Gerald's Big Decision

He called his best friend in New York, Jason Booker. The phone was answered on the first ring and said, "Hi Craig. Have you arrived in Texas already and have you witnessed any fist fights yet Heh heh?"

"No, not yet. But I am in this apartment house that seems to be decorated with hot and cold running girls so maybe I will do some 'fishing' later. I think I will like it here."

After five minutes of pal talk bringing each other up to date, Craig asked, "How are your piano drills coming, Jason?"

The musician said, "I am excited. The downer is that I am surrounded by players who are so good until I am like playing chop sticks compared to them, but I am sure learning a lot. In fact, I have a test session of a Liszt piece with one of my drill instructors in the morning. I thought it was perfect after I had spent 2 hours on it this afternoon, but shit! I might wake up in a different world. I will let you know."

"Uh Jason, My Mom and Dad split and I am depressed and I just wanted to talk to a friend. I hope this information doesn't upset you or anything."

Jason said, "Oh no! Why?"

"Neither parent would say but it happened right after they got home from taking me to Dulles."

There was a long pause and forcing himself not to shake, Jason finally said, "Craig, I am sorry. Also, I don't feel so good about this as I am sure you don't either. Keep me posted on this and let me know, if you would. I got to get back to work."

"O.K. Seeya Buddy!" Craig broke the circuit.

——

In his New York room Jason didn't sleep a wink that night. He vacillated between studying the music timing phrases and calling Mrs. Sudbeck and probably waking her up and then kicking himself for even thinking about calling her. He then began thinking about his youth. "I remember going into Mom and Dad's bedroom as a third grader and watching Mom dial 911 and hearing her say, "My husband has taken a bottle of pain pills and left a suicide note." Then he remembered a few days later, hearing his Mom tell his grandmother, "He deliberately overdosed because I told him I was leaving him for another man, and taking Jason with me. We had agreed on a divorce that was in progress." Jason asked himself in his New York City bed, as he tossed and turned, "Will Mrs. Sudbeck be depressed because her husband has found someone else? Or worse, did he find out about her and me? Jason closed his eyes and counted sheep but sleep still did not come. His recurring question was, "Why did I come on to Judy and does her husband know? My God, that was over after the one event. If they divorce the news will ultimately get to my mother. That will just kill her - just as Mom's fucking around was the reason my father suicided, which almost killed her then as well. Will my talking to Judy Sudbeck ease her anxiety? Hell no! It will just make it worse."

After a one-hundred percent sleepless night Jason heard his alarm ding and he sat on the side of his bed. But, he did his morning preps and showed up in the sound proof booth ten minutes before the teacher was to arrive. His warmup practice was crappy and his heart sank because he just knew he would fuck up the Liszt piece.

The teacher came into the booth and said, "You ready to show me what you can do with the Libestraum we discussed?"

Before Jason could reply the instructor's phone rang and after he looked at the LCD he said to the student, "I have to take this. Can you continue to warm up and we will get started in a moment?"

Alone again in the booth, Jason went into a yoga breathing exercise to calm himself. He thought, "Mr. Sudbeck is the smartest man I have ever known and after I tell him that I was the one who moved on his wife and not Judy on me, he will figure out that she is not a slut, and what we did was my youthful indiscretion. I know he will forgive her and me because she is such a super woman and I am playing 'marbles' in this elitist of elite 'ring with big marbles' in it and he made it all possible. I have seen him tremble with pleasure listening to me, and to Craig and me in a duet." Jason hadn't prayed since since the onset of puberty but stated the 23rd Psalm out loud from memory. For some reason the student felt his whole body relaxing as if the hangover of being confronted with what had happened between Mrs. Sudbeck and him was not so badly fucked up as it first seemed.

In a few moments the instructor stepped back into the booth while Jason was doing his finger drills. The renown instructor said, "You know, Jason, you are endowed with an almost two octave span in both hands - you will have a distinct advantage when you get into your first major competition."

The student replied, "Thank you, sir. I intend to exploit that advantage."

At that point the teacher brought his sheet music to the top of his clip board and said, "O.K. Show me how well you can do Libestraum. He watched as Jason began the opening notes. About five minutes later it was over and the Instructor excitedly said, "You aced it, Jason, congratulations." He watched his student just beam with pleasure and continued by asking, "What is next in your plan?"

After Jason told him, he continued, "Thanks for your encouragement."

After he was by himself in the booth again, he suddenly called Judy Sudbeck not giving himself time to think about it. He was desperate to see how she was adjusting to being alone. He dialed her cell phone number which she picked up after four rings and said, "Hello Jason,"

"I passed a major exam this morning and my principle instructor thinks I am on my way."

"Good for you, Jason, I knew you could compete with the best of them."

"But that is not why I called, Judy. Craig told me that you and Mr. Sudbeck have split. Is it because he found out about what we did when I was a high school junior?"

Judy's whole insides ached now as she sat in bed thinking about her options. Pain racked her hungover brain thinking, "If I tell him the truth, it may well destroy Jason's concert career chances. If I tell him a lie, the truth will surely come out in divorce court anyway and it still might ruin his career chances." She then lied to Jason and said, "I have a call waiting and it might be an attorney, may I call you back in a few?"

"O.K. Bye."

——

This early morning Gerald Sudbeck was studying mechanical specifications on a set of blueprints for a medium rise building to be constructed. There was a bid opening to be conducted one week from today. He was doing this work on the kitchen table of the furnished apartment he had rented. His mind vacillated between preparing an HVAC bid and thinking about his wife and missing her. He had a crick in his back because the mattress that came with the apartment was too soft for him - he missed his tempur-pedic mattress at his home and he missed his wife. He silently cursed because he needed a reference work to proceed and then decided to bring his entire library to his new apartment so he could get some work done.

Once on the road he continued to have a very bad feeling about his coming divorce. No matter how hard he tried, he could not explain the bad feeling. But, Gere was a 'plan your work and work your plan' type individual. He had planned every single facet of this divorce completely, and the only thing he knew to do now was 'get it done.' He said out loud to nobody, "Lets get you divorced."

——-

Judy had dozed off again after Jason called and now her alarm went off and she sat up. For a moment she thought she would vomit again after drinking the glass of water on her night table, but, she forced herself to get up and start her day. She only had one class and decided to let the students take a walk. Then she suddenly had Debussy's opening notes of 'Claire de Lune' lodged in her brain and couldn't get them out.

She did her morning toilet and walked into the performance room and to the piano bench that held her sheet music. She finally found that piece and put it in the piano's holder as she sat down. Once she began playing it, the melody buzzing in her head finally gave her some peace. About the second time she replayed it, a calmness descended on her. Her shoulders and arms moved into the correct position as she had been trained for the first 20 years of her life. In time the delicate sounds caused her skin to tingle as she kept playing.

The movement she noticed in the driveway was Gere's SUV pulling in and stopping near the front door of the main house. She stopped playing and stood up to watch her husband roll a two wheeler into the house. She went back to her bathroom and refreshed herself and forced a smile on her face. She then went into Gere's office.

He was there boxing more technical books and placing them a two-wheel dolly and putting others in a garbage bag. She said, "Good morning, Gere."

Her husband ignored her. In fact, he didn't even look at his wife. She continued, "Jason heard about us from Craig and Jean's distraught son called from New York. He wants to know if my one indiscretion when he was a junior is the cause of our splitting up."

Gere shrugged his shoulders and continued what he was doing, faking a look of complete indifference to her presence and words.

Judy continued, "If I tell him the truth it will destroy Jason's chance at a career. We both have dreams for him to become a world class pianist. If I lie to him right now the truth will come out in court so the net effect will be the same. Plus it will kill his mother after what happened to his father. Add to that the 15 thousand dollars we have donated to the world class pianist teacher to drive all the way here to give Jason lessons - plus the standard rates that his mother has paid - will all be wasted as well. Do you want all that on your conscience over one time that I failed you in all these years? Do you want the boy who is another son to you, since he lost his own Dad as a 9 year old, to wind up playing keyboards in a monkey-music night club band to make a living? You really want that on your conscience?"

For the first time, Gere stopped what he was doing and looked at his wife but remained silent.

She continued, "Gerald Sudbeck, there was one lustful act of sex when he was a junior in high school. You can go through every scene of video clips you have and you won't find but that one. And there never was any other man in my life nor will be whether or not we split or stay together. Gere, sex was just not that big of a thing to me until now that I am faced with losing you. I realize it's the biggest thing going for men, especially men like you."

For the first time, Gere spoke and said, "Yes, It is a very big thing to me. Our account manager at the home security firm passed this photo to me as one man doing another a favor - I didn't go looking for tracks of your cheating." But then there was a pregnant pause while the technical genius paused to remember a floor show in Singapore where the Belly Dancer's performing excited him so much until he later purchased her for the night. It was the first time he had paid for pussy since a freshman in college. He never told his wife about that.

Mostly, he recalled waking the following morning and seeing the sleeping beast in his bed wearing no make up. The body stocking had been removed. He especially remembered her flabby and plump hips spread loosely over the sheet and her mellon-type belly that went poorly with her cob-web like hair. For the thousandth time, he grimaced at the memory.

Judy, sensing the wheels turning in her husband's head, said, "Please call off the divorce, Gere. I will move into Craig's room and you have my permission to bug and video me where ever I go, if you think I still have the hots for Jason - or for anyone else beside you."

"You don't understand, Judy, there is more involved than a Mentor simply screwing her Mentee and then saying you are sorry and then apologizing afterwards to make it all right again. You have given to another what was mine only. That hurts and will for a long time." Tears were profusely streaming down both of their faces now.

She replied "I am well aware that it does, Gere. I plead with you to give us the chance to make this incident so trivial until it won't even register in the total scheme of things. I love you so much and have done so for so long, until there is nothing for me if we part like this."

Gere looked at his wife for a moment restraining himself from reaching out to hold her but said, "Another less important matter is that my friend at Southeby's assures me that he has a Chinese client with government connections. This man has a million five budget cash looking for a house and acreage just like ours. We both would net out nearly a half million each. We need to have an amiable divorce and sell the place."

Being the erudite rational thinker that she was , Judy said, "On the other hand you have told me repeatedly about the dream of your starting your own engineering firm so that you could triple your revenue while reducing your globe trotting after hiring increased staff. We could raise enough money to do a start up with the assets that we have plus a second lien note on our home. Jean Booker hates our campus and she would hire on and work cheap to be comptroller and Financial Manager."

She noticed Gere scratching his head, and then continued, "Consider this. Even with a hot half million in your pocket you will still be globe trotting repairing problem installations and correcting screw ups, won't you?"

For the first time, his wife had her husband's complete attention. He opened his mouth and said, "But..."

While Gere was collecting his thoughts Judy burst out with, "How fun will it be flying everywhere because a contractor has installed the automated climate control equipment incorrectly inside of a high rise commercial building, solving that problem, and then, returning home to an empty apartment or this house. The feeling you would have will not go well with the fact that the people for whom you busted your arse working 18 hour days don't give a shit about you as a person - plus you will not have earned one extra dime."

At that point Judy's cell phone rang again. It was Jason in New York. He said, "Mrs Sudbeck you were going to call me back, did I miss your call?"

She immediately changed gears mentally and turned on the speaker phone and said, "Jason, I was trying to remember exactly how you and I had sex when you were a high school junior. Would you refresh my memory?"

"Sure. You sat beside me turning the sheet music pages while dressed in your housecoat. At one point I saw your breast and I stood and brought you up to embrace me. I held you close while you beat on my chest pleading, 'Stop this. Behave.' Then I wrestled you to the throw rug. I am so sorry and have wished a thousand times I had restrained myself."

She said, "Thanks for reminding me, Jason. I still don't know if Gere and I are headed for the divorce court but neither outcome affects you. As for as you are concerned, you were a consenting adult and what is important is your future - I love you like my son and if you stop struggling to be a world class performer then you go way down in Gere and my estimate. Thanks for..."

Her husband grabbed her phone and said, "Jason, this is Gerald Sudbeck and I was eavesdropping on your conversation. If Judy and I do get a divorce the principle reason won't be because you seduced my wife. So relax and get to work, as whatever happens does not revolve around what you two did. So get your guilt trip finished and get off your Arse and go to work. I mean it and I expect great things."

"Oh Thank you, Mr. Sudbeck!" The circuit was broken.

The two looked at each other and said nothing. After a full minute Gere said, "Don't you have class today?"

After she explained her decision she said, "Let me make a pot of coffee and lets look over the business plan I put together last year where I showed you how we might do a start up of an Engineering Firm. Now that commercial building leases remain at crash price levels, it will free up some of our need for outside cash. Please Gere?"

The brilliant physicist thought with a look of pain on his face, "There is a wedge driven right through the middle of my mind. She knows I love her madly, and that I want that start up so badly I can taste it, and Jean Booker would make the buffalo on every nickel shit because of her attention to details and besides that I am convinced my wife loves me totally. And, being so armed my wife is giving me a full court press to call this divorce off. But, she gave to another what was mine even though I am quite sure it was a fluke because Jason worshiped her and she worshiped his talent that she could never have even after another 20 years of her piano lessons." He finally forced a smile and said, "Lets look at that start up plan again."

———-

Two and a half hours later they lay on damp sheets atop his marvelous mattress, naked and spent from their record-breaking vigorous coupling that went on and on for both. Gere's cell phone rang and it was his attorney Joe Hoskins. The husband said, "Wait, wait Joe. Judy and I have reconciled. Send me a bill for your time. Yes, for sure. Thanks."

Judy was crying profusely from happiness.

Gere suddenly remembered that he had a sealed bid to prepare in less than a week and said to his wife, "I need help moving back in. Will you help me?"

She jumped up naked and said laughingly while mimicking her husband, "Let's get it done before you change your mind!"

The End.

Epilogue: Twenty years later, a grey-haired couple in their sixties parked in a visitor slot and walked up to the entrance of the three level building that had 4 truck bays. The large sign beside the road said, 'Sudbeck Engineering and Construction Company.' Beneath the company name, the logo said, 'The goal of our 110 employees is for you to be comfortable, 24/7.'

Inside, the receptionist smiled and said, "I will tell Craig you have arrived. "

Their son came out and hugged both goodbye warmly and said, "Oh, ready for your summer in the South of France, are you?"

His mother spoke and said, "Yes, we are staying in the Mediterranean villa of long time friends and former customer of Gerald's back when he worked 18 hour days to earn enough for a start up venture."

Their son said, "Say goodbye to Jean because she has been training her replacement and will soon join Jason on his current world tour."

Once in Jean's office the young gentleman with her was introduced and excused and then the neck-hugging and tears of happiness were the next order of business. After a few minutes of conversation, Gerald asked about Jason.

She said, "The Paid attendance in Cologne was 10,243 night before last with 3 encores. I am joining him in Berlin on his next stop. Today is my last day working for you two. Thank you again for rescuing me from the 'Jesus-in-the-woods' school years ago and providing me this marvelous career opportunity. More importantly, Gere, I thank you for being in love with my best friend and making possible my son's success - yes, I quietly learned of your paying the Master to give Jason piano lessons. God bless you, Gerald Sudbeck. And you, Judy. I can only say I am envious of you two, who made the right choices when you were young."