Holiday Hammer Blow

As I soaked in the bath I could hear her talking. She was obviously on the phone to the girls, checking on how everybody's weekend went. I couldn't hear what was being said, but the conversations seemed tense, uncomfortable.

When I dried myself off and wandered out to the living area, Kelly had a light dinner waiting for me. I wolfed it down quickly as she gulped down what was left of her bottle of wine. I tried to get the conversation moving, but the usually talkative jubilant woman I married had been replaced by a nervous teenager.

When I said I was ready for bed she just nodded. I stood and reached for her hand, but she said. "You go ahead babe. I might watch some TV first."

"Watch TV? I was hoping after the welcome home I got, we might, you know, fool around a little, make love." She gave me a weak reluctant smile. "Yes, but you must be tired. I'll only be a few minutes."

Shaking my head, I wandered off to bed. Something was going on. I wondered if Gazza had tried something on with her. I had known him my whole life, I trusted him. I passed it off as me being stupid.

I climbed into bed and left the lights on as I played with my phone, checking out some of the photos I'd taken.

It was nearly an hour before Kelly came in. When she saw me sitting up in bed she flinched. Yeah, something was up.

She disappeared into the bathroom, emerging twenty minutes later wearing a nighty thingy. Not a seductive negligee, I mean a full on nighty. Christ, normally we slept naked. She turned off the bedroom light and walked towards the bed. I turned on my bedside lamp, and threw back the covers to invite her in.

"What's with the nightie?" I asked.

Grimacing she replied, "I was feeling cold."

As she slipped between the sheets I pulled her into a snuggle. "Don't worry, I'll warm you up. God, I missed you, Baby."

She kissed me back. "I missed you, as well. If you are tired, we can just cuddle."

"Cuddle, Jesus, Honey, I'm as horny as hell. It's been five days."

I slipped my hand under her nighty cupping her beautiful perky little boobs. My hand bumped into her bra. I glanced at her, "A bra? What the hell's going on? You never wear bras to bed."

"I was just feeling a bit off."

"So you don't want to make love then?"

"What, no, of course I do," she said hesitantly. Jeez, it was almost reluctance.

I started unbuttoning her nightie and she whispered. "Turn the lights off."

Ignoring her, I leaned in and kissed her as my hand wandered over her flat sexy tummy, up over her boobs. I teased and caressed as we kissed. I felt her body relax, soften as she melted against me.

I sat up a little and finished unbuttoning her nightie, then reached behind her and unclasped her bra. As I leaned down to kiss her flesh I noticed how much powder she was wearing. The scent was strong and the powder dusty on my lips.

"Dave, please turn the light off," she whimpered.

I rolled her onto her back and climbed on top of her. "Relax, Honey, what is wrong? You seem tense."

Between her legs I decided to go all out. I kissed my way down her body working towards her sweet little pussy.

"No, Dave, please. Lets just make love."

Ignoring her, I pushed her legs wider apart and kissed my way down her tummy. As I kissed around her mound, I worked down onto her thighs. There were red blotches, which were smothered with that damn powder.

I ran my tongue over them sucking and licking off the powder. "Dave, please come up here, Babe. I just want you inside me."

I sat up on my haunches as I stared at her thighs. "Why do you have love bites all over your thighs?" I hissed angrily.

Using my hand I wiped away the powder she used to try and mask them.

Her face was ashen and frightened, she started to cry. Her hands covering her face.

"Why the hell do you have these fucking love bites all over you?" I barked. "What the fuck has been going on?"

"Dave, please, just come here and cuddle. Let me explain."

"It was Gary, wasn't it? Oh my god, you slept with him didn't you? You had sex with him."

"Dave, let me explain."

"Explain, explain what? Why you had sex with him? Fucking hell, Kelly. You did, didn't you?"

"Dave, please, stop saying that."

"It's true isn't it?"

"Not like that. You have to let me explain."

"Just tell me, yes or no. Did you have sex with Gary?"

"Yes," she whimpered between wild sobs. "But it wasn't like you think."

I threw the blankets aside and barked. "Get out, just get the fuck out."

She sat staring at me blankly. "What, no, let me explain."

"There's nothing to explain Kelly. Get out of my bed. I'm not sleeping with a slut."

She didn't move, her hands covered her face, her body shuddered as she sobbed frantically.

I leaned over and pushed her. "I said get out, get out now before I do something terrible."

Scared she climbed out of bed. "What am I meant to do?"

"I don't fucking care, but you're not sleeping in here. Sleep on the sofa."

She stood staring down at me. "Dave, if you would just let me explain."

"Fuck off, bitch," I snarled. "Just get the fuck out." I screamed. I had never felt pain or anger like it in my life. "Get out, you filthy disgusting bitch. Just get the fuck away from me."

Her body shook with the intensity of her painful sobs. "Dave, you have to let me explain."

"Get out." My scream was that loud even my ears hurt.

She quickly staggered out.

I pulled the blankets over me and tried to shut the world out. It was hopeless, I heard her in the living room sobbing fitfully. Right at that moment, I wished our apartment wasn't so small.

The morning was worse. With little sleep I showered and dressed for work. I found her curled up in a foetal position on the sofa. Her body rocked back and forth as she sobbed. "I'm sorry, Dave; you have to forgive me."

"I don't have to do anything. Please don't be here when I get home tonight."

Shocked she spluttered. "What, where am I supposed to go?"

"Stay with your mother, I don't care, but I do not want to see you."

I stormed out without saying anything else.

Work was terrible. I told everyone before the weekend what I was doing. Everybody, including Paul, wanted to know about it. Paul was the hardest to put up with. Thankfully, everybody realised what a grump I was in and pretty much left me alone.

All day my phone pinged. There were messages from Elise, Gazza, Marty and of course, Kelly.

I let them all go through to message bank. They were the last people I wanted to talk to. Surely Gary must be in as much trouble as Kelly. Elise wouldn't put up with him cheating.

The receptionist tried to patch through call after call. In the end, I said no calls.

I went home that night a defeated man. Why the hell did she do it? With him of all people. Of course, once you get to this space the mind goes crazy. You question everything. Had it been going on all the time? Was it a full-on affair?

My phone was going ballistic. My mother called, my sisters called, Elise, Gazza. Yeah I bet he wanted to talk. He probably wanted to beg me not to say anything to Elise.

After a couple of stiff drinks I decided, "Fuck it. Elise should know."

Rather than call her. I sent her a text message. "I don't know whether you know yet, but Gary had sex with Kelly over the weekend. Sorry to tell you like this, but I don't want to talk. I just thought you should know what a cheating slimy bastard you're married to."

There was nothing for a few minutes, but then my phone pinged. It was a reply from Elise. "Dave, I know. We all know. You have the wrong idea. It was supposed to be a swap, as in a proper swap."

Reading it, I stumbled. My breath vanished. Like somebody punched me in the guts.

My phone rang as I staggered over to the sofa. "Hello." I muttered.

"Dave, it's me, Elise. I'm sorry. It was supposed to be a surprise for you guys. The only problem being Maike chickened out."

"You mean you were all in on it?"

"No, only us girls. We thought it would be a bit of fun. Sorry, we didn't count on Maike being such a chicken."

"So you had sex with Marty, as well?"

"Yes, look, I'm sorry it didn't work out for you, but you have to talk to Kelly. She is worried sick. She's frantic. Please just give her a call, talk to her."

My breathing had returned, my tongue seemed to be working properly again. "Elise, you can go fuck yourself. I never want to hear from you, or your fucking husband ever again. From this point forward, you are dead to me."

"Don't be silly. Okay, I know this has all come as a shock, but if Maike had kept up her end of the deal, everything would have worked out."

"Fuck off, Elise. Stay out of my life. I never want to hear from you, or see you again. Please tell Gary to stay away from me, because if he comes near me, he will be sorry."

"Oh don't be so melodramatic..." I furiously ended the call before she could finish whatever she was going to say.

What a stupid bunch of fucking bitches. No wonder Maike was so upset. There was no way she would have ever gone through with their stupid plot. Fuck, I never thought Kelly would do something so stupid, either. Maybe I had overestimated her intelligence.

I turned off my phone and crashed. With no sleep the night before and a couple of stiff drinks under my belt, I crashed.

If work was bad the day before, it was worse the next day. The phone rang endlessly. I had the receptionist intercept all my calls and filter out anything but clients. Paul walked in just before lunch and he looked worried. "Dave, I don't know what's going on, but Gary is trying to get through to you."

"Tough. Sorry, Paul. I know he is your son, but I do not want to talk to him. Not now, or ever."

He sat on the corner of my desk. "Son, talk to me. What the hell happened to cause that?"

I knew I would get no peace, and the reality was I wanted to tell somebody. "All right, Paul, you want to know, well here it is. Your son had sex with my wife. They went off together on that bloody trip together and spent it having sex."

Paul just about fell off the desk. "You must have that wrong, Son. He would never do that to you."

"She told me. There's no misconceptions, no misunderstanding. They did it. He is dead to me, do you understand that, Sir, dead."

He glared at me for what felt like hours. "Son, it might be best for everyone concerned if you took the next couple of day's off. What do you think?"

I nodded, packed up and headed home. It was only a one bedroom apartment, but without Kelly's warm smile and presence it felt cavernous.

I decided the best thing to do was go down to the gym and take out some of my aggression on the punching bag. It started slowly, but ten minutes in and I was smashing the bag, even with gloves on my hands hurt. Rather than slow me down, the pain powered my anger and I hit harder.

The trainer walked over and patted me on the back

He was lucky, because he startled me, and with my mind masked with anger when I turned I swung back. Wow did I have that wrong. I was the lucky one. He was a full six inches taller, heavily muscled and strong. He grabbed my hand in one swift move. We stood staring at each other. "Bro, you're going to hurt yourself. Let's slow things down, okay?"

I nodded, and he stood behind the bag and gave me a little nod. I started swinging again and he smiled as I powered into beating the bag to death.

He stepped out, grabbed me and said, "Slow down, make each punch count."

I followed his instructions and he guided me, showed me how to stand, to move, get all my weight behind the punch.

He helped me for over an hour, but when he walked away, I just went back to smashing the bag, not caring about form, or anything else. I just wanted it hurt.

A quick shower and I walked back home. The joys of living in the city.

The walk gave me time to think. I had questions, hundreds of them. Nothing made sense, nothing gave me a plan, or way forward. All I felt was anger, and it burned, damn it stung.

Back in the apartment, I made something to eat and relaxed.

I checked my phone. I had left it off all day. because I was sick of hearing it go off every five minutes or so.

I noticed Mum had called several times. I hit dial and she answered immediately. "David, I would like to talk, could you come over?"

No thanks, Mum, I have just had dinner and a few drinks, so I can't do it."

"Are you all right, sweetheart? I have spoken to Kelly. She told me what happened."

"She told you, she told you what?"

"She told me she slept with Gary. I'm sorry sweetheart. I wanted to see if you were all right."

Shocked that Kelly had been honest, I said, "I'm okay, Mum. Just trying to figure out what to do."

"Honey, what about counselling?"

"No, I don't think so. I'm thinking more like solicitor. I am seeing one tomorrow."

Her voice shrieked. "No, heavens above, David. I'm not defending her actions, I'm not trying to make light or trivialise what happened, but let's be clear, Honey. She made a mistake. One mistake isn't the end of the world. Promise me you won't act rashly, take your time. Talk to her."

"I can't talk to her at the moment because I can't stand being in the same room with her."

"Honey, let it go. She did a terrible thing, she was wrong and it should never have happened, but it's over. It's in the past. Talk to her, please, she is frantic. She is distraught, she needs to talk to you, and you will never be able to fix this unless you actually give her a chance to explain her actions."

"Mum, I understand what happened. She decided to have sex with another man, my best friend. I feel let down and angry. She betrayed me; they both did. There's no coming back from that. I refuse to accept that behaviour. It's not okay, Mum. You wouldn't accept it, and neither will I."

"Sweetheart, she loves you. There's no doubt in my mind that's a true statement. You love her equally as much, I know you do. You were meant to be together. It may be a cliche, but you complete each other."

"I used to think that, as well, not any more."

I hung up because I could feel tears welling up in my eyes. I didn't want her to hear me cry.

I did some online research and the good news was I could apply for a legal separation online. I downloaded all the forms and filled them out. If she agreed to fill out and sign, we could finalise this easily. Thankfully we didn't have children, no real property aside from cars and furniture. Easy stuff to sort out.

I filled out my information, signed and uploaded it back to the site to be registered.

The weekend came around quickly, the days off work I spent mostly at the gym. Mum called every day, she was on a mission to reunite us. My sisters were worse, they were so firmly on Kelly's side I felt like I was being attacked. They both lectured me on behaving like a childish idiot, that it was just once, and I needed to talk to her and fix it.

I was surprised Saturday morning when Kelly walked in. She stood just inside the door. "Can I come in?"

I growled, "Actually, I would prefer you didn't."

"This is my home, as well, Dave. I have tried to call you, but you refuse to take my calls."

"That's because I don't want to talk to you."

"Babe, we have to talk about this. Find a way to fix it."

She walked in and moved towards me, I put my hand up in a stop motion. "Don't come any closer Kelly. I'm not interested in anything you have to say."

She stood just in front of me. "You don't mean that; you're hurt, angry. I understand that, but this whole thing was just a silly mistake."

"Oh, it was a mistake all right. Yes it was fucking stupid; don't try to trivialise it by calling it silly. Silly is forgetting to pick up milk on the way home."

"Babe, I wasn't trying to make light of it. All I was trying to say is, it was supposed to be a fun weekend for all of us."

I couldn't speak, I chewed furiously as she carried on. "We made a mistake. We should have considered Maike's lack of self-esteem. She wanted to be with you, she just didn't know how."

"Stop it, Kelly. This is bullshit. If this was such a good idea and you wanted to do this, we should have talked about it. Discussed it, fuck, I thought we could talk about anything?"

"Shit, Hon, it was meant to be a treat, a diversion from everyday life. For crying out loud, it was, just a stupid game. You guys are always going on about how you don't get enough. You're bloody horny all the time, us girls aren't sexy enough. I never thought for a moment that you would turn down a chance to sleep with Maike. I mean I understand that, she's gorgeous. I've seen you ogling her."

"I'm not talking about this, Kelly. You cheated on me."

"I didn't cheat." she bawled. "It was supposed to be a swap. Something a bit spicy, titillating, that we would all share. I never for a moment thought you would be like, this is disgusting, obscene, or some shit."

"Listen to yourself, trying to justify your slutty behaviour. You had sex with another man, without my knowledge or permission. That sounds like cheating to me."

"But, if you slept with Maike, it would have been equal."

I turned and walked over to the computer and printer. I lifted out the separation docs and handed them to her. "Read these. I don't know what you want to do about the apartment. I don't care either way. If you want it, then I'll move out and you can take over."

Her face was white, tears slid down her cheeks. He mouth twitched, shivering uncontrollably as she took the papers from my hand.

She staggered to the table and sat down. "Dave, this is an overreaction. Surely we can talk about it. I'm sure if we can just talk, take out the anger, we can find a way forward. I love you. I don't want this."

"Yeah, pity you didn't think about that before jumping into bed with that shit head."

"He's your best friend. I'm sure if you talked to him, it would help. He has tried to call you."

"I couldn't care less about him. He, is dead to me. I will never speak to him again."

The tears streamed down her cheeks, her eyes a red and black mass of running mascara, her cheeks smudged black. "You don't mean that, Dave."

"Read the papers. If you agree with my suggestions we can separate immediately. Move on."

"No!" she snarled, "Absolutely no way. I'm not letting this destroy our lives. I'm sorry it happened. I'm sorry we hurt you. You're right, we should have all talked about it first. But we didn't; it happened. It was a mistake. Please, I love you, I want you in my life. We can work this out, if you let me in."

I walked out, down to the storage room to collect my bike. I hoped maybe a long ride would help calm my frayed nerves. As always, the wind in my hair, the adrenalin from the ride, worked a treat and I did feel better.

By the time I got home I was chilled. I hoped that Kelly would be gone, and I could take some time to chill, think and consider my options.

Unfortunately, she had other ideas and dinner was cooking, the apartment sparkled, and she had changed and looked pretty damn nice.

As I walked in she gave me a warm smile. "Is charred salmon okay for dinner?"

It smelled great and I was starving. I gave her a nod and walked through to have a shower. After changing, I wandered out to find the table set, food served, glasses of wine sat resting beside our plates. She was going for romantic, lights down low, candles.

I wanted to say, "What the fuck?" but swallowed it. No words were spoken as we sat. The food tasted fantastic: something I neglected to mention was that Kelly is a sensational cook.

As we ate, she gave me a nervous smile. "Dave, I know this has been hard. What about if we just pushed it aside for the time being. Tried to forget it even happened?"

I sneered. "Just forget it happened! Christ, you think this is something we can just sweep under the rug?"