He Makes Her Laugh

"No, you're too good to me. Do what you think is best. Besides, I know how you love to cross-country ski and snowmobile. I would only be a drag on you. Go politic and have fun, and I will visit with my sister. We can always be together after New Year's," she said moving suggestively closer and slipping down her top.

For a woman past forty, she sure had a nice set of firm tits. She proceeded to unbuckle my trousers and to put them down. She caressed my cock through my shorts for a moment then proceeded to plant kisses on my bare erection. The blow job that followed would have been worthy of the best high-class whore. But I couldn't help wondering was she learning these moves from that bastard Robert Price?

She was happy and so apparently looking forward to her trip with her sweet Robby, as she called him, that although it hurt a bit, I was happy for her. In a strange way, I had become invested in her infidelity. Was I not the lovers' victim, I think I could have rooted for them.

For the three weeks prior to Christmas, I was treated to the sexiest wife I had ever known, doing more to please me than any harem girl ever had to service her sheik. It still hurt to realize that she was this hot in contemplation of her week abroad with him. I began to realize that Robert might be far more competition in the bedroom than I could handle.

My sole distraction from my wife's passions was my bloody business. In this regard, the term that no-good deed goes unpunished might be apt, but I believe that the political truth that do for me once and you are bound to me forever is more relevant.

I had done Simon Rabinowitz a favor. The naïve among my fellow citizens would assume that Simon would have to pay me back, and he would in his fashion; however, now I was locked into whatever new favors Simon needed and with a bunch of green legislators arriving in town Simon needed all the arms he could twist.

I had become his go-to guy for providing local capital district housing for all the newly minted legislators. This was a two-edged assignment. If I matched the needs of the new representative well then, they were obligated to me, but do a poor job, and you engender resentment in high places. Often this was no more than a matter of perception.

New York is in practice two states referred to as upstate and downstate. Those who come to Albany are divided between these two states. The down states from New York City and its environs arrive and find everything a bargain. The upstate faction hates all things connected to Albany and greet every price with the sure belief they are being cheated because why should anything cost more than it does in does in Buffalo, Binghamton, or Syracuse.

What I provided was an extensive variety of below-market apartments from the real estate interests of my client lists, and my own carefully acquired properties. The key to property in New York's capital is less about location than most places. The true issue is the property taxes. Taxes and value have little relationship in most of New York. It is all about who you know or how much of a fight you were willing to make.

I had made my bones fighting assessments, but I had long ago learned the best taxes rates came from influencing the assessors. With Simon's help, I was now preparing to turn the tables and sell influence with the legislators back to the assessors.

My business could not have been more complicated or more profitable, but I had no reason to inform my wife about that fact. Ann Lennon was another situation entirely. As Lou prepared for her trip abroad, I prepared to welcome Ann to Albany.

I saw my holiday agenda as an ideal plan, but as Robert Burns opined "the best-laid plans often go astray." Fate has a way of stepping in. My fate was sealed by a piece of calcium smaller than a dime.

Things began well. Lou left for her alleged visit to her sister on the feast of Saint Steven. Like a good husband, I drove her to the airport. Here she boarded a plane for Newark where she was allegedly to catch a connection to North Carolina. In fact, she was seated next to Robert Price as they left Albany, and they would connect in Newark with an international flight to Paris. All very simple, leave your husband at the gate and kiss your boyfriend discreetly once you are on board the plane.

I hung around the airport to greet the Lennons who were flying in from Chicago to spend time with me. It couldn't have worked out better. Louise and Robert out and Ann and Allen in, and in truth a fine time was being had by all until about Saturday.

On my end, I had a chill down my spine and a sudden sense of dread. In Paris, Lou came down with what appeared to be a cold or the flu. She started vomiting, but this is normal for her with even a mild cold. By New Year's Eve, they took her to the hospital in an ambulance.

The call came New Year's Day just as Allen was fixing us a special first of the year breakfast. I had the good sense to make sure only I answered the phone.

"Hello," I said on the fifth ring hoping it was a wrong number or a friend calling with a New Year's greeting, but somehow already knowing something disastrous had happened.

"Hello Matthew, you don't know me my name is Robert Price," he began.

At that moment, I realized the jig was up, and that something very serious had happened to the woman I still loved.

"I know who you are. What happened to my wife," I said not meaning it to come out as the accusation it did.

"Oh—Ah, I'll put the doctor on," he said clearly bewildered that I knew who he was.

Then a woman with a sweet very accented voice came on and introduced herself as Doctor Marion Massi, the surgeon.

"Mr. Lancing, I need to operate on your wife, but she is how you American's say, 'a little out of it.' I would appreciate a more informed decision from a close family member. I'm afraid that I insisted on contacting you as her husband when I discovered that you and Madame Lancing are still living as man and wife."

"Thank you, doctor. We, lawyers, say non compos mentis. Tell me is she very sick?"

"Her condition is only life-threatening because it went so long without treatment. The condition comes with considerable pain, but either your wife didn't have pain or ignored it. I suspect a combination. I understand that yours' is a long marriage. So, you may be aware that your wife has gallstones."

"Yes, for all of our married life, but they have never bothered her."

"Sorry, but that is not the case any longer. She has an infected gallbladder that must be removed, but a large stone has escaped the Blatter and become lodged in a bile duct. We need, therefore, to perform two surgeries. With your permission, I will remove the errant stone tomorrow morning and the gallbladder after giving her a day to recover."

"You have my permission, but please tell me where you are located so that I may come."

"Qui," she said and waited while I found pen and paper to write down her directions to the Hospital Saint-Louis.

They say traveling on a holiday is difficult but flying full fare in first class, I was able to catch the 3:23 p.m. to Kennedy in New York and the early evening flight to Paris. The Lennons were kind enough to drive me to the Airport, and I only took a carry-on bag. With the flight time, the time difference, and the Paris traffic, I arrived just before 7 a.m. of the second of January.

I caught the lovers together as they waited for Louise to be taken down for her first surgery. She started crying the moment she saw me. Robert was sitting by the bed holding her hand, but she pulled her hand back the moment she saw me.

I went to her bedside saying, "how bad you feeling baby?" She had a grayish pallor, and she was clearly suffering.

"Better now that you're here and worst because of the way I've hurt you."

As she said this, I found myself looking over to where Robert sat by her bedside. He was very much the loving partner, but his countenance was now troubled. Was his conscience bothering him? Was he afraid of what must come next?

"I didn't want you to find out like this. I'm so sorry," she said.

"Actually, I've known about you and Robert here for several months," I replied which only brought on further weeping.

I was saved from further tears and apologies by a nurse and orderly appearing to take Lou for her operation. When she had gone the nurse directed us to a room where we could wait and to where we could find refreshments. Robert and I immediately split up. I went for coffee and something to eat. Our being together was awkward and far too emotionally charged.

I next saw Lou in the recovery room just before noon. She was woozy but regaining her strength and self-composure.

"I meant what I said before," she whispered, "I didn't mean for you to find out this way. I was going to tell you everything, but I couldn't figure out how to do it and keep you from leaving me."

With this, she began to weep silently. Robert was nowhere to be seen, but it was only family in recovery. I expected him to appear when they wheeled her back to her room, but he was not there. He made a reappearance when they served her dinner in the early evening. I headed out to find my own dinner and give the lovers some space.

I found a seat at a table in a restaurant near the hospital. I suspected the food was better than the hospital but only mediocre. I had just gotten a glass of wine and a bread bowl when someone pulled out the chair opposite.

"Good evening, you don't mind, do you?" Dr. Marion Massi said sitting herself down.

"Not at all, but I would have thought you would have been long gone."

"No, I had patients to see. Tomorrow I have off, but the next day, I have two operations including your wife."

"Well let me offer to buy you dinner," I said.

She laughed, "Now I was going to offer to buy. After all, I followed you from the hospital."

"Why would you follow me?"

"Curiosity—everyone is talking. Just because we're French doesn't mean we are not titillated by your situation. It is not every day that a woman gets so definitively caught, and the husband is so blasé about it."

The way she said it made me laugh.

"And the joke is? She asked.

"Oh, that I have known for some months about them and knew all about this trip. In a sense, I was caught too."

"Pardon, but while you seem a very cold fish. You do not strike me as a man to tolerate such a marital transgression."

"Never say never, doctor. I have carefully examined the alternatives and the risks. Good friends have persuaded me to look the other way. I was following a course of studied ignorance, but some change of direction is now called for."

The doctor shook her head and with a little laugh said, "Yes, a very cold fish but coincidentally the fish is very good here."

Over dinner, I learned that she was forty-two the mother of a grown son, but never married. She was of Berber descent, the family having immigrated in the 1960s. She also had a very rational way of thinking. "I still don't get you. Your rival is older, clearly poorer, and burdened with a seriously ill spouse. If you want to keep your wife, why do you not compete with him."

"For the same reason that James Cagney never hit a small man in the movies. If you want to be the tough guy, you must never fight a clearly weaker opponent. Robert Price has never truly been worth fighting."

"You Americans are all crazy. It makes me rethink my plans to immigrate to your country."

"Oh, are you coming to America?"

"Maybe, the money is definitely better there, and I think I might like to have money, but your government is being so difficult."

"Well, maybe it is not a question of what you know but who."

When I returned to Louise's hospital room, Robert was still there. She was looking and feeling better but was clearly not out of the woods.

"Robert is going home," she informed me, "he must take care of his wife."

He tried to shake my hand as he was leaving, but I was having none of that. Lou was a bit put out by my behavior.

"it's not Robert's fault. We just fell into it. He needed me, and I needed him," she said.

There were a lot of whiny things I could have said at that point. You know talked about wedding vows and loyalty to one's spouse. All that silly bullshit that betrayed men spout to cover their failure to keep the fidelity of their spouse, but all of that made me into a kind of victim. From the beginning, I had resolved not to be a victim.

"I'm sorry. Haven't as yet adjusted to your being with him. I've got the fact of it in my head, but emotionally I still reject it."

She made the effort to reach and take my hand, "I'm not with him. I'll be there for you the moment I get out of this hospital. The question is do you still want me considering what I've done?"

"I've thought about it, and we have shared too much and loved so long. Simply put I don't want to lose us, but I fear that I already have lost us."

"No, you must never think that. You can't possibly know how sorry I am for the way I've hurt you."

"Before you go too far be aware that I stopped being faithful to you in my heart when I discovered your affair, and I've betrayed you physically since then."

That brought her up short. She clearly never conceived that I would go outside our marriage.

"I've made some new acquaintances. I could call them friends, but in fact, we are lovers. They believe in polyamory or at least that is how they have styled their marriage. Like you the wife didn't confine her love to her husband," while I said this, I watched her face.

Most people who commit adultery don't approve of it. Rather they see their situation as an exception. My Louise was in this group. She was no less hurt or disapproving of what I told her about the Lennons than the most faithful of spouses. What she lacked was the right to disapprove of my current conduct.

"So, you see at this point, I don't need you to stop seeing Robert. As far as I'm concerned, the terms of our marriage have changed. All I need is the answer to one question,

How Does He Make You Laugh?"

****

The following is an epilogue for those who will write me and tell me the story isn't finished. I think I did exactly as asked: Wrote a positive story about wife sharing.

Lunch at Le Serre is quite good for a French restaurant in Albany, but a bit expensive; however, the lady I was meeting was worth it, and it was a special day for her. Marion was not usually late, but I understood. She spent the morning with the state licensing authorities to get approval to practice.

The hostess greeted Marion at the door when she arrived and led her to my table. I could hear them conversing in French. The hostess was very proud of her linguistic ability. The two women laughed at some private joke as Marion was seated.

"I'm sorry to have kept you waiting, but my interview ran over," Marion said as she was seated.

"So, what was the joke?" I asked

She gave a puzzled expression and then said, "Oh she just commented on how attractive my lunch companion is."

"And that was funny?"

"Well, in the way you are attractive," she said with a smirk, "she thinks you are a very bad boy, Matt, and I think she is right."

The waitress came over, and Marion insisted in ordering for us in French.

"I'm saving you money by knowing what to order," she said, "I'm afraid it will be several months before I can pay my own way."

"Really, it will take that long."

"If what the people at the hospital tell me is correct, but then my green card came so much faster than customary."

"Yes, I guess it pays to know a bad boy," I said.

She laughed. It seemed that I knew how to make Marion laugh.

"That is not the reason you are a bad boy. It is having lunch with an unattached woman when you have a wife at home."

Now it was my turn to laugh, "But she is not alone. She has her lover there. He has so much more free time now that he has been connected with all those state resources to help his wife."

She only laughed more. "You are incorrigible. You have made poor Mr. Price into a cicisbeo. You treat him with disdain while placing him in your debt. What must your wife think of him?'

"I don't know but hopefully nothing good," I said, "but enough of them. I brought you to lunch to talk about us."

"Oh, is there an us?"

"I should hope so. Am I wrong?"

"No, I'm just teasing but be careful. I may just decide to keep you, and then you will find how jealous a Berber woman can be," she said.

"You never know, I may need to find that out. You see I'm keeping my options open. You never know I might need to give monogamy a second try."