Objects in the Mirror

Dale was only too happy to pick up the pieces with Alex, and from what I gathered, she convinced him that he had been her first. But I was sure that if I ever wanted her, Alex would still fuck me. I enjoyed rubbing in her face the fact that I had something on her.

I wasn't surprised when a couple of years later, the two of them got married. A couple of years after that, she got pregnant and gave him a kid. They had a nice boring life. I visited them often. We were a big part of each other's lives, as we always had been. I was Dale's best man and he was mine when I married Ellie. I'm Karen's God father. I've always been a little randy and Ellie threw me out when she caught me cheating on her. Dale and Alex took me in for a couple of months while we worked things out.

There was another time when I got really pissed at my boss and quit my job. Dale got me a better job at the company he worked for. I stayed there for about a year or so and moved on from there too. My whole life had been tea and crumpets until Ellie got sick. We'd been married for more than twenty years and she'd been a good if dull wife, so I couldn't divorce her.

That was when I just reverted to form. I started to think more and more about Alex. Sure she had married to my best friend, but she'd been mine, first.

I'm not going to lie about it. Over the years, I'd cheated on Ellie a lot. I'd gotten caught once. I just looked at it like getting caught was life's way of telling me that I wasn't being careful enough. So it was like second nature to me to start hitting on Alex. What wasn't second nature was for her to turn me down. I was shocked, but it didn't stop me. I always have multiple levels in my approach to every problem.

So I apologized to her for even suggesting that she'd cheat on Dale and started telling her how much pain I was in from Ellie's illness. Then over the next few weeks I kept telling her how much the three of us had always shared when we were younger. At the same time I started dropping hints about how boring it can be doing the same things over and over again. I had already heard her telling some of the nurses when she can by to visit Ellie, how she had no clue of what she'd do with herself since her daughter had gone off to college. After a few weeks I just started talking about swinging. I made her think that Ellie and I were into it and how it had invigorated our marriage. None of that was true but I was pretty sure that Ellie wasn't going to wake up from her coma and call me a liar.

To be honest, I wasn't breaking any new ground. I just tapped into some feelings of doubt and ennui that a lot of women our age have. I mixed that in with reminiscing about how exciting it had been to have two men competing for her, which was the way she saw it. She fell for it hook, line and sinker. As usual the only caveat she had was that she didn't want to hurt Dale.

And that was where my plan went off the rails. I was so sure that I'd be able to work Dale the way I always had when we were young. But we weren't young anymore and not only did Dale not go for it, he flipped the fuck out. He took one look at us and from that look he saw that Alex had been aware of what I was hinting about. "Is this something that you might be interested in too, Honey?" he asked her.

"Well maybe we could try it," she said.

"So have the two of you already discussed this?" he asked her.

"I guess we have," she said. "But all we've done so far is talked and I wasn't going to start without talking to you first."

"You're a full grown woman, Alex," he said. "You can make your own decisions without me. If you think things are a little bit boring between us you have every right to try whatever you want. But thanks for considering me."

"So we can do it?" she asked.

"That's up to you," he told her. "I'll talk to Jim first thing in the morning. Is that soon enough?"

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

"Jim Baho is my lawyer," he said. "If she wants to be with you our marriage is obviously over."

"No Dale," she said.

"Dale, buddy, you're my best friend. I'm not in love with Alex. This isn't about love. This is just sex. It's purely physical."

"He's right Honey," she said. "We're getting older. Our daughter is out of the house. It's time for us to explore some things."

He turned and glared at her.

"I've got a great way for you to start exploring things," he said. "You can't explore the world from inside, so both of you should get the fuck out of my house. Alex started crying and reached to him.

"Okay, forget it," she said.

"I can't believe that you're so selfish," I said. "My wife is dying and you won't offer me a little bit of stress relief. Some best friend."

"Dale we don't need to talk about this anymore," she told him. "Having sex with Bryan isn't..."

"Don't you mean having sex with Bryan again?" he asked.

We both went into shock. "What are you talking about buddy?" I asked.

"Bryan you've never been anywhere near a buddy," he spat. "I've played dumb for years, but no more."

"But we've never..." began Alex.

"Alex, I know that you've lied to me for years about me being your first. I played dumb because I loved you so much. I wanted to be with you no matter what the circumstances. I also know that Bryan was your first choice, even though he didn't love you half as much as I did. But I tried harder and I hoped that someday, I'd be the one who was first in your heart. I also know that he hit on you back when we let him stay with us, years ago. I'm really not sure of anything happened or not. That was why we went through that rough patch back then. I didn't know whether or not I could trust you."

"Dale, I swear nothing happened," she said with tears filling her eyes. "I told him no."

"But you never bothered to even mention it to me, so strike two anyway," he said. "I think maybe you just liked the attention. Well you can have all of the attention you need from now on. This makes strike three. You're out. I don't ever want to see either of you again." Then he turned and headed up the stairs.

Alex tried to follow him but he turned and the look on his face stopped her cold. Dale had shaved his head bald and had grown a beard. He looked pretty menacing although he was a puppy. But that day I felt real fear as I looked into his eyes.

"I'm going out of town on business tomorrow," he said. "While I'm gone I'll expect you to get all of your stuff out of here."

"Dale you're over reacting," I said. I was in shock. "Look I just thought it would be like old times. I just wanted some fun."

"Even the old times weren't that much fun, Bryan," he said. "As usual you got what you wanted. You wanted to fuck her. You won. She's all yours. Now get out of here because the next time I see you, I'll hurt both of you. Now GO!"

I haven't seen Dale in the three years since then. And to tell you the truth, I missed him. I guess if I had the choice to choose, I'd have picked him over Alex any day. I have no close male friends. As Alex mentioned, I have no one to go fishing with or watch football with. That was the main reason I agreed to go and talk to him.

I was sure that Alex wanted to talk to him about their daughter, Karen. Alex was always talking about how she wished that she and Karen were closer. She thought that Karen was stuck in the middle between her parents. Maybe if Karen could see her parents getting along, or at least being civil, she'd forgive Alex too.

I knew exactly where to find Dale. He was as predictable as the seasons. The day before the big town picnic they had the car show in town. Dale would be there with his Mustang. I drove into town with a smile on my face. If things went well, not only would I have my best friend back, but I'd get a chance at having a hot new woman to fuck as well. Alex would have to keep her word and introduce me to that hot little redhead. If I hooked up with the redhead, maybe Dale could have Alex back. I was getting bored with her anyway and her whining was beginning to get on my nerves.

As I walked through the exposition area where the cars were on display, I saw several interesting cars. There was one section that had a lot of Mustangs in it. I looked around but I didn't see Dale. On one side, near the center of the group, I saw a beautiful charcoal gray Shelby GT 500 convertible, with red trim. I guess before seeing that car I never really thought of gray and red as complimentary colors, but they worked well together. The car had oversized Brembo brakes with red calipers. The interior of the car was red leather with gray trim. The supercharger and everything under the car's hood was chrome plated. As I admired the car, I noticed that its owner looked at me. There was something familiar about him and I smiled. He stood up and came towards me.

Oh shit, I thought. I don't have time for another gear head to come over and talk to me about his God damned car. That was one of the most annoying things about these shows. Every one of these guys acts as if you're as much into cars as they are. I glanced left and right and didn't see Dale's bald head and beard anywhere.

I turned back towards the guy approaching me and realized that if I listened to him babble about his Mustang for a few minutes I could ask him if he knew where Dale was.

As he got closer to me I recognized him. He'd shaved the beard off and grown his hair back. The guy coming towards me rapidly was my childhood best friend.

"Hey buddy!" I said with a huge smile. "I wanted to talk to..." Before I could even finish my thought, the blackness descended on me.

* * * * * *

Alex

I was angrier than I remember ever being in my life. I'd been talking to my daughter on the phone. I was trying to figure out her reaction to the surprise revelation that I was in town, when I found out that I had to march my ass down here to this hospital because Bryan had apparently done some dumb assed thing and ended up in the hospital.

I looked around and saw one person sitting at the nurse's station. "I'm here for Bryan Jones," I told her. She clicked away at some keys on a computer next to her. She looked up at me with professional concern and said. "Second floor...O.R. 3. He's still in surgery."

She immediately went back to texting on her phone. I took the elevator to the second floor and got directions to the lounge outside of their surgery suites. I sat down and started thumbing through magazines while trying to decide if I should even bother to wait. Dale could call me when he woke up from whatever stupid thing he'd done. Arranging to meet my husband was much more important to me than Dale's condition.

I had been sitting there for about twenty minutes when she walked in. She looked worried. The ever present smile was gone.

"Anne," I called out to her. She looked over to me. "What drags you in here? Are you visiting someone?"

"Sort of," she said. There was a weird tone in her voice. "What are you doing here?"

"That asshole I came here with, is trying to ruin my plans," I said. "My life couldn't get any worse if I planned it. I'm thinking about running the fuck out of here and leaving him to deal with his shit on his own. I hate that bastard sometimes."

"That's nothing," she said. "My sweetie is the kindest, gentlest, most loving man I've ever known and he..."

"He isn't bald with a beard is he?" I asked.

"Hell no," she said looking at me strangely. "But he's never so much as said a harsh word to someone before today. But today for some reason he punched some guy's lights out and then turned himself in to the police."

"Uh Oh," I told her. "It sounds like your sweetie is in trouble. I hope it's not too bad. He'll probably get off with a fine if it's a first offense. Unless, the guy is a real asshole."

A nurse walked over to us. "Which one of you is here about Bryan Jones?" she asked.

"I am," we both said at the same time.

"Well he's out of surgery and he should be waking up any second now. They're trying to wake him up because they want to rule out a concussion," said the nurse.

"Concussion?" I said. "What happened to him?"

"Uhm, my sweetie apparently hit him," said Anne. "That's why I'm here."

"Somehow, I'm sure Bryan did something to cause it," I said. "He sometimes...make that, usually, finds a way to rub almost everyone the wrong way. Tell you what. I'll take care of it. He won't be pressing any charges, if that's what you're worried about. I'll see to it. "

"Thanks so much," she said.

"Don't worry about it," I said. "Friends have to stick together."

"Exactly," she said.

The nurse came back in then. "He wants to see you now," she said.

I grabbed Anne's elbow. "Come on. You can apologize for your boyfriend," I said. She nodded nervously.

As we walked into the room, there was one older nurse with one of those computers on a rolling cart. She looks at us and then rolls the cart out of the room. "He can't talk," she said as she passed us. "His jaw is wired shut. Have him use that writing pad to communicate until the pain pills kick in. After that he'll be able to talk a bit if he keeps his jaw immobile."

Bryan did not look happy. He glared at me. He hadn't seen Anne behind me since the screen that separated the beds in his semi-private room was closed. He tried to speak and then grabbed his jaw in obvious pain, while making a moan of agony. He picked up the pen and scribbled angrily on the pad. Then he held it up so I could see it.

I looked at his angry scribbling. "TOOK YOU LONG ENOUGH," he had written.

"Maybe I shouldn't have come at all," I snapped. "Maybe I should be out with my daughter and my husband, like I planned. You have no sense of gratitude. You can't seem to see that your incident has ruined all of my plans for this weekend. Can you just once think about someone other than yourself?"

He started feverishly scribbling on his pad. "MY JAW WAS SHATTERED! ENOUGH SACRIFICE. WE CAN USE IT TO HELP YOU," he wrote.

I looked at him in confusion. I had no idea what he was writing about. At that moment Anne stepped from behind the screen. "Sorry," she said. "But I really need to get back. I just wanted to say that we're sorry for what happened. He's usually not like that. He was probably just in a bad mood. We'll do whatever we can to help you." Then she turned to walk away.

Even as she left the room, I noticed Bryan sitting up in the bed watching her ass twitch as she walked away.

"You're an ass," I hissed at him.

"NO," he scribbled. "SHE HAS AN ASS!"

"Why am I wasting my fucking time on you?" I grumbled.

"BECAUSE WE CAN BOTH GET WHAT WE WANT," he wrote. The look on his face was pure evil.

"There is nothing that we both want," I hissed angrily.

"CALL HER. TELL HER I'LL DROP ALL CHARGES IN EXCHANGE FOR TWO MEETINGS. I GET TO TALK TO HER WHILE YOU TALK TO HER BOYFRIEND. IF THEY ACCEPT, HE GOES FREE RIGHT NOW. IF THEY DON'T HE CAN ROT IN JAIL."

"Why would you do that?" I asked.

"TWO REASONS. ONE, IT GETS YOU OFF MY FUCKING BACK. TWO, IF HE CAN GET HER, AS BORING AS HE IS, I KNOW I CAN CHARM THE SHIT OUT OF HER."

"Bryan you probably started this whole thing with her boyfriend," I said. He laughed under his breath.

He shook his head and started writing. "ALL I DID WAS WALK UP TO HIM. HE TOOK ONE LOOK AT ME AND PUNCHED ME."

"He only hit you once?" I asked. "He must've been really big or really pissed. But I still won't have anything to do with this."

"I'M DOING IT FOR YOU DUMMY!" he wrote.

"No thanks," I said. "Anne is my friend. I won't help you get your hooks into her."

He laughed again and suddenly my stomach did flips. "IS YOUR NEW FRIEND MORE IMPORTANT THAN YOUR HEART?" he wrote. I just looked at him as I'd he was crazy. He lay there in his bed laughing at me.

"YOU'RE GOING TO DO IT. YOU'RE JUST AS EVIL AND SELFISH AS YOU THINK I AM," he wrote.

"Not on my worst day," I said.

"HER BOYFRIEND IS OUR OLD FRIEND, DALE," he wrote and he started laughing.

I almost lost consciousness. I turned and walked out of the room and out of the hospital. The objects in my mirror had not only gotten dangerously close, they had rear ended me. And that asshole Bryan seemed to actually enjoy putting me into this situation. Forcing me to choose between throwing a totally innocent woman into his clutches and losing my chance at getting my family back was right up his alley.

I pulled out my cell phone and dialed my daughter's number. "Karen, why didn't you tell me?" I asked.

"Tell you what?" she asked.

"Why didn't you tell me that your father was seeing someone? How serious is it?" I snapped.

"Mom, I didn't think that what happens or happened to dad was any of your business. It took a long time before I even answered the phone when you called, remember? Mom you chose what happened between the two of you. Dad was literally shattered. You weren't acting like the mother I grew up with at all. For a long time daddy never left the house. He even moved away for a while and got a job working for a different company. I tried to keep in touch with him but he was like a balloon with all of the air let out of it."

"But I didn't..." I began.

"Shut up, Mom," she hissed. "Even during those times when my heart bled for Daddy, I missed you too. But I didn't miss the woman who'd run out on her husband and daughter, I missed the woman who bandaged my scraped knees and made me PB&J sandwiches. Finally when I realized that she was gone, I started talking to you because I figured that you're as close as I'm going to get. So when I started talking to you, I made a rule or two. I never forgave you for destroying our family. I just started over with you as if you were a different person. Daddy never had any interest in what was going on with your life, so we never talked about you. And I never answered any of your questions about him. I pretended that I didn't know anything. That's why I never told you that he'd moved back. I figured that it wasn't any of your business. After all you chose not to be with him. So when he brought Anne to town with him, I'd been speaking to her on the phone for over a year and I feel like I know her and I like her. They've only been in town for a few days. They haven't even had a chance to unpack all of their things. But Mom, if you want to keep the relationship that we have now, you need to leave them alone."

"Karen, your dad is in jail. In order to get him out I'm going to need your help," I said.

"What happened?" she asked.

"Your Uncle Bryan went to speak to your Dad and things..." I began.

"That asshole is NOT my uncle," she hissed. "I don't know how you can even mention Daddy in the same breath as that bastard. Mom don't you have any feelings at all? How the hell could you send the man who stole you from Dad to talk to him? That was amazingly stupid. Why would you want to hurt him all over again?"

"I guess I never saw it like that," I said. "I just wanted to..."

"Why the fuck, are we always talking about what you want?" she asked. "Last time you wanted some strange dick and you tore up our family to get it. Now you feel guilty or something or maybe you just wanted something else, so you sent the man that Daddy hates most in the world to talk to him. It just doesn't make sense. Do you ever think of anyone beside yourself?"

"Karen, I just wanted..."

"Mom, no one cares what you wanted," she hissed.

"Karen, I'm not the bad guy here. Your Unc...I mean Bryan wants a chance at Anne and..."

My daughter's high pitched laughter almost took my head off. "Mom you can forget about that," she said after she was done laughing. "Anne would never do to Daddy what you did. Bryan hasn't got a chance. She loves Daddy too much. She'd die first. I have to go. I need to call someone who can really help Daddy."