You Didn't Call

"I can show you and your lawyer messages where he discussed getting his share. If that will help, let me know."

"Maybe the PI will want to see those messages. I'll ask him when he calls me."

"OK... um, listen. I know I'm in your doghouse right now, but maybe you'll give me a do over, you know, after the worst of this is over, maybe I take you out for dinner, or..."

Denise paused before answering.

"Look, somewhere under a couple of inches of stupid, you're probably a good guy, but you took advantage of me. It doesn't matter that I agreed to it, or that I enjoyed it. You lied to me, and I think you only decided after we fucked that you were going to tell me Gary was cheating on me. Even if you were going to tell me, you were going to do it after. If you told me before, I wouldn't fuck you, right? I don't know if I can get past that. And now, it's been less than a week since my so-called loving husband asked me to fuck someone to save his job, and it's been only a few days since I found out he's cheating on me, and you ask me out? Do you really think I'm ready to date or have a relationship with someone?"

"No. Of course not. Sorry."

"I do want to thank you for telling me about Gary and Julie, and for listening while I raged about Gary. I can't talk to anyone else about this, so you've been helpful that way. Also, as far as I can tell, you've been honest with me since about two minutes after you stopped screwing me. That's all good, but it's probably not enough. I feel different today than I did Sunday, so who knows what the future will bring. Call me in a few months if you want."

***

Chapter 4 -- June to November 2016

For Gary, over the next several months, anything that could go wrong, did go wrong.

John fired Gary. Gary raged at John and threatened to kill him. John was recording the conversation and played it back for him, then used the recording to get a restraining order prohibiting Gary from being anywhere near John or any Butler Brothers work sites. When you're looking for a job, it's hard to contest a negative referral when your former boss can play an audio message with a death threat.

While Gary was out playing golf the Sunday after he was fired, Denise had the locks changed and put his clothes in bags in the driveway. While Gary was looking at the bags and wondering what the hell was going on, Denise sent him the video of him screwing Julie. When the video finished playing, a young woman appeared out of nowhere and handed him an envelope.

"Are you Gary Sutter?"

"Yes."

"You have been served."

Confident that no one knew of his hidden bank account, Gary kept it secret from his lawyer. Denise and her lawyer blind-sided him in open court and Gary wound up in jail overnight, but only after the judge awarded 80% of the shared assets—including Gary's stash—to Denise.

And, of course, he was no longer any use to Julie, and her pussy was off-limits to him.

***

Chapter 5 -- Sunday, May 7, 2017 -- Spring the Next Year

The garden center was a beehive of activity. Temperatures were finally warm enough for customers to enjoy being outdoors and the family-owned business was anxious to sell them what they needed for their spring projects.

In a break from his usual Sunday routine, John Butler was at the garden center to purchase some supplies for a small project at his own home. As he was calculating how many yards of landscape fabric he needed, he felt a light tap on his shoulder. He turned to see a vision in shorts and a just-tight-enough tee shirt.

"Denise! What a great surprise! How are you?"

"Good, I guess. Yeah, good. What about you? Is this for home or business?" she asked, pointing at the bundles of landscape fabric.

"Just a little home project. I'm tired of cleaning gutters, so I removed them and now I'm putting in a drip path."

"A drip path?"

"Yeah, it's a combination of paving stones and pebbles along the edge of the house where the rain lands when it falls off the roof. It's a... well, you probably don't want a lecture on this, do you?"

"No, probably not," she said with a grin, then after a slight pause, she changed the subject. "You didn't call."

"I thought about it. I thought about it a lot."

"What stopped you?"

"You were right about me, about what I did. I lied to you, and took advantage of you, and I... I guess I don't want to say what that makes me."

"Stop that!" she said a little too loud, then lowered her voice, "You lied but let's not blow it out of proportion. You didn't rape me or coerce me. I agreed to it."

"It was wrong. I shouldn't have done it."

"I'm glad you did it. I was embarrassed to be there, embarrassed my husband put me in that position, but you may recall that after about sixty seconds, I was putty in your hands." She lowered her voice and leaned towards him, "And I came three times. That never happened before. Not in sixty minutes or less."

"Wow. I'm, uh, I'm glad you look at it that way. No hard feelings, then?"

"Oh, there are hard feelings, I'm afraid. You don't get off that easy. You didn't call. If I remember correctly, I once told you that under a couple of inches of stupid, you were a good guy. What do you think, was it the stupid part of you that decided not to call?"

"I'm going to make an educated guess that my best strategy is to agree with you."

"That's smart. Keep it up. What's your next step?"

John pulled out his phone. After a little scrolling, he made a call. Denise's phone rang and she pulled it out of her pocket.

"John, what a pleasant surprise," she gushed into her phone. "I'm talking to a dear friend right now, so I can't stay on the phone long, but I'd love to see you. Are you free tonight? How about a home-cooked meal at my place?"