Tom

I tried to call Tom but his cell phone went straight to voice mail. I left an angry message that in hindsight maybe wasn't such a great idea. I left a few other messages asking him to reconsider and maybe we could work to put 'things' back together. I thought about going to his office but I figured I wouldn't get past the receptionist. Nevertheless I had to take action fast. I got in my car and drove there. I did manage to make it past the receptionist by just walking in as if I belonged there. She never looked up.

Tom wasn't in his office. I waited around for about an hour, but he never showed up. I left knowing that I had things to do. I was in damage-control mode now.

When I got back to my office, the hurricane had picked up speed. There was another process-server with an envelope waiting for me. This one was a temporary court order telling me that I was not allowed to reside at my home for the next thirty days or until there was a formal hearing to sort out some of the details. I was allowed a time to go home to collect necessary personal items of clothing and effects and any work related documents, computers or related equipment. I would have to call a court clerk to set up a time but it would not be before tomorrow at the earliest. Tom's lawyer got inside the loop on this one and already I was fighting uphill.

**********

Tom

I sent Kath a text to tell her that I would pack a bag for her and drop it off at her office. I asked her to send me a list of what she wanted. Either that or she could come home and have my lawyer supervise her packing her things.

I was home all day, but got a call from my boss to tell me that Kath was parked in my office for over an hour waiting for me to come back. He was keeping everyone away from her. I thanked him.

Kath showed up at the house late in the afternoon when she knew the kids would be coming home from school. I looked at her, "You know that the court order means that you shouldn't be here."

"Why would you do something like that? That's not necessary and really quite ridiculous. You want to keep me from the kids? Why would you do that?"

"Oh, come on! Now you're the concerned parent anxious to be with her kids? What about all the weekends you spent with your boyfriends? All the weeknights you missed the bedtime routines? All the kids activities that you couldn't find the time to be at? You've taken every opportunity to spend time with your boyfriends instead of your children or me! (I was kind of shouting at this point). Now you come home to tell me I'm ridiculous? If you wanted a divorce so you could fuck around why the hell didn't you just tell me? Why all nonsense? Tell me!"

"I..I..what I do, and not do, is none of your business. Who I have sex with is none of your concern. You could have been having sex with me every week, but you've passed up your chance.."

"...My chance!? My fucking chance!? Oh, that's rich! You offer me sloppy thirds and then when I decline the opportunity to get a sexually transmitted disease from you and your boyfriends all you ever do is turn away and ignore me. Well, now is my opportunity to ignore you. Get the shit that you came to get and get the fuck out! Now!"

Kath backed up a bit and her face reddened. I picked up my phone and dialled my lawyer. When she answered I said, "It seems that my wife doesn't understand court orders and is here unaccompanied by any court official to get some of her shit." She said to get a photo of her if I could and that she would call the police and have them come to the house.

Kath was slow in packing and sure enough, two female police officers arrived. I explained the situation and showed them a copy of the court order. After some discussion I pointed them towards the master bedroom. They went up the stairs and after some loud discussion they escorted Kath down to the kitchen. To say that she was pissed would be a gross understatement. She was going nuclear on the cops.

The cop in charge told her to calm down or they would handcuff her and take her to the station. One of the police officers looked at me asked if I wanted to press charges. I inhaled, then exhaled, and told her 'no.' I figured that the point had been driven home sufficient to let her know that I was pissed at her for the last year and half and that we had reached a breaking point.

The cop in charge escorted her back upstairs, Kath collected her suitcase, got some work things from the office and then headed out the front door to her car.

I went back inside, closed the door and called my lawyer to report what had gone on. I had several photos of Kath with the cops.

**********

A few days later, my lawyer called and told me that Kath's lawyer (she decided that she needed a family law expert - Kath's area of expertise is corporate law) had called and asked for a meeting. The four of us would sit down and calmly discuss everything and it would all get sorted out. So, I agreed that a face-to-face meeting might speed the process along. It would be in my lawyers conference room in two days time.

At home, the kids were very curious where their mother was. Being away for this length of time was a bit new. Mind you she had been away before but she had always given the kids some fiction about what she was doing and where she was going. When I heard her tell them, I might fake a cough or laugh; she would look at me out of the corner of her eyes and give a derisive grimace.

I showed up for the meeting a bit early to talk to my lawyer. We had discussed the overall objectives that I wanted and just how to convince Kath that it was in her best interests to agree.

What Kath's lawyer didn't say beforehand was that the plan they had was to plead that things had gotten out of control. That Kath was deeply regretful for all the pain that she had unknowingly caused me and that our marriage was priceless to her and that we would solve all issues and problems with marriage counselling and that she should immediately move home to be with me and the children. Right.

As Kath and her lawyer droned-on about the importance of marriage to the family unit and that children thrive in a two-parent household rather than a single-parent environment and blah, blah, blah. It was all bullshit. We all knew it and I gave her my 'incredulous' expression.

My lawyer countered with the question: 'Have you received the results of the STD testing yet?'

Kath and her legal-eagle looked at each other and then at me and replied with a question: "Why would you want medical testing?"

I snorted at that and replied to her lawyer. "Because I want to make sure that she hasn't infected me with some strange and deadly fucking disease. Are you confident that Robert and James have not been fucking other people? If you are let's ask them." Heads rapidly swivelled about, they jumped up, and both Kath and her lawyer were now shouting at me.

I ignored them and sat with my arms crossed. Finally, they sat and calmed down. Her lawyer offered, "There is no need to involve anyone else in this private matter. We will pursue the STD testing next week and report any relevant findings."

I quickly added, looking Kath in the face, "I want the findings, in writing, no matter what they are. Right now I have no trust in you, as you might guess."

**********

The divorce was going to be long and painful. I knew that Kath did not want to involve her boyfriends in our business. Especially Robert, he had the most to lose and I knew that if we served him a subpoena to come and tell a family law judge how long he had been having sex with a subordinate at the law firm, it would not go well for him. His career would suffer and his wife might be a bit peeved at him. It would cost him.

James was another story. To buy his silence he could be threatened with firing or encouraged with a promotion and money. He wasn't married or living with anyone but my investigator learned that he enjoyed the company of both women and men in his bed. That alone would really upset the apple cart at the law firm. Scandal is bad for business. Kath had a lot to lose.

**********

The weeks dragged on to months and there were court appearances to throw out the earlier court order denying Kath access to the house. She got it overturned and triumphantly returned home to find the house empty of the kids and I; we had gone to Disneyworld in Florida.

My cellphone lit up. Calls and text messages from Kath were plentiful. 'Where are you' was the main theme of things. After a good amount of time I replied that the kids and I were very busy having fun. I turned the phone off at that point and it stayed off for the remainder of our time in Florida.

On the plane ride home I knew that I was faced with a difficult chore of managing home and...well...everything else. When we landed in Albany, I took a moment to call my lawyer. She advised me to do nothing to antagonize the situation and say as little as possible to Kath. My lawyer was working at a feverish pace to get the order keeping Kath away from the house, returned to power. She admitted that it might take a while. I resolved that my life was going to be sheer hell for the next weeks.

And it was.

Kath was jubilant to see the kids and hugged them for the longest time after we pulled into the driveway of the house. The kids had to work to extricate themselves from her iron-like grip and skedaddle off to their rooms. I busied myself with collecting the kids dirty laundry and my own and then getting it in the washing machine.

Kath was working in the kitchen, not her normal natural environment, and attempting to make us some food. The smell was...well, akin to burnt old sneakers. Disgusting. I used my phone and called for some chinese delivery. When it arrived, I called the kids to the kitchen and served them up. They gobbled it down to the sound of their mother peppering them with questions about Disneyworld. I ate in silence. When the kids were done they got a reprieve from the inquisition and hurried off to watch a movie on the streaming service we subscribe to. I cleaned the kitchen under to careful eye of Kath.

She sat at the table, "I missed the kids and you so much, Tom." It was said so quietly that I almost missed it. But I couldn't let it go.

"What, where were your boyfriends? I would imagine that they were happy to keep you company."

The next battle in our war turned out to be just the opening salvos. "I'm not with anyone, Tom. I want us to be a family and get on with all the things that we have to do. I know that you don't believe it but I love you very much..."

I interrupted, "...just not enough to close your legs to other men...."

Kath ignored my comment, "I've set up an appointment for us with a marriage counsellor. We need to get our marriage back on track; this will be a good start."

"Really? You think that will help?"

"I do. We need to work out what is important and concentrate on those things. I..."

And she never stopped talking for what seemed like forever. I had left the kitchen and she followed me to the bedroom and talked all the way. I closed the door in her face. I noticed that she had unpacked and was planning on sleeping in the master bedroom. I shook my head thinking that I had my work cut out for me. I gathered up an armload of her things and went to the door, opened it, and tossed it all in the hallway. Some of it landed on her head. it temporarily interrupted her soliloquy. I shut the door. She opened the door carrying her things back inside. And so it began...or continued. Fuck!

**********

So, the next weeks were fun. Kath's approach to our situation was to pretend that there wasn't anything of a big nature that was wrong. That my grievances were really overblown. That her fucking two other men was just something that I really shouldn't be concerned about. That in the modern age, it was all normal and that it didn't mean that she didn't love me or our children.

One thing that she did do was to go back to the family law judge and formally request marriage counselling. I wasn't available to attend the court that day (I figured she got it scheduled when she knew I couldn't be there - sneaky bitch) and my lawyer wasn't able to get the judge to understand that the marriage was not salvageable and that any counselling was pointless at that juncture. The judge didn't buy that argument saying that marriages suffering worse than ours had been saved and so we could go and pour our feelings out in ten sessions of counselling. Fucking marvellous!

Kath and her lawyer arranged for us to visit that marriage counsellor. I reckoned that after the counsellor got the full scope of things that he or she would be of a mind that our marriage was indeed finished and that we should all move on with our lives. Was I wrong.

Kath had found a counsellor that ascribed to the new-age belief that modern marriage was far more fluid and flexible than the narrow conscribes of old. That in the 21^st century we needed to view our commitment to monogamy as being part of a larger picture. That we needed to see ourselves as independent and yet committed at the same time.

I had to laugh. When I offered my thoughts that this might be great for us as a couple, Kath and the counsellor both figured that I had given in and that Kath could find her way to having her cake and eating it at the same time. So, when I stood up, thanked the counsellor for her wisdom and said that 'I think we're done here' they looked at me with puzzled expressions. I knew that Kath figured she had won.

For my part, I thanked them both. I thanked them for clarifying our new marriage arrangement. When the counsellor asked me to tell her just what I thought that new marriage arrangement meant to me, I replied. 'well, it's really simple, and I want to thank you both for opening my eyes to this.'

Kath spoke first, "Tom, thank you for being so understanding, Dear."

"You're welcome Kath and thank you Dr. Snow; you've both been instrumental in making my life much simpler."

Kath's expression was as if she had just won the Powerball Lottery, "That's wonderful, Dear. We'll certainly be better partners for each other and I'm really looking forward to resuming the intimacy that we used to have. I want to make love to the man that I love."

"Okay, well, I want to make love to the woman that I love."

There were huge smiles on the faces of Kath and Dr. Snow. Their mission had been accomplished. I was, in their opinion, falling in line with what they expected me to accept. Yeah, right.

Sadly, Dr. Snow wanted me to come back and talk with her, by myself. While Kath was celebrating her victory, the learned doctor of marriage rescue was not so sure. I agreed to come back and promised to set up a time with her admin person that guarded the door.

**********

When we departed the marriage counsellor's office we went home. Kath was all lovey-dovey on the drive. In the car, she wanted to hold my hand. The look on her face spoke volumes.

When we got in the house, I went off to the home office to send some emails and update my lawyer. After supper, Kath started to get the kids organized for bed and I went to my bedroom and got changed. When I came out Kath could see that I was getting organized to go out. "Where are you going Tom?". I looked at her, "Oh, it's my meet-up night for the bike club. I'll probably be late, so don't wait up for me. Bye." I was out the door and gone before Kath could say anything.

The club had planned a 30 mile ride, that night, and a social hour after. I planned to enjoy both. I got very muddy on the ride and in the pub after, I enjoyed a pint of Guinness. There were two single women club members that knew I was separated and getting a divorce and so I made no bones about socializing with them. Both ladies were lovely to be with. So much so that I asked one of them out on a date for Saturday evening, three day away.

I got home a little after midnight and Kath was in bed and sleeping. I got undressed and headed to the shower. I rinsed my muddy biking clothes in the laundry room sink and put them in the washing machine. After that I headed to bed; the one in the guest bedroom.

In the morning I was up early, and ready to head off to work. Kath got to the kitchen as I was about to head out the door for my office. She looked a bit frazzled, "What time did you get home last night?" I looked at her as I was packing a lunch and pouring a coffee for the drive. "About midnight." She asked, "What time are you home tonight?" I replied, "About six. You need to pick the kids up from school today." That was it and I was out the door.

Thursday and Friday nights were pretty much the same with minimal conversation between us. I knew that her self-imposed hiatus from fucking her boyfriends was to try to make it appear that our family life was going to return to a normal state. But it wasn't.

Saturday morning, Kath and I went over the schedule for the day. Lot's of driving to get the kids to all of the things that they participated in. Kath had forgotten about a lot of it as she had previously ditched many of her parental duties off on me. She had taken on the duties of a modern career woman of the 21^st century who can do whatever she pleases. Me, I was modern-day father, chauffeur, cook, cleaner, cheering enthusiast, laundry god and all-round parental expert. My life was very scheduled and organized. That was about to change.

Saturday night, I made some supper and then while the kids and Kath were eating, I went to get ready to go out. I came down in some khaki trousers and a button-down shirt and sport jacket. The looks I got spoke volumes.

Kath's jaw dropped, "Where are you going?"

"I have a date." I kept it short and simple.

"A what? A date; what do you mean?"

I looked at her, "You know what a date is; you've been on lots of them.".

I grabbed my car keys and gave the kids a kiss on the top of their heads "Be good for your mother and don't wait up for me; I'll probably be late." I went out the door to the garage.

"Tom, hang on, what...what are you doing?"

I stopped and turned around, "Well, it's pretty simple, I have a date tonight. With a woman. You know, you have dates with your boyfriends. Now I have a date. See you later." Kath's jaw was almost in the ground. I left.

I had a great time. I took Laura to the local symphony orchestra and then we went to a late dinner at an Italian restaurant. After, we walked around a bit and then I dropped her off at her home. I got invited in and enjoyed a drink with her and then a kiss as I was leaving. Laura told me that she had a great time and wanted to do it again soon. I told her that I really enjoyed being with her and I would call her this week and we could talk.

I did call her, we did talk and another date was planned.

**********

My social life was in the ascendant phase after a lengthy dry spell, and I'm pleased to report that included my sex life. I hadn't touched Kath in many months. I didn't want a disease, even though I was sure that Kath wasn't foolish enough to not use protection with James.

So, earlier, I mentioned that we visited a marriage counsellor. Dr. Snow. Now, I have to tell you that basically she gave off the vibe of being an old hippie. The old girl was about 60ish years, her clothing was the same age, and her greying hair was in a style that evoked grammar-school teacher. It was clear to me that her attitude towards marriage was maybe a bit different than mine. She had talked the new-age mumbo-jumbo that essentially gave legitimacy to open marriage, polyamory and other forms of many people having sex and children and calling themselves a family. I called it 'fucked-up.'

After quite a bit of back-and-forth, I asked her what she had against traditional man-woman monogamous marriage. She had to think for a bit on that, "I don't have anything against the traditional view of marriage, but in this day-and-age, marriage needs to be viewed as that thing that makes us happy. No matter the form of marriage, if all the participants are happy, that's the main thing."