Can You Cheat in an Open Marrriage?

One floor up, which put us on the top floor, we went a short distance to what looked like a corner office and I followed her in to a huge, (faux?) walnut-paneled office. She introduced me to a very tall, regular featured half-bald, half grey-haired gent and him to me as we shook hands.

"I am so happy to meet our star employee's husband at long last." I smiled and returned "And I am pleased to meet the man that made Flaming Red the hottest property in town". "Oh, I think she pretty much did that on her own, Merl." Please sit down." as he pointed to an office chair nearby.

"Janet, get us something to drink, will you? I'll have the usual, Honey". He looked at me, "Merl? We can't serve booze here on a Sunday, but just about anything else." "Diet cola, please" I said.

Spotting a Hawkeye cap on the edge of his desk, I ventured "Looks like the Hawks are bound for the Outback again this year".

He told me that he warmed the basketball bench at Iowa 25 years before my time, and I boasted that I was on the Student Council in 2008-9, which got the comradery flowing enough to fill in the time that 'Honey' was getting our drinks. He asked her to go on back to the lunchroom for a break.

"So, what can I do for you Merl? Or is this just a social visit?"

"Well," I said. "It was pretty much a spur of the minute decision, when I happened to see your car in the parking lot. I should have called ahead to make a proper appointment."

"Nonsense, Merl. Sunday is perfect. During business hours it might have taken you a week or more to get a slot." "Great" I said. "I don't think it would have been wise to wait another week. It is about Heide's job, of course."

He screwed up a worrisome frow and said "Well, there isn't much that I can reveal, even to her spouse, you understand?"

"I'll come right out with it, Devin. Has Heide been paying state and federal income taxes by way of withholding? I know she is making a bundle."

He looked relieved; he had probably envisioned some more desperate appeal. "No and Yes, Merl. No, we have not been withholding taxes. We set her up as a business contractor. 'Customer Perquisites, LLC', I think we called it. So, she has to take care of taxes on her own. And Yes, she is getting a bundle. All well-earned in my book. But she could have told you that herself!"

"I'm sorry to have bothered you about it, sir. I was frankly afraid to ask her directly because I didn't want her to think that I didn't trust her. She can be a bit of an airhead about financial matters and gets very feisty if she thinks she is being talked down to, if you know what I mean."

"Well, I can't say I know your wife all that well personally, Merl. But I can vouch for the notion that she is strong willed and doesn't like mere males to talk down to her" he said with a grin. "Anything else I can do for you, my man?"

"I think that is what was on my mind about coming in, sir. Her income didn't show up on our family filing the last couple of years was all"

"Hmm, he pondered. I think that she has probably set up a business tax i.d. and uses that i.d. instead of her personal SSN. Funny she didn't remind you of that." he offered.

"She maybe did, Devan, and I just forgot. Thanks so much".

"No big deal. Is there anything else on your mind while we are talking?" he asked.

"May I ask you sort of an off-base question, sir? About Heide's affair with the Mayor. It's great that you seem to have stood behind her all the way, but wasn't the publicity pretty embarrassing to Rye Balled?"

"Loved it, in fact!" he smiled. "I couldn't have scripted the whole thing any better. I introduced those two personally, you know. And the publicity did us a ton of good. I don't know any better way to get mention in the newspaper than that. And of course, since sex is totally what Rye Balled is all about, it wasn't embarrassing, it was perfect coverage for us. Oh, sorry, maybe not so perfect for her husband seeing her in the paper and all..."

"No, no, don't worry about that" I assured him. "Heide and I have had an open marriage from the get-go, and I confess I also took a bit of pride about that story."

"Well, it was not a Love Affair, I'm sure you understood that. He got his rocks off fucking the prettiest thing...woman in town, and I think she felt complimented by the fact of the Lord Mayor himself wanting her more or less in front of his wife. You know, I think for both of them it was more about showing off their affair than about the actual sex. That is why they were doing intimate things inside the public areas around here and it is why I let them go at it." His wife, not surprisingly, did NOT, and that is why it all had to cool down. But that is not for publication."

That opinion hit home to me and made me think a bit.

When I got home, my wife was not. I 360'd her and she was at Meredith's, surprise, surprise. When she got home an hour later, she looked somewhat the worse for wear. But she seemed to warm up just a little, relationship wise. I briefly thought about asking her to go out for dinner but then realized that would leave open way too much face time and make it nearly impossible to avoid a Q & A.

I just watched some TV and, fairly early, said a civil goodnight and went to bed. After thinking a bit restlessly, I got back up. The sound of the TV down below, with one of my wife's favorite shows on, told me she was not coming up any time real suddenly.

I decided to bring this to a head soon. With a virtual gulp, I grabbed for her jewelry box, fooled around to re-discover the secret drawer and pulled out the supposedly valuable US gold coin. As an afterthought, I grabbed the cheapo necklaces as well and put them in my briefcase. I locked the briefcase and put where I usually kept it in the front end of my closet.

Then I googled local coin shops on my phone and noted the name and location of one downtown that sold 'Gold and Jewelry'. Open at 10am. I then got to sleep and wasn't even aware of when the off duty Flaming Red climbed in on the other side.

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I decided to minimize face time with the town whore and headed out to breakfast downtown. Halfway through a dry omelet, I got a call, Greg Daley's name flashed. Oh, my...I answered right away.

"Hey Buddy" says he. "Wow, what in hell did you do to that little lady of yours? She was over here ballin' her eyes out to my wife all afternoon!"

"Well, I knew she was over there, but I have no clue what stick is up her ass Greg"

"Well, I could tell somp'in was brewing so I hung pretty close to the kitchen to listen in. She is all choked up about you leaving her for some fucking reason I couldn't totally understand. Did you tell her you wanted out or something?"

"NO, certainly not, although I am not sure it wouldn't be a bad idea." I responded.

"Holey shit, pal! You are my hero for having the hottest wife I ever laid eyes on and for how you deal with her sex-worker career so well. Geez, if you don't last what's the chances for us lesser human beings?"

"Well, no, no, I didn't mean to imply anything is afoul in our marriage." I reassured him.

"Well, you better tell it to your lady then. She seems to think you are going to hang her from the yardarm. She was literally choking on her own tears. "

I pushed record on my phone. "Tell me what she was sayin' Greg"

He waffled a bit "I guess maybe I am outta line Merl. Dammit I ain't no marriage counselor or something. Heide was blabbering about how you 'know it all'. She says you've been talking to 'her Spencer', yeah, she said 'her' Spencer and my wife knew for sure who she was talking about. Do you know who that is, Merl?"

I nodded slightly.

She mentioned Rye Balled a bunch of times and said you knew about that too. I don't know what she was stewing over about that...you damn sure know where she works what she does for a living. There was even some shit they said about the Mayor for Christ sake, but I didn't get that at all."

Of course, everything he was relating was perfectly in line with what I knew from my research, but I felt a need to put some cold water on his panic. I talked to him in a calm voice. "Of course, I know about all there is to know about her 'dancing' career...and this Spencer she mentioned is an old work buddy of mine. He did tell me he has been fucking her at the club, but I don't think she knows that I know. So, apparently, she thinks that might set me off. I'll make sure she knows better."

He expressed relief at that. I thanked him profusely for calling me and suggested we should always keep each other in the loop about what the ladies are up to. And not let them know we talk.

The only shock in all that news, was that Heide seems to be deeply concerned about saving our marriage. I felt a jolt of pride about that. I had come to think that, when I did confront her, she was going to calmly say she knew I would find out eventually and that it was best that we have an amicable divorce so she can get on with her career. I gotta think about this one a bit more.

It was now past 10:00 so my briefcase and I headed a block farther up the street to the Gold and Coins place. A bright spirited man greeted me with a smile and a welcome. He was not the fat, old bald man we envision in this job. He seemed to be the only person in the small shop at opening time.

When I asked about appraisals, he said sure, it would be no charge for an eyeball assessment, but he would have to charge a reasonable fee for a written, official appraisal. I pulled the gold coin and the cheap jewelry out of the case and laid them on the counter. He took a closer look with his naked eye and looked up at me very suspiciously.

"Sir, how did you come by these pieces?" his eyes bore holes through mine and he was visibly stern in his demeanor. He also looked a tad bit fearful. Obviously, something was afoot. "They are my wife's" I said.

"Then you should know full well what she paid for them. She bought them here just last year."

"Oh, my God! I didn't know she bought them here! What a wonderful coincidence" I responded. My mind was racing to see a way out of this box.

"And why do you have them here for appraisal??" He asked the expected question.

I screwed on the most bereaved face I could manage and came up with the best I could think of on no notice. "I'm sorry to tell you that my wife died suddenly last week. I am going through her belongings and thought these things might need to be appraised. Didn't want to just give them to her sister since it looked like the coin was maybe worth some serious bucks."

"Serious bucks is what we call a major understatement Mr..."

"Oh, sorry, I am Merl White, Heide's husband. Late husband."

He acknowledged with a handshake and a sincere expression of sympathy. After a few seconds he said "I can tell you exactly what she paid for these beautiful investment items. Let me check my ledger." He went to the back room and returned turning over the pages. "She bought the 4 Dollar gold coin for $440,000 early last year, and the diamond necklaces for $355,000 about a year later. I can assure you she got a very good deal on them. I believe the coin booked for over $600K. I confess I am not a very strong negotiator with someone as lovely as your lady is...was."

"I'm sure you gave her a fair deal, sir. Do you happened to know why she chose these particular items?" I asked.

"I certainly do Mr. White. Because I recommended them to her. She said she didn't want to just stick cash in a safe deposit box, she wanted something that would be likely to grow in value, but she did not trust Wall Street. I assured her that gold and diamonds were a great investment these days. We spent quite a bit of time, at my desk in back, because she had asked for my advice on investment items in the mid 6 figure range.

I told her I don't stock items in that range, but I could act as her agent in buying from high-end retailers. "When a shopkeeper has a very beautiful woman ask him how she might invest half a million dollars with him...well you can image the customer service she gets." He grinned, then quickly looked away from my eyes a bit sheepishly. Knowing my wife, there might well have been a bit of flirty touching during their back-room discussions as well. Given the magnitude of the transactions, it could have gone way beyond flirty, but I guess I am not likely ever to know about that.

I asked him how we might sell these if we chose to do so. He counselled "They are way out of our league when it comes to store inventory, but I could work with you to get them placed with Sotheby's or a similar auction house."

"That would be super if you would. But we have some family decisions to make before we make a move. Thanks SO much. I never expected such a definitive answer when I got your name off the internet."

I departed knowing full well that in time he was likely to learn that his lovely customer was not even a little bit deceased, but he will have to deal with it at the time. I headed to the office and put in an honest afternoon at work.

Dinner was sedate, but we did eat together, and I tried to compliment the cook without sounding overly solicitous. At bedtime I managed to slip over three quarters of a million dollars back into the old jewelry box. I'll have to talk to her about finding a much safer repository, when I get around to that subject.

I went to bed, but not to sleep for a very long while. When she climbed in, I felt like having the talk with her right then, but I knew we were both too tired to deal with the biggest conversation of our lives. I also understood that I didn't yet know what the closing chapter was going to be.

I knew that I still loved her, maybe in some twisted way, even more than ever. I found her amazing career path to be, well, amazing. She seems so strong-willed and in charge. Not to mention that she seems to have become the most accomplished feme fatal since Cleopatra. But, it seems, she still sees something in our marriage that is greatly important to her.

On the other side of that proverbial coin, she had blinded me with bold faced lies, had sex with a very large number of guys of all descriptions so long as they had money. I am sure not even she knows that number. And she willfully spends a majority of her week in the arms of men not her husband.

I won't fret over the notion of broken marriage vows. To me that is an aerie-fairy thing that no one really pays much credence to. I don't even recall exactly what our vows had been. I know we used one of those more modern, less patriarchal, versions that are popular in this century.

I was a bit concerned about STD's, but I had to assume that a courtesan who is a million-dollar property would be very well protected and tested very frequently. I knew that she had given up 4 nights a week with me to play the field, and that hurt a lot. But I also understood that we did not usually have sex those nights anyway. Sex, when we had it, was mostly in daytime hours, and was stellar! Based on what little I knew of the sex lives of other people our age; I would venture that we had a well above average sex life. Certainly qualitatively, and maybe even quantitatively.

I had to reluctantly admit to myself that I still loved her and maybe always will. But does she truly love me? I realized that I don't even know what 'Love' really is. I do understand that the overpowering sexual component of marriage is clearly separate from all the other feelings two people have for each other. But I think it takes both to make a real marriage.

If she were to tell me she wanted to stay happily married but that her sex had to be reserved only for paying clientele and the occasional Spencer or Rudolf, then, of course, we would be done for. Even it she was a world class chef and conversationalist; I wouldn't call that a marriage.

Or turn that around. Would I willingly leave and divorce her if I was guaranteed a free pass to frequent sex with her? I don't think so. Yeah, I would want the free pass, call it a Platinum membership card for Rye Balled, but then I would want to hook up with a new woman for the many other things of a married life. I do not want to come home every evening to an empty home. That's not even a home. God, what a deep thinker I can be.

One thing was starting to clear up through the haze. We cannot go on like this, with her leading the life she is and me pretending to be clueless. If we have any chance of surviving, we absolutely have to get her out her current employment.

I honestly think I could maybe tolerate her getting way more sex than I was, but my ego would not allow me to live within the community knowing I was a cuckold to the loosest woman in town. Sorry to be so thin-skinned and fragile.

SO, she would have to agree to quit the job and lifestyle but I am almost sure she wouldn't. I equally doubt she would agree to moving far away from here and starting over. I finally drifted off to sleep.

I'm over 14 1/2 thousand words into this tale, and I still cannot decide how our big conversation should go. I didn't set out with a plan to create a story with no clear outcome. But I wove all the ups and downs along the way, and never could come to an ending that I felt strongly about. I could equally live with separation or divorce as much as I could with a passionate reconciliation and happy ever after.

So, I am asking if one or more of you readers feel motivated to give it a proper ending. If you feel the inspiration, I invite you to send it in to Literotica, using as much or as little of my original story as you like. I certainly don't aspire to a never-ending saga such as George Anderson inspired with the ultimate infidelity in his "February Sucks", but I would love it if a couple of writers could do this plot the favor of resolution.

Odiouser.

Rewrite: Leanne is a 2^nd generation call girl. Goes to live with a generous Asian guy. He slowly catches on to her profession.