Frank and Diane

"You said that his saying that Diane chased him could be true and that she wouldn't have been the first. Why did you say that?"

"Stan is rather well endowed and some women when they hear that want to check it out."

"A week ago I would have said Diane would never do anything like that, but that was before I walked in on her and your husband."

"I've got to go, but if I learn anything else I'll give you a call. Don't forget; I want to her hear side when you get home and talk with her."

"I won't."

+++++++++++++++++

At eleven the next morning Ray Baker called me to let me know he was out of jail on bail. He was going to have to take the rest of the day and the next day to take care of personal business. His wife had taken out a restraining order on him and he needed to find a place to stay and make arrangements with the court to get into his house to get his personal things. He said that he would be in on Thursday.

I called Harry and brought him up to date and then I told him that in checking into things at the office I had found that Smithers had been fudging his expense reports and that could possibly be grounds for letting him go. I told him I would probably fly home Thursday evening and that I was going to need to take Friday off to handle my personal affairs and I would see him Monday morning.

I managed to get through the next two days without incident and on Thursday morning Ray was back at work. I brought him up to date on what was going on in the office and then because I was going through something similar I asked him how things were going on the home front.

"The restraining order only keeps me five hundred feet away from her. I can access the house whenever I want as long as she isn't there. If she is there and won't leave when I want to go in I have to get someone from the court to go in with me. I just waited down the street until she went to work and then me and my brother went in and got everything that I wanted. I have no need to go back.

"I don't know what the stupid cunt is thinking. She got the order, but that was all. She didn't touch the bank accounts. I cleaned them out yesterday."

"I thought that this was a no fault state and that everything had to be split fifty-fifty."

"In a divorce that would be true, but I'm not talking divorce; I'm just walking away. If she wants a divorce she can pay for it and when she files she will be entitled to fifty percent of our assets at the time she files and that will be zip. We took out a second on the house to finish the basement and make it into a recreation room so there is no equity in the house and the money I took out of the bank will be long gone. I can claim that I needed it all to set me up in a new place when she barred me from the house. That reminds me. I need to call Harry and get my insurance and all of that other crap changed."

"She tell you why she did it?"

"I haven't spoken to the whore since the cops hauled me away and I have no intention of talking to her. It doesn't matter why she did it; it only matters that she did."

I decided to get a good night's sleep before going home and having to talk to Diane so I called the airline and made reservations for the morning flight.

++++++++++++++++

I was rested when I got up and I had a good breakfast before catching the airport shuttle and I was home in Denver by eleven. I hit the bank, cleaned out the savings, cashed in five of the nine certificates of deposit in the deposit box and put all the money in the checking account.

Diane was at work when I got home so I would be alone until six. I got on the phone, got pay off balances for all of our credit cards and then cancelled all but five of them. I kept the American Express card that I used primarily for business expenses and two of the other cards in my name and put two in Diane's name. I went back to the bank and arranged wire transfers to pay off the cards using the money in the checking account. That done I took half of the money left in checking and opened a checking account in my name only. I arranged for another safe deposit box in my name only and put two of the remaining four CDs into it and then went back home.

When the kids had grown and moved out I had converted one of their bedrooms into a home office and den and the other two where kept as spare rooms for when the kids came home to visit. I picked the spare bedroom next to the den and moved all of my things into it. I was all moved in and set up when Diane came home.

I heard Diane come in and call for me. "Frank? Frank? Where are you?"

I ignored her as I heard her walking through the house looking for me. She finally came upstairs and I had my back to the door when she came in.

"Frank? I ignored her. "Frank? Please Frank; we need to talk."

I turned to face her. "Where is it written that I have to talk to an unfaithful whore?" She winced when I said that and then I said, "However we do need to talk about finances."

"Finances? Why?"

"Because your actions have made changes necessary. Go on downstairs and take a seat at the kitchen table and I'll be down in a minute."

She left and I sorted through the papers I had been working on, picked up the ones I needed and then followed Diane down to the kitchen and took a seat across from her.

"While I was gone I had a lot of time to think about what I should do and in the end I decided to do nothing."

I saw relief on her face when I said that, but it faded when I said, "By nothing I mean that I will be having little or nothing to do with you. I can't see wasting money on divorce attorneys especially since at my age I don't see another marriage in my future so I'm not going to need single status. If you want a divorce you can go for it and pay for it. For now though there are some changes."

I explained all that I had done with the credit cards, the savings, the CDs and the checking account. "You can have the original deposit box, but I would recommend that you open your own checking and savings accounts and we will leave the old joint account in place and call it the household account. With me so far?"

"But why are you do..."

"You know damned well why Diane. Okay now, the household account will be used for household expenses." I slid a piece of paper across the table to her. "That is a list of what it takes to run the house. House payment, electric bill, phone, gas, water and sewage, taxes and insurance. What we are from now on is roommates. You will need to deposit half of the amount on that paper into the household account every month from now on. We will share the house with the exception of two rooms. You will have the master bedroom as your room and Carol's old room will be my bedroom."

"Why are you moving into Carol's room? You need to be in the master bedroom with me."

"After what I saw taking place in that room? There is no way I'm going to stay in that room, sleep on that bed or have anything to do with the woman I saw doing what she was doing on that bed."

"That's what we need to talk about Frank. What you saw isn't what you think."

"Of course it was what I think it was. It was you fucking another man in our house and on our bed."

"Okay Frank, but what you need to understand is that is all that it was – fucking. There was no love or affection involved; it was just me satisfying my curiosity. I love you Frank. I always have and I always will. What I felt for Stan was just a little bit of lust and that's all. It was a one-time thing to satisfy my curiosity and if you had not have come home you would never have known and it would have never happened again."

"But that is the problem Diane. I did come home and I do know and because I know it changes everything. You cheated on me and that means that you can't be trusted. If you can't be trusted that means that everything you say has to be weighed and looked at to try and determine if it is the truth or a lie. You say you love me. Can you love me and still betray me? Can you love me and still disrespect me by bringing another man into my house and then fucking him on my bed? The same bed you would have slept on with me that night? How much love and respect would you be showing me by giving me that man's leavings if I would have made love to you that night?

"No Diane, you can no longer be trusted. You say it was a one time thing and would have never happened again. Truth or lie? I only have your word for it that it is true, but you can't be trusted. It could just as easily been the tenth time and you could have already set up a time to do it again. But, and this is the part that counts, even if it is the truth you still stabbed me in the back. You broke the promise that you made to me when we took our vows and for what? To satisfy some curiosity of yours? Just what the hell were you so curious about that you were willing to risk your marriage to satisfy it?"

She looked away from me when she said, "The size of his penis."

"You have got to be shitting me. The size of his dick? Why in the hell were you curious about the size of his dick?"

"Some of the girls in the office had gone out with him and they raved about how big it was and how filling it was. I listened to all the stories they told, but I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to them until he started hitting on me. Even then it was a while before I started thinking about it."

"You are saying that he tried to seduce you?"

"I guess he was, but I didn't pay a whole lot of attention to it at first. But I liked the attention and what woman doesn't like to feel that she is attractive. At my age it was a hell of a boost to my self esteem to have a man ten years younger than me to paying attention to me. I had lunch with him a couple of times and danced with him a couple of times when everyone in the office would stop for drinks. It was dancing with him that started me thinking of the stories I'd heard about him. I felt him push against me a time or two and he did seem rather large.

"The more I thought about the stories the more curious I got. I was a virgin when I met you and you are the only man I've ever known sexually. I got to wondering what another man would be like especially a man reputed to be as big as Stan. He kept working on me and I kept wondering and I finally let my curiosity get the best of me."

"You say all the other girls talked about Stan's size and abilities in bed? How many other girls?"

"Seven of them."

"Stan had sex with seven of them?"

"They said he did."

"Seven of them in your office alone. That would seem to show that Stan was pretty promiscuous. Did you ever stop to think that a guy who was fucking anything that moved might pick up a disease or two somewhere along the line?"

"Oh come on Frank. If that were the case he would have given it to the girls he made love to and you can believe that if he did it would be broadcast all over the office in minutes."

"You can have it and not know it Diane. In some cases you can have it for months before you show signs. If I were you I'd go and get myself tested."

"The important thing Frank is that Stan meant nothing to me. There was no love involved and I can't say that there was even much like."

"That's not what it sounded like when I walked into the room."

"You know I like sex Frank and you know how vocal I get when I make love to you. So I made some noise. It was because I was in the middle of having sex and not because I had any special feelings for Stan. It was a mistake Frank. A major mistake and I'm sorry as hell that I slipped up and I can promise you that it will never happen again. I love you Frank and you know that I do. You can't throw away twenty-five good years because of one mistake."

"I'm not throwing anything away Diane. You are the one who threw it away when you brought another man into my house and took him on my bed."

I got up and left the kitchen and went back upstairs to the den and lost myself in some paperwork.

+++++++++++++++++++++

I'm a fairly light sleeper and that night about an hour after I went to bed the noise of the bedroom door opening woke me up. Diane quietly moved into the room and softly closed the door behind her. I sleep nude and it was summer so I was lying on top of the covers. Diane bent over me and took my cock into her mouth. She had always been able to turn me to jelly when she blew me and it looked like she planned to do it again in an attempt to get back into my good graces. She was totally surprised when I pushed her away.

"Leave me alone Diane. I am not in the least bit interested in North's leftovers."

She got off the bed and left the room crying. Maybe twenty minutes later I fell asleep and I wasn't bothered the rest of the night.

Diane was in the kitchen making coffee when I came down from taking my morning shower and getting ready to go to work. Her "Good morning Frank" was met with a noncommittal grunt. I ignored her until the coffee was ready and then filled my travel mug and left for work. I waited until ten before calling Arlis North and then I filled her in on what I'd found out.

"Seven other girls?"

"That is what she said. Apparently your husband was the office Romeo."

"Do you believe her story?"

"Before I walked in on her and your husband I would have believed her if she had told me that the sun was now rising in the west, but after? I don't know. It could be true or it could be that she is just trying to put a better light on what she did by making me think that it really meant nothing." I mean how do you know? When she got caught trust went out the window. Everything she says now has to be seen as self serving."

"Have you decided what you are going to do?"

"The marriage is dead, but if there is a divorce she will have to be the one to go for it. My plan right now is to simply cohabit. We will coexist as roommates, but that is all. I can't see ruining myself financially just because she couldn't keep her panties on. How about you? Got a plan yet?"

"I'm still thinking on it. Keep in touch Frank."

"Will do Arlis. Good luck."

++++++++++++++

For the next week I made sure that I was up and gone before Diane woke up and I found things to do that kept me from going home until late. Diane was usually up waiting for me, but I ignored her. The next weekend she tried to slip into my bed again, but I told her to get away from me and leave me alone.

"Damn it Frank; don't do this to me. I love you Frank and I want you."

"I don't want you Diane. You are damaged goods."

"My God Frank. It was only once. I haven't even talked to him since he ran out of the house. It was a one time slip in judgment Frank. Please! Give me a chance. I know it was wrong and I'm sorry. I swear to God that it will never happen again."

"The problem Diane is that I don't know that it was only once. He may have been your third or fourth lover or your tenth. You may still be doing him on your lunch hours in a motel. When I caught you with him you lost all my trust Diane and there is no way I will ever trust you to tell me the truth ever again."

"Please Frank, there has to be some way to put us back together. I'll do anything Frank; anything at all."

"Sorry Diane, but there is no chance of our getting back together because I don't want to put us back together. The sight of you with your legs wrapped around North and the sound of your voice as you begged him to fuck you harder killed all the feelings I had for you. Look on the bright side. You are free to indulge in satisfying your curiosity whenever you want now. Just not here in this house. This house is neutral territory. You take your men elsewhere and I won't bring my women here."

"Your women?"

"I have no intension of going without a sex life. I'm not a bad looking guy and I've had chances up the kazoo to play around, but I never did because I promised during our wedding ceremony that I'd be faithful to you. You made the same vows, but you broke them. When you broke your vows you released me from mine. At least I won't be bringing mine in here where you can see it."

She looked at me and I could tell what she was thinking. She was thinking that sharing the house and being around each other would give her a chance to work her way back into my life and that is just what I wanted her to think. I decided to give her a load to carry.

"The only reason I'm doing this share the house thing is that I don't want to make the lawyers rich by going through a divorce and I don't want to give up what I have here at the house to live in an apartment. I wouldn't have a garage to work in, a basement workshop and I wouldn't have a patio where I can sit and enjoy a drink as I watch the sun set. You have two choices Diane; live with the new status quo or not. If you chose not then you can either move out or take over the house payments and expenses and I'll move out.

"You say that you really do love me so here is your chance to prove it. You can accept home sharing or you can take the house and cost me my garage, my workshop and my patio just like you cost me my wife. Your choice."

"There is no chance?"

"I don't see how there could be Diane."

She was silent for a few moments and then she opened her mouth and drove the final nail into her coffin.

"What are you going to do with the pictures Frank?"

"The pictures?"

"The ones you took with your cell phone camera."

She hadn't even talked to North since he ran out of the house? Then how did she know about the cell phone pictures? That was a story made up by Arlis and fed to her husband a good five days after I'd caught Diane and North in our bedroom. No indeed. I could not trust anything Diane told me ever again.

I could not physically hurt her and kicking her out of the house would cost me more than it would punish her, but being around me all the time while I ignored her would put her through a mental hell and that was the best I could hope for. I did not doubt that she loved me and I knew she would hang in there on the remote chance that she might eventually work her way back into my good graces. It wasn't going to happen. I was not kidding when I said that seeing her with North had killed all my feelings for her, but the longer she held on hoping the longer my revenge would last.

My revenge against Diane in place I turned my attention to Stanton North.

++++++++++++++++++

The private detectives report backed up what I had suspected. Getting caught by me and his wife finding out that he was a cheating asshole had not slowed him down a single bit. He was laying pipe to five women besides his wife. In the three weeks I'd had the PIs on him he hadn't done a thing with Diane, but he was nailing two of her co-workers. One of them, Mary Ellen Bingham had a husband that worked the afternoon shift and every Tuesday and Thursday after work North would pay Mary Ellen a visit at her home on Sunflower Way. He stayed two hours and then left.

I checked my watch and saw that if he kept to his schedule he would be out of the house in ten minutes. I was parked one block away and one block over. I got out of my car and made my way over to the Bingham residence went around behind the garage and when I got there I slipped on the latex gloves and put on a ski mask.

Mary Ellen had a three car garage and when North visited he pulled into the garage and parked and closed the garage door so the neighbors wouldn't get to talking about Mary Ellen's visitor. Wouldn't want the word to get back to Mary Ellen's hubby now would we? I used a small pry bar to force the lock on the back door to the garage and I was waiting when the connecting door to the house opened and North came out. A naked Mary Ellen stood in the doorway and watched North walk to his car.

Fifty thousand volts from the Taser had him writhing on the garage floor and before Mary Ellen could even scream I said in what I hoped was a disguised voice: