Gone with the Wind

"Here's five hundred dollars," said. "Call the company and report your phone lost. They'll sell you a new one. You can even keep your old phone number after they turn this one off. I pulled out my check book and wrote him a check for another five hundred dollars. His eyes lit up.

"I'm not complaining," he said. "But what's this for?"

"Consider it a retainer," I said. "...Just in case I have to call on you to testify. If you're needed I'll double this. If you're not, you still got a new phone and a thousand dollars."

"Dude I'm fine with it," he smiled. "I'm just wondering why you'd pay so much for some badly shot porn of some local whore."

"I'm the local whore's husband," I said. "And instead of me having to pay some PI ten or twelve grand to get proof for a divorce, I just paid you one tenth of that. And I got irrefutable evidence."

I walked through the storage shed and as I got near the back the smell of sex was still very thick in the air. I walked right into the corner and picked up Lisa's panties. On the way home, I tried my best to calm myself down. I had hundreds of questions that I needed answers to.

I was able to distill them all down to only the two or three most serious though. The bad thing about it was that no amount of thinking and wondering made me change my mind. I pulled off the road and watched the entire video in the privacy of my Jeep. When I got done watching it, I no longer cared why she'd done it. I wondered how long she'd been doing things like this behind my back though. It could have been years. It was almost two years ago that Lisa had tried to interest me in swinging. When I'd said no, she'd waited a few months and tried to offer me a threesome with one of her friends.

I'd figured out right away that she was only offering that, to try to gently nudge me into something I had no fucking interest in. She'd start out by letting me fuck some hot chick she knew. The next step would be to tell me that it hadn't hurt our marriage at all. Then she'd tell me that it was only fair that she got to try another man, just to even things up. Before you knew it, we'd both regularly screw whoever we wanted and there'd be no real intimacy left between us.

I'd shut her down as soon as she'd offered the threesome and I'd thought that had been the last of it. Obviously she'd been doing it behind my back. What Lisa hadn't realized is that from the very beginning I'd wondered what the hell would make her offer that. I'd read all kinds of stories on the internet and done a lot of research on the subject.

What she really didn't know was that I'd taken my research further. Last year at our Christmas party Lisa had invited some of her old girlfriends. A couple of them had been too drunk to drive home and Lisa had volunteered me as the taxi.

It was really enlightening to hear two drunken women telling me how attractive they thought I was and how lucky Lisa was. I'd assured them that I was the lucky one, but they'd continued. They even told me that they hadn't thought that Lisa would ever get married, especially not to someone as nice as I was. I didn't have to wonder why for long. They continued and told me that to the best of their knowledge, most sluts didn't marry well. And those that did, ended up divorced because they just couldn't give up screwing around. They almost always ended up cheating on their husbands, or they married men who cheated on them. It had given me a lot to think about, because up until I hadn't been aware that my wife had been a slut or a former slut, as it was.

Since there had been no repeats of the requests to join swing clubs, or for threesomes, I eventually let the matters slip from my mind, but I had clearly been fooled.

I sat there in my Jeep, seething with anger. I knew I needed to calm down before I went home. I called my job and asked for one of my friends who worked in our legal department. When he got on the phone, I asked him if he knew of any competent lawyers who handled divorces. He sucked in a breath and asked me if it was for me or just for a friend.

After I told him, he recommended a woman who'd handled his brother's divorce. I set up a meeting for Monday, three days away. I also needed to talk to the twins' mother. Because that bastard Steve, whom I'd recognized from the video as being the guy Lisa had argued with at the PTA meeting, had at least an ass kicking coming for his heroic rescue of my wife.

As I calmed down, I realized that like the guys in the stories I read on the internet had discovered, if I wanted a chance at keeping my assets and my kids, I needed to be smart. I needed to speak to the lawyer and get her advice on the best way to proceed, BEFORE I confronted Lisa. That was another place that the twins' mother might be of assistance. Since she was already divorcing Steve, she could possibly give me some insight on exactly what to do and how to go about it.

With as many of my ducks in a row as I could manage, my blood pressure dropped back to something resembling normal, at least outwardly. I started the car and then drove home.

My kids were playing in the yard as usual. All of the excitement of the day hadn't fazed them at all. They'd probably already forgotten about the storm. Lisa came out into the yard to greet me as I got out of the Jeep.

She was freshly scrubbed and had her blond hair tied back in one long pony tail. She wore a T-shirt and obviously didn't have a bra on and her large breasts moved around under the shirt like two cats. She had on a pair of loose shorts and her legs and feet were bare. She was smiling and clearly in a playful mood.

She reached up to kiss me and although I'd prepared myself for it, I cringed. She noticed immediately.

"What's wrong, Dave?" she asked nervously. "Did I do something wrong?"

"No," I said, still trying to pull myself together. I couldn't help it as I looked at her, deep in my heart I still loved her, but I kept seeing her in that video taking on one strange man after another and I was just disgusted.

"It's...uhm...It's not you it's me," I lied. "I just came back from the truck and God Damn it, Lisa...you could have been killed. The truck is crushed beyond any hope of repair. I got your purse and your pa...I got your purse and your phone back." I'd almost said, "Your purse and your panties," I really needed to get it together before I tipped my hand.

"Don't worry about that crap," she smiled. "It's just stuff. Stuff can always be replaced. The important thing is that we're all here together. We're all safe and fine and together, Honey. Nothing else is important. I think we should just grill something tonight, because I don't feel like cooking. And then we'll all settle down together until the kids fall asleep and..."

"Hold that thought," I said. "Maybe we should just order a pizza or something, because I still have a couple of things I need to do..." She looked at me as if she was really disappointed. I'd been expecting anger. Her failure to get angry at me was even more proof that she was feeling guilty.

"Let's just get the food, like you said." I told her. "Then we'll settle down with the kids and after they go to sleep, I'll head over to the office then..."

"Why do you need to go to the office?" she asked, clearly holding her anger back.

"Because I left in the middle of an important business trip, so I could come home and get our kids. Meanwhile you were so busy shopping or whatever else the fuck you were doing, that you never bothered to call to check on them, or even to answer your God damned phone when the school did call," I hissed. She shrank back from the venom in my voice.

"So yes, Lisa," I said, trying to calm down and failing. "I have to go to the office for a couple of hours to process some of the data and customer info I picked up and to send a few e-mails to answer some questions that some of those customers might have about my presentation. I know as well as you do that we've been through a traumatic experience, but our bills won't stop coming because of it. They still have to be paid and we still have to eat, so I still have to do my job"

"I'm sorry Dave," she said. "But I love you and I depend on you. Right now I'm still shaking from what I went through and I need to spend some time with my husband. Is that too much to ask?"

"Lisa, I just need some time to myself," I said. "You just don't get it..."

"I'm sorry," she whined. "It's not my fault. It's the storm..."

"Lisa, I know you count on me to be strong, but I love you," I said. "When I saw that truck, it did something to me. I imagined you crushed inside of that truck. I saw you dead. I saw your funeral and I imagined trying to raise our kids alone without you. It scared the shit out of me. I even imagined myself turning into some kind of mean assed old hermit after the kids were gone and...I don't know how I'd live without..."

She smiled then. "Okay, Honey," she said. "I guess I didn't realize how bad this was on you. You take some time if that's what you need. But it's over. None of that will happen. And the accident isn't as bad as you thought."

"Oh yeah!" I said. "I saw the truck. If that guy hadn't pulled you out of there...we owe him a debt to gratitude. Do you have any idea who he was?"

"Dave he didn't do as much as everyone is making out," she said. "He didn't pull me out of the truck. I had already stopped when the pole fell. I looked out of the window when I saw the live wires behind me. I saw a clear path to walk away from the truck since I couldn't back out of there without running over the wires. I knew enough to know that the tires would have insulated the truck, but the real danger was if even one of those wires hit a metal surface on the truck it could have possible fried me."

"So I already knew that I had to get out of the truck. All he did was to call me to come into that shelter where he and some other people were already gathered," she said.

"But kept you from freaking out and helped with your fear, didn't he?" I asked. "I'm guessing that you and the other women there needed someone to let them know that things would be okay."

"I guess that's true," she said. She didn't admit that she was the only woman there.

"So for that alone I think we owe him something," I said. "Are you sure you don't know him or remember anything that might help us to identify him?"

"I've never seen him before," she said. "And I was kind of in shock, so I'm not even sure I'd recognize him if I did see him again. He was just a guy."

"No Lis," I said seriously. "He prevented me from losing the most important person in my life. He's way more than just a guy. He's a hero."

She started crying then and ran back into the house. Truthfully, I knew that I'd laid it on a bit thick, but I was enjoying watching her squirm. That was going to be my plan from then on. I was going to kill her with kindness. But at the same time I'd make my plans to get away from her cheating ass.

I ordered the pizza and played in the yard with my kids while we waited for the Dominos guy. I also thought a lot about what would make Lisa do something like that. Was it just a one time lapse of character brought on by fear or was this her true colors manifesting themselves again after years of trying to keep them below the surface.

I really believed that not only was this the real Lisa coming out, but that it would only get worse over time. I thought back to the previous incidents. The first time she'd actually asked me about swinging. That time, as bad as it had been for me was at least an honest attempt to communicate something. Perhaps I should have sat down with her then and discussed the matter more fully, instead of wasting all of this time. But I'd truly been hurt by that because it implied that after all of those years and our kids and everything else we'd gone through, none of it was as important to her as getting her hole stuffed.

I wish that we'd gone ahead and had that talk, because by now all of the drama would have ended and we'd both be better off.

But we didn't and a while later, she came back at me and this time she tried to trick me into it. Even her drunken friends had tried to warn me that leopards don't change their spots. What an idiot I've been. She's probably been doing this all along. At that moment I truly felt blindsided, like one of those poor guys in the stories I read on the internet.

You work your ass off trying to make a nice life for yourself and your family, only to come home early one day and find your slut of a wife screwing the neighbor. If I hadn't come home early from my trip I probably wouldn't even know that any of this had gone on. Lisa would simply have lied about it, or just not told me and I'd have continued to be in the dark.

After the kids had filled up with pizza and we'd watched one of those inane shows on the Disney channel, Lisa reappeared. She looked like she'd been through hell. There were bags under her eyes that hadn't been there a couple of hours before.

"Are you okay?" I asked. She nodded and hugged me.

"Dave, sometimes you just don't know," she said tearing up again. The tears just rolled out of her eyes and seeing her like that even made me feel bad.

"I mean you tell me that you love me all the time," she said. "You buy me presents for birthdays and sometimes just for the hell of it. But it doesn't really register. I mean a husband is supposed to do those things. But what you said back there before and the look in your eyes, it just all became so clear to me all over again. You really do love me. I'm not just someone to wash your clothes and take care of your kids. It's real for you, I'm not just someone for you to have sex with and cook your meals. You really love me. The whole thing, us growing old together and spoiling our grandkids if we can get these two to grow up and have some...it's all real."

I just nodded. "Dave, I'm so sorry," she said. "I'm so absent minded sometimes. I go out shopping and just forget about everything else in the world. But it won't happen again. I'm going to do my best to do better...to be better. I'm going to become the wife that you deserve."

"Lisa, you're already..." I started, but she cut me off.

"No Dave, don't even say it. I'm not. You work so hard and you never complain. You deserve so much better," she said. She shook her head and wiped her tears and hugged me again.

"I'm going to go ahead and go to work," I said. "I won't be gone long. I have to be up early tomorrow."

"Why?" she asked.

"I promised to loan my chainsaw to the twins' mother. Wendy wants to go over there too. Since she and her husband are getting a divorce, I'll probably have to help her. I feel kind of sorry for her," I said. I watched Lisa's eyes as I told her and there was definitely fear there.

"Why do you have to do it?" she asked. "Even if they're getting a divorce he can still go back to his own home where his children stay and help take care of the place. This is bullshit."

"No Lisa," I said smiling. "It's doing the right thing. Just think where we'd be right now if that guy hadn't helped you. I just want to do my part. I want to help the twins' mom the same way that guy helped you. In fact I'm so glad about what he did for you that maybe I want to help her even more."

I thought that she was going to vomit when I said that. The irony hadn't been lost on me. I continued to smile even as she slowly walked back down the hall. She deserved it. And although I had no intention of doing anything like what was going through her mind, letting her think that it could happen made me feel great.

I didn't really have to go to work. There were a few e-mails that needed to be returned but they were nothing that couldn't wait until Monday. The truth was that I simply didn't want to be around Lisa. I also needed to think about what was going on. There just seemed to be two completely different women in that same body. There was the Lisa that I loved with all of my heart, the one who'd cried realizing that I do love her that much. But she shared a body with that whore who thought so little of our marriage that she'd fuck four men in a storage shed while another guy videotaped it. I didn't know which one was really her. But I just didn't think I could live with her anymore.

Maybe a divorce would be good for both of us because that way she'd be free to go out and get all of the sex and excitement she needs. At the same time I'd be able to find someone who didn't need any more excitement than my kids and I could give her.

In the back of my mind I was also wondering whether or not this was a one-time aberration. Even if that were the case, I couldn't go through my life wondering when the next time she'd go off the wagon would be. And it wasn't a case of couldn't it was a case of wouldn't.

By the time I slipped back in the house and into our bed, Lisa was fast asleep. From what I could see she wasn't sleeping comfortable either. She was tossing and turning and talking. She kept saying things like, "Why," and "Stupid." I had an idea of another way to twist the knife in the morning. I almost smiled as I drifted off to sleep.

When I woke up the next morning I jumped out of bed and showered. I threw on a pair of long cargo shorts and started grabbing tools. I got my good Poulan Pro chainsaw out and put it in the Mustang's tiny trunk. I also grabbed my bar lube and my premixed gas can that had the correct mixture of gas and oil. To that I added a couple of fifty foot coils of rope and my electric chainsaw. I also got a fifty foot extension cord for the electric saw.

I went back inside of the house and woke Wendy up. She was sluggish at first until I reminded her that we were going to visit the twins. Kyle opted to go as well. I guess the chance to watch me cut down part of a tree, beat staying home pretty easily.

I made us a breakfast of microwaved bacon and frozen waffles and we sat down to eat. Lisa breezed into the kitchen in another T-shirt and shorts combo smiling from ear to ear. She leaned over to hug me and I stiffened and pulled away from her.

"You used to like it when I did that," she said. She was referring to the way she rubbed her breasts all over me while the kids weren't looking.

"Yeah I used to," I said.

"What changed?" she asked, looking hurt.

"The fact that I don't know who you're doing it for," I said, sharply.

"What are you talking about, Honey?" she asked.

"I can't tell if it was meant for me or Steve," I said, watching her out of the corner of my eye. She visibly stiffened and her eyes got huge.

"Who's Steve?" she asked.

"I don't know," I said. "But you were tossing and turning all night and you kept saying Steve, over and over so maybe you should tell me who Steve is."

Her mouth dropped open but no words came out. I got the kids and we left leaving her standing there.

When I pulled into the driveway of the twin's house I took a really good look at the place. It was a nice house. It looked like it had been lovingly cared for. It did need a bit of help though.

As we got out of the car, the door opened and there she was. Apparently short-shorts and T-shirts without bras were in style this season, because she was rocking that same look. The smile she gave me could have melted a rock.

"I didn't think you'd really come," she said. Her expression was a mixture of surprised, happy and intimidated all at the same time.

"You don't look completely happy that we're here," I said. "Don't worry, if you made other plans we can always come back a different time."

"You're staying?" she asked. Her expression changed again. The happy part seemed to overshadow the rest. "I had planned on it, but if you're rather we didn't..."

"Oh, no!" she said quickly. "I definitely want you to stay. Yes definitely!"