Finding My Way Back Home

We had a babysitter for the evening. Claire wanted to go out. I had hopes that this would start a good direction. We had been having more and more arguments lately. I was gone on sales calls at least half of the time. I knew she was lonely when I travelled, but I had to work to support us. When we got to the restaurant, she seemed nervous and preoccupied. After we were seated and ordered our drinks, she glanced around and said,

"Barry, I want a divorce."

"What?"

"You heard me. I want a divorce."

"So you got a sitter so we could go out and that is all you have to say? Why didn't you say this at home?"

"I was afraid you would make a scene in front of Danny."

"What do you mean 'make a scene'?"

"Look," she said, "I need to find myself and I can't do it with you. I will always love you, but I am not 'IN LOVE' with you anymore."

What a low chicken shit way of telling me she wanted out. She wanted to make it easier on herself and used our son as an excuse for getting me in a public place. I knew things had gone from bad to worse, but I attributed it her unfulfilled career choices. She wanted to be a graphic artist, but she did not have the drive or training to succeed at it. I encouraged her whenever I could, but her attempts at selling any of her pieces were unsuccessful. I do not know much about art, but I could see why her work was not a commercial success. Everything was a lame copy of something she had seen in the galleries. No one was interested in a very poor copy of a print that was already affordable to most middle class collectors.

My name is Barry Appleton. I grew up on a small farm in western Alabama. I was shy, but smart. I went off to junior college and paid my own way. I lived at home and worked on the farm as a way of paying rent to my parents. They are good people. Rural people. My dad had a job as a maintenance man in a small factory. He knows a little bit about every building trade and taught me how to work with my hands. Growing up, I made straight A's in school and I continued that academic success in junior college. After receiving my associate's degree, I went on to a smallish college in state. It certainly did not have the prestige of some of the large state schools, but I could live at home and commute three days a week. The other two days, I worked on the farm and studied.

I am 5'-7" tall and usually weigh around 140 lbs. I am not strong, but I did swim in high school so my muscles are long and toned pretty well. I only dated a few girls in high school mostly at school functions where it was understood that the boys and girls were to find dates with each other. It never materialized into a true relationship and I hung with the guys part of the time.

I met Claire in college. She was a freshman when I was a junior. She was a friend of one of the girls from my home town. I saw Sally occasionally on campus and asked generally how she was or how her brother was. Her brother was in my graduating class so I knew her somewhat. One day I saw Sally walking with Claire and she noticed me. They came over and she introduced Claire to me. I was smitten immediately. She is very cute. Maybe not in the model type looks, but she had a positive air about her that made her seem very approachable. She drew the conversation out of people and was pursued as much for her bubbly personality as her wholesome good looks. She is 5'-4" tall so that attracted me also, being a little short myself.

Along with her girl next door type looks she has a wonderful body. Her ass is just a little past petite and her breasts while not overly large are perfectly cone shaped. She never had to wear a bra. In addition to that, her areolas are also a puffy cone shape and her nipples get very hard and pointy when she is aroused.

They invited me to a mixer that one of the church affiliated unions was having. I thought this was great because I was not going to be very successful finding wild and sexy women. I went to the mixer the next night and was awed as she moved effortlessly through the crowd. You would think that she was a junior sponsor instead of an incoming freshman. As the evening wore on, I worked up the courage to ask her out and she accepted.

We had our first date the following Saturday evening. We got a pizza and went to the movies. When I drove her back to her apartment, I walked her to her door and she made it plain that I was to kiss her goodnight. I was impressed that she sensed my nervousness and initiated the first kiss. We dated the rest of the semester. When grades came out, her parents gave her one more semester to adapt to college life and start studying. She always kept me in suspense about her intentions. I knew that she hung out with other people and also dated other guys although she said that she just had some guy 'friends'. I would have expected her to dump me with this type of relationship, but she never did. We had the usual fights about her dating, but she managed to keep me at bay. Since I spent a lot of time studying and she spent very little, it was impossible to keep up with her.

At the end of her freshman year, she only had six credits and her parents pulled the plug. She was forced to move back home and get a job. She was attractive and had a very pleasant personality so she landed a receptionist job. Every company wants a cute young receptionist and she fit the bill. We continued our long distance relationship for the summer. I visited her several times when I got a chance. I sort of knew that she was dating other guys and decided to take a chance and propose to her. She accepted and we got married mid fall semester of my senior year. She moved in with me. The sex was great to start with and soon she was pregnant. Our son Danny was born just after I graduated.

When Danny was about two years old, Claire was back in shape with her sexy body looking like she never had a baby. She started dressing a little more shall we say sexy. Not really sexy, but she was showing more cleavage and more leg under her shortening skirts.

During this time I had taken what finally worked into a good job. I went to work for an oil service company. I worked hard and long hours to begin with. Since I had grown up working, the physical side of the job was no problem. I was out on oil rigs often and leaned about every valve, tool and what not. I was one of the few people who had a college degree. My coworkers thought I was crazy for working in the field with my educational background. My mechanical abilities and my work ethic finally paid off when I was promoted to sales. After two years in sales, I was making the kind of money that I had only dreamed of. Claire was working also and Danny was in a good daycare.

I suggested that she quit her job, but she would not do that. I figured that she enjoyed working, so what the heck. As long as she was happy. We bought a new house and things were going good. After we were able to resume our social life somewhat, we would get a break from babysitting from her parents and my aunt who lived near us. Our sex life never fully recovered after the birth of our son, but I expected it to pick back up. She was dressing so sexy that I thought it was just a matter of time.

The first crack in our marriage came when we were about to go to a party given by one of the vice presidents of her company. She was still the pretty receptionist and everyone seemed to love her at these company functions. This particular evening, just as we were about to leave, I got a call from one of the service technicians at our main repair facility. There was a problem on an oil rig in the gulf. It looked like we were going to have to helicopter out there. She was not happy, but she said that she could call a coworker and get a ride.

I changed clothes and headed to our large repair facility. On the way, I got a call from our technician on the rig and we did some troubleshooting verbally. I told him that we would be there in a couple of hours and gave him some things to try. I had already told Claire that we would probably fly to the rig and I would be gone one day or more. As we loaded up our equipment, we got another call from our man on the rig. He had solved the problem and we would not need to go out there. I talked to the platform manager and he assured me that everything was fine.

I was dressed okay for the party still, so I changed shoes and headed that way. I called Claire's cell phone, but got no answer. Danny was spending the night with her parents so we could stay out later. I was looking forward to surprising her. I left her a message and shortly I was at the VP's home. The party was still in full force. It was around midnight. I was looking for Claire when one of her coworkers recognized me and said that she thought I was out of town. I explained the situation. She said that Claire got a ride home with a coworker named Cal. It seems she wanted to go pick our son up at her parents. I knew that he was spending the night, but I wondered if something had come up. She had not answered her phone or called me back.

I was a little concerned so I rushed home. Claire still was not answering her phone. I arrived at my house and saw a strange car parked in the driveway. It did not belong to my in laws and I did not recognize it. I pushed the garage door opener and saw that Claire's car was still in the garage. After I parked, I went inside through the kitchen. The lights were on, but Claire was not anywhere to be seen. Suddenly she came running out of the master bedroom in her dress but no shoes. Following her was a six foot four handsome stud of a man.

"Oh, my god, Barry, you scared me to death. I thought you were out on a rig."

The young man came forward and offered his hand, "Cal White, Barry. Pleased to meet you. Claire was just showing me some of her prints."

"Uh, yeah, that's right. Cal was interested in seeing some of my work and he offered me a ride home. Uh, what happened to the rig problem? Do you still have to go? Uh, well I guess you can tell me after Cal leaves. Uh, thanks so much for the lift, Cal."

Both of them looked like they had seen a ghost. Or more likely dodged a bullet. Once Cal left, she continued to stammer and fumble over words. I asked her about picking up Danny at her parents.

"No, Barry, you know that he is spending the night with Nanna and Papa."

"That's what I thought too, Claire but your fried Liz said that you left so you could go pick him up. Is everything all right?"

"Yeah, everything is fine. Maybe she misunderstood. Anyway, how did you get out of going to the rig?"

"I think the more important question, Claire, is what you were doing with a man in our bedroom?"

"I told you, Barry, he was interested in some of my prints."

"And you don't think that looks suspicious? Your husband gone. Your child gone and you with a man in our bedroom."

"That's where the prints are, Barry. In the bedroom and in the hallway."

"Well, he looked a little disheveled to just be looking at prints."

"What are you implying, Barry."

"Just looks fishy to me."

"I am going to take a shower," she said and huffed out of the room.

She was in bed and the lights were out after I showered and got in bed. I don't know whether she was sleeping or pretending, but I certainly could not sleep. I knew that before we were married, she dated on the side, but I had hoped that getting married and having a child would be enough to settle her down.

The icy relations went on for about two weeks until finally one night she came to bed wearing a tiny negligee and no panties.

"Are you still mad at me?" she asked.

I soon forgot about my anger and we had very passionate sex. After that we returned to our normal sex life for a few months until the next danger signal.

I was out of town for a week. I called home every night. That Friday evening when I called she did not answer. I figured that she might be at her parents and after I called her cell a few times, I called them. Her mom answered and I asked if she was there. Her mom was a little surprised and said that she thought I knew Claire was going to a wine tasting with her friend, Meredith. They were going over about a hundred miles and were going to stay the night. She and my father in law were keeping Danny.

I had to do a little crawfishing so as not to alarm her mother. I made the excuse that probably just forgotten with my work and all. When I hung up I went into crisis mode thinking. Was I being too controlling and paranoid? It could be true after all. But I had my doubts. I thought about every way possible to find a way to check up on her without her noticing it. About fifteen minutes later, she called me and said that her phone was on charge in the car when I called. She talked as if she had not heard from her mother. I assume that her mother wasn't worried and that she would see the missed call sooner or later. I kept my tongue and asked about Danny and what was going on.

"Oh, just doing the mom stuff, you know. Reading books. Gonna get him ready for bed. Maybe I will take a hot bath and read in bed myself."

There it was. She was lying her ass off. How could she be so stupid? If she had of just called me first or answered her phone, I would have talked a while and then said 'goodnight'. Unless her mother told her about my call she would think that she had put one over on me. This had to be bad news. I would have probably bought the wine trip if she had told me up front, but apparently she just wanted to bypass the third degree if I asked too many questions.

I decided not to confront her about this and did my best not to give myself away when I got home. She must have picked up on my mood because she talked a blue streak when I got back about everything and nothing. Not one mention of the wine tasting overnight trip. I did notice that there were no credit card charges that weekend. I thought that was a little odd for someone going on a short trip out of town. There could easily be an explanation if I did confront her about that but I knew by now that she had no problem lying her way out of any accusation. I am sure her friend would have backed her up. She had that kind of influence. She also seemed to pick close friends who were just not quite as attractive as she was.

In particular one was overweight and another was rather plain and kind of skinny. They just worshipped her and as I later found out they seemed to live vicariously through her extra marital sex life. Later on I learned some of the details about who she was fucking. There was enough suspicion on my part anyway. I kept holding on to the dream that she would settle down and we could put this chapter of our marriage to bed.

And then we had the dinner. In short order, she asked me to move out. We would share custody of our son. The court would decide the amount of child support that I had to pay. The next day while I was still trying to get my head around all of it, her lawyer called me and asked me to meet him at his office. I had no experience and went the following day. She was not there but the lawyer spelled out the terms. She got the house. She got custody of Danny. I was stunned at the amount of child support. He explained that based on my reported tax returns that this was the minimum amount a judge would set. He asked if I had a lawyer yet.

It was explained to me that my income was the only household income and that I was doing very well in my salary and sales commissions. The business I was in was very stable and I should set this figure in case my income increased significantly over the next year. I got some furniture. Just enough to survive on without having to completely furnish an apartment.

I threatened to counter sue and claim adultery. The lawyer made no comment about that and suggested that I consult an attorney about the feasibility of proving that claim in court. Besides, he said the judge would almost certainly grant primary custody to my wife regardless. I left stunned. One of my work friends had a cousin who was an attorney. I visited him. He looked over the settlement proposal and made a few suggestions. As far as claiming adultery, he told me that I should just try to get a few more property concessions. The child support was just like her attorney had suggested. So I ended up settling for pretty much what she asked for.

I got a decent apartment near my ex house so I could be near my son. She was all bubbly after the divorce and told me that I could have access to our son in addition to the weekends and holidays I was awarded. She even said that we should still do things as a family to give Danny a better feeling about the divorce. I was making enough money to afford the settlement and still live my life. All things considered, it was not terrible except for the emotional toll it took on me. I was not the type of guy to go clubbing and pick up any girl I wanted. I was somewhat socially awkward and not very confident. A divorce has a way of shaking a guy's ego. I was very bitter and tried hard to be civil to her when we had discussions about Danny. I totally rejected any attempt on her part to stay 'good friends'. She was the one who had cheated and caused the divorce and I didn't even have the satisfaction of divorcing her.

I finally came to grips with my situation and even started dating. Friends always try to set you up and mine were no exception. Most all of our friends still socialized with Claire also. In today's society divorce is common. They mostly knew that Claire had a wandering eye. Women especially have a hard time keeping a secret and the coffee circles and school activities are a breeding ground for sharing problems. In addition, it is much more enjoyable to be gossiping about other people's bad marriages than talking about your own.

The fact that Claire's close girlfriends as well as most of our common friends knew about her screwing around made me all the more uncomfortable being around them. However, since they were my friends also, both the guys and girls lent a hand in trying to get me to date more.

When the bottom fell out of the oil economy I was toast. The cutbacks were immediate and drastic. My sales job vanished. I was somewhat lucky in that I had field service experience. My company laid off most of the service staff and I was able to be offered a part time job as a service man. This meant that I could go look for another job and fill in with some call outs if they ever needed me. Searching for a job during an energy crunch is an exercise in futility. You either had to find a menial part time job or try to start a small business in an unrelated field. One of my co-workers tried to start a lawn care business, but he could not compete with illegal aliens who worked dirt cheap. Most of us ended up in the same sinking boat hoping for the upswing in the oil business.

I did a few service call outs over the next couple of months, but eventually I started working in a quick stop gas station as counter help. I was making barely enough to pay my own rent. My savings were vanishing also. I approached Claire about my dilemma and she was not the least bit sympathetic. I pointed out that this would have an impact on my ability to provide the extra things for our son. I consulted my lawyer and tried to get my child support reduced. He told me I could not even get a hearing for a long time due to my potential income earning ability.

One of my friends gave me some baseball tickets and I took Danny to a ballgame. I was careful about what I got at the game, but I wanted Danny to have a great experience so I let him over indulge. After downing a chili dog and soda, I got him a big bowl of chocolate ice cream. Shortly after finishing that, he began complaining of a stomach ache. He was feeling like he might throw up, so we had to leave the ballgame in the fourth inning. Since my apartment was way across town, I decided to call Claire and tell her I was bringing Danny home early.