Prologue to a Problem - Continued

"What did you tell him?"

"I told him over and over and over again that nothing happened."

Judy frowned recognizing Ann's confession to Phil for what it was -- a lie. "Did he believe you?"

"Short answer, no. He knows I'm hiding something, and I know it eats at him, but I'm not telling him. He clumsily brings it up every now and then. I guess he is hoping to learn more. But I just stick to my original story. I mean what choice do I have? If I tell him the truth now, it will be way worse, having kept it from him all these years.

"Judy, what were we thinking? Why did we let it get so out of hand?"

"Oh stop. It was spring break our senior year for fucks sake! Adult life was waiting when we got back to Norman. So, we cut loose. We lived a little. Who gives a shit?"

"Phil for one if he ever found out."

"You were dating, but you weren't engaged. You had no deep obligation to him; at least not then."

"I know, but I never told him and if I had, I'm certain he would have broken up with me and then who knows where my life would have ended up. He knows pretty much everything about me except that week."

"Damnit Ann. Stop it. Husbands don't need to know everything. I had a past. You had a past. Who I fucked and who you fucked are none of our husband's business. I don't know about you, but I am not going to feel guilty about that spring break. It was the sexual peak of my life. At least for a while," Judy said as her voice trailed off.

Judy's comment lingered in the air for a few awkward moments.

"I'm almost afraid to ask, but what do you mean, 'at least for a while?'" Ann asked.

"Before I answer that question, let me get another bottle of wine. I'll be right back."

With Judy away, Ann reflected on the last time she and Judy had been drunk on this patio. There was one other girl and five beautiful boys she mused. A much smaller group than the rumors would have you believe.

Yes. She knew all about the rumors. There was no way to avoid them as the party was the talk of Norman when she got back to school. But like many tales, some of the facts got twisted and stretched beyond recognition as to be almost farcical. The core of the legend, however, was not one of them. In this regard, the rumors fell short.

Judy eventually returned. Sat back down. Poured more wine into hers and Ann's glass and took a big sip before continuing.

"Ann, I haven't been completely honest with you."

"What do you..." Ann started before Judy cut her off.

"Please just let me finish. What I am about to say is hard enough." She took a deep breath and another drink.

"Like your friend, I'm cheating on Steve."

Ann's face showed shock, but she said nothing.

"And like your friend, it is with a younger man. A much younger man. I'm sleeping with one of my oldest son's best friends."

"What?" Judy managed to stammer.

"He graduated last spring. He played competitive club soccer at Oklahoma. His name is Mark. He came down one weekend with my son and two other friends. Steve stayed in Dallas, so it was just me, my son and three of his friends. We boated, swam, and cooked out. You know the usual things. We also drank a little more than we should have.

"My cancer was in remission. I was feeling as alive as I have felt in over a year. All three of the guys were easy on the eyes and fun. You know how silly college boys can get. They cut up, laughed and just had a good time together. Mark was a big flirt. He complimented me at a point in time in my life when I really needed complimented. Kind of like a really good-looking Eddie Haskell. He also found occasions to get me beer, touch me on the arm, hands or small of my back. I knew what he was doing. Smooth he was not. But it was also flattering and, as I said, not unwelcome.

"At one point I told him I was old enough to be his mother and that he should turn his attention to girls his own age. He said I was way hotter than his mom and at the moment he didn't have a girlfriend. To make a long story short, my son and the others headed back to Norman on Sunday morning. Mark had driven down separately and said he didn't have to be back until later, so he stayed to help me clean up. One thing led to another, and we ended up staying in bed all afternoon."

Ann could think of nothing to say so she blurted out, "When was that?"

"About a year ago. The summer before his senior year."

"Is it still going on?"

"Yes."

Ann paused before speaking.

"So why did you invite me? Why am I here?" Ann asked already guessing at the answer but wanting to hear her friend say it.

"I was running out of excuses with Steve to come up here alone. I'm sorry Ann. I really did want to see you, but I was also using you."

Ann's instinct was to leave immediately. Once again, her time at the lake was getting out of hand. But it was late. She had a lot to drink, and she didn't have a flight home until Sunday.

"When is he coming?" was all Ann could think of asking.

"He'll be here tomorrow, mid-Saturday morning."

"Are you fucking kidding me."

"Please Ann. Don't be like this."

Ann was quiet. "Fine Judy. You can use me as an excuse with Steve. You can fuck your brains out with your son's friend, but I'm going to find a flight back to Omaha tomorrow. Phil would never condone me being here."

"Phil doesn't have to know. You've kept Lake Texoma secrets from him before. What's one more?"

Chapter 3

Coincidently, 590 miles away back in Omaha, Phil was also outside on his back patio.

And drunk.

And trying to process what he had just learned from an old friend.

Phil had been feeling guilty having not called Richard over the last two months after learning of his wife Karen's affair and their separation. It was awkward, and there just hadn't been a good time to reach out, he told himself. So, with Ann gone, and his kids at a church camp, he called and invited Richard over for drinks.

The evening was supposed to be about cheering Richard up, sharing a few drinks and just shooting the shit. But instead, after multiple bourbons, the evening got way off course. Richard's emotional flood gates opened, and he wasn't holding back. He was simultaneously introspective, belligerent and talkative. Once he started, he didn't stop until he had shared the whole fucked-up story with Phil.

What Phil had learned about Karen's affair shocked him. It had been going on for a year and Richard was clueless. He didn't have even a small inkling that she was cheating. He said the whole time the affair was going on, his work and home life had been going great. His boss was acting normally. His wife was the same PTO, community volunteer, team mom, attentive wife and mother that she had always been.

And yet, most every week and sometimes multiple times per week, the two of them were meeting to fuck, and who knows what else. They had even arranged on a couple of occasions for her to accompany him on business trips so that they could spend long weekends together. She had told Richard it was to visit her sister and he believed her.

The only reason he caught her was cliche, but he came home unexpectedly from work, heard something upstairs, and as he peered into the guest room, he saw his wife on all fours on the bed facing the door. She was collapsed on her forearms with her face buried in a pillow with her ass pushed high up in the air. His boss was behind her, kneeling upright between her legs, hands clamped tightly on her hips, eyes closed and pounding away for all he was worth. Richard took a moment to take it all in, turned and walked out. He quietly sat at the kitchen table and waited for his cum-filled wife and boss to come down the stairs.

"How many fucking times, did I come home and kiss that bitch's fucking mouth after my boss' dick had just been there?" Richard raged to Phil. "Or fucked her with some of his goddamned cum still in her fucking cunt?" he angrily spat.

Phil said nothing. A moment or two passed. Phil studied Richard as he took some deep breaths and regained some semblance of control.

"You should have seen it Phil," he said in a cracked voice, bordering on tears. "You know Karen. She always wants to look good. This past year she spent so many hours shopping for new clothes, fussing over her hair and makeup, exercising all the time. And none of it was for me. None of it was for my eyes or my touch." Richard's anguished voice returned and began to rise. "No. All of it was for that bastard she barely knew!" he said as he got a little louder. "Her obsession with clothes. Her drawers full of sexy as shit and expensive lingerie. Things bought and worn to arouse his cock, not mine! His cock in her hands! His cock in her mouth. His cock in her cunt! His goddamn fingers shoved inside her! His fucking wet spot, dripping from my goddamn wife's cunt, in my fucking house on my fucking sheets! I swear to God I could bash his smarmy brains in with a baseball bat!"

"Whoa. Hold on Richard," Phil cautioned. "You need to calm down. We're friends and I understand, but if you say things like that around the wrong people and something happens to that asshole, you're going to be in a shit load of trouble."

Richard's uncontrolled tirade was way more information than Phil wanted, but he sensed his friend's rant was needed so he let it run its course. Eventually Richard ran out of steam and just slumped in his chair. Phil called an Uber and packed his friend into the backseat with a promise to drop his car off in the morning.

Now alone, he began to process Richard's story. Unlike Karen, Phil didn't think Ann was cheating, but he sure as hell was convinced, she had. He once again allowed himself to revisit that spring break, and started to spiral into a black place by reminding himself that she was at this very moment, with the very same friend, and at the very same place that Phil was sure she had fucked some guy.

And like Richard just one hour ago, Phil's alcohol-soaked mind was in overdrive. The thought of Ann cheating burned in his brain with a hard to describe intensity. He pictured Ann, positioned as Karen had been, with some entitled swimmer balls-deep in her pussy, banging her from behind for all he was worth, while she moaned uncontrollably into a tightly clutched pillow. He imagined Ann on her knees stroking and coaxing some dude's cock until it ejaculated straight into her hungry mouth. He envisioned Ann on her back pulling on her legs from behind the knees to spread herself as wide and wantonly as she could for the faceless dickhead that was feasting on her pussy.

And worst of all, he remembered the actual, not imagined, countless times she had denied everything.

I know I'm right; I know I'm right he thought with drunken conviction. "But what if you're not?" A quiet voice whispered. "Are you willing to confront her and throw everything away on your hunch?"

Phil continued to agonize long into the night over the certainty that he knew, even though he didn't, and his helplessness to do anything about it.

Chapter 4

The next morning Ann was up early and back on the patio with a cup of coffee. Judy was still in her bedroom. Ann had had trouble falling asleep as she worried about today. Being Judy's wingman in college was one thing. Doing it now at her age and as a married mother of two teenage boys was another.

Unfortunately, she didn't have a lot of options. She had checked, and the change fee on her flight would be exorbitant, and what would she tell Phil? Hi honey, I came home early because Judy was having an affair and needed me to cover for her.

That, she was sure, would not go well. In the end she decided it was best to just keep her existing flight and go home tomorrow on Sunday as planned, and not unnecessarily add to Phil's concerns about this place.

"This place," she muttered out loud. Last night she and Judy danced around what had happened at 'this place.' Neither quite willing to go there. Truth was she never let herself go there. Once she got back to Norman that spring, she pushed it out of her mind and put all her energies into Phil.

"Why?" she silently and unexpectedly asked herself. "Why was I 100% team-Phil after spring break?"

"Because I love him," she answered having a weird, but somewhat serious, conversation in her mind as if she was two people.

"Wrong answer to the wrong question," her second-self reminded her. "The question was not whether you love Phil, but rather, why did you pursue him so relentlessly after spring break?"

Ann knew the answer, she just didn't want to answer it, at least not honestly.

Finally, she confronted the truth.

"I got serious with Phil after spring break to put Lake Texoma behind me. I did it because I had veered off my planned path and I needed to go back to my predictable life. I did it because I had crossed a line that I worried I might not come back from. Ultimately, I did it because I needed absolution and Phil was the closest thing to a priest I had."

"All of that may be true," her second voice allowed, "but at what price?"

Ann froze for several seconds staring out into the lake and the early morning sun.

"My loss of self. My zest for life," she finally squeaked out.

Ann had dug deep and had finally arrived at the bottom where she found a sad, unvarnished truth.

"I hope you're thirsty!" Judy squealed as she came bounding onto the patio, barefoot, showered, hair up, all put together in a super cute sleeveless, lace romper. She was balancing a big bowl of fruit and pitcher of Bloody Mary's.

"Why not." Ann answered wondering if the Bloody Mary's were somehow an omen for her just completed thought about losing her 'zest for life.'

"You have always been a bad influence on me," Ann teased knowing the irony would not be lost on Judy.

Halfway through the second Bloody Mary, a tipsy Ann took a selfie with Judy and texted it to Phil.

"Hey honey. Miss you." [Heart emoji, Heart emoji]

"Miss you too," Phil evenly replied. "Please tell Judy I said hi."

Chapter 5

Seeing Ann with Judy on his iPhone, reminded Phil just how beautiful both women were. Ann the epitome of the brunette girl next door and Judy the striking hot blonde, both with killer, melt your heart smiles.

His head hurt a little from the night before. Coffee helped with the headache, but not his unshakeable unease.

His goal for the day was just to work around the house and catch up on a few things. But before he did, he convinced himself that he needed to get some advice from his Dallas colleague about a project that he was struggling with, the same Dallas colleague that just so happened to tell Phil that he was at the Lake Texoma party all those years ago.

"Hey John. Phil Jones here from the Omaha office. We met a few years back at the Dallas annual meeting."

"Of course. Phil, how are you?" John replied.

"Doing fine. Do you have a minute? I have a question about the Cessna project in Wichita," Phil asked.

The two men talked, but before hanging up, Phil asked, "Hey John before you go, do you mind if I ask you another question?"

"Of course not. What's on your mind?"

"The last time we met in Dallas, you mentioned a party with OU folks at Lake Texoma."

"Oh yeah. I remember that party. Why?"

"Nothing really. It's just that it came up recently in a separate conversation. It seems to have a life of its own."

"Well, that doesn't surprise me. It was over the top. I mean shit. I've been to a lot of parties, and I've never been to anything like it. Is that how all OU parties are?" he said half-jokingly.

"I can assure you no," answered Phil with a smile. "Do you remember who threw it?"

"No. Not really. It was a long time ago. It was some chick's parent's place. I don't remember her name but trust me when I tell you she was smoking hot. A beautiful blonde."

"Did you sleep with her?" Phil asked, trying to sound casual, not creepy.

"No. I wish. She didn't have a boyfriend there that I could tell, but she also didn't seem interested in me. I fucked this one girl. Tall. Blonde. Great body. I don't think she was a swimmer, but I do think she was some scholarship athlete. Maybe volleyball," John offered.

"Damn that's crazy. Anyone else?" Phil asked relieved that there was no way Ann could be confused with a tall, blonde collegiate volleyball player.

"Nah. She was it."

"When we met you said that you also made out with another girl."

"Damn, you've got a good memory. Yeah, that's right, there was another girl."

"Do you remember anything about her?"

"Not really. I couldn't sleep and was sitting in the dark at the kitchen table when she came out of one of the bedrooms disheveled and a little flushed. Dude, the walls were thin in this place, so there was no mystery as to what she had been doing. She walked in looking for a glass of water. I was still a little drunk, so I slid my hand up the back of her leg, under her tee shirt and grabbed her bare ass. It scared the hell out of her. She hadn't seen me sitting there. I laughed and she slapped the shit out of me, but I didn't move my hand. We fooled around a bit and then she left and went back to whatever dude was in that bedroom. That's the last I saw her as I was out of there later that morning."

The two hung up. Phil was even more beside himself. He now had, for the first time, a firsthand account of the party, and yet it didn't make him feel any better. He had no idea how many girls were at the party, but just the fact that there was at least one girl there in a tee shirt, naked underneath, walking around the kitchen, and letting total strangers feel her up just a few minutes after being fucked was so unsettling.

John, on the other hand, was reflective. He wasn't sure why Phil had brought up the party, but it did bring back some fun memories.

John thought back to that kitchen encounter long ago. He hadn't thought about her in years, but the memory was still vivid and made him smile as his mind drifted back to that night when he was sitting in the kitchen in Lake Texoma.

"You scared the hell out of me," the girl had said after slapping John's cheek.

"Sorry," John had replied, but his hand had not moved.

"So do you always take liberties like this?" the girl said clearly not mad as she moved closer to him all the while glancing down at the place his arm disappeared under the hem of her tee-shirt.

"No. It's just that I always thought OU girls were prudes and not very good looking."

"Is that so?" she teased. "What do you think now?" she said as she stood between his legs while he sat in the chair.

"Nothing could be farther from the truth," he said as he brought his hand around from her ass and slipped a finger inside her.

She cooed and was a little unsteady on her feet. After grinding against his finger for a few seconds, she pushed his hand away and said, "Be careful, we just met and I'm not that kind of girl."

"Oh really?" he said as he brought up his glistening finger covered in another man's semen to her nose to inhale.

He then pulled her to his chair and kissed her deeply.

She offered no resistance and in fact climbed onto his lap and straddled him rubbing her bare vagina against his gym-short, covered penis.

He pulled the tee shirt up, but not off, and started sucking on each breast. Her moans encouraged him on. With his hands he reached around and inserted a finger into her ass and she squealed and collapsed on his shoulder giving into a sensation that she had never experienced before. Having now forgotten why she came into the kitchen in the first place, she began to grind along the entire length of his shaft, encouraged by its size.

Just then a bedroom door down the hall opened and she jumped up leaving him hard and straining against his briefs.

"Gotta go naughty boy," she said and hurried back to the room that she came from.

And that was it. Not for the first time, John wondered what had ever happened to her and what in the world was so important back in Dallas that he had to leave that morning. "Damn I should have stayed," he said out loud with a tinge of regret and a big smile on his face.