An adult stories – Everybody Except Me by Hooked1957,Hooked1957 Again, a thank you to the fine folks at Specialized Iterations for their help on this story.
As I lay in bed spooned around the best wife any man could ever have, I reviewed my day with a smile on my face. I went to work at a job I loved and came home to the greatest family in the world. I played tag in the backyard with my two wonderful kids, ate a great meal and watched a baseball game on TV with the family. After the kids went to bed, my wife of 21 years and I enjoyed a satisfying, loving romp in the bedroom, where I brought her to orgasm three times before joining her in bliss.
We cuddled together and kissed several times in our afterglow before my wife drifted into sleep and rolled onto her side away from me. I wrapped my left arm around her and smiled inwardly. Yeah, I was nothing special, and nothing I did during the day was special. I was a boring guy leading a life most people would probably say was boring. How great was that?
Unfortunately, I didn’t know it was to be the last such day.
I got the phone call a little before noon. Carrie was crying and almost hysterical, and I was having a hard time understanding her. If I understood her correctly, she said something about our son, Troy, kidney disease and hospital. I told her I would meet her there in 20 minutes. I quickly explained things to my boss and flew out the door.
Eighteen minutes and somehow no tickets later, I was at the hospital, talking face to face with Dr. Michael Fierstos in the hospital emergency room, where my son was taken doubled over in pain less than an hour before. How he went from being a normal, healthy high school freshman to having stage three chronic kidney disease was a mystery to the doctor, who told me a specialist was coming down to look at my son.
Carrie and I did our best to appear upbeat in front of our son, but it wasn’t easy. Carrie quickly googled chronic kidney disease on her phone, but I just hung out at the bedside with Troy, joking and kidding. Carrie stood off to the side reading, sniffling back tears and looking paler as she kept reading. Several times she looked up from her phone and we locked eyes, at which point I could see that it didn’t look good for our son.
That was confirmed by the specialist, Dr. Brendan Nicholas, 45 minutes later. He told us that Troy needed a kidney transplant fairly quickly if he was going to survive until high school graduation, even with dialysis.
Troy handled the news well for a 14-year-old, breaking into tears immediately. I can’t say I blamed him. Carrie joined him seconds later.
Dr. Nicholas explained to us that while kidney transplants are fairly common these days, finding a match was still not a certainty. A familial match would be best, and probably the easiest, he said, but the problem with that was I was an only child and Carrie had just one sibling, who had two underage children, who were not eligible to donate, the same as Troy’s 17-year-old sister. Including four living grandparents, that made just seven possibles in the family. They were all tested and ruled out within the week. To say our family was devastated would have been the understatement of the year.
Our doctors, however, were more upbeat than we were… or at least they acted that way. Still… it wasn’t looking good for Troy. There were a lot of tears shed at the hospital and the Novak home for a week after the seven of us were ruled out.
One of my favorite TV show lines of all time is from Monty Python’s Flying Circus, “Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.” To warp that a bit, nobody also expects a miracle… but that’s what we seemingly got about a week later, and it came from an unlikely source half a world away.
Carrie and I called Sergio Santiago, an 18-year-old who was the son of our two very good friends, Jorge and Robbie Santiago, a nephew because of how close we are to the Santiago family, but technically we weren’t in any way related… that I knew of… until it was shown that we… or at least Carrie and him… were… and he was a three-way transplant match to our Troy.
“As we’ve said, Mr. Novak, having a family match is the best… and a half-sibling is almost as good as a full sibling,” Dr. Nicholas enthused.
“But doc, he’s not a half… oh shit! Oh fuck!” I blurted out as Dr. Nicholas looked on in horror.
My brain wasn’t firing on all cylinders for a split-second… until it caught up. At first, all I was hearing was a miracle for Troy. Then all I was hearing was the end of my marriage as I knew it. I looked over at Carrie, who seemed to be trying to disappear right before my eyes.
“Carr… baby… oh shit, baby,” I whispered.
She looked away, but I could see her face and neck color deeply. I stood stock still, waiting for her to say something. Five seconds passed, then 10. I cleared my throat.
“I can’t worry about anything right now except Troy,” she said. “I called. I had to try. For Troy.”
“Thank you for thinking of somebody else this time,” I responded in a bland voice.
Hopefully, we had our miracle, because we no longer had a marriage.
She looked at me directly for the first time in several minutes and narrowed her eyes.
“Not now, Josh. I don’t have time for this shit.”
I heard what she was saying and I understood it… for what it was worth.
“How long will it take them to get here?” I asked.
“They’ll be here a week from Thursday,” she said quietly.
“Good. They can stay with us, as usual,” I responded.
The Santiagos had stayed with us about a half-dozen times through the years. Our basement had been converted into a full-on guest suite with a master bedroom, a smaller bedroom and a full bath. It wasn’t quite the five-star hotel that the Santiagos usually stayed in, but again, they were family. Family. Yeah, right.
******
Carrie and Robbie were roommates at Iowa State University for their last two years. Robbie and Jorge were already a couple by the time I started going out with Carrie a little before Christmas of our junior year.
It took me some time to develop a relationship with Jorge. He was the son of a rich Spanish businessman and was kind of a rich douchebag playboy. I came to realize, though, that he was basically a nice guy without a mean bone in his body, and a lot of his doucheyness came because he hadn’t really lived in the real world until he came to the United States to attend college.
We eventually worked up to a pretty good friendship, although a lot of it was still centered around the women in our lives. They were best friends as well as roommates, and there were even rumors on campus that they were more than just friends. I had never seen any evidence of that.
Jorge and Robbie married six months after we all graduated. Carrie was maid of honor, and I also attended as a guest. Robbie was then Carrie’s matron of honor at our wedding in Champaign, Illinois, six months after that, and of course we had Jorge in attendance as well.
******
I can’t even begin to describe how busy our lives suddenly became. In addition to Troy needing dialysis every day, there seemed to be legions of doctors and nurses around at all times. There was so much to consider, from the surgery to the aftercare, all the medicines that would be needed and the psychological aspects. That would have been a lot to ask of an adult; asking that of a 14-year-old seemed incomprehensible to me.
Troy was scared, and I didn’t blame him. He was an athletic, fairly strong kid, with a quick wit. Nothing seemed to get the better of him, until this. Suddenly, he was very sick and in pain. My heart hurt because I couldn’t do anything to take away that pain.
I knew Carrie was hurting for our son every bit as much as I was, so I let the elephant graze in the room for the time being.
I worked half-days during the next week. That at least gave me something positive to concentrate on besides my son… and my wife’s affair. Lord, how I tried to push that to the back of my mind, but no matter how hard I tried… Troy’s illness was like a punch to my heart. Carrie’s affair was a kick to the nuts. Work was the only part of my life that didn’t bring me pain.
Carrie and I were rarely alone during the next several days. On the rare times we were at the house together, our daughter, Anjuli—AJ, for short, was with us, so we weren’t able to speak freely, if that’s what we had wanted. When we were alone in our bedroom at night, it was strictly for sleeping. Exhaustion can be a wonderful thing.
Under normal circumstances, the arrival of the Santiagos would have created a party-like atmosphere at the house. There were the usual hugs, myself excluded, but it was a subdued group. I have to admit I stood off to the side and watched the scene with mixed feelings… anger and nausea among them.
It was several minutes before Robbie noticed me. She colored and dropped her eyes for a couple of seconds before coming over to me and embracing me tightly.
“I’m sorry, Josh. Truly,” she whispered into my ear before releasing me from her grasp.
I nodded silently as she stepped away. As I looked up, I noticed everybody staring at me.
Neither Troy nor AJ were told about their biological connection to Sergio. They both assumed Sergio matching Troy was an incredible coincidence. We, being the four adults, decided not to say anything for the time being.
Sergio, however, had known of the connection for about the last four years, I found out. Carrie said he was good with his parents’ explanation of events. Seems everyone who knew was good with things. Maybe one day, when I knew, I would be good, too, although I seriously doubted that.
As soon as everyone was settled, Carrie took off to the hospital with the Santiagos so they could visit Troy. AJ and I stayed home. She waited until Carrie’s SUV was out of the driveway before she approached me.
“What’s going on, Dad?” she asked. “I’m not an idiot. Something’s definitely going on between you and Mom, and it somehow involves Aunt Robbie and Uncle Jorge as well. If you don’t tell me, I’ll just ask Sergio. I’m sure he knows, and he’ll tell me. He tells me everything.”
There are advantages and disadvantages to having really smart children. One of the disadvantages is that it’s tough to slip stuff past him or her. AJ was a really smart kid. I figured it was better for me to tell her, even if I didn’t know the whole story. This way she would get the story without the spin I was sure would be coming from my wife.
I told her what I had figured out, which truthfully wasn’t much: her mother had cheated on me with Jorge Santiago when I was on a long deployment and they had a child, Sergio, who was a half-brother to both her and Troy. That’s how Sergio was such a great match with Troy for the transplant.
“Wow!” she said barely above a whisper. “Wait. You didn’t know about this until Troy got sick, did you? That’s why you’ve been glaring at Mom for the past week or so.”
I nodded my head in the affirmative. I’m sure I was blushing. Right then I felt like the biggest schmuck in the world. I was wrong, though, because there was more to come.
“So you also didn’t know about Mom staying in the bedroom with Aunt Robbie and Uncle Jorge when we stayed with them in Spain all those years. They didn’t stop doing that until I was about 12. Mom always said they did it because she and Aunt Robbie were just like sisters, and you knew about it.”
My mouth dropped open in absolute shock. I was speechless. I guess I didn’t need to answer that question.
“Oh my God. I’m sorry, Daddy,” she gasped. “I always thought it was a little weird, but I was just a kid. She said you knew. I believed her.”
“Fuck,” I croaked out.
“What are you going to do?” she asked, again whispering.
“Right now, nothing. We’ve got to get past Troy’s surgery. Then we’ll discuss it… in great detail, I’m sure,” I said.
“I… we… would appreciate you not saying anything to anybody until after we talk.”
“Yeah, okay Dad,” she said. “I’ve got your back on this, Dad.”
“Thanks, Baby Girl,” I responded.
I’ll admit to being reticent around my wife and the Santiagos. I noticed I was getting a lot of looks from my wife, Robbie and Jorge, and they seemed to spend a lot of time whispering to each other.
Friday night back at the house, Sergio pulled me aside quietly.
“Can we talk, just you and me, Uncle Josh? It’s important,” he asked.
“How could I say no to you, Sergio? You’re the one saving my son… and your half-brother,” I said quietly as his eyebrows raised.
Sergio and I took a walk around our block.
“Look, Uncle Josh, I know this whole thing is terrible… and awkward. I’m glad I can be there for Troy,” he said.
“But I want… no, need to ask a favor of you. A favor just between us, that I think I’ve earned the right to ask. I need to ask you not to divorce Aunt Carrie over this, and I need you not to take physical revenge on my father, as well,” Sergio said.
I could see the angst in his eyes. I looked at… no, studied… his handsome face. He mostly favored Jorge, but now that I knew what I was looking for, I could see a bit of my wife in him. Come to think of it, he did look like he could have been Troy’s brother. How had I never seen that before?
“I can’t promise I will stay with my wife beyond when Troy leaves for college, but I can promise not to inflict physical revenge upon your father. That’s as good as I can do, Sergio, even with everything you’re doing for me… and I guess yourself, as well,” I said.
“So how are you with this whole thing, Sergio? How do you feel about Aunt Carrie, and being Troy’s half-brother?” I asked.
“I was a little freaked out when I first was told, to be honest,” he answered. “But I wouldn’t even be here if Dad and Aunt Carrie hadn’t agreed to hook up to give my parents a kid. Mom is my mother, to my way of thinking, and Aunt Carrie is still Aunt Carrie, although now I guess I have even more feeling for her in my heart.
“And I’ve always kind of looked at Troy as a little brother anyway. I think it’s cool that he’s my brother, and I’m really glad I can help him.”
We walked in silence the rest of the way back to the house. He had given me even more to think about. I had gotten very little of the whole story, and realized it was even worse than I thought it was.
The transplant was done on the next Tuesday. There were five very intense people waiting for hours. Both boys came through the surgeries in good shape. Troy’s new kidney started working immediately, which was a very good sign, the doctors told us. There were five very tired people who left the hospital that night.
I didn’t give it a thought at first when Robbie volunteered to ride with me to my favorite Chinese restaurant for the takeout we had ordered two days after the transplant. We had barely cleared the driveway when she started apologizing. In the 40 minutes it took to get to and from the restaurant, I learned the whole story. I certainly didn’t feel like eating when we got home.
I’ve been in the Naval Reserve for 20 years, and have served three deployments overseas. The first one was about a year after Carrie and I were married. I was sent to the Mideast for 18 months. To avoid being alone, Carrie went to stay with Robbie and Jorge for the entire deployment.
“I know it shouldn’t have happened, but it did. I’m sorry, Josh,” she started. “We were partying pretty good one night… and we all wound up in bed together… and that’s what gave me the idea… which turned out to be the stupidest idea I’ve ever had.
“I never told anybody but Carrie, but I can’t have kids… and I really, really wanted kids. So I figured… she could get pregnant by Jorge… and have the baby and I could adopt it and raise it… and you would never have to know.
“And the plan worked perfectly. She gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. By the time you got home six months later, Carrie had lost almost all of the baby weight, and we just told you she had gotten a little chunky eating our rich food, and you were none the wiser… and you wouldn’t have been if Troy didn’t get sick.”
Robbie dropped her head and blushed a bit. I waited for more, but didn’t get anything. Remembering what my daughter had said, though, I knew there was, in fact, more. I looked at her intently for a few seconds.
“I’ve talked with AJ…” I said, leaving the rest up to Robbie.
“Oh,” she practically whispered.
“She didn’t just fuck him once. I’m not stupid, even if I didn’t know some of the rest,” I said pointedly.
“No. They got it on a lot before she had the baby… and since then they’ve kept at it through the years. They became a lot more than good friends, right in front of me. They became lovers… I didn’t see that coming. By then I had only one choice… to accept the situation. I had my child… and I loved Jorge and Carrie… so I chose to be a part of what they had, rather than chase off both of them.
“Your other two deployments, your two weeks every year, other vacations when they came without you… then when Carrie figured AJ was old enough to know something was going on, they started to go off together someplace, and the kids would stay with Sergio and me.
“Don’t be mad, Josh. We all got something out of the deal. I got a son, Jorge and Carrie got some time together and your son got a new kidney.”
“That’s not how I look at, Robbie,” I said. “The kidney was a fluke. I look at it like everybody got something except me. I just got plain fucked. I wasn’t in on the deal with the three of you. I didn’t agree to my wife getting pregnant and carrying a kid for you. I didn’t agree to my wife having an affair for 19 years… although now that I think about it, maybe it was me that was having the affair with Carrie. Maybe I was her second man. He was her first love, and I was the side piece.
“You might have accepted having just a piece of your husband’s heart, but I don’t accept having just a piece of my wife’s. I’m an all or nothing guy, Robbie. You should know that about me. My wife definitely should have known that about me.”
“So where do we all go from here, Josh?” she asked.
“I don’t know, but I’ve promised Sergio that I would stay with Carrie at least while Troy is still living at home, and I wouldn’t hurt your husband,” I said.
“How could you and Jorge have done this to me? I thought we were friends… hell, just about family. Family doesn’t do this to each other, Robbie.”
We pulled into the driveway, so the conversation ended for the time being.
Both boys were out of the hospital and home within the week. Modern medicine is absolutely amazing. Barring anything unforeseen, Troy should lead a long, normal life, and so should Sergio for that matter.
The elephant stayed quietly in the room until the night before the Santiagos were ready to fly back home. I had arranged for AJ to stay with the boys in the family room and stream some sort of zombie series while munching on pizza and drinking pop. The adults went with me into my home office, where I had a loveseat and a chair in addition to my desk. I grabbed a couple of bottles of wine and had picked up a charcuterie board from a local shop.
As I walked into the room, it didn’t escape me that Carrie and Jorge were seated together on the loveseat, and Robbie was by herself in the chair. I arranged everything on the coffee table and pulled up my desk chair for myself.
As everyone filled their plates, I started the discussion by again praising Sergio for stepping up so readily, and what that says for the way Robbie and Jorge raised him. Carrie seconded my statement, and I know Sergio’s parents had to be bursting with pride.
“That said… what can I say beyond the fact that I’m incredibly pissed at both of you,” I said, looking over at the pair on the loveseat. “If I hadn’t made a promise to Sergio, you might both be dead right now.”
“And you,” I continued, shifting my gaze to Robbie, “would be lying there bleeding, wishing you were dead.”
“How could the person who was supposed to love me above all others do this to me? Cheat on me repeatedly and secretly have another man’s baby? Continue to fuck her lover for the next 18 years. Yeah, I now know all about that, too. Shit, you did this practically in front of my kids.”
All three of them recoiled at my use of the F-bomb directly at them. Carrie looked like she wanted to respond, then apparently thought better of it. I just got it.
“Oh shit!” I whispered. “You two have fucked each other since they’ve been here! How many times? Once? Twice? Every damn day?”
She dropped her head and didn’t answer. I looked at Jorge, then at Robbie.
“Only twice that I know of,” Robbie finally answered.
“Damn, woman!” I murmured. “Tell me not in our bed?”
Carrie never raised her eyes from the floor. Shit!
“I get it now, Carrie. I’m slow, so it took me a while. You might love me… might… but you’re in love with him. He’s number one. I’m number two, the same way Robbie is to Jorge. Tell me I’m wrong.”
There might as well have been crickets chirping.
I finished the glass of wine I was drinking and poured myself another. I offered to pour more for the three others in the room, but all declined silently.
“I do love you, Josh. I never took anything from you. I never left you for him. We only got together when you weren’t available,” Carrie said to finally break the silence.
“That’s rich, babe. You took trust, fidelity and commitment from me,” I said. “I also don’t remember our vows giving either of us a hall pass if our spouses ‘weren’t available,’ which 19 years ago means I was a lieutenant taking fire and sweating my ass off in the Mideast. While I was losing a couple of friends, you were sunning yourself in the south of Spain when you weren’t in bed fucking these two, getting pregnant by him and then having his baby.
“We don’t even need to talk about all the other times you two got together. At least at some point you realized that you should be less obvious in front of our kids and started sleeping with him away from our house or their house… except for this week again, apparently.”
The three other people in the room sat quietly, mostly interested in something on the floor.
“Miracle of miracles, though, you had a spare son hanging around to help Troy,” I continued sarcastically. “I’m sure outing yourself was the absolute last thing you wanted to do, so I at least appreciate that. Finally, an act of selflessness from the ultimate selfish woman.”
The sobbing in the room was coming from Robbie. Jorge looked guilty. Carrie’s look vacillated between guilt and fear, with a little anger thrown in when I called her selfish.
“So now where do we go, Josh? I don’t want a divorce…” Carrie started.
“Because I promised your first son… and I don’t break my promises, or my vows, you’ve got four years before I divorce you. That happens when Troy leaves for college, but it won’t be talked about in front of him,” I said.
“You will, however, be the one to tell him about Sergio being his half-brother, and that needs to happen soon. I’m going to be in the room when you tell him, making sure you tell him the sad tale of a woman who cheated on her husband, rather than the loving tale of a woman having a great romance. I have no doubt he’ll actually be rather thrilled to have Sergio for a brother, since they are already that close. I know AJ was pretty pleased with that, once she got over the mad she felt at your… poor treatment of me.”
“She knows the whole story?” Carrie asked in a strangled voice. “What exactly did you tell her?”
“Ahh… now I get a rise out of her,” I chuckled mirthlessly. “I didn’t tell her anything. She is a smart kid, and through the years she was able to figure it out, although I know there are some holes in her knowledge that you should probably fill in. She didn’t necessarily know things… but she sort of knew things, you understand what I’m saying? But because she wasn’t totally sure of things, and because of the lies you told her, she never came to me and gave you up. She only told me what she knew and what she suspected when I asked her directly. She felt very guilty for not coming to me.
“Our son, on the other hand, is still totally clueless… the blissful ignorance of youth and the trust he has in his parents.
“And of course, you know that Sergio has known about you two making me a cuckold for the past several years now. I’d seen a funny look in his eyes several times over the past few years and wondered about it. Now I know it was a look of pity. That’s perfect, when a teenager gives you a look of pity because he knows his father, and your wife, is making a mockery of your marriage.
“Everybody got something out of this deal except for me. I just got fucked.”
“That’s not true, Josh. I love you,” she cried. “I’ve been a good wife and mother. If this kidney thing hadn’t come up, you’d still be happy and clueless. Why can’t we at least go back to the happy part. I’ve never denied you sex…”
“So you’re saying I should be happy being your number two option, just because I didn’t know what was going on? I should always have been your number one, and there shouldn’t have been any other number. Please tell me, though, was I ever your number one?” I asked.
She colored again. She stuttered.
“In the beginning. When we were first married. Before I moved in with Robbie and Jorge,” she said.
“So you’re saying there was a time when we made love that you weren’t thinking of Jorge or giving me a pity fuck? How could you have given me two kids if you were in love with another man?”
“I-I felt you deserved to have children of your own. I do love you, remember?” she said.
“Right. Right. How could I forget that? Hmm,” I said. “At least by your actions, I can assume you love our children as much as you love your child with him.”
She grimaced at me, then looked at Robbie and Jorge. If she was looking for verbal support, none came.
“We should be doing this in private, not dragging Robbie and Jorge into our problem,” Carrie said disdainfully.
“Are you fucking kidding me? Robbie and Jorge started the problem!” I yelled.
All three of them blanched at my outburst. They all seemed a little edgy.
“Okay, you all know I made a promise to Sergio, and I intend to keep it. But I want to extract a promise from you, Carrie. I want you to at least be faithful to me until Troy leaves for college. That means no more trips to Spain without me, and no more Santiago visits when I’m doing my two weeks of reserve duty. Faithful means faithful. You break that promise, I break my promise to Sergio and file for divorce immediately. Understand?”
Robbie smiled while Carrie and Jorge sat gape-mouth and speechless. I appreciated that Robbie apparently got it, or else it just could have been that the promise would have helped her as well. The two lovers looked hard at each other for about a minute before Carrie quietly answered in the affirmative while also giving a small nod of her head.
“That’s better. More wine, anyone?” I queried.
I moved into the master bedroom suite in the basement guest room after the Santiagos went back to Spain. Carrie and I had been sleeping together in our bed while the Santiagos were with us, but we hadn’t engaged in sex since we found out Troy was sick. That worked out well for me after I found out about my wife and Jorge.
“Don’t be a child, Josh. We’ve had sex how many times over the years since I’d been sleeping with Jorge and you didn’t know it,” she snarked at me.
“That’s exactly it, Carrie,” I growled back. “I didn’t know. Now that I know you’ve been sharing with another man, I don’t quite have the same feelings.”
Carrie looked like she’d been sucking on a bag of lemons.
“You men and your fragile egos. I’ll be upstairs waiting when you finally grow your balls back,” she said.
I got the feeling she had no idea how this was going to go.
Modern medicine is amazing. Six months after the surgery, Troy was back to being his old self, wisecracking and acting like a typical high school student. Yes, he was always going to have to take medicine to fight transplant rejection, and he couldn’t play tackle football, but in almost every other way he had his life back. I felt it was time for him to learn the truth about his relationship to Sergio.
Carrie and I had been going back and forth on this for several days. She was in favor of just letting things float along as they had been, hoping that Troy would just figure things out for himself eventually. Seriously, that’s actually what she said to me.
“Nice try, babe, but you owe him a full explanation, just like I told you a few months ago. And let’s have a full family meeting so AJ can hear everything straight from her mother’s mouth, too,” I said.
She sighed loudly, but finally nodded in agreement.
Troy had turned 15 a couple of months back, and I have to admit, I didn’t always understand what was going on in his head. I had to laugh at that, because I remembered back to when I was 15, and I didn’t always understand what was going on in my father’s head, either. I knew this conversation might not go easy. I hoped Carrie understood that as well.
Watching from my La-Z-Boy, it looked like Troy took the news of his being Sergio’s half-brother really well, which I figured he would because he already loves Sergio like a brother. The “how” part, however, was a tougher sell.
“Wait. You ‘had sex’ with Uncle Jorge? You mean you ‘effed him’ as the kids would say? But you were married to Dad then, weren’t you? That makes you what the kids would call a slut, a tramp!” he shouted.
“Don’t you dare call…” Carrie started to yell back at our son, until I grabbed her arm and gave it a squeeze, causing her to quickly shut her mouth.
She fell silent and sat there shamefaced. The silence in the room lingered for several seconds.
“Yes, I guess the correct term would be slut,” I said, “but that’s not your concern. It’s mine. I didn’t find out about this until you got sick. Your mother called the Santiagos and asked Sergio to get tested, hoping he would be a match for a kidney transplant. She basically threw herself under the bus trying to save you, so the least you can do is show some appreciation and restraint.”
Troy dropped his head when I chastised him. He was confused and hurt. I completely understood that.
“If anyone should be upset, it’s me… and trust me, I am. But this is a problem for your mother and me to figure out. We will get through this, some way. I’m not leaving you guys. I have no intention of doing that. That’s why I moved into the basement,” I said.
I could see that AJ wanted to interject at this point. I gave her a small headshake and she leaned back into the sofa upon which she was sitting. I glanced quickly at Carrie, who was sitting next to her and looking like the roof of our house was about to collapse on her.
AJ left for Central Michigan University a few months later. Troy asked if he could go with her. I know it seemed like he was making a joke, but when I looked at his face, I could tell he was dead serious.
Carrie and I were at least civil toward each other in the house with our son. We did all the usual parent things like attending his school events. I thought we were fairly believable as a loving couple during those times, although I could see the strain our pretending was having on my wife. I didn’t care. I was going to live my life and enjoy being my son’s father.
Also putting a strain on my wife was our living apart at home. There was no touching, no loving phrases, no little jokes… and certainly no intimacy. She couldn’t just roll over and get things started in bed at night because I wasn’t there for her… literally.
That last part wasn’t easy on me either, but her infidelity had dulled my libido somewhat. Every time I started feeling a little randy, I just thought of Carrie fucking Jorge for the last 20 years and my anger would replace my arousal. Of course, that’s not to say that I didn’t also grow more muscles in my right wrist from jacking off.
“Uh… Josh… can’t we at least get back to being us… physically. I mean we always had a pretty good sex life. I never denied you anything, you know. Can’t we at least go back to that? I know you’re human, and you must have needs,” Carrie pleaded with me one evening about three months later when Troy was out with some friends.
I looked her up and down. She was still a beautiful woman with a good body. This literally would be just sex, because I no longer was in love with her. Although I still loved her, that was gradually fading. This would be fucking, pure and simple, definitely not lovemaking. I would take my pleasure and she could take hers. I didn’t plan on working for her benefit.
“I suppose so, but you’ll have to go down to my room. Knowing what I know now, you violated our marital bed a lot over the years… and there’s just no way I’m doing you in that bed ever again,” I rasped.
“Yeah, okay, I get it. I’ll come to you in a few minutes. I just need to straighten up a little,” she said.
Carrie’s straightening up included her putting on a little makeup and perfume, quickly doing her hair nicer and putting on my favorite lacy teddy under the robe she wore. After she entered my room, she removed the robe and gave me a twirl. I had to quickly picture her with Jorge to keep my excitement under control.
I figured I would need to warm her up some since neither one of us was a kid anymore, but when I reached down to her pussy, I found she was probably wet enough for me to get the deed done. I considered just plunging straight in, but I decided to stick with my plan and I rubbed and played with her pussy enough for her to get off hard twice.
I waited until she was finished coming the second time before I impaled my rock-hard cock in her steamy, wet depth. I almost moaned but I caught myself. I didn’t want to give her the satisfaction. Instead, I just quietly pumped her hard, much harder than usual. She seemed to really like that from a physical standpoint, because she came again after just five minutes. She whimpered and moaned leading up to her climax, which came with a side order of shrieking and crying. I slowed a bit while she finished her orgasm, then immediately went back to slamming into her, eliciting a steady stream of small grunts until I finally released a large load into her.
Once finished, I rolled off Carrie and lay on my back just enjoying my personal afterglow. Once upon a time, I would have enjoyed our afterglow with Carrie in my arms. I really regretted that those days were gone forever.
When I heard Carrie sniffling next to me, I realized she probably figured out what I was thinking. I resisted the temptation to take her in my arms and soothe her. A few minutes later, she got up, put her teddy and robe back on and quietly went back upstairs. There was no discussion, no pillow talk; only silence. I heard the shower running in the master bath upstairs when I went upstairs to watch TV in the family room.
I was sitting in gym shorts and a T-shirt when Troy got home. I could tell something was eating at him.
“Dad, it’s been months since you’ve taken Mom out to a restaurant or club or anywhere for that matter,” he said. “Are you ever going to forgive her and get back to being a real couple again?”
Moment of truth, I guess. I examined what was in my heart and head for a bit before I answered. He waited patiently while I figured out how to phrase my answer.
“Troy, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to forgive her enough to go back to what we had… or what I thought we had. It was all a sham. It was a lie. Your mother is in love with Uncle Jorge. I am just her back-up plan. Now that I am cognizant of that fact, how can I go back to that? Football teams have back-up quarterbacks; marriages don’t have back-up husbands,” I said.
“I’m sorry, son, but what we’ve got now might be the best of what’s left.”
Troy looked stricken, but I think he understood. He walked off to his bedroom.
Carrie caught on as well. Every few weeks, she would ask for some personal time, which became code for sex. I figured the rest of the time she was pleasuring herself the same as I was. I suppose she could have been sneaking out and having sex with someone else, but she knew that if she got caught everything that happened afterward would be completely on her.
I don’t know if Carrie felt the significance of Troy’s graduation as much as I did. At one time I probably would have, but I had long since given up on worrying about what she did and what she cared about. I no longer loved her. I still cared for her… we had all that history together and we shared two great kids, but her longtime deception had dulled my feelings down to the nub. I had always thought that hatred was the polar opposite of love. I found out first-hand that indifference is the opposite of love. Who knew?
I remember heading off to college with 10 days’ worth of clothing, 14 pairs of underwear and a stereo. Troy headed off to the University of Oregon with 14 days’ worth of clothing, 14 pair of underwear, an iPad, a laptop computer, a cellphone, ear buds and two boxes of other “stuff.” Yes, things had certainly changed.
Troy was really pumped and chattered for almost the entire two-day drive. Hell, it was virtually a 16-hour monologue. I don’t think Carrie got more than two words in edgewise, and I didn’t say much more. I don’t think Troy even had a clue that he was virtually the only one who talked for two days.
With Troy left back in Eugene, the car ride home was unbelievably quiet. I drove about 12 of the 16 hours. Carrie was the main navigator, which also meant she was responsible for most of the music. If I ever hear another Michael Bolton ballad again in my lifetime, well…
I knew Carrie was feeling incredibly melancholy now that both kids were basically out of the house. You have to remember, I said Carrie was a good mother, and I knew she loved the kids way more than she cared for me. I may not have been her favorite man, but AJ and Troy were both on her favorite kid list. I could tell by how glum she was she wasn’t looking at the big picture.
I thought it would feel better than it did when Carrie was served right after we pulled into our driveway at home. She took the envelope as if it was radioactive, burst into tears and ran into the house. I felt… small.
When I set up my plans for after the trip, I was working on pure revenge. In hindsight, I could see that was just plain petty. I knew I needed to get help.
I also knew that we were done as a married couple from the first moment I found out about her infidelity. I was keeping my promise to Sergio. I told him I would stay with Carrie until Troy went off to college. I gave her two extra days.
I was down in my room when I heard her knock on the door. The door was unlocked, so I told her to come in.
“Do you hate me that much now, Josh?” she asked softly. “Have I destroyed everything?”
“Yes, you have destroyed everything, but I don’t hate you, Carrie. I just don’t give a shit about you anymore,” I said.
“But we did have something good for a lot of years, before you found out,” she asserted.
“Did we? For me, it was all a lie after you went to stay with Robbie and Jorge the first time. You no longer loved me only, as you had promised. No longer gave your body to me alone, as you had promised. You had a child with another man.
“Why couldn’t you just be honest with me after you fell in love with Jorge? Why couldn’t you just have divorced me? You stayed with me and gave me two wonderful children, but you deceived me for 18 years. You stole 18 years that I could have been looking for a woman with whom to share my life, not spending those 18 years being the second choice of a selfish woman.
“Go back to Jorge, Carrie. Don’t you see it? I’m setting you free.”
“But I did love you, Josh. Don’t you see that? I couldn’t have stayed with you for 20 years if I didn’t love you. Yes, I’m not in love with you like I am with Jorge, but I truly do love you,” she cried.
“Your version of love is way different than mine, Carrie. If you truly loved me, you would have done right by me and not kept me as your back-up guy. I should have been number one. I deserved to be the guy you were in love with, desired. By deceiving me, you never gave me the choice to stay as your number two… or maybe find a woman who wanted me to be number one.
“I gave you two wonderful kids. We had a good life… or at least I thought we did. Gone in a puff of smoke. You get what you wanted, apparently. Jorge got what he wanted, apparently. Robbie got what she wanted. And I got what… I got shit.
“So what was your game plan for after the kids left the house, assuming that I never found out about you and Jorge?”
Her mouth opened, but no sound came out, at least for a few seconds.
“I guess I always thought that I would go back to Spain to be with Jorge… and Robbie. I’m sorry, Josh, I guess I never really considered… you in my long-term plans,” she said quietly.
“I know,” I responded just as quietly.
“I won’t fight anything on the divorce,” she practically whispered.
I was surprised that both kids weren’t happy with my decision to divorce their mother. Originally, they were both upset that she had cheated on me for so long, but I guess she was able to persuade them her love for me was real. As for her being in love with Jorge… well, that had been going on for so long they were able to rationalize it to themselves. Apparently, they were also able to rationalize in their minds that I would be happy being their mother’s number two guy.
“Aunt Robbie is good with it. Why can’t you get on board with it like her?” AJ asked.
“Aunt Robbie helped set the whole thing up. She, Uncle Jorge and your mother made plans. I was not included. Everybody except me was in on this whole shitshow. Why wasn’t I included in the planning? Because your mother knew I wouldn’t go along with it. Better to ask forgiveness… if you have to, rather than seek permission,” I said.
“Let me ask you something, AJ. When you get married, are you going to let your husband have a lover… a lover that he cares about more than you?”
“No. I’d kick his ass if he even suggested that,” she said emphatically. “But this has been going on for more than 20 years at this point.”
“So I should just accept it because it’s been going on forever? Like Aunt Robbie has? Like you would if it happened to you?”
She grimaced and dropped her eyes. The conversation was apparently over.
My assumption that Carrie would head to Spain after the divorce was done was confirmed by my kids. I’ll admit that I missed the companionship, but not the life I had… since I never really had that life. Realizing I had no trust in women anymore, I went to a counselor and got help. Still, I wasn’t exactly looking for my next relationship.
I went out on a few dates here and there and even had sex occasionally, very occasionally, but that wasn’t high on my list anymore. I was surprised by the fact that there seemed to be a lot of unattached women in the 40 to 50 age range. I guess I never realized that fact when I was a supposedly happily-married man.
I also never realized the changing dynamic between men and women in the last 20-something years. The last time I was loose on the dating scene, the men did most of the hunting. I found out today it’s a 50-50 proposition. It took me a minute or two to get used to this new dynamic. I have to admit it’s a big ego pump when a woman approaches me to get the dance started.
Hers was probably the last face I expected to see when I answered my doorbell one day about two years after my divorce. It took a couple of seconds to realize who I was looking at, even though she looked almost exactly the same as the last time I saw her. Robbie Santiago was still a beautiful woman.
“Uhh… come in, Robbie. What brings you to my door?” I asked, still somewhat in shock.
“Can’t I visit an old friend… assuming, I suppose, we still are friends,” she said timidly.
She accepted the cup of coffee I offered and we sat down in my family room. She squirmed in her seat and cleared her throat.
“You never answered my question, Josh. Are we still friends?” she asked.
I screwed up my face as I thought.
“We used to be friends… at least that’s what I thought. Then I found out you didn’t think so…” I started to say before she jumped in.
“No, that’s not true,” she interrupted. “I always considered you a friend.”
“If I was a friend, then how could you do to me what you did?” I questioned.
“I was selfish… and incredibly stupid,” Robbie said. “I never looked hard at the consequences of what I was doing because I trusted Jorge and Carrie. Carrie was like a sister to me. I never saw it coming.
“I put up with it because I got Sergio out of the deal… and after that it was just for a few days here and there in all the years. And I absolutely loved it when you forbade her from seeing him for those few years. But then you divorced her… and sent her back into his life… and mine. I guess after all these years, I’m tired of being his second-best woman.
“I completely get where you are coming from now. God, I was so stupid.”
“Hurts, doesn’t it?” I asked smugly.
She didn’t answer but dropped her eyes. Finally, somebody showing a little remorse.
“I guess we can be friends again, of a sort. Friends linked by shared experience,” I said.
We talked long into the night. We switched from coffee to a bottle of pinot grigio, and finished that. When she got ready to leave, I surprised her… and myself… by offering her my guest room. She accepted.
It was… fun, I had to admit, to have a piece of my old life back. I think we both enjoyed the familiarity.
The second weekend she stayed with me, we went out to a restaurant for dinner, followed by hitting an upscale bar for drinks and dessert. It was two old friends, not a date, but somewhere along the way, hormones got involved. She was wearing a fairly tight dark blue dress that showed more than a hint of cleavage and a lot of muscular, tight legs. I certainly wasn’t planning on anything happening, so I was a little surprised when I felt myself getting hard while we were eating dessert. I blushed… and she just knew. She reached across the table and took my hand. We continued holding hands for the rest of the night.
We were about a block from my house when Robbie changed the game.
“This doesn’t have to mean anything, Josh,” she rasped. “You’re a handsome single guy… and I’m in an open marriage. We’re consenting adults.”
I smiled brightly. I reached for her hand, found it and gave it a kiss.
Clothes started hitting the floor almost as soon as we got back to my house, sort of like you see in one of those chick-flick romances. As we made our way to my bedroom, I discovered that Robbie was a world-class kisser.
When we got to my bedroom, I gently guided her to the bed, started sucking her nipples and began fingering what I found to be a very hot, wet pussy. Her breathing got ragged and then hitched before she screamed out her first orgasm. I quickly got her twice more and then slid further down her body.
Her secretions were fairly thick, almost like a honey consistency, and she gave off a fantastic musky aroma as I licked her opening and nibbled on her lips. Somewhere in the middle of that she levitated off the bed and went stiff in the air before screaming at full volume.
I wasn’t ready for her jump and I have to admit she hurt my neck and nose with that move. I was licking for all I was worth and it seemed like she was trying to give me a concussion by ramming her gooey pussy into my face. I gave a hoarse laugh as she came hard again, then resumed my tongue work. Damn, she was hottttt!
I got two more orgasms out of her with my tongue before I moved up her body, lined up my tool with her pussy and sunk inside in two strong thrusts. Her center was molten heat and I started doing math in my head to delay the eruption that was building in my body.
She started yelling something in Spanish at that point. I knew she was bilingual after all these years living in Spain, but since I had only visited their home a few times, my Spanish was pretty bad.
“English! Say it in English, babe! How do I know if you like something or not if you’re speaking a language I barely know,” I said.
I was able to hold off for another 10 minutes or so before I growled out my own orgasm. I gradually moved off to the side so I wouldn’t hurt her with my body weight as my prick softened. She smiled softly when I looked into her eyes.
I’m not going to lie and say it was the greatest sex of my life, although it was the best sex I’d had since I found out about Carrie cheating on me several years ago. We went at it one more time that night and did it again in the morning. We showered together and enjoyed washing each other’s bodies before I took her to IHOP for a great breakfast. We spent much of the rest of the day on the sofa in the family room, cuddling, kissing and watching TV.
She didn’t return to sleeping in the guest room for the rest of the time she stayed with me, which turned out to be another three weeks.
“I need to go back to Spain and divorce Jorge, then figure out what I want to do with the rest of my life,” Robbie said. “I know we’ve had our fun together, but both of us know we’re not each other’s long-term solution. Still, you’re a helluva good man, Josh. I’m really sorry I started the ball rolling on ruining your marriage.”
“You didn’t force her to do what she did, and at least you showed remorse. That’s more than Carrie,” I said.
“Well, I hope you find somebody that appreciates you for everything you bring to the table, and that’s quite a lot,” Robbie said.
Carrie had been living with Jorge for five years, and my kids had both relocated to the south of Spain to be closer to their mother. I missed them, but not their attitudes. I was tired of apologizing for divorcing their mother for cheating on me. No one was more surprised than me when Troy called one Sunday at 6 AM. Yeah, who the fuck calls someone Sunday morning at 6? I didn’t look to see who was calling. I just grabbed the phone and yelled.
“What? This had better be a fucking emergency, or someone’s dying!” I yelled.
“Dad? Dad! It’s me, Troy. Why are you so mad?” he asked.
“It’s 6 in the morning on a Sunday, Troy. Did you forget about the time difference?” I asked.
“Uhh… yeah, I guess I did, Dad,” he said softly. “I’ll call back later.”
“No, Troy, don’t hang up. What did you need?” I asked.
“Uhh… I’m not sure how to say this, Dad, but here goes: did you know that AJ is sleeping with Uncle Jorge?” he announced more than asked.
At this point I had gotten about three hours sleep after a very late night with a girl young enough to be dating… my son, but that was a whole different story. By the time he finished his statement, I was wide awake.
“What? What the fuck did you just say?” I yelled through the phone.
“You heard me, Dad. I said AJ is sleeping with Uncle Jorge,” he announced again.
“How do you know that?” I asked, still at full volume.
“We were all over at Uncle Jorge’s: AJ, Sergio and me, and when it got late all the kids went to our bedrooms, leaving just Uncle Jorge and Mom up. In the middle of the night, I got woken up by a woman screaming out an orgasm… and I realize it’s not Mom. So I got up and went to AJ’s door and listened for a bit because I was pretty sure I was going to have to kill Sergio. For God sake, he’s her half-brother. But then it got worse: it wasn’t Sergio,” he said.
“Are you sure?” I croaked out.
“Yeah,” he whispered.
“Well, she is 27, Dad. I guess she can make her own decisions about whom she sleeps with… but still, it’s just creepy, you know what I mean?” he said.
“And your mother is good with this?” I asked.
He hesitated.
“Not really sure if she knows about this,” he said.
Two days later, I was standing on Jorge’s doorstep waiting for the fancy-ass doorbell to be answered. The woman of the house answered with a gasp.
“J-Josh. What are you doing here?” Carrie asked with a very shocked look on her face.
“I was in the neighborhood and wanted to see my children. Got a problem with that?” I said gruffly.
She stepped aside and let me in.
“Why didn’t you call? You could have stayed here if we knew you were coming,” she said.
I glared at her as all three kids and Jorge came into the parlor. Seeing it was me, all three kids approached for hugs while Jorge hung back. The kids all started talking at once, but they quickly went silent as I approached Jorge with fire in my eyes. He raised both hands in surrender. It didn’t matter.
I’m not a great fighter, but I can hold my own. In this case, I had rage on my side. I unleashed my best straight right hand, which went through his upraised hands and connected directly with his nose. I felt the bone crumple and blood exploded everywhere. He staggered back before I hit him twice in the stomach as hard as I could, once with each hand. When he fell to his knees, I considered crushing his nuts, but decided that was too cliché. Still, he was right there, so I unleashed my best 50-yard field goal kick. It didn’t crush his nuts, but by the shriek he gave I’m sure it conveyed my message.
I stepped back, breathing heavily, and looked around at the shocked faces.
“Uncle Josh, you promised me you wouldn’t hurt Dad for what he did with Aunt Carrie!” Sergio wailed, but he wisely held his ground.
I was snorting fire from my nostrils, watching Jorge writhe in pain as Carrie rushed to him.
“I didn’t break my promise to you!” I yelled back. “He got that beating for fucking my daughter, your half-sister!”
“Did you know he was having sex with your daughter?” I asked, turning my attention to my ex-wife.
Her expression changed from scared to shocked as she looked up at me, then back at Jorge.
“What is he saying?” she asked Jorge.
Jorge was curled up in a fetal ball, bleeding profusely and whimpering.
“I’m old enough to decide who I sleep with!” AJ declared. “I don’t need permission from either of you.”
“Yup, you are old enough to make your own mistakes, like sharing a man with your mother, even if he is the man who broke up your parents’ marriage. But you, like your mother and shithead on the floor, are also old enough to know there are consequences to every action… and his recent action gave me the chance to give him the consequences I couldn’t give him for fucking your mother because I’d promised Sergio.
“I guess I owe you a big thanks for giving me the chance to do something that was long overdue. But still, your choice of sexual partners is more than a little disturbing considering everything that has happened.”
She blushed as she looked first at me, then at her mother.
“I’m sorry, Mom,” she said.
Carrie looked hard at AJ, and I knew then what was coming. She turned toward Jorge and swung her leg as hard as she could, catching the man in the face with her foot. He groaned before passing out.
“Nice shot, Mom,” Troy enthused.
“I’m sorry, Uncle Josh. I didn’t know about Dad and AJ. That’s… just wrong,” Sergio said.
“Yes it is, Sergio, but it’s not your fault and not your place to apologize,” I said.
“Kids, it was great to see you all, although you, AJ, and I have a lot to discuss someday. Carrie, not so great to see you. But I have some sightseeing to do for a few days before I go home. Now if you don’t mind…
“Oh, by the way, you’ve got my number if dickhead wants to press charges against me. Just give me a call and I’ll turn myself in.”
“That’s not going to happen, Uncle Josh. That’s my promise. Dad and I also have a lot to talk about,” Sergio said.
******
“YEEEAAAHHH!”
Everybody screams when they land after their first parachute jump, and I was no exception. That was absolutely off-the-hook fucking amazing!
My toes touched the ground first, and since my legs were out in front of my body, I gently sat down and screamed. I quickly scrambled to my knees and then feet, running back to grab my chute.
My pulse was going wild. I was too pumped to think about looking at my Fitbit, or I might have seen unbelievable numbers. I felt like my chest was going to explode my heart was beating so hard and so fast, and I knew my grin split my face in two.
“YEAH! YEAH! YEAH!” I screamed again as the jumpmaster came over to congratulate me and see if I hurt myself in any way.
“Nice jump, Josh!” he enthused at me as I gathered my stuff and headed out of the landing zone.
As I headed to the garage area where other people were coming out to greet me, I realized I was sweating profusely and it seemed like every noise around me was a little louder, a little crisper. Maybe that’s what happens in a near-death experience, I thought to myself.
Okay, okay, I realize I was being a tad over the top… maybe a tad and a half, but next to witnessing the birth of my two children, I had just experienced the most amazing event of my lifetime… better than marriage… better even than my first time having sex! I may never be able to accurately explain what I had just gone through.
I was 51 years old and had been divorced for several years. I had pretty much moped through life for several years since the divorce, but a recent trip to Spain had jumpstarted my life. To be more precise, beating the fuck out of Jorge Santiago had done wonders for my spirits.
I practically jumped out of bed the first day I was back in the states. I laced up my New Balance trainers and hit the road. I had gotten back to jogging in the last year, but it had been a slog getting back into condition. On that morning, I ran, not slogged, through 7.2 miles, clipping off the distance at a 7:30 per mile pace, instead of my usual eight minutes a mile.
I practically bounced into work that morning. I was almost insufferable, I felt so energized. My admin, Theresa, noticed immediately, and five minutes after I got in, she appeared at my door with her cup of coffee and her pad because I had a lot to catch up on after being gone for a week, at least according to her.
The ruse ended a minute later when she sat down, looked straight into my eyes and said, “Okay, spill. You spent the week in Spain getting laid, didn’t you?”
“Even better, Theresa,” I responded. “I found my mojo. Who knew it was vacationing in southern Spain?”
“That’s great, Josh. I’m glad for you. You deserve it.”
I enrolled in a couple of classes at the local small college just for fun. There are over one billion Chinese, so I decided I needed to understand that culture a little better. The second class was even more frivolous, being all about classic rock. Most of the people in the class were in my age range, but there were a few kids in there, too, who were probably forced to listen to their parents’ music as they were growing up and got hooked.
A month later I decided I needed to skydive.
I’m not sure why that got into my brain, because I’m scared shitless of heights. I just felt that I needed to do something to combat this fear… and jumping out of a plane from 2,000 feet seemed… completely fucking ridiculous.
Maybe that’s the drawback of living alone. There’s nobody else around to tell you that a stupid fucking idea is exactly that… a stupid fucking idea. Think about it: why would anyone volunteer to jump out of a perfectly good airplane? So I actually signed up for the class needed to start jumping.
I thought the class was good, but everything changed when we donned suits, broke into groups of three and my group headed out to the converted four-seater plane out of which we were going to jump.