Laura, Jim and I

"We" doesn't enter into it Laura. I need a divorce. I can't live with someone who has betrayed me. It is just that simple Laura. You betrayed me. If I kept you I would spend the rest of my life watching you like a hawk and waiting for you to do it again. By your own admission you kept doing it because cheating was such a turn on. How long would it be before you remembered how great the orgasms were when you were cheating on me? How long before you decided that you wanted to experience those great orgasms again? You can promise me all you want that you will never do it again, but your promises aren't worth spit. You already promised me to "forsake all others" when we got married and you broke that promise.

"I can't believe anything you say Laura. Jim's story about how it happened doesn't even come close to yours. According to Jim it didn't 'accidently' happen. According to him you made a play for him. He could be lying or you could be. The problem is that after what the two of you did neither one of you is trustworthy as far as I'm concerned so I can't pick one story over the other. The bottom line Laura is that we are done as a couple."

"I'm not giving up Rob. I'll fight the divorce. I know we can get by this because we love each other. You are pissed at me right now and justifiably so, but I can promise you and keep that promise especially now that I can see what breaking that promise can cost me. My attorney says that he can get the court to order counseling and I know that can help. I love you Rob and I'm not letting you go."

"You can't seem to understand that I don't want you now. Okay, I'll admit that I still love you and it is going to take me a while to get by this, but there is no fucking way that I can ever live with you again. Every fucking time I got in bed with you I would think of you with that asshole that used to be my best friend and I won't live like that. You won't fight the divorce Laura because if you do I'll release the video I have of your last meeting with Jim. Every family member, every friend and all of your co-workers will get a copy. I'll build you your own porn web site and there are dozens of amateur porn sites where I can post it and I'll do it with your full name and address attached. It should make your life very interesting."

"Bullshit Rob. No such video exists."

"Oh no? Wait right here."

I went into the den where I had my briefcase, took out a copy of the CD and went back into the kitchen and handed it to her.

"Check it out. After you have watched it you decide if you want anyone else to watch it. Now if you don't mind I have things to do. You can have the house on Friday, but for now you need to go.

On Thursday and Friday I moved out of the house and put most of my things in storage. Then I took a room at The Executive Suites for a month expecting by the end of that time I would have a job.

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During the next two weeks I made trips to Salt Lake City, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago and Detroit for interviews and I felt good about all of them, but I wasn't hearing back from any of them. I sat down and figured out my finances and decided that I could make it for about six years without a job and I started checking out other cities and states for places with a lower cost of living; a cost of living that would allow me to stretch those six years to eight or maybe even ten.

Laura signed the divorce papers and returned them to my attorney. I was almost sorry that she did. I would have very much liked to have spread the CD of her and Jim all over the place, but a deal was a deal. I made out on the agreement. The agreement was a fifty-fifty split of assets with each party paying their own attorney's fees. I was the one who filed so I paid the court costs. Laura said she wanted the house and my half of the equity was just a little over what I had taken out of the bank so that was a wash. I did have to give Laura half of what I'd gotten on the sale of my half of the company, but I knew that would happen and I had planned for it. She did bitch that I'd sold out too cheaply, but it didn't matter because the other two thirds of what I got from the sale were safely hidden.

An interesting thing came to me through the grapevine. It seems that once I took myself out of the picture Jim went after Laura and was so persistent that she had to take out a restraining order against him. Not that I cared of course, but I did get a laugh out of it.

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I decided to wait for the divorce to become final before making a move. I finally started hearing from some of the companies I had interviewed with. The company in San Diego called and asked me to come back out and talk with them, but before I could call and set it up I got a call from Gary Mellows.

"How would you like your company back?"

"Why would I want the company back? I sold it to you to get back to Jim and get away from him. Why would I want to go back to being his partner?"

"You wouldn't, but then you wouldn't have to. After our last blow up I said: If you are so fucking unhappy with me as a partner I'll buy you out or go sell your half to some one else." He spent all of thirty seconds thinking about it and then asked me how much I'd give for his half. He took half of what I gave you."

"Still the question is why would I want it back? If you did half of what you told me you were going to do to fuck over Jim the company probably isn't worth all that much any more."

"You might be surprised. Come on down to the office and lets talk."

I didn't figure that I had anything to lose so I went down to talk with him. When I walked in the door Maria jumped up from behind her desk and hugged me and then stuck her head in the office door and told Gary that I was there.

"As you know I only bought you out so I could fuck over Marshall. I didn't really want it and I had no real use for it. But things change. I am getting more and more into the construction end of the business. I want to get away from the engineering aspect. For one thing, I haven't been able to get what I wanted in the way of engineers so I started thinking about what to do. The solution that came to me was to call you and ask you to set up a company that I contract to do my engineering, but then Marshall sold out to me and I thought why not just sell you back the company and contract with you."

"I can't afford to buy back my half and Jim's half."

"You don't have to pay that much because the company isn't worth that much any more. Since I own the whole shebang I transferred all of the construction work and construction equipment to my other company. All I'm leaving is the pure engineering part. I'll sell you the company for what I paid Jim and I'll sign a five year contract for engineering services plus the company still has contracts with about fifteen other firms. I don't see how you can lose."

"How much did you give Jim?"

He told me and it was less than I had in my offshore account.

"There is one provision though."

"What would that be?"

"I have no secrets from Maria and I sounded her out on the idea. She told me that if you took it she would be staying with you and not moving over to my company. If you take the deal you are going to be stuck with her."

I didn't need to think too hard on it and I told him that I would take the deal, but to be on the safe side I wouldn't do it until my divorce was final and that wouldn't be for another three weeks. Gary said that would work for him and we shook on the deal.

As I was leaving the office Maria said, "I heard. Don't forget that when those three weeks are up you promised that I would be first on the list."

"I didn't think you were serious about that."

"You can just bet that I am" she said with a thousand watt smile.

As I pulled away from the curb my cell rang and it was my attorney. Jim had learned a lesson from seeing what happened to Gary when Gary had fought Jim's suit against him and he had called my attorney with an offer to settle. I told the attorney to take it. The rest of the drive to my room at the Executive Suites was made with a huge smile on my face. In three weeks I could start a new life complete with a new job and a new girlfriend and money in the bank. I could fill those three weeks looking for a place to live and shopping for furniture. Who says that nice guys always finish last?