As I sat at my desk that Monday morning, surrounded by my coworkers, I wondered what they would have thought of me if they had known what my weekend had been like.

I loved my job, but I felt out of place with most of these people. To put it bluntly they were for the most part a pack of bible thumping religious wackos talking constantly about their religions and the declining morals of the community.

I got up from my desk and walked down to the break room and saw my boss Sally going into her office and she smiled at me and said good morning. I grabbed a cup of coffee and as I headed back to my desk I thought back to the past weekend.

It all started on the previous Friday afternoon after work as I was driving over to Barney’s Tavern to meet my wife for drinks. Sally called me on my cell phone, not all that unusual as sales issues frequently popped up after work, and asked if she could meet me somewhere for a drink. I told her I was heading for Barney’s to meet my wife for drinks and if she wanted she could meet us there. She said she would and broke the connection.

Sally was an exceptional sales manager and her outgoing, friendly, and professional demeanor made our sales unit one of the best in our statewide company. She was forty-five and married with two kids who were grown and out of the house.

“I can’t stay long” Sal said to me. “I need your help this weekend if possible. Bruce (our promotions manager) has a family emergency and can’t handle the booth in Talladega and I’m in a bind.”

I looked at my wife and asked if we had anything schedules for the weekend and she said no, nothing that would keep me from giving Sal a hand so with her tacit approval I told Sal I could help her out.

“Great. I’ll pick you up at your house around six a.m. If things go smoothly we should be back by nine in the evening.”

Sally picked me up at six and the two hour drive to Talladega was entertaining. Sally talked about her husband, her children and outside interests and shared some tidbits with me about some of our coworkers. She commented on how living in the deep south required a good deal of privacy and care so as not to alarm others when it came to individual interests.

I wasn’t sure I knew what Sally was saying so I just asked her if she had a secret life outside of work or knew of others who did.

“I don’t know about the others in the office. They are all pretty old-fashioned and straight forward, but you would be surprised to know what goes on with many of the people I know.”

“What about you Sal? Do you have a secret side?”

Sally hesitated, but then looked me in the eye and said “I don’t know you well enough to answer that, but I would like to know you better so we could be honest with each other.”

The meaning of that bit of information escaped me, but before I could dig into it with her she started telling me what we would be doing when we got to the convention center in Talladega.

Sally’s presence at our booth attracted a lot of attention, so while she talked to clients I managed the booth. We stopped briefly at noon to have lunch. It was a miserably hot day outside on the patio so we decided to eat inside. As I walked with Sally to the restaurant I noticed that she seemed to be paying more attention to me than usual.

I excused myself to use the bathroom and when I came back to our table I found that Sal had ordered us a round of martinis and a shrimp cocktail. When I finished my first Sal ordered a second and it was followed by a third. I was feeling the martinis and was in a pretty god mood for the rest of the afternoon. The afternoon passed much like the morning and when the convention ended at six I packed up our things and Sal and I took them out to the car.

“You did a great job today” she commented and then she hugged me and then let her hands slide down and patted me on the butt. “We’ve been invited by an important client to have dinner with him tonight. Do you think your wife would mind if you spent the night here and we drove back in the morning?”

“It won’t be a problem. In fact my wife suggested that I pack a bag in case we had to stay over.”

“Then I guess the next step is to get us into a hotel.”

Sal got us rooms at the Hyatt with a connecting door and then we went to meet the client at the Outback Steak House. We talked business over dinner and martinis. When we got back to the motel we went into our separate rooms and I started to undress. I had just taken my shirt off when there was a knock on the connecting door and I opened it to find Sal standing there in a robe.

“I had room service send up the makings for martinis, but I don’t really like drinking alone. Care to join me?”

I had nothing better to do so I put my shirt back on and joined Sal in her room. We sat at the little table and Sal made the martinis. We sat there and disused business and what we expected out of the convention. Then there was a lag in the conversation and she seemed to be staring off space. I asked her what she was thinking. She looked at me and I could see that she was trying to make up her mind about something. Apparently she came to a decision and said:

“Remember when I told you this morning that I needed to know you better before I could talk about my private life?”

“I remember.”

She looked at me quietly for a couple of seconds and then “In all the time we have worked together I’ve never known you to join in when the rumors and gossip came out. I’ve got so much bottled up inside me that there are times when I think I’ll burst if I don’t let some of it out. I’m in a loveless, unemotional and complicated marriage with my husband threatening me with divorce and financial ruin if he doesn’t get his way in everything. Sex died between us years ago, my husband has a long term lover, and for reasons that should be obvious to you I have to be ultra-careful and forego any outside involvements as I can’t trust anyone to understand or respect my needs for privacy. There! Now you know my secrets, but I have to tell you this has been a huge struggle for me and I have been fighting with myself over to tell you or not.”

“All I can tell you Sal is that I do not betray confidences.”

She looked at me and asked “Why are you smiling?”

“I’m not laughing at you Sal. It is just a case of been there and doing that.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means that I’m pretty much in the same boat you are. Maybe not to the same extent, but there are similarities. I wouldn’t call my marriage loveless and unemotional, but my wife had a lover that I wasn’t supposed to know about. I f I ever did confront her about it I would also face financial ruin. That and the loss of my kids. I’m hanging in there and playing the role of clueless loving husband until Jack and Linda reach eighteen.”

“How in the world can you go that long without a sex life?”

“I have a sex life. Marsha makes sure that I’m taken care of. It is part of what she does to keep me being the clueless husband she thinks I am. She doesn’t want to lose what she has so she does what she has to do to keep me from becoming suspicious. Marsha’s boyfriend couldn’t have come even close to keeping her in the life style she has become accustomed to.”

As I was telling Sally this my mind called up the memory. Marsha and I had been married for sixteen years when I found out about her lover. At the time I thought that I had the perfect life. I was living the American Dream. House, white picket fence, two great kids (Jack 14 and Linda 13) two cars in the garage and a great looking and loving wife.

I found out about Jason by accident. It was a Sunday and I wasn’t supposed to be at home. I was supposed to be out at Red Hawk playing eighteen with the guys I usually golfed with, but I’d hurt my hand on Saturday and I couldn’t grip a club. I called Sam and told him that I wouldn’t be able to join them.

I’m in the habit of getting up at four in the morning. The gym I belong to opens at five in the morning, but for some weird reason they don’t open until seven on Saturdays and Sundays. I’d gotten in the habit of getting up at four so I could be there when the doors opened at five in order to get in a good workout before going in to work so I automatically wake up at that time on the weekends also. Marsha on the other hand doesn’t need to be to work until nine so she never gets up until seven.

Anyway, it was a Sunday, I’d woken up at four and couldn’t get back to sleep so I got up, made a pot of coffee and then I’d gone into the bedroom that I’d turned into a combination home office and den. I was on the computer going over some spreadsheets when I heard Marsha get up and go down to the kitchen. I hadn’t mentioned that I wouldn’t be playing golf that morning so she had no idea that I was still at home.

The phone rang about seven-thirty and I reached for it. I must have picked it up at the same time Marsha did and I heard her say:

“Hello?”

“Good morning lover.”

“Good morning to you too.”

“Miss me?”

“You know I do.”

“I’m calling to see if you can meet me early. Pam got a call from her mother. Apparently she needs help with something so Pam went over to help. I can met you now if you can get away.”

“I’ll need to get the kids up and feed them. I can probably meet you around nine.”

“I’ll head on over and get a room. I’ll be naked and waiting so hurry.”

“Is that all you do? Think about my pussy?”

“Hell no. I think about your tight ass and magic mouth too.”

“Bring your travel alarm this time. Last time we almost screwed up by not paying attention. I almost didn’t beat Frank home. You know I need to be here when he gets home from golf.”

“No problem lover. I’ll make sure to get you out on time.”

“Okay stud; see you in about two.”