Colleen Takes a Lover

"It'll just be a couple minutes, Mrs. Lynch. He needs to secure some documents."

Colleen nodded her understanding. While she waited she looked around the office. She saw a couple familiar faces and a couple of new faces. She noticed that Eileen's desk was empty. Eileen was David's longtime personal assistant, and Colleen assumed she was in the office with David.

After a couple of minutes, David's door opened and a beautiful woman came walking out. She was shorter than Colleen, maybe 5'2" or 5'3", with long, dark brown hair and a chest that threatened to burst open the buttons on her blouse. She was probably in her late twenties or early thirties. Colleen hated her immediately.

"Mrs. Lynch, it's so nice to finally meet you. My name is Alana. Come on back."

Colleen followed her as if she didn't know where she was going, assuming this was the protocol now. It didn't occur to her that she had made this walk with Eileen many times, though it had been awhile, but Eileen was older and had been married forever and they would chat amiably as they walked. This was different. Finally, they arrived at David's office. Alana lingered in the doorway as Colleen walked all the way in.

"Thank you, Alana. Go ahead and take lunch now. We'll pick this up again at 2:00."

"Yes sir," Alan responded crisply, then left the office while shutting the door behind her.

"How on earth does she manage to avoid tipping over with those things?"

"I assume you didn't come here just to say catty things about my assistant."

"Your assistant? What happened to Eileen?"

"She got promoted."

"She was the personal assistant to the owner and CEO. Where could she have gotten promoted to?"

"Executive assistant to the owner and CEO. The job was starting to get a little big for her, actually. She just turned 60 and needed to slow down a bit. So I created a new position that would give her less responsibility and end her travel."

"So...that other girl will be traveling with you."

"Yes, and I find your obvious jealousy amusing and ironic, all things considered. Why are you here, Colleen?"

"To take my husband to lunch."

"I see. And on a Wednesday, I notice."

"Yes, though I'm not sure what that has to do with anything."

"You haven't shown up here during the week in probably a year. Why now?"

"Because I miss my husband, David. Because I want to spend time with him, with you. I love you, whether you believe that or not, and I wanted to see you."

"All right, Colleen. They just opened a new Vietnamese place down the street that's quite good. Let's go to lunch."

They walked in mostly silence, with only a few random comments on things they saw as they were walking. Colleen had her hands wrapped around David's arm and he didn't seem to mind. They were seated quickly and the hostess greeted David by name. Colleen assumed he was a frequent visitor.

They talked about nothing in particular. David suggested a couple of dishes that he thought she would like and then they ordered lunch. Colleen reached across the table and took David's hand. She took it as a small victory that he didn't even flinch.

"Do you believe that I love you, David?"

"Not especially, but I think you believe it. My kind of love wonders how you could do what you did and still love me, but apparently your kind of love allows for that. I'll give you credit for at least picking a halfway decent guy."

"What do you mean? What could you possibly know about Ryan?

"I know quite a lot. I made it a point to know."

"You had him investigated?"

"Of course I did. That's how I know so much about him and how I know you go to his condo every Tuesday and Thursday like clockwork. And why I noticed you came to see me on a Wednesday so you don't miss your time with him. But like I said, at least he's not a con man or a gold digger. You may choose to be naïve about this but I won't. I have a very valuable company and we earn a lot of money. You may have just wanted a strange dick but..."

"Can you keep your voice down, please?"

"Sorry, didn't mean to air your dirty laundry. Anyway, I had to consider that his intentions may have been less than...well, honorable doesn't seem like the right word, since he's fucking a married woman. But my point is that he seems to be in it just for the sex and has no plans to blackmail you or me."

"Of course not. He would never do something like that."

"Famous last words, Colleen. But in this case you happen to be right."

"David, let's change the subject. I came here to spend time with you and talk about us."

"What 'us', Colleen? We're more roommates and friends than husband and wife. We haven't made love in nearly a year..."

"Your choice," Colleen interjected, and to which David responded with a smirk.

"Yes, my choice. It has nothing to with your choice to cheat on me."

"David..."

"So, no sex and what time we do spend together is just watching TV or being in the same room together."

"That's why I'm here today. I'm not happy with where things are and I'd like to change them. Now before you ask, I have no intention of giving up my time with Ryan, but I want to try and make the time you and I spend together the most it can be."

"That's what you don't seem to understand, Colleen. As long as you're seeing Ryan, it IS the most that it can be."

"I don't accept that, David. There's no reason our marriage can't be exactly the same as it was. My time with Ryan doesn't intrude on my time with you. I don't love him so my feelings aren't being shared with anyone. All it would take would be for you to think of my time with Ryan as no different from my time with my friends. It's just me having another interest."

"But it is different. I don't object to your time with your friends because no one should have their life revolve around a single person. But I won't carry on our marriage as if nothing is happening while you screw another man!"

By the end of his rant, David's volume had risen steadily and Colleen's efforts to get him to be quiet were fruitless. When he was done speaking, he pulled out his wallet, dropped a $50-dollar bill on the table and stormed out the door. Colleen quickly grabbed her things, whispered some apologies to those around her without noticing the looks of distaste they were giving her, and quickly left the restaurant herself.

She looked in the direction of David's office and saw him walking some distance away and with a full head of steam. She knew she would never catch him so she just took her time and walked back to her car. She struggled to keep herself together long enough to get into her car, but as soon as the door was closed, she broke down crying.

She simply couldn't understand this. There was no reason at all for her relationship with Ryan to have any effect whatsoever on her marriage. Joan and the other ladies all had lovers and were still happily married. Why on earth was she having such difficulty? She wondered if she should talk with her friends about it, but ultimately decided to put that idea off, at least for now. She wouldn't want them to think she had botched something they had managed so seamlessly.

She went home and took her now-customary afternoon shower. She didn't want David to think she had sought solace with Ryan after their fight so she needed to stick with her established pattern. She had hoped to continue the conversation more civilly after her husband had calmed down, so she took some time to make herself presentable. The reality was that this situation would have to be dealt with. They couldn't just keep on the way they had been.

David came home late, at nearly 9:00pm. He'd had the courtesy of letting Colleen know he would be late tonight so she fixed herself something for dinner and did some light cleaning around the house. That was mostly to keep herself busy while she waited for her husband to arrive.

"David, can we talk, please?"

"I don't know what else there is to say, Colleen. You've started and maintained an extra-marital affair despite my objections, continuing for nearly a year. You seem to think the problem is my objection to it, rather than that you're doing it. We're not going to agree so what's the point in having another conversation."

"Yes, okay, I understand all of that. But I still think that you and I could be more than we are. We've been together for 25 years. Surely we can be more than what we've become."

"We've become what we are because of your affair, Colleen."

"That makes no sense, David. Joan, Ellen, Gail, and Marge all have happy, loving marriages with lovers on the side to spend time with when their husbands aren't available. I fail to see why we can't accomplish the same thing."

David laughed silently, then gestured for his wife to take a seat.

"You know, I spoke to their husbands when all of this started. Well, except Wendell. His flings are common knowledge and everyone knows he was cheating on Joan long before she would have done the same. But I did speak with the others."

"What about?"

"At first, I was willing to see if you would get this out of your system. I let you go on your dates and even meet with Ryan for your afternoon fuckfests a couple times, but after the second time you told me in no uncertain terms that you intended to continue seeing him for the foreseeable future. At that point I decided to seek some advice from the happy husbands to see how they dealt with it. If they were, somehow, able to accept what their wives were doing, perhaps they could give me a few pointers."

"Oh David, how sweet of you. Did they have any advice?"

"They did, and I've put many of them into effect."

This confused Colleen, as she hadn't noticed anything that David had done to keep their marriage stronger.

"Such as?"

"Did you know that of those four couples that you're trying so hard to emulate, only Rick and Gail continued having sex together once the wife took her lover?"

"What?"

"You see, Joan actually started it by taking a lover in response to Wendell doing the same. When Wendell found out he stopped being with her at all, not that it affected him much."

"I don't believe it. Joan is always saying how happy they are."

"She's saving face, Colleen. They spend hardly any time together. It's usually only for public functions where it's necessary to appear as the happy couple. From what I was told, they have separate bedrooms and barely speak. They use texts and emails to communicate."

"That...that can't be right."

"Marge was the next one that got sucked in. She and Norm apparently didn't have much of a marriage as it was. Nothing bad, but they just were indifferent. When Marge heard about Joan having a lover, she decided to do the same thing. Their marriage didn't improve, but they are still married and I guess Marge is happier."

"But Marge has always gushed about their marriage."

"Probably the same thing as Joan. She wanted everyone to think everything was great. There are few things as important to older, wealthy women than image, Colleen."

"But they're my friends. They'd be honest with me."

David just smiled at this.

"Gail was next, and Rick says he honestly tried to put it out of his mind and continue on as things were. But he says after a couple of months she was clearly bored being with him. Plain old married couple sex wasn't exciting enough for her anymore, now that she had exciting, afternoon, cheating sex with a new and younger man. They haven't done it since."

"I'm having trouble believing this. I just can't believe that my friends would lie to me about their marriages like this. I'm sure the husbands are just trying to make the wives look bad. And I doubt that the husbands are going without sex. I mean, except for Wendell."

"Oh, they're not going without. They have a simple solution for handling those needs."

"Oh, and just what is that?"

"They hired personal assistants."

The reality of that statement took a moment for Colleen to process, and when she finally realized what it meant...

"YOU'RE FUCKING THAT BIG-BOOBED BITCH?!"

David was unfazed by Colleen's outburst, and in fact had been expecting it.

"I hired Alana shortly after you gave me that speech. I was telling the truth about Eileen needing some help and creating another position. And actually I hired Alana based on her business qualifications. She has a business degree and came highly recommended."

"For her work on her back, no doubt."

"For the first couple of months everything was very professional between us," remarked David, ignoring his wife's jab. "Her job necessitates that we spend a lot of time together and we got to know each other very well. After a couple of months, I opened up to her about what you were doing. It was such a relief to unburden myself. I felt like a weight had been lifted."

"That must have been about the time I noticed your mood improve. And to think I thought you were coming around."

"After that, no topic was off limits. We shared just about everything there was to share about ourselves. We've become very close."

"When did you start fucking her?"

"Just a couple of months ago, actually. Unlike you, I'm not a 'jump in bed with some guy I met in a coffee shop' kind of person."

Colleen winced noticeably at the insult. David continued.

"Things had been building for some time. We'd developed an easygoing nature with each other, with lots of flirting and even a little bit of innuendo. I was pretty confident she was attracted to me by the way she acted: light touches with her hands, standing shoulder to shoulder, things like that. And I was certainly attracted to her. One night we stayed late to finish a project. I wasn't feeling much like going home and she lives alone so had nowhere in particular to be. I pulled out a couple of beers and we drank and talked. We were right next to each other on that leather couch in my office."

"Jesus, David. You've fucked me on that couch."

David just smiled.

"She pulled off her heels and I started rubbing her feet. I moved up her legs a little bit and soon her eyes were closed. Her skirt started riding up, which I thought was an accident but was actually on purpose. The next thing I knew her legs were open and my fingers were inside her..."

"Okay, I think I've heard enough!"

"Sorry. So, anyway, that was the start. I figured if you could do it, so could I."

"But I always do it when you're busy. You purposely stayed late to do it."

"Like I said, Colleen, we're basically roommates at this point. You made a choice, and I made mine."

"It's not the same thing, David. My time with Ryan didn't intrude on my time with you. You can't say the same thing."

"True, but the circumstances were different. You went outside the marriage first. All I did was respond. The truth is that you were trying to be considerate since you were the first one doing it, and despite my objection to what you did I do appreciate that. But frankly, I didn't think I owed you much consideration."

Colleen was hurting. She couldn't get the image of her husband and...that woman...having sex out of her mind. For the first time she realized how her relationship with Ryan, even with all of the boundaries she had placed on it, could affect David. She had assumed it would be 'out of sight, out of mind' but it was most definitely not out of mind. After a few minutes, David spoke again.

"There's something else I need to tell you, Colleen."

"What's that?" she managed to whisper.

"Alana's pregnant. About two months."

Colleen's eyes went wide and she took a sharp intake of breath. As if this wasn't bad enough, it had now gotten even worse.

"It's...it's yours."

"She assures me it is. I'll be making sure, of course."

"How did this happen?"

David took a deep breath.

"It was intentional."

Colleen's mind was reeling from yet another blow. She wasn't sure how much more of this she could take, but she had to know everything. Now was the time to get it all out in the open no matter how much it hurt.

"You...you...you knocked her up...on purpose? But why?"

"I have a very valuable company, Colleen, that we are the sole owners of. And presently I have no one to leave it to. I had expected to simply sell the company when the time came but I've come to dislike that idea. My employees are like family and I didn't want to leave their fates in the hands of a stranger, or worse, some conglomerate. Now, depending on the timing, I plan to leave it to Alana or to our baby."

"Are you divorcing me, David?"

"I'm not planning on it, at least not yet. I had planned to keep things as they are. Alana wants to marry me, and even paid to have a pre-nup written up that is heavily in my favor, but she's also okay with things staying as they are as long as we get to spend time together. So, the status quo it is. You can keep seeing Ryan and I'll have Alana."

This was too much. Maybe she was naïve, but Colleen never expected things to turn out this way. She stood up and picked up her purse and her keys.

"David, I'm going to need some time to process all of this. I'm going to take a drive and I may be very late. I'll keep in touch by text so you won't worry."

Colleen left the house and drove aimlessly throughout the city. How had things gone this far? Her husband had a lover of his own? And she was so young and beautiful, with a dark complexion and long, wavy dark brown hair. She assumed Alana was Hispanic but was unsure beyond that.

She sent periodic texts to David letting him know that she was still driving, and his response was always the same: 'please be safe'. She took some satisfaction that he still cared about her well-being. She finally arrived home at around 2:00am and walked wearily into the house. She found David asleep but her bedside lamp considerately left on so she could see. She went into her closet and changed for bed, finding David awake and sitting up when she emerged.

"Are you all right, Colleen?"

"Yes, David, I'm fine but I am tired. Let's get some sleep and we'll talk again tomorrow."

She climbed into bed and, for the first time in months, David allowed her to cuddle up against him and wrapped his arms around her. There was nothing sexual about it; it was a kind gesture of concern and comfort, and that was more than enough for her right now.

They never got around to talking the next day, mostly because there wasn't much else to say. David went in to work and Colleen met with her friends. She thought about canceling her afternoon with Ryan but didn't, and in the end was glad she had gone through with it. He realized immediately that something was wrong, and rather than an afternoon of mad, hard, intense fucking, they spent some time talking and, when they did have sex, it was gentle and slow.

The next few weeks passed quickly. With Colleen now aware of his relationship with Alana, David was staying late at the office more often. While she understood, this still hurt Colleen's feelings and she found herself not feeling particularly well, spending several evenings entirely in bed. She'd never had a sensitive stomach before so took this as a sign that the status of her marriage was affecting her deeply. She finally decided to see a doctor.

<><><><><>

Colleen Conyers Lynch stepped off the elevator on the 7^th floor of her husband's office building and headed immediately toward his office. Teri, the receptionist, went to stop her, knowing that her boss and Alana were in there alone and, potentially, in a compromising position.

"Mrs. Lynch, wait."

Colleen turned toward Teri, whom she had always been fond of, and gave her a gentle smile.

"It's all right, Teri. I already know about them. But thank you so much for your kindness and concern."

Teri could just stand and watch as Colleen continued her walk down the hallway that led to her husband's office. She entered without knocking, finding Alana astride her husband's lap as he sat in his chair, the top of her dress around her waist, her rather substantial bra on David's desk, and her large breasts in David's hands as they kissed gently. The sound of the door drew their attention and both of their hands turned in unison. Alana quickly leapt off his lap, grabbed her bra, and ran into David's private restroom.