How Much Love?

It was apparent that Rob only wanted to get away from me. He was willing to just walk away and he had. I'd have the house, all of our money, which was mostly his, all of our investments, even his clothing and personal items. He was giving me everything he had just to get away from me. He wasn't even telling anyone what I'd done, he just wanted his freedom. But I loved him too much to give it to him.

Almost a month later despite my hiring a lawyer and trying to fight the divorce, a judge granted it. He wondered what I'd done to Rob to make him literally just walk out of the house and leave me everything he'd worked for over nearly fifteen years just to be away from me.

My lawyer quickly brought up the fact that Rob made substantially more than I did so there should be some type of support agreement.

The judge thought it had been my idea, so he addressed me. "Woman, when the man left this state he was homeless. As I understand it he quit his job and left you everything he had, even his clothes. What more can you take from him? Do you want me to put him in jail too?"

God I wish that judge could have put Rob in jail. I'd have been there with him in a heartbeat. I'd talk to him every day until he forgave me.

"Your honor my client has not been allowed to speak to her husband even briefly since he left her. It is customary for there to be a meeting between the aggrieved spouses to determine matters," said my attorney.

"Counselor you've been reading too many fucking internet divorce stories. There is no law or statute that mandates that. All of the paperwork has been filed correctly. Divorce granted. If I had any say in the matter, I'd have changed the settlement to the customary 50/50 ratio but this poor bastard only wanted to get away with what's left of his dignity intact. Let's leave him that. The Divorce will be final in 60 days. Next case."

He banged his gavel, looked at me and shook his head. I was sure he said "Bitch," under his breath. Then he called for the next case.

I quit my job. I couldn't stand working there anymore. Every guy there thought I was easy pussy and desperate. All of the women thought I was stupid.

I stayed home for a while, living off of our savings. I used some of our investments to pay down the mortgage and refinance it so I could afford the house alone. I tried to mend fences with some of our friends but none of them wanted to be friends with me. I guess word had spread pretty quickly about what I'd done. How I'd destroyed two families, and took a father away from three small children.

I'd also humiliated Rob, who everyone agreed didn't deserve it. Seemingly no one cared about my pain.

About a month after my divorce was final Greg showed up. He was drunk and wanted some pussy. He told me I owed him because he hadn't told anyone that Rob had been the one who messed up his face. His nose hadn't healed well even after the surgeries. It appeared that he had some nerve damaged too because the two sides of his face no longer worked together. It didn't appear that he could control the muscles in his mouth very well. One side would smile or move while the remaining side appeared to be paralyzed.

I tried to close the door on him but he stuck his foot in it to hold it open. I slipped the chain on it and ran into the kitchen and got the biggest knife I could find. As he reached through the door with his arm trying to take the chain off it, I cut him. Not a very big cut but I drew blood and let him know I was serious.

He looked at me in surprise. I guess he thought I was playing a game, but I hated the bastard. "You'll never get any of this dick again," he sneered. "Bitch."

"Oh look," I smiled. "My husband is pulling up."

Greg looked around and I thought I saw fear on his face. He didn't want any part of tangling with Rob again. He ran off and I never heard from him again.

Over the last few months I've begun to establish a relationship with Rob's mom again. She'd always considered me like a daughter and I think I've convinced her that I love her son more than I love life itself. She knows that I've made a colossal mistake and one that I may never be able to fix. She's forgiven me and she reads me her postcards and emails from him sometimes, but she won't take my side or try to help me contact him. In fact she never even told me he was back in this state.

There will never be another man for me period. That's why I wouldn't go out bar hopping with you guys before tonight. Even tonight, as I said, my intention was to get a drink and go home. I only went because tonight I really couldn't bear to be alone. That was probably why Rob went out tonight too.

Connie looked Cheryl in the eye and noticed her friend's tears falling again freshly. Something had upset her all over again.

"What's so bad about tonight?" asked Connie.

"Tonight would have been our anniversary," said Cheryl crying.

"Well, then tonight's a great place to start, isn't it?" asked Connie.

"Start what?" asked Cheryl through her tears.

"Our plan to get him back," said Connie.

"Are you still talking about some kind of revenge?" asked Cheryl.

"What would you need revenge for, he didn't do anything wrong Honey? To be honest, you did. But when I said get him back, I meant to get the two of you back together," said Connie.

"You mean it?" asked Cheryl perking up.

"Of course I do," said Connie. "I know it seems impossible, but it really shouldn't be that hard."

Cheryl looked at Connie strangely. "Why not?" she asked.

"Because the two of you are still in love with each other," said Connie. "That kind of love is hard as hell to find. So it has to mean something. It may take us a while to accomplish. And we'll probably have a few setbacks and fuckups along the way, but if you're willing to totally commit to it, we can do this."

"I'll do anything it takes to get Rob back," said Cheryl.

"Okay, we need to start planning," said Connie. "What does he think about what happened between you two?"

"I don't know," said Cheryl. "I haven't spoken to him since before he caught me. He just disappeared and no one would tell me anything. Even people who knew where he was wouldn't tell me a thing. When I saw him tonight, it was the first time I've seen him since it happened."

"No wonder you freaked out," said Connie.

"I didn't even know that he was back in town, let alone working somewhere around here. I don't know anything about him anymore," said Cheryl. "Well except for one thing."

"What's that?" asked Connie.

"That there's a woman here, who'll love him til her dying day," said Cheryl. "No matter what."

"Sorry Hon," said Connie. "But that doesn't help us. We need hard information on what he's like now. The experience he had with you had to have changed him. Did you notice anything different about him?"

"Well he seems to be more muscular," said Cheryl. "And he seems less open, less trusting than he used to be. He just seems...sadder."

"What the hell did you expect?" asked Connie. "Honey, if he loved you as much as you say he did, what you did to him probably made him feel like you ripped his heart out of his chest with a fucking shovel, and handed it to him. He's not going to trust anyone very easily. Especially not a woman and extremely especially not you, he'd probably do anything to avoid feeling like that again. So it's going to be really hard."

"But not impossible, right?" asked Cheryl with a hint of desperation in her voice.

"Why do you want to do this?" asked Connie changing the subject. "Do you want this for yourself? Do you need him back just to get back something that you had once and want again? Or do you just like the way he fucks you? Why do you want this so badly?"

"Because I love him and I'm nothing without him," said Cheryl. "My whole life hasn't felt like life since he walked away from me. It feels like I'm just going through the motions until I can die."

"Can't you get that from another guy?" asked Connie. "There are lots of guys out there. And there are lots of women out there who are all looking for someone to love. Can't you just go looking like the rest of us?"

"I tried other guys," snapped Cheryl. "And it's not just the sex part. No other man I've ever met makes me feel like Rob does. My trying out other guys, as stupid as it was, wasn't because I didn't love Rob or because I was bored with him, I just wanted to see what those stupid women in my old office were talking about. If I had known that it would cost me my marriage, I'd never had risked it. I'd have stayed curious for the rest of my life."

"Okay, but I have to warn you, this is probably going to be painful for both of you," said Connie. "If you love him as much as you say you do, how is it that you're willing to put him through all of the pain that this will cause him?" She looked at Cheryl. "I mean if you love someone that much why make them suffer?"

"Because he's already suffering, just like I am," said Cheryl. "At least this way, there will be an end to his suffering and a time at the end of the tunnel where we'll be back together again and eventually happy. If we don't get back together, I'm not sure either of us will last much longer."

"Okay, I'll start Monday," said Connie. All of her questions had convinced her that they were doing this for the right reasons.

"Start what?" asked Cheryl excitedly.

"The first thing we need to do is to get close to him. Luckily I'm friendly with his buddy, Roger, from the bar. I'll go and visit him Monday morning at work and try to get him to introduce me to Rob. I'll get Rob to agree to talk to me. Once he's comfortable with me I'll find out how he feels about you. Then I'll gradually feed him more information about you and how you feel. Our goal is to get him eventually to agree to talk to you. After we accomplish that, we'll see what our next step is."

"That sounds great," said Cheryl excitedly. Then the expression on her face changed. "What do you get out of this?" she asked.

"I'm a firm believer that what goes around, comes around," said Connie. "Up until this point in my life I've had a lot of fun, and lately that's been my problem. I've reached the point where I don't want to be the fun girl anymore. I want something like what you had. So maybe if I help you find your true love again, someday someone will help me find mine."

All day Sunday, Connie tried out different outfits in her mirror at home. She had to be very careful the way she approached Rob. This would be very different from every other man she'd ever gone after. Connie had known since her teens what her assets and liabilities were and how to maximize the former and minimize the latter.

Normally her game plan would be to put on a tight skirt and a low-cut blouse and lean over in front of a guy a lot. It usually did the trick. But Rob wasn't a pussy hound, and he'd already been hurt pretty badly so a frontal attack wouldn't work. She'd probably just scare him off.

Early Monday she showered and put on a light floral scent. She didn't even want her smell to over-power him. She put on a waist cincher because she knew that she was a bit heavier around the middle than she should be. Besides making her waist smaller it made her boobs look bigger and her ass as well. She put on a nice dress that while not low cut did show off her deep cleavage and let anyone who was looking know that she had some major league titties under it.

She drove over to Roger and Rob's office. She saw Roger and he smiled and waved her over.

"I've never seen you so covered up, babe," said Roger. "Were you so desperate to see me that you couldn't wait until the next time I show up at the bar?"

"Roger honey," cooed Connie. "You know that thing of mine that you're always so interested in having?"

"You mean that fat, round thing you're sitting on?" he leered. Roger was instantly both awake and aroused.

"Uhm Hm," said Connie. She knew she had Roger right where she wanted him. The two of them had been having sex occasionally for months, but she had never given him anal.

"If you do me a favor, I'm not promising you that you'll get it, but it would go a long way towards making me consider it," she said.

"Who do I have to kill?" he asked.

"Do you remember my friend from the other night?" she asked.

"Which one, there were like three other women at your table?" asked Roger.

"The brunette..." she began.

"Oh shit, not the depressed looking one who cried the whole time and was so fucking hysterical that you had to take her home and prevented me from getting any pussy?" he asked.

"Yep, that's her," said Connie in a creamy voice.

"Okay I'd kill that bitch even if you don't let me fuck your ass," snapped Roger. "Shit she probably wants someone to kill her, she looks fucking miserable."

"Roger, I don't want you to kill her..." began Connie.

"There's no way I'd fuck her," snapped Roger. "There's no way to win in a situation like that. All of those depressed women are too down to enjoy sex. Sometimes they come out of their depression and try to charge you with rape. Other times they kill themselves after it and every one blames you. Then there are the really nutty ones who start stalking you after you've fucked them. No thanks, I don't need any of that."

"Look Dumb Ass," interrupted Connie. "You couldn't fuck her if you tried. And I don't want you too anyway. Don't you remember? She used to be married to your friend Rob."

"Holy fuck," said Roger. "No wonder the poor guy doesn't want anything to do with women. I've tried a couple of times to get him set up and he just blows them off. Then the girls get pissed at me. I guess he's kind of cute or whatever women like, but once I introduce them to him, the guy won't even talk to them. He acts kind of like you guys saw Friday night. As soon as you walked over near our table, he was in the wind." Roger made a whooshing sound like the wind blowing that he thought was hilarious, but caused Connie to just look at him strangely.

"Well the two of them weren't always like that," said Connie. "They were really in love for a long time until something happened to fuck things up and they got a divorce. They're both miserable without each other so I intend to put them back together."

"Good luck with that," smirked Roger. "Meanwhile back at the ranch, how does this get me any closer to the back of your panties?"

"What I need you to do is introduce me to him and stay with us to the point where he's talking to me," said Connie. "I can handle it from there."

"Ooh so you want to fuck your friend's man. You are a skanky bitch, aren't you? Well I don't care, as long as I get mine. I am available for three ways and gangbangs if you're interested," he smirked.

"Just the intro, please," said Connie smiling. She'd been thinking all weekend about the things that Cheryl had told her, especially about the things from Cheryl and Rob's relationship. Connie had made a few decisions about her own life. The first had been that she really was tired of being the girl who everyone fucks, who then ends up alone while they all went back to their wives and girlfriends. It truly was time for her to find her own mate. That much of what she told Cheryl had been true.

It was also very true that Connie wanted to help Cheryl get Rob back. She really wanted to see Cheryl happy; she just doubted that it was possible. The look in Rob's eyes was worse than Cheryl's. It was as if his soul had been torn out. Connie didn't believe he'd ever take a woman back who had done that to him. If he did, good for Cheryl, but if he didn't, Connie wouldn't mind having Rob's boots under her bed.

Roger grabbed her hand and dragged her down the hall. He knocked once on the door to an office and barged in. The man in the office was on the phone. He turned to look at them, as he continued to speak into the phone. He nodded at Roger, and gave Connie the once over. His face was non-committal as he appraised her.

"What's up Rog," asked Rob as he hung up the phone.

"Nothing much, bub" said Roger. "It's about that gas sucking, noise maker of yours."

"Be careful besmirching the love of my life," smiled Rob. His manner implied that he was jokingly referring to the car as the love of his life, but Connie wasn't sure he was joking.

"Anyway Rob, do you remember Friday night when I finally got you to go bar hopping with me and the boys?"

Rob nodded and Connie noticed that his face and his shoulders tightened up at the memory.

"I was bringing Connie over to talk to you about your religion... then you just disappeared on me," said Roger.

Connie could see that Rob was playing the memory back in his head. The tension in the man's body was so tight she thought he might pop a synapse. She had to do something to lighten the mood.

"I hope I didn't do anything to scare you away," she said.

"No, it wasn't you," said Rob woodenly. "It was someone else." Even as he said, "Someone else", Connie could see that his brain had slipped a gear. It was as if just thinking about Cheryl caused him so much pain that he had a mini stroke each time he thought about her.

Connie wondered whether he hated Cheryl that much, or if he loved her so much that being without her cause him that much pain.

"Anyway, Connie here wants to convert to your...uh religion. So I thought that you could preach to her a little bit about the gospel of the Mustang church."

Suddenly Connie realized how brilliant Roger truly was. This was perfect. He'd given her an excellent way into Rob's life.

"I really want to buy one," she gushed. "But I've only seen them from a distance and I don't know anything about owning a car like that. Like what kind of maintenance do you have to perform, I have thousands of questions, about it."

Connie noticed that Rob's expression towards her had just softened. When she first walked in Rob had looked at her as if Roger had brought a fresh turd in and placed it on his desk. Now he looked at her as if he was sizing her up to see if she'd look good in a Mustang.

"I have far too many questions to bother you with while you're working, perhaps we could meet somewhere later." She picked up the pad on his desk and wrote down her phone numbers home and cell so he could call her later.

"If you call me on the cell number, you'll get me at any time," she said.

She and Roger started walking towards the door. Connie leaned back in the doorway and told Rob, "There won't be anyone else with me, I promise. It'll just be you and me, and your car of course." Then she and Roger closed the door leaving Rob alone with his thoughts.

As soon as Connie and Roger had closed the door, Roger noticed that there was no one in the hallway. He took the opportunity to grab a handful of Connie's ass. Then he reached up and cupped her breasts and ground his pelvis against hers.

"So, how was that?" he asked.

"I have to admit it was really smart," she said.

"So do I get some?" he asked.

"I said I'd consider..." she began.

"Yep," he nodded. "You said it would bring you closer to considering letting me have your ass, but while you're considering that, I think I deserve at least a blowjob, tonight."

"Okay, at least a blowjob, but not tonight," she said. "You can have your, at least a blowjob after I get my talk with Rob."

"Are you trying to set me up for sloppy seconds?" he asked.

"I wasn't..." she began.

"Cause I'll take filthy fifths," he said. "As long as I get some."

Connie nodded her head and smiled. She patted Roger on his shoulder. "Then you need to convince him to call me don't you," she said. She rubbed the front of his pants, knowing that she would never have sex of any kind with Roger again.

She'd been thinking again about the way that Rob had been with Cheryl. When they met in their twenties he'd already been sexually active, but he'd put it on hold to be with her. He hadn't made an issue of it or griped about it because as important as sex was, Cheryl had been more important. It was like her mother had told her many years ago. If a man really loves you, he'll wait.