Hey folks. I hope everyone is staying safe. It’s really important. Not just for you, but for the people you care about. Too many of us are gone that we didn’t have to lose. I know you’re all sick of hearing it, but masks save lives. So anyway here’s a nice long story to take your mind off of working from home or just plain not working, while your kids are either driving you crazy because they’re doing their classes at home, or driving you crazy with worry because they’re at school. We ARE gonna get through this. Here we go. SS06

Brandy

Life turns on a dime. No one ever sees what’s coming before it happens. Fate is a subtle master with fortune as its bitch. My fortunes were set with a couple of bookended meetings.

I was walking down the aisles of a liquor store not far from the beach in my hometown of Ogden, Michigan. This liquor store was special because of all the stores in Ogden they had the best selection. I’d been watching one of those shows on the food network and although I rarely cook anything special, I’d seen a recipe that I could handle.

I thought it would be perfect for my husband’s homecoming meal ... whenever it happened.

My husband isn’t away at sea. He’s not at war ... well maybe not a conventional war anyway. He’s on the front lines fighting Covid. He manages the imaging department in our town’s hospital and doesn’t have enough fucking sense to take some of the vacation time he has squirreled away for years, to ride this thing out.

Instead of staying home with me, his hours have gotten much longer, and the level of his fear has increased. He’s not afraid for himself. Nope, he goes right in there and does exams on infected people, like it was his fucking job.

Okay ... maybe it is his job. Anyway, what he’s afraid of is bringing the virus home to me. I guess he’s had a few of his colleagues, who weren’t careful early on and forgot that once they left the hospital, they could still infect the people around them.

Let’s face it ... in the first few weeks there was a lot of misinformation out there, including the president downplaying the seriousness of the virus. So, while we weren’t taking it seriously, a lot of people died, that could have been saved.

So, Jeff ... that’s my husband. Jeff decided that he needed to stay in the cabin his parents left him, until we had a handle on this thing. It’s exactly the kind of dumbass thing he does because he loves me so much. The cabin doesn’t have running water. It has no heat. And only a couple of the rooms have electricity. That electricity comes from a tiny gas-powered generator.

That cabin is dark and dusty and I’m sure there are raccoons and squirrels in that roof. He must love me a lot to go through that. I just wished he loved me enough to drag his ass home. I’m kind of pissed about him being away from me.

And that anger may have contributed to my behavior. Okay ... to my behavior, that day.

The recipe called for a certain type of liquor, which was why I was in the fucking liquor store near the fucking lake.

A tall guy with a sailor hat and a beard ... I hate beards, but his was well trimmed and light, was walking down the aisle, not paying attention to where he was going. Neither was I. But I was used to people moving out of my way.

I’m an almost six-foot tall blond woman with a large rack, a large rounded ass and a relatively thin waist between them. My hair is a light blond that falls to the middle of my back. And I’ll admit that some of those attributes were not things I was born with.

But who cares? I’m hot and most men find me attractive. After our initial collision, he sputtered and looked as if he was gonna say something until he got a good look at me.

Then all of the flattery came out. Normally, I wouldn’t have spent two minutes listening to his bullshit, but there was just something about him. There was a connection between us. It was almost as if fate had a plan for us.

He admitted that the collision was at least partially his fault and offered to buy me dinner at a restaurant down the street. At first, he offered to make me dinner on his boat, that he claimed I just had to see.

I chose the restaurant. And somehow, I ended up seeing the boat anyway. Well ... I got to see his cabin. When we first got on the boat it was too dark to see anything and both of us were more than a little bit drunk.

So yeah, I ended up having sex with him. Like I said there was some kind of connection between us. It was the strangest thing. I didn’t love the guy. I didn’t find him more or even AS attractive as my husband, but I ended up fucking him on a boat the first night that I met him. And tragically, the sex wasn’t even good. At least not to me. So, I saw that as my punishment for cheating.

It was purely Jeff’s fault anyway. If he’d been home where he belonged, it wouldn’t have happened. Besides, he’d never find out. So, there was no problem and no need for any soul sucking guilt.

The next morning, I woke up, wondering where the hell I was. The sailor was snoring next to me and somehow in the daylight, he was older and fatter than I’d remembered.

My movements woke him, and his eyes popped open. “What’s your name?” he asked.

“Brandy,” I told him after considering whether or not to tell him the truth. Once again, I figured that the chances of me ever seeing the guy again were remote, so there was very little risk.

He smiled at me. I still didn’t know his name either, but unlike him, I wasn’t the slightest bit curious. Why bother learning the name of a guy you’ll never see again? I just called him the Sailor.

The Sailor said, “Brandy, you’re a fine girl. What a good wife you would...”

“Okay Captain,” I said. “Let me stop you right there. First off ... I’ve heard the song. I’ve heard that God damned song so many times that it no longer registers.

Secondly ... you’re way too late. I’m already someone’s wife and a damned fucking good one. So ... no hard feelings but I’m damned skippy with your life, your lover and your lady being the sea, or at least this rusty ass boat.

Now could you please take me back to the parking lot of the liquor store I met you in. My husband will probably call me on our house phone in about an hour, and I’d kind of like to be there.”

He nodded and held up his hands in surrender. I didn’t have a choice. I put my jeans and top from the previous night back on. But he put the same clothes that he’d worn when we met, back on too.

It started me thinking. Maybe his little sailor suit, was what he used to attract gullible women and lure them to his fucking boat. And that was probably what it was, a “fucking boat,” it didn’t look like it was outfitted for fishing or anything serious. He just used the boat for fucking.

That was reinforced when we got into his land vehicle. It was a truck.

My husband never drives anything except Mustangs. His current Mustang is so spoiled that he has another car for winters. It’s not a regular Mustang, it’s twice as loud as the regular ones and has a bunch of letters and numbers in the name. I think it’s an ST 4000 or some such shit. All I know is that Jeff loves that fucking car and he’d hate this truck.

I could see him sniffing around me, two weeks and twenty showers from now and asking me, “Have you been in a big stinking ass, useless Dodge ram?”

“Of course not,” I say.

“Brandy, you have that MOPAR stink on you, Honey,” he’d say, and he’d look at me funny for weeks. I was sure he’d be able to tell.

But being in the truck didn’t kill me. It did make me laugh. The truck was so loud and so slow that it felt like I was riding around in a big garbage truck. And then it hit me. Ogden is on a lake. We are nowhere near the open sea. This guy couldn’t have been much of a sailor.

Maybe it was a touch of guilt, but I forgot all about the guy. I never gave him a second thought.

Jeff

The sound of the sliding door opening caused us to look toward it. Even through layers of PPE, including an N95 mask, a face shield, a full plastic jumpsuit, with a hood, and shoe covers, I could see the disappointment on his face.

“Come on Jeff,” he said. “You know better!”

“We’re both covered from head to toe,” I spat.

“And wasting PPE gear that could be going to better use,” he spat. “But it doesn’t really matter, you’ve both tested clean, again. YOU can go home.”

“We can?” she chirped.

“HE Can,” he snapped. “This morning was his third negative result. You young lady, need two more.”

Like Gary and me, the woman I’d been sitting with, wore a face shield, a mask, a full suit, and at least a couple of layers of gloves.

But I could still read the expression of disappointment on her face. Her bright green eyes were very clear through the clear plastic barrier of her face shield. And I could imagine the corners of her tiny mouth turning themselves downward.

“We came here on the same day,” she said angrily. “We were exposed at virtually the same instant ... the same person.”

“Nicole,” Gary said trying to calm her down. “You’re a medical professional. You know this virus affects everyone differently. You had at least two days where you were sick as a dog, remember? You’re young, you’re healthy and you got over it quickly, but Jeff didn’t have any symptoms. We’re lucky he was tested because he was never sick. He could have been walking around infecting not only every patient he x-rayed, but every person he came in contact with.

The hospital needs you both back ASAP. I’m sure it’ll only be a couple of days before you’re going home too.”

“Cola, get some sleep,” I said. “I’ll log onto the network and we’ll finish our game later. You were stuck anyway.”

“Was not,” she smirked. “I was about to drop a twenty-point word on you.”

“Was it gonna be another word like shrimp ... spelled S-C-H-R-I-M-P?” I laughed.

“What’s wrong with that?” she asked.

“There’s no “C” in “shrimp,” I laughed.

“Yeah but there are lots of shrimp in the sea,” she said. “So, it counts!”

Something passed between us as our eyes met and locked.

“Besides ... that’s one of OUR words,” she cooed. Gary’s eyes were scanning us, in a way that made me wonder what the hell he was thinking.

“So why aren’t the two of you in your rooms?” he asked. “You’d be more comfortable and safer, and you wouldn’t have to wear all of this gear. You could still play Scrabble together and...”

“It’s just better when we’re together,” she said quickly.

“Only because you can flash those big green eyes at me, so I let you get rid of your last letter, that damned “C,” before I made my last play and ended the game,” I laughed.

“Okay, you two can finish your game later, like you said, Jeff,” Gary told us. “Nicole, why don’t you get some rest.”

“Can I go and get tested again?” she whined.

“Yea ... uh No!” spat Gary. “You were both tested this morning.”

“But only one of us gets to go home,” she whined.

“Protocol says it’s best to wait at least two days between tests,” said Gary. He gestured for me to leave the room before Cola could come up with a response.

Even as the door slid closed behind us, I turned back to watch her, and I waved.

Gary led me out of the quarantine zone and into the airlock-like clean room that separated the quarantine suites from the rest of the hospital.

“What the fuck was that?” he hissed suddenly. His abrupt change of mood shocked me.

“What do you mean?” I asked. “We were just playing Scrabble.”

“Bullshit!” he said. “If I didn’t know you any better, I’d have thought that you were...”

“I was what?” I asked.

“Jeezus Jeff ... I have all kinds of emotionally challenged doctors hitting on anything that walks and a ton of nurses that are only here to marry and divorce a doctor ... I don’t need my imaging department director turning my quarantine zone into a God damned love shack!”

“Huh?” I gasped. “I’d never ... You were the one who told me to be nice to her.”

“Not that Fucking nice!” he spat. “Jeezus, Jeff! She got the shitty end of the stick. She reported to work on her first fucking day and came in contact with a crazy guy with the virus.”

“I was there Gary, he wasn’t crazy. He was scared out of his mind. He reflexively grabbed her to ask her where he had to go to get treated.”

“Yeah and you made things worse by grabbing him to get him to let go of her,” he said.

“Jeff you’re not seeing this clearly,” he said. “There’s something going on here. Don’t tell me you didn’t notice how weird the two of you were acting?”

“We’ve been in quarantine for over two weeks,” I said. “Some of the people around us got really sick, Gary. Some of them didn’t make it. And most of them were scared they were gonna die too.”

“Nope ... that’s not it,” he said. “When I walked into that room, I felt like I was intruding on something. And most of the time it felt like you guys barely noticed that anybody else was in the damned room.”

“You’re high, Gary,” I laughed. “Somebody must’ve given you some of that medical weed.”

“If you didn’t notice it, you’re the one who’s high,” he smirked. “Shit, I remember when you walked into my office, while I was giving her a badge and her work schedule. The second she saw you she stopped talking in mid-sentence and forgot what she was saying. She stared at you like a puppy.

But whatever is or isn’t going on, I need you to remember a few things. A: you’re ten years older than she is. So, act like the mature one. Nip this thing in the bud. B: you’re married. Remember ... your wife has a big rack and a big, jiggly behind. And C: I can protect you from a lot of things because we’re friends, but sexual harassment ain’t one of them.

I don’t see any way that this turns out good. Okay you’re only in your thirties but working on the edge of life and death ages you. I can see it. This fucking virus has changed everything we know. Just touching someone can kill you.

So maybe the two of you start out as friends and then you get friendlier. Maybe a drink together after a really bad night in the ER, goes a bit too far and the two of you end up doing something stupid.

After a few exciting days of illicit sex with a willing young girl, she sees her next fling, hopefully someone her own age and hopefully not one of my God damned doctors. You become last week’s news Jeff. But as competitive as you are, you don’t go gently into that good night. You start stalking her and she reports you to HR ... I have no choice but...”

“You have a choice,” I laugh. “You can choose to watch something besides Grey’s Anatomy. I don’t need that kind of fucking drama in my life. All we did was played Scrabble. Now I’m gonna get out of this PPE and head home to Brandy. I haven’t seen her in three weeks.”

“You were only in the QZ for two weeks,” he said.

“I know,” I said. “But after what happened with Elaine... “I paused and he had to look away from me. Elaine was one of our ICU nurses. She went home one night, hugged her husband and less than ten days later he was in our own ICU struggling to breathe. He got put on a ventilator and the damage to his lungs continued to worsen. He didn’t make it. Elaine blamed herself.

“I ... I ... was staying at my parents’ fishing cabin until things were safe,” I mumbled. “I had no way of knowing ... and I was scared shitless of taking this thing home to Brandy.”

“What changed your mind?” he asked.

“Well ... someone just gave me confirmation that I’m virus free,” I laughed. “I’m gonna leave my clothes in the garage, walk buck naked through the house, get into the shower and then into my bed. Brandy is gonna be walking funny for a week.”

“Nuh unh,” he said. “I know you’ve been through hell, but I can only give you three days off.”

“Okay, Brandy’s gonna be walking funny for three days,” I spat.

But it didn’t exactly work out that way. What’s the expression? “Man plans ... the gods laugh.”

Brandy

Touch is a strange thing. The fingers gently brushing against my leg belonged to a person who wanted what should have been an act of intimacy. Yet all they did was aroused something other than what they’d intended.

I looked across at the owner of those fingers and hissed angrily into his face.

“I fucking told you that last night was the LAST time!”

“You called me,” he said. “What are you so pissed about?”

“I called you ... I called someone I thought was an old friend ... because I was lonely and scared,” I hissed. “You took advantage of it.”

“Bitch get over yourself,” he laughed. “You wanted it. You ALWAYS want it. That’s why you call me.”

“You raped me,” I said.

“You called me and invited me over,” he said. “You dragged me up here and into your bed. You wanted to fuck ... you got fucked. End of story.”

“I didn’t want to get my ass fucked,” I hissed. “I was saving that...”

“Yeah I know,” he laughed. “You told me. You wanted your husband to have something that me and half the guys in the old neighborhood didn’t have so many times before you married him that we were sick of it.”

“That’s a good thing,” I said. “But then you always did know exactly what to say to help me put things in perspective. I reached out to you because I was scared. Jeff works in a hospital, taking care of people with this fucking virus. He’s so afraid of bringing it home to me that I haven’t seen him in three fucking weeks.

Loneliness, is just as bad as this fucking virus.”

“What a brilliant fucking speech,” he laughed. “How noble of you. Except you forgot something didn’t you? You forgot that this wasn’t the first time you called me when you got lonely.

In fact, the first time you called me was only a few years after you got married, wasn’t it? So much for your perfect marriage.”

“My marriage IS perfect!” I hissed.

“I agree,” he laughed. “The only thing wrong with it is YOU, Brandy. Jeff is a good guy. His only fault was in believing the bullshit you fed him. I wish I’d had the chance to talk to him BEFORE he married you. There are so many things I wish I’d told him.

You know ... shit like... “Never marry a woman with one of those stripper names. You know names like Candy, Sandy, Mandy, Randy or Bra ... he laughed. Or I could have told him... “You can’t turn a hoe into a housewife.”

“Shut up!” I hissed, thinking about that God damned sailor from the previous day.

“You married a guy who loves you more than anything,” he laughed. “Buys you anything and everything you want, whether he wants it or not. Tell me the truth ... Jeff doesn’t really like your big fake boobs, does he? He isn’t the type. But he let you have em anyway didn’t he? Do you think he knows you use them to get other guys?”

“Shut up!” I hissed. “Shut up and g...”

“Yeah I know,” he said. “Get the fuck out of your house. It’s the same thing you tell me every God damned time. Every God damned time your perfect little life gets boring and you need someone to come over here and do the shit that Jeff won’t do to you. But you know what, Brandy. This shit is getting old. It’s becoming a routine. Maybe the next time you call me ... I won’t come. And then where will you be?”

He got out of my bed, leaving me in tears. He grabbed his ratty jeans and his dirty T-shirt, then opened the door and walked out.

He was wrong. I told myself. I had changed. I could be a good wife. And this really would be the last...

The door to my room opened before I could even complete my declaration.

Bobby came back in and he was as white as a sheet. He looked around the room as if he could see through me.

“What the f...” I began.

“Shut up, Brandy,” he whispered. “Jeff is downstairs!”

My heart was beating so fast I thought I was having a heart attack.

“Brandy open the window,” he whispered. “I’ll climb down and...”

“There’s nothing to climb on,” I said. “If you try to jump, you’ll land in my rose bushes. And the fence around the flower beds is heavy wrought iron. It would split you in half. Besides, these windows only open about five inches. They’re made like that for security purposes.”

“Fuck ... if he catches me here, both of us are screwed,” he said.

“What was he doing?” I asked.

“It sounds like he was making breakfast,” he said. “And he was talking to himself.”

“He was probably going to surprise me with breakfast in bed,” I couldn’t help but smile. “But Jeff doesn’t talk to himself. I have caught him talking to his other bitch, though.”

“Jeff cheats on you?” he smirked. “I never thought he had it in him. I thought he was a real fuckin’ boy scout. But then I always thought he could do better than you. I always pictured him with a real pretty, girl next door type.”

“His other bitch is that fucking Mustang he drives,” I hissed.

“That is one bad ass car,” he said.

“Maybe he’ll drive you to the hospital in it ... after he shoots you,” I smirked. “If I screamed for Help! Maybe he’d think you broke in.”

“He knows me dumb ass,” he said.

“Yeah ... but everybody knows that you do drugs, can’t keep a job to save your ass, and almost never tell the fucking truth. Who’s he gonna believe, you or me?” I asked.

“Either way, he’ll call the cops and Simone will hear about it. Then my marriage will go down the tubes with yours. Why the hell did I have to marry a cop?” he spat.

“Why did you?” I asked.

“Didn’t plan it,” he said. “She got pregnant and three kids later, I’m trapped.”

“In more ways than one, dumb ass,” I laughed.

“I thought you said he was quarantined,” he hissed. “Your dumb ass always gets the facts wrong in every situation.”

I was just about to unload on him when we heard it. The sound of my husband’s voice. He sounded as calm as the waters of a placid lake on a warm summer night.

“Hey guys,” he called. “Breakfast is ready. You should come on down and eat it while it’s hot!”

“Who the fuck is he talking to?” Bobby asked.

“Shit, he probably brought a couple of those skanky nurses, home with him,” I said.

“Maybe I can sneak out while they eat,” he said.

“Ya think?” I asked.

“I think you should go down there and distract them, so they don’t see me,” he said.

“So, I’m supposed to down there, smelling like I was freshly fucked, in front of a bunch of people who make a living noticing every detail about their patients’ bodies. You’re out of your fucking mind.”

“It’s a better plan than you throwing me under the bus, yelling for help and getting my ass thrown in jail,” he said.

“Brandy,” Jeff yelled again. “You and Bobby can’t stay up there forever!”

“He really doesn’t sound mad at all,” said Bobby. “Maybe he’s one of them kinky guys who doesn’t care if somebody else fucks his wife. Or maybe he’s gonna use this as a chance to put the wood to one of those hot ass nurses he works with.”

“Bullshit!” I hissed angrily. “The only hot ass he’s getting is the one he’s married to.”

I grabbed my robe and stomped my way down the stairs. I headed into my dining room and found Jeff sitting there talking to a woman whose head was down.

Bobby stumbled into the room bumping into my back as I abruptly stopped.

“Jeff, you never told me you were out of quarantine...” I gasped as the woman’s head swung upwards and I recognized her. She was no nurse. It was Bobby’s wife Simone and she was pissed. Her eye makeup was running and the tears that streaked her foundation were still streaming from her eyes.

Those eyes locked with mine and I saw death in my future. But then she saw Bobby and erupted. How a woman that chunky was able to get up from the table and cross the room before Bobby could run through the living room and out the door was one of the mysteries of science.

But she did it. Maybe all of those donuts were some kind of secret health food. She grabbed Bobby by the collar of his cheap t-shirt and yanked him backwards. Then she clubbed him over the back of his head with her service weapon, and Bobby was out like a light.

She swung her hand upwards again and somehow Jeff intercepted the swing before it made contact.

“If you kill him, you end up in jail and your kids lose both parents,” he said. She nodded and turned her fury on me. Fortunately. Jeff got between us and gently nudged her toward a seat at my dining room table.

As I sat down, she glared at me and then started taking deep breaths.

It looked as though she wanted to ask me something, but she shook her head and looked at the plate that Jeff placed in front of her.

Jeff went over to Bobby and gently slapped him a couple of times to awaken him. When that didn’t work, he went to our first aid kid and got the smelling salts.

Once Bobby came too, Jeff helped him up and seated him at the table.

As soon as Bobby’s eyes focused, Simone jumped at him again. Jeff pulled her back into her seat and she stayed there.

“Ah’m sorry, Baby,” he blurted out. “I just lost my head. It was a one-time lapse in judgement that will never be repeated. It only happened because...”

“Shut the fuck up,” she sobbed. “I saw the tape. I heard it all.”

“What tape?” he asked. “And what do you mean all?”

“It doesn’t matter,” interjected my husband. “Eat your breakfast. We wanted you to have a pleasant breakfast to rebuild your strength after all of the activity you had last night.”

“Especially since you’re gonna be working even harder today,” sobbed Simone.

“Jeff, I don’t...” I began. He silenced me with a glance. Over the past ten years that we’ve been married, I prided myself on knowing everything there was to know about my husband. But I had never seen a look like the one he gave me.

My husband is extremely empathetic. He can feel the pain other people are experiencing. It’s one of the reasons why he is so suited to healthcare.

When Jeff looks at me, I can feel his love for me as an almost tangible force. But looking into his eyes scared me. It wasn’t fear of being hit or a fear of his anger. Jeff was cool and calm. But the look he gave me seemed as if he was looking at a dog turd that he had to get rid of before cutting the grass.

He didn’t look at me like the woman he loved and would someday have children with. I felt like I was simply an obstacle to sweep away before he took care of his job.

I knew then that whatever punishment Jeff had in store for me would be long and uncomfortable.

“Whatever punishment you choose, I deserve it, Honey,” I said.

He looked at me as if I was stupid. “There’s no punishment, Brandy,” he said. And although he tried his best to keep his voice level. I saw through it. I could feel how hurt he was. He even tried to smile, but his face wouldn’t cooperate.

He poured me a cup of coffee, that he’d made just the way I liked it.

“Baby, what I did was wrong,” I said. “I just want you to know that I...”

“No need,” he said. “I don’t need explanations or excuses.”

“But I want you to understand that it...” I began.

“That it didn’t mean anything,” he finished for me. “That it was only sex and it had nothing to do with love or our marriage ... right?”

“Exactly,” I said.

“So, you don’t need to feel any guilt,” he said. “We’re gonna be fine. Simone and her kids are gonna be fine. Bobby is gonna be fine.”

“You’re just gonna forgive me ... just like that?” I asked.

“Do you want me to?” he asked. I nodded. He shrugged his shoulders and said, “Okay.”

We all ate for a few more minutes, with Bobby and me exchanging furtive glances. Neither of us understood it, but we were both happier than we could believe.

“I guess I’d better load the dishwasher,” I said.

“Don’t worry about it,” Jeff smiled. “You have a lot to do. But you have Bobby to help you.”

“I’d rather have you help me, Honey,” I said.

“I won’t be here,” he said. “Simone and I have an appointment and then she has to pick up her kids.”

“I knew it,” spat Bobby. “You’re gonna take my wife to a motel as some kind of revenge fuck, aren’t you?”

He turned to me. “Brandy they’re gonna make us watch them fuck,” he said.

Jeff laughed. “As good as that sounds, what we’ll be doing is a lot more boring,” he said. “We’re gonna be filling out a lot of boring papers and answering a bunch of really obvious and painful questions.”

“So, what will we be doing?” I asked.

“I rented a truck for you,” he said. “Call it a parting gift. But remember you only have the truck for one day.”

“Baby, why do I need a truck?” I asked.

“So, you can get all of your shit out of my house,” he smiled. “You can keep all of your clothes. You can keep all of your jewelry, but anything still here when I get back, will be given away or thrown away.”

“But Honey,” I whined. “Where am I gonna put it ... and why are we doing this?”

“You can shove it all up your ass, as far as I’m concerned,” he said. “And we’re doing this because we’re getting a divorce. I no longer want to be married to you.”

It felt as if my head had exploded. Jeff had just calmly told me that our marriage was over. And he’d said it as if he was telling me that he needed to change the oil in his Mustang.