A Marriage in Trouble Ch. 03

(Writers note: This is the third and final chapter in this series. Unlike many BTB readers I do accept some couples can and do stay together after couples have had marital problems. I am putting it in the Romance category. Sorry no burning here. Yes I know its not my style, maybe its the time of year, I'm feeling generous.

Can a one time mistake be forgiven? The wife in this story has never cheated before in all the years of their marriage, she did have many opportunities to do so, she is a beautiful woman and gets compliments every day, and she gets hit on most days however, she did not have any sexual or emotional relationship with anyone outside of her marriage until meeting 'Karl'.

I know this because I am the writer of this story. I created these characters. The husband is very flawed and a product of a messed up family life. And probably not the most easiest person to live with. But somehow their marriage worked.

The wife is also flawed, as has been proved. So two flawed characters in a story, in a marriage. Okay, enough, time for the third chapter. Just so you know there is mostly dialogue and not much sex. If you are after a BTB story stop reading now, you won't find it here.)

(The scene: A restaurant in the middle of a town. A place the couple know well, the staff know them by name, they also know Luisa has had at least one date with another man in this restaurant.

Many of the staff wanted to contact Gary and tell him about his wife's dates, but the manager, David, told them it was nothing to do with them he does not get involved in customers personal life.

So on the wife's first date, it could have been stopped if one of the staff had told Gary but no one did, at least no one on the restaurant staff.)

I agreed to see Luisa after her email to me, she seemed sincere in her apology, and some of her reasoning is well founded. I am a very calm and collected person, I am very understated, some might and in fact have told me I am a bit boring. I never lose my temper, it is tightly controlled.

I hardly ever show my emotions to anyone the exception is Luisa, she has seen all my emotions good and bad.

Only Luisa has ever broken through the ice around my heart. Many women have tried to break the ice around me when I was young, and even now certain women at work try it on.

But with patience and love Luisa broke through my emotional barrier, that is what makes this so hard, she knew what would happen if she did anything with anyone else.

I am probably the most understated person you are likely to meet. I never boast about anything, I accept things with a smile or a frown, sometimes both. I know it annoys people in general, it annoys me when they keep telling me to "Lighten" up.

However, I am a successful General Manager of a warehouse, I am respected by the staff under me and the people higher up. I am on a good salary and my prospects are good, despite my emotional failings I am good at what I do, so my staff tell me, and once people get past my lack of emotions, apparently I'm a likeable person, again not my words.

I am serious and unemotional because my parents were serious, and unemotional my early years were difficult and my family life was not happy, I don't laugh out loud very often, but I have been told my deadpan way of telling a joke is highly amusing. I can and do have fun and I can be the life and soul of a party, or I can sit in a corner quietly drinking a beer or coffee, depending on how I feel.

So this is me, my wife knew my character before we got married, and she has done very well to hide her annoyance with my character, if that is what drove her to Karl.

I will point out that Luisa in all this time of us being girlfriend/boyfriend then engagement and then husband and wife to my knowledge she has never given me any clue about wanting to go outside of our marriage so it a surprise and shock to know she felt strong enough to test me devotion to her.

We are sitting in a booth with my wife opposite me. We have had a meal and coffee and now we are sitting in companionable silence.

I'm waiting for my wife to start talking, do far we haven't really said anything apart from how we are how the children are and what we wanted to eat.

She looks tired as if the last six months have indeed been hard on her, there are a few more wrinkles and her hair appears to have a few grey hairs, she has lost weight as well, not unhealthily, but I prefer her with more body but she is still a beautiful woman.

She is appraising me too, I haven't really changed, maybe less weight maybe more wrinkles, but basically the same me. No hair, a small goatee, broad shouldered, slim body, dressed as always in black jeans and black jumper and black t-shirt underneath.

My wife is wearing her customary blue jeans, boots and a blue t-shirt and a short leather jacket.

She is not here to seduce me, not dressed like that although the jeans do fit her perfectly and her t-shirt shows off her ample chest.

"Gary, can I start by saying I'm so sorry I hurt you, I know you like no one else ever will. I can see your outward shield is in place. I know you are trying to hide your hurt and hide your emotions, and it makes me feel so sad and its the fact I did this to you. I have caused this pain, and you are trying to hide it from me, the one person in the world who knows you to be a warm, caring and loving man. This is killing me Gary, please talk to me."

I took a breath then another one.

"Luisa, you say you are sorry for causing my pain. Tell me how exactly you can take away my pain. Its not just the betrayal aspect of what you did its the disrespect you have shown me, if as you claim to know me and love me then tell me how you can ease my pain."

Luisa was silent for a moment. Then showed me an email. In the contacts part of the email it looked like a list of all our families and friends and work colleagues. Basically the short letter said,

"I have fucked up my life and my marriage. I went on three dates with a man from work called Karl. It was three dates too many. I should never have gone out with him. Whatever the arsehole tells you, we did not have sex. However, for a short time I forget about my husband. If my husband gives me the chance I will prove to him and to you all I can be trusted again."

I looked at my wife, "You are going to out your affair to everyone we know? Even your boss? And your extended family and friends? Are you sure about this?"

"Yes Gary, I want everyone we know to know I fucked up. If you choose to divorce me I want people to have no misunderstandings. You did nothing wrong, this is all on me."

"Okay, Luisa if you are happy for everyone to know about your mistake then press send."

She did just that, some people obviously already knew what was going on but now everyone would know. This was a plus for Luisa. Then she bent down and took an envelope out of her hand bag.

"Gary, I know you considered this, this is a DNA report on both our children. They prove you are 100% their father. I know you don't trust me but until I met Karl I have never even considered playing around on you. With that in mind here is a series of polygraph tests. You know they are not 100% accurate, but they are good enough to prove I'm not lying about being with anyone else except you sexually."

I studied the tests, there were ten of them, everyone of them showed the same result, Luisa was not lying about her involvement with other men.

And the question about did she have sex with Karl or anyone else was asked several times in different ways each one said she did not have sex with anyone except me throughout our marriage.

Finally she passed me a doctors certificate stating she did not have any STDs. She looked at me expectantly. When I still acted cool and calm and faked being indifferent she had one last card to play.

"Gary, this is my last attempt to appease you. I think I have proved that physically I have not had sex with anyone, a kiss maybe, a grope probably while drunk or in close quarters at any of the concerts we have been to, maybe a touch on dancefloor or nightclub but never encouraged or accepted. But, Gary, my love, no one has touched my skin except you."

She took a breath, "You know a long time ago we used to run and go to the gym and I used to go to that boxercise classes, well the arsehole has chosen to keep pursuing me, he has not taken no for an answer, I have contacted the police but they said until he actually breaks the law they can't stop him from following me around. Finally he cornered me in a super market carpark while I was buying some groceries for my mother."

She took a breath and then carried on, "He started going on about how we were separated now and how I could now be with him. He gave me all the bullshit about how much he loved me and cared for my wellbeing more than you did, he then tried to kiss me, and instinct finally took over and used some of my old training it kicked in."

She took out a photo from her handbag, it was of Karl, his face was bruised and he had the beginnings of a big black eye, his lip was also swollen. I could only imagine the rest of him.

"So, you finally did something right, something you should have done six months ago."

Luisa looked down at her hands. A tear ran down her cheek.

"Gary, I'm so sorry, I thought showing this photo and telling you about him about everything else I did would help you forgive me and show you I am still in love with you and I will do anything to be with you."

While were talking both our phones were going crazy as friends and family text us and called us trying to find out what had happened. I glanced through the messages and it was probably a 60/40 split in my favour.

Most of them wanted me to dump the cheating bitch, but some obviously didn't want to see us split up and blamed me for being a boring old cold hearted sod. Maybe they were right, I could be considered boring by many.

I was just about to make my choice when a noise at the front of the restaurant caught my attention. We both turned and a limping, battered bruised Karl was coming towards us he was carrying a gun and it was aimed at me.

"Luisa you bitch, he doesn't deserve you, he is just a boring old sod, I can give you so much more than him."

He was really a pathetic sight he literally was black and blue, Luisa had done a number on him. But what was more worrying was his hand was shaking so badly he could shoot anyone in the restaurant by accident.

Luisa stood up and started towards Karl, he raised the gun and aimed it at her.

"Karl, if you are going to shoot me then do it, I deserve to take any punishment for disrespecting my husband."

"Luisa, he is not good enough for you, I know you love me, I know it's hard leaving a husband you have been married to for so long but I am your future now, come with me now and we can make a new life together."

Okay, that was enough shit from the arsehole, I stood up and that was probably a mistake he instantly pointed the gun at me and fired, in that instant Luisa dived in front of me and a bullet hit her left shoulder.

She landed on top of me screaming in pain, the restaurant was in uproar customers ran every which way and three waiters grabbed Karl and shoved him to the floor and they disarmed him.

I could hear someone calling out about calling the police. Luisa had passed out and was a dead weight on me. Two more waiters came over and helped her off of me. The bullet had passed through her shoulder and ended up in the back of the booth seat.

I'm not entirely sure what happened next, my emotions were literally all over the place. I did notice one of the waitresses came over and placed a tea towel over the wound and pressed it against it to help stop the bleeding. Time moved slowly for me and everything was a blur as the police and paramedics came over and took charge.

I went with Luisa in the ambulance and to the hospital. She was treated and stitched up, the bullet hole would leave a scar, but I didn't care about that, my wife had just taken a bullet for me.

There was no way I was leaving this woman, our children soon arrived as did others of our family and friends. For the next couple of hours I explained to the police what happened and who Karl was and how and why he was there.

The nurses and Doctors assured me Luisa would be okay but would need intensive care and physiotherapy. I said I would take care of things.

Luisa was in and out of sleep caused by shock and pain, but when she was awake she didn't let go of my hand, it was obvious she didn't want me to go anywhere. In her lucid moments I told her I wasn't going anywhere.

(Epilogue: Six months on.)

Luisa and myself are still together, we are a couple, we do everything together. I am more expressive with my emotions, I tell Luisa when I'm happy or angry or annoyed.

With the help of a personal trainer and physiotherapist and a lot of help from me she now has the use of her arm again, it does ache and she does need my help in doing certain things. Yes we are have a sex life, I tend to do most of the work, but we are both being careful.

The trainer did say careful love making can help with muscle strength and stamina and of course burning off calories.

We did go to a marriage counsellor and I explained why I am such a cold fish, and Luisa confessed the whole idea of dating Karl was the difference in personality and trying to get some kind of reaction from me, yes after the dates, with no sex, she was always going to confess to me and see what my reaction would be.

Of course it didn't turn out exactly how she wanted. We spent a lot of time just talking and reconnecting, both physically and mentally. Our friends and family rallied around and helped out when they could.

As for Karl? He was charged with attempted murder, as he brought a gun to the restaurant the police deemed it probably cause. He got locked up in prison, I don't really care for how long, but if he gets out I will go looking for him, I think Luisa will join me.

Okay, to sum up. Our marriage is stronger than ever, Luisa never goes out with anyone we don't know, generally speaking if we go anywhere we are a couple. Occasionally she has to go on business trips.

But she has told her boss any trips more than two days I go with her or she never stays overnight. She never meets customers or clients alone and she always keeps her personal phone turned on and fully charged. We facetime each other if Luisa has to stay late at work for any reason.

So yes reconciling can happen. Trust can be earned again, but it takes a long time. And stoic boring men like me can learn to be less boring and be less emotionally withdrawn, but again it has taken a long time.

☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆

(Writers note: Okay, thank you for reading the story. Yes it is totally unbelievable and yes not everyone would accept the wife back, but if someone took a bullet for you wouldn't you be a tad grateful? Enough to perhaps stay married to that person.)