Big Loss, Big Gain Pt. 02

Note from the author:

With regard to my first posting (part 1 of this story), I'd like to extend a sincere thank you to those of you that gave positive reviews and/or constructive criticism in a respectful manner. I've been a Literotica reader for over 10 years now and often thought about posting stories, but with regard to free time, raising children and assisting elderly parents were of a higher priority. Now that the parents have 'moved on' and the kids are more self sufficient, here I am.

I hope you enjoy part 2, the conclusion of 'Big Loss, Big Gain'.

Present day

The gun wobbled in her trembling hand and through tear filled eyes she stared at her frighted target. A few moments later she spoke. "It's all your fault. All your fault. Everything could have turned out OK if it wasn't for you." The intended victim was quivering with fear, wondering if these were to be her last moments of life here on earth.

Three months prior

Jim's view

I must have checked my watch more than a dozen times in the last half hour. As far as I was concerned, time couldn't go by fast enough. As Debbie babbled on from the other side of the table I was thinking about strangling Jane at office tomorrow. I wouldn't, of course, as she was just another one of the well-intentioned trying to help, but holy crap! How could she possibly believe that this women would be a good match for me? Thankfully, the waiter was within earshot. "Excuse me. I'll have that next drink now and please...make it a double". Normally I wouldn't be hitting the hard stuff, but from the way this thing was heading I was going to need it. No doubt this was the worst date so far and more than half of them were pretty damn bad. Debbie was indeed beautiful, but that was about it. Her status of '39 years old' and 'never been married' should have been a big red flag. It was apparent that no one had ever explained to her what a conversation is. I was hardly afforded the opportunity to talk at all while she rambled on, totally clueless. The last monologue I had to tolerate was on the importance of living near a florist. It lasted 10 minutes. Dear Lord, if I had to endure much more of this I was going to slip into a coma.

When she excused herself to go to the ladies room I finally had an opportunity to escape. A quick call to Jerry was all I needed to arrange a 'bailout' call that he'd give me in 15 minutes or so. After the call I would be on my way to work(ha-ha) to handle an emergency. As expected, Jerry didn't let me down.

During my ride home I began to reflect on dating, post-divorce. Not all the dates were as bad as this last one, but none of them could be considered a rousing success either. Many of the women I met came with various amounts of 'baggage' and it soon became evident to me that there are a lot of bad men out there. For example, Brenda could not carry any subject of conversation without mentioning her ex-husband who had apparently left her without any explanation other than saying he needed to 'find himself'. And then there's Nancy, who explained that the burn mark on her arm was from one of her ex-husband's cigarettes. A lot of these women had dark clouds hanging over them from events and circumstances that were none of their own doing. Just raw deals from meeting the wrong man. I thought that a few of these women really needed professional help and I felt sorry for them, but I certainly wasn't in any position to become anyone's savior. I'm no hero, just a guy looking for a relationship.

The relationship criteria I had established was pretty straight-forward. I needed someone who sees the glass as 'half full' and then some. Someone to lift my spirits, not someone to commiserate with. Someone who has something interesting to say and isn't afraid to say it. Someone who could listen as well as talk.

I realized that the chances of finding someone as pretty as Laura was not very realistic, but I didn't need a trophy wife or girlfriend. I just needed a woman who had 'it', that undefined combination of looks and personality that would compel me to want to be with her.

The Narrator

Later that same night in Jim's bedroom, his radio quietly plays.

As I lie awake resting from the day

I can hear the clock passing time away

Oh, I couldn't sleep for on my mind

Was the image of the girl I hope to find

-

Lyrics from the song entitled "Image of a Girl"

Performed by The Safaris, 1960, Eldo Records

Jim is in bed, but he cannot sleep, not yet. He needs release. He turns the dimmer on his night side lamp down low, just enough so he can barely see. He slides open the top drawer on his night side table and pulls out a small bottle of lube. After pulling off his shorts, he drops a liberal amount on the backside of cock and then slowly starts to spread it around with his right hand. With this left hand massaging his balls, he wraps his right hand around his shaft and slowly begins stroking. With his eyes almost closed, he envisions a girl in front of him. It's no one that he knows and other than being abstractly attractive and naked, there are no discernible features to her other than two things. She has dark hair and big beautiful eyes. After a while he starts to stroke faster and in his mind she speaks to him.

"Touch yourself for me, Jim. I can't help touching my clit and slipping a finger in my pussy while I watch you. It feels so good. Don't stop, baby. Go faster. I want to see you cum. Oh fuck. Oh fuck, I'm going to cum first.....I'm going to cum....Oh baby....please cum for me."

As the imaginary girl writhed in orgasm, Jim came. His warm load landed in a few places on his stomach, but most of it coated his right hand. After a short rest, he cleans up, slipped his shorts back on and turned out the light. His final thoughts before sleep were typical of the times. He missed having a live body next to him, a body that had loving arms to hold him.

Miles away, Laura was involved in a similar activity to Jim at just about the same time. While only wearing a t-shirt, she laid on her back with her legs in the air, knees bent. Her left hand was under the t-shirt tweaking one of her nipples while her right hand was reaching around her buttock, moving a dildo in and out of her moist pussy. However, her scenario had one very major difference. The image she saw was crystal clear, forged by a distinct memory of a real event that had occurred literally thousands of times before. With eyes tightly shut, she saw Jim's face looking back at her and it was his swollen cock sliding in and out of her. From the look on his face it's obvious that he loved being inside her. She moved the dildo faster to match the images in her mind and because of the change in his breathing she could tell it was going to happen soon. In her mind, he spoke to her.

"Oh Laura. Your pussy feels so good. So good. Oh Laura. I can't hold back any longer. I'm going to cum. I'm going to cum."

That was it. The movement of the dildo coupled with the thought of Jim cumming inside her was enough to send Laura over the edge. A few minutes after her orgasm subsides, she slips the dildo out and pulled the covers up. Although her orgasm was satisfying, she knows it's no substitute for the real thing. She yearns for the moments that often occurred after sex with Jim. The warmth of his body against hers, the gentle kisses on her cheek and neck, and most of all, his soft whisper in her ear of 'I love you Laura'.

Jim's view

Two days later I decided to put an end to all the matchmaking. I know that all the people involved meant well, but the results were poor and my wallet was shrinking from all the expensive meals.

In the past, I never found love when I was actively looking for it. The dance clubs, the bars, etc. They never worked. Love always found me. Whether it be an auto accident to meet Laura, stuck in a elevator with Susan, or having Gina assigned as my lab partner. No, I decided that I was better off leaving it all to fate.

*****************************

Part of my growing depression was related to my finances. The $50,000 I had to surrender to Laura represented a substantial amount of my savings. Savings that I had counted on to pay Sarah's tuition bills. I knew I was going to have to borrow money against the equity in the house to keep her in school, so my goal of retiring at age 60 was rapidly going out the window. Cash flow was certainly better since I had decided to cancel the family membership at the club. Laura had been spending upwards of $300 a month in lunches at the club. That, combined with not having to pay the monthly fee was freeing up about $500 a month, but it still was not enough.

I had no idea that things would be dramatically changing in the near future.

A few days later my boss came to me, "Jim, I need you to stay a little late today so you can meet with Mr. Stanton." Oh, boy, this might not be good. A one-on-one meeting with the principal owner can either be very good thing or very bad thing. At 5:00 I headed down to Mr. Stanton's office.

Mr. Stanton started things off. "Hi, Jim. Thanks for stopping by."

"Of course, what can I help you with?".

"Well, I want to start off by telling you how grateful we are of all your years of service with us. We know that over the years you have turned down several rather lucrative offers to join one of our competitors. We also appreciate your continued efforts during this past year which I know has been difficult for you. However, the real reason I've asked you here today is to discuss with the possibly of having you take on some new responsibilities with the company. Now that Sarah is off to college, I'm hoping that you would now be more amenable to doing some sales and account management for us. As you may have heard, the presentation at DFG Corporation didn't go all that well. Suresh is a brilliant programmer, but he stumbled on a rather lame objection that should have been easily overcome. Since English isn't his native language, at times he is at a disadvantage. This account is potentially a 1.5 million dollar deal for us and that's just the subsidiary. If we can get the parent company, we're talking about 15 million. Since you know the business and the technology, we're confident that you can fix this whole situation. Of course, there is some travel involved, but with videoconferencing available now, we try to limit it. So, what do you think?"

"Sure, I'll do it."

"Perfect. By the way Jim, we will increasing your salary by $12,000."

"Thank you very much sir."

"Well, wait a minute. That's not all. I want you to go over to see Ed Smith, our corporate CPA, tomorrow morning. He going to create an S-Corporation for you. Now listen, all this is just between you and me. It must be kept quiet. You will be submitting invoices to the company under this new S-Corporation of yours to the tune of about $5000 per month, say for the next 4 years. Ed will discuss the tax ramifications of this set-up with you. Are you getting the picture here? I don't want you worrying about how to pay for Sarah's college."

"Mr. Stanton. I'm speechless. I never expected anything like this."

*********************

After my meeting with Mr. Stanton I was absolutely stunned. My financial outlook had just taken a monumental leap forward and my new duties were going to make my job a hell of a lot more interesting. To celebrate I decided to go buy myself a nice big steak dinner.

I don't know whether or not it had anything to do with the fact that a huge burden had just been lifted off my shoulders, but from soup to dessert the dinner was just fabulous. Everything was great until I was leaving the main dining room and noticed a family having dinner. A man, a women, and what looked to be a pair of twins which I pegged to be about ten years old. Not an unusual thing to see, but I kept thinking I should known who that man was. It was still bugging me when I decided to stop at the men's room one last time before walking out. As I finished my business, it hit me. HOLY SHIT! IT'S JOHN! LAURA'S FUCK PAL! No sooner had I come to that realization when all of a sudden he walks in. The timing was perfect. It was just the two of us in the room.

"Hi. John".

"Sorry, you must have me confused with someone else."

"No. I don't think so. Your John all right. The same John that was fucking my wife...sorry..I mean ex-wife, over at the Easy Breeze over in Pottersville. Hey, why don't we just go ask that pretty little wife of yours all about it? I'm sure she'd enjoy the video I have of it."

John immediately lost all color in his face and stumbled backward grabbing his chest.

"Oh god....Please...Please don't tell her..I.. only did it...that one time."

"You're an asshole. You have a beautiful family, but you take horrible care of yourself. You owe it to your them to take care of yourself and stay alive. I bet that pretty wife of yours would give you more sex if you'd lose that stomach, then you wouldn't need to go look for it out on the net."

John was looking worse by the second and when he peed himself I quickly ran out and called out to the hostess to send for an ambulance. I hung around for awhile and eventually the wife actually talked to me just before the ambulance arrived.

"What happened?"

"I'm sorry. There's not much I can tell you. He came in. I said 'Hi', then he stumbled against the wall and grabbed his chest."

"Well, thanks for helping."

There was no need to hurt her and her girls, and besides, I probably had caused more than enough damage already. I left and got the hell out of there.

**********************************

I made a big mistake when I got home when I decided to listen to my phone messages. When I pressed the button I learned that I had four messages. I heard a message from a mortgage company wanting to refinance my mortgage (a mortgage that I didn't have), two hang-ups, and a message from Laura. Normally I would have deleted it immediately, but by then I was across to the other side of the room folding some laundry. Her voice was full of emotion.

'Jim honey, I know I hurt you. I know I hurt you real bad, but please, we were great together for so long. I know you haven't met anyone special yet, so please, I beg you to give me another chance. I swear I'll make it up to you, every day, for the rest of my life. You'll never find anyone that loves you the way I love you. Please call me.'

After I finished the folding, I deleted all the messages then flopped into bed. Maybe she was right. Maybe I wouldn't find anyone else. Maybe the devil you know is better than the devil you don't, and maybe there just isn't any angel out there waiting for me.

I proceeded to have a horrible nights sleep, tossing and turning for most of the night. Words and phrases kept going around and around in my head, like 'planned', 'betrayal', 'multiple men', 'multiple times'. WHY THE HELL DID I LISTEN TO THAT MESSAGE!

*******************************

On Friday night the phone rang. It was Sarah.

"Hi, Dad."

"Hi, sweetheart."

"Dad, what are you doing tomorrow?"

"Mowing the lawn, I guess."

"Oh poo. That's no fun. I was hoping that you would take me and the girls over to the beach."

"The beach. Oh Sarah...really?"

"Come on. It'll be fun. Look, I'll buy you that new Brad Thor novel, and we'll bring the nice umbrella so you won't fry."

"Ok. I'll ask Uncle Charlie to switch cars with me for the day. If we use his Suburban we'll have plenty of room to carry all the crap."

"Yay."

*****************

So there I was heading off to the beach early Saturday morning with Sarah and two of her friends. The problem with the beach was not the beach itself, but dealing with the traffic getting there and the parking hassles upon arrival. However, eventually we made it and got ourselves settled. Sarah was right. Once you're at the beach, it's great. What a beautiful day, hardly a cloud in the sky. The girls were off down by the water when I decided to take a little nap, but just as I was about it drift off I was awakened by the sound of a crying child. When I opened my eyes, there stood a tear filled girl who I guessed to be around six years old.

"What's wrong, sweetie?"

"It's my mom. I can't get her to wake up."

"OK. Why don't you take me to see her?"

As I stood up, she reached for my hand.

"Come this way."

"My name is Jim. What's your name?"

"Jenny. Jenny Richards."

"Oh that's a nice name. What's your mom's name"

"Holly."

We quickly got over to where her mom was sitting, but we found her slumped over to the side in a very unnatural position.

"Jenny. Do you see that girl down by the water in the yellow swimsuit?"

"Yes."

"She's my daughter. Her name is Sarah. I need you to run down to her as fast as you can and tell her that I need her right away. Can you do that for me?"

Jenny was off in a flash while I checked the woman.

"Holly! Holly! Holly!"

Totally unresponsive.

The attractive brunette was breathing, but just barely. I checked her pulse and it was weak. My heart was beating wildly. There were no lifeguards in the area and any help was nearly a half mile away. Seconds later all the girls arrived and I started giving out orders. First I looked at Sarah's friends Melissa and Katie".

"Melissa. After I leave, I want you to take all their stuff and put it over near ours. Then stay and guard it all."

"Ok, Mr. Martin."

"OK Girls, help me get her up. I need to carry her."

"Katie. Once I get her on my shoulders, I need you to show me that track star form of yours once again. Run ahead of me over to the main concourse/visitors center and locate help. Tell them I'm coming and then look for me. Wave your arms and call out to me."

"Sarah. Walk with Jenny and follow me. Grab the woman's purse and her cell phone if you can find it."

"Dad. Are you sure you can do this?"

"I have to try. Look at that traffic over there. It would take too long to get an ambulance over here."

With a slumping Holly over my shoulders I headed out, first towards the water where the sand wasn't so deep. I guessed that she weighted about 120 pounds and soon I was going to find out just how good my own physical condition was. I wasn't running. It was really a fast paced walk. By the time I got parallel to the concourse, turned away from the shoreline and headed away from the water, my legs and arms were burning. Then I saw Katie waving frantically and saw two EMTs and a policeman running towards me. They came in the nick of time as I was just about to collapse.

One of the EMT's spoke, "Are you her husband?"

"No. I don't know her. Her young daughter came to me for help and I found her like this, totally unresponsive. Where will you take her?"

"Shoreline Hospital."

"Ok. Go ahead then, I'll make sure the girl gets there."

"Thanks."

Katie said, "Mr. Martin, are you OK?"

"Ya. Just give me a minute to catch my breath again."

"Mr. Martin, what you just did was unbelievable. You may have just saved that woman's life."

"Well I sure hope so, because I might not be able to walk the same ever again."

As I slowly stood up, a whole crowd of people started clapping, and one man called out 'Well done, man. Well done'.

I nodded my head in acknowledgment.

Sarah and Jenny arrived.

"Is my Mom going to be OK?"

"I hope so, sweetie. Smart medical people are helping her now and will be taking her to the hospital as soon as they can. I'm going to arrange a ride for us to get to the hospital. OK?"

"OK."

"Sarah. Why don't you and Katie go back and join Melissa? There's still a lot of the day left."

"OK Dad, but this really stinks for you."

"Don't worry about me. The beach will be here tomorrow and the day after that as well, but this little girl needs help now. We'll play it by ear. I'll send you a text when I know more. I just wish I knew who to call."