Seeing the Signs

I'm surprised when Janet leaves her office door open and raises the blinds, giving us a good view of the two of them. Is she sending me a message? Is she rubbing sand in my wound? I'm determined to be vigilant. When I see them in an animated conversation, I pretend that I'm looking for something that I dropped near her office door. I stand by her office door where I can hear what's being said. I get an earful!

"Janet, do you think we should be doing this? Do you appreciate the risks we are taking? If we don't get this right, we will cause problems for everyone."

"Steve, the risk is mostly mine. I'm the one that has the most to lose. I'm confident we can pull this off. Don't be a worrywart. I will be especially careful. If I'm careful enough, you can't possibly get into trouble."

"OK, Janet. If anything does go bad, you know that I've got your back."

"Nothing will go bad, Steve. This isn't my first rodeo. I've been through this kind of thing before. I know how to handle it."

"Wow, Janet. I assumed this was probably a first for both of us. I feel better knowing that you have experience handling this kind of thing. Hopefully, I can learn from you.

"Wow, what a beauty!"

"Thank you, Sir."

I've heard enough. I walk back to clean the grill. When I've finished cleaning and picking up debris, I run out on the lawn to throw the ball around with Randy and Mandy. I have to stop playing when my phone rings. It's Ray calling. He says that he has some new, relevant information for me.

I tell him I will contact him tomorrow. He informs me that he'll be out of the office tomorrow. He says that he has uncovered some very incriminating evidence. "Doesn't that upset you enough that you want to know what it is right now?' he asks. "Can't you break away for 20 minutes?" I agree to come and see him.

I tell the kids that I have to take care of a problem. They assume that it's a problem at work and I don't make any effort to correct their assumption.

When I get to Ray's office, he has three videos of Janet and Steve which were taken on Friday. The first one shows her having lunch with him again at the Hilton. It's very similar to the other "lunch dates" and doesn't reveal anything new. It does, however, make it plain that she's continuing with her affair, even after I asked her to stop seeing him outside of the office.

The next video shows Janet walking into the Hilton at 3 pm. It also shows her walking down the hallway in the Hilton. It's the hallway that leads to Steve's room.

The last video is of her walking out of the Hilton. The time-stamp is 5:30 pm. I remember that she'd arrived at home just before the kids arrived, at about 6 pm.

It's not very hard to surmise what's happened during those two-and-a-half hours. Now I know why she couldn't go a weekend without seeing him. I know why she said those incriminating words to him in her office, not knowing that I was listening. I know that my marriage is in serious trouble.

Ray tells me to be cool. I shouldn't reveal that I suspect anything. He needs more evidence. He would like to catch them in the actual act. He also advises me again to get tested for an STD and to avoid unprotected sex with her. I'm not about to use a condom. My solution to that problem is no more sex with her at all.

I feel like I'm in the midst of a terrible nightmare. As I'm driving home, Janet calls to tell me that the kids are leaving. She asks if I can break away long enough to see them off.

I tell her that I've done all I can do tonight and that I'm on the way home. When I get there, I learn that Steve has already left. Who knows what the two of them did after I drove away? I guess that her "Steve-fix" has been satisfied, at least until tomorrow.

The kids are worried about me and they ask me if I have a health problem. I assure them that I don't. I guess they still believe my problem is work-related.

I notice Janet and Mandy are having a serious conversation. They both look at me. Do you suppose that Mandy knows what Janet is doing? Is it possible that she approves? I'm beginning to believe that I don't know very much about the women in my life.

Randy seems to be concerned about me. He gives me a hug. Maybe he knows too. Maybe it's a sympathy hug. Does everyone, except me, know?

After we see the kids off, I avoid Janet as much as possible. I'm not sure that I can hide my feelings from her. It's "date night", but I go to bed early and face away from Janet. She spoons me when she gets into bed. She presses her firm breasts against my back. I ignore her. She finally moves away from me and turns over. There will be no sympathy-sex for me tonight. I won't allow her to assuage her guilt. I will not let her give me an STD. Not now. Not ever.

Monday 12

JANET:

I'm awakened before the alarm goes off by the sound of the garage door opening. I hear Brad's car pulling out of our driveway. What's going on? Brad never mentioned needing to go in early today.

I dress in my new slacks and blouse. Now I wish that I hadn't allowed Mandy to pick such a daring blouse! When I get to the kitchen, coffee is made. There's an empty bowl in the sink. It's obvious that Brad has had cold cereal for breakfast.

I grab a bowl and settle for cold cereal too. I expect to find a note from Brad wishing me luck at the conference, but there's no note. That's out of character for Brad. He's always so supportive of me when I have a big assignment like this. It makes me even more determined to find out what's troubling him.

When I arrive at my office, I notice that Steve is hard at work in his cubicle. I stop by and ask him how he's doing with his G11 preparation. He tells me that it's going well. He hopes to have it finished soon.

"Did you bring the Karmann Ghia pictures?" he asks."

"Oh, Damn. I forgot to look them up last night. I'll do it tonight and have them tomorrow for sure. Sorry about that, Steve."

"No problem. I know things are hectic for you this week. There's no hurry. Whenever you have time will be fine.

"By the way, I'm in the last group to take your factory tour. If you see me there, then you'll know I've completed my G11 script. If you don't see me, I may be struggling to meet the deadline."

"Good luck to you, Steve. Let me know if I can help."

"Thanks, Janet."

I spend the first part of the morning practicing for tomorrow's presentation. I time myself to make sure that I'll be able to meet the schedule's time requirements. I finish a few minutes short, but that gives me more time for Q&A, which I might need. All in all, I'm satisfied.

I spend the time before lunch looking over my factory tour script. I guess I'm as ready as I'm going to be.

I'm not very hungry, but I show up at the factory to have lunch with Mike and his managers before the tour. Steve is there too and I end up sitting between him and a foreman named Bruce. I ask Steve if he's completed his presentation script. He says he's getting close, but no cigar as of now.

It's a lunch buffet. I restrain myself to just a salad and a cup of orange sherbet. Bruce has a tray heaped with a little bit of everything, including a big bowl of tapioca pudding. Just as I start to sit down, Bruce accidentally hits his bowl of tapioca with his elbow. The bowl flies off of his tray, bounces on the table, and deposits its contents in my chair before finally hitting the floor.

It happens so fast that I can't react quickly enough to keep from sitting down in that gooey mess. Oh, boy. Am I off to a great start, or what? I try to clean myself up with my napkin. Steve and Bruce want to help, but there's no way I'm going to let them help me wipe that gooey pudding off of my rear end and other taboo places!

Bruce is blushing with embarrassment. He keeps apologizing. He's red as a beet. What a revolting development! Everyone is holding their breath. I just sit there feeling awful. Finally, I begin to laugh. Before long, all of us are laughing hysterically. It's very uncomfortable, but I'll admit, it's funny too. Our little accident has attracted the attention of everyone, including Sue, at the next table.

Sue's a good friend of mine. She works on the factory assembly line. She grabs a bundle of napkins and helps me clean up enough to be able to make it to the restroom. When we get there, she helps me clean up better, but my slacks are still a gooey mess. She tells me that she has a skirt in her locker that I'm welcome to borrow. She wears a uniform on the assembly line, but she keeps a skirt and blouse in her locker to use for meetings and such. We're about the same size, so I take her up on her offer.

I clean my underwear as much as possible and then slip into the skirt. It's a little tight on me, but it's an acceptable fit. It's way shorter than I would choose, but as they say: "Beggars can't be choosers."

So, here I am with no lunch, in a borrowed short skirt, walking onto the makeshift stage to welcome my first group of the day to the factory tour. I'm more than a little nervous. Five minutes into the tour, my nerves have settled and I'm enjoying myself. I've completely forgotten my disastrous lunch experience.

I've always liked conducting factory tours. We have state-of-the-art equipment and good people. I always feel a sense of pride when I talk about our factory.

Steve shows up in the last group, so I know that he's through and everything is coming together nicely for tomorrow.

After I finish with the last group, Steve gives me a little hug and tells me what a great job I've done. Then comes a surprise: "Janet, how about coming to my room for a celebration. I have some Fireball in my mini-fridge. It will help you unwind."

So, this is the second time that I've been invited to walk into unknown territory with Steve. I've finished just a little late. I have less than an hour before I need to be home. Do I have enough time to have some Fireball with him in his room? It's just some potent alcohol on an empty stomach with a super-hot man. What could possibly go wrong, right?

"Oh, thanks, Steve; but I need to get home. Whatever went on at work Sunday is still bothering Brad way too much. I need to find out what's going on and I intend to do that tonight."

"I hear that, Jan. I hope whatever it is will not disturb your sleep tonight. We both need to be bright-eyed and bushy-tailed tomorrow." That's the first time that Steve has called me Jan.

"Not to worry, Steve. I think I'll sleep much better once I can help Brad with whatever happened." Another bullet dodged, right?

It's my night to provide dinner, so I decide to stop for Chinese take-out. Brad is already home when I get there.

"Hi, honey. Sorry, I'm running a little late. What a day! I conducted four factory tours and did battle with a bowl of Tapioca."

I hurry to the kitchen and put the food sacks on the table. "Honey, can you put this out on plates? I need to get out of these clothes."

I run up the stairs to our bathroom. I undress for a quick cleanup. I'll wash the slacks and skirt later. I toss my gooey panties into the wastebasket. I put on a t-shirt and a pair of jeans. In a few minutes, I'm back in the kitchen. Brad has made tea, set the table, and filled our plates.

"Oh, Jan. I forgot that today was the start of Autumn Leaves. I'm so sorry. I should've made you a special breakfast. I should've handled dinner too."

"That's OK, honey. I know that you've been preoccupied with that problem at work. Please tell me what happened. I want to help you face whatever it is."

He just shook his head saying, "I don't think we want to get into that now. Let's wait until your conference is over. Then we can both give it the attention it deserves."

"Earth to Brad. This is your wife speaking. We can talk about anything, anytime. Now stop making me worry and tell me what happened."

"Jan, I just need a little more time to get my thoughts settled before I dump on you. When will you be done with the conference?"

"It wraps up on Friday. I'll be done with all my assignments at noon. I plan to come home Friday at noon, have a stiff drink, and relax until the kids arrive."

"OK, how about we have a good talk Friday. I'll take off at noon too. That way, we can have it out of the way before the kids show up."

"Do we have to wait that long? It's bothering you now, and anything that bothers you bothers me."

"I don't have my thoughts together enough to make sense of it yet. Just concentrate on your conference until Friday. We'll figure it all out together then. Is that fair enough?"

"I'd rather do it now, but if you aren't ready to talk about it yet, then I guess Friday will have to do."

"This thing has hurt me deeply, Jan. It's hard for me to understand, let alone analyze. I'll make sure that I'm ready by Friday. I'll have more information by then and that should make it easier for me to decide. So, let's put it on the back burner until Friday."

"OK, Brad. I don't like it, but I bow to your judgment."

I start to tell him about my lunch debacle, but just then his phone barks. He answers it and tells the caller that we have just started dinner. He promises to call them back in a few minutes.

I ask who it was. He says that it's just someone from work. I don't want to bring it up again, but I sure wish he would tell me what's going on. It has to be something serious. He hasn't received an after-hours call from work for months, until recently.

BRAD:

I don't want to face Janet this morning. I sneak out of bed early, have a bowl of cereal, and head to work a full hour early.

I remember that this is the start of Janet's big conference. I would usually leave her a note of encouragement, but not today. I hope that the absence of a note sends a message of its own.

I have an average, uninteresting day at work. I follow Ray's advice and get an STD test.

It gets more interesting when I get home. Janet is running late. I guess that's to be expected on the first day of the conference. When she comes in the door, I notice that she's wearing a short skirt. Didn't she say she'd bought a new pair of slacks to wear for the factory tours? Guess she changed her mind. I'll admit that a short skirt goes better with her daring blouse. Talk about showing some cleavage! She seems to be wearing clothes of a more daring nature to work lately. Is she doing it for Steve?

She's carrying a garment bag, which she hangs on the coat rack by the door. She's also carrying a bag of Chinese take-out, which she puts on the kitchen table.

She asks me to put the food on plates while she cleans up. She mentioned something about pudding. I don't find anything that looks like pudding in the bag, so I guess that I must have misunderstood her. Is there such a thing as Chinese pudding?

While Janet is upstairs, this is my chance to spring into action. First, I look in the garment bag. It contains a pair of slacks! So, she did wear slacks today. She must have changed into that skirt at work! Why would she do that? I don't like the answers that pop into my head. I examine the slacks and find some caked white residue in the crouch area. There's so much that it even covers some of the rearmost area!

I sneak up the stairs. The skirt and blouse that she wore home are on the bed. I examine the skirt and find another small spot of that same caked residue. I have no luck finding her underwear. I sneak back downstairs and have the food all ready to eat when she comes down.

As we eat, she's telling me about the conference. She's excited about the factory tours. She feels good about her performance. She begins to tell me about the buffet lunch that she ate at the factory, but before she gets into the story, my phone rings. It's a recorded message reminding me of tomorrow's appointment with Ray. I fake talking to someone at work so she won't know about the appointment.

That causes Janet to ask when I'm going to talk with her about the problem at work. I tell her that we should wait until her conference is over. She wants to face it sooner. I tell her that I'm not ready yet. I don't have enough information right now. By Friday, I should have all of the information that I need.

We decide that we will attack the problem together Friday at noon. We will both leave work early to get it done before the kids arrive.

After we finish eating and talking; I go up to the bathroom and notice that Janet has thrown her panties away in the trash can. I examine them and find that same caked residue on them. Once again, it goes from the crotch area clear to the rear-end area.

I put them in a zip bag and take them to the garage. They are evidence and I intend to keep them. I hide them in the bottom of a toolbox in my truck.

I'll have quite a bit to tell Ray at my next appointment. I'm not happy about any of it.

Tuesday 13

JANET:

This is a big day for me. I'm confident, but somehow nervous at the same time. I put on my new dress. I wonder again how I let Mandy talk me into buying such daring clothes. This dress is too clinging and way too short. I would call it "borderline slut." Oh well, too late now.

I put Sue's skirt in a garment bag and head to the Hilton. I'll see her there and return the skirt with my thanks and a dinner invitation.

No breakfast at home this morning. I get into my car an hour earlier than normal and drive straight to the hotel. I've agreed to meet Steve in the Hilton Coffee Shack this morning for a last-minute review of our big joint presentation.

Steve is already sitting in a booth with his laptop in front of him. He's in uniform. Wow, my body begins to react to him this morning. It's been a while since he's caused me to feel anything this intense. I thought I had all of that under control.

I order a Cappuccino and a bear claw. I walk over to the table and give Steve a smart salute. "Good morning, sir."

"At ease," he grins. "Have a seat."

"Wow, I've never seen you in uniform before. Look at all of those ribbons. I'm impressed!"

He starts pointing at ribbons: "This one is for winning the 3-legged race, this one is for winning the sack race, this one..."

I think he's mimicking an old movie, but I can't remember which one.

"Stop it," I laugh. "Can't you be serious? I'm truly impressed."

"Don't be. The only things on this uniform that are significant are these two silver bars on my shoulders. They determine how much money I make. I'm hoping for a gold leaf soon."

"So, I guess I'll admit my ignorance here. What would the gold leaf mean?"

"It would mean a promotion for me and, of course, more money."

"So, would you be a general then?"

"I wish! No, I would be a major. Not too many of us ever make it to general. I'd be happy with a bird."

"A bird?"

"Yep. That would be one step below general. It's known as a full-bird-colonel."

"I hope you make it, Steve. I think you deserve it."

"Thanks, Jan. By the way, I don't know if you're aware that in the military, we are expected to furnish handouts for events like our conference presentation. We also need to distribute surveys to allow the attendees to rate our performance."

He handed me several sheets of paper. "These are what I've prepared for our joint presentation. These handouts just hit the major points. They're designed to jar memories sometime in the future.

"I made separate sheets for your part and my part. If you don't like what I came up with for your part, we just won't hand yours out. You're not military, so technically, you don't need to provide handouts.

"As far as the survey goes, I'll give your results to you after the presentation. If you like them and want copies for Harry, I'll make sure he gets them. If you aren't happy with them, I won't pass them on to Harry. Is that fair enough?"

"Sure, that's fine. I would be interested to see what they have to say. Also, I think the handouts are a good idea."