Promotion Question

This story is inspired by the Troubador's excellent "How High a Price." He invited others to finish the story and many have, with excellent results. However, one of the follow-on stories had one sentence in it which got my goat. So, using the Troubador's theme I have generated my own story.

I walked into the pub and saw my wife Fiona standing in the corner with her boss Ralph, they were heads in and Ralph's arm was resting on Fiona's, probably talking about Fiona's new project. Both saw me, smiled and waved.

It was her company's project management team's bi-monthly get together. Fiona worked as an assistant project manager for a construction company in our town. This get together was a special for Fiona, she had just been promoted to full project manager, something she had been aiming at for quite a while.

It was not unusual to have other halves invited to these doo's, even if only to drive them home afterwards. As I walked towards them I came across Ralph's wife, Carol, she smiled, and as I got to her I said, "Taxi driver?"

She replied "Yup, You?" I nodded back. By then Fiona and Ralph were walking towards us. I noticed that they were now about two feet apart when before they had been standing very close together.

I notice these things, I currently work as a maintenance engineer in a food factory, but in a previous employment I had a secondary job as a maintenance accident investigator. Let me explain, people don't go to work to do a bad job, but sometimes mistakes and accidents happen. It was my job to find out why it happened. Did somebody not follow the correct procedure, or have the right tools, were they distracted, were they cold, wet, tired or all three. It wasn't to find a scapegoat; it was to genuinely find out what went wrong so we could put things in place to stop it from happening again.

My company liked what I'd done and I was off to Derby next week for a few days to teach the techniques to some of the chaps up there. When I was being taught how to investigate these accidents, I was shown how to read body language and facial expressions, they can give so much away. The change from the intimacy of when they were in the corner to walking across the pub struck me as odd. Their faces gave nothing away, in fact, I was pretty sure they didn't know what they'd done.

When they got to us Carol gave Fiona a kiss on the cheek and congratulated her on her promotion, they'd become quite friendly recently.

Ralph held his hand out and I shook it. "D'you want a beer?" He asked.

"I'll have a tonic water if you don't mind, I'm tonight's taxi driver."

I leaned in and gave Fiona a kiss on the cheek, and she returned it with a hug. She was happy, she had just received the promotion she had been working for and she was probably a little tiddly too. That was good, she deserved it; I was proud of her.

Ralph returned with my tonic water, "I was telling her we have a nice little project lined up just for her. You've got a good one here Bob," he said.

"I know," I slipped my arm around her waist, and she put hers around mine.

"She did a bloody good job with that project, dragged it out of the bin."

Fiona had told me this story before, but I had a feeling I was going to hear it all over again. It wasn't a problem; I was proud of my wife.

The project Fiona was working on as an assistant project manager hit a problem when Bill the project manager had a car accident, and it put him out of action for what was going to be a couple of months. There were already some small problems with the project and Bill had a solution which he hadn't fully explained to Fiona about before his car accident. She was asked if she could step up and save the project.

It wasn't a massive project that would've made the company go broke, but no company likes to see a failure on their records whatever the reason. Fiona came up with a plan which she cleared through Ralph first to tell the customer that it could be on time or on budget and they had to choose. Whilst Ralph agreed in principle, he pointed out an error Fiona had made. He got her to go back and check the contract and the change list. The customer had slid in a few changes in without any increase in cost or time.

Fiona presented the customer with a new budget and a new timeline and explained why the changes were needed, the customer chose to extend the timeline.

What impressed Ralph and the management was the way Fiona did it without ruffling the feathers of the customer.

"She did a good job," said Ralph, "The customer was happy and, hopefully, we'll get some repeat business from them."

Fiona said, "I couldn't have done it without you Ralph, I don't know how they slipped those changes in?" As she said this she reached out and touched Ralph's arm, I noticed, but I don't think anyone else did.

Ralph smiled, "I think it happened in the time between Bill having his accident and you taking over, it's something I always do, go back over the old documents to see if there're any loopholes or somebody's missed something."

Fiona told me, although she'd told me before. "I found it as an attachment to an addendum in the main document, there were so many attachments it could easily have got lost, and I think it was a genuine mistake. But I'll keep an eye on that next time."

We circulated a bit and chatted with a few people, and then we decided to head home. Fiona wasn't drunk, but not sober either. We said our goodbyes to most people including Carol and Ralph, I shook Ralph's hand and gave Carol a small air kiss. Fiona gave Ralph a kiss on each cheek, and a hug, it seemed a bit over the top to me, I glanced at Carol, she didn't seem to mind.

We got home, and I cracked another bottle of wine, not that Fiona needed any more.

"That was a bit of an over the top goodbye for Ralph wasn't it, kiss on both cheeks and a hug?"

"But he's helped me so much, and that help managed to get me the promotion."

Looking at her, I said, "Just make sure a kiss on the cheek and a hug is all he gets."

"Is my hubby poos getting jealous?"

"Let me take you upstairs and show you how to overcome jealousy," I did, the love making sex was fantastic, as it often is when a little wine has released her inhibitions.

I headed to Derby on Tuesday evening ready to start teaching Wednesday morning, and I'd planned to drive home Saturday morning to miss the Friday M1, M25 and M3 massive traffic jams heading south.

I phoned Fiona Tuesday evening, just a quick call to let her know I got there ok. I phoned again Wednesday; we chatted about how well things are going at my end and how her new job was coming on. The company had given her another new small project that she could do from the start.

As it happened the chaps selected by my company for the investigation techniques course picked it up very quickly, all of them had made the odd cock-up in the past and had, at times, done stuff a bit close to the edge. The company had taken my advice and we were going to turn poachers into gamekeepers.

Things were going very well; we were going to be finished early and I'd have everything wrapped up by Thursday evening. So, I changed my plans and decided I'd drive home Friday morning. At about half seven I phoned home on the landline, but I got the answer-phone, I left a message saying I'd be home between two and three on Friday. As I was away she was probably doing some overtime on her new project. I then phoned her mobile, but that went straight to answer-phone as well, I left the same message there. Then I sent her a text with the same message. She'd probably forgotten to charge her phone, she often did.

Just before breakfast in the morning I tried the land line again, but still the answer-phone. Before I left to drive home I tried her mobile, straight to the answer-phone. I left yet another text message saying I would be home today. I then phoned her office, a lady's voice that I'd never heard before answered the phone, she told me she was a temp doing Fiona's old job. I asked for Fiona, and she told me that she was in a meeting with her new customer. I asked the new lady to give her a message, telling her I will be home this afternoon. She told me she was just about to pop out herself but she would leave a post-it on her desk. I thanked her and set off home. I did consider phoning her whilst I was driving, but even though I've got hands free I don't like to be distracted, especially in traffic.

I got home about 3:30 on Friday looking forward to a bit of alone time with the missus and some decent beer. She doesn't normally get in until 4 o'clock so I started some tea, with the idea of a nice bottle of wine, a bit of steak and an evening in front of the fire, watching some rubbish on the telly before an early night.

Then I noticed the answer-phone light was flashing, and I wondered who it could be, because most people call us on our mobiles these days. So, I pressed the play button. It was me, now that was odd, why didn't she pick up my message last night, the second one was also from me this morning, why didn't she get that message? I got my mobile out and tried to phone her, again straight to answer-phone. Surely she must have charged it by now. Even if she forgot her mobile charger, somebody at work would have one for her to borrow.

Why had she missed all these messages, I was worried and a little pissed off.

Just after 4 o'clock, Fiona came bustling through the door; she was carrying her briefcase and a small overnight bag. Now I was really intrigued. She instantly had a shocked look on her face and she stuttered, "Er er I wasn't expecting you till tomorrow." She recovered from the shocked look, but her face went very red.

She dropped her bags and rushed to give me a hug, I gave her a hug back and then held her shoulders and pushed her gently back.

"I left you enough messages, there were two on the landline answer-phone, one I left last night, and again this morning at half seven. You'll find several messages and texts on your mobile. Have you charged it?"

"Oh, sorry I must've forgotten. I'll put it on now." With that she walked across the room and popped her phone on the induction charger.

As she walked away from it, I went over, picked it up and looked at it. I could see that it was charged but switched 'off'. I held it up so she could see the screen showing her it was charged and that it was switched 'off'.

Her body went stiff and she was struggling to look me in the eye. "Okay," I said in a gentle voice. "There were two unanswered messages from me on the answer-phone, the lights were still flashing when I got in. I checked, and they are both from me. You told me your phone wasn't charged but I can see it's got 95% and is actually switched 'off'. You weren't here last night were you? And you weren't here at half past seven this morning.

Three questions for you, where were you last night, why are you lying to me and what's in that small bag? And I will know if you're lying."

She looked at me, tears were pouring down her face, and she collapsed in a huddle on the floor. "Oh fuck, oh fuck," was all I could hear her say.

I left her there, I increased my voice level with a bit of gravel in it this time, I said, "I am waiting."

"I was with Ralph; you weren't supposed to find out. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."

"I have to ask this, what were you doing with him? Or do I have to look through that small bag you've got there? I'm sure that will tell me, but I think I can guess."

"I just wanted to say thank you to him for helping me."

"Am I going to have to drag this out of you? Did you fuck him?"

"Yes, No, not like that. Yes, but it was just sex, it wasn't making love, it was just sex, I just wanted to thank him for helping me, it was because of his help that I got the project done and that got me my promotion."

My life had just fallen apart; did I want to know more? Half of me wanted to ignore it and hope it would go away and the other half of me wanted to know how bad it was. What did I have to do to recover from this mess? I thought for a bit, whilst I was doing that, I went across picked her up sat her in an armchair facing me.

I was too angry to cry, I needed to know how much damage had been done to my marriage.

"I'm going to ask you some questions; one single lie and you're out that door with your small bag and what you stand up in. And I will be seeing a solicitor on Monday morning.

Who approached who, you to him or him to you?"

She looked at me a bit confused through the tears, "I think it was a bit of both really, I said I should thank him if only I knew how. He told me there was a way, and he pointed out you were away, and Carol was down at her mother's. Then kissed me; it was obvious what he meant. But I said I couldn't do it, I couldn't cheat on you and Carol, because I loved you, and she was a friend. He told me that he and Carol had an open marriage. And it will be just one night and you were away and you'd never find out."

She carried on, "I'm sorry sweetheart, it was just the once, it was just sex, you were never going to find out so it wouldn't hurt you. I'm really sorry. I won't do it ever again, please forgive me. I'll do anything I can to make it up to you."

My mind was in a turmoil. "Am I not good enough for you, d'you want more than I can give you, is he bigger than me, is he better than me, does he last longer, what actually happened?" I wasn't sure how much I wanted to know. I was frightened of the answers that I might get. But it was too late, I'd asked the questions. I would have to put up with the answers.

"No, it's not you, you're fine, you are excellent, and you do everything I need. It was just a thank you fuck. He's no bigger than you, and he's certainly no better, you know all the buttons to push, you are really brilliant at fucking me."

"So where'd you'd it?"

"We were Ralph and Carol's."

"So does Carol know about this, did you fuck in their bed?"

"I don't know if Carol knows, but they've got an open marriage, he wouldn't do it in their bed, he said that's against the rules. We did it downstairs. He made some dinner, we had some wine and did it in front of the fire. After we finished, and it was just the once, we cuddled and slept in front of the fire together. I had a change of clothes with me so I didn't go into the office wearing the same clothes as Thursday. I'm sorry sweetheart I didn't mean to hurt you, I was just saying thank you, it was just sex."

I was angry now, very angry. I went and picked up her phone and turned it 'on' then scrolled through her contacts, I knew she had Carol's number in there. I looked at her and asked her, "where is Carol now?"

"Ralph told me she was due back home about midday today."

I selected Carol's number and hit the dial button, I set up the speakerphone, it started to ring. Carol answered. "Hi, Fiona what can I do for you?"

"Hi Carol, it's Bob, I need a spot of advice, can you help me out please?"

"Certainly, if I can, is everything alright?" You could hear the query in her voice.

"We'll have to see about everything being alright. Can you tell me how you manage an open marriage; I didn't think you and Ralph were that sort of people?"

"Sorry Bob, what are you talking about, what open marriage. There's no open marriage?"

"Oh, sorry Carol, the open marriage you have with Ralph. The one he told Fiona about last night as they were having sex in front of your fire," the phone went dead. I looked at Fiona, her mouth was hanging open.

"Oh, for fucks sake Fiona shut your mouth, you look like a goldfish."

I paused for a while whilst I gathered my thoughts, "You really fucked up, and I mean really fucked up.

So, I believe Harry the other assistant project manager in your office went for the job?"

She nodded.

"So, how's it going to look to him and the rest of the office, when they find out you've been fucking Ralph, they will think you fucked yourself into the job."

"But I didn't!"

"They don't know that, that's the way it looks. How much respect and help are you going to get now with your next project? And I wouldn't rely on Ralph anymore, I think he has bigger problems right now, and you've just lost a friend in Carol."

She was crying quite hard now.

"Now it's time to come to me, you've lied to me, you cheated on me. I don't give a flying fuck why. The fact is you did and you thought you could get away with it. Ralph lied to you, so don't you think he will lie to you again about it being only once? Now answer these questions. It was just sex, right?"

She nodded.

"So you had sex with him in front of the fire, like you did with your husband?"

She nodded.

"Did you kiss him in front of the fire like you did with your husband?"

Again, she nodded, I could see she was wondering where this was going.

"When you'd finished, you cuddled in front of the fire like you did with your husband?"

She nodded again, now there was a look of anguish on her face.

"Then you finished the bottle of wine, cuddling in front of the fire, like you did with your husband?"

She looked at me and nodded, I think she now realised where this was going.

"And then you wrapped yourself in a blanket with your lover and you slept in front of the fire. Like you did do with your soon to be ex-husband."

Tears were absolutely pouring down her face. She knew exactly where this was going.

"If you'd come home after the sex I might, just might have almost forgiven you for a one-off mistake of fucking your boss. We'll never know. Because I cannot forgive you for showing him the affection that belongs to me."

I stood up and held my hand out to her; she took it and stood up. I said, "There's a bag by the front door with a change of clothes in it, pick it up on your way out." I walked across the front door and opened it for her.

After note.

I cannot remember which follow on story to 'How high a Price' generated my goat, but it was the one where Early forgave Susan, but she had been cuddling Stickner in front of a fire post sex. I can recommend reading the Troubador's "How High a Price" and the continuations. If I ever finish my long story you may see that theme embedded in there.

I also extend the invitation to continue the story of Bob and Fiona, and maybe Ralph and Carol.

There are a couple of editors out there who have helped me with my punctuation, it's not perfect, but I feel it's much better with their guidance.