Sophia Pt. 03

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Don had left with his newly purchased paintings, and I turned to furiously glare at Freddie. She held up her hands in front of herself and grinned at me.

"Don't hit me Maria; I couldn't help myself! Don is a really great guy and he's becoming sexy as all hell. Harris was out to destroy me again tonight and Don saved me. Harris has been the bane of my existence for the past two years, and the bane of the local art community for maybe ten years. POW, Don took him down with one hit! There Don was with his tight body and dressed up in his new suit, and you said it yourself - he reminds you of a knight. For tonight, I was his damsel in distress and I did what damsels are supposed to do with their heroes. But I stopped it with a kiss, and I would never go any further with Don than that, and I would never even kiss Don like that unless you were there to make sure things didn't go any further. Honest, Maria, Don deserved a reward and I set out to give him just that."

I turned away from Freddie with my fists clenched and stalked away. I KNEW FREDDIE WAS TELLING ME THE TRUTH! I KNEW HER BEHAVIOUR WAS PERFECTLY TYPICAL OF HER. BUT I WAS SO DAMNED PISSED! IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ME KISSING DON LIKE THAT! Then I had a nervous thought, could I even kiss Don like that anymore? I hadn't been working out lately like I should have and both Vanessa and Freddie were in far better shape than I now was. I need to start using my own home gym and my membership to Vanessa's a lot more. Perhaps I should start showing up on Tuesday evenings, that way I could see Don, too.

Okay, take deep breaths, Maria, and calm down. Your turn will come and you had better have as much of a hard body as Don has when it comes.

BUT I SHOULD BE DON'S ONLY DAMSEL IN DISTRESS! I mentally wailed.

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I had a blast this weekend with my daughters; I rented a large home, with staff, right on the ocean. To keep things lively and fun for them, I let my daughters bring one or two friends each. We had a beautiful view with the unique smell of the ocean, and we had fresh seafood for two of the three meals every day. We hung out in our pajamas, ate too much sweets, played games, watched movies, stayed up too late and we were generally bad girls. I had a better time in those three days than I ever had on any of my long and very expensive European vacations.

I was so happy, and then Monday morning after my babies left for school, Don's sisters came by to ruin my mood. I know I was the one that had destroyed my marriage, but they were the ones that had got me started.

"Hello, Diane, Michelle, what brings you here?" I had a hard time keeping the animosity out of my voice.

"Hello, Barbara, we haven't seen you or your daughters for a while so we thought we would drop in to see you. How have you been?"

"Things have been improving, thank you for asking."

Michelle began to speak, "Barbara we've got a problem with our husbands. Ever since the divorce when it came out that we had been helping you, our husbands have been acting highly suspicious and have been furious with us, too. They think that, since we supported you, we must be cheaters too. On top of that, they really liked Don and don't understand how we could have betrayed him like that."

Diane took over, "For the past couple of years they've been constantly critical of us and tracking our every move. We've tried going to marriage counselors, but we can't exactly admit the truth that we have been cheating for years, or they would divorce us in a heartbeat. We know if we were truly innocent that we should be furious with our husbands' behavior, but we're not and that only makes them more certain that we did cheat!"

Michelle again broke in, "Things got worse when that investigator appeared asking questions about Don. Our husbands were there and the investigator's questions and our answers really made them angry. So, two months ago our husbands jointly hit us with an ultimatum. They've been working together on our suspected adultery for a long time. Either we sign a legal agreement that states that if either spouse is caught committing adultery, then the other gets all community property as well as full custody of the children, or they would immediately file for divorce. We agreed readily because we hoped that it would mollify them, and we never planned on cheating again. But when we got to the lawyer's office we found out we had been tricked. The agreement included PAST instances of adultery too! We couldn't refuse to sign because that would be admitting guilt. We were trapped!"

Diane chimed in, "We know that our husbands have put together a fund to hire private detectives to do a thorough investigation of our behavior during the years prior to your divorce. I overheard them talking about their plan to hire detectives for a two week investigation every year for as long as it takes. We've been visiting all the people that know about our affairs and begging them to keep quiet if an investigator comes calling. We've learned our lesson and we don't want to lose our marriages. Please help us."

I was absolutely furious! "Over five years ago I came to you, my best friends and Don's sisters, for help with my marriage. Instead of encouraging me to seek therapy, or even suggesting just sucking Don off to give a little more excitement to our lives, you encouraged me to have an affair! YOU FUCKING BITCHES, YOU TOLD ME BULLSHIT! I think you were trying to make your own adultery seem all right by sucking me into your game. When I got out of control, you should have told Don, and it might have been early enough that he could have forgiven me! You encouraged and even helped me make him look like a submissive and willing cuckold to all our friends. HAVE YOU EVER RESPECTED YOUR BROTHER?!! HOW COULD YOU DO THESE AWFUL THINGS TO YOUR OWN BROTHER?

"You two were my own personal adultery coaches to get me started! Then you became my cheerleaders, judging by the way you wanted all the details of my affairs. While I was cheating on Don, one of the excuses I told myself was that, since it was okay with Don's sisters who love him so much, it just might be okay with him if he ever finds out."

"I can see your faces getting scared. You don't have to worry, I won't lie for you, but I will refuse to speak with any investigators that approach me."

"I've got a question for you, what are you doing to fix your marriages? The only thing I've heard is that you've stopped cheating. You say you can't be honest with your marriage counselors, because your cheating was as bad, or even worse than mine. Don't look so shocked. You have been cheating on your husbands at least once per year for the seven years prior to my divorce. Some of the stories you told, make me believe it was more like twice per year or even more. Oh, Diane, did you ever have a DNA test done to find out if your youngest child is even your own husband's? My god, woman, how could you keep cheating after that? All your husband has to do is have DNA tests performed on your kids. Wouldn't that be such an easy way to prove your adultery! This weekend I made up my mind to start therapy. Have you two even considered going to see a therapist? Everything you said to your therapist would remain strictly confidential with them, and it would show your husbands that you were working on the problem."

"I have just finished having an absolutely fantastic weekend with my daughters and was feeling better than I have for years until you two showed up. You've succeeded in completely spoiling my mood, you two pitiful, conniving bitches. Please leave!" And I showed them the door.

With tearful, sobbing apologies Diane and Michelle left. Michelle had to help support Diane out the door.

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I got a call from Kathy on Tuesday and she informed me that, since the ski trails were losing their snow and becoming muddy, it looked like ski season was done for us. This was actually good for her, she said, because the only days she had for practice dates were Friday and Saturday when we would have otherwise been too tired from skiing. So, this coming Saturday she would arrive at my place at six PM, and she wanted my Korean Pork dinner and THE PIE. She told me that it would be okay if my kids and Maria were there for the meal, too. She had already contacted Maria, and Maria had agreed to babysit them for that night.

Tuesday night I went to Vanessa's club and I was surprised to see Maria there. However, she didn't work out with Vanessa and me until it was time for the treadmills when she came over and worked out with us side by side. She didn't seem to want to talk much, though. Still, she looked pretty damn nice on that treadmill!

Wednesday was our normal Therapy night, but Maria conked out pretty early after the session in the living room and I ended up carrying her to bed. It was funny, she was sound asleep but my girls still followed into her room to watch another movie. Tradition is tradition, I guess; it doesn't matter if Maria is asleep!

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I've been working out lately trying to get back into shape. I can't believe how far I've let myself go! It is a wonder that I can even give dancing lessons to Don!

On Tuesday I decided to keep Don company at Vanessa's club. Big mistake! Vanessa took me aside before Don got there and warned me that I would never be able to keep up with her and Don in my present condition. She said that I might even find it a little embarrassing so I decided to observe from distance, and she was right. It wasn't only the fact that they were using some serious weights; it was how rapidly they completed their sets or repetitions and moved on to the next exercise. I would never have been able to do that in my present shape! If I had tried to exercise with them I would have just slowed them down and we would have been here all night.

When they started on the treadmills, I decided to join them. Don and Vanessa were both running at a good clip. I saw Don's settings and he was running at seven and a half miles per hour, plus he had his treadmill set to randomly change the incline. I set my treadmill to a fast walk at three point eight miles per hour with no incline and I could barely get enough air to breath, and then Don wanted to talk. I firmly made up my mind to stick with him, but I nearly died. He ran for nearly an hour and a half and then he did a really slow cool down that lasted for another half an hour. He called the long cool down his gravy time since it was so easy to do and he got so much additional benefit from it.

After Don left, I had one of the masseuses give me a full massage and I actually fell asleep on the table for a whole hour. I was barely able to keep my eyes open on the way home.

On Wednesday night I fell asleep almost as soon as the first movie started. Robin and Megan thought it was funny. Their laughter and moving about at the end of the movie woke me up a little bit, but I was so tired that I just pretended to still be asleep. Then they did something so sweet, they went and got their father and Don carried me to my bedroom. I liked being carried by Don; the only thing better would have been if he carried me to his own bedroom!

Megan and Robin followed right behind him, they tucked me into bed, then they stuck a DVD in the player and got into bed beside me, it was wonderful. I fell back asleep until morning when something astonishing happened. Megan woke me up! In fact that little minx was after some payback and she and Robin were trying to carry/drag me into the shower. I would have let them, just for grins and giggles, but I was a little too heavy for them and I was worried that they were going to hurt themselves or me for that matter.

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Saturday night Kathy arrived for her practice date right on time. She was wearing tight jeans that looked like they had been painted on, and a rather conservative but attractive white shirt. For some reason she was carrying a brief case. Per standard operating procedure she gave me a polite kiss at the door, but this time my kids gave her the tour of my apartment instead of me, and Maria even helped with dinner. She seemed to be in a happy mood. She even promised to keep Roscoe in his cage that night.

After eating dinner together, which was remarkably tasty, I needed to take a quick shower before we went out. There was no way that I wanted to smell like pork, onions, and garlic for the rest of the night. However, Kathy had other plans for my immediate future.

"Don, is there someplace we can talk that is really private?" After looking at my two daughters who were staring avidly at us, and seeing that even Maria looked on curiously, I nixed my office.

"My basement workshop would be the most private location that I have. When it was built I installed soundproofing so the noise of my power tools wouldn't disturb my tenants." She looked at our audience and agreed to follow me down the stairs with her briefcase in hand.

In my workshop, I cleaned off a couple of chairs by one of my workbenches for us to sit on. Looking across at me, she began to speak, "Don, please don't get embarrassed, and please also understand that I have almost completed my doctorate in psychology. I heard that your love life with your ex-wife was pretty unsatisfactory; I am absolutely sure it wasn't your fault. I've got some books to give you, here in my briefcase about different sexual techniques and positions." She put her briefcase on the workbench. I tensed up at the mention of books. She pulled out five books from of her briefcase, and thankfully I only recognized three of them, but that was enough.

"I would like you to read these and…." I interrupted her.

"No, I won't. I'm sorry to interrupt, Kathy, but there is something I need to tell you. I realized early on in my married life that my sex life was crap, so I purchased books just like that; in fact three of mine were the same as yours. I only glanced through my books because I wanted my ex-wife and me to sit down together and go through them. I thought that it would be a bonding experience and we would each react more honestly if we did it together. Barbara adamantly refused to look at them so I stuck them in a box and forgot about them. Then when I was moving out during the divorce, I found them in an old briefcase of Barbara's that was hidden in the garage. She had them marked up like text books with highlighting and comments in the margins. She even had notebooks filled with additional information. I only had a quick look at the books and I got so furious that I just barely got out of the house before I strangled her. The very books that I had bought for us, she used to improve her fucking technique with her lovers. I'm sorry Kathy, I know you mean well, but I can't stand to look at any book like that, maybe ever again. If you will excuse me, I'm going to go outside to walk around and cool down, again my apologies. See you upstairs."

Instead of taking the stairs back up to my apartment, I took the stairs to a separate entrance that led me directly outside. Two strange things happened on my way out. First, I thought I saw the basement door close just the tiniest bit before I reached it. And second, when I closed the basement door behind me, I thought I heard Kathy yell "That Fucking Bitch!" It must have been my imagination because I don't think it is humanly possible for anyone to yell loud enough from my soundproofed basement workshop for me to hear it.

It took me at least twenty minutes to cool down. When I returned to my apartment I found both Kathy and Maria looking very concerned. I apologized again to Kathy. She said no apologies were necessary and to forget about it. I then made my way to my room to get cleaned up and changed, but Maria and Kathy followed me! Kathy spoke first, "Don, we need to take a look at your clothes. I'm taking you clubbing tonight and we need to get you dressed the right way."

They started pulling out all my clothes and throwing them onto the bed. Muttering to themselves and to each other I heard a constant refrain of "no", "nope", and "you've got to be kidding".

Maria finally found an acceptable black Polo shirt in the back of my closet that I had gotten as gift years ago. The thing was a size too small and I had only tried it on once.

"Don, does this fit you?"

"Yes, but it is too tight." She looked at Kathy and Kathy nodded her head in agreement. The Polo shirt was carefully put to the side. A moment later, Kathy made another discovery.

"Don, these gray pants here, they look new?"

"Yeah, they're way too tight, too!" Both women looked at one another, smiled, and then Maria began, "Don, you go take your shower and don't worry about us. We will clean up in here, and we'll leave the clothes on the bed that you should wear for tonight." I knew what was coming. Why do I do these things?

Sure enough, when I got out of the shower it was the black shirt and the gray pants on the bed. They had even set out my underwear and socks. One of them had made the same pick I would have with socks, but instead of my beloved and very comfortable boxers they had set out a pair of jockey style underwear. There was no way that I would have fit in those pants wearing my roomy boxers. After ten minutes of cursing, I walked out of my bedroom feeling like I was giving myself a rectal examination with every step. In addition, I didn't even want to think about what was happening up front.

Before leaving my room I had, of course, looked in the mirror. It seemed like I was decently attired and didn't look too much like an idiot after all, so with trepidation I went out to get my daughters opinions. I was greeted with wolf whistles and "How you doing, hot stuff?" by my own daughters!

Maria just stared with an open mouth. Kathy walked around me, checking me out from every angle. "I think you'll do." She grabbed my arm and quickly whisked me out the door, almost leaving me no time to say goodbye.

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I had to know what Kathy was going to talk to Don about. When they went downstairs I quickly told Megan and Robin that I had to get something from my car and ran outside to the basement's other entrance. I'm not sure that Don knew that I knew the key he had given me for the apartment could also open the separate basement door. I rushed down the stairs as quickly and quietly as possible to Don's workshop and listened outside the door.

I heard Kathy say. "You could read these and…." Then Don interrupted and I heard him tell her about his incredibly bad experience finding the sex instruction books his wife had used.

That twisted selfish BITCH! If I ever see her, I'll strangle her for you! Then I heard him explain, "The very books that I bought for us, she used to improve her fucking technique with her lovers." BITCH WAS TOO GOOD A NAME FOR HER!

When I heard Don tell Kathy he was going to go outside for a walk, I ran for the stairs as quietly as I could, exited the door and pushed it so it would shut quickly. I was positive I could hear Don's heavier footsteps on the stairs as I ducked around the corner of the building and started running. I didn't know which way he would take his walk and wanted to get totally away from that door and out of sight. Running quickly around the building, I made my way back to entrance to Don's apartment.