A Short Fall, A Shorter Rope

"I trust the food was to your liking," he said, a gleam in his eye.

"Yes, the food was excellent," I replied.

"Then, how may I be of service?" he asked, an almost dangerous but still-friendly tone to his voice.

"Actually, I think I may be of service," I said.

"Oh, how so?" asked the man, his eyes narrowing, as his friendly demeanor slipped.

"If I could speak with 'Crisp' or one of his associates, I can clear this right up," I said. "Don't worry, this is good news and I come bearing a peace offering."

"Come with me...now," he said, his tone allowing for no discussion.

"So far, so good," I thought to myself, as I followed him into the back and through the kitchen to arrive in the storage room.

"Alright, what's this peace offering?" he asked.

I slowly unzipped the backpack and gave him a peek inside.

"It's twenty grand and it's your money," I said. "It was stolen from you and I have video evidence showing who stole it."

I really hoped that would buy me some goodwill. I wanted as little involvement with the mob as possible. As the man looked from me to the bag, he finally nodded.

"Alright, wait here," he said, turning and walking further back into the storage room.

I did exactly as he said, not moving an inch from where he told me to wait. I wasn't about to give these guys a reason to kill me. Okay, maybe I've seen too many movies. Luckily, it wasn't five minutes later before he returned with three other guys. Two were younger. One was dressed as a pizza delivery driver, and the other as a member of the wait-staff. The third and clearly most senior wore a sweater and slacks, giving his best impression of a kindly grandpa. This was totally throwing off my Italian mobster stereotype but that was neither here nor there.

"So, Mark tells me you have something that belongs to me?" asked the man, sounding pleasant and scary at the same time.

"Uh, yes sir," I stammered, the guy's persona making me nervous.

"Look at this guy," said the older man, pointing towards me. "All nervous, like we're going to fit him for cement shoes and have him sleeping with the fishes."

With that, all four of them broke out laughing. When the man finally recovered, he wiped a tear from his eye and looked at me again. "Well, what've you got to show me?"

I handed him the thumb drive with the video on it and the backpack. Handing the backpack to the pizza delivery-looking guy, he grunted at the other guy who produced a laptop from somewhere. It only took him a minute to insert the thumb drive and play the video. As he watched, I could see his face get angrier and angrier and he growled something in another language and looked at me hard and cold.

"So, what is it you want?" he asked, projecting his anger onto me, the messenger.

"Truthfully, nothing you weren't going to do anyway, I imagine," I replied. "That woman in the video is my traitorous, adulteress wife. I was collecting evidence for my divorce when I stumbled across this and my wife's secret account with a little over sixty-thousand dollars in it."

"Son of a bitch!" yelled the man, slamming his hand down on one of the stockroom shelves. "Slick was the one that stole from me both times! Ahh, poor Eric and Pablo. Call Nero, have them released immediately. That bastard will pay."

"So, why didn't you bring the whole sixty?" asked the man, narrowing his eyes at me.

"I only knew about the twenty K from the video," I replied. "Look, I haven't spent it. I can get the rest today if you want. Send one of your guys with, if you don't trust me."

The man breathed deeply, letting out a long sigh. "No, in fact, keep it. Consider it a finder's fee. Because of you, I just regained two good men and rooted out a thieving traitor. Anything else?"

"What about the woman?" I asked, not sure what answer I was hoping for.

"Tell you what," said the man. "I don't kill women, but I'm not above giving them a good scare. I think you'll come out just fine in the divorce. In my experience, after we're through with her, she'll be happy to walk away with nothing."

"That works for me," I said, smiling for the first time since arriving in the storeroom.

Slapping me on the shoulder, he and his two buddies turned and headed farther into the storeroom, "Mark, show our guest out please."

With that, Mark led me out and shook my hand, "Sorry about your wife. That's some bad business there."

I nodded thanks and headed out the door and back to the Camaro. I was halfway home by the time I started breathing normally again. Then the feeling of elation really hit me. By the time I rolled into the driveway, I was smiling from ear to ear. Oddly, Cindy and Stella were there waiting for me. They looked more than a little concerned.

"What's up?" I asked, cocking my head.

"We called your PI and got him to spill the beans," started Cindy.

"Yeah, it wasn't hard to put together what you had planned," added Stella.

"Don't you think we had the right to know you were going to risk your life?" finished Cindy.

"What do you mean?" I asked. "I didn't want you involved, just in case."

"Well, dumbass," said Stella. "We already are involved. With you."

"Do you think we're just playing around or something?" asked Cindy. "I know you were hurt badly, but it's okay to be in a relationship with a woman...or women. We're not all bad. Most of us are decent people."

"Oh God," I said, unconsciously covering my mouth with my hand as realization snuck in. "I'm so sorry. I just thought you were boosting my ego. I'm such an idiot."

"On that, we can agree," said Stella. "But it's okay, we forgive you. That's what good girlfriends do when their guy screws up a little."

"But now you're going to have to make it up to us," said Cindy with a twinkle in her eye.

Somehow, I didn't think I'd have much of a problem with that, but her words reminded me of what I had just done.

"Well, I can afford to buy you both something nice now, how does that sound?" I smiled mischievously.

"That sounds great, but that's not what I meant," replied Cindy.

"Wait, what do you mean by that?" asked Stella.

"It means that not only did I get loverboy out of our lives, but I have it on good authority that my wife will agree to a divorce in which she gets nothing," I triumphantly said. "So, why don't we celebrate?"

That night, I celebrated with Cindy. Then I celebrated with Stella. After a breather, I celebrated with both of them. Finally, I watched them celebrate with each other. By the following morning, we had a quick celebration before starting the first day of the rest of our lives.

As I headed out the door to meet with Jackie, my divorce attorney, I couldn't help but be thankful that Stella and Cindy had come into my life and wanted to be a bigger part of it than I realized up to that point. I wondered at just how lucky I was, both the good and the bad. I felt like I had been struck by lightning, somehow survived, and then won the lottery. To say that my life was a rollercoaster would be an understatement.

It wasn't long before loverboy "mysteriously" disappeared. As for my ex, Lexie tried to contact me a few times but eventually left with her son after the divorce. Through Jackie, I gave her twenty grand to get her started and let her keep the Camaro. I was more of a Challenger guy anyhow and I wanted her son to have a chance, even though he wasn't mine. She was actually thankful and even sent an apology for her part in everything. I wrote her back one time, accepting her apology and wishing her well in her life. Two months later, she showed up at my door while Stella and Cindy were out.

"Honey, uh, sorry...Mark, just give me three minutes, please," she said, the words spilling out before I had a chance to slam the door in her face.

I gave her a look to continue, but I wasn't amused. She took that as a positive sign and started to ramble out some sort of apology.

"Okay, so, I've been seeing a therapist and I've come to understand myself better," she began. "I know I hurt you badly and you didn't deserve any of it. I won't make any excuses. It was all a game at first. The more we upped the ante, the more exciting it became. I was intoxicated by the humiliation and the sex. I was like a drug addict. Now that I've finally started to get clean, I realize just how awful I've been. I took your friendship and love for granted. I am so sorry for all of it but please believe me when I tell you that deep down, I did value your friendship and I do still love you. Maybe not now, but maybe in the future...well, maybe you'd let me try and make it all up to you by being the best wife and lover you could ever want. Do you think, maybe...there's still a chance for us?"

As I stood there dumbfounded, Stella and Cindy pulled into the driveway beside Lexie's car. They wasted no time in walking up to me, each of them kissing me on the cheek as they swept past and into the house. Cindy, always the spicy one, turned back to me.

"Hey, hon, as soon as you're done there, we need to show you the last house we looked at," she said, loud enough for her intended target, my ex, to hear. "The bedroom is to die for, easily big enough for the three of us."

Looking back, Lexie was already halfway back to her car, sobbing uncontrollably. She pulled out of my driveway, gave me one last forlorn look, and sped off down the street.

A month later, we had sold the house and bought a bigger home. Stella and Cindy were right, the master bedroom was big enough for three...with room for more. Stella and Cindy moved in with me the day we closed and we quickly fell into a comfortable routine that worked for all of us. It wasn't always smooth or easy, but open and honest communication, respect, and a lot of introspection made it work fairly well. After Lexie, the love these two women gave me was like a cool balm on a slowly-healing burn. They had a larger hand in saving me than anything...well, other than that rope.

Looking back over the last few years, I can't help but laugh at just how much that rope had changed my legacy. I went from a childless cuckold to the father of three sons and a daughter by two loving women. Grayson was born just a year after I got together with Stella and Cindy. From the moment Stella announced she was pregnant, Cindy did her utmost to play catch-up and she became pregnant with Harrison a month later. It only took a year for Cindy to get pregnant again, with Becca, followed soon after by Stella, with our son, Jacoby. Even with four kids, we still find plenty of time to play.

These days, Lexie manages to do okay for herself. After I divorced her, she picked herself back up and got a legitimate job with the human resources department at a major software company. I guess without the asshole's influence, Lexie wasn't the harpy I thought she was. In fact, I keep tabs on her to make sure Thomas will be okay. He didn't deserve how things turned out, and I made it my mission to be his guardian angel. I give them money and other things when they need them and have developed an almost-friendship with Lexie again. She tried to get back with me, but after everything, the trust just wasn't there anymore. Plus, I had Stella and Cindy. Lexie smiles and says she understands, but I can see the haunted look in her eyes every time our old relationship comes up. I can tell she still can't forgive herself for what she and her loverboy did to me.

Oh, and speaking of Mr. Loverboy, about seven months after he disappeared, he turned up again. A freak accident had a Jeep Renegade go over the side of a bridge and end up in the river. Some divers searching for the missing jeep came across his body. According to them, he looked like he was just standing there, thirty feet down and moving with the current. Well, everything was moving except his feet. They were encased in a big block of cement. The autopsy confirmed that he was alive when they threw him in. Turns out maybe I hadn't watched too many movies after all, and those guys were actually the smiling, scary sharks they'd seemed like. It couldn't have happened to a nicer fellow, but I do carry a small amount of guilt for how I handled things with him. Nothing I'm not happy to live with.

While we were getting our family started, we didn't forget about earning a living. Only, we decided to try something a little different. My experiences with Lexie, her dickhead lover, and the divorce were the inspiration. I became CEO, and co-owners with Cindy and Stella, of a non-profit organization fighting to level the playing field for those that were wronged by a lopsided justice system or the betrayal of a loved one. We give ourselves a modest salary to live on, but it's more about helping those in need. Our goodwill has been returned tenfold. We've made friends with over half of the city after only a couple of years, and the business is quite successful. The generosity and empathy of numerous anonymous donors attest to our success rate and allows us to help even more people.

So, now we try to do things the right way, helping whoever we can help along the way. I figure someone somewhere, maybe higher up, had given me a break and I wanted to pay it forward. God knows the world needs more good people fighting for what's right. So, that's what we do and I couldn't be prouder...or happier. Stella, Cindy, and the kids see to that.

I guess life's funny that way. No matter how bad things may seem, there's always something just over the horizon that could completely flip the script and have you living the good life before you know it. Still, I consider myself lucky, maybe blessed. Most people's ropes don't break. I'll never take my life for granted again.