Brief Lapse of Judgment

Summer nodded. "He texted me almost right as you called."

"Look I can't tell you how..." Jody started, but Summer held out her hand to interrupt him.

"Jody, I knew," she said calmly, "Heather told me a couple days after it happened. When we were at that party with the bad rap music blaring, she pulled me aside and told me. That's why I said I was feeling sick and wanted to go home."

"I thought it was an excuse to get away from the music and that one irritating guy who was hitting on all of you. I was ready to punch him out."

Summer smiled faintly. "I probably would have for that reason, but no. I cried alone in the bathroom for hours the next week debating on what to do."

"Why didn't you tell me, say something?"

Summer shrugged. "We weren't married or even engaged yet."

"But we were starting to live together. I felt like complete shit over what I did, it was eating at me. Summer, the only reason I never told you was because I knew it would hurt you. I didn't want that."

A tear formed in Summer's eye. "I know. I could see it eating at you. I knew you regretted it, and Heather told me how she was pushing drinks on you all night. She planned it because Rich was sleeping around on her at the time. Instead of leaving him, she decided on payback which was you. It was me she felt really bad for after and it told a while for me to forgive her."

"Did you ever...consider payback?"

"Yes, but the closest I ever acted on it was French kissing Marvin at my work Christmas party while he grabbed my ass. I felt so guilty about that... I knew I had to just forgive and forget. Believe me, I didn't trust you for a long time -- that's why it took me a few days to accept your proposal. I'd check up on you, have friends check up on you, but eventually I knew with complete certainty that it was a one-time thing and never would happen again. Until..." She wiped her eyes "You told me about Lois and I thought for a moment maybe you have been still cheating on me all along."

"Is that why you thought what happened in the hot tub wasn't as big of a deal? Because of what Heather and I did?"

Summer nodded. "I felt horrible and cried for hours after you left. I'm still sick with guilt, but you had sex and I didn't. If I could forgive you for that, I was angry that you were ready to leave me over a ten second indiscretion. That's all it was. We were playing around, and being in a bit of a drunken haze, I was in shock when he kissed me and kissed him back. My legs were already parted, so he pulled my tie and had his hand in-between my legs before it registered what was happening. I pushed him away, like I said, and he grabbed my loose bottoms and tossed them. That was right before you walked in. It's my fault for not saying something..."

Jody shook his head. "No, it's not just anyone's fault. Rich wanted you to be caught, I'm certain. He wanted me to catch you with no bottoms. He's so bitter, I bet he needed to prove you were just as bad as Heather."

"And he's wanted me for years, I'm sure of it. I flirted back, but only because I thought he knew I'd never do anything and I wouldn't." Summer reached and grabbed Jody's hand. "The only way he would've had sex with me tonight would be to rape me. I'm still sorry for what happened, but you not being here isn't going to make it better. It was being around you, being loved by you that I was able to get past what you did. Please, give me a chance to do that for you. Prove I love you and nothing like that will ever happen again."

Jody nodded. "I'm so sorry about Heather. You were right, what I did compared to you..."

Summer shook her head. "No, I was wrong. What I let happen was bad enough; it hurt you and probably just as much as you hurt me those years back. Once I realized why you told the Lois story, I figured that out. As I said, we weren't married back then, I was and a lot more mature than you were. I should've known better and stopped things as soon as he moved against me. What you were wrong to do is leave the kids without saying anything to them for weeks. I am more mad about that than anything."

Jody's head hung down. "You're right. I should've handled it better, but I think you understand how I was feeling -- especially since I was imagining it was worse than it was. I owe both the boy plenty of quality time."

"And what about us?" Summer said drying her eyes.

"I have my things in the car. I'm back home." Jody pointed towards the door.

"Yes, but that doesn't mean everything's okay. We were estranged for three weeks, almost a month. You can't snap fingers and expect it to be fixed," Summer said, "I'm sure you're still going to have... feelings about what I did and it will affect us. For one, I'm sorry but I don't want Rich in this house or in the same room as me ever again after what he pulled."

"I no longer consider Rich a friend. Really, I don't doubt he feels the same about me. I think his time here all was just a way to 'even the score' after Heather told him about us." Jody shrugged. "Maybe counseling will be good."

"Yes, it really helped me," Summer agreed.

"Wait, when did you..." Jody shook his head. "Your personal trainer sessions, that was it, right? That was almost two years, were they all you in counseling?"

Summer nodded. "As I said, it took a while to get over what you did. Counseling helped greatly, but it was you showing you loved me made get to the point that I agreed to marry you. Since we both know about each other's mistake, I think going together could be good."

Jody nodded.

Summer looked like she was about to cry again with her lip quivering "Can I have a hug?"

Both had tears in their eyes as they hugged tightly. "I'm so sorry. I will never do anything like that again. It was a stupid drunk mistake." Summer said softly.

"So was mine. I'm sorry you have to go through that alone. I'm sorry for not staying and dealing with it together." Jody kissed her cheek.

**

Jody moved back, but it took a few days before he could share a bed with her. The images he had of Summer and Rich kept preoccupying him. Counseling was really difficult at first -- especially for him. It open his eyes how, even before what happened with Rich, their marriage wasn't as perfect as he thought. There was a drop in intimacy from both sides, and they needed to work on improving that by doing more things alone as a couple.

One of those date nights, two months after starting counseling was playing pool together at a pub. They were having a few drinks, flirting with each other and just having a great time.

At one point, Jody excused him to go to the bathroom. When he returned, he saw Rich talking with Summer with his hand on her shoulder. He froze for a moment, then headed over to put an end to it. Before either could see him, Summer grabbed her drink glass and threw the contents in his face.

Rich responded by grabbing her arm and yelling, "You teasing bitch."

A bouncer was almost there, but Jody arrived first and before Rich could do anything, punched him right in the side of the face. Rich let go of Summer's arm and turned to Jody in time to receive another shot right in the nose.

The bouncer grabbed Rich, but told Summer and Jody they also had to leave. In the car, Summer said Rich was trying to talk her into joining him in the women's washroom and wouldn't take a hint, so she decided to be less subtle. She also added how hot it was to have her man defend her honor like that, and started undoing Jody's pants. She sucked him off right in the parking lot, which she's never done anything remotely like before. When they got home, she practically jumped him as soon as they were in the house, embarrassing their sitter before she left. Besides having some of the best sex he could remember that night, Jody felt he had forgiven Summer and was starting to trust her again.

Six months later, counseling was done and Jody thought their marriage was better than ever. He also heard from a mutual friend that he broke Rich's nose that night with the two sucker punches, but Rich wasn't pressing charges and had no intention of retaliating. Maybe their friendship meant something to him after all?

The End