Flight Delay

After my shower I sat on the bed and started to think about Kate. I didn't want to think about Kate right then. Especially after just is having had sex with Joey. So, I headed down to the casino to play some black jack.

The rest of the day and evening was just a blur. I must have played black jack for more than two hours with little to show for the effort. Joey arrived in the casino shortly after seven o'clock wearing the same sexy black dress she had worn the night before. When she found me at one of the black jack tables, she came over and kissed me on the cheek, which seemed to get the attention of the other three men at the table.

As we walked away from the table I said, "Are you sure that you wouldn't like one of the guys back at the black jack table to spend the night with you tonight?"

"I was thinking about all three of them but I already promised tonight to you," Joey said.

The rest of the night was almost a repeat of the previous night. We had a great dinner and then had great sex after which I went back to my room to sleep.

Sunday morning we didn't get downstairs for breakfast until almost ten o'clock. Right after breakfast we started the drive back to LA.

The last thing Joey said to me as she dropped me off at the Marriott was, "Don't act any different toward me than you did before this trip. No secret smiles or winks. No comments with double meanings. Okay?"

"Nobody will know where we were or what we did this weekend, I promise," I said.

*****

Over the next two and a half weeks we finished most of the project. All of the other project managers that had been working on the LA project, other than Joey and myself, had gone home. Most to them lived outside of Southern California so I told them I would stay and finish up the last of the customer acceptance inspections and close out the project. Joey stayed and helped me finish up.

A few days before the last site was turned over to the customer, Jack Brown called me.

"Jim, you have done an excellent job out there. The customer is happy and the company is happy. You'll have a nice bonus waiting for you when you get home," he said. "And speaking of home, Brian Sanders has retired and we would like you to come back and take over his job as manager of the engineering department. It's what we talked about. This is a good opportunity for you and no more travel."

To be honest, I hadn't put much thought into what I was going to do after the LA job ended.

"That sounds like a great opportunity but I am not sure if it is what I want now," I said.

"Really? I would have thought that you would jump at this," Jack said.

"How soon do you need a decision?"

"I can give you some time. How much do you need?"

"I'd like to take a couple of weeks off when we turn over the last site."

"All right. Take two weeks vacation and let me know what you want to do when you get back," Jack said. "How are things between you and Kate?"

"I don't know. I haven't spoken to her since June."

"Why? Whatever is going on between you two will not resolve itself. Just go talk to her and figure out what you're going to do," Jack said.

"Thanks, Jack," I said. "I'll talk to you in a couple of weeks."

The day before I was to meet with the customer to turn over the last site I stopped to have a drink with Joey. She was getting ready to leave LA in the morning.

"So, you're heading down to San Diego in the morning?" I said.

"Yes. I thought about going home but there is nothing there for me anymore. I'll just stay on the road and live in hotel rooms. I've gotten kind of used to it by now," Joey said. "Have you decided what you're going to do yet?"

"I am thinking of heading down to San Diego with you," I said.

"What? You can't be serious."

"Why not?"

"If you think you are coming down to San Diego to be with me just forget it," Joey said. "We had our fun in Vegas and I will always remember that but I can't get any further involved with you."

"I am not asking you to get deeply involved with me. I was thinking more along the lines of being friends with benefits," I said.

"I told you I am not like that. Vegas was a one-time thing. I am hoping to open myself up a little while I'm in San Diego. Maybe I'll meet some one special down there. Besides, you are still in love with your wife."

"Where did you ever get that idea? Certainly not from me," I said.

"Have you asked her for a divorce yet?" Joey said.

"No."

"Why not?"

"I don't know. I guess I just haven't gotten around to it yet."

"You haven't gotten around to it yet because you don't want to get a divorce. You're just waiting for some one else to solve your problem for you. Well, I can't and won't do that for you. Go home, Jim. Talk to your wife and see if you can save you marriage. You'll be happier if you settle that one way or the other."

When I got back to my room that night, I thought about what I was going to do. I knew that Joey and Jack were right. I was going to have to talk with Kate and settle things once and for all. I had been blocking my feelings about what she had done for the last several weeks. That was the only way I could get to sleep at night but now it was time to face up to the problem. Kate had cheated on me. How was I going to deal with that?

When I thought about it I got angry but that was the only emotion I felt. Shouldn't I have felt hurt? I guess I did feel a little hurt but not nearly as much as I had when I first found out about her affair. The odd thing is that because I couldn't really remember what Kyle Porter looked like I couldn't visualize the two of them together.

Why did she do it? Had she been in love with Kyle all these years? I had a hard time accepting that but why else would she have an affair with him.

I thought back over our whole life together going back to when we met in college. I have a pretty good memory and I could not remember one time that Kate had every mentioned Kyle's name. When Kate and I first started having sex together we talked about our past. Not in detail but we did mention names of our previous serious relationships. Kate didn't include Kyle. As a matter of fact she said that she never dated anyone seriously while she was in high school. Would she have lied to me about Kyle back then? I didn't think so.

Maybe it was just being home and away from me for a few days. She runs into an old boy friend and temptation takes over. I couldn't believe that either. Kate spent plenty of time away from me when I was away at job sites. She had never given me any reason to be suspicious but then I wasn't suspicious about her activities while she was in Cortland until I ran into Kevin at LAX.

Maybe she took a lover every time I left town on one of my assignments. Maybe Kyle was just one fling among many. If I go back and talk to her will I ever know the truth? Deep down inside I knew that I had to go home and talk to Kate. I only hoped that she would tell me the truth so that I could make the right decisions about my marriage and my career.

I tried to get my mind off Kate so I could get to sleep but I started thinking about Joey and what we had done in Vegas. Why didn't I feel guilty about it? I was still married to Kate so technically I did have an adulterous relationship with Joey. Did Kate's cheating give me the right to have an affair with Joey? That excuse didn't work for me. I know that two wrongs don't make a right. But I still didn't know why I didn't feel guilty. Is that the way Kate felt after fucking Kyle Porter? That didn't fit with the Kate I knew. She just couldn't cheat and not feel guilty about what she had done, but I never would have thought that I could cheat on Kate without feeling guilty about it.

I tried to analyze why I had sex with Joey. To begin with it wasn't my idea. I had never even considered it a remote possibility that I would ever in my life have sex with her. As far as I knew, she was a dyke. I went to Vegas with her thinking that it would be like going with one of the guys. She seduced me but I never hesitated one second when she invited me to go up to her room. I know that I didn't do it for revenge because the only time I thought about Kate while I was with Joey was when I compared their bodies and Joey's lack of pubic hair to Kate's full bush.

What did it say about me, that I could so easily go to bed with another woman? Could Joey have led me astray so easily if my marriage hadn't already been in trouble?

The questions I was asking myself only brought on more questions. Before I finally went to sleep, I decided two things. First, I was going to have to go talk to Kate and second I was going to tell her about Joey and me so she would know how badly she hurt me.

*****

At 11:30 AM Tuesday morning I walked away from the last of the work sites. I was done. I went back to my hotel to finish packing and while doing that I made a change of plans. I still wasn't ready top talk to Kate so I called the airline and changed my ticket to go to Syracuse instead of Atlanta. I decided that it might help me if I went home and talked to my parents.

*****

I flew out to Syracuse Wednesday morning and arrived just after five o'clock that evening. I picked up a rental car and drove down to Cortland. I had called the night before to tell mom and dad I was coming. They were happy that I was coming to see them but they were disappointed that Kate wasn't coming with me. I didn't tell them why she wasn't going to be with me. I was saving that for when I saw them because I knew it would upset them. They both liked Kate very much.

I got to the house just before eight that evening and received the requisite hugs and handshakes a visit with parents entails. Somehow during the evening I managed to avoid the topic of why Kate wasn't with me. My mom just assumed that it was because it was during the school term and Kate couldn't get away.

We ate some ice cream and I told them about the project in LA that I just finished and my dad asked me when I would be done with all the travel.

"Soon, dad," was all I said.

In the morning I had breakfast with mom and dad and then mom left for work. It turned out that my father had taken the day off so we could play golf. It was only forty-five degrees outside but we played twenty-seven holes. We were having such a good time that I just couldn't bring myself to tell dad about Kate and the troubles we were having.

That evening I took mom and dad out to dinner at their favorite restaurant. Again I couldn't broach the subject of Kate's infidelity. At that point I decided I wasn't going to tell my parents until after I spoke to Kate and made a final decision about what I was going to do.

On Friday, while mom and dad were at work I drove up to Tully to see Bob Harold, a friend of mine from my high school days. Bob ran an auto parts store in Tully but he still lived in Cortland.

As soon as Bob saw me walk in the door he looked at the guy next to him and said, "Keep an eye on this guy, he looks like trouble." Then he came around from behind the counter and gave me a bear hug.

"Jesus, Jim, where the hell did you come from?" Bob said.

"I was out in LA on a project and decided to stop in Cortland and see the parents before going back down to Atlanta. You know I couldn't come through Cortland without stopping to say hello," I said.

"Well, I'm sure as hell glad you did," Bob said and then turned to the guy behind the counter and said, "Take over for me, John. I have to take this guy out and buy him some lunch before he starts stealing everything in the store."

We drove over to a greasy spoon diner out near the I-81 interchange. The conversation was the usual get caught up to date stuff.

"You'll never guess who I ran into at the airport in LA back in June," I said. "I was sitting waiting for a flight to Atlanta when suddenly I find Kevin Murray standing in front of me."

"You ran into Kevin in LA? What are the odds of that happening? When was the last time you saw him?" Bob said.

"I hadn't seen Kevin since the summer after we got out of high school," I said. "The last time was actually his going away party before he went into the service. He told me he saw you summer before last."

"He did. He stopped by my house and we had a couple of beers. He was in town for a few days to visit his parents," Bob said.

We talked about Kevin and some of the stupid things we used to do when we were in high school. Then without really thinking about it I asked, "Do you remember Kyle Porter from school?"

"Vaguely. Wasn't he a year behind us? I remember he was kind of an asshole but I don't think I've seen him since high school," Bob said. "Why?"

"No reason. It's just that Kevin told me he saw Kyle at the Cortland Holiday Inn last time he was home," I said. Then to change the subject I said, "Are you still living in Cortland?"

"Yeah. I know it seems foolish to commute seventeen miles up here everyday but I don't want to sell my house in Cortland," Bob said.

"Seventeen mile commute huh? Boy, that must be tough," I said while laughing.

"What's so funny about that?" Bob said.

"How long does it take you to get to work in the morning?"

"Twenty-five minutes," Bob said.

"Do you have any idea how long it takes to drive seventeen miles in Atlanta or LA during the morning or evening rush?" I said. "You be lucky to make it in an hour. A twenty-five minute commute is nothing."

After lunch I rode over to Song Mountain with Bob so he could deliver some parts they needed to get their snow cats ready for the coming ski season. Bob never did go back to work that day. After we left Song Mountain we drove over to local tavern and had a few beers, played some darts and a couple of games of pool. It was after eight o'clock when we left the bar and headed back to the store to pick up my car.

Bob and I said our goodbyes and I headed back to Cortland. As I approached my exit from I-81 I saw the Cortland Holiday Inn and felt a sudden chill. I don't know what it was that drew me in but I soon found myself walking into the bar at the Holiday Inn. It was kind of like I was going to the scene of the crime. As I stood in the entrance to the bar and looked around I though about the scene that Kevin had described to me. Kyle and Kate sitting in a booth making out.

What I saw didn't fit what Kevin had told me. The bar area was open to the dining room, which was a couple of steps below the level of the bar. There were a few stools along the bar and a few tables on the bar level. There were no booths in the bar. What did that mean? If there were no booths then Kate could not have been making out with Kyle Porter in a booth, so why did Kevin say they were?

I wandered over to the bar and sat on one of the stools as I tried to understand what this might mean. Was it possible that this whole thing was a misunderstanding? No, that wasn't possible. Was the fact that there were no booths important? Maybe Kate and Porter were sitting at a table when Kevin saw them and he just forgot and told me it was a booth. Again, what did it matter?

"What can I get ya?"

I looked up to find the bartender was standing in front of me.

"Give me a... Give me Bud." I wasn't sure I should have anymore to drink but I ordered a beer anyway.

I don't know what I had hoped to find there but I felt like there had to be a reason for me to have come into the bar. I looked around at the patrons, mostly older couples probably ranging in age from upper thirties to the mid fifties. I noticed one table with six women that all looked to be in their late thirties sitting together.

Why would Kate have even been at the Holiday Inn? It didn't seem to be the kind of place she would have gone to with her friends.

When the bartender returned with my beer I asked him if there had ever been booths in the bar.

"Yeah, they remodeled the place last year," he said. "Over where those steps that go down into the dining room there used to be a wall. There were three booths along that wall. Management decided to get rid of the booths because they didn't like the image they gave the place."

"Why is that?" I said.

"It was dark in that part of the bar so couples used to sit over there and make out," he said. "The manager thought it made the place look kind of seedy."

Seedy, yes, what my wife did in that booth nearly a year and a half ago was definitely seedy behavior. The bartender wandered away and I sat peeling the label off of the beer bottle I was holding. A few minutes later a guy that looked to be about my age, six feet tall and about twenty pounds over weight came in and sat a couple of stools down from me. His mousy brown hair was very thin on top and he was using the classic comb over to try to hide his bald dome. It wasn't a good look for him. I wondered for a moment if he ever bothered to look at himself in the mirror. That thought gave me a moment of levity.

I was back to working on my bottle, trying to get the label off in one piece, when the bartender came around to get the new customer's order.

"Hi, George," the new guy said. "How you doin' tonight?"

"I'm good, Kyle. How are you?" George, the bartender, said. "What'll you have?"

Kyle? Could it be Kyle Porter that was sitting two stools away from me?

"Peppermint Schnapps," Kyle said.

I waited until the George moved off to get Kyle's drink.

"Are you Kyle Porter?"

"Yeah. Do I know you?" Kyle said.

"I'm Jim Patterson," I said and watched Kyle for his reaction. There wasn't one.

"Oh, yeah, I remember you. You graduated a year ahead of me, right?" Kyle said.

'Right."

It seemed that Kyle didn't know that Kate was my wife. If he didn't know, I thought, maybe I could get some information out of him about the night he spent with Kate before I dragged his ass outside and beat the piss out of him. I knew that I had to go slow. I didn't want him to realize that I was pumping him for information so I just tried to engage him in conversation.

"You staying here at the hotel?" I said.

"No. I live in town, I just like to come out here to look for women," Kyle said as he moved over to sit next to me.

I looked around the room and then back at Kyle. "Are these the women you are looking for? I asked.

"I know they are older but they come out here looking for a good time and I make myself available," Kyle said. "It's sex with no strings and these women are good in bed. See that group over there?" Kyle pointed to the six women I had noticed earlier. "I have scored with two of those women and on more than one occasion."

How could Kate have spent the night with this loser? She couldn't possibly have had feelings for him and I can't believe that he could have seduced her. What the hell was she thinking?

"So, what do you do when you get one of these women interested? Do you take them home with you?" I asked.

"No. The hotel manager is a good friend of mine. If I have a lady friend he lets me rent a room for thirty bucks for the night."

"How does he get away with that?" I asked.

"There are always empty rooms so he can let me take a room that would otherwise be vacant for a reduced room rate. It's a win-win situation for the hotel and for me."

"How often do you come out here?"

"Two or three times a week, whenever I feel the need for some action," Kyle said.

"How often do you score?"

"Often enough that I am getting more sex now than I did when I was married," Kyle said.

"I seem to remember that you dated Margie Cooper in high school?" I said.

"I did for a little while," Kyle said.

I didn't see any concern on Kyle's face when I mentioned Margie's name. It struck me as odd that she wouldn't have mentioned who she married when she was with him. I guessed that I could always ask Kate why she didn't tell him, that is if I ever talked to her again.