Away for the Weekend

Laura didn't know that Brienne had moved to Chicago and hadn't kept up with Brienne after graduation. Apparently Brienne had gotten really crazy after breaking up with Kayla, and Laura had done well to keep her distance. She admitted that it was likely that Brienne still had strong feelings for Kayla, but vehemently denied that Kayla would consider getting back with Brienne. Kayla only had good things to say about me and had never said anything that could construed as interest in a renewed physical relationship with Brienne. Of course, Laura admitted that she had not seen or spoken to Kayla since her haircut, so she couldn't rule out the possibility that the situation had changed. In the end I thanked Laura for the information, but there wasn't much more she could tell me.

I went and showered and shaved, hoping to clear my head some more. I could watch the video again looking for more clues, but the thought of seeing that again turned my stomach. I could try to track down the email address, but I didn't have the technical know-how for that and didn't know anyone well enough to ask for help on this. I didn't want to call my in-laws since I was confident they would have no useful information and I didn't want to ruin their and Kamille's weekend. I started thinking about how I could protect my assets and Kamille's future. If nothing else I could do a full accounting of our assets so I could be ready for splitting the estate. I also thought about doing some research on the internet about divorce laws in Illinois.

My thoughts were interrupted by my phone ringing. It was my friend Dave calling me. I checked my watch and saw that the football game would be starting in half an hour. I had completely forgotten about the game. I honestly had no interest in watching football after this, but the idea of some serious drinking appealed to me. At a minimum I should have called Dave to tell him I wasn't going to be there. Though I was surprised that he called me, since he was never one to check up on me.

"Hey, Tom. Are you coming to watch the game?"

"Yeah. Sorry I'm late I just had an eventful night. I'm not sure I'm gonna make it."

"Sure. Yeah. I don't care. But there's this woman here who is asking about you. She's dressed like she wants to get laid, but she keeps turning down anyone who approaches. But she keeps asking about you. It's weird, but I wanted to call you and give you a heads up so you can wear clean underwear."

Dave went on to describe her as about 5'5" with blond hair and blue eyes, great tits and a tight butt, but she wasn't anyone that I recognized from that description. I promised Dave that I would head down to the game. I put on my Michigan sweatshirt and ball cap and caught an Uber to the bar. I wanted to allow myself the option of getting wasted if the mood struck me. However, before any of that happened I needed to solve the mystery of this woman looking for me.

As I walked into the sports bar I scanned the crowd looking for Dave and the other guys. I immediately spotted the woman he had referred to. She was dressed like she was on the make with a skin tight dress and high heels, which was totally out of place at a sports bar. She didn't see me at first, but when she spotted me she clearly recognized me. I didn't know her at all, but somehow she knew me. My spidey-sense started tingling big time.

I walked over to where Dave and the guys where, but she moved to intercept me.

"Buy a girl a drink?" she asked. Well, she knew what she wanted.

"Sorry. I'm just here to watch the game. Besides, I'm married."

"Really? What is she doing right now?" The way she asked that seemed like she knew something. It wasn't an offhand comment; it was definitely a dig. "Tell you what, I'll be right over here if you change your mind. Think about it. You don't need to be faithful to someone who isn't faithful to you." With that she sashayed away with her butt catching the eye of every male in the room. I broke away and found Dave.

The game was in the first quarter. Ohio State had scored, but my Wolverines weren't embarrassing themselves yet. We all had faith in Harbaugh, but we were disappointed to have our faith tested so much. The guys had a pitcher of beer and I poured myself a glass.

Dave turned to me. "She found you, I see." He took a drink of his beer. "Who is she?"

"I have no clue. I've never seen her before, but she seemed to know me."

Dave's friend Greg joined our conversation. "The only time a woman that sexy comes on to a guy is if she is trying to get him in trouble. Is your wife cheating on you?"

"WHAT THE FUCK, GREG!" I nearly jumped out of my chair and grabbed him by the throat.

Greg continued quickly. " 'Cause she probably hired that chick to seduce you, take pictures and use it as evidence to divorce you. Why else would a woman that hot be targeting you?"

"My wife is not fucking cheating on me. Fuck off!" I picked up my beer and walked over to a different table. This was one of the few empty tables and I just glowered at the closest TV set. Too be honest, what Greg was talking about sounded way too plausible. Of course, Greg was divorced and had been caught in bed with his secretary. He was also a divorce lawyer, so he could always dream up the worst about anyone. Fucking Ohio Fucking State scored again. What the fuck! Why was I even here?

Then Miss Slinky-butt sat down at my table. "Want to talk about it?" she asked innocently.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" I demanded. I had no patience for this woman. I did not trust her motives.

"My name's Mariah and I'm here to watch the game and hopefully find some company." She gave me a million dollar smile. "Don't you want some company? You sound pretty upset."

"But why me? Why were you waiting for me to show up? What do you want with me?"

Her smile faltered. "I don't know what you're talking about." She glanced at the game. "All the other guys were coming on too strong. You're the only one who played hard to get. I like a challenge." Her smile returned. It's true that these guys were mostly single and divorced. I could totally see them giving her the full court press, but that didn't seem to match Dave's description. I wasn't going to reveal that Dave had tipped me off beforehand.

"Doesn't it bother you that I'm married?"

Mariah reached over and touched my hand. "You don't look like you are happily married, if you get my meaning. If I were your wife I wouldn't off doing who-knows-what while you were left all alone." She kept doing that, implying that my wife was sleeping around. It was like she knew that I had gotten that video. But I still had no idea who she was. I needed to slow this down, but I still wanted to find out more about her.

"I'll think about it, but right now I just want to watch the game." I turned away from her and looked at the screen. Michigan was lining up for a field goal. Dammit, you're not going to beat the Buckeyes with goddamn field goals. Mariah slid her chair close to mine and leaned in close. Her breasts were pushing into my shoulder. One hand rested possessively on my far shoulder while the other traced lazy circles on the back of the hand that rested on the table. She wanted me to think about it, for sure, but she wanted to make sure it was the little head doing the thinking.

I nursed my beer and considered my options. There was no way I was going to fuck her tonight. Greg's story just started to sound more and more likely. On the other hand, if I let her go I might not learn the rest of the story. I was careful not to smile or do anything that looked like I was encouraging her. So far the guys would confirm my story that she came on to me and I was an innocent bystander. I tried to surreptitiously scan the crowd to see if anyone was watching us. If there was a photographer trying to get damaging photos I wanted to know. I couldn't see anyone, but the bar was crowded. Maybe her plan was to take me somewhere that she could get pictures.

All I really wanted was to know who she was, but I was sure she wasn't going to give me any real information. I pulled out my phone. "Tell you what. Give me your phone number. I'll call you tomorrow." She might know that Kayla wasn't due back until late tomorrow. She might accept this suggestion.

"I don't know. I might not be interested tomorrow." She didn't seem to like this option.

"That's a risk I'm willing to take." She seemed to be thinking to herself, so I subtly turned on my camera and took a few pictures of her. I wanted her head shot to help me figure out who she was. "I mean, I don't know anything about you. What's your last name?"

She paused. "Johnson. My last name is Johnson." It didn't sound like the truth.

"Tell you what Mariah Johnson, let me order us a round of shots. And then you can give me your number. Okay?"

"We'll see." But she definitely pepped up at the suggestion of shots. I extricated myself from her grasp and walked over to the bar. I asked for two tequila shots to be delivered to our table. I told Mariah I'd be right back after I visited the 'little boys' room. But first I went over to Dave and Greg's table and told them to watch her while I was gone. I had a nasty suspicion that I wanted them to confirm. I took my time in the restroom and thoroughly washed my hands.

As I returned to the table I saw that our shots had been delivered. She had one in her hand and the other was in front of my empty chair. As I went to sit down in my chair I glanced toward Dave and Greg. They were both shaking their heads 'no' in a not very subtle way. I was fed up.

"Okay, Mariah, what's the real story? Someone has clearly paid you to seduce me. Who was it and what's going on?" She looked very nervous.

"I don't know what you mean?" She glanced around unable to make eye contact with me.

"Shall we call the cops and have them test to see what you put in my drink? Or are you going to tell me the truth?" The air went out of her like a deflated balloon.

"Oh shit. It wasn't supposed to be like this. She said it would be easy. She said you'd be horny and angry. The drugs were just in case you. . . What's wrong with you? Don't you like girls?"

"I told you I'm married. Who told you to do this? Who is behind this?"

"She didn't tell me her name. She was tall and had dark hair. She dressed really glamorously. She said you would have just learned that your wife was cheating on you and that I was supposed to seduce you and take pictures. I was supposed to take you back to my place where I have a video camera already set up. She was going to pay me ten grand."

"What's your real name? How did she contact you?"

"My name is Mariah Hollingsworth. I'm an escort working my way through college. This was too good a job to pass up. I'm sorry I tried to drug you. I was just getting desperate. I didn't know what else to do?"

"How did she contact you? How were you going to get paid?"

"She's been texting me. I'm supposed to send her the photos tonight."

I opened my phone to see if I had any pictures of Brienne. I found one with Kayla and Brienne from when they were out shopping, something Kayla had sent me. I showed it to Mariah. "Is this the woman?"

"Yeah. The tall one. What does she want?"

"My wife apparently. Give me the number she was using. And your number in case I need to contact you later. And don't contact her at all for another week. I'm afraid you're not going to get paid, but at least you won't go to jail."

Mariah shuddered. She gave me the phone numbers, apologized once more and went on her way. I looked at the football game, it was unsalvageable. Most of the attendees were drowning their sorrow in their beer. I thanked Dave and Greg for their assistance, paid my bill and called for a ride home. When I got home there was still no response from my wife.

I took a moment to take stock of my situation. Clearly Brienne was trying to set me up for cheating. She was going to have pictures taken of me with Mariah as evidence I was cheating on her. What I couldn't figure out was why. After all, the two of them had already been screwing. I could tell from the video this wasn't a one time occurrence; this wasn't the first time they'd had sex. Why did she need evidence of my cheating when she had already been screwing my wife? My best guess was that she was tired of being secretive about the affair and wanted to make it official. Either working alone or with Kayla she would get evidence of me cheating and use that as justification for a divorce. Once our marriage was over the two of them could become an official couple. At least I knew Brienne had no interest in life with Kamille, although I couldn't imagine Kayla be willing to give up custody of her daughter.

I was pretty sure there was no value in driving down to retrieve Kayla or Kamille. I wasn't sure Kayla knew I had been sent the video, so there was no benefit to going down there unprepared. I made sure to download the video from the email and burn into onto a DVD as well as saving it to the home computer. The next morning I did an inventory of our assets and credit cards. I made a list of the bank accounts and brokerage accounts. I made sure all our current bills were paid and that there weren't any hidden accounts I was unaware of. I made a list of divorce attorneys, but I didn't call anyone yet. I wanted to be ready to pull the trigger, but I wasn't going to do anything hasty. I also mopped the kitchen floors and scrubbed the bathroom toilets. Hell, I wasn't a savage.

Around noon Kayla called me back. She was picking up Kamille from her parents and got my message. "What's up? You said you wanted me to call."

I opted to play it close to the vest. "Is there something going on with you and Brienne? I've had a weird weekend and I think we need to talk when you get home."

There was a pause. "Brienne and I are just friends. Yeah, we have some history and we should talk about that, but we're still just friends." She paused again. "What was the weird thing that happened?"

"We can talk about it when you get home, but it's not a conversation we want to have in front of Kamille. It's also conversation I don't want to have over the phone. We'll talk when you get home." But I also didn't want her so worried that she would drive badly. "Don't worry. I love you. Be safe."

She reassured me she would be leaving soon. I didn't ask if Brienne was still with her. I figured if they shared the ride down they still had to share the ride back. I didn't want them refining their story on the drive. I called my neighbor and asked her if I could drop off Kamille to play in the afternoon. She had a daughter about a year older than Kamille and they could play together while Kayla and I had our conversation. I set up the DVD player with the video and changed the sheets on the bed and washed all the linens. Eventually I ran out of things to do to keep busy, but at least the girls got home before I started painting the walls.

When Kayla came in I just said, "Wait." I helped bring in Kamille's things, changed her diaper, grabbed her diaper bag and carried her three houses down to our neighbor's house. I thanked her profusely and walked back home to an uncertain fate. I came in to find Kayla pacing the kitchen. I simply walked past her into the living room, where she followed me, sat down and said "Talk."

She looked scared. "About what? What's going on? You're scaring me, Tom."

"What's going on with you and Brienne?"

"Nothing. We're just friends. There's nothing going on." She stopped and took a breath. "Okay. We used to be more than friends. We dated in college." She paused and collected herself. "Okay, it was more than dating. We were pretty serious. We lived together and thought we were in love, but it's over. I have no feelings like that anymore towards her. We're just friends now."

"So you're going to stand there and tell me nothing happened between you and Brienne this weekend?"

"Nothing happened. She was acting weird, but nothing happened. She kept telling me how attractive I was and how she fondly remembered our college days. She might have been flirting with me and seemed like she was expecting something to happen, but nothing happened. She was really upset this morning, but she wouldn't tell me why."

"I'm disappointed to hear you say that. It seems like you're not being completely honest." I pressed play on the DVD player. "I'd like you to explain this."

The video started at a predetermined spot showing Kayla screaming out in pleasure as Brienne rammed in and out of her with that big strap on dildo. I let the video go for about thirty seconds when I hit the pause button. Kayla stared at the screen in disbelief.

"Tell me again what is going on with you and Brienne?" I glared at Kayla. When she looked away from the screen she didn't look guilty like someone who had been caught. She looked angry; really angry.

"That bitch! That fucking little bitch! I'm going to kill that fucking bitch! That's what she's been up to. Oh I'm gonna fuck her up!" Then she looked at me. "Oh Tom, I'm sorry I have a lot of explaining to do." She took my hand and led me to the couch and bade me to sit down with her.

"I said Brienne and I dated on college. We lived together for two years. We were seriously in love. I didn't tell you about it because you never really asked about previous relationships. I told you I'd never had sex with a man before we were married and that's true. But I had definitely had sex with Brienne. This is one of the videos we made when we were in college."

"What! No! Look at the time stamp. This is from this weekend."

"She must have added that recently. That's definitely why she encouraged me to get this old haircut again. That's also why she insisted I get waxed down stairs last weekend, otherwise I could just show off my pubes as proof that this couldn't be recent. She's been plotting this for months."

Kayla looked at me with sad eyes. "I'm sorry I never told you about my past with Brienne, but I'm completely over her. We had a hot fiery romance, but we were so fucked up at the time. She was super controlling and manipulative, but I thought that was how love was supposed to be. She kept trying to get me to do crazier and crazier things. Like this video, that was her idea. Then I caught her in bed with another woman. I broke up with her right then and she tried to blame me from driving her into the bed of another woman. I just walked away and never looked back."

"I distanced myself from my past and started over. I found something great with you and forgot about my past. At the reunion, I forgot about how fucked up Brienne was and just remembered the friendship parts. I thought we were just friends again, but apparently she had other ideas." She took my hands and looked me in the eyes. "Do you believe me? I'm sure if we watch the video we can find real proof. I'm eight years younger in this video, can't you tell?"

I thought about what she was saying. It did make sense. She didn't look happier in the video, just younger. The Kayla sitting next to me had just a little bit more meat on her bones as the result of giving birth to Kamille. "Stand up and strip for me. Let me compare." Kayla quickly complied. She stood close to me and I looked at those subtle stretch marks on her belly. The young Kayla did not have those marks left on her by time. I stood up and embraced my wife. "I love you. You won't believe what else Brienne tried to do." I told Kayla all about Mariah and the sports bar, including Dave and Greg and the doctored drink. At the end Kayla was just as angry as I had been.

She threw some sweats on while I went out to retrieve Kamille. I insisted she call Laura and fill her in on everything that had happened. We got Chinese take-out while Kamille told us all about her weekend. Fortunately Kayla had already received the report from her parents, so she was able to translate for me. Mostly it involved decorating cookies and playing with the neighbor's puppies. Kamille was sent to an early bedtime with no complaints. She fell asleep quickly in her familiar bed.