Just Deserts

The news devastated me. I do not know what I would have done had not Di taken my arm and asked, "Are you going to fuck me then or would you rather stand there all day feeling sorry for yourself?"

I visited Diane again the next day. During the short periods that we stopped to talk she tried to reassure me about my wife's reaction with permutations of the message, 'Olivia will get over it', 'It's not the end of the world' and 'She's hardly in a position to read the riot act'. Seeing my lover on the third day was impossible because I never knew if my wife would return early or late, and anyway, I had my work to do. Olivia was at home preparing a meal when I returned that evening. On the face of it everything was normal but during this period of waiting I had switched from guilt to aggressive curiosity about what my wife had to hide. While she was clearing the table I murmured tentatively, "We have to talk."

Olivia just nodded, abandoned her task and walked through to the living room but as I followed, over her shoulder with apparent pleasantness, she asked, "How is Di?"

"Her eye is rather red and she is generally pretty sore."

"Mainly with me I bet," Olivia said with a short laugh. "I should not have hit her but I was rather irate. I don't care what else she gets up to but for a woman to screw her best friend's husband is definitely outside the rules. I would never dream of opening my legs for Stan."

Instead of sitting down immediately she had walked over to the drinks cabinet and I wondered if the fact that she had only prepared a glass for herself had any significance. Finally seated, she leaned forward in a businesslike manner and said, "I take it that Diane blabbed about me?"

"No she didn't," I said quickly defending Di against this unjust accusation, "She specifically said that I should ask you anything that I wanted to know."

At this my wife leaned back. "Ask away," she said.

"You were back unusually late on Friday night and I asked Di if she knew where you had been. She didn't know but said that she thought you had shared a taxi with three males from the Indian sub-continent."

Olivia smiled. "That was another mistake - I did it for revenge, which is never a good idea. I set out planning to go with them and then give you chapter and verse on what had happened, the next day but by the time I got home I realised that I had overreacted. To tell you the truth I was rather ashamed of myself. I know Diane has been crazy about you for ages so that makes what she did with you almost excusable - I've never fancied Stan one little bit and that's the difference."

"And what made you so late," I prompted.

She shook her head. "You don't want to know."

"But I do," I persisted.

Olivia shrugged her shoulders with a resigned look on her face. "OK. I have read the Kama Sutra but all the Lingam this and Yoni that and calling a fuck 'congress' rather put me off but that trio knew the book backwards. They certainly had all the positions off pat. The straight sex wasn't too bad but there was a lot I didn't care for. For instance, all the curry and spices that they eat causes a body odour that gets worse when they sweat. Well there was certainly a lot of sweating and it got rather overpowering. Between the three of them they certainly didn't give me a minute from start to finish and there was a load of other stuff that I'm not even going to tell you about - so you will have to use your imagination."

"What kind of 'other stuff'?"

"Come on Ken - they are from a completely different culture - think about it."

I was devastated. I have read stories of wives going with black men and found that rather erotic but this seemed a completely different matter. It may be racial but I think it was more there being three of them and it being fact rather than fiction that made the difference. "What do you get up to on other Friday nights?" I asked more to change the subject than an urgent need to know.

"Not a lot - only the merest fraction of what your sluttish little mistress has indulged in. During the three years I have been going out with her I have only twice let myself get laid by a pickup. There is always snogging and a lot of groping and I have sucked a few cocks but most guys there are quite happy with a hand job. What happened last Friday was quite out of character for me."

So there were two more men to add to the tally and a lot of other unspecified sexual activity as well but from the expectant way my wife was sitting I got the impression that she had not yet cleared her conscience. "Is that the lot?" I asked.

"There is more," Olivia admitted, "- but wouldn't you rather just settle for the fact that I have been unfaithful to you and you have been unfaithful to me? Anything I tell you can only make you even more unhappy."

"Nothing could be as bad I what I have just heard," I told her bitterly.

"I don't know about that," my wife shook her head doubtfully. There was a long pause as she gave me chance to change my mind but then she said bluntly, "For the four years that I have been on the road there are only two or three occasions that I have finished up in bed alone."

I did a rapid calculation, four years at twice per week - the magnitude overwhelmed me. It was like being punched hard in the solar plexus. "Why?" I managed to gasp.

"You should know as well as I do Ken. Think back four years."

"What happened four years ago?"

"Claire Steward happened."

'Claire' was the name of my earlier amour. "I didn't know that you knew," I said.

"You were always sneaking out in the garden to use your mobile," Olivia explained." It was pretty obvious something was going on, so one morning I got up early and managed to read through your text messages - there should be a law against transmitting obscene material like that. I was very angry and nearly walked out on the spot but then I thought 'Don't get mad - get even'. As it happened, my boss Craig had been trying to get into my pants for ages so you made it easy for me to let him. We screwed a couple of times in motels and then he started taking me with him on the road but that was only so we could fuck. He told people that he was training me but the only training I got was on my back. That's actually a bit unfair because I did pick up a lot about the job. Soon he did half the calls while I handled the rest and this gave us a lot more time for shagging."

"You have been having an affair for four years?" I interrupted.

"No. After a year, Craig's wife got suspicious and clipped his wings by insisting that he spent every night with her. He still pokes me occasionally in his office but that was really the end of it. So that left me going out alone and I hated it because it was so bloody boring on my own at night. But then it struck me that every hotel in the world is full of lonely men and I haven't looked back since."

A modified calculation showed that she could have still had three hundred different cocks up her - if I thought about that too much, I could go crazy. It struck me that had I not still loved her so much the pain would have been less and with this thought came the realisation that, despite all Olivia had told me, I did not want to lose her. On the spur of the moment, I took a brave decision and said, "Don't tell me any more. I forgive you everything - if you can forgive me for Diane then we can forget everything, just live for each other and stay faithful from now on."

There was a sad smile on my wife's face as she said, "Sorry darling, I enjoy my life far too much, exactly as it is, to ever think of giving it up. You have nothing to be ashamed of in that department Ken but the truth is that I have picked up a taste for far bigger cocks than yours. It was Craig that started it because he's got a real whopper. Nowadays I am very particular about who I care to fornicate with. If a guy comes on to me in a hotel bar I asked him straight out, 'What have you got to offer?' They immediately think I am a hooker, get all confused and mutter that they had not realised. So I laugh and say that I am talking inches not cash. The strange thing is that when they don't measure up, most accept the rejection quite philosophically."

Olivia had told this last bit as if it was funny but I found it hard to be amused. "Cheer up," she said. "You may get consolation from knowing that I don't often let myself get picked up these days. You see I've got roughly a dozen regulars, all with just what I need between their legs. The bonus is that most of the time I go to their place and save myself money on hotel bills. It's a perfect situation so you can understand why I am loath to give it up."

"What exactly are you suggesting?" I asked unhappily, very afraid that I already knew.

"Simple - we just carry on as we did last week, last month. You keep on poking Diane and I continue to get amusement from my selection of studs. The only thing that has changed is that I now know about your little naughty and you know about mine. I still love you and I still enjoy having sex with you but as long as I get my weekly ration of flesh on the road I don't particularly care how many cunts you dip your dick into."

My wife had very obviously decided and I had very little choice in the matter. I lay awake for hours that night and it was the only the thought that I might still be able to find my way between Diane's warm thighs that stopped me being suicidal. The next day at lunchtime, in the works canteen I walked as usual to where Stan was already seated at a table but the moment that I approached he tried to lunge at me shouting, "You fucking bastard - it was you shagging Di all the time."

Fortunately for me his bad leg gave way and he fell back banging his elbows badly on the table. "I don't know what you are talking about. Where the fuck did you get an idea like that you stupid cunt?" I yelled back and my guise of righteous anger checked him.

"I just found out about the fight," he said in a more reasonable voice. "Di won't tell me what it was about but I guessed. The only possible reason I can see for Olivia hitting her is that she must have found out that you and Di were doing it."

The way I was feeling I could easily have just turned and walked out but I decided it was worth an attempt to placate my friend. "You dozy twat," I said with pretended affection, "You were so fixated on mystery men sneaking into your house during the day that you never gave a thought to Friday nights. If you must know I had a flaming row with Olivia last night because she more or less admitted to mucking about with other men at the night-club at least some of the time. If she's at it then I wouldn't mind betting that Diane is too. I couldn't find out what the fight was about either but, reading between the lines, I am pretty certain that they both wanted to go with the same guy."

It was not a very worthy effort but it seemed to do the trick by eliciting a half apology. All that I now had to do was make contact with Di during the afternoon and tell her to claim innocence and put all the blame onto Olivia. If I could only smooth this over there was a chance my affair might still continue. We chatted some more until I judged him to have relaxed and then asked, "Are we still on for a pint tonight?"

"I'm giving up beer for a while - got to keep a clear head," he said, "Anyway, I'm damned if I'm going to let Di go to that brothel ever again."

I stood up. "What about football tomorrow?"

Stan looked up with the anger back in his eyes. "I don't want you anywhere near my wife - you may have talked your way out of it now Ken but I'm suddenly remembering a lot of little things that didn't make sense at the time."

Excluded from my lover and knowing that my beautiful wife intended to continue getting pronged by a string of oversized paramours caused my stomach to cramp in bitter pain. It was to get worse in the future - much worse.