My name is Bill Miller and, at the time of these events, my wife, Lori, and I had been married for just over 20 years. We met in college and married shortly after we graduated. Our daughters, Kelly and Erin, were only a year apart. Kelly was a freshman in college and Erin was now a senior in high school. About six weeks ago, we took Kelly to college, the large state university, which was about two hours away. She was in the freshman dorm sharing a room with a good friend of hers.
Erin wasn’t sure where she would be going to school in a year, but there was a decent chance they’d wind up together at the same school. The girls fought like most siblings, but they had each other’s’ backs and were quite close. Having Kelly leave left an emotional hole in our lives, but we were happy for her and the new adventures before her.
I work as a partner in a large accounting firm, and Lori works as a supervisor for a local building supply contractor. She went back to work when the girls were both in school and made her way up the company ladder even though her college major was English. I made more money than Lori, but we were quite comfortable and could afford a nice house, newer cars, and the other nicer things in life, and Lori seemed to love her job.
I headed home on Friday afternoon, knocking off work at least an hour early. I remembered that Erin was attending a school camp for the weekend and wouldn’t be home until Sunday night. I smiled as I thought of some romantic “reconnection” time with my wife, maybe a romantic dinner at our favorite Italian bistro followed by some over-due love making. We’d both been a little off-kilter since dropping Kelly off at school, so maybe a weekend alone without kids would help reignite our relationship.
I saw Lori’s car in the garage as I parked mine. She must have decided to leave work a little early too, maybe she was on the same page as me and wanted to spend some quality time together. I’d suggest we go out to dinner at the Italian bistro to start our weekend off on the right foot. I didn’t see her in the kitchen, so I made my way to our bedroom to change my close and see if Lori was back there, maybe she had just arrived home. Walking towards our bedroom, I announced, “Honey, I’m home, are you in the bedroom?”
“Yes, Bill, I’m in here.”
Entering the bedroom, I saw Lori sitting on the seat on her expansive side of the bathroom, carefully applying makeup to her face and eyes. She was wearing her LBD and her string of pearls that I had given her last Christmas. Her dressy shoes were on the floor beside her. I also noticed that her overnight bag was opened on the bench and she had been in the process of packing, some lingerie and more casual clothes having already been packed.
“Oh, crap, Lori. I didn’t remember that we were going out for the weekend, I guess I had a ‘senior moment.’ Where are we going? I can get ready really quickly.”
“Bill, I’m sorry but I didn’t tell you. I have a date for the weekend. I didn’t expect you for at least an hour. I didn’t really want to have this discussion with you until right before I left. I know you’ll be angry and fight, and I really don’t want to fight with you.”
“What? You’re going on a date with another man? Are you crazy? I don’t remember us agreeing that we have one of those ‘open marriages.’ Please tell me that this is a joke and that you’ve really planned a weekend away for us together, right?”
She must have spent some time studying the ‘cheater’s handbook,’ as she tried to justify her planned tryst. “Sweetie, its only one weekend. I’ll be the same-old me when I come back on Sunday. Since Kelly left for school, I’ve really been in the dumps and I really need to have this weekend away. Just one weekend out of the hundreds of weekends that you’ve had me all to yourself. You’ll see, in the end this will be good for us and will help us have an even stronger marriage.”
“For how long have you been cheating on me, Lori? Who is the scumbag who would dare ask a married woman to spend a romantic weekend with him? Are you leaving me for him?”
“No, silly. I love you, and only you. His name isn’t important so I’m not going to tell you. I’ll have an Uber pick me up and drop me off, so you’ll never even see him. We’ve had lunch a few times, but I haven’t cheated on you with him, and I’m certainly not leaving you for him. I knew this would be upsetting to you, and I really didn’t want to upset you and I also didn’t want to cheat on you behind your back. I doubt that we’ll get together again after this weekend. This is just something I really need to do, Bill.”
“This man finds me attractive, tells me I’m beautiful and wants me, even though I’m almost ten years older than him. I’m not getting any younger, so I really need to do this to feel better about myself, younger, and alive again. Can’t you understand? I was hoping you’d grant me a ‘weekend pass’ from our marriage. I’ll be back on Sunday and do my best to make you the happiest husband you know.”
“Once I have this out of my system, I don’t plan on doing it again. Besides, the man I’ll be with is also married and he has young kids — he has no plans to leave his family, so you really don’t have to worry about me leaving you to be with him. Its only sex, Bill, and only for one weekend out of about a thousand that we’ve been together. I wish you’d be understanding and grant me a ‘weekend pass’ without being angry and holding a grudge. I’m sorry, but I’ve made up my mind, Bill, and I’m going to do this. If you don’t let your male ego get in the way, you’ll see that it really isn’t that big of a deal and doesn’t have to affect us or our marriage. Can’t you just grant me one weekend pass, Bill, please?”
I stood there staring at my wife in complete disbelief. Who body-snatched my wife and replaced her with this crazy person I found in my house? My mouth was opened, but my brain wasn’t yet forming words to address her insanity. Just then, from a corner recess of my mind, I remembered something that might just make this entire disaster turn out in my favor and I cracked a little smile.
“So, it sounds like you’re bound and determined to spend this weekend fucking some other man, damn the consequences, right?”
“You don’t have to be so crude, or melodramatic, Bill. There doesn’t have to be ‘consequences’ (she used air quotes) unless you want them. But to answer your question, yes, I have decided that I need this weekend away. Trust me, this weekend won’t hurt us one bit and I’ll be back on Sunday just the same as I am now.”
“Alright, it sounds like you’re determined. I suppose he probably told you this bullshit about fucking him for an entire weekend not having any ‘consequences’ (I gave her air quotes right back), but I’ll tell you now that he is wrong and he is only saying that to get you in his bed. I’ll give you until your Uber ride comes to change your mind, and then I’ll plan out my own weekend without you.”
“One last thing, if you leave, I promise not to follow you or do anything crazy, but you have promise to leave your phone on so that I can find you if necessary. You won’t tell me who this guy is, and I could care less, but I don’t want to find out from the police if he turns out to be a psychopath. Its just a matter of safety. Surely you can do that for my peace of mind?”
She thought for a few seconds, studying my face. “OK, I’ll leave my phone on so you can track me for your peace of mind, so long as you promise not to follow me or interfere in my weekend, deal?”
“Deal. But Lori, you can still change your mind, we can still fix this if we try. I friend of mine at work found a good therapist that really helped his marriage. Just call the guy and tell him you’ve changed your mind and I’ll call and get us a therapy session.”
“Bill, we don’t need a therapist, I just need one weekend for me. Why don’t you leave me be so I can finish getting ready? On my way home from work, I bought a gourmet meal for you that I put in the fridge, you just need to warm it up in the microwave. I told him that I’d meet him at 7:00, so I really need to get moving.” She turned towards the mirror and continued working on her face.
I thought of going to the den to make my phone call but thought, hell, if she can have her weekend away, I can turn the tables on her and I don’t really give a damn what she thinks. I pulled out my phone and scrolled through my contacts until I found and selected the right one. I could see Lori glance at me in the mirror as I put the phone to my ear and waited for an answer, knowing that Lori would only hear my side of the conversation.
“Hi Sarah, it’s me Bill.”
Oh, hi Bill, haven’t talked to you in ages, how are you doing?
It was sure nice hearing Sarah’s voice again.
Taking a breath, I mentally recalled my background with Sarah. While we both worked at the same accounting firm, we didn’t regularly talk or socialize. Ten years ago, shortly after she started at our firm, she was assigned as my administrative assistant. I was a senior associate accountant, having not yet made partner. She was an awesome assistant and was instrumental in my being made partner a few years later. She and her husband Jon were about five years younger than Lori and I. He was a young executive and they had one young child, choosing to start a family later in life after Jon was somewhat established. Then about five years ago, tragedy struck.
Jon was coming home after being in meetings all day concerning a merger that his company was planning. A large commercial truck blew through a red light and smashed Jon’s car, killing him almost instantly. Over the next few months, I was there for Sarah and her child Jacob. They were both understandably devastated. I helped her find a great attorney that sued the trucker’s company and discovered that the trucker had been drinking. Sarah ultimately received a multi-million-dollar settlement from the trucker’s company due to gross negligence.
While supporting Sarah, we discovered a strong mutual attraction that we hadn’t noticed while working together. You could say that we had found our ‘soul mate’ in one another, as neither of us had experienced such strong feelings before for another person. After discussing our feelings, both of us were sad that we would be unable to act on them since I was a happily married man and respected my vows. Sarah also had too much respect for my marriage to ever come between me and my wife.
We decided to end our relationship, both at work and away from work, before our feelings evolved into an emotional, and ultimately, a physical relationship that we would both regret. We walked away as friends and found that we could look at ourselves in the mirror since we acted with integrity and never crossed any lines of emotional or physical entanglements. Even though her settlement left her quite well off, Sarah decided to stay with the firm as an administrative assistant, but would support a different accountant on a different floor of our building to minimize how often we saw each other.
She enjoyed the people at the firm, the intellectual tasks, and the professional environment. Sarah also didn’t want too many major changes given the tragic death of her husband and having to take care of Jacob and his fragile mental state after his father’s death. When we parted, she smiled and told me to give her a call if my marital status ever changed. I promised her that I would, never dreaming that Lori would betray me for a weekend tryst.
“Not so great. My wife just informed me that we now have an ‘open marriage’ and that she is going to spend this weekend with another man, to hell with what I think about it.”
You’re kidding, right? I can’t believe she would do something like that to you. I thought you had such a solid marriage.
“I wish I was kidding, I thought we had a solid marriage, too. I’m currently standing in the room watching her get ready to go on her date. Maybe she’ll be a sport and confirm her weekend plans, I’ll hold the phone out so you can hear her.”
I faced the phone in her direction, “Lori, would you please confirm that you wish to spend the weekend having sex with another man, I’m not sure Sarah believes me,” I said that loud enough so Sarah would be able to hear me as well.
Lori knew that Sarah had been my admin years ago. Lori and I attended Jon’s funeral together and Lori made some casseroles and other things that we gave to Sarah to help support her in her time of need. Lori knew that I had been there for Sarah and Jacob shortly after Jon’s death and that I helped her find a great attorney to sue the trucker’s company. Lori also knew that Sarah and I hadn’t worked together in years and that Sarah now worked in a different area at the firm. I hadn’t mentioned Sarah in years since we had completely severed our personal and professional relationships before anything bad might have happened.
“I will do no such thing!” Lori angrily replied, “We don’t have an ‘open marriage,’ it’s just one weekend. Why do you have to go off and ruin everything? Maybe I won’t even come back on Sunday since you’re being so ridiculous!” She then picked up her own phone and I could see that she just requested her Uber ride. “I’m going outside to wait for my ride, maybe try not to be so childish when I return.” With that she zipped up her overnight bag and pulled it behind her as she marched through the bedroom towards the front door.
Returning the phone to my ear, “did you hear that?”
Yes, I did. I simply can’t believe she is doing this to you. Is she having an affair, do you know the man she is seeing?
“No, I don’t know the scumbag, she wouldn’t tell me his name. But she did say he was married with young children. She claims that she isn’t having an affair and that she is only seeing him this weekend, but I don’t think I can trust anything she says at the point.”
Oh my God, Bill, I can’t believe this is happening to you. Did you call me just to tell me what she was up to, or is there something I can do for you?
“Well, I just remembered when we parted I promised to contact you if my marital status ever changed, so I’m making due on my pledge. I simply can’t stay married to Lori after she pulled this stunt.”
Really? Wow, I’m flattered, Bill. Jacob is spending the weekend at Jon’s parents and I had a date lined up for tonight…
“Oh, Sarah, I’m so sorry, I was so caught up with my problems I didn’t even consider that an attractive woman like yourself would probably have plans for the weekend. In fact, I didn’t even know you were currently in a relationship. I’m happy for you Sara, I’ll let you go.”
No, no, no, Bill. You’ve got it all wrong. I was in a relationship for about a year, but that ended several months ago. He wanted to get married, but I broke it off because I didn’t feel a spark and didn’t want to get tied down in a relationship just so I wouldn’t be alone. Tonight’s date is a first date that was set up by my sister. I’ll tell him that a close friend got some very bad news and I have to cancel our date to help out. Its kind of the truth, I just won’t tell him that the friend is a man that I used to dream about when I went to sleep at night.
“Wow, really? Now I’m flattered. You’d really break your date to spend time with me?”
Absolutely, in a heartbeat. Jacob and I used some of the settlement money and bought a different house a couple of years ago. The schools are a lot better here. I’ll text you my new address when we hang up. If you still live in the same place, I’m only about 15 minutes away.
I confirmed that we hadn’t moved and that I’d pick her up in an hour. We went to the little Italian bistro where I had originally planned to take Lori. Our strong connection hadn’t diminished over the years, in fact it seemed to be even stronger. We spent that night, and most of the weekend, in her bed. Not only did we have an intense emotional connection, but found that our physical connection and compatibility was simply off the charts.
On Sunday morning. while lying in bed, we discussed Lori’s actions over the weekend and I confirmed that I could not remain married to her, regardless of whether Sarah and I had a future together.
Sarah smiled with a smile so bright I thought it would light up the room. “Well, mister, I certainly think we have one hell of a future together. I’d love to explore a relationship with you, and I’m sure Jacob would be thrilled to have you back in his life.” We had another round of love making to celebrate our unchartered life together, after which I left to return to my house to wait for Lori’s return.
—–o—–
While waiting for Lori, I called Kelly at school and let her know that I would be divorcing her mother and how she left me to spend the weekend with another man. She was understandably upset. I asked her not to call her mom or sister until I had a chance to talk to them in person later that day. I planned to talk to Erin when she returned from her school trip later that evening.
I was sitting in my chair in the living room when the Uber driver dropped Lori off around 2pm. She breezed into the room, pulling her overnight bag behind her. She had a huge smile on her face. At least she didn’t look like another man’s slut, but looks can be so deceiving.
“Hi sweetheart, I knew you’d be home waiting for me. See, nothing’s changed, I’m the same wife that left Friday night. I knew you loved me enough to let me have one little weekend away. You know, I’m going to make it up to you and you’ll be the happiest husband alive. I’ve been told that reclaiming your wife can be really fun. If you want, I can go put something sexy on you can have your way with me before Erin gets back tonight from her trip.”
I had my phone propped up on the table taking a video to record the conversation — she hadn’t noticed. I thought I might need the recorded conversation for my kids and other family members if she tried to lie and make me out to be the bad guy.
“Lori, I know how you hate condoms and I’ve had a vasectomy, so don’t lie to me and tell me that Richard used condoms when he had sex with you all weekend. You might be willing to trust him with your health, but I’m sure as hell not going to trust him with mine.”
She had the decency to look down at the floor, realizing that the conversation wasn’t going the way her douche bag boyfriend said it would go. Suddenly, her head shot up, “How do you know his name? You promised that you wouldn’t follow me or interfere with my weekend!”
“I didn’t follow you, I had my private detective follow you for me. I just had to provide him with your location. Thanks for leaving your phone on for me, by the way. He couldn’t start watching you until Saturday since you sprung your plans on me Friday evening. I had to pay him double-time given the last-minute nature of your tryst, but it was worth it, if only to get Richard’s wife’s reaction when she learned of her husband’s weekend activities. Did you know that Richard’s wife’s dad owns the business where you and Richard both work? Sounds like Richard’s career will come to a screeching halt Monday morning. Your work day will also be most interesting, but I’ve asked them not to fire you, at least for the time being.”
Lori sat down on the sofa opposite my chair and slumped down. “I can’t believe you would do this to me,” she complained.
“That makes two of us,” was my clever rejoinder.
“He said this weekend would give our marriage the spark that it needed,” she remarked with her head in her hands intensely looking at the floor.
“That’s what happens when you listen to your boyfriend instead of your husband. It turns out that the ‘spark’ that you and he created just blew up two marriages.”
“No, no, no, no,” she wailed. “I don’t want a divorce. I told you that this weekend was a one-off, not to be repeated. Richard and I are not having an affair! I’ve been down in the dumps since Kelly left for school, I thought this was what I needed to feel better about myself and be a better wife for you. I did it for us! Can’t we do something? Can we try marriage counseling? You said a friend of yours found a good therapist,” she said with her head coming up and looking at me somewhat optimistically. I almost felt bad for what I was about to do to her.
“When I was young, my dad taught me that if you take an action against someone, you often have no control as to the person’s reaction. I begged you not to go away for the weekend, but you called me ‘childish’ and left anyway. I’ve never felt so betrayed and disrespected in all of my life. If you would have called it off, when I begged you to, we could have gone to counseling and maybe repaired our marriage and figured out why you thought you needed your weekend tryst.”
“Believe me, Lori, I’ve been down in the dumps some too, since Kelly left for college. But, unlike you, I didn’t plan to have a weekend tryst with another woman and spring it on you at the last second like you did to me. The second you hopped in that Uber to take you to the resort to be with Richard, our marriage was over. You just didn’t realize it.”
Lori started sobbing as she crumbled to the floor. She crawled to my chair and hugged me around my lower legs. “Please, please Bill, don’t leave me. I was stupid and I let Richard fill my head with lies. The sex with him was mediocre, at best. He isn’t even in your league. Please, we can work on our marriage and be better than ever, please don’t leave me!”
I picked my phone up off the table and turned off the recording. “Lori, I have a confession to make.”
She raised her face up from my shins and looked at me, “what did you do? Did you see Sarah after I left? Its OK Bill,” she excitedly said, “we both took a weekend off from our marriage, that makes us even, right?”
“Yes, I did spend the weekend with Sarah, but its more complicated than that.”
“What do you mean?”
I explained how Sarah and I had become close and felt a strong connection after Jon’s death even though we never crossed any lines or had an emotional or physical affair.
“I’ve hardly spoken to her over the past five years. We parted ways when we both realized we could be going down a dangerous path for my marriage. I was happily married and respected my marriage vows. Sarah also respected our marriage, she respected it far too much to ever do anything to come between us. But she did tell me to call her if my marital status ever changed, that’s why I called her. You essentially threw our marriage in the garbage and never listened to my pleas to stop with your insane weekend plans. In the end, it turns out that Sarah respected our marriage more than you did.”
“Oh my god, what have I done,” Lori wailed as she gripped my lower legs tight and pressed her face into my shins once again. “I can’t believe this is happening to me.”
“That makes two of us,” I replied.
“When Sarah and I got together this weekend, we found that our connection is even stronger now than it was when we parted and that we are truly soul mates.” I could feel Lori shuddering as she kept her face buried in my shins.
“Sarah and I never would have gotten together, maybe never even spoken again, if you hadn’t betrayed me this weekend. But you gave us the opportunity to be together, and now we never want to be apart again. I’ll be filing for divorce next week. Given the circumstances, I’ll be filing under ‘irreconcilable differences’ even though I could file under ‘adultery’. I promise to be fair in the settlement and not try to leave you destitute as I try to remember the good times we spent together.”
“I told Kelly that you spent the weekend with another man, and its only fair that we tell Erin the same thing. I’m happy to let them know that I’m now with Sarah, but I’ll tell them that I only reacted to your betrayal. If you don’t try to make me out to be the bad guy, then I assure you that the private detective’s report, and photographs, won’t see the light of day.”
I think Lori knew fighting for me to stay married to her was a lost cause. We talked with Erin later that night after she returned. Erin was upset and asked if we could try marriage counseling. Without going into details, she knew her mom had screwed up. She also knew that I had reconnected with Sarah and that we were starting a relationship. She quickly realized that marriage counseling wasn’t in the cards.
I stayed in the guest room for a few nights to make sure that Erin would be OK, then I moved into an extended stay hotel splitting my time between Sarah and Lori/Erin. Later that week, I presented Lori with the outline of a very fair settlement offer. Even though the settlement money from Jon’s death was in trust for Sarah and Jacob, I knew that I could leave Lori the house and a decent amount for alimony and child support without any financial impact.
To Lori’s credit, she never tried to make me out to be the bad guy or claim that I was the reason that we divorced. She’d try and tell people that we simply grew apart. Some knew that was bullshit, so as a last resort she’d tell them that she really screwed up and that my leaving was entirely justified.
—–o—–
Sarah and I married shortly after my divorce was final. The wedding was small, but beautiful and my bride was breathtaking. We only invited close family and friends. I was happy that both Kelly and Erin attended and appeared genuinely happy for us. I think they both realized that there was no way I could stay married to their mother after what she did and they just wanted me to be happy.
Sarah was in her mid-thirties but convinced me that my baby-making days weren’t over. I had my vasectomy reversed and we proceeded to have two wonderful, healthy babies. First, we had Jon, named in Jon’s memory, but we called him ‘Jack.’ Then, a year later, we had our little girl, Jacquelin, named after my mother. We called our little girl ‘Jackie.’ Jacob and I have developed a great father-son relationship. Looking back, he really needed a father in his life. I hope that Jon is up there somewhere looking down at Sarah and Jacob and that he is at peace knowing that they have found such happiness.
—–o—–
Today, it’s been almost ten years since that fateful weekend. Sarah and I are as happy as two people have a right to be as we attended Kelly’s wedding to her long-time boyfriend, Tom. Jackie was their flower girl and Jack did a great job as the ring-bearer. Jacob was in high school now and was a very handsome and athletic young man. He attended with his very pretty girlfriend.
I hadn’t seen Lori in over six years. She looks alright, but can’t hold a candle to Sarah. I think having two more kids made Sarah absolutely blossom. Lori had finally re-married to a man named Steven that she met at work. I met Steven at the rehearsal dinner and he seemed like a pretty good, all around nice guy. We had a private moment to chat and he mentioned that Lori told him what happened between us and blamed herself for our divorce, something I acknowledged with a quiet nod. I assured Steven that whatever silliness that had possessed Lori had been vanquished and that, for the most part, she was a wonderful wife and partner. He readily agreed.
I learned that Lori was on seriously thin-ice at work for a while, but they never fired her. She had some crappy assignments for a while, but eventually she showed her loyalty and hard-working nature, so she was eventually promoted to be an area manager, ironically the same job that Richard had before he was fired.
Sarah and I mingled with guests at the reception after the ceremony. We ate, danced, and had a great time. Kelly and Tom were jetting off to Hawaii in the morning for a honeymoon that Sarah and I had given them as a present, along with a sizable check to help them with the down-payment for a house that they wanted to buy.
Towards the end of the evening, I saw Lori approach Sarah and have a brief chat. Lori then came to me and asked me if we could have one dance together, she said that Sarah had said it was OK with her. I glanced at Sarah and she nodded her head. I took Lori in my arms and we danced to the slow music that was playing. It almost felt like old time. Neither of us said a word until the very end of the song when she stopped and looked up at me.
“Bill, I’m so sorry for what I did to us all those years ago. I’m glad I found Steven, but I never stopped loving you. Seeing you so happy with Sarah makes me feel happy for you, but also makes me hurt thinking about what might have been.”
“Lori, for what it’s worth, I forgive you and wish you and Steven nothing but happiness. I had a chance to talk with him earlier, and he really is a good guy. He and I have something in common… we both love you. You’re right, Sarah and I are incredibly happy and in a strange way we have you to thank for bringing us together. Please forgive yourself and love Steven and your family with everything you have.”
With that, I kissed Lori on top of her forehead, took her hand and walked her back to our table where Steven and Sarah were waiting for us, quietly watching the last dance between former lovers. I saw the beautiful smile on Sarah’s face and thanked God for bringing her back into my life, even though it was in a most unusual way.
The End
BCF