Who's the Hunk?

He removed his hand to clap with everyone else as the birthday girl made short work of the fiery candles in one breath. Jim looked over when he heard Bob's voice in close proximity but saw nothing of consequence. Certainly, Cindy wasn't about to tell him Bob had his hand on her ass all though "Happy Birthday." Bob, of course, took her silence as consent.

Okay, he knew how to play the game. She had to hang with hubby to avoid suspicion, but sooner or later she'd have to go inside the house to use the bathroom. Hopefully, he'd be able to catch her alone long enough to arrange a time and place for them to get together. Surreptitiously, he would keep an eye out.

To those who were aware of what was going on earlier, the danger seemed to be over. Much to their relief, both Bob and Cindy appeared to be behaving themselves; so, with the possible exception of Jim, they all relaxed and were no longer on guard.

Jim, on the other hand, had seen guys like Bob before, guys who thought they were God's gift to women, and knew they were seldom that easily dissuaded. Just to be on the safe side, he'd continue to keep an eye on the would-be interloper.

The party was in full swing after everyone ate. Tony cranked up the outside speakers and tuned his phone to Pandora for background music while the games came out. A dartboard was set up on the big oak tree near the shed and her friends helped Jenny set up the bean bag game. A few of the women pushed several card tables together for Bingo.

Jenny and her friends challenged her parents, along with Jim and Cindy, to best two out of three bean bag games. Tony warned them his daughter was a ringer. Luckily for them, she was only twenty-five percent of the team and the first game went to the adults. That was their one and only victory, though. When it was over, Cindy turned to Jim and kissed him on the cheek.

"Honey, I have to use the little girl's room. I'll be back in a couple of minutes," she told him.

"Okay, hon, I think I'll challenge Adam to a game of darts."

She stopped to talk to a couple of friends on the way to the house. She hit it lucky. There wasn't a soul inside and the downstairs washroom was wide open.

Adam and Jim were getting ready to take their stance and throw one dart each to determine who went first. Jim was just getting ready to throw when...

"He's leaving?" Adam mumbled, more to himself than to anyone else.

Jim stopped his arm before throwing. "What?"

"Bob--it looks like he's leaving, no good-byes, no thank you for inviting me, no nothing."

Jim turned around just in time to see Bob's back as he exited through the gate. "He's probably pissed because Cindy isn't flirting with him anymore. I really think he had plans for the two of them."

"I wouldn't doubt it," Adam replied. "He's pretty slick when it comes to the ladies. I've seen him leave a bar with some damn pretty women."

Jim turned back to the dartboard and was taking careful aim when he thought of something. How would someone get into the house if they didn't want anyone to see them? They'd go out the gate, go around to the front, and walk in that way.

Jim handed the darts to Adam. "I'll be right back," he said, before starting for the back door.

Cindy had taken care of business and was touching up her make-up. When she opened the bathroom door, she was shocked to see Bob standing there. Before she could do or say anything, he grabbed her by the shoulders and pressed her back against the door jam. Just that quick, he held her in place as he smashed their lips together.

If Jim had been a split second later, he'd have seen his wife forcefully push Bob away, but as it was, she hesitated a moment while trying to regain her senses. It was at that moment that Jim saw them. He reached for Bob's shoulder and pulled him away from his wife. As Bob faced him, Jim, putting his hip and back into it, delivered a punch to Bob's solar plexus with the force of a sledgehammer.

Cindy watched as her want-to-be suitor stumbled back into the washroom and dropped to one knee. He had one arm on top of the sink for support and was clutching at his chest with the other while gasping for breath.

Cindy's brain was still trying to catch up with events. Everything happened so fast. It seemed like she opened the door and all hell broke loose. She turned to face her husband, but he wasn't there. She looked in one direction, then the other but saw no one. "Jim?"

That's when she heard a car start. She ran to the front door just in time to see their car back out and head for home; that's when she realized how it must have looked, especially since she'd been flirting with Bob all that time.

She paid no attention to Bob, who was now in the wheezing and coughing stage of still trying to catch a breath, and ran out the back door. The first person she saw was Adam, who unknowingly, was still waiting for Jim's return.

"Adam, you have to drive me home... NOW!"

He looked at her and was very confused. She was in a panic. He looked for Jim but didn't see him, and he hadn't the slightest inkling of why she was asking him to drive her home. "Cindy, ah... what happened? Where's Jim?"

"He left. He caught Bob kissing me and..."

"What! Is he hurt?"

"No, Bob's still in the house. I'm not sure if he's hurt or not. Jim punched him really hard."

Adam couldn't help the small smile he had. "Jim beat up Bob?"

"Yeah, yeah... please, Adam, I have to get home so I can explain what happened. He was so mad, I'm not sure what he going to do. I'm afraid he's planning to leave me."

"Oh, I doubt that, Cindy; he's pissed, but I don't think he's that pissed."

"You didn't see him just now."

"Cindy, I was the first one here. I doubt I'll be able to get my car out. I'm sure I'm blocked in."

"Please, Adam."

"All right, give me a second to tell Tony we're leaving and I'll see if we can get out of here."

He hurried over and gave his brother the "Reader's Digest" version of what happened then walked around to the front of the house, only to see what he expected: there were at least six cars behind his. "Cindy, you'll have to call a cab, there's no way I can get out of here."

"That'll take way too long. Let me borrow your car."

"Are you kidding? No way." He didn't know Jim and Cindy as well as Tony, so he wasn't sure if her anxiety was justified or not. He didn't really think Jim would leave her but he certainly didn't want to be the guy who could have saved their marriage and didn't. "Okay," he said with a sigh, "Tony's going to kill me, but get in."

There was only about a foot between him and the garage door. Adam turned the wheel all the way to the right and crept up until his front bumper touched the door then turned the wheel the other way and backed up until he felt his rear bumper kiss the car behind him. He performed the same maneuver back and forth several times until he could back out onto his brother's beautifully manicured front lawn with only about two inches to spare between his car and the one that was behind him.

Cindy never said a word the whole time. In fact, she was mostly oblivious to everything around her. She kept visualizing her husband's angry face. She'd never seen him that furious before and she'd never seen him hit anyone like that before.

As she realized the car was headed forward, she was becoming more and more anxious. She had no idea of what she would face when she got home. Before she knew it they were turning into her driveway. Adam pulled up behind Jim's car.

"You want me to come in with you?"

She considered it only briefly. "Thanks, Adam, I appreciate the offer but I created this mess, now I have to deal with it."

She got out of the car and waved to let Adam know she'd be okay. She climbed the stairs of their front porch as if her feet weighed ten pounds each. Once inside, she took a deep breath to gather her courage. He wasn't in the living room; she feared he was upstairs, packing. Just as she started up to see if she could talk to him, she heard the coffee grinder. 'He's making coffee?' she asked herself. Maybe things weren't as bad as she thought.

Jim saw her quietly watching him from the kitchen doorway. "Did your lover bring you home?"

"If you're referring to Bob, he's not my lover, and the last time I saw him he was still on the bathroom floor gasping for breath."

Jim couldn't help but inaudibly chuckle at the thought.

"Adam brought me home."

Jim nodded his head but said no more. It was eerie. She expected him to at least yell at her, tell her what a fool she'd been, how embarrassed he was... something. Well, if he wasn't going to say anything she would.

"He took me by surprise, Jim. I wasn't making out with him, honest. He was standing behind the door when I opened it. He pushed me against it and kissed me."

"I didn't see you fighting him off."

"You didn't give me a chance. I was stunned. It took me a second to even realize what was happening, but you hit him before I could push him away."

She still wasn't sure if her husband's demeanor meant he had truly cooled down or was it the calm before the storm. During their conversation, he never stopped what he was doing. She almost wished he would yell at her. His apparent apathy had her on pins and needles.

"Well?"

"Well what?" he asked as he pressed the start button on the coffee maker.

"Jim, I've never seen you that pissed off before. I really thought you'd be packing to leave by the time I got home."

"Don't tempt me," he growled. "You're damn right I'm pissed off," he said, raising his voice some. "That little show you put on was infantile and disrespectful. The only reason I'm not more ticked off is that most of the people at the party knew what you were up to, but you know what makes me even angrier than you making a fool of yourself? The fact that you choose to believe one of your bimbo friends over me. Have I EVER lied to you, huh?"

The anger he had suppressed was bubbling to the top. "Have I EVER given you cause to be jealous or suspicious? NO, NEVER!"

She had never heard him call any of her friends "bimbos" before, but she wasn't about to call him on it. "Honey, I just know how friendly you are all the time. I've seen you in action. You can meet a total stranger and make them a friend in five minutes, and yes, I've seen you do it with women, too. You may not realize it, but I've seen the look in their eyes when you walk away. I know damn well they'd drop their panties in a New York minute."

"Oh, that's bullshit. You make me sound like Brad Pitt or something."

Things were getting out of hand. She needed to back off before he did wind up leaving. "Jim, all I'm saying is that you have a great sense of humor and an outgoing personality; people like you. I just want you to be aware that some women see that as flirting. They might get the impression that you're available, wife or no wife." She thought she had calmed the waters.

"So, what does that have to do with you thinking that I go around kissing waitresses and you believing some friend of yours over your husband?"

Shit, she thought, she really thought she had skirted around that question.

They went on arguing for another twenty minutes with neither one giving into the other over the real issue... trust.

Neither of them spent the night on the couch, in a different room or different bed, but Cindy knew sex was definitely off the table. He wasn't in a very loving mood and she wasn't going to humiliate herself by trying to change his mind.

That following Tuesday, Jim met Tony for a drink after work. Jim was already seated and had just taken his first swig from a long neck when his friend showed up with a big grin.

"Yo, Rocky, how's Adrian?" he said, doing his best Stallone impression.

Jim looked at his buddy. "Isn't Rocky the one who talks like that?"

"Yeah, but I can't do an impression of Burgess Meredith, so take what you get," he replied with a laugh. He sat down next to Jim and ordered a beer. "No kidding, how are you two doing?"

"Right now, we're barely speaking to each other. I'm still pissed and she knows it so she just kind of just avoids me."

"When are you going to let her off the hook? A lot of the people at the party weren't even aware of any trouble between you two. A while after you left, people were asking where you and Cindy were."

"What'd you tell them?"

"I said something unexpected came up and you had to leave. No one even questioned it. They probably thought you two got horny and went home to maul each other," Tony chuckled.

"Yeah, well we haven't mauled each other since the party; speaking of which, what happened with Bob? Is he planning revenge?"

"I don't think so. Adam came over and told me what happened before he drove Cindy home. When I went inside the house, Bob was just getting up. He told me you sucker-punched him..."

"I did," Jim said, breaking in.

"Well, he was spewing all kinds of revenge talk but I told him if I were him, I'd steer as far away from you as I could get. I told him you were the toughest bastard I ever saw and that I'd seen you wipe the floor with guys twice your size. I used my favorite Bible quote."

"You have a favorite Bible quote? I didn't know that."

"Sure, 'Yea though he walks through the valley of the shadow of death he fears no evil, for he's the toughest and meanest S.O.B. in the valley.' That's you."

Jim had to laugh. "That's bullshit and you know it," he said.

"Sure, I know it, and you know it, but he doesn't know it. I think I scared him enough to make him think twice before coming after you."

"Well, I appreciate that, old buddy."

They both were grinning as they took another drink. "You know what really pisses me off," Jim asked, "that she doesn't believe me about kissing some waitress."

"Are you sure you didn't, maybe a peck on the cheek or something like that?"

"No, I... " He stopped talking and Tony knew from the look on his face that he remembered something.

"Ah, huh, you did kiss her, didn't you?"

"No, she kissed me," Jim replied. "Shit, I know what this is all about."

The next day, Cindy was stunned to see Jim walk into her office at work. He spoke before she could even say anything.

"Come on, I'm taking you to lunch."

She thought this was his way of saying he was sorry. "Oh, honey, that's so nice," she glanced at her watch, "but it's a little too early. Can you wait about twenty minutes?"

"No need. I spoke to your boss and told him we have a small family emergency we have to attend to. I told him you had to take a long lunch hour and he said no problem. Come on, let's go."

Cindy was nervous. She was unaware of any family emergencies. He held the car door for her as she slipped in. "Where are we going? What kind of family emergency?"

He didn't answer her question, but instead, told her to call her friend and find out the name of the restaurant where the alleged kiss took place.

"What? Why?"

"Just indulge me, will ya? I think I have this figured out."

Reluctantly, she called her friend and asked for the name of the restaurant. "She said it was DeMar's on Hohman Avenue."

"What a coincidence," he responded with a smile, "that's just where we're headed."

Cindy didn't say anything, but now she was even more concerned. She had no idea why he would want to take her to the scene of the crime, except maybe to rub her nose in it. Would he kiss the waitress in front of her? She knew better than that. There was no way he'd do that to her. She decided to just sit back and wait to see what happened next... easier said than done.

It took almost half an hour to get to the restaurant, during which time, Cindy ran through a hundred scenarios in her head. She was almost in tears by the time they pulled into the parking lot. Jim put his hand on the small of her back and escorted her inside. She knew she was in trouble as soon as she walked through the door. "Shit," she mumbled under her breath.

Jim found a booth and had Cindy slide in first, then slid in next to her.

"Well, Cuz, I see you brought your better half with you today."

Cindy turned several shades of scarlet from embarrassment. "Hi, Marilyn," she greeted their waitress."

"Hi, Cindy, how'd you ever get my cousin here to make time for a real lunch, and with his wife, no less? Every time I see him, he's rushing in and out of here so fast he barely has time to swallow," she said with a laugh.

Jim wasn't about to let his wife off the hook. "Cindy thinks you and I are having a passionate love affair," he stated.

She waited for the punch line for a few seconds before responding, "What?"

"No, Marilyn, that's not right." Cindy turned to her husband, "Damn it, Jim, okay I made a big mistake, I'm sorry." She looked back up at Marilyn, "A friend of mine was in here last week. She told me he kissed a waitress. I had no idea you even worked here."

"But we've never..."

"Last week," Jim butted in, "you kissed me on the cheek when I came in."

"Oh, Jesus, Cindy, I didn't mean anything by it. He hadn't been in for a while and it was just an innocent peck on the cheek."

"Marilyn, don't worry about it," Cindy replied. "I know that now. My so-called friend made it sound like Jim had a girlfriend working here. I'm going to call her later and give her a piece of my mind."

"That I'd like to hear," Jim challenged.

Cindy looked at him and accepted the challenge. "Okay," she said, digging her phone from her purse. Both Jim and Marilyn were privy to Cindy's side of the conversation.

"Hi, Linda... not too good. You know that waitress who you said was kissing Jim... You know who that was... Jim's cousin. Yeah, his cousin. No, I didn't appreciate you telling me. You made it sound like he was having an affair or something... I don't care what you thought. I don't care if you think you see him screwing somebody in the middle of the floor, from now on keep your gossip to yourself... Yeah, you too." She almost hurt her finger disconnecting.

Jim had a feeling it had to be Linda making all the trouble. She was constantly making derogatory remarks about her own husband all the time.

Cindy was worked up after her call. "I really do apologize... to both of you. Jim was right, I should have known better."

"You have a few more apologizes to make when you get home tonight," Jim told her. "You're going to apologize to Tony, Barbara, AND Jenny."

"What about Bob?"

"You can tell Bob to piss up a rope. You don't pursue a married woman; I don't care how much of a flirt she is."

Marilyn was still standing next to the booth. "Who's Bob?" she asked.

"Her boyfriend," Jim volunteered.

"Boyfriend?" she questioned.

"Don't listen to him, Marilyn. I made a mistake and he's not done rubbing my nose in it yet."

"It sounds like you two had one hell of a weekend."

"Let's just say I'm pretty sure Cindy learned a little something about trust," Jim replied.

Cindy was more than a little embarrassed. Her face was flush as she opened the menu. "So, Marilyn, what do you suggest?"

Later, after dinner, Cindy spent almost an hour on the phone, apologizing to their friends, including Jenny.

That night they both lay naked in bed. "Are you still mad?"

"It depends."

"On what?"

"On whether you still believe I would cheat on you."

"I never really did believe you'd cheat on me. I was concerned that you might have given some woman the impression that you would. I just didn't want you encouraging her."

He thought about that and remembered how angry he got watching her flirt with Bob. He'd never admit it, but he did get a taste of how she must feel sometimes... except she took it way too far.

About the time he was going to tell her all was forgiven, he felt her hand slide down his body and lightly start tickling his balls.

"Come on, honey, you can't stay mad at me," she cooed.