Trial Separation

"How the hell should I know?" I said. "Everyone saw it. He ran into a door. It was an accident. Or maybe just bad luck. Buck maybe he was just clumsy."

"Linda, is that your final say on this?" asked Buck.

"Yes it is," I said. "Everyone here can vouch for me. I was halfway across the room when it happened. I wasn't involved in any way, shape or form with what happened to Ralph."

"Thank you Linda," he said. "That wasn't so hard was it? Candy, you and Tommy enjoy your life together. Wait, that isn't really the right thing to say. The two of you have been together for so long already. I guess I meant to say enjoy your honeymoon. You guys are going on cruise of the Caribbean aren't you?"

"Yes," said my daughter, smiling and grabbing Tommy's arm.

"Shit, you guys are lucky," said Buck. "When Susie and me got married. We crossed the state line and drove up into Michigan for our honeymoon. We went to Dee-troyit."

I almost laughed at the way he pronounced Detroit. But I wouldn't have laughed for long.

"Okay Linda," he said. "Let's leave these newlyweds alone and start taking care of business. I have to get back to Susie after I drop you off."

"Drop me off where?" I asked.

"Linda, I spoke to Ralph," he said. "I know everything. I'm taking your lying ass to jail."

My mouth dropped open in shock. "Buck you can't be serious," I yelled. "What are the charges? This is all Sam's God damned fault! You should be arresting him, not me."

"Linda, you coerced a licensed law enforcement officer into conducting an illegal investigation for the purpose of personal gain. You had him try to trap an individual for whom there is currently no warrant issued or interest in by this jurisdiction. That constitutes harassment and entrapment. A law enforcement official was injured during this illegal operation. And lastly you attempted to use sex to pay off said law enforcement official. That's basically prostitution which I've warned you about several times. Those are very serious charges, Linda. I can't let you off this time and I'm going to have hell to pay with my wife, Sarah, when I suspend her little brother Ralph without pay. I really ought to be firing him. Linda you can't go around offering guys pussy like it's the prize in a God damned cracker jack box."

"Buck since Sam ran off and left me, high and dry, I don't have any money. I have to make the best of what I do have," I whined. "This is all Sam's fault."

"What does Sam have to do with any of this?" asked Buck.

"Well, Ralph was chasing Sam, when he slammed into that metal door," I said.

"Why the hell was Ralph chasing Sam in the first place?" asked Buck.

"I uhm...hired him to," I said slowly.

"Using the promise of sex as a price, right?" asked Buck. I nodded.

"Mother!" hissed my daughter, angrily.

"Candy, he ran out on us and left us destitute and..." I began.

"That isn't true," said Tommy sharply. "He paid for Candace to finish college. He even paid for her room and board."

"Yeah but Tommy you've paid for everything else for her," I said. "You took money out of your business to buy her a car and to pay all of the expenses since she moved in with you. Hell you even paid for your own wedding. You're a really good..."

"That isn't exactly true either," said Tommy. "I don't exactly own the Internet business. It's incorporated in a different state. I just do all of the computer work. I basically manage the web site and upload content. I handle server issues and customer complaints, but that's all."

"Then where does all of the money come from?" asked Candace.

Everyone in the room turned to Tommy then. I did, Tommy's parents did, even Buck looked at Tommy, but I got the distinct impression that Buck knew what was going on.

"Candy, I love you," began Tommy. "And I'm sorry I lied to you, but I made a promise. I only agreed to it because I'd have done it anyway. But this way I had the chance to give you, to give both of us a better life."

"Spill it Thomas," said Candace in that way that wives always use to get their husbands to come clean.

"Candy, your father owns the business. I just help run it. He's the one who's been taking care of you. Just before he left, your father made me promise to take care of you. He didn't want to leave but your mom forced him to," said Tommy.

"Bullshit, Tommy," I screamed. "He ran out on me for that young floozy that he brought to the wedding. They ran off together three and a half years ago and he deserted his wife and daughter for HER! Like so many men he got caught up by some young chick and forgot his responsibilities."

"No!" said Tommy. "Ma'am, I love your daughter. And I respect you. But that just isn't true at all. Sam never wanted to leave. He was almost crying over having to leave Candace. And he didn't meet Caroline until more than a year after he left. Besides that, Caroline is really pretty. I've spoken to her often. But today was only the second time I've seen her in person. I do know though that she isn't some young chick. She's actually older than you are, she just doesn't look it."

"it doesn't matter how old that whore is," I screamed. "She still stole my husband. She's still living with a married man. He probably lied to her about being married."

"Why don't you just start from the beginning so we can sort this whole pile of crap out, Linda," said Buck. "Maybe we should all know all of the facts here before we proceed."

"Okay," I said. "That's a really good idea."

"As you all know Sam and I have been married for...it will be twenty five years in December. And..."

"Linda, Sam has been gone for three years," said Buck looking at me crazily. "You can't surely be counting the past three years as..."

"Yes, I can," I screamed. "We're still legally marries and..."

"But didn't he file for a divorce before he left?" asked Buck again.

"Our divorce was never legally completed and he actually withdrew the petition," I said. "Can I tell my God damned story or not?" I looked from face to face and they all nodded so I started again.

"Sam and I got married twenty five years ago. Is that okay? We were both in our mid twenties. Sam was a pretty popular guy and I was very shy. Sam was already out of college and doing well as an industrial sales rep. He basically worked for a company that sold Tool and Die machinery as well as presses and machine tools. And please don't ask me anymore about it because I have no idea what a tool is or what has to die in order to be considered a press. He tried to explain it to me many times over the years. But I just didn't have enough interest in it to understand it. Just let it suffice to say that Sam made very good money. He made enough that I was able to drop out of college for the second time and be a stay at home housewife.

In the early stages of our marriage, like most young couples, we had a disproportionate interest in sex. I think that a big part of that was that Sammy was my first. So I didn't have a lot of experience when we first got together. But over that first year of marriage we experimented, although at what seems like a snail's pace to me now. I can't believe that he had to beg me to let him eat my pussy. Once he got down there though, it changed everything.

Don't get me wrong, I wasn't stupid. I knew the ins and outs of how to do it and what to do, but at first it was just something I needed to let him do to me. My mom had told me that once I got married I'd have to let my husband put his thing in me, to keep him from going to some nasty whore. She told me that men needed to do it, or they went crazy. She even told me how she'd almost lost my father. She'd stopped having sex with him after my brother and I were born. My dad had started screwing his secretary.

When Mom found out she confronted Dad and got the surprise of her life. Dad gave her some money, told her they'd work out a schedule for when he could see his kids and moved out. It took some time, but they eventually got back together. I really believe that it was a combination of things. My dad missed seeing his kids every day and he was tired of fucking his secretary. That was what had saved their marriage.

So my mom told me that like it or not, if I wanted my marriage to last, I needed to get on my back and spread 'em, regularly. That was not a problem for me. Six months into my marriage, I was a dick seeking missile. Less than a year after we got married, I was pregnant. If there hadn't been complications with the delivery that made me unable to have any more kids, Candace would probably have eight or nine siblings.

Candace didn't slow us down either. If anything she made us even more desperate for each other. When she was a baby we had to wait until she fell asleep. When she was older, even when she was asleep we had to be quiet because there was more of a danger of her hearing us and coming in on us. Then in her preteen and teenaged years we had to find clubs and activities and sleep-overs with friends for her, so we could have uninterrupted sex. God, I loved those sleep-overs.

As the years rolled on and Candy grew older, we didn't have to hide anything. Sam was still happy, but I started to wonder if there were other things that I hadn't experienced. A new couple moved into the neighborhood; the Campbells, Glenn and his wife, Sue. He was a lineman for the county. And she made specialty soups for a local restaurant. I think she was kind of famous for them. But to be truthful, I'd never heard of Campbell's soup. It's probably one of those big city designer things.

Sue and I became closer over the years and I started to notice things about their marriage. Both Glenn and Sue had cheated. Glenn had done it first and they'd stayed together although Sue made him pay for it. Then Sue had her turn. I was shocked enough when Glenn had done it. But since I'd had the experience of my father doing it, somehow it wasn't as shocking when a man did it. But for Sue to not only cheat on her husband but to enjoy it, was like dealing with aliens.

Even more shocking was the fact that Sue kept doing it. I started to view her as if she was one of those aliens.

Finally I asked her about it. She told me that she'd started doing it mostly as revenge for what Glenn had done, but then she'd discovered that it was exciting and fun.

"For almost twenty years I've only had sex with Glenn," she said. "It was kind of the same old same old, you know?"

"But don't you love your husband?" I asked.

"Of course I love him," she said in shock. She actually looked at me as if I was the one who didn't see the obvious. "Linda, humans need a little change or some variety every once in a while. It keeps us sane. This has nothing to do with love. This is just sex. You know how men are, if you give them what they want too easily, they get bored and they don't put forth any effort. That's partially why they're always looking for new pussy. But if you make it more challenging, they want you more. After all you're the one they married. But we have the right to have a little bit of excitement too. And sometimes, even when you have steak at home, a hamburger is just good."

Glenn had never found out that Sue was cheating on him. Women are just better at hiding things. So when Sue caught Glenn the second time it was all out war. She threw him out of the house and filed for a divorce. She never intended to go through with it, but she wanted to throw a scare into him. The thing was that she was the one who got the scare. Like my father, Glenn decided that maybe the grass was greener with his new woman. Unlike my father, Glenn had no kids to come home to.

Sue didn't really want to lose Glenn, so she came up with the idea of a trial separation. They would just take ninety days off and then meet again to discuss their future. That was what she said in the lawyer's office. What she told me was completely different.

She really wanted to give him a couple of months to get bored fucking his new woman. She hoped that if he was able to spend as much time with her as he wanted, he'd come to miss Sue. After all a big part of the allure of an affair is the forbidden nature of it. It's very exciting to sneak around and be with someone new. But when it's all out in the open, it becomes normal or even boring. The woman that seemed like a primal sex Goddess when you're screwing her in the closet at work becomes just another woman. Then the man sees that the goddess shits and pisses and whines and has periods, just like the rest of us.

Glenn moved out of the house and into an apartment with his new love. As I visited with Sue during the first week of the separation it did something to me. It just seemed like I was on a treadmill with every day of my life the same. Sue's life on the other hand was a revolving door of one new experience after another. It reminded me of when Sam and I had just gotten married and were still experimenting with sex.

"You should come and do it with me," said Sue. "Tell Sam that you just need to take some time off to find yourself. Women our age, just before the change, they do it all the time."

"I couldn't," I told her. But I was thinking about it. And that afternoon it happened. The phone rang while I was at Sue's house. She told me to go into one of the upstairs guest rooms so I'd be out of sight. A few moments later a guy who was only twenty years old showed up at the door. He came in and he and Sue made small talk for a few moments. I left the door cracked so I could hear them. It didn't take long before I heard Sue moaning. I crept to the stairs and looked down into the living room. He had Sue's skirt up around her waist. He was slamming his huge dick into her from behind while he mauled her breasts. It was angry sex. It was so intense that I found myself fingering my own wet pussy while I watched. It only took about ten minutes before he pulled out and started shooting long ropes of semen across her back. Then he zipped up his pants and told her he'd call her and walked out the door.

When I got home that evening, I was irritable. I kept trying to start an argument with Sam, but he was so good natured that he just kept politely giving in. Finally I just told him that I needed some time to myself.

"Okay, I'll go out to the garage and wash my car," he said. He just didn't get it.

"Sam, I'm going to move out for a while," I said. It tore me apart to see the look on his face. Sam is one of the strongest men I know but he looked as if he was going to cry. He was doing everything wrong. He was supposed to just say, "fine," like my father had, and like Glenn had. I almost reconsidered. But I figured that I'd already hurt him enough. If I didn't go through with it, I'd have hurt him for nothing.

"Wait until the two of you make up," said Sue when I told her about it. "It'll be like a second honeymoon."

"We've already had a second honeymoon," I said. "He took me to Hawaii."

"Well it'll be like a third," she said.

"We went to the Bahamas and renewed our wedding vows for our third honeymoon," I said. She just looked at me strangely then.

"Any way, I didn't last the whole three months, but then neither did Sue and Glenn. They ended up getting back together after about six weeks. Sue had given my story about Sam and I renewing our wedding vows a lot of thought. She and Glenn had both gotten their fill of strange sex and decided to truly give their marriage a second chance. They had a big party and renewed their vows in front of a lot of their friends. I invited Sam to come as our first date since the separation and intended to suppose him by moving back home afterwards."

"The five weeks that Sam and I had been apart had been interesting. I'm not going to lie. I did some things that I'm not proud of. But all it seemed to do was to confirm for me that Sam was the man that I was supposed to spend the rest of my life with. I learned so many things during those five weeks that I guess I should have known from the beginning."

"One of those things was that Sam was a gem. He really and truly loved me very deeply and he showed it. As I told Sue about the things he did for me on a regular basis, even she was surprised. I think she got the idea during the first weeks of our separation when Sam was always showing up to try to talk to me or to bring me things."

"I think during those first few weeks Sam really had the idea that he'd done something wrong or that it was his fault that we were apart. He was trying with all of his heart to win me back. Unfortunately Sam's timing was off. During those first few weeks, I was overwhelmed with new experiences. That was when I started doing those things that even now I regret. But once the newness wore off and I was ready to move back home, Sam had stopped coming by. He'd even stopped calling. And I began to worry.

"He's probably met someone," said Sue.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Well Honey, he knows what you've been doing. So maybe he decided to go out and get some for himself," she said.

"I was in shock. My heart was beating so fast that I thought I was having a heart attack. I called the house and got no answer. I drove by the house just in time to see Sam getting into his Mustang and driving somewhere. I followed him. He went to the park near our house. He got out of the car and went out for a run. Sam had been on the cross country team in college, but he hadn't run since then. I watched him for a few days. He wasn't seeing anyone, as near as I could tell, but he was different."

"Ooh that's a good sign," said Sue. "He's trying to get into better shape to try to win you back."

"The next few days found me trying to call him several times a day. He never picked up the phone or returned any of my calls. I tried calling him at work, but his secretary always told me that he was out of the office and wouldn't be back that day. Sam hadn't gone out to do sales or meet with customers in the six years since he was promoted to sales manager and then regional manager. I knew that bitch was lying. Then I started to think that maybe Sam was screwing her. It did seem to fit the pattern."

Sue just laughed. "Honey if he didn't want to screw me, why would he want her?" she asked.

"What the fuck are you talking about?" I asked.

"Uhm...the other night when he came over, he uh...I uh..." she muttered.

"Just fucking tell me," I said angrily.

"Jeezus, Linda," she said. "I was trying to help you. The guy came over here like a puppy dog, bringing you flowers. It was so sweet. Then he walked in and saw you. Linda, he was crushed. I wanted to do anything I could to make the poor man feel better, so I flashed him. You know with most guys especially when they're upset about their girl being with another guy, they'll go for a revenge fuck in a second. I intended to rock his world, but he just wandered off. He hasn't been back since. Haven't you guys talked about it when he calls?"

"He hasn't called," I told her.

"Don't worry, Honey," he's just hurt and upset. He probably needs to do a lot of thinking before he calls you. You just need to be ready for him. In a few weeks the two of you will be back together and better than ever, you'll see."

"I hoped that she'd be right. Everything happened so quickly then. I began to have some medical problems and I began to realize that for the first time in my life I was on my own. And I didn't like it. Sue couldn't find the time to go to the doctor with me. Sam would have taken the day off from work to be with me normally. In this case though there was no way that I would even consider asking him to go."

"At the same time, Glenn and Sue had gotten back into contact. They were having a series of long loud arguments that Sue told me were good. Then they met to talk about the things they were angry about in person. They ended up fucking. Neither of them even cared that I was in the house. Once they got back together they continued talking and working their way through things. Glenn admitted to all of the women that he'd cheated with and promised not to ever do it again. They talked about why he cheated and agreed to talk before they ever got into that situation again."