I flirt with the ladies. It is just something that I did. I did it without even thinking about it; it just came natural. None of them were ever going to take me up on anything I said and I knew it. Christ, I was fifty-two years old and the girls I flirted with were all in their twenties and were married or had boyfriends. Besides, they all knew my wife and thought that we were happily married.

We weren't. Weren't happily married I mean, and hadn't been since the day two years ago when I found her in bed with another man. Harry Wiggins had cut his hand on the job and the boss had me drive him to the emergency room at the hospital. It was close to lunchtime so while Harry waited for them to do whatever it was that they were going to do I thought I'd run home for lunch.

That was something that I had never done before because I only got half an hour for lunch break and the house was twenty minutes from work. There was a car that I didn't recognize in the driveway and I figured that Lois had some girlfriend over. I knew that wasn't so as soon as the front door closed behind me.

The loud, "Fuck me, fuck me, fuck me," coming from the bedroom upstairs told me what was going on. I walked up the stairs and down the hall to a chorus of "Oh yes, oh yes, harder baby, harder, don't stop, I'm almost there, don't stop now."

The bedroom door was open and I stood in the doorway and watched some man I'd never seen before fuck Lois from behind while she cried, "Oh yes baby, fuck me, fuck me hard. Jesus, I can never get enough of your cock baby, I love your cock. Give it to me baby, give it to me."

Her head was on a pillow and she was on her knees and from where I stood in the doorway I couldn't tell whether he was in her ass or pussy, but then it didn't really matter — it was still infidelity. They hadn't noticed me and I stood there debating on whether to wade in swinging or just yell out, "Honey, I'm home" and watch them scramble, but in the end I did nothing. I turned and left the house and went back to the hospital to wait for Harry.

I never did tell Lois that she had been busted. I just accepted the fact that she was an unfaithful whore and let it go. I had no idea how long it had been going on and no idea why. I had thought that we had a good marriage and I know, or at least I thought I did, that there was nothing wrong with our sex life. We made love three and sometimes four times a week, sometimes twice in a night and I was willing to do anything that she wanted. What was important however, is that the marriage was dead — not over, just dead.

Why not over? Because I didn't have the energy for it. I'd been married once before and my first divorce had ruined me financially and had made me into an emotional basket case for years. If I was thirty-five or forty I might have done it, but not at fifty. Why start over? Lois kept a clean house, was a good cook, and did the laundry and all the other things that a wife does to make life move smoothly. We didn't argue or fight so I just decided to settle for a comfortable existence. So I said nothing about what I saw and life went on.

The only change was that I stopped having sex with Lois. When she asked why I told her that I was having some problems and was seeing a doctor. After two months I told her that I had acute erectile dysfunction and that I couldn't get a hard on. Another two months went by and then I told her that I had tried everything that the doctor had suggested, but that nothing worked and she would just have to get used to the fact that the sexual part of our marriage was over. She wasn't really happy about it, but I really didn't give a shit about how she felt about it.

I didn't give up sex though. There was a woman I went to high school with and she had lost her husband in the First Gulf War and she supplemented her income by servicing a few select customers and I paid her a visit twice a week.

Lois and I were in the habit of going out for breakfast every Saturday and Sunday and we always ate at the same restaurant. The place was just around the corner from where I worked and I had lunch in there two or three times during the week. There was a waitress working there named Tiffany and she was a lot of fun to be around. A tall girl, almost six feet, and with a hard, tight body to die for. She had the goods and she knew how to dress to show them off. Low hip huggers and tops that emphasized her high breasts and flat stomach. She had a wild side to her and she had several tattoos and a piercing or two that she also loved to show off.

I got in the habit of flirting with her at lunchtime and after a couple of months we had developed a rapport. The flirting progressed from the simple to the borderline raunchy and Tiff gave as good as she got. She had a stud through her tongue and one day I said, "One of these days you are going to have to explain or better yet, show me what the purpose of that thing is."

She stuck her tongue out at me and said, "First you will have to show me that your health insurance is up to date. When I put you in the hospital I want to know that you'll be taken care of."

One day when I came in after not stopping in for a week she came up to my table and lifted her top to show me that she'd had her navel pierced and was sporting what looked like a diamond stick pin.

"You know Tiff, I have a barely controllable urge to kiss your belly."

"I'd let you, but then you'd want to see the one farther down and if I let you see that one I'm afraid you would have a heart attack. I can't afford to lose any of my good tippers."

This kind of banter went on for months and then one day I came in to find that Tiff wasn't her usual cheery self.

"Got a problem Tiff?"

She slid into the booth across from me. "My asshole boyfriend just told me to move out. He said he was moving to Durango and was going to sell the house. Then he told me that when he got set up there he'd let me know and that I could join him. No talking about it at all. Just get out and I'll give you a call when I'm ready for you again."

"You going to be all right?"

"Yeah, I guess. I can stay with my girl friend for a while until I can find a place."

Then she got up and went back to work.

From then on every time I'd see her I'd ask how it was going and I'd get an update. One Saturday while at breakfast with Lois I asked how she was doing and she said, "Okay, but me and my girlfriend aren't getting along all that well and I'm looking for another place to stay."

"I'd offer you the use of our spare bedroom, but I don't think Lois here would be too happy about it. It would piss her off to know I'd be chasing you around the house every chance I got."

I know what Lois was thinking when I said that. "Yeah, and when you caught her you could sit down and play checkers or something."

Lois might have been an unfaithful whore, but she did have a lot of good qualities and she found Tiffany a place to stay, at least for a little while. She had a friend who was going abroad for a month and who was looking for a reliable house sitter for while she was gone. Lois got Tiffany the deal. In retrospect I guess you could say that what finally happened Lois brought on herself because I doubt that it would have happened had Tiff not gotten the house sitting gig.

Once Tiff started house sitting things began to happen. Her car started having problems and I offered to stop by after work and take a look at it. It had a hundred things wrong with it and every night I would stop by and do a little work on it. Tiff would ask me in for coffee when I was done for the evening and since she was rather casual in the way she dressed around the house I had ample opportunity to see her flat stomach, the long supple legs, and a hint of tit every once in a while. In short, she pretty much kept my dick hard.

In addition to her various piercings Tiffany also had several tattoos, two of which I could never see all of. One was down so low on her belly that I could only see the top third of it when she wore very low cut hip huggers. The other was on the inside of her left tit and I could only see about an inch of it sticking up above her bra or bikini top. I started joking with her about what I would have to do to see the entire tattoo. She would laugh and say, "Only my lover gets to see all."

Then the month was over, Lois's friend came back, I had Tiffany's car running and it was back to just seeing her at the restaurant.

We kidded and flirted like crazy and some of the other regulars began to think that we had something going. One day one of them asked me how an old fart like me was managing to keep up with a young fox like Tiffany. It was only then that I realized that I wished I actually could.

Two days later Tiff slid into the booth across from me and told me that she had given two weeks notice.

"Dave called last night and said he was ready for me."

"Are you sure that you really want to do this? He screwed over you once; do you really want to move yourself three hundred miles so he can do it again? At least when he did it here you had some people you could fall back on."

She didn't say anything, just got up and went back to work. I saw her three more times before she was due to leave, but the kidding around and flirting were gone. I didn't realize what a hole her going was going to leave in me. On what was supposed to be her last day I stopped in to say goodbye, but she wasn't there. I'd brought a card wishing her good luck and I left it with one of the other waitresses in case she came in. It was still sitting next to the cash register two days later. I asked Becky if Tiff had not come in and she told me that Tiff would be back to work the following Monday.

"What happened?"

"You'll have to ask her."

I changed my schedule the following Monday. I left the house two hours earlier so I could stop and have breakfast on my way to work. Tiff was there and when she came to take my order she handed me back my card.

"Thanks, it was sweet of you, but I can't use it."

"What happened?"

"I listened to you. When I got to Durango the first thing Dave said to me was, "It's about damned time you got here." His attitude sucked and then I remembered what you said about how he had screwed over me once and how could I be sure that he wouldn't do it again. It took me three minutes to tell him I'd only made the trip so I could tell him goodbye in person and now here I am."

"What are you going to do now?"

"I'm staying with my Uncle Ralph until I can find a place."

"If I can help let me know."

She reached down and touched my cheek with her hand and said, "You're sweet Mike. Thank you; I'll keep it in mind."

It was two days before I saw her again and asked her how her search for a place was going.

"Not good, but I need to find something quick."

"Things not going well at your uncle's?"

"I'm not comfortable there. I don't know why, but I feel that I have to lock the bedroom door when I'm there."

That night when I got off work I went to see a friend of mine who managed some apartments. I found out that he had a couple of vacancies and I told him that I wanted one of them. I had to work hard to convince him that I wasn't setting up a little love nest and I don't think I managed to do it because all he said was, "Okay Mike, whatever you say."

"I'm serious Dave. She's just a good kid that I've taken a liking to and I'm just trying to help her out. She can afford the rent, but there isn't any way that she could put down the last month's rent and security deposit. I'll put those up. When I send her over here just rent her the place and don't tell her about that, okay?"

"Sure Mike, whatever you say" he said with a grin that fairly screamed out, "You old stud."

"I'm serious Dave. Don't tell her what I've done; that will only complicate things."

Same grin, "Sure Mike, whatever you say. My lips are sealed."

The next morning I left for work early and I stopped by the restaurant for breakfast. When Tiffany waited on me I told her that I had found her an apartment and I gave her the address and told her to ask for Dave. The next day Tiffany caught me coming in the door and she threw her arms around me and gave me a big hug.

"Thank you Mike. Thank you, thank you, thank you" and then she kissed me on the cheek. I was just a little embarrassed by it especially since the place was full of customers, but what really bothered me was the rock hard erection I got when she pressed her soft body into mine. I just hoped that she hadn't felt it.