Closure for Two

Closure for Dylan sequel

Jenn left the building where she works. After the confrontation with Dylan, she lived a nightmare. Pat moved to the guests' room and played the mute, despite her efforts to create a pleasant atmosphere.

Mused, she collided a young woman.

"I'm sorry," she lisped.

"Are you Jennifer Stevens?" the young woman responded with an answer.

Only then Jenn rose her look to the one next to her, she was a pretty Latina.

"Are you the one with the divorce papers?"

"No, I'm Gloria, Dylan's fiancee. Only now I have time to visit you."

Jenn was surprised, she never expected this event.

"Fear not," Gloria tried to calm her. "I know that your meeting with Dylan wasn't agreeable, but this time it will be distinct. We are women, we have a different understanding, we never treat the situation in white an black, like men do."

"Thanks for your understanding," Jenn smiled at her. "But I can't find Dylan any guilt, I know that my mistake is unforgivable."

"Don't be so harsh with yourself. Like his future wife, I thank you for giving him birth, without him my life would be scarce."

"Let's have a coffee," Jenn interrupted her. "We can't discuss there."

They continued the dialogue after a while, sitting comfortably with a hot coffee in their hands.

"Dylan returned with mixed sentiments," Gloria entered abruptly in the subject. "Despite his rudeness, he expected more empathy. He was especially deranged by Tyrone's attitude."

"Ya, he is adamant, never shows his feelings," Jenn tried to excuse her lover.

"Don't want to look nosy, but are you still meeting him on Monday?"

Jennifer reddened but confirmed.

"He is like a drug for me, I can't lose him. Is this an important aspect to you?"

"Don't get me wrong, I love Dylan very much, but, as his future wife, I question myself about some aspects. I know that heredity, education, and the environment have equal importance in a character building. I know that Dylan received a good education and lived in an honorable neighborhood, but..."

Gloria stopped, embarrassed.

"I understand you, my dear," responded Jenn, patting her hand. "If I was in your shoes, maybe I would have the same concern about his heredity. Maybe he'll become an arrogant womanizer like Tyrone or an addicted person like me?"

Gloria nodded.

"Life will never give you guarantees, you have to pick what you can..."

Jenn sipped her coffee, in fact, a pretext to gather her though.

"I was one of the so many teenager American moms," she revealed. "I had many sins, but at least I kept the baby against the whole world. Tyrone left me when I was in my eight-month because I couldn't satisfy him. After the confinement, I made the greatest mistake of my life, I get along with him."

Gloria shuddered but said nothing.

"I don't know if it was love, infatuation, or lust, but I couldn't resist him," continued Jenn. "The only good thing was that I limited my meetings with him only once per week. Then Pat, a fresh mechanic, came into my life."

Jenn smiled. "Was his misfortune, he wasn't experienced with women and easily felt in love with me. I rejected him so many times, but in the end, I accepted him.

In six months we married and I tried to be a good wife, excepting Mondays."

"How come he didn't realize anything?"

"He was inexperienced and very gullible. He was in love with me and had blind faith in our marriage."

Jennifer thought that Gloria looked reproachful at her.

"Look, I admit I didn't love him from the beginning, but with time I got strong feelings for him. I split my thoughts, I never thought I was hurt by meeting Tyrone. He can't reproach anything. "

"Destiny has its ways," said a pensive Gloria. "Maybe if you had kept Dylan he wouldn't have been able to study, maybe he would have been another man."

They talked for a while before they broke up. Gloria hasn't promised to keep in touch but will try to get Dylan up. None of the women had the hope that he would change his feelings.

At this time, Patrick Stevens visited a divorce lawyer. He took the decision when Dylan informed him about Jenn's affair, but he needed two weeks to gather up the courage.

The lawyer motioned him to sit down, and he hurried to tell his story, asking for help. He badly wanted to punish his wife.

"I'm completely on your side, but I'm afraid I'll disappoint you a little," replied the lawyer. "In the 21st century, law ceased to treat fornication as a sin. Your wife has cheated only Monday, but even, God preserves, she was doing daily an entire football team, she will still get an equal share at divorce."

"I understand, but I demand satisfaction because she deceived me with the children."

"Unfortunately this is impossible. Please forgive me, but you had enough years to discuss this problem until now. You should have a confrontation in the past, and opt for divorce when you were younger. Law can't oblige a woman to gave birth, I'm sorry, but we live in the 21st century."

"Can I sue Tyrone?"

"Of course you can, nowadays anybody can sue anybody, but with no gain, alienation of affection is obsolete.

As a lawyer, I don't advise you to try an act of personal revenge, you will risk prison. If you have proof, you can send them to his wife. She could revenge you, divorcing and taking him to the cleaners. See, not having children has its bright side, husbands like you don't pay child support, but it won't be his case!"

Patrick said to himself that the lawyer was cynical, but that overlapped exactly over his mental image of those with his profession.

The lawyer promised that in three days Jennifer would get a divorce at work. Their stuff will be split, the house will be sold, and the money will be distributed to both of them in equal shares. Pat and Jenn's income was quite equal, and he normally had no reason to pay alimony, but everything was up to the judge. After more than twenty years of marriage, if he will get unlucky, he will pay her alimony for life. Was nothing he expected.

From lawyer Pat went straight to the bar, a gesture he rarely did. But he was very uncomfortable and felt the need to drown himself in alcohol.

As usual, the bartender found out the whole story.

"Look, buddy, I may have your cure," he coaxed him. "If you beat this guy, you are risking prison, isn't so?"

"Ya, so the lawyer said to me," responded a bitter Pat.

"Then the solution is to let him kick you, and reverse the situation with jail time."

"Are you nuts? Do you want him to add insult to injury? After he fucks my wife, do you want him to kick my ass? What shitty solution is that?"

"You don't get it," continued the bartender. "Is a pitfall for him, you will suffer less, but he will much more."

"I'm not convinced that it's a good solution," replies Pat, with the stubbornness of the well-drunk.

"Come back tomorrow, to meet a guy," the bartender proposed. "Now, buddy, you had enough drink. Give me your car key to prevent an accident, I'll call you a cab."

Pat returned home walking like a Virginia fence, but he didn't care anymore, his marriage was finished.

"What happened to you, honey?" Jenn questioned him, worried.

"It's not your damn business," Pat spat. "I'm drunk and I don't care."

"Look, honey, I understand you're mad with me, but please, don't destroy yourself with alcohol, you don't deserve this."

"I don't deserve to be cheated and lied neither, but I was, so I don't care anymore. And don't say honey to me, keep this word for your Tyrone."

After that, Pat went to bed and slept dressed, as he had never done before, and Jennifer started to cry in the kitchen. Every day, she had fewer hopes to save her marriage, but she didn't want to give up without a fight.

The next day, Pat went to the same bar and the bartender gave him the car keys and introduced him to John, an older African -American.

"I have something to share with the asshole and I'm ready to give you a helping hand," John said. "In a direct conflict between you and him, he can invoke the racial card or the fact that you want to avenge for what he did to you."

"What do you suggest, then?" asked a puzzled Pat.

"I'll challenge him, he will beat me, and you intercede to defend me, becoming the positive hero. Not important if you beat him or he beats you, we will both file a complaint, having the support of the witnesses."

The plan was successful. Challenged, Tyrone beat the elder, and Pat found there by chance, tried to save him. The police picked up all of them, but after the hearing, only Tyrone was kept. His lawyer tried to persuade them to withdraw the complaint but was unsuccessful. The whole business cost Pat a thousand dollars, which he gave to John, "to treat his wounds."

Jenn tried to discuss this question with the one who was still her husband, only to found deaf ears.

Then she received the divorce papers at work. Even though she expected this, she still felt humiliated and left for home, with tears in her eyes.

"Do you hate me that much?" she whimpered.

It seems that in a situation like this all wives ask the same thing.

"I do what I got to do," her husband answered. "We need closure too, not just Dylan."

Next Monday she couldn't meet Tyrone, the first time in years. To compensate, she bought a dildo alike his dick; Pat surprised her masturbating, but it didn't matter to anybody.

Tyrone's wife was a fierce woman, she refused to bail him out because she received the proofs of his affairs. Evidence was more than enough, so she filed for divorce, taking him to the cleaners. She looked for Jenn at work and gave her beans.

The Realtor said the prices were low, and don't advise them to sell their property at this time. So, the Stevens continued to live for a while in the same house, but completely estranged, never talking one with the other.

At the first divorce trial, Jenn asked for matrimonial assistance, and the judge admitted her demand.

"Nowadays, women are not men's property. I don't know

any woman who is not cheating on her husband; nowadays this thing doesn't matter, marriage is more than sex," started the counselor, Ms. O'Brien, for Pat's amazement.

"It's important to realize your bonds are stronger than the things that disjoint you two," she continued.

"Despite all that happened, I love my husband," said Jenn. "Don't want to brag, but once I was beautiful..."

"You still are," the councilor interrupted her.

"Thank you. A lot of men tried to hit on me, but I resisted all."

"Because you already cheated on me with Tyrone," answered Pat with bitterness.

"Come on, Mr. Stevens, don't use such expressions," Ms. O'Brien tried to temper him.

"How you would like to put it, that she honors me with her behavior?"

"With this attitude, I'm afraid that our sessions will not succeed."

"Don't see which effect do you expect, I was against this from the beginning. We do nothing else but waste money when we already haven't enough."

"Please rethink your attitude," Ms. O'Brien gave him a severe look. "Otherwise I'll inform the Court that you want to defy the court."

So, Pat was forced to shut up and stay calm.

Jenn was asked to continue, and she hurried to do that:

"I was an impeccable wife; Pat was missing nothing. We had a great time together because I buried my pain deep inside me. Does he want to punish me? He should know that he will never succeed to do better than I do it myself, with this wound that I have in my soul."

Then Ms. O'Brien started to comfort her, naming Pat as an insensible man.

The sessions continued in the same manner; the councilor was visibly keeping Jenn's side.

"You, men, never have a correct vision of things," she said. "You never see the full half of the glass, only the empty part. The truth is that you should kiss her ass because she stayed with you for so many years. You're not handsome, nor brilliant, nor endowed, nor rich, only an average man. She resisted all these potential wooers, which means she truly loves you. But you prefer to focus on a detail..."

"I wouldn't say that her dalliance is a detail," Pat tried to protest.

"Let me finish," Ms. O'Brien spat. "How many times a week did you made love in the beginning?"

"Forth times," answered Jenn for him.

"And in the last years?"

"Only two times, but we compensated with cuddles."

"See, Pat, you were the first choice, not this Tyrone."

"Your take is too much for me, Ms. O'Brien," Pat protested. "In a real marriage, this problem should not exist; I should be her only sexual partner."

"You're genuine caveman," concluded the councilor.

After the last session, Pat was adamant about divorce.

"You can put off things, but in the end, inevitable will occur," he said to Jenn. "But keep in mind we lose a lot of money, it is better to finish now. Please, release me, if you say you love me."

She accepted the divorce with tears in her eyes.

In the end, they had to sell the house. After they covered all their expenses, they remained with next to nothing.

Pat left the town where he wasted twenty-five years. After a couple of years he married a widower with a lot of children, he adopted them and tried to enjoy the father statute. Even so, a voice in his head said that it wasn't the same.

Jenn lived unhappily until Tyrone was released from jail. Because they were divorced, they gave themselves a chance to live together. As usually happened, they part away, because he remained the same womanizer as always. After a short break, they returned to their old weekly arrangement.

On the other side, Jenn continued to suffer because of Dylan.

Nothing remains unpunished in life.