Not a Bit Too Far

Ethan understood better than anyone and agreed with my thoughts on the matter, but it was on the way home from a trip to a plant site near LaGrange that I started wondering about that. Considering Ethan's luck with women, was having him agreeing with me really such a good thing?

He set us up with a couple of women the following weekend. We all had a fun time, and it wasn't long before I put it out of my mind.

***

During the divorce, Reagan had wanted to keep our home as part of the settlement so I had George resist, forcing the sale since she couldn't afford the buyout without giving up a lot of other things she wanted.

That was rather petty and cruel but I figured it was karma, considering the circumstances, and I didn't lose a moment's sleep over it.

Since I didn't want to get taken to the cleaners, I also had George involved as my representative in the sale. He and Reagan's attorney knew each other from years before so they were on speaking terms, unlike Reagan and me, and George found out that Reagan was in the midst of purchasing a condo. A short time later, I heard a rumor through the grapevine that Reagan and Noah were marrying.

On hearing the news, I immediately called George since it had a potential effect on my finances. During our divorce case, George had argued to the judge that no support should be granted since Reagan was the cheater and I was the aggrieved party, but the judge took our relative incomes into account and awarded her a small monthly amount for five years or until she remarried, whichever came first. I think that was the only point George lost in our settlement, but even that amount was smaller than he predicted. If she really remarried...

"I'll check into it and let you know. If it's true, we'll get the support stopped." said George.

"Yeah, and if it's true, it just goes to show some people never learn," I said in disbelief, thinking of them being together and what that would mean, even as it further validated my decision about breaking things off with Melissa.

"Nope," George laughed. "That's what keeps me in business."

And, I thought, It gives me an option I'd thought about early in my divorce but never believed would actually be possible.

***

On learning of their marriage, I made it a point to reach out to a friend in Reagan's firm. Will Kliner and I had been acquaintances in college and had reconnected when I started dating Reagan and discovered that he worked for her firm in a different department.

Reagan and I had gone out with Will and his wife a few times while we were dating and were married, but Will and I hadn't seen each other since before the divorce started. Therefore, we got together for lunch one day soon afterward when I wasn't on the road.

When I told him what had happened, Will replied, "That's awful. I'm sorry, Trent. I heard that Woolever had requested a transfer to a different department. Now it makes sense; they're avoiding any conflicts with our human resources department."

"So you guys have an official policy on things like that?"

"Sure. They can get in big trouble if they violate it, and can potentially get the firm in trouble too."

"Will, I hate to ask this but do you think you can get me a copy of that section of your HR manual?"

"Yes, just don't tell anyone where you got it."

I got a date the following Saturday and we met Will and Lori Kliner for a Braves game. Will handed me a flash drive that night and a few days later, I went to see George to talk to him about all of it.

"Trent, I'm sorry. While that's what their policy says, even if you can prove they knew Noah Woolever was screwing every woman under him," he said, laughing at his own wording, "that doesn't give you standing to sue due to the way the state law is written. With the interest in making sex between willing partners less of a potential crime, the state legislature got rid of alienation of affection in Georgia back in '79, about the time I went out on my own. That keeps one partner from suing someone else for attracting, or distracting, the other one. That includes the firms that employ them."

"Damn." While I didn't care about the money, I was hoping that punishing the firm financially would cause them to punish Noah, and, if I was lucky, Reagan too.

He smiled. "Many a potential plaintiff has said that word or a whole lot worse on learning that fact. What it means is that no one can sue them over it, except maybe in very limited circumstances where the firm was positively informed, with proper documentation, of what was happening and nothing was done about it. In that case, someone who was taken advantage of by the serial abuser might be allowed to have their day in court but the plaintiff's chance of winning a significant amount is severely limited, so much so that most attorneys worth their salt wouldn't touch such a case with a ten-foot pole."

I sighed, repeating, "Damn."

He laughed. "Hey, don't give up hope. Let's take care of the spousal support issue first, and we can talk about other options a little way down the road."

The following week, George was at the courthouse filing the new motion. With proof that Reagan and Asshole's marriage license had been filed, George asked that spousal support be ended since it was no longer necessary or appropriate in accordance with our divorce decree. Reagan's attorney vehemently opposed the motion, of course, and our suspicion that the reason the marriage license was filed well away from Atlanta was to prevent our discovering it and avoiding us making the very motion to dismiss support that George was now filing.

Judge Johnson agreed with us, waving off Reagan's objections, and I was off the hook for the monthly amount that had been in my craw ever since he'd required it. However, when I brought up the second issue, George looked at me, shook his head, and wagged a finger at me.

"Patience, Trent. Patience."

***

Six months later, George Godwin called me and we got together for lunch a few days later.

"Trent, the reason I suggested you wait is that newlyweds need time to get to know each other, and in a case like this, where Noah has moved to another department in the same firm, he's going to be very careful for a while. He needs time to get his bearings...and find a new mark, right about the time a little of the shine's starting to come off that new marriage. Based on what you told me and what I've seen of such guys in the past, I'm guessing now would be a good time to do some checking."

It took two weeks but Dawna Hightower and one of her investigators proved that just like tigers not changing their stripes or leopards not changing their spots or whatever that old saying is, serial cheaters don't stop cheating. Noah Woolever was getting it on with one of his new underlings so George took the information, put it in a nice package, and went to see one of his attorney friends.

"We don't want this coming back to you, Trent, because if whoever takes over for Judge Johnson sees your involvement if Mr. Woolever were to, say, lose his job. In that case, Mrs. Woolever might be able to file for reinstatement of spousal support due to your actions affecting her current spouse."

"I'm not sure where she's going to find out about it because I'm sure as hell not telling her and if anything happens to Noah the Asshole, I suspect he won't tell her the true reason behind it."

George was grinning as he shook his finger at me. "Sneaky, sneaky! And so true."

George's attorney friend delivered the package to Noah's firm. I found out through my friend Will that Noah was escorted out by security the same afternoon and the rumor was that he wouldn't be welcomed back. Word was that Reagan was crying when she learned of it, asking why, but that no one was telling.

"Take that, asshole," I said after the call ended. "If I keep this up, I run the risk of becoming a bitter old man."

Grinning to only myself, I knew it was a risk I was willing to take.

***

Not wanting my name associated with it in case Reagan were to find out and take it to the judge to try to get my spousal support reinstated, I overnighted a package anonymously that same day and the next evening, I received a phone call.

"Trent!" cried Melissa Ortiz, "I know you may never want to speak with me again but I had to call to tell you. Noah called last night and told me that he'd been laid off from his firm--corporate cutbacks, he said--and that he was going to be filing for reduced alimony as a result. I called a friend from the firm and heard that the rumor in the firm is that he was fired. Then today, I received an express package, an anonymous express package, mind you, that probably explains it and should allow the judge to keep my spousal support steady when Noah files his request. Trent, I'm guessing that I know who to thank for this. So, to that person, I say 'thank you.'"

I chuckled. "Hmm...I'm guessing that if you spoke to the right person about it, he would say you're quite welcome if he were in a position to admit doing it. As for what was in the package, can we say that some people never learn?"

"I'm guessing Noah will give the judge a sad song about his poor plight, and then when my attorney hands the judge this information in response, I'm hoping the judge throws those very words at him. He just remarried for Christ's sake! I wonder if he started wandering that fast when we married?"

"Melissa, don't think like that. That's in the past, so keep it there. Just smile and enjoy your life, okay? You deserve it."

We said goodbye for what I suspected would be the last time.

With that, I smiled. For the first time in a long, long time, I felt free. I'd come through the gauntlet, I'd survived, and though some might disagree, I'd given back just as much hell and heartache as Reagan and Noah had put me through, taking it as far as I dared but not a bit too far. While she was probably cheating again too, I'd helped leave Reagan in a much worse financial situation in a condo instead of a nice home and with an out-of-work husband who was paying child support and alimony through the nose. In addition, I knew she was in a relationship where she was being regularly cheated on by her spouse but I didn't bother telling her, similar to how she'd not told me what she'd done to me. I'd tried to provide the best for her and keep her happy, but now I suspected that she had more worries than she could count.

Yes, I'd struck back at each of them but had no regrets. Not a single damn one.

In fact, as I went over it in my mind, I realized that I was no longer calling them the derogatory names that had been ever present in my mind. Having taken my retribution, I no longer had to think of them again at all or to care what they might think.

And that realization led to the biggest smile of all.

***

The smile didn't last though because over the next few weeks I made one last discovery, this one the hardest of all.

As much as I thought I'd evened the score with Reagan and with Noah, to my surprise, I found that they still had a major hold over me. When I thought I might have found a chance of happiness with Melissa, I'd given up that chance because of the memory of what my ex and Melissa's ex had done, of the embarrassment they'd caused me and, I'm sure, her. I'd been on quite a few dates and had sex with a number of women since then, but I found it increasingly clear that I never cared about any of it after the rush of my orgasm faded.

Melissa, I finally realized, was still in the back of my mind, as much present in it as any thoughts of Reagan and Noah. While I'd struck back and gotten my pound of flesh, I still wasn't free of them as long as I cared what they might think about anything whatsoever. Only when I could look at them and laugh, saying, "Look at what you gave up and what I have a chance of getting as a result. Thank you for being so stupid," would I truly be free.

That's when it became clear to me and I knew exactly what I wanted to do. Picking up the phone, I sorted back through my recent calls and found the number she'd called from on the day she received the file with Noah's latest philandering. I hit the number to call back and hoped she would pick up.

Moments later, she did.

"Hi, Melissa. It's Trent Jareau. Can we talk for a moment?"

"Trent, you recently helped me again when you didn't have to. I'm listening."

"Something came to me tonight, an epiphany, if you will, and, if I'm not too late and you'll let me, I'd like to talk to you about it to see if there's a chance I can make a change."

There was silence on the line, though I thought I heard breathing, so I continued. "Despite recommending to you to let the past go, I've realized that I've been so focused on the past and on what happened to ruin my life as I knew it that I couldn't see that I was looking at things backward instead of forward. I want to beg your forgiveness for that and, if you'll consider it, I'd like to have a chance to try to make things right. If you'll let me."

.***

Again, she didn't stop me so as I spoke to her that evening, I could practically hear Melissa nodding her head over the cell line at my realization. To my relief, she wasn't dating anyone new, and to my surprise, she agreed to let us start over so we could see where things would go and whether we might be as compatible over time as we'd been together that first wonderful night.

We went on another "first date" the following weekend with good, and firmly stated, intentions of taking things slowly, but sometimes "things" have ideas of their own.

She invited me in when I walked her to her front door. She got glasses and I poured wine before we had a seat on her couch and talked until after eleven. When I suggested it was getting late, we kissed goodnight but the kiss didn't end as expected.

The effect she and our actions were having on me was quite obvious, despite my intentions. Lying mostly on top of me, she smiled and ran her hand over my hardness before looking me in my eyes and whispering, "Trent, if you won't complain about that slow nonsense we talked about earlier, I won't either if you take me to my bedroom."

We were both laughing as I carried her upstairs and gently set her down by her bed. We removed each other's clothing and then I eased her down on the sheet. She pulled me down beside her and, after giving me a little kiss and a condom, then threw a leg over me to climb atop.

Our kissing continued, but now I had more targets as I alternated between her lips, her neck, her shoulder, and her wonderful titties, giving her nipples kisses and sucks that made them hard and made her moan.

Melissa was busy too, though, squirming her pelvis, rubbing her hot, wet pussy against my throbbing dick, sliding up and down it to send shivers through my body even as I looked forward to sliding it into her. Each time she did her slide, I tried to arch a little more, hoping as I got closer and closer, to find heaven. When I bucked a bit on her next pass, she beamed at me as the head of my dick pushed into her and then deeper on her next.

Long and slow we went, letting our buildup take its time as we loved, our bodies touching, my dick plowing her depths, and her pussy gripping me with each pass, and my breathing and her moans being the music for our dance. Seeing sweat start to bead on her forehead, from her efforts and her concentration, made me smile even more that I'd found her and that I had a second chance with her despite my former petty stubbornness.

When Melissa started to tire, I felt more of her weight resting on me so I eased her over and climbed back in. We resumed our lovemaking for a bit but I sped up over time as her moans started to become shorter and faster. On and on I drove, harder, faster, and full depth until her expression told me she was almost there. It became a sprint at that point, her head arching back as she felt her rise. I was there too, feeling that building that announced my coming release. Then it happened, with Melissa moaning as she fell back on the bed, her body spasming as I saw stars and felt myself explode into her.

We lay holding each other afterward but no words were spoken. It was too soon considering this was just our second "first date," but I knew in my heart that I hoped things would work out between us and I thought, from the way she was looking at me, that she just might feel the same way.

Some minutes later after a bit of cleanup, we were back in bed holding each other. She was laying partly across my chest looking into my eyes when she said, "Trent, you don't have to go. I mean, you can stay, if you'd like."

I grinned back at her for a moment and then leaned up and kissed her.

"I'd like that. In fact, I'd like that very much."

***

While we did hit some bumps in the months that followed, we found ourselves to be in agreement on far more, and on far more of the important things, than we might have guessed, and that a lot of the little things really didn't matter when two people liked each other enough.

Though I thought so after our second chance date, I liked her more with each passing meeting and eventually admitting to myself that it really had been far more than "like" since almost the beginning.

Melissa came to the same conclusion and we started planning and cooperating so we could have a future together. That's what we both wanted so we married about a little over a year after we finally decided to give it another try.

When the time came, little Ansley served as our flower girl and Melissa and I said our "I dos" together and actually meant them. As I'd originally feared, we've run into Noah a few times since then, but things didn't go exactly as I'd originally feared.

The first time was actually close, when he started to make a snide remark to me about "accepting seconds" but I cut him off.

Barely above a whisper where only Noah could hear, I said, "Noah, thank you so much for taking Reagan, the cheating whore, off my hands. If you think she'll be any more faithful to you than she was to me, you're even dumber than I think. And thank you for making it possible for me to be with Melissa, a true gem of a woman that you weren't bright enough to be faithful to and to do everything in your power to keep. Believe me, I got the better end of the bargain by far."

He almost choked on that and balled his fists in anger before realizing that I could have taken him apart if he hit me. Seeing reason just in time and saving both Ansley and him from major pain, he turned and went back over to see his little daughter. He picked her up and kissed her, whispering something to her before putting her back down and telling Melissa goodnight. It was a few months later when he let it slip to her that he was embroiled in the midst of his own divorce from Reagan and that he finally realized what I'd said was true.

When he started to make a suggestion, she shut him down cold. "It's too bad you only realized that after it's far too late, Noah. Don't ever mention it again."

In the times we've met since then, Noah has never said another word to me about it, but I still see a hint of regret in his eyes when he sees us together.

And I always smile.

***

Present day

Ansley's now six and she's currently at her Ortiz grandparents' house while I'm holding Melissa's hand as she squeezes mine like there's no tomorrow. When the doctor orders, Melissa gives one last push.

Finally done, she falls back and I kiss her sweat-drenched forehead as the doctor and nurse work just beyond the end of the delivery bed. The OBGYN looks up at us a moment later and says as she smiles, "Mr. and Mrs. Jareau, congratulations! I know you didn't choose to learn in advance so let me be the first to tell you that you have a fine little baby boy."