February Sucks - Linda's Choice Ch. 03

"I bet," Dee said as she stood and headed for our bedroom.

After giving her a towel and clothes to sleep in, I sat on the bed with my phone. While Dee showered, I texted Bella.

- Linda: Decision made. No to Mark, and yes to taking you up on your offer. -

I didn't have to wait long for a reply.

-Bella: Wise choice. I'll be in touch.-

Short and sweet. No questions about her husband. I figured she knew that he had been at the club last night and tried something. That she also knew he had gone off with Dee, who was finishing her shower in my house.

After checking on the kids, I went back to the bedroom. Tommy followed and cuddled next to me. I loved it when he did that, so I just held him facing me as Dee came in the room, drying her naked frame. I realized how, even without sleep, she looked so alive. Memories of showers after being fucked by Mark came to mind. Although the thrill didn't seem as poignant as it had once been.

"Did you have fun?" I asked.

"You should be the last to ask, Linda," she smirked, drying her hair. "How did you ever give him up?"

"It was easier than I thought," I replied. "He hurt me. Remember?"

"He, hurt me good," she replied mischievously, pointing to bite marks on her tits.

"Aren't you worried about how Dave is reacting?"

She stopped to think about it for a few seconds and shook her head. Wrapping her body in the towel, she sat on the bed next to me and ruffled Tommy's thick hair. A forlorn look clouded her gaze at my son, then a smile as she tickled him, and he giggled.

"I suppose I should thank you," I said as Tommy jumped off the bed and ran out.

"No need," she said. "It was worth it. I haven't been fucked this well in years."

"You saved my marriage," I continued. "And may have destroyed yours in the process, Dee."

She leaned over and gave me an unexpected hug.

"You and Jim are worth it, Linda. My marriage to Dave is shit. We ruined it by hurting each other. We married too young. Neither of us had fun before marriage and made up for it by cheating on each other. While I envy you having kids, I'm glad Dave and I didn't have any. It made last night and the coming divorce easier."

"You are sure there's no hope to fix things?"

"After last night?" she scoffed then forced a smile. "No, Linda. Dave and I are done. I knew it weeks ago when I started planning our outing last night."

"I know you suggested it, but you planed it weeks ago? Why?"

"For one, I wanted a piece of Mark L."

"You knew he would be there? How?"

"I made sure he would be there."

"You did WHAT!"

"Settle down, Linda," Dee said. "Let me explain."

"You brought him there knowing I would be there?" I asked. "That's how he knew who I was! You told him what I would be wearing and how I changed my hair color and style. Fuck Dee! What is wrong with you?"

"Listen," she said, waiting for me to settle.

"You used me as bait," I cut her off. "What if I had gone with him?"

"I knew you wouldn't have. Well, I did worry for a few seconds that you two would leave after that last dance," Dee smirked again.

"Stop joking, Dee," I said, moving away from her. "You placed my marriage on the line. He was there to force me to split up with Jim. Do you know how close he came?"

"A calculated risk. One that you overcame and did as expected."

"Expected! How do you figure?"

"Linda. It's me, your best friend. I know you for years. You were over, Mark. Plus, you love Jim and the kids. I don't see you dumping them for a big dick. Not to mention, the guy is a moron. Did you say he has kids?"

"Yes, two our kids' age."

"I hope their momma has it together because Mark has a one-track mind. He kept repeating 'I'm better than your husband,' over and over. He almost spoiled the mood with that shit."

"I know," I said. "I had to lay down the law on that. I told him that if he disrespected Jim, I was done with him. But he found something else to make me leave. Dee... you got in touch with him before last night? How long?"

"How long what?"

"When did you make contact with him? Don't act dumb."

Dee didn't seemed phased. Tossing the towel aside, she donned the clothes I had given her.

"Hold your horses, girl. I looked him up online back in January. They said he frequented a restaurant downtown with his buddies. I staked the place out, and when he was going in, I yelled out to him that I was a friend of Linda's."

"You name-dropped me!" I said, shaking my head.

"Your first name only, gurl-friend. Don't get in a huff," she said, then continued with her story. "Mark stopped walking inside and came over to me. Then he told me he had a lunch to attend and could not call until later on. But he had seen my stuff, and I can tell when a man is interested."

"Dee, you are unbelievable!"

"Look, I just wanted to know what it was like to have a guy like that. The thing is, I had to wait my turn. The guy is busy. But he thought he didn't need my help. I guess he thought you would cave. But as you didn't, Mark got desperate, I think, and contacted me. Before you two met at the mall with your kids."

"And, you said nothing to me! I ought to kill you for that."

"Relax, Linda. You got to tell him to fuck off, and I got to fuck him. A win-win for all of us. Damn, I'm sore down there."

"Did you give him your ass?" I asked, wondering how far she had gone.

"I'm crazy, but not insane, Linda. I couldn't even take him down my throat. How the hell did you get that thing in you back there?"

"Don't remind me?" I replied, shaking the thought of that pain away.

"Anyway, we are members of an exclusive club, you and I," Dee giggled as she lay on the bed and fluffed the pillow. "Not that he will ever call back. And that's fine with me. I got what I wanted from him."

"Please tell me you made him use condoms."

Dee nodded, hugging the cushion.

"Do me a couple of favors, Linda, will you?"

"What?" I replied, not sure if I should hug her for saving my marriage or smack her for jeopardizing it.

"Let me stay here a couple of days until I get the nerve to tell my parents I need to move back with them?"

"And the other?"

"Have Jim wake me in bed."

"Fuck you, Dee," I said, walking out the room.

"OK, you're cute, but Jim has a dick," she said, laughing.

"You're incorrigible!"

The last thing I heard was her laughing as I closed the door.

***

Aftermath is a bitch for some

It took some time for the events of that evening out with friends to fully play out. The choice I made that evening when Mark asked me to dance affected multiple lives in many ways. From the LaValliere family, to Dee and Dave, and finally to my own husband and kids.

I never expected Mark to show up at the club when we went dancing. It was a total shock. After my conversation with Bella, I expected Mark to make his play for me. But I thought he would do so by calling me or at most requesting we meet again. After his dance stunt at the club, I expected just about everything from him.

It was time I became proactive instead of giving him the initiative. It was a question I pondered as my life surprisingly went back on track. Hard to believe that after this upheaval, some good things happened. And some not so.

Surprisingly, I didn't hear from Mark again for some time. But other events kept me occupied.

For one thing, Dave had Dee served with divorce papers at our house where she was staying. It happened on a Saturday morning when we were all having brunch. When Jim answered the door, the server asked to see Dee and promptly served her. Dee brought the papers back to the table and resumed eating her scrambled eggs and bacon. Taking in her response, Jim and I gave each other a curious look but tried not to make it more awkward for her than it was.

"Are you OK, Dee?" Jim finally asked cautiously.

"I expected it," she said, taking a sip of her tea.

"I have to ask," Jim said. "You and Dave seemed loving that night. Yet in minutes, you went off with that guy. Why?"

"I knew that if things played the way I expected them, it was our last night as a couple," she said. "I had to free him. Harsh is the best way. This way, Dave is leaving on his own and will not linger."

I could tell Jim was not happy with Dee's attitude by how he tried not to roll his eyes. Still, he had been a gracious host letting her stay with us after arguing with her mother on the phone. Her parents were not happy that she was divorcing Dave. But Dee had made her decision.

"I still love him," she said. "And in a way, I always will. Just glad we didn't have kids."

"But you like us," Tommy said from his preferred seat next to our guest.

"I love you, squirt," she said, hugging a smiling Tommy closer to her. "You are all the man I need."

Jim chuckled at the sight of his son's head, squishing Dee's right boob into the left. I couldn't help but laugh myself at my boy's grin. But it was my daughter's curious look at all the antics that caught my attention. Emma's eyes were darting from each of us and back, taking it all in. My little girl was observing, learning, and growing. Even at six, she was starting her journey to adulthood by watching us.

Staying with us for two months, Dee eventually moved to an apartment not far from us. In the time she spent at our home, Dee had almost become a member of the family. The kids loved her. Jim, on the other hand, kept his distance. And I think he seemed glad to see her go. Not just because having a long term guest can be stressful. I think she made Jim uncomfortable with her constant sexual innuendoes and parading herself in shorts or low cut blouses around him.

At a different time, I would have corrected her. And maybe I still should have. But the truth of it was that I felt I owed her. By diverting Mark at the club, she had prevented him from making a scene that would have exposed my affair with him to my husband. I was convinced, and still am today, that Dee had saved my marriage that night. Even though she claimed it was for selfish reasons, I didn't buy it.

I remembered when she and I had spoken back during the playoff game day. She had mentioned a distraction and me having some leverage. I would bet good money that the idea was planted in her head that day. It was all a matter of how, after that.

"Linda," Dee said right before she moved out. "You and I need to talk."

Jim had taken the kids to my parents. He would not be back as he used to stay and chat with my dad. Dee and I had time.

"You probably wonder why I tease your husband right in front of you."

"The thought has crossed my mind, Dee. I know I owe you, but sometimes you go too far. Are you doing it to rub my nose in it? Because you know about my affair and think I'm too afraid to tell you off?"

She leaned back on the kitchen counter and looked at me seriously.

"I do it to punish him," she blurted out.

"You what?" I asked, confused. "Why?"

"Sit down, Linda," Dee said. "It's time you and I had a serious talk."

Something told me that I was not going to like what she had to say.

"Your Jim is not a bad man, but he is not perfect either."

"Go on," I said with a cold chill up my spine.

"Some time ago, I overheard him and Dave talking when he was over. Dave was telling him about how he had caught me cheating. The description was pretty nasty. I understand, but somewhat hypocritical as he had an ongoing affair at the time with a coworker."

I didn't interrupt her but could not remember Jim ever telling me about this. As such, this was news to me and had my curiosity peaked.

"Anyway, their talk drifted to the women in our group. They both said what we say about all the men, that we are all fuckable. Then Dave said, given a chance, he would bang you first."

"No surprise," I replied. "He stares at me plenty enough. Like they all do. Like we all do with each other. How is my husband connected in all this?"

"Well, when it was his turn to talk, he said without a care to my ex-husband that I was on top of his list."

"He said that!" I replied, a bit taken aback.

I had never heard Jim talk about the women in the group sexually. We had been kidding around one time, and I asked him who he found attractive amongst our friends. Jim had replied by laughing and saying he was not stupid enough to answer that. He had then asked me who I thought was my favorite. But seeing his point, I had refused to answer as well, so we left it at that.

"What else did they say?"

"Well, considering that my then-husband just laughed and replied he would be glad to trade, I almost barged in to tell them both off. But then your hubby said what I found strange. He said that you had been wild with some other guy and never told him. That he was pissed at you for not telling him and that you would deserve to see him fuck some... slut. I guess I was the slut he was referring to. So I have been teasing him ever since."

"That's it?" I asked.

I had expected something more. It all fit Jim's attitude during the dark days with Snider's email taunts.

"Linda," she said, continuing a bit more emotional than I expected. "It hurt to hear Jim talk that way about me. Because I always thought the world of you two. Of all the men in the group, your Jim was always the one I wished... well, I wished I had a guy like him. The one thing Dave got right was that you and Jim were... are the best of us.

"Funny thing Linda. Do you remember the conversation we had when you first told me about you and Mark?"

"Yes."

"And do you remember how I joked about how we should all stop pretending and just fuck each other in the open instead of sneaking around and stealing glances?"

"Yes."

"Well, if we were to have done that, you and Jim were the first people that came to mind I would trust to swap with."

"I'm flattered," I replied in feigned jest. Yet inside, I was upset that I had this woman in my house for months tempting my husband. "Why didn't you tell me this before?"

"Would you have trusted me in your house if I had?" she asked. "After the way he talked of me, I was hurt. What I would have given to him gladly had you, and I decided to share our men, now seemed dirty and tainted. Do you understand, Linda? It's why I teased him. To punish him for what he had said. What he thought of me."

She seemed genuinely hurt by what Jim had supposedly done. But I had not been there to hear it and had trouble trusting anything said. So I sat back, trying to decide if I believed her or not. If I wanted to or wanted not to.

"Dee, if I find out that you lied to me. That you fucked my husband under my roof while you were here..."

"Linda, I swear!" she said, reaching for my hand. "Why would I lie to you?"

"I am not sure," I replied, pulling my hand away. "Why are you telling me this? Just to cover up for you being slutty in front of my husband? To rub my nose in it since you know about my affair?"

"No, Linda," she said, shaking her head. "I'm telling you, so you know the reason why I was mad at Jim and teased him. Yes, he hurt my feelings. But it was more than that. He killed with those comments my hope that the four of us would share and be closer. That instead of cheating, I could have that fun I never had before marriage, with you guys. Maybe even with some of the other men in our group as well."

I shook my head at her wishful thinking.

"Don't shake your head, Linda." She said. "You don't get to look down at my thinking after what you did. Where did cheating get us? Eh?"

I stared back at her, thinking inside about how I had so easily slipped into the ranks of cheaters, liars, and betrayers to have my fun with Mark. To boost my ego by giving myself the present of the stud, I thought I deserved. Oh, yes, I had my reasons and excuses.

"You know why I went out on Jim," I snapped back. "I tried to talk to him, to get him to tell me why he was withdrawn and changed to this shell of himself in bed. I gave him four years. Four, fucken, years!

"When Snider stalked me, I explained the whole thing to Jim. I was honest. I told him how the guy was obsessed and would not leave me be. I didn't hide it from him. But Jim went off in his own world for reasons he never shared with me."

"What reasons?"

"I... I know what Jim's reasons are now, and they seem legitimate. But..."

"Linda, what happened?"

Not wanting to go into details, I gave her the short version. And did not tell her about the emails I found in Jim's laptop. Only Maya, the policewoman, knew about how I found them. And feeling that she owed me, Maya had covered for me, telling Jim she was the one that uncovered them.

"During my pregnancy with Tommy, and for two years after, Jim was receiving nasty emails from my stalker Snider. That was right up until the asshole killed himself."

"What kind of emails?"

"Snider made up stories about how he and I had been having sex for years. Crazy-ass sex stories that messed with Jim's head. He never told me and thought they were true."

"Shit!" Dee recoiled. "That's fucked up. No wonder Jim was a mess. Does he know you know?"

"Yes, he knows. We are going to marriage counseling about it. He also... I won't go into details, but Jim now knows it was all lies. That Snider made it all up to hurt him since he could not get to me."

Dee said nothing and just stared back at me. Then she shrugged before shaking her head.

"Linda, I know I should be feeling sorry for Jim. But, by not talking to you, he fucked up. He put you on the road where you two are. Four years of that torment and not a word? If he wasn't supposed to talk to you, who was he supposed to talk to? I mean, he could have come to one of us. Maybe he did, and they kept quiet?"

"I don't know," I replied. The topic had come up in marriage counseling. "Jim says he didn't talk to anyone because he was ashamed."

I didn't tell her what the therapist had said about Jim. About him possibly being turned on by the emails or thoughts of me with another man.

"See!" Dee replied, shaking her head and wagging a finger. "This lack of communication ruined my marriage and has put a big dent in yours. It makes you wonder how many marriages and relationships fail because we chose not to reach out to those in our lives. To people who are there for us for just that reason."

"You are preaching to the converted Dee."

We both stared at each other, realizing what a mess our lives were and what mistakes we had both made.

"Linda," she finally spoke. "If you love him and want to stay married, you can never tell Jim about Mark."

I listened to her, but I was conflicted.

"What if he finds out, Dee? What then?"

"You can't control that," she replied. "And if Jim does, he will not hear it from you. And that is better."

"How so! How can that..."

"Because," she snapped back. "I did that! My conscience was bothering me, and I confessed to Dave."

She looked away, grimacing at the thought. Her lips trembled.

"I was so stupid, Linda," she said as a tear ran down her face. "Such a stupid and selfish woman... no, I was still thinking like a silly teenage girl then. I felt that telling him would somehow absolve me of my sins. But instead, it just hurt him. Sticking the knife in and turning. Not only did I cheat, but I had to toss it in his face. Oh, God, Linda! I saw that pain in his face and knew it was too late."

She was crying openly by then. Getting her some tissues, I sat next to her and hugged her.

"Had I not told him," she continued. "Had I stopped cheating and lived with my guilt, we would not have ruined our marriage, Linda. Once he found out, he thought he had to get even and made his own stupid mistakes. It was tit for tat after that."

She was sobbing uncontrollably. All I could do was hold her.

"Linda," she said finally. "You can't do what I did. You have to promise me. You can't undo what you did with Mark. Telling Jim will not make it go away. Could he find out? Maybe. But if he doesn't, you and him keep your family together. Yes, you have problems you need to solve, but tossing your affair with Mark at Jim will be like fuel to the fire."