“Honey, I think we should do some remodeling, George said to his wife.

They were eating dinner together for the first time in over a week. George is home by 5:30 every night, but his wife Pennie has several different reasons for not being home in the evening.

Their only child Zack is a junior at Illinois State University. Since Zack left for school she’s been working longer shifts at work and started up with several clubs and even bingo nights.

“Remodeling?” She asked. “What are you thinking?

“We always talked about finishing the basement. I’d like to do that. I’d also like to replace the deck.”

“What do you want to do with the deck?

“I’d like to make an outdoor kitchen and extend it out to the pool. That way we won’t have to step down to the patio, only to have to step up to the pool deck. Maybe we could redo the kitchen too?”

“Okay. That sounds nice. Will it cost a lot?”

“I don’t know. I can price it out. Maybe the same contractor can do it all and give us a deal.”

“Okay, dear.”

Three weeks later they signed the papers for a home equity loan. It ate up 30% of their remaining equity in their house. The contractor for the deck and outdoor kitchen agreed to finance their cost too and put a lien on their house as collateral. That left 10% in equity, or about 20k.

“Honey, the company that is doing the basement, has a great deal on windows and siding. I think we should take advantage of it. Ours is what was there when they built the house 30 years ago”

“I like that idea. We should’ve done the windows years ago.”

“There was always something more important, dear. Car payments, mortgage, tuition, college fund, you know what I mean? Now that Zack doesn’t cost us as much, we’ve got more disposable income.”

“That makes sense. Okay, let’s do it.”

A month later, the basement, windows, and siding were all done. The weather warmed up and the deck company was ready to start their job.

“George, the house looks great.”

“Yeah, it sure does. It’s almost ready for the next phase.”

“Next phase? What do you mean?” She gave George an inquisitive look. George looked annoyed with the question.

“Well, Zack will be out of the house soon, raising him trough school was phase one.”

“Oh, I get it. Empty nesting is phase two?”

“Something like that,” he said without elaborating.

When he suggested that they get new cars, she was worried that he was in the middle of a mid-life crisis. He looked at several sports cars and ultimately settled on a big SUV for him and a luxury sedan for her. He used their savings to pay cash for his and leased hers in her name. If she would have realized that he paid cash for his, she might have stopped him.

She understood his explanation for leasing hers by telling her that it’s always good to have some individual credit in your own name. Most of everything they had was joint debt.

One night George was working at his computer when Pennie walked into the office bedroom. “What are you working on, dear?”

“I’m just about finished with our taxes.”

“Oh, okay. Are we getting a big refund?”

“No, we owe about $800.”

“Oh, we usually get a refund. We take a vacation with that money. What happened?”

“You made more money last year. You made almost as much as I did and that put us up a couple of tax brackets.”

“Oh?’ Well, I guess that makes sense.”

Since Zack left for college, she took all of the necessary courses to get her graduate degree and then get her Nurse Practitioner certification and license.

“We can still go on vacation though. All of your extra earnings have us in pretty good shape.”

“Oh, good. I’ll start looking at options.”

“How about Hawaii?” He suggested.

Pennie’s face lit up in a big smile and she said, “Now you’re talking. I’ll start looking right away.”

“Great, honey.”

George looked at his calendar and calculated the days he wanted to take off of work. George let Pennie know there was only a one-week window that he could take a vacation. It worked for Pennie so she booked it.

A week later they were eating dinner at an expensive steakhouse. They had been doing that every Saturday for several months. George was using the joint checking account’s debit card to pay for the meal every time. George could’ve kept the cost down if he wanted to, but he loved a particular wine that they had there and it’s almost $200 per bottle. Pennie didn’t know that and never saw the check.

A month later, they were packing for their trip to Hawaii. Pennie was very excited and was hoping that they could reconnect on the trip. She had been unhappy with George’s recent moodiness and even more unhappy because they hadn’t made love in several months.

There had been a few times where she gave George a blowjob as foreplay hoping to make love with her husband, but George came in her mouth without warning. He would blame having too much wine or beer, or just that it felt too good and he couldn’t hold back.

He’s getting older and recharging for a second-round doesn’t happen anymore for him. He’d even fallen asleep without returning the favor several times. She couldn’t remember the last time George went down on her. He used to enjoy eating her to several orgasms.

George had initiated sex several times over the last few months, but it always seemed to be when she was on her period and she had to turn him down. She thought, “You’d think after being married for so long he would know when I’m on my period.”

She packed some sexy lingerie and sexy bikinis hoping to light George’s fire. “For the thousands of dollars the trip is costing us, it had better be worth it,” she thought. She even told him to get a prescription for Viagra from his doctor, to ensure a great trip for her.

George was miffed when she told him to do that, she had not asked, it was an order. “Well, I’m sorry I don’t have the recovery time of a 31-year-old.”

“What an oddly specific age to throw out there,” she thought.

On the morning of their trip, Pennie was using the bathroom and shouted “God Damn it!”

George smiled as he sipped his coffee. “Like clockwork,” he thought.

“What’s the matter, honey? Forget something?” George asked as she came down and poured some coffee.

“My period started today, just as we were leaving for vacation. This sucks.”

“I’m sure it won’t be that bad. We can still relax and sightsee. If you really want to have sex that badly, we can try anal again.” He said the anal bit like a shot across her bow, so to speak. He knew what she would say.

“You’re not putting your dick anywhere near my butt. You know how much that hurt when we tried it.”

“Oh, well I thought as you get older, your butthole might have stretched out by now. It might be easier to take me back there now than before.”

He smiled at her and she gave him a hateful glare in return.

“No chance!” She said and stormed out.

George texted his son to make sure he would be home to take care of some things that needed doing at the house.

Zack confirmed and asked, “Are you sure?”

George responded, “Yep.”

On the sixth day of the trip, they were laying on the beach relaxing when Pennie said to George, “Honey, my period seems to have ended. After dinner let’s stay in and make love. It feels like it’s been forever since we’ve done it.”

“Sure baby, sounds good.” Then George walked up to the bar and ordered a large daiquiri with an extra shot of rum. He brought Pennie a small one with no extra booze.

While they were waiting for a table at dinner, George had two martinis. They had a bottle of wine with dinner and George had a double Cognac with dessert.

When they got back to their room, Pennie said, “Get naked lover,” then went to the bathroom to freshen up and put on some lingerie.

When she came out, George was lying on the bed, on his back, with his feet on the floor and fully clothed. No matter how hard she shook him, she couldn’t wake him.

“Damn it, George! Wake up! I need you.” She said as he snored away. “Just fucking great.” She rolled him over and went to sleep.

In the morning, she tried to wake him by sucking his morning wood. He pretended to be asleep and just before he came, he said, “That feels good baby.”

“Mmm,” she moaned and a moment later he erupted. She pulled her mouth off and let him finish cumming onto his shirt.

“God damn it! I wanted to make love to you,” she cried.

“You should’ve woke me earlier. By the time I woke up I was close to cumming. It’s not my fault,” he said, as she walked to the bathroom to wash his cum off of her hand.

As she returned, George ran by her into the bathroom. He slammed the door and she could hear the sound of him vomiting.

“Great! Now you’re going to ruin our last day being hungover.”

Their last day was spent with Pennie pissed off and George enjoying the last of his time on the beautiful island.

On the plane home, George thought about his marriage and happier times. She wasn’t overtly disrespectful to him, but for several months she hadn’t been the same wife he knew and loved dearly.

Zack picked them up from the airport right on time and helped load the luggage into the back of their SUV. George helped while Pennie waited in the car.

“Everything set?”

“Yeah, Dad. Are you sure?”

“More than ever.”

“Okay, this really sucks.”

“I know, Son.”

When they pulled up to the house, Pennie asked, “Zack, do you have company?”

“No, Mother.”

“Then who’s car is that in the driveway?”

“Don’t know, Mother.”

Pennie hated it when he called her mother. It made her feel old, and he only did it when he was upset with her. She didn’t ask what his problem was. She was still upset with George and didn’t want to argue with her son on top of it.

As they started unloading the bags, a man walked up from the car and said, “Excuse me. Are you Pennie Sylvain?”

“Yes.”

He handed her a large envelope.

She didn’t notice George and Zack walk into the house.

“I’m sorry, you’ve been served.”

“What?”

“In the envelope, you’ll find a divorce petition. I am sorry.”

He got back into his car and drove away.

Pennie opened the envelope in a state of shock. It really was a divorce petition. She snapped out of her shock and screamed, “George! Where are you?”

She barreled into the house through the garage as George calmly walked out the front door, got into his new SUV, and drove away.

“Zachary, where is your father,” she shouted after she finished going room to room screaming for her husband, looking for him to make him explain himself.

“Mother,” he said in his most derisive tone. “Dad left and asked me to give you this.”

“What is it?”

“Probably the answer to all of your questions.”

“I don’t need your sarcasm.”

“I don’t need your attitude. I’m going back to the dorm. I’ll see you when I see you.”

She didn’t respond as she opened the envelope he’d handed her. Inside was a DVD and a letter.

Pennie,

This is goodbye. It was a good twenty plus years and I truly thank you for those good ones. The last 6 months, however, you can shove up your ass. Pun intended.

I found out about your affair with Stewart by accident. I was struggling with what to get you for your birthday. Someone told me that they converted their old home movies to DVD and I thought that was a cool idea. I knew you kept all of those old mini video cassettes in some shoeboxes in your closet, so I was going to do it for you.

Imagine my surprise when I found a box that had dildos and lube in it. At first, I laughed about it because I didn’t think it was a big deal and you shouldn’t have to hide them from me. Then I thought we could use them together on you to have some extra fun in bed.

There were three of them and I almost dismissed them before I realized what they were. They were butt plugs in three different sizes.

I asked myself, “Why would she need three different sizes?” One of them was even larger at the base than my dick. I put them back and googled butt plugs.

It turns out, you use different sizes to stretch you out so you can grow accustomed to larger penetrations. I thought it was great. You were planning on spicing up our love life and would finally let me try anal again. You complained that I was too big when we had tried.

So I didn’t say anything and I waited for it. My birthday was not too far away so I figured it was going to be a surprise.

Nope. Nothing on my birthday. You may remember me asking to try anal again and you telling me in no uncertain terms that it hurt too much the first time we tried and we never would again. I let it go and figured you were still working your way up to my size.

Our anniversary then came and went. Nope again. I figured then, maybe you just couldn’t take it so you gave up. I looked in the box again and saw that there was a new one. An even larger size.

I admit I was an idiot. I thought about that one for a while. Why would you buy a larger size if the other ones hurt too bad to start doing anal with me? I got my answer about a week later.

I was working from home one day and you were actually home at a normal hour that night and were making dinner. As I’ve done so many times over the years, I walked up to you at the stove and grabbed your butt. You winced in pain.

I knew you hadn’t been doing anything with the plugs because I was home all day, so why would your butt hurt?

After that it was easy. A couple of weeks of surveillance and I had you dead to rights. You went to the Motel Six with Stewart on Monday and Friday for those weeks. I stopped the PI, got his report, and cried. He was even able to get a recording of you and Stewart on one of those sexcapades and that’s what is in your hands.

You really seemed to enjoy the way he slammed into you, more so than you ever did while we made love. It’s a shame, I could’ve done that to you. All you needed was to ask. Oh well.

If you wanted to know why we haven’t made love in a long time this is why. I still can’t believe how lucky I got when your period came in time for our trip. I figured I would be close, within a couple of days anyway, but that was better than I expected. I was dreading having to come up with a reason to have to use a condom with you in Hawaii. I wasn’t going to follow that scuzzbag into you. Who knows what he may have given you.

So this is goodbye. You may have noticed, that all of my stuff is gone. While we were in Hawaii, Zack and some friends moved all of my stuff into the apartment I rented.

I will not answer calls from you, I will not respond to texts or emails. My lawyer says that I’ll have to meet with you at least once or it will look bad for me in court, so I’ll meet with you in his office once you’ve found an attorney. Do not use Zack as an intermediary. I’ve involved him enough and I already regret that. For the record, I begged Zack to forgive you. That what you did was to me, not him. He said he’ll try, but he’s really pissed.

As Zack likes to say, I’ll see you when I see you.

George

Pennie sat at the table and cried.

She tried to call him. She had to tell him that it was already over. That it was a mistake. That she already went through the embarrassment of STD tests. That she loves only him. He never answered.

George tried to get on with his life but constantly worried about her. She had been diagnosed with depression years back and he hoped the divorce didn’t send her into a dark place. He had Zack check on her regularly and keep him updated.

Everyday he reconsidered what he’d done. He wanted to be able to forgive her, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. She’d changed too much over the last few months. Giving their younger neighbor what she wouldn’t give him hurt him. She seemed to have turned into a sexual dynamo for her lover, but it was the same old, same old for him.

A month after serving her, George was sitting in his attorney’s conference room, when Pennie walked in with her lawyer.

She looked terrible. She had lost some weight, her hair was limp, her eyes had bags under them and she had no makeup on.

George fought the urge to grab her and tell her that he’d make everything alright. His attorney saw the look on George’s face and shook his head.

George had lived up to his promise of not responding to her messages but he read and listened to them all. She left several a day. All apologetic. All begging for forgiveness. All saying that she loved him and only him. He couldn’t believe her.

After the lawyers exchanged pleasantries, his lawyer asked if they had agreed to the terms of the settlement.

“My client does not agree and wishes for counseling to repair the marriage,” her attorney opened with.

George didn’t let his lawyer answer. He said, “No.”

Her lawyer, anticipating he wouldn’t agree, went on the attack. He used George’s preparations against him.

“Mr. Sylvain, your spending spree over the last several months has intentionally depleted the assets of your marriage and created unnecessary additional debt.”

George was about to protest, but his lawyer put his hand on his arm to stop him.

Her lawyer continued, “It is clear that when you started the remodeling of the home, bought new cars, ate expensive meals, and went on an extravagant vacation, you already knew of Mrs. Sylvain’s affair. You depleted your savings accounts, you took out a second mortgage and an additional loan for the remodeling. You even had my client lease the car in her name, when her car at that time was only two years old and was not financed.

You clearly planned this, and did so in order to limit the marital assets that your wife is entitled to.”

“Damn it! I don’t want a divorce. I love you, George. We’ve been married for over twenty years, doesn’t that matter to you?” Pennie said through tears.

“I only wish it had mattered to you as much as it did to me,” he said sadly.

She had no response to that, so George stood up and said, “Agree to the fair settlement I’ve offered, or your sex tape goes up on PornHub. Let me know in one week.” He walked out of the room.

“George wait!,” his attorney called out as he followed him. “Come to my office. Now!”

George followed him and his lawyer closed the door behind him.

“Damn it, George. I told you that you couldn’t do that. Revenge porn is a crime in this state. If you put that video up, there is no way that a judge would believe it wasn’t you that did it. Her lawyer and I both witnessed that threat.”

“I’ll take my chances.”

“Don’t be stupid. That was illegally obtained. Hell, even if somehow I could prove it was legally obtained, which I can’t, you don’t have their permission to distribute it.”

George, I told you all of that crap you did by spending the money after you knew she was cheating, was going to backfire on you, and it has. You need to do the counseling. A judge could make you pay her half of all of the money you blew, and make you pay the debt. You’ve backed yourself into a corner.”

“Come on, I could say that I did those repairs because they were needed. Our house needed updating. I’m even going to buy out her equity.”

“That’s the problem, damn it. Now you owe her less equity! Do the counseling, George. Make it look like you tried. Right now it looks like instead of divorcing her immediately, you let her continue so you could screw her over. It’s too obvious. This is not an online story where guys get away with that stuff. They figured it out and you lost.”

“Okay. You win. I’ll play the counseling game.”

“It’s not a game, George. Take it seriously. Hell, it’s obvious that you still love her. I saw the look in your eyes when she walked in. You wanted to run to her and hug her. Like I told you months ago, counseling may work out to be the best thing for you.”

“Just tell them I’ll do it. Make her pay for it because she wants it.” He walked out frustrated and knew that the lawyer was right.

He wondered if he would ever stop loving her.

Later, George was talking to his son, “How did it go, Dad?”

“Horrible. They smacked me on the nose with a newspaper for all of my preparations and my lawyer forced me to do counseling.”

“You’re finally going to try to work it out then? You know you’ve been miserable for months. I can’t believe you were able to act normal in front of Mom.”

“Son, you’ll learn someday that you can’t just shut love off. We started dating so young, she’s the only one I’ve ever loved. You know we were high school sweethearts.”

“I know, Dad. That’s why it’s really hard to understand you splitting up.”

“I know. I’ve questioned myself every day since I caught her. There’s an old adage that goes ‘will you be happier with her, or without her,’ and I’m certain I’d be happier with her. I love her so much, but she’s backed me into a corner having an affair and I don’t know that I can fight to get out.”

“Maybe the counseling will help, Dad. Maybe talking it through will allow you to find your way out of that corner. I know mom loves you and she is a wreck without you.”

“I know. She looked like hell, but how could she do this to me? To us?”

“I don’t know, Dad. I do know she won’t be messing with Mr. Daly anymore.”

“Why’s that?”

“Well, Mom told me that she had broken it off with him a couple of months ago. Which was way before you went on vacation by the way. Last week I called her and she sounded more upset than normal. I pressed her to tell me what was wrong, I figured it was just more divorce issues. She told me Mr. Daly was trying to get her to start up with him again now that you’re splitting up. She said that he got a bit aggressive, but she was able to get away.”

“Did he hit her? I’ll kill him.”

“No, she implied that he tried to take her forcefully though.”

“Mother fucker!”

“Dad, don’t worry. It’s handled.”

“What happened?”

“I stopped by Mr. And Mrs. Daly’s house last week. She’s a nice lady, I feel bad for her. Anyway, she let me in and when he walked into the room, I put a beat down on him. He never even got a punch off.”

“No way?” George said with a smile.

“Yeah. Turns out he’s a pussy. Anyway, Mrs. Daly tried to stop me; that is until I told her what he did. Then she started kicking him in the balls as he laid on the floor. I guess she doesn’t like him forcing himself on women either.”

“Well, nice work, Son. You saved me from the next part of my plan, kicking his ass. I appreciate you sticking up for your mother, but if you get in that situation again, make sure you bring some backup.”

“I understand.”

Two weeks later, they had their first counseling appointment. When he walked into reception, she tried to talk to him and he stopped her. “I’m not here for conversation.”

She broke down in tears and he sat and surfed the internet.

Once they were in the session, the counselor asked George to explain what brought them there. She already knew they were divorcing and there was infidelity, but now it was the time for details.

“No, Doc. She caused this, let her explain why we’re here.”

“Alright. Pennie, please go ahead,” Dr. Marks said.

Pennie took a moment to compose herself, then started. “I literally have no reasonable explanation for what I did.”

George sighed loudly.

“George, you wanted her to start,” Dr. Marks chastised.

George motioned with his hand for her to continue.

“I was like a frog in boiling water. Our neighbor had been flirting with me and seducing me for years. I didn’t even realize it was a seduction until I looked back at it.

At every party, at every barbecue, he slowly worked me. He was the master of the soft sell. He never made overt advances, he never touched me inappropriately, and never tried to get me alone.

Eight or nine months ago, my sister and I went out for drinks. We ran into my neighbor Stewart and one of his friends. His friend and my sister were both single, hit it off and eventually left together. They’re still together, actually.

It wasn’t a big deal to leave me with Stew; he was our neighbor. It made sense that he would give me a ride home. He was supposed to be safe.

We didn’t kiss, we didn’t dance and grind on each other, we didn’t touch at all. We simply had some drinks and talked.

When he drove us home he pulled into his garage and even left the garage door open. As I walked around the back of the car, he met me at the trunk. I thought he was going to give me the usual goodbye hug, but he kissed me. Passionately. I don’t know why, but I melted into his arms.”

George shook his head.

“After a few moments of kissing, he led me by the hand without saying a word into the house. It seemed like only seconds later, that my pants were off and I was in his bed with him pounding into me. There was no foreplay, no testing my wetness, he just drove into me and took me.

It didn’t even occur to me to ask where his wife was until it was over. He said that she was with one of her lovers. They apparently don’t care who each other screws.

After he finished, he went to the bathroom. I quickly dressed and left. When I got to my house, I stood at the door and cried. I’d never felt so ashamed in my life.”

She broke down and cried as George looked on with an anger-tinted look of sadness. Dr. Marks handed her some tissues and waited for her to compose herself.

“Never once did I not love you, George. I love you as much today as I did on our wedding day.”

George wanted to lash out but he held back. Dr. Marks looked as if she were going to speak.

“George, how do you feel about what you heard.”

“How do I feel? Well, that’s all a big bunch of bull shit.”

“Why, is that?” Dr. Marks asked.

“She described a slow burn that led up to a one-night stand. The affair went on for several months. I only watched her for two weeks and they met four times. Doesn’t sound like she was ashamed or that she loved me.”

“I swear, George. I love you so much. I had to continue. He blackmailed me. He told me that he would tell you if I didn’t continue.”

“Then why did you end it?” He asked.

“I’m an idiot. I kept doing it up until I realized that I had leverage on him too.

One day, he said we had to finish quickly so he could beat his wife home. That’s when it hit me. They didn’t have an open marriage. I couldn’t believe I was so stupid.”

“No, you wanted to keep doing it. You wanted him to fuck your ass.”

“No, I swear. I bought those things to stretch me out because it hurt me so much when he did it.”

“It’s too bad I don’t believe you. You’re a college-educated woman with a grad degree. You’re practically a doctor for Christ’s sake. I don’t believe you wouldn’t have come to me if you were being blackmailed.”

“It’s true. You may not believe it but it’s true. I couldn’t risk losing you.”

“We’re out of time for today,” Dr. Marks said. “For next week we’re going to start by basically telling me your love story. I want to know about your early years.”

George nodded and left as Pennie chased after him. “George, wait. Please!”

“What Pennie?”

“I’m sorry. I really am. You don’t know how horribly I feel.”

“Sure I do. It’s half as horrible as I feel. I’m not buying your little story there. You may have gotten away with that cop-out answer with the doctor, but I’m not accepting it. You made a choice to go to bed with him. You were thirty feet away from our house. You could’ve walked away, but you chose to go into his house.”

“I don’t know...”

“Just stop it, Pennie. I’m only doing this because my lawyer urged me to do it. Until you are fully honest in there, we have less than zero chance of ending the divorce.”

“George, I know it bothers you that he did my ... um, back door and I wouldn’t let you. I really only did it because he forced me to do it. He said that if he can’t get it from his wife, he’ll get it from me. I really think that’s why he blackmailed me into continuing it. He wanted more - in my back door.”

He shook his head and walked away.

In the next session, Dr. Marks had George talk about their early years first.

“I really liked this girl, Camille, sophomore year. We were friends and got along awesomely. She was dating a real ass and didn’t see him for what he was. Well, one day she finally saw the light and they broke up. We talked even more after that and I was trying to work up the courage to ask her out. I took too long and someone beat me to it. When I asked her why she would go out with that guy, she said it was because I didn’t ask her. I was crushed.

Pennie saw me in the cafeteria afterward and noticed I was looking sad. We knew each other but weren’t close friends at the time.

I told her what happened and she said that she was glad I was too slow because she wanted to go out with me.