Better Than Me?

Kat's face flushed.

"Danny, I went out with lots of boys before you and I got married, you know that."

"Well, it could have been forever and not be Rich Crippen!" I yelled.

"That was nothing, it was just the one time!" Her eyes screwed up, Kat looked like she was about to cry.

"I don't like him, You should have told me." I said.

"You haven't told me about all the girls you have been with. Besides, all of that was before, now it's just you and me."

"Well, I don't like the idea of that jerk sniffing around trying to hit on my wife!" I did soften my tone, since she was correct. I had my own share of experiments with sexuality while growing up, not a lot and all insignificant.

"I know, that's why I never said anything, I knew you would get mad about it. I just told him to leave me alone."

I looked at her, she hadn't told him any such thing, not really.

"What you told him was to not call you HERE! So where does he call you, on your fucking cell phone?"

Kat flushed again and I knew.

"So he has been calling, right?"

"Honey, I just tell him to leave me alone."

"How in the hell does he even have your cell number?"

"My class reunion, they printed everyone's contact number on the flyer we got a few months ago. I gave them my cell number. That's how he got our address, too."

"Then you slip off and have lunch with the asshole!" My voice was getting loud again.

"I wanted to see Sally, that's all that was. But then after, Rich...he wanted me to go home with him. I refused of course."

"That sneaky son of a bitch!" I retorted.

"Danny!" Kat called out as I went out the door.

+++

I hopped into our black Impala, it is the super sports model with the nice 303 horsepower V-8.

I like that machine, it handles pretty well and will really scat if I wriggle my toes.

Driving it calms me down, and right at the moment I needed some calming down.

Discovering that your wife had an affair, sure, something from the past but with the one man in the world you don't want to be anywhere around her is tough to take.

Silly again, but carnal knowledge is carnal knowledge and a real hit to a man's ego.

Some faceless and nameless stranger from the deep past would be one thing, one that had been a constant irritant all through the early years is something else entirely.

I was having an internal struggle with that. It didn't sound like anything was going on now, not really. But it was also clear that Kat had been talking to the jerk, and in such a way as to be behind my back.

She should have been telling me all about it, and I was not sure why she did not.

As I pulled off the main highway onto a section of roadway that is nearly always deserted, I saw a flash of red.

A red Corvette!

Rich Crippen.

He was going the other way, and for an instant his eyes met mine.

The tires on my Impala made a loud squeal as I turned around and put my foot down. I saw the red Corvette up ahead after about a mile.

Why was I chasing after Rich? I don't really know, impulse I guess.

I saw him look up at me in the rear view mirror and he took off.

For the next couple of miles it took everything I knew to keep up with him, I did notice that he was over braking going into the turns and each time I gained back everything I lost in the straights.

Then he took an exit, heading into a stretch I happened to know very well since it led down by a stream I went steelhead fishing in during the Winter.

He was trying to leave me in the dust but I stayed right on his ass no matter what he did.

We were getting further and further out into the countryside, I knew that just a mile or two ahead was a small town, mostly just a gas station and a couple of stores.

I eased up off the gas, a couple of times we had hit close to 100 miles per hour. The Corvette moved far ahead and vanished around the next curve, when I came around it I was planning on breaking it off, turning around and going back home.

Somehow chasing Rich Crippen and seeing that he could not really get away from me, even driving a superior machine made me feel better.

Yes. Silly, I know.

There sat the Corvette, pulled off into a convenience store parking lot.

I pulled in right behind.

"What in the fuck do you want, asshole?" Rich demanded when I got out. He was standing there with the door open, looking at me red faced.

"Well, you have been bothering my Kat, so I am warning you. Leave her alone, don't call her, don't go near her." I said.

I was standing right in front of him now.

"And just what in the fuck are YOU going to do about it, pipsqueak?" He snorted. That was his favorite name for me back in high school.

That was also as far as he got.

They say the guy who lands the first punch usually wins a fight, and there is some truth to that.

My first punch landed dead square on his mouth, his arms came up in an instinctive reaction and my second one landed in what was a surprisingly soft belly.

There was a gust of air out of his lungs and he turned sideways, bending over to protect his stomach. I swung my right elbow around in a circle and caught him in the ribcage.

Then he was down on his back against the open Corvette door and the cab of the machine with nowhere to go.

I piled on top and used my fists and elbows on him, finally he had his arms up trying to protect himself, so I got up.

I gave him a few well aimed kicks, now he was rolled up into a ball trying to cover himself.

I stepped back and looked down at him.

Rich Crippen, the school bully, laying there curled up in the gravel parking lot. Several years of torment, being treated like dirt all ended up right here.

Hitting on my wife, knowing she was married and not caring?

"Well, now you know what the fuck I am going to do about it." I told him.

He didn't answer.

"Come near Kat again and next time it will be one hell of a lot worse!" I told him.

He sat there and looked up at me, I saw the fear on his face.

"One other thing, you can't get away from me on foot either, because I can run you down from behind." I leered at him, he just lay there.

"Nice car!" I reached out and patted the red paint, grinned at him.

Then I walked back to my Impala, started the engine and drove home with a smile. I felt something, reached up and wiped my face, it came away bloody.

I had no idea when that happened, he must have gotten a lick or two in but none of it had registered.

Kat was sitting in the living room, she looked upset when I walked in.

"What happened to you?" She asked.

I went right past her, downstairs into the basement and unhooked the recorder.

Back upstairs I made a show of dropping the thing into the waste basket.

I went and sat down, looked over at Kat.

"Now. You are going to tell me everything, got it?"

Kat nodded.

She did, too, and didn't pull any punches. There was just the one time back in high school, it was in the car and Rich had been insistant.

She liked him, and finally gave in. But then she found out Rich was also messing around with several other girls at the same time, so she wouldn't go out with him any more.

Then when he danced with her that one night, he was his usual funny personality and she had found the compliments flattering.

"I don't know why, I just did." She said, catching my expression.

"Back in high school, I thought I liked him. It wasn't until later when I found out what he was really like."

"You should have told me."

"I know but I was sort of ashamed of that? Besides, it lasted maybe 15 seconds is all. Then I noticed you and you were always so quiet and nice, I decided to try and find out what you were like."

I didn't answer, just let her go on.

"You were so different than Rich, I fell in love with you and I forgot all about him."

But then he had started to call, and even though she had told him no he kept right on. She didn't know what to do about it, not really.

She was afraid for me, since Rich was so much bigger and stronger. She was afraid I would get into a fight with him and get hurt.

For some reason none of that upset me all that much.

The truth there is that before does not matter, it is only after that does.

"Rich Crippen will not be bothering you any more." I told her.

"Why not?" She asked.

"Let's just say he turned out to be not a better man than me, OK?"

"He never was, honey." Kat told me.

"15 seconds, huh?" I laughed.

"If that. Now, let's go get you cleaned up and you can tell me what you did, your nose is bleeding."

"It was nothing, it only lasted about..15 seconds." I grinned at her.