to mid-thigh. Her legs were bare.
She laughed as she watched me take in the view. She pranced happily out of the door without a word.
Two hours or so later, I received a WhatsApp from Mike. I had opened it before it registered. It was a photo of the bare back of Dorothy with more than just a slight hint of her left breast. There was a tramp stamp tattoo at the base of her spine just above her micro thong.
“What do you think?” the caption asked.
I was mad, furious. Mike had her almost naked at a tattoo parlour. MIKE!!!
I took a few minutes before I replied, “Dorothy knew I loved her flawless skin and how I hate tattoos, piercings. This is the final finger to me! You want to flaunt you’re fucking and expect me to be okay with it. I told you, there would be a cost. I hope you will both find this is what you want.”
I added my own photographs, divorce papers naming her and him with my signature already signed.
I’d had enough. The photo destroyed a part of me. She was defiled. I had already thought to move to a business apartment we used to house new employees when they moved here until they found their own accommodation. I packed a few suitcases and headed there.
Once there I began closing all access she had to any account not necessary for her day-to-day life. I put limits on the amount she could spend. I knew she spent money on those “friends.” I had already changed all my passwords so she wouldn’t be able to gain access through our home computer.
My PA, Belinda has been great. She had seen how upset, angry I was on the Monday. She suggested I find a counsellor to help me deal with the stress. I am seeing one on Monday. I hadn’t a clue how they worked. I spent the weekend trying to work out how our lives had gotten so distorted, why Dorothy would do that to me.
I had shut down my phone as I didn’t want to speak with anyone. I only went out to grab some takeaway. I’m not a big drinker so I didn’t take solace in a bottle.
On Monday, Belinda was already in the office when I went in. I raised my eyebrow.
She smiled, just more like a grimace, “Some of us have been spending the weekend dealing with a very irate wife who couldn’t contact her husband. Said husband was proposing a divorce which wasn’t sitting well with her. He’d left the marital home.