4 Gone. Conclusion?

I couldn't hear the other voice, but I had assumed it was a fella. She was acting like a little school girl, all giggles and laughter. She had her voice low so I couldn't quite hear what she was saying. Then I heard the words no husband wants to hear. She'll be there, wherever it was, on Friday at nine pm, and she would come dressed to impressed. Her last words were, see you Friday, big boy.

Panic set in, I thought about confronting her, but thought I'd need to be careful, I needed to know who this fucker was. I played it smart, went back, and sat in front of the TV. When she came back in with a cuppa, I casually asked her who had called and she said it was Kelly, telling her she had got them some tickets via work as a freebie for a concert they desperately wanted to go to, and she had booked two hotel rooms for the girls. I tried to wiggle and get her to stop, but she said that would only happen if I gave up the golf weekends away. Of course I wasn't going to forgo them!

I made some excuses and spoke to the guys, we had an emergency meeting down the pub that night. This time, I booked an Uber as soon as I walked out of the front door, rather than try to walk the mile to the pub. It turned out, they had all suffered a similar fate, it seemed that each of the women had a guy on the go. We had no clue how far they'd gone down the slippery path of infidelity, it may now be too late to save our marriages anyway.

We had an extra couple of pints, plus a couple of pickled eggs to ease the depression that had settled in. But we had a plan. We would all follow our wives on Friday, they were all likely going to the same place, so if one lost their wife, there would still be the other three with a tail on them. Then we could confront them, caught in the act!

Back in our homes, we all started to look at ourselves. When I looked in the mirror, I saw a guy with a beer belly, that could pass for being pregnant. I was beginning to see the error of our ways.

As Friday crept closer, the women all seemed super happy and excited, whereas we all felt we had an appointment with the hangman coming. When I came home from work on the fateful Friday, I shuffled as quickly as I could upstairs to see what Sabrina was wearing. When I walked into the bedroom, she was just closing the "special draw", where she kept all her lingerie. Oddly, she was wearing a long trench coat, even though it was June. I asked her why, and she said it was forecast to be colder late at night, and they could end standing around for ages waiting for a taxi to take them back to their hotel, after the concert.

As she was speaking, I looked at her. She was simply gorgeous, hair freshly styled with perfect make-up and...and the bright red glossy lipstick...she said she would only wear it for me and our 'special playtimes'. Heartbroken, I was now determined to put a stop to it, once I found out where these treacherous sluts were going.

Telling me she would see me the next afternoon, she'd try to ring me later that night, but Kelly had already warned her the reception wasn't too good to get a phone signal. She said not to panic, all the girls were in this together. Yeah right, I thought, at the time.

Anyway, Sabrina left and I tailed her car with mine. I don't know if she knew, or suspected, that someone might follow her, but she turned off the main road down side streets a couple of times, without indicating. She even done a couple of switchbacks, going down the same road twice. She must have thought she was good trying to lose me, it's just I was better, and determined to bottom this all out, but it was a close call trying to keep sight of her. Eventually she pulled up at a service station and filled the car up with petrol, then set off again. Whilst she was paying, the news was bad. All the others had lost sight of their wives, it was all now on my shoulders.

She ended up going into a multistorey car park, and went to a far end of the third floor and parked up. I parked at the opposite end as I came in, just to make sure she couldn't see me. It was fairly dark, but then I recognised the other girl's cars! They all got out, and got into Sabrina's car. Oddly, they were all wearing those bloody silly trench coats!

So, I followed them, and they headed out of town into one of the posh villages and along Predator Drive. All of a sudden, she slowed down and pulled up to a gate. I stopped the car quickly a couple of hundred yards back, and turned the lights off, to watch. I got out and watched as Sabrina's car went through the gates, as the other boys pulled up. I'd been talking to them in a group call as I travelled. They pulled up behind me, and we walked as quickly as we could to those gates.

When we got there, Sabrina had parked the car and they were all walking to this impressive large house. There were quite a few cars parked up too, and it sounded like there was some sort of party going on. As the girls started towards the front door, guys started spilling out of the house, beers in hand. God, we could have all done with one at the time to steady our nerves! Then it happened, our four worlds came crashing down around us.

There were about twenty guys that had come out of the house, the girls stood in a line then, all dropped their coats to the ground, which caused a massive cheer. Even from here, we saw they had nothing but shoes and stockings on! We could only see the back of them, but they guys kept cheering as the girls willingly trouped into the house. The guys followed after them, cheering and whooping like it was the FC cup day!

We pushed the buzzer on the intercom and started shouting to be let in. The door on the house opened, and two big muscled men in tuxedos came up the drive to the gate. We asked who they were, apparently, they were Arnold and Claude, it was their private party. We started to shout and scream, and they opened one of the double gates, then both stepped up to the boundary. They said, if we got past them, then we were welcome to join the party. We tried, but it ended up looking like a scene from one of those really old slapstick comedy, black and white silent films, as they threw us around, without so much as putting a hair out of place. We ended up coming back to my house, and started to message the girls, telling them to get their arses to my place, pronto.

Just after midnight, they all turned up, with their trench coats fastened tight, hiding their nakedness. They looked happy and pleased with themselves. We had agreed to lay into them, but Grouch burst into tears, begging Kris that he would change and start tomorrow. Next thing, we were all blubbing, we didn't want to lose them, and would forgive them, if they would dump their boyfriends.

The girls looked at each other, then asked the big question, why did we think they had boyfriends? For the next ten minutes we jabbered away, from overhearing the phone calls, following them, then trying to gate crash the party. They all denied being at a party, so I said prove it. Sabrina hustled us through into the living room and put a USB stick into the TV. It was security footage from earlier in the evening, when she walked into the petrol station. It showed her paying for the petrol then a woman that was dressed, and looked, very like, Sabrina comes into shot. Sabrina gave her the car keys, and she walked out. The external camera shows her getting into Sabrina's car and driving off, swifty followed by my car in hot pursuit. It then shows a taxi turn up, and take Sabrina away.

I'll admit, we were all confused. I told her, I nearly lost her trying to follow her when she left the house, where she kept taking turns quite suddenly, even doubling back, trying to shake me off. She then told us, she had driven the car as she normally does, as she didn't want to lose me and took her normal route to the multi-storey car park! But it didn't explain what had happened. Then the truth came out. The first thing they all did, was take the coats off. They were all modestly dressed!

They told us they were at the end of their tether. Apparently, Zep was really struggling in the bedroom department for a few months, because of being overweight. Kelly stupidly mentioned it when she loosened up a little at a work's drink and her boss, Charlie, laid on the charm, big style. He was a keen cyclist and was therefore really fit, attractive and had the gift of the gab. Kelly broke down at the gym one day with the other girls telling her how hard it feels to want to be loved by your husband, who can't do that at the moment, and try to say no to an attractive and attentive man chasing you hard and relentlessly.

Somehow, Charlie ended up being knocked off his bike several weeks back by a hit and run at slow speed, breaking a leg, and was off work. I looked at Sabrina, frowning. I then understood where the scrape on the front wing of the car came from!

They had decided to act, if we carried on, one of them would eventually crack and break their marriage vows with a man somewhere down the line, if we decided to remain beery slobs. So, they kept trying different tactics to get us to react, and do something positive. In the end, they knew there was only one thing left. Become four unfaithful wives. But that was the brilliance of their game plan. They done some research and found Adultwork.com, a website where, you could hire a hooker. They kept looking until they found four women that could pass as body doubles from a small distance in poor light, and they took their places in a switcheroo.

Arnold and Claude did own the big house, in fact they owned the gym that we were members off. They were actually a gay couple, but were there when Kelly broke down. They were the ones that suggested the plan of letting us think they were unfaithful. The girls weren't happy about stripping off in front of the 'guest' at the party, who were actually a large chunk of the young lads from the gym. Hence using the stand-ins from Adultwork.com.

I said aren't hookers expensive, I had no idea having never used one but I doubt it was a fiver a hole. It was a thousand pounds for the four of them, but the girls got a message saying they would get fifty per cent back as they had the added bonus of making some serious extra cash at the party.

I tell you mate, we all heaved a sigh of relief. I looked at my watch, thinking we may make it for a late one somewhere to celebrate, but the girls made it clear. The next time, it would be them going to a party, not four hookers.

So there you go, I'm a regular down the gym now, and I do feel better for it, but I didn't to start with. I've got my waist back to where it was ten years ago, and I've got a lot more energy. Oh hang on, it's the missus on the phone.

"Yep, sorry, just seen a mate on my run, just having a quick five minute breather...really?...ok....I'll be there in ten!"

Sorry mate, I need to run! Apparently, the girls have found a new fitness fad called Sexercise. Amazon has just delivered our copy and the missus wants to get stuck into it, as soon as I get home. Remember what I said, learn from our mistake!

Real world version.

I knew I was putting on the pounds, my missus Sabrina made a comment about getting out of breath during a round of sex, I was so out of breath I had to stop, I actually felt embarrassed. She suggested that I go the gym, she let on that my three best mate's wives were feeling the same about them. I cocked an eye at her.

"If you think we girls don't talk about stuff like that, then you've got that quite wrong mister. Don't forget, we overheard you lot discussing which one of us you'd thought made the most noise during an orgasm. That wasn't your finest hour, Chic."

And that's my name, 'Chic'. It's not my real name, it doesn't really matter as nobody calls me by that anyway. And the friends my wife Sabriana mentioned? They all ended up with nicknames the same as me, it was something that came about when we played Sunday league football, where we all met in our late teens, and have remained friends, ever since. They ended up with the name 'Zep', 'Harp' and 'Grouch', all because of a zippo lighter, falling without provocation in the penalty area and harping on about it if it didn't create a penalty, getting grouchy because of all the comments due to the exceedingly long legs of a girlfriend, or mine, because I liked to dress smart, so 'Chic' stuck.

During those football years we met the four women that we would marry, and meant the world to all of us. Everyone said we were punching well above our weight. Within three years of meeting, I married Sabrina, Zep married Kelly, Harp married Jill and Grouch married Kris. They were beautiful then but over the years, a few added pounds in the right places, created women who were sexy and admired, and it always felt special for us to have them on our arm if we went out for an evening.

As time moved on from those early years, us boys became softer. Instead of jobs that we physical, calorie burners, we migrated to offices and middle management. And with that, the weight started to creep up for each of us. The other thing was we started to do was drink more, mostly where we had more time to socialise. Over the last year alone, my waist crept up two inches.

We have always spent Christmas eve together since we became a group. We would take turns hosting making a meal, plenty of drink and some Christmas presents. This last gathering, the girls made us open their gifts to us simultaneously, and we were somewhat embarrassed that we each received a six-month membership voucher for the local gym. We tried to make a joke about it, but when I looked at Sabrina, I knew that this was no joke, she wanted me to get serious about getting back into shape. The fact they had all brought us the same, it told us this was an orchestrated action that they felt they needed to take.

I enjoy Christmas, it's a time to eat, drink and be merry. What they forgot to add was that, as you got older the saying should be eat, drink, be merry and put a load of weight on. It felt like as every Christmas passed, some of the weight gained never shifted, and it just kept getting added too, each Christmas after that.

After Christmas we finally went to the gym, with best intentions, but we failed miserably. It had a bar, so we instantly migrated there and started to drink instead of exercise, before we went home. Then the cracks in our relationships started to appear. Sabrina liked to be taken doggy style when we had sex. I found I couldn't keep going long enough to bring her to orgasm. I lay on the bed and she mounted me, cowgirl style. After no more than a couple of minutes, she stopped. She said watching my stomach now start to ripple below her was a major turn-off.

The next time I was out with the boys for a drink down the pub, I told them I needed to get serious about losing weight. I didn't tell them exactly what had happened, but their slow nods and furrowed brows told me that something similar was happening in each of our relationships. I told them I was going to the gym the next day, feel free to join me.

The next day, during my lunch break, I went to the gym, got changed and stood outside the door to the main gym. I looked thought the window and saw a group of testosterone fuelled young men talking to a couple of really fit bodied women using some of the fitness apparatus. When they started shifting around, I saw that one was Jill and the other was Sabrina, my wife. They were smiling and seemed happy as the chatted to the young lads, who were clearly doing their best to flirt with them. The worse think was, they seemed to be enjoying all the attention. I felt sick in the pit of my stomach, I couldn't go in their and embarrass myself in front of these hard bodied guys. Feeling depressed, I went back to the dressing room, got changed, left and went home. I clearly had a problem; it was trying to understand how to tackle it.

The big shock came as we headed into May, the day of the FA cup final. This was the highlight of us boys' year, we turned it into a party of booze and food, along with the football. Even better, our club Arsenal were playing our arch-rivals Tottenham, in this big London derby.

At seven am that morning, our world went to shit. Sabrina's phone went when we were in bed, she got up and walked downstairs just after she answered it. Fifteen minutes later, she told me to get up, get dressed and go to Graham, not Zep's house.

"Why did you call him Graham, and not Zep, Sabrina?"

"Because it's always been Zep and Kelly, since I've known them. Kelly has left Graham this morning, I'm sorry, I don't think I'll be able to call him Zep anymore unless we help sort this shit out. You need to drive to his house, he is distraught and needs your support, the others are on their way too. I'm going to see Kelly with the girls to see if this can be fixed."

I went to his house and he wasn't just distraught, he was a shattered and broken man and we cried together. Turns out his sister had seen Kelly the previous lunchtime in the next town over, having dinner and kissing another man, and told him what she'd seen. The other man turned out to be her boss, Charlie. He confronted her that night which ended in an almighty row then she stormed off. She had arrived just before six this morning, with Charlie, to collect some clothes and personal belongings. She wasn't staying with him, but he was simply helping her.

When I finally arrived home late in the afternoon, I felt shattered and empty. If Kelly had given up on Zep, how long before Sabrina gave up on me? And what about Harp and Grouch? I began to feel like we were all playing Russia Roulette with our marriages. The first to go out was Zep and Kelly, which couple would be next?

A very subdued Sabrina came home later that day. The verdict? Their marriage was in tatters, she had already broken her vows of marriage a few weeks back. I was horrified, a few years back, our neighbour cheated on his wife and their relationship turned into a nuclear meltdown. It became a topic over a few weeks with our group of eight. Over dinner one night, the consensus of us all was that we had no time for cheaters, so what had gone so badly wrong for Zep and Kelly?

When we went to bed, we both opened up and shared what we learnt. We agreed that, whatever we discussed, it never left our bedroom. It turned out, Zep hadn't given me the full picture. His weight and lack of exercise had been taking toll on him and he couldn't 'get it up', even with the aid of Viagra, for several months. Kelly had begged him to discuss it with one of us boys if he couldn't discuss it with his doctor. But he didn't, he bottled it up, and done nothing to tackle it. Kelly's boss Graham had picked up on the problems at home and played the predator, sweet talking and charming Kelly until the inevitable happened.

I was horrified, could I be next?

"Sabrina, what about us? You've made comments to me before. Surely, you wouldn't consider going elsewhere?"

She sat looking at me, thinking in silence, for maybe thirty seconds. It didn't matter what words she used after those thirty seconds, she could have told me she was actually an alien, because I never heard the words that came out of her mouth. Those thirty seconds of silence was enough to tell me she was thinking of finding a way to say; 'Not yet, but if something doesn't change, I'll consider it...'

She asked if I understood why they gave us the gym membership, Kelly was struggling even then with Zep's problem, the girls agreed to themselves we had started to let ourselves go without any effort. They thought by tackling us as a group, the rot would stop.