The Man Named Carlos Ch. 05

Chapter 5: Reparations

Disclaimer: This chapter contains scenes depicting domestic violence and physical abuse, which may be distressing for some readers. While fictional in nature, the portrayal of these behaviors is intended to highlight some of the realities of thee and similar experiences and their impact on individuals, relationships, and families.

It is important to note that domestic violence and physical abuse are serious issues that can have lasting effects on survivors and those around them. The depiction of these actions in this work is not meant to condone or endorse such behavior in any way.

If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence or physical abuse, please seek help from a trusted friend, family member, or professional support services.

For help, the U.S. National Domestic Hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233).

Reader discretion is advised.

Night came and went. Nicole did her best not to freak out. Maybe Carlos had decided to sabotage Nicole. Maybe it was all some game to him. Maybe he had always planned to fuck her, leave her pregnant, so she was left holding the bag.

Men did not think about anyone else after they had their nut. That was what she was thinking when Jim came home. She could not tell him she was upset.

What could she say? Oh I know you cheated, so I fucked your boss. Oh! And I know I make you wear condoms but I let him shoot his cum in me? And now, I'm hoping he shows back up with a Plan B, so I don't carry his kid and you leave me.

She almost pulled her hair out. Instead, she pulled up her big girl panties, went to bed without crying, and said as little as she could to her husband. She was debating on what to do.

She couldn't keep the kid if there was one, could she? Then there was Jim's cheating. She was still pissed, but fear of the unknown was overriding even that level of anger. Before too long, she just collapses into unconsciousness.

The next day, she tried to be as loving as she could, but the lying was starting to get to her. She made a silent promise to herself that if she could get through all of this, she would not cheat on Jim again. Somehow, she would make this all right. There would be a confrontation about his infidelity, but Nicole could see how a little understanding might save her marriage if Chris wanted to save it.

That was it. Her marriage would only live if both of them put in the work. Did Jim even want to be married? Was his affair a fling? Ongoing? A one-time thing? These were the questions running through her mind as Jim ate his breakfast.

When Jim was gone, she wondered if Carlos would call or show up. That was what everything hinged on.

Thankfully, twenty minutes after Jim was gone, Carlos was at the door.

Nicole felt like she was in a spy thriller and told him, "Come in. Come in!"

He came into the apartment with a small container.

"Did anyone see you?" Nicole started before she looked down. She analyzed the little plastic box that contained the pill that would erase her mistake. "Is that it?" Nicole asked.

He nodded, rattling the pill inside.

"Here," he said, handing over the pill that would prevent any pregnancy. "I also wanted to say, 'I'm sorry'. I should have called last night with an update. I just thought with everything going on that coming in late would set things off with Jim."

Nicole went to the kitchen to get milk. "Don't worry about it," she said honestly, rummaging through her fridge. "What matters is you got here." She let out a single nervous laugh. "You know? For a minute, I worried that you were going to run off and leave me to fend for myself."

"No," Carlos said with his own nervousness. "Nothing like that. But there was this thing my therapist and I discussed."

The married woman looked at him as she threw back a swig of milk and swallowed the pill. She looked at him, motioning for him to go on.

"Look," Carlos said, unsure of how much to admit to. "I feel responsible. Regardless of what I suspected or not, I should not have given you the phone. I should not have let that kiss happen or go past that."

"This was not entirely your fault," Nicole said, defending him to both her mind and himself. "I am a big girl. I made my own choice."

"Maybe. But I had my suspicions of the phone. I knew there was a good chance that the kiss would go farther."

"Stop!" Nicole all but screeched. "We can spend all day blaming one another, or we can do better and not let something like this happen again."

Carlos held his hands up. "Okay. Okay." He was not even sure if he was trying to convince himself at that point. "I am glad this works out. And look, if you do decide to tell Jim, which I will leave to you, I am willing to take full responsibility."

"If I tell Jim, I won't just throw you under the bus," she said, leaning on her counter. "Remember? Big girl. I made my choices here too."

Carlos held up both of his hands to make sure she understood that he respected whatever decision she made. "I get that, but if it means saving your marriage with him being pissed at me rather than you, I would rather take that heat off you."

"You really are a good guy, you know?" she said.

"I absolutely am not," he said, flashing a smile. "Good men don't do what I did...but I am a definite work in progress."

He thought back to all the choices he made. He knew he was not a good man. He had played Nicole all to get laid. And while he could have let her be pregnant and carry his kid without worry, because, come on, he had the money to pay her handsomely in terms of child support, he would not entrap her. This was not like the fantasy stories other people told. A kid needed to be brought into the world responsibly. As the product of a single mom, he knew what it was like to not be wanted. He could never do that to someone else.

"Thank you," she said, touching his cheek.

"For what?"

"Not abandoning me when I needed you," she said, kissing him softly on the cheek. "You know if things were different..."

Carlos halted her. "Trust me...I have heard that one before," he said with a sad smile. "Thank you, Nicole."

---

Jim was pissed. He felt like nothing was going his way. His wife wasn't putting out. He felt like she was a thousand miles away from him. Something was going on.

Did she know what he had done with Michelle? Did she suspect? Was it even fucking worth it? If he could get better pussy at work, he could just let Nicole leave. What was a divorce anyway? They didn't own anything. What did it matter anyway if she was going to be distant.

Jesus fuckin' Christ!

As he was halfway to work, he could have sworn he saw Carlos' car heading towards his apartment. Since he did not see into the driver's window, he had to let it go.

However, the idea festered in his mind.

When he reached work, and he didn't see the boss' car, Jim saw that as strike two. With everything going wrong, it was all starting to make sense. If Carlos was not at work, he knew that was it. He was behind it all. Carlos must have sabotaged everything. That was the only thing that made any sense.

He ran to Carlos' office. There was that fat bitch up front. Stevey? Stephanie? No...

"Stacy. Is Carlos in?"

"Not yet," she said, not looking up from her papers. "Family matter." When he did not leave, she looked up at him in confused annoyance. "Is there anything else?"

Jim shook his head, knowing Carlos' reputation. That was why he had let Jim fuck Michelle in his office. Carlos had played them all. He had used Michelle to open up the chance at fucking Nicole. Well, Jim would confirm his suspicions first, but if he was right, he would fuck Carlos up.

---

The only time Chris could think was when he drove to and from work. At work, he was expected to be there one hundred and ten percent. The issue was, he could not help but think of his wife with Carlos. When he had met Carlos, it did not seem like he wanted anything to do with him.

What was the point then? Wasn't the whole point to see his wife turn into a slut? To see her become her most sexualized self? If Chris was not benefitting from it, why was he pushing it?

But then he saw how alive she was, he could see Carlos was having some effect on her. She was dressing sexier, being more open, being more fun. It just felt like none of it was for Chris or because of him.

Was Chris less of a man because of it? That gnawed at him. It invaded his very being while in his car. The truth was it was invading him at every turn. Was he not enough? Was he a full-blown cuck? He kept thinking he was a stag, but stags were not inferior. They shared their wife and were on equal footing, but Chris did not feel equal to Carlos in any capacity.

Carlos was this phantom in a suit, doing as he wanted, however he wanted.

After two dates, Carlos had already fucked Tracy. It didn't take years, but Chris could never have slept with Tracy in two dates back when they started being together. What did Carlos have that he did not?

Wasn't the whole point of the fetish for everyone to get what they want out of it?

The more he thought on the subject, the more he felt like he was getting less out of the relationship than the other two.

---

Lunch was interesting for Michelle because work was fine. Things were professionally done. Carlos must have seen that there was a conflict in her life and had backed off. It was that or he was doing something else.

He was always so busy, keeping up with something or another. He was not one of those people that just stood still. He was not one of those people that day traded crypto or penny stocks either. In Michelle's recollection, his philosophy was to find something in the red, bet on it then, and when the business was in the black, he saw a double or triple return on his investment, and that also helped that his choices usually had a dividend, so his choices usually had nice percentages along the way.

What he could do with that prodigious mind of his.

That mind was one of the qualities that Michelle admired about him.

She was not fooled though. Michelle was a grown woman in every regard. Carlos was messy. He had his fun, his affairs, his playdates, and his flings. He was clean, so far as he knew. There was some paperwork that she had seen, and even helped draft, that told her some of his affairs had resulted in some consequences for him. She was sure he was banging Stacy, and there was a good chance that Tiffany would give it up to him.

That's just how it was.

His fun, carefree life made her jealous. Carlos could do as he liked, how he liked, whenever he liked. Michelle could not be sure if it was the money that allowed him to do so, or if it was his personality. However he managed it, Carlos had cemented his life in such a way that he never suffered for the things he did. There were consequences, she was sure, but she suspected that like any bad investment, he had found a way to mitigate the damages.

For all of it, she saw her sadder life with Steve by comparison. She very much loved the man. Their open relationship was working. She restrained herself and was pickier with her partners, both for her orgasms sake as well as her husband's pride. That had worked for a long time, but it all felt like it was failing because her husband's ego was getting in the way. He acted as though he was perfect at what he was doing when the fact was something in him was causing his sexual performance to slip.

The blowjob where he had climaxed before intercourse was not the first time this had happened. Sometimes, he would get in the mood, slip out and shoot on her stomach rather than in her. Steve was full of himself sometimes. It was not a bad thing. It was who he was. She understood that.

She had loved that about him. His confidence was one of the reasons she loved him. With time and circumstances, his confidence just started to feel like hollow arrogance. He accomplished little professionally, still stuck as a security guard, and he barely helped raise the girls. Sure, he would come to a parent teacher conference here and there, but plays, assemblies, field trips, fundraisers...those were all left for Michelle to handle.

Sometimes, she felt like a single mom. If it were the money, she was sure she could have used Carlos for a reference and gotten a higher paying job, but that would only lead to more problems in the long haul.

Steve, like most men (especially former military ones), had pride drilled into him, and it was not always with his best interest in mind. They could have moved to the midwest or the Appalacians. She could have a remote job where she only needed to be in an office once a month, and she could travel by plane or train or something, and she made closer to 120K a year, but that would make her the sole bread winner, and his stupid fucking pride wouldn't allow that.

She rolled her eyes as she stabbed at her salad.

Shit like this was what made her sleep with that other moron Jim. He was not a bad lay. Honestly, all-in, he was probably a seven out of ten, which was not bad. Most men's oral skills were dog shit. His... not bad. She would need to thank Nicole for instilling something positive into him. Or maybe he picked that up from one of his other secret rendezvous. Michelle was not sure. However, she lamented that loss too. If they weren't prideful, they were liars.

Men were almost more trouble than they were worth.

That was when one of the men that was definitely not worth it sat down at her desk with an egg salad sandwich and tea or was it apple juice?

"Hey, Michelle," Jim said with a cheery smile. "How are you today?"

Michelle rolled her eyes. She suspected that he was not getting any at home, so he was barking up her tree, and boy did he not realize that it was the wrong tree.

"What do you want, Jim?" Michelle asked, trying to be as cordial as possible.

"I was wondering if you wanted to get dinner after work? Or maybe dessert at this fun bar I know. There's a hotel nearby."

"I don't think there's much of a point to that," she said, holding back her greater irritation. Why did anyone think trying to get someone to go back to a hotel was hot? They had to know how cheap that sounded.

"Why's that?" Jim wondered, keeping his hopes high.

"Well, there's your wife. Does she know we will be getting 'dessert', or will she be waiting up at home, hoping that you show up to have dessert with her?" Michelle asked with a raised eyebrow.

"What about my wife?" Jim asked offhandedly. Homemade a motion to Michelle's wedding ring. "I mean...You're married. Does it matter what our spouses know if we're both cheating?"

At that question, Michelle stood up and pulled her hand back. The slap that struck Jim was with all her might and her hand, from palm to fingertips, stung with that force.

"You're a cheating piece of shit," Michelle said, annoyed. "I hope when your wife leaves you, that she takes you to the cleaners and you don't so much as own a care."

She grabbed the rest of her salad and marched out of her office. She was sure HR would have something to say to her before the day was over.

---

"Well, well, well," Carlos said, leaning over Stacy's desk. "How is your day?"

"It could be better if my boss was actually running the office rather than making me do it," Stacy snipped.

Carlos looked at Stacy. She was smartly dressed and actually fully covered up. She was used to having to play defense for him while he handled more private matters.

As such, realizing the problem was much deeper, he stood up and asked, "What's going on? Are you all right? Problems at home?"

Stacy sighed. "It's fine. Life. One minute things seem fine. The next, something is going on."

"How can I help?" Carlos asked.

Truth be told, Carlos didn't care. He was willing to wager that her boyfriend was being a little bitch, but... That was his problem with therapy. George was reminding Carlos of the man he once wanted to be. After every session, he found himself questioning his own morals. Oh nothing would stop Carlos from fucking whomever he pleased however it pleased him, but he did not want to taint that fun.

Something about questioning himself was starting to ruin that. Suddenly, without realizing it, the how he had his fun was being questioned.

"Right now? Could you not hit on me?"

Carlos sighed, nodding. He had to make her think it was a huge sacrifice. Really, it just meant he would focus on another name in his phone, but he had to make it clear that he did care for her. Truth of that matter was that he did care for her. In his work, Stacy knew more about what he did than anyone. He would not date her because of their workplace relationship, and their friendship, but she was close to him, and to lose her would be unthinkable.

"I can't make promises, but I can pull back for now if that's what you need," Carlos said.

"Thank you. I really should focus on my boyfriend," Stacy said.

"Then that's where you should focus," Carlos replied with a nod.

"And do you know where your focus needs to be?"

Carlos shrugged, slightly shaking his head. "I don't know. Where?"

"Probably with Michelle," Stacy said. "She slapped the dogshit out of some intern. It's all over the place."

"Oh fuck me," Carlos blurted out. This Jim guy was more trouble than he was worth.

He knew somehow Carlos would be blamed because that's what all cucks did in the end. But come on. This guy literally cheated on his wife. His life was clearly not the most stable, and the fact Michelle slapped him was a sign that Jim had no handle on his life. It would be better if he did not work for Carlos anymore if he was being honest about the situation.

"I'll go check on her," Carlos said. "Get HR in my office either by the end of business or in the morning. I know they are working on one of our outreach programs at the moment."

"I'll get on that, but you check on Michelle," Stacy said, trying to help focus him.

"But do I have to?" Carlos falsely whined.

"Get your ass over to her and make sure she doesn't sue you for all you're worth," Stacy demanded.

"I'm going! I'm going!"

---

She had taken the pill, and Nicole was starting to wonder if she should have. The more she thought about it, she felt like she was fighting for a marriage that was dead.

Jim had cheated. She knew her own infidelity would come to light if she divorced him. Was that why he did it? If she told anyone about his infidelity, he would counter with hers? No. Jim was not so devious. He was just being selfish. He wanted his dick wet, and he got it by lying to other women. It was women. Nicole doubted that he only had one. This was just the first time she caught him.

With all that, she knew that if it came to it, she would not be falling on her sword. She would simply take the consequences. With Carlos actually falling on his sword, she had her perfect scapegoat, but it felt so wrong to take advantage of it.

She could go round and round and round on the subject over and over, but the simple truth was she did not want to be divorced. Jim was her first love, and Nicole was not ready to give that up just yet. This was worth fighting for. They had seen ups and downs, and they were not children. They lived enough of a life to know that life is not always sunshine and daisies. She needed to get her shit together.

Taking in deep breaths, Nicole knew she would have to tell Jim what she did. She would need to confront him about his own choices, but she could make sure that he understood that Nicole wanted nothing more than to let Jim know that their marriage came first.

In the end, that was all she could do.