Those Famous Five Words Pt. 02

Jamie left D&D and went home. His head was spinning. Sharon had not been completely forthcoming with him.

He wasn't sure if it was her lying or omissions that upset him, or if it was that she kissed another man and allowed him access to her most intimate areas. Maybe it was both.

He asked himself, what if she admits everything, what would he do? Life had been better. Even her melancholy moods were gone. It was as if the nightmare ended, only it was worse than he thought.

Fallon was surprised to see him home so early.

"Hi, Dad. Going to surprise Mom again with a dinner tonight?"

"Hi, Fallon, maybe. Should I?"

"Yeah! You know the last two to three months have been like a roller coaster around here with you and Mom. First she was like lost, then you were in a bad mood and she was crying, then you take her out and it gets worse, only to get better and you are like to lovebirds. Now I look at you face and it looks like someone died. What is it with you guys?"

"Fallon, as surprising as this sounds, when we were younger and you guys were younger, most challenges in a relationship revolved around the kids and their issues. Once the kids, or in your case you guys, grew, we found or created other challenges that may have always been there but were obfuscated by raising children."

"Wow, Dad, that is heavy. I think I'll go back to my homework. I'll let you work this out." Fallon left Jamie to let him ponder his own thoughts. He decided he'd need a repeat of last time. He made a reservation at a nice Italian place. When Sharon got home, she saw the look on his face and knew something was wrong. She listened and he explained the schedule for the evening. She dressed, they ate dinner and found themselves back in the same park.

"Sharon, it's about your relationship with Steve."

"What relationship. I told you, I ended it. I thought we are good. What brought this up?"

"Is there something that you left out?"

"No, honey. I told you everything. What did you hear?"

"It's not important what I heard. It's important that you are completely honest with me. I am giving you another chance. Did you leave out anything?"

"No, Jamie, I didn't. I never lied to you. I told you that I had met Steve and I asked for your permission. You said no, so I dropped it."

"Sharon, we both know it's not as simple as that. Your entire relationship with Steve was not about a guy that you met one night in a bar and decided to ask for a hall pass."

"Jamie, I told you. It was three months. We spoke on the phone at work or met for lunch at a coffee shop near the office. There was never anything inappropriate to anyone on the outside in our meetings. He was a vendor, I was a client and we had a friendly professional relationship."

"How many bookkeepers from your office did Steve also take to lunch?"

"None that I'm aware of, but I deal with payments."

"How many bookkeepers in your office go out with clients or vendors?"

"None that I am aware of."

"How many bookkeepers from other clients did Steve take to lunch?"

"I have no idea, but Steve didn't take me to lunch, I always paid my own way."

"And you still think this was all appropriate?"

Sharon didn't answer.

"And there was do PDA?"

Sharon thought back to the one-time that Steve kissed her. Could Jamie have known about that? How would she react if she told him? She played it safe.

"I don't recall any. If there was, it wasn't anything, I don't think it could be interpreted as overly affectionate."

Jamie was digesting her answer. "Let's drop this for now, I am internalizing. When you are ready to tell me the entire truth, I'll be happy to hear it."

"Jamie, I told you everything."

Jamie, just looked at her. She knew he wasn't believing her, but what could she do?

"So where does that leave us?"

"I'm not sure. I'm going to the car, are you coming?"

"No.... wait... we haven't resolved everything."

"So you aren't coming to the car?

"No, yes, I am coming to the car but..."

Jamie just walked away a few steps ahead of Sharon at a very fast pace. Sharon ran up to him but he had already entered the car and started the ignition. Sharon just got in and they rode home in silence. She was frightened but didn't know what to do or say.

*****

The next day Jamie called Tanya and made an appointment.

"Hi, Jamie, it's been two months. I assumed everything was okay."

Jamie just handed her the PI reports from D&D.

"Did you ask Sharon about this, show it to her?"

"No, and I have no intention of doing that. I have two issues. One is the level of intimacy that they shared. That is something that maybe I could overlook, maybe I can't. I haven't considered that yet."

"So you said two issues, what is the other issue?"

"Honesty, respect. If she can't be honest with me, then she obviously doesn't respect me. I gave her two chances to be honest with me, including last night. No, I didn't, as you say in your language, lead the witness. I asked her for the entire story. She never mentioned going to his apartment and we know what happened there.

"If she doesn't respect me, how can I stay married to her?"

"So you want to piss off 23 years of marriage?"

"Tanya, this is not just a minor detail. I was patient. I asked her for the entire story."

"Jamie, I am going to play devil's advocate."

"Since you're my attorney, am I the devil?" Jamie smiled and Tanya realized that he was kidding.

"I'm glad you have your humor, If I were Sharon, I would not suspect Steve of discussing that evening, so how could you possibly know? I would take a chance."

"Tanya, I need humor sometimes to help me get by. I understand. I will not tell her about D&D and their report. I will give her one more chance and let her know that I will begin divorce proceedings immediately if she doesn't tell me everything. I will let her know that I know there is more to the story."

That evening, Fallon was out. There was no conversation during dinner. After dinner, Jamie asked Sharon to come to the den. He sat in his office chair while she sat on the small couch.

"Sharon, I gave you two chances to tell me the complete story. I know on very reliable sources that you did not. If you can't be honest with me, then you leave me no choice but to terminate our marriage. I have already discussed this with my attorney."

Sharon had tears flowing, but she tried to stay strong.

"Jamie, I don't know what you think you know or what you heard or why this is all coming up now, almost two months after my last contact with Steve, but I told you everything. Please tell me what you heard and I will admit or deny it."

"No, darling wife. That's not the way this works. I asked you for the complete truth. I need you to provide me with that."

Sharon thought that maybe someone did see Steve kiss her once in public and just reported that to Jamie.

"Okay, I didn't think it was a big deal. One day after meeting Steve for lunch, as we were parting, he surprised me and put his hand behind my head and kissed me."

Jamie was not expecting this admission. He needed to calm himself. This information was in the PI report, but was not what he focused on.

"Not a big deal. Just last night you said there was no PDA and now you miraculously remember that there was once. Did you kiss him back, was it open mouthed? What lead to the kissing?"

"I was surprised; it may have been open mouthed. I told him never to do that again and we never kissed again."

Another lie that Jamie caught.

"And, Sharon dear, what lead to the kissing?"

"Is it important?"

Jamie shouted for the first time "EVERYTHING IS IMPORTANT!".

"Please don't shout at me. I already told you I made a mistake. That was at least a month before I asked you for the hall pass."

"So around six weeks into your relationship with him?"

"There was no relationship, but yes, around six weeks."

"Stop deluding yourself, there certainly was a relationship. You were kissing another man in public and conspiring with him to cheat on me and on your marriage."

Sharon just looked at Jamie. "I may have conspired, but I didn't cheat."

"Your definition of cheating may not be the same as mine. As far as I know, if I can believe you, you didn't have sexual intercourse, so there was no penetration. Was there oral, did you blow him, did he eat you? "

"Where would I have done anything like that. I told you we only met in my office and at a very public restaurant."

Another lie. By this time, Sharon may have completely forgotten about her one visit to his apartment.

Jamie continued, "You still did not say what lead to the kissing? I assume your vendors are not in the habit of kissing you intimately too often, or maybe that is a job requirement?"

"Jamie, stop the sarcasm. I may have agreed at that lunch to agree to take the relationship to the next level. I may have told him about your fetish and how I wanted to try it for you with him."

"Don't you turn this on me. If you thought that I wanted that, you should have spoken to me, before you even discussed with Steve or even decided that it was appropriate to go to lunch, as innocent as you claim it was, with him."

Sharon continued to tear up. She didn't know what to do. She didn't know what he wanted.

"Jamie, maybe we should seek professional help?"

"We may be forced to. I am sleeping in the guest room tonight, but maybe you should start looking for an attorney and another place."

"JAMES WILLIAMS! Will you please cut this out already?"

Jamie just turned his back and walked away from her.

*****

They didn't communicate for an entire week. Fallon felt the tension in the house. She asked each of her parents what was going on. They just said that they are working on some issues. One night they both came home with news.

Sharon initiated. "There's something I need to discuss with you."

Jamie was hopeful that she was ready to admit something.

"Good, because I also may have something to discuss with you. You first."

Jamie's response caught Sharon off balance a bit but she continued.

"I met today with a therapist. Her name is Dr. Rachel Millwood. She came highly recommended. I gave her the highlights of the story. She, of course, wants to meet with you alone and then with the two of us together. Will you see her? I will give you her contact information."

This was not what Jamie wanted to hear. "I will see her, but that doesn't change anything. I have all the divorce papers ready, we need to talk to the kids. I also want to ask you where you'd like to be served. I don't need to publicly humiliate you, like you did to me."

"Jamie, you can't be serious. I love you with every ounce of my being. Please stop this. Please see the therapist. I don't know what your ego is making you do, but it's hurting you and us."

Jamie started to tear up. "Sharon, I will see the therapist. We will probably be forced to see one anyway. I know on very reliable sources that you have not been truthful with me. If you can't be truthful, that means to me that you don't respect me. You may think you love me, but love comes with respect, and I don't feel any from you. It is with great pain that I feel the need to terminate our marriage. Every time I look at you, I see a beautiful woman, mother of my children, partner for life, who stopped respecting me. That is too painful for me to handle. I may regret this. I may miss you terribly, but right now I am too pained to be in your presence." With that, Jamie put his head down.

Sharon was now openly bawling. "Oh my god, what have I done, what have I done," she said out loud to no one and everyone.

Jamie continued, "We need to tell the kids. I will call the boys and ask them to come home for the weekend. It's a short trip for Dillon coming from Northwestern and Ethan can get a plane from Boston. I guess I will look for a place. I don't want to throw Fallon out and I don't want to separate her from her mother, though she will be moving out to California in a few months.

"I will meet with Tanya, my attorney, and Nathan, whom you know, and try and work out something amicable. I suggest that you do seek out your own attorney."

Jamie left a stunned Sharon and went downstairs to sleep in the guestroom.

The meeting with the kids Saturday afternoon was not fun. All three of them had a very concerned look, although Fallon had told her brothers that things between their mom and dad hadn't been so great recently. They were all hoping that it wasn't a health related issue. Jamie started

"Your mother and I have initiated the process of divorce. There are certain issues in our relationship which can't be resolved. We are on friendly terms, very civil to each other, as you can see. We love all three of you and this has nothing to do with any of you."

Dillon, the oldest, spoke first. "Dad, you are wrong about that. I may be about to graduate college, but it has lots to do with each of us. It will be a major change in our lives. So who do we go to Thanksgiving or Christmas next year, you or Mom? You are making us make choices that we didn't need. You are almost forcing us to choose a side in an issue which will affect our relationship with one or both of our parents."

"I assume that we will still celebrate together," Jamie answered

Then Ethan popped in. "I bet Mom won't be too happy being with you and your girlfriend."

"I don't have any girlfriend, what gave you that idea?"

It was Fallon's turn. "Dad, I may have given them that feeling. I can't figure out what is going on, but you have been taking Mom out for dinner, my guess was to apologize."

Sharon popped in. "Fallon, I told you that I upset your father and I had to apologize. Where did you get that impression it was the other way around?"

Dillon interjected, "Mom, do you want this divorce?"

Sharon didn't know what to answer, she was trying to keep a united front for the kids. It was Jamie who answered.

"No, she does not. I am the bad guy. The reasons are not your concern. They are between your mother and me."

"Your father is not the bad guy," Sharon added. "It takes two to tango. We both did things that at the moment, for reasons that I can't explain, can't be remedied. We both love you. I wouldn't worry about holidays or girlfriends yet. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

Jamie just added "Or boyfriends."

Sharon gave him one very dirty look. Fallon caught it.

The conversation ended. The house was pretty subdued the rest of the day. At some point they all left to meet with friends. Sharon stayed away from Jamie. Later in the day, she called Dan Simmonds, husband of her friend Felecia, and asked to meet with him in his office. Jamie was not friendly with Dan and Felecia. He knew that Felecia was a colleague of Sharon's and that her husband was a divorce lawyer.

*****

"Nice to meet you Dr. Millwood."

"Please, call me Rachel. I wanted to meet with each of you alone first. When I feel you both are ready, we will meet together. I understand from your wife that you have already filed for divorce; why the hurry?"

"Rachel, as I explained to Sharon, she was not truthful with me. I have interpreted that as a lack of respect. I can't be with a woman, partner, lover, whatever you'd like to call her, when she doesn't respect me."

"Can you share with me how she wasn't being truthful?"

"No, she needs to do that on her own. I will not share with you or anyone, the evidence that I have obtained that proves her deceit, and to some extent her infidelity."

"Are you claiming that she was intimate with Steve?"

"That depends on one's definition of intimate. That is only secondary. The main issue, as far as I'm concerned, is honesty."

"You are putting me in a difficult position. I have to evaluate both of you and try and help each of you. You claim that Sharon has not been honest with you, yet you show me no evidence of her perceived deceit. You act, pardon me, almost godly to me, claiming that you know things that I am not entitled to know. How am I supposed to help Sharon if you don't help me? You do want me to help Sharon, or are you just making this all up as an excuse to terminate the marriage?"

Jamie started to get angry.

"I did not bring Steve Carter into the marriage, Sharon did."

"Yes, but you brought in the internet porn site."

"And If I masturbated would you say that I brought in my right wrist? What the hell does an internet website have to do with my wife conspiring to cheat."

"Jamie, conspiring is not cheating. Every time I dream of killing a patient of mine, am I guilty of murder?"

"Do you hate me that much that you dream of killing me?"

"I just met you, I'll let you know tomorrow, but if I do, you'd be the first." Rachel answered with a smile, trying to lighten the mood.

"I think we got off on the wrong foot" Rachel continued, "Let's try again. I won't press you on your evidence, can you share with me your source?"

"Not at this time, maybe in the future."

"Okay, so let me clarify, your only issue is honesty and the fact that you believe or have evidence that Sharon is not completely forthcoming with you?"

"No, that is not my only issue. Now I have some questions for you, they are actually a series of questions. The answers are multiple choice, either 'yes', 'no', 'probably' or 'maybe', can I begin?"

"Sure, this is a bit unusual, but go ahead."

"All my question begin as follows, 'If a wife, behind her husband's back and without his knowledge...'"

"Okay, go ahead."

"If a wife, behind her husband's back and without his knowledge has sexual intercourse with another man, would that be considered cheating?"

"Yes"

"If she gives a blow job to another man, or eats out a woman, would that be considered cheating?"

"Yes, no, maybe, probably"

Jamie started to laugh. "You can't use all four choices, only one."

Rachel realized what she said then smiled and laughed

"Probably".

"If she has some man or woman perform cunnilingus on her."

"Probably".

"If she gives or receives an erotic massage from a man or woman?"

"Maybe"

"If she has her breasts felt up?"

"Maybe, no. I am saying 'no' that would not be cheating. It may be inappropriate, but not cheating."

"How about open mouth extending French kissing, making out?"

"Inappropriate."

"Okay, what about getting fingered or having her pussy played with?"

"Inappropriate. No, that is a maybe" Rachel continued, "Jamie, I don't think there is a simple answer for these questions, there is a fine line to be determined, I don't think there is a scientific rule."

"How about having phone sex with someone outside her marriage?"

"Inappropriate."

"If she masturbates in front of someone outside her marriage or watches someone else masturbate, in person?"

"Inappropriate."

"Okay, we can do this all day, but my time is running out and I need to make some money so I can pay for all your meetings with Sharon and me. I have one last question and the question can be broken down into millions of sub questions."

"Go ahead."

"What is worse, a one-night stand; with full sexual intercourse maybe even a bar pickup, or an ongoing three-month intimate relationship with maybe some of the 'inappropriate' things that we discussed above?"

Rachel didn't answer right away. She felt a faint smile cross her face. She realized that her new client had, touched on something. He had a very high IQ.

"I'm going to have to give it some thought. I see what you are saying. Thank you, Jamie, you are helping me help you and Sharon."

"I don't need help. Sharon just has to be honest."

"And then all will be good and you will stop the divorce?"

Now it was Jamie's turn to smile. "No, I didn't say that. We haven't gone there yet."

"Thank you for being honest with yourself, and while I can argue with you that we can assume, from your perspective, that Sharon will be honest, and begin to work on the second part, I guess, we'll focus on the honesty first. I understand you have your first court date in a few days, I'll see Sharon, and then it's you in two weeks, correct?"