A Slight Miscalculation

Another big thank-you to blackrandl1958 for her editing, and a thanks to the crew at Specialized Iterations for beta reading and suggestions to make this a better story.

Travis Wesley was having the mother of all bad days. After all, it's not every day your beautiful wife of 23 years tells you she's going to date other men... starting that night.

Travis just sat there at the kitchen table, his hand wrapped around his glass of Monkey Shoulder scotch. He hadn't taken a sip of the amber liquid in 10 minutes, just sat there staring straight ahead, not seeing, not hearing, but definitely feeling... sick as a dog.

Travis knew there wasn't enough Alka-Seltzer in the world to make his stomach stop hurting. He had heard stories of other people's wives telling them they were going to date other men, but he always thought that was nothing but urban legend. How could any woman assume her loving husband would let her date another man... other men? He knew what the word "cuckold" meant, but he just couldn't believe any woman would be that callous to her own husband... that blatantly selfish in her own desires.

Until 45 minutes ago.

Of course it was on a Monday. Still, it seemed to be a good day at the defense contracting firm where Travis worked, and he even walked out the door just a few minutes after 5 PM whistling a happy tune. He was still feeling pretty chipper when he walked into the house... and found his wife sitting at the kitchen table sipping on a glass of red wine, with a glass and a bottle of his favorite blended scotch sitting at his usual spot. He put down his briefcase and poured himself three fingers of liquid before taking a seat.

"What's the mystery here, Lauren?" Travis asked, seeing a crooked half-smile on his wife's face.

His wife looked him directly in the eyes and smirked. It was not a good look that he read in her eyes. He shifted nervously in his chair.

"Do you think I've been a good wife and mother all these years, Trav?" she asked dead-calm.

Travis wrinkled his brow. His wife knew he was a quiet, thoughtful man, and she could practically see the wheels in his head turning before he answered.

"Yeah, I do. So-o-o-o?"

"Do you think I should get a reward of sorts?" she asked in that same blank tone.

More seconds ticked off as Travis again thought carefully.

"A reward for doing what a good wife and mother should do? Do I get a reward for doing what a good husband and father should do? What the fuck are you asking me, Lauren?" Travis queried in an annoyed tone.

"Travis, I want to go out on a date tonight with another man," she said as calm as a lake on a picture-perfect morning.

Travis was glad he was sitting. He felt bile rising in his body. His mind felt like a newly-wiped whiteboard—completely blank.

"A date?" he barely croaked out. "With another man?"

Lauren looked at her husband like he was a slow child. She nodded slowly.

"Yes, with another man, Trav. I haven't been on a date with another man since you and I became exclusive 24 years ago. I've been a good wife to you, a good mother to the kids and I deserve a night out... with another man; a chance to sample someone new. Not someone to love, just someone for... pleasure. Just sex," she said.

"I'm 47, and I'm not going to be beautiful forever. I want to experience more... men, while I'm still a desirable woman and can get them by snapping my fingers."

Travis' lower jaw dropped slowly. He knew he heard his wife correctly... but surely she couldn't be serious, could she?

He never even had to ask the question. Lauren was nodding her head at him like she was reading his mind.

"Fuck," he muttered as she rose from the table and headed up the stairs to the master bedroom to get changed.

When Lauren came downstairs, she looked spectacular in a little black dress that was practically molded to her lux 5-5 body. It was cut down to the middle of her braless C-cup boobs in front and barely made it down to mid-thigh in length. Her makeup was light—what beautiful woman needs a lot—and her long blonde hair was done up in a high ponytail.

It was a jaw-dropping moment. Lauren could see that she totally owned her husband at that instant. Then...

"I won't allow this, Lauren," Travis said from the table. "I don't know what you think you're doing, but you're not going to do it and remain my wife."

Lauren's beaming smile morphed into an ugly sneer.

"You're not going to ruin this night for me, Trav. You can talk tough, but you know you won't divorce me over this. Where are you going to find a woman like me if you let me walk away? You won't, and you know it. And the kids are going to be pissed at you for breaking up our family.

"Go with it, Travis. Let me have some fun for a few years, then we will go back to just you and me and grow old together. You know you love me.

"You don't want to end up alone for the rest of your life while I have my choice of men."

A car horn sounded. Lauren grabbed a small bag and walked over to Travis in an attempt to give him a small kiss good-bye. Her husband started as if he had gotten a small shock, and leaned away. Lauren looked surprised and hurt for a fleeting second, then her expression changed to anger.

"I'll be home when I'm home," she sniped at him as she left.

He watched in dismay as she walked out the front door. Was his 23-year marriage over just like that? Sure looked like it, he thought. Lauren didn't even give him a look back as she walked out the door.

It's a sad but true fact that good-looking people have a leg up in life over their more ordinary-looking counterparts, scientists have determined. They make friends easier; people give them more consideration, teachers are more pre-disposed to giving them better grades. That played out correctly for Lauren, and it just got worse when she hit 13 and her chest fully developed. She quickly learned that if she batted her eyes and smiled, she could have almost any boy she wanted. For those boys who played hard to get, she just thrust out her chest a bit, and the deal got closed.

Like virtually every boy she came into contact with, Travis was under Lauren's spell almost from the first time he met her. His family had moved into town in the summer right before he entered eighth grade. He met Lauren on the first day of school, and he was quickly smitten.

Travis was a pretty good athlete and was popular with the other students. He finally got up the nerve to ask Lauren out on a date, junior high style, and she accepted. The two became a couple and lasted through the first few weeks of their freshman year at the local high school, when Lauren dumped the young man in favor of junior Landon Estes, who was a starter on the varsity football team. Travis was 5-4, 110 pounds as a freshman, while Estes was 6-2, 190 pounds.

Although his feelings were hurt, Travis accepted his fate. He knew that Lauren was out of his league in appearance. Hell, most of the boys in the school were not in Lauren's league when it came to looks.

By virtue of dating a football player, Lauren hung out with the popular kids in school. Travis was one of the faceless minions roaming the hallways. He dated some and made friends with a select group of other students, and never again interacted with Lauren Soames during their high school years. He noted that on the few times she came face to face with him, she acted like he was a total stranger. The first time it happened, he was angry, but after that he learned to accept it.

By senior year, Travis had grown nine inches and gained 40 pounds. He was a handsome and athletic-looking young man, but nothing on the scale of Lauren. Of course, few were. He went to the senior prom with his attractive but not spectacular girlfriend. The two gave their virginities to each other that night.

Lauren was prom queen; her date was prom king. They, too, had sex after the prom, but she was a far cry from being a virgin prior to the event. Sometimes she was the manipulator; sometimes she was the one being manipulated. Sex was always on the menu for any boy lucky enough to go out with Lauren.

After high school, Travis attended Michigan State to study accounting. He dated and bedded several girls in his four years, but had no major romances. Lauren was a marketing major at Central Michigan. She dated and slept with a considerable number of men during her college years, including a marketing professor when she needed to turn a B into an A. After years of being an object of lust, Lauren was very good at playing the game.

By sheer coincidence, they both got jobs in Grand Rapids after graduation. About a year after graduating, Travis and several of his co-workers were enjoying a Friday night of food and fellowship at a popular bar/restaurant when Lauren and two women walked in. Immediately, all heads turned to look at the spectacular woman in the short green low-cut dress. Lauren hardly noticed, because at this point, it was expected and she was accustomed to it.

"Fuck me! Who is that goddess?" rasped Steve White to the entire table of co-workers.

Before he had time to consider his words, Travis answered reflexively, "That, ladies and gentleman, is Lauren Soames, goddess, and the eighth-grade girlfriend of yours truly."

Every head at the table turned from the woman to Travis, many of them with their mouths hanging open.

"You dated that?" one of them asked incredulously.

Travis grimaced. He hated to attract attention to himself, any kind of attention.

"I was like 14. As soon as we hit high school, I was toast, and she ignored me like I was the Invisible Man for all four years," he said quietly.

"So do you at least have a good grope story?" joked one of the women at the table. "Shit, I'd grope that in a heartbeat, and I'm positive that I'm straighter than anyone else... at this table, at least."

The whole crew broke out into raucous laughter. That caused Lauren and her friends to look over. For a quick second, she thought she recognized one of the men at the table, but she wasn't sure. The trio sat down at a near-by table, with Lauren sitting facing the table of the man she thought she knew.

"Dude, you're not going to go over there and say hello to that walking wet dream?" White inquired.

"Jesus, Steve, you're drooling. Very unimpressive," the first woman who had talked, Kasey Gardello, said.

"She spent four years pretending she didn't know me. I don't see why she'd remember me now," Travis said.

Several heads nodded in agreement.

Lauren kept studying the man as she enjoyed her meal. Then she snapped her fingers and pointed at the man.

"Not cool, Lauren," said one of her friends. "Pointing at someone in a restaurant might get you hurt in some places."

She completely ignored her friend's comment.

"I'll be right back," she announced. "I've got to say hello to an old friend."

Lauren practically jumped out of her chair and marched over to the table at which Travis sat.

"Trav. Hey! Really great to see you!" Lauren gushed as she approached.

Travis rolled his eyes at his friends before turning to face his former classmate with a faked happy visage.

"Lauren. How nice to see you," Travis said with almost no emotion in his voice as he rose to his feet.

Lauren stepped into Travis' personal space and gave him a soft kiss on his lips as she laid her hands on his upper arms. His co-workers sat stunned.

For his part, Travis, too, was stunned. Lauren could tell, and she gave him a not-so-innocent smile. She felt very comfortable playing this game, and she knew this was well beyond his capability.

"Come on over to our table and I'll introduce you to the girls," she said.

She took his hand and practically dragged him over to their table. He spent most of the rest of his night with Lauren and her two friends. Before he left for the evening, Lauren had taken his cell phone, gotten his number and put in her own number.

Lauren was more than a little intrigued by Travis' seeming indifference to her. That had never happened to her before. He was polite at the restaurant, but he spent as much time talking with her two friends as he did talking to her. She planted several kisses on his lips during the evening, but he never kissed back.

Travis' co-workers who were at the bar with him were all over him on Monday morning, wanting to know how things turned out with "the goddess." They were stunned when he told them he had stayed about an hour more and then went home... alone.

"She's spectacular, 14 levels out of my league. I get it," he growled. "I don't need that kind of aggravation."

"That kind of aggravation" was waiting for Travis in the parking lot at his place of work two Friday afternoons later as he left work. He grumbled to himself as he saw her waiting for him by his car, although he had to admit that she looked like sex on a stick in a dress that looked like it was one size too small.

"How come you never called, Trav?" she said in a small voice as he walked up to her.

Travis tried hard to keep his eyes from bugging out of his head as he looked Lauren up and down like a starving man seeing his first meal in weeks. The low-cut top was unbuttoned to the bottom of her cleavage, and the hemline finished just a couple of inches below her crotch.

"Ah fuck," he muttered to himself when she started to reach up to wrap her arms around his neck while she kissed him hard on the lips. He was defenseless when she ground her body against his, and his free arm wrapped around her body, reflexively grabbing a panty-clad ass cheek as her dress pulled up.

Her wet tongue slithered into his mouth like a snake and attacked his as he dropped his briefcase and grabbed her other ass cheek as the kiss lingered into overtime. After what seemed like minutes, the pair broke the kiss and Lauren pulled her dress back down to cover her exposed panties. Several of his co-workers, who had stopped to watch in shock, quickly scrambled into their cars and drove off.

The pair drove to an out of the way restaurant and enjoyed a good meal, although Lauren spent much of the meal tugging down the bottom of her dress. Both Travis and the young waitress seemed to enjoy her struggle.

While Travis was wary of Lauren, he was also just a man, and when a half-dressed goddess turns on the charm... He was toast, and the best thing he could hope for was to acquit himself well in bed later that night.

"Oh my God!" Travis whispered to himself when he got his first look at the naked Lauren later that night.

The woman was every bit the goddess Travis had always imagined. If this was going to be his one swing for the fences, he was going to make sure he wasn't going to miss his pitch due to his lust overriding his five senses.

"Ah, ah, ah, aaaiiieee!" Lauren screamed as she climaxed for the fourth... or was that the fifth... time of the evening courtesy of Travis' tongue and mouth. That was in addition to the four or five orgasms she had courtesy of Travis' left hand. Every nerve in the woman's body seemed to be tingling.

"In. In. In me," she moaned in a rasp. "I need you in me now!"

Travis sensed that Lauren was just starting to go past her peak, so he agreed with her not necessarily lucid assessment of the moment. He licked his lips clean and crawled up her body, sucking on her skin and licking before finally impaling the woman with his hard-as-steel dick.

"Aarrgghh!" she wailed before her body started to twitch uncontrollably once again.

Every orgasm further fueled Travis' lust. He decided he could withstand one more before he got his own, and started pumping harder and faster. She shrieked out one final climax before Travis joined her, growling his own release.

Both sated, they lay face to face staring into each other's eyes. Lauren smiled lecherously.

"Apparently I screwed up big-time several years ago," she whispered. "You've got mad skills. Who knew? Had I known... We've wasted several years, Trav."

Lauren knew a good thing when it was right in front of her. Although he wasn't in her league in terms of looks, Travis was still handsome, fit and apparently had a good career ahead of him. He was also ve-e-e-ry good in bed, she thought to herself.

Even though Travis had his doubts about the woman, most centering around her feeling of entitlement, their relationship slowly built. Her beauty was obvious, but he was gradually falling in love with who Lauren was. He bought an engagement ring, but before he asked her to marry him, the two sat down and discussed their thoughts on fidelity. She had impressed him to this point, but Travis wanted nothing left unsaid between them.

"Obviously, I know a bit about your past. I'm not going to ask for numbers or names," Travis said when they sat down for a serious discussion. "What's in the past stays in the past; the same for me. But I need to know about the future. From this moment forward, I want us to be exclusive. Completely. No ifs, ands or buts. If you don't honestly believe you can do that for us, I need to know that now. If you can do that, well..."

He placed a small black box on the table between the two. Lauren looked directly into Travis' eyes, then back to the box.

"I will never cheat on my husband. Never."

Travis opened the box.

*****

"I will never cheat on my husband. Never."

Travis recalled the words. Apparently, his wife didn't consider it cheating since she had told him in advance. He knew better. She was hoping... hoping that he would see it that way, because if he didn't...

He didn't.

Travis knew that Lauren had plenty of opportunities to cheat through the years, and as far as he could tell she had turned all of those opportunities away, like a good wife should. She was a 10... hell, she was a 12, and at best he thought himself a six. That left a lot of room for someone closer to her physical level to sneak in and stake a claim. Assuming she didn't have an affair that he didn't know about, she had gone 23 years as a true wife. Taken for what it was, Travis knew he should be grateful for those years, but he wasn't. When he said, "I do," he meant it to be forever... not a measly 23 years.

In truth, not a week went by that Lauren didn't get propositioned by someone... not just men. She knew she wasn't merely beautiful... She was spectacular; a rare goddess among merely beautiful women. When God created his wife, he was having an exceptional day, Travis always said.

At first, Lauren told Travis every time she was hit on in an attempt to be completely transparent. After several years, though, Travis told her he trusted her enough that she didn't have to rub it in his face. The only time he wanted to know about her being hit on was if the person didn't take her first rejection; then he would take the necessary steps to shut down the offender.

By contrast, Travis was rarely hit upon by the female population. This was in part because he used his wedding ring almost as a shield. Within minutes after meeting a woman, Travis would mention his wife and children in glowing terms; that usually had the effect of throwing a bucket of water on any sparks that may have been glowing. It was something he never realized he was doing, and it served to shut down most women before they even had a chance to flirt. Lauren never had a clue that her husband was short-circuiting prospective flirters... or worse.

The almost storybook marriage went 22 years before Rosa Esposito strolled into the proverbial Garden of Eden, or more accurately, went to work at the same public relations firm as Lauren. To quote the Bob Seger song, "She was a dark-haired beauty with big brown eyes" and big boobs as well. She attracted men like a strong magnet attracted metal. In any other office, she would have been the alpha female; at Superior Solutions, she was at best the faithful sidekick to the hottest woman on the planet.