Tough Shit Max.

Her dad started to get up off the couch saying, "You can't call my daughter names like that."

"I damned sure can. I told you back when you ran me through that shotgun wedding that she had accused half of the senior class of being the father of the baby she managed to lose last night while she was out cheating on me. She was a whore then and she is a whore now. All you have to do is check the EMT and police reports on her accident and a call to the school can verify that she quit the cheer squad a month ago. A month ago! A month of her telling us that she has been going to the games and cheering every Friday night when she isn't here. I'm not making any wild accusations here. You can check on everything I've said and see for yourself."

He sat back down, turned to Maxine and said, "Is any of what he is saying true?"

"No daddy. I didn't quit cheer squad. They dropped me because I was slowing down because of my pregnancy, but I told everyone I was still on the squad because I felt guilty for letting them down so I kept quiet about it."

"So where did you spend your Friday nights?"

"I still went to the games."

"And your after school activities?"

"I was working with the girls on the JV squad helping them get ready to move up to varsity."

"And Friday night?"

"I got sick during the game and Ralph offered to give me a ride home. We were on the way when some drunk hit us."

Maxine's mom said, "See Henry? There is a perfectly reasonable explanation for it. I think you owe Maxi an apology."

"I don't believe you people. She lies through her teeth and you tell me to apologize. First, I was at the game Friday night. I got there just after the first quarter started and I looked all over for Max and she was not there. I sat with Donny, Paul and Bev and they told me that Max had quit the cheer squad and had not been to a game since quitting. Secondly, the accident she was in happened at Thornhill and Martin Drive which is ten miles west of the school. In case you have forgotten, we live six miles east of the school. That is a hell of a way out way to be coming home from the game sick. Lastly there are the EMT and police reports."

I was fudging on that since I hadn't seen the reports either -- if there even were any reports at all -- and I was just going on what I'd heard from the nurses.

"We are expected to believe that the impact of the accident was so hard that it made Max's panties fall off of her and land on the floor of the car? The hit was so hard that it made Max's shirt come unbuttoned, her bra to unsnap, and release her breasts out into the open? The collision caused Ralph's pants to unzip and his penis to jump out? Yeah! I can see how that might happen."

I looked around the room at everyone and then said, "I don't care what you do with her cheating ass. Just keep her away from me" and then I walked out of the room and went back down to the basement. Ten minutes later my dad came down and told me that Maxine was going home with her parents and that Monday he would check around and find a councilor that Maxine and I could sit down with to try and work things out. He obviously wasn't going to pay any attention to whatever I said so I just nodded my head and said nothing.

Monday after work I stopped at the bank and took out all the money I had been saving to take care of Maxine's and the baby's medical expenses and then rented myself a room at Bailey's boarding house. Tuesday I took half a day off work and moved all of my things to the boarding house.

It took three days for my dad to figure out that I had moved out and wasn't coming back and I found him leaning on the fender of my car when I got off work on Friday. He told me how disappointed he and my mother were in me because of my failure to accept my responsibilities as a husband and then I told him how disappointed I was in him for not listening to a word I'd said.

"She is a whore and a cheat. She has always been a whore and I am done with her. If you and mom can't accept that then go on home and leave me alone and I'll make sure to stay out of your way so you don't have to look at me and feel disappointed."

I got in my car and drove off leaving him standing there.

For the next four months I went to work, went to my night classes and hung out with my buddies on Saturday nights, I never saw Maxine or heard anything of her, but then I wasn't asking about her either. I never heard a word from my parents so I didn't bother contacting them. Why remind them that they had a son they were disappointed in.

Just before spring break I was served with divorce papers and I tossed them in the trash without reading them. I kept working and going to night school and then it was June and my eighteenth birthday. I had enough regular and night school credits to take the test for my GED so I took the test and then I took my birth certificate and GED certificate down to the recruiting office and three days later I was on the way to Fort Knox, Kentucky to begin basic training.

++++++++++++++++++++

I served my three years and then let myself be talked in to reenlisting for three more and pretty close to the end of my second enlistment -- just when I was contemplating going for twenty -- a new lieutenant was assigned to our unit. The man was a flaming asshole and for some reason he picked me to pick on. I received two Article 15s in a six week period and when the first shirt called me into his office and handed me the reenlistment papers I handed them back and told him no way. He tried to talk me into signing and told me that Lt. Mullins wouldn't be around forever and then I pointed out that Mullins had already given me two totally underserved Article 15s and if I stayed in all I had to look forward to was a summary courts martial or worse. Mullins would be around for at least a year and that would be more than enough time for him to railroad me into Leavenworth.

"Thanks top, but no thanks."

My last night on post I snuck over to the BOQ and poured sugar in Mullins gas tank and the next day I was riding the big gray dog on my way home.

+++++++++++++++++++++

I found a job at Wayman Industries in the shipping and receiving department and in six months I was the loading dock foreman. One year later I was chosen to fill the manager's slot. It helped that my Army time was spent in the Quartermasters and moving and handling material was what I did. I was able to find a civilian computer program that I was able to adapt the Army's inventory control program to and that saved Wayman's a lot of time and money.

When I got home I hit all of my old haunts and reconnected with some of my old buddies and started getting together with them on Friday and Saturday nights. One day I ran into my uncle Ray in Wal-Marts and he asked me if my parents knew that I was back in town and I told him probably. Two of dad's lodge brothers worked at Wayman and they had more than likely told dad that I worked with them.

"Aren't you going to get in touch with them?"

"Probably not. Don't want to remind them of the irresponsible son they were so disappointed in."

"That was years ago Hank."

"Maybe so Uncle Ray, but they have made absolutely no attempt to talk with me since I walked away from Maxine. They want to talk to me they know how to do it."

He shook his head and walked away.

+++++++++++++++++++++

It was a Saturday night and I was at Riley's Roadhouse waiting for a couple of friends. I was sitting at the bar watching the TV mounted up on the wall and nursing a Pabst Blue Ribbon when someone took the stool next to me and a voice said:

"Buy a girl a drink?"

I looked over and saw Maxine. She looked damned good and as I was looking at her and wondering what to say the bartender set a vodka tonic down in front of her. She smiled at me and told the bartender to put it on my tab. He looked at me and I shrugged and nodded a yes.

"How have you been Hank?"

"Pretty much okay Maxi."

"That's the first time you've ever called me Maxi."

"It is the first time I've heard you say Hank without a sneer in your voice."

"Can we take a booth and talk?"

I didn't see any of the guys I was waiting for so I said okay and we moved to a booth. We sat down and she said:

"You are looking pretty good."

"You aren't looking to shabby yourself."

"No sense beating around the bush here so I'll get right to it. I'm sorry for what happened."

"Sorry for doing it or sorry for getting caught?"

She smiled at that and said, "A little bit of both." She hesitated for a moment and then said, "No, this is a time for honesty so make that seventy thirty with the seventy being the sorry for getting caught."

"So why did you do it?"

She sat there quiet for a bit and then said, "I did it because I was young and dumb. I did it because I was rebelling."

"Rebelling? Rebelling against what?"

"Against being in the situation I was in."

"I don't understand that."

"I didn't want to be married any more than you did Hank. I was forced into it the same as you were. My parents may have acted like they didn't think their little girl was a slut, but they knew the truth. I went to them, told them I was pregnant and asked them to help me get an abortion, but they refused. They made me tell them who I had been with and then they went to the parents of the guys I'd named and the guys admitted to screwing me, but said no way the baby was theirs and their parents stood behind them and told my parents to take a hike. You were the last name on the list and I hoped that your parents would stand behind you like the other parents stood behind their sons and that would force my mom and dad to arrange for the abortion, but your parents caved and we were forced to get married.

"It was just wrong Hank. We had nothing to build a marriage on. I didn't love you and you didn't love me. All there was to cement us was a baby that we both knew only had a one in seven chance of being yours. I liked you Hank. I liked being able to make love to you every night and for what it is worth none of the others was any better than you. I liked the way you stepped up even though you doubted that the baby was yours, but although I liked you I didn't love you. I did love screwing around and I loved making it with other guys.

"I was a slut Hank and I loved being a slut. I wasn't ready to stop being a party girl and go into a life where I could only have one man. I managed to be a one man woman for five weeks after we were married and then I was back to being what I was before I got pregnant. Actually it was better because I got a kick out of cheating on you and there was no shortage of guys who wanted to screw the married pregnant slut. A couple of guys were already planning a gangbang for me when I got to my eighth month and I was telling them who I wanted there and then that accident happened and everything went to shit. You walked, my parents pretty much became jailers until I graduated, got a job and moved into my own place. What about you? What have you been doing?"

I told her about my time in the service and my job at Wayman. About then the guys I was waiting on showed and I told Maxi I had to go join them. She took a piece of paper out of her purse, wrote on it, handed it to me and said:

"Call me."

I looked at the paper and saw that it was a phone number. I put it in my pocket and went to join my friends. I forgot about that piece of paper until I found it while doing my laundry. I looked at it for a few seconds, then muttered "nah" and tossed it into the wastebasket with the lint from the dryer's filter.

++++++++++++++++

The next year flew by. The job was going well. I was dating a lot, getting laid a lot and even had two fairly long term relationships -- long term if four months can be considered long term. I found a small three bedroom house with a two car attached garage that I could afford and I took on a thirty year mortgage. I turned one of the bedrooms into a home office and den and started spending my week ends improving the place.

I saw Uncle Ray every so often and he always asked if I'd seen my parents and I always said no. He kept telling me that I needed to talk to them and I kept telling him they knew where to find me.

It was another Saturday night and I was at Riley's Roadhouse with two guys I worked with. Tom and Phil were sitting across from me in the booth and I saw both of them suddenly look past me and smile just as I felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned and saw Maxine standing there. The reason for Tom and Phil's smiles was obvious. Maxine looked drop dead gorgeous.

"You haven't come over and asked me for a dance so I decided to come to you."

She extended a hand and I said to myself, "Why the hell not" and I got out of the booth and we moved out onto the dance floor. A waltz was playing and as I took her in my arms for the very first time on a dance floor she said:

"You never called."

"What would be the point?"

"Who knows? It was years ago Hank and I was a wild dumb bitch then. I've grown up since then. You might even like the me I am now."

"Yeah! Right! I can see it now. I take you out on a date and your dad comes looking for me with that shotgun again."

"No fear of that. Dad was killed in an auto accident about a year after you left."

"Sorry to hear that. How's your mom getting along?"

"Good I guess. I haven't talked to her in a while. She remarried two years after dad died and she and her new husband moved to Canada."

I couldn't think of anything to say to that so I changed the subject. The song ended and she asked me to join her and I begged off saying that I was with friends and we had plans for the evening. She gave me a disappointed look and then said:

"Call me Hank, please?"

"I didn't keep your number."

"I'm in the book."

"I don't know your last name."

"Sure you do. You gave it to me."

I took her back to her table and was halfway back to my booth when her "You gave it to me" hit me. She still had my last name! That was something to think about. I would have thought she would have gotten rid of it and gone back to her maiden name. Then something else occurred to me. If she still had my last name it would seem that in the eight years since I walked out of my parent's living room leaving her sitting on the couch she had never remarried. Why not? She was gorgeous. She had to have at least half the single guys in town after her (and probably some of the married). Curious. Curious indeed.

When I got back to the booth Phil asked, "Who was that fox?"

"My ex."

"You had a girlfriend like that and you let her get away?"

"Wife."

"What?"

"Not ex-girlfriend, wife."

"That's even worse. I have to seriously question your judgment and sanity son."

"Looks aren't everything Phil. Remember that. Words to live by."

++++++++++++++++++++++

Of course I thought about the things I'd thought about and curiosity being what it is it hung around and finally got to the point where I wanted to find out the answers. I didn't know any of Maxine's current friends and I couldn't think of any mutual friends that we might still have so the only way I was going to find any answers was to talk to Maxine and that meant calling her and asking her out.

Did I really want to do that? Was I really that curious?"

I looked her up in the phone book and gave her a call.

I was there to pick her up at six sharp and she asked me in. She apologized for not being ready to go, but her baby sitter was running late.

"Baby sitter?"

"Well sure. I can't leave Merrily here alone. She's only seven."

"Oh. I didn't know that you had gotten married again."

"I didn't."

"Oh."

Jut then the door bell rang and it was the sitter. Maxine told her that Merrily was in the bath tub and to make sure that she was in bed by nine and we left. The plan for a night was dinner and a show. After dinner was over and we were having an after dinner drink Maxine said:

"Go ahead Hank"

"Go ahead."

"It is written all over your face. You are dying to ask questions so go ahead and ask."

I sat there trying to think of what to say and Maxine said, "Okay, I'll start the ball rolling. Merrily is seven going on eight and I am a single mom, but not by choice. Her father couldn't marry me so he finally packed up and left."

"He couldn't marry you? Why, was he already married?"

"No. I was"

"You remarried a guy with the same last name as mine?"

"Not exactly."

"I'm confused."

"Think about it Hank. He couldn't marry me because I was already married. I haven't remarried and I still have your last name. Put the pieces of the puzzle together Hank."

I sat there staring at her as what she was getting at finally dawned on me. "You can't be serious. I saw the divorce papers. You had them served on me."

"But you never signed them and sent them back."

"No way Maxi; no way are we still married."

"Way Hank. You never signed the papers and daddy, who was paying for the divorce, died and I couldn't afford the lawyer by myself so things sort of petered out. By the time I had a decent enough job and was making enough money to go back and pursue the divorce Merrily came along and I suddenly had more important uses for the money. Being a single mommy means you have to budget and a divorce was way down on the list of priorities. I have a question for you. Did you ever get married again? Did you unknowingly commit bigamy?"

"Thank God no! I came close once, but never did it. Damn. This does complicate things."

"Why? It just means that if you ever decide to get married again you will have to divorce me. Until then it doesn't really matter."

"What about you? What if you want to get married again?"

"I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. The line in front of a single mom's door is never very long and it is even shorter when the single mom has a reputation."

"You still doing that?"

"Good God no. I finally woke up to the fact that it was self destructive behavior, but the town isn't all that big and people have long memories. I never lack for dates. Guys are always asking me out hoping that I'm still the same old Maxi, but most of them end up disappointed."

"Most of them?"

"Don't act dumb and surprised Hank. I may not spread it around like I used to, but I still have needs. How about you Hank? Do you have needs?"

I just looked at her because, quite frankly, I was at a loss for what to say. She reached across the table and touched my hand and said:

"We can skip the show and go to your place." She giggled and then said, "After all you are my husband and husbands do have certain rights."

She was every bit the sexual athlete she had been the night of our wedding which is to say that she was fucking insatiable. As fast as I came she was on it working to get it up again. Fortunately for me it had only been a couple of days since I'd last gotten laid or my first time could have measured in seconds. She managed to get it done three times which was no mean trick given she only had three hours in which to get it done.

I had her home by midnight and at her door she kissed me long and hard and said:

"Don't forget hubby dear, you have rights so call me....soon, okay?"

I drove home in a highly confused state. I was still married to Maxi? Cold it really be true? Then I remembered that I had dropped the divorce papers unread into the trash can. If I was supposed to sign them I never did. Now what the hell should I do? When I woke up the next morning I had no better idea than I'd had before going to bed, but one thing I did know; pussy was pussy and as pussy Maxi was head and shoulders above what I'd been getting since I got home. I was going to take advantage of the fact that she had told me that I had 'certain rights.'

I called her Monday and we had dinner and ended up at my place. I had something to do Tuesday night, but I made a date for Wednesday. When I picked her up I met Merrily for the first time. She shook my hand when Maxi told her to, but she didn't smile and when I tried talking to her she scooted over next to Maxi and hugged her leg while staring at me. When we left I asked Maxi where she would like to go and she said: