Lucky or Smart?

I, Brad Davis, go to the Dentist office sometimes just to read the current magazines. NOT! Everyone knows that the magazines in dentist offices are not current but there you are with time to kill (maybe kill is not a good word as it rhymes with drill) so you read whatever is available. The most common magazines are the women's genre which always has articles on the ways to increase sexual satisfaction and so forth.

Since there were no one else in the waiting room, I was not embarrassed to pick up a magazine to find out the seven signs your spouse may be cheating on you. I didn't want to think my wife of 23 years had ever or would ever have an affair, but my doubts would show sometimes when we periodically teased each other about having a lover on the side. I thought the article might give me a reason I could tease her about. As I was going through the list, none of the reasons like suddenly needing to work late or extending business trips at the last minute, matched the habits of my wife.

The conclusion of the article, however, said that if you really know a person you can sometimes tell there is a difference in the person and none of the usual signs are apparent, especially if the person is very smart. My wife is VERY smart as in valedictorian of her college graduating class. When I thought about it, I have had a feeling the last four months that something was just not quite right.

From just a looks standpoint, my wife, Cathy, would qualify as a woman who would attract men: 5'7", 115 pounds, 32 B sized breasts, a nice tight butt, and a pretty face. She seldom flirted in public and knew how to use her sharp wit to put down the most obnoxious man who made the mistake to hit on her. I am no ogre myself at 5'11", 190 pounds and I jog regularly. Women have told me I was "ruggedly handsome," whatever that means.

Trying to spot where things had been different lately was difficult. Her nights were spent mostly at home grading her Spanish papers from her teaching job at Ft. Campbell High School. Wednesday nights were for church and we usually were there together. She went in early to school each day to finish preparing for the day and staying an hour after school for tutoring/detention which was the same schedule she had kept in her 23 years of teaching. Cathy took a team of students once a year to the state language contest where she almost always had students who placed well but it was hard to see how she could use that for a liaison since rooms were shared by chaperones and most chaperones had nightly hall patrol to keep the kids in their rooms.

As far as demeanor at home, there had been no escalation in fighting. We seldom fought in the first place. Teasing was a major form of communication between us and we always laughed whether we were the teaser or the teasee. Our sex life had reduced over the years but that's pretty much the same for everyone our age. Although less frequent, we did a little more exploration especially orally and with fingers. Neither of us had expressed any problems with our marriage.

We always thought one of the reasons we got along so well is that we did not have any children. Before marriage we both thought that once we got established in our jobs, we would probably want children. My first job was with the Juvenile Justice System and hers was teaching middle school students. After exchanging stories from our jobs for a few years, both of us were scared to be responsible for kids in these times and agreed to stay childless.

The possibility of her messing around wore down my common sense. As soon as I said it, I thought I had made a big mistake one night when I just blurted out to Cathy, "Are you having an affair?" 'If looks could kill' was my first impression of her facial expression.

"And what the hell brought that on?" Cathy snarled.

I was on the defense now. "Uh. . . I don't know. It just seems like things are different lately. And I wondered with you being such a hot babe and all."

"Don't try to smooze your way out of this. Tell me right now what you proof you have that makes you think I am seeing another man or are you thinking it might be another woman? Where are the tapes, the pictures, or the video? Show me now or make up the guest bedroom buster."

The next day, after a night in the guest bedroom, I got a phone call from my sister, Alice. She had always been the one everyone in the family turned to for guidance. Alice just seemed to have everyone's best interests at heart and could counted on to give common sense advice. She was always calm and measured in emotional situations. So, I was a little bit surprised when I heard her say, "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU? Cathy is the best thing that's ever happened to you! A preacher's daughter, Woman of the Year for the United Methodist Women's society, Teacher of the Year - twice, never turns down a charity . . . And you think she's cheating on you? She probably should since you obviously have no idea what a jewel you have. Most of the time our mother was raising us, she told me she worried that you would not be able to find a good woman to marry. When you said you and Cathy were getting married, her worry turned into you not being good enough for her. SHE WAS RIGHT! Now get your head on straight and beg her forgiveness. I have a flyswatter (my mother's favorite discipline weapon) with your name on it brother of mine."

Ouch! After promising my sister I would try to right my wrong, that night I apologized, waited for a response that never came, and finally went to the guest bedroom again. I was not able to sleep again that night so I thought about the situation. For some reason I got angry at her reaction, and my sister's, and wondered if Cathy might have acted the way she did to hide her guilt. She was pretty damn sure I did not have any evidence, but she would think that because she would believe she was too smart to get caught. Meanwhile I kissed a lot of ass.

I needed help to check on her and the checking had to be undiscoverable. When I thought about the need for stealth, I thought of my friends in the 5th Special Forces who I knew through our Amway business. They had been on many missions in Afghanistan where their intelligence gathering had to be stealthy or they would have died. The next day I called my friend Arnie and told me of my suspicions. He did not know Cathy well so he did not tell me that I was crazy to suspect Cathy as all our mutual friends would have. We set up a meeting at the Ponderosa in Oak Grove.

I went over her schedule and places she frequented. The only spot in her schedule he could see was open for messing around was when she went to school early every morning. Since Cathy taught at Ft. Campbell High School and Arnie lived on post, it was perfect for him. He could recon her early morning and, just in case, her after school activities without much chance of being detected. Unless he found anything significant, we were to meet two weeks later for his report.

Two weeks went slowly by and no call. After almost three weeks, Arnie and I met at G's Pancake House for his report. "Nothing man. She gets there either first or second of any of the faculty, parks in the same place, and goes into the school to her classroom."

I didn't know if I was relieved or disappointed. "So, nothing out of the ordinary?"

"Not really. The only thing was that the other vehicle that is either there right before her or after her is a red truck driven by a male teacher. One time they got there the same time and walked in together. I followed him and he went to his classroom and stayed there until school started. The odd thing was that they always parked next to each other. As far as I can tell, there are no designated spaces but it might just be habit like pews in church."

"Yeah. Hey man, thanks for your help. I need to kiss ass for a while longer I guess."

I spent the next week being submissive as I had the last two weeks doing what I could to get out of the doghouse. Eventually things went back to the way they were before my foot-in-mouth episode. I still having trouble convincing myself I had been wrong about her.

In another two weeks, I got a call from Arnie. "Hey dude, we need to talk."

"Sure, is there an Amway Seminar coming up?"

"No, it's about Cathy." He set the place and time for us to meet saying he needed to see me in person. The fear that had been in my heart before reappeared stronger than before.

Arnie was sitting at the table in Captain D's with an envelope in his hand. I asked, "What's up?"

"Well, I know you told me to end the surveillance but something about the situation bugged me. I thought that you might have just scared her into cooling it for a while. I decided to continue on my own. After another week of the same behavior I saw before, things were different. Whoever got there first between Cathy and the guy in the truck, stayed in the vehicle until the other one arrived. Cathy would then get out of her door and look around carefully before getting in the cab of the truck. Both have evidently fixed it so their vehicle's inside lights would not come on when they opened the door. Before long, their heads were together, or one would have their head out of sight while the other one had their head up or one would be horizontal over the other. Not much question of what they were doing. Whoever had their head up watched out for other teachers. A couple of times they were interrupted when a car pulled into the parking lot. In those cases, Cathy would put her head down until the newly arrived teacher parked and went into the school. Then she would slide out of the truck back into her car and then get out as if she had just arrived. He would wait a few minutes and then he would come in the school."

"Damn. It is true. I just wish you had gotten photos."

Arnie grinned, "In the envelope my friend."

I hurriedly opened the envelope but was disappointed to see that they were infrared photos. It was impossible to make out faces but given their parking habits I thought that should be enough to prove the identities. "Thanks man. I'll take it from here."

"Sorry. Wish my instincts had been wrong." Arnie left me to contemplate the fate of my marriage.

Well, Cathy had challenged me, "where are the pictures?" Now I had them. For some reason I wanted to confront her before talking to an attorney. Something about wanting to say, "Who's smart now?" I know, juvenile of me.

I waited until a Friday night to spring the evidence on her. I couldn't resist the "we need to talk" line. She responded, "I hope it's not that affair nonsense again. If so, you are in big trouble, asshole. It will be a motel room this time, not the guest bedroom."

I exuded confidence, "You asked for pictures. Here are pictures." I threw the envelope at her. Her confidence showed she was taking a hit but she opened the envelope and regained her composure.

"You can't tell anything from these infrared photos. This could be anyone."

I was ready for that retort. "The anyone in this case is an anyone who comes in that type of car and parks next to that type of truck every day. I wonder if your principal would have any trouble figuring it out."

Cathy's demeanor changed immediately. She started crying profusely and finally spoke, "I'm so glad you've found out."

That was not what I was expecting to hear to say the least.

"It's not what it appears. I was tricked and then blackmailed. At least now, I can stop the whole horrible thing. I am sorry I didn't come to you earlier."

My skeptical side took over, "I am interested in hearing the story on this one. Please explain."

"Ted Warren is the science teacher at the high school. Occasionally we would have lunch together and talk about family, hobbies and things. Nothing out of the ordinary. Then one day he started to tear up and tell me about his wife. She has early Alzheimer's, probably middle stage. Since services for caregivers is your current job, I thought I might be able to help. Don't you remember I asked you who your counterpart was in Clarksville so I could refer a fellow teacher? (Clarksville is in Tennessee and we lived in Hopkinsville which is in Kentucky. Ft. Campbell and Oak Grove is in between) That was Ted. But you had told me a lot about dealing with people with dementia so I figured out I might be able to help him. I said we could meet in the morning before school to talk. We met in our vehicles because the janitors would be in the school building and there is little privacy.

"It all began very slowly. He would talk about how difficult it was caring for someone who does not recognize you and how expensive it was to hire someone to be there with her. When he started crying again, I offered him a dry shoulder and hugged him. Well, a hug led to a kiss on the forehead and then to the cheek and then to the lips. It seemed so innocent.

"Things progressed to where he said how lucky I was that I was still able to touch my spouse in an intimate way. He told me his wife had fantastic breasts and he missed giving her pleasure in fondling them. She showed no interest when he did that to her now. He begged for a chance to touch mine just from the outside. I knew I shouldn't but the poor man was losing intimacy with the woman he loved so much. It appeared so painful to him, I agreed to a little feel. It was awkward at first but I admit I began to enjoy his fondling. He called his wife's name as he touched me and cried a lot. From there it went to putting fingers inside my bra and I began to get more aroused. When he started kissing my breasts, I almost had an orgasm. My arousal blocked my common sense.

"Remember this is taking place gradually over several weeks. Next, he noticed my panties were showing given the way I was having to sit in the truck. He cried again saying how much he missed being able to touch his wife there. I refused at first but one time I was feeling really aroused with his sucking my nipples, he touched me down there and, unfortunately, I did not resist. That new boundary of touching lasted for a few days before he said that his wife usually touched him down there, that is his penis, while he was touching her down there. I hesitated but again he took my hand to touch his pants while he was kissing my breasts and touching my panties. We continued under those "rules" until one day he moved his finger past my panties into my slit. I tried to move back out of the way but his finger followed and soon it caused me to have an orgasm. Before long I was reciprocating by jerking him off. I still did not think it was adultery I was committing. It was sympathy and mercy or maybe pity in my mind. Please believe me.

"The turning point was when he wanted to go the next step to a blow job. He offered to go down on me in exchange. I told him absolutely not. His attitude immediately changed. No longer was he the sympathetic caregiver I was trying to help, he became the aggressor in a seduction scene. I was appalled I had fallen for it and started to get out of the truck. Ted grabbed my hand and told me to watch a video on his phone. He had a video of some of our intimacy so far. Ted said he would show it to you and to the principal. He had a job lined up at the Proctor and Gamble plant so being fired from being a teacher would not matter to him. I didn't know what to do. I needed my job and the pension. I was scared what you would do if you found out. I'm sorry to say I gave in and kept meeting with him except when I told him you had become suspicious. I should have told you. I should have told you." Cathy began crying again.

My wife had a long history of falling for hard luck stories and was touchy-feely with people she cared about. Sometimes the people took it as more than what she intended. Although I could see Cathy being tricked into the overly comforting friend relationship, I still was not quite buying it. I decided to bide my time. "My poor Cathy. Once more you have let your good intentions get you in trouble. I wish you had come to me earlier. I'm not sure what we need to do but we need to do it together. Let's use the weekend to figure out what to do. Are you interested in getting some revenge against him?"

"Revenge? Yes. As long as I can keep my job and my marriage." She brightened up for the first time in this conversation.

We talked again on Sunday. Monday was one of those weird holidays where federally run schools like Ft. Campbell were closed but it was not a holiday for Kentucky state workers like me. I told her to call Ted Monday and tell him that you two need to cool it again because I am getting suspicious once more. I said that will buy us a couple of weeks to plan a proper revenge.

On Monday morning I prepared to go to work. I was planning on going directly to a client's house as the caregiver had to go to work at 8:00. Saying goodbye to Cathy and reminding her to call Ted, I left out the front door. Before I got down the sidewalk, I remembered the client file folder I had left on my home office desk. I went back in and was about to announce my return when I heard Cathy talking on the phone in the kitchen. I decided to move closer to hear if this was the call to Ted. It was.

"Yes, we have to cool it for a while but he bought that whole "pity sex - blackmail" story hook, line and sinker. He's so easy but we still have to be careful. After all these years of putting up with him, I don't want to miss out on the trust he will inherit after his father dies. His father shouldn't last much longer given his bad health. Brad doesn't seem to care if he gets the inheritance or not even though it should be several million. He still thinks he is a 'love is all we need' hippie. So far, he has not told me what kind of revenge he has planned, but I'm sure we will be smart enough to foil his plan. Anyway, I'll see you tomorrow. Remember we may still be watched."

Luckily, I had my phone out and had recorded most of the conversation. Time to see the lawyer. I chuckled at hearing Cathy's understanding of my trust.

Cathy was stunned to be served divorce papers. I had them delivered at home instead of at school so she would continue to believe I was not trying to get her fired. The terms of the divorce were standard and stressed that only assets currently held were to be in play. She fought back trying to delay the proceedings in hopes my father would die soon. Like I said, Cathy was smart. My father died a week later. Evidently her lawyer counseled her that the trust was now in play although the estate had not been settled yet. Whatever was to happen because of the will started when he died. She and her lawyer informed me they were ready to discuss the divorce settlement the week after the funeral was over.

If you wanted to see the definition of "smug," you could have seen that on the faces of Cathy and her lawyer. They now offered to settle the divorce agreeing to take 50% of the trust which they had found was valued at about $7.5 million.

They were not too happy when I laughed. I asked, "What trust?"

Cathy looked perplexed and answered, "The one your father left you or will be leaving you after the will is read."

"I take it you haven't read the will."

"You told me that it was a tradition in your family for a father to leave a trust to his son. Were you lying?"

"No. You didn't hear right. The tradition is for the grandfather to leave his grandson a trust. Someone back in my family history, the males realized that the trust money would be more valuable if given to a young adult grandson rather than a middle-aged son. My grandfather was not as wealthy as my father because of the Great Depression so I used most of my trust to pay for my bachelor's and master's degrees. That's why I have not had to pay off student loans. In my youth I was hypocritical in that I would take my capitalist grandfather's money but not my capitalist father's money."