Paper Matches

"I definitely will do it, Linda, if you force me to. I'm not going to tell you this again, and right now you have no way to prove that the videos or the pictures even exist. I even swapped out the hard drive on my computer, and destroyed the old one. All of the surveillance equipment is gone. You have no power over me to stop me from doing anything I want to do. I don't completely hate you... yet. Don't push me to do anything you may regret."

"Are you listening to me, Linda? Do you understand what I've been saying? I won't be here later to answer any questions you may have, so I hope you've been listening closely."

His last statement obviously caught her attention as she quickly looked up, wiped her eyes and said, "What do you mean you won't be here? Where will you be?"

"Like I said, Sandy is moving in here tonight to protect our interests. I'm taking a week of my vacation to go to Florida and look after my parents' condo while they're away on a cruise. The week after that I'm going to be in Colorado Springs, getting used to my new job. I switched positions with the IT manager in Colorado Springs, and I'm moving there while he moves here to take over my old job, with my help. There's a lot of expansion that is going to take place there, and within a year or so I should be at the same salary level as I presently have."

"I don't want any of our old furniture or household effects to remind me of you and what we once had, and that's why you can have your choice of it. Anything you don't take that is on that list will be given to charity. Sandy has all of her own furniture and stuff to move in here, and she doesn't need any of our old things. Like I said, put it in storage if you can't find a place to move to inside of 10 days."

Linda finally found her tongue and said, "You're moving away? I want you to stay here so we can patch up our marriage! I want to have your children."

Bill just shook his head and said, "You don't need me to have children. One of your hot young University students can take care of that for you. Just don't bother with condoms; I'm sure they won't object. Of course you'll be taking your chances, but like they say, life is a gamble. I thought you were a winner, but look what you've turned into; nothing but a slut like your friend Denise Grady. You two deserve each other. If you can't move in with her, maybe you should get a place in the same building."

Linda was a bit frantic now and almost spit her words out as she said, "I don't want some university student to father my children, I want you. I want my children to have a loving father; it's important for a child to have a caring father."

"I agree with you about children needing a real father, but it isn't going to be me. Maybe you can find someone else to marry you. Maybe they won't know about your cheating, or maybe they won't care. There are men who don't mind if their wives are sluts, but I'm NOT one of them."

Linda was back to sobbing again, somehow finding the capability to shed more tears. She finally grabbed more tissues to dry her wet, red eyes. She looked at Bill, but didn't say a word. He wondered if she finally realized that there were no words left to say.

A few moments later, after outstaring his wife, Bill reached into his briefcase to consult his To-Do list. He realized there was one thing he hadn't told his wife as he said, "There's one more thing that you have to do to keep those videos off the Internet. In about two weeks or so I'm going to call your parents, to speak to your father, and he had better know why we are getting divorced. I don't want you telling them it was some of this 'irreconcilable differences' crap. You're going to tell them the truth. Do you understand?"

Linda had wiped her eyes again and was sitting there shaking her head slowly. "Don't make me tell them about what I've done. I can't tell them that. Surely you can give me some consideration on this."

Bill looked at her without compassion and said, "I don't really care how hard it is for you, you're going to tell them that you cheated on me. You don't need to tell them the blow-by-blow of how you traded studs with Denise, or how you watched her with both of the men while you masturbated. They don't need those details, but the fact you broke your marriage vows, more than once, is something that you do have to tell them. The alternative is for them to find out from the pictures."

After one last glance at his To-Do list, Bill closed his briefcase and changed the settings of the built-in combination lock. No one could reopen it now but him. When he checked his watch he saw that his sister should be there in less than 15 minutes. He figured he could stand being in the same room with Linda for that much longer.

+++++++++++

Bill checked his watch and it was finally time for him to make his call to his sister.....

"Hello Sandy? It's Bill. I just wanted to see how things went today."

"Hi Bill. Well, Linda spent the whole evening after you left crying. I almost felt sorry for her, until I remembered what you told me. I wasn't sure how she was going to treat me when there was just the two of us here, but it went okay."

"Did she have much to say for herself? I just wondered if she might've said something to you that she wouldn't have had the nerve to say to me."

"Not really, Bill. We talked for a few minutes just before she went to bed, but all she did was tell me how badly she had screwed up. Not the details, just that she had screwed up her entire life all by herself. I know that not long before she went to bed she phoned her friend Denise, and she didn't seem to care whether I overheard the call or not."

"I'm not really concerned with what she had to say to that bitch. She's going to get hers, too."

"She didn't say that much, anyway. She just told Denise that she would probably never speak to her again; that you had found out about everything, and were going to divorce her. She started crying, and finally just slammed the phone down."

"Like I said, Sandy, it doesn't really matter. What's done is done, and there's no going back. How did today go? Did she go to work this morning? Do you think she started looking for another place?"

"I think she phoned and booked off, Bill. I didn't leave till almost 9 o'clock, and she was still sitting at the kitchen table in her pajamas with a cup of coffee. She looked like hell, and I don't think she slept much. She wasn't here when I came home, so I looked around a bit, and it seems like she's starting to pack some things up. There were a couple of boxes in the bedroom with cosmetics and stuff."

"Well, I'm glad to hear that. I didn't want to leave you in the middle of a mess, although you're a big girl now, and I was sure you could take care of yourself without me there. I'm glad to hear that she's starting to take what I said seriously."

"I'll call again in a couple of days and see how things are going. By the way, I got into mom and dad's condo with no problem. I spent most of today lounging by the pool under a shade tree. Maybe tomorrow I'll go swimming for a while. Right now I just want to unwind."

"You do as much of that as you can, Bill. I can't imagine the strain you've been under. I'll call you there if anything seriously important comes up. There shouldn't be anything. I'll talk to you in a couple of days."

The two of them said their goodbyes, and as he hung up the phone Bill realized that he had the package of paper matches back in his hand, unconsciously prepared to count them again.

The Aftermath.

By the end of the week Linda had moved out of the house, and had taken a good selection of the better furniture and appliances, most of the dishes and cutlery, as well as a lot of small items. There were a few items of furniture that were left, and the ones that Sandy couldn't find a use for were picked up by Goodwill Industries.

When asked, Linda quickly told Sandy that she was moving into an apartment in Centerville, and gave her the address and phone number. It was understood that those would be passed on to Bill, but he specifically told his sister that he wasn't interested in them when she asked.

During the second week after he moved out, while he was getting settled into his new job in Colorado Springs, Bill phoned his friend Jason one evening and got the details of what had happened with the forged letters that Bill had sent to all of the fraternities and dormitories. Jason had asked his employee Jim, the young man who used to actually go to the bar, to ask around about how their business was doing. Jim had passed on some information that Jason was very anxious to share with Bill.

Jim reported that after speaking with a couple of friends who still went to The Puma's Den that the place had suffered a mysterious setback. A week earlier there had suddenly been only a small group of young men who visited the bar each night, causing a lot of the female customers to turn around and walk out when they saw how few men were there.

Apparently this was an ongoing problem, and was getting worse, and so now even fewer women turned up. Jim couldn't seem to understand that, but said that he guessed that the guys had found somewhere better to hang out.

++++++++

Settling into his new home in Colorado Springs took up most of Bill's time, and he didn't get a chance to phone Jason for a couple of weeks. Actually he had tried to call him once or twice, but didn't get an answer, and didn't leave a message because he wasn't sure when he would be available himself. When he finally did get in contact with Jason, he was able to exchange some good news with him.

"I was talking to Jim two days ago, Bill. He said that one of his friends told him that the doors were padlocked at The Puma's Den. There was a notice on the door that said the landlord had seized the premises for failure to pay the rent. He also heard that a bluegrass bar was going to open up in that location. I bet you'll think that's pretty good news, won't you Bill." Jason laughed after making the last statement.

Bill quickly replied, "Wow! It doesn't get much better than that, does it? I'm amazed that the place could have gone out of business that quickly. Mind you, I have heard that the bar business is quite a difficult one to make money at without strong customer support. They were probably too close to the line financially to survive even a few weeks of lousy sales. I can't say that I'm upset at all by the news, though."

He quickly continued, "I have some good news too. I spoke with my sister on the weekend, and she told me she got a call from Linda, who was all upset. The gist of it is that Denise phoned her, just screaming at her, and said that someone, probably me, but possibly Linda, had ruined her life. Apparently someone contacted her employer, and some of her friends, and told them about a certain website. When they went there they found videos of Denise Grady and two young guys in some amateur porn productions."

"She got fired, and apparently a couple of days later her son, who goes to Dayton University, found out that a friend of his was in a porn video on the Internet. When he checked out the site, he discovered his mother was the costar. He disowned her, according to what Sandy was told by Linda."

Bill chuckled before adding, "I also realized that the story of the two students being in a porn video will be mentioned by their friends on the social networking sites they all belong to, and that the videos will probably come back to haunt them. A lot of companies search these sites to find what's not mentioned in a resume. I may have gotten a bit of revenge on them without even trying."

"Linda was frantic to find out whether I had broken my promise not to put her videos on the Internet. Sandy told her to just go check out the site, and see what was there."

Bill laughed before continuing, "I guess she must have been satisfied, because she phoned back a couple of days later to tell Sandy to thank me for keeping her videos off the site. I want to thank you for your help with all of that, Jason."

"I went there and checked it out myself, and it does a pretty good job of destroying her reputation, all right. Mind you, she'll probably end up thinking it's good advertising. I don't think that woman knows the meaning of the word shame."

"You may be right, Bill. Some women are like that. Mind you, if her son found it, there are likely other family members who might come across it too. Were there any of her relatives on that list of people to contact?"

"I'm not really sure, Jason. There might have been a couple of her cousins. I remembered Denise saying that she had a couple of cousins in Dayton, so I added a few to the list who might have been related. There were three Grady entries from the phonebook, and I found two entries for Slinger, which was her maiden name. I was hoping they might be related."

Jason laughed before he said, "You really hate that woman, don't you. You really torched her with the real estate company she worked with and the Board of Governors for the Real Estate Dealers Association. Personally, I would doubt that she can find herself a job in Ohio, at least in real estate."

"That was the plan, Jason. Thanks again for your help with it."

"No thanks are necessary, Bill. It's only right that we former cuckolds should stick together; one small blow for the good team." The two of them were laughing as they hung up their phones.

++++++++

The next evening Bill phoned his soon-to-be former father-in-law to see whether Linda had fulfilled the requirement he had given her.

"Hello Jim, it's Bill Phillips."

"Uh, hello Bill. What... can I do for you?" There was obvious strain in his voice.

"I guess you heard that Linda and I are going to be getting a divorce."

"Uh, yes we did, Bill. Both Patricia and I are so sorry to hear that. We've always felt you were the son we never had." Jim Baker hesitated before he continued, "I can't tell you how disappointed we were in Linda when she told us the reason why you decided to divorce her."

Bill could hear the pain in his voice, and felt sorry for Jim, an innocent victim of his daughter's adultery. "I was... disappointed too, Jim. I know it might be difficult, and please let me know if you think it would be a problem for you and Patricia, but I'd like to keep in touch with both of you from time to time. I'm not divorcing the two of you, and I feel like we've become good friends over the years."

Jim cleared his throat before he answered, and when he spoke it was apparent that he was overcome by his emotions. "We'd like that, Bill. As much as we hate what Linda did to your marriage with her... adultery, she's still our daughter, our only child. Please don't expect that we should disown her; we'd like to somehow maintain your friendship, but keep our family in one piece at the same time."

Bill was not expecting to be so moved by what Jim had just said, but it did have an effect on him. "I understand that, Jim. I wouldn't expect anything else. Please give my love to Patricia." He had to stop at that point because he could feel his voice was about to break.

"I will, Bill. There is... one thing I would like to pass on to you. Linda has been very close to a breakdown as she tries to deal with her extremely bad choices. I'm just glad that there's nothing left that could make the situation any worse than it already is, as I don't know if she would survive it; she seems very fragile."

Bill hesitated, thinking of his power to totally devastate his soon-to-be former wife and replied, "You're probably right, Jim. I don't see how it could get much worse. Goodbye."

"Goodbye, Bill."

Epilogue.

Bill and Linda Phillips were officially divorced a couple of months later. It seemed that Linda had been dragging her feet in the matter, but within a week after Denise Grady's porn videos appeared on the Internet, the signed papers were returned to Bill's attorney. It was the last contact he had with her, even unofficially.

Bill had intended to take the ultimate revenge on his ex-wife once the divorce was final by posting the videos of her and the two students on the Internet, but considering the potential results, and the fact that he also needed closure, he decided not to do it. He decided to leave her wondering, never knowing if they would suddenly appear.

He also knew that nothing, no matter how potentially damaging it was, could ever be erased from the Internet; the videos would have been copied to other sites and into personal collections, and would pop back up like poisonous mushrooms even if the original copies were deleted. They wouldn't just be a lifetime curse for Linda; they would have been a never-ending reminder to him of what she had done.

About a year later Sandy told Bill, during one of her visits to Colorado Springs to check up on how he was doing, that she had heard Linda had married an older man, and was pregnant. If the report was correct, Sandy was sure that she knew him, a dour man of about 55, who attended his fundamentalist Church several times each week. Bill was left wondering if Linda had become desperate to have children, and had settled for the first unmarried man she found who would accept her.

For the first year after his divorce Bill rarely dated, still feeling too gun shy to take a chance on being hurt again. The dating he did was more for the physical release than for the desire to start a serious relationship.

Eventually he got over that problem, and almost exactly 2 years after his divorce became final he married Marie Lincoln, a widow with two young children. Her husband had been an employee of Abstract Devices Inc., and had worked in Bill's department when he was struck and killed by a drunk driver.

Bill dealt with her several times regarding the benefits she was entitled to, and got to know her fairly well that way. Almost a year after his last official contact with her they happened to meet at the grocery store. One thing led to another, and they began dating.

It didn't take long for Bill to realize that she was the one he was looking for, and when she told him she felt the same way, they didn't see any point in having a lengthy engagement. They are now expecting their first child, a boy who is due just after their first anniversary.

Jason Shields and Heidi Westerback were married a couple of months before Bill and Marie, but the two couples did manage to attend each other's weddings. They have become close friends, and Bill is trying to convince Jason and Heidi to consider a move to Colorado Springs.

It looks very much like they may take that suggestion, as an opening is coming up for the head of the Technical Services Division, a new position that will be headquartered in Colorado Springs.

The End.