A Wife's Choice

***

The calm, then the storm

I suppose I should give you some background on how things started and how they got out of hand.

Lisa and I had met after college sixteen years before. I had been twenty-three then and Lisa twenty-two. I met her at a dance club where she and her girlfriends went dancing on Tuesday and Friday nights. It was a Friday.

I can't deny it. Lisa's stunning slim figure, long legs, blond hair, and tight ass caught my eyes as she danced with some guy. It was a fast song, so her ass was fighting to be noticed under that tight white short dress. Gyrating on those high white heels, she drew desirous looks from men and evil stares from women. OK, some women liked what they saw too. All I cared about was what her face looked like. When she turned, I thought I saw the most beautiful woman walking the earth.

Noticing me gazing at her, she looked my way briefly as she and her partner walked back to their table of friends. As my eyes followed her, she thanked the guy dismissively and gave me one more look before she sat down and pointed me out to her friends, and they all giggled.

Three minutes later, the music started again, but I asked one of her friends to dance. The hot blond stared at me for a second disappointed. Then she nodded as if she understood and sat back waiting for some other guy to dance with her.

When the song was over, and another started, I noticed the blond waving off a guy who asked her to dance and looked at me with a challenging look. Her redhead friend saw me look at her blond friend and leaned in to yell in my ear over the loud music.

"Her name is Lisa, and if you take me back to the table, I think she will dance with you."

To make things short, I took the redhead to the table and walked away with Lisa the blond to what I thought would be the dance floor. But blond Lisa had other ideas. Taking my hand, she pulled me toward the exit.

"Where are we going?" I asked with a smirk.

"Where we can do unspeakable things to one another," she had replied.

And we had, way into Saturday morning.

***

Two weeks later, we were inseparable. Five months later, we got engaged. Lisa had wanted a wedding in Texas, where she was from. But it was not to be. Her father's car dealership had filed bankruptcy, and there was no money for a big wedding. With her parents also in the middle of a divorce, a big family wedding was out. Instead, we settled for a small wedding in San Diego and flew her mom and dad in on our dime. My parents lived not far from LA, so they drove down with my sister Grace.

After the wedding, we had a small honeymoon in Vancouver and came back to start our lives together. But we did not stay in California long. I was offered a position at Abberton Electronics, which was too good to pass on. Before we left San Diego, Lisa sent out resumes for accountant positions near where I was. And soon after we got to Ohio, she had a job.

I won't bore you with the mundane parts of early marriage. You know... sex with no kids to interrupt. Being able to take off on the weekend with no worries, other than having the money for it. Being healthy and good-looking so people stared at us. Quite the ego boost. Knowing you are married to a ten, and you are a nine yourself. Yeah, the arrogance of youth.

Did I say the sex was great! Do you know how I knew? Lisa kept asking for it. And being an oversexed American male, I answered the call. The best part of our sex life was that neither of us was into anything way out, yet others would beg to differ. OK, so we were both exhibitionists and voyeurs. We both worked hard on our bodies and wanted to show them off. But it was more than that. We liked all kinds of sex.

Anal, oral, and even some rough stuff like spanking and slapping during fucking. We used to snicker to each other when people said they "made love." To Lisa and me, that was the code phrase for boring sex. Instead, we fucked like bunnies. Hard and often.

***

Eventually, Lisa was hired at BCE systems, and I was promoted at Abberton. Lisa's high IQ helped her advance as well. And be noticed. We were invited to company parties at both our jobs, and to most who knew us, Lisa and I were the upcoming "it" couple. At those parties we danced with all sorts of people for a while and each other for another set. It was our routine.

Of course, what power couple doesn't eventually decide to take the child plunge? Five years into our marriage, Lisa went off the pill. By the second month, she was pregnant with our son Kyle. Almost two years later, our girl Amber was born. The time between children was not so bad. In fact, we reveled in lugging Kyle around in his carrier and having people smile at us at outings. For some reason, we didn't mind that we could not go out as we used to.

The problem was that we had no family around to watch the kids after Amber was born. And eventually, the stress of work and two kids took its toll. But we focused on what was important. Our children. Our jobs. Our health. And most of all, each other.

By then, we had our first home, and after putting the kids to sleep, we spent time together. Time fucking. I had heard other men talk about how their sex lives dwindled to near nothing with kids. But while ours was not what it had been, it did not go away. We laughed at how sex was our hobby. We didn't have as much, but we did have sex. And we both initiated it.

Eventually, we found a sitter we could trust for Friday or Saturday nights so we could go out. She was a middle-aged Polish immigrant who loved kids. Her husband was a trucker, and her kids were grown and out of the house. So, with the kids well cared for, we started going dancing again. It felt good to be alive. These were our happiest years.

Blissful with our beautiful kids, satisfying careers, and happy marriage, we didn't know trouble was ahead.

***

Hard times

There is nothing that will make one stop and take stock in life other than a sick child. Little Amber was a quiet little girl. She hardly spoke by the age of two. Unlike her brother, who was a chatterbox, Amber was a quiet child. The doctors told us that kids who spoke late had a higher IQ. Considering her mother was clocked at 150 and I at 146, we figured Amber was in that category.

Of course, our rambunctious son was smart, but his personality was different. At least we thought it was down to personality until little Amber had her first seizure at almost three. After the initial shock, we took her to doctor after doctor. Some thought it was epilepsy. But after MRI scans, they found a tumor.

Lisa and I almost fell apart when we found out. But the surgeons told us that they could operate and save her life. It was going to cost a small fortune. Lisa did our bills, but I didn't need her to tell me that we may lose the house to pay for the care Amber needed. Things looked rough for us. Even with my salary and Lisa's, I thought we were doomed.

Then Lisa came home and sat down with me.

"Honey, we have to talk," she said.

Who wants to hear that, right? We had some problems, but I didn't think Lisa leaving was one of them. There were no signs of it at all. Yes, we had both been moody, testy, and withdrawn at times. But who wouldn't be when they face the possible loss of a child and then financial ruin? We had leaned on each other and still were. Or so I thought.

But this last week, Lisa had been somewhere else when we were together. Like her mind was stressing over something. I was too wrapped up in our girl's health problems to think it was something other than that for my wife. So, I sat at the dinner table wondering if she would suggest we had to sell the house.

"Do you remember how two years ago we switched from Abberton's health insurance to BCE?"

"Yeah, your company is larger, so their health insurance costs are less than mine, and there were more benefits. But didn't you say they still won't cover most of the surgery since it's considered experimental?"

"Yes," she replied, looking through the insurance papers she had filled out and some pamphlets. "And my company is willing to help. They have a charity they support that will cover twenty grand of it. And they will front us the other twenty thousand to pay as we go."

"Wow!" I replied. "That's a lot of money."

"Our daughter is worth it," she replied, still not looking at me.

"I know. What with having to hire someone to care for Amber while we are at work..."

"I've got that covered too," she replied, finally looking at me briefly. "If we watch her ourselves as she recovers, we can save a lot and just focus on repaying the twenty thousand we will owe my job. I was offered a promotion. I can use all the money from it to pay off the money we owe faster. And it's on the second shift. So, one of us will be with the kids most of the time."

"Second shift?" I asked. "When will we see you?"

She shook her head with a sad look on her face.

"Do you think I want this, Dave?" she asked with a tear running down her face. "We have our backs against the wall."

"I know," I replied, feeling like a cad for questioning her resolve to do more for us.

We both knew I had asked my company to move to a position that brought in more income. But it would have involved travel, which would have left Lisa to deal with both kids and her job alone. And one of the children would be bedridden, requiring around-the-clock care. I felt so useless.

"Look, Dave," she said, taking my hand. "We didn't ask for this. No one is at fault here. Its fate. Amber is sick but thank God we can save her. The doctors can. All you and I have to do is our part for our children and our family. Please don't give me any grief about taking this position. Please."

What could I say? I already felt like shit. I nodded in reluctant agreement because I knew we had to do it, just as Lisa had said.

***

Lisa was thirty-three and I thirty-four when our life turned upside down.

Amber was operated on soon after Lisa's promotion and move to the second shift. Abberton gave me two weeks off during the surgery and after. But BCE could only give Lisa time off for the surgery. Two days!

"Why can't they give you more time. You can probably take some vacation," I suggested.

But Lisa shook her head, looking away.

"They created this job for me. I can't afford to lose it, Dave. We will have to make do."

We will have to make do.

That became our motto in the days, weeks, and months to come. Our son was in daycare most of the time. When he came home, he was too young to understand all the fuss we made over his sister. Soon he became another on the list of our trials and tribulations. It was left to me to deal with him as I was home at night and Lisa was at work. Somehow, I managed to spend as much time with him as I could in between continually tending to our daughter.

Lisa and I hardly saw each other. On the weekend, when we had some time to be a family, it was spent on the kids and doing chores. The only time left to us for sex was Saturday or Sunday, if at that. But with all the stress and anxiety, our time in bed was strained and hollow. Our sex life was becoming a shadow of itself.

At first, it seemed like the surgery went well. But it hadn't. A follow-up surgery was needed. Another forty thousand was required to pay the out-of-pocket portion. The doctors told us that it would work, but they had said that to us before. Still, what were we to do. Lisa managed to borrow more money from her company. I didn't understand how that was possible, but I was glad we had access to a way to pay for the surgery.

It was then now that I look back, things went sour between Lisa and me. She became withdrawn and quiet. When I tried to ask her what was wrong, she snapped.

"WHAT'S WRONG?" she yelled. "Look around you, Dave. Our child could die if we don't have her surgery. The bills will come due, and... the weight of it all seems on my shoulders."

"You are not alone," I said to her in protest. "I do the best I can myself. I'm taking care of the kids when you are working, plus going to work in the daytime. I get it, it's not easy for you, but you are not the only one stressed over all this."

But Lisa gave me a cold stare that I will never forget. She didn't have to say it. In her eyes, no matter what I did or contributed, it was not enough. The woman who thought the world of me less than a year before now looked at me as if I were worthless.

***

Lisa began to work longer hours at BCE while I stayed with the kids at night after work. She used to come home by eleven-thirty. Soon, she was not back until one in the morning, and sometimes not until two. On some Fridays, it was close to three in the morning.

"I just have a lot of work to do," she replied. "I requested more responsibilities for a raise. You'll just have to cope, David."

When did I stop being Dave and turned in to David? I asked myself. In the past, she only called me David during the few arguments we had. Now I was David all the time.

We hardly saw each other. And when we did, there was no intimacy. As for what passed for sex, these days was just once in the last seven months. And it had been terrible. Lisa just lay there looking away from me as if going to bed with me was but another chore.

As bad as our relationship had become, we shared the goal of keeping the family together and taking care of our children. When I look back on it, we would not have been able to do it without both of us working and doing our part. The problem was that our parts and paths hardly crossed.

When we did our tax returns that year, I finally saw that Lisa was bringing in more than double what I was. I asked myself how that was possible. But then she pointed out that she was practically doing two jobs in the period of ten to eleven hours a day and using the extra income to pay off the loan to her company.

The weeks turned to months before Amber showed improvement. A year after her first surgery, she was walking again and beginning to talk with her brother. He seemed to be the only one that understood her gibberish. The doctors told us that it was a combination of a speech problem and the damage the surgeries and the tumor had caused.

The good news was that with speech therapy, she would be able to function. The tumor and surgeries failed to diminish her intellect, as evident from her activities. She spent hours drawing and playing board games by herself when Kyle was too busy with school and friends. And once again, we were lucky that the tumor had been benign instead of cancerous.

Talking about Amber and Kyle's life or about our home was the only thing Lisa and I seemed to have in common those days. I couldn't remember the last time she and I had been in bed together. All my attempts to start anything were always rebuffed. Our good sex life had become a casualty of our struggles to save our daughter and family. Our home was becoming just a house.

Even on weekends, I took the kids places while she either caught up on sleep or went into work. We had become just roommates who shared a house and two children.

One Saturday, while taking the kids for a ride to do some shopping, I decided to drive past BCE systems. Sure enough, my wife's car was there. I just drove past, wondering if this would ever end. Or if one day she would merely serve me papers.

***

A game of chance

"Hey Dave! Did you hear?" One of my coworkers said joyfully one day as I went to work. I barely had time to set my laptop case on my desk, and Jeff continued.

"What are you talking about?" I asked, moving past him.

I was tired and had little sleep. Not having any sex in close to five years, I was not in a good mood. These days, I was rarely in a good mood.

"Buddy, we hit the Lotto. It's one hundred million in this drawing and only ten of us in the pool."

I stood still watching him with my mouth open.

"Dave," he tapped my face with his palm gently. "We won. You and Lisa can pay off all your doctor bills. Isn't that great?"

I almost collapsed numb from the shock. But I managed to sit before I began crying at our good fortune. Closing the door, I got myself together before some happy co-owners of the winning ticket opened my door and came in to celebrate. Randy and Sheila.

I'm glad Randy came in the room with her because she has been the source of many a wet dream for me in the past three years since she came to work for Abberton. There is nothing specific about Sheila that you can say is spectacular. But the whole package and the way she sways when she walks... Oh, God! I so needed to get laid.

"Dave!" she says, sitting on the edge of my desk. Her pert ass was teasing my resolve. And it was winning.

"You guys," my boss sticks his head in my door. "I know you are not going to do any work today, so take the day and please come back tomorrow."

"What are you going to do with your share, boss?" Randy asks.

Sheila is still looking at me with her ass moving around invitingly and her finger twirling her mid-length auburn hair.

"My wife probably has it spent," he says and walks out.

"What are you going to do today, Dave," Sheila asks me as she is twirling her hair with one finger. The international female signal for I want your cock in me.

Randy catches on and leaves the room.

"I'm going home and talk to my family," I replied.

"Dave," she says, leaning in. "Everyone knows your wife is neglecting you. You have the money to move on now. When you do, give me the first chance, OK?"

This is not the first time Sheila has offered herself to me. I have never touched her, but I so wanted to that day.

"I'm still married, Sheila," I replied. "And it's not that you are not attractive and all, but I have too much to lose if I get caught cheating. Even if I get divorced, Lisa will get half, and I don't want to give her a chance to get more than half."

"All I'm saying is," she now leaned in and whispered, "I am waiting for you, Dave. I think you are worth it. And all my share is mine to share. And I would share everything with you, everything you see and can imagine. You are worth it. Too bad your wife doesn't see that."

"What she does and doesn't is for us to sort out Sheila," I reply as I stand, placing my Laptop bag in front of my bulging crotch.

"I know you want me, Dave," she replied. "And I am wet for you. Not for a one-night stand, but more. Think about it."

I gulp and somehow manage to walk past her. But she is quick and grabbed my ass. She had no respect for rules of harassment by HR. At that point, with all that money coming her way, Sheila did not care.

I drove home with a huge grin on my face. I mean, I woke up in debt and was now a millionaire. OK, so ten million is not that much, and it would be barely six by the time the state and the feds took their share in taxes, which they always do. But still, anything over five mil is not chump change.

When I got home, both kids were in school. Amber was fine now and blossoming into a fine young lady. Kyle was still acting up occasionally, but not more so than most boys his age. With Lisa's car in the driveway, I knew she was asleep. She had come home late again. I waited until one in the morning and fell asleep on the couch. She was in our bed sleeping when I had left that morning to drop the kids off at school.

Lisa was in the shower when I came in the house. I could hear it running and walked upstairs.

"Hello," I yelled so she would know I was home.

"I'm in the shower," she yelled back.

"Are you almost done?" I asked. "I have some news you may want to hear."

"Give me a few minutes," she replied. "Can you make us some coffee?"

"Way ahead of you," I replied and sat on our bed waiting.

Through the bathroom door, I saw her naked from behind the frosted glass. I look mesmerized as I had not seen my wife naked in over three years. I have not touched her in over four. We have not had sex since... I can't remember if it was before or just after Amber's surgery. A sad summary of the last five years of our life. Years that should have been happy after our daughter's recovery.