Good Enough - Bluetooth Expose

Note - this really did happen to me the other day - I was suddenly listening in on my wife's quite innocuous cell phone call she made in her car while I was in mine...take care out there, folks! My entry in the "brand new way to find out" sweepstakes. And I was also motivated by rereading some of Richard Gerald's new (and older) stories and his kind of intelligent, educated, apparently powerful women who can't quite get away with casual infidelity and lead the kind of lives they want to. Or something. Not much explicit sex in this one. Just another classic loving wife. And this IS a complete, standalone story.

***************

I was following my wife to the auto dealership to get the very first 7500 mile oil change on our new Tahoe. I was listening to Rush on the radio when suddenly I realized I was listening in on a call my wife just got in her Lexus on her cellphone.

"Hello. Hello? That's weird. My phone didn't automatically link with my radio like it normally does... Why are you calling me now on this phone?" I heard her ask.

A man replied, in a deep masculine voice I instinctively disliked immediately. The hairs on the back of my neck actually stood up.

"I can't make it tonight. I'm almost at the airport right now and have to fly to D.C. Kind of a mini-crisis. I wanted to give you a heads up and maybe a chance to actually do your alibi for a change - maybe a real night out with your girlfriends, if you wanted to."

"OK. That's a sweet thought. Call me normally when you want to get together again. Bye now."

I suddenly had a lot to think about. My wife occasionally drove the Tahoe though it was normally "my" vehicle as the man of the house, and she liked her own smaller and nimbler Lexus sedan.

As a lawyer - and a modern woman - she practically lived with her cellphone grafted onto her body someplace, and had linked her phone to the Tahoe's radio first time she was in it. I had no idea the Bluetooth range was that good, and through the metal of both vehicles even, and I wasn't even tailgating her car. I have no idea why her phone linked with the Tahoe instead of her own Lexus - maybe it was as simple as I had cranked the Tahoe first in our driveway. We were both going to the dealer because there was already a recall on the Tahoe and that would require about 4 hours total service, and we could both be spending a little "quality time" together this Friday afternoon, with our 4 year old daughter Kaylie already at her grandmother's house.

I didn't recognize the man's voice and no names were mentioned and nothing was really spelled out - but obviously my wife was lying to me about something...meeting a man instead of girlfriends for a night out "relaxation". If it was all innocent why the subterfuge? I wasn't a particularly jealous acting man, I thought. I also thought my wife was planning on our "quality time" being "playful bed time" with me this afternoon. She would do that before meeting her - possible - lover tonight? We had scheduled this time together 4 days ago. Obviously her other "date" had already been scheduled as well. Shoot, she told me Monday, that this Friday was set-up with Suzy and Sherry for sure, Gloria and Sandy "working on it." I knew all these women and none of them were wild divorcees or singles. Just nice professional women, 4 out of 5 married and the other one engaged.

Was this normal? Having sex with me then her "other man" the same day? And me again later tonight? Well, not likely if we spent two or three hours in bed this afternoon...hmmm...what better way to defuse a refusal of intimacy later tonight?

Who the hell knew? Guess I was beyond clueless about my own wife. We had been married for seven years now. Seven year itch? I wasn't feeling that and was generally very happy and satisfied and I thought Jan was also.

Jan was a very beautiful woman at 32 years old. She was naturally thin and delicate, with "small bones" but quite noticeable female attributes - front and back - chest and ass. She was five feet eight and weighed less than 120 lbs. She looked sexy and could act flirty and sexy quite well whenever she wanted too. I loved her "thigh gap" between her actually well-muscled dancer's legs.

She was a lawyer in a mid-sized Atlanta firm after initially working as an ADA in the Forsyth County's District Attorney's office for 4 years.

We had met in 2009, introduced by mutual friends. It wasn't exactly love at first sight, and we really didn't seem to have a lot in common. She was younger than I and seemed very vibrant. I was a few years older and was still recovering from my years as a Marine and the injury that ended my career aspirations as an NCO lifer. The injury occurred in Fallujah in 2004 and was combat related - but wasn't quite purple heart worthy.

I won't claim any PTSD problems, but I was now most comfortable with a plain and even boring life. I was merely a custom woodworker and furniture maker. I had bought an older "fixer upper" farmhouse with barn on about 5 acres of former farm land, broken out and sold separately from the surrounding 200 acres still being farmed by the relatives of the former owners - who had retired themselves and moved to Florida. I had converted the barn to my workshop and most of the furniture I made using recovered old barn, fence, and shack weathered hardwoods or pine heartwood. I supplemented my income often by reselling this now pretty valuable wood when I acquired more than I could use myself in a short time frame. At ten dollars or more a "board foot" - which is literally one cubic foot of board or 144 cubic inches (a 1 foot wide board 1 foot long and 1 inch thick - 4/4 standard unfinished wood thickness measurement - is one board foot), well it can add up to some pretty good cash pretty quickly, for no more effort than tearing an old barn down and loading it up and whatever the barn's owner wanted - sometimes they were just happy to have it go away.

After 3 dates with Jan over 3 weeks I wasn't feeling any sparks and decided to just drop it - but then out of the blue it was like she started pursuing me and her "sparkiness" around me certainly picked up. She requested that I be her date for one of her cousin's wedding the next weekend after our third Friday night date. OK, that seemed innocent enough - but the focused attention she spent on me at the reception and the makeout session we had that night was anything but. Nothing like the handshakes and chaste kiss on the cheek that ended all our other dates. What was this sea change all about?

Soon enough we were totally intimate and a couple. I certainly thought at that point we were exclusive. And we were married in just 3 months. "Why wait?" she told anyone who asked.

And who was I to complain? If she had an ulterior motive I couldn't see it. She certainly wasn't marrying me for my money or property. I probably did make more than she realized, but I was sure her own earnings potential was higher than mine. I knew she wasn't making much as an ADA, maybe $55,000 or so a year at that point, but as long as she didn't really ever screw-up she was making a lot of contacts and good "networking" for either running for office herself or moving seamlessly into a much more lucrative private practice. Forsythe County was north of Atlanta and borderline "the sticks" but still part of the Atlanta Metro area and many of the richest Atlantans had estates there. Professional athletes and business CEO's. Those types.

She seemed to be a very successful young professional and as far as I knew had a great working relationship with everyone she came into contact with, even the opposing defense counsel "opponents".

We did socialize with her coworkers quite a bit and I never got any real bad vibes from anyone - just a little bit of quite normal lack of attention paid me - since I wasn't a lawyer or cop or even a degree'd professional. I was more a blue collar guy and I didn't even drink a lot, nor dance and otherwise "party-hearty". Those days for me were long gone.

I did meet a few people I really liked and who seemed more "sympatico". One of the DA's office special investigators, Guy Williamson, noticed my Marine Corp. tat on my upper arm at one of the annual summer BBQ's. He raised an eyebrow and just softly said "Semper Fi." And I smiled back at him.

"You too?" I asked.

"Yes. Afghanistan from 2003 to 2006. I was on my third tour when I lucked out. Wounded and medically discharged but nothing permanent. I'm fine and always was. You?"

"Iraq. Fallujah at the end. The second battle in 2004. Also medically discharged. Wasn't shot or anything. Herniated a disk helping a fellow Marine lift a HumVee off a guy. RPG blew the thing over on him. We lifted it just enough they could pull him out from under. Fucking adrenaline got me. I'm not that strong! But I didn't feel a thing doing it. The other Sgt. WAS that strong - didn't bother him at all! They had to operate on my back and there was just a tad bit of nerve damage. Still got a weak right lower leg, but I'm back to about 90% now even on that side. It took years but I'm not complaining. I'm just thankful all my buddies got out from that little firefight OK."

There was a bit of silence then as we both had some memory moments, but it was a good silence and we were friends from that point on.

But now I had a bit of a problem. A wayward wife - maybe. How to act? Just ask her? Ten minutes ago I would have done just that on ANY question I had about her or us. But now?

I couldn't trust her to tell the truth. Trust had just flown the coop. And I guess my boringly satisfied life was changing as well. I needed the truth that I could trust. Or...maybe just ignore it? Just watch her a little more carefully to see if she was getting ready to leave me, and take my little darling Kaylie with her? Damn, couldn't just bury my head in the sand. Too much at stake.

Since I was already well ensconced in my "new and improved" laid back and low key "boring" persona, I thought I could maintain that OK, as long as Jan wasn't watching ME more closely than normal, herself. Hmmm. This afternoon would tell that tale, I guess.

It took me the normal 15 minutes to get my car all checked in and the salesman/repairs "advocate" to make his pitches for all the extras that I politely declined, then I joined my wife in her Lexus where she had remained on her phone. "Communicating."

I smiled at her and tried my leering look. "Everything OK, Honey?" I started with. "It's nice you could get this afternoon off. I know how busy you normally are..."

"Just a few little annoying issues that I just finished with!" she answered with her most brilliant smile. "I'm turning my phone OFF for the next 3 hours, if you can keep me entertained that long?" And she leered right back at me.

What to do? What to do? Just forget it for now and go with the flow. Easy to say. Hope I can pull it off.

**********

It was a pretty good 3 hours. Three times for me and several more than that for my lovely wife. That was almost a record for us and included all our personal little preferences. She would work me with her mouth to get it slick and as hard as possible. And she did that all three times. She only had ever let me come in her mouth just a few times throughout our relationship. She just didn't like it, I guess.

She DID come on my mouth though pretty regularly. I never felt this was unfair, at all. I truly enjoyed making her come however I could. Sometimes I thought I was just another of those "women trapped in a man's body" as much as I liked pleasuring my wife orally. But I never considered for a second cutting my tool off! Don't get me wrong.

And, as always, her anus was strictly off limits. Do Not Touch! Though occasionally a little tongue action real close to it didn't seem to bother her at all.

To be honest, as far as just sex, Jan wasn't the hottest I ever had - but I gave up that whole useless quest of "the best" a long time ago. Once I finally grew up I realized "good enough" was QUITE good enough, when it came to the whole package. Love, liking, motherhood, faithfulness, trust, that whole "worth of a good wife" as spelled out in Proverbs 31 - and for me Jan WAS a wife "worth more than jewels" when I married her and ever since. And she very seldom ever put me off, and often enough to satisfy my ego initiated intimacy herself. But was she still good enough? Was I still good enough for her???

Now we were on the way back to pick up the Tahoe.

"You still going out with girls tonight?" I asked her as neutrally as possible.

She replied quite normally. "Yes. I've committed to my friends and after this afternoon I'd really like to just chill at home, but I'd better go. It will be an early night for me though."

"OK. I think I'll go out tonight too. One of my fellow jarheads, Sam Worthing has just moved here and called me. This will be a good time for us to reconnect, with you out and Kaylie at your Mom's."

"You won't be late, either?" she asked.

"Probably not. Sam wasn't one of the wilder guys even back then. We'll just grab some wings or something and try to update each other on our lives and our other mates. Sam was better at that than I was."

Sam wasn't actually a "guy" anyway. Well an honorary guy and an honorary Jarhead. She was actually a Samantha. She was one of the Navy Corpsmen assigned to our squad in Fallujah. 6500 Marines were involved there, and 2500 Navy personnel plus quite a few US Army grunts, who really did quite well with their tanks and artillery support and even broaching the initial insurgents defenses. The 2500 Navy pukes included SEAL Special Operators and snipers, Admin and Seabee (CB - Construction Battalion) support, and Medical personnel - MD's, Nurses, and Corpsmen. The medical types weren't supposed to be in any danger zones - but "shit happens" especially in warfare.

Sam got exposed to live fire once and handled herself very well and saved Lance Corporal Art Hadley's life during that little sudden ambush firefight. We then adopted her and vice versa. She was a good one. In every way. And she had just moved to Atlanta with her sometimes boyfriend, former Captain Zeke Sanders. Zeke was also OK - for an officer. Zeke may or may not be there tonight. Sam wouldn't commit either way.

I had also asked Guy Williamson if he might be interested in joining a little Marine Corp alumni reunion, and he promised to try and make it.

We pretty much got caught up on everyone we had mutually known before Guy joined us. I knew he knew this was a little weird but he was just friendly as I introduced them to each other. After a little chit chat and one more beer for everyone I got to my purpose for this meeting.

Of course I had to be careful how I approached it all. I directed the conversation to "relationships" by asking Sam about Zeke.

"Zeke couldn't make it tonight?"

"No. Zeke had to travel out of town for business suddenly," she replied just a little bit unhappily.

"Is that going OK for you, Sam? I kind of heard your relationship with him has been ...well, not easy, maybe?"

She looked me right in the eye. "I don't honestly know. It hasn't been easy. We haven't made any verbal commitments. He won't hardly say he loves me..."

"I'm sorry Sam. I was hoping for better for you. I've kind of been so lucky myself finding Jan, and she basically chose me and blessed me with her own love..."

And I watched Guy closely when I said this...and there it was. Just a fleeting facial change. He knew something - and it wasn't good. He maybe didn't think I was all that lucky after all. He was a professional investigator and could professionally handle his body language, when working - but I had caught him by surprise when NOT working.

Still watching Guy I continued talking. "But maybe I'm not as lucky as I think, Sam. The weirdest thing happened just today. I overheard a cellphone conversation my wife had with another man. Heard his side too. She was supposed to be meeting HIM tonight and not her girlfriends. She lied to me and quite purposefully, and has in the past, as she mentioned "again" and "normal alibi for her husband." I didn't recognize his voice and no names were mentioned. Evidently I am clueless and have BEEN clueless..."

Sam said, "Oh, Jake - I'm sorry but maybe it just isn't what you think. She is a lawyer, right? Maybe it is just a client demanding some special secretiveness."

"Maybe. That is a possibility...Guy, what do you think? Honestly?" I pretty much pleaded.

"Shit," was his reply. That pretty much said it all.

"I thought about just not knowing...but I have to. Can you... no, will you tell me everything you know?"

There were a few seconds of silence.

"Before you, she was an item with the former DA she worked for. They weren't blatant but they weren't all that discreet either. He was married. Soon enough, everyone in the office knew what was going on. James Patrick Leary was a prototype rich asshole type. He had that kind of Irish Kennedy men attractiveness and charm. He thought himself a real lady killer and worked through a lot of the prettier women in the office. He WAS just smart enough not to get accused of any sexual harassment outright. As far as I know it was all quite consensual between Jan and him. I don't quite know exactly when you entered the picture but everyone knows Jan was still seeing him outside the office at least a year after your marriage. Drinks after work, that kind of thing. They never left a club together but always within 15 minutes of each other. Not blatant but...obvious. Sorry. But then he moved on to a US Attorney's position in Atlanta and I only saw them together at a restaurant one other time after his move. He is still around and I would bet IF Jan is still involved with another man, it's still just him. They both work in Atlanta now. Convenient." Sigh.

"You know all this is just background and has to stay that way. Don't take it to your lawyer - it's just hearsay anyway and my own credibility job wise is at stake, understand?"

"Yes. And I do thank you for the info. It's a start on the digging I got to do. Fuck! Maybe at this point we all just forget this part of our conversation ever happened. I don't know about you guys but I'm doing some serious drinking the rest of the night..."

And that's what I did. Sam and I ended up at Guy's apartment eventually. We didn't share a bed or anything. Except the porcelain throne puking, eventually. We shared that.

I got a text from Jan about 11:30 that night. I merely replied "Sorry. Getting drunk with my buddy cause he needs it. I'll be safe. See you tomorrow." And I turned my phone off. Pretty childish, maybe.

I got home about 11 the next morning. I looked and felt pretty bad. That was the first time I've gotten drunk since before I met Jan.

Jan was a tad annoyed acting with me, but surprisingly, that was all. She demanded no detailed explanation.

So, I bought a few voice activated recorders that looked like USB sticks. Just $49 each and would record 16 hours of audio before needing recharging. I put one in her car under the seat. I also put one in her purse in the most out of the way pocket I could find. Realistically I was just going for spot coverage. Put a few others around the house. I wouldn't try to hear everything she said to everyone all the time. Maybe I would get "lucky". I could only realistically check her purse when she was showering. Her car was a little easier to get to and I owned the house, time wise.

It took about 2 months but I learned a lot. Basically, I was just good old "boring" hubby. She pursued me, seduced me, and married me because she was pregnant before she ever had any intercourse with me. Now THAT was a shock! What was also a shock was learning that baby had spontaneously miscarried about a month before our marriage. She hid that very well, too. I never had a clue.