The Bitch

Mother kept on me every single day about how she had always thought that you were running around on me, and how much the kids needed someone like my father, not a whore monger like you were. I would sit beside the pool for hours, just waiting for your call to tell me that this was all a bad dream.

Then mother got my father to change the reservations coming back home. I'm not sure what she used as an excuse, but change them he did, and I figured it would serve you right if I wasn't a good little wife and wasn't there when you had decided that I was fit to come back in your life. If in fact that was what you had decided.

By the time we got home, mother had set up an appointment with one of my father's attorneys, and the divorce was under way.

My head was so full of the crap that my mother had been telling me, over and over, that I simply would not, or could not, even see that there was any possible explanation for your actions.

I signed the divorce papers and cried myself to sleep for days afterward. The night before the first hearing at the court, my mother told me over and over that I simply had to be strong, and get through this. The most important thing was that I not let you simply whitewash the whole thing. When I went to that hearing, I was prepared to just shut you out and never let you in my life again.

Mother had asked me to think about our first time together, then imagine that you were doing those things to another woman. It was awful, it was more than awful, it was as though you were deliberately doing things to hurt me. I had nightmares where I was having to watch you have sex, no, making love, to that horrible woman. I didn't sleep well for days because every night I watched you in bed with that woman. I didn't even know what I had done to push you away from me.

Why didn't you love me any more? Why was I being pushed out so you could be with your blond bitch?

Those were the thoughts that were in my mind at the hearing.

Then there was nothing more. No notes, no calls, nothing. I really didn't understand until long after the divorce, the night that Robby was hurt, that you had tried, but mother had cut all contact off. I know you tried to talk to me even after the kids and I had moved in here, but by that point, I was convinced that you didn't care, and I saw no reason to start opening up old wounds. It had taken me a long time to be able to bury my hurt at your unfaithfulness.

Ramon was someone that my mother tried to push me into a relationship with. Yes, I had sex with him, but it wasn't like it was with you. I really think that the only reason I had sex with him was to somehow get back at you.

He wanted to marry me, and wanted the kids to call him 'Daddy Ramon', or some such silly nonsense. I flatly refused. First I wasn't going to marry the idiot just because my mother thought he was someone special, and second because I really hadn't gotten over you. I may have those reversed, but there is a whole lot of truth there.

When Robby was hurt, I didn't turn to Ramon, I ran to you. You were the most important person in my life at that moment. You were Robby's father, and you could help me, you could be my mainstay right then.

When I realized what my mother had done, I cut off all contact with her. I don't talk to her, I don't allow her to see the kids, I don't want anything more to do with her. My father wants to see the grandchildren, and I allow him to, but not when my mother is present. It hurts him, and me, but I don't want our children to be affected by my mother's selfish, racist, opinions. She said many hurtful things about you to the twins, and I am not going to allow that any longer. I haven't allowed that for months now.

Tom, I want to be your wife, I want to have you here with me for the rest of my life. I want you to be here when the kids come home, and I want you to be a part of their lives, a major part of their lives. I want to be part of your life. I want you to be part of my life. I completely screwed up by not trusting you, but I am asking you to forgive me, give me another chance, I promise you I will never make the stupid mistakes I have, and I will never, ever not trust you again."

Maria was crying now, and her hands were shaking so badly that she had to use both hands to put down her wine glass. She got out of her chair, came over and knelt at my feet.

"Please Tom, just a chance, that is all I am asking."

I looked at her for a moment, then reached down and ran my fingers through her hair, then cupped her cheek and chin, tilting her head up, so she had to look at me. The careful makeup was gone, just little streaks from her tears shining in the light.

"I suppose that I could have handled things a bit better myself."

Despite what I said, I wasn't sure that there was much else that I could have done, but if you are going to start a reconciliation, then I guess that you have to leave an opening so that it doesn't become something that is resented down the road. And thinking about it, I do suppose that I could have tried a little harder after the divorce was over to at least get Maria to talk to me. Perhaps handing her the mail I had tried to send her, or e-mailing it to her.

I leaned over and picked up Maria's hand, using that to pull her up off her knees and settle her in my lap. She flung her arms around my neck and buried her face against my neck and shoulder. The tears were really coming now, and she was crying so hard she was shuddering. I tried to pull her away a bit so I could kiss her, but she wouldn't loosen her arms enough to let me do that.

We stayed like that for what seemed like forever, until she finally seemed to calm down, and she sat up a bit. Her eyes were completely bloodshot, and she was hiccupping from all the crying.

"Oh, God, I am such a mess. Please, stay right there, don't move, don't go away, I'll be right back."

She kissed me, just a quick kiss on the lips, then dashed off into her bedroom.

It was probably ten or fifteen minutes later that she came back, having worked the magic that women do. Her eyes were still red, but the makeup was repaired, or at least the little she wore was repaired.

I stood up when she came in, and started to say something. Maria smiled, put her fingers to my lips and whispered, "Don't say anything." With that she put her arms around my neck and kissed me.

My arms went around her like she had never been gone, and it was like a huge hole in my life was suddenly filled completely.

To this day, I don't know quite how we ended up in Maria's bedroom, but we did, both shedding our clothes as fast as possible, then we were on the bed, and I was entering her. I would like to say that we had this absolutely fantastic session, but that really wasn't to be. I hadn't had sex in damn near two years, and it was like I was trying to make up for it by coming after just a couple of moments in Maria.

"I'm sorry, I just couldn't hold back."

"Hush, I understand, and we've got the rest of our lives to work on this."

We just cuddled for quite some time, then Maria got up to use the bathroom, and climbed back into bed. She moved over to me, pressing her breasts against my chest, then reaching down to stroke me. I started to respond, at least a bit, and Maria kissed me, then moved down my body, kissing me all the way, until she could take my semi-hard cock in her mouth. Maria had done this before, but I knew that she really didn't like taking me in her mouth after we had made love. She didn't mind my coming in her mouth, but she just didn't care for the taste of herself on me.

I tried to pull her up to me, but she lifted her head and told me that she wanted to do this, and I was to just lie back and enjoy.

It didn't take long, and I was fully erect again. Maria moved, and I could tell that she was about to swing herself over me and slide me into her. I stopped her this time, and told her that it was now her turn, not mine.

I made love to her. I kissed her breasts, I played with her clit, and I licked her clit while I had a finger inside her. She climaxed and I wouldn't stop, even though she was begging me to come inside her. I made her wait through three climaxes, before I entered her again. She gasped when I did, and her hips were thrusting up, actually, I don't think she ever let them go down, she was absolutely trying to make sure that I was in her as deeply as possible. When I finally came, it was as though something had released inside her, her head whipped back and forth and I could see her teeth clenching as she grimaced, trying to make it last as long as possible.

The rest of the long weekend was pleasurable in some ways, and in others not so. The sex was good -- no the sex was more than I could have ever asked for. It was the personal relationship that wasn't quite right. I still had major problems with Maria's lack of trust in me, and Maria had problems with my not trying harder to get her to listen to me. Maria's issues didn't make a lot of sense to me. Even though I had told her that I supposed that I could have done more, I really didn't see what it was that I could have done other than tying her up and forcing her to listen -- something I simply wasn't capable of doing. Additionally, although I had told Susan that throwing Ramon up at Maria wasn't an issue, it really was. I had real problems with seeing Maria and Ramon in bed together. Maria had thought this might be an issue, and had explained that was why she had bought a new bed -- she wanted to minimize as best as possible, whatever hurt I might feel about Ramon.

By Sunday afternoon, we had at least agreed to go see a marriage counselor, and further agreed that I would come by every day to see Maria and the twins. And there was to be no more of Daddy taking the twins off while Mommy stayed home.

The twins were disappointed that Daddy wasn't just going to start living with them. Susan and Ralph weren't surprised I don't think, but a bit disappointed that it hadn't all magically gotten better between the two of us.

Maria was able to find a counselor that could take us in the evening, and Susan agreed to take care of the kids while we were gone, although it was really Ralph that took care of the kids most of the time. Susan was quite often working those horrible hours an attorney does, but at least she did it as little as possible.

The first meeting with the counselor, Marjorie Butler, was interesting to say the least. We explained what had happened, and I swear I thought I saw her mouth start to drop open. She recovered nicely, but at another point, I did see her wince, not much, but enough that I was able to pick up on it. Then she was the professional again, but I could bet that there was going to be a paper written on this one.

Over the next several weeks, actually over the next couple of months, we were given various assignments to think about until the next session. Then the following session we would go into what our thoughts were about them. One of the first was for me to assume that Susan had acted as Estella had, and that I had acted reacted as Maria had. Maria's assignment was to put herself in my shoes, with no contact, no explanations, just divorce papers, and then on top of that I was sleeping with some other woman.

We had both tried to do this ourselves, but Dr. Butler had us going down into the real nitty-gritty issues, such as:

"Well, if Tom wouldn't talk to you what would you have done?"

"I would have made it happen somehow."

"Exactly how? What specifically would you have done?"

"Well, I would have had someone, a mutual friend perhaps, contact him, and explain to him that I hadn't done anything."

"If Tom had done that, would you have believed this friend."

A long silence followed.

"No, probably not."

I didn't get off the hook either.

"So you've gotten nothing from Maria, no calls, no letters, no nothing. All you are hearing is Susan telling you that your wife is a bitch, and running around on you while you are busting your ass earning money for the family. Don't you think you would feel just a little bit abandoned?"

"Yes, but I trusted Maria, I still do, but I tried to contact her."

"That's not what I am asking, would you still trust Maria under those circumstances."

"Perhaps not."

"So you get a divorce. Susan sets you up with this woman that is drop dead gorgeous, and you wind up sleeping with her, with your kids in the house. Maria, how would that make you feel?

"Horrible. Like a slap on the face piled on top of everything else."

Things went on in this vein for weeks. Finally, by the end, Dr. Butler had stripped everything down to the bare essentials, fundamentally making us see that we were both somewhat at fault, although clearly Estella was the true guilty party. I contributed to the problem initially by not standing up to Estella from the start, and later by not working harder to contact Maria. After she had moved into the condo there was absolutely nothing to prevent me from sending those letters again. Maria was at fault for not talking to me, and for not trusting me enough to at least see if there was some other explanation.

At our last meeting with Dr. Butler, she told us that she thought she had done as much as she could to help us put things back together, but that now it was up to us to decide if that is what we wanted to do.

On the way over to pick up the kids from Susan's, I pulled the car over by a park and asked Maria to come for a walk with me. We walked quietly in the gloom for quite a few minutes, then I guided Maria over to a park bench and sat down. Still without saying anything, I reached into my jacket pocket, and pulled out the engagement ring that I had given Maria so many years ago.

"Maria, I love you, I have always loved you, and I don't think the past has changed that. Will you marry me again?"

Maria looked at me, the darkness hiding much of her face, then her smile lit up her face, and she told me that she couldn't imagine anything she would like more.

Her hands were shaking so badly that I wound up having to put the ring on her finger, then her arms were around my neck. We held each other like that then she whispered that we really needed to go get the kids.

We picked up the kids, and Susan was teasing us a little when she noticed the ring on Maria's finger.

"Well it is about damn time. I'll let you tell the kids in your own way. I was going to invite you to partake in some of our leftovers that Ralph and I are having, but I think that the kids would like to have you to themselves tonight."

I teased the kids all the way back to Maria's condo, telling them that I had a secret, but I couldn't tell them until later. Maria normally didn't like it when I teased the kids, but tonight she just smiled and didn't say a thing other than to tell the kids, that yes, she knew what the secret was, but she wasn't telling either. By the time we got to the condo, the kids were just about bouncing off the roof of the car.

When we got there, Maria, with a perfectly straight face, asked me if I would like to come in for dinner. Of course I agreed, and we spent most of our time in the kitchen putting together a quick dinner. At one point, Maria went over to the bar (it really wasn't much of a bar), and got out a bottle of wine, and raised her eyebrows at me. I nodded, then got four wine glasses out, and Maria nodded just like I had.

Maria and I had wine with dinner, saving part of the bottle for after dinner, and I told the kids they were going to have to wait until everyone was through with dinner before I would tell them the secret. They both stopped eating, and announced with almost one voice that they were done. Maria laughed and told them they had to clean their plates first.

When everybody was all done with dinner, I cleared my throat, then said: "Maria, I think I would like just a little more for dinner."

Maria almost choked on her wine, then told me in no uncertain terms that I had carried this on long enough.

I put a little wine in each of the glasses we had set aside for the kids, split the remainder with Maria, then raised my glass.

"I would like to toast a very special event tonight. Now before I start kids, when you toast, you don't just gulp the wine, you take a very small sip after the toast is made."

"Now, I would like to propose a toast to your mother, and to the woman I love very, very much. The woman I am going to marry as soon as we possibly can."

Both the twins looked a little uncertain at that, then they caught on and very solemnly sipped their wine. Then it was bedlam for a few minutes.

I moved over to Maria, leaned down and kissed her, a long, loving kiss, then I hugged her as tightly as I could, and whispered very softly: "My place tonight for all of us?"

Maria nodded, and I could see tears in her eyes.

"Okay kids, now it is almost bedtime, so now you have to go get ready for bed."

There were the expected complaints, but they scampered off chattering wildly, returning in a few minutes with their pajamas on, and teeth brushed.

"Well, you are not quite ready for bed yet."

I could see some confusion in their eyes, and Maria just shook her head at me, although she was smiling.

"You have to get your clothes for school tomorrow, and bring them down here, we are all going over to the old house tonight, and we will move there permanently as soon as we can."

Wild whoops echoed and they dashed off. Maria told me she had a couple of things she needed, and headed off to her bedroom.

We got to the house, got the kids settled in to bed, we finally were able to get to bed ourselves.

**************************** Maria

We had the kids down, and I started to unbutton my blouse to get in bed with Tom, really the first time that we were going to make love since Thanksgiving. We had had sex, but it wasn't like it was when we were first married, or even the night before I had gone to Spain with the twins. Tom had other ideas however. He came up behind me, putting his arms around me, then cupping my breasts, squeezing gently while he kissed my neck, and let his tongue and teeth play with my ear.

His hands left my breasts after a few moments, to complete the job of unbuttoning my blouse, and I whispered to him that the bra opened in the front. Seconds later my blouse and bra dropped to the floor and his hands returned to my breasts. His fingertips circled my nipples and traced my areolas, going back and forth between the two until my nipples were as erect as they ever got, even when I was nursing.

I could feel him fumbling with the zipper and button on my skirt with one hand, while my hands pressed his other hand to my breast. The skirt seemed to float to the floor as Tom turned me, kissed me, with his tongue invading my mouth. Then Tom knelt a bit, his hands sliding my panties down my legs to my feet. I started to step out of them, but Tom was faster, picking me up so fast that I'm afraid I squealed a little bit as he did so.

Tom laid me on the bed, then stood back and slowly undressed himself, before coming to lie beside me. We simply laid there kissing, with my arms around his neck, while his hands roamed freely across my body, touching not only my breast, but caressing my most intimate places.

Then he started making love to my breasts, his mouth doing the wonderful things to my nipples that his fingers had a few minutes earlier.

Tom's mouth moved lower, kissing its way down my stomach, through my pubic hair, until I could feel his breath between my legs. I spread my legs to offer him easier access, and then his fingers were gently separating my lips and his breath warmed my clit for just a second or so before his warm, moist tongue licked its way between my lips and down across my vagina.

Tom licked and sucked, taking my clit in his mouth to gently suck on it, then releasing it, penetrating my vagina with his tongue, then back up again. I could feel my hips moving of their own volition and eased my legs a bit further apart.