Prologue

My life, or the life I’ve known, began to fall apart about three years ago, but I didn’t know it then. I only recently figured it out. Unfortunately, I didn’t recognize the subtle and not-so-subtle hints that things were going off the rails until the train had careened off the track and spiraled down into an endless abyss.

I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s go back to when it all started. Maybe if you hear the story in full, you can learn to avoid my mistakes, or not.

My name is Dave, and I’m 32. I’m just over six feet tall, a bit overweight and not very athletic. I’m not a bad looking guy, with shaggy brown hair, brown eyes and an average-sized cock. I’m what you would probably call “normal.” My wife, Janet, is 29 and pretty average too. She is 5’6, and at 145, she’s what you might call voluptuous. She has a beautiful face, long blonde hair, and hefty 34D boobs. Neither of us would pass for a model, but we are happy with each other just as we are.

We met about four years ago, and we hit it off immediately. We’re kindred spirits in a lot of ways, with similar backgrounds and upbringings. I’d had two serious girlfriends before her, and she had three boyfriends. Neither of us was all that experienced sexually. We found sex was way better together than it had ever been for either of us. We were very open about our desires and fantasies, and we worked to keep the other satisfied.

Janet and I are avid bookworms and gamers. That’s how we met. We both attended a Friday Night Fights event at a local comic store. Old-school board games, traditional card games, as well as pen-and-paper roleplaying games had become all the rage again. I think it was a backlash to the explosion of technology and virtual reality. It seemed people wanted to hold something physical in their hands and stimulate their imagination. Computer games and VR were cool, but they were too real and did not allow you to create your own imaginary fantasy.

I went with a couple that I had known in college, Danny and Maggie. We were really into simplistic board games like Sorry and Life. When we arrived, the place was packed. It was huge, to begin with, easily the most extensive comic book and game store I’d ever seen. They had bought out an old bankrupt grocery store space and filled it wall to wall. The entire back third of the building was an open playing area filled with long rows of tables. It was free to play, and on Friday nights it was always busy. Tonight even more so, because they were demonstrating a new game that was all the rage.

It was a new type of game, played with cards. The concept was essentially a modern, complex combination of Go Fish and Rock-Paper-Scissors. It has a medieval theme to it and cool artwork. We had come to play Canasta, but quickly became intrigued by the new game. We signed up to play, and soon we were assigned to a table.

That’s when I noticed Janet. She was seated across from me, and the first thing I noticed was her beautiful face. I couldn’t stop staring at her. She saw my attention, and when our eyes met, they locked on, and we both felt something akin to an electrical shock. It happened all night, every time our eyes met, I felt my heart tingle and my breath catch just a bit.

She was with a big dude. It turned out his name was Josh. He was easily 6’ 3” and 300 pounds. As I found out later, Josh had played football in college until he severely injured his neck. It was a choice to quit playing football or face the potential for permanent damage. He chose to quit. Since then, he stopped working out, and all of his muscles seemed to have turned to fat.

I thought Josh might have been Janet’s boyfriend, as they had an undeniable connection. I learned later that he was her ex-boyfriend and that he was now gay. He discovered his true self during their senior year, and it ended their romance, but not their friendship.

The game vendor explained the rules to us and guided our play for the first few games. It was a cool game and very addicting. We all had a blast playing it, and it drew us all into a quick web of friendship, complete with busting balls, teasing, and humorous antics. The more we played, the more I was impressed by Janet. She was incredibly smart and had a rapid wit. After a few games, it was clear that she and I had figured out the logic behind the game and were exploiting it to our advantage.

Each game became a test of wills between Janet and me. We would bluff, counter-bluff and out manipulate everyone else. We became so engrossed in the competition that we forgot about everyone else at the table.

Before too long, Maggie and Danny were bored and wanted to leave. I didn’t want to go. I didn’t admit it, but the reason had nothing to do with games. I wanted to spend more time with Janet. Maggie figured it out and suggested that Janet and Josh come with us to Denny’s. They agreed, and we all went outside to leave. When I got in the car, Maggie turned in her seat to smile at me.

“You owe me,” she said, giggling. “Big time.”

“For what?” I asked, not knowing what she meant.

She laughed and said, “Well, when you and Janet have a little girl, be sure to name her Maggie.”

I blushed. “What are you talking about?” I asked, pretending to be clueless.

Maggie smiled even more prominently, “You’re in love.”

I didn’t respond to her accusation. I just sat there staring out the window of the back seat of Danny’s car, picturing Janet’s face in my mind. I could hear Maggie’s words playing over and over in my head. “You’re in love. You’re in love.”

Holy Shit.

I was in love.

When we got to Denny’s, Josh and Janet were already there, waiting in the lobby. As I came inside, Janet drifted over to stand next to me. It felt so natural. We grabbed a big corner booth, and everyone seemed to know to move so that Janet and I sat next to each other. There was more laughing and joking around as we ordered our late dinners. After a while, I excused myself to use the restroom.

Maggie slid around to sit next to Janet in my absence. She took Janet’s hand and spoke to her directly. “Look, Janet,” she began, “Dave is a good guy with a kind and loving heart.”

Janet nodded, wondering what Maggie’s point was.

“If you break his heart, I will hunt you down and kill you.”

Janet blushed and nodded slowly. “Uh, ok,” was all she could get out.

Josh broke into deep laughter, “I was going to say the same thing to Dave. Janet’s like my little sister.”

Danny seemed the only one lost in the conversation. “What are you guys talking about, they just met.”

Josh chuckled and shook his head. “Dude, they’re in love. Can’t you see it?”

Janet blushed but didn’t deny it. Danny stared at her, and when he saw her reaction, he mumbled, “Holy shit. Love at first game?”

Janet nodded.

When I reappeared, things had changed. Janet was alone.

“Where’s everybody else?” I asked, looking around for the others. I hadn’t passed Josh or Danny on the way back, so they were not in the men’s room.

“Uh, they left,” she answered, seeming very nervous.

“Left? Why?” I asked, confused. “I rode with them, what the hell?”

“Yeah, they’re giving Josh a ride home so I guess you can ride with me. If that’s ok,” she responded nervously.

“Yeah, that’d be great,” I replied, grinning like the Cheshire Cat. “You sure that’s ok? I don’t want to impose.”

Janet nodded, then said, “It’s fine. Uhm, do you want to have them put the food in some to go boxes?”

I was a little unclear as to what had happened and why the fun was coming to an end. It seemed the party was over and Janet wanted to go home. I was more than a little disappointed, but I put on a brave face.

“Yeah, sure,” I answered, trying not to sound upset. “You can drop me at the DART station. I can get home easily from there.”

“Oh,” she began, “I was hoping you would want to come with me.”

“With you?” I queried. “With you where?”

“To my place,” she answered, looking into my eyes. I felt it again, that mild electric shock in my chest. My breath caught, and I heard myself gasp. The warmth spread throughout my body. I could see Janet fidgeting in her seat. Did she feel what I felt?

“I’d love that,” I answered, feeling my cock growing hard into a full-on raging boner.

We went back to her place and had sex all night and again in the morning. It was pretty vanilla sex, but it was the best vanilla sex I’d ever had. We became a couple immediately. I moved into her place two weeks later, in fact, I pretty much moved in that first night. We just made it official after two weeks.