Checking Out

Thanks to Alix for being an amazing editor, to Kenjisato for a final polish and to Qetesh for consulting.


The German version of this story is posted in German Literotica as Auschecken by Egon Hoppe.

*

Tammy wasn't listening to me.

I had just returned to the car after checking out and paying the bill. I knew the drill so well I could do it with my eyes closed. I'm usually in and out of a motel office lightning fast, but the manager of the Hideaway Motor Inn was greedy.

When I slid the room key across the counter to him, he ignored it. Instead, he got up, went to the wall behind his desk and flipped a switch. A red glint began blinking on the walls. I turned around, thinking it might be a police light, but he had turned on his flashing "Vacancy" sign.

He had turned the sign off when I checked in. Our room must have been the last one available, and now that we were out, the manager was trying to rent it twice in one night. The next thing he did was pick up the phone, press two numbers, pause a moment, then say, "Doreen? Number Three. Now!"

Only after he hung up, did he come back to the counter with my bill. After I paid and walked back to my car, I saw the maid's trolley already in front of the open door of the room where Tammy and I had spent the last hour.

I got into the car, thanked Tammy for a great time and told her how happy she had made me. As usual, she wasn't listening to me because she was totally absorbed in her phone. It had been the same on the drive to the motel. It was as though our time entangled in each other was only a temporary distraction from her never-ending texts with her girlfriends.

I tried to make my words sound sincere, but I was only going through the motions. I was feeling relaxed and satisfied because she knew how to push my buttons and make me come hard. In return, I usually gave her a couple of good orgasms. There wasn't anything more to our relationship than that.

As I finished my perfunctory expression of gratitude, I saw another car pull quickly into the parking spot two spaces from my car. I wasn't worried because most of the lights in the Hideaway's parking lot were burnt out, and I had carefully parked in a patch so dark that no one could tell what color my car was, let alone see my license plates.

The new car was almost directly in front of the office, so it was bathed in white light, accented by the blinking red "Vacancy" sign. I saw a man get out and walk quickly to the office. The person in the passenger seat was turned toward the driver's side, so I couldn't see a face.

As I fumbled for my keys, the man came out of the office. He had checked in almost as quickly as I had checked out. His passenger, a woman, got out of the car and ran to join him. As she moved, her head darted in all directions.

She reminded me of me the first time I had gone out with Tammy. I had looked around the same way she was doing because I was scared to death that someone would see me. Tammy didn't care about anything except getting revenge on her cheating husband.

I slumped down in my seat as I watched the woman. I knew I was in the dark and she couldn't see me, but there was no sense in taking chances. Then three things happened at once.

The woman stepped into a patch of white light, the "Vacancy" sign, which hadn't been turned off yet, flashed bright red and her worried face was clearly illuminated.

My heart stopped. It was Helene.

Two seconds later they were at the door of Number Three. The maid was already gone. A second after that, my wife was inside the room and the door was shut behind them.

My first instinct was to jump out of the car, break down the door, pound the man into a pulp and pull Helene to my car by her hair. But I got a grip on myself and breathed deeply. I looked over at Tammy to see if she had seen anything. Her head was still buried in her phone as her fingers flew.

As I calmed down, I became frightened. My throat got tight. It felt like someone was choking me to death. Those were my physical and mental reactions to the realization that I could stop Helen before she cheated, but if I did, it would destroy our marriage.

I started the car because I didn't trust myself. If I stayed there, I might do something I'd regret for the rest of my life.

I quickly drove to the shopping center where Tammy had left her car. As usual, I parked several rows behind her. She sensed that the car wasn't moving, looked up, saw where we were and opened the door.

"Bye."

"Bye."

She was out of my sight a second later. I looked around the lot and couldn't see anyone. I screamed at the top of my lungs and then broke down and began sobbing.

I pounded on the steering wheel so hard my hand hurt. I wanted to pound my head there, too, hard enough to drive out the thoughts that were flying wildly around my brain. Maybe I could slam my head hard enough against the wheel to kill myself.

I don't know how long it took until I calmed down. I didn't look at the watch, but I knew that I now had one less question to deal with. The maid hadn't had time to change the sheets, so she probably just made the bed. By this time, Helene was being smeared into the dried sweat that Tammy and I had left there. I gagged at the thought.

I forced myself to push that image out of my mind and think about what would happen now. What were my options?

I could go home immediately, pay Mrs. Reynolds and send her home. I could toss down a few drinks before Helene came home. When she saw my car in the garage, she'd have time to rehearse her story before she came in. I could guess what it would be.

She had to buy something at the mall. I wondered if it was the same mall where I was parked now. Should I drive around and find her car and wait for her? What would I do when she walked up to it with her shopping bag?

Helene plans carefully, just like I do. She would have bought whatever it was a week or two ago and kept it in her trunk. It was now sitting in his trunk in a bag from the store where she bought it.

Later tonight, when he dropped her off at the mall, she would take her bag inside and walk around a little while hoping to run into somebody she knew so she'd have a witness she was shopping there tonight. Then she'd walk with her bag to the car. That's what I would see if I happened to find her car and surprised her.

She'll would be surprised to see me when she got home, because I told her that I had to work late and wouldn't be there until she was asleep. I wondered if she had called my office to check on me before she left the house. It didn't matter, because my bases were covered. If my phone went directly to voice mail, she knew it meant I was talking to a client after hours. There was nobody else in the office to check with.

After my dates with Tammy, I'd always rush back to the office and work a couple of hours alone. I'd wait for a call from Helene that she was going to bed, then leave a short while later and drive straight home.

No need to go back to the office tonight. I don't think Helene will call me from the Hideaway Motor Inn.

What should I say to her when she gets home. Should I try to trip her up? I could start by asking her what she bought. Was she at the mall where my sister worked? Did she see her? Did she have a hard time finding the item she bought? I could say she looked exhausted and sweaty even though I knew she'd shower and look fresh as a daisy for the benefit of Mrs. Reynolds. I'd look into her eyes as I probed. What would I see?

As soon as I thought of this scene, I knew it would never happen. I never askd her about her shopping. Maybe I could get away with one question, but after that Helene's antennae would go up.

I shivered as I imagined how it would play out. What started as me questioning her would end as her questioning me. She wouldn't rest until she found out what was on my mind. I'd try to clam up, but it would end up the same as it always did. She'd find a way to get me to spill everything.

She would confess and give me her reasons for cheating. She'd probably admit they weren't good enough.

The only good enough reason would be revenge, but it wasn't that. If she had known I was there and intended to get back at me, she would have stamped up to my car holding her friend's hand and spit at my window before going into Number Three.

She also would have turned around at the door and given me the finger before going in. If I had started breaking down the door, she would have called the cops and let me spend a night in jail.

No, she didn't have a clue that I was at the Hideaway. She wasn't there for me. She was there for herself. Why? Wasn't I enough for her? She never seemed dissatisfied in bed. If she wanted something particular, she always told me. That rarely happened.

Helene was usually upbeat and positive. She was always smiling. I tried to think back for any signs that she was unhappy with me. All of a sudden, it hit me.

About a month ago, she had asked me if I was getting bored with her. I had told her immediately and emphatically how crazy that idea was. She was and always would be the most exciting thing in my life.

Now it hit me like a thunderbolt where that question had come from. It wasn't dissatisfaction. It was disappointment.

How many times had it happened? I remembered a couple, but there were probably many more. She had been in a loving mood, but I was tired. She never criticized me, but she was disappointed. One time, she did remark that I used to require so much loving that at times it had exhausted her, but now it seemed that she wanted it more than I did. I told her she was dreaming. Didn't I prove how much I lusted after her every time we made love?

But she had sensed that something was off. I was working hard, playing with the kids, doing stuff around the house, like always, but now I had another chore: Tammy. I never thought about it before, but I had as much sex as ever, maybe more. The difference was now two people were providing it, so one of them was getting turned down, becoming frustrated and doubting herself.

Helene is as beautiful and sexy as any woman ten or fifteen years younger. I was sure she got hit on at her office occasionally. Because I no longer went after her the way I used to, she probably wondered about her attractiveness as a woman. That had made her vulnerable to the attentions of someone who had taken advantage of her weakened defenses.

Once she decided to give in to him, I'm sure she took over. She worked out the mall shopping or thought of another scheme that was even more foolproof.

She knew that Mrs. Reynolds only babysat for a few families and would be available on short notice on most weeknights. Just like Tammy had done, she probably researched all the out-of-the way cheap motels, so she and her friend could drive from one to the next until they found a vacancy.

Once she had made the preparations, all Helene had to do was wait for the next time I called her and told her I needed to work late. That was tonight. When she had hung up with me, she had called her friend and then Mrs. Reynolds. She was sure she'd be home long before me, but even if I happened to come home, she had a plan to cover that.

She never imagined that I would be checking out of the Hideaway just as she was checking in. How could she know her treacherous husband had decided that it wouldn't hurt anyone if he helped Tammy get revenge on her husband and then kept fucking her for no reason other than she was different than Helene? She certainly wasn't better looking or a better lover. I liked Tammy but didn't have any special feelings for her. There was no reason for my affair. Why was I only seeing that now?

If I confronted Helene when she came home, she would cry, and I would cry. She'd confess everything, and I'd confess everything. We'd forgive each other and we would promise to never cheat again. And we would live unhappily ever after -- at least until the kids were in college. It would be miserable for Helene, but I wasn't thinking about her now. I was selfishly thinking only of me. I would be destroyed.

Why? After all, she cheated, and I cheated. We were even. The scales were balanced.

Not quite.

I'd be getting a double whammy. I would always be haunted by the image of Helene looking furtively around the parking lot as she ran to the doorway of Number Three to rut in the same bed Tammy and I had used minutes before.

But there also would be something a million times worse: her eyes.

The admiration and adoration that always shone from them would be gone. Her love for me was so intense that sometimes I felt it radiating from her body like heat. It made me glad I was alive and I was her man. I gave thanks for every Sunday for being blessed with her.

Once she knew what I had done, Helene's eyes would no longer see me as special and different -- the best husband, father and lover in the world, as she liked to remind me.

She might put on an act for me and the children -- and our family and friends. But I knew there would be many times when we were alone and she was tired when she would let her guard down and I would see the pain and sadness of losing her total confidence, security and trust in me.

That's why I'd have to divorce her once the children were gone. Alone, I couldn't face those eyes every day. She had worshipped me, and I had taken it for granted. I had taken her for granted. Every time her eyes showed me what I had spoiled, it would be a stab in the heart.

No. That's not the way it was going to be. She would never know what I did or what I knew. Her life was about to become better than it had ever been. No matter how much money I had to leave on the table, I'd be home every night for dinner from now on. I didn't do much business travel, but all of that was over. We didn't need the money that much.

I was going to stick to her like glue, so she'd never even think of stepping out on me again. She was going to get more sex than a porn star. I wouldn't stop until she told me she was too sore to go on. I'd keep score on how many times a month I could make her come, and I'd try to break the record as often as I could.

We were going to do things together that we had never done. She had mentioned some things that I had ignored. One night soon, we were going to sit down and write out wish lists and then get to work on them together. She was going to be radiant.

I wondered for a moment if Helene would ever regret her adultery as she enjoyed her charmed life with the husband she thought was faithful and our wonderful children. Probably not, if she's like me. When I was with Tammy, I never thought about Helene. I knew she would never find out, and what she didn't know wouldn't hurt her.

Helene would surely feel the same way. If I didn't hear the tree falling in the forest, it's still standing tall. I'm her happy, faithful husband, and she's my devoted wife. Since it only happened once, it didn't mean much. If she did have any guilt, she'd absolve it by making it up to me for weeks or months. Eventually, it would all fade from her consciousness and she might forget it ever happened.

But I won't. I already know that no matter how hard I'll try to block it from my mind, I'll never forget the night I was checking out and she was checking in.

If this story sounds familiar, you may remember the classic it was based on. It showed up in the Audio category, complete with music, in 1973, before there was a Literotica website or an Internet. I heard it for the first time a few months ago. If you want to hear it, do a search on your music service or the Internet for "I Was Checkin' Out, She Was Checkin' In" by Don Covey. The original version is still the greatest.

For background on the stories of edrider73, see "Author Interview: edrider73" by Literoticauthor. Tag: "author interview."