Friendly Fire

Quite a long story, told in short chapters to move things along.

UK English from a bumbling dyslexic, expect mistakes, if that upsets you, don't read it. Your call.

Chapter 1 -- Matt & I

Matt & I had gone to school together, we were neither of us book smart but neither of us were dumb either. In our late teens we had a chat decided that we were fucked if we were going to saddle ourselves with large debts from a college education and that there was a very good living to be made in the trades.

Plumbers were often in short supply and Matt's uncle was a plumber, he was older than Matt's dad and reaching an age when he was happy to have an apprentice or two that he could underpay whilst they learned the trade of him.

He was also of an age and had been frugal with his money so, retirement was something he was not far from ready for and somewhere like Florida with a better climate beckoned where his rheumatic joints would do better in the milder winters. Matt envisaged either him or both of us taking over the business and developing it into something bigger.

So, we joined his Uncle Steve, worked as apprentices for low pay but got the grounding and the skills we needed.

We had a plan but before that we had all the trials and tribulations of growing up, making our way through the teen angst, the learning about life, learning about sex and as important about relationships with both male and female friends, what made people become and stay friends, what people valued and made them want to be around you, being good company, loyalty and the whole nine yards.

In school we had each other's backs, others soon learn ed that if they took on one of us, they took on both of us. We were not huge guys, but we were physically hard from sports, and we had each had our share of fights.

I suppose our friendship solidified for all time one day when I was having hassle from two big football players and Matt cruised in swinging fists, before they knew what was happening we had teamed up to put both of them down and after that we were inseparable, and nobody seemed to want to tangle with us anymore.

When it came to the opposite sex, Matt was a bit of a player, liked to spread himself thinly and seemed to rarely be without some lady on his arm.

Me? I'm Jim by the way, and I became infatuated with Kate in my first year out of school as Matt and I were learning the plumbing trade from his Uncle Steve.

I had met Kate in a bar one night and we just seemed to hit it off, we liked each other and spent a lot of time together, eventually it moved to the bedroom, and we discovered we were just as compatible there.

Matt started to feel like a third wheel, he was not happy to have lost his wingman, but he said that I had done really well for myself and that if I hadn't connected with her first he'd have loved to see where he could have taken things with Kate.

In company we all got on together so well, it seemed like we were all family, it was not uncommon for Kate and Matt to hug fondly, and I thought nothing of it. We were buddies, you never have to worry about your buddy around you girl, right?

Chapter 2 -- Changes

Life moved on, nobody more so than Uncle Steve who retired, sold the business to Matt and I and headed to Florida. My parents had gone guarantor for a loan that funded my part in buying out Steve, Matt's money came as a gift from his parents, so I was the only one carrying a debt.

I had married Kate 2 years ago and life seemed pretty sweet, marriage good, business starting to thrive even more as we put effort into growing it, a little advertising, some social media with past client recommendations and soon we were as busy as we could manage.

The option was to hire more guys, but trained plumbers aren't always easy to find at rates we could afford to pay, so increasingly, we were working longer hours.

Kate was working as a clerk in a law office, the pay was ok, but she didn't really enjoy the work and that there was a creep of a lawyer who tried to hit on her, but she fended off. Then she said that she was looking forward to starting a family. I wasn't sure when that would be, with my loan, we were doing ok but it wasn't exactly a perfect time to lose her income.

As my hours became longer and longer and we had no real chance to start the family, Kate began to retreat into herself a bit and I started to worry about possible depression. I kept telling her that it won't always be this way and that happy days were ahead of us, but that didn't stop her unhappiness.

Then one day, it was like someone had flipped a switch. Kate had a smile on her face and the tension seemed to be gone. I wondered what had happened but was really just happy to see my wife smiling again so did not overthink it.

Soon, our stalled sex life sprang into life, with Kate seemingly recharged and pretty much in need of sex most days. Who amongst you would be bothered by that?

Then one day I was bothered.

Nothing dramatic, but suddenly she seemed to want to suck my balls every time we got together, I liked it, but where did this come from? She had only ever paid passing attention to my hairy sack, now she loved to lick it and suck on my balls like they were a delicacy.

I was unsettled, I needed to think this out, was I making a problem where none existed or was her sudden happiness and love of my scrotum align with something else happening?

A few weeks later and I needed to talk to someone, the obvious candidate my best friend Matt.

Chapter 3 -- Matt Chat

Matt and I met in the Staging Post bought a couple of beers and took a booth at the back wall.

"What's eating you buddy?" Matt asked, "You've been kind of off for the last few weeks, I've been waiting for you to talk to me, didn't want to interfere."

"I hope it's nothing Matt but it's about Kate, she was down, hated her job and had a snake of a lawyer hitting on her at work. Then about 6 weeks back she changes, happy as the day is long and two weeks later, she's trying to fuck me to death almost every day."

"And your problem with a happy wife trying to fuck your cock off?" Matt said with a smirk.

"Well, after a couple of weeks, I notice that she has suddenly become very fond of licking and sucking my ball sack. Thing is she's never really shown any interest before, it got me thinking, Where the fuck is this coming from? Is she learning new tricks with some other bastard?"

"Fuck I love having my nuts sucked." Matt said, then I caught a slight 'what the fuck did I say that for' look crossing his face before he quickly recovered, "it's all good Jim."

We stayed a couple of hours and drank some beers but now I had two people who concerned me. I'm not an educated man but I've heard of Occam's Razor -- when various solutions present themselves, the most obvious one is usually the correct answer.

Chapter 4 -- Who?

Over breakfast that Saturday morning I said top Kate, "I've a lot of work on today, I'm just telling you I'll be away most of the day so you can invite your lover around when I'm gone."

Kate looked totally shocked, to the extent she couldn't form words.

"You know, the guy who loves having his balls sucked? Want to tell me about him?"

She ran to the bedroom, sobbing. I walked out to my truck; the jobs weren't going to do themselves.

I had lied, I was only going to be working until lunchtime and yes, the dumb bitch had fallen for it, when I got home there was Matt's truck in the driveway.

When I walked in, at least they weren't in bed, they were on opposite ends of the couch a box of tissues between then and maybe 40 balled wet tissues on the floor in front of the couch.

As I walked in Matt rose to meet me, he had Just managed "Jim, I'm.." when my fist exploded in his face, and he went down hard, blood streaming from his nose and mouth.

"No need to apologise my best friend, she's your problem now. Kate pack your shit up and get out you fucking filthy slut, I never want to see your cheating face again as long as I live."

As she started to speak, I yelled at her, "I don't fucking want to hear your lies, don't speak or I will really fuck your lover up badly, I'm just in the mood for some real destruction, just pack some shit and get out, you can get the rest when I'm ready.

Better still, I'll box it up and leave it at the office for you, I'm sure your lover will bring it home to you. GO."

It took just a few minutes for her to emerge with a bag and Matt had got himself as far as the couch mopping up the blood with a few tissues.

"Right, fuck off out of my house, you'll both hear from my lawyer next week."

I held the door open; Kate couldn't look at me, but Matt again tried to speak so I gut punched him and he got the message, out they went into Matt's truck and drove off.

I spent the rest of the day researching divorce, simple in our circumstances, and dissolving a company, not so simple in our case as I was the only one holding a debt relating to it.

Lawyer time.

Online I made an appointment with a divorce lawyer and hoped that I could get someone to deal with the other problem on the same visit.

Chapter 5 -- Man on a Mission

I went to see my divorce lawyer, Karen King, and before getting into it asked her what I needed to do to dissolve my partnership with the man fucking my wife. She told me that she would bring her husband Carl into the meeting, company law was his specialty and both cases could be inter-linked because the same man participated in each case.

The divorce was fairly simple, rented accommodation, each financing our own cars and no kids makes it that way 9 times out of 10. The complication was the business, it started before I married Kate and she had signed a prenup acknowledging the business as a non-marital asset, it had actually been Matt who had asked us to do that simply as a protection that the business would not be damaged if Kate and I didn't make it.

However, my business partner was now linked in the break-up of the marriage and no fucking way would he and I continue as partners. My problem was I owed significant money on the loan used to buy my share of the business.

I'd taken a copy of the business agreement between Matt and I when we formed the company after taking over from Steve. Carl had read it and declared it very simple and not complicated to dissolve.

Carl spoke about what I wanted, that was simply, one word, OUT.

He laid out some options:

Jim, you can sell your half of the business, you don't have to sell it to anyone in particular. Do you want to keep the business running successfully or would you like to damage it?

If you want it to survive, sell it to Matt, make him pay dear for it.

If you want to damage it, there is bound to be a larger company that would buy your half and then forcefully liquidate the business so their existing business would take up the slack, eat your company from the inside.

The downside of that scenario is that your employees would probably come out of that badly. (We now had 5 guys working with us, good guys, I liked them all and ideally, wouldn't want to see them hurt.)

The other option would be to walk away from it, just disappear, don't service your debt, and let the business fail.

"Carl, that I cannot do, much as I'd like to disappear and leave this shit behind me, my parents guaranteed that loan, I can't stick that to them. The problem is that Matt knows that he may try to use that against me."

We closed the meeting; Kate was to be served divorce papers in 2 days at her workplace for maximum embarrassment.

Matt was to be served notice of intention to dissolve the business partnership within 30 days and to invite him to make a satisfactory buy-out offer. He too would have that in two days.

Now I just had to sit back and wait.

Chapter 6 -- Shit Hits Fans

I didn't go to work, I started to get calls from Matt which I ignored he emailed me, saying we had a business to run, where the fuck was I? Work was stacking up and customers were bitching about missed appointments.

I ignored that too, frankly I didn't have a single fuck to give about the business anymore, I just wanted out.

The next day, my phone exploded with messages, from "How could you?" from Kate, to "What the fuck is going on man? This is our business" from Matt.

I sent each of them a photo of my raised middle finger, captioned "fuck you."

Kate had not even tried to talk to me since Saturday, she knew the levels of my disgust with her, she knew our marriage was fucked, betrayal but not just any betrayal, this was with my closest friend since childhood and my business partner, It can't get much worse.

That evening the two of them arrived at my house and made yet another mistake, she used her key to let them in. I flew at them and started punching Matt again, he pleaded with me to stop and didn't return any punches, saying "Please Jim we need to talk" just as I again drew blood with a solid right to the mouth. I thought I heard the satisfying sound of a tooth breaking.

Kate screamed, "Please stop Jim, please, we all need to talk."

I looked at her with an icy stare and said, "That cunt is not welcome in my house under any circumstances, neither are you, but you at least have some right to call here. Never ever use that key again, in fact give me the fucking key now, you lost the right to come and go here when you became a slut for my ex-best friend. Now fuck off both of you before I do something I regret. Kate, if you want to talk to me, call my lawyer and make an appointment, I will meet you at her office, not here and I will not meet you anywhere with that backstabbing piece of scum you are in love with present, now fuck off both of you."

Matt, "I'll be in the office tomorrow morning at 8am sharp, I'll talk to you then in front of our staff, I'm selling my half of the business to the highest bidder, Coopers Plumbing have already said they will make me an attractive offer."

He looked furious and started to speak but I cut him off and repeated that he needed to get out. I took the door key from Kate and locked the door behind them.

If they didn't understand the depth of my anger before, well they sure did now.

I intended to break them both if I could. Did I mention that I used adultery in the divorce petition? It wouldn't matter other than to embarrass Kate, I intended that all our friends, family her workplace, anyone I could think of would know she is a cheating slut.

Whilst my anger was up, I logged onto Facebook and changed my status to separated and wrote the following post:

"I want to announce the break-up of my marriage from my soon to be ex-wife Kate, due to her affair with my soon to be ex-business partner Matt. These two pieces of pond scum conducted the most treacherous betrayal possible, a wife with her husband's best friend.

Why? I have no idea; I have simply kicked her out of my house and have not spoken to her other than to confirm that neither her nor the treacherous shit she now loves are welcome in my house. A divorce and the sale of my half of J&M Plumbing will happen asap.

If anyone wishes to remain my friend rather than theirs, please do me the courtesy of never mentioning either name in my presence, they are both dead to me."

Before the day was out, my Facebook page and my phone were pinging message notifications all afternoon and evening.

I took only one call, it was from my father-in-law also Jim so I called him James, "Jim, I've heard the news, it sounds serious son, is there anything I can say or do to help?"

"James, thank you for your call, I'm afraid there is no fixing this, you could help by asking her to just complete the divorce papers and get this finished."

"Jim, she is here tonight, she is heartbroken, she insists she was depressed and stupidly took comfort with your friend Matt. She insists that she only wants you. Will you talk to her?"

"Not tonight James, she knows I'll only talk to her at my lawyer's office, there is no coming back from this, I will never forgive either of them, if possible I'd prefer never to see either of them ever again.

Sorry, that is just how it is. James, I want to thank you and Martha for how you've always treated me, I'm sorry it's ending this way."

"I'm sorry too Jim, goodbye for now."

Chapter 7 -- Confrontation

8am in our office, I gathered everyone together, I thought they all had a right to know what was happening and the possible effects on the company. Matt sat tight-lipped as I started.

"Guys, I have bad news, my cheating slut of a wife and the piece of shit you see sitting behind that desk have been having an affair for at least 2 months.

If I find out anyone here knew, there will be a reckoning, a hard reckoning.

Assuming you didn't know, then know this, I'm selling my half of the business, I suspect this piece of shit can't meet the price, so I have been in touch with Coopers Plumbing and they are keen to buy me out. If they do there is every chance that they will close this business, maybe take on some of you, but maybe not.

If that happens, then I'm very sorry guys, but unlike this scumbag, I have a large loan to service and I cannot stay a partner with treacherous vermin like Matt, my former best friend. I need to get out from under the debt and start again somewhere, it just won't be here.

Now if you will excuse me, I have to talk to this piece of trash to see what we are going to do, I'm sorry, you are all good men, I hope it works out for you but if you can get another job, I'd suggest you grab it with both hands."

When the office cleared Matt erupted, "For fuck's sake Jim, did you need to go nuclear? Surely we can sort this out. Kate doesn't want me, she loves you, for that matter I don't want Kate either. I'm not the settling down sort, you need to get past this and get on with your marriage and get the business up and running properly, I know you hate Coopers, not a chance in hell you'd sell to them."

I smiled, "Yeah, I hate Coopers but not as much as I hate you. The clock is running on your 30 days, what 24 or 25 left then, believe me, I will sell to them, and I hope they close you down. You will not get one day longer than that deadline, if you have not started trying to raise finance you are a bigger fool that I took you for."

"One more thing before I go, I will not do one more piece of work for this company, it's all on you. If you'd worked harder instead of fucking my wife maybe we wouldn't be having this talk you fucking snake."

"Oh, and last thought, do right by Kate or I will do some serious physical damage to you, got it? I may hate the bitch, but you took her off my hands, you fucking deal with it, or I will deal with you, some dark quiet night when you least expect it."

As I walked to the door he tried again, "Please Jim, you know I need you, I can't run this without you, let's try and get past this."

My raised middle finger as I walked out gave him the answer.

I arrived home, to find a message from my lawyer, Kate had asked for a meeting tomorrow afternoon and wanted to bring her father and her lawyer who happened to be the very snake in her office who had several times tried to hit on her.

She seemed to have fallen from the top of the stupid tree and hit every branch on the way down. I agreed to the meeting, I didn't see the need to have James there, but I liked him and didn't wish to make a point and offend him.

Chapter 8 -- At the Lawyer's

I arrived early for the meeting to speak to my lawyer, but she had nothing to suggest other than let the other side talk to see what was on their mind, then we would counter from a position of strength.

Kate could barely make eye contact however James was his usual solid self, sincere and honest, "Sorry to meet under these circumstances Jim, please just keep an open mind." I shook his hand warmly and said it was good to see him no matter the circumstances.