Vows

This is a short (flash) story for your entertainment. Hope you enjoy it.

Her name was Janice and I thought I was in love with her almost from the time I'd met her two years before. From our first date onward I felt she was the one I wanted to get old with. Looking back now I guess it was just lust that held our relationship together combined with her devil-may- care, sort of wild attitude she had that I found captivating. I'd been brought up in a fairly conservative home and she was like a bright light while I was the moth.

We'd met in college and had moved in together in our senior year. I loved everything about her including her sense of humor. Her intellect and most importantly, her love of uninhibited sex. She was a very sexual person and she just exuded that feeling anytime a male looked at her. I think she reveled in the attention she got from guys and tended to promote it by wearing clothes that were a little short or snug fitting to amplify the many charms of her body. No matter, I thought, she is mine and no other guy's honey.

After living together for a year I felt I knew her well enough to be sure of my feelings and I thought she loved me so I popped the question. She enthusiastically responded with a yes and a quick romp on our bed. I knew that I asked in a public place she might respond a little more aggressively than my conservative up-bringing could support. I was glad I asked her in our room. She was so happy I thought she'd fuck me to death.

We decided to schedule the wedding for June, right after we graduated, so we could coordinate our job searches as a married couple and it wouldn't interfere with finals and other graduation activities. At her suggestion we decided to write our own wedding vows. I wasn't crazy about the idea because I thought the traditional vows that had joined my parents together were good enough for me but I acquiesced to keep her happy. We would be married in my parents church, which made my mother and father happy, because she didn't belong to any organized religion.

I should note that while we were dating I'd met her parents and they were a different set of couple than the parents that had raised me. They were both a couple of aging hippies to me and seemed dedicated to a life style that was avant garde to the extreme including an open marriage I was to discover later. I wondered why Janice wasn't as far out as they were but after meeting her grandparents I could understand where some of her normal behavior came from. I guess they'd raised her while her parents did their thing.

Anyway, we were a week away from the wedding and Janice and her mother were rushing around doing those things a bride and her mother are supposed to be doing and I was sitting down having a beer with her dad at his home. Actually, it was the first beer and conversation I'd ever had with her dad and he really wasn't drinking beer; his was white wine; Chardonnay to be exact.

I'd gone over to Janice's parents house to pick her up. She lived with me in my apartment but her mother had picked her up to go shopping and then she said they would be coming back here. The ladies weren't back yet and her dad invited me in to wait for them. I thought it might be a good chance to get to know her dad so I went in. We were definitely from opposite poles and I struggled to find some subject of conversation that would elicit a meaningful interchange between us.

He saved me by asking, So, the big day is a week away. Are you getting nervous?"

"Yes sir, I think I am. It's a big thing in a man's life."

"If it gives you any consolation, so was I, but you should know that all grooms are the same way. Standing up in front of your friends, relatives and future in-laws and her family and vowing to love one another forever can be intimidating. Her mother and wrote our own vows just like you two are doing. It was very romantic and we've never regretted it."

That sounds encouraging. How many years has it been?"

"Janice's mother and I have been married twenty-four years. Its hard to believe but next year will be our silver anniversary."

"That sounds wonderful. You must really get on well together."

"We do and I owe it all to the understanding we had the day we were married."

"What was that?"

"To love one another, don't keep secrets from one another be tolerant of one another, always be there for one another, recognize her needs and being faithful to her."

"That sounds simple."

"We expressed it in our wedding vows and have stuck to it all these years."

I thought for a moment about what he'd said. It was hard to reconcile their life style to such a conventional approach to marriage.

"So that's your secret? I'll have to remember that."

"It's sound advice from someone who's been there. But say, Janice will be celebrating her birthday right after you get back from your honeymoon. How about my wife and I planning a party for her? I don't think you'll have the time."

"Hey, that sounds good. I appreciate your consideration."

No problem, maybe her father can make it too."

Her father? What the hell is going on? I thought he was her father. I must have looked confused because he smiled and asked:

"Didn't Janice tell you? I'm not her biological father. His name is Stan Burris and he's a salesman for Norris Business Forms. He passes through periodically and stops to say hello. You'll like him and I'm sure he'd like to make your acquaintance since you're marrying his daughter."

"Yeah, that'd be great." I responded nervously. "I'm looking forward to it."

Just then Janice and her mother came in laden with bags of merchandise with the with the logo of the local department store emblazoned on each bag.

"There," Janice exclaimed as she dumped her load on the sofa. "That will take care of gifts for the bridesmaids and a few other things." she said as she came over to sit on my lap; We kissed tenderly and then she asked:

"What have you and daddy been doing while you were waiting?"

"I was telling him what every groom should know." her father volunteered.

"What did you learn?" she asked with a giggle. "Not something naughty I hope?"

"I learned why your mother and father have had such a loving marriage." I answered.

I wanted to ask her about her biological father but decided to wait until we were alone.

"Well, I guess we need to adopt the same for our marriage. I've been talking to mom and since they wrote their own wedding vows we should use theirs for our wedding. Have you written anything yet?"

"Well, I started, but I'm still working on them."

I didn't mention that I was using an internet site to plagiarize them.

"What do you think about using their vows for us? They worked for them."

I was a little apprehensive but decided to go along with her for now until I could read what her father's vows were. The rules of marriage he expressed to me sounded good to me so the vows he made at his wedding should be okay but I wasn't ready to make a commitment yet..

"Sure, get me a copy and I'll look at them."

She hopped off my lap and ran into the bedroom where her mother had disappeared. In a few minutes she was back with a piece of paper she thrust at me.

"Here you are; go ahead and read them."

I glanced at the page and asked:

"Where's yours?"

"I have them and you'll hear them at our wedding sweetheart."

I grunted in annoyance but folded the paper and pocketed it to read later.

"Are you ready to go?" I asked.

"Yes, help me load this stuff in the car and we can go."

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

Later that evening at my apartment I took the paper out of my pocket and read it.

I ________ take you to be my wife, friend and lover, to love and respect you in sickness and health and in times of joy and sorrow, to be faithful to you and cherish you and grow old with you in times of failure and triumph. I promise to nurture our love and show tolerance and patience and to recognize your needs and desires through our life together. I also promise to nurture and support the children of this marriage until they leave us in their maturity.

I thought, well that isn't too bad, I can live with that but I wondered about her 'needs and desires. It seems to be close to the traditional vows so I decided to use it and told her so. She was ecstatic with my acquiescence and told me as she took me by the hand and led me into the bedroom:

"You won't be sorry sweetheart."

She darned near fucked me to death again that night and I certainly wasn't sorry. At the time I couldn't understand why she was so happy.

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

The day of our wedding I was excited and apprehensive as the time approached for the ceremony. My best man and best friend, Jeff, helped me get ready and drove me to the church. I was close to being a basket-case and was glad he was there for support. He and I had been friends since grade school and we'd always been there for one another. I thought I could trust him with my life.

The sweat was running down my back under the tux jacket and I could feel it start to go down the crack of my ass just as the wedding march started and I turned to look at my bride as she started down the aisle toward me. I think I had a smile on my face as I looked her in her beautiful white gown on her father's arm. I couldn't see her face behind the veil but I knew she'd be smiling too. When the pastor began the marriage service I think I was in a fog, hardly paying any attention to what he was saying. I just had to remember my cue that we'd established the evening before at the wedding rehearsal and I thought I'd be able to pull this off and get out of here with my bride.

Then I realized that the pastor had given Janice here cue and she started to read her vows. I was still in a daze but somehow I was paying attention to her words as she read from a small card in her hand.

I Janice, take you as my lawfully wedded husband, I will love you and cherish you all our wedded lives, I will be with you through all the trials and tribulations of our lives in sickness and health, in good times and bad and I will respect and honor you as my husband from this day forward. I will be committed to your well being and happiness and I will always be there for you. This I swear before almighty God.

I was puzzling over her words when the pastor was asking if anyone knew of any reason we should not be wed. Then it hit me, she had never promised to be faithful to me. Most of her words were hokey drivel that were meant to sound good but didn't promise the most important thing of all; her fidelity to me and our marriage. I suddenly felt my hand go up. Whether I did it knowingly or did it by impulse I'll never know but it went up. The pastor looked at me with surprise and I couldn't see Janice's face through the veil but she must have seen my hand go up because I heard her gasp. There was also a lot of murmuring from the church behind us.

"Do you have a question or some other reason to raise your hand son." the pastor asked.

"Yes sir, I need to talk with Janice in private before we continue the ceremony if that's alright."

"Certainly, come with me." he told us as I took Janice's hand and followed him.

The murmurings behind us were swelling into a mild roar as we exited through a side door to the pastors study. Opening the door he motioned us inside and asked:

"Do you want me to assist you?"

"No thanks padre, I just need to talk to Janice alone for a few minutes."

"Take your time. I'll get your family and friends calmed down and we will wait till you're ready before we resume the ceremony."

With that he closed the door and left us alone.

I turned to Janice and reached out and lifted her veil back.

"What's the matter Jim? Why did you stop the wedding?"

Janice, I have a problem and I need some help from you to resolve it. I may never have expressed it to you before because I thought you thought about marriage the same as I did, but there must be something wrong with my thinking. When you spoke your vows you didn't promise to me faithful to me and that is something that our marriage requires before I can say 'I do. Is there some reason you didn't have that promise in your vows?"

"All I want is a marriage like my mom and dad had. The vows we spoke are the same vows as they had so I thought they would work for us too."

What is it about their marriage that you want? I promised to be faithful to you when I said my vows but why can't you do the same? Was your mother always faithful to your dad?"

She looked at me sadly as she responded.

"She had male friends but daddy was happy with her occasional affairs. There's nothing wrong with it as long as you are happy. I promise to always come home to you and give you all the loving you need. "

"Tell me Janice, you father said he was not your biological father. Were you the result of one of her affairs?"

She broke out crying then and I suddenly knew it was over. I could never be her happy cuckolded husband.

"Janice, have you been faithful to me since we became engaged?"

She looked at me with tears running down her face, ruining her mascara and makeup.

"I'm sorry, I didn't think that you would mind."

I was suddenly getting mad. What had started out as a quiet conversation and trying to establish a reason to continue the ceremony was turning into an episode from hell. I couldn't believe what I was hearing and what I was hearing was totally destroying me. The woman who was to be my bride and partner for life was a cuckolding slut.

"Who was it or who were they."

"It was just Jeff. He's your best friend and I thought it would be okay to do it with him."

"Janice, I don't know who you are besides being a total slut. Your father must be some kind of pervert that gets his jollies from his wife's affairs. I'm gone Janice. Find yourself another guy who's into perversion and cuckoldry. That's not for me."

With that I turned and headed for the door. When I came into the pastors study I noted that there was a door directly to the outside next to it. Going straight out the door I proceeded to the front of the church as I removed my tie. Jeff had driven me in his car and I didn't have my own car there so I started walking. I passed the limo waiting for us ans saw the driver give me a funny look and a smile as I walked past. It was a two mile walk to my apartment but suddenly I felt free and my mood lightened. I was about a quarter mile from my apartment when a car roared up beside me and Jeff started to get out. As he put his foot on the ground I gave the open car dorr a kick and it smashed into his leg. He squealed in agony and before he could retrieve his leg I kicked the door again and then bent down and smashed him in the face with my fist.

"You so-of-a-bitch!!" I screamed at him. "Never speak to me again, never come near me or the next time we meet I'll put you in a hospital for a long time."

I continued on to my apartment and before changing my clothes I started bagging up Janice's clothes and belongings and putting them outside in the hall. My cell was ringing and I just turned it off. After changing into jeans and a T-shirt I grabbed a beer and sat back and waited for the shit I knew was heading my way.

EPILOGUE

her parents tried to sue me for sticking them with the cost of the wedding and the reception but mu lawyer argued that their daughter had misrepresented herself to me and I was perfectly within my rights to back out of the wedding. The judge agreed.

I never saw Jeff again. After he recovered from his "accident" he left town.

I see Janice around occasionally but we don't speak or acknowledge one another. I heard she'd married and I wondered about the type of guy that would like to be a cuckolded wimp.

I'm married to a wonderful girl and we have to nice kids of our own of course. Before we married we had a long talk about fidelity and what we should expect fro each other in our married life. So far we're as much in love as the day we married and I trust her totally.

Life can be good.