Heart Attack then Heartbreak

He sat on the couch and thought about Johnathan's comments about taking it easy to keep his heart pumping. One of his joys in life was having a good cigar on the back patio. Molly hates even a whiff of smoke coming into the house as he goes in and out for additional alcohol. He thought 'She's doing what she wants. I'll do what I want.'

With that in mind, he dusted off the humidor that hadn't been opened in five months. His choice was a Liga Privada No 9; at 7 inches long, it should last an hour. As he sat on the coach, he lit up a cigar that was at the top of Molly's THOU SHALT NOT list. Yeah, smoking is bad for your health, so is having your wife fuck somebody else. A one finger pour of his favorite single malt scotch wouldn't hurt anything either. He turned on the Fox Sport Center and stepped away from the shit storm around him. It was a relaxing 65 minutes as his cigar stub was smoldering in the ashtray as Molly came in the door.

"What the hell!" Was her first reaction to the earthy smell of one of mankind's best smokes. "Brad, you shouldn't be smoking!!!"

"Yeah, and you shouldn't be fucking some asshole."

"This is going to ruin the drapes and the carpeting. You can't get the smoke smell out. This will never be the same; it has to be torn out and thrown away."

Callously he said "You know Molly, there is some real symbolism here. Smoke ruined the carpet so we throw it away. You ruined our marriage so maybe we should throw it away, too?"

Knowing she would be rejected; she couldn't run and hug her husband. His point was valid and she had no one to blame but herself. She was at a loss for words to combat his attack. Instead, she walked to the couch and sat down; not next to him but on the same couch. That's as close as he would let her be to him.

Trying to change the battlefield she asked "We have been invited over to the Simpson's tonight for wine and dessert. Sharon has finished refinishing her kitchen and wants us to see it. I know it's not something you like to do but can we leave the house for an hour or so and get away from the terrible hurt I put on you. Please?"

"Ok, an hour is about all I can take from her husband. It'll be good to be out of this house for a little while though."

"I don't care much for Gary either, but the Kelly's and the Sullivan's will be there so you aren't alone with Gary."

Their dinner was quiet until Brad asked about her visit to the Health Clinic. Molly said "It was humiliating; I knew all three of the nurses. They were professional about it and didn't judge me, at least to my face. The worst part was having to disclose who I have had sex with in the last 90 days. My hand was shaking badly as I put Eric's name down and not yours. I am so ashamed Brad, I can understand a small, very small piece of what you are going through." She had a hard time getting the last statement out of her mouth. Brad didn't say a thing, he didn't have to.

Molly was happy to enter Gary and Sharon's house. Brad displayed a small faked smile and went over to the kitchen to make admiring comments about it. Gary took Brad to the family room where Paul and Sam were talking about the next Buccaneer's football game. The three men had already gotten into Gary's scotch selection and were laughing and joking. Gary offered Brad a drink and Brad answered "Sorry, I have to stay away from that for a few more months. Thanks for the offer."

"I forgot about that Brad, how is the rehab coming?"

"Rehab takes time and effort, and prevents me from doing as much as I want to do."

As Gary smirked toward the other two guy's he said "Too bad there's things you want to do but can't. Speaking of that, I hear that you're letting that smoking hot wife of yours fuck other guys because of your weak heart. I'd like to put my name on the list of guys she is allowed to fuck. I'd really like to do her."

Upon saying that Brad's face turned to stone and his eyes shot fire at this insensitive jerk. How dare he talk to him like that.

Gary noticed the mood change and quickly smiled and said "Just kidding, pulling your chain. I didn't mean any disrespect to you or Molly."

He offered his hand and said "No hard feelings."

Brad's face softened but his heart and anger didn't. He took a step toward Gary putting out his right hand. Gary smirked at Brad but didn't see the hard swing of Brad's left hand; headed directly at Gary's nuts. His flashing fist made a direct hit. As Gary screamed in excruciating pain, Brad took the opportunity to introduce his elbow to Gary's jaw. Brad wanted Gary to feel the pain every time he thinks of Brad Carson or his wife.

Gary spun a full 360 degrees and fell on the coffee table sending glass, drinks and hors d'oeuvres everywhere. The three women rushed into the room as Sharon exclaimed "What happened?"

Brad looked directly at Molly and sneered "Gary heard you were fucking other men because I couldn't preform for you. He asked to be put on the list of guys that can fuck you! I gave him my answer."

Molly's face was drained of blood. "Oh No!" was all she could say, but she kept saying it over and over. She turned to Sharon and shouted "You weren't supposed to tell anyone. No one. You shouldn't have told anyone"

Molly turned toward Brad but he was gone. She didn't even hear the door slam for the noise from Gary's groaning.

Brad's tail lights were all Molly could see as she rushed outside to talk to him. "Oh shit, he's gone" was her first thought. Then she trembled as she thought about the other, larger meaning of 'He's gone'. As in forever???

The breathing lessons he had to lower his stress level were working by the time he made it to his driveway. In situations like this Brad's therapist told him to "Go to your 'Happy Place". He had remembered this earlier in the day and he thought the time might come to this. He was going to The Fortress, that was his Happy Place. Inside his house he loaded several changes of clothes, laptop and his basket full of medicine and got back into his car.

The Fortress is in a new light industrial district on the east side of Interstate 75, away from any potential hurricane storm surge. It had been advertised as "Executive Man Caves". The building has an intimidating fence all around and a heavy-duty electronic entrance system. The long single story windowless concrete buildings each had rollup garage doors and steel plated doors for the six individual units. Brad used his remote to open the roll up door to drive into the big room.

Brad's room was 1,500 square feet and had a concrete floor, small bedroom, bathroom with shower and a kitchen. There was a large area of sofas, chairs and tables all centered on a 72" television mounted on the wall. Pennants, posters and flags for University of Florida Gators and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers decorated the concrete wall. The posters of nude women on the back side of football posters were changed depending on who was in attendance.

The center of his attention in this modern man cave was a 1999 Mercedes SL 500 convertible. It was a gleaming silver R 129 two seat roadster. His baby was covered and sitting nose to nose with the Lexus he had just used to escape from Molly.

Molly, Oh Yeah, he thought he might look at the numerous messages that made his cell phone look and sound like a bag of angry bees the last half hour. For the first time in two days, he smiled at the thought of Molly. Their time together had been good, but time changes.

He was an engineer by training, education and aptitude. There was a white board on the wall for tracking wagers, bets and scores on sporting events and he thought it would come to good use.

He cleaned the white board of past scores of games played prior to his heart attack. It seemed like a decade ago he was a vibrant man with a faithful wife, but it's only been three days.

Now he was naming the white board 'Molly Numbers'. There were four columns with titles of "I'm Sorry", "I love you", "Please forgive me", "I'll do whatever it takes" and "Blah, Blah Blah". The final column was "How many know"?

He chuckled as many phrases from "The Cheaters Book of Excuses" showed up in Molly's phone calls and texts. He thought "The more people cheat, the more it all sounds the same."

He didn't remember how many of these phrases were used since he first found out about her cheating. So he started the count with this evening's fiasco; "I'm sorry" was 9, "I love you" was 15, "Please forgive me" 8, "Whatever it takes" 12 "Blah Blah Blah" 1.

The "How many know" column was an increasing number starting with 2; Eric and Molly. Next three children and their spouses made the number 7. Three of Carrie's friends and the hospital nurses created 13. Finally, the three couples from this night rang the total up to 19 that he knew of. How many more are there? He was glad that Molly was so discrete in her fucking the world's greatest lover. YEAH, RIGHT!

"Pandora, play Frank Sinatra." This was the music he wanted to hear as he put away his clothes and took his evening meds. A strong man, doing things his way, living a full life even though he had been in several painful relationships. He came out on top; and that is who he will now pattern his life.

The next morning, he awoke restful and calm. Calm wouldn't be a word to describe his cell phone though. Good thing the white board makes it easy to erase and replace the new numbers.

As he was enjoying his morning coffee there was a knock on his door. He thought "How the hell did she get past the gate?" As he looked through the peep hole all he saw was a policeman's hat. He opened the door to find a young policeman and a woman police lieutenant.

"Are you Brad Carson?"

"Yes, ma'am I am?"

"May we come in Mr. Carson?"

Brad pulled the door fully open and invited the officers in. It was hard to notice any bodily features of the woman officer other than she was blond, tall and without makeup her face was attractive. The officers strolled in a gave the man cave and quick once over look.

"I'm lieutenant Pauls and this is officer Sullivan. Last night your wife called the police station and wanted to have a "Silver Alert" posted for you. Her thought was you had another heart attack while driving and couldn't come home. We don't post one of those "Amber Alert or Silver Alerts" without doing some investigation. After questioning her, we thought you might be here. Now then Mr. Carson, how are you feeling? Do you need any medical assistance?"

Brad chuckled and said "I'm suffering heart break not a heart attack. My wife was having an affair while I was recuperating from a heart attack four months ago. I needed to get out of the house and reduce my stress. Thank you for checking on me though."

Lieutenant Pauls replied "No problem, just doing our job." As she turned to leave, she said "Oh my gosh! Is that a Roadster? I just love that car. What year is it?"

"1999 with only 92,000 miles on it"

"It's beautiful. The car isn't even half broke in yet. Can I sit in it?"

Brad got to notice her graceful athleticism by the way she slid into the car. Her eyes were sparkling and her smile revealed her happiness as she gripped the wheel. After running her hand over the dash, she sighed and got out of the Mercedes.

"Thank you for the treat of touching your car. It was fun." As she stepped directly in front of him, she handed him her card and said "Call me if you need anything and I'm glad you were not in distress."

From the way she acted, Brad knew he was going to need that card very soon.

He texted Molly "You didn't tell me what you were doing for four months; why should I tell you what I am doing for one night!"

He made an appointment with his attorney for mid-morning, giving him time to do corrective measures at the bank and investment companies after that.

Brad was calm and measured as he told his tale of woe to his attorney Joe Smith. Joe and Brad had been friends and golf partners for years. After exposing his open wounds Brad asked "Is getting a divorce as bad on my financials as it is on my heart?"

"It's a good thing you've had excellent legal advice over the last 15 years." He said with a smirk. "Unbeknownst to us at the time, what we did earlier is going to protect you, my friend. Remember that after the bad car wreck you were in, we put all your assets, except your house, in a trust? It scared all of us that if something happened to you, the sole shareholder, the company would suffer at the hands of the tax man. I even had Molly sign an affidavit assigning any interests in your company to the trust.

Now the same goes for a divorce, of course we need to make some changes to the trust. You'll still be the trustee but we'll change the name of the beneficiary from Molly to you. We won't mention her in the trust. Son Jonathan will be your Co-Trustee with powers only after your demise.

"Next, we will change your will to how you want the trust assets divided. As you said it will be 1/3 to Jonathan, 1/3 to Mathew and 1/3 to trust for the children of Carrie until they are 25 years old. Education expenses will be covered from age 18 onward.

"How do you want to handle Molly? Your house isn't in the trust and I don't know how you want that treated. You will, of course, probably need to pay some marital support to Molly for a few years. What are your thoughts?"

Brad replied "I've got the house taken care of. I did fund a self-directed IRA to the max every year for her retirement. How much do you think I will need to pay in marital support?"

"I don't know, we'll just have to see what Molly and the judge think. Now then, we need to do some strategic planning. I suppose you are going to start closing and transferring checking, savings and credit cards today? Also, we need to get the amended trust and will documents typed up and signed prior to your filing for divorce. We need to do these things in the right order to grease the path to settlement. It was very fortuitus for us to have done that trust several years ago. You're in a good place financially, I'm sorry your marriage didn't turn out as well."

After taking care of closings and transfers he stopped by the grocery store for needed supplies for his man cave; now home. Since it was a beautiful fall day, he raised the rollup garage door to freshen the air inside. He was looking forward to this weekend.

There are six buildings in The Fortress and the tailgate parties there are always fun. Gas grills are rolled out in the driveways and water tanks are filled with ice and beer. Almost all the other man cave owners would have their school flags out on Saturday and NFL flags on Sunday. SEC rivalry games were the best times as fans were extremely loyal and in this setting very jovial.

He knew he wouldn't be lonely as his life transitioned. He was looking forward to spending more time in his SL 500; that was an eye catcher for sure.

With eyes rolling, he saw how many more texts and calls appeared on his cell phone. No matter the source; almost all correspondence topics were in the same four columns on his white board and he didn't see the need to answer. One text was different, it was from Carrie, begging him to please call her.

Yielding to Carrie's request, he called her, hoping the call would go to voicemail. No such luck, as Carrie answered "Hello Daddy." After greeting her, Carrie started in on him "Dad, you have to call Mom. She is beside herself in grief, anger and regret. She's afraid someone will find you dead from another heart attack. Can you call her, please?"

Brad thought "I guess I'll record this under the column of "Blah, Blah, Blah".

"Ok Carrie, what shall I say? 'Molly, I'm sorry you were worried about me. You weren't worried about me enough to stay out of that asshole's bed for 4 months. Why worry now when I am getting better?' Is that what you want me to say Carrie?"

"Come on Dad, she made a mistake. Can you forgive her and get back together? So, she had some fun with another guy. You're a big enough man to shrug that off."

"The chances I 'shrug' off a passionate moment are very slim. However, she screwed this guy over 40 times at his office or house. That is not an "In the moment" event. She drove an hour to get to his place so he could fuck her. That's premeditated. That shows total disrespect and lack of any concern for me.

"Why'd you lie to your brothers and start this entire cuckolding fiasco? Why would you do such a disrespectful thing to your father? I'm so disappointed in you. You've really stabbed me in the back at the worst time in my life.

"My doctor tells me not to become stressed and just talking to you puts me way over the red line."

Click was the last thing she heard from her father. She wondered 'Last thing for now or forever?' Now she started to cry.

"Pandora, play Frank Sinatra."

Brad spent the next couple of hours cleaning and dusting his SL 500. While his man cave was closed up tight, the car still got dusty. Besides, it gave him something to do and something pleasant to think about.

Saturday was just what Brad needed to decompress. He called a couple of his buddies to come to his unit at The Fortress for the Gator football game, steaks on his grill and beer in the ice tank. Of course, all five guys showed up, Brad was buying after all. Other unit owners stopped by to talk to Brand and/or his buddies as this was a very social event. Many of them knew about his heart attack and were glad to see him out and about.

After 6 hours of talking, laughing and shouting, Brad was wiped out. His buddies were headed out to dinner but Brad begged off, laid down by himself on the couch for the post game show and fell asleep. Three hours later he got up and went to bed.

Brad didn't invite anyone to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers football game on Sunday. It was his day to walk to the other units and enjoy their hospitality. Just like Saturday, he had to watch what he ate or drank; rather watch what he couldn't eat or drink. Still, it was an enjoyable day. It appeared to him that his social life won't suffer too bad with the dismissal of his wife.

At the end of the day, he was surprised that he didn't miss Molly at all. When she was at his unit for a game she was also worried about the food, drinks, what she was wearing, who she was talking to and where's Brad. She would suck the fun out of a pleasant afternoon of comradery and good times.

Monday was a big day as he met with Joe Smith to finalize the legal documents for a divorce. It was a sad time for him because he couldn't get over the way he was cuckolded by the woman he had loved for so long. It was time to call it quits.

Instead of answering any of the hundred texts, emails or phone calls from Molly, Brad texted her saying "Can we meet at the house Tuesday at 1 pm? Brad"

Almost immediately Molly responded "Of course, I've missed you so much. It will be great to see you again. Can you arrive at noon so we can have lunch?"

"Sorry, I can't make it then."

"If you change your mind Brad, you can stop by our house any time that day."

Even though Brad's text was cryptic, Molly hoped that this would be the start of their reconciliation. She wondered what dress to wear, not slutty or provocative, but alluring; welcoming him to her and their marital bed. Not for sex at this time; but for the intimacy of being together.

Getting Brad back into their home would take a lot of negotiation and compromise. She thought that both of them needed to compromise and respect each other's feelings. She knew that however he had acted the past week or so Brad still loved her and wanted her to remain as his wife.

At 1:01 pm on Tuesday Brad rang the doorbell at their house. It was quickly opened by Molly, who had been standing inside the door since 12:45. Molly tried to hug her husband but he diplomatically side stepped her on his way to the family room. She happily placed a letter from the Health Department stating that she didn't have any Sexually Transmitted Diseases on the table for Brad's review.