Chapter 17

Monday morning, July 10, 2028

Life in the Jacobsen household pretty much resumed normalcy. We drove T&T to the airport first thing in the morning, kissed our ‘alternate spouses’ goodbye, pretty passionately, picked up the kids from my parents and Addie drove to Mountain Home to begin negotiations on the new store building.

I kept the kids home Monday since we’d been apart from them for so long. Monday night, we gave them the presents we brought from Virginia City and they were both thrilled. Katie’s birthday was Saturday, so we started planning that, inviting some of her friends, buying her presents, letting both sets of grandparents know what time and so on.

Addie was still sore from her sojourn in Reno Sunday, so we didn’t make love until Tuesday, then again Wednesday night. Adriana was busy with the Mountain Home store so I made the rounds with the others. The clocks had already sold out, so we ordered a dozen more. On Wednesday, we got a check from the lady who wanted the player piano for $12,500, with a note that they’d also pay the shipping costs. That was pretty exciting, a $6,000 profit.

On Thursday Adriana had an appointment with her OB-Gyn, Dr. Davidson. When she got home from the appointment, she told me, “Well, Cyndi told me that I am for sure, pregnant. She gave me a due date of March 1st.” I call her Doctor Davidson, but after two pregnancies and several years, Addie’s on a first names basis with her and calls her Cyndi. She’s probably in her mid-forties and has practiced in Boise for the last ten years or so. Addie has been her patient since we were married and maybe even before.

Addie laughed, “I told her that my ‘husband’ has gotten to like sex a little rougher and was quite ‘energetic’ in bed. She assured me that having sex, even ‘exuberant’ sex as she called it, won’t hurt the baby. When I mentioned how horny I’ve been lately, she assured me it’s normal, that lots of women crave sex even more than normal when they’re pregnant. She laughed and said it had even happened to her, that she couldn’t get enough of her husband through her own pregnancy ... then she told me that talking about it was making her hot, too. She laughed again and said her and hubby might have a hot night, tonight.”

I should add that Dr. Davidson has long blonde hair and is more than a little attractive herself.

Later that evening, Addie did what she had been dreading and putting off all week. She called Daryl. I heard her end of the call but not his. Addie told him she didn’t want to hurt him any more, so couldn’t see him again and that I’d be handling his business from then on. Apparently, he took it well, because then the conversation lightened considerably and she told him how well his things had been selling and asked him for everything he could provide.

Nothing more was said about Jonah and that stupid weekend trip to Sacramento so I assumed it had been forgotten. Friday I planned to celebrate that big profit, the biggest Adriana ever had on a single item, by taking the kids to a babysitter and having a nice leisurely dinner in some upscale restaurant with my wife wearing something sexy. Then follow that up with a night of serious love-making, maybe even trying out the new vibrator during the evening.

Then Friday morning hit. I took the kids to daycare and when I got home, Adriana showed me the message she’d just received from Jonah, “Remember, starting now your pathetic little cunt is mine. An airline ticket is at the airport, flight at 3 PM., next Friday.”

What the hell does this guy think he is, I wondered. “You’re not actually going to go through with that, are you?” I asked my wife. She sure as hell hadn’t been exaggerating his filthy, disrespectful language.

She looked up at me, “Why not?” she asked, very softly and innocently.

“Why the hell not?” I raged, “I can think of a million reasons ... like, like, the fact you don’t even know this guy, all he wants to do is fuck you and did I mention that it’s all the way in another damn state and you don’t even know him?” I was having a bit of trouble thinking, “Besides, he wants to take you to a strip club! To strip in front of people!”

“Would you please be calm,” she quietly asked me. Okay, I calmed down from a rage to a rage.

“Now, your reasons, one by one?” she asked.

“Okay, first, you don’t know him. I’d worry about you being safe.”

“All right,” she said, “that’s legitimate ... but,” she went on, “Tanya and I trust them. You’ll just have to take my word on it. There’s nothing to worry about. Besides, I can take care of myself, if you haven’t noticed. I’m not some wimpy, little baby girl that needs her daddy to care of her every minute, and Tanya and I will both be there ... Next.”

“All he wants to do is fuck you!”

“And your point? I thought you liked me having some fun that way. Or is that only if the guy isn’t so good in that department?”

“But, but, look what he did to you?”

“And I loved every second of it! Next.”

“The stripping, would you really do that?”

“Ahh that, you know that stripping in front of a crowd is a fantasy of probably ninety percent of women my age or younger? Problem is that most women, including me, would never, ever do it because we’re afraid and it’s a societal taboo. Our inhibitions won’t let us. It’s just something I could never do, even though, I have that fantasy. Tawns, too. She’ll never do it.”

“Then, you’re saying you won’t?”

“No, I’m saying that I would always say no. If I told you I wanted to do it but was too afraid, what would you do?”

“Probably tease you, try to get you to, goad you into it like Tanner and I did Sunday.”

“And if Tawns and I had said outright no on Sunday, what would you have done? Even though you knew we kind of wanted to but were too afraid.”

“If you said no and meant it, we’d forget it. Well, maybe not completely, probably keep teasing, but we would have accepted your no.”

“Exactly. You know what Jonah would do if I said I wasn’t going to?”

“What?”

“He’d make me. I would have to. I don’t know how, but there won’t be an option to chicken out ... and that’s exciting for me. I want to do it, but I know I don’t have the courage. I’d always tell you no and it wouldn’t happen, but with him, backing out isn’t going to be an option, no matter how hard I try. And I’m pretty darn sure at the last minute, I’ll forget all about this conversation and refuse to do it, but will have to anyway.”

“So, you’re telling me you’re actually going to fly down there Friday?”

“Unless you absolutely say no. But yes, I want to.”

“And sex the next week?”

“Like he says, my ‘pathetic little cunt’ belongs to him now. He’d know.”

“Okay, that’s another thing. Why do you take the crap language from him?”

“Because it’s exciting. It’s the kind of person he is that he thinks of me as his whore.” She giggled a little, “He actually said that he thinks I might be ‘a little above average.’”

“Just out of curiosity, what would you do if I or any of our friends called you a bitch or a whore?”

She glared at me straight in the eyes, “You want to try it and find out?”

“No sex tonight, then?”

She shook her head, “Not until I get back.”

“Tanya, same thing?”

“I assume so, but she’s going to be with Damian and he’s a lot different than Jonah. I’ll call her later.”

I was resigned to my fate. It appeared that my plans for that night had gone out the window. And my wife was going to be some guy’s whore! I still didn’t understand what had gotten into her.

I didn’t know how the hell I was going to go the next week, and then the weekend, without my wife, either.

She’s obviously a mind-reader. “You know, hon, I wouldn’t object, as a matter of fact, I’d kind of like it if you had a girlfriend over that weekend.”

I laughed at that thought, “And who would that be? My only girlfriend is Tanya and apparently, she’s not going to be available. Besides, I don’t want anyone else.”

She crooked her nose, “Kayla? You’ve always had a thing for her. She’s told me that ever since that night, Ethan’s been teasing her about finding a boyfriend. Or maybe Paula, the waitress from The Cavern would like a short weekend vacation?”

I told her again, no. I didn’t want a girl that weekend. Liar, liar, pants on fire! Kayla, a boyfriend? Nah, couldn’t happen.

Addie called Tanya a little later and Tanya confirmed she was still planning on going. Damian hadn’t said anything about the no sex, though. So, apparently, Tanner wasn’t going to have the same fun experience of denial that I was.

Friday afternoon, we got a UPS package addressed to Adriana. I had no idea what it might be, so put it on her desk. I open any business mail addressed to either of us, as does she, but this looked personal so left it for her.