Frank and Shayleen Ch. 01

"About two years after she got married she came into work in a really bubbly mood and when one of the girls asked her what had her on such a high she said, and as I recall it, these are her exact words."

"My Barry is back and he wants me."

"Two weeks later she was telling every one that she was getting divorced so she and Barry could be together again. So two weeks is probably the answer to how long and the fact that you weren't Barry is probably the 'why' of it. She is still at Apex. She isn't a very happy lady. Barry dumped her and she realizes she screed up the good thing she had with a man who loved her in order to be with a man who didn't."

I shrugged and she went on.

"What seems odd to me is that you and I never saw each other. I was in that break room two or three times a day. You would think that we would have run into each other at least once in the hallways, lobby or parking lot."

"I guess the fates weren't ready to put us together at that time. They must have wanted me to be rid of my baggage before they put us together.""

"The fates? You think we were fated to meet in Atlanta?"

"Absolutely. What are the odds on my fantasy girl showing up in the boarding area where I was sitting and then getting up and coming over to me because I couldn't take my eyes off of her? How many times have you gone over to talk to men who looked at you because they were so taken with your beauty that they couldn't take their eyes off of you? I'll bet that the total would be one and that one was that day in Atlanta. Am I right?"

She smiled and said, "I'll never tell."

After dinner we went to The Boom Boom Room for drinks and dancing. Dancing with Shayleen was a dream come to life. She fit. It sounds simple, but it was true. She fit into my arms like she was made for me. It was a great evening for me and as I drove her home I told her how much I had enjoyed her company and that I hoped we could do it again. I was stunned when she said that she hoped so too.

Consider my mindset at the time. Two disastrous relationships with the opposite sex. I was probably the most insecure man in a six state area and the girl I had dreamed about all the way through high school just told me that she would like to go out with me again. Add to my insecurities that I considered Shayleen to be way, way out of my league and it was no wonder that I was stunned. I stared ahead at the road as my mind raced and then Shayleen said,

"Well say something."

"I'm thinking, I'm thinking. Do you like classical music?"

"As long as it isn't opera. Why?"

"There is an all Beethoven concert at the Civic Center Auditorium Wednesday evening. Would you like to go?"

"I would indeed."

I was walking on air as I escorted her to her door ad then said goodnight. She went up on her toes (I was 6'1" and she was 5'2") and kissed me on the cheek and I felt as if I had just won the lottery. I slept very well that night.

+++++++++++++++++++

We had a grand time at the concert and when I took her home I asked her to go out with me on Friday and she said yes. That began a relationship that had us dating two or three times a week.

On one of those dates I picked her up from work because her car was in the shop. As I got out of the car to open the door for Shayleen I saw Gloria come out the front door of the building. She stopped when she saw me holding the door for Shayleen and she stood there and stared. I maybe wrong, but I thought the look on her face was one of sadness.

After the second week the kisses were on the lips instead of the cheek. I ached for Shayleen. I wanted so badly to make love to her that it was driving me crazy, but I was always conscience of the fact that I thought that Shay was way out of my league and I didn't want to do anything that might scare her off. And to be absolutely honest in the back of my mind was the thought that I'd had two wives and something had to be wrong with me because both of them had gone to other men. Roger in Glenda's case and Barry in Gloria's. What if I tried with Shayleen and disappointed her and she wouldn't see me again?

I was driving Shayleen home from an evening of country/western dancing when she said:

"Are we going anywhere?"

"Just home unless you have somewhere else you want to go."

"That isn't what I mean and you know it. Is our relationship going anywhere or are we going to be just friends?"

The question caught me flatfooted and I didn't say anything.

"Talk to me Frank."

I took a deep breath and then said, "I want it to go somewhere. God knows that I want us to last forever, but I'm afraid."

"Afraid of what?"

"That I won't be man enough for you."

"And why would you think that?"

I explained my fears and she said, "Those stupid girls really did a number on you didn't they."

I shrugged and said, "Girls are always joking about how fragile a man's ego is, but even though they are joking it is still a truth. Between what Glenda did with Roger and Gloria did with Barry my ego is so low that it is keeping company with whale shit and as you know that is on the bottom of the ocean. If I were to be a disappointment to you I don't know that I could ever recover from it. With those thoughts on my mind I've been afraid to try and take our relationship any farther."

"If I am understanding you right you are saying that you want me, but are afraid that you won't be man enough for me right?"

I nodded a yes.

"Well it might just surprise you to know that I have the same fears. I'm afraid that I might not be woman enough for you. The only way either of us is going to find out the answer is to make it happen."

She said that just as we were pulling into her driveway. I parked and looked over at her and asked:

"Are you sure?"

"Come on in and find out."

I can't speak for Shay on my performance, but she was more than woman enough for me. We made out like teenagers on her couch until she pulled away from me. Took my hand and led me to her bedroom. We undressed each other and then she got on the bed and waited. I saw her face register surprise when instead of mounting her I settled in to eat her pussy. I munched on her until she panted:

"I want you in me Frank. Please Frank. Please make love to me."

I moved up and slid into her and then made slow gentle love to her until she cried out:

"Harder. Fuck me harder."

I did as she asked and I was rewarded for my efforts when she had a screaming orgasm. An actual loud screaming orgasm. Glenda and Gloria had orgasms when we had sex, but never loud screaming ones. I came and held myself in Shay until I softened and then I rolled over and settled in beside her. She rolled onto her side, put her arms around me and held me tight. After a bit she murmured into my chest:

"If you don't ask me to marry you after that I'll kill you."

I held her tight and said, "I'm too young to die so I guess I'll have to do it, but I won't ask until I have the ring and can do it in the traditional way."

"We can shop for the ring in the morning."

She slid down, took my cock in her mouth and we made love twice more before falling asleep in each other's arms.

I woke up alone, but I smelled the coffee and I got up and followed my nose into the kitchen. Shay smiled at me, poured me a cup and told me where the cream and sugar were and then asked me how I liked my eggs. I told her scrambled and then sat down at the kitchen table to sip my coffee and watch her work. After a minute I asked:

"Did last night really happen or was it just a dream?"

"You bet your sweet ass it did and I'm holding you to it. The malls open at nine and we are going ring shopping."

++++++++++++++++++

One the way to the Miracle Mile Mall I asked Shayleen, "Why on earth were you afraid that you wouldn't be enough for me?"

She was quiet for several seconds and then she said, "If I was woman enough I should have been able to pull Todd through his depression and give him a reason to work at keeping me happy. I couldn't do that and I finally had to give up on him.

"After my divorce I dated several guys, went to bed with a few of them, but after a couple of times they dropped me and moved on to other women. I became the female version of how you saw yourself. Always asking myself what was wrong with me/"

"All I can say is that if there was a problem it was with them and not you."

She looked away from me and stared out the passenger side window for about a minute and then said:

"I'm not being completely honest with you."

"What are you not being honest about?"

"Let me ask you a question. If you had feelings for a woman wouldn't you fight for her?"

"Of course I would."

"Well apparently I wasn't woman enough for the guys I was interested in to want me enough to fight for me."

"I don't understand what you are trying to tell me."

"Todd threatens every man I seem to take an interest in. He catches them alone some place and tells them to stay away from me if they know what's good for them. Most just stayed away from me after he talked to them, but two of them told him to stuff it and he beat them up pretty badly and then warned them that if they pressed charges he would find a way for them to 'accidentally die' when he got out of jail. They must have believed him because they never called the police. They did call me and tell me that they couldn't see me any more and why.

"I called the police and then tried to get a restraining order, but I was told that there was nothing they could do since I wasn't the one he was threatening. They did urge me to try and get the men he threatened to come forward, but none of them would."

"He hasn't done anything to you?"

"Not since the last time he sent me to the hospital. He did call me once or twice a month to ask me if I'd come to my senses yet and was ready to come back to him. I told him it would be a cold day in hell before we would ever get back together. He hasn't called in almost four months so I guess he has finally accepted things. Either that or he has moved away."

"We have been seeing each other for three and a half months and I have not seen him."

"I just hope he is gone and I never hear from him again."

"Not to worry my love. Even if he shows I'm not going anywhere. You are stuck with me for life."

We found the ring she wanted at Zales and it was in her size so I paid for it and put the box in my pocket. I intended a romantic dinner that evening and for dessert have the ring brought to the table on a silver tray. I would then get on my knees and ask her to marry me, but as we walked past the fountain in the mall's center court I changed my mind. I stopped Shay and turned her to me and then took a knee. I took the box out of my pocket, took out the ring and held it out to her and asked her to be my wife. She got down on her knees, hugged and kissed me and said she would love to marry me. I slipped the ring on her finger and then we raced home to celebrate.

+++++++++++++++++++++

We had both gone the big wedding route before and decided that we didn't want to do it again. We decided that a simple civil ceremony would do it for us. We went for the license and the blood tests and then sat down and talked thing over. We decided that she would sell her house and we would keep mine. She moved in with me and put her house up for sale.

Even though we had decided on a civil ceremony we knew we would have to do something for friends and relatives so we started planning a celebration/party/reception and sent out invitations.

It was a Monday night and Shay was in Memphis doing an audit on the Apex facility there. I was sitting on a stool at Frank's Place, a bar close to work, and enjoying a cold beer. I had been coming into Frank's Place since way before I was even old enough to drink. I used to come in with my dad after work and drink a Coke while he and some of the men from the plant drank beer and talked.

I was on very friendly terms with Fred who was the bartender. Fred also owned the place and why it was named Frank's Place and not Fred's Place is something that I could never get Fred to tell me.

I was nursing my beer and watching Monday Night Football on the TV up on the wall at the end of the bar. The Bronco's were playing Kansas City and so far it was a scoreless tie. A guy sat down on the stool next to me on my right which I thought strange since there were four open stools to my left and there had been five empties to my right.

The guy ordered a Bud and when Fred set it down in front of him he took a pull, swallowed and then turned to me and asked:

"Do you believe in promises?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"Do you believe that promises should be kept?"

"I guess I do, but I guess it would depend on circumstances."

"Like what?"

"Were they made jokingly or seriously?"

"Ones that are made seriously."

"Then they should be kept unless something happens to make it impossible to keep them."

"That's not the way I see it. A promise made in a serious situation should be kept no matter what."

"Why are we having this conversation?"

"It is simple really. In front of God and eighty-six friends and relatives Shayleen promised to be mine until death do us part. She also promised to be mine for better or worse and I'm holding her to those promises. You need to stay away from her. Her getting a divorce is meaningless. She is mine until we are parted by death."

"Sorry, but I don't see it that way."

"You had better because if you don't I'll beat you half to death and I'll keep on doing it until you get the message."

I waved Fred over. "Are we on good enough terms that I can ask you for a huge favor?"

"You can't have my wife. But I guess I'm open for just about anything else."

The bar stools we were sitting on were the swivel type and I picked up my beer as though I was going to take a drink and then I swiveled and threw the beer in Lucero's face. His hands went up to his eyes and I grabbed my beer bottle by its long neck and swung it hitting Lucero hard on the side of his head. He fell off the bar stool onto the floor and I got up and kicked him twice in the nuts and once in the ribs. I turned to Fred and said:

"The favor I need is for you not to call the cops. This asshole is Shay's ex-husband and he just warned me to stay away from her or he was going to kick my ass. I'm going to take him out to the alley and have a little talk with him. Okay with you?"

"Not a problem Frank."

I grabbed Lucero by his shirt collar and drug him to the back door. Fred opened the door for me and held it open while I pulled Lucero out into the alley and then proceeded to beat the living shit out of him. I broke his nose, dislocated his jaw and I think I broke a rib or two. When I got tired I sat him up against the brick wall and said:

"Listen to me asswipe. Pay very close attention. You stay away from Shay and you stay away from me. If I see you again I'll take care of that till death do us part thing that you think is so important. I'm as serious as death here. You come anywhere near either of us and I'll put you in your grave. And don't bother going to the police. You saw how Fred acted. He will back me when the cops show up. You came in, started an argument with me and then hit me. I defended myself and you lost. The rest of the people in the bar know me and will back me up. What you need to do is go away and stay away. Understand?"

He didn't say anything so I grabbed a handful of his hair and slammed his head back against the brick wall and asked again.

"Do you understand me?"

"Yes."

"Yes what?"

"I understand you."

"Best that you do Lucero; best that you do."

I went back into the bar and bought a round for the house (all four of them) and then sat down to watch the game. I didn't tell Shay about my meeting with Lucero because I saw no reason to possibly upset her.

++++++++++++++++++

I try very hard not to be stupid. I realized from what Shay had told me of her ex that he was quite possibly unstable and prone to reckless behavior and I knew that he wasn't very happy about the outcome of our meeting. I decided that it would be best if I were to be prepared in case there was a second meeting with him.

Frontier Firearms had just what I was looking for. I purchased a Llama .380 which is a small copy of the Colt 1911 A1. I had to wait two days for my background check to come back and then I took delivery of the pistol and went to an indoor range and got familiar with it. I took the eight hour class necessary to get the certificate needed to get a concealed carry permit, took it to the sheriff's department, got the permit and then hoped that I had wasted my time and money.

Several weeks went by with no sign of Lucero and I began to think that I'd read the man wrong. It was a Wednesday night and Shay was off playing cards with her sorority sisters so I had the evening to myself. Because I had no place to go and nothing to do I decided to stay late at the office and clear up some paperwork.

It was seven –ten and already turning dark when I left the building and headed for the lone car in the parking lot. Three men came around the corner of the back of the building and headed toward me. One of them was Lucero.

"About time you came out asshole. This time it is your turn to be a punching bag."

"Don't think so asswipe. I told you that if you ever came near me again I'd take care of that death do us part thing you were so concerned with" I said as I reached under my sports coat for the .38o in the hip holster. I pulled it out, pulled back the slide and released it to chamber a round and then I pointed it at the three men and pulled the trigger.

The sound of the shot split the silence of the night. I'd deliberately aimed the shot into the space between Lucero and one of his buddies, but they didn't know that. As far as they knew I was shooting at them. I saw the wet spot appear on the front of Lucero's pants before he and his two pals turned and ran back the way they came. I fired another shot into the air to spur them along and they got to the end of the building and turned the corner and they were gone. I policed up my brass, got in my car and took a quick look around and didn't see anyone. With any luck anyone who heard the shots wouldn't associate them with gunshots at least not in that neighborhood.

I went home, broke the weapon down and thoroughly cleaned it. I tossed the clothes I was wearing into the washing machine and then I got in the shower. I scrubbed my right hand and forearm with a brush a couple of times. My hope was that I could get rid of any gunshot residue in case the police did come to call. Even if no one saw what happened I couldn't be sure that Lucero wouldn't be stupid enough to tell the cops I'd shot at him. If he did he was setting himself and his buddies up, but I didn't give him credit for having much in the way of brains. If the cops did show up and couldn't find any evidence (GSR featured big on cop and CSI shows) it would be my word against his and he did have a history of screwing around with the men who saw his ex-wife. I would claim that he made it all up to get me tossed in jail and have to put the wedding off.

+++++++++++++++++++++

I was in bed asleep when Shay got home, but that didn't stop her from waking me up with a blow job.

"Sorry baby" she said when I was fully awake, "But I'm horny as hell and I need you to do something to take care of the problem."

I of course did what was needed and then we snuggled up and fell asleep. In the morning I asked her what had fired her up the previous evening.

"I can't tell you."

"Why not?"

"Because what the girls talk about while we play cards stays with us. All I can tell you is that what one of the girls told us last night turned me on something fierce."

I kept trying to get it out of her, but she wouldn't budge other than to say if we kept talking about it she would keep thinking about it and that would have her trying to fuck me to death. Needless to say I decided to bring the subject up often. What I didn't realize at the time was that there was going to come a day when I would wish that I hadn't.