Chapter 2

The Cop.

About a year after my divorce from Helen was final I was sitting in a crowded restaurant in Ann Arbor having dinner when a voice said, "Hello stranger" and I looked up to see Linda Fenlander.

"Linda" I said as I stood up and offered her my hand. "How have you been?"

"Fine Rob, and you?"

"I've been better and I've been worse, but tonight seems okay so far. What are you up to?"

"I stopped in for dinner, but the place is full and they say there is a half hour wait so I decided to go elsewhere. I was just leaving when I saw you and I thought I would just come over and say hi."

"Good thing you did because, as you can see, I have room for you here. Would you join me?"

She sat down across from me and as she did I remembered the last time I saw her. It had been at her wedding. I glanced at her left hand and saw that her rings were missing. I wondered if she noticed that mine was gone too, but her first question answered that.

"How's Helen?"

"No idea, but hopefully she's lying in a ditch somewhere slowly bleeding to death."

She glanced at my left hand and said, "You two split the blanket?"

"No. Split means equal shares. It came out more like 80/20 in her favor."

"You had kids, right?"

"Three of them."

"That always makes it worse for the man. Luckily Phil and I didn't have ant children to complicate our split."

"Sore subject?"

"Very."

"Hoping that he is in the ditch across the road from Helen?"

"No, it wasn't his fault that things didn't work out. Enough of the maudlin, what are you up too?"

"Still with Ford. Working the day shift at Rawsonville. You?"

"Waiting tables at the Red Fox Inn."

The waitress came and Linda ordered. We made small talk until the food came and then we ate and chatted and carefully avoided mentioning either of our ex spouses.

I had met Linda on the first day I stopped at the restaurant where Helen had gotten her job. I'd had a doctor's appointment that morning for my annual physical and so I had taken a day off from work. The physical came with the instructions that I not have anything but water after seven in the evening. As a result I was pretty hungry when I left the clinic so I decided to stop where Helen worked for lunch. The hostess seated me and Linda showed up to take my order. I asked if Helen was around and was told she was in the back filling the salt and pepper shakers.

"Could you do me a favor and tell her there is someone here to see her?"

"And whom shall I say is calling?"

"Her husband."

"Hello Helen's husband, I'm Linda" and she offered me her hand. "Call me Rob" I said as I took it and shook it. I gave her my order and she left and several minutes later Helen came out and sat with me. After that it seemed like every time I went into the restaurant I ended up sitting in Linda's section and one day I joked about it. As she took my order I asked:

"So when are you going to make your move?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"Just curious as to when you are going to make your pass at me."

"What the hell are you talking about?" she said in a tone that indicated she was becoming a little upset.

I laughed and said, "Every time I come in here I end up in your section so I assumed you are bribing the hostess to put me where you can get at me."

I saw the tightness go out of her and she said, "Oh hell Rob, you were never supposed to figure it out. I was going to do it today, but now that you've caught on I'm too embarrassed. I'll have to pick another time."

I remembered that as I sat there dining with her. She was a fine looking woman and on a whim I asked:

"Are you over Phil yet?"

"Pretty much. Why do you ask?"

"If you were over him you might be open for a date."

"Are you asking?"

"I guess I am."

I think I'd like that."

On our third date Linda invited me in when I took her home. She offered me a drink and we ended up on her couch talking. I was on my second drink when she said:

"You haven't mentioned it, but I am curious. What happened between you and Helen?"

"Another man."

"She run away with him or something like that?"

"No. I came home early one day and found her in bed with him."

"Oh poor baby. I know that hurts. That's how Phil and I ended. I can't say that I'm surprised. I warned her that might happen if she kept it up."

"Kept it up?"

"Seeing other men."

"Other men? As in more than one?"

"Three that I know about and I guess that I was responsible for one of them."

"You were responsible?"

"In a way."

"You know you are going to have to tell me about it now that you brought it up."

"All right, but first you have to understand that I didn't deliberately set out to do what happened. When Helen started working at the restaurant we clicked. We took an instant liking to each other and by the end of her first week I was asking her to stop and have a drink after work with me. I stopped almost every night, not because I was a boozer, but because of Phil. He got off shift a half hour after I did and I didn't feel like sitting around the restaurant waiting for him so I went down to the Landing Strip and waited there. I had half an hour to kill so I asked Helen to join me. She didn't have to hurry home because you were working swing shift so she stopped with me every night. Phil would show up, we would have one drink and then leave.

"You knew that Phil was a cop, right?"

I nodded a yes.

"About three weeks after Helen started stopping with me Phil showed up one night with Brian. Brian was Phil's partner. Brian and Helen seemed to hit it off and suddenly Brian was showing up every night with Phil. Where before we would have one drink with Phil when he arrived and then the three of us would leave all of a sudden Phil and I would leave and Brian and Helen stayed.

"Two weeks went by and one Thursday night Brian told us he had it big on the numbers and he was springing for dinner at the Red Fox. We all decided to take one car and then come back later for the others so we all got in Phil's car and headed for the restaurant. Phil and I were in the front seat and Helen and Brian were in the back. We hadn't gone two blocks when I heard the unmistakable sound of a zipper being moved. I looked into the back seat and saw Helen taking Brian's cock out of his fly. She saw me watching and she winked at me and then lowered her head and started sucking Brian off.

"I just sat there and watched. I couldn't believe that it was happening. It was still daylight outside and there we were driving down Wayne Road while Helen was giving Brian a blow job. Anybody who wanted to could look into the car and see what was going on. It was then that it occurred to me that from the way she was doing it, it probably wasn't the first time. I found out later that night that she had been fucking Brian since the third night he had stopped with Phil.