February Sucks... for Everyone

"They're still there?!"

"Well, yeah. See, when I got to Asshole's house, Linda had come to her senses and had thrown a vase through a window and was trying to get out of the house. I picked up the vase and smashed out the windshield of his car. Then I smashed out the windshield of his other car. Linda and the asshole came outside and Linda ran over to me apologizing and begging to leave. The Asshole was really pissed about Linda leaving, so the other four women offered to stay and cheer up him and his teammates that he had invited over for a gang bang. The women said to tell you guys that it would only be for the night and since you guys talked about this earlier, and they saw it was OK when it was Linda, they figured you would be OK with them staying. They gave me their cell phones so you wouldn't embarrass yourselves by trying to talk them out of it." I related the story like I was describing a movie scene. I obviously took liberty with what actually happened, but fuck them all. I took their cell phones from Linda"s pocketbook and laid them on the table.

"This is bullshit!" Said Mike.

"Wait a minute! When I said I was going to divorce Linda for fucking another guy (Linda gasped at that), you ALL said I should forgive her for a one night indiscretion. The way I see this, we're all getting what's acceptable to us. Linda didn't fuck anyone, and your wives are only going to be used for one night, which is well within the bounds of what you all described as acceptable extra marital infidelity." Again, I used as much sarcasm as I could.

"Fuck you Jim! Where does this asshole live?!"

"No Mike, fuck you!. I figured it out without your help! You do the same!"

"Jim, please..."

"No! You guys were alright with MY wife being the team toy. I hope the asshole invited the whole defensive line. Go home and sleep well. If they come home tomorrow you can forgive them, and wonder if you'll ever measure up to their special night!"

With that I grabbed Lindas' hand and yanked her out the door. We drove home in silence. When we got into the house I pointed to the guest room and then went into our bedroom, closed and locked the door. No I didn't sleep much. Linda eventually fell asleep on the floor in the hallway outside our bedroom door.

When I got up in the morning and opened the door Linda was asleep on the floor with a pillow. I stepped over her and went downstairs to make coffee.

I sat at the table and just stared at the wall trying to decide what to do. About an hour later Linda came downstairs looking horrible. She quietly got a cup of coffee and sat down to my right, facing across the table from my right to my left. She wouldn't look up and just stared into her coffee cup.

"Listen to me Linda. Don't talk, just listen. If you decide you want to remain married to me, there will be some new rules. They are the consequences of your actions. If you decide you don't want to stay married to me, just let me know. Quite frankly, right now, today, at this moment, I don't think I care one way or the other. These are rules, not negotiations."

Linda started sobbing. "I understand. Please don't leave me. I'll do anything. I'm so sorry for everything."

"You get one more conversation with each of our former friends. In the course of those conversations you will tell them they are no longer welcome in our lives."

"What about the kids? They're friends with Jane's kids?"

I guess it's going to be like awkward visitation between divorced parents. I obviously don't have a problem with their kids. The first time our kids come back from their house telling us we should be friends with them again, I will tell the kids exactly what happened and they will no longer be allowed to go to their house."

Linda had a box of tissues and was going through them quickly.

"You will see a counselor to understand how you could do what you did. The first time the counselor tries to blame me, you find a different counselor. I will be creating a post-nup that states that if you cheat on me again, you walk away with nothing, including the kids."

"Please don't take the kids from me," she sobbed.

"Don't cheat on me again," I responded. "I will be putting a tracker on your phone and in your car. It will be your responsibility to be able to prove to me where you are at all times."

"Jim,I know I messed up. All this really isn't necessary. It's going to drive you crazy. I swear this will never happen again!"

"You made some promises a long time ago, yet here we are."

"I'm so sorry."

"If anyone brings this up, you will tell them what happened. If anyone notices that we aren't the lovey-dovey couple we used to be, you're gonna tell them why. You will tell them it's because you cheated on me, not the other way around. I will not be the bad guy."

"Can I say I almost cheated? I did come to my senses before I did anything."

"You humiliated me in front of all our ex-friends and a whole restaurant full of people. Do we need to recap what you did?"

"No," she replied quietly.

You will give me two written 'free passes' and each one will have the reason for them written into the pass."

"Please, Jim..."

Don't worry, what are the chances that they will be younger, more attractive, fitter, and better in bed? It'll be 'just sex'. It won't mean anything. A one time experience for me."

Linda was sobbing uncontrollably at this point. I let her sob. I was silent for a minute, just taking deep breaths. My elbows were on the table with my fingers rubbing my temples.

I started speaking very low and very calmly. "Linda, the only reason I'm here right now is because when I got to asshole's house I saw the vase come through the window and I heard you scream at him. If I hadn't been there for that, it wouldn't matter what you told me about doing nothing with him. I wouldn't have believed you. How do I know you didn't give him a blowjob in the car on the way to his house?"

"I didn't, I swear. I'll do all of this, Jim. Anything you want. I love you."

"Give my your cell phone." She did. "In a little bit I need to go out. I'll be gone about an hour and a half. Don't go anywhere, don't talk to anyone. Don't answer the door or the house phone."

She continued to look down at the table. "OK," she said very quietly.

It was still early so I went into the living room and turned on the television. The local news program was on and across the bottom was a news crawler that said "BREAKING NEWS: Altercation at the home of football star Marc Lavalliere leaves star tight end hospitalized. Six arrested."

***********

It wasn't all sunshine and roses for Linda and I. She began counseling and to her credit, did not say that she did it because of something I did or didn't do. She would come home from her sessions with red eyes and always seemed to cling to me on those nights.

One Saturday, three weeks after the incident, I took out one of the 'Free Passes' she had written and gave it to her. I told her I would be using it that night. I told her that I would be spending the night with Ellen from work. Linda knew who Ellen was, a twenty-seven year old single mother who was stunningly beautiful. Her husband had died in a car crash two years prior. I told Linda that Ellen would be picking me up at 6pm.

At 6pm the doorbell rang and there stood a vision of beauty. Before I left I said to a crying Linda, "hurts, doesn't it? At least there isn't a hundred people watching it happen. At least I didn't sneak out the back door of the house and get someone else to tell you where I was."

As I walked out the door Linda was openly crying. You probably think I was a total douchebag for doing that, or maybe you think she deserved that plus more. I believed she needed to feel the pain of me leaving with someone else. I didn't want to do it in front of a crowd of people, but I wanted her to hurt. I figured she would either call it quits, or understand the pain I felt and never do something like that again.

Ten minutes after I left she called her mom and asked if she could come over to her house with the kids for the night. Thirty minutes after I left, she got to her mom's house to find me sitting in the living room, watching tv with her father, drinking a beer.

"Jim, wh...what...why...what are you doing here? I...I thought..."

"Linda, come sit with me." Linda literally ran to me and jumped on me as I sat on the couch. She wrapped her arms around my neck with her head buried into my shoulder and squeezed as hard as she could. "I had Ellen drop me off here," I whispered into her ear. "I guess I came to my senses, just like you did." I didn't tell her that this was my plan all along. If she hadn't called her mom, her mom would have called her.

"I love you so much, Jim! I am so very sorry for everything! I love you so much! Please Jim, please forgive me!" She couldn't stop crying and sobbing and my shoulder was getting wet. I had one hand on her back and one on the back of her head and I was soothing her the way you would sooth a child.

"Shhh...it's gonna be OK, honey. Shhhh. Just breath. It's gonna be alright."

"Jim, I so don't deserve you! I love you so much. I'll do anything to make it up to you. God I fucking hate him. I hope he never recovers!"

Oh yeah, about good ole Marc. He got pretty fucked up that night. It seems that all the guys that were alright with my wife spending he night with Mr. Hero, weren't so accepting when it came to their wives being his toy for a night.

Marc was telling the truth about inviting some teammates over. Two defensive linemen and a wide receiver. By the time the husbands got there, there were two more cars in the driveway. The four husbands got out of the two cars they came in, and decided to announce their arrival the same way I did. Dave picked up the same vase I used, still laying on the front yard, and smashed out the windshields of the other two cars in the driveway.

Asshole came charging out the front door followed by three half naked women. He charged and tackled Mike, who happened to be closest, and got in one good shot before Dave smashed him in the side of the head with the vase. Marc was done at that moment, but Dave wasn't.

Mike pushed Marc off of him and Marc rolled onto his back, unconscious. Dave quickly smashed him twice, as hard as he could, onto his right knee, then repeatedly into his crotch. He got five good hits in before the wide receiver tackled him to the ground.

The fight only lasted about a minute before the police arrived. They found an unconscious Lavalliere, three topless women, one fully clothed woman, four irate husbands, and three other football players claiming ignorance of the whole situation.

The arrestees consisted of Lavalliere, the four husbands, and the wide receiver.

Marc had remained unconscious for a full 24 hours and after three weeks still had double vision and severe headaches. They expected him to make a full recovery from the head injury. The biggest concern, however, was the damage to his knee. Initial thoughts were that his playing days may be over and may walk with a limp. There was no report of the damage to his genitals.

For the first day there were countless get well wishes from other players around the league and from sports commentators. There were calls about better security from irate fans of opposing teams. After word got out about why the altercation took place, the well wishes dried up. For the past week and a half there was no mention of him at all except who may replace him on the roster the following season.

Of the other four couples, three are most likely headed for divorce. Jane, the only one to come out of the house fully clothed, said her marriage is struggling but repairable. Turns out that Jane wasn't involved in the events leading up to Linda leaving with the asshole, and she was trying to figure out a way to leave the house when the husbands arrived. She didn't have her phone and no one else would make a call for her, hoping she she would eventually get into the spirit of the situation and start partying like the other three.

In later conversations with Phil, he told me that at the club he was just concerned about both of us and certainly didn't condone what Linda had done. He said when I came back to the club without the girls he was literally terrified. At that moment he wished he had been more outspoken and had offered to go with me to get Linda back. He said he would regret not doing that forever.

I think Linda and I will make it. I do love her and I don't believe anything like that will happen again. I believe it was a 'perfect storm' of events with her friends goading her on and convincing her I would eventually accept it.

That will NEVER happen. I love my wife, but not enough to allow her to cheat. I still have the other 'Free Pass', but I'll never use it and Linda knows it. It's in the sleeve in the last page of our wedding album.

END

I hope this wasn't to laborious to read. I don't think I have ever read a story that got so many different endings posted this quickly. A wife leaving like that would be one of the worst nightmares any happily married man could have, and while I am ok with a well deserved reconciliation, I just can't see that happening if she willingly spends the night. To each his own.

I know there will be some that will say no reconciliation ever, yada yada yada. I was keeping in mind that the original intent was that she was doing something completely out of character that she would never do again. If your take is that she will eventually do it again, that's the story you should write.

I very much appreciate Mr. Anderson allowing me to use his characters. Although some of his stories drive me crazy, I consider him to be one of the best on this site. While I can honestly say I wrote this for my satisfaction, to see if I could, I hope everyone enjoyed it. Writing this has given me a whole new appreciation for what it takes.