Anticipation and Satisfaction

She had been living her lewd, schizoid life for seven or eight months when Neil's workload finally began to normalize. As he was, in due course, working less, Caroline's long, unexplained absences suddenly made him suspicious. Hence, one week, with feigned innocence, Neil asked her, "What're you up to this weekend?"

"Volunteering at the mission. Why?"

As she knew he was flying out Friday, he couldn't come up with a reason for questioning her, so he dismissed it with, "Just wondering."

Not long after that was the first time he was actually aware that Caroline had failed to come home. Oddly, he was more puzzled than concerned. However, after two days, he got worried. He tried a futile bit of searching on his own, but found he had no idea where or how to even start. So, he hired a PI, who, fairly easily, located her. The investigator found her staying in the shithole hotel-cum-flop-house above Dwayne's tavern.

When she finally arrived back home, she remained mum, giving away very little when Neil questioned her.

When the PI report arrived, Neil was totally shocked by it, and further shocked, by his wife's blasé response when confronted. She was unable—or unwilling—to give her husband any explanation, except for a rather obtuse declaration that her life had changed, and that she no longer had time for the mundane bullshit that used to fill her existence. While Neil didn't know nor want to know the details, he couldn't help but be curious—titillated. Did that mundane bullshit include him? She couldn't answer that. He was even more amazed when she announced that she was, surprisingly—surprising even herself—happy—happy with the simplicity of her new life—happier, in fact, than she could remember ever being. She found it easy to just ignore the degeneracy, that was so obvious to others around her.

Unable to convince Caroline that she needed help, Neil, still having trouble believing it all, told her, once it all came out, that she was an embarrassment—to him, to society, to her family. A rush of cutting come-backs flashed across her mind: he was an embarrassment too! in his prudishness, his hypocrisy, his size, stamina, libido, and on and on; but, in the end, she chose to respond with silence—not acknowledging the criticism at all.

Neil hurried to distance himself from his incredibly estranged wife and her extreme waywardness. As quickly as he could, he filed for divorce, citing irreconcilable differences. "Such an understatement," he marveled. Unbeknownst to him, she was served papers by a participant of a Saturday gangbang—"To be sure of having your full attention," the server informed her, with a self-satisfied smirk. She was unfazed.

Actually, her hubby wasn't as crushed as one might have expected. Thankful that she was now gone from his life, he realized that she had actually been gone for a long, long time—probably since even before they'd moved.

The divorce went uncontested—almost unnoticed. It was a relief to them both. Caroline was able to go on living a life of her own choosing. She got her freedom—freedom to pursue her spiraling decadence uninhibited. Sailing the seas of carnal desire, she was content to drift in the currents of anticipation and satisfaction, free to continue her descent into moral dissolution and unfettered sexual gratification.

Her husband got everything else—the house, the car, the bank accounts, their investments, and the freedom to pursue his blessed career. Also, the freedom to pursue his new young EA.