Just Once... My Ending

My attempt at the ending of a story first published by Kalimaxos entitled: Just Once... If You Don't Mind

Best to read Kalimaxos original story before delving into my rendition of the ending.

Judging from all the comments this story left quite an impression on many readers. Here is my rendition.

As I moved towards the door to see who was knocking, I realized I had just hung up on Marcy in the middle of one of the most important conversations of my life. How stupid was that, as I should have just ignored the knock on my back door.

When I opened the door and saw Leslie seductively standing there, I just let her in. Before I could gather my wits, she handed me a folder that she said was from Marcy. I immediately forgot Leslie was even there and tore open the folder to ponder its contents.

After reading the letter from Marcy my anger boiled to the surface. I looked over at Leslie standing there with a bottle of wine and heard her say, "so what do we do now Rick".

My answer was curt and to the point. I told her, "I have just received the most disturbing letter I have ever received in my life, Leslie. The first thing we are going to do is end this charade orchestrated between you and Marcy involving me as a sexual toy for you and your husband.

Please go back to your husband and if you have any intention of helping me until I figure this mess out, bring a casserole next time rather than a bottle of wine and your sexy self on a plate."

Leslie quietly slinked off into the evening's darkness disappointed she would not immediately as her lover within the confines of her open marriage with her husband Vince.

I slumped into a kitchen chair trying to absorb the emotional toll this epistle from Marcy had created. As a colonel in the Army I had been trained to process information under pressure and decide what best to do about the impending crisis. However, at this moment I felt as helpless as a baby with a wet diaper.

My wife wanted a free pass for six weeks from our marriage. No matter how much I tried to concentrate and develop a plan of action moving forward, the only thought I could muster was that Marcy, the mother of my children and wife of 24 years had just confirmed that she was having an affair with Dr. Trey and would be cohabitating with him for six weeks.

I had so many more questions I wanted to ask Marcy but now it was too late and all I could do was fret about where our damaged marriage was heading. Slowly I turned off the kitchen lights and retired to an empty bedroom to undergo my nightly ritual before turning in.

Tomorrow was going to be a crucial day and I needed a clear head to decide how I was going to handle the ultimatum my wife had thrown at my feet. I definitely wasn't going to let her dictate how the next six weeks would play out.

It goes without saying that I slept little that night and finally decided at 3:00 AM to rise and face the facts.

I fixed myself a cup of coffee and tried to make some sense out of what was happening in Bogota, Colombia with Marcy, and her lover Dr. Trey, and how I was going to handle this heart wrenching situation.

One thing became perfectly clear to me that morning. There was no way I was going to sit around for six weeks twiddling my thumbs while my wife and Dr. Trey operated on the poor people of that country during the day and fucked each other's brains out at night.

All of my professional life I was the military head honcho that made decisions that affected all of the soldiers under my command. I tried to understand where Marcy was coming from but just could not swallow the fact she had preplanned the six week tryst while dictating my response as if I were a robot under her control.

Worse still the fact that she had told Leslie and her husband Vincent that I was fair game for their open marriage life style, without consulting me, just blew my mind.

Once again as I sat at my work desk in our study my mind kept dwelling on the emotional side of these devastating revelations by my wife to the point I could not think rationally.

I wanted to shake her and confront Dr. Trey Cardoza, the bastard who had put the moves on her and was now sleeping with her each night in a hotel room paid for by the hospital system and Doctors Without Borders.

What was I going to do? One thing became perfectly clear and that was since I was not going to sit around and let these six weeks play out, I had to devise a plan.

I had to focus and use my military training to plan a path forward.

I still loved my wife but this level of betrayal and smugness was just not going to fly no matter how it might affect our 24 year marriage.

I decided to put to pen and paper with the information I had gleaned from the phone conversation I had with Penny, Marcy and Dr. Trey last night.

As I started to unjumble this mess, I started with Penny and her part of the phone conversation with me. She admitted that another male member of the medical team was in her room when she answered the phone.

Not only was this dude in her room but he was obviously fucking her as well. She had revealed this fact when she told me that this was the "first time" she had ever done such a thing.

How would I feel if a friend knew of my wife's dalliances and did not inform me of this fact?

So the first thing I wrote on my yellow legal pad of paper was to call her husband Josh Washington and deliver this disturbing news. He deserved to know that his wife Penny was screwing another member of the medical team while he kept the home fires burning brightly.

Next on my to do list was dealing with the good doctor Trey. I knew that this tryst with my wife was just a casual affair to him. He had a steady girlfriend and from what I knew, was in the process of setting a wedding date. This insufferable jerk was going to pay a price both personally and financially for what he was doing if I had anything to say about it.

I had heard that a spouse could bring a civil tort case against the company whose employee had started an affair with any of the people who worked under him. Hey, isn't "under him" an appropriate way to describe what he was doing with my wife!

As for my wife, for whom I had ended my active military career months ago, there was so much baggage I needed to unpack that I didn't know where to begin.

Last on my list was an appointment with a divorce lawyer to see what ground work needed to be taken if Marcy and I found no way to begin our marriage anew.

This is the first time I thought of divorce because even after dealing with all this crap, I knew I still loved her and wanted her in my life. After all, I had given up trying to achieve the rank of general, as well as ended my flying career so that I could make this marriage work.

All of these things were difficult for me to do but I knew if I didn't, our marriage would surely be over. Sure I was still mad as hell over the way she handled this fiasco of a trip and given me my "working orders" before leaving. However, I knew I needed to try and salvage our relationship after 24 years of marriage to the love of my life and two wonderful adult children in Kyle and Rhonda.

Then there was Marcy's parents as well as my own. I knew how devasting my revelation of her infidelity would be for all of them. Especially if the outcome became divorce.

I always slept better once a plan for any problem was in place. The next morning I awoke and immediately changed into my running clothes to take my morning jog. As I ran,

I thought of how difficult the first phone call would be with Penny's husband Josh. When I returned to our house after my run I stripped, took a shower and got something to eat.

I was not sure what Josh's work schedule was so I decided to look for a divorce lawyer first and get with Josh that evening. I called work and asked our legal team who was the most reliable divorce attorney in town.

With that information I called his office and got an appointment for the following week. In the meantime I reread the letter Leslie delivered to me last night. It was so surreal to hear my loving wife speak to me the way she did in the letter.

How could she deduce that spending six weeks with Dr. Trey was reasonable? Once again I felt the pain and betrayal she had created, but this time I got angry.

What was lacking from this whole charade I thought. The answer came to me quickly, the missing link was communication. Communication between us which had now developed into an unmanageable situation as far as I was concerned.

There was little else I could do until evening came and I could talk to Josh Washington about his wife's affair in Bogota.

The only phone number I had for Josh was his home phone. As six PM approached I could wait no longer and picked up the phone to dial his number.

"Hello, he said, who is this?" "Josh this is Rick Weston".

His tone changed quickly and he replied, " hey Rick how are you and what have you heard from our wives about the trip".

I hesitated for a moment and said, "Josh I have some information I think you need to know and it's not good".

Josh knew something bad was about to be revealed and I am sure his mind was racing as I began to speak. I told him everything that had occurred during my conversation with his wife Penny and Marcy the night before.

I could hear Josh sobbing and then he told me that he had seen signs before her departure that disturbed him and now that his suspicions were confirmed he was beside himself. After a long silence we agreed to meet as both of us had a common purpose now and we felt talking about it in person might help us both cope with this devastating news.

We agreed to meet at Josh's office once he had called his usual baby sitter to watch the kids. His office was close by and empty this time of the evening.

When I arrived Josh was waiting for me at the door. I thought, as I looked at him that he had obviously been crying and looked like hell. I wondered if he had the same impression of me as we faced each other and moved into his office building.

Walking into Josh's office he turned on the lights and shut the door even though we were the only two people in the building. There was no casual talk between us, Josh wanted to get right to the situation at hand.

Both of us started using each other as a sounding board to vent. After a half hour of this mutual flagellation Josh asked me what my course of action would be regarding my wife's indiscretions.

I asked Josh if he might know which doctor on the medical team in Bogota was in his wife's room when I talked to her".

His answer was quick and direct. "It has to be Doctor Steve Spooner who was the only other male doctor on the team sent to Bogota from Mercy General".

I nodded and began outlining my plan.

"Josh I have no intention of waiting around six weeks for Marcy to come home and see if we could salvage our marriage. I don't know how you feel but I think we should take what we know to HR at the hospital and see if we can get prod them to get their attorneys involved and make the hospital replace our wives on the medical team and bring them home immediately".

Mercy General is owned by Catholic Health East and they surely would not want the negative publicity that would be generated when this story hit the newspapers that two doctors on their staff are having sex each evening with married nurses in rooms financed by the hospital.

Not to even speak of the negative vibes Doctors Without Border would receive from an organization that is 89 percent funded by public donations.

The end result would be our wives would be home and Doctors Cardoza and Spooner would be shamed and possibly lose their jobs.

"Do you know if Dr. Spooner is married"?

"Rick not only is Spooner married but he and his sweet wife and their two children have come over to our house for weekend barbecues".

"So both of our wives are shacking up with their immediate bosses and that in itself is fuel to threaten a law suit against the hospital for loss of consortium.

There is little chance we could win a case like this as the husbands of the aggrieved party. However, there is no doubt the hospital and Doctors Without Borders organization would want to head off the negative publicity generated from such a salacious claim."

Josh didn't have to think very long as he was mad as hell at the two doctors. At the same time he was disappointed in his wife's actions. The mood in Josh's office picked up immediately once we had agreed on moving forward with our plan.

I told Josh I wanted to run this by my attorney as well as the divorce attorney I was meeting with in two days. Josh was a bit hesitant when I said our plan would be instituted in 48 hours as he wanted his wife out of that situation as soon as possible.

I told him I understood but we needed to make sure our wives would have no say in returning home. There would be plenty of time to talk to them once they arrived state side.

Josh asked me if I intended to divorce Marcy no matter what the outcome of these unfortunate events. I told him no, that after 24 years I needed to talk this out with Marcy and see if there was any way forward for our marriage before considering a divorce.

This was all Josh could take and he broke down crying and confessed that he didn't know how he could live without Penny and his two children. All I could do as we stood to leave his office was stand and pat him on the shoulder while telling him all we could do at this point is try to reconcile.

The next morning I called Human Resources at Mercy General and asked to be transferred to the HR office.

A pleasant lady answered and asked the nature of my call. "This is Rick Weston the husband of one of your surgical nurses Marcy Weston.

"I would like to come in and talk to a member of your staff about problems that have been created at my wife's work place."

I was transferred to a man who once again asked me what the nature of my call was. I explain the situation and told him I want to make an appointment for myself and Josh Washington. Without another word he asks me if I can come in the following day at 2:00 PM.

I had already asked Josh if he can get off work for an hour and accompany me. He said he could and after securing the appointment with HR at Mercy General I called his office number back and gave him the meeting information.

The next afternoon the both of us are sitting in the lobby of the hospital's HR office waiting to be called. I looked over at Josh and the depth of his angst is apparent. Josh is ten years younger than I and does not have 24 years of marriage under his belt, but this still hits home with just about the same amount of force to both of us.

Exactly at 2:00 PM we are ushered into the office of Bobby Reynolds. I could not help but to think why a middle aged man would want to be addressed as Bobby.

He cut to the chase and asked us to explain the situation that brought us to his office. Josh deferred to me and I became the de facto spokesman for our cause.

As I detailed the situation Bobby's face became more and more grim. Before I could finish he said, "this is above my pay scale gentlemen, if you don't mind I would like to call in a hospital administrator immediately."

Within minutes a knock on the door announced the presence of Ben Callon a senior hospital administrator. Josh and I rose and shook Ben's hand. Ben was quickly brought up to speed and turned to us and asked if we had actual proof of the indiscretions we purported to have occurred.

I said we did and related the phone conversations I had with Penny Washington as well as Doctor Trey Cardoza and my wife Marcy. I also turned over the letter I had received from Marcy and gave him the numbers I had called at the hotel in Bogota.

He thanked me and said he needed to speak with Mercy Hospital's attorneys and the administration at Doctors Without Borders. His next statement was one I expected.

"Mr. Weston and Mr. Washington, I understand your concern in this matter but there is no way the proof you handed me would be admissible in a court of law."

I looked directly into Ben Callon's eyes and raised my voice as I said, "it may not be admissible in a court of law Mr. Callon but it sure as hell will fly in the court of public opinion once we release this information to the press. I don't think your hospital or the Doctors Without Borders organization would like to deal with the negative press this type of scandal would ignite.

"What Josh and I want is the immediate replacement of our wives on your surgical team so that they can fly home".

"What you do with Doctor Trey Cardoza and Dr. Steve Spooner is up to you".

"Once that happens and our wives are home it will be up to us to deal with our wives and our marriages. You do your thing with your doctors and we will do our thing with our wives. If you see fit to do this we will sign whatever release form you deem necessary to make sure this scandalous information never sees the light of day."

Sighing, Ben turns to us and says it will take a couple of days to sort this all out. The mission this surgical team is on needed to continue he said and Doctors Without Borders would need to find suitable replacements who are inoculated against potential diseases one can catch in South America and book flights.

This was agreeable to Josh and I so we shook hands with both of these hospital administrators and prepared to leave the office.

"I will be in touch with you as soon as I make the necessary arrangements, please give your contact information to Bobby and I assure you it will not be longer than 48 hours before you are contacted."

It did not even take 48 hours before I got confirmation that the hospital was going to comply with our demands.

The next morning I heard the beep that signaled a new text message. The message from Marcy was short and to the point, You bastardly control freak, you have ruined my nursing career and made me a pariah and laughing stock at the hospital!!!!

Shortly after this text message the cell phone rang and I recognized the voice of Ben Callon, the hospital administrator. He had Josh and I on a conference call. He wanted to tell us the hospital and Doctors Without Borders had agreed to our proposal.

Marcy and Penny had been informed that they were being replaced and they were to prepare for departure in order to return home. Ben also told us that Dr. Trey Cardoza and Dr. Steve Spooner would also be replaced and sent home.

Josh and I thanked him and asked what day and flight our wives would be on so that we could pick them up. Given that information we ended the conversation and made plans for their return. My hope was that Marcy would come around after time and work with me on renewing our marriage.

Marcy:

I have never been that angry in my life. As soon as I received the news of our replacement, I immediately moved all my belongings out of Trey's room and sat on my hotel bed steaming.

All I could think of was the fact that my husband had once again made sure I had no control over my life. I had Leslie deliver that letter to him because I knew if we sat and talked about my plans for these six weeks he would have bullied me into submission.

Everything I felt and all that I wanted had been laid out in that letter. At that moment I knew my marriage to Rick was over. His vision of continuing our marriage included keeping things the way they were with me having little to no say in how the remainder of my life would unfold.

I asked him to set me free for six weeks and I would come back to him. I now knew that was not going to happen and it was time for me to start life anew as a single woman.

Rick:

After receiving that text I knew there was no way we were going to get past the huge bolder that stood in the middle of our marriage. But what else did I expect, Marcy was a headstrong middle aged woman and could not accept this interference in her life any more than I could accept a wife telling me she was going on a six week sexual escapade.