Jim and Laura: Quid Pro Quo

At home, over dinner with the kids on a Thursday night, Laura told me that she was going to a convention in Las Vegas for a week. It was billed as a national realtor's event to get together and share information, review what works for the industry and update everyone on changes to the laws that affect the industry, and maybe better ways to sell houses and broken down buildings that nobody wanted.

What they really did was set up shop at a fancy resort with a monster pool, party their faces off, get together late in the mornings, when they were mightily hung-over, drink several cups of coffee, pretend to pay attention to some pointless and boring PowerPoint presentation and then plan out that days party.

Her real estate conventions were always loosely disguised party weeks. I knew that this one would be no different and so, I decided that this would be a good time for me to change things up a bit. Time to show Laura just what she might be putting at risk. Who am I trying to kid? Laura was a smart woman and she was clearly aware of what she was doing. She didn't just wake up one day with 'stupid disease.' She's a big girl and she knew the risk and reward factors that led her to decide to fuck around on our marriage.

This convention coincided with the Spring school break. We had talked about taking the kids to Disney World in Florida, but somehow that got completely forgotten when the convention conveniently popped up on her calendar.

My frustration with her increasing selfishness and lack of concern for her family came through. "I thought that you agreed we were going to take the kids to Disney World this year." My facial expression fully said that I was pissed at her for going to Las Vegas when we had already made a plan to take the kids on a Spring vacation.

"This is really important to me Jim. Besides, Becca is still a bit too small to go on some of the rides that her brother can go on, and you know that if she can't do everything he does it will only mean a fight."

"Hold on, we can manage Becca if we explain it to her. She's a very smart kid and she understands all about safety. I really don't understand why you're putting another real estate convention ahead of your family."

She let out a giant frustrated sigh along with rolling her eyes, "The company wants me to go and they already booked the flight and hotel so I don't want to talk about it any more. I'm going to the convention, and that's that."

The rest of the night around the house was very quiet. After getting the kids in bed, I took a long hot shower and with a million thoughts running through my mind I went to bed. I didn't sleep that well that night. I did come up with an idea. Some fundamental justice, as I saw it.

So, a couple of days later I talked to Amanda and planted the idea of the two of us taking my kids and her kids, together, to Disney World in Florida for a short holiday. I didn't say a word to Laura about it. After a bit of talking about the logistics, Amanda and I agreed that we would do it.

So, we made flight and resort reservations and with a couple of phone calls had it all set up. Laura was barely out the door to the airport when I started getting the kids packed up and ready. To say that they were excited was a gross understatement. I told them that we would keep it a secret from Mom for now, and they smiled that beautiful little kid smile and nodded their agreement.

So, the day after Laura hiked off to party by the pool in Vegas with all the horny real estate agents, Amanda and I, with four kids in tow, were on a plane to Orlando. One of airlines has a non-stop flight that takes just under three hours. With little effort, by mid-afternoon, we were in the warm sun and the kids were all in their swimsuits enjoying playing in the pool.

This was a drastically new thing for Amanda and I. Our time together had, until now, been pretty much limited to having recreational sex. Our kids had met before, it was on a Saturday in downtown Albany and we met-up by chance. We ended up having lunch together and the kids got on well with each other. Lunch was at a fast-food place that had a play-land so the kids could burn off the sugar.

Amanda and I had a very different talk from our normal interaction. She shared a lot more detail with me about her marriage and the path to destruction. She also shared her commitment to her children. After her divorce she realized that she had made some very serious mistakes but wanted to be a good mother. She loves her children very much and wants what's best for them and is working to provide just that.

I shared more about the betrayal that I felt when I found out about Laura and her infidelity with Jason. I could tell that she was listening closely, even while keeping an eye on her kids. I was trying to watch her face for some indication of what she was thinking. She was in full lawyer mode.

She had to tell me some of the things that she was thinking. "You know Jim, the life you have now is very much like an open-marriage, you just haven't told each other that. Are you sure you want to live this way?"

I looked at her, "I haven't confronted her yet because frankly I don't want this to screw up the lives of those two kids over there. I don't want to become a weekend father who gets to spend only a few weeks of the year with his kids. Everything I've read tells me that the biggest losers in a divorce are the kids. I can't risk that. At least not yet." I exhaled a deep breath as I hadn't been breathing for the last minute as I spoke.

I knew that eventually Amanda would want to move on from our FWB relationship, that was just how she rolled. In my mind I knew that she wasn't big on monogamy. I mean, her history said that she liked sex and with different men, over time. I figured that the longer we continued our relationship the more likely it was to end. She would want to move on to a new FWB.

But she didn't.

So, here we were at the 'happiest place on earth' with four kids and pretending to be one big family. I had arranged two adjoining rooms at the resort. One room had two queen size beds and the other room had two sets of bunk beds for the kids. I had to pay a bit of a premium to get the resort to get the rooms that I wanted, and the beds sorted out, but it worked out. Amazing what a little bit of money will do to make this happen.

We spent the mornings and early afternoons walking the giant park and taking in as many of the rides and attractions as we could and then when the kids were exhausted and hot, we went back to the hotel to cool off in the pool. By the time supper was done the kids were all ready for bed. That meant that Amanda and I could enjoy time together and we usually shared a drink and some food and then each other.

Five days of Disney World was great. The kids saw it all, including a day at Sea World, and did it all and were sad to leave as we headed home and them back to school. I had to get back to work. Amanda had to get back to work. Laura, well she was coming home to get back to her normal routine, as well.

Laura appeared later the same day that the kids and I got home. She had a tan and a brutal headache. All that partying was catching up with her. The kids were excited to tell her that they went to Disney World and Sea World, and when she looked at me she voiced her disapproval telling me that she wanted us to go there as a family.

"What the hell, Jim! I thought we were supposed to go to Disney World as a family? Why the hell did you take them there without me?"

"Well, you might recall that we talked about this and you made the decision to blow off your family for another of your party weeks in Vegas. If we're not important enough to you, well...too bad. We went without you. We had fun. I hope Vegas was worth it." I left the room before she could say anything else.

Too fucking bad, I thought. She had six days of fucking her boyfriend in Vegas. I had five days of great sex with Amanda. I reminded her that we had promised the kids last year that they could go on the school break. Her going to a convention in Vegas at the same time wasn't going to be something that I was willing to disappoint the kids with. Too bad that she missed it. She picked Vegas over family. Her loss.

Monday I was back at work and busy. It was two weeks before I was able to see Amanda. She had to be away to see clients, and I figured that it might actually be her way of finding an escape hatch from our arrangement. Maybe being with me and four kids at Disney World for four days was too much for her.

But it wasn't.

Amanda texted me several times to tell me that her kids loved the time at Disney World and so did she. When we got together the next time there was a subtle change in the way that we interacted. Little things. I noticed that she had a certain more relaxed manner about her when we met. In bed she wanted more love. She would put her hand behind my head and run her fingers through my hair. The urgent sweaty sheet-tangling fucking was turning into a more loving relationship. We still put lots of effort into pleasing the other person, but somehow, it was changing. When it was just the two of us, Amanda was calling me 'sweetheart' and 'honey.'

Things with Laura hadn't changed. The last report from the investigator confirmed what I already knew. Laura was still seeing her lover on a regular schedule. So, I decided that I would stick to my schedule.

Don't get me wrong. I was still having sex with Laura. We were on a fairly rigid schedule of Saturday nights. But Laura seemed to take every opportunity to invite people over to our house or suggest that we do something, and then later that night, say that it was too late to have sex and that she was too tired. All too often I got a peck on the lips and that was it. So, the result is that we had sex maybe once a month, if that. I did my best to pretend to be the understanding husband but at the end of the day my give-a-shit factor was running real low. Laura was the one to start down this road, and I was good at anticipating the potholes.

**********

Eight months later

So, there have been a few changes in my life. Wow has there ever been change. So much change that I don't know where to begin.

Okay, first big change. Laura announced to me, about seven months ago that she was pregnant. She dropped this little nugget of news on me about a month after the Vegas convention. I'm almost 99% certain that I'm not the father of the child. She and I had had so little intimate contact in the months before that the odds of me being the sperm donor for this child were miniscule. Nevertheless, my plan was to wait until the child was born and have a DNA test. The local lab here in Albany would have results for me in 24 hours.

Right now, Laura is heavily pregnant and although she's still working, she's cut back her hours dramatically. She still sees her boyfriend every week; that hasn't changed. If the DNA tests prove my suspicions, I hope that he has room in his one-bedroom apartment for Laura and their baby.

I re-visited my lawyer, after Laura announced to me that she was pregnant, and reviewed my options. A DNA test to confirm parentage was important otherwise I was likely to be on the hook for support for the child for years. Seems that NY law says that any child born while a man and woman are married is automatically assumed to be the product of that marriage. Consequently, that means that the law considers me to be the father unless I can prove otherwise. So, a DNA test as soon as the baby is born will be high on my personal priority list.

My lawyer suggested other tools to be used after the child is born and the DNA test proves parentage. More about that later.

**********

Laura

I'm in deep shit. I'm pretty sure that I got pregnant in Vegas at the convention. There was a guy that I've seen at other meetings and I wanted to hook up with him before but never had the nerve to do it. This year, I let alcohol and my own bad judgement take over and I fucked him. For three days. That was a mistake. This compounded my earlier fuck-up when I got busy and forgot to refill my birth control pill prescription last month. I thought that it would take more than three months for me to get pregnant even without the pill; at least that's what the literature that comes with my prescription says. In really fine print it also says that women who take this pill can, in rare cases, get pregnant sooner. Seems I was a rare case.

When the baby comes, it'll be blatantly clear to Jim, and everyone else, that he's not the father. Fuck!

Now what am I going to do? My husband will disown me. He'll probably toss me to the curb. I suppose that I deserve that, but all the same, we are a family and I do deserve some consideration. I'll fight for my kids and threaten him if I have to. I want us to be a family. If I can convince Jim to forgive me and to be a father for this baby, just like our other kids, then maybe we can move past this. Maybe.

Do I confess now or wait? Jim and I had sex a few days after I came back from the convention. My pussy was raw, and my nipples were swollen from all the attention that they had been getting in Vegas, so I managed to put him off for a few days. When we did have sex, I made sure that he ejaculated in me. Just in case.

I have to go pee. This one is very busy and pushing on my bladder constantly.

*********

Amanda

I learned a big lesson from my short marriage to Michael. His new wife, Rebecca, was the benefactor of my stupidity. She waited and watched me self-destruct and then moved in and claimed Michael for herself. She was patient and careful and in the end the winner. So, I decided to follow her lead.

It seems that Jim's wife, Laura, had allowed her pussy to rule her brain. Mine used to do the same. Then I smartened up. So, I decided to bide my time and when it was right, I would make my move. I wanted a husband, a man who would be mine, and I was ready to be faithful to him.

Jim was everything that I wanted in a husband. In many ways he is very much like my ex-husband Michael. His sense of loyalty to those that are loyal to him is big and he wears his sense of duty to his children up front. Maybe it his Scottish and Irish heritage. Nevertheless, I decided to wait and see if his wife 'burned down the marriage,' and if she did, I would be ready to make my move. Well, now was the time.

You can criticize me for my past, that's fair, but I've learned my lesson and I truly need a new life with a man that I can be a wife to. I'm not suggesting that I'm now a perfect person, that's not the case for sure. But I am different. I decided last year when I got to know Jim and see what he is rally like that he could be he one. The trip to Disney World with all the kids was the thing to push me to make a plan. In reality, I didn't need to do much. All I needed to do was bide my time, let Jim know in subtle ways how I felt about him and prepare for the next step. My kids were already asking me if Jim's kids were going to be their new brother and sister and was Jim going to be their dad. How much clearer could it be.

**********

Jim

Laura called me at my office to tell me that her water had broken. I rushed home, grabbed the hospital bag, made a couple of calls to make sure the kids got picked up after school and we headed to the hospital.

The labour for baby number three is usually much less than for baby number one or two The Doc told us that he figured that this baby was going to be big so don't expect the birth to be fast. Well, the Doc was wrong. The labour and delivery went faster than they expected. It only took a couple of hours from the time we arrived at the hospital for the baby to make her appearance into the world. Yes, a girl. What a surprise she was, too.

The doctor who delivered her was wide-eyed as she handed the baby over to the nurses to get her cleaned up, weigh and measure her, make sure that all her airways were clear, take note of all vital signs, and wrap the baby up in a warm blanket. The doctor was trying to watch my face very closely as the nurse passed over the baby to Laura.

My suspicions about being the father of the child were immediately revealed.

Laura took her daughter in her arms and the look on her face when she got a good look was one that I will never forget. She looked at the child and then immediately looked at me. I suppose the expression on my face said it all. My expression was...blank. My mouth was in a tight grip and I was now faced with the truth.

I could hear an audible 'gasp' from Laura as she realized that her promiscuity had been revealed. I turned and left the room. I could hear Laura calling my name but I ignored her. I went to the nurse's station and asked for the forms to fill out the birth certificate information. I carefully filled out the forms making sure that I had Laura's name and birthdate along with all the other information. When I came to fathers information, I inserted 'Unknown,' and left it at that. The nurse took the forms from me and gave it a cursory check over and when she got to the 'Father' part she looked up at me. I merely nodded at her and turned to leave the hospital. I didn't go back.

Two days later Laura and her baby arrived home, courtesy of her friend Kelley. She was curious as hell to find out what the 'story' was. She was pretty silent while she helped Laura bring the baby and her bags into the house. When she saw me she didn't say a word, merely nodding at me, as much to say 'your problem now, good luck.'

I left Laura alone for much of the afternoon and about the time that the kids were to get home from school, she found me in the home office, and asked, "so, what do you want to tell the kids when they ask about the baby?"

I exhaled, "you tell them whatever you want to tell them."

Laura didn't know it but I had gone to the real estate office where she worked and talked to a co-worker that I knew she went with to the Vegas convention. After a bit of forthright discussion between the two of us, where I all but accused her of fucking around on her husband in Vegas, she reluctantly told me the name of the man that Laura had spent most of her time with.

Armed with that bit of knowledge, and a warning to her not to tell Laura that she had told me, otherwise I would be easily predisposed to share with her husband any and all information about what they did in Vegas. I know; not exactly high on the ethical conundrum scale of things but it was all I had right at the moment. And it seemed to work. Back to the first problem, what to tell the kids when they asked why their new sister had such dark skin.

I had started thinking about my plan for my children and me. Part of me wanted to publicly expose Laura to everyone as a cheating slut, but I knew that I didn't need to do that. She would do that all by herself. Once her family, and mine, saw the baby it would become abundantly clear that I was not this child's father. Then what?

I made a phone call to one Mr. Glen Duncan, real estate agent in Houston. Now, Duncan was well known in the Houston area. He used to be an NFL player. Most of his time in he NFL was on the team practice squad or warming the bench. His actual on-field time was very little, but to those around him he might as well have been a Super Bowl winner, to hear him talk. For football wannabes the knees are the all important tool, and once they give out, it's pretty much career-over. And so it was with Mr. Duncan.

Duncan was a big man, over 6 feet tall and weighed in about 220 pounds. He was still fit and looked good for the most part when he dressed in an expensive suit. His photo on the agency website showed his best side with a wide smile. He did well in the real estate business and capitalized on his NFL history to impress clients and close deals. Well, he was about to be faced with a new deal that he wasn't going to like.