Shame, Shame, Shame...My Ending

"Mr. Martin. Oh, forget that! Danny, I've talked to the company's attorney about having all the necessary paperwork done to give you what you want. The raise and bonus have already been direct deposited into your checking account. The papers that will allow the transfer of the 20% you want will be ready by Tuesday of next week. You'll have all the other paperwork by then for you to review before they are notarized and become binding legal documents. Danny, you didn't have to do it this way! You could have come and talked to me man to man and we could have worked this out between us. I would have been more than willing to meet you somewhere in the middle. Jordan was going to get all mine and Millie's shares when I retired without your strong arm tactics."

"I needed to make sure. After Betty finds out that there's no future for us, she might remarry and give you more grandchildren. This way Jordan gets the company even if that happens. I'm sorry you feel like I strong armed you into this, but it was the only idea I could come up with that insured Jordan's stake in the company. I hope there are no hard feelings and this was business, not personal. I'll continue to give the company my best efforts so that it continues to thrive for Jordan's future. If there's nothing else, I need to get back to work."

"No, there's nothing else. Danny, I want you to know that I still think of you as family. Please, next time you have a problem, come talk to me so we can work it out together, okay?"

"Okay, Bob. I need to go now."

I went back to my office and finished out the day. I left at five to get ready for my date with Rhonda. I was nervous when I knocked on her door at a quarter to seven. I realized that I was on a date for the first time in over twenty years as a single man and hoped I would be able to relax and not make a fool out of myself.

"Damn you, Betty. I'm not supposed to be starting over at thirty five." I thought to myself as I stood on the stoop waiting for Rhonda to open the door.

Rhonda was beautiful in the slinky, black dress she was wearing when she opened her door for me. She asked me to make myself at home while she finished her face which, to me, looked perfect the way it was. She must have decided it looked good too because she was only a couple of minutes in her bedroom and had a black wrap around her shoulders when she exited her bedroom. We walked arm in arm to my Mustang and I held her door for her as she got into the passenger seat.

She hadn't stopped talking the entire time I'd been in her presence and continued the chatter as I drove to the restaurant. I by-passed the valet and parked on the back row in the middle space of three empty spaces there. I gave the valet a ten and told him there was another where that came from if no other cars were parked in the two spaces beside mine when I was done eating. Rhonda had that same silly grin on her face that Betty would get whenever we went out and I tried to take extra care of my other love by parking her away from other cars.

Rhonda couldn't stop talking the entire time we were in the restaurant; telling me about her younger years, her students, and any and every other mundane topic that came into her head. I didn't interrupt, tried to interject comments where appropriate to show that I was listening, and got more and more irritated as the meal went along. I had forgotten how awkward first dates could be and hoped after we'd gone out a few times; Rhonda would relax and not feel she had to fill any silences with her own voice. We went dancing after our meal and at least the music drowned out her constant talking.

We went back to her apartment after a couple of hours of dancing together and I knew that she wanted me from the way she'd rubbed her breasts and crotch against me during the slow dances. Being a foot shorter than me, her breasts had been rubbing into my stomach and her crotch had been rubbing against my legs, but I still had gotten an erection from her actions. I accepted when she invited me in and we began making out on her couch. We kissed and caressed each other through our clothes for a good fifteen to twenty minutes before Rhonda broke the tongue wrestling kiss we were enjoying.

"Danny, take me to my bed and make love to me, please. I've fantasized about you for so many years now and can't believe I'm going to have those fantasies come true. I'm all yours tonight to do with as you will."

With an invitation like that, how could I refuse? I picked her up and carried her to her bedroom and stood her up beside the bed and started to undress her, stopping her when she tried to reciprocate. When she was naked, I lay her in the middle of the bed and began kissing her while massaging her breast flesh before moving to her nipples with my mouth on one and fingers on the other. I kissed down her belly to her sex and began to use my lips and tongue on her labia and clit. After giving her a scream filled orgasm from my oral ministrations, I stood, removed my clothes, and re-positioned myself between her legs. I rubbed my cock up and down her slit, coating it with her secretions and teasing her at the same time. I placed it at her opening when she whimpered in frustration and sank to the hilt inside her with one easy stroke. We kissed as we moved our pelvises together in that centuries old dance of love. I lifted up on my arms when Rhonda urged me to and began to stroke in and out of her faster and harder as both our climaxes rushed to overtake us. We came within seconds of each other. When we were finished, I lay down beside her and pulled her onto my chest so I could kiss her and hold her tight. I made love to her twice more before leaving around 3 A.M. promising to stay all night the next weekend night we were together.

I awoke Jordan when I opened the garage to put away my baby for the night and he swore to me Selena had left at a decent hour when I asked about his evening. I slept until past ten the next morning, something that I'd not done in a long time. I ate a light breakfast then went for my morning run. I spent the afternoon washing, waxing, and cleaning the interior of my Mustang. Jordan and I fixed supper together before he left to see Selena, leaving me alone in my own home for the first time since the divorce. I didn't feel sad like I thought I would and turned in an hour earlier than normal.

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Amanda:

"Damn you, Danny. You showed me how good sex can be and now you don't want me anymore."

I'm so mad right now I could kill Daniel Martin if he were in front of me. It's been three days since he told me we weren't going anywhere in our relationship and he was ending it. After getting the best sex I'd ever gotten from him two or three times a week for the last six months, I'm also horny, frustrated, and confused on top of being angry. I think I was falling in love with Danny, but I still love that dumbass of a husband that I have. I told Danny I'd never have sex with Greg again, but I'm seriously considering inviting him back into my bed. If I do, I'm going to take Danny's advice and turn Greg into the kind of lover I need and not the one he was before! Why is life such a bitch?

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Greg:

Amanda has let me move into the spare bedroom since I got my old job back. I don't know why he did it after what me and Betty had done to him; but Danny had raised enough of a stink with my old boss and company that they'd given me my job back and half of my back pay.

I heard through the town gossip that the reverend at John's church had resigned and was moving away because of Danny giving him grief, also. I'm hoping that Amanda will eventually let me back into her bed and I swear I'm going to be a better lover with her than I was in the past. I had to find out the hard way by her getting so much pleasure from another man that it was me and not her that had been the reason for our lousy sex life before.

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Betty:

The two week waiting period for Danny to call me was up and he still hadn't called so I bit the bullet and called him.

"Hi Danny, it's me Betty. You never called me so I'm calling you. If you don't have any plans tomorrow night, how about us going out to dinner? Please, call me back when you get this message."

It was two hours later before he called me back.

"Hi Danny, thank you for calling me back. Are you busy tomorrow? Can we go out to dinner, my treat?"

"Betty, I can't make dinner tomorrow, but how about I buy you lunch tomorrow? Will you meet me at the "Blue Plate Diner" at 11:30? I can call and get us a table in the morning, Dennis owes me a favor."

"Well, I'll be there even though I was really looking forward to us having dinner together so we can start dating again. I'll see you tomorrow morning."

"Bye, see you tomorrow."

Danny hung up on me after saying bye like he always had in the past. It had irritated the hell out of me back then, but brought a feeling of sadness to me now. Funny how much you miss even the little things that used to piss you off in the past, but now you'd gladly accept them every day if the person that did them was still back in your life. I wasn't feeling very confident either because of Danny's changing my plan for us having dinner to lunch and at a place only a couple of blocks from the factory. It would be filled with people from the factory on their lunch breaks and I knew Danny wouldn't allow me to get close with all those people watching us.

The last twenty hours had felt like three days. I arrived at the diner at 11:25 and saw Danny already sitting at a table in the back corner away from the crowd and right next to the short corridor that leads into the back of the diner. At least it's the opposite corner from the one that leads to the restrooms. I feel that rush of love and desire I always feel when we've been apart for any length of time and hope that Danny is feeling it too. I know things aren't going to go my way when Danny doesn't even stand when I get to the table like he had in the past. I couldn't read his emotions as I sat down across from him. He pulled his hands away and placed them below the table when I reached to take one on top of the table.

"I already ordered for us both since you always get the same thing when we eat here, Betty. We'll talk after we eat."

The food was at our table only moments after I'd sat down. This was beginning to feel less and less like a date and more and more like the end and I wasn't happy. I pushed my food around on my plate while Danny dug into his fresh garden salad. He ran every day rain or shine, had never had problems with his weight, and yet he still ate like a former fatty afraid to eat real food so as not to regain their weight. I asked how Jordan was doing and how things were at work, but Danny gave me curt answers and I could tell he didn't want to talk to me. I took the hint and sat there in silence until he'd finished eating. He looked at me with the saddest expression that I'd ever seen on his face and I knew what was coming.

"Betty, I shouldn't have given you any hope the last time we had lunch together. I was hurting from the divorce, shocked that you'd figured out that Amanda and I were involved, and lost in my own thoughts when you started talking about us dating each other or having a "friends with benefits" relationship like the one I was having with Amanda. Notice I said was. Amanda and I are no longer getting together for sex and I hear from the gossip around town that she and Greg have started having sex with each other again.

"Betty, I've always been honest with you so here it is. I cannot, will not, or even want to have sex with you ever again. You hurt me too much and I'll never be able to touch you again with the images of you being pissed on and spit on by Greg in my head. I'm not going to therapy to try and remove those images nor am I going to try and suppress them on my own. I don't love you anymore, don't trust you anymore, and don't want you sexually anymore. You need to accept the fact that we're done and you need to do whatever you need to so you can move on with your life."

I sat there in shock as Danny told me how he really felt. I realized that my dreams of us being together again were never going to come true. The pain of losing him forever finally hit me and I had to run from the diner with my tears streaming down my cheeks. I choked back my sobs until I was in the car where I let it all out before starting the car and heading out of the parking lot.

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Danny:

It's been six months since that fateful day at the diner. The police report about the accident only said that Betty pulled out in front of the tanker truck without looking and was dead before the flames from the tanker's load of gasoline reached the interior of the car. Betty's parents had what little remains there were cremated and with Jordan went up into the mountains to scatter her ashes there.

Rhonda and I lasted only a couple of months before I broke it off with her. She was too hyper for me, always talking, moving around, or jumping from one thing to another. I seriously thought she had undiagnosed ADHD. She didn't take the break up well and moved away when the school year ended even though the school board tried to talk her into staying.

Mrs. Slaughter had a stroke the same month I broke it off with Rhonda and was placed in a nursing home by her only daughter. Judy, my former assistant, had replaced Mrs. Slaughter as Mr. Slaton's personal assistant over my objections and pleads not to. It worked out in the end though because if she hadn't moved up to his office I never would have met the new woman in my life.

Rebecca Morrison had applied to become my new assistant, but I had to turn her down because of the clause in the company rule book that prohibited people in management dating subordinates. I knew she was the one for me the minute I saw her.

Becky was tall and slender, with long auburn colored hair, and with breasts that were D-cup in size, but the clincher was the Mustang charm that hung on the bracelet around her right wrist. It was the solitary charm on the bracelet and large enough in size to be noticeable. I knew from her application she was a widow who'd only recently moved to our little town from Chicago. She'd been working in the secretarial pool for only a few months when the position to be my assistant came open. I think she was shocked when I told her the reason I couldn't hire her as my assistant was because we were going to be dating each other and we couldn't do that if she worked for me. It took me two months to get her to go out with me and that's when I found out why she had that Mustang charm on her bracelet.

It had drizzled rain most of the day the Friday of our first date so I was driving the Ford Fusion that Bob had purchased and given to me for a company car. The two car garage attached to the bungalow sized house Becky lived in looked new and was almost as big as the house. That's why I was wondering why the late 80's, early 90's two door Nissan Sentra that Becky drove to work was parked on the street.

I pulled into the drive and walked up to the garage door in front of me to get a peek at what was parked inside of it. I could feel my member hardening when I saw the pair of Mustangs inside the garage. A 1966 red with a white convertible top was on one side and a 1968 dark green fastback like the one from the movie "Bullitt" was on the other. I knew right then that I'd found the woman for me and vowed to myself to do everything in my powers to win her love. I thought of painful (physical) things to ease my erection before going to her door.

(I had worked hard at suppressing the most painful event in my entire life and didn't want to use it at that moment or my date and vow would both be ruined before they even had a chance to be successful.)

Becky was beautiful when she opened her door for me though she was showing signs of nervousness as she invited me in. Her hair had been styled to frame her face which was au naturelle except for the burgundy lipstick around her mouth. Her brown eyes had a sparkle to them that I'd either not seen before or not noticed. Her dress was simple yet sexy on her slender body with only a slight plunge of the neckline in the front. It had four inch sleeves, a mid-calf hem, and a bodice to support her D-cupped breasts. I hoped to discover the numerical size of her breasts in the next couple of dates. I couldn't stop from continuing to day dream of us being a couple for a very long time.

"I peeked in your garage before knocking at the front door. Are both those Mustangs yours and who did the restorations?"

"Yes, they're both mine now. The '66 was restored by my dad as a sweet sixteen present for me. I've only had to do some minor repairs over the last sixteen years. The '68 was restored by me and my late husband and it was mainly his car after we'd finished it. It's not totally original though. George, my late husband, installed disc brakes all around on it, modified the suspension for a smoother ride, and installed an AM/FM, cassette player with stereo sound. It was the car we took on trips or when we wanted to joy ride. I love them both, but the '66 is my favorite."

"I hope I get the chance to ride in both of them some time. Are you ready to go eat?"

"Yes Danny, I'm starved. I'm ready when you are."

I followed her to the door and preceded her out of it so she could lock it behind her. She stopped and frowned when she'd turned around.

"What's wrong? Have you changed your mind about going out with me?"

"No, but I was expecting you to be in that awesome Mustang, not the company car!"

"I don't bring her out in weather like this. We can still go to dinner and have a good time. I promise our next date will be on a clear day or night so you can get your ride in her."

"You're being awful cocky there, big boy. Assured we'll have a second date when the first hasn't even started."

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to sound like a cocky SOB. I've been thinking about you a lot since you came in for that interview to be my assistant. I promise to be a gentleman tonight and hopefully our date will go well enough that you'll want to continue dating me."

"That's okay Daniel. I'll forgive you for being cocky. Not trying to change the subject, but if you promise you'll bring your Mustang over and help me clean the '68 on Sunday afternoon, I'll let you drive me to dinner in it. Please don't think of me as being a snob, but I'd much rather be seen out on the town with you in a Mustang rather than that "Mom and Pop" sedan the company gave you for a company car."

What could I say but yes to a win-win proposal like that? "I whole heartedly promise to come over Sunday and help you clean your '68 if you'll return the favor and help me clean mine at the same time and please call me Danny."

Becky unlocked her front door and we went back inside so she could get the keys to her '68. We went into the garage from the connecting door in the kitchen of the house and I held her door for her before she handed me the keys to the car. I started it up and heard the rumble of the exhaust and knew that the modifications to the car hadn't been restricted to the suspension only. I couldn't resist the urge to rev the engine but let up on the gas quickly when Becky gave me a scathing look of displeasure.

"I'm sorry. Damn, I seem to keep saying that tonight. I'm not doing so well on a first date, am I?"

"It's okay, Danny. I'm a little nervous, too. To be honest, this is the first date I've been on since moving here. Please, be gentle with me and my car tonight and I'm sure everything will go better when we've both gotten more comfortable with each other."

I backed out of the open garage door and waited until it was completely closed and didn't show signs of opening back up. I drove Becky's car more sedately than I would have my own as we headed to the best seafood restaurant in town. Becky didn't order the live lobster that I expected she'd do when she realized what type restaurant we were in. She had a 6 ounce steak and grilled shrimp combo while I had the grilled salmon steak. I ate Becky's salad which came with her meal when she told me she couldn't eat it. I offered to get her a different appetizer but she declined. She did eat everything on her plate where I on the other hand had to get a doggie bag for my entry. We were really enjoying ourselves after the first few awkward moments and it felt like we'd known each other for a long time instead of a couple of months.