Laura, Jim and I

"You don't really want to be here do you?"

I told her that I was uncomfortable and I told her why.

"I'm sorry lover. I almost wish that I didn't love Alex so much so I could be more of what you want. For what it is worth if it wasn't for Alex you would be my man."

"Thanks, I think."

"So what do we do? Flip a coin to see who stays and who goes?"

"No need. I knew this day was coming and my mom says she hasn't rented out my room yet. She figured that she better keep it available for me at least until I turn forty or give her grandkids. So, you stay and I go."

"Friends?"

"Always."

She took me in her arms, gave me a kiss that made me weak in the knees and then asked:

"One last night, please?"

++++++++++++++++++

I'd been back home for a week and on Friday evening as I was in my room working on a paper due the next week my mom called up the stairs:

"Rob? Someone here to see you."

I went downstairs and found my mother talking to Laura. Mom looked at me and said:

"I'll leave you two alone" and she went into the kitchen.

"Hi Rob."

"Hello Laura. How have you been?"

"So so but I'm hoping that things will get better."

"Oh?"

"Robin called me and told me that you were back on the market and suggested that if I hurried I could be the first in line."

"Why would you want to be the first in line? Why would you want to be in line at all?"

"There wouldn't be a line if I hadn't gone stupid. In fact there never would have been a Robin. I don't want to be in line Rob; I just want to be back where I belong."

"Where you belong?"

She held up her left hand and said, "I never did give you your ring back."

On the ring finger of her left hand she was wearing my class ring.

"There is a party at Alice Johnson's house tonight. Would you like to take me?"

At the party she hung all over me and when I mentioned it she said, "Letting everyone know that I've staked my claim baby. I've got you back and I'm letting everyone know it."

I'll admit it. It felt good to have Laura hanging on me again. The big surprise came after the party. When we pulled away from the curb in front of Alice's house Laura slid over next to me and reached for my zipper. She worked my cock out and I expected that she was going to give me a hand job like she used to, but she bent down and took me in her mouth for the first time ever. I was so surprised I almost swerved off the road. In five minutes she had me ready to cum so I pulled over to the side of the road to let her finish me off. I told her I was going to cum so she could take her mouth off me and finish me by hand, but she stayed on me and swallowed when I spurted. She stayed with it until I went soft and then she lifted her head and smiled at me.

"If you can't afford a motel I'm good with the back seat."

I was immediately sorry that I'd given up the apartment to Robin, but luckily I had enough in my pocket for a motel room. The Laura that went into that motel room with me was not the same Laura that I had broken up with. She hurriedly stripped and as soon as I had my pants and underpants off she was on her knees in front of me working to bring me back to life. When I was up she got on the bed on her hands and knees and said:

"Do me from behind baby; puppy fuck me."

She was surprised when I pushed her over on her back and then went down on her. I attacked her clit with lips and tongue until she cried out:

"No more baby, no more. I need you in me Robbie; hurry baby, I need you."

I moved up on her and her legs came up and clamped on me as I pushed my way inside. She'd already gotten me off in the car so it took a while for me to cum again. On the way Laura had two very noisy orgasms and when I finally came and started to pull out she held me tight and wouldn't let me roll off of her. There were tears streaking her cheeks and I asked her what was wrong.

"Nothing baby. I'm just happy. You're back and I've got you and I'm happy."

She finally let me loose and I settled onto the bed next to her. She curled into me and we laid there holding each other without saying a word for maybe five minutes before I felt her hand move down my body, take hold of my limp cock and start fondling it. It twitched and she slid down and took it in her mouth for the third time that night. After a minute or so I pulled her into a sixty-nine and we feasted on one another until she had my soldier at attention.

"Do me from behind this time baby. Puppy fuck me. I love to puppy fuck. Puppy fuck me baby, puppy fuck me."

No, this was definitely the Laura that I used to know.

She was quiet as I drove her home. She just sat there and looked out the passenger side window. About halfway to her house she turned to me and said:

"I'm sorry baby."

"About what?"

"About what we did tonight.'

"Why are you sorry about that? I thought that it was pretty damned good."

"It was. What I am sorry about is that you weren't the first to do those things with me."

The truth was that I was pretty fucking pissed that I wasn't the first to do those things with her, but it was water under the bridge so I sucked it up and said:

"Don't forget that you didn't get to be the first one I got to do those things to either, but maybe it was for the best."

"How can you say that?"

"Just think back to where we were before. We made love for almost two years and never did any of the things we did tonight. I never even thought about doing those things. If we hadn't separated would either of us have made any changes or would we just have kept on doing it in the missionary position and never attempted something else? Robin was a very experienced young lady and she quickly taught me what I had to know to keep her happy. I'm not trying to pat myself on the back here, but I believe that I'm a much better lover now and it is likely that you can say the same. I wish that it had never happened, but it does seem that there was a benefit."

Laura gave me a thoughtful look, but she didn't say anything. When I pulled up in front of her house I asked her if she wanted to go with me when I went apartment hunting on Saturday.

"An apartment is a whole lot cheaper in the long run than always having to use motels."

"Is that your way of asking me if I want to move in with you?"

"The thought did cross my mind."

"What time?"

"About nine."

"Okay. You have a date."

Laura and I moved into a two bedroom apartment about mid-way between Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti and we turned the second bedroom into a study with a desk for Laura's computer and a desk for mine.

+++++++++++++++

About a month after we moved in together Jim came home on a thirty day leave and he and Annabelle spent a lot of time with Laura and me. Jim and Annabelle seemed to be getting along great so maybe I'd been wrong in the thoughts I'd had about her when she left.

Three weeks after Jim returned to duty Annabelle showed up. Jim had shipped out to Iraq and Annabelle decided that she'd rather not wait at the base for Jim to return. She wasn't home two weeks and she was living with the guy she had been living with when she left to join Jim in Norfolk. Three weeks later she was seen with the black guy she used to date and rumors again started about the orgies she participated in at his apartment and the trains she pulled for his friends. I debated having a talk with her, but Laura talked me out of it. She told me that it wasn't any of our business and for all we knew Jim and Annabelle had an open marriage.

"I've heard that it isn't uncommon in the service for both parties to agree that it is alright to play during long separations."

"That doesn't sound like something that Jim would go along with."

"So what are you going to do? Write and tell him? He worships the ground she walks on. He will not thank you for telling him that she is a slut. He will probably end up blaming you for being the one to ruin his life. Leave it alone Rob."

+++++++++++++++

Jim was back from Afghanistan in time to be the best man at my wedding to Laura and then he and Annabelle headed back for Norfolk where he finished out the last nine months of his enlistment. When he was discharged he and Annabelle came home and he found a job with a construction company as a heavy equipment operator.

The next two years flew by and the Marshall's (Jim and Annabelle) were frequent guests at our place and we went out with then at least once every two weeks or so. Things seemed to be great between Jim and Annabelle and there were no sign s that she was cheating on Jim. Laura thought that maybe Annabelle was oversexed and needed it often and so she was an easy lay when Jim wasn't around, but he was enough for her when he was home.

I guessed that was as good as explanation as any and Laura's theory seemed to be borne out when the company Jim worked for bid on and got a job doing some pipeline work in Alaska. The conditions on and around the site were harsh so Jim decided to leave Annabelle at home for the four months he would be gone. Jim wasn't a week gone and Annabelle was seen going into a motel room with Gary Mellows who was the owner of the company that Jim worked for and after that Gary's vehicle was seen parked in Jim's driveway almost every night of the week. The job in Alaska ran into some problems and the job was extended another two months.

Laura and Annabelle saw the same doctor and Laura just happened to be in the doctor's office the day that Annabelle got the bad news. She was seven weeks pregnant and Jim had been gone a little over three months. The way Laura found out was that two of the nurses that worked at the clinic had gone to school with us and knew that she knew Annabelle and that she spent a lot of time around Annabelle and they asked her how she thought Jim would handle the news (patient confidentiality takes a back seat to spreading the dirt among friends) and Laura thought for a minute and then said:

"Jim will never know. If I'm right in what I'm thinking Annabelle will abort and it will all be over and done with before Jim gets home."

That isn't the way it went down.

Someone who didn't have a Laura to talk them out of it let Jim know what was going on. Jim flew home, rented a car and parked down the street from his house until he saw Mellows pull in his drive, park and go into the house. He waited fifteen minutes to give Gary and Annabelle time to get down to it and then he went into the house with a digital camera ready and caught the lovers in action. Fifteen minutes later the EMTs answered the 911 call and Mellows was carted off to the hospital.

The cops came and were going to haul Jim away until he showed them the pictures that he took. The camera was a Canon Rebel and Jim had it set to shoot continuously and the series clearly showed Mellows getting off Annabelle and charging at Jim. He probably was just trying to get to the camera and take it away from Jim, but given the way the series of shots came out Jim was able to say that it was obvious that he was being attacked and he only defended himself. The cops bought it and left. Twenty minutes after the cops left Annabelle was out on the front porch with one suitcase and the door was locked behind her.

The divorce was a slam-dunk as was the suit filed against Mellows for alienation of affections. He also sued Mellows on some sort of sexual harassment thing claiming that Mellows only hired him so he could send him out of town and then move in on his wife. Mellows could have settled out of court and avoided having everything become public, but he unwisely decided to fight and as a result everyone found out what he had been doing with an employee's wife after sending the employee out of town for a long period of time. The jury found for Jim and he was awarded one point three million. After legal fees and taxes he ended up with just a little over seven hundred and fifty thousand. He paid off his house, put in an in ground swimming pool and bought a new Ford F-350. Once the divorce was final Annabelle dropped out of sight and the word was that she moved out of town.

Mellows had to sell off some equipment and property to settle the suit and he lost a lot of business when some customers and potential customers decided that anyone who would do what he did with an employee's wife couldn't be trusted.

Jim still had some money left from his settlement and he came to me and proposed that we form our own company and go after the business that Mellows lost out on. I would take care of the engineering and Jim would handle the construction end of the business. Laura and I talked it over and reviewed our finances and decided to do it and R and J Constructors was born as a partnership. We did well. We not only picked up a lot of the customers who left Mellows, but we underbid him on several jobs and human nature being what it is Jim made sure that everyone knew whenever we beat Mellows.

++++++++++++++++

The next five years flew by. Jim played the field, but never found anyone he wanted to be tied to permanently. He spent a lot of time with Laura and me and we went out on the average of once a week with Jim and his date of the moment. The business was doing great, Laura had climbed the ladder at her company and was a regional manager and the odds on favorite for the next VP opening. I didn't think things could get much better and unfortunately I was right.

It was a Tuesday and I was just leaving a lunch meeting with a prospective client when Gary Mellows came up to me and asked me if he could buy me a drink. I personally had nothing against Gary. My view was that if a cunt like Annabelle offered it up to a single guy like Gary you couldn't really blame him for taking the gift. I never bought the story that Gary shipped Jim out of town to get Annabelle. I'd always known that Annabelle was a slut so my take on it was that Annabelle probably did something like go to Gary's office to pick up Jim's paycheck and had let Gary know that she was lonely with Jim being gone. Whatever, his problems were with Jim and not me so I took him up on his offer to buy me a drink.

As soon as he sat down he asked, "How's business?"

"Not bad, but could be better."

"Would you consider selling?"

"Selling? Why would I want to do that?"

"To stick your buddy Jim with me for a partner."

"Are you smoking some kind of bad shit?"

"Not really. I hate to be the one to do this, but have a look at these."

He opened his briefcase, took out a folder and handed it to me. I picked it up, opened it and was stunned. The first thing I saw in the folder was a picture of Laura and Jim holding hands as they walked into a motel room. There were several others of the two of them going into or coming out of motel rooms and another half dozen in various places kissing and hugging. There was one photo of them kissing on the back seat of Laura's car. They could have done that on the front seat so you didn't have to be a genius to figure out what they were getting ready to do or had just finished doing. I looked up at Gary and he said:

"I'm sorry. I've had him watched so I could get something on him so I could get back at him. When the PI brought me these pictures I didn't know she was your wife. I could tell from the rings in the pictures that she was somebody's and I set the PI on her to find out who she was so I would have the information when I started to get my payback."

"Why? You were guilty. You did what he said you did."

"No I didn't. Yes, I did have an affair with his wife, but I never sent him out of town so I could get to her. She walked into my office, locked the door behind her and started taking off her clothes. She looked me right in the eye and said:

"You sent Jim out of town so you have to take care of me until he gets back."

"I'm single and I love pussy as much as any other guy so I'm going to say no to a naked Annabelle? As far as I'm concerned the whole mess was Jim's fault to begin with. Everyone knows that Annabelle is a slut and has been one since high school. Jim had to know. He had to know and he never did anything about it. No Rob, he fucked me with that law suit and I'm going to get him back. I'm just sorry that you ended up in the middle of it."

"Any idea of how long it has been going on?"

"The PI says from what he has been able to find out it has been at least a year and probably longer."

"How in the fuck could it have gone on for that long and me not find out?"

"If she never did anything to make you suspicious how could you have known?"

"So why do you want to buy me out? What do you gain by being Jim's partner?"

"Think about it. As an equal partner I have an equal say. He says we need to do A and I say no, we have to do B. It doesn't matter what he wants I'm going to be 180 degrees away. Plus I'll know what we are bidding on jobs and I'll make sure that my other company bids lower. I'll ruin the company and Jim will lose his ass."

"But so would you?

"Not really. I've checked it out. If the business fails we sell off the assets and I get a good portion of my money back. I won't make money, except of course what I make from my other company when I underbid the jobs Jim bids on, but I won't lose all that much either."

"What if he decides to just stomp your ass every morning to start his day out right until you've had enough and sell your half to him or some one else?"

"Last time he caught me on top of his wife and all I could think about was getting that camera away from him. He got in three good shots before it dawned on me that I should be defending myself and not worrying about that stupid fucking camera. He won't have it that easy if he tries it again. In fact, I'm pretty sure that I can take him if it comes to that. So, you interested?"

"I just might be, but first I want to do some digging of my own."

"If you do decide do you have a ballpark of what you will want?"

I gave him a figure and he said that it might be doable and to give him a call if I decided to do it.

++++++++++++++++

I left the meeting with Mellows with my mind in turmoil. How the hell could Laura and Jim have been doing it behind my back for almost a year and me not have even the remotest suspicion? I'd seen absolutely nothing to indicate that Laura was dissatisfied with me. I'd seen no loss of affection. Our sex life was still great, at least I thought it was. Three, sometimes four times a week and with plenty of foreplay. We cuddled on the couch while watching TV and she slept up against me every night. She never walked by me without touching me. She was like a teenager when we were in the car; always sliding over to be next to me.

What went wrong?

I had no reason to doubt the report and photos from Gary's detective, but photos could be doctored and Gary did have an agenda. I wanted to be dead certain before I took action so I went back to the office and called a friend who worked for an insurance agency and asked him who they used to investigate suspicious claims. Armed with that information I called and made an appointment and thirteen days later I had my certainty. On Wednesdays when Jim was supposedly out visiting job sites he was actually meeting Laura and the Comfort Inn on Melrose. How she managed to get off work for their meetings I had no idea.

All that was left was for me to decide what to do. Actually I knew what I wanted to do, but I needed to find a way to make it work. Two hours with an attorney got me a list of things I could do and couldn't do and a list of things I should do. We were a no fault state and so everything would have to be split equally between us. My concern was going to be avoiding giving her a dime of what I realized from the sale of my half of the company. I finally had to accept that the only way I could do that was lie. Even then she would still get some of it.