It didn’t start in high school. It could have I suppose, but it didn’t. Melissa was in my class (class of 92 if you need to know), but we never dated. Friendly yes, but we moved in different social circles. My main squeeze from the tenth grade to graduation was Pauline French, but Paulie went back east to go to college and I stayed home and went to State and I didn’t see her again until our tenth class reunion. She was married and was pregnant with her fourth child.

Melissa also went to State, but again we moved in different social circles. Still friendly, friendly enough that we could sit together in the student cafeteria and chat if we happened to be there at the same time and not with anyone else.

I graduated and took a job that caused me to move to Atlanta and it was there I met Shelby Taylor. We knew each other through work, but never got together until the company Christmas party. We both had attended stag and when the dinner and speeches were over and the band started playing I asked Shelby to dance with me. By the time the party was over I had a date with Shel for the next evening.

That date led to several more and on the tenth date we made love for the first time. From then on we were an established couple and after five months I asked her to marry me, she said yes and we were married in a civil ceremony.

The first three years were great ones and we were saving money to buy a house. Once we had the house the plan was for Shel to go off the pill and we would start our family. The only bad part of our marriage was that Shel was a buyer in purchasing and she had to travel a lot to different vendors. I didn’t much like it as I would rather have had her home with me, but I did recognize that we needed her income to build up the house fund.

My little world came crashing down one Monday in late August. Shel and I worked slightly different hours and since we each had a car she usually left for work forty-five minutes before I did. Shel was scheduled to leave that afternoon on a two day trip to Chicago and I needed to catch her before she left and give her her cell phone charger that she’d left on the kitchen sideboard.

It was lunchtime and the outer office was empty. Shel’s office door was open, her back was toward me and she was on the phone. When I reached the door I heard:

“I can do with some hot monkey sex tonight. As soon as I get to the hotel I’ll call you with the room number.”

“Me too. I can’t wait to see you again.”

I knocked on the door jamb, she turned and saw me and her face went pale. “Got to go” she said and hung up the phone. I tossed the charger onto her desk, said “Here; you forgot this” and then I turned and left.

I went back to my office and told my secretary that I wasn’t feeling well and I was going to take the afternoon off and go see the doctor. I went home and started packing. The good thing about apartment living is that you don’t have much room to accumulate stuff. I had everything I wanted packed and out in the car in half an hour.

I left the apartment and twenty-two minutes later I was checked into a hotel that offered weekly and monthly rates. It would serve until I could find an apartment. Next stop was the bank. Shel might have been an adulterous bitch, but she wasn’t a stupid one. The way I left her office told her that I’d overheard her talking to her lover and she figured that she was toast. While I was packing she’d hit the bank and cleaned out the accounts. I was only going to take half, but she had taken it all.

Strictly my own fault. I should have been smart enough to stop at the bank on my way home. But there was a bright side. She got it all except for the house fund. When we first decided to set up a house fund and each put ten percent of our take home pay in it I’d set up the account and had never gotten around to putting Shelby on it. Always meant to, but just never got around to it. The fund was almost twice the size of the other two accounts combined so I wouldn’t be hurting.

Not knowing how things were going to play out I decided not to bank at the same place Shelby did so I closed the house account, took the money, and went to a different bank and opened an account. Luckily we were between paydays so I had time to change the direct deposit of my paycheck. I didn’t have to do anything with credit cards. We had none jointly. She had the ones she’d had when we’d married and I had the ones I’d had before taking the vows.

The money and the credit was not going to be a problem, but there as something that was going to be a huge problem and that was going to be both of us working at the same place. I liked my job and didn’t want to leave it and I knew Shelby loved her job so unless one of us quit and moved on we were still going to be thrown together and frankly I wasn’t sure that I could handle it.

Tuesday morning I went in early and had a word with my boss. I told him what was going on and asked for a couple of days off to find a place and get moved in. He told me to take what time I needed, but to keep in touch in case he had questions for me on some of my accounts.

As I left his office I saw Shelby waiting for me outside my office. I was tempted to just walk to the elevator and leave, but I knew we would end up having a face to face sooner or later so I decided to get it over with. I walked to my office and when I got there Shelby said:

“We have to talk Barry.”

“I knew we’d have to, but I didn’t think it would be until after your trip to Chicago.”

“I put the trip off for a day or two. Talking to you was more important.”

“Your lover okay with that?”

“Fuck him; he isn’t all that important.”

“But isn’t fucking him what has us here having this talk?”

“Please Barry; can we go in your office and close the door? We don’t need everyone here knowing our business.”

“They will all end up knowing it anyway so what does it matter?”

“What do you mean?”

“When we divorce the reason is bound to come out sooner or later.”

“Divorce? Why are you talking divorce?”

“Why? Let’s see. Husband catches wife making a date to have ‘hot monkey sex’ with another man. Husband not cool with the idea. Not cool with it in the slightest. Husband is so pissed he is going to divorce the cheating wife. That about cover it?”

“That’s what we need to talk about. In your office please?”

I shrugged, opened the door and waved her on in. I sat down behind my desk and she took the chair opposite and then I said:

“You wanted this meeting so go ahead.”

“I don’t want a divorce Barry. I love you and I want to spend my life with you. I know you may doubt it given what you heard, but it is true. I do love you.”

“If you love me why are you fucking other men?”

“It isn’t other men Barry; it is just Jeff.”

“Same thing. If you love me why are you fucking Jeff?”

“It isn’t making love; it is just fucking.”

“Oh right. The hot monkey sex I heard mentioned. How come I, the man you love, has never seen the hot monkey sex you seem to want?”

“It isn’t all that hot. Jeff just likes to talk like that. What he calls hot monkey sex is just no frills fucking. No foreplay, no tenderness or soft touching; just get to it and get it done as many times as possible.”

“I could have done that if I’d known you wanted it like that.”

“I don’t want it like that.”

“You are losing me here Shelby. You are telling me that you don’t want it like that, but I heard you tell this Jeff guy you wanted some hot monkey sex.”

“I was just saying that for his benefit because that is what he likes to hear.”

“You are beating around the bush here Shel. We have only been married three years and you are fucking around on me. What kind of sex you have with him and what he likes or doesn’t like doesn’t mean jack shit to me. The bottom line is you are cheating on me. You are stabbing me in the back. What usually happens in cases like this is divorce.”

“Damn it Barry; I love you. I don’t want a divorce. I want you! I want to grow old with you.”

“Then why in hell are you fucking another man?”

“I guess you could call it guilt sex.”

“Now that is something that you just have to explain.”

“Jeff and I were high school sweethearts and we planned to get married, but not until we graduated from college. We were in our senior year when there was a death in his family and he had to go back to Michigan for the funeral. He called me after the funeral and told me he was going to have to stay there for a couple of weeks because of some legal things that came out of the reading of his grandmother’s will.

“He called me every night for a week and then the calls stopped. I called him and got his voice mail. I called two or three times a day for four days and they all went to voice mail and then I got the mail box is full message. I tried for another week and got the same message so I stopped calling and waited for a call that never came. I put Jeff behind me, finished school, got a job here, met and married you.

“A month ago on my trip to Chicago we ran into each other in the bar at the Hilton. It was a tearful reunion. It turned out that he had been involved in a hit and run that left him in a comma for fourteen months. When he finally came out of it he had some memory loss. When he got his memory back he came back here for me, but by then I was already married to you. He decided it would be best to just walk away without contacting me.

“He ended up in Chicago and then we met at the Hilton. We sat and talked, drank and danced some. By the end of the night I was feeling guilty for not waiting for him. I’d probably had more to drink than I should have and he offered to walk me to my room. If I’d been a little more sober I would have said no, but I didn’t. He walked me to my room and the next thing I knew we were in bed fucking. I honestly don’t remember going from the door to the bed, but it happened and he was still there in the morning when I woke up. He was sitting on the bed crying. Sobbing out how much he missed me and how what we were supposed to be never happened. I tried to comfort him and all that did was lead to him fucking me again.

“We both had to go to work so he asked me to have dinner with him that evening and when I told him I didn’t think that was a good idea he said it would just be dinner and talking. He wanted to know what happened after he went back to the funeral and what happened to all our friends. I didn’t see any harm in that which just goes to show how stupid I can be at times. Dinner, drinks and a few dances later we were in my room fucking.

“The next day was my last day there and in the morning he asked me when he could see me again. I told him we wouldn’t get together again and what we had done was a big mistake on my part and I wouldn’t allow it to be repeated. He begged and pleaded, but I held firm and said no. I told him I would never see or contact him again.

“The rest of the day and on the flight home I felt guilty as hell for cheating on you and I vowed to never let it happen again. I got home and dedicated myself to spoiling you rotten. Since I returned from that trip have you seen any decline in my love or affection? No you haven’t. I’m still doing my best to fuck your socks off. Half the time I’m the one who starts the ball rolling. I fucked up Barry. I admit it. It was a huge mistake on my part and I regret it. We can get by this Barry. I know we can.”

She sat there looking at me and waiting for me to say something. There was maybe twenty seconds of silence and then I asked:

“Just when was it that you developed your low opinion of me? When did I become a dumb ass as far as you are concerned?”

“I don’t have a low opinion of you and I know you aren’t dumb.”

“You have to think that of me Shel. You have to think I’m dumb or stupid if you expect me to buy the load of horse-shit you just dumped on me. You seem to forget that I overheard part of your phone conversation. Let us start with the basics. You were on the phone with him. That means you either gave him your phone number or you had to be the one calling him. That shoots down your never to see or contact him again in the ass.

“Next we have your telling him that YOU would call him and give him your room number. Again, that shoots your never contact in the ass. Then we have the hot monkey sex thing. You said that you could do with some. That is definitely not something you would say to someone you were never going to see or contact again.

“No Shelby, it just won’t wash. Even if you didn’t give him your phone number and he found it by some other means the conversation I overheard should have been more on the order of “Why are you calling me? I told you I never wanted to see or contact you again.” I should have heard “No Jeff; I can’t see you again.” I should have heard “No Jeff; it was a big mistake on my part and I won’t let it happen again.”

“But that isn’t what I heard Shelby. What I heard was you telling him you couldn’t wait for some hot monkey sex. I heard you telling him you would call him with your room number. I heard the eagerness in your voice when you said couldn’t wait to see him again.

“We are history Shelby. You have two choices. Sign the papers when you get them and send them back or fight the divorce. If you fight I’ll drop the divorce, but I won’t get back together with you. I’ll just move on and wait for you to want a divorce so you can marry someone else. Maybe even this Jeff guy you are fucking.”

I got up and headed for the door saying “I took the rest of the week off to look for an apartment and get moved in. Make it easy on both of us and just sign the papers when you get them.”

I walked out and left her sitting there and sobbing.

I found an apartment, got moved in, saw an attorney, filed and Shelby signed the papers and sent them back.

It was awkward with both of us working in the same place, but we mostly managed to avoid each other. The few times we had to work together we were able to keep things on a professional level.

Once the paperwork was filed I considered myself a free agent and I started dating again and occasionally my date and I would end up somewhere where Shelby would also be and we never failed to get nasty glances from my ex.

Apparently Shelby was able to talk the Jeff guy into moving from Chicago to our town and two months after our divorce was final she married him.

I saw him for the first time at our company Christmas party. I wasn’t introduced to him and we sat on opposite sides of the room, but I saw Shelby point me out to her new hubby.

About two hours into the affair, after all the speeches had been made and the bonus checks handed out I had to use the bathroom. I had just finished taking care of business and was zipping up when Shelby’s new hubby came in. I turned to him and said:

“Thank you for the favor you did me.”

“Favor? What favor?”

“Helping Shelby stab me in the back. Catching her at it that early in our marriage kept me from investing more in our relationship. It would probably have made it harder for me to sever ties with her when I caught her cheating on me which she no doubt would have. You know what they say; once a cheater always a cheater so get ready for it because she will eventually cheat on you” and then I punched him in the face. It shook him and when his nose started bleeding I said:

“I owed you that. She was married, but you didn’t give a shit. I should wail on you some more, but I figure that punch and you being married to the slut is punishment enough.”

I walked out of the bathroom and left the party.

Of course on the first day back to work Shelby came storming into my office and started to give me a ration of shit over what I’d done to her hubby and she was a little shocked when I yelled: