Requital

She ended her explanation on an upbeat, smiling tentatively at her husband. Steve looked at her for a long moment without speaking. Her narrative sounded well practiced to him.

"How did you meet Mr. Porter?" he asked finally. Barbara's eyes narrowed. She hadn't expected the question and didn't have an answer ready.

"Before you answer," Steve continued, "I will accept only the absolute truth. If you think you have a chance at saving this marriage…and I guess that's why you're here…then you better not lie about a damned thing. You understand that, Barbara?"

After a moment, she nodded. Steve lifted his hand, palm up, while he nodded in her direction. The gesture was an invitation for her to continue.

"He works in the same building I do," Barbara said. "We met at the cafeteria downstairs and just started talking one day," she went on. "Actually, I think you'd like him if you weren't always in such a bad mood."

Steve let the remark pass without comment. He couldn't quite keep his lip from curling in contempt though. He took a deep breath to calm himself.

"So you met him at the little restaurant down in the lobby downstairs where you work and you've been giving him some help with his marriage, right?" Steve asked her. Barbara nodded.

"And there was no affair?" Steve asked. She shook her head decisively.

"No sex?"

Barbara glared at him.

"Certainly not," she responded.

"No smoochin' or huggin' or…uh…touching you where he shouldn't have?" Steve asked calmly.

"No!" Barbara said forcefully. Steve looked at her without saying anything for a long while. His father-in-law coughed to break the silence.

"So, Steve…you see how you could have mistaken what Barbara was doing, right? I'm not saying she should have been out there helping that guy out…not without letting you know about it and all…but it wasn't what you were thinking."

Steve looked at Barbara's dad. He almost pitied the man. Steve shook his head resignedly. He reached down to the magazine rack on the offside of the Lazy Boy. He brought out a thick binder and flipped through it for a second.

"I guess you've all forgotten my brother Jon is the news director down at the Fox station," he said absentmindedly. "Folks who have a high-profile kind of lifestyle have files in every news organization. There are certain bits of information that are available to the public."

He glanced up at his wife. Barbara wasn't relaxing against couch's the back cushions any longer. She sat at the edge of her seat, suddenly anxious.

"And then…I also hired a private investigator. This is their report," Steve said, motioning to the three-ring binder in his lap.

Barbara's eyes widened perceptibly. The level of her anxiety rose exponentially. Her mouth opened but no sound came out.

"Mr. Raphael Porter is a moderately influential manager in the Harper Insurance hierarchy," Steve continued.

"He's pretty well thought of, but his career has stalled lately…it seems some investments he recommended went south…but he probably can put that behind him with some hard work. There's a chance he'll be taking a position at their regional headquarters next summer."

Steve's eyes skipped several paragraphs.

"Oh…here's something interesting. His office is actually in the Lowry Building downtown…I checked that on MapQuest…it's just over thirteen miles across the city from where you work, Barbara," he said quietly. "Pretty big building you and he both work in huh?

"Actually, that's a pretty good distance to drive in noontime traffic just to meet in the lobby restaurant downstairs from you huh? It's awfully far to go to pick up even the "good friend" that you are to him for a one-hour lunch to "help him with his marriage," don't you think?"

Steve pretended to be reading more information on the page. He ignored the other four people across the room except to note a look of consternation on his father-in-law's features and one of confusion on his mother-in-law's face. Barbara's features revealed a growing apprehension. Barbara's grandmother visibly disapproved of what she was hearing.

"Barbara, child," Lydia murmured reprovingly.

Steve flipped through the pages until he got to the back cover. He took three photographs from the flap on the inside of the cover. He leaned forward to place the first one on the coffee table in front of Barbara and her parents. Seeing its content, Barbara winced. She closed her eyes.

"As you can see, Lloyd…Diane," Steve remarked in a businesslike manner, "this is my wife at some kind of…uh…lawn party at a really cool mansion out in the county. She somehow forgot to tell me about this party but I've figured out when it was."

He looked up at Barbara. She wouldn't meet his eyes.

"She told me she and two of her girlfriends were going to go shopping up in Austin on an all day trip," Steve told his in-laws. "I believed her," he said succinctly. His disgust was becoming more evident.

"Uh…now…I don't know if you saw it right off," Steve said sarcastically, "but Mr. Raphael Porter has his hand on my wife's ass and he's squeezing it pretty darn good, don't you think?"

Lloyd swallowed hard and shook his head in disbelief. He looked sideways at his daughter. He started to speak but there was nothing to say.

"Well…so much for "no touching" huh?" Steve asked brightly. "I guess Barbara kinda forgot to tell you about that party too eh?" He put the second photo on the coffee table beside the first.

"Now, here we are at that same party," Steve said. "Remember that "no kissing" thing I asked Barbara about? Well,thissure seems to be a real difficulty to me when I try to understand how she answered no."

He leaned forward to tap the area around his wife's and Porter's heads.

"Uh…you can see my wife has a real lip lock on that guy, can't you? Clear as a bell, wouldn't you say? No chance of mistake there, is there? You gotta wonder how my dear wife could have forgotten to mention trading spit with her pal like that, don't ya?"

There was no reply from any of the three on the couch. Lydia snorted from her vantage point on the loveseat. Diane and Barbara looked up at the old woman disapprovingly. Lydia wasn't in the least intimidated.

Steve put the last 8 X 10 on the coffee table. He sat back down in his recliner, leaving all there glossy photos lying nakedly before the people on the couch.

"Now…that third one is pretty interesting, isn't it?" Steve asked conversationally. "You can tell just how good my wife is helping Raphael with his marriage, can't you? My goodness, Barbara…you must be doing wonders for him. He's got his fingers pretty far up your skirt there. Did he have them in your panties? In your pussy, maybe? From that smile on his face, he looks like he's coming out of his "marriage problems" pretty well, wouldn't you say?"

The edge in Steve's voice was hardening. He forced himself to relax.

"NO!" Barbara retorted. "He didn't…he wasn't touching me…down there," she protested. "And I told him more than once he had to quit--"

She cut off her own protestations when she saw no one was at all receptive.

"Hmmmmmm," Steve said reflectively. "Tell me, Barbara…can you…uh…give us some insight on just why this SOB thinks he has the right to play with my wife's thighs…and her butt…and kiss you like a long lost lover? Would you mind explaining that? I'd sure like to know."

Barbara shook her head in denial.

"It's not what it looks like," she protested. "I…he…"

"Barbara…Barbara," Lydia said from her perch on the loveseat. "Child, you're not helping yourself here."

"Mother!" Diane said explosively. "Yousaidyou wouldn't interfere." She glared at her mother.

"Okay…whatever!" Lydia said disdainfully. She leaned back as a look of derision replaced the discontent on her face. The distraction had given Barbara a moment to recover.

"Okay, I admit it," Barbara said defiantly. "I should havemadehim stop, but you can see in all those pictures that we were in a public place…it isn't like we were meeting in some hotel and…uh…doing stuff."

Her voice dropped in volume as she belatedly realized she probably shouldn't evoke any visions of doing anything beyond what everyone had already seen. She rallied, remembering the events at the park by the river. There hadn't been any photographer there to take pictures.

"Steve…I'm sorry for the way this looks," Barbara said contritely. "I really am, but we don't need to get hyper about it. Look, you saw us at the park, right? We weren't doing anything but talking there…you saw that."

Barbara was certain there was no proof. Steve had his suspicions, but he had no evidence.

"Really, Barbara?" Steve said softly. "Nothing going on?"

He picked the remote control up from the end table and pointed it at the TV. Once it was on, he picked up another remote. This one controlled his digital camcorder. It was already set to VCR mode and keyed to the point he wanted on the tape. Sitting on the entertainment center beside the cable box, no one had noticed it.

Steve hadn't had time to find anyone to transfer the movie to a DVD. While he had some software to do it himself, he had very little experience doing that and hadn't wanted to take a chance at losing the tape's content. Using the camera as a video player had been his only option if he planned to show the recording this afternoon. He'd decided he would.

Staring hard at Barbara, he pressed the "play" button.

On the big screen TV, the Thunderbird was already in the water and the image jiggled badly as Steve's pickup reversed up the slope. The view and the sound quality were crystal clear. The roar of the engine was almost deafening in the quiet living room before Steve turned the volume down. When the truck stopped, the picture steadied and everyone heard the sound of a slamming door. Steve was seen entering the frame from the left and walking away from the camera, striding almost to the edge of the stream.

A moment later, Barbara tumbled from the passenger's side window into the dark water, followed by a man from the driver's side. With mud on their faces and bodies, the two disheveled figures stumbled toward the bank. Barbara's arms waved wildly as she fought for balance. Failing, she dropped into a shoulder deep hole and had to struggle to get out. Once out of the hole and in shallower water, she turned around to retrieve something. Bending over, she yanked her purse out of the water and held it high.

Steve stopped the show and pushed the button to rewind the tape.

"Pretty interesting movie, don't you think, Barbara?" Steve said gently. He stopped the rewind when the on-screen counter reached the figure he wanted.

"You son of a bitch," Barbara said viciously.

Seeing herself as she was that day made her furious all over again. No one…no one…had the right to do that to her. She'd been terrified the pickup was going to push them off into deep water where she and Rafe would drown. She'd never been as scared as she'd been right then. She hadn't seen Steve yet and hadn't recognized the vehicle.

"You didn't have any call to do that," she said hotly. "Rafe and I weren't doing anything and--"

She stopped when she saw Steve was ignoring her. He was busy running the videotape in reverse past the initial opening screen and then jockeying back and forth for a moment. He finally got the frames he wanted frozen on screen.

"Now here," he said, looking at Lloyd and Diane, "you can see Barbara's hand kind of lifted in the air. There! See that?" He used a red laser pointer from his shirt pocket to outline a section of the screen. The image was small and indistinct.

"Humph!" Lydia couldn't help but express her opinion from time to time.

Steve shot a glance in her direction. He couldn't tell if Lydia disapproved of what was happening on screen, the quality of the picture, or his preparedness with the laser pointer. He shrugged. Turning his attention back to the screen, he hit rewind again and stopped it.

"Now…here you can see my wife giving the gift of her lips to dear old Rafael again," Steve said facetiously. The two figures seen through the T-Bird's rear window had their arms wrapped around each other and their heads overlapped.

"Awwwwww, Barbara," Lloyd breathed disappointedly.

"Daddy!" his daughter said in a shocked tone. She'd wanted support from her father, not a rebuke, mild though it had been.

"Now…" Steve interrupted. "As you can see, my wife kinda slouches down here…and…then comes back up." Steve's narration of what Barbara's image on the screen was doing was hardly necessary but it served to emphasize what the viewers were watching.

"There!" Steve said, pointing the remote at the camera to stop it again on the frames where Barbara held up something white for a scant moment and then tossed it forward.

"See that?" Steve asked. There were no replies. They'd all seen it. He glanced at Barbara. Her face was ashen. She and Steve already knew what they were looking at.

"What you just saw," Steve said, "was my dear wife taking off her panties for another man and throwing them up on the dash." He hadn't taken his eyes from Barbara as he explained the importance of the vague flash of white on the television screen. His voice dripped with scorn.

He pressed the button on the remote to magnify the image. He continued zooming in, stopping only when there was no possible doubt the cloth held in Barbara's hand was a pair of white bikini panties. Steve didn't say anything. Barbara started to cry quietly on the couch.

Releasing the pause, Steve ran the videotape forward to the point where Barbara had turned around to snatch her purse out of the water. He stopped it when she was bent over, reaching into the stream.

"I guess Barbara didn't realize her skirt was pushed up that high when she was getting out of the car…or that hole or something." He didn't say anything else. Barbara's skirt was hiked up in back on the TV. The bottom edge had apparently gotten entangled in the belt around her waist. Her bare ass, white and obviously naked, was starkly defined. There was no mistaking what they were seeing. Steve punched the play button and the video ran for a few seconds.

"Here…we have a front view," Steve said as if he were a guide explaining the sights to a group of tourists. "You'll notice that mydearwife's tits are bouncing all over the place. For some reason, Barbie didn't bother to wear a bra to the park that day so she could…uh…help Mr. Porter with his marriage."

He stopped the tape again. Barbara's nipples, hardened by contact with the cold water…or Porter's ministrations…were clearly poking through the soaked fabric of her blouse. Steve didn't bother to say anything more. Instead, he rewound the tape again, stopping where Porter was just getting out of the car's window. The man's penis was dangling limply out of the opening in his boxers.

Steve turned off the camcorder without any further comments. None appeared to be necessary.

"So…Barbara," Steve said. "No sex, no kissing, and no touching huh?"

Lloyd had his head in his hands. He'd been unable to watch for the last few moments. Diane cleared her throat, not knowing what to say.

"Ididn'thave sex with him," Barbara said brokenly. "Ididn't!"

"Well…not this time, anyway," Steve retorted. "I didn't give you the opportunity, did I?" he said contemptuously. "Quit trying to bullshit me and everyone else. You went out to the park with this guy, got rid of your bra somewhere…'cause Iknowyou had one on when you left the house…took off your panties for this guy and you damned sure wereaboutto fuck him. You would have if I hadn't been there."

He watched his wife cry for a while. Barbara's mother didn't know what to do for a bit. After a moment, she put her arms around Barbara and patted her back while Barbara sobbed.

"I never had sex with him," Barbara said in a whisper. "I might have that day…I was all confused…I didn't really want to…but he was saying it would be all right…I didn'twantto have sex with him." She took some deep breaths. She shrugged off her mother's enclosing arms.

"You caught me, Steve," Barbara said more strongly. "You won't believe it, but I'm glad you did. I was getting into something I didn't really want to be in…and…"

Steve's loud, disdainful snort cut off her protestations.

"Ididn't!" Barbara insisted.

"How many times did you fuck him?" Steve asked. His voice was harsh.

Barbara shook her head violently.

"I told you…Ineverdid," she said emphatically.

"Horseshit," Steve returned. "That man had his dick out and you were damn near naked. That doesn't happen on a "first date,"dear. How many times did you have sex with him?" Steve asked again. Barbara shook her head.

"How many?" Steve demanded a third time. Barbara refused to look at him but she shook her head again.

"Uh…Steve," Lloyd said tentatively. "Look…they really didn't have any sex…you made sure of that, right? Uh…and those other pictures aren't pretty but it's still not like they were having any sex at that party either. Listen…can't we all take a step back here…take a deep breath and work on solving this…problem?" He looked at Steve hopefully.

"Steve," he said, "couples have worked past something like this before. You and Barbara can do it too," he suggested. Steve looked at his father-in-law stonily.

"Lloyd," he said finally, "you're trying to pretend Barbara got caught swiping a piece of bubblegum from the corner grocery. You think if she gives it back and apologizes, then everything is all right again because she's learned her lesson…but she's not a little girl anymore and she can't put this marriage back together by just saying she's sorry."

Steve got up and paced between the TV and recliner for a bit.

"Look, Lloyd…she's been lying her ass off, telling me she's going places she doesn't go…telling me she isn't doing anything wrong…hell, she lied to yourface, Lloyd. You're her father and she told you a series of bald-face lies. I tell you…I'm thinking our whole marriage has been a lie right from the word go." He paced up and down again.

"Did you cook up some kind of story to tell Elaine Porter?" he said suddenly, catching Barbara by surprise.

"No…what?" she said in a confused voice. "Who's--"

She cut herself off before completing the question.

"You really should make an inquiry here and there before you start screwing a married man, Barbara. Elaine, for everyone's information, isMrs. Porter, Asshole's wife." Steve paused for a second. "I wonder what their daughter is going to think of her father now?" he said quietly.

Barbara wilted and began sobbing again. Steve waited her out. He wasn't moved by her tears now. They would have devastated him before reading the newspaper in his dentist's office, but not now.

"Nowyou're all concerned?" Steve inquired. He didn't wait for an answer. The break his inquiry caused in his wife's crying was a space in which to ask his next question.

"Okay…so, whatdidAsshole tell his wife about his little fling with a married woman?" Steve asked mockingly.

"I don't know," Barbara said defensively. "I haven't talked to him since the day you saw us."

"You haven't talked to him?" Steve asked skeptically. "You haven't seen him? You haven't spoken to him on the phone…you haven't text messaged him…you haven't emailed him?" Barbara shook her head decisively.

Steve returned to the Lazy Boy and pulled a sheet of paper from the binder. Walking quickly to the three-legged table near the front door, he peered into Barbara's purse and pulled out her cell phone.

"HEY!" Barbara shouted, suddenly desperate. "You can'tdothat! You can't just go in my belongings and--"