"The Worm Doth Turn"

She was up and off the bed in a shot. She ran to the bathroom. I lay there and heard her coughing and choking; it was pleasant music to my ears. I heard her as she washed her face, as she gargled, and then brushed her teeth. I wondered if the faithless bitch had remembered to floss.

She came back and got back beside me, "Now how about me," she said.

I smiled at her; it was the most loving caring and most meaningless smile I could muster, "Not now darling; it's been a long day."

She leaned back, "Steve!"

I said, "Oh come on. It's late, but thanks it was a great blow job," I rolled over. I pretended to go to sleep, but I heard her soft almost silent groans as she masturbated. I was sure she knew.

~~v~~

The next morning we got the boys off to camp. We shared a cup of coffee and a bagel. We talked about the day ahead. We kept things light. She was careful not to look at me. If she had she would have seen a smiling, happy, and to anyone around an innocent unknowing cuckold. We both got in our cars and left.

Around mid-afternoon I called Allyson Standish, "Hello Allyson?"

She started laughing as soon as she heard me voice, she said, "I don't know what you did, but yesterday was amazing."

I asked, "How so?"

She replied, "I guess about an hour after you called Wendell left the house. He came back maybe an hour later with a dozen red roses and a bottle of my favorite perfume. He hustled our kids off to the neighbors and we had the best love session we've had in months."

I asked, "You know why, don't you?"

She got very quiet, her next remark was downright somber, "I think so."

I asked, "You know what we do next?"

"No I don't," she replied." I thought I heard her sob. It made me a little angry; I mean her unhappiness was just a part of his, and my wife's, dishonesty, talk about cruelty.

I told her, "Look it's still early. Here's what I want you to do. You know that little bakery-coffee shop on Main Street called Burtleson's?"

"Yes, she said.

"I want you to go there. Order two identical cakes. They don't have to be big. They don't have to be anybody's favorite, but they have to be identical. Tonight when your husband gets home after dinner get out the cake and cut him a piece. Tell him it's your thank you for all the love he has for you. Say something like, 'It's because I know how much you truly love me.' You got it?"

I went on, "Now you've ordered two identical cakes. You've got one. I'll stop on my way home get the other one. I'll give mine to Myra. I'll try to say exactly the same kind of thing to her."

I heard Allyson, it sounded like she'd recovered a little, "Boy Steve that will throw them for a loop."

I laughed softly, "Don't let on. If he asks you anything, you're completely in the dark. I'll call you as soon as I can. Maybe I'll call when I know your husband's home. I think I'll take Wednesday off. We can meet and talk."

She said, "Steve you're awful."

I replied, "No they are. Hang in there Allyson, OK?"

She murmured, "I'll go get the cakes right now."

~~v~~

I finished the day in a pretty good frame of mind, and for a cuckold I guess I was optimistic. I'd more or less figured out what I wanted. I only hoped Myra wanted the same thing.

I stopped and got the cake; it was a nice, chocolate icing thing with vanilla insides. I took it home. The boys each took a piece but didn't finish; the cake was kind of rich. Myra took a small piece. I'd brought home pizzas too so nobody had to fix dinner. The boys were pretty worn out from camp so it was easy to get them in bed. By 9:00 again it was just Myra and me.

We sat on the sofa and watched some TV; she sat quietly with her hands in her lap. I just bet my nemesis and my wife had talked about my call to Allyson.

Around 10:00 I said, "Maybe we could go to bed. I'd like to make up for what happened last night," I got the sweetest smile. I thought maybe this'll work out.

We went to bed. She was as hesitant as she'd been during our earlier months of marriage. I was able to hold her, kiss her, and just make the tenderest kind of love to her as I knew how. More than anything I wanted her to see how much I loved her, and maybe how much she might lose if she behaved stupidly.

Tuesday we were up and off with the same procedure. That night when we all got home I wasn't totally surprised. She was at an almost complete loss for words. She acted nervous and jumpy most of the night. 'Oh yeah', I thought, 'the two 'cats' certainly knew something was up.' I thought I bet they'd had a nice talk about the cakes. That night I gave her a second dose of 'Stevie Wonderful'. I had no idea what my competition and his wife were doing, but I'd bet he was playing the same tune.

My guess was people who cheated got lazy and overlooked the person they'd loved enough to marry; after all they were safely locked away at home, being dumb, blind, loyal, and stupid. But what if the cheater began to think that their stupid, blind, dumb, 'trusting' spouse wasn't loyally home tending the store. What if 'Mr. or Mrs. Too Stupid to Know' had decided to take a page out of the cheaters handbook and write a chapter of their own? Now wouldn't that just fuck up somebody's day?

I liked to think my contact with Allyson might be fucking up Myra's self-confidence - her sense of equanimity. If it wasn't, then I was totally wrong about her, and I'd be a fool to hang around.

I took Wednesday off and Allyson and I met at the bakery. I got there first, but she wasn't far behind. We had a few things to talk over.

As she walked in I got up and proffered a chair, "How do you feel?"

"I'm not sure," she replied, "Wendell saw the cake, had a piece, but said nothing after that. Then the next day when he came home he acted real odd. I think they might have compared notes. I don't know how to take him on this."

"Let me ask you Allyson; has Wendell ever done anything like this before?"

She sighed and responded, "Yes, I think so, but I was too afraid to say anything. It was another lawyer I think. It might have lasted about six months; then it ended."

I asked, "How did you know it ended?"

She sniffed, and I was afraid she wouldn't be able to handle what I had in mind, but she said, "Oh for several months he was a real bear with me. He was rude and talked down to me all the time. I felt so helpless, then one day it just stopped, he became his old self again. He's always been an arrogant bastard, but I do love him."

I started, "I think they've been at it for a month or so. My guess is it started around Memorial Day."

Allyson nodded and said, "That sounds about right."

"Let me ask you Allyson. What do you want to do?"

Her eyes got real wide, "I don't know. I love him, but this hurts so much. I don't know how many more times...but there's the children."

I reached across and took her hand, "I think this is Myra's first time. I've thought this over. I've got my boys, and I really do love her. If I can find a way to stop this, and find a way to guarantee it might never happen again I'd try it. What about you Allyson?"

She sniffled, "I do love him. He's been good to me for most of our marriage. I have my kids, and to tell the truth it's nice not having to work."

I put her hand in both of mine, "OK, I think we can fix this. If my idea works we'll be in fat city for a long time, but it's got to be us together..."

She interrupted, "I don't want to do anything... you know."

I squeezed her hand, "No Allyson this is not pay back. This is going to be a salvage operation. I mean I'm going to try to forgive Myra, but I'm going to try to make sure it never happens again. I'll take care of the appropriate responses, if I think I need to, when the time comes. And if Wendell really loves you then things will work out for you too. I'm sure Myra loves me, I just think she got a burr up her stupid ass. I've read up; it happens."

Allyson looked more cheerful, "OK, what's your plan?"

I leaned forward, "First tonight when they both get home I'm sure they'll have conferred about the cakes and tried to figure what to do. That might be all it takes to move the two apart. If not then they'll need more convincing."

Allyson grinned, "What's the plan?"

I smiled, "You've got to trust me. I'll let you know when the time's right."

She got a little giggly, "OK, so they come home tonight and..."

We talked a while longer. I filled her in on what she needed to know, and we left.

~~v~~

Myra got home right on time. Since I'd taken off I used the extra time to vacuum and scrub the kitchen and bathroom floors. These were largely shared jobs, but doing it on a Wednesday was out of the ordinary. What was extraordinary was my decision to go ahead and change the bed sheets, wash and hang them out on the line. I was just finishing up when she pulled up. I could see the look of trepidation a mile away. One thing I'd read; a cheating spouse will sometimes go out of their way to be nice. My cleaning and washing might just throw her a curve ball she didn't expect.

She walked around the house to the backyard where I was taking the last of the things off the line, "Gee Steve you're home early."

I turned, walked over and gave her a kiss on the cheek, "I took the day off. You've been so good to me these past few days I had to do something to show my gratitude."

She smiled, but it was an apprehensive one, "I thought the cake was more than appropriate."

Time to rub it in, "Nothing's too good for my girl. You know how much I love you. You come first in everything I do."

She almost flinched back at that; she changed the subject, "You did the wash."

"Only the bed sheets. Ours were kind of stained up," I gave her a wicked smile, and then threw a little gas on the mental brushwood, "I like to do things for my favorite lover," then I tossed in a lighted match, "after all in bed you're my number one girl."

I'm sure I saw the uncertainty, but she recovered nicely, "You devil," she replied, "I thought we'd have spaghetti tonight. Is that all right with you?"

I replied somewhat circumspectly, "Maybe we could eat out?"

Inquisitive, she asked, "Anyplace in mind?"

"I thought the Wagon Wheel," oh yeah...the look had guilt and fear all over her pretty face.

"Why there," she asked?

"I don't know; you go there a lot. You might know what's on the menu that's good. Allyson also said it's got some pretty good food." Mentioning Allyson was like a needle in her ego.

She looked down and away, "Let's eat in tonight. I know the boys would like spaghetti."

"OK," was my matter of fact rejoinder. I took her hand and we went inside.

While she went upstairs I got out my next surprise. Wendell had gotten Allyson a dozen red roses Sunday, and I just bet he'd told Myra. I couldn't let him 'one up' me.

Myra came down a few minutes later; she'd rinsed off in the shower and put on a pretty bra-dress. She looked scrumptious, but I couldn't help but wonder if there'd been another reason for the quick shower.

I hated the thought of using her celI-phone to spy on her, but she had a state of the art piece of equipment there, and even though I was probably still just 'teacher boy' for the moment I knew my electronics.

My real concern was did I really want to know more than I had to. Up to now I still could pretend she and Wendell hadn't done 'the deed'. I was kind of sure they had, but if I found out too much how would it affect how I felt later on? No, playing the cell-phone game could wait.

The whole infidelity thing, the uncertainty of it, the way the mind works, a person's natural curiosity it could all lead to all sorts of thoughts. I was thinking about somebody else's problems that had been pretty big news a couple years back. In fact it had come back up again not so long ago.

There'd been this four star general who'd gotten caught with his hands in the cookie jar. It seemed a somewhat younger woman, also a West Point graduate, had gotten the chance to write a book about him. Well from what I read between the lines of the customary salacity in the newscasts; she'd gotten all starry eyed, a seduction of sorts had occurred, and they ended up doing the dirty behind their spouses backs.

The media had taken it up and had a field day; it turned into a real feeding frenzy. There was talk of hotel rendezvous, of 'desk sex', the use of special sexual aids and taste aids like pineapple. These were the kinds of things that could easily prey on the deceived spouse's insecurities. It was going to be hard for me as it was; I didn't need to think about that kind of crap.

The general had even gotten a promotion to a bigger post in government, but then their secret leaked out, he had to resign, and she ended up at home with dad and mom. I had to chuckle just a little. I'm not a political guy, but the general had been proposed as a candidate to run against our incumbent president. Just prior to his exposure he looked like a viable choice. I wondered if the president hadn't sort of allowed, maybe even gently facilitated the whole blow up.

The 'affair' hadn't ended there though; the woman had a husband and two small boys. Man I remember, for a while her husband was the national chump, like cuckold of the year. I figured he'd dump her skanky ass, take the boys and leave the ranch, but he surprised everybody. He surprised me anyway. He let her back in.

I thought about that; those little boys needed their mom, plus she'd gone plum ape shit over some 'general'. Now I had two little boys, and they worshiped their mom. Was I going to ruin their lives over something like this? No, I couldn't do it. Plus how different was the one woman's foolish infatuation with a national leader from my wife's possible infatuation with a man who clearly had it all over me in the looks and the career department.

I figured let's play this one out. I had time. If I wanted to go deep later I could do that. No, I'd wait and see. For now I'd pin my hopes on Myra's love for me, and on her sanity.

Myra came in the kitchen, saw the flowers, and reacted. Under normal circumstances, in our pre-new home new job world the flowers would have been greeted with laughter, clapping hands, maybe some other silly histrionics, and a big kiss. Not today; this time she came in, saw the flowers, and went straight to a chair. She hit the seat, folded her hands in her lap, and started to juice up. All I could say was the look of guilt and I hoped confusion was profound.

I asked her, "Do you like them?"

Ever so softly, almost indiscernibly she murmured, "They're beautiful."

God I thought she was going to cry. Her response confirmed my fears. I only hoped she wouldn't go too far. The last thing I wanted today was a guilt driven confession. I went over, pulled her to her feet, kissed her, and proceeded to try to tickle the shit out of her.

My attempt to take the crust off the moment worked; she giggled and squirmed. She wrapped her arms around me and chortled happily, "You're just awful you know that?"

I kept tickling. The bus had just dropped the boys off and they came in; Michael hollered, "Hey what's up?"

His mom, now full of happy, if somewhat guilty laughter said, "Your father's being a brat."

By then both boys were in the game. All three of us started working Myra over. She laughed and giggled, and finally burst into tears. The boys didn't know it, but I did; the tears were real. Myra might have rediscovered something about us, at least I hoped so.

~~v~~

I returned to work Thursday, but I got a call in to Allyson. I asked her how things had been going. She said Wendell had been a little distant, but otherwise pretty well behaved. I thought I bet he was pissed because he was losing some free pussy. Wendell needed to be taken down a peg, and I had two good ideas.

I asked Allyson, "Your husband...he insists on being called by his full name, Wendell. Has that always been the case?"

Allyson didn't get where I was coming from at first, "Yes, mostly. His mother used to call him Delly when he was little, but he didn't like it."

'Delly,' I thought, 'yeah, that's a little much.' I asked, "Have you ever called him anything else? I mean like maybe just Dell?"

"Oh no," he gets angry.

"Allyson start calling him Dell tonight; see what he says."

"He'll get mad. He'll want to fight."

I said, "Let him. Don't back down."

"You think it will mean anything," she asked?

"I think it might bring him down a notch or two."

I could almost see her smile over the phone, "All right. I'll try it. I'll tell you how it goes."

"Some other things too," I said.

"What's that Steve?"

"Every now and then, not too often, but some, just mention me."

She replied softly, "He'll wonder..."

I added, "Also, I want you to invite Myra and our boys over Saturday. If it's not raining, we can use your pool. Myra wants to have a pool installed. We'll use that as the excuse."

Allyson said, "And when we're all together we can compare notes."

I said, "Yeah, something like that," I had something more mind.

~~v~~

I got home Thursday night and laid low, no new tricks or gimmicks. Myra needed a night off. However, later in the evening we got a call. I didn't answer, but a few minutes later Myra came in, "That was Mrs. Standish."

I smiled brightly and said, "Allyson?"

That took Myra back a tad, but she recovered, "Yes, we've been invited over Saturday if it doesn't rain. You must have said something, and she wants to show us their pool."

I sat up, "That's great. Can we take the boys?"

"Yes, she specifically said the boys were invited too."

I said, "Honey why don't you get one of those two piece bathing suits like the one you wore on our honeymoon."

"You mean the white one?"

I said, "Yeah."

She replied, "I'll stop off tomorrow, but I don't think white is a good choice."

I winked, "Whatever you choose will be a good choice," I was a shit, a little bit anyway. I added, "Do you think Allyson is a two or a one piece type?" Myra ignored me.

We went to bed a little later; no sex or anything, just some cuddling. I thought maybe things were going the way I wanted them. Myra held me a little tighter than normal, and she did fiddle with my penis some. I enjoyed it.

~~v~~

Friday came and went without incident, and Saturday found us at the Standish's. This was going to be a big test for us.

Our boys found the pool right away and disappeared. Allyson's kids, Maureen and Jessie were already in the water. To appease Maureen she'd been allowed to invite a friend; her name was Jennie. So with five kids in the pool on a steamy Saturday afternoon we adults got to sit under a couple umbrellas and chat. Even though Allyson kept calling her husband Dell I was pleasantly surprised at how gracious he was.

I brought up the name thing, "I thought you preferred Wendell. Allyson keeps calling you Dell."

He groused, "She got a wild hair up her ass the other night and wants to call me Dell now."

I chuckled, "Well it's better than what my mom used to call me."

Myra remembered, "Oh my yes, tell them what your mother used to call you."

I pretended to be embarrassed, "Oh when I was little she called me her 'little chickadee'. Later, as a sop to my dignity she shortened it to 'Chickie' and much later to just 'Chick'." I snatched a look at Myra and said, "Don't laugh I know what your mom and dad called you."

Myra blanched, "No Steve. Don't go there."

Allyson asked me, "No what did they call her?"

I chortled, "She was their 'Peeper'. Myra was a full-fledged red face with that. I asked Allyson, "Your mom and dad have a name for you?"

She blushed then, "They called me 'Muffin'."

We all laughed a little at that. Wendell laughed the least, but I think he was somewhat mollified. I also thought maybe I'd managed to remove some of the 'august mystery' from our 'Mr. I'm So Special' Standish."