Flight Delay

"Did you ever tap that?" I said. I was ashamed of myself for asking the question that way but I had to keep Kyle off guard.

"Not in high school," Kyle said.

"Not in high school? Does that mean that you got it on with her after high school?" I asked.

"I did and it was a memorable night," Kyle said but he didn't smile.

"Memorable, huh? Was she that good?" I said. I felt my stomach tightened up and my palms began to sweat.

"No. It was the absolute worst," Kyle said.

"She wasn't any good in bed? I gotta hear this," I said.

"Really? Okay. It was the summer before last. I came out here one night and saw Margie sitting with some of her old friends from high school. I hadn't seen Margie since we graduated so I went over to say hello. We talked for a few minutes but she didn't seem all that interested in talking to me so I went back over to the woman I had been sitting with," Kyle said.

"You already had a woman and you left her to hit on Margie?"

"No. It wasn't like that. I just went over to say hello to Margie. I knew I had no chance of getting her into bed."

"But you did get her into bed, right?" I said.

"I did but not that night. It was two or three nights later. I was out here and no one was around. There were only a few people in the bar and I was about to call it a night and go home when Margie walked in. She looked around like she was looking for someone and then sat at the bar and ordered a drink.

"She looked kind of unhappy and I was thinking I should avoid her but I didn't. I wish I had. I sat down next to her and asked her if she was all right. She told me she was fine and we just started talking. I asked her why she was there and she said that she was looking for her friend Sue Schaefer. Then I made my second mistake of the night. I told her that she appeared to be unhappy about something when she came in. Margie told me that her mother was driving her crazy and then she started complaining about how her husband had ruined her vacation and the more she talked the angrier she got.

"I got to tell ya, at that point I was just looking for a chance to get the hell out of there but I didn't want to be rude and get up and leave while she was still talking."

"Who's her husband?" I said.

"Don't know. She never said and I didn't ask," Kyle said. Margie went on for about ten minutes about how pissed off she was and then I asked her if her husband knew that she was so angry with him. She said that he didn't know and I told her that she should let him know. She told me I was right and that she should do something to let him know how angry she was. Margie told me to order her a martini and then she got up to go to the lady's room.

"I was thinking of telling her that I had to leave, I really was but when she came back she took my hand and suggested we take our drinks and go sit in one of the booths. As she slid into the booth I noticed that she had removed her rings. I guess I should have run right then but the thought that I might actually have a chance of bedding Margie God damn Cooper kept me from leaving.

"Margie asked me what I had been up to since high school while she quickly finished off her first martini and ordered another. When George delivered Margie's drink, she gulped down about half of it and then told me to kiss her. Well, we sat in the booth for forty-five minutes drinking and making out. Margie managed to polish off four martinis and seemed to be feeling pretty good. That's when I made my final mistake. I suggested we get a room and Margie agreed."

Kate drank four martinis? She was never much of a drinker so why would she have had that much to drink?

"As soon as we walked into the room, Margie said, 'Let's fuck' and then started removing her clothes. When I didn't start taking my clothes off right away, Margie told me to hurry up and get undressed. She was beginning to slur her words when she told me I had to use a condom. I had several condoms with me and had one out of my wallet in a flash. I got to tell you that from there on it was strange. There was no more kissing, no foreplay; she just watched me put the condom on and then told me to stick it in her. Margie got on her back, pulled her knees up and spread them and then told me to hurry up and put it in. Then she just lay there like a dead frog while I did the work. It was so bad that I couldn't get off so I actually had to fake an orgasm just to get it over with.

"As soon as I rolled off her, Margie ran into the bathroom and started puking. She was in there puking her guts out for about fifteen minutes. I tried to help her but she was making me gag. When she finally settled down, she took a shower and I put her to bed. When I was sure she was going to be all right I went home."

"You left her there alone?" I said.

"What else could I do? I knew she wasn't going to be happy in the morning and I was certain that she wouldn't want to see me when she woke up. I'll tell you one thing; I'll never go near an angry married woman again. A married woman out looking to have a good time with a guy is one thing but a woman out because she is angry is someone you don't want to get involved with."

I sat shaking my head. I didn't know what to think of Kyle's story. Guys who are willing to tell you about their sexual exploits are more likely to embellish the story to make themselves look better than to make the story sound so pathetic. I also didn't know what to think of Kyle. When I first found out about Kate's fling I had visions of my beating the shit out of Kyle Porter but after listening to him I felt that he was just as pathetic as the story he told me. Looking at Kyle sitting next to me I felt more sorrow than anger.

"Hey, I gotta go," I said. "Nice talking to ya, Kyle,"

"Yeah, good to see you too," Kyle said.

When I got to the door I turned to look back into the bar and watched as Kyle walked over to the six women sitting together. They all seemed to welcome him to their table. "Pathetic, they're all fuckin pathetic," I mumbled to myself as I left.

That night I lay in bed trying to understand why Kate had felt the need to have sex with Kyle that night. From what Kyle told me it sure as hell didn't sound like he had seduced her or that she was in love with him. It sounded more like she had done it to punish me but that just didn't make sense. Sure, I had to cancel our vacation plans but that was no reason for her to run out and fuck some other guy. It finally sank into my brain that the only way I would ever know why she did it is if she would tell me the truth about it and the only way that could happen is if I went home and talked to her.

*****

Saturday morning I had breakfast with my parents and then headed back to the airport in Syracuse. I had already booked my flight to Atlanta by way of Cincinnati.

"Did you call Kate to let her know what time you would be home?" my mother asked.

"No, I want to surprise her," I said. Shock her would be more accurate.

When I arrived in Atlanta, I took a cab from the airport and arrived at the house a little after four o'clock that afternoon. There was no car in the driveway and the garage door was closed so there was no way I could tell if Kate was home our not. I carried my bags up the sidewalk to the front door and hesitated for a few minutes. My anxiety level suddenly spiked. What if Kate wasn't alone? How would I handle that? Should I ring the doorbell or should I just walk in? These thoughts and more were running through my mind in random order as I stood outside the door.

I had to get a grip. It was still my house and if Kate had someone in there with her I would throw his ass out and her along with him. I don't know why I would think that she would have someone there with her anyway. I checked the door and it was locked. That was not unusual, we always kept the front door locked because we seldom used it. I unlocked the door with my key and walked into the house.

I stood in the foyer for a moment and listened. I thought I heard something in the kitchen but I wasn't sure. When I dropped my bags next to the stairway I heard Kate's voice coming from the kitchen.

"Who's there?" she yelled in a startled voice.

I didn't say anything and a moment later Kate came around the corner and saw me. She froze for a moment and then put her hand up to her face, covering her mouth. I saw her shoulders begin to move up and down and soon her whole body was shaking and tears were streaming down her cheeks.

Kate looked terrible. She looked like she had lost quite a bit of weight. Her face was pale and drawn with dark circles under her eyes. Looking at her almost made me want to cry.

"You're home?" she said.

"For the moment," I said. "It's time for us to talk and decide where we go from here."

"I was praying that you'd come talk to me. I had almost given up hope. I thought that I had lost you forever," she said.

"We'll talk and then see what happens. You understand that I won't tolerate any lies."

"I won't lie to you, I promise. Why don't we go into the living room?"

I followed Kate into the living room and waited for her to sit before I chose a seat. As angry as I was feeling toward her I couldn't help but admire her strength at that moment. She never looked down or away from me. She held my eyes with hers as I sat down across from her. You might think that her looking at me that way was an act of defiance but that is not what it was. She wanted me to know that she was prepared to tell me the truth. There was no deception in her eyes.

"Jim, I will tell you everything. I want you to know that I am sorry for what I did and have been ever since the night I did it. If you want I'll just tell you what happened or you can just ask questions. I promise that I will answer truthfully."

"Why don't you just tell me your story and I'll decide if you are telling me the truth or not. I'll save my questions until later." I said.

Kate nodded her head and took a deep breath. "Okay. I guess you never knew how angry I was when you cancelled our vacation to go to Seattle. The pressure had been building up for a long time. I know I had agreed that you should take the PM job for four years but it wasn't as easy to deal with as I had thought it would be. You were gone more than you were home and I was lonely. I missed you all the time. You have to know that I never once thought of cheating on you. It was you I missed and I didn't want to be with anyone else," Kate said.

"Then why did you cheat?" I said.

"I'll try to explain that but you have to let me tell you everything," Kate said. "When you told me that we had to cancel our vacation I couldn't believe it. I wanted to scream but I tried to keep myself under control. I almost lost it a couple of times but I got control of myself again. Later I wondered why you didn't suggest that I go to Seattle with you. Then I started thinking that you didn't want to be with me. I thought that maybe you accepted the Seattle assignment so that you wouldn't have to go on vacation with me. I kept telling myself that wasn't true but part of me still wondered about it.

"Then you said that you had an idea for something I could do while you were working in Seattle and I thought that you were going to suggest that I go with you. I started to get excited but then you suggested that I go to Cortland to visit my parents instead of asking me to go with you. I couldn't imagine how you would have thought that a week with my parents would make up for losing a week with you in Key West. I was still angry but I kept telling myself that I shouldn't be angry with you for doing your job and that I would feel better about things in a day or two.

"That didn't happen. When I got to my parents I told my mother about you canceling our vacation so you could run out to Seattle. I guess my mother thought she was being supportive by taking my side but she didn't know when to stop. Instead of helping she was making things worse.

"I thought that going out with my old friends would make me feel better and it did for a while. We went out and had dinner at the Holiday Inn and then sat in the bar and had a few drinks while we talked about what everyone had done since high school. I saw Kyle Porter sitting with a woman that was at least ten years older than him and pointed them out to Sue Schaefer. Sue told me that Kyle hangs out at the Holiday Inn bar and picks up older women. We all laughed about that for a few minutes.

"A little while later Kyle came over to the table to say hello."

"So you made a date to go out with him?" I said. I wanted to see how close her story would be to what Kyle had told me but I didn't want to make it too easy for her.

"No, I didn't make a date with him. Actually I think I was kind of rude to him."

"Why would you be rude to your old high school sweetheart?" I said.

"Kyle was never my high school sweetheart."

"So how did you end up in bed with him at the Holiday Inn?"

"I'm getting to that," Kate said. "You have to understand that since the day we began dating in college until that night I had never cheated on you and had never even thought of doing anything like that until that night. Since then I can swear to you that nothing like that has ever happened again. I know you must have doubts now but I do love you."

"You say you love me but you fucked your old boyfriend," I said. "Do you still love him too?"

"No. I was never in love with Kyle. He was never my boyfriend."

"You dated him in high school, didn't you?"

"Yes, but he wasn't my boyfriend. My best friend Kate Mitchell was going steady with his best friend David Bradshaw. Kate and Dave kept dragging Kyle and me on dates with them. I went out with him four or five times. He and I were never anything more than friends and not very close friends at that. You are the only man I love. Before you found out about this, did you ever doubt that I loved you?" Kate said.

"No, but is that because I was a fool?"

Kate began to cry but she didn't look away from me. "You are not a fool and never have been one. You knew that I loved you because I did and still do."

"So, are you trying to tell me that Kyle seduced you? That his charms were just too much for you to resist?" I asked. "Or maybe he drugged you?"

"No. He didn't drug me and he didn't seduce me."

"Okay, Kate. I don't know what you are playing at but you are confusing the hell out of me," I said. "You said that you loved me and that you didn't love him and never did and then you said that he didn't seduce you and that he didn't drug you. So how did you end up in bed with him?"

I was about to find out if Kate's version of the events of that night were the same as Kyle's.

"I already told you, it started the night I was out with my friends," Kate started. "Kyle came over to our table to talk to me. We were all just chatting and having a good time and I didn't pay much attention to Kyle so he left after about ten minutes. Before we all went home I asked the girls if any of them would be able to go out again that week. Only Sue Schaefer said that she might be able to get out for a while. She told me that she had to work late Thursday evening and that if she finished early enough she would stop by the Holiday Inn on her way home.

"That night when I got to bed I thought about why I felt so angry about your canceling our vacation but instead of calming myself I got more angry. I began to realize that my anger went deeper than just that cancelled vacation. I couldn't sleep. I just tossed and turned and thought about all of the times we had to cancel plans and I just accepted it. I tried to direct my anger at Jack but I know that you had never stood up to him so my anger was directed at you.

"I spent all day Wednesday and Thursday with my mother and she was making me crazy. She kept telling me that I couldn't let you get off easy for canceling our vacation and then out of the blue she asked me if I thought that you might be having an affair. I told her that I would never believe that but it just increased my feelings of frustration and anger. Thursday night I had to get out of the house so I drove over to the Holiday Inn and went into the bar hoping that Sue would be there but she wasn't.

"I sat at the bar and ordered a drink while I waited to see if Sue would show up. Suddenly Kyle was sitting next to me. He told me that I looked unhappy and the next thing I knew I was telling him everything."

"While you were bitching to Kyle about what a terrible husband you had, did you happen to mention my name?" I said.

Kate just looked at me like she didn't understand what I was saying.

"Did you mention my name to Kyle? Did you tell him who I was?"

"No."

"Why not."

"I don't know. I guess I didn't want him to know," Kate said. "Anyway, by the time I finished telling Kyle why I was in Cortland without you I was almost in a rage. I could feel the blood burning in my face. That's when Kyle suggested that I should do something to make sure you knew how angry I was. Somehow, in my disturbed state, that made sense to me. I felt that I needed to do something to punish you.

"I started drinking martinis and we moved from the bar into a booth. I don't remember when I actually decided that I was going to have sex with Kyle that night but I knew that it was going to happen. I am not proud of this, but when I felt the martinis starting to kick in I started making out with Kyle in the booth like we were a couple of teenagers. That's when Kyle suggested that we get a room."

"So what you are trying to tell me is that you were so angry with me that you went to the Holiday Inn and got drunk then went to bed with Kyle Porter?" I said.

"No. The first part yes. I did go out to the Holiday Inn that night because I was angry but I didn't go to bed with Kyle because I was drunk. I got drunk so that I could go to bed with him. I never could have made myself do that if I was sober. I decided to let Kyle have me because I was angry but I had to get drunk so that I could go through with it.

I was stunned. "I can't believe that you could have been that angry," I said. "I find it hard to believe that you would do something so stupid just because you were mad at me. Why didn't you talk to me about it instead of jumping into bed with a pathetic lounge lizard?"

"Don't you think I asked myself that same question over and over? I would never have believed that I was capable of doing anything so destructive," Kate said.

"Was the sex worth it? Did you enjoy it?" I said.

"God, no. I know I did it but I don't actually remember much of what happened once we got up to the room. Anyway, as soon as it was over I went into the bathroom and got extremely sick. I vaguely remember taking a shower and going to bed. When I woke up in the morning I was in the room by myself. That weasel Kyle didn't even stay with me to make sure I was okay. I guess it was actually a good thing that he wasn't there. I really didn't want to face him after what I had done.

"I was sick most of the day, not because of the hang over but because of what I had done. The anger was gone and all I had left was the guilt. I was disgusted with myself. I have been trying to make it up to you ever since that night. I've tried to show you how much I love you.

"Jim, if you think my explanation of what I did sounded rehearsed you'd be right. I have been worried that you might find out someday and that I would have to face you with the truth about that night. I have been thinking about and rehearsing what I would tell you for almost a year and a half. I wanted to make sure that if you ever found out and confronted me about it that I wouldn't panic and try to lie my way out of it. I wrote it all down in my journal. What I was feeling and what I did and why and then I even wrote the scrip for how I would tell you about it. To be honest I was praying that I would never have to tell you.