Professor's Wife Ch. 02

Most of the places and institutions featured in this story are real and the events related actually happened. However, the reader who tries to discover the identities of the persons in this story will be frustrated by my having changed all names and places.

It had been nearly a half year since we'd moved from Wisconsin to New Jersey and unlike my husband, Bert, I still hadn't come to peace with the whole thing. An outsider viewing our situation might pretty quickly come to the conclusion that I resented Bert having profited much more from the move than I had. True, Bert's situation had improved enormously from the move while mine had tanked. As a university professor of electrical engineering, he had gotten a serious salary jump and he was now a tenured professor at a more prestigious institution. On the other hand, I had been reduced from being a respected and in-demand speech therapist to being an unemployed speech therapist having to take courses in order to get a license to practice a profession that I'd been practicing for close to 20 years.

But that wasn't the only thing that I'd lost as a result of the move. In Madison, Bert had been one of those professors who allow their academic lives to mix with their personal lives. He had a home office and often worked at home, but there was more - significantly more. Popular with his students, both graduate and undergraduate, they tended to show up at our house for advice, questions or just plain to shoot the shit. Plenty of wives object to that kind of situation and put a stop to it or don't even let it start. Our friends, at least those who mentioned it, thought that those students were making up for the children that Bert and I couldn't have -- in the way that some childless couples keep pets as surrogate children. True enough, had we had children, that state of affairs probably would never have gotten started. In any case, no one, not even our closest friends, suspected what was really going on and to what extent.

It all started one afternoon when Jerome, a red headed 19-year old undergrad dropped by to collect a set of notes that he'd forgotten after a tutoring session the day before. Jerome, from a small town in Iowa, was one of those shy, wanna-be geeks who admitted that his only experience with girls was (he claimed) limited to a short stint going steady in high school. I say 'wanna-be' geek because he wasn't brilliant, just a hard working young guy on his way to getting a bachelor degree and becoming a mid-level engineer in some Midwestern power company. Without intending to, I gained his confidence and he began confiding in me -- personal stuff like his insecurities and inexperience. One thing led to another and I was hooked. There's no shortage of sexually inexperienced geeks, both real and sort-of, in the engineering schools and over the years, I surely sampled my share.

It wasn't that there was something wrong with my marriage -- socially, intellectually, sexually or otherwise. Quite the opposite, in fact, I venture to say that sexually, my marriage with Bert was and still is in the upper 5 percentile. It's just that most people, wives included, develop passions for activities - tennis, literature, music, gardening, etc. I was into gardening but I had another passion - young men studying under my husband.

In this new setting in New Jersey, it would take time to develop the connections to pursue my passion for young male students. That and the impossibility of practicing my profession had made me somewhat bitter and resentful.

But Bert was not the target of that resentment. My resentment was aimed at the current political leaders in Wisconsin -- and even more so, the deplorables who had elected them. Essentially, policies introduced by the new conservative and business-friendly governor had left Bert with no other choice but to look for a professorship elsewhere.

Most of our new acquaintances think Bert changed jobs for better pay. Yes, the new governor had frozen faculty salaries but that wasn't the big issue most folks would think it was, because Bert supplemented his professor's salary by doing consulting work. No, the problem for Bert lay in the new governor's approach to science. Generally speaking and in the normal course of things, science is supposed to uncover facts and politicians are supposed to consider the facts when making policy. The new governor's approach was the reverse -- he preferred to make policy and then find scientists willing to produce facts to back up his policies.

As a professor of electrical engineering in the very unsexy field of power generation and transmission, Bert was no stranger to being attacked when his scientific publications ran counter to the wishes of special interests. At one time, environmentalists were proposing massive solar generation plants in the world's great deserts. Bert wrote an article showing that the transmission losses would be so great that the whole idea was nonsense. Overnight, he became the favorite whipping boy of most environmentalists and for a time was regularly attacked in magazine and newspaper articles and opinion pieces. For Bert that wasn't a problem. He relished being in the line of fire -- even seemed proud to be there.

Of a more serious nature and a big problem was when he wrote an article not convenient to the power industry. Those folks have money to engage big law and they do not hesitate to sue. That was okay with Bert too -- at least as long as the university had a policy of defending its scientists against such specious liability claims. When the new governor ended that policy and appointed an industry-friendly committee to identify the cases in which a professor would be backed up, Bert began looking for a new job.

So here we were on the East Coast, my husband with more prestige and a bigger salary and me taking courses so I could work in a profession that I'd been working in for almost 20 years.

Fortunately for us, the equity in our 2800 square foot arts and crafts home in Madison was enough for the down payment on a 1685 square foot ranch type home in New Jersey. Unfortunately though, downsizing forced us to part with some of our favourite pieces of furniture, including a 4-seat leather sofa that just didn't fit in the living room of the 1685 square foot house.

I had been shopping for an affordable smaller replacement and after getting shocked by prices at top line furniture stores, it occurred to me to stop at Home Depot. After pretty quickly getting disgusted by HD's line of sofas, I had some time to kill and started strolling around the store. Before long the JACUZZI bathtubs caught my eye. I'd never really looked at these things before so the sizes took me by surprise. Not so much the 60 and 66 inch length but the 42 inch width. Wondering how roomy one of these giants would feel, I pulled off my shoes and got in the biggest one on display.

Sitting there relaxing, I closed my eyes and imagined that there was hot water streaming out of the jets and Bert was sitting opposite me. I imagined him fondling my boobs and me taking his erection in my hand. Then a high male voice brought me out of my reverie.

"Lots of room in there. Real nice, ain't it?"

"Opening my eyes, I saw a slightly built man, around 5'-7'', mid-50's, black hair with lots of gray speckles, longish nose, narrow chin and a hint of a pot belly. His smock identified him as a Home Depot employee and the name tag on it told me his name was 'Eddie Traverse.' (Some months later, I started reading Daniel Silva's Gabriel Aron series of spy novels and decided that Eddie bore a resemblance to Gabriel Aron.)

"Well yeah, it is nice. And uh, yeah there is indeed lots of room." Just in case he was making a come on, I added, "Yeah, room for me and my husband."

He wasn't taken back a bit. "I'm always glad that we have so many on display. That way folks can try them out and see what size they really need."

"Too bad you don't have one filled and running. Then customers could really try them out. Like driving a demo before you buy a car."

"From time to time we discuss putting in a wet demo model, but the idea always stops with talk. You see Ma'am, we'd have to have a changing room, showers, make reservations and so on and so forth. We just don't have room in the store for the infrastructure. And that's not even mentioning the people we'd have to hire to run the whole demo service."

I looked at his name tag again to be sure I'd gotten his name right. "So Eddie, your customers just have to imagine how good it is."

"Yes Ma'am, I am afraid so. But you know most folks have been in a spa at one time or another. Would you and your husband be in the market for a home spa or bathroom JACUZZI?"

"Actually, we just moved here from Wisconsin and we're still getting our house organized. Oh by the way, I'm Sara."

We shook hands. "Real nice to meet you Sara."

Flashing a polite smile, I replied, "My pleasure Eddie."

I thought he'd walk away looking to serve more promising customers. Instead he leaned in a little closer and continued in a lower voice and a conspiratorial tone. "You know Sara, the fact that you got in that tub to check the size tells me that you're a person who might become interested in getting one. I'd bet that if you had a chance to experience the pleasure one of these JACUZZI tubs can give you, you'd start trying to convince your husband."

"Well Eddie, like I said before, it's too bad you don't have one here up and running."

He leaned in closer and in an even lower voice and in the same conspiratorial tone, went on. "Actually Sara, I'm not supposed to do this but you do look like someone trustworthy. If you really wanted to try out one of these in-bathroom JACUZZI's, I could arrange it."

"No kidding? But Eddie, like I said, we're just getting our house organized. I really wouldn't want to put you to a bunch of trouble for something so indefinite and then end up months and months from now maybe still not making a sale."

"Sara, your average sales associate just looks at what they can sell today or tomorrow. That's not me. For me a sale that happens a year from now is just as good as one that happens tomorrow. So waddaya think? Wanna try out the real thing -- with real water?"

At that point, the best thing for me to do would have been to refuse as politely as I could. Trouble was that my judgment was clouded by boredom and being ticked off. "So where would I have to go to make this wet trial?"

"I got a 60 x 36 - not so big as what you're sitting in, but it's hooked up. I live just over in Yorkshire Villages -- in Lawrenceville. Five minutes from here, 24 Sparrow Road. If you're interested, meet me there or you can just tail me over."

"You "You mean like now?"

"I'm off at four. Ah, let's see, that's in 40 minutes. You got any shopping to do till then? If you don't have time today, just come back another day."

I should have told him I needed to get home and get supper ready for my husband. Thing was, Bert was away at a conference and I'm not that fast at thinking up a lie. And I was curious about the JACUZZI tub and I rationalized that I could always chicken out and stand him up. So I gave him an answer that sounded committed but from which I could always back away from. "There's a furniture store over in Mercer Mall that I wanna have a look into. What say I meet you at your place? Say around ten after four?"

Eddie agreed readily and gave me his business card after writing the address on the back. I could still back out. But I didn't.

24 Sparrow Place turned out to be in a condo complex and looked pretty upscale for a $15 per hour Home Depot employee. I got a little edgy, but you never know. Maybe he was living off a big insurance settlement. Or was he retired military? His age would fit that scenario. Just then an older blue Nissan sedan pulled into a parking space in front of number 24 and from across the street where I was parked, I could see it was Eddie who got out.

Inside his condo looked pretty nice, in fact there was almost irrefutable evidence of a woman's touch. Then it occurred to me that maybe I should ask. "Eddie, you live here alone?"

"Naw. I'm married. Lucille, my wife, she'll be home from work around five thirty."

"So do I need to be out of here by five? Let's see, that's hardly an hour from now. Or maybe I should just go now?"

"Don't matter if you're here or not. She's used to company."

That got me even more concerned than if he'd lived alone. "Eddie, I'm just not into that sort of thing. Maybe I should go."

"No need to. You see, Lucille and I trust one another 100%. I've used my own tub for demo's before. If you're in the tub when she gets home, won't be the first time."

Somehow I trusted him, maybe because of his non-macho appearance and high voice. I decided to pursue another question. "Surely this apartment didn't come with the JACUZZI tub?"

"Naw, I put it in myself. Come on, I'll show you. It's in the bath off the master bedroom."

And so it was. Through a doorway off the living room, we went into a nicely furnished master bedroom and then into a largish bathroom. Eddie didn't waste any time starting the water. "Okay, it'll take 10 minutes or so to fill. Meantime, care for a drink? Gin and tonic is my specialty."

He was pretty fussy making the gin & tonics so we barely got a few sips before Eddie looked at his watch and announced that 10 minutes had gone by and the tub should have filled. "I'll show you how the jets get turned on. Take your drink along. No rules against glasses in the tub like at a those hotel spas."

We went back into the bath and he showed me how to regulate the jets. Then very proper-like, he left and I stripped and got in the water, which by then had gotten really foamy from bath crystals and the air being shot in. It was indeed very nice. I laid back relaxing and reminiscing over bathtub sex I'd had with my husband. Before long, my glass was empty and about then Eddie called from the bedroom. "Sara, can I bring you another drink? Gin & tonic okay second time around?"

A few minutes later, I heard his knock on the bathroom door. "Got your drink ready." Then in very properly polite tone, continued, "Okay if I come in now?"

"Sure, I'm submerged."

He came in with two drinks and handed one to me. We clinked glasses and said 'cheers.' For some reason, I felt totally at ease with Eddie. Perhaps because of his rather plain appearance and high voice, I couldn't imagine him trying to seduce me. When he turned as if to leave, I stopped him. "Eddie, if it's all the same to you, I'd rather not drink alone."

"Yeah, they say people drinking alone get to be alcoholics." There was a cushioned Ottoman that from the looks of the removable top must have served as a laundry basket. That's what he sat down on.

I looked at his face a little closer. No puffy red nose with veins showing. Clearly Eddie wasn't an alcoholic. "I'm not worried about becoming an alcoholic. It just nicer having somebody to talk to while I enjoy trying out this JACUZZI."

He'd mentioned my Midwestern accent and asked how long I'd been living in the East so I told him the whole story of Bert getting the professorship at Princeton and our move that I was only slowly coming to grips with. Then, curious about him, I asked. "So Eddie, you been at Home Depot a long time?"

"Little over 4 years. Since I retired from the Army. Thirty-year man I was. Retired a master sergeant. Retirement pay's okay. Tried staying home and doing nothing, but it got too boring. Pay at Home Depot is crap but it keeps me busy. See, Lucille and I never had kids."

We chatted awhile longer. He went on some about his Army experiences and travels. Then we heard the front door open and close and a cheerful female voice called, "You here Eddie?"

"Back here in the bath, Honey. Got a lady customer in here trying out the JACUZZI."

Shortly, a 50-some lady dressed in a service uniform came into the bathroom grinning and came right up to the tub and put out her hand. "Hi, I'm Lucille. Eddie trying to sell you a tub?"

She asked him to get her a drink and when he left, she sat down on the Ottoman. Lucille looked to be a few inches taller than Eddie, stocky figure with slightly noticeable breasts, auburn hair in tight curls and a husky female voice.

I told her I was glad she was okay with Eddie having me come in and try out the tub without her being home. Her answer was longer than I'd expected and a big surprise to boot.

"For Eddie and I, trust is everything. Not trust like you might think about it, or actually I don't know about you, let's say our trust isn't like what most people think of as trust. You see our marriage kinda goes in the direction of what some people call an open marriage. Not that we're out picking up partners all the time. Actually we don't really go out picking up partners at all. The thing is, you see, I had abdominal surgery that didn't go as planned and as a result, I can't have penetrative sex. This was back when Eddie was still in the Army. Both of us still had a strong sex drive and we compensated with oral, breast and hand. My god, we even got books, watched videos on fellatio, cunnilingus and hand jobs. I don't wanna brag or anything, but I got to where I dish out a pretty mean blow job and my hand jobs are even better. So we got along okay and Eddie was fine without having a pussy to put his magnificent tool into.

"A big change in our lives came around the time Eddie retired out of the Army. Shortly before, my sister Maryanne lost her husband to cancer and I went to stay with her at her house in Edison. Once Eddie was out of the Army, he moved in too and we stayed with her for a while until we settled here in Princeton.

"Maryanne and I, we always been close. Talk about anything, we could. Of course she knew I couldn't have intercourse and the same time, having lost her husband, was beginning to really miss getting laid. Even talked about going to pick-up bars. One day we're moping about how neither one of us was getting laid -- like really laid, I mean. Then she says we shouldn't be moping so much because poor Eddie, he wasn't getting really laid either. That not only got us away from feeling sorry for ourselves, it also got us looking for a better way to deal with the situation. Maryanne was the one who came up with the solution. At first I just said 'no,' but she persisted and eventually I saw the light."

I thought I knew what the light was but I could see she wanted me to ask. "And the light you saw was ......?"

"Well think about it. Maryanne, she had a perfectly good pussy and my husband, he had a very perfectly good penis."

"So then the two of you decided to share?"

"Share? Yes, but not like in porn videos and erotic literature where a couple decides to do it for a thrill. Sharing Eddie with Maryanne, it's more like doing something so both their lives would be better."

I was curious as hell. How much should I ask? I decided to go slow. "Was it hard, I mean difficult to go through with it?"

"Difficult to actually do it? Sort of. Well, first off, Maryanne and I decided on our own. It took a while to decide how to bring it up with Eddie - we were scared of how he'd react. How do you tell your husband that you want him to fuck your sister?"

She paused to take a sip of her drink, almost as if to give me a chance to get out of hearing more. I could have stopped her then by craftily changing the subject but I was really interested. And the story was giving me some tingles in my nether regions. "So how did you break it to him?"

"In the end, it just sort of happened. One evening the three of us were sitting in her living room. Had a few drinks, some soft jazz was playing on her stereo, I just up and reiterated the situation of neither Maryanne nor Eddie having anyone to have penetrative sex with. Eddie pretended to be surprised, even offended, but he never could put much over on me and I saw through it. Maryanne and I teamed up and pretty quick, he was on board."