The Love Shack Pt. 02

The line went dead. I didn't listen to any of the rest until much later.

Jen was packed light, and without a word I took her to one of our houses. The power was on for show purposes, and I helped her set up the bed she'd brought. That, a love seat, a television, and some kitchenware were all she needed. She'd followed me in her car. After she was set up, I left. She asked me to stay, but I needed to be alone. I promised I would check in on her soon and she was to call if she needed anything. Jen gave me a gentle hug and brushed my cheek before I left. "I'm sorry, Jimmy. Sorry we got involved in this mess to start with."

"I am, too, Jen. From my last conversation with Bonny I could tell even if it wasn't this, it would have been something. You don't need to feel guilt on my account."

*****

Just like Jenny, I wanted to be out of the house and away from everything. I called my foremen and told them I had an emergency and that I would be out of town for a couple of weeks, but I'd call in every day or so and they could call me if the situation called for it, or send me an email. I was taking my work laptop along and not much else. I went to the beach the last time so I went the other direction, ending up in the mountains two states over.

Hitting the bank, I pulled enough cash out to last and took off. I made sure I bought a cheap phone with a pay as you go plan and left my top of the line model lying in pieces in a drawer of the desk in my shop. Then I thought about it, put it back together, and when I was fifty miles down the interstate I turned around, hitting the first rest stop I came to and taped it underneath the bumper of a big rig. I had no idea where he was going, but the girls would track it and wonder where the hell I was.

On a whim I stopped at a marina on a large lake that advertised houseboats for rent. It took a lot of talking and a little extra cash, but I got it without a paper trail. They did insist I leave a credit card with them in case I damaged anything. The woman grinned at me sadly as she showed me how to operate the boat and everything on it.

"I don't know why you want to go off grid but I'm guessing there's a woman involved. Not my business, but are you sure this is the route to take?"

Sighing, wondering if it was that obvious, I told her I was like an old wolf, when I got wounded, I retreated into solitude to either recover or die. "It'll pass soon enough and I'll have my head together enough to face my demons. In the meantime, the biggest challenge I want to face is trying to find where the fish are biting."

She gave me some tips and sent me up the road to a little independent grocery store for supplies. I passed a farmer's market and stopped long enough to get a few fresh vegetables before I loaded down on meats and sandwich items. I bought a twelve-pack of my favorite beer; a couple of soft drinks and I was good to go.

The owners insisted I take an hour of instruction before I set off by myself. "This is a big lake, but it ain't that big. You watch out, you're not the only one out there who doesn't really know what he's doing. For the best fishing, head north towards the mouth of the lake. Plenty of big bass and cats up that way."

Satisfied, they got off and I was on my own. The boat had a little 19" television and a small satellite dish. "Watch the weather forecasts. We're bad to get thunderstorms this time of year. If you see one coming, run for a cove, put the anchor down and ride it out. Stay out of the main channel when it storms; the water can get pretty choppy."

I fished. I visited other marinas and ate at a variety of places. Most were good, a few exceptional and one was probably served the worst food I'd ever tasted. I'd anchor in a cove, wade ashore and wander the woods of the national park that formed most of the shoreline. When I turned the boat in and told them how I'd spent a lot my time they paled.

"That part is a bear reserve. No one is supposed to be there. The females are nursing cubs right about now. You're lucky you didn't get mauled."

I grinned. Ignorance really is bliss sometimes. "Well, that would have been good information to have, say, when I rented the boat."

"You didn't read any of the pamphlets we gave you, did you?" I stopped being smug. Maybe I should have read the literature instead of shoving it in a drawer.

I called in every day and listened to my foremen bitch me out for not being there. All had a common theme. "Bonny is driving us all crazy here, boss. Maybe you should give her a call, try keeping her off our ass. I'm sure we'd work more productively."

I had put the phone on 'private number' status, warning them beforehand. That way they couldn't give her the number, which by now I was sure they would have. The time had come. I was ready to go "home", whatever that was.

*****

I arrived home in mid-morning, hoping to avoid the drama just a little longer. Bonny and Jules were both sitting on the couch when I walked through the door. Bonny leaped to her feet and would have rushed to me but Jules held her back. "Bonny! Remember what we talked about."

It must have been a hell of a conversation, because she stopped instantly. I almost grinned. "HI Jules." Then I looked at my wife and just spoke her name. "Bonny."

She sat back down and looked up at me with hope in her voice. "Can we talk about it?"

"Why? We talked it to death before things got to where we are now. At the end you pretty much told me to quit whining because it was going to happen whether I liked it or not. Sounds pretty much like a unilateral decision to me. Why should you be upset if I made a decision to spend time as far away from you as I could? This is an "open" marriage now, isn't it?"

I spoke again before she could get started. "Before we go any farther, did you fuck Will? I saw Grace at the airport as I was leaving and find it hard to believe it was coincidence. If she was there, the asshole had to be lurking close by."

Jules spoke up for the first time. "They were there. We didn't know they were coming. Well, except for Booger. Will got mugged at the airport and his wallet was stolen. You wouldn't know anything about that, would you?"

So, Will hadn't seen me. Of course, I came up from behind and blindsided him, so he probably wasn't sure it was me. He probably suspected when Grace told him she'd seen me that I was most likely the culprit. I carefully kept my face bland. "He was mugged? I hope it hurt like hell. Any broken bones, lacerations, contusions? Does his magic dick still work? Before you answer, did you fuck him?"

"No!"

"Why not?"

"Because I promised you!" Then she grinned for the first time. "Besides, even if I had wanted to, WHICH I DID NOT, the mugger busted his nuts a couple of times. He sat around with a pack of ice to his balls the whole time."

"My heart bleeds for him. Maybe we can reenact it so I can better understand what happened to him. That's beside the point right now. I told you how I felt. You told me to go pound sand and did what you wanted anyway. What possible relationship could we have going forward? I don't see a happy ending here."

She had obviously rehearsed her speech. I saw Jules behind this. "I made a mistake, all right? I figured your love for me was so strong you'd let me have my little fantasy and then we'd be back to normal. Guess I missed on that one, huh? Come back to me, honey and I'll spend the rest of my life showing you how much I love you."

"So then, no harm no foul? I don't think so. I'll never be able to look Booger and John in the eye, knowing they fucked my wife. Booger will be insufferable. I could give a shit about John. I bet he couldn't wait to have a cream-pie, now could he? As a matter of fact, I didn't just lose a wife, I lost a whole circle of what I thought were my friends. Fuck every one of them! I'll never socialize with them again, and if I catch Booger out, I fully plan to impress upon him the need to stay as far away from me as possible and never speak of what happened to another soul. I never thought I'd be starting over at 46, but it is what it is. At least I can look at myself in the morning knowing I never betrayed my wife."

Bonny had been getting progressively paler. "I never betrayed you! You agreed!"

I sighed. She was never going to admit what she did was hurtful and bad for our marriage, and I was never going to forgive her disrespect. "Maybe I did, at first. But before anyone actually fucked a person not their spouse, I told you I couldn't do it and really didn't want you to. Begged, is more like the term to use. Not only did you tell me you were going to go through with it anyway, you told me you were 'tired of living a life of quiet desperation', and you compared our life together to slow strangulation, and that you wanted to feel alive again, blah, blah, etc., and so forth. It sounds to me you decided your marriage was worth your adventure and just wrote us off. Forgive me if I got the wrong impression."

"No! It's not like that at all! It's..."

"Exactly like that. I came here with the hope of trying to salvage some kind of relationship with you for the sake of our children. But know what? They're grown women, now, and they know life doesn't always work out like they would expect. I'm getting some of my clothes and a few of the tools I need, and I'll be out of your hair. I'd hate to make you desperate or feel strangled. You should revel in your freedom, Bonny. Think of all the untapped cocks out there available now. You're hot for your age so it shouldn't take you long to hook up, or maybe you want to explore your sexually liberated lifestyle a little more before you find Mr. Excitement. In the best of worlds, he'll be a swinger and you can have a fulfilling existence. I'm done talking now. By done I mean done completely. Don't try to contact me unless it's business related."

The emotions playing across her face were interesting to watch. Jules was staring at me open mouthed, so I'm pretty sure she didn't expect it either. Bonny finally exploded.

"NO! That's not what I want! Not at all. This was supposed to be an adventure, something we could share and look back on. It wasn't supposed to be the end of us. I'm really sorry you took it so badly and I want more than anything to go back to the way it was before, or an even better version of the way we were. How can I do that?"

"Well, you could see if Mr. Peabody will let you borrow his Way-Back Machine, go back about six months and never bring swinging up in any conversation we have. Barring that, you can't unring the bell. It's done, and you shouldn't be having buyer remorse now. You wanted it, you got it, even after I spelled out what would probably happen if you did. I am done now. Please let me gather my things in peace."

Bonny wanted to argue but Jules pulled her into the kitchen. It was whispered, but I could tell there was a pretty heated exchange going on. Five minutes later Jules found me in the bedroom.

"Her mind's pretty fucked up right now."

I couldn't help grinning. "Tell you what, Jules, why don't you spend about an hour inside my head and see how fucked up I am. A year ago, I had a happy marriage and a bright future. Now all I have is a woman who used to be married to me wondering why I can't understand her need to fuck other men, and a group of people I thought were friends but were in reality a bunch of backstabbing assholes willing to lie and go to any means necessary to gain their goal."

She asked in a really small voice where she stood.

"Jury's still out, Jules. I have to believe you were at least partially in on the planning of this adventure and you had to know how I would take it, but you pushed the issue anyway. Tell me, did you get what you wanted out of your adventure?"

Her shuddering sigh sounded like it came from the bottom of her soul. "NO, not in the least! It didn't turn out anywhere near what I hoped it would."

"What exactly did you want, Jules?"

"Does it matter now? Let's get back to your wife, and she is your wife. Yes, she went brain dead. Yes, we may have encouraged her. And yes, she should have stopped when you told her how you felt. She did it because she wanted to, but she did it under the assumption when it was over you guys would be all right. It's starting to sink in she made a really bad decision and she's desperate to find a way back."

"We could never go back. Say we stayed together, put it behind us, and she has the urge again? She'd be smart enough to not say anything, but if the urge gets too strong then what? We don't watch each other 24/7. She has a job that gets her out of the office three or four times a week. I'm always on the move. Do you think I won't wonder what she's doing while she's out 'working', or what really goes on when she gets together with the same women for girl's night out? For all I would know that would be code for "let's get together and fuck each other's brains out". Poor ol' Grunt will never know. I have to wonder now what she was doing in the months leading up to this. You may as well tell me the truth, Jules. Was she fucking around before our little vacation? Don't sugarcoat anything, and if you're lying and I find out, it will be the last time I ever speak to you."

"She never cheated on you, Jimmy. Not that I'm aware of. I will admit there were times when you weren't around when the group took liberties with each other, a little groping, a little making out, but Jen and I usually put the skids on anything trying to progress farther."

"Bonny didn't try to stop it?"

Her blush was deep red. "NO, but she didn't encourage it. Nothing serious happened, I promise you."

"Group groping? Heavy make-out sessions? That sound like the actions of a happily married woman? Go away now, Jules. I think you've enlightened me enough, and I do thank you for your honesty."

She tried to speak several more times before she gave it up and left. They were sitting at the kitchen table; the tear tracks visible. They looked up and I just nodded. I was going out the door when Bonny started screaming about how sorry she was and it would never happen again. The trouble was, I didn't think she was sorry she did it but sorry for the mess it became. I firmly believed she would do it again in the future. Well that would be the problem of her new mate, because I no longer gave a shit.

*****

I moved into a house we were almost done remodeling. It was a nice little two-bedroom, and the reason I chose it was for the large outbuilding that came with it. My plan was to move all my woodworking tools so I'd have a workshop again. Shaping wood into things of functional beauty, and sometimes just beauty for the sake of beauty, helped me relax.

I didn't file for divorce because I just didn't want to face the fact that my marriage had failed because I just wasn't enough for her anymore. I knew eventually she would give up or I'd get tired of the whole mess and pull the trigger.

We still talked on a regular basis. We had to for our businesses to survive. It didn't take long for our employees to discover we weren't living together, or that Bonny was a forbidden subject as far as I was concerned. One woman refused to leave it alone, lecturing me to 'man up' and solve whatever was between us' every time I was around her. I asked her politely several times to leave it alone and stick to business, but she refused. I got tired of it and solved the problem. She was a subcontractor, a really excellent sheetrock finisher. Her lover was her partner. When the job she was on finished I simply didn't use her again.

She called repeatedly until I blocked her number, and her partner showed up. I had always liked her, so I let her speak.

"Why won't you use us anymore?"

I grinned. "I can't afford you."

She was confused. "What do you mean? We charge a little more than our competitors, but the quality of our work is better and we're fast as hell. You've always loved us until now. What changed?"

"When I said I couldn't afford you, I didn't mean financially. You guys do great work, Hester, but Charlotte doesn't know when to keep her nose out of another's business. I meant every time I talked to her she was like a broken record. She has no idea what's going on between my wife and I, but she's sure whatever happened was my fault and I needed to suck it up. The cost I was speaking of was my health. Every time I was around her my blood pressure spiked. My doctor says I need to avoid stressful situations if I can, and she stressed me out so she had to go. You guys will be all right. You're some of the best I've ever seen at what you do, and people will be lining up to hire you. To be honest, I'll miss you."

She thought about what I said for a minute then made me an offer. "What if we do it this way. You deal with me. Hester will be under orders not to speak to you at all. I promise she will behave. If she doesn't, drop us right then."

"That won't work and you know it. She'll simmer, and sulk, and then it'll all come out. Let's just save the drama."

Hester grinned back. "I love drama. Seriously, I'll put a muzzle on her if I have to. We've had a couple of "discussions" already about her minding her business and not everyone else's. I'm as tired of it as you are. Give us another chance."

Their work was exceptional and I really didn't like the crew I had used to replace them, so I agreed, with the understanding that if Charlotte started again, I'd fire them on the spot. It was two weeks before I saw them again at one of my jobsites. It just so happened that I had Jen with me. She liked the house I'd let her stay in and Jules worked out a lease-to-own agreement. I'd told her about Hester one afternoon while Jules and I did the paperwork on the house. It was done to help her credit so she could eventually buy it. It turns out Booger wasn't much on paying his bills.

She'd seen my truck and stopped to say hello, giving me a tremendous hug. I saw Charlotte's eyes go wide and I grinned. Jen saw the look. "Is that her?"

"Yes, it is."

"Well then, let's give her something to think about."

She proceeded to hang on me like wallpaper for the next twenty minutes, rubbing my arm, giggling inanely at everything I said. When I walked her back to her car, she surprised me by grabbing my head and giving me a big kiss. I went bright red while she giggled.

"The deal still stands, Jimmy. Once you and Bonny resolve your issues, and if you end up a free agent, I'm first in line. Promise me."

I shocked her by kissing her back. "You have my solemn vow. You've stirred the pot enough today, now scoot!" I slapped her butt lightly, making her jump. Her grin was enormous as she drove off.

I looked up to see Charlotte watching me and gave her a grin. She went about eight shades of red and started towards me, but Hester grabbed her arm and held her back.

*****

Of course, she called Bonny almost immediately. I stopped by the office and she had a strange look in her eye. "So, you and Jenny?"

"No, no me and Jenny. She saw my truck and stopped by to say hi. Her antics were simply to yank Hester's chain. But if there was a me and Jenny, how could you object? How many lovers do you have now?"

"None! A man hasn't touched me since we... since that weekend."

"Why? Now that you've sampled strange cocks, I figured you'd be at the buffet every weekend. I hear the Meat Market is just swarming with people trying to hook up."

The Meat Market wasn't the actual name of the bar, but everybody called it that. It was the place in town where you went if you wanted sex without strings. Needless to say, it was very popular with the younger crowd. On Tuesday they had "Cougar Night", although that's not what they called it. Older women would hit the bar looking for younger men to fill their needs. The young guys were there just for sex, although a few were always on the lookout for a sugar momma.