The Trip to Rancho Mirage

I drove to a large parking lot that was two-thirds empty and I stopped the truck. Joyce asked what I was doing and I told her it was time for her Driver's Ed hands on practice. We spent an hour with her driving around, pulling into and backing out of parking spots and then I let her drive us home. She was doing a pretty good job and I didn't think it was going to take much time at all to have her ready to take her drive test.

When we got home she said, "Tonight is going to be a first for you."

"In what way?"

"I've never cooked for you before so tonight you get your first home cooked meal from me. Go sit down while I break in our kitchen."

I went into the spare bedroom, fired up the computer and sent off some emails to people I knew and wanted to keep in touch with and whom I trusted to keep my whereabouts to themselves. Joyce called me to dinner and I got up and went out to the kitchen. She had made spaghetti with meat sauce and had toasted some garlic bread. It was pretty damned good and I told her so.

"When mom had her stroke I ended up having to do all the cooking so I'm not half bad at it."

After we ate we went out and Joyce practiced her driving for an hour and then we went home. I told Joyce to walk through the place and make a list of what we needed or should have to make the place more livable and then I went off to shower. I half expected that Joyce would join me, but she didn't. When I was done I put on a tee-shirt and a pair of shorts and went out into the living room. Joyce was sitting on the couch and she was looking sad. Before I could say anything she said:

"I wasn't snooping and I didn't mean to do what I did, but who is Boots?"

"How do you know about Boots?"

"I went to use the computer while you were in the shower and while I was there an email came in. I'm not all that computer savvy and I was trying to use Google and I hit the wrong key or something and the email came up on the screen. It said, "Where are you Rob and why did you run out on me?" It was signed Boots."

I thought about it for a couple of seconds and then said, "I guess you were going to find out sooner or later. Boots is my wife's nickname."

"What does she mean when she says that you ran out on her?"

"It is what I did. I packed up and walked out one day while she was at work."

"You told me that you were divorced."

"No I didn't. What I said when you brought up the white band of skin on my ring finger was that the ring was gone because the marriage was gone and that I was going to California to start over. I didn't divorce Bev; I just walked away. My thinking was that why should I have to pay for a divorce when she is the one who ended the marriage. Let her get the lawyer and pay for it."

"I don't understand how you could just walk away."

"It was a lot easier than you would think. I suppose to be fair to you I should tell you the whole story so you can decide if you want to stay here or not."

I thought back on it and said, "It all started when I was thirteen. The house next door to us had been sitting empty for almost a year and one morning I heard a lot of noise outside so I looked and saw a moving van trying to park so they could unload."

My memory danced as I told Joyce the story.

"A new family was moving in and I wondered if they had any kids my age. I'd no sooner had the thought when a car pulled into the driveway. A man and a woman got out and they were followed by two girls who looked my age. They looked the same and I found out later that they were identical twins. Mom and dad went over to welcome the new neighbors and knowing that it might be a while before the pots and pans could be unpacked they invited the new family to dinner.

"That evening I met Beverly and Belinda. They were exactly alike. They dressed alike, they sounded alike and they even had the same mannerisms. My dad commented on it and Mr. Ferris laughed and said that even after thirteen years he still had trouble telling them apart.

"You asked me earlier if I believed in love at first sight and I told you that I believed that it was possible, but the fact was that I did fall in love with Beverly Ferris at first sight. I can't explain it and I doubt that anyone else could, but even though the girls were identical in every way I fell in love with Beverly. Maybe her parents occasionally had trouble telling then apart, but I instantly knew which one was Beverly and just as instantly I knew that my heart belonged to her.

"Over the next couple of months I got to know Beverly and Belinda better and the two of them couldn't believe that I could always tell them apart when no one else could. They started testing me. Bev would ask me to come over and do something for her, but it would be Belinda who met me at the door and then started telling me what she needed help with and I would ask her where Bev was. I'd make a date to take Bev to the movies and when I got to the house to pick her up it would be Belinda who would say that she was ready to go. Not once in all the years that I knew them where they able to fool me like they fooled others. If they had been identical quintuplets I would still have been able to single Bev out of the bunch.

Over the years Bev and I grew closer and closer. I asked her to go steady on her sixteenth birthday and she said yes. A month before high school graduation I asked her to marry me and she said yes, but not until after we finished college. All was not sunshine and roses along the way. We argued and broke up, dated others, but we always got back together. Bev gave me her virginity the day after her eighteenth birthday and after that we made love two or three times a week.

"Things were fine until our sophomore year in college. We had a big fight over Bev wanting to go to Panama City with Belinda over spring break. I was against it because I didn't want her to be with Belinda. Belinda had turned into a round-heeled slut in our junior year in high school and I didn't like being around her. I had a part time job and I couldn't get off to go on spring break and I just did not want Bev to go. It wasn't that I didn't trust her; I just didn't want her exposed to the kind of people that I knew Belinda would hook up with. Bev and I had a huge argument over it and she told me to stuff it, that she was going and that was that. It turned out that I had been right to worry.

"She'd been back a week and I hadn't made any attempt to call her or see her and in fact I went out of my way to avoid her. Her "Stuff it!" still rankled me and I was in no mood to be around her. She called several times but I never took the calls. It wasn't easy avoiding her since she lived right next door, but I managed. Twice I saw her coming up the front walk and I quickly left the house by the back door.

"She finally cornered me in the Student Union and asked me where I had been and why hadn't she been able to get in touch with me. I told her flat out that I was avoiding her. As far as I was concerned when she told me to stuff it she was kissing me off. She told me that I had taken it wrong and she really hadn't meant it that way. She was just mad because I was fighting with her over going. I let her sweet talk me into going out with her that night and we ended up making love.

"The next day as I was leaving my first class in the morning Eddie Wooters, who was my best friend, caught me in the hall and asked me how things were going:

"Okay I guess, but I'm not looking forward to Fisker's class. I know he is going to hit us with a pop quiz and I didn't study last night."

"I know. I saw you out with Bev. It ain't really none of my business bud, but I got to tell you. I wouldn't be a friend if I kept quiet. You might already know, but I've got to make sure."

"Sure of what?"

"That you know about what Bev did while she was in Panama City."

"I don't know anything about what went on down there."

"Bev and Lindy hooked up with some guys and to put it bluntly she fucked around on you."

"You're serious?"

"Saw it myself. I was staying at the same motel. Bev and Lindy spent five days sharing a motel room with seven or eight guys. I didn't see it happen in person, but the third night there I saw one of the guys coming out of the room pulling up his zipper and wearing an "I just got some" look on his face. I got curious so I went up to him and said:

"Hey man; I know we don't know each other, but I got to ask you something personal" and he told me to go ahead. I told him that I had been watching him and his buds with the twins and I was curious. I told him that I had been trying to score with either one of them for years, but couldn't anywhere and then I straight out asked him if he was getting any off of one of them. He laughed and said he was getting it from both of them.

"From the look on my face he must have thought I didn't believe him so he pulled out his cell phone and showed me a couple of pictures. He had one with one of the girls - I don't know which one cause I never could tell them apart – on her knees with a cock in her mouth. Another one had one of them getting it doggie while she had a cock in her mouth, but it was the third picture that told the tale. It was of both girls lying on the bed next to each other and they were both being fucked.

"Sorry to be the one to tell you bud, but I thought that you needed to know if only for your health."

"My health?"

"I didn't see no rubbers being used in the pictures. Could have been and I just didn't notice, but I didn't see any. Anyway, seven or eight guys and you know what they say. When you are having sex with someone you are having sex with everyone that that person had sex with. Who knows where those guys had been dipping their wicks. I was you bud I wouldn't be having sex with Bev until you can find out if she's clean."

"Too late for that. We got it on last night."

"Oh shit! Cross your fingers bud and pray for good luck. Got to run or I'll be late for Reynolds."

"As he walked away I was standing there thinking that I had been right all along and I should have insisted that Bev not go and have been more forceful in saying that we were through if she went. Even as I had the thought I knew that I couldn't have done that. I loved her too damned much. But love or not Eddie was right about my health.

"I didn't get much out of my classes that day because my mind was on what Eddie had told me and what it meant to me. By the end of classes I knew what I was going to have to do. I was supposed to go out with Bev that night and when I got home I called her and told her that I was cancelling our date.

"Why" she asked.

"Because I found out today what you did in Panama City. I warned you not to go with your slut of a sister, but you wouldn't listen and what I was afraid of happened."

"Nothing happened Rob."

"Bullshit Beverly!" and then I lied to her. "I've seen the pictures. The one of you lying on the bed next to your sister with both of you being fucked was pretty telling. Anyway, after you fucking God only knows how many guys I'm not having anything to do with you until you can bring me a lab report showing me that you are disease free and even then I'm not sure that I'll be having much to do with you. As it is I'm going to have to go in and get myself tested to see if you gave me any gifts last night."

"I hung up on her and ten seconds later the phone rang and I hard Bev say, "You've..." and I cut her off with, "Not until I know you are clean and not until I know that you haven't already given me something" and I hung up on her. It rang again almost immediately and I didn't bother to answer it. I knew what was going to happen next so I went to the front window. Sure enough Bev came rushing out of her house and headed for mine. I grabbed my coat and beat it out the back door.

"I managed to avoid her for the next three days, but on Friday when I got home from class I found Bev sitting in the living room talking with my mother. I wanted to walk right on by the living room and go up to my room, but I couldn't do it. My mom would get after me for being rude and I really couldn't tell her why I wanted to stay away from the girl she knew I was in love with. I joined them and after a couple of minutes of small talk my mom got up and said:

"I'll leave you two to socialize and go and start dinner."

She was no sooner out of the room and Bev said, "We have to talk Rob."

"About what Bev? The wonderful time that you had on break? I've already seen the pictures of that so there isn't anything you can say that I need to hear."

"Yes there is Rob. First of all I have to admit that you were right. I should have known better than to have gone with Belinda. I knew what kind of crowd she would hang with, but I thought that it wouldn't matter to me because all I was going to do was lie on the beach and work on a tan. I screwed up. I went out with her one night and we had a great time drinking and dancing with all the guys who bought us drinks. I didn't pay attention and I got drunk. I was so drunk that I didn't know what I was doing. I got screwed. I got screwed several times.

"I woke up in the morning between two guys and as soon as they saw that I was awake they went to work on me and we ended up spending most of the morning on the bed. I'm not going to lie to you here Rob. I liked it. I liked it a lot. I liked being the center of attention and having two hunky guys doing their best to see to it that I had a great time. Of course I know that they were doing it for their own gratification and not mine, but that didn't take away the fact that the two of them were giving me almost continuous orgasms.

"After that it was a case of not worrying about the barn doors because the horses were already out of the barn and running. I gave in and went with the flow. The thing Rob is that it was only sex. I had no emotional ties to any of the guys in the group that Lindy and I ended up sticking with. All they were to me was what I was to them – meat! All I was to them was a hole to fill and all they were to me were hole fillers who got me off.

"I said I wasn't going to lie to you and I won't. It is a memory that I will treasure, but it is not something that I ever want to do again. None of those guys meant anything to me Rob. In fact I can only remember the names of two of them. I didn't feel anything about any one of them the way I feel about you. I love you Rob and I want to spend my life with you. I'm asking you to look at what I did as a young woman sowing her wild oats and getting some things out of her system while she was still single.

"Please Rob; don't let one stupid, drunken mistake ruin what we could have."

I listened to what she had to say and I believed she meant it when she said that she loved me and wanted to spend her life with me. God knows that I loved her and had since the day I had first set eyes on her. I was quiet for a bit and then said:

"I can't promise you that I will get by it, but before I even try I'll need to see a clean bill of health from a doctor or a lab before I'll have anything more to do with you. I was tested yesterday and if I test clean and you test clean we can sit down and talk again, but until then I'd like you to stay away from me. I have a lot to think about and it will be easier if you aren't around as a constant reminder of what I'm having to think about."

"We did both test clean and after several long talks and a ton of promises we managed to put things back together although Bev never did get back to the level of trust I had in her before she went on spring break. We finished school and were married three weeks later. The next five years were good ones and we both found jobs that we liked.

"The trouble started in the sixth year although I didn't realize it at the time. Bev and I had what I thought was a pretty good sex life. We made love three or four times a week and we enjoyed the many various positions. We did a lot of oral on each other and Bev was particularly fond of anal. Bev started asking me if I had any fantasies and even though I did have a few I was smart enough to keep them to myself. I mean what wife really wants to hear you say that there are other women you fantasize about? And the other side of the coin – what man wants to hear that his wife is thinking of other men while she is making love to him? She laughed when I told her I didn't have any.

"Everyone has fantasies lover so come on and tell me yours. I can't make them happen if I don't know about them."

"You couldn't make them happen anyway. They are things I fantasize about, but would never even consider doing because the actuality might change my life in ways that I can't even begin to imagine. What's with the sudden interest in fantasies?"

"I was reading an article in Cosmopolitan that said that one of the ways to keep a marriage exciting is to satisfy some of your fantasies. I was talking to Lindy about it and she said even if we didn't really do the fantasy maybe we could role play them."

Oh great, I thought, just what we need; sexual advise from the biggest slut in the state. She and the twit she married were swingers and belonged to a wife swapping group.

"I take it from this conversation that you have fantasies that you want to live out?"

"Of course I do and I know you do too. When we are making love haven't you ever imagined you were between those long legs of Marsha Moss?" Haven't you ever wished you could have Jenny Mellman's 44Ds in your mouth?"

I had. Many times in fact, but I wisely said no. Then I said, "But from what you just said I'm guessing that when we make love you are imaging some other guy's dick in you."

She glanced away and then just as quickly glanced back and said, "Of course I don't."

"Am I that bad that you have to pretend that I'm someone else? Maybe you are even faking the orgasms you have when we screw."

"I said that I didn't imagine other guys."

"You did and you were lying through your teeth."

I got up and went out to the garage to find something to do to keep me busy. I was pissed! I did fantasize about fucking other women when I was making love to Bev, but I wasn't crass enough to tell that to Bev and possibly upset her. It wasn't that Bev wasn't getting the job done because she was. I thought about some other women when making love to Bev because of curiosity. I did think about Marsha's long leg because I wondered if they would wrap around me and she would be able to lock her ankles behind my back. I wondered that because Bev's legs weren't long enough to do it. I never wondered if Marsha would be a better fuck than Bev because Bev was great. I could never tell Bev that I fantasized about Marsha and why because it would – or so I believed – cause her to think she was lacking and couldn't give me what I wanted. In other words, it would hurt her.

What would have happened to her is what just happened to me. Finding out that she fantasized about other men while fucking me made me start to wonder if I was somehow lacking. Was I not doing my job? Was she fantasizing about some big cocked stud because I wasn't big enough for her? Was she pretending to be with someone who could fuck her all night? It was one thing to imagine she was doing what I was doing, but to bring it out in the open was something else. I mean in the one case it was real and in the other it wasn't. Face it. The next time I made love to her I would be thinking:

"Who does she wish she was fucking now?"

Those were not the kind of thoughts you should be having while making love to your wife. I was going through my tool box straightening up the drawers when Bev stuck her head into the garage and said "I'm going over to Lindy's." No "Miss me?" No "I love you" just a flat "I'm gong over to Lindy's." I could tell she was pissed at me, but in the mood I was in I thought "So fucking what!" She wasn't home by the time I went to bed and I was asleep when she did get home and she was quiet enough to wake me.