Love Me Tender - Please Pt. 03

Ray's shoulders slumped and he hung his head. He was at a loss as to what else to do. Whatever he tried, he got kicked in the nuts and he was tired of it.

"Shit!" she said and Ray looked up to see her cupping her crotch.

"Now I'm dripping and I'll have to wear a damn panty liner half the day. Shit!"

"You used to tell me you liked the feeling of me seeping out of you. You said it gave you the shivers to remember how good it was getting it in there."

She did not even acknowledge his comment and he waited until she went into the bathroom before putting on his robe and going downstairs to start the coffee.

"Shit! How could he expect me to just throw everything I've worked for into the toilet," Karen said aloud.

Her voice was louder than she had meant it to be in the tiled bathroom. She decided against a shower since she would be spending the day getting ready for the party tomorrow. Fitting a pad into her panties, she pulled a pair of old shorts up over them. Taking her gardening shirt down from the closet shelf, she tied the tails under her breasts and slipped her feet into her Crocs. Running a brush through her hair, she went across the hall and knocked on the kids' doors.

"Time to get up," she called and knocked again. "We have a big day ahead of us. Everybody up."

"This is not working out the way that I want it to," she said to herself.

Chapter 35

Karen was sitting alone at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee and some toast trying to work things out in her mind. The sex that morning was great and it brought back memories of better times when she and Ray had enjoyed real intimacy.

As she turned over the events in her mind, she realized that she was looking for more than complacent intimacy. She wanted excitement and she was sure Ray could not provide it. She wanted that thrill that went with fooling around in secret and she realized she was becoming addicted to it.

"Well, what he doesn't know won't hurt him," she rationalized.

Realizing that she had to divert his suspicions she walked out on to the patio where Ray was reading the morning paper.

"Look, I'm sorry I went off on you again. I know you are only trying to help but I don't see the problem. I haven't done anything really wrong and I can't see why you're afraid."

Ray did not reply but sat there looking up at her over the top of his paper.

She continued, "The kids are going to be gone in a few days and I'll be in Vegas for a few days. Maybe the time apart will give you time to think through whatever is bothering you and when I come back it will be just the two of us. How does that sound?"

"Whatever is bothering me," he asked in astonishment putting the emphasis on the 'whatever' and the 'me.'

"Yes," she replied, not understanding what he meant.

Putting the paper down in his lap, he said, "You have really turned into someone else, haven't you? What is it you're after? A divorce? Are you having an affair? I'm the one who doesn't understand."

"Stop accusing me, I haven't done anything wrong. Well, no one can say I didn't try," she said in exasperation and turning she went into the kitchen.

Cleaning up the breakfast dishes, she mused on the last few hours and came to the realization that she did not get that guilt feeling anymore when she lied to Ray. It was becoming easier each time she deflected one of his worries.

The rest of the morning was filled with preparations for the party. Ray took Brian down to the rental store to pick up the folding chairs and tables while Melody and Karen rearranged the furniture in the house to make room for the guests.

They all worked together but mostly in silence. Ray and Karen only exchanged the words necessary to get the job done. The children quickly realized that something was amiss with their parents and they wisely kept quiet.

They ate hamburgers from the grill for their dinner and the conversation could only be described as cordial. It focused on the next day's graduation plans and the upcoming trips for the children. Ray listened carefully and he could detect a certain guardedness on the part of Melody and Brian. He felt that they did not want to say anything that might set their mother off.

"This may be the last real meal we have as a family," Ray thought with sadness.

He was sure Karen was lying to him and his only job was to keep her from suspecting anything before she left.

"I'll have to call Donna on Sunday and feel her out for some information," he decided. "She knows something and I wouldn't put it past her to use it to get to me. Maybe, I'll let her seduce me. Tit for tat."

They all went to bed early and there was no kiss goodnight offered by either Ray or Karen. They went about their bedtime routine without speaking. They were careful not to bump into each other as they maneuvered around the bathroom and the bedroom.

They both lay quietly with their backs to each other until sleep overcame them.

The next morning was more of the same. Neither spoke and there was no touching as they got dressed for the graduation ceremony. The kids knew they were not speaking and they wisely stayed out of their way again.

Melody was glad she had to leave early and the traditional family photos were taken in haste. She wasn't sure if anyone smiled and she was becoming anxious about what was happening to her family. Once she got into the car with her friends, the anxiety disappeared and she was absorbed into the excitement of her graduation day.

The graduation exercise was like any other he had experienced. It was long and boring and the football field seats were hard. The only saving grace was that he was not expected to wear a coat and tie since it was held outside. Brian escaped by pleading he had to go to the bathroom early in the ceremony and did not return until the last minute.

It was a thrill to see their daughter graduate and Karen held his hand when they called Melody's name to receive her diploma. It was almost as if they were a family again but Ray did not feel the unity that they once shared.

Her hand in his did not bring the warmth and connection it used to bring. His thoughts wandered and images of what she might had done with her hands on another man flashed through his mind. He pulled away from her with the conscious thought that her hand was dirty and not the hand of the woman he had married.

When they got back to the house from the graduation, the caterers were already there and everything was set up. There were two bars and a DJ was arranging his lights for the afternoon and evening party. The guests started arriving at two o'clock and the valets that Karen had hired scattered the guests' cars throughout the neighborhood. Ray had no idea how many people were invited beyond his and her families and their few close friends.

"Come to think of it, we don't have any close friends anymore," he thought. "Ever since she started working she hasn't had time to do anything with our old friends."

Some of their old bowling league couples showed up and Ray spent some time chatting with them and promising to come back to the league in the fall. Karen had changed into a short denim skirt and a halter-top. She wore flip-flops and her skirt was so short you could see her panties every time she sat down or bent over.

He chose to ignore it rather than start an argument but her aunt mentioned it to him and told him that she was going to say something to her. Ray watched as she cornered her and after only a few seconds, Karen's voice could be heard above the DJ's music when she yelled at her aunt to mind her own business.

Ray gave it a second try but she dismissed him with a wave of her hand and told him that she was fine and this is the way she wanted to dress. Her co-workers all came after the office closed and as the afternoon moved into evening, he noticed that the younger ones came from the Tybee Island office.

He never understood why Mike had hired so many young agents to work down there since the area was not known for its party atmosphere population. He was sure Mike had something up his sleeve that would make him a ton of money some day.

The numbers at the party ebbed and flowed throughout the day and into the evening. Some people stopped by for a drink and to give Melody a gift before leaving. Those who stayed were the heavier drinkers and the partiers. As the evening wore on, Ray noticed that he knew fewer and fewer of the people who were there. They were all Karen's friends and coworkers and many of them he had never seen before.

Karen had not been drinking during the afternoon but she was now drinking with her friends and Ray noticed she was starting to get high. He stopped her in the hallway after she came out of the bathroom and suggested that maybe she should take it easy on the booze.

"I'm fine! I'm having fun with my friends, just leave me alone," she almost spit into Ray's face and slopped the drink she was carrying.

"You know what happens when you drink too much," he told her.

"What? What happens?" she retorted with her hand on her hip.

"You get a little crazy and you start acting like you're not married, that's what happens."

"There you go again. Your paranoia is showing through. Now let me pass. I have friends to take care of."

"Karen, please," he begged to her back when she brushed by him.

Her answer was a raised one-finger salute showing up over her shoulder.

Ray sighed and went into the kitchen to clean it up a little. He collected the empty cans and bottles for the recycling bins and threw the paper plates and cups into the trash. The caterers had cleaned up their stuff before they left. The leftover food was wrapped and in the refrigerator so he did not have to worry about that.

Earlier that day, he had given Brian permission to leave to stay with a friend for the evening. Melody had gone off with some of the other graduates to a pool party for the night. Ray's parents left before it got too dark to drive and Karen's father did not drive so he volunteered to take him home.

Looking for Karen to tell her where he was going, he found her dancing drunkenly with some guy out on the patio. When he interrupted their dancing to tell her where he was going, her partner pushed him away and told him to go find his own girl.

Ray grabbed him by the arm and was about to punch the idiot when Karen stepped in front of him. She told him in no uncertain terms to not embarrass her in front of her friends. Ray stood there shaking his head in disbelief before turning and walking away from her. He heard laughter as he passed in front of a group of guys and caught the end of a comment, "... pussy whipped."

Ray dropped her father off at his condo and the solitary drive back home gave him a chance to think through his plan one more time. He still was not sure if Karen had actually been unfaithful to him since he did not know if she had really had sex with anyone.

He knew that he could not get her to confess to anything and that she would deny any accusation of her being too friendly and flirty with other men. Even if she had not strayed over that invisible line between her marriage vows and infidelity, she was heading in that direction.

He had no doubt that she would eventually find herself in a situation where she would violate them. Her heavy drinking and her desire for validation and praise would overcome any vow that she had taken. He was certain that she would end up on her back with some guy between her legs.

Ray continually surprised himself with his detached approach to the whole mess but he knew he was wavering. He did not want to be right in this case. He frequently lapsed into melancholy and became full of forgiveness for whatever she had done. Each time he found himself willing to give her another chance, she did something that showed she did not give a shit. He would then take a step back and the objectivity would again take over.

The gulf between them was getting wider and wider. He admitted that she used sex to get her way with him. He was afraid that she was also using it to get her way with other men.

He saw no real hope for them unless he could make her face what her actions were doing to her family. It all seemed to revolve around her drinking but he could not blame it all on the alcohol. Somewhere, deep down inside of her she must be unhappy with him and their marriage.

He needed her to tell him what he was doing that was causing her to pull away. If he knew, he could make some attempt to rectify the situation. He was determined to give it one more chance and not to give up on his marriage so easily.

He would continue to try and make her see what she was doing until the last minute. He was sure he could forgive her for any indiscretions, barring actual sex, and that with counseling they could bring their marriage back to where it belonged.

His plan was to let her know that he had made an appointment with an attorney on Monday morning. He would let her see him take the folder he had prepared out of the safe. He wanted to scare her by keeping her in the dark as to what he was actually doing and maybe she would come around so they could talk.

If she were not willing to talk by the time she was supposed to leave for Vegas, he would have Vincent prepare the separation papers. He would change the beneficiaries on his life insurance and his retirement death benefits to the children.

He thought about getting a restraining order keeping her away from him and the children but her name was on the deed to the house. As far as he knew, he could not legally keep her from entering it. He knew he would have to prove adultery in order to come out on the good end of any divorce but as yet, he could not come close to proving that.

He still held onto the faint hope that she would not go to Vegas and that they could work something out. She could even continue to work in real estate and he would quit the college and get a job in private industry. They were his plans and he felt pretty good about them. He felt certain that she could not deny his sincerity when she was presented with the facts of what he planned to do.

He could hear the music blasting as soon as he pulled up to the house. There were two cars already parked in the driveway so he parked on the street behind them. He figured he could move when whoever owned the cars got ready to leave. Getting out of his car, he looked around to make sure none of the neighbors were out on their front lawns talking to the police about the noise.

Skirting the cars in the driveway, he passed in front of the garage door and through the window he noticed that the laundry room door was open. The light silhouetted someone on the steps leading down into the garage.

Peering through the window he realized that it was Karen standing on the top of the steps and the big guy from her office was holding her in his arms. With her up on the step, she was only a few inches taller than he was and they were kissing.

He watched in horror as their heads turned back and forth in the motions of sharing a passionate kiss. Her one hand held onto his shoulder and the other pressed on the back of his head to hold him against her. His hand was up under her short skirt and it was clearly kneading her ass.

His vision suddenly blurred when tears filled his eyes. He wiped them away with the back of his hand and he could see her lift her leg and wrap it around the back of the guy's thigh. Her flip-flop fell off and he watched it fall silently to the step and tumble down to the garage floor.

Their kiss continued but now her lover was shifting his feet and Ray watched as he picked her up and turning them both around he pressed her against the side of Karen's SUV. He had both of his hands on her ass and she was sloppily kissing his face with her mouth and tongue while caressing his neck and the back of his head. She had her legs clamped around his thighs and she was hunching herself against his body as if they were fucking through their clothes.

The last thing Ray remembered seeing before he screamed and punched out the window glass, was her arching her head back to allow him to slobber kisses over her neck.

A dull roar like that of a distant, wounded animal came through to Karen's lust filled mind. She paused for a second and heard the sound of breaking glass and, louder now through the broken window, a piercing growl of anger. The lovers froze in their position for a second before Karen's eyes snapped open. They focused on Ray's snarling face with his hand and arm protruding through the broken windowpane.

Montrell dropped Karen onto her feet and they both stared in shock at the broken window with Ray's arm sticking through it. Ray pulled his arm back through the window and disappeared towards the front door. The full realization of what had happened did not register until Karen heard Ray's voice yelling from inside of the house.

Ignoring the blood pumping out of his arm, Ray had pulled his hand back through the broken window and started running. He pushed people aside as he ran up the sidewalk and threw open the front door. He continued through the house and into the kitchen to get to the laundry room door leading into the garage.

His wild shouting of obscenities and flailing arms cleared a path through the frightened people in his way. Tables and chairs were overturned as guests jumped back from the madman charging through their midst.

Karen was already in the kitchen before he got there and she tried to stop him from going into the garage after Montrell.

"No, no! Don't go in there. It was a mistake, you don't understand. It was a mistake!" she shouted as she grabbed his arm to try and stop him.

Ray emitted an angry growl and pushed her aside with enough force that she stumbled backwards against the kitchen counter scattering dishes and food onto the floor. Shrieking madly, he rushed through the door into the garage to find a terrified Montrell standing with the SUV between him and Ray.

Montrell's larger size was not an issue at this point and he knew that he was in trouble. He realized that he had violated someone else's territory and all he wanted to do was to get out of the way of this madman.

Ray continued screaming threats at Montrell who tried to keep the car between them. Ray picked up a hammer from the workbench and threw it across the hood of the SUV at Montrell's head.

Montrell ducked out of the way and moved farther back behind the vehicle. Grabbing a shovel, Ray started stalking him in the hope of trapping him against the door. He was about to corner him when the garage light came on and the automatic door started rising.

Karen had come out onto the steps and pushed the button to raise the door to allow Montrell to escape. The door was only a few feet off of the ground when he rolled under it and gained the outside. Ray followed and when he swung the shovel at him, Montrell grabbed it and pulling on it, he whipped Ray around and slammed him into the light post next to the driveway.

Wiping his hands on his trousers, he stopped for a second to look down at Ray lying on the ground. Turning around he sprinted to his car and took off down the street while the people from the party gathered around in little groups talking about the commotion.

Chapter 36

There was a bright light shining in his eyes and Ray could smell hospital. His arm and head and shoulders hurt like hell and there was a mask of some kind covering his face. Through blurry eyes, he could see an IV bag hanging on a stand next to where he was lying. Every few seconds he heard what sounded like the beep of a smoke detector signaling a low battery.

He tried to remember what had happened but his head hurt and everything was hazy. He tried lifting his head but he cried out with pain. He remembered lying on the ground and Montrell running away. Bits and pieces of conversation started coming back to him.