The Rite

"Tyler, can we sit down and just talk about this?" she asked. "I love you so much. Can't I just explain my feelings on this to you and we can work from there? I already told you I'm willing to do anything I have to do to make this right. I've also told you it won't happen again."

"Why the fuck would I want to hear your FEELINGS about this when you never cared about mine?" I asked. "You could have stopped doing this at any time. If this marriage meant so God damned much to you, you could have saved it. It's too late now. There is one thing you can do if you want. Call old Gene and tell him what's about to happen to him so he can get a lawyer and we can move this along quickly. And I still want you out of my house."

"But Tyler I have nowhere to go," she whined.

"There are lots of hotel and motels in the city," I said. "Your credit cards work. But I'd pick a cheaper place because whatever you spend comes out of your share of our assets."

"I'll sleep in the guest room," she said. "If I'm not around we won't be able to even try to work this out."

"Delphina, you being around will only hurt us more. Every time I see you now, I get sick to my stomach and..." Her face changed then.

"That's it isn't it?" she asked. "That's why you've been so distant and why we stopped having sex and..." she just ran away into my bedroom and slammed the door.

"I'll go after her," said my daughter.

"If you want to," I said. "It's no skin off of my ass."

Even though it was a Sunday I made calls to a couple of lawyers I know. Divorce law was so specialized and so rare in our era that it took me a while to get the name of a guy who did it. I emailed him and surprisingly enough got an email back within a couple of hours. We talked about the specifics of the case. And after finding out that he couldn't dissuade me, he agreed to take my case.

I decided to be proactive then. I called Gene. I had the phone on speaker as I searched through records in our office trying to get all of the papers the lawyer wanted together.

"Simmons," he growled into the phone. And then threw in, "They call me...Doctor Love."

"Stevens," I said back. "But not the Stevens you've been fucking." Then I threw in, "Dream On." There was nothing over the phone line but dead air.

"I'll stop," he said. "It was just a joke. It was just sex. It didn't mean anything.It was the Rite. It was just a way to be lazy, you know. That way I didn't have to go out and hunt some chick down. And Delphina was always kind of wild. You know what I mean. She was always kind of slutty. You won't believe how much it helped my marriage. Just between the two of us, my wife...I mean I love her a lot but she's not exactly exciting in the sack. But shit Delphina...I mean she likes it rough and she'll do fucking anything, you know?"

"What I know is that you have a problem Gene," I said.

"Look Tyler, I already told you I'd stop. It's not that big of a deal," he said trying to sound tough.

"It really is that big of a deal," I said. "And since I'm divorcing her and naming you in the divorce, I thought you should know. I'm taking the high road here and trying to give you a heads up."

"Come on," he said. "You can't be serious. If this gets out I might end up divorced too. That would ruin my life. I don't have a cushy job like you do. And I could lose my wife."

"The one you just said sucked in bed?" I said. "There is an alternative for you to consider."

"I already told you I'd stop," he said.

"And I already told you it's too late for that," I said back. "You could just go to jail, but that's up to Delphina. If she doesn't give me a divorce, I have evidence against the two of you that proves you conspired to defeat the random nature of the Rite. I have your phone calls from before the event where you arranged the hotel room. The room was paid for with one of my credit cards so I even have the record of that and it was made two days before the Rite."

"Come on," he whined. "This is unfair. Nobody follows all of the rules all of the time. Just because you want to get back at your wife doesn't mean you have to ruin my fucking life. What about my wife? What about my kids?"

"It's really funny that you didn't think about them before now," I said.

"Shit, I did this for them," he whined. "That's what the Rite is all about. It's about going out and getting your freak on so you have an outlet and your baser urges or your need to get nasty doesn't turn into resentment against your wife and kids. It's just fun. It's like Halloween. You're just playing a role for laughs."

"Well it's not so funny to me," I said.

"Look, it's not my fault that your wife is a whore," he snapped. "That's why I never married her. She was a great girlfriend but she just isn't the kind of woman you fall in love with or marry."

"You can explain all of that to the judge," I said. "I'd suggest that you get yourself a lawyer."

"Wait," he pleaded. "I can't really talk right now. Can we get together and discuss this face to face, maybe over a drink. There's got to be some way we can work this out. What if we work together? Maybe we can convince her to give you the divorce you want without involving me. Maybe we can even work out some way that you don't divorce her without me having to go to jail. I mean think about it. A divorce would hurt your reputation too."

I gave him my address and told him to stop by at around 6. I figured I'd be done washing my car by then.

As I got up and turned around, I noticed Delphina standing in the doorway. The look of pain on her face was unimaginable. I had seen Delphina cry before this and it always felt like someone had kicked me in the gut. I'd always do anything I could to stop her tears. This one was worse.

As I'd sat there talking to Gene, Delphina had heard every word. She suddenly ran straight to me and into my arms, crying her eyes out.

"I'm sorry you heard that," I said. "I guess heartache is going around."

"But you don't even understand," she said. "Your heartache, as real as it may seem to you is needless. What you heard was always just talk between two people acting on their hormones. Maybe I liked fucking Gene, Tyler. But I love making love to you. Don't you see it? I was always begging you for sex after you started to cut down on me. Does that sound like I didn't like what we were doing?"

"It sounds like guilt sex," I said.

"How stupid can you be?" she asked. "Guilt sex is after you've done something. I'm after you every day. We've been married for 18 years. Doesn't that mean anything to you?"

"Only that I've wasted over two hundred months of my life," I said.

"So because of some stupid thing that has only happened a few times, you want to throw away twenty years?" she asked.

"I didn't throw it away Delphina," I said. "You did."

"Tyler, what difference does it make, if it was Gene that I had sex with or just some random guy?" she asked.

"If it was a random guy, then you wouldn't remember him. It would just be some random thing that didn't matter and there'd be no feelings involved. This way it's like the two of you had an affair. It was a planned deception with someone you knew. The two of you have feelings for each other and you enjoyed talking about me in a demeaning manner."

"Tyler, I never said one thing about you that was demeaning," she said. "You should probably listen to your tapes again or get your head out of your ass. Mostly I was just telling him what he wanted to hear so I could get him done and get home to you, dumbass. And as far as feelings go, there were none. Part of the reason I feel so stupid now is because of what I thought was happening."

"What did you think was happening?" I asked. "Did you think that some woman whose husband loves her with all of his heart was slutting herself out for another man? That's what I thought was happening too."

"Tyler, you always saw me the way I wanted to be," she said sadly. "Before you and I got together, I was a different person. I was a tall skinny girl with no boobs and no butt. There are thousands of them everywhere. All through college I was so desperate to have a man that I fucked a lot of guys. But none of them wanted me. They all wanted a piece of ass but they didn't want to own the package it came in. I thought that Gene was different. He was from out of town and didn't know about my reputation. We started dating and we started sleeping together. He wanted more than a one night stand. And sex with him was always kind of rough. I thought I loved him so I got used to it and even kind of liked it. There's something to be said for just being dominated."

"Anyway I started thinking that maybe Gene would be the one. But after a year of being together we started to argue a lot. We also didn't go anywhere any more. He just came over and fucked me. It took a while but I found out that Gene had heard from some of his friends about me. He didn't want to marry me. He didn't even want to be seen in public with me. I kept thinking that maybe after a while he'd get over it. But it didn't happen and it got worse. He started actually hitting me. But I held out hope. I actually put up with it because I hoped that he'd see something and start treating me the way he did at first."

"Then I found out something that broke my heart. Gene had just come over and fucked me. I mean he worked me over good. I was sore for a couple of days afterwards. In my mind it was flattering. I thought that he'd just built up so much desire for me that he'd lost control. It had been a Friday night. When I went out to get breakfast on Saturday I ran into a mutual friend of ours. He looked at me like he was surprised to see me."

"I'd have thought you'd be getting ready," he said.

"Getting ready for what?" I asked.

"Oh yeah," he said. "I can see that you wouldn't want to go..." I guess I had the most puzzled look on my face so he went on.

"You do know that Gene is getting married today?" he asked. "I was invited but I have to work. I'm going to the reception though."

"Honey, I was heartbroken. He had just used me like his private whore for more than a year. I was good enough to fuck, but not good enough to marry. Less than six months afterwards, I met him and we talked. He acted like I'd deceived him by not telling him about the other guys I'd been with. So he figured that he had the right to hold back things from me too."

"Tyler, I slept with a few guys. But I only did it because I was looking for something. I wasn't looking for sex. I was looking for someone who'd love me as much as I'd love them. I wanted a man of my own and Gene turned out not to be that man. I was broken hearted for a while and then I met the nicest guy ever. He was kind of shy and I wasn't used to that. But there was just something about him. And once we got into bed, I found heaven. I got the idea that he liked me. I mean he really liked me as a person and the sex was just the icing on the cake."

"Tyler I loved him before we ever had sex, but finding out that he loved me too...I just felt like I'd swallowed a balloon there was so much love in me I almost exploded. Tyler, he and I had sex a lot. He does things to me that no one does. He was the first person I did anal with. And the bastard got me pregnant. But then he ruined me for life. He asked me to move in with him. Of course I accepted. That way the three of us would all be together. He and I could raise our daughter together. He shocked me even more when he asked me what I'd wanted for most of my life. We got married and I've never ever regretted a second of it."

"I'm not perfect Honey and neither are you. I could always sense that you got a little pissed at me around the time of the Rite. There were times when it would take you days before you would even touch me again. I finally figured out that you were pissed because I'd had sex with someone else. You loved me so much that the idea of someone else touching me bothered you whether it was the law or not. I cried because that was exactly the way I wanted someone to feel about me."

"Tyler, the reason I laughed at you the other night when you asked for the DNA test was because there's simply no way that your daughter could belong to anyone else. Her birthday is in September stupid. That means she was conceived in late December or January. The Rite is in April and October. Except for the Rite, I have never slept with any man except you since the first time I saw you. I love you stupid. I've always been yours."

"As far as Gene is concerned; I already told you it has only happened four or five times. I'm sorry I really can't remember if it was four of five. I ran into him out of pure chance before the Rite the year before last and we spoke. He laid all of his cards on the table and told me about how he should have married me."

"Maybe, I have a mean streak in me but I wanted to rub in his face what he didn't have. So I told him about you and how successful you are in your career and how much I love you and our daughter. I told him that he'd actually done me a favor by not marrying me. I think that hearing about you and how successful you are and how you're twice the man he'll ever be made him really jealous of you. That's why he likes to put you down when we have sex. I loved throwing it in his face. It was kind of my revenge for the way he'd treated me."

"But it wasn't enough a few weeks later when the Rite came along, I just happened to be there. He and I did it. As usual I let him do what he wanted and he really got off on it. My husband gets this and whatever he wants, whenever he wants," I told him."

"I'd enjoyed rubbing it in his face. Six months later I got a phone call. He'd gotten my number from some people we both knew. We arranged to do it again at the next Rite. I know that this isn't going to sound logical to you but there were a lot of factors going on. On one hand I enjoyed rubbing it in his face that most of the year he got either no sex or really boring sex from his wife. From what he says they do it about once a month, if that. I also enjoyed letting him know that we do it almost every night. But there were other things going on too."

"I felt like so much less of a slut meeting up with someone I knew. I can honestly tell you that for the past two years, I've only had sex with two men instead of at least five that I'd have had if I did the random thing. And I'm trying to be honest with you here Tyler. In a way I enjoyed having sex with Tyler. I mean you saw it. He doesn't do anything better than you do, he's just rougher. And not all the time but sometimes, I enjoy that. And that's what the Rite is supposed to be about. But there are no feelings involved. Go back to your tape again, Honey. I spend hours looking into your eyes and kissing you. We become a part of each other's souls. Did you see me kiss him once? It didn't happen. It was just sex. He came three or four times because he loved it. How many times did I get off? You might have heard me urging him on by yelling stupid shit like," Cum in me," or, "Fill me up." But did you ever hear that little scream that you love to make fun of? The one that tells you I just had an orgasm?"

"You didn't hear it because it didn't happen. He kept doing things because he was having a good time. I just wanted to get done and get home to you. But you stayed out the whole God damned night. All I wanted was for the Rite to be over so I could get naked with my husband. I kept hoping that once the Rite was over that we could get back to normal. Why do you think I suggested that we just get rid of whoever we did the Rite with and come home and take a long relaxing bath together and finish the night with each other? I love you, Tyler. There's no one else in my heart."

"Except for making you angry at me the thing I feel the worst about is hearing the things that Gene said. Like I told you I really thought that I was punishing him for not marrying me. But I can see that he was really just using me again. No matter what happens he's never going to see beyond the slut he thinks I was when we met. I've been faithful to you for twenty years and whether you want to admit it or not, you love me Tyler. I'm going to make sure you always do, no matter what I have to do."

She looked at her Apple iWatch. "I think you'll know what I mean in a few moments. I took a page from your book Honey."

"Are you done packing?" I asked.

"I didn't start," she said. I was really pissed because I'd been very clear with her. Before I could say anything the doorbell rang. I went to answer it and saw Gene standing there. He looked really nervous. He obviously didn't know what to expect. For a moment I just stared at him. I realized that seeing him in person was far different from seeing him on video. Even the high definition holographic video from my Apple iWatch couldn't truly show me the detail I got from standing in front of the actual person.

He was actually far from the monster I'd imagined. He wasn't even as big as I am. I think I have him by about two inches in height.

He seemed to be as shocked as I was. He held out his hand for me to shake and I just stared at him. He dropped his hand when he realized that I had no intention of shaking it and rubbed it on his pants.

"We may as well talk in the back," I said leading him out to my deck. I couldn't help it. I looked around for Delphina. I guess I really wanted to see her reaction to him and vice versa.

We sat down at a small table on my deck.

"Look first off, I just want to say that I'm sorry about all of this," he said. "...The more that I think about it, the worse I feel. If I put myself in your shoes I guess I'd be as angry as you are. But I just don't see the need for 7 people's lives to be ruined for the stupid ideas of only 2. When I say 7 people I mean both couples ending up divorced and between us we have three kids."

"I kind of figured that," I said.

"So look, you told me I had two choices. I could be a party to your divorce which would ruin my life, because the other party in an infidelity case is considered even worse than the divorced couple. That could lose me my job and the fallout from it would cost me my marriage anyway. My second choice was worse. I'd end up in jail for violating the rules of the Rite. That means that what I did would still come out. My career would still end and I'd probably still end up divorced, plus I'd go to prison for a long assed time."

"Neither of those options appeals to me, so what If I paid you to keep me out of it. I don't make much money, but what If I gave you five thousand dollars up front and a little bit each week from now on. Think about it, you could still divorce the whore. I don't blame you. No one should be stuck..."

Before he could finish his sentence I had punched him in his mouth so hard he'd fallen over backwards in his chair. I was on him pounding the shit out of him so fast that he didn't have a chance to react.

If someone hadn't pulled me off of him, I probably would have killed him. As it was his face was a mask of blood and bruises that he'd remember for a long time. I was still trying to get back to him to hit him some more when I realized that Delphina and another woman were the ones who'd pulled me off of him.

"Gene, what did you do now?" asked the woman in a very no-nonsense voice. "And where the hell are you going to get five thousand dollars?"

The woman was huge, barrel bodied Amazon. She had a pretty face with an ugly expression on it as she looked at Gene the way a mother looks at a child who just took a shit on the kitchen floor. Her legs looked like the columns that support a building and she had a huge bubble but. Oddly enough her breasts were very small almost flat and barely stood out from her chest. Her entire demeanor said that she was in charge. I could imagine Gene only getting sex from her once or twice a year and it would be on her terms. I could imagine not wanting sex at all with her. Maybe that was why he needed to be so forceful when he had sex during the Rite. He got to pretend that he was still forceful and in charge. It was almost like twice a year he got his balls back. And twice a year Delphina got to be dominated. I just shook my head thinking about it.