Before They Were Stars - Deborah Norville

I rolled onto my side facing away from her and asked, "Why is it so important to you?"

She snuggled up against my back and spooned against me. We had learned that this was a safe way for us to establish a physical closeness without either of us having to resist too much temptation.

Deborah placed a light kiss in the middle of my back and said, "Because I want to help you bring closure to a disappointing chapter in your life. I also hope that serving Karla with the divorce papers will finally release you from your vows. I know that you'll technically be married until ninety days after the settlement is approved by the Court, but your fear of providing her with a 'get-out-of-jail-free' card as you put it ends once she gets served. For all intents and purposes, your marriage will end once I serve her the divorce papers. Do you agree?"

I considered what Deborah had said, and also what she was asking me. I knew that she was frustrated with my reluctance to share greater intimacies with her. I was extremely fond of her, but my concerns now moved to what our relationship may develop into if I was completely unencumbered by my wedding vows. I valued her friendship too much to risk it over mere sex, regardless of how spectacular I imagined it would be with her. The question that I couldn't answer was "Would it be a risk?" So far, all the small intimacies that Deborah and I had shared had brought us closer. We communicated more openly and expressed more of our feelings when we could share more physical contact during the process.

Finally, I said, "My marriage was over in my mind once I learned of Karla's infidelity, so I guess I can agree that serving her with the divorce papers moves the finality of things one step closer. I don't know if I agree that my commitment to the wedding vows will end at that time. I'll need to give it some thought to see if I can wrap my head around it. We also need to revisit our arrangement with you living here once Karla is served. She will be banned from returning here except in the accompaniment of a Sheriff's deputy to allow her to get her personal items. Even though she was seldom here this summer, this was still technically her home, so you and I weren't technically the only ones living here."

Deborah ran her fingers through my hair and said, "The fall semester starts right after Labor Day, so I won't be here except on the weekends when I am working at WAGA-TV. No one at the station or at school knows that I have been staying with you, and I don't see that changing, so unless you are concerned about your reputation among your neighbors, or want to start bringing new women over and think that my being here would raise issues there, I don't see any problem."

"You're welcome here any time," I told her. "What do you want to do?"

"I want to experience a man for once. I told you that I haven't had a lot of experience, but that which I have had hasn't been satisfying to me the way that I believe things should be between a man and a woman. Even the simple little things that you and I have shared so far have been so much better than anything I have ever had with my ex-boyfriend or anyone else. Admittedly, the guys I have been with had to cope with my inexperience as well, so maybe what I need - no, I know that what I need is for me to share some experiences with someone older and more mature. Someone I can trust and be relaxed around. Someone who will safely guide me through a journey of discovery. No one meets my definition of what I want and need better than you. I want to experience you, Will."

"Kiddo, you know that I am not likely going to be ready to explore a new relationship for months, or maybe years..."

"That's why we are so perfect for each other," Deborah exclaimed. "We already have this wonderful, trusting, and slightly intimate physical relationship. All we'll be doing is getting more physical. Our friendship can easily survive that, and it will probably do you some emotional good as well. There are going to be dozens, if not hundreds of women coming after you once word of your divorce gets out. Our relationship will provide you with a safe haven that will allow you to take your time with choosing when and who you want to date. Look, all I'm asking is that you think about it. I've told you what I want, but if you decide that us making love isn't something that you can handle, I'll accept it."

"Okay, I promise that I will consider it. I just don't want you to ever think that I don't find you attractive, sensuous, alluring, and the most tempting morsel of feminine flesh and bones that I have ever encountered. If I decide that I can't be what you want me to be, please know that it is no reflection on you. It will be totally my fucked-up head."

She hugged my tighter and said, "See, knowing that you will do what is right for both of us is what gives me the confidence that I need too. You and I will be just fine no matter what happens once the cheaters are served."

~~~

And we were.

My efforts to keep Karla in the dark about me being aware of her affair were aided by the fact that she spent so much time in Dalton carrying on her tryst, but also by my suggestion that she and I renew our wedding vows on our tenth anniversary. What husband who suspected that his wife was cheating on him would suggest and plan such a romantic gesture?

Each day when we would speak on the phone, I would provide Karla with an update on the planning, which invited guests had RSVP'd and which ones had declined. She had provided me with a list of guests that she wanted to invite. When I saw the name, Cecil Clark on her list, I debated about whether to send her lover an invitation, then decided that if I didn't, it would look suspicious. I knew that he wouldn't be able to attend because Claire had already made plans for him that day. I didn't invite anyone for my side of the aisle but told Karla that everyone had declined due to previous commitments.

I made all the arrangements, knowing how "busy" she was, including reserving the same lakeside venue where we had been married, and using the same wedding planner so that all the flowers and decorations would be identical to the first time. I even told Karla that I had already purchased tickets for the two of us to go on a romantic cruise for our second honeymoon. Karla was growing more excited as the day grew nearer, which I suspect was due to her and her lover believing that they were pulling one over on the dumb, clueless husband.

Deborah's Aunt Claire had her own ambush of sorts planned. While Karla and I would be scheduled to renew our vows, her philandering husband was scheduled to play in a charity golf tournament that she had signed him up for. He would be part of a foursome that included two of his best customers and a state senator, so he couldn't refuse. The divorce papers would be served on him on the tee for the fifth hole, symbolizing the five years that he and Claire had been married. Claire would be on a plane to her parent's house in Wisconsin, where she planned to remain until the divorce was final.

With the start of the fall semester, Deborah returned to Athens for her senior year. Without any influence from me, she was offered the weekend news position at WAGA-TV and continued to spend her workday evenings at my house. Karla was making it a point to be home every weekend, which I saw was making Deborah tense and distant. Karla kept trying to start conversations whenever she and Deborah were in the same room, but Deborah always found some polite way to excuse herself.

Excusing myself where sex with my wife was concerned was getting more challenging. Even when I begged off making love to her due to a sore back or another feigned injury, Karla would still insist on giving me a blowjob and expect me to reciprocate by going down on her. On those occasions, I would finger her to multiple orgasms, but there was no way that my mouth was ever going near her cheating pussy again.

The night before the big day, I played up the charade further by insisting that I sleep in one of the other guest bedrooms and leaving the house before Karla awoke to ensure that I didn't see the Bride on the wedding day prior to the ceremony. Deborah and I left the house together, both anxious and excited about how things would unfold, both for us and for Claire.

I had an assortment of the pictures that Claire had received from her private investigator printed out as four by six prints and placed them in the pocket of my tuxedo. After Deborah had presented the divorce papers to Karla, I would drop these along the aisle as Deborah and I left a stunned audience and a shocked Karla watching us depart.

Deborah was assigned to work that evening, so when we left the ceremony, we each drove to the station in our own cars. I stopped along the way at the locksmith shop where new keys for the locks that had been replaced earlier in the day and new garage remotes were provided to me. Once at the station, I filled the security team in on the events of the afternoon, with instructions to call the police to have the restraining order preventing Karla from entering any Statler Multimedia property enforced if necessary. I located Deborah in one of the editing rooms and slipped her a new key to the house and one of the remotes, although neither of us would be staying there in the immediate future.

I left the station and drove to my office in downtown Atlanta. I gave the building security team the same instructions regarding Karla and then headed to my office. I assumed that the answering machine at the house would be accumulating calls from Karla, her parents, and maybe even a neighbor or two, none of which interested me. There was one message I was looking forward to, but that should be on my office voicemail. I had to delete three irate messages from Karla before I heard the one that I was expecting. Claire had called from the airport to let me know that Cecil had been served and that she was on her way to Wisconsin in a few minutes. She left the number for her parent's house and asked me to call her later that evening to fill her in on how my event went.

Claire and I still had not met, but our conversations over the past several months had allowed us to become well acquainted. We had shared a betrayal and formulated our responses together. Now that our revenge was complete and the process now in the hands of the lawyers, I wondered if there was anything left in common between myself and Claire, or if our relationship would end along with both of our marriages.

I left my car in the parking garage for the building and grabbed a cab on Peachtree Street. Georgia Tech was playing Miami of Florida at Grant Field, so I figured that would be a good way to kill a few hours with some mindless entertainment. Having gone to Harvard myself, I wasn't a fan of either school, but I have always liked the atmosphere of a college football game.

After the game, I followed the crowd over to The Varsity and waited in the typically long line to order one of their famous chili dogs. I hadn't had much of an appetite all day, so the chili dog and an order of fries would be more than enough. When I was done, the crowd at the stadium had dissipated enough that I had no problem getting another cab to take me to the Georgian Terrace Hotel. My company had several standing reservations at upscale hotels in Atlanta, but Karla knew most of those since we had frequently made use of them on our 'date nights'. I doubt that she would even know that the historic Georgian Terrace hotel existed.

I was checked in, relaxed, and reading the last few chapters of the Sidney Sheldon novel, 'Bloodline' by eight o'clock. The premise in the fictional story was interesting to me since it dealt with a family company, but thankfully, mine wasn't anywhere near as cut-throat as Sheldon portrayed the Roffe's to be. At least not yet.

I called Claire to make sure that she had arrived at her destination and to fill her in on my revenge on Karla. She was pleased that everything went as planned, but I could sense a hint of melancholy in her tone. We promised to stay in touch during the court proceedings and to be as supportive of each other as we had been up till then.

Watching Deborah on the eleven o'clock news brightened my mood. If the camera ever loved a woman's face, it was Deborah's. I doubt that a cameraperson could find a bad angle where she was concerned. She radiated sincerity, honesty, compassion, and innocence with her facial expressions and soothing tone. I had watched her deliver the news almost every time she worked, but it was in that instant when I realized that she was going to go so much farther than a weekend anchor spot in Atlanta.

A few minutes after midnight, wearing only the hotel-provided terrycloth robe, I answered the knock on the door. Deborah melted into my arms, and I could feel the exhaustion in her body. It had been a long day for both of us, but she was the one who had been running non-stop, first to serve the divorce papers on Karla, and then to prepare her stories for the news broadcasts. I took her small bag and led her into the suite.

"Have you made a decision?" she asked.

I sat her on the sofa, took off her shoes, and began massaging her feet. I said, "Yes, I have decided that we are going to sleep together tonight - the operative word being 'sleep'. Once we're both rested and thinking clearly, we'll see where the morning leads us. Do you want anything to eat or drink before we turn in?"

"No thanks," she said. "Explain to me how this sleeping together tonight is going to go. What are the rules?"

I chuckled and said, "I don't have any rules, but if you want to institute some, tell me what they are."

"You mean that we can snuggle and cuddle any way that we want to? I won't be facing your back all night?"

"You can sleep on top of me if that's what you want," I assured her.

She had perked up considerably as she began unbuttoning her blouse. She pulled her feet from my hands and stood, "Mr. Statler, prepare to be the world's most loved Teddy Bear."

She was wearing just her bra and panties by the time she entered the bedroom. I was following along behind, trying not to laugh at her exuberance as I picked up her discarded shoes, blouse, and pants. I had her overnight bag in my other hand, which I placed on the bed for her. She stood there, contemplating the bag for a few seconds before she approached me. Staring into my eyes, she reached out and untied the knot holding my robe closed. Parting the front of the robe, she let her eyes drift down my body, examining me for a hint of what she might need to select as sleepwear.

The smile that appeared on her face was like that of a child on Christmas morning. She stepped back, went to her bag, and removed only her toothbrush. "Go ahead and get comfortable. I'll be right back."

She moved her bag to the top of the dresser and disappeared into the bathroom. I turned down the bed, removed my watch, and placed it on the nightstand on the side of the bed farthest from the bathroom. The robe was draped over the chair and I was under the covers by the time that Deborah reappeared.

She wasn't shy about being naked as I watched her approach the bed, but her excitement had her running towards me so fast that I had little opportunity to appreciate her naked beauty before she was under the covers and cuddling up next to me. The instant that I felt the full effect of her total nakedness against mine, you could have struck me blind and I would have still been able to describe her beauty simply by the way it made me feel. She was so soft, yet firm and muscular. I couldn't resist the urge to pull her body on top of mine, with her adoring face smiling down at me.

"I love you, Will," she whispered. "I'm not in love with you, but I will always love everything about you."

"Ditto, Kiddo," I told her. "You have made my life worth living these past few months, and I am forever in your debt."

"No, we have helped each other," she said as she touched the tip of her nose to mine. "No one owes anyone anything. I know you said that we would see where things lead us in the morning, and I'm okay with that, but can I at least get a goodnight kiss from you?"

I placed a hand on the back of her head and brought her lips down to mine. Deborah was tentative, so I gently sucked on her upper lip, followed by her lower before prodding her to open her mouth enough to accept my exploring tongue. When my tongue found hers, it's as if a switch had been thrown. Her whole body became involved in the kiss, with her hands caressing every part on my body that they could reach with her on top of me. Her lower body slid slightly to the left, which positioned her right leg between mine. She bent her leg until her thigh was sandwiched tightly in my groin and began using that part of her body to feel the warmth and arousal that was growing between my legs at the same time that she gyrated her pussy against my right leg.

I finally broke the kiss and whispered up to her, "Goodnight, Kiddo."

"Hoooleey Cow!" she gasped. "I have never been kissed like that. Wow!"

I chuckled and said, "It takes two. You taste so good, I didn't want to stop."

"Well, Will, it is past midnight, so technically, it is morning," she reasoned.

After experiencing how simply kissing her had affected me, I couldn't argue with that logic. "And, we can always sleep in," I said.

The first time was all about Deborah. I explored every inch of her body with my lips and tongue, from nibbling on her earlobes to sucking on each of her toes. She had two orgasms, one for each time that I first took one of her nipples between my teeth and gently bit down on it. By the time I stroked her clit with my tongue she was hotter than any woman I had ever been with. God, but did she taste good. It was the taste of purity and innocence, and when she came for the first time from oral sex, she started crying tears of joy.

"I never knew," she kept panting until the squeal of her next orgasm drove the words from her mouth. Once aroused, Deborah's stimulation kept her constantly on the verge of her next orgasm, then the next, and the next. Somewhere around one-thirty in the morning, her body was spent. As soon as I stopped stimulating her, she was fast asleep. I went into the bathroom to wash my face before crawling into bed beside her and pulling her into my arms. I was asleep before I closed my eyes.

I woke to an angel purring contently in my arms. Being careful not to disturb her sleep, I gently freed my arm from underneath Deborah and moved her leg off my body so that I could slide out of the bed. I took care of business in the bathroom before retrieving the robe, walking into the sitting area of the suite, and closing the bedroom door behind me. I called down and ordered coffee from room service, but held off on ordering any food until Deborah could tell me what she would like to eat for breakfast.

I used the room phone to call my home number, then entered the code to have the answering machine play back any messages. The only one of interest was one from my attorney informing me that Karla had been arrested for breaking into the house yesterday afternoon. The police had arranged for a board-up service to place plywood over the broken window, so the house was once again secure. My attorney informed me that one Cecil Clark had posted bail for Karla, so she was out of jail pending trial for violating the restraining order and for breaking and entering. He also recommended that I pack up all of Karla's personal belongings and see about sending them to her parent's home or similar place so that she had no excuse for visiting the house, even with a sheriff's escort.

"What about the excuse of harassing me?" I said to the recorded message, knowing that it fell on mechanically deaf ears. I would give some thought to the recommendation, though.