Very Different Valentine's Days

I managed to unlock the apartment door with one hand while holding the roses in the other. I heard them as soon as the door was open and placed one of the bags holding my supplies in the doorway so it would hold the door open. I walked down the corridor to the master bedroom walking on the trail of their clothes.

They were in the middle of cumming when I got to the room. I took one step into it and threw the vase of flowers at them as hard as I could.

"UNHAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!"

I turned and rushed from the room twisting my wedding ring off as I went. I slammed it down onto the antique table beside the door along with my personal cell phone and ran out of the apartment, down the corridor to the stairwell door, and all the way down the stairs to where my car was parked in the garage. I exited the garage and turned right; looking into the rear view mirror after a flash of movement in my peripheral vision had gotten my attention as I was turning.

It had been Chelsea in her complimentary peach colored bathrobe that we'd each gotten on a previous Valentine's Day Lovers weekend. I watched as she fell to her knees in the middle of the street when I pressed down on the gas pedal, chirping the tires, and speeding away from her.

"Those scraped knees will keep you from doing it doggie for a while, you cheating bitch, it being your favorite position and all. Have a miserable life then die and go to hell." I thought to myself as I sped away.

I went back to my office, stopping at the security desk and telling the guard there that under no circumstances was Chelsea allowed past the lobby, giving him one of the pictures I had of her in my wallet. I went straight to my boss and told him I was ready to move to the company's California office immediately instead of in a month's time like we originally discussed. I also got his assurances that everyone in the company would be made aware of the consequences if they told Chelsea where I was or how to contact me.

I called the apartment the next day and got the answering machine after eight which was the time Chels' job started. I called her work and asked for her, but hung up when the receptionist put me on hold to transfer me. I made these calls from the coffee house across from our apartment so I was in and out of the apartment in less than two hours only packing one suitcase and the rigid airline garment bag with my three newest suits. I left a short letter on the entry way table which I'd swung around to face the door so there was no way she'd miss it.

You:

I'm leaving so don't try to find me or contact me. The apartment is yours and since it's already paid for, I'm taking seventy five percent of the money in the joint checking and savings accounts. My name is already off of them and the household account is in your name only now and untouched.

I have already taken everything I want from the apartment so you can sell what you want, donate or throw out what you don't.

I hope Brad is everything you ever wanted, but I'm not going to wish you a happy life together because, frankly, I hope the two of you have a shitty life from this day forward and may you both burn in hell.

You can get the divorce. My lawyer is Samuel Abramowitz and he has my power of attorney to sign any papers you need signed. I'm not coming back so don't try and force me. I can afford to fight longer than you can so don't even try.

Dale

Two weeks later I was in California working as the right hand man to one of the West Coast office's vice presidents who would be retiring in two years and was grooming me to take his place. I had no intentions of ever seeing or talking to HER again in my lifetime, but during a mandatory trip back to the East Coast office my old boss guilted me into meeting her one last time and that's why I was sitting in a bar waiting on her on yet another Valentine's Day.

I watched Chels for fifteen minutes as she sat at the bar and saw her wave away one drink and watched as one man approached her before turning and walking away from her without talking to her which made me curious as to why. She never turned her head toward the corner I was seated in and was too far away for me to see her face clearly. I waved Irene over and ordered two more Lynchburg Lemonades when I saw Chels begin to squirm in frustration and anger after those fifteen minutes.

I directed Irene to take the second drink to Chels and followed behind her as she delivered it. I waited to speak until I saw Chels waving it away.

"You've hurt my feelings yet again, Chelsea. You've never waved away a Lynchburg Lemonade that I've sent you in the past so why did you do it now?"

"Dale? Dale, it is you. I'm sorry baby; I didn't know it was from you." She said to me as she turned on her barstool toward me.

"My God, Chelsea. What happened to your face?" I yelled in shock when I saw the right side of her once beautiful face.

The whole right side of her face from below her eye to below her bottom lip had small yet visible scars that were at least an inch in length and half as wide. Her nose had been broadened by being broken sometime in the past year. Her eyes were dull and almost lifeless where they had sparkled and been full of life in the past.

"Brad beat me up and did this to my face with his college class ring." She said as she fought not to cry.

"Where is that cowardly son of a bitch? I'll kill him with my bare hands." I yelled out.

Chelsea started to cry in earnest then but the sparkle was back in her eyes and she was trying to smile through the tears.

"You still love me. I was so afraid that you'd hate me, but instead you still love me." Chelsea managed to say when she got her emotions under control.

"Yes, I still love you and probably always will. Those bad things I wrote were written while I was angry at you. I never have hated you only what you did to me. Why did Brad do that to you?" I managed to say to her after my own anger had eased.

"He didn't want to support me anymore after he found out I was pregnant and wanted me to force you to support me and our child or abort it. When I refused both, he beat me causing me to miscarry and to stop the bleeding; the doctors had to remove my uterus. I'll never be able to have children now." She told me as the crying started anew.

"Our child?" I asked in shock.

"NO! Brad's and mine." Chels answered me forcefully.

Chelsea tentatively reached out and took my left hand in hers.

"Dale is there any chance that you'd take me back? I realized what I had after you were gone and I couldn't find you or get anyone to tell me how I could get in touch with you. I let Brad move in with me after a couple of months because I was lonely and needed someone to hold me at night. I didn't know the real Brad until he moved in. The three months he was with me were worse than anything you did when you were so mad at me after the award show. The only good thing was he didn't hit me until he found out I was pregnant.

"Dale, please I love you more than anyone can love another person. I'll be a good wife to you and I mean it this time. I'll be one hundred percent faithful and will only have sex with you unless you want to include someone else. We can adopt because I know you wanted children. Please Dale, take me back and I promise I'll do anything and everything to make sure you don't regret it."

"It's a little more complicated than that, Chels. Do I still love you? Yes, I've already admitted to that. Do I trust you? Not on your life. Will I ever trust you again? I don't know and you can't rebuild my trust in you if we're apart."

"I don't want for us to be apart. Please, tell me what I have to do so we can be together. Please, Dale. I'll get down on my knees right now and beg if that's part of what I need to do; just tell me what I need to do." Chelsea begged of me.

"If and that's a big IF, I take you back; the first thing you'll have to do is stop smoking. God you know how much I hate that stale smoke smell smokers have and you reek of it right know. How many packs a day are you smoking? Two, three, more?"

"Two and a half on good days and three on bad, but there are more bad days than good, so honestly three." She replied as she hung her head. "I can quit, I swear, as long as I'm with you."

"You'll have to sell the apartment because I live in California and love it so I'll be staying out there whether we're together or not."

She turned her body away from me toward the back of the bar before she said anything else to me. "The apartment has already been sold. I had to sell to cover the hospital and doctor bills that your insurance didn't pay."

"My insurance? I never got any statements from my insurance." I blurted out.

"No, of course not. I had them sent to me. I didn't want you back as my savior or knight in shining armor or from any sense of duty you might have had from when we were happily man and wife. I wanted you back because you wanted to be back and wanted to be with me." She explained as that dullness began to return to her eyes.

"You're not going to take me back are you, Dale? No, and why would you? I'm ugly now instead of being beautiful, skinny without those womanly curves you were so in love with, and can't give you a child of your own so why would you take me back? I'm sorry I've wasted your time, Dale. Have a safe trip back to California and I hope you find somebody that can make you happy like I once was able to."

She started to get off the bar stool, but I put my hand on her shoulder and stopped her. I turned her body back toward me and raised her head with my hand on her chin so I could look into her eyes while motioning toward the darkened corner where I'd been sitting.

"Those reasons wouldn't stop me from taking you back, but the next one might make you not want to come back." I straightened up and put my arm around the waist of the beautiful red haired woman who'd been sitting with me in the darkened corner. Although she was only three months along, she was already showing that she was with child in an obvious way.

"Chels, this is Shelly. No, I'm sorry her name is actually Michelle, but I'm so used to calling her Shelly that it slipped out. If you want me to take you back, you'd have to be willing to share me with the other woman I've fallen in love with and who is going to be the mother of my children. We already know she's carrying twins so children plural is correct.

"At the time, I couldn't see how you could love two men at the same time, but I know how you did. I do still love you Chelsea and you're welcome to come back to California with Shelly and me, but you'll have to share everything with Shelly, not just me. My house, my bed, my love, my money, everything that I have will have to be shared by the two of you.

"I will also expect complete faithfulness from both of you. That may not seem fair in light of the circumstances, but that's the way it has to be if you want to be with me. Shelly has no problem with it and you'd have to be okay with it also. There will be a post nuptial between us and if you break its terms on fidelity you'll find yourself alone again, but we'll be divorced if you ever cheat on me again.

"I know that's a lot to think about, Chels, so here's the number at the hotel we're staying at. We leave day after tomorrow so let me know something one way or another before then." I told her before giving her a piece of hotel stationary with the hotel's number and the room number Shelly and I were staying in.

"I don't have to think about it. I told you I'd do anything if you'd take me back so I agree to everything. If you have the post-nup papers ready, I'll sign them right now with Irene and Danny Boy as witnesses." Chels responded before jumping off the bar stool into my arms.

"I don't have anything like that prepared, Chels. To be honest, I wasn't sure why you wanted to meet me while I was in town, but I wasn't suspecting this. Why didn't you file for the divorce like I told you to?" I ask as I sat her back down gently onto the bar stool.

"I didn't want a divorce. I wanted to stay Mrs. Stringer like I told you I did that night after the award show. I wasn't thinking that day you caught us together. Brad showed up at work and I forgot everything I'd promised you when I saw him. Even the fact that it was Valentine's Day and you'd told me you had something special planned evaporated from my mind and all I could think of was fucking Brad again. I swear that was the first time we'd ever done it at the apartment and I didn't resist when Brad insisted we do it in our bed.

"When those roses and the water in the vase hit us on the bed, I knew I'd lost you and when I found your note the next day, I figured it was forever. I couldn't find you, no one would tell me how I could get in touch with you, and I couldn't afford to hire someone to find you. It was like you disappeared off the face of the Earth. I was hoping after the anger and hurt lessened that you'd at least get in touch with me so we could talk. I was only with Brad because you were gone, Dale, and I was regretting it more and more every day; but I couldn't force him to leave.

"I'm glad they revoked his bail when he violated the restraining order against him. I hope he rots in jail and then prison for killing my baby and ruining me so I'll never have children. I wanted to be the mother of your children, Dale, but I'll be the best stepmom two kids could ever want." Chels said as I watched the happiness then anger followed by sadness during her little rant flow across her face.

"Well if the three of us are going to be together in the future, there's no better time than the present for you and Shelly to start getting to know each other. Shelly, please take Chels across the street to the hotel and get us a table for dinner. I'll be over shortly; there's something I need to talk to Danny Boy about. I promise I won't be long." I said to the two ladies that were smiling at me with the same look of love on their faces.

I laughed as I watched Shelly snatch the pack of cigarettes and lighter from Chelsea's hands when they were outside the bar and throw them out into the street where a speeding taxi promptly ran over them, sending bits of cigarettes and the lighter flying in all directions.

I turned back to the bar and Danny Boy was standing there with the evil grin he always got when he thought he knew what I was going to say.

"Brad needs to have an accident with extreme prejudice while in jail, doesn't he Dale?" Danny Boy said before I could say anything. I shook my head yes while keeping my mouth shut.

"Consider it done, my friend. I hate men who beat on women and one that would ruin the face of one of the most beautiful women I know and a friend to boot, well don't worry about a thing. I wouldn't be surprised if you heard something on the news before you leave. Now that you and Chels are back together, don't wait a whole year before Irene and I see you again, you stubborn son of a bitch.

"Take care of those two beautiful women you have, you lucky bastard. I'd suggest something like that for me and Irene, but she'd bite my head off then shit it back down my neck if I did. I'll be seeing you and the drinks are on the house tonight." Danny Boy smiled at me before leaning over the bar, grabbing me, and pulling me into a hug. He was the closest thing I had to a brother so I hugged him back. Irene gave me a sisterly kiss on the lips and a hug when I turned to leave and she was standing there behind me.

I went across the street to the hotel and found Shelley and Chels hugging each other as they cried on each other's shoulder in a semi-circular booth of the hotel's restaurant; from what, I never found out. Shelley scooted out and gestured for me to scoot in beside Chels. The first few kisses between Chelsea and me were tentative and awkward much like the ones from when we first started dating. When we both started kissing each other with passion and could feel the need for the other in them, I knew that my love for her was as strong as ever even though I was in love with Shelley also.

I made love to Chelsea for the first time in over twelve months that night while Shelley watched and pleasured herself. The three of us fell asleep after the second bout of fucking between Chels and me; with Chels in the middle and both mine and Shelley's arms wrapped around her.

I saw in the morning paper of the day were we leaving for California that two prisoners awaiting trial had been killed during a mini riot in the jail's cafeteria the night before. Brad Covington and Victor Fleming had both been knifed in the back and bled out before the corrections officers could get to them because of the fracas. I smiled to myself as I rejoined the two women that had fallen in love with me and were willing to work with me and each other to make our unorthodox situation work.

**************************************

I was sitting in the back seat of the company limo with Chelsea beside me; blindfolded and with noise canceling headphones on as we entered the private gate that allowed access to the airport the company jet's hangar was at. Being one of the West Coast VP's for my company had its perks so I was able to do the things I was doing to keep Chels from knowing where we were going. The next day would be our fifteenth Valentine's Day as a married couple and I hoped the plans I've made would help erase more of the events of that horrible Valentine's Day five years earlier from our memories. If the calculations the company's pilot had made were correct, Chels and I would be having our first kiss for that Valentine's Day on the tarmac of Honolulu, HA as the sun was rising.

Shelley would be staying in our California home caring for our three year old twin boys, Dale Jr. and Dylan, and their one year old half-sister Chelsea Michelle Stringer, who we all called Shells. No, I didn't get another woman pregnant; Shelley gave birth to Shells after the in vitro fertilization and implantation of mine and Chelsea's embryo was a success, thus allowing Chels to give me a child after all. I would miss all of them for the next month, but Chelsea and I needed to be alone together since we'd not been able to it before then.

I was extremely happy sitting beside Chels sipping Champagne after we'd taken off and the blindfold and headphones had been removed. I had the love of not just one, but two beautiful women, three gorgeous children that I'd die for, and the position in life that I'd always seen myself in.

Chels had regained most of her weight and had her curves back, the money we'd obtained from suing Brad Covington's estate had allowed her to have plastic surgery that diminished the ugly scars on the right side of her face and fixed her nose. She had to use make up for them to be completely unnoticeable, but only wore that when we were going to company functions or other formal occasions after I'd convinced her I loved her for her and not her beauty.

Would the two women in my life stay faithful like they've promised? No one knows the answer to that question, do they? Would I stay faithful to them? I planned to, but life never seems to work out like we plan, does it? I have to believe that the answer to both questions of fidelity will be yes or why bother loving them as much as I do?

I know one thing for sure. The next Valentine's Day would include all the members of my little family, because I've only been separated from them for twelve hours and I already missed them too much to go through this again. I would have to pour out all my love on my wife for the time being and continue to believe in that fairy tale ending even though everybody knows there is no such thing.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY EVERYBODY!