Renaissance Faire Ch. 03

She gave him a big smile. "That's good news, Honey. I'm glad you've decided to pursue it."

"Thanks."

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That weekend, while Debbie went to the library, Rob met Kate for their first tutoring lesson. She gave him a set of DVDs. He asked, "What's this?"

"It is a calculus course that uses real world examples to explain different ideas in calculus. They really helped me when I was studying it. I think between this and your work, you'll be fine once you see how some of this applies. The professor that put together these DVDs designed them with the idea that mathematical concepts need to be explained using intuitive ideas and examples before the formulas are created.

"The early concepts of calculus started with the Greeks, then the Arabs and then Newton and Leibniz. They started with those intuitive ideas and tried to find mathematical expressions to analyze them. We have the math, so what you need are the examples to help explain the math. Most teachers don't teach it that way anymore.

She continued, "Let's work on your homework today, but you should watch these DVDs as soon as possible."

When Rob returned home, Debbie was already there.

He said, "Hey, you're back early."

She replied, "As long as you are less distracting than the noise at the library, then I'll try to work here. I'd rather be near you." They were both aware that if she was home, then there was less chance she would bump into Richard. She said, "There are some materials that I cannot remove from the library, so there will be times that I have to work there, but I'll try to keep those to a minimum."

Rob thought this was a good start.

She asked, "How was your tutoring and what's in the bag?"

Rob told her about the discs and Kate's help. Debbie wasn't thrilled about that and said, "You know that she is just as interested in you, or more so, as Richard is in me? I can see it when she looks at you."

That was news to Rob, and he replied, "I'm not sure I agree with you, but the difference between her and Richard is that she would never do anything to break us apart. I'm quite certain that Richard doesn't give a fuck about our marriage."

"That isn't a very nice thing to say about him."

Rob said, "Debbie, remember our conversation about the corner of his desk?"

She did. She sighed, hating to admit that he might be correct about this. While smiling, she said, "Well, don't let me catch her sitting on any desk corners and giggling in front of you."

Rob stood and kissed his wife and said, "Deal."

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Rob struggled with his calculus 2 course, but with the help of his professor, Kate and the DVDs. He ground his way through it. He didn't realize it at the time, but the DVDs were really helping him to better understand what he had learned in his Calc 1 class. He wished he'd had those discs sooner.

Kate was a great tutor, and from time to time he would see the old confident, take-no-prisoners Kate come through. Their comfort level with each other was a lot like ten years earlier when they were younger. It was just so easy for them.

It took Rob a while to get Debbie to really warm up to him when they first started dating. With Kate, they were almost like bosom buddies, yet they never allowed their relationship to be anything other than proper. Rob loved Debbie, and Kate knew that. She had no intention of causing any trouble. She enjoyed how Rob treated her, though. After her sessions with him, she always felt more confident, which usually translated into a better date on those Saturday nights that she had a date. She did her best not to imagine Rob on those ultra-rare nights when she was trying to screw some guy's brains out.

As for Rob, he made a point each week to stop by Debbie's office and bring her a small bouquet of flowers. She appreciated the gesture and told him so.

Richard's name wasn't mentioned in their house, and as the semester progressed their marriage seemed to gain back some of the trust and intimacy they had temporarily lost; until Halloween.

The university Halloween festival was quite small compared to the spring Renaissance Faire, but Debbie's department was involved in the on-campus event. A couple of weeks before the event, Debbie said she was expected to work at the event, which didn't really please Rob, but given her increasing seniority and desire to land a position on staff, he couldn't really argue it.

He said, "I understand. I'll probably skip it this year and get a few things done in the office, or maybe study for my classes."

She said, "I'll make sure you get to undress me later."

He did like the sound of that.

The night of the festival she wore her usual witch's costume, which on her looked rather sexy. It was a long witches dress that was tight from her breasts to her knees. While it showed a lot of cleavage, her décolletage was covered in mesh, which didn't really cover much, but was sexy as hell. Her midsection was covered by a corset, and the whole outfit made her appear very sultry.

Rob wished her luck working, and she kissed him on the way out.

When she returned, she was all smiles as she came through the door. When she kissed him, he could taste the alcohol on her. "Damn, Babe. Have you been drinking?"

"Only a little." Then she giggled. He knew it was more than a little.

"Next time call me. I'll pick you up instead of your driving."

She said, "shhhh." She giggled again, "I do want you to pick me up, but only to carry me to the bedroom. No more complaining. I need some serious screwing right now."

He was happy to oblige. As soon as they entered the bedroom, she began stripping. Rob was right behind her. He was worried about the alcohol and who had given it to her. One name came to mind right away, which quickly spoiled his mood. Now he was looking and observing to see if anything looked unusual or out of place. It didn't.

He was chastising himself. Would he always question what was going on with Debbie as long as Richard was around? He hoped not. His wife wasn't acting unusual. She was just tipsy, like she gets when she's had a couple of drinks. He's just usually with her when she has them.

He enjoyed having sex with his wife, and she seemed to enjoy being with him.

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The next weekend, Debbie was late from the library and the following weekend Rob repeated his August surveillance of the library. After his lesson with Kate, he drove by the library and parked so he could see the exit Debbie would use to walk to her office. Once again, he saw her and Richard exiting the library together, arm-in-arm, like he saw them in August. He guessed the attraction was just too much for her to resist, whether it was Richard the person or his experiences and knowledge.

That ended his lunch visits and flowers, which didn't seem to be doing any good. His visit to her office last week wasn't as welcoming as previous weeks. By the time he had his tutoring session the following weekend, Kate noticed.

Kate asked, "Rob, are you okay? You've seemed distracted."

"I'm sorry, Kate. It's Debbie and that dickhead, Richard. I think she's falling for him. I've told her over and over how concerned I am about him, and she keeps telling me not to worry and that there is no relationship with him except a professional one. I'm just not buying that anymore."

Kate was nervous before she actually said, "Rob, I didn't want to say anything, because I don't want you to think that I'm trying to hurt your marriage. I saw the two of them kissing towards the end of the Halloween festival. I wasn't the only one that saw them. A lot of people did. It was twice. The first time was just a peck on the lips, but several minutes later it lasted for several seconds, with tongue."

Rob shook his head. "Damn. Now what the hell do I do?"

Kate said, "I don't know. The festival was winding down and my date and I were walking back to our cars when we saw them amongst all their colleagues. He asked me if that was your wife, and I said yes. We could see several of them drinking something, so alcohol may have been involved. I know you don't have any right to believe me, but I was going to mention it today, even if you hadn't said anything, because of the way you've been acting."

"I guess I should confront her. I'll be honest with you. It almost doesn't seem worth the effort at this point."

"Of course, it's worth the effort, Rob. Do you know why?"

"No. Actually, I really don't. Not anymore."

Kate said, "You want to be able to say that you did everything you could to save your marriage. If she turns her back on you, then that will be on her, not you. If you end up divorced, you'll have a clear conscience going into your next one. That will be important to you one day."

"Thanks, Kate."

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Rob drove over to the library but didn't wait in his car this time. He trudged inside fearing what was about to happen. So many directions this could go, and none of them would be good.

He took the elevator up to the floor which contained the history section, where Debbie would likely be. He checked the log of doctorate study rooms and saw she had reserved one exactly as he had expected, and her reservation would end in thirty minutes. As he approached the room, he could see through the partially opaque windows that the light was on.

Nothing too terrible could happen in those rooms as long as the lights were on, because while the windows were not completely transparent, they were transparent enough so that you could see inside a little. The school wanted to offer some level of privacy while preventing students from locking the doors and having sex inside.

The hall was not as bright as the room, so unless he pressed his nose to the glass, he couldn't be clearly seen either. It was bad form to be hanging around spying on people in those rooms, so he couldn't stay long. He certainly didn't want anyone from her department seeing him looking in.

When he reached the room, it was what he expected to see. Debbie and Richard sitting next to each other, talking, occasionally laughing. Her laptop was closed, which meant that any serious work was finished, and she still had half an hour left on her reservation to spend chatting with dickhead. Damn.

What to do? What to do? Confront her or catch her in a lie? Damn. He decided he would wait a bit. He couldn't stand and peer into the room, but he could walk fifteen feet down the hall, watch and wait, as if he were waiting for the room to come open.

Five minutes before her reservation was to end, Rob approached the door. He could hear the laughter inside, took a deep breath and knocked.

"Just a minute." He heard Debbie reply.

Rob put on his pretend happy face for when Debbie opened the door. As soon as she opened it, and he saw Richard, his pissed-off face reappeared.

Debbie looked like a deer caught in the headlights.

Without saying a word, Rob turned and left.

"Rob! Wait!"

But he wasn't waiting. Rob got in his car and drove to his favorite bar just off campus. It was where the less-artsy crowd liked to hang out, called The Slide Rule. It featured a variety of music, but there was often someone there in the evening playing a slide guitar and the owner was a former engineering professor; hence, slide rule.

Saturday night was usually blues night and it brought in a mixed crowd from the university and much further afield. He didn't plan to stay long enough for the band to start playing, which was usually at 9pm, but he had no intentions of going home early either. His phone started ringing and he turned it off. He saw a few people he knew and chatted with them a few minutes.

There wasn't anyone his age he was really close with, so he texted the only other person to whom he could talk, Kate.

He texted, "Hot date, tonight?"

She replied, "That depends. Are you asking?"

"I am. I could use a friend."

"Tell me where you are, and I'm on my way."

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Twenty minutes later, Kate walked through the door wearing a long, patterned skirt and tighter than normal black sweater. Her hair was down and looked really nice. It was the prettiest Rob could ever remember seeing her.

"I hope I didn't pull you out of your plans for the evening."

"No. You are my 'date' for tonight." She used air quotes around 'date'.

"Well you look gorgeous, so I'm sure somewhere out there someone is disappointed they aren't getting to spend time with you."

"As long as you aren't disappointed, that is all that matters."

It was a very somber night. Rob truly felt like his marriage was over. Kate kept telling him that it wasn't until he had done all he could to save it. She told him he had to go home and talk to Debbie.

"What would be the point?"

She replied, "We already talked about this. This is not for her but for you. No regrets. Remember?"

"I know. I just don't see how she can talk her way out of this."

When he stood up to leave, Kate walked him out. Before he got in his truck, Kate pulled him in for a big hug. She said, "If you ever need a friend, Rob, I'm only a phone call or text away."

Her embrace felt so good. He wouldn't mind holding her for a long time. He told her, "I appreciate you more than you know."

When he got home, Debbie was there; laptop open on the kitchen table, working. He looked at her and she at him. She said, "Rob, we need to talk."

Oh, shit. Nothing good ever came after those four words.

"Yeah. We do." He sat down at the table across from her.

She started, "It really hurts me that after our last talk you would have so little faith and trust in me. I know Kate is your tutor and that she would love to get her paws on you, but you don't see me freaking out about it, because I trust you. I don't need to trust her, nor do I care about her intentions because I know your intentions.

"When you pointed out to me just over a month ago that I was behaving foolishly, I agreed. I thought we fixed all that, but I can see that there still seems to be a problem. Richard can help me with my schoolwork the same way that Kate has helped you with yours. Is he after me? I don't know; maybe. I'm sure there is no shortage of young ladies that he can spend the night with, so he doesn't need me. I've tried to make it very clear to him that I'm off the market. Is he interesting and entertaining? Yes. Is he a bit of a chick magnet? At times. But I'm telling you, my husband, that I have no interest in him.

"I need you to believe me, Rob. Please tell me if you don't, because if you don't, then I don't really hold much hope for us, and I would really like for there to be an us." She motioned her hand between the two of them.

Rob sat back and thought for a moment, "Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?"

"Go ahead."

"Did he just pop into your study room today, or was that prearranged?"

"It was prearranged. I know you don't approve of him, but it was only professional. I'm not leading him on."

"When I had arrived, how long had he been there?"

She said, "about an hour and a half."

Rob asked, "Before I knocked on the door, I heard a lot of laughing. How long had the two of you been finished?"

"Thirty or forty minutes. He was telling me about some of his research trips. I hope I get to take a few of those at some point in time."

Rob paused a second and then said, "Tell me about Halloween."

She said, "What do you want me to tell you?"

"Everything that I need to know."

"Like what?"

He shook his head, "Are we really going to play this game? Do you know how many people I know that either work on campus, are engineering students or work with you. I suspect you know damn well what I'm asking about."

Now she looked a little uncomfortable, and said, "It was a mistake, and I told him so. I also told him that I'm happily married and want to stay that way, so he's not to try that again."

"And what exactly is he to not try again? You, or dickhead, keep making me ask questions that I shouldn't have to ask."

She almost shouted, "It was a stupid kiss. The first one was no big deal, but I shouldn't have let him have the second one."

"I've been told that you didn't look to be resisting any."

"I had a few drinks. We were just playing around. I didn't grope him, nor did he grope me. If I saw you kiss Kate with a kiss like the first one, I wouldn't think much about it. If you kissed Kate back the way I kissed him back, I wouldn't be happy, either."

He asked, "When we had sex that night, were you thinking of him or me."

This stunned her, and she exploded. "God damn you! I've only ever thought of one man since we've been exclusive, and that's you. It pisses me off that you could even ask that question."

Rob replied angrily, "Well, it pisses me off that Richard keeps putting you in a position that I need to ask. This keeps coming back to him, and his not leaving you alone. Though based on your earlier comments, it seems that you don't want him to leave you alone, at least not professionally. You need to impress upon him how HE is hurting US. Debbie, if I had seen him kiss you that way, I would have beaten the shit out of him. I would be in jail right now, because he's hurting our marriage."

Debbie's eyes widened at the thought of her husband going to jail because of Richard.

"Supposedly my wife has told him the she is happily married, but he just won't stop. So either you are going to get him to stop, or I will, whatever the cost. If you don't want to see me in jail, then he needs to back off. I'm deadly serious about this. I have a couple of nice furnaces in the materials science lab where there wouldn't even be any dust of him left. Think about that while you are going to sleep tonight. This entire conversation is being caused by him. While you and I are arguing, he's probably off screwing some coed, or some other married wife not caring about the carnage he's causing in your life. That's the type of professional you are hanging around.

"So, I do trust you. I'm pissed off about Halloween and your not telling me about it before tonight, but I can get over that, eventually. What I'm having a harder time getting over is that you keep telling him 'no', and he keeps trying. If he keeps it up, someone is going to get hurt, badly." He stared at her, and he could see that his words had hit home. He told her, "I'm going to bed."

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During the night, Debbie spooned behind her husband. She needed him to know that she wanted him, and only him, in her life.

The real question was how she was going to handle Richard, who she needed and wanted the help professionally, but had to get him to stop coming after her. She mused that nothing short of a sexual harassment suit was going to stop that, but if she stiff-armed him that harshly, would he still help her professionally and let her have one of the assistant professorships that was expected to open? Probably not. Richard had also suggested the possibility of an overseas research opportunity next year. She definitely was interested in that.

Now, how could she achieve both of those objectives without losing Rob?

Even though she professed no feelings for Richard, truthfully, she was very interested in him. Had she met him before Rob, she would have met someone whose interests aligned very well with hers. However, she was married to Rob and loved him very much, because while not her intellectual equal, she thought, he was a good husband and would be a good father. She wondered what the minimum would be that she could get away with which would placate Richard and she could keep hidden from Rob. She was willingly playing with fire and knew it, but she thought she could manage it.

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Thanksgiving came and went at her parents' house. Carl and Rob went out again just for fun, and they did have a good time together. On the Friday evening after Thanksgiving, they grilled some steaks, and Carl let Rob man the grill while he pulled Debbie inside.