Jim and Laura: Quid Pro Quo

Amanda was curious about what Laura was going to do. She asked me what my plans were after the six months of the SA were up. I was honest with her and told her that I very much doubted that there would be any reconciliation. Laura had said virtually nothing to me for some time, if it wasn't about my kids. My plan was to proceed on to a divorce.

I went to a Separation Agreement, based on LeeAnn's recommendation, first for the benefit of the kids and both our families. My mother, in Arizona, could care less what I did, but I knew that Laura's family were hopeful that I could forgive Laura and become the father to her baby.

For me it was all about respect. Without respect there was no marriage and no relationship. Without respect I couldn't call her my wife. I couldn't trust her to have mine, or the children's, best interests at heart and I knew that I wouldn't have her interests in my heart. No, the marriage was ending.

Amanda watched me carefully. She knew that I was hurting and vulnerable, but at the end of the day I knew that I had to take things slowly, take care of my children, and make damn sure that they had a stable home and life. And that's what I did.

**********

Six Months Later

Laura

I've been in this apartment now for awhile. Jim agreed to let me take enough furniture to make the place comfortable. He gave me the furniture from the master bedroom, a lot of kitchenware, dishes, and the kitchen table and chairs. When the moving company had all my things packed up I looked around the house and realized that I was going to miss this house. I would be back again to drop off the kids but I would never live here again. It was painful to realize that my stupidity was costing me my family, my home and the life that I had thought I would always have. Why couldn't I have just kept my legs together around men that seemed attractive to me? At the time I figured that I could have sex with them and as long as it was kept away from Jim, there wouldn't be any problems to deal with. It was all going great. Until I got pregnant.

Now I'm in a two bedroom apartment, I'm an almost single mother and I have no time for a social life. I haven't had sex for several months now. I have to go back to work next week and that means day-care for the baby. My family has pretty much stopped calling me. People at my office gave me odd stares when I visited the place a few weeks ago. I haven't been able to shed the post-pregnancy pounds as fast as I would like and money is tight. I had to give up the leased Mercedes and now I have a VW. I noticed that Jim is still driving his Subaru. Some things don't change. He's that stable rock that I was used to.

Soon I expect that I'll get a delivery of divorce papers. The separation agreement is up in couple of weeks and as far as I can tell Jim has no intent of forgiving me and reconciling. I tried to talk to him about it the last time that I saw him when he dropped the kids off for the weekend but he merely looked at me and turned and left. I'm getting what he means about respect. I'm just understanding it a bit late.

**********

Amanda

Well, it's time for me take action.

The man that I want is now divorced from his ex-wife and he's settling in to single parenthood easily. Jim is so organized that he is able to manage the kids, his work, the house and even a bit of a social life. His social life had largely been with me and my kids. And that is just fine with me. We've been spending a lot more time together and doing things almost as a family.

The kids and I have spent more time at Jim's house, even staying over on the weekends from time to time. I realized what I wasted with Michael and don't want to make the same mistake with Jim. Michael was a good man and would have been a great father to my kids. It was too bad that he wasn't their father.

My sense of self entitlement was so huge that it blocked out common sense and I figured that I could have my cake and eat it too. So I had a regular thing going with a few different men and the ultimate happened; I got pregnant, twice. When Michael found out and confronted me, I clammed-up and refused to talk to him. So, he left and told me that if and when I was ready to tell him the truth that I should call him. I was so ashamed of myself that I didn't call, and well, he stopped waiting. Eventually when I was able to find the courage to talk to him, he had moved on and found a woman that loved him and only him. I was so stupid. I won't make that mistake again.

Now, the man that I wanted was free to be mine and me to be his. The thing was there was a new complication.

**********

Jim

So, I'm now divorced. I'm a single father of two growing children. I'm a lawyer specializing in business and tax law. It's boring as shit but pays really well. I work from home part of the time and so I'm able to be with my kids for all the daily things that are important. I get home from work at about 4:30 so that I can prepare supper and help with homework and the many activities that they're doing.

Laura has been seeing less and less of the kids. She is back to work and with the challenge of being a mother to a newborn, she has little time to see her other children. I've reminded her that the kids do miss her and that she needs to make time for them but with her schedule as a real estate agent and weekend open house events, that means that she is spending less time with them. Not much that I can do about that. So, I schedule lots of outdoor activities for us. Amanda and her kids are with us lots of the time and if you didn't know better you would think that we were one big happy family.

And then things changed.

********

Amanda

All the signs and symptoms are there. This morning my normal cup of coffee that I have to start the day didn't want to stay down. Shit! My head was in the toilet as breakfast came up suddenly. I washed my face and freshened up then got the kids ready for school.

On the way to the office I stopped at the pharmacy, next door, and bought a 'test' kit. You know which one. Part of my brain was saying, 'shit, god damn, fuck,' as I knew what it meant. My breasts were feeling a bit swollen as well and my period was late. I don't have heavy periods to begin with and frankly I'd forgotten about it.

Nervously I tucked the test kit in my briefcase and went to work. All day, all I could think about was getting home and peeing on the thing. When I did get home I waited until I had the kids in bed and then went to the bathroom and closed the door. Not sure why I closed the door since my bathroom is ensuite to the master bedroom. But I did anyway.

After inhaling and exhaling I took to out of the package and prepared to pee. I stuck it under the stream and then put it aside for it to do its testing magic trick. I cleaned up and went downstairs to the kitchen. Why, I don't know. I was nervous. If the test revealed what I thought then this would be a very critical step in my relationship with Jim. This will be the make-it or break-it time.

I went back to my bathroom and with my hands shaking a bit picked up the little piece of white plastic.

Oh boy.

**********

Laura

Fuck me! Seriously, I need a man between my legs that can show me a thing or two with his cock. I'm horny as hell and need it bad. I thought about trying to talk to Jim and coax him back to my bed but the man won't talk to me. What can I do? Jason, the regular lover that I had moved on months ago. I heard that he was seeing a senior at the university and they were getting serious. She should watch out.

Between the baby and work, I don't have any free time for a social life. I'm loathe to hit the club scene with my work friends, since there is no way to know if you're picking up a nice guy that can fuck, or a serial killer. I mean, really, what can I do? So, I figured that my husband would be a safe bet. I mean, I still love the man. He's the father of two of my children and I know that deep down in his heart that he still cares about me.

I figured that I had nothing to lose by trying to talk to Jim. I needed to plan it out carefully. I needed our meeting to be in place that was neutral and not have the baby with me. So, I decided to invite him to meet me for food in a restaurant that I knew he liked. There's a restaurant downtown called the Beer Barn. The name is a bit misleading. It's a very classy, yet informal, place with a good menu of things that Jim likes and a list of beers that is staggeringly lengthy. I know that he really likes the place so I decided to invite him to meet me there.

I called him and asked to meet. Amazingly, he accepted. We had hardly said more than a few words to each other since Emma was born. So, I needed to be very careful in how I approached this crucial meeting. This would be a final attempt to salvage a very broken marriage. The paperwork was finalized but in my mind we still have a chance. As long as we still have the children as a common link, we still have a chance. That and I still need him.

**********

Jim

I was torn between going and not-going to meet Laura. At the end of my internal debate I figured that I had to move on from my disappointment and talk with her. The kids were my first concern and this attempt for her to talk to me might be about something that she needs to tell me. Although she could easily communicate her concerns about the kids through her lawyer or even call me, I suppose we could be adults about it and talk face-to-face. So, I decided to meet with her at the Beer Barn.

But I decided that I would bring along some help.

*********

Laura

When I got to the Beer Barn I saw that Jim was already there. He was with another person, a woman. She was blond and very good looking. They were sitting across from each other. They were holding hands. Fuck.

When I got to the table they got up and she moved to Jim's side of the table. Introductions were a bit awkward, as you might imagine. I hadn't figured on someone else being there with him. The look on Jim's face was calm and he had a bit of a grin. I knew that my plan to try and coax him back to my bed, and the baby and I to move back with him and the kids, was down the drain.

Jim introduced the woman. Amanda. She was good looking and from what I could tell about the same age as us. She was quiet, not saying a word but watching me like a circling hawk does a tasty mouse. I knew I had lost right off.

Jim ordered me a drink and took the liberty of ordering food for us all. He knew this Amanda woman well enough to know what she likes to eat. Double fucked.

Once the food was ordered and a drink delivered, Jim started, "So, Laura, what did you want to talk about?"

I stumbled and stuttered as I tried to make some shit up. I talked about the kids and what I wanted to do with them during the times when I had them for the next few months. Jim told me that he was planning some things for Christmas and it might mean taking them away to a ski resort in Vermont. I merely nodded and agreed to pretty much everything he mentioned.

I hadn't noticed before but when Amanda took off her bulky sweater it was very apparent that she was pregnant. My eyes were wide as I stared at her stomach. Her baby bump wasn't terribly big but it was there. I knew these things all too well.

"Laura, I need to tell you now that I'm selling the house. You'll get your half of the money after the mortgage is satisfied with the bank. You see, Amanda and I are moving in together, and we decided that we want to move to a house that better meets our needs."

Jim let that announcement sink in and then, wth a huge smile on his face, continued. "Amanda is pregnant. We're expecting a baby in five months."

So, the death-knell on my marriage had sounded and any faint-hope for reconciliation that I might have had just evaporated in front of my eyes. I guess it really began when I first started having sex with Jason and then it accelerated at warp speed when I fucked Glen for those four days in Vegas.

I was hoping that the earth would open up and swallow me right then. But it didn't happen. I merely nodded at them and quietly said, "I have to go." I left the restaurant and took a cab back to my apartment. I was in such a fog that I forgot that my car was in a nearby parking lot. Fuck.

********

One year later

Amanda

Okay, I guess I get the last words.

The new house is set up and we have room for all the kids. We bought a house in a great neighbourhood, not far from the house that Jim used to have. It's actually a bit bigger than the other one and we had a pool put in before we moved in. Between Jim, a newborn and four kids, managing the house and work, I go to bed at night exhausted, but I make a point of being close to my husband. Yes, we're married. Jim was adamant that our children have a properly married mother and father. We got married not long before the baby was born.

We sleep naked and that means that frequently we make love, almost every night. At the rate we're going I'll be pregnant again in no time.

We still have a nanny to look after the baby when we're at work and mind the kids after school.

Please know this. I've learned my lesson from my first marriage. I know that I was foolish and took Michael for granted. I didn't give him the respect that he was due. I won't make that mistake again. I'm very dedicated to my husband and family. I can't believe how happy I am now. I'm happier than I probably have a right to be. Jim is such a dedicated father to all our kids. I love that man so much, and I know that he loves me. Three years ago I couldn't have forecast this outcome.