Her Problem Ch. 04

I had developed a plan in my head for punishing Marizona for letting her old college sorority sister, Stephanie; get her drunk and having sex with multiple men while away on her trip to Atlanta. I hadn't been able to watch the whole video that Stephanie had gleefully sent to me that would verify that Mare had actually indulged in a drunken night of sex with three men, but I knew from Mare's and my past that it more than likely had happened.

I left the diner I'd eaten breakfast in and drove to one of the nationwide home improvement and building supply stores that was close to mine and Mare's home. (For the NASCAR fans, it's the one that sponsor's Jimmy Johnson.) I picked up a keyed interior door hardware set before heading over to Mark and Angie's house. I would need both of them to help me if I wanted to have the first phase of my plan complete before Mare returned home.

"Joe, I didn't expect to see you today. Are you okay, now? You were pretty upset when I saw you earlier." Mark said to me after answering my knock on his door.

"I'm better than I was, but I wouldn't say I'm okay. Can I come in? I wanted to ask you and Angie if you'd help me today." I replied uneasily as the idea of what I was planning asserted itself within my head.

"I'm sorry, Joe. Yeah, come on in. I already told you Angie and I would do anything we could to help you or Mare any time you needed us. Have a seat in the living room and I'll go find Angie."

I trudged across the plush burgundy colored carpet in my best friend's living room and plopped down on the loveseat of their living room set. I would have to turn slightly to my left when he returned with his wife and they sat on the couch which I was sure they would do when they joined me.

"Joe, where's your cell phone?" Angie yelled at me as soon as she and Mark had returned to the living room. "Mare has called four times in the last hour wanting to know if you've talked to either of us. She sounded really upset the first time she called and she progressively sounded even more distraught in the following calls. The last time she called, all I could understand was that you were right, but she didn't listen and she'd driven you away again. What was she talking about and why are you deliberately ignoring her?"

"I'll explain what's going on and what she was talking about if you promise not to answer any more calls from her until you've heard what I have to say. You need to promise me you won't tell her about what I've been doing, where I'm at, or the fact that you will be picking her up at the airport instead of me. What I'm about to do may seem cruel to the both of you, but I can't let what I think happened last night go unpunished and I need Mare to finally understand that I was right about her "almost a sister to me" BFF Stephanie. Will you both promise me that and, more importantly, can you keep your promises?" I said to them with a determined tenor to my voice.

After they had both promised that they could, I told them about the worst night of my life before the one that had only ended a few hours earlier even though I'd promised myself I'd never tell it to another after my little car ride with my father in-law, Roberto Ortiz. Their reaction to my tale of woe went from shock to surprise and back to shock when I explained to them what I was going to do and asking for their help. Angie's phone had rang twice during the first few moments of my story and but she didn't answer and then silenced the ringtone after the second call which let me know that it had been Mare who called both times.

After I was finished telling them what they needed to know, they followed me home and Angie watched enough of the video to confirm my suspicions about the previous night's activities while Mark helped me move the junk that was piled up in the small room on the first floor that would soon be my bedroom. He helped me break down the queen sized bed in the upstairs guest room and move it and a chest of drawers downstairs to my room. I installed the new hardware set in the door while Angie and Mark move as many of my clothes that would fit into the smaller, than I'd been using, closet of my new room.

When we had moved as much of my things as we could into the room I'd exiled myself to, Angie gave me a hug and a sisterly kiss on the cheek before she ran out of the house unable to stop her tears any longer. I saw the glisten of tears in my best friend's eyes when I went to shake his hand in thanks for what he'd done for me. Mark grabbed me into a bear hug and I could hear the pain and sadness in his voice as he swore to me that he'd always be there for me no matter when or where I needed him.

I stood behind the shut front door as tears of my own flowed down my cheeks after they'd gone. I went upstairs to begin carrying my everyday toiletries from the master bath down to the first floor bathroom I'd be using for the foreseeable future. I couldn't have imagined anything could have made the day any worse than it already was, but reality and imagination collided in a big way when I opened the medicine cabinet in the master bath to get the replacement blades for my razor.

I hadn't had any reason to open the cabinet all week so when I opened it that morning and saw that familiar circle of pills that every boyfriend or husband who's significant other used as their birth control method would recognize; reality grabbed my brain in a stranglehold and I again found myself on my knees in front of the porcelain bowl expelling my stomach contents into it. I would have to confirm it with Angie, but I very seriously doubted that the men Mare had been with the night before had bothered with protection and Mare wasn't in her right mind so the possibility of her thinking of it was very remote, extreme corner of the Earth remote.

On top of everything else that had happened; the probability of Mare being pregnant was something else I had to worry about. If she was, it might be the one thing that would lead to our divorce. Everyone would think of me as being a bastard about it, but I wasn't going to be a father to someone else's child. Mare being raised Catholic meant she'd probably never agree to an abortion so if she refused to give the unconfirmed, but beyond a shadow of a doubt child I believed she'd conceived during her drunken night of debauchery, up for adoption; our marriage would be over.

I placed her birth control pills in the center of what would be her bed until we either reconciled or separated from her actions and her devotion to Stephanie. I left the upstairs portion of our home not knowing when or if I'd ever enter it again.

I wrote three notes to leave for Mare in the short time I had left before my departure from the house. I taped the first note to the front door, left the other in a sealed envelope beside my cell phone and the den's computer, and the third on a small table I'd positioned to the side of the stairs to the upper floor. I ignored the ringing of my cell phone after I'd turned it back on and left the house that I no longer considered a happy home to await Mare at the restaurant/bar that was built beside and partially over the small lake near the house.

My first note to Mare read:

Marizona,

I haven't fled like I did the last time this happened, but I need you to hear and see what I heard and saw almost the first thing this morning.

My cell is in the den. Please listen to the voice mail that I received from your cell last night after 2 A.M. After you have listened to it, watch as much of the video that is on the computer as you can stomach. I only made it to where you were in the back of the limo. Angie only made it to the point of you being airtight by your "friends". It was two hours into the video before Angie had to quit watching it so I think you need to watch it at least that long.

When you've reached your limit, open the envelope on the desk.

DO NOT OPEN IT UNTIL YOU'VE WITNESSED FOR YOURSELF WHAT HAPPENED LAST NIGHT! Joe

My second note to her read:

Marizona,

I hope you're hurting as much as I was this morning. I told you that Stephanie wasn't to be trusted, but you wouldn't listen. I told you there would be consequences if you cheated on me and even though you were drunk; you cheated on me last night.

Go upstairs and see what your actions have wrought.

DO NOT OPEN THE NOTE ON THE TABLE BESIDE THE STAIRS UNTIL YOU'VE LOOKED UPSTAIRS!

Joe

My third note read:

Marizona,

I am at the Lakeside Restaurant. If you want to remain my wife, come to the restaurant and we'll talk.

You are in the wrong so you will be making all the effort required to save our marriage. If that's not acceptable, call the restaurant and tell John that we're done and I'll spend the next couple of nights with Mark and Angie. I'll move out of the house as soon as I can on Monday.

I still love you and know that most of what you did was from being drunk, but you promised never to get that drunk again and you broke that promise. Whether we stay together depends entirely on you.

If you show up at the restaurant before 7:30, I'll know you didn't watch the video to the point Angie did and we'll be done as a couple.

Joe

I had picked at the appetizer platter the waitress had brought to me until it got cold and I had her take it away. I had been staring unseeingly at the waters of the lake lapping at the pilings that supported the portion of the restaurant that overhung the lake and on the third refill of my tea when I sensed her presence beside the booth I'd been seated in. My heart almost broke anew when I saw the pain mixed with anxiety on my beautiful wife's face and the evidence of the tears she'd shed for only she knew how long during the long day that we'd both just experienced.

I shook my head no when she tried to sit beside me at the table. I nodded to the other side of the booth and watched her tears start flowing again as she struggled to control them.

"You need to compose yourself and I need to use the restroom so I'll be right back, I promise." I said to Mare as I arose from the booth and hurried away, hoping she'd not seen the beginning of my own tears. I used the facilities, washed my face with cold water, and then returned to the table I'd occupied for the last three hours.

I was barely seated before Mare reached across the table in an attempt to grab my hand. I waited until her fingers touched the sides of my hand before pulling it back quickly and dropping it down beside me. I fought the internal struggle that was occurring between the urge to reach out to her and the need to hurt her more than she was already hurting. I wasn't proud that the need to hurt her won out over comforting her at that particular moment.

"Ha, ha, have you left me, Joe?" Mare was finally able to stammer out after she'd sat back away from me.

"Yes and no, Marizona. Have I moved my things downstairs into the room beside the kitchen? Yes, I have. Am I going to move out if the house completely? No, unless that's what you want. I meant it when I said I still love you and we both know what it felt like when we were apart before, but I can't forgive you for what you've done at this time. You've broken more than one promise to me in the last few days, done things that you knew would hurt me if I found out about them, and you need to feel some of what I'm feeling right now.

"Whatever happens between us depends entirely upon you, Marizona." I told her in as neutral a tone as I could while my inner demon chastised me for not lashing out at her verbally if not physically.

Mare turned her head to look out the window at the lake and I saw a single tear appear at the corner of her right eye before she reached over and pulled a couple of napkins from the dispenser on the table and wiped her face with them. When she turned her head back toward me, I saw the look of determination that she usually only had while on a volleyball court, first as a player and now as a successful, slightly famous high school coach.

"I know that it won't help ease the pain you're feeling right now, Joe, but I'm sorry. I'm sorry for what happened last night, sorry that you saw me like that again, and sorry that I didn't believe you when you told me that Stephanie wasn't the friend that I thought she was. You were right about her and I was too stubborn to see or hear it. I truly felt like she was the sister I'd never had and thought she felt the same way.

"I swear to you right now that I won't have anything to do with her ever again, Joe." Mare told me in her "I'm the coach so listen to me" tone of voice I'd heard for the last eight years whenever I'd watched her teams' practices or been to their games.

"Hold it right there, Marizona. Did I ask you to not have anything to do with Stephanie? No, I didn't. You have to stay in contact with her and, if need be, at least pretend that everything is okay between the two of you until I can get my payback on her for what she's done. I would bet everything we own that she was going to try something like that Thursday night, but your phone call to me upset her plans.

"One of the things you will have to do if you want to stay my wife is help me set Stephanie up for my punishment on her for what she did last night and for her part in setting you up to be used at the frat house our senior year. Your father may have let it slide, but I haven't and I've always promised myself I'd get her back someday before she or I were dead. I haven't figured out what her punishment will be and until I do, you need to make her believe everything is fine between the two of you.

"That is one of the things you'll have to do as part of your repentance for cheating on me. If you can't or won't do that, tell me now so I can move on in my life without you. I doubt I'll be able to find another woman who I'll love as much as I love you, Mare, but I'm sure I can find one that will make me happy enough to survive without you."

"I'll do it, Joe. I'll do whatever it takes to show you that I'm yours and only yours for the rest of my life. Please Joe, let's go home and I'll do all the sexy things I know you love for me to do for you." Mare begged of me with a hopeful look and the hint of desire in her eyes.

I was tempted, painfully tempted, to take her up on her offer because it had been almost a week since we'd made love to each other and four days since we'd had our little session of phone sex and that look of desire in her eyes had the same effect on me then as it always had, but that would put an end to my plan to punish her and to make her see that the consequences of bad decisions are sometimes greater than the reward or pleasure received from those decisions.

"No, Mare. We can't have sex tonight. It's too soon after what you did last night. I don't know personally, but I have my doubts as to whether the men you were with last night used condoms or not so you'll have to be tested for STD's before we have unprotected sex again. I think I remember from all the literature the university sent out about HIV and its incubation period that a person couldn't be one hundred percent sure he or she didn't have it until six months after the time he or she thought they may have been exposed.

"Mare, do you see now what you've done to us. Because you didn't listen to me or trust my judgment when it came to Stephanie, we won't be able to enjoy each other fully like we have in the past until you do get a clean bill of health.

"No long weekends of lying in bed pleasuring each other with our mouths, fingers, and other bodily parts. No exchanging sloppy wet kisses anytime or anywhere we felt like it. Your drunken night of pleasure has ruined everything we had together and I'm not sure if it will ever be the same for us again.

"I'm sure you saw what was lying in the middle of your bed when you went upstairs and found most of my things were gone from our closet." I started to say before Mare gasped out loud and interrupted me.

"No Joe, please don't say that. That's our bed, not mine. Please tell me it's our bed." Mare whimpered before new tears started to flow from her eyes.

"Until this morning it was our bed, but until you've been shown to be clean and have shown me that you're truly sorry for what has happened and proven to me that you place me above everyone like you told your father you had done, it won't be our bed, only yours.

"Getting back to what I was saying before, you saw your birth control pills on your bed and we both know you're in the middle of your menstrual cycle so has it even occurred to you that you're probably pregnant with another man's child?

"I can tell by the look on your face that you hadn't, Mare. I won't be a father to a child that's not mine so if you're pregnant; we've got another problem that we'll have to deal with all because you trusted your "friend" more than you trusted me.

"If you are pregnant, you'll either have to have an abortion or give it up for adoption if you want to continue to be my wife.

"DAMN IT, MARE! ARE YOU BEGINNING TO SEE HOW BIG OF A MESS YOUR ACTIONS HAVE GOTTEN US INTO?" I couldn't stop myself from yelling at her after jumping up from my side of the booth and standing beside hers feeling the heat of my anger on my face.

I turned and walked away from the table to the door that led out onto the covered deck of the restaurant. I stood at the rail around the deck and let the cool breeze from the lake help cool the heat in my face. I took in a couple of deep breaths of air while I struggled with my emotions.

I chastised myself for getting so angry that I'd nearly crossed the line and struck the woman I'd loved and continued to love despite her betrayal of me and the breaking of not only our wedding vows but her promises to me about not drinking too much and losing control like she had. I honestly didn't know if our once happy marriage would return to us or not and that thought along with the one of being alone again scared me more than anything had every scared me before.

After the anger had passed, confusion and doubt replaced it. It was so easy to want to hurt Mare as much as she had me when she was hundreds of miles away; but I was having second thoughts about what I'd set in motion from the initial anger and pain of what I'd seen and guessed had happened the night before. I could see that Mare was hurting already from her actions and the way I'd handled it was causing her even more pain, maybe more than I had felt that day.

I didn't want her to return to that dark depressed state she'd been in after the first time I'd abandoned her nor did I want her to be in so much pain that her love for me withered and died because I was more concerned with punishing her than I was in helping us get past her actions while we were separated the past week.

I honestly didn't know if I could carry my plan of punishment of Mare to its completion as I leaned against the rail watching the small fish that lived under the patio dart out from underneath it whenever something that might have been food landed in the water in front of them. I didn't hear her approach and only realized she was there when she leaned her upper body against my back and put her arms around my waist.

"Joe, I'm sorry I've hurt you. I can't change what I've already done, but I promise I'll do whatever it takes to make this up to you. I'll help you with your need to get revenge on Stephanie and then I'm done with her forever. If I am pregnant, I'll do whatever you need for me to do about it. Please Joe, let's go home. It's been a long day and I'm tired. Will you please come home with me?" Mare said in a monotone and with a hint of sadness.

I turned to face the love of my life and kissed her gently on the forehead.

"It has been a long day, Mare, so yes we can go home. You lead the way and I promise I'll be right behind you." I told her before turning her away from me.