Heard it on the Radio Ch. 02

"Years ago, he hit me. He promised me he'd never do it again, but I decided to take self-defence classes. And I'm glad I did!"

Keith said: "As for KayCee and Claire, the jury's still out. But as far as you go, 'Chuck' the way you tried to attack your wife, really turned my fucking stomach. You're history. I am sacking you, so get the hell out of this building. Any of your belongings will be forwarded to you."

In bad grace Chuck/Cadfael stomped out of the building.

The meeting between Keith, KayCee, Claire and Don was somewhat anticlimactic. It was decided that being suspended from work for a week (but with pay) would be sufficient punishment for what had, after all, been an accidental indiscretion.

Don face no censure. In fact, he was commended by Keith for reacting how he had to the incident. However, the corporate HQ had decided to sue the manufactures of the new piece of equipment as they no longer had confidence in it.

***

Two days later Jim was seeing the doctor who he had seen the last few years before he had left for the big city. Dr Jane Bonner was a fine figure of a woman and was about the same age as Jim.

She heard his tale of heartbreak with mounting concern. Jim seemed like a powder keg, about to explode. Although he was hiding it, it was clear to Jane that he was very angry. Very angry indeed.

She took samples of blood and, wearing rubber gloves, took a swab from the inside of his penis.

He gave an involuntary grunt of pain. "Sorry, Jim. Just try to relax a little.

"With modern methods I can have these test processed by the end of the day. I'll test for all STDs and HIV, too. Come back here at 3.30pm, please?"

He shook hands with her and went back to work. He was able to work fairly well. An ability to compartmentalise can be handy at times, he mused.

Just before 3.30pm he returned to the doctor's office. Once inside, she made him sit down. She looked concerned. "There's some good news and some not so good news, Jim. It seems the last time you had sex with your ex-wife-to-be, she left you with a little present. You are clear of HIV, but you do have a sexually transmitted disease, Chlamydia. It's easily treated, but we'll need to tell every one of your sex partners. Or in your case, just your wife."

"Oh, shit, Jane! That just takes the whole thing to a new level!"

Jane looked at him. "Jim, the medicine you need is easily obtainable. In fact, I have a free sample from a drugs company I can let you have. But I am worried. Your wife's betrayal has left you so angry that even without checking your blood pressure I knew it was high from the redness of your face."

She checked his blood pressure. "Damn it, Jim!" she exclaimed. "Your blood pressure is in going to have a stroke territory! I'm going to prescribe something for this. Also, and I can hardly say I am surprised at this, you are so very, very angry. I have trained in medical hypnosis and I would like to hypnotise you to see if I can help you work your way through your rage?"

Jim shrugged. "Sure. That'd be fine. When can you do it?"

"You're my last patient for today, so let's do it now, OK?"

After the session was over, Jane felt emotionally drained herself.

"Jim, I am so sorry about all the shit that's happened to you. All the anger that's raging and boiling within you. To find that the two women you married have both cheated on you, that's too much for a person to cope with, without expert help. Your anger to both women is understandable."

Jim interjected: "My anger to both women? I don't recall being especially angry with Rosie. Oh, yeah, I was upset, but..."

"That's just where you're wrong, Jim! But in the case of the anger that you felt for Rosie you suppressed it so well that as far as you could recall you'd really felt no anger toward her. But you did.

"But it's fair to say your anger against KayCee is far and above the anger you felt for Rosie. And it's hardly surprising as her betrayal of her wedding vows and her special promise was far worse than that of Rosie, at least that's what you told me when you were hypnotised."

Jane paused and looked at him. "Have you being eating, Jim?"

He shook his head. "Not really. No. Look, this is awkward, but every time I think of eating I see an image of KayCee going down on me, of her sucking my cock which was covered in my cum and her juices and I feel sick to my stomach, literally.

"I mean... she'd never done that for me, ever! Was that something she did for her lover that she decided to do for me that last time? The thought of her having sucked his cock, then, me and her... it hurts me, damn it! I can't deal with it!"

Jane shrugged. "Can't see why you should have to, to be honest.

"From what you have told me, plus what I learned from your hypnosis session, you are suffering from PTSD. I'll prescribe something for that. It's not a magic cure all, it'll take time, but it will help. Meanwhile, try meal replacement shakes to help keep your protein, vitamin and mineral levels up."

A week later and KayCee and Claire were back on the air again.

"This is KayCee and Claire on the KayCee and Claire Mid-Morning Show, broadcasting to the Greater Metro area on FM and to the world via the Internet."

She paused and it was clear from her voice that she was troubled. "Folks, for those who heard my accidental broadcast last week after my regular show was over, when I outed myself as an adulterous cheating bitch, I can only apologise.

"However, it's not you good, kind folks who sent my messages of sympathy or those who attacked me I am thinking about, it's my poor, dear ex-husband to be, Jim Scott that I am thinking about. And for those few of you who wrote me criticising Jim, you were wrong. Very wrong! Jim was, and is, a good, kind and loving man. I cheated on him. He never deserved it. And I can only apologise for giving him the STD of chlamydia. I know it could have been worse, but what I did was bad enough.

"I am not going to go over old ground, but it's sufficient to say that Jim had been cheated on before and here was I, his supposed loving, faithful wife, cheating on him. And I had no excuse. None whatsoever!

"I thought I could have my cake and eat it. Have an affair for sex and have my husband for love. Let me tell you folks, you may think that you can do this. But you can't. Not really. Eventually, you'll be like me, you'll break the heart of the one you claim to love. And all I can say is I am thankful that we don't have children as my affair would have hurt them just as much.

"I am going to have counselling. But not the wishy-washy 'now, how does that make you feel?' 'can I relieve you of some of your burden of guilt?' counselling. I am going to have some real counselling that will help me work out how I can make sure I don't screw up my life so badly in the future.

"At the moment all I can do is apologise to Jim for the great wrong I did to him. I hope he can find someone who'll treat him a whole lot better than I did.

"I also I want to apologise to Sally, the wife of my former lover Cadfael or Chuck Benton. Sally and I are becoming if not close buddies, at least friendly as she is helping me see what a lowlife Chuck is, and how I really did lose everything that I valued. Ome more thing before I let Claire have her turn at the microphone... Dad, I am so very sorry I let you down."

Claire said: "I'm sorry, Jim. You thought I was your friend and I thought I was your friend. Clearly we were both mistaken. I was no friend to you. I should have stopped the affair, but I didn't. Sorry, Jim."

Needless to say that segment of the show also went viral via the social media channels and was picked apart by talk show hosts from all around the USA. It even made the BBC over in England.

Jim heard it as an MP3 file that Claire had sent to him. Claire had also asked if she and KayCee could meet with Jim?

It left him feeling ambivalent. The continuing sessions of hypnotherapy were helping him and he asked Jane if he should meet up with them?

"It's entirely up to you. But if you do, here's a word of advice. Don't you go to them, make them come to you!"

And that's what Jim did. He arranged to meet at the offices of Write Now, the Stars. They used the conference room.

KayCee and Claire looked nervous. KayCee was the first to speak. She had thought long and hard about what she was going to say to Jim, but the sight of him changed all of what she had blocked out in her mind. "Oh, Jim! You... oh, honey! You look ill! Have you been looking after yourself? Have you been eating?"

Jim shook his head. "It's early days yet, KayCee. I am on medication and seeing the doctor for treatment. As for eating, I have to admit that I'm not doing much of that."

Why?" said KayCee, sounding distressed. It made Jim feel like a shit, but he was pleased to hear the distress in her voice.

"Because of that last time we fucked, when you gave me the STD. You got me hard by sucking on my cock, even though it was filthy with our combined juices. You'd never done that before. So... my question is why? Why did you do it?"

KayCee said: "And you are wondering if I did that for Chuck first, then brought that idea home for you? I can honestly say I never did that for Chuck. As for why I did it for you that morning? I was desperate for your cock and I realised sucking it would get you erect that much faster. And it worked. You did. I wish I'd thought to do it for you before, so you would not get the suspicion that I had done it for someone else before I did it for you."

He nodded his head. "OK, KayCee, thank you for explaining that. It's helped."

He looked toward Claire and addressed her. "Why are you here, Claire?"

"To give moral support to KayCee. And to again, apologise to you. I was a fucking lousy, no good friend to you." She started to tear up and couldn't continue. She left the room, sobbing.

KayCee continued to speak: "Jim, I'm sorry I allowed Chuck to work his way into my life. It took him several months of effort until I succumbed to his charms."

"What was it about him, KayCee? Does he have a bigger cock than me? Is he a better lover than me?"

She shook her head. "He could give me multiple orgasms every time we were together. He had such tremendous staying power. I thought it was some natural gift he had, least, that's what he told me. His wife Sally put me right on that. It turned out he had some special delaying cream that he applied, it allowed him to remain hard for ages and to delay his orgasm. So he tricked me, really. But that doesn't excuse what I did to you. Not at all! And you were the perfect lover for me. And I ruined it all. And I am so, so sorry about giving you an STD.

"Chuck encouraged me to divorce you so that he could marry me. But after the broadcast went viral on the web, his wife Sally turned up at the studio, unannounced! So, when he proposed to me on the understanding he'd marry me after I divorced you were a lot of bull! I feel so freakin' stupid!"

They talked a while longer and then the two women took their leave. They hugged him, and each planted a chaste kiss on his cheek by way of a token of parting.

Perhaps the talk with KayCee had put his mind at rest? Jim's appetite had returned so he celebrated with a Big Mac meal and a large strawberry shake, which he ate at his desk.

"Glad to see you have your appetite back, Jim. Did your meeting with KayCee go well?" said Dave.

"Thanks, Dave. Yes, it did. We cleared the air, a little."

Any chance of a reconciliation?"

"No. None whatsoever. I might forgive her, but I could never give her another chance to hurt me again."

***

Jim settled into a new normal, living in the motorhome and commuting the several paces to the office every morning to write whatever stuff he was called upon to write.

One morning he awoke from a dream, which had featured his first love, Angie Cook.

He knew he should have told Angie about what had happened between him and KayCee, but he hadn't had it in him to report back to her that he'd been cheated on, again.

But this time he took the bull by the horns and composed a short email to Angie, outlining the latest shit in his life.

To his surprise he received a phone call from her a few minutes later.

"Jim? Oh, Jim! What am I to do with you? Getting cheated on by your second wife? That's horrible! Actually, I was going to call you today as I was going to invite you and Kay-Y, sorry, KayCee, out to lunch this afternoon. But if you aren't together any more, a repas pour trois will become a repas pour deux, instead. Anyway, I never did like that bitch!"

Jim laughed at her joke. It was typical Angie and it was good she was on form.

"Glad I can still make you smile, Jim! I'm back in the States and I was going to get a flight to the Greater Metro Airport, meet up with you and KayCee for a meal and then catch another flight home. All I'll do is get my tickets switched to a through flight. My plane gets in at 2pm, so I'll see you at 4pm at George's Place, OK? If you get there first, grab a table, if I get there first, I'll grab a table."

They both arrived at a minute before time and a delighted George himself escorted them to a table.

"See?" whispered Jim. Even George thinks we should be together!"

Jim was intrigued by the expression on Angie's face. Not worry, so what, then?

They ordered steaks (with baked potato for Jim and English pub style fries for Angie, a throwback to her time teaching in England) and a bottle of sparkling rose.

They ate and drank in relative silence. They paid their bill, promised George (an old friend from High School) that they'd definitely be back and they went for a walk, arm-in-arm.

They arrived, eventually, at their town's park. For a town of its fairly modest size, the park was a large one. Their seat was still there, all those years later.

They sat and they talked. Jim told Angie all the gory details of the acrimonious split with KayCee, about the accidental on air outing by KayCee of herself.

Angie then told Jim about her annulled marriage to a high flying lawyer called Wilson Kirkham. How she had caught him screwing the chambermaid who had been sent to turn the bed down in the honeymoon suite.

"I hadn't even had time to unpack my suitcase, so I grabbed it and got the fuck out of there!"

"So, when are you disappearing off to your next overseas assignment?" asked Jim.

Angie shook her head. "I'm not. There's only so much teaching of random army brats in various locations around the world that a body can take. And I reached my limit a couple of years back, to be honest. The gilt is well and truly off the gingerbread!"

Angie got a job working for a software house specialising in educational software and they began a routine of evening and weekend meet ups either in her small apartment or Jim's motorhome and drinking wine, eating snackfood and talking.

They talked about their idiot, errant spouses about other ships that passed in the night and eventually they talked about how and why they, Angie and Jim, had split up.

And whilst it was easy to at least conjure up some reasonable explanations as to why their spouses had cheated on them, Angie and Jim were really clueless about the whys and whathaveyous behind their split up all those years before.

Eventually, after several weeks of dating, they decided that, as they had taken each other's cherries all those years ago that they really might as well make their relationship physical. "After all," said Angie, "We are both now testing clear for STDs, so as I'm on the pill, let's go for it!"

"Jeez, girl!" chortled Jim. "With an offer like that, how an I possibly turn your offer down?"

Angie, with a sly and slightly dangerous grin on her face reached down and grabbed his penis. "Oh ho!" She shouted. "Here's evidence that you are VERY turned on! Want to do something about it?"

Suddenly, the humour left her face, it was replaced by a look of sexual hunger and longing. "Please! Please! I want you now! I want you always! It's been years too long! Now! Please!"

They rushed to her bedroom, throwing items of clothing off as they went. They re-consummated their relationship with joyful and rumbustious love making.

After a couple of months of dating they contemplated what type of marriage ceremony they'd want. If they'd even want a traditional marriage, after all? They both had church weddings, Jim had had a radio wedding, too, so perhaps this time it should be something special? Something really different?

They knew someone from High School who hads gone on to be an arranger of pagan ceremonies including weddings, so they got her to organise them a handfasting ceremony.

Dave and Kathy were their as helpers as was the pagan officiant and several people they'd been to school and college with.

The motorhome was sold and they bought a house in the same neighbourhood as Dave and Kathy. Eventually they had twin daughters, Alice and Carol. They thought about another child but due to Angie's age decided against it.

As for Rosie and Charles, when a mutual friend told them that Charles had left Rosie in Germany after he had formed an affair with a local girl, Jim expressed sadness over this event.

This puzzled Angie: "I thought that just after the affair came to light that you hoped Charles would cheat on Rosie?"

"I know. But I am over her to the extent that I hold no animosity toward her. I wish her well."

Chuck eventually cheated with the wrong person. Whilst working on a radio station in Plymouth, England, he had an affair with the wife of a Royal Marine Commando. Chuck's corpse was found floating in the waters of Plymouth Sound. The cause of death was undetermined.

The police interviewed the woman's husband but he professed astonishment that his wife, who was the mother of his three children, would cheat on him. Besides which, he was on an Arctic terrain training exercise in Norway at the time of the demise of Chuck.

Claire took over the morning show and KayCee did a late night show which dealt with a number of issues like dealing with infidelity, other relationship issues, the loss of a loved one, and so forth. She won awards for several of the shows. But as she said: "I lost the really big prize."

Chuck's wife divorced him and took him to the cleaners. And she eventually married Don Mclure, who had "taken a shine to the wee lassie when she had decked that piece of keech!"