That Phrase... Sylvia Ch. 02

"Don, I made a mistake Friday night and I'm sorry. Can we please sit down and talk? I love you and don't want to lose what we had together before over one mistake." She pleaded with me.

"You love me, do you? Well, you didn't prove it to me Friday night the way you ignored my pleas for you not to do what you were planning on doing. I'm sorry too, Sylvia, but it's too late because we've already lost what we had before. You wanted this and went through with it even after I warned you there would be consequences so here it is: I told you so.

"There's nothing more to talk about and Duke/Wake Forest are about to start on the ACC on ESPN so good night." I told her before closing the door in her face and hearing the first sob of a new bout of crying when she evidently heard the snap of the lock when I locked the door. I heard her pounding up the stairs and the slam of her bedroom door as I returned to my recliner.

I called a divorce lawyer on Monday that Jake Mathers had used to keep his wife from getting all he had worked for in his twenty five years of working at Fox Manufacturing, our employer. I got an appointment to see him later that week.

The lawyer had not hesitated in using the threat of the incriminating video of Jake's now ex-wife and her supervisor having sex on company property, during business hours, and against company policy finding its way to the company president to get her to sign the divorce papers giving Jake soul custody of his two boys, sixty percent of the other assets, and the postponement of the sale of their house until their thirteen year old had graduated from college or was on his own, whichever came first.

When the woman judge who presided over their divorce ask her if she was sure that was what she wanted, she said yes and asked the judge to grant the divorce. The judge had no other choice but to grant the divorce after that. I had no problem with hiring that kind of lawyer to handle my divorce.

The next bit of drama came on Wednesday morning when I finally answered my office phone after the tenth call from Sylvia.

"Don, what the hell have you done? Both my credit cards were rejected at Starbucks this morning and I barely had enough cash to pay for my latte." She yelled at me over the phone.

"I had our credit cards cancelled when I was at the bank Saturday morning. Now is probably a good time to tell you that I used half of the money in both the savings and checking accounts to open my own account and only thirty percent of my weekly checks will be deposited into your checking account after this week. That amount will cover my half of the household expenses."

"What? Why did you do that? My pay won't cover half of our monthly expenses." She yelled even louder at me.

"Yes, it will if you'll go by the budget I put together for you. You'll find it on the kitchen counter under the Mr. Coffee machine I found in the attic and cleaned up. The clock is fixed and you can program it again so your coffee will be ready and waiting for you when you get up in the morning. I even got a new pot at the department store to replace the cracked one."

"But...but...but you can't do this to me. I can't go back to drinking plain coffee again. Don, I demand that you stop this nonsense and start acting like the loving, caring husband you used to be."

"Well, you got one thing right, Sylvia."

"What was that, Don?"

"I'd be acting if I started doing those two things again, but the truth is, I'm not going to and you can demand all you want, but that doesn't mean I have to give in to your demands. Be thankful that I included the monthly payment on the Lexus sport coupe you just had to have in the household expenses.

"I've got work to do, Sylvia, so goodbye." I said to her before hanging up the phone and immediately reaching over and un-plugging it from the wall. My company cell phone was on vibration mode so I ignored the calls I saw were from Sylvia the rest of the day. I thought about stopping at the neighborhood bar for a couple of hours after work to delay the shouting that I was sure Sylvia had waiting on me when I did get home. In the end I decided to go straight home from work like I'd done every day until recently since I'd begun working. I was surprised by Sylvia not yelling at me as soon as I walked in the door.

"Don, baby, I'm sorry. I made a big mistake Friday night, but I promise I won't do it again. Can we please talk about what I need to do so you can forgive me and we can be together like we were before?" Sylvia greeted me in the entryway dressed in her sexiest red see through teddy and the matching bra and panties set.

The hickies on her neck were now black or blue instead of red like they had been on Saturday morning when she'd returned from her date and the same went for the love bites on her breasts and the finger marks on her thighs. My guess was that the sight of those kept me from instantly getting hard like I had in the past when she had worn that particular set of lingerie.

"I'm sorry you feel that you've made a mistake, but offers of sex and false affections aren't going to work." I saw her flinch when I turned her words around on her and knew the tears would start flowing as soon as I finished saying the rest of what I had to say.

"Honestly Sylvia, did you think I'd be able to have sex with you while the evidence of your cheating was still clearly visible? Go change into something that hides the bruises your lover left last Friday."

My prediction of the waterworks starting proved to be spot on as Sylvia began sobbing in front of me before bolting up the stairs and slamming her bedroom door. I walked into the kitchen and grabbed a beer before checking on the food Sylvia had started on the stove. I turned the heat back up and finished cooking it before grabbing myself a plate and a fresh beer and retiring to my den.

When I checked the recordings from my equipment, I found out that Sylvia had gotten the idea to try and seduce me back into our marriage from Ronnie. I wondered why they didn't talk about that sort of thing at work, but could not ask because then the fact of my bugging our home would be discovered. With my new habit of sleeping with my headphones and mini-stereo on in effect, I went to sleep fairly easily. Tomorrow would be my first visit with my lawyer.

After the introductions and discussion of cost were concluded by me and my lawyer, Charles Wellington, I gave him a check from my new account for his retainer. I knew something was not right when he immediately turned red in the face and the muscles in his neck bulged out.

"Please tell me you didn't close out your old accounts and open new ones." Charles, never call me Charlie, yelled at me.

"No, I only took out half from each of the savings and checking accounts and used that amount to open a new checking account in my name only."

"Okay then, that's not too bad. Now tell me why you want to divorce your wife."

"Because last Friday night she cheated on me after springing on me that she was bored with our sex life and wanted to spice it up with us having an open marriage last Wednesday. I tried to talk some sense into her from Wednesday until Friday and even begged her not to go out and specifically not to give herself to another man, but she went ahead and did it anyway. I'm not a wimp nor am I going to become her cuckold so we're done. I don't want her sexually anymore and that's why I want the divorce."

"What proof do you have that she cheated?"

I threw pictures I had made from the memory card in the digital camera onto Charles' desk showing the marks on Sylvia's body. He seemed to spend a good amount of time looking at the ones of her breasts before lying them face down in front of me.

"I'm afraid those won't be good enough. You'll have to either get some of her out in public doing romantic things with another man or some of her actually engaged in a sexual act with another man."

"I don't know if that will happen. She's already come crying to me that she made a mistake and won't do it again and begging me to forgive her, but it's too late for that. She wouldn't listen to me when I told her not to do it, didn't talk to me about being bored, and keeps talking to the girlfriend of hers that gave her the idea to demand an open marriage in the first place."

"Well this is a no fault state so I can get you your divorce, but it will be fifty-fifty unless there are children involved."

"No, there aren't any children, but I don't want fifty-fifty. I want to come out ahead. I didn't do anything to cause this so I don't feel that I should be penalized by giving her half of everything when she's the one that cheated."

"Well unless you can get me something to use as leverage, fifty-fifty is the best you're going to get."

"Can we at least put together a set of terms for the divorce that favors me? There's no hurry to file now so maybe something will happen in the near future that we can use as "leverage" as you called it."

"Yes, we can do that." Charles answered me and so that's what we did.

For the next two weeks when I wasn't with Mindy at her apartment, every time I was at home, Sylvia would try and get me to talk to her or at least listen to her apologies and assurances that she had messed up, still loved me, and needed me to tell her what she could do to make it right between us again. I ignored her whenever possible, hid out in the den or my bedroom when I could get by her before she started, or fled the house for the local bar until I could get past her and into my room.

She had not gone out since that first Friday night even though Ronnie kept encouraging her to. She would not let go of the hope that my anger and pain from what she had done would fade away given enough time and I would forgive her. I did learn that she had gotten a new vibrator to use for her sexual needs.

I smiled at that because most of the divorced guys I knew whose wives had cheated had complained at how unfair it was that they had to use masturbation to relief themselves during their divorces while their ex-wives had continued in their relationship with the person they had been involved with that led to the divorce. I was very careful not to be seen going to or from Mindy's apartment and although Sylvia had suspicions that I was involved with another woman, she did not have any proof.

It was the Monday after Thanksgiving that my patience seemed to pay off. My boss and the company's owner called me into his office and changed my life completely, but that will have to wait until I write again.