DC&H: Kathy's Fall

"No."

I could tell that Jack wasn't happy when he turned to walk away but then he turned and came back.

"I am going to send someone out to buy shaving cream and a razor. You can shave in the ladies' room".

"Is this really necessary? Can't you just tell Mr. Benson I couldn't do it?"

Jack looked into my eyes and I could see that he was not going to take no for an answer. "I want you to do this for me. Do you understand?"

I think I suddenly understood. Jack was exercising his control over me. I began to wonder if Mr. Benson had even asked for me to shave.

"Yes. I do understand." I said.

Fred asked me what Jack wanted and I said, "The National Pharmaceutical deal is closing tonight. I have to go to a meeting at ten o'clock with Jack and Mr. Bartlett. If the meeting goes well we will get the National contract signed tonight."

"So, you'll get your promotion then?" There was something strange in the way Fred asked this question. I wasn't sure but it sounded sarcastic.

"Yes, if everything works out."

"Then we can start trying to make a baby?" Fred said.

"Yes, we can start our family," I said just trying to end this conversation.

I sensed that Fred was suspicious about something but he didn't let on what, if anything her knew. I found myself hoping that he knew what was going on and he was going to put a stop to it. I figured that because he was still with me that in the end he would forgive me and believe me if I told him I was coerced into everything I did.

I needed Fred to be close to me so I slipped my arm through his and leaned close to him as we walked into the room.

We had only been in the room for less than a minute when Fred pointed to a guy standing at the bar and asked, "Who's that guy standing over there by the bar?"

"I don't know," I said but I knew who it was. It was Mr. Benson. I hoped that Fred didn't notice my reaction to his question.

"Why don't we go over to the bar and get a drink?" Fred suggested.

I was afraid that if I went over to the bar Mr. Benson would say something that would let Fred know that I had just lied to him so I said, "There are some of my department members over here that I would like to say hello to. Why don't you get us both a drink and I'll wait for you over here?"

I sat down with my team but watched Fred as he went over to the bar. He ordered drinks and then started talking to Mr. Benson. That worried me. I wondered if Mr. Benson would mention that he knows me and I worried about what they might be talking about.

Fred brought me my drink and said he was going to circulate. I didn't want him to leave my side but I couldn't stop him because I couldn't explain why I wanted him to stay with me.

When Fred left the table I was so depressed that I considered just leaving and facing the consequences of all of my actions later but I guess I was just too big of a coward to leave.

When I looked for Fred I spotted him talking to Mr. Benson again. Now I was getting scared.

A few minutes later the band began to play and Bert Carpenter asked me to dance. I turned him down and said I was waiting for my husband. A minute later Fred returned to the table and before he could sit I dragged him out to the dance floor.

The most comfortable I had felt all night was when I was in Fred's arms on the dance floor.

When that dance ended and we headed back to the table Greg Bartlett came over to me with a small bag in his hand. He pulled me aside and whispered, "I think you know what you are supposed to do with this."

I felt sick to my stomach as I went back to the table to speak to Fred.

"I have to go to the girl's room," I said.

Fred gave me a hard stare and said, "Don't do it."

"Don't do what?" I said as I tried to guess what he might be thinking.

He grabbed my arm and held it and looked into my eyes.

"You know what I am talking about. You know I am not stupid. I know what's going on here. Stop it now."

I felt my knees begin to shake and I thought I was going to pass out. How could he know? Did he know what I had in the bag? Did he know I was going to the ladies' room to shave my pubic hair on Jack's orders? Until I knew how much Fred knew I had to act as thought I wasn't doing anything wrong and that I had no idea what he was talking about.

"I don't know what you are talking about," I said. "I just have to go to the girl's room."

I pulled away from Fred and walked away as the tears began to run down my cheeks.

I sat in a stall in the ladies' room trying to get my heart to slow down while I wondered how much Fred knew. After all, he is an investigator and he is a very good one. If he caught wind of something that made him suspicious he would have dug around until he found the truth. With that in mind I realized that my marriage was in deep trouble no matter what I decided to do. In the end the only thing I could see to do was to continue with the plan. I would at least have my career to fall back on if I wasn't able to save the marriage.

I removed my panties and pulled my dress above my hips and spread the shaving cream all over my pussy. I shave it all off. Every hair. When I was done I washed myself off. Put my panties on and fixed my dress. I took a deep breath before I exited the ladies room and then opened the door and headed back to that table to face Fred.

As I walked back to the party from the ladies room I heard a familiar voice coming from the speaker systems that the band had set up. "Can I have everyone's attention please?"

As I entered the room I heard the same announcement. "Can I have your attention please?"

I got to the door and I looked for Fred at the table but he wasn't there. Then I knew whose voice I had heard over the speakers. It took me a moment to see where he was standing holding the microphone.

"Can I get everyone's attention?" Fred said.

The room got quiet and I stood, frozen in place and waited to hear what Fred was going to say.

"Thank you. I just want to take a few minutes to talk to all of you on this special occasion. First, I wanted to say what a great party this is. Let's give a round of applause to the people that put this party on for us."

The guests started to applaud and I started walking toward Fred.

"I have had a few drinks and I am feeling pretty good right now so I hope the words come out right. The reason I wanted to talk to you is that I want to share some things that are going on with me and my wonderful wife Kathy."

Fred looked at me and smiled but his smile wasn't sincere. Then he looked away from me across the room toward Jack, Mr. Bartlett and Mr. Benson. Fred definitely knew something but how much I had no idea. Part of me hoped that he would say something that would bring this whole nightmare to an end and part of me hoped that Fred was just drunk and thought he needed to thank the company for throwing this party. Unfortunately, I knew Fred was not that drunk. He had never been that drunk.

"First, I want to share some good news with all of you. Kathy and I are going to have a baby," he said.

Why would he say that? It wasn't true, at least not yet. Did he know about Jack wanting me to have his baby and was he trying to piss Jack off?

Many of the guests began to applaud and several of my friends were shouting good wishes to me. I put my hands over my face to hide my humiliation.

"There is more good news too. Kathy told me that she is getting a promotion tonight because of her work on the National Pharmaceutical deal. I understand that Kathy, Mr. Bartlett, Mr. Hanson and Mr. Benson are meeting upstairs tonight to sign the contract. Isn't that great?"

Oh, shit. That did it. That statement might very well cost me my job.

"Oh God, please stop," I cried. I was now just a short distance from Fred but my legs were too weak to carry me any farther. I sank down to the floor and just lay there.

"This evening started off so strangely that I thought I would share it with you. When I got home from work tonight I found my loving wife in the bathroom getting ready to shave and I don't mean her legs or arm pits."

Oh God, he was going to tell everything. I wished that I could disappear.

"We had a little argument about it. She told me it was supposed to be a surprise for me and I told her not to do it. I won that argument or at least I thought I did. Now I realize that she wasn't shaving for me, she was doing it on orders from Jack. Kathy was just in the little girl's room and I believe she shaved herself while she was in there. Now all of you are probably wondering why Jack Hanson would tell Kathy she had to shave her pussy..." Fred said.

The room was completely silent now. I could almost hear my heart pounding in my chest.

"The reason Kathy shaved her pussy is because she was to be a gift to Mr. Benson tonight and Mr. Benson wanted her pussy to be hairless. It seems that your company management thinks it is good business to encourage its employees to have sex with potential customers to win contracts even if it destroys a marriage," Fred said.

Fred seemed to know more that I thought was possible for him to know about all this.

Fred went on for another minute but I was no longer listening to him. I had curled myself into a ball on the floor and was trying to see if there was a way to simply melt into the floor and disappear. Suddenly I noticed that the room was silent.

"Kathy," I heard someone say.

I looked up at Fred as he bent down to speak to me.

"Fred. I am so..." I tried to apologize.

Fred cut me off. "Kathy, don't say anything…' Then he said. "Do you think you'll get that promotion now?"

I laid my head back down on my arm and cried. I had just lost everything.

I don't know how long I was on the floor before Carol Studwell came over to see if I was all right. Carol works for me in accounting. I couldn't answer her questions so she helped me to my feet and took me out to get my coat.

"You can stay at my place until you figure out what you are going to do," Carol said.

I was in a daze so I just did whatever Carol told me to do. When we got to her apartment Carol poured me a stiff drink and gave me a cold washcloth to wipe my face.

In the condition I was in I should not have had anything to drink but I drank heavily that night and while I did I told Carol everything. I guess I felt I had to clear my conscience and Carol was the only person that I thought would listen to me. I knew I couldn't tell Fred the whole story even if he would ever speak to me again.

I was also pretty sure I would not be talking to Jack ever again. Carol made a good audience. She didn't ask a lot of questions and she listened as if every word I said was very important. She also made sure my glass stayed full of scotch.

I talked, I drank, I got drunk, I passed out and in the morning I was very sick.

Saturday morning Carol had to go out and run some errands so I stayed in bed and thought about what I was going to say to Fred if he ever gave me the chance to speak to him. I couldn't tell him the truth. That would make me look too bad. I had to find a way to make all of this seem like it was someone else's fault. By the time I got up to take a shower I thought that I had worked the whole story out and I was ready to face Fred if he would let me.

It was after two o'clock that afternoon before I had gotten up the nerve to call the house. The answering machine picked up on the fifth ring and I left a message for Fred to call me and I gave Carol's phone number. I just hoped that Fred would call.

Later in the afternoon as Carol and I were talking the phone rang and Carol answered it.

"Who should I say is calling?" Carol said.

Carol held out the phone to me and said, "It's Fred."

"Where have you been?" I asked. "I have been calling all day."

"Not all day," he said. "I was home until one o'clock this afternoon."

"Oh. I guess that's about when I started calling you."

Fred didn't say anything for a while so I said, "Fred, can I come home?"

"This is where you live, isn't it?" he said. "You should be here now."

That sounded promising. He wants me to come home. Maybe all wasn't lost.

"I'll be home in an hour," I said.

I got to the house a little after six o'clock and Fred had dinner ready. I took this as a very good sign. He had made spaghetti and meatballs and a salad. He had also opened a bottle of Chianti. I felt my spirits lifting as I looked at Fred pouring the wine.

Fred asked where I stayed overnight.

"One of my friends took me home after you left?"

"Oh, you didn't stay for the rest of the party," he said sarcastically.

"You pretty much ended the party with your speech," I said.

"I guess I owe some people apologies for that. Not you and certainly not Bartlett or Hanson."

"I guess you're right. I owe you the apology," I said.

I was ready to tell my story, the one I invented at Carol's house that morning, but Fred stopped me. He said we would talk about it after dinner.

After dinner I started to put the dishes into the dishwasher but Fred stopped me.

"You can clean the kitchen later, we need to talk now," he said.

We went and sat in the family room.

"Do you want to just tell me everything or should I just start asking questions? Either way I expect only the truth," he said.

"I'll tell you everything," I said. "I am sure you know when it started. It was the day after your Christmas party. Jack called me and told me that this huge deal that they were working on with National Pharmaceutical was in trouble. Jack told me Mr. Benson had told them that he would only sign a contract if I would agree to have sex with him. I couldn't believe that he would ask me to do something like that and I was pissed but he told me that this deal was very important to the company and if I would go along and do as they asked I would be rewarded handsomely. He was talking about a lot of money and a promotion. I didn't want to do it but Jack kept putting pressure on me and telling me that a lot of people were depending on me.

"I told them I would have to think about it. They had me so confused and stressed over this that I couldn't think straight. When you came home and I looked at you I knew that I could not do that to you. Jack and Mr. Bartlett kept after me all day Monday trying to get me to agree. Mr. Hanson said that if this deal fell through it would be my fault and they would have to let me go. They also said that if I told anyone about what was going on I would get fired. I tried to tell you as much as I could. I knew that if you knew the whole story you would do something crazy and I would lose my job.

"On Tuesday I told them I would not do it so they told me to think about it again. Then Mr. Hanson told me that the company was missing more than $100,000 and that if there were to be an audit it would look like I had been embezzling money from the company for the last few years. Jack said I would end up going to jail. He told me that if I did what he asked I would get the money he promised and the promotion but if I didn't cooperate there would be an audit and I would be charged with embezzlement.

"In the end I had to agree to do what he wanted. Jack and Mr. Bartlett talked with me every day to make sure I didn't back out on them. They kept telling me I was doing the right thing and tried to convince me that you would understand if you knew how important this deal was."

"You can't believe that I would ever have thought what you were doing was all right," Fred said. "You should have told me everything. I would have found a way out for you."

"I know that now. Once I decided to go through with it I felt a little better but I felt so guilty about what I was doing to you. You have to understand that I was terrified of going to jail. I had to risk it. On Friday Jack called me into his office and told me that Mr. Benson told him that he wanted me to shave all my pubic hair off. I told him I couldn't do that because you would be angry but he said it would be a deal breaker. If I didn't shave it off Mr. Benson would walk away from the deal. Jack told me to shave it off before the party and not let you see it till later and then I was to tell you it was meant to be a surprise. He said that if you got mad all I had to do is say that I was sorry and that I would let it grow back. The problem was that you came home earlier than expected and caught me getting ready to shave it off."

"So was I right?" Fred asked. "Did you shave your pussy in the lady's room at the party?"

I said, "Yes… Mr. Bartlett sent someone to the store to pick up a razor and some shave cream and I went into the ladies' room and shaved myself. When I came back to the party I saw you with the microphone trying to get everyone's attention. I was so scared. I had no idea what you were up to and I had no idea if there was any way I could stop you. I couldn't believe you said that I was pregnant."

"I didn't say you were pregnant," he said. "I said we were going to have a baby. You weren't pregnant yet but that was our plan, wasn't it?"

"Well, yes, but..."

"But what? Are we or aren't we going to start a family?" he asked.

"Yes. We are. I will get off my birth control pills tomorrow and then we can start."

"One more question. Did you tell Benson that he would have to use a condom?"

"Jack told me he was going to make him use a condom," I said. "I am glad he did because it hadn't occurred to me. I was so stressed by the whole situation that I wasn't thinking straight. Anyway, you made your little speech and basically ended my career at DC&H and probably killed the deal with National Pharmaceutical."

Fred said, "So, essentially what you are telling me is that Bartlett and Hanson coerced and black mailed you into agreeing to have sex with Benson to close a business deal. They further insisted that you had to fulfill Benson's demand that you shave your pussy but I screwed things up by catching you when you were trying to shave. But even after I told you not to do it, you shaved yourself anyway. In the end, the only reason that you didn't end up fucking Benson is because I fucked everything up with my little speech. Does that about sum it up?"

"Yes, but I don't blame you for what you did. I understand why you did it," I said.

"Oh, good, then you forgive me for trying to keep my wife from fucking another man," Fred said sarcastically.

"That's not what I meant. I know you had every right to react the way you did and I have no right to be upset with you. I am upset with myself. I should have told you everything from the start. Do you think you will ever be able to forgive me?" I asked.

"That depends," Fred said. "Is that everything? Have you told me everything I need to know about what has been going on?"

"Yes. I have told you everything. I love you and I can't bear to think that I could lose you because of this mess I got myself into," I said.

"Well, things don't look as bad as they did at first," Fred said. "I just have a couple of questions I need answered and then we might be able to put this behind us."

"Okay. What questions?" I was beginning to feel hopeful that I might be able to save my marriage and that was all that I cared about at that time. As far as Fred knew I hadn't cheated on him. I was going to, but only under duress. He didn't know about my affair with Jack. Everything was looking up.

"I found this in the trash the other day and it's full." Fred said and tossed my birth control pills on the coffee table. "You threw away all of your birth control pills last week but you not only didn't tell me about that you tried to make me believe you were still taking them. Just five minutes ago you said you would stop taking them tomorrow. Can you explain that to me?"

I was stunned, what could I say to get out of this mess?