Gone with the Wind

"I guess I'm just not in the mood," said Dave. He got up and walked out of the room without even looking back at me. Was that even possible? Since when did men have to be in the mood?

Sunday was much the same as the rest of the weekend had gone. Dave got up and went somewhere. He drove his Mustang and left me his filthy Jeep, which didn't matter because I had nowhere to go.

When he came back he was exhausted. He'd gone to the park to run and had run himself into the ground. He told me that he'd decided to run a marathon in the fall so he needed to do progressively longer runs. Dave ran three or four times a week, but this was the first I'd heard of any marathon.

He got back in bed and took a nap. Naturally, he was too tired to play. Even when I suggested that I'd get on top and do all of the work, he wasn't interested. When he did get up he played video games with the kids and did some stretching. After that he washed his fucking car again. I started to realize that it wasn't sex that Dave was avoiding. It was me.

And Dave was a good dad, but he'd been ridiculous this weekend. It was almost as if he didn't want to let the kids out of his sight. I started to think that maybe he was still angry at me for not checking on the kids during the storm.

Sunday night came and went without sex and I was climbing the walls. Monday morning was even more unusual. Dave usually didn't go in to work until a little bit after the bus picked up the kids. There were a lot of mornings that we had a quickie as soon as the bus pulled off. I remember so many times when I had Dave's fat dick buried in me before the bus made it to the corner.

So as soon as the bus took off that morning I left the house. I drove to Dave's office and waved at the security guards as I walked in. As soon as I got off of the elevator, I felt strange. I walked into Dave's office and caught him red handed hugging a woman.

"Get your fucking hands off of my husband," I screamed. They both turned in shock. Dave had been hugging his longtime secretary Miriam. I'd thought that she was my friend all of this time. I also had never thought that she was the type of woman Dave would go for. Dave just shook his head and looked at his watch. It was almost like he was telling me that he didn't have time for my bullshit.

"I have a meeting," he said. "Miri, can I trust you to clean this up?" She smiled and nodded.

"I'll talk to you at home," he said to me, angrily. He shook his head and walked out of the room.

Miriam turned and looked at me then. "You just couldn't let me be happy for a few minutes could you?" she asked.

"What the fuck am I supposed to think?" I yelled. "I walk in here and find you humping my hus..." She held up one imperious finger and stopped me in my tracks. She looked at me as if she was scanning me and then shook her head.

"I can't help you," she said.

"Who needs your help?" I said. "I didn't ask for any God damned help except for keeping your meat hooks off of my man and..." She raised the finger again.

"How many years have I worked with Dave?" she asked.

"Twelve, I think," I said.

"You're right," she agreed. "When he first started to date you, I encouraged it. I thought that you'd be good for him. When you got married, I was at the ceremony. I was at the hospital when both of your kids were born. I've been to your house more times than I can count. I have hugged Dave or kissed him, in front of you, I might add hundreds of times. But this one time, you get angry."

I realized then that I had made a serious mistake.

"Look around the room, Lisa," she said. "See the banners? See the stacked plates? It's finally my turn, Lisa. They had a going away party for me Friday, while Dave was out of town. I got engaged last week and found out that I'm pregnant. And Dave is not the lucky guy. My fiancé, whom you've met before is in the military. This is his home town so he comes home on a lot of weekend passes, but he's stationed in California. I'm going to move there, so we can be together for the pregnancy and get married before the baby is born. You walked in on one of my best friends giving me an innocent goodbye hug. And once again, Lisa you've seen me hug him in front of you when I was wearing nothing more than a bikini." She looked at me again.

"You're cheating on him, aren't you?" she asked, shaking her head. "It's the only reason I can come up with for you suddenly becoming so God damned jealous. Cheaters always think that everyone else is doing it too, that's why you're acting so nutty. And if you are, you're a fool, because Dave isn't stupid. He'll find out sooner or later and you'll lose him. You'll spend the rest of your life watching him with some other woman and regretting it, but it'll be your own stupidity that caused it." She sat down at her desk then and started typing as if I wasn't even there.

* * * * * *

Dave

It was ironic that Lisa would show up, and make a fool of herself, right before I went to the meeting with the lawyer who'd hopefully be able to help me to get away from her cheating ass.

The lawyer turned out to be a feisty older woman. She was very short and kind of fat, but she had a smile and a twinkle in her eye that made her attractive all the same.

"Before we start, I should tell you that I'm not a magician," she said. "I can't wave my magic wand and arrange it so you don't have to pay her anything. The courts in this state have certain rules and limits and levels of responsibility. It takes extraordinary circumstances to get a judge to throw those out."

"I totally understand that," I said. "I married Lisa because I loved her too much to continue being without her in my life every day. We've had a great ten years and we have two beautiful children. I don't mind paying my fair share to help her move forward in her life."

"Well that's a refreshing attitude," she said. "If you don't mind me asking, you seem to really love your wife. Why are you asking for a divorce?"

I pulled out the phone and showed her the video. Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open.

"Those are pretty close to extraordinary circumstances," she said. I nodded.

"You're still confused and hurt by this, aren't you?" she asked. I nodded again. "Do you believe her explanation at all?"

"She doesn't know that I know yet," I said.

"So you haven't even spoken to her about this yet?" she asked.

"What would the point be in speaking to her about it?" I asked. "It's not like she can undo it. And it's also not something I could ever forgive or forget. So why bother muddying the waters. I just want this quick and clean and with a minimum of drama."

After I left the lawyer's office, a thought occurred to me. If I wanted to know how Lisa had turned into what she became, maybe I needed to go back to where she started. I pulled my car over and pulled out my phone.

"Paula, are you busy?" I asked.

"Who is this?" she asked.

"David Thomas," I said.

"Okay, I know that you're not calling me to cheat on Lisa, so what's up Dave?" she asked.

"How do you know that I'm not?" I asked.

"Two reasons," she said. "The first was that I saw the way you lit up every time she came into the room, when I was at that party at your house. And second, you had plenty of chances to start something when I was drunk and throwing myself at you, when you drove me home that night, but you never even looked at me. That kind of love doesn't just go away."

"How do you know I didn't look at you" I asked.

"Because I wasn't actually drunk," she said. "I thought if I got you away from her, I might have a chance. Most guys, when faced with an attractive woman who's not in a position to say no, would avail themselves of what was being offered. I was stumbling around and bending over and flashing my tits at you. You didn't even consider it."

"So you faked it?" I laughed.

"I took my shot," she said. "So what's the point of this call?"

"What was Lisa like...before?" I asked.

"Well she was like the rest of us," she said. "That's why we were friends. We were alike. I guess you can call us whatever you want. Most people thought we were a bunch of sluts. I guess we were, but I also think that we were just a group of women who were honest about themselves and their sexuality. I mean if we were guys we'd have been called studs, right?"

"But really, Lisa changed when she met you. I think that we were all looking for someone like you, but Lisa just found hers before anyone else did. And no matter what she did in the past, she loves you, Dave. Yeah, before you guys met, she went out with a lot of guys and she fucked a lot of them. But she quit when she met you."

"And she was right to do it. I know that when we all get together for our weekly lunches we all make fun of her. We call her a soccer mom and tell her that her life is boring, but there isn't a single one of us that wouldn't trade places with her in a heartbeat."

"Are you kidding?" I asked.

"Dave, you've been single, right?" she asked. I nodded.

"So you know that for every liquor filled, wild assed night, there are ten or twelve lonely nights, alone in your apartment. Shit, I don't even have a cat."

"And you're wondering, if I'd trade places with Lisa?" she asked. "Let's see...I'd have a guy who really loves me, with me every night. Lisa would have to be crazy not to appreciate that. Maybe she listens to us a little bit too much and misses the old days. It's probably just a nostalgic phase. I wouldn't read too much into it."

I went back to work but I thought about her words and in the end, I decided that what she'd said didn't mean a lot. After all except for their lunches, Paula hadn't really spent a lot of time with Lisa.

And even if Paula was telling the truth, and Lisa was just bored or just nostalgic for her old days of freedom, we'd taken vows when we got married. There were a lot of things I remember and miss about my single days too, but I hadn't gone out and done them. And what Lisa had done wasn't just going out and hanging out with the girls. The girls hadn't even been there, this had been all on Lisa.

When I got home that evening, Lisa was all smiles. "You didn't kiss me goodbye this morning," she told me. "But don't worry about it. You can make it up to me tonight."

It didn't happen, but I was still riding the wave of her guilt. She didn't say anything but she did look at me pretty suspiciously.

The next day was a different matter though. That was when she started dropping hints. By Wednesday she tried a different type of attack.

"Dave, I know we're getting older," she said. "And we've been together for a long time. Do you still think I'm attractive?"

"You're one of the most beautiful women I know," I told her.

"I was just wondering..." she said."...Because, I remember a time when you couldn't keep your hands off of me."

"That was a long time ago. We're older and more settled now," I said.

"That was two weeks ago," she said sharply. Even as she said it her expression changed and she got quiet.

I wasn't sure if she was remembering the storm but she left the room.

The next morning I was at my desk going over some orders when the call came in. It wasn't on the office phone, it was my cell.

"Hm...I thought that we were supposed to be calling each other for support," she said

"Hi Amanda," I said. I don't know where the abrupt mood change came from but I was glad to have it. My mood was like night and day just from hearing her voice.

"Wow!" she said. "Maybe I should call back at a different time. You seem to be pretty happy and I don't want to kill your mood."

"Amanda, ten seconds ago I felt pretty bad. I think you created my mood," I said.

"Dave, that's the nicest thing anyone has said to me in a long time. How've you been holding up?" she asked.

"I'm running out of ways to avoid having sex with Lisa," I said laughing. "Pretty soon I'm going to just have to come out and tell her. But the divorce papers won't be ready until Monday. My lawyer has to confer with the CPS worker since I'm asking for primary custody of my kids."

"I still don't understand why you're avoiding having sex with her," she said. "Trust me, before too long you'll regret having done that."

"I think the intimacy between us is gone," I said. "Seeing the person you love, spread her legs for four guys, kind of destroys that. I'm also scared that she picked up some kind of disease. I guess I should go and get myself tested."

"Welcome to the club," she said. "This is how it feels like to be cheated on. They go out and have all of the fun and all we get is the misery. I guess that's why I called you. Guess who called me this morning?"

"How many guesses do I get?" I asked.

"One," she laughed.

"Okay, but I'll need a clue," I said.

"The guy I least want to hear from," she giggled.

"Robert," I guessed.

"Okay, second least," she said.

"You only gave me one guess," I said.

"Okay you can have one more," she said.

"Are you married to him?" I asked.

"Yep," she laughed. "You should have heard him. He sounded all apologetic and he talked about how much he missed me and the kids. Get this...he told me he'd been working on his problem and he hadn't had any sex at all since I threw him out. We both know that isn't true, don't we?"

"I guess so," I said softly.

"I'm sorry Dave," she said sadly. "I didn't mean to upset you. I just wanted you to be proud of me."

"It's not your fault that my wife can't keep her legs closed," I said. "So what did you tell him?"

"Well all the other times that he cheated on me," she began. "It was about this time that he'd do just what he did this morning. He'd call me and try to sound contrite and sad. And I'd have had time to miss him. I'd be lonely and horny and I'd have him give me a lot of promises, but every time, I took him back."

Her voice had a tone that told me she was proud of herself.

"But not this time," she said. "This time I thought about my new friend and the things we talked about and I told him, "no."

"Wow!" I said.

"I also told him that I was looking for a lawyer and I wanted a divorce," she said. "He got really pissed and called me a bunch of names and told me that before this was over I'd beg him to take me back. I just laughed and hung up the phone."

"You're my hero," I said.

"Nah," she said. "I'm just following in your footsteps. I've been putting up with his bullshit for years. You're the one who put his foot down and said, "I won't take this shit."

"Somehow it seems so much cooler when you did it," I said. "In my case..."

"In your case...what?" she asked.

"I guess I'm just hurting really badly and that's why I have to get away from her. I just don't want her to be able to hurt me again."

"Ohhh, Dave," she said. "I guess I forgot how much that first time hurt. I'm so sorry."

Just hearing her voice did wonders for me. It was great to hear from someone who really knew how I was feeling.

* * * * * *

Lisa

When the phone rang that morning I was in a terrible mood. I was angry and horny and scared all at the same time. I almost jumped through the roof at the sound of the phone.

"Things back to normal in paradise yet?" she asked. "I assume that by now you've probably fucked him back into submission."

"I wish," I said. "Hell, I wish he'd fucked ME back into submission. So how do you know about my problem anyway?"

"I don't," she laughed. "Not the specifics anyway. I just know that you've got trouble in river city."

"How do you even know that?" I asked.

"Your hubby called me," she said. "He wanted to know about your wild past. I'm thinking that maybe it's like Elaine's situation."

Elaine was a friend of ours who lost her boyfriend when he found out what a slut she'd been in college.

"Oh shit," I said nervously.

"Relax, Lisa. You're in a much better, much more secure position than Elaine was in. One; you're already married to him and have been for ten years. Two; the guy loves you so much it's ridiculous. He's not going to give you up without a fight. And three; you two have two beautiful kids together. So you should just lay all of your cards on the table. I guess in a lot of ways this is my fault and Sarah's."

"How is this, your fault?" I asked.

"Well...remember that party you had about 8 months ago?" she asked.

"Yeah you got really drunk," I said.

"Lisa have you ever seen me drunk before that?" she asked. I thought about it and realized that I never had. Paula was always the one who carried the rest of us home.

"What are you saying Paula?" I asked.

"I wasn't really drunk, Honey," she said. "Dave just seemed too good to be true. I wanted to see what would happen if I got him away from everyone else. Maybe there'd be a crack in his armor, you know?"

"No, I don't know," I said angrily.

"Yeah you do," she said. "Don't act so holier than thou, Lisa. You did the same thing to a couple of your professors in college before you flamed out. You caught them at one of those student/faculty mixers and pretended to be drunk. Those men were married too. Shit, it was the only reason you stayed in college for the whole year that you did..."

"So you're telling me that YOU, my best friend fucked my husband...?" I yelled into the phone.

"Calm down and listen, Lisa," she said. "I pretended to be as drunk as a skunk. I flashed him my titties...not that they're anywhere near as big as those things of yours...and I did all of the little things to let him know that I was willing. But he didn't even blink. He even tried to stop for coffee to sober me up. Once he thought that I was sobering up we had a conversation about guess what...you, of course."

"He acted like you were just this divine creature that was sent down from heaven to make his life better, Lisa. It pissed me off, there I was coming off like some drunken whore, but all he wanted to talk about was his angelic wife. So I had to knock you off of that fucking pedestal...so I might have mentioned, in passing, that you were kind of a slut in the old days too. And that, may be what started all of this. Because that's what he wanted to talk about when he called. So maybe he's been thinking about this for a while and it's been eating away at him and he finally just freaked out over it."

"That does sound possible," I said. "Paula, do you think that as my friend, you might be able to stay the fuck out of my marriage?" I hung the phone up angrily.

As I cleaned the house that afternoon I thought really hard about what I could do to fix the rift between Dave and me. I guess I was still fooling myself about what had caused it, but at that moment I didn't think there was any way that Dave could have found out what happened.

When he got home that evening, I was all over him. I wore a long T-shirt with shorts under it because I knew that turned him on. Every man is different and my hubby didn't really like lingerie. I guess it just seemed too contrived. It came off like, "Hey this is my very expensive, non-functional underwear that I'm wearing to make you want to fuck me."

Over the years I'd noticed that Dave didn't really respond to that at all. But there were times when I'd be dripping with sweat in just a T-shirt while we were out working in the yard and he'd just go crazy. I remember him once pushing me into the garage with a glazed look in his eyes.

I thought that he was pissed at first because I'd done something wrong. He'd pushed me over to his precious Mustang and bent me over the hood. Then he started moaning and rubbing my heavy breasts through the T-shirt. He reached under the shirt and almost ripped my bra off and threw it on the floor of the garage.

I knew what he wanted then, and I was all for it. I liked it. Dave has always been a very unselfish lover. He's also the gentlest man I've ever been with. He is so caring when it comes to sex. He always makes me feel so loved. I think that's one of the things that made it easy for me to put the slut thing behind me. And I never ever felt like I was giving anything up. But this time something had brought out the animal in him.