Seduction Ch. 05: Nemesis

That night I got a call from Lori. I smiled, but answered in a cold voice, "Yes?"

"How are you, honey?" she said timidly.

"About as well as can be expected. What do you want?"

"I think I made a very big mistake. Can we get together and talk?"

"I think it's too soon for that. I'm still very raw here. Give me some time."

"All right, honey. I'm sorry."

We hung up, and I shook my head. She's sorry? She's about to get a lot sorrier.

I met with Mr. Richards and told him what I knew. He was appalled, of course, but a bit unsure about what to do. Clearly, he had grounds to fire Bill Johnston. The man had been spending sixteen hours a week literally screwing around on company time. His four mistresses had acted immorally, but never harmed the company (although he said he was going to investigate that) and were themselves victims of a skilled seducer who was employed by his company. He believed in the sanctity of marriage, but also in forgiveness. We came up with a plan where the bad conduct would be exposed, but the company could help in reconciliation, where it was possible, and in healing where it wasn't. He would take care of the logistics.

That night I got another phone call from Lori. Again, she seemed nervous.

"Carl, I know I don't have any right, but can I ask you for a favor?"

"You can always ask."

"I was just called by HR. There's a meeting at our headquarters Saturday morning at ten. I know that several employees were asked to attend. It may be some sort of promotion."

"Congratulations."

"Well, we were asked to bring our spouses. Could you please come?"

"I suppose I have nothing better to do. And I need to give you your house key and the garage door opener. Alright."

"Do you want to come by and we can go together?"

"Don't push it. I'll meet you there."

"Okay, honey. I'll see you then."

I smiled as we disconnected. She didn't realize that I wouldn't miss this meeting for the world.

I got there a few minutes before ten and found Lori waiting nervously outside the door. I nodded and opened the door for her. She led me to the conference room. Mr. Richards was at the head of a long table. Cards showed us where to sit, and I noticed that the husbands were seated across from their wives. Asshole was at the other end of the table, but his wife was not present. Several men in uniform stood by the door. Security, I guess, there to keep the peace.

Once we were all seated, Mr. Richards opened the meeting. "Good morning. I am John Richards, the president of PRX Industries. The ladies to my right are all employees of the company, and their husbands are seated across from them. I won't introduce them by name, as you can see their place cards. At the end of the table is William Johnston, our internal auditor and my son-in-law."

I flinched at that. I hadn't known that little detail.

"Before I continue, there is a housekeeping item that needs to be dealt with. Mr. Johnston, you are hereby terminated for cause. It had come to my attention that you have been spending sixteen hours every week engaging in non-business-related activities while on company time. Furthermore, it seems that certain audits that you reported doing were in fact never done. We are investigating to see if any criminal charges are warranted. Bob will escort you to your office so you may remove any personal items, and then escort you out of the building. My wife is at your home now, consoling our daughter. I imagine that they and your children will be gone by the time you get home. You may appeal this to the board, but I'm sure you are aware why this would be a waste of time. Bob?"

One of the guards walked up to him and said, "Please come with me, sir."

Asshole looked pale as he was led from the room. As the door closed behind them, Richards continued, "I'm sure you are wondering why you were brought here to witness this little drama. Before I get into that, let me say that I believe that the only way to get past a wrong is to bring it out into the light. Emotions may run high, but I have enough security here to ensure that there will be no violence. Understood?"

The men looked at each other in total confusion. The wives had already figured out what was going to happen and they looked scared. A couple of them started to cry. Lori was white as a ghost.

"Ladies, I have representatives from our human resources and legal departments here to interview you. We are interested in any criminal malfeasance by Mr. Johnston. You will be given immunity from criminal prosecution, so please be as forthcoming as you can. As long as you fully cooperate, nothing you say will impact your future with PRX. Remember, I consider you all victims here. Everything you say will be kept strictly confidential." At his signal, one of the security men came and escorted them out of the room.

Richards then turned to the husbands. "I want to emphasize that everyone here is a victim of the man you just saw me fire. Apparently, he is a world-class con man. He managed to seduce each of those fine women. They have been entertaining him once a week. The longest affair has been going on for ten months; the shortest for three. I suspect that he had others before, and some of his current affairs were replacements for ones that ended."

The men were all in various states of shock, anger and disbelief. Richards went on, "Gentlemen, I know you feel that you are the victims of your wives' betrayal, and, of course, you are. Now, I don't know you or your marital situations, but I want to help all of you get through this with the least damage. I will be offering you six weeks of counseling. I hope you will start with marriage counseling to try to save your marriages. Some of you have children to consider, and you have to wonder whether your wives would ever have strayed if they had not fallen into the clutches of a master manipulator. I hope you can find it in your hearts to forgive them, but if you determine that the marriage cannot be saved, then you can both have psychological counseling to help you move forward. Any questions?"

"Yeah," snarled Ms. Monday's husband. "Could you tell me where I could find that asshole?"

There was a chorus of angry assents. Mr. Richards laughed and said, "No, although I imagine you could find his address without much trouble. But, while I'm sure it would give all of you great satisfaction to personally express your displeasure, it's probably not the wisest thing you could do. Don't worry, he'll be punished enough. Anyway, I'm sure he's smart enough to be long gone."

Sam Wilson (Ms. Thursday's husband) said, "I can't believe my wife would cheat on me. Do you have hard evidence?"

"I don't have pictures of any of your wives having sex with him, if that's what you mean. That would be an illegal invasion of her privacy. All I have is pictures of Mr. Johnston's car parked next to your wives' cars in your driveways, with a time stamp showing that they were taken in the middle of the afternoon and, in some cases, a picture of him driving away. I have packages prepared for each of you, showing all the photographic evidence I have. I think you may wish to show your wives how she was just one of several of his dalliances.

"I also have records from HR that show that each of them arranged to change their work schedules so they would work an extra hour a day for four days and then take an afternoon off each week. That afternoon coincided with the day that Mr. Johnston was scheduled to work in the facility where your wife works. That way they could have spent as much as four hours with him, one afternoon a week, although I can't say for sure how much time they actually spent together or what they did. That's how I know how long these affairs lasted. Those records I will not be sharing."

Mr. Monday seemed the angriest of us all. "How did you let that bastard work in your company?"

Richards sighed. "I never liked him. He always seemed too good looking and arrogant. And a little smarmy. When you have a daughter of marriageable age, you will find how hard it is to convince her that the love of her life is an asshole. I gave him a job so he could support my daughter, and he did seem to be a diligent worker, and was eventually promoted to internal auditor. He was careful to keep all his extra-curricular activities away from this building, where I might have gotten wind of it."

Things went on like this for another hour, and Richards gave us cards with an appointment to a counselor. Then Ms. Monday came back. She went to her husband and shyly said, "Can we go home?"

"Yeah," he snarled. "We need to talk."

"Yes, dear," she cringed, and they walked out.

Lori came in next, and I walked over to her without saying a word and we went out together. As we got to our cars, she asked, "Can we talk?"

I shook my head and handed her two envelopes. "Inside this you have evidence of what your soulmate had been up to. I think you'll find it very enlightening. This envelope contains the divorce petition you requested, my wedding ring and my keys to your house and car. I know you would be embarrassed if you were served at work, although I imagine most of your coworkers know about your affair already. We have an appointment with a couple's counselor Monday evening. The details are inside the first envelope. I think it's better if we do our talking there."

"Thank you, honey, that's a good idea. I'll see you then. I'm sorry."

Mrs. Schmidt was a grey-haired woman who looked to be in her fifties. After we introduced ourselves, she began. "I see that you have been married for over three years, but recently Lori had an affair that lasted for months. Is that right, Lori?"

Loti was looking at the floor as she murmured, "Yes."

"How did it start?"

"Bill would come by every Wednesday to check on the paperwork of various people. One day, he found a small error in a manifest. He showed it to me and we just corrected it. He told me not to worry about it."

"Did he threaten you?"

"No, nothing like that. It was a small error anyway. He just made me feel that he was being a friend. After that he would chat with me whenever he came by. He was very handsome and charming. I knew a lot of the girls in the office were attracted to him, and it made me feel good that he was spending time with me. He made me feel attractive. I may have encouraged him a little, I guess. He intrigued me. It made me wonder what he would be like. In bed, I mean."

"That's not unusual."

"I swear, I never intended to cheat. Every week we would chat for a few minutes. Just a little harmless flirting. Playful, you know? He was very easy to talk to, and I found myself opening up to him. He learned a lot about me and what I liked, and it always seemed that he liked the same things I did. I mentioned that I loved Italian food, and he said that he knew the best place for it. The next week, he invited me to lunch there. The restaurant was on the top floor of the Ritz-Carlton, and had a lovely view of the city. We had a wonderful meal and shared a bottle of wine. By the end I was feeling really good.

"He held my hand as we walked to the elevator to go back. As soon as we got in, he kissed me, and I didn't even notice that he had pushed the button for the tenth floor instead of the lobby. He led me to a room right across from the elevator. He was so confident, so much in charge of himself, that I just let him lead me in. It made me hot that he had already rented a room. When he kissed me, I realized that I had already crossed the line: I was in a hotel room kissing another man! As the kiss grew hotter, I just surrendered.

"The sex was exciting, different. We spent the whole afternoon having sex, cuddling, talking and just being intimate. It made me feel so close to him. Then he suggested that I take Wednesday afternoons off, and we could do this more often. He arranged it with a friend that worked in HR."

Mrs. Schmidt looked at me, and asked, "Carl, how do you feel about that?"

"Before I answer that, I just want to ask Lori a question. Do you remember last New Year's Day, we got up late after partying, and I suggested that we stay in bed all day? We could make love, watch the Rose Parade, make love again, and start the year just being with each other. You laughed, said the TV in the living room was nicer, and afterwards you wanted to go shopping at the mall. Believe me, I understand how spending hours of intimate time together could bond you to him. I tried, Lori, I tried."

She hung her head. "I remember, honey. I know I could have done the same thing with you. I'm so sorry I didn't. Maybe if I had, I wouldn't have fallen for his line."

"I don't know, Lori. You were already acting a bit cool. That's why I suggested it. I guess that by then, you must have been flirting pretty heavily for weeks, and must have felt pretty close to him already. Would you have refused his invitation to go to a nice restaurant? Would you have been any less likely to go into that room? The only thing that might have been different that day is that you would have realized that you weren't doing anything different from what you had done with me just a few weeks earlier. Maybe, just maybe, you wouldn't have agreed to spend every Wednesday with him. Maybe you would have come to your senses, but I suspect you might still be taking an occasional long lunch."

I turned to the therapist. "To answer your question, I can understand how he got her into his arms the first time. That man was obviously a real smooth operator, and I guess that anybody can be swept away under the right circumstances. But she shouldn't have put herself in that situation! A married woman should not be going out on a date with another man, drinking wine, holding hands and having intimate conversations. I would have had a hard time forgiving her for that alone. Then she had sex with him, and kept going back for more! Honestly, I don't see how I could have gotten over a six-month affair, but it's really much worse than that.

"For the last few months, I felt something was off in our marriage. Lori had seemed cold and distant, like she could barely tolerate my presence. Our sex life became mechanical and finally non-existent. Still, I kept trying. A few weeks ago, I called her office to invite her to a romantic dinner. I had even made a reservation at the same restaurant that Asshole took her to. I found out she wasn't in; in fact, she had been taking Wednesday afternoons off!

"I went home and found a strange car in my space, and noises coming from our bedroom. I restrained myself from rushing up - if I had, we might be holding these sessions in my jail cell! I waited until he left an hour later, and I went up. Lori was taking a shower, so I waited for her, and set my phone to record our conversation. Let me play it for you, so you can see how I must have felt."

I stared at Lori as the recording played. She went white, and a few tears started to drift down her cheeks. When it was over, I said, "So you see, it wasn't a momentary indiscretion fueled by wine and a silver tongue, or some innocent flirting that went a bit too far. It wasn't just a little fling because she was bored, or curious. No, she fell in love with the bastard, a love so intense that she realized that she had never loved me at all. Three years of loving her didn't even matter! I don't think she even gave me a second thought! Just, 'So long, Carl. I found somebody better. You can go now.' How can anyone recover from that?"

The therapist shook her head. "Then why are you here?"

"When I showed Mr. Richards what was going on, he promised to take action, but made me promise to attend counseling for six weeks, or until you let me go. Also, I was curious about how it started, and what I could have done differently."

Lori jumped on that. "Honey, nobody's perfect, but you never really did anything wrong. I took you for granted and stopped working on our marriage. Well, maybe on New Year's you could have slapped me a couple of times and said, 'Pay attention, you silly bitch! I'm trying to romance you!'" I had to chuckle at that. "But that's not something you would ever have done, and it probably wouldn't have worked anyway."

I spoke to the counselor. "A man has to feel he is number one in his wife's heart. I hadn't been for months. I'm sure she did things with him that she wouldn't do with me. Even in the bedroom, there were many things I wanted to do to try to spice up our love life, but she always refused! I'll bet she did them with HIM!"

Lori blushed crimson. "I'm sorry, honey. But I swear that if you take me back, you'll be my number one, my number two, my everything. And I'll be yours. I'll never deny you anything ever again."

"Yeah, thanks," I said sarcastically. "But I'll always know that you gave him eagerly what you would be giving me begrudgingly. That he turned you on so much that you surrendered yourself to him emotionally in ways you never will to me. I'll know that you'll always be dreaming of him, and remembering the heights you reached, so great that they made you forget your worthless husband.

"By the way, what happened during his last visit? He stayed for only a few minutes."

"I was so excited waiting for him, imagining how wonderful it was going to be. I put on my sexiest lingerie and ran down to meet him at the door. When he came in, I gave him a big kiss and told him that I was getting divorced, that you had left and now we could be together as often as we wanted. I thought he would be happy, but he wasn't. Instead, he told me that we would have to stop seeing each other. He only had affairs with married women, because he didn't want any emotional attachments. He was afraid that any drama would get back to his wife. But since he was already there, we may as well have one last fuck. He said it so casually! I realized what a fool I had been. I wasn't his soulmate; I was his mistress! I yelled at him to get out, and collapsed on the floor, crying. He didn't even try to help me up - he just left. I lay there for a long time, just thinking about how much I had hurt you, and how I had destroyed my life.

"I finally went upstairs. I had put flowers on the dresser, a bottle of champagne in an ice bucket and candles on the nightstands. I had gone all out to celebrate our new lives together. I suddenly saw what a god damned slut I had been. I thought of all the things I had done for a man that just wanted to fuck me; things that I had never done for the man who really loved me. I just wanted to die."

Lori sobbed for a few minutes, then said, "Honey, I was a real bitch to you. I never treated you like you deserved, even before my affair. Our lovemaking was wonderful. I was very comfortable in your arms, and never needed or wanted anything more. With Bill, everything was new, so when he initiated something new, I just let him. Somehow, it made me feel that he was better than you, but it was just because I let him do what I had denied to you! I know I said that I loved him and never loved you, but I was wrong. I had fallen into some sort of stupid obsession. I've woken up from that nightmare. I know that the depth and breadth of our love was so much better than the wild peaks I had with him; peaks I could have had with you if I hadn't been such an idiot."

She looked at the counselor and said, "Life's a bitch, isn't it? A few days ago, it took me just a few words to convince him that I didn't love him, but now there aren't enough words in all the dictionaries in the world to convince him that I do.

"Honey, I fell in love with you after our third date, and I will always love you. I hope that someday you will find it in your heart to forgive me. If you ever let me back in your life, I will do everything I can to make you the happiest man in the world, and to make sure you never regret it. I swear I will never deny you anything in bed, or anywhere else. It wouldn't be from feelings of guilt or obligation, but rather, from knowing that anything that makes you happy will make me happy too. But I can see in your eyes that you don't believe me. Hell, I wouldn't believe me! I know that you will never trust me again. I also see how much it's hurting you to see me and relive what I did to you over and over again."