Two Sides of the Coin

"Fifteen minutes, girls! Woo!" She shouted after ending the call.

All of the ladies cheered their approval.

"Melissa stormed over and asked, "What the hell, Marci?"

"Hey! Don't worry. He's only gonna be here for an hour and you can go play bingo with the other old broads in the other room."

"Fuck that! I'm not staying. Let's go, Jeri."

They turned and left without looking back. As they walked to their cars they saw Sonya walking up.

"Did you know about the stripper?" Jeri asked.

"Yeah," Sonya said. "Is he here yet?"

"No, and we're not staying. Our husbands would go apeshit if they knew we were here with a stripper."

"Well mine doesn't care and I'm going to enjoy the show. See you later!"

They separated and Jeri asked, "You wanna see a movie or something?"

"Not really, no one's home at my house, do you want to come over by me? I know the guys are at your house."

Jeri said, "Yeah, if we go to my house, we'll be serving beers and sandwiches all night. Your house sounds good."

"I've got that Chardonnay you like chilling in the fridge."

"Perfect!"

***

"That's it for me, Mel. I'm gonna Uber home," Jeri said as she finished her last glass of wine.

"Okay. It's getting late and Joe will be home soon."

"Mm, shower up and get ready to ravish him."

"I like the way you think," Melissa said wiping sweat off of her forehead.

***

Melissa was just finishing her shower when Joe walked into the bedroom.

"Hey, baby! How was your cigar night?"

Joe thought it was odd that she was showering and said, "Fine. Played some cards and lost a bit, but I got to smoke one out of Don's special humidor."

"Ooh, the good ones. Hey, the boys will be home at midnight that gives me a half hour to be ravished."

Joe smiled and said, "Mm, let's get to ravishing then."

***

The next morning Joe was woken by his cell phone.

"Yeah," he mumbled into the phone.

"Those sluts had a stripper last night. I saw the pictures on Sonya's phone," Brad shouted.

"Brad, slow down. Did you say a stripper?"

"Yeah, Joe. Sonya and I have the same color phone and I picked hers up by mistake this morning. There are pictures of her and Marci giving a blow job to some muscle head. The fucker took them himself with her phone."

"Holy shit!" Joe yelled, waking Melissa.

Melissa asked, "What's the matter?"

"Brad, let me call you back."

He ended the call and glared at her.

"Strippers? What the fuck? Did you suck them too?"

"No! Jeri and I left, I swear."

"Where did you go?"

"Here, we came here." She was panicked.

"God, damn it! I knew it was odd you showered last night. Holy shit! You fucked him, didn't you? You had to shower to get rid of his smell and cum."

"Joe, are you nuts? I showered because I got sweaty sitting outside. I wasn't there."

"Prove it."

"What? How can I prove it? No one was home. Wait! Jeri's car is still here."

"I didn't see her car when I came home."

"Look outside!"

He stormed downstairs with Melissa close behind. He opened the front door and they didn't see her car in the driveway or on the street.

"Shit! She told me she was taking an Uber."

Joe called Don.

"Hey man. Is your wife with you?"

"Yeah, she's right here why?"

"Brad called me and told me he has pictures of Sonya and Marci blowing a stripper last night."

Don shouted, "Blowing a stripper?"

Jeri started talking and Joe heard the beeps from the call ending.

Just then, Melissa's phone rang.

"Melissa, tell him where we were last night. Don doesn't believe me."

"Put him on."

"Well?" Don asked.

"Don, I swear we were both here until 11:15. We left the party."

"Yeah after the stripper left I'm sure!"

She fell to her knees when the call ended.

Joe stormed past her. She heard his callback to Brad, "Can you see Mel or Jeri in any of the pictures?"

Brad said, "No, bud. I looked through them all and don't see them in any of the ones she took."

"Okay, thanks."

Joe sat at his kitchen table trying to figure out a way to prove she wasn't there.

Melissa walked in and handed him her phone.

"What's that for?"

"You can look at my pictures."

"What's that gonna show? You were probably smart enough to not take any incriminating pictures. I'm sure your two slut friends regret it this morning."

"They are not sluts! Marci is single for Christ's sake."

"Sonya isn't, but that doesn't matter. Brad was telling us last night he thought she was cheating on him. I guess he has his proof now."

"Oh, no!" She gasped.

He stood and glared at her, "Did you know? Did you know she was cheating on him?"

"No! She's not cheating on him. At least if she is she never told me?"

"Yet here she is at Marci's house sucking off a stripper. Real faithful wife-like behavior."

She sat down and cried, "Joe, I swear we left and came here. I would never lie to you."

"This is tearing me up, Melissa. I want to believe you, but I'm struggling here."

She stood and hugged him. He didn't return it.

"I need some air."

He walked to his bedroom and got dressed. As he walked out of the room, Jimmy was coming out of his.

"What's all the commotion, Pop?"

"Nothing, Son. Just some adult controversy. Nothing to worry about."

He nodded and walked into the hall bathroom.

Melissa was still sobbing in the kitchen when he left. As he was walking to his car, he got a text from Don, "Meet me at IHOP in half an hour."

He frowned and replied, "On my way!"

When he arrived at IHOP, he found Don and Brad already there.

"Hey, guys."

They both nodded and Joe sat down.

Don started, "Jeri is a wreck. I might have gone overboard by calling her slut and whore though, so I've got my work cut out for me."

Brad said, "Sonya swears it was her only time cheating on me. She said she only sucked him for twenty seconds or so. She also said that your wives left before the stripper got there."

Joe was torn. He still couldn't believe they had a party with strippers. Was the revue show the week before just a warmup act?

"I don't know what to do guys," Joe said.

Brad said, "Dude, Sonya blamed me for this shit. She said I don't care about her and all I care about is sports. She never told me that the girls all went to a strip club last week. I would've said no."

Joe snapped, "You, at least know she sucked on that stripper. We have to trust that ours didn't and honestly, I've been cheated on before and I'm struggling with it."

Don said, "You still won't go to a family party if Alex is there. It must hurt deeply."

Joe nodded, "She was screwing Alex since the day after she met him at our family reunion. It took less than a day to get in her pants and they continued until I caught them a year after the wedding."

Joe's opinions on fidelity and trust were unbreakable and they didn't bend. He was in a way stubborn and believed that a promise made is a promise kept with no exceptions. He looked down on people that broke their word and held grudges long after the fact if he was the victim of the broken word.

"I don't know how we prove they left," Don said. "If she just would've taken the damn Uber, we would have the location from where she was picked up."

Joe looked at Brad and asked, "What are you gonna do?"

"Divorce. We don't have any kids and we make pretty close to the same amount. It'll be an easy split."

"Damn! Sorry, man," Don said and thought about how difficult divorce would be for him.

Don and Jeri had kids, but at 20 and 21, they were older than Joe and Melissa's. They owned some rental properties in an LLC they split ownership on. They had another business that they jointly owned but Jeri ran as her main employment. Don flipped houses as his main employment and held that business in an LLC that he was 80% owner of, with Joe holding the other 20%. Joe had given him a large chunk of money to buy his first few houses and still contributes from his share of the profit.

Don didn't even want to think about the issues with separating the businesses and buyouts and splits of the assets and holdings. He knew it would be a nightmare.

Beyond those headaches, Don loved Jeri heart and soul. He was torn and his heart ached.

"What are you gonna do, Don?" Joe asked hoping it would help him decide.

Don shook his head and said, "I don't know. I don't have any proof she did anything wrong. Nor do I have any proof that she was even there. I'm starting to feel like we're overreacting to this."

Joe frowned, "I don't think we're overreacting, but I think we need to cool off and settle the situation down before we fuck our marriages up beyond repair."

"Agreed," Don said knowing he already crossed the line.

***

At Don's house, Melissa and Jeri were trying to figure out a way to get their husbands to see reason. They were being penalized but had made the right decision by leaving the party.

Melissa said, "I know why Joe is so upset, and it's because of that bitch Sherry and your brother. I just don't get what Don's problem is."

"I didn't know you then, Jeri started, "but when I met Don he had just been dumped by his fiancé. She cheated on him with some rich joker and left for greener pastures."

"Oh! Shit! I didn't know."

Jeri smiled and said, "We don't talk about it with anyone. We made a fresh start together and put that in the past."

"What was the deal with your brother and Joe's wife? All Joe would ever tell me was she cheated on him with Alex."

"It was crazy, Mel. We all met her the first time at a family reunion. They were crazy in love by all appearances and that's certainly what Joe told me."

Melissa nodded knowing Joe's capacity for love first-hand.

"Alex and I were eating together and Joe and Sherry sat with us. Joe and I were busy catching up since I hadn't seen him since before he went to college. He and Alex went to State together. They were really close friends."

"Oh, wow!" Melissa gasped.

"Yeah—anyway. Alex and Sherry started talking. She was just starting as a realtor and Alex said he was looking to buy a house. He lied, of course, but no one knew it then. It was just an excuse to exchange phone numbers."

"Why?" Melissa asked.

"Alex told my parents after it all went to hell that he was getting back at Joe for having sex with his girlfriend. Alex was able to convince Sherry to do a revenge fuck and it escalated into an affair. Of course, our Joe never slept with his ex. It was a different friend of Alex's named Joe."

"Holy crap!" Melissa said.

"So, Joe and Sherry marry and she kept seeing Alex whenever he was available. He was a salesman for a tech company and traveled a lot. They got caught when Alex was having sex with her in my mother's house at a summer party. It was Joe's dad that walked in on them. Uncle Ray actually punched Alex out. It was crazy."

"Poor Joe."

"Yeah. He was broken up about it for a long time. Right up until he met you." She smiled at Melissa. "Sherry begged for forgiveness and blamed Alex for lying to her. Joe didn't see it that way and dumped her quickly and coldly."

"I can't lose him, Jeri. He's my whole life. We have to fix this."

"We'll fix it. I don't know how, but we will."

***

Joe and Don were sitting on Joe's deck later, smoking cigars. Don looked out over Joe's expansive backyard and said, "I'm gonna go home later and beg for forgiveness. I can't prove anything and I was so nasty to her."

"I can't do that just yet, Don. First, they did that strip club show last week, and second, the very next time they get together they have a stripper at their house party? It's not adding up to innocence for me."

"Joe, we have no proof."

"We've both been burned, man. It took a long time for me to fully trust Melissa. She never knew I didn't trust her for the first few years, but it was hard and it seems I never did learn to fully trust her after all."

"Joe, we're grasping at straws trying to prove a negative though. We just can't know for sure where they were or what they did. I feel like we are coming across as hard-nosed assholes and we're risking our marriages."

"My marriage is at risk already, damn it! Can't you see that it's too coincidental that they had a stripper the very next week after that show? I swear, Don, it's like they tried to ease us into the idea with that strip club show and then slam it home on us with the private stripper. If Sonya wasn't so damn stupid, we may have never known at all."

"I'm sorry, Joe. You're on your own with this now. I'm going home and I'm gonna try to make it right with Jeri. I'm not letting her completely off the hook, I'm gonna set some ground rules and the girls' nights have to stop is number one—but I think we're being too unreasonable."

Joe couldn't believe the quick and complete turnaround from Don. Mere hours before, he was spitting fire and for no reasonable reason flipped on it. Joe wasn't sure he could do that.

"That's your call, Don. I'm not going to be made a cuckold by my wife and even if she didn't blow him or screw him, touching or being touched by a naked man is not acceptable in my book."

"Joe, I think you're a fool if you throw away your marriage over a stripper that she didn't have sex with."

"I guess that's on me then."

***

Melissa walked in as Don was walking out. She looked at Joe and started crying.

"I'm sorry, Joe. I just don't know what I can do to prove I was here. I swear, we did the right thing."

"Me either, Mel."

"Joe, Jeri told me the whole story about Sherry and Alex. I'm sorry that happened to you. I wish I could fix that pain."

"You did fix that pain, love. You've given me the best of you and it was everything I needed. It's all I'll ever need. Except now I have a new pain, a new betrayal, and I can't deal with it."

"Please, Joe," she sobbed.

"I'm gonna get a room at a motel tonight. I need to be alone and try to figure this out. I'm lost, Mel. I'm really lost."

He turned and went to pack a bag. Melissa sat on the couch and cried.

A moment later, the kids walked in and saw her.

"Mom, what's wrong?"

"Nothing for you to worry about, Jimmy. Your dad and I are having some problems. It'll be okay."

"What did you do, Dad?" Jimmy asked Joe, who had come down the stairs with an overnight bag.

"I didn't do anything, Son. Your mom and I are working some things out and it's not any of your business what it's about, okay?"

"Fine! Treat us like kids, whatever!"

Jimmy stormed off and Jack said, "When are you coming back?" He pointed to the bag in Joe's hand.

Maybe tomorrow, maybe a few days, I don't know."

"Stay in touch, huh?"

"I will, Son. I promise."

Melissa sobbed as Joe walked out the door. Jack sat next to her and hugged her.

"It'll be okay, Mom. It'll work out."

"I hope so, Jack. I really hope so."

***

Two days went by with Joe no closer to a decision. He'd had enough of sleeping in a motel and checked out.

When he walked in the door at home, no one was home and the alarm was set. He entered his code and shouted, "Son of a bitch!"

He ran to their computer and pulled up the website for the alarm company. He pulled up his history report and saw the time the alarm was turned off the night Melissa and Jeri were supposedly at his house.

"Are you home for good or just visiting?" Melissa asked from behind with a sneer.

He stood, walked over to her, and then took her in his arms and she sobbed from relief.

"I'm so sorry, Joe."

"I'm the one who should be sorry. I went into attack mode and never gave you the benefit of the doubt. I'm sorry I didn't trust that you did the right thing. I guess after all these years, I've still got some issues."

"Are we okay? Do you believe me?"

"When I came home and turned off the alarm, it hit me. I checked the history log and I saw what time you put in the code. It backed up your story. I'm sorry I didn't think of it before and I've been an ass."

She laughed and kissed him.

"We have to have some new rules though. The stripper and revue show problem isn't resolved. It's a non-starter for me going forward. It's over."

"That's fine. I don't have a problem with that at all. What else?"

"Marci and Sonya are out."

"So you're telling me who I can be friends with now?"

"If that's the way you see it, yes. Sonya cheated on her husband and Marci supported it. Those are not the kind of people I want to associate with and I don't want you getting dragged down a bad path by them."

She sighed and said, "I understand. I think we'll be drifting apart anyway. Sonya's getting divorced now. She was served with papers today and you're right. I can see her and Marci wanting to go out looking for guys. Jeri and I will not be doing that."

He hugged her and said, "I love you and I am sorry that I didn't trust you."

"As long as you're back and not leaving me again, we can get past this. You're my only love and my only lover. I don't need anyone else. You just have to believe that."

"I know."

"Where are the kids?" She asked.

"Allie's house according to the note they left."

"Let's go upstairs then," she said with a smile. "I haven't had you in almost a week. I'm in withdrawal."

"I've got just what you need baby."

Joe followed her, watching her tight butt and thought, "Yeah, life is good."