Commuter Conversation

This is a re-post of a 2005 story that has been edited.

There is no sex in this story, Sorry.

***

There was a light nasty, drizzle coming down at the Philadelphia airport. You would never know it was the middle of the summer unless you felt the stifling heat. There was no sun. I was here, only five hours ago on my way to Atlanta. The three days conference in Atlanta was canceled so I just turned around and headed back. I suppose I should have called home before I left but it didn't seem to be necessary.

The commuter plane was making a dead header back to Reading so there were only two of us in the passenger compartment.

"Hi. Since it is just us, do you mind if I sit with you?"

"No problem make yourself comfortable."

He was a good looking fellow, a little younger than me, well-groomed and well dressed.

"Do you make this trip often?" I asked to break the ice.

"Usually about once a month, if I am lucky more often."

"What can be lucky about going to Reading?"

"I am going to see a lady friend."

"Well, then I guess you are going to get lucky."

There was a short lull as the commuter plane broke ground.

"Does she live in the Reading area?"

"Yes, but we usually meet and stay at the Sheraton Inn."

"Why is that?"

"She is married, so we have to be a little discrete."

"Why today? It is the middle of the week."

"Every time her husband is out of town on business, she calls me and I dash up. He is some kind of engineer and travels a lot. He should be gone till Friday."

"I assume she has no kids."

"No, actually she has two. Her older daughter, who starts college next month, is at the shore with friends and her son is at camp for the summer."

The conversation was getting very interesting. I reached up to my shirt pocket and clicked my audio recorder on.

"That works out pretty good for you guys."

"We have it figured out because we have been doing this for three years now."

"You are kidding. Three years and her husband hasn't found out?"

"I think he spends a lot of time with his work or his hobby."

"Must be a time-consuming hobby."

"He buys and sells coins on E-bay. I guess he does pretty well from what Caroline says."

It was the first time he mentioned her name.

"How did all this get started? How did a guy from Philly meet a married woman from Reading?"

"I had gone up there about three years ago for a convention. I am in drug sales, headquartered out of King of Prussia. I ran into an old fraternity brother who lived there, Keith Furman. Keith had been having an affair with Caroline for over five years. The boy, that I mentioned who was away at camp, is Keith's. The husband has no idea. Anyhow, Keith was getting ready to transfer to Chicago. We were having drinks and he asked me if I had ever been in a three-way. I told him 'no' but I always wanted to. As we were talking, Caroline came up to the table. It was the first time I had ever seen her. I thought she was beautiful. It seems that Keith and Caroline had discussed a threesome for a while but couldn't chance to do it with somebody from the area."

"So, did the three of you get together?"

"It was great. I had my first three-way and also my first time at ass fucking. Caroline was the most marvelous woman I ever met. The next morning they asked me if I could take over for Keith after he left. I jumped at the chance and things have been great ever since."

"What about your wife?"

"I love her dearly and make sure that she never finds out. I would not do anything that might hurt her."

"Having sex with another woman is not hurting her?"

"Not if she doesn't find out."

"How about Caroline's husband?"

"According to her, he is too dense. She named Keith's son Bob Junior just to make sure the husband thought he was his."

"Looks like we are getting ready to land at Reading. Why doesn't Caroline just divorce the jerk?"

"He has two more years to go until he has vested rights in the company retirement plan. She wants to wait until then so that she can get half of his pension. She would also like to figure a way to get her husband to pay for Bob Junior's college later. Caroline seems to have things worked out and one day the poor sucker of a husband is going to get it right between the eyes."

"Damn, I wouldn't want to be him. How are you getting to the Sheraton?"

"I usually grab a cab."

"Hell, I have a car here at the airport lot. I'd be glad to drop you off." I gave him a business card from a computer repair geek that I happened to have in my pocket, and he gave me one of his.

"That would be great."

It wasn't raining and we got to the Sheraton in about twenty minutes. I dropped him off at the entrance and watched as he walked in. My wife Caroline met him at the door and took his arm as they went to the elevator. I turned off my recorder and drove home.

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I spend the next two days taking care of business without Caroline knowing I was back. I went to the house first and gathered up all sorts of papers and documents. The coins I loaded in the car were worth about $400,000 retail or about $280,000 wholesale. I took only the clothes and things I wanted. I made sure that there was no indication that I had ever been in the house. I made four copies of the audiotape. I used the computer to cancel all the credit cards and then reformatted the hard drive. All my E-bay info was on my laptop. I left the cell phones alone because my daughter, Sarah needed hers.

The next morning I left my motel and proceeded to the bank. I emptied all the accounts and went to the mortgage department where I signed a quick claim deed. They said my wife had to sign it also and I told them to get her signature after the default. We owed more money on the house than we could sell it for. I cashed in three certificates of deposit and took the penalty. I cashed in my IRA and took the penalty. My insurance broker gave me two checks for the cash value of my whole life insurance policies. It came to over forty thousand.

The bosses at work hated to see me go. I collected for three months of vacation time that I had coming and two months of sick leave. They gave me a check for my profit sharing and also a generous severance check since I was giving up all rights to the retirement plan and health benefits

I drove up to Kutztown and prepaid four years of tuition for Sarah. I put a thousand dollars in an envelope for her with a short note and left it with my mother. I got along with Sarah pretty well and wanted to keep it that way.

I was leaving a lot of things undone and I was sure that I was going to be libel and responsible for a lot more. I didn't give a shit.

I gave my lawyer a copy of the audio and a sample mouth swab for DNA analysis. After filling out all the papers I gave him a wad of cash and promised more if he needed it. He would serve Caroline with the papers in about a week.

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Guadalajara is beautiful. I have a high-speed internet connection and E-bay sales of my coins are going great. I have enough money to live on until Social Security starts. I am now specializing in old silver Mexican coins that are coming my way. I treat the people fairly and they offer me nice objects that I can sell. Caroline complained and screamed about the way I left things for over a year and then just gave up. I found it easy to hide down here and I am comfortable with my life. I take language classes three nights a week and have a live-in housekeeper who also shares my bed. I talk to Sarah every week but Caroline doesn't know.