Janet

It all started with an argument about six months ago.

Janet and I have been married going on four years. The first three were great but the last year has been a bitch. It started out normally but over the first few months everything seemed to go to shit. I don't know what happened but all I knew was that she was unhappy with me and it showed up in her attitude towards me. We were always arguing.

It got so bad that one evening we had a screaming donnybrook over dinner and she ran sobbing out of the house and took off in her car. I didn't know where she was going and I didn't give a damn. I went to bed that night after midnight...... alone. She still hadn't returned.

I got the call around 3 am, she was in the emergency room at Memorial Hospital and would I please come down and fill in the paper work. By the time I got to see her she had been moved to a room, she was a mess. Most of her injuries were superficial, caused by the air bags and seat belt, but she did have a couple of broken bones and a few cracked ribs. She had been speeding on the highway and lost control on a curve and totaled the car against a tree.

Two black eyes and a swollen nose made her face almost comical, but her right leg in a cast and suspended in a sling, along with the cast on her left forearm took all the humor from the situation. She was fast asleep, probably still from a sedative and according to the nurse, would be for a several hours. I went home for a few more hours sleep and returned shortly after ten in the morning. She was awake when I walked in. I stopped half way to her bed and stood looking at her, I could see a tear running down her cheek.

"I'm sorry Herbie, did I total the car?"

"Yeah." I replied, "Good thing it wasn't you too."

"Why, would you care?"

"What kind of question is that," I asked? "Of course I would care."

"Why would you, as long as you have Rosemary to fuck?"

"Oh god. You know about that?"

"Yes, for the past four months."

"I'm sorry. I never meant to hurt you. Is that why you have been so out of sorts lately?"

She said, "Well what do you think?" I could see she was getting angry again.

Just then her doctor came in, before we could get in to another argument. He told us that there was nothing wrong with her vital signs and as soon as she was able to go to the bathroom by herself she could go home. She would need physical therapy when the casts came off and by that time her ribs should be better too.

I stayed home with her for a few days until I was sure she could get along by herself. Things were peaceful enough between us and I went back to work. She did ask me if I had gone back to Rosemary. I hadn't and I told her I wouldn't, it was all over for me and Rosemary.

Janet said, "Good, I'm glad it's over for you but it's not over for me."

"What's that supposed to mean," I asked?

"I'm not sure yet," she responded, "I'll let you know when I know."

Four weeks after the accident the casts came off and the ribs had mostly healed. It was then that the physical therapy started. At first it was hard for her but she soon began to enjoy it. Not only did it help her arm and leg but her disposition seemed to improve also. She was happier and much easier to live with. The old Janet seemed to have returned.

Well, in every way except sex. When I tried to initiate making love to her she complained that her ribs still hurt.

"Look" she explained, "I had to do without it when you were fucking Rosemary and then the whole time after the accident. Now it's your turn to do without for a change."

I grudgingly accepted her argument but I wondered how she could go without sex any easier than I could.

I came home from work one evening and I saw the dinner table set for three. I asked Janet, "Who is coming for dinner?"

"Monte, my physical therapist," she told me. "My therapy is finished and I invited him to dinner to thank him for all he has done for me and I wanted you to meet him too."

I had never asked who her physical therapist was. I never even knew it was a man but I guess he did deserve some thanks for restoring her to her old self. When the door bell rang she was busy in the kitchen so she asked me to answer it. It was then I came face to face with Monte.

I opened the door to a man who towered over me. I am 5'8" and tall enough to look big next to Janet's 5'2". Monte has to be 6'2" a good half a foot taller than I and at least fifty pounds heavier. I felt like a teenager next to him.

Janet, hearing our voices in the entry hall came dashing out of the kitchen and leaped into his arms. He lifted her like she was a feather and glued his mouth to hers with a kiss that lasted more than I was comfortable with. Her feet were off the floor and her body molded to his as her one leg bent at the knee bringing her heel up against her ass. She was squealing with delight when he set her back down on the floor.

"Herbie," she said as she stopped giggling, "why don't you make you and Monte a drink while I finish making dinner."

As I was fixing his scotch on the rocks he said, "Her therapy went very well, she should be better than she was before."

I was more than a little pissed off at that greeting he had received and I said, "Better? Better how, physically or in bed?"

"What are you talking about?" He answered my question with his.

"That greeting you just got makes me think that the therapy was more than only health related. WOOOOSH."

The WOOOOSH was all the air going out of my lungs. He had hit me right in my solar plexus and I as I lay writhing on the floor he pulled up a chair next to my head. I was struggling to breathe when he started to talk as he sipped his scotch.

"She is a lady and don't you ever intimate that she is not. Don't you ever accuse her of any impropriety or even think that she is capable of any. If she tells me that you ever accused of her of being unfaithful to you, what just happened will be a walk in the park compared to what will happen to you next."

I heard a slight noise and I saw Janet standing in the doorway to the kitchen, she had a surprised look on her face that turned into a smile when he shook his head at her. Then, without a word, she returned to finish her dinner preparations.

"Now," he continued, "when you get your breath back you are going to take your drink and go into the den and watch the news on TV until dinner is ready. Then, after coffee, we are going to spend a nice comfortable evening together in the living room. I'll go and see how everything is coming along in the kitchen."

I heard a small shriek of delight before the kitchen door swung shut. It took me more than a few minutes to gather myself together and then I went to watch the news. After almost half an hour I got the call that dinner was ready and when I went to sit down I saw that the table had been reset. There was one place setting on one side of the dinning room table and two on the other side. Janet directed me to sit on the single side.

I sat though dinner watching them, eating, laughing, joking, feeding one another, having a good time. Never touching and except for the feeding, doing nothing of an intimate nature. They played complete attention to each other and it was as if I were not there. It was a painful for me to watch them and it got more so when we retired to the living room for coffee and after dinner brandy.

Janet put some soft music on the stereo and after the coffee was finished she asked Monte to dance with her. Their hands remained where they were supposed to remain and so did their lips although I could see him whispering in her ear. Nothing was attempted that was not proper and yet the feeling was that the two of them were being intimate. It felt to me as if they were fucking right in front of me.

Finally I couldn't take any more. I said, "I'm going to bed, I have to be out early tomorrow. Goodnight Monte."

"But it's so early." Janet complained, "I'll be up in a little while after I say goodnight to Monte."

From my bed I could hear the indistinguishable murmur of conversation coming from downstairs and occasionally some quiet bursts of laughter. But the worst thing was the long periods of silence. What the hell were they doing down there?

I was still up at 2 am when I heard her say goodnight to him and then it took her another half hour in the bathroom before she came to bed. I pretended to be asleep but it took her no time at all begin her light snoring.

She was still asleep when I left in the morning and when we sat down to dinner in the evening it was as if last night never happened. At least it was until I brought it up.

"What was last night all about?"

"What do you mean," she asked?

"With Monte, with the way you were acting?"

"With the way I was acting? Well maybe I went a little overboard when I kissed him hello but I am really grateful with how much he helped me with my rehabilitation. Are you accusing me of doing anything improper? Especially last night, with you in the house?"

There it was. She had thrown down the gauntlet in front of me. She really hadn't done anything outwardly wrong yet they had excluded me and flaunted their relationship

shamelessly. I thought I knew that they were fucking and they knew what I thought but if I accused her, not only did I have no proof but I risked another beating from Monte.

Damn it, I loved her but she has not allowed me near her since the accident, not since I admitted to my affair with Rosemary. She was getting all the sex she wanted from Monte and not only was I not getting any but I risked the possibility of losing her.

"It hurts doesn't it," she asked?

"What does?"

"Knowing, but not knowing for sure. Not having any proof, not even sure of what you know. Knowing you can't do anything about what you are not sure of."

"It's driving me crazy, not knowing one way or the other."

"Well learn to live with it."

"For how long? How long will this go on?"

"How long were you with Rosemary?"

"Oh god, I don't think I can survive this."

"You will, I did. Oh, and by the way, I am going to visit my sister this weekend. I'll be away from Saturday morning to Sunday night."

"Your sister? Are you sure it won't be with......?"

"Herbie," she interrupted, "are you accusing me of.......?"

"No, no, no. Just a slip of the tongue. Will I be able to call you there?"

"You know I am always happy to talk to you. Call any time you want."

The week passed by and all was seemingly happy in our household except that neither of us had asked the other for any sex. On Saturday morning she left at nine o'clock on the two and a half hour drive to her sister's. By noon I had expected to hear from her that she had arrived safely but she still had not called and just as I reaching for the phone to call her, the phone rang.

Before I could say hello, I heard, "Hi Herbie, it's me ....ugh.....the trip was fine.....ugh.......the kids are jumping......ugh....all over me......ugh......no problems driving...ugh...even the dog.....ugh...... won't leave me....ugh ......alone.......ugh..... I'll call you......ugh......tonight when things...... ugh ......aren't so crazy."

I never had a chance to get a word in before she hung up.

Where the hell was she and what was she doing when she called and why did it take her so long to call? When I didn't hear from her by 8pm I called her. Her brother in law answered, No she wasn't there. She and Stella had taken the older kids to the movies. He would tell her to call when they got home.

She didn't call that night so I called Sunday at about ten in the morning. I was told she was in the shower and would call me back when she got out. It was at noon the phone rang.

"Hi Herb, it's me, (giggle), sorry about last night. I just got so involved with the kids I forgot you were going to call, (oooooooo), I'll leave here about six and I should be home before nine (stop that). I'm really having a good time. (Yes! Right there.) I'm glad you let me come. (Oh goddddd). She hung up, I never got to say a word beyond hello.

True to her word she was home Sunday night just before nine. She was bubbling over, happier than I have seen her in years. I was a wreck.

"Janet, I said, "we have to talk."

"I agree Herb, but not tonight. The driving, the excitement, the lack of sleep, I'm pooped. I feel like I haven't slept since I got up on Saturday morning. Tomorrow night we'll talk. All I want tonight is a shower and sleep.

She hasn't slept since Saturday morning?

Another shower?

Nobody could fuck for thirty six hours, could they?

Not even Monte.

Could he?

Could she?

So we had our talk the next night. No more Rosemary's for me and we agreed to take things back to where they were before all this arguing started. I never accused her of anything and she never admitted to anything. All I knew was she was back to being my loving wife and I was happy to have her back.

And I never really knew if what I thought I knew was something that I really wanted to know.