The Weekend Pt. 03

All characters engaging in sexual relationships or activities are 18 years old or older.

(c)Andyhm 2015

This is the last part of a three-part story.

I've placed this story in the loving wives category, although it could just as easily be in Romance or Erotic novels. Please let me know if you think I was wrong. But be warned I will delete non-constructive and insulting anonymous comments! If you are looking for a BTB or cuckold story, I give you fair warning stop reading now you are only going to waste your time.

The whole story is over forty-three thousand words so I've split it into three parts. Unusually for me, all three parts are finished and will be submitted on consecutive days.

This story needs an explication. And I gave it as a foreword to the first chapter so as I know you've all read the first two parts I don't need to repeat it all here!

This story started out as my interpretation of what a 'Get out of jail free' story should look like. I do realise it's grown and morphed into something entirely different. Me bad!!

I like to build up my stories with a fair degree of background. In this case, I really needed to explain why an entirely rational man would consider offering his wife-to-be, the opportunity to stray, if only once. And what happens when she finally decides she'd like to take him up on his offer.

This is my homage to this style of tale and I hope you enjoy it. It's full of discussion because it's my belief that regular people try to talk out their problems and not resort to excessive violence.

Oh, what the fuck I thought, in for a penny, in for a pound. "On Wednesday, she told me she wanted to go away for the weekend with her lover. You met her last night."

"Lover ... her! ...You... you mean Gillian Faith?"

I nodded, "Yah, apparently they were lovers at university, and it looks like they've decided to reconnect. I just don't understand it, Carol. This morning I was sure she loved me. Now I've no idea who she's with or where she is ..."

The Weekend. Part 3

I stared at the logs in the fireplace, my vision blurry with the tears I was trying to hold back. I finished my beer and put the glass down. Carol took my hand in hers.

I said to her with a catch to my voice. "She should have been home at seven and now it's almost eleven. She sent me a message saying she was delayed at the office and it wasn't true. She lied to me. Now she's ignoring all my calls and messages. Gillian's supposed to be here as well, and she's not turned up either."

"I'm sure she's got a perfectly reasonable reason for being late Neil."

"I'm no fool, Carol, I can add two and two together. I guess they've both gone to her villa in the south of France, just as Gillian planned, and I've realised I don't give a fuck anymore."

"Don't fret yourself, son, let me get you another drink."

"Thanks," and I handed her my glass. As she turned to go, I said, "What upsets me isn't that she wanted to go, it's that Karen felt she needed to lie to me about it. You know I almost hoped she was late because she'd been in an accident, not that she just couldn't be bothered to tell me she was going."

Carol left me to my contemplation of the end of my marriage.

It was quite a few minutes later before she returned and placed the beer on the table beside me.

She said, "There's someone here who'd like to talk to you."

Christ, I guess it was Philip wanting to talk tactics for tomorrow's match and I wasn't in the mood.

"Jesus Carol, tell Philip I'll be there tomorrow, but I really don't want to talk to him tonight."

"No lad, I think you do need to speak to this person."

I sighed and turned to see who it was. Karen stood there beside her. She was dressed in the same clothes she had been wearing in the morning. Her face looked tear stained and her eyes were red.

My heart lurched and then hardened. I'd devoted the past twelve years of my life to this woman and I deserved better than the crap I'd been getting the past few days. She'd kept vast important parts of her life secret from me and now I'd learned she loved someone else. This is the woman I'd poured my soul out to. I had no secrets from her, and as much as it hurt me I wasn't sure I could carry on like this.

"What do you want?" I asked in a belligerent tone, "Is she bored with you already?"

"Please Neil, I want you to come home, she's waiting for us back at the cottage."

"And I thought my day couldn't get any sodding worse. What was so fucking important today that you needed to lie to me, and then ignore me?"

She went to speak, but I stopped her. "On second thoughts, I don't want to hear yet another lie, Karen. Tell you what, why don't you go off with your fuck buddy to her villa for the weekend. It'll give me the time to pack a few things. I can stay in my rooms in college until I can find somewhere permanent.

Karen went white and collapsed on the chair next to me. I went to say some more, but I was stopped by Carol.

"Will you shut up you idiot, can't you see she's upset? She came running in here a few minutes ago frantically looking for you. You left your phone at home and she's been trying to call you for the past two hours."

"So now she knows how I've been feeling since this afternoon," I said bitterly.

"It's not what you think," Karen cried out. "Please listen to me."

Carol snapped, "Both of you sit there and say nothing until I close the place up, then we'll get to the bottom of this."

I suppose I should have explained much earlier, that Carol is my mother's cousin. Which makes her my, my ... well whatever it is, we are related. She's my mom's favourite cousin, and now that my parents live in Holland, has decided she's my de facto mother. Oh yes, and Philip the cricketer is her son which makes him my ... oh hell, I've no idea.

She was one of the reasons we had decided to buy the cottage in the village and also the reason we'd been accepted into the community so easily. It also gives her the right, so she believes, to treat me like an errant son.

We sat in silence while Carol bustled around ushering the last patrons out of the door. She locked the door and switched off a majority of the lights leaving us sitting in a single pool of light broken only by the soft glow of the bar lights. There was a chill in the air and Carol struck a match and held it to the kindling in the fireplace and the flames spread. I knew what she was doing, she was trying to give me time to calm down. She knew I was upset and would lash out at Karen in my anger.

After a few more moments Carol sat down beside us and looked expectantly at me. "Neil, it's no good blowing up if you don't, at least, give Karen a chance to explain," she said. "There may be an entirely legitimate reason for all of today. You need to let her tell you."

I shifted in my seat to look at Karen. She swallowed and started talking.

"Please, Neil, believe me, I never intended to upset you as much as I did. But I lost control of the meeting, and I wasn't allowed to get in contact."

That made no sense to me and I started to say as much, but Carol shushed me and told Karen to continue.

"The main reason Jilly got in contact with me was that she is about to launch her own range of clothing, lingerie, cosmetics and perfumes. She wanted to know if the agency would be interested in handling the branding and advertising and for us to run the campaign."

I snorted in disbelief and Karen said, "I know ... I know, I should have let you know when I got back. I called David from the states and he told me not to discuss it with anyone and explicitly said that included you. In the end, it was easier not to say anything and I thought I could deal with it after we'd discussed the weekend."

David owned the agency and could be a secretive son of a bitch when he wanted to be, so I wasn't too surprised by her words. Even so I was surprised he explicitly told her not to say anything to me. Something about these thoughts nagged at me, but I lost my train of thought in my bitterness.

"Well, that didn't work out to plan did it," I commented. "So he knows you two used to be lovers?"

She shook her head and sighed, "No, just that we were close friends at uni. I fucked that up, didn't I?" I could see the tears forming in the corner of her eyes but after a moment, she got herself under control.

"Once you got back home yesterday, I switched off my phone. I didn't want anything to distract us. I knew I had an important meeting today but at the time, I didn't want any distractions while we sorted things out."

"And?" I asked, not understanding what she was trying to say.

"I forgot to switch it back on until I got to the office and that's when I found out that my plans for today had been changed. I only had one meeting and that was with Jilly's management team, and representatives of the companies who were going to create all the items we are to brand and advertise."

That made no sense to me, surely Gillian would have known about the meeting, so why hadn't she mentioned it at breakfast. It was her endorsed products for Christ's sake that the meeting had been about. I was going to say something, but Karen continued.

"Even then I wasn't worried," she said. "I was told we were meeting the representatives in a hotel and that David, Janice and I were going to be driving down to London in an hour. I just assumed the meeting was in London and at worse, I'd only be a little late. And that's what I told the girl who was covering Janice's desk."

"Yah, I got that message," I muttered. "Not long after your, 'I'm stuck in the office' lie."

"I know, I worked that out when they allowed us to switch our phones back on."

"What do you mean, allowed you?"

"There's a hell of a lot of money riding on this and the other side are paranoid about secrecy. We got to the Dorchester where we met Jilly and her agent. Then we were driven to a country estate in Sussex. They insisted we switch off our phones. All we had with us was a thumb drive with our presentation and concept drawings. Understand that while Jilly was pushing for us, none of the others involved were. They have their own advertising agencies that they want to work with. It was an incredibly hard sell, we all worked our arses off to sell our ideas."

"I think that they were hoping that we would fuck up and they could convince Jilly that they needed to use their agencies."

She looked at me apologetically, "I'll be honest Neil, I got so involved I forgot all about you and the meal. Even with Jilly's support, the meeting was getting on to nine before we'd hammered out all the issues and came to an agreement and we signed a contract. They wanted us to stay for a meal to celebrate the deal, that's when I realised what the time was. When I switched my phone back on and I saw your texts and listened to the messages, I panicked. You weren't answering my calls to your mobile or the house phone, and I just had a panic attack. Jilly bless her, got me out of there. She told them that she and I had a prior engagement. Her driver drove like a maniac to us here and then I found the cold meal on the table...." She tailed away.

"That's when I really lost it. The meal you'd prepared, sitting on the table, cold and untouched, abandoned. Just like I'd abandoned you. I sat down on the floor and burst into tears. I thought that after everything that had occurred over the past few days you'd left me."

By now I was starting to feel like an ass. In my defence, she was right, that given everything that had occurred I hadn't so much as jumped to a conclusion, but rather snatched at the one that had fallen into my lap. But then again it seemed that Gillian and her business was so much more important to her, that she'd lied and then forgotten all about me. She must have known I'd have been worried and even if they'd made her switch her phone off there would have been phones at the hotel.

"Jilly pointed out that your car was in the drive so she didn't think you'd gone far, so I ran over here because I knew this is where you'd come."

I knew I should be apologising, but there was a stubborn streak in me that refused to let me. Plus truth be told, I was really feeling sorry for myself.

I sighed and said, "I can't do this anymore Karen. You've turned my life upside down this past week. I've been waiting for this to happen for as long as I've known you. You're beautiful and intelligent and for years, I've waited for a better man to come along and take you away from me. More fool me, I should have been looking for the better woman."

Karen gasped and Carol interjected, "You know she loves you, she's not looking for someone else. Nothing's changed son, it's obvious you both love each other."

I turned to her and said, "The problem is Carol, a few days ago I thought I was the only one she loved. It seems I was mistaken and I'm sorry, but I won't share her. Tonight was a comedy of errors I admit it. But it doesn't hide the fact I've been well and truly fucked over by her for the last couple of days."

Karen clasped at my hand, raising it to her lips to kiss it. I pulled it back. "There is only one man I have ever loved," she said imploringly. "I can't bare the thought of not being with you for the rest of my life. But Jilly was my first love and I've missed her these past years. For three long years, she was everything to me and I've tried to put her in the past."

"I need to know, me or her, who do you want?" I asked.

Karen went silent, her mouth opened and closed several times as though she was about to say something, but no words came just an extended low keening.

Carol hissed a breath in, "That's not fair, son."

"It is fair," I argued, "Every time she says she loves me, the next thing out of her mouth is something about her ex-lover or is it an ex, I don't know. I need to know where I stand in her world!"

"You," she said defiantly, "I choose you." Then softly, "I will always choose you over her." She looked at me beseechingly and then said with a faltering voice, "But I won't deny that there will always be a place for her in my heart."

"Oh, for fucks sake, you just did it again!"

Karen stared at me, tears streaming down her face. Then she said to Carol, "I don't think I can face her at the moment. Can we stay here tonight? And she needs to go back to London. Would you go over to our place and ask her to leave?"

Carol nodded and went to stand, but I took hold of her hand and stopped her.

I said, "You can't ask Carol to do that. It's our mess and we need to clear it up. We need to go and talk to her together. She needs to understand where she stands in your life."

I got to my feet and reluctantly Karen stood as well. Carol hugged the pair of us and we made our way across the village green. We held hands as we walked and I think both of us wanted to say what we were thinking, but neither knew how to start. So we walked in silence past the cricket pitch and the duck pond. I pulled her to a halt by the entrance of our drive.

"You realise if you'd just told me about Gillian and the other women when we first met we probably wouldn't be in this fix now."

"And you think you wouldn't have run away if I'd told you I was gay. I was in love with you and I didn't want to lose you."

I thought back to those first few dates and shook my head. "I knew I loved you that first night we met, and I still do regardless of any revelations."

A thought crossed my mind. "You keep telling me that you're gay, but Gillian says she's bi. You both have slept with men, I don't understand the difference?"

Karen gave me a wry smile, "It's simple, Jilly would fuck both men and women, she just prefers women. Before I met you, my lovers were exclusively women. Since we got engaged I've been exclusively yours, I love only one man. All others make my skin creep when they touch me in a sexual way. Trust me I tried in uni, Jilly wanted us to share a boy she knew. I threw up all over him."

She wrapped her arms around me. "When you caught hold of me that night, it was like an electric current hit me. It shocked me, you were a man and you should have repulsed me. Yet I was desperate for you to carry on touching me. And I still am!" She lay her head against my chest and sighed.

The lights were on in the hall as we let ourselves in through the front door. There was a flicker of firelight through the door to the lounge. Gillian appeared in the doorway, a half smile faded away as she took in our expressions. She went to hug Karen, but Karen kept her at arms distance and stepped around her into the lounge. Gillian followed her in and when I entered the room last, they were sitting on either end of the sofa. A cautious look passed between them.

I sat down on the armchair opposite them and realised we were mimicking the discussion at the pub last night. Was it really only twenty-four hours ago, so much had changed.

They both looked at me expecting me to start, but this wasn't my decision. I'd made mine, I was just here for the ride.

"You know what I think love," I said, "You need to explain to Gillian the situation, I'm not going to change my mind." I sank back into the soft cushions of the chair.

"Neil has given me a simple choice," she said. "I can have one of you as a lover but not both. The thought that I might lose him made my decision very easy. He will always come first, I'm sorry, I still love you and I always will, but you never will be as important as Neil to me."

She seemed to pause and gather her thoughts, "Jilly I'm glad you've come back into my life and I don't want to lose you. But your place in our lives is whatever Neil says it is."

I looked at her, she gave me a long pleading glance before turning back to Gillian. This wasn't exactly on script although it was obvious that she was desperately hoping that I wouldn't entirely reject her statement.

What did I want? I knew what I wanted. I wanted my wife to be happy, I wanted her to be happy with me. Christ, I wanted to be happy, and if I forced her to never see Gillian again, how long would it be before I lost her and I wasn't happy?

Did I love her enough to let her have her friendship with Gillian, knowing that the chances were that it would morph into something more? And if it did, could I cope with no longer being the only person in her life. Shit, deep down I knew I already wasn't the only person in her life.

Then something clicked in my mind, something that had been nagging at me since our talk yesterday. Something that had almost surfaced earlier. If I was right then, Karen was being played by a master manipulator. The timing, the theatre of the last few day's events hit me with a clarity of thought. But in case, I was barking up the wrong tree I needed to have my next conversation with Gillian in private.

I said to Karen. "Can you wait in our bedroom."

"But?"

"Please Karen, Gillian and I need to have a talk."

Karen stood and looked back and forth between us, indecision plastered across her face.

"Please love," I said, "There are a few things I need to understand and I think Gillian has the answers. If you're here, then I'm not sure she won't lie."

Now it was Gillian's turn to look annoyed and confused.

Karen smiled weakly and I took her hand and she followed me to the bottom of the stairs. We kissed and she started up the stairs.

"Wait," I said as she was half way up. "A quick question. Before you went to Chicago, had you ever discussed your relationship with Gillian with anyone in your office?"

She turned to face me and started to shake her head then she stopped. "Well not that we were lovers. But I know I've mentioned that we went to school together and were close friends at uni. Hey, she's a big movie star, it was fun telling people we shared a flat."