Bob, Nancy and Jazmine

"Sarcasm is not your forte Rob. All right; so you caught me. Now what?"

"Divorce and then we wait until we can get a DNA test done on the baby to see if I'm going to be a part-time father or not."

"There doesn't need to be a divorce Rob."

"It is what usually happens when one partner in a marriage gets caught cheating on the other partner. Isn't that what you did to your ex when you caught him cheating on you? Do you think I'm stupid Nanc? If you have been fucking Augustus for two years that means you were cheating on your husband. It was only six months after your divorce that we hooked up. You divorced him for cheating on you while you were cheating on him?"

"I know it sounds weird, but that's not the way it was. In the first place I haven't been seeing Jim for two years. It has only been about fourteen months. When I found out Mike was cheating on me I decided to get my revenge by giving away what he thought was his to someone else. That someone was Jim and while I didn't intend for it to happen we fell in love and decided to get married. I divorced Mike, but by the time the divorce was started an ex girl friend of Jim's told him she was pregnant and he was the father. He stepped up and married her. He doesn't love her, but he is absolutely crazy about his son. He had DNA done and the boy is his. He won't leave her because he won't be a part-time father to his son. We still love each other, but can never be. Ironically the same thing happened to you and me."

"I can see how it happened, but it changes nothing."

"It doesn't matter that I love you?"

"No you don't. Long ago we agreed there was no spark between us and all we would ever be was friends with benefits."

"That was then. The longer we were together the stronger my feelings for you got. When we married it was because I wanted to marry you. Yes I did use the pregnancy to make it happen, but that was because of the no spark thing. I was sure I could make you love me if we were permanent. I thought it was worth the chance. If I had no feelings for you I wouldn't have married you. There isn't as much stigma attached to an unmarried mother that there used to be. My problem is that I love two men equally and I want them both. My solution to the problem was to see one on the side and live with the other. I never expected that you would find out."

"But that is where we are right now Nanc. I did find out. Now for me the question is what to do about it."

"How about you do nothing? Why not keep things as the way they are and see if you can come to love me as I've come to love you?"

"You can't be serious. Stay with a woman who believes it is all right to love another man and have sex with him three times a week?"

"That won't happen anymore. Now that you know it forces me to make a choice and that choice is you. While you are thinking about what to do think about this. I've never said no to you when you want to make love and as a matter of fact I come after you more than you come after me. Have you ever seen a lack of love or affection from me? No you haven't and it is because I love you and I've shown it every day since we said I do."

She was right about all of it and until my talk with Jazmine I thought I was in hog heaven. Nanc was a great cook, a tiger in the bedroom and was always doing things to show she cared for me. And as much as I hated to admit it to myself I was in love with two women. I had come to love Nancy even if she didn't seem to know it, but I also loved Jazmine. Always had and probably always will. The only difference between Nancy and me is that I wasn't fucking the other love in my life. But that difference was the key. I didn't do it because it wouldn't have been right. I'd committed myself to Nancy and that meant my feelings for Jazmine had to be pushed to the back of my mind and left there. I thought long and hard and then made a decision that I hoped wouldn't turn out to be stupid.

"You have lost my trust Nanc. If I stay I will be watching you like a hawk. Every time you come home late I'm going to wonder if you are seeing him. You can give me an excuse for your being late and will most likely check it out to see if it is the truth. Go shopping and be gone for longer than I think you should have been and I'll be checking. Tell me that you are going over to your mother's to help her with something and I might call just to see if you are really there. Can you live like that?"

"I can if that is the price I have to pay to keep you."

"Then there is the biggie. You will actually be on probation until the baby is born and I have a DNA test done. If the child isn't mine you and I will be done. You will have to live with that hanging over your head. Still want to stick it out?"

"I'm positive the baby is yours so yes I won't have any problem hanging in there.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

So I let things slide and over the coming months Nancy did her absolute best to show me that she loved me. True to my word I was always checking on her, but she never did anything wrong. Jazmine kept me up to date on what was going on where she and Nancy worked and apparently Nancy had but Augustus behind her. Jazmine was staying in touch because she knew --just knew -- that Nancy's baby wasn't mine and as soon as I had proof of that I would dump Nancy and Jazmine would be there to pick up the pieces. I will add here that I did not offer Jazmine any encouragement, but I didn't discourage her either.

The pregnancy scrambled Nancy's hormones and she became super needy in the bedroom and I had my work cut out for me. The woman was wearing me out and I wondered if I would even be around when the baby came or in a pine box in the ground.

School was coming along nicely and with the courses I took on line while in the Army I was on track to graduate in two years instead of four. Nancy and I did have an active social life and we attended parties and barbeques given by friends and classmates from school. At maybe a third of them Jazmine was also there and I stayed close to Nancy. I didn't know if Jazmine would actually get in Nancy's face, but I wouldn't have bet against it so I stayed close by.

We also attended several social functions put on by Nancy's employer. Augustus was pointed out to me and I noticed that they never even looked at each other let alone get together to talk. Luckily there were several of my high school classmates working there so there wasn't any way that Nancy could pinpoint Jazmine as the one who dimed her.

Things were going on fine and then as usually happens things changed. Mrs. Augustus (Joan was her name) was killed in a traffic accident leaving her husband a widower and a single parent. My source was Jazmine and after she gave me the information she said:

"Now he is free to remarry so maybe you should start keeping a closer watch on Nancy."

I considered that good advice, but I didn't do anything until Jaz told me that Nancy and Augustus were back to having lunch again. She did say they weren't the long lunches like in the past, but they were still getting together. Another check to Spenser Investigation only got me that the two did go to lunch together, but other than holding hands and a kiss or two nothing else was happening. Yet! I decided not to wait and see. The ay I got the report from Spenser I hit Nancy with it over dinner.

"Once upon a time I told you that you were on probation and that I would be keeping an eye on you. Care to explain the lunches with Augustus, the hand holding and the kissing?"

"Simple enough. I'm committed to you, but you haven't committed to me. In fact you made it plain that if the baby isn't yours you are gone. And you even hinted that even if the baby is yours you still might not stay. I'm sure in my mind that the baby is yours, but there is still a slight chance that it isn't. When Jim lost his wife he came to me and asked if there was a chance we could still get together I told him there was a slim chance, a very slim chance that it could happen and I explained the circumstances to him. He is praying that the baby is his and you will cut me loose. Holding hands and a kiss or two to keep him hanging around is my way of having insurance to fall back on if things don't work out the way I hope they will. And just to be absolutely clear on this holding hands and a kiss or two is all it is going to be. Just enough to keep him hanging around as a backup."

What could I say to that? I hadn't given the girl much of a hope that we were going to stay married. She was trying; I'll have to give her that. She was doing everything she could to let me know where I stood with her so why wasn't I even trying to meet her halfway. I honestly didn't know, but I suspected that somewhere in the back of my mind there was a little chamber that was holding the thought "Once a cheater always a cheater. How do you make something like that go away? Maybe I couldn't make it go away, but I could ignore it as much as I could. And I could make things a little easier on Nancy.

"I'm not going anywhere if the child is mine. If it is mine you are stuck with me."

She smiled and came over and sat down on my lap. She kissed me and said "Then you are stuck with me because you are the father of my baby."

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

And I was.

An eight pound four ounce boy we named Robert Allen Denton the Third arrived and the DNA test showed that he was indeed mine. According to Jazmine once Nancy returned to work from maternity leave Nancy and Augustus never even had coffee together in the breakroom let alone go out for lunch together. Two days after "Trip" came on the scene Jazmine called me and asked if he baby was mine and I had to tell her it was.

"I'm never going to get another shot at you am I?"

"It doesn't look like it, but then again you had three chances and they never worked out so why would you expect another chance to work?"

"I know Rob; I just know."

I just smiled and said to myself "You will never know Jaz; that ship has sailed."

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Of course I was wrong. One year after going back to work Nancy and Augustus to off together for parts unknown.

When I got home from work that evening I found a note on the kitchen table that just said "The baby is at Sally's." I'd just finished reading the note when Sally called and asked when I was going to come over and pick up Trip. I didn't think anything of it. I assumed that Nancy had to go shopping and had dropped Trip off at Sally's. When I got to Sally's I asked her what Nancy had said when she dropped of Trip.

"She just said she had some things to do and that you would be picking up the baby."

Nancy didn't come home that night and in the morning I had to call work and arrange to take the day off so I could take care of the baby. When noon came and still no Nancy I decided to call the police. I was reaching for the phone to make the call when it rang. I answered and it was Jazmine. She asked if Nancy was all right and I had to tell her I didn't know.

"Did she tell you why?"

"Why what?"

"Why she walked in and quit? Didn't give notice, just quit."

"I haven't seen her since she left the house to go to work yesterday."

"Uh oh; I smell something rotten. Jim Augustus quit also."

"I think I'd better call the bank. Talk to you later."

I called the bank and found that Nancy had cleaned out both checking and savings. Not a big deal as most of the money was hers anyway. Way back when I talked to the attorney about the divorce what he told me made me move the bulk of my money so Nancy would have no access to it. I added money to the account twice a month and Nancy thought it was financial aid for my schooling.

After I hung up on the bank I called the three credit card companies we had and cancelled the cards. According to the people I talked to the cards hadn't been used. I arranged for replacements and then got busy and fed my son. I played with him until he got tired and then I changed him and put him down for a nap. Once he was down I got myself a beer and sat down to figure out what I was going to have to do. I was going to have to drop out of school. At least until I could find some way of handling Trip. In the morning I could look into day care. Next I'd have to swing by school and see if I could salvage anything out of the term. The rest of the day was spent taking care of some things around the house and taking care of Trip.

I went to bed and as m head hit the pillow I was asking myself what kind of woman would abandon her own child. I hoped that wherever the two of them ended up something really bad and painful would happen to the both of them.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Trip woke me at six and I changed him and was fixing him something to eat when the doorbell rand. I set him down in the playpen we'd put in the dining room and went to the door. I opened it and Jazmine came rushing in.

"Where is he. Has he been fed yet? Does he need changing?"

"Whoa up there. He doesn't need changing and I was starting his breakfast when you rang the doorbell."

"Well get to it. We've got a busy day in front of us."

"Why are you here and what are you babbling about?"

"I took a vacation day at work and now that Nancy is gone I'm here to claim the man I never should have let slip through my fingers in the first place. And I am not babbling. We have to get the boy into daycare. We need to see a lawyer and get the paperwork going on giving you sole custody of the boy. Shouldn't be a problem seeing that she abandoned him. We also need to get a restraining order to keep her away from the boy. There isn't any way she can claim to be a fit mother after walking away from him. "So first the lawyer and then the daycare center in my building."

"You going to tell me what to have for breakfast too?"

"Maybe later. Got to take care of junior first."

"He isn't Junior. He is Robert Allen Denton the Third. Know around here as Trip."

"Am I going to have trouble with you?"

"More than likely. How about we go back to your first statement. You are here to claim your man?"

"Sounded pretty straight forward to me. I let you slip away and I'm here to get you back."

"There is one small problem with that. You are assuming I'm okay with your plan, but I'm not okay with it."

"Why not?"

"Do you know the definition of insanity?"

"I don't think so."

"It is when you keep repeating something exactly the same over and over and expect to get a different outcome each time."

"I don't understand."

"We've gotten together three different times and each time it ended with your dumping me. The same result each time even though I was expecting a different result. It would be insane for me to try it again."

"You are going to physically throw me out?"

"Of course not."

"Then let's get with the program. Feed Trip, see attorney, arrange day care and worry about personal stuff later."

Why fight it I thought; it all needs to be done. Get it done and sweat the other stuff later. I called the attorney I'd talked to about the divorce and he said he could see me right away. When I got there I filled him in on what was happening and told him to file for the divorce.

"I know nothing can happen until she gets the papers, but I'm betting we won't hear from her and in a year we can sue for abandonment right?"

He said yes and told me he would have the papers ready for my signature at ten and since he had to be in court at eleven he would file them while he was there. We left the attorney's office and headed over to where Jaz worked. I was doubtful, but Jaz said she could get Trip into day care there.

"I doubt HR would even think to tell Allison that Nancy no longer worked there."

"Allison?"

"She operates the day care."

"So what happens the day she does find out?"

"Don't worry about it. I've got it handled."

"You've got it handled?"

"Yes Rob; I've got it handled."

By then we had arrived at her building and she showed me her parking spot.

"I'll take Trip in. You go across the street to the coffee shop. It will only take about twenty minutes."

It took less than fifteen, but when she showed up she didn't have Trip with her.

"I left him there. They were expecting him today when Nancy came to work. We can pick him up at five which is when Nancy would have picked him up. We still have a lot to do. We have to go back to the lawyer's office and sign the paperwork and then call a locksmith to change the locks on the apartment."

"Don't need a locksmith. I'll just get what I need at Home Depot and change them myself."

"Okay. Then we need to pack all of her stuff and get rid of it."

"Why?"

"To make room for my stuff silly. Then once her stuff is out of the way we can go over to my place and move me into your place."

"Did you not stop to think tha..."

"Just hush up Rob. You know you need someone to help you take care of Trip and that will be me. We can work out the rest of it later."

She was right; I was going to need help with Trip; at least until I got back on my feet from the blow that Nancy had given me. And by taking Jazmine's help I could stay in school.

We went through the apartment and bagged up everything that was Nancy's and on the way over to Jaz's place I dropped it all at her sister Sally's place. No one was there so I just piled it all in front of the garage door and left her a note telling her to call me. While waiting for Jaz to finish packing I call the police and reported Nancy missing and I was told I needed to come in and file a report. I told them I'd be down later on that day.

We got Jaz moved in to my place and I left her to settle in while I went to the police station. I filled out a written report and then a detective talked to me. He of course asked if the wife and I were having any problems and I told him the entire story right up till she walked into where she worked and quit without notice. I also mentioned that her lover had also quit.

"Then she isn't really a missing person."

"Maybe not, but we both know when her family doesn't hear from her they will more than likely call you and say something like "She would never have done something like that. Run off and leave her baby behind. He must have done something to her." I'm just getting ahead of the game. If I wasn't on record when they called you I'm pretty sure you would wonder why and you would be looking at me as a suspect in her disappearance."

He nodded his head yes and told me they wouldn't waste a lot of time looking for her. "We will check with her employer and verify what you've told us and then notify other police departments and hospitals in case she shows up somewhere."

That taken care of I swung by college and talked to all my instructors and brought them up to date on why I'd missed a day and would likely miss at least one more. They all told me not to worry about it and that we could work it out. From school I stopped by the day care center and picked up my son and when we got to the apartment I found that Jaz already had dinner on. She told me Sally had called and wanted me to call her back. She took Trip from me and I picked up the phone and called Sally.

"What's with all of the stuff in front of my garage door?"

"It is everything of Nancy's that was here at the apartment. I was going to give it to Goodwill, but then decided to give it to you in case she ever comes back."

"Comes back?"

I filled her in on what was happening.

"She would never do something like that. Run off and leave her baby?"

I smiled at that. Almost word for word what I'd told the detective her family would probably say.

"Well she did it Sally and you can call her work and ask the HR department and find out that she and her lover, one James Augustus both came in and quit without notice. She hasn't been here since she dropped off the baby at your place. She hasn't called and all I've heard from her is the note telling me that Trip was over at your place."