February Sucks - Alternate

This is the way I think I would handle the situation in George Anderson's "February Sucks." It is located at https://www.literotica.com/s/february-sucks if you have not read it yet. Many thanks to George for giving me permission to try my hand at changing the direction taken by the main character Jim. Story begins on the night of the End of February party. Please don't jump ahead as changes have been made throughout the story.

*****

We'd reserved a table for ten at the club, and it was a good thing we had. It seems a lot of other people were busy forgetting February, but they weren't too busy to notice the four women in our group. Well five now as Ken and Barbara just showed up, late as usual.

"You're attracting a lot of attention, babe," I whispered to Linda. "You're the most attractive woman in the room, as usual."

"Oh, you." She looked up at me, lightly pressing a soft breast into my arm. "You don't have to say those things, even though I like hearing them."

"But I do have to," I responded. "Truth is truth, after all. You can't have opinions about truth." Yeah, I know that's corny, but neither of us cared just then. She got the point, and glowed even brighter.

Neither of us are great dancers, but we don't disgrace ourselves, either. We just don't care that much: we're out there to enjoy each other, not to provide entertainment. So I danced with the love of my life, with occasional breaks for hot wings and a drink. I had gone to replenish the wings; when I came back, Dave was asking Linda to dance. I heard her response.

"I'd love to, Dave, and I would another time, but I want to make tonight special for Jim and me. I'm only dancing with him tonight."

Was I proud? Happy? You'd better believe it. I distributed the wings and whispered into Linda's ear. "So is it time to leave yet?"

"Right after you brought a fresh plate of wings? What are you thinking? We'll both need our energy for what I have planned." She gave me that look again, and held my hand under the table. A few minutes later, the band took a break. In the relative quiet, we could hear loud laughter from another table, and turned to look.

"Hey, isn't that Marc LaValliere?" Phil was craning around me to see.

"It is, it is!" Dee squealed excitedly. Marc LaValliere was the star tight end on our city's football team. Unlike many others on the team, he made his year-round home here. He was well known for his community activities as for his exploits on the field. He had the reputation of being a genuinely good guy but there had been rumors about him dating married women as well as breaking up some marriages. Here tonight he was holding court for two couples who must have been very good friends. Marc became the main topic of conversation at our table, as the guys talked about his football feats and the women praised his good looks. He was after all single.

"It doesn't hurt that he's a hunk, either," Dee put in. Yea, a 6'4" 280 lbs. hunk.

Linda and I both knew who he was, but we weren't very interested in anything besides each other just then. We let the conversation wash over us, holding hands under the table.

"Hey, you two, get a room!" Linda and I looked at each other. We hadn't even been kissing. Well, not really kissing, anyway. My feeding her wings (so she wouldn't get sauce on her new dress, of course) didn't count. Besides, we'd already gotten a room. We were saved from further embarrassment when the band started again.

"Shall we dance here, or upstairs?" I whispered to Linda. Before she could reply, Jane interrupted, "Look! He's coming this way!"

Sure enough, Marc LaValliere had left his table and was heading for ours. I was amused by the reaction of the women at our table. Four of them primped and strutted, all but saying "pick me, pick me!" If you think a woman can't strut while she's sitting down, you have a lot to learn. Linda, however, looked downward and held my hand a little tighter. She seemed to be breathing fast and looked flushed.

"Hi, I'm Marc. Would you like to dance?" He was standing behind Linda's left shoulder, holding his hand out to her.

I felt Linda gasp and her eyes glazed over as she dropped my hand as if it were a hot potato. I watched dumbstruck as she turned her back to me, gave Marc her right hand (it almost disappeared in his big paw) and gracefully rose from her chair. He led her out to the dance floor.

"Hey, man, now my feelings are hurt. I thought she was just dancing with you tonight." Dave smiled as he needled me.

"Yeah, that's what I thought, too," I groused. What the hell just happened?

"Relax, Jim. It's just a dance." Jane tried to soothe me. I tried to believe her, but I couldn't help having a bad feeling about this.

The band played a couple of fast songs, and our whole table watched them dance. So did everyone else in the room. Marc was good, far better than I was, and Linda was clearly enjoying herself. Her partner and her dress combined to show her off to perfection.

"Don't they look great together? Come on, Jim, let's join them," Dee invited, clearly trying to distract me.

"So she doesn't look great with me?"

"Look at how she is smiling. She is really enjoying herself."

"Jane, keep your comments to yourself. You are not helping me at all."

The next song was a slow one. I watched Linda melt into his arms, fitting perfectly as though she belonged there. He was good at that, too. Lots of practice, I'll bet, I thought to myself sourly. Marc said something to Linda; she smiled sweetly as she responded. He wasn't doing anything I could legitimately object to. He didn't dance any closer to her than I danced with Dee or Jane; his hands didn't go anywhere they weren't supposed to.

Another slow song, a ballad this time. I could see the band leader watching my wife and her partner, taking his cues from them. Marc was smiling as he held Linda in his arms; he was clearly pleased with whatever was going on. I'd seen enough. I rose from my chair, and felt Jane's hand on my arm.

"Wait, Jim. Let her have this. Don't ruin it for her."

I jerked my arm free, and then I looked at Linda's face. She clearly wanted to be exactly where she was, and nowhere else. As they danced her eyes fixed on mine for a moment and she seemed like she didn't recognize me. Finally, the song ended. Marc nodded at the band leader, who started a faster song. He and Linda left the dance floor, smiling at each other, but not touching, not even holding hands. Linda gave him a last brilliant smile as she turned toward our table and Marc turned toward his.

The difference between a woman's best smile and her second-best smile isn't much. Unless you know the woman well, you probably wouldn't notice it at all. As Linda neared our table and our eyes met, her best smile faded to her second-best. I knew then that we had a problem. I took her hand and pulled her into my arms, my right index finger holding her head so I could look into her eyes.

"I keep telling you that you're the most attractive woman in here," I whispered in her ear. "I think it is time to do our last dance and head back to our room."

For just the tiniest moment, I could have sworn Linda was afraid. Her eyes widened and I could feel her hand trembling. She got control of her emotions and appeared to relax. As she started to answer my question, Dee interrupted.

"I'm sorry, everyone, I just have to go to the restroom right now. Linda, come with me?" Dee's voice could be heard far beyond our table. I was too preoccupied to wonder why she had to broadcast this to the room at large. Linda looked at me apologetically.

"Sorry, Jim. I can use some freshening up, too." She tried to leave but I held on tight until Jane and Dee pried us apart. Phil stepped between me and Linda, asking me a stupid question about work. Dave put his arm across my shoulders and handed me a fresh drink. Dee and Linda left for the ladies room, without Linda answering my question. Why did I feel this was a setup?

Of course, the conversation immediately turned to why no woman who is out with a group can possibly go to the restroom by herself. I had just started to wonder why my friends were working so hard to keep the conversation going on that topic, when Dee came back. Alone.

"Where's Linda? Is she okay?" I practically shouted.

"Relax, Jim," Dee said, smiling. "Linda is fine, she just has something to do. You don't need to worry about her. She is a grownup woman, you know." Upon which my friends started teasing me about how much I worried about Linda. It's true, I did; I used to think she worried about me the same way.

I put up with it for about five minutes, and when Linda still hadn't returned, I'd had enough. I got up, pushing away hands trying to hold me back, and headed for the bar. I tried to get the bartenders attention but he was busy making drinks.

"Excuse me, but my wife went to the restroom about fifteen minutes ago, and hasn't come out. She never takes that long. Could you please send someone, to be sure she's all right?"

The bartender ignored me so I turned on my heels and went through the Ladies Room door. "Linda, where are you? Are you sick?"

A voice spoke up, "Hey Buddy, this is the Ladies Room and I'm all alone, and I'm not Linda."

"Fuck!" I punched all the toilet doors and only one was locked. "Sorry, please accept my apology."

"I did hear two women talking about 15 minutes ago about one of them going home with a guy named Marc. The first lady was trying real hard to talk the second one into doing it. She said Mary would get her coat and meet them in the parking lot."

"Thanks lady."

"It's Mona and I'm on my break. Only place I can hide for 30 minutes. Good luck."

I walked out the door and almost ran Dee over. I wasn't having any luck tonight.

"Jim, she's all right. Come back to the table and I will explain everything to you."

"I already know what happened. Mona told me all about your conversation with my wife."

"Who's Mona? Anyway, let's go to the end of the bar where there's some privacy." I walked over and ordered a cola. Dee looked me in the eye.

"Jim, Linda loves you. She loves you and the children more than anything else in the world, and she always will, and you know it. But she is spending tonight with Marc."

I stood there with my mouth open, looking stupid as various scenarios flooded my mind. Images of Linda and our children; Linda and Marc; me sitting in a jail cell, whirled madly through my mind, or what was left of it. Linda at the top of the stairs in her beautiful blue dress; Linda as we fed wings to each other. Linda in Asshole's arms. My anger rose.

"So on what was supposed to be our special night, she left me for some asshole jock." I glared at Dee as I growled the words.

"Jim, she hasn't left you. She'll come home to you tomorrow, and you'll have plenty of other special nights together."

"She didn't even have the guts to tell me to my face that she was leaving me. She just snuck out the back door."

"Jim, listen to me. She hasn't left you."

"Well, if she hasn't left me, then where the hell is she? She sure isn't with me now, is she?" I was getting loud, and didn't care who heard me.

"Please settle down, people are looking at you. Listen, I know this is hurting you, but it's just tonight. Linda knows, we all know, that you're the only man for her and you always will be. You're the good guy."

"Yeah, and we all know where the good guy finishes, don't we?"

"Jim, it isn't like that. You're making way too big a deal out of this. It's only tonight, then she'll come back to you tomorrow and everything will be just like it was before." I snorted at her. If she really believed that shit, nothing I could say would make any difference anyway.

"So, bitch, what was your role in all this? You didn't really need to go to the restroom, did you?

"No, but I knew she really wanted to do this and she deserved it."

I spun her around and pinned her against the wall. "You mean YOU really think she wanted this and YOU really think she deserved this. You just wanted to turn her into a slut like you."

A hand came down on my shoulder and I knew it was Dave. "Hey! That�s my wife you're roughing up."

"DAVE! If you don't want me to 'Hulk Out', remove your hand and back up."

'Hulk Out' is what we called it the one time it happened in high school and once in college.

In high school it was 5 football players for the rival high school team picking on a nerdy boy and a chubby girl from my high school, behind the super market. I was cutting through the woods and heard voices, so I walked up, taking it all in before I yelled at them to pick on someone their own size. Now each of these guys outweighed me by 20 or more pounds, but what my friends didn't know is I really didn't beat them up on my own. I had an equalizer, brass knuckles. None of the bullies played football the next week but the 2 kids spread the story all over school. Something similar happened in college.

So hearing the words 'Hulk Out', Dave took his hand away.

"Now Dee, before I blow up and hurt someone, tell me where asshole took my wife."

"To his house."

"So after he fucks her, what's the plan?"

"Jim, I know how much you love Linda, and how much she loves you. This doesn't have to be a big deal. It's just one night, a one-time experience, compared to all the years and all the love you two have together. It isn't a big deal, unless you make it one. I know she'll come home to you, and I know eventually, you'll be fine." Dee spoke gently but confidently.

It was all I could do not to grab this stupid woman and shake her until her teeth rattled for spouting such nonsense. She must be living in some sort of alternate universe if that's what she really thought. "And she will have all these lovely memories that I'll have to listen to for the next thirty years."

"It's not like that."

"Oh, I see. Every time we get the group together, the nine of you will be whispering among yourselves and smirking at the dumb cuckold." I am definitely getting new friends.

Dee looked down at the floor.

"So if Asshole had picked you, even though you would be the ugliest at our table, you'd have done the same thing?"

"I would in a heartbeat." She flung her answer into my face and looked like she wanted to rip my tongue out and eat it.

"Hear that Dave?" Silence.

I let her go and turned toward the bar. Dee ran after Dave who was heading out the door.

"Barkeep, what's his address?"

"Who you talking about?"

"Marc LaValliere. He comes in here a lot. Come on man. He's got my wife." I slipped him a fifty.

He looked around and scribbled on a napkin, slid the napkin to me and pocketed the fifty.

"Thanks."

The talk at our table stopped abruptly when I walked up. The averted eyes told the tale: all of our friends now knew that my wife and asshole were at that very moment making a cuckold of me.

"Uh, Jim, are you going to be okay?" Phil asked hesitantly.

"It depends on what you mean by okay." There were a couple of nervous giggles.

"I mean, yeah, that was a shitty thing to do, but you two are going to make it, aren't you? You're not going to divorce Linda over this, are you?"

"I don't see why I shouldn't," I responded coldly. There was a gasp around the table.

"Why are you all acting surprised?" I continued. "We all know how we feel about cheating: once and done. We established that long ago."

"But Jim, its Marc LaValliere..." Barbara interposed.

"So what? I don't care who's fucking her. If it isn't me, that's that."

"Jim, what about your kids? We all know how much you love them, and how much they need you. Think of them before you do anything." Jane was crying as she spoke probably because her kids were about the same age as mine and were best buds.

"You mean, like my wife is thinking about them right now?"

"Well, that's why you got a sitter, so you wouldn't have to think about your kids." This was Mary speaking, Mike's 2nd wife because his first wife cheated on him. It sounded as insincere as it really was. Mike butted in, "Come on, Jim, it's just one night. It's an opportunity she'll never have again. You wouldn't divorce Linda over one night."

"Why not, you did?" I glared at him. An uncomfortable silence followed.

"Jim, try to think of it this way, maybe it will help." Jane was trying to sound sympathetic. "What if the cover model from the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue was here tonight? Say she picked you out of everyone here to dance with, and then she offered to spend the night with you. Can you honestly say you wouldn't be tempted? Can you honestly say you would turn her down?" The pleading look in Jane's warm brown eyes made her look like a particularly winsome puppy dog, and was usually quite effective in getting her what she wanted. Not tonight.

I stood and looked down at Jane. "Yes, I would be tempted, but I would turn her down. You see, I have a wife, and I don't want to hurt her. Also, to me, there is no other woman as beautiful as Linda."

There was another one of those deafening silences. Dee and Dave came back to the table, Dave's hand squeezing Dee's hand. I looked around the table at each of my former friends, all of whom were siding with my cheating wife. At that moment, I sincerely hoped never to see any of them again. I pulled out a twenty and dropped it on the table. "That will pay my tab. You're all making excuses for her behavior, you might as well cover her bill, too." I turned on my heel and left the lounge.

I walked the block and a half to the hotel, my heart pounding in my chest. I got in my car and punched his address into my Garmin and drove off following the directions. 15 minutes later I pulled up into a long driveway that ended at a large house with lights all over the front of the house and yard. A Cadillac was parked in front of the garage and one light was on in the house, an upstairs room.

I got out of my car and looked around his front yard, an idea forming in my angry brain. I found what I was looking for, a rock the size of a golf ball. Winding up, I reared back and threw the rock, aiming just under the window with the light on. OOPS. I never was a pitcher as the rock went through a pane of glass in the window with a crash.

"Linda. LINDA! You better be dressed and down her in 1 minute or I will be driving to your parents� house to tell them what a slut they raised." While I was waiting I took my pocket knife and sliced through his right rear valve stem.

The front door flew open and the asshole came out barefoot in slacks and a t-shirt. Right behind him Linda came out looking freaked out but still dressed, as she struggled to pull her coat on.

"Get in the car now Linda."

She ran as fast as her heels would let her and dove through the passenger door.

"Hey Marcie, oops sorry Marc. Feel free to come looking for me, please. I will be waiting. Or we can dance now. I promise I will fuck up your ability to play football regardless to what you do to me. I don't seem to have much to lose."

He didn't move or say anything so I continued, "Next time check for rings on the left hand, asshole." I got in, started the car, and backed up the driveway before heading back to town.

"Jim, I am..."

"Shut up Linda."

"But..."

"ENOUGH! Not another word or I'll drive head on into a tree and kill both of us."

The rest of the trip was in silence until I pulled into the parking lot of the bar and parked.

The look on her face was priceless as I walked around and opened her door for her. "I need to reclaim my self respect so hold onto my arm and stay with me. Don't talk."

We walked into the lounge, checked her coat, and slowly strolled past our former friends on the way to the bar. By the time I helped her up on a stool, there was not a sound to be heard. Silence. Not even a peep from the 2 couples at assholes table.