KK’s story Just Being Neighborly inspired me to write my version of the next day.
*****
Some things you never want to see.
I just stood there staring through the window.
I watched my wife suck Mike.
I watched Mike fuck my wife.
Oh I fucked Mike’s wife that night too – twice.
I was awoken in the morning by Sandy, Mike's wife, giving me a blow job - she was good at it, she was really good at it. Naturally, I went down on her. She hadn't cleaned herself from the night before - I guess it didn't matter. I fucked her, no...she actually fucked me. She came a couple of times - I couldn't seem to come inside her so finally she just jerked me off.
"I guess you're not too pleased with how this turned out." Sandy actually sounded as if she really cared. I just stared at her. ‘This’ was not what I had in mind when I arranged to have sex with Sandy – my first go at infidelity. That last thing I expected to see was my wife experiencing her first (was it? I wasn’t sure about anything right now) infidelity with Sandy’s husband.
"Rich, talk to her. Obviously you were both looking for something like this. Talk it through, okay?" I continued to stare at her and just shook my head.
"If you had told me this was the price, I wouldn't have paid it. This wasn’t worth it." She flinched as if I'd hit her.
She picked up the phone and was soon talking to Mike. She asked him to come home as soon as possible. Then with her back turned to me she asked me to leave.
I took my time getting home. Jo was sitting at the dining table – it’s always been our "we need to talk" spot. I hardly glanced her way as I walked right by her and trudged up the stairs. Our bed was still unmade - the images from last night flashed before my mind's eye - Jo and Mike fucking. I guessed that they had fucked some more this morning – after all I did. I don't remember how long I just stood and staring at the rumpled sheets.
Took my time showering and shaving. When I finally came out of the bathroom the bed had been stripped of the dirty sheets. Yeah that was the word that popped into my mind - dirty. This whole thing between Sandy and me had become a dirty soiled mess.
Jo was in the kitchen when I came down stairs. Fresh coffee was poured and...ah man, where do you start with something like this? She was clearly waiting for me to…to do something; to apologize, beg forgiveness, confess. I could see in the set of her eyes that she was spoiling for an argument. Since I rarely won any of our arguments I knew I needed a different angle into this. I needed some kind of leverage.
I grabbed some paper and pens and asked Jo to right down the timeline of events from when Mike and Sandy had moved in earlier this year to yesterday morning. Then on a separate piece of paper write down what happened from yesterday morning to right now. She looked at me kind of weird and started to object, but she started writing.
When we were both done I asked her to exchange timelines with me. She gasped when she saw mine. My mouth dropped when I saw hers. We noted each other’s reactions and noted the noting. We'd been played big time. I said as much and she agreed.
Jo spoke first. "She actually came on to you the first time we met them?"
I nodded. "She never let up. Kept saying this was something that had never happened to her before...God I was so stupid!"
"Yes you were. She's a very beautiful woman Rich. I just wish you’d come to me or something." I was surprised to hear the understanding in Jo's voice. Although looking at her timeline she clearly had reason to be understanding.
"What did Mike say to you here?" I pointed to where she had written that Mike asked for her help regarding Sandy's affair.
"He said that he thought that Sandy was having an affair with someone in the neighborhood and that he wanted to know if I knew anything. You know, did any of the neighbors have a history of fooling around? Wow, I just remembered this, he said that he knew that Sandy loved him and would never hurt him but hat she was hook on erotic/romance novels, especially the one's where the happy, loving housewife is swept off her feet into a torrid affair yet inevitably comes back to her husband..."
I looked Jo in the eyes. "We were set up. This is a just a big game to them. They were working us as a team. Look here, Mike tells you that the other man is me and asks your help in setting Sandy and me up. That was right after I had told Sandy that there was no way I'd ever do anything while both spouses were in town. All of a sudden you tell me your visiting your mother, still no problem. Then "bam" Mike has the opportunity to go out of town fishing...and Sandy just reels me in."
"Oh come on Rich. You had the hots for her and you know it. You wanted this. Don't tell me that nothing would have ever happened between you two..."
"I'm not saying that Jo. I'm simply saying that if we had been talking to each other then the way we are now...they played us against each other. They knew what they wanted. They knew what I wanted. They...they used you to get me for her. And they used me to get you for Mike."
We must have talked for hours going over the timeline of the conversations and machinations that Sandy and Mike went through. It was like some strange forensic analysis of the neighborhood fling gone wrong. I was purposefully going over the chronology of events again and again until Jo stopped me with a simple statement.
"When Mike said it was you, I just fell right into it didn't I? I was only too ready to catch you with your pants down. I wanted to hurt you...I'm sorry Rich. I should have come to you."
I took her in my arms and hugged her. I'd apologized about twenty times already but I apologized again. I hugged her and kissed her and told her how much I loved her and needed her. She didn't want to look at the last 24 hour timeline but I knew we had too, well I had to. Everything had to be on the table so that we could see what happened and try to understand it. We flipped them over.
