Nothing To Talk About Ch. 02

When she arrived at his house, he was already waiting for her. As soon as she knocked on the door it swung open. Peter grabbed her in the doorway and started kissing her lips insistently, while grabbing hold of her rear end in the process. It was as if he knew what was coming and was trying to reestablish his claim on her. Neither noticed the nondescript car or the man behind the wheel snapping photos at a frenzied pace.

Pulling Susan inside and closing the door behind him with his foot, Peter continued his assault. Finally, she was able to push him away. She looked at him with a penetrating stare that was somehow both angry and compassionate. "Peter, none of that. We have to talk!" Still he came toward her to grab her again, but she raised one hand up in the universal gesture to stop and grabbed the door handle with her other hand.

"Peter if you don't stop I am leaving right this minute," she cried. "Don't make this harder than it already is."

Peter backed up, put his hands up and with a disarming grin said, "Okay. I can't help it if seeing you has that effect on me. You're just so damn sexy."

"Peter let's go sit down at the dining room table, we have something we have to talk about, she said, not appreciating the irony of her statement.

"You know I have strong feelings for you. We have had some good times, but I have come to realize that I am a hair's-breadth away from totally messing up my marriage and family. I have come to tell you we can't see each other any longer."

He looked shocked and yet there was a hint of something else in his eyes. Anger? Contempt? Arrogance? She wasn't quite sure, but it unnerved her.

Finally he spoke. "You can't mean that after all we have shared. I thought we talked about this. Your husband doesn't really have any options. He will get taken to the cleaners if you divorce."

There was a smugness about him that was making her more uncomfortable by the minute.

"Peter, she said imploringly, I know what we talked about, but I realized I don't want to lose Jonathan. It may be too late for that already, but if I essentially castrate him by making him a cuckold against his will, I will have lost him for sure. I don't know what I was thinking. He hurt me with some of his comments, but I began to realize just how much I was hurting him. I always told you I loved my husband. Maybe after the things I've done that is hard to believe, but it is none-the-less true."

"Come on Susan you're just having second thoughts is all," he said reaching for her hand, "that's normal, but how can you end it after all we've meant to each other?"

She pulled her hand away from him and sat idly twisting her wedding ring around her finger. Looking at him with tears in her eyes she shook her head. "No, we have to stop. It's over. I finally figured out that for the past year I thought I could have my cake and eat it too. I convinced myself that Jonathan was not missing out on anything. After all I was home whenever he was. I never denied him anything and he was not ever supposed to know about you. I told myself that I would only make my marriage stronger, because I was feeling so fulfilled. In the end though I came to see that I was hurting him. I was rationalizing everything I did, even if it meant throwing some of the blame on him. I was inevitably losing my respect for him. I couldn't help it. After all I was hiding half of my life from him. I just can't hurt him anymore."

He saw that he wasn't going to persuade her with the tact he was taking. Truthfully, he was getting pissed off. How dare she end it with him? He would decide when he was through with her. What the hell kind of game did this bitch think she was playing anyway?

Deciding to take matters into his own hands, he knew she would be unable to resist him once he started getting physical. He jumped up from his chair and forcibly pulled her into his embrace. Pulling her lips to his and using his free hand to pull up her dress and seek out the juncture between her legs. She was fighting against him trying to pull away. He used one leg to pry her legs apart. Just as his hand was reaching its desired goal, he felt excruciating pain emanating from his groin. The air rushed out of his lungs as he fell to his dining room floor. Rolling, he thought he might throw up.

"You bastard! I thought you cared for me. How could you do that? What am I some kind of possession to you." She glared at him with fire in her eyes. "We are through. Don't ever come near me or call me again!"

With that she spun on her heels and fled though the front door.

Once again she did not notice she was under photographic scrutiny.

The week went by quickly for Jonathan. On Thursday he received a call from the private detective agency telling him that their report was ready for him to pick up. He made arrangements to meet with them on his lunch hour the next day.

That night he had a difficult time sleeping. He knew he had been avoiding decisions he would ultimately have to make. He had been avoiding his wife at home...telling her he was not ready to talk. The tension was so thick it could have been cut with a chain saw. His wife had been pleading with him to sit down and talk, and it was getting increasingly harder to avoid. With the PI report in his hands he knew he would have to face up to some difficult choices.

The next day upon his arrival, he was ushered immediately into the office of Jason Proud, P.I.

"Mr. Freemont, can I get you anything? Coffee, tea or a soda perhaps?" Seeing his client shake his head he went on. "Okay Mr. Freemont, let me just say that I am sorry, but we have some rather bad information to go over with you." Handing Jonathan an envelope, he went on, " these are photographs I took of your wife a few days ago entering and leaving the house of one Peter Welch."

Jonathan looked over the stack of photos and visibly flinched as he looked at his wife being kissed and handled by someone else. Going through the entire stack he also noted her leaving the house with her hair, dress and make-up rather tousled and a flush about her face.

He closed his eyes and just tried to concentrate on breathing for a while. Even though she had told him of the affair herself, seeing the evidence in his own hands made his eyes burn and his emotions blaze.

Jason waited patiently for his client to absorb what he had been told. He had been doing this kind of work for years and was used to the emotional minefield caused by the content of many of his reports.

When he judged that his client looked ready, he began where he had left off. "In addition to those photographs we have come up with quite a sordid past for this Peter Welch. The most interesting aspect of this case is that Mr. Welch's former wife had retained us to follow her husband. She had suspected he was having an affair. Normally I would not divulge this kind of information, but since Mrs. Welch died only days after we filed our final report I don't feel it is now client privilege and it has a definite bearing on the investigation we have done for you. It seems this character is quite the cad. Your wife is only one of many he has managed to seduce She is not even the only one he is.... ahh seeing currently. You'll find names and addresses of everyone we were able to confirm that he is having or has had an affair with for the past several years. The report is quite thorough...thanks partly to the groundwork from his deceased wife's initial investigation. Please if we can be of any further assistance let me know."

They shook hands and Jonathan left the office with his mind in a fog. Finally coming back to the here and now he made a call to his attorney and told him to start divorce proceedings. It was time to start taking control and moving forward. He was saddened that he felt compelled to divorce someone who had been his best friend, lover, and confidant. Even though he still loved her deeply, he could not see how he could ever trust her again. The marriage they had all these years had been almost a fairy tale. Now it had become a tragedy. He only hoped the future held some promise of hope.

That night when he arrived home his wife was once again sitting at the dining room table with a pensive look on her face. The house was quiet. Obviously, the children were not at home. He steeled himself once again and sat down across the table from his soon to be ex-wife.

"Hello Susan. Planning to ambush me again? What have you done to hurt me now?"

She hated seeing the vengeful look on his face. He had never looked at her that way until the past two weeks. What really hurt her is that she knew she was responsible for that new look.

"Please Jonathan," she began with as compassionate a look as she could display, "I don't want to fight with you. I now know that I am responsible for wounding you probably as deeply as you have ever been. For that I am truly sorry. I know my actions and particularly my words from....that night...make it hard for you to believe it, but I love you more than I could ever love another man."

She noticed the disbelieving look in his eyes, but quickly continued, "As I said I know you will find it hard to believe and I really can't blame you. I now wish that I could go back in time and none of this could have ever happened. Unfortunately, I can't do that, but I will do everything in my power to make up for what I have done. I have ended my affair. I told him I did not want to ever see or talk to him again. I am go......

Suddenly Jonathan jumped up and began pacing. Anger boiled up into his voice, "Susan I don't believe you." He dug into the large brown envelope he had been carrying when he walked into the room and threw some photographs on the table in front of her. "It doesn't look like you broke it off with that asshole, Peter Welch, to me wife."

Susan looked up sharply at the mention of Peter's name, alarm clearly written across her face.

"Yes, I know the asshole's name and a lot more. Doesn't look like you broke it off to me. Looks to me like you could barely get through his door without jumping him."

She looked at the pictures before her, saw how incriminating it all looked and felt faint.

"It's not what you think. How did you get these? How do you know his name?"

"Well since you weren't going to tell me, in fact you told me it was none of my business, I hired someone to find out for me. I used some of the money I was putting aside for our 15th wedding anniversary. The anniversary we are never going to have now."

She looked as if she had been slapped across the face.

"No, please don't say that honey. Please don't say that. I will do anything to stay together. I already have made arrangements to start seeing a counselor. Please Jonathan I love you. Please don't say you don't love me."

"I won't lie to you. I do love you, but I also hate you, hate what you have done and planned to do. On top of that I have lost my faith and trust in you. I could never stay married to you without that. I have already told my lawyer to file. I'm hoping it can be more amicable than you had planned. I won't lay down and let you run over me."

"Please Jonathan, I don't know what possessed me to say those things to you. I hope the councilor can help me figure out why," she said between broken sobs, " I won't hurt you that way, but can't we somehow make it through this?"

He gave her a compassionate look for the first time that evening. "No, I don't think we can. I think if you truly put yourself in my shoes you would understand. If I had a year-long affair and then said the things you said to me, you would have tried to castrate me."

He pulled a copy of the P.I. Report out of the envelope and grabbed a hold of her hand. He gave her a loving look and said softly, "Susan, I don't know whether to believe you about breaking it off with the asshole, but you need to. He is bad news. I don't want to see you, or the children hurt."

He handed her the report and left the table for the basement. He still had some matters that needed his attention.

*

The next two weeks were full of ups and downs. A weeping Susan was served divorce papers. However, she continued with her counselling and was hopeful that somehow, she could get her husband back.

Jonathan joined a gym and was already starting to tone up. In fact, he had already been rather aggressively flirted with by a cute little brunette who looked to be a few years younger than he. He had taken the job as foreman and had moved in with his mother for the time being. He wanted to save money until the divorce was finalized and he knew where he stood financially. He also wanted a place that was large enough for the kids to come over and stay.

Peter Welch had been fired from his job. Jonathan had Fedexed copies of the P. I. Report to all the husbands whose wives had been seduced by the Peter. Seems one of the husbands was a partner at his law firm. Jonathan thought it wasn't very bright for a supposedly intelligent attorney, but apparently, he only thought with his dick.

Then Peter Welch had apparently been jumped by person or persons unknown coming out of a bar late one night. He was hospitalized with a ruptured testicle, a broken jaw, and all his front teeth were missing.

The police investigation was somewhat ambivalent, possibly because one of his paramours had been a cop's wife. Jonathan was questioned, but nothing ever came of it.

As soon as he was released from the hospital, Peter left town for parts unknown.

Jonathan still had mixed feelings about the divorce. He began going to meetings with her and her councilor. He's not sure exactly what his future will look like, but it doesn't look as though he will be penniless and alone. By taking control of his life he had managed to protect his dignity and his balls.

He no longer wore his wedding band, but he had not thrown it away yet. He kept it in a bag in the top drawer of his dresser.

The only other occupants of the bag being four adult teeth.