Kathleen's Big '4' '0' Saga

"No she doesn't feel well and is in bed. She is taking the day off. Hey Son, O.K. if you drop me off downtown in the morning? I have some business there but can find my own way back home."

"Sure thing. I just wanted to tell Mom that I enrolled in the NECS cooking school. She had urged me to do that."

"Hey that is great! Feel like cooking dinner tonight since your Mom is ill?"

"O.K.," Randy said as he was leaving the study.

R.D. logged back on to his conference call and it started back up as if no matter what had happened it was still business as usual.

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At 7:00 P.M., Randy stopped at his office door and said, "Dad, dinner is ready! Will you ask Mom if she feels like coming down to dinner or does she want me to fix her a plate?"

"O.K. Will do. See you downstairs."

R. D. went into their bedroom where Kathleen was still lying down. She immediately sat up when he approached the bed and said, "Will you hold me?"

He helped her stand and then held her very close. He looked directly into eyes and said, "You are going to work through this, Kathleen. Thank you for calling me today."

She was still choked up and couldn't speak and just looked at R.D. with pleading eyes.

"Randy cooked dinner and its ready. Can you eat? Want to go down or want me to bring us some food up here? "

She whispered, "Please have dinner with me here?"

Later they were both enjoying the food that Randy had cooked from plates resting on TV trays and Kathleen began to talk. "I think one of my minor problems is hunger, in that I had a small pastry for breakfast and no food all day. The major problem will take more time to solve, but solve it I will with your help. This dinner and you have brought me back to life."

"Kathleen, I did not have a chance to call our attorney today like you asked because I just had too much going on. Should I make a point of doing it tomorrow?"

"Lets please discuss that in the next quarter and don't call Bart at least until then."

"O.K."

"R.D., you already have surmised by now why I went to that hotel - it was to get fucked! But it didn't happen and I saw what a stupid bitch sex toy I had been for five years to Mr. Fly-by when today I was shunned for two younger models. I almost threw up in Starbucks when I grasped that I was nothing more than a has-been-sex-toy. Furthermore, I barely kept conscious enough to speed dial you and plead for your help."

"So, Kathleen, where do we go from here?"

"Darling, I have this devil banging around in my head that predates our marriage and I don't know if and/or when it will take over and control my mind. The moment it happens I will come directly to you and suggest that we proceed with the divorce. I know my proposal is not fair to you because you need a stable relationship with someone who loves you more than life itself. Creative people are like that in general, and you are in particular. Someday maybe I can offer that, but not now. If you will only be patient with me? The one caveat I can offer is that no matter what, I will never ever tell you a lie again - even one of silence where I fail to mention something that is vital to our relationship - like for example I failed to tell you when Mr. Fly-by called me while boarding his flight to invite me to party with him this long weekend. Can you believe that not telling you upfront will not happen again, R.D.?"

The husband just looked directly at his wife and said nothing at first and then refusing to answer her he said, " The programmers are pushing code and I have a break in my work. Since you already are on leave, would you like to get up early in the morning, drive to a resort, and relax a little - maybe do some ballroom dancing (remember when we use to have so much fun doing that?), or play some tennis, putt some golf balls, and eat some good chow? Hell, I will even donate twenty dollars to the one-armed bandits. We could come back on Sunday evening relaxed and ready to face the following work week."

"Oh. Could we R. D.?"

Mr. Perry brought up the reservation number of the resort he had in mind on his iPad. After he had made the reservation, he said to his wife, "But no sex tonight because we have to pack and get up very early in the morning for the long drive."

Uncontrollably laughing she said, "You stay on your own damned side of the bed, Mister!"

The end.

Epilogue: The Perry's made it as a couple quarter by quarter until two grandchildren and five years later they started divorce proceedings. At that time R.D. had fallen head over heels in love with his Asian programmer who finally decided to get out of her dysfunctional marriage. This also was the price she had to pay to be with the one man she had secretly loved for 10 years - R.D. The two had looked longingly at each other over the years but were too professional to ever allow their private conversations to be about their feelings. Needless to say, it was a deathblow to Kathleen's self-esteem with her only consolation prize being freedom to harvest all the Fly-by sales engineers she could attract and could muster an appetite for. She had had her face, tummy, and ass fixed and still was a beautiful woman very much in charge as the senior Facilitator. Life went on.