Natural Selection

When she spotted her cohorts and took seats she said, "Vance, I don't know if you've ever been formally introduced to these three coworkers of mine. The gentleman to my left is Steve Crenshaw, to his right is Frank Sutton, and beside him is Bernard Ledbetter. They're all vice presidents of different divisions." They were smartly dressed in very expensive suits. "And guys, this is my hubby Vance." Vance shook hands with them in turn. He couldn't help but notice that all three of them appeared to be undressing Abby with their eyes.

Vance curiously asked, "So are all your wives here are will they be joining us later?"

"Bernard responded saying, "You know how it is, for us anyway, school night, kids, taking care of the home front and all." Vance instantly realized that his wife was to be the only female in attendance at this, whatever this was and it unsettled him.

Abby spoke, looking at the VPs, "Can I tell him now? I've been dying to all day!"

"Tell me what? And why do you need their permission to tell me something?" Vance unhappily rejoined. Steve Crenshaw looked at Abby with a smile and just nodded.

"Oh goodie. Guess what sweetie?"

"I'm all ears" Vance countered.

"I got a HUGE raise starting today! Isn't that wonderful?"

Vance embarrassingly said, "That's nice honey. We'll talk about it later when we get home."

"Are you kidding me?" She said indignantly. "We'll talk about it now. It's wonderful news and I've been waiting all day to share it with you but these guys made me wait until tonight so they could see the expression on your face when I told you. My first three months waiting period is safely behind me now and so today Steve told me my salary was being increased by $12,500.00 per year honey! That now puts me at $87,500.00 annual salary starting today! When we add in the $50,000.00 you bring in, that puts our combined income at a whopping $137,500.00! Did you ever imagine we'd be seeing this kind of income this early in our careers?

Vance was very angry that she would air how much money each of them brought home out in public like she just did. But the damage was already done. He figured that she had already told them all about their personal finances earlier in the day and this was just a repeat for his benefit. He saw Steve eyeing him the entire time.

"Well what do you have to say about that sweetie? You haven't said a word since I told you."

Al eyes were upon him now anticipating his reaction. He was going to disappoint them all. With a completely emotionless face Vance stated, "If you would all excuse me please; which way is the men's room?" He asked no one specific.

"Why didn't you go before we left home?" She embarrassingly asked.

"Never mind" Vance added. "I'll find it myself." And he walked off to locate one. As he walked away he saw them talking close, almost in a huddle. Vance knew that if he hadn't left when he did, he might have embarrassed his wife and upset her in front of both her and his superiors. He didn't want to go down that path publicly. At home, maybe, but not in public. He needed time to cool off.

When he returned twenty minutes later no one was seated at the table. He finally located her out on the dance floor with one of her cohorts. The other two were standing nearby and after a few minutes with one, they would switch off with another, taking turns in her arms round robin. After observing this behavior for a while, Vance approached her dancing with Frank.

"Honey, I don't feel well. Would you mind saying your goodbyes to these nice gentlemen so we can take our leave for the evening?"

"You can't be serious. Are you trying to ruin this night for me? What's wrong? Why do you want to leave so early? We haven't even eaten yet."

Steve, overhearing while standing nearby chimed in uninvited to the conversation. "Upset stomach Vance? Why don't you go sit at the bar for a while and drink some soda? That's the perfect recipe most of the time. I'll bet you'll be good as new in just a few minutes." He added with a smirk.

"Why don't you at least try it honey? It just might work." Then she playfully twirled away with Steve as he swapped out with Frank, Bernard at the ready awaiting his turn.

Vance didn't understand what was happening or why, but he wasn't taking the bait. He did walk over to the bar, ordered a coke, asked for a piece of paper and pen, and then walked over to their table. He wrote a note on the paper:

Still not feeling well. Didn't want to ruin your special day so I went home. Hope you have all the fun you deserve.

After leaving the prescribed coke on the table that was suggested by Steve, he opened her pocketbook and wrapped the note around her cellphone so it would be impossible for her to miss, should she try to call him. Once he confirmed that she was lost to the night with her obviously favored suitors and paying him no attention, he walked outside and texted for an Uber. He was inside their apartment within twenty-five minutes at 8:30 pm. Once inside, he changed out of his suit and fixed himself a sandwich. Recounting the night, he had never been so humiliated in all of his life. Was their marriage somehow in jeopardy now? It certainly appeared that way to him.

His phone finally rang at 10 pm. "Where are you? Did you really leave?"

"Yes, I've been home now since 8:30. I wasn't feeling well."

"8:30? Why didn't you tell me? I would have left with you."

"I did tell you, but you decided it was more important that your night not be ruined."

"Oh don't act like a baby. I hope you're happy now. You officially ruined my special night."

"How so? It took you an hour and a half to even realize I wasn't there! I guess that makes us even. You ruined my evening just as soon as we got there!" With that retort, Vance disconnected the call and turned off his phone.

Vance heard their apartment door fly open at 10:45. He'd actually wondered if she'd be home before midnight as he sat in the living room watching TV. She came in sobbing and immediately ran to him kneeling by his single occupant chair and began profusely apologizing.

"Please forgive me sweetheart. I don't know what has come over me lately. I just haven't been myself. After we discovered you had left and I called you, the guys explained to me how the situation may have appeared to you from your perspective. I LOVE you, more than you could possibly ever imagine and I don't want ANYTHING to ever come between us. This is my fault, ALL my fault. I got the big head after receiving such a huge raise and stupidity took over my brain for a while there. Never again."

"Your raise IS good news. I am happy for you about that. But what hurt and really bothered me about tonight has nothing whatsoever to do with your raise. First of all, you led me to believe that YOU had made reservations for just the two of us, but it turned out to be a stag party, except for you. Secondly I find out you've been going out to fancy lunches and dinners hobnobbing with the company's upper echelon and conveniently 'forgot' to ever mention it to me. Thirdly, you blindside me with your raise announcement in front of our superiors announcing to the world just how little I make in comparison to you, openly airing what I deem to be private matters to be kept just between us. Next you berated me before the three VPs for merely seeking a men's room. Upon my return, I find you flirting and dancing with the three stooges without a word of discussion with me ahead of time. Then the icing on the cake was my rebuff when asking you to leave with me. I've never felt so humiliated and disrespected in my life, especially coming from you. That's why I left."

"I know honey. You're right. Even though that's not how I intended for tonight to go, they helped me realize that you might see things the way you just described. I was wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong! I admit it and I owe you the biggest apology in the world. It'll never happen again. Can you ever forgive me sweetheart? Please? PLEASE?" Genuine tears were streaming down the sides of her face, her makeup smearing. There was nothing faked discernable in her face or emotions.

Vance never could hold a grudge when it came to Abby, especially when she was contrite. She was definitely his weak spot.

"Of course I forgive you honey. I love you too much not to. I might not make as much money as you do right now, but I do my job with just as much honor and integrity as you do yours."

Abby winced when he said that, but quickly recovered. "I know you do baby. You're definitely the smartest and hardest working man I know, and that includes those six bozos that run the company. But please don't ever tell them that I said that."

As they were kissing and making up, Abby suggested they take things to the bedroom where she would show her appreciation for his understanding ways. Still feeling the sting of her behavior, he politely declined saying that he was still not feeling 100% just yet. Not to be denied, she managed to return him to their bed and she woke him early in the morning with her best rendition of an erotic blow job. This was definitely not a quickie. She nudged him to the edge of orgasm five times before finally extracting his explosive eruption inside her mouth. All was well in the Rayle household.

Although their sex life resumed in a very fulfilling and satisfying manner, the frequency never fully recovered to what it was prior to the blow up. Sex was now occurring usually once and sometimes twice per week during the weekdays, but Saturday and Sunday nights were still as active as they previously had been. Vance stopped initiating attempts during the weekdays owing mainly to her feigning headaches or fatigue from working so much. He learned to wait for her to initiate intimacy to avoid his frustration at being turned down and contributing tension between them.

Because DFSB employed 1680 people among the six divisions at that facility, the company Christmas party with 3360 in attendance, when adding in significant others just wasn't feasible to hold at one time for all, given the limited open space in the building, so each of the divisions held their own festive celebration on different nights leading up to the big day.

Realizing that Albert was capitalizing on the fruits of his labor and taking all the credit for his hard work, Vance had no desire whatsoever to join any social function where his opportunistic supervisor would be in attendance. However, the six division managers wished to hold their own separate Christmas soiree at The Boiled Lobster, the same restaurant where Vance had previously been humiliated. Abby had to plead extensively and fuck him half to death in order to persuade him to attend with her. She assured him that the events he'd experienced there before would never be repeated.

The executives had reserved the back section of the restaurant designated for large groups for the event. The six VPs and their wives were there, along with the twelve secretaries and their husbands/boyfriends and, of course, the two PAs, Carolyn and Abby with their husbands. All forty attendees were seated at individual tables as couples, no large tables were present. They had arranged for their own entertainment with live musicians and singers crooning Christmas music as well as other secular festive numbers. Everyone danced with their own partners and as best as Vance could tell, there was no swapping of partners or cutting in as he had anticipated. Abby danced solely with him every time they got happy feet. To his surprise, they truly had a wonderful celebratory evening and he didn't mind telling her so. Once they were home, they both were so turned on that they ravaged one another, screwing themselves silly until, exhausted, slumber finally found them, still holding a passionate embrace.

Since they had gone to his parents' for Thanksgiving, they spent their first married Christmas together with her family in Ohio. Of course, a week later, where else could they be on New Year's Eve in New York City? They were among the hordes and throngs of bodies jam packed into the streets surrounding the main performance stages in Times Square. They happily counted down the ball drop and rang in their first New Year together as man and wife and couldn't have been happier. When they finally made their way home at 2 am, they once again capitalized on the occasion enthusiastically sealing the night with unbridled passion.

Chapter 8

Life continued pretty much on an even keel for the couple until March rolled around. Abby had offered several times over the months since her last pay increase to use her bolstered income to purchase a car for him to drive since he was still walking or cycling to work every day. She told Vance that it was simply because he deserved it and, after all, it would be their car together, since the luxury car that she used daily belonged to DFSB. What she omitted telling him was that, given her high status within the company, she was embarrassed that her husband was walking out in the cold, rain and snow. She knew if she told him of her true feelings that it would not be well received.

When Abby returned home the evening of Monday, March seventh, she seemed to be very excited about something but refused to say what it was. He wondered if she was going to ask to be able to go on another weekend trip or something that might upset the apple cart. Things had been going so well with them as a couple and their marriage had never been on firmer ground. Whatever it was that excited her, she held her tongue and told him to wait. But that night, Abby unleashed a night of passion on him that seemed to recapture the magic they experienced at their first time. This wasn't sex, this was exquisite love making culminating in unparalleled pleasure for them both.

On Tuesday morning, March the eighth, Vance had to get up in the night to pee. As he returned to bed, he pushed the button to illuminate the clock to check the time. It was 4:45 am but he noticed that the alarm was disabled. He was sure he had set the alarm before going to bed, but thought that perhaps in the heat of passion his memory wasn't as sharp as it usually was, so he set it back to alarm. He was awakened by the 6:30 droning of the all too familiar tone, pushed the silencer, and rose for his morning ablutions.

As he was tying his necktie putting the final touch to getting dressed for work, Abby stirred and slowly returned to the land of the living. He considerately tried to be quiet in the mornings so she could get extra sleep since she reported to work an hour later than he did.

"Honey, what are you doing?" She sleepily inquired.

"Go back to sleep baby. I didn't mean to wake you. I'll be gone in a minute, on my way to work."

"Work? We don't have work today. We're both off. That's why I turned your alarm off." She stated.

"You're so cute honey. Today is Tuesday, a weekday. This is not the weekend."

"I know what day it is silly. You don't work today and neither do I. I have plans for us today."

"What do you mean I don't work today? I work every weekday. I don't have floating days off like you do babe. My vacation days don't kick in until after my first full year there. You know that."

"Of course I know that silly. But I trumped that. I called Albert yesterday and told him that you would not be in today and that was that." She said triumphantly.

Vance chuckled at her pomposity. "Honey, you have no authority at work over Albert or me. You can't just call down to him and tell him when I will or will not be at work. It doesn't work that way" he said informatively.

"Of course I can, and I did. So you aren't going in to work today and I have already made it happen."

"And just where do you believe you derive the authority to give commands to tell Albert to give me time off from work?" He demanded.

"Are you kidding me? You're joking, right? Albert Iddings is a nobody, a clown, an oaf. He's the lowest of the low. Hell, even the dishwasher in the cafeteria is higher up the ladder than he is, that's why he's slumming down in the dungeon out of sight and out of mind. I've been told that the only reason that idiot even has a job is because he's a third cousin or something related to one of the board members. He's got shit for brains and everybody knows it. He just does what he's told and stays out of everybody's way!" She informed.

Vance knew that Albert wasn't a productive employee by any means. But he was astonished to hear his wife cast his assigned supervisor in such a disparaging light.

"How can you say such a thing? Just who do you think you are?" He posited.

"It's common knowledge Vance! EVERYBODY knows it, not just me. As high up the ladder as I am, if I, or just about anybody else says jump, Albert says 'how high?"

"Is that a fact!" Vance said seething.

"YES! It's an undeniable fact. Albert ain't shit. He does whatever I tell him to do."

"If that's so, then what does that make me? Huh? He's my damn supervisor!"

Abby was stunned by his question. Although she absolutely believed every word she had just spoken, she had not fully considered the repercussions of her diatribe, nor the dark truth her words would cast over her own husband. Her statements, though accurate, were blowing up in her face. This is not how she intended this discussion to go, not by a long shot. But she realized that her cause was already lost. Might as well rip the Band-Aid off in one go and get the sting over with all at once.

"Look baby, you can't help it, you're just doing the best that you can. I've talked to Albert and a few others who work in your area and they all tell me that you give off the vibe of being industrious, but no one has a clue what it is you actually do. Not a soul has ever said that you goof off or that you sit around wasting time. They all say that you're really good at appearing to be busy which is more than can be said of your boss." She said matter of factly.

"You don't have a clue what it is that I do because you don't even work in my field. But I'll ask my question again, just who the hell do you think you are to say such things?!"

"You wanna know who I am? Alright Mr. High and Mighty, I'll tell you who I am. I'm the woman who just happens to make TWICE what you make! That's right. In the past six months that we BOTH have worked for DFSB, I have received two, count 'em TWO $12.500.00 raises. That's a twenty-five grand annual increase over my starting salary to where I am now making DOUBLE your measly salary while your pay has not increased a single penny. Apparently I must be doing something RIGHT. Obviously you're NOT! I'm the damn bread winner of this family. Me! Not you!"

She continued, "That's why I ordered your day off, I wanted to go out today, just you and me and tell you in as kind of a way as I could, break it to you gently to soothe your fragile ego. You wanna know who I am? At work, to me, you're just a lowly peon. I can make one phone call and get you fired. How do you like them apples? At the rate that my star is rising, you could work there twenty years and still never catch up to me, so get used to the facts of life baby. Wake up and smell the coffee. And believe it or not, I was also gonna tell you today that since I make so much money now, I am seriously thinking about us having a baby fairly soon. We can afford it now. You wouldn't even have to work anymore. You could just quit and stay at home and take care of our baby for us. Don't you see sweetie? This is a good thing!"

Vance could not have been more astonished if an alien space ship had landed in front of his apartment. "You think that I'm worthless? That I don't amount to anything? That what I do doesn't count? That I don't measure up to you? That I should quit my job because I am never going anywhere with it? Well fuck you and the horse you rode in on! And unless you make that call to get me fired, I'm going to work right now. You do whatever the hell you wanna do today, but you'll do it without me, I can tell you that much!" He yelled as he stormed out the door.