Chapter 6

At about 2:30 Penny kissed me on the lips as I let her out of my condo. We had changed the sheets in our bed and made sure the place was pristine before my wife showed up at 3PM. I turned on the TV and was watching a college football game when my cell phone rang. The caller ID said it was Deb.

“Hi Deb. Is everything OK?”

“No. The security guard say that I need some sort of door security code to get in.”

“OH! I forgot. The code is 0402#. You’ll hear a buzz, a click, then the elevator door will open and bring you up to my floor.”

“Your floor?” She paused to take that idea in. “I’ll be right there.”

She hung up and a few minutes later there was a knock on my door. I opened it to find Deb, with surprisingly short hair, and a fairly large suitcase.

“Going on a trip?”

“No,” she said apologetically. “After we talked it occurred to me that we never said anything about where we were going to go for dinner. So I packed for a couple different looks.”

“OK. Come in and I’ll show you to your room.”

Deb came in and I closed the door behind her. I led her past my room, where she paused to examine from the doorway, and to the room that was designated as hers for tonight.

“You can unpack in here. There are extra hangers in the closet if you need to hang up a dress or pants or shirts before dinner. I’ll be out on the patio when you’re done.”

Deb placed her bag on the bed and then looked around the room.

“It’s a simple room, but very spacious. It’s also larger than the room we used to share at your house.”

“I was just about to correct you and say ‘our house’, but I finally get that it is not yours anymore. I was thinking that I should hold you to the same standard and demand that Penny not sleep here, but then I also have to remember that it was me, and Peter, that were the cause of this whole thing. And Charlie Bowen! God, I hate him for what he did.”

“Charlie put all of us to the test and only I passed, Deb.”

As we spoke, Deb began to unpack her bag. The first thing I noticed was some new underwear. She saw me taking note.

“After you destroyed all of my clothes, I needed to buy replacements. I also had to replace everything that I wore every time I had been out with Peter.”

When she put the new underwear in the dresser, she kept looking at it and the other furniture.

“It’s interesting compared to my house. Everything I’ve seen here has said ‘simple’ and yet ‘classy’. Did you furnish the place? It even smells clean.”

“The condo belongs to the company but is one of the perks of the job.”

“Like Penny?”

“If you mean as my personal assistant, yes. I had no choice of PA’s. As my mistress, Charlie told you that I had a choice. Penny could have been just my PA, which she was very qualified to be. Or she could be my mistress as well. I found out last night that she is well qualified for that too.”

When Deb reacted with a sad expression, I had to pause and remember my PA’s advice and not rub it in.

“I’m sorry, Deb that was insulting to you. I guess the pain is still too fresh.” With those words I smiled and walked out the door. I looked back before closing the door to see Deb begin to hang up her dress and pants and blouses.

“Paul?” she called out from the hall a little while later.

“I’m out here,” I answered from the far side of the condo.

She followed my voice through the living room and through an open glass door. I was sitting in a chair on the patio, with a glass of iced tea. I was enjoying the afternoon sun. She walked over and sat in the chair across from the small round table between the chairs. A glass of iced tea was there for her.

“How are you after last night?” I asked.

“I spent a lot of time staring at the ceiling in our bedroom.”

“Your bedroom, Deb.”

“Is this how it’s really going to be?”

“Deb a lot of that will depend on you. I was all set to come back from my time off and divorce you. I was ready to walk away and leave you flat. But then last night happened. I was as surprised as anyone. Penny has made a few things clear for me, but I’m going to need to talk to the other men and their wives and mistresses to figure out my path.”

“Deb, I don’t know how many of the other execs relationships include a former cheating wife. It could be that when they were tested that all of the women passed except you. I just don’t know. I know that the mistresses are all friends and are top professional assistants. I know the company is primed to explode and that I have been chosen to be a part of that. I know that they tell me the pressure is going to be intense and that is the reason for the mistress.”

“I guess they don’t think that a wife can get the job done.”

“Or that she can’t get it done alone. I still don’t know all the details and requirements of the job. I know my department very well thanks to Peter making sure I was spread around the department so he had time to fuck you.”

“Paul! Do you need to keep using that term?”

“Sorry. Thanks to Peter having time to make love to you.”

“STOP!” Deb said firmly. “There was no love. He seduced me. I fell for it. It was sex. That’s all.”

“He says that you went after him aggressively.”

“That’s bullshit! Looking back, he had been working on me for months before I gave in. He kept saying that you traveled so much that you must be getting sex on your trips. He told me that he tried to keep your hours shorter, but when we started having sex, he told me that he would keep you at work longer or on the road more often so we could enjoy ourselves more. I finally went all in because I was having more sex with him than I was with you. He had it all set up.”

“And you went for it, while I didn’t.”

“Well thank you for pointing that out, Mr. High and Mighty,” her tone was pretty snotty.

“Deb, all I did when a woman approached me on the road, was hold up my left hand and wiggle my ring finger. You had a ring on the same finger, and could have done the same. And had you asked me about women on the road, I would have told you that.”

Deb looked at her tea while she was sipping it. Then looked out over the city.

“I don’t know that I would have believed you after the things Peter had been talking to me about.”

“And so, here we are, a broken pair. If I divorce you, and right now that is 50/50, it will be for adultery. Idaho law allows for that. With no children, you will end up with alimony for maybe 2 years and about 20% of our assets at the time of filing. The time of filing was the Saturday I found out about your hot tub rendezvous with Peter. Since I cleaned out the accounts that day, there is an accurate accounting of how much was in the accounts.”

“I was so scared when I tried to use the bank card and found out the money was gone. I’m glad you put some money back in.”

“I didn’t. Mr. Bowen did.”

With that response, Deb snapped her head around from the mountain view.

“Since he knew what he was going to offer me, and he set this whole thing up, he said he couldn’t leave you hanging out to dry. I was just going to quit. Then I filed, and I was going to drive away, and then I was going to ... oh shit, I didn’t know what I was going to do. I was hurting so bad that I was vacillating between walking away, and killing you and Peter and then myself.”

That brought a gasp from Deb.

“I’m sorry, Paul. I never meant to hurt you. I thought I was doing what you were doing for all those months. I thought if it all came out that you would be hurt but only as much as I had been hurt. You got some pussy and I got some cock.”

“Not quite, I said followed by a long sigh. “So that still brings us to where we are now. I know what you said last night, but you still have the option of going back to Peter, once he gets out of the hospital.”

“No! I don’t want anything to do with that dirt bag. Did you really not beat him up?”

“Deb. when I got rehired, I was told I had two weeks off and I left town that day. I drove East until I almost ran out of gas. When I had his wife and kids living with me, Larissa said that he had cheated on her many, many times before, so I’m thinking someone sent him a message about sleeping with other men’s wives. Anyway, back to the point, what do you want?”

“I want my marriage back like it was.”

“That isn’t going to happen. Last night, and this morning, I sealed the deal with Penny. We made love. She IS my mistress. Right now we have to figure out if you want to fit into my life, where you want to fit in, and how you fit in.”

“Is Penny going to live here with you?”

“No. This is my home. She’ll be a frequent visitor and we’ll have a totally professional relationship at work. She’ll be the pillar of support at home that you were supposed to be. She’ll be the one watching out for me at work and socially. If there’s a company function, she’ll attend with me. Mr. Bowen said that there will be functions where it will be better if I have my wife there, if I have a wife. So, now that I’ve had some time to think about it, I would like to propose a plan.”

“As long as I can still be your wife,” she pleaded.

“You can, but maybe not the way you want. If you remain my wife, you will live in your house while I repair the damage I did to it. You may move in and live with me on weekends. You’ll stay in the room you are in now. You can move in as much of your clothes as you want. When the house repairs are complete, I’ll give you the choice to stay in the house or move into my home, but into your own room.”

“What about Penny?’

“Penny will have as many weekday nights as we need to build our relationship. We won’t always be sleeping together here, but we will at times. I’ll be taking you out for dates on the weekends, but if a company function comes up, that doesn’t require my wife to attend, I’ll take Penny and you’ll stay home. We may come back and sleep together in my room afterwards. I won’t go out of my way to rub your nose in it, but you’ll have to deal with that. Frankly, right now, I trust Penny a hell of a lot more than I trust you.”

Deb sobbed a bit and mumbled, “I understand, Paul.”

“There maybe some occasions when my wife will be required to attend instead of my mistress. On those occasions I’ll expect you to attend with me and you will pretend to enjoy yourself. If at anytime during this process, you cheat on me again, then we will be done and I will restart the divorce, since I’ve already filed. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Paul.”

“Would you like some more tea?”

“Yes, please.”

I got up and walked to the kitchen. After refilling her glass I returned to the patio to find Deb sitting with her head in her hands. When I put the glass down, she looked up at me with watering eyes.

“I’ve really fucked it up, haven’t I? Coming back under these conditions will be the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I’ll do whatever I can, for as long as I can, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to see it through.”

“Deb, if you work as hard as you can, if you do not cheat again, and it doesn’t work, then we’ll split up and it’ll be under the most fair conditions I can manage. Until then, I’ll move closer to you when I feel more trust. I have to admit that through all of this, I might begin to trust you again, but I might no longer love you like I did. I’ll be as honest with you as I can be. I hope that you and Penny will become friends and I suggest that you speak with the other wives and mistresses. It may help you to figure how you and your husband and his mistress fit together in a relationship like this.”

“A relationship?” Deb sounded shocked.

“Not a sexual one. Our three way relationship will be strictly platonic and emotional. I’m told that it’s on a very rare occasion that a wife, mistress and husband will get together physically in a sexual manner. You’ll never be asked to go to bed with Penny. She’s told me that she will, under no circumstance, be involved with you in a sexual manner. She’ll do whatever she needs to do outside of that to support me with or without your involvement.”

Deb looked at me and seemed to relax. She took a large swallow from her tea and set the glass down on the table.

“At some point, do you think that we will be able to go back to at least having sex?”

“If not as lovers, we may be able to get together as friends with benefits. There is one thing. I was going to wait on this, but now as I think of it, I should be completely open with you. Our communication has to be truthful and open at all times.”

“OK.”

“When Larissa Larson stayed with me, although it was only a bit more than a day and a half, I fell in love with her children. I want to have kids. I want to be a father. Penny will agree to have children with me if you refuse, like you have been. Those two kids made me realize that I really want to be a daddy, and it made me see that I will be one hell of a great daddy. As I look at it now, I think that you can be a part of the process as a wife and mother ... or as breeding stock.”

Deb stood and walked to the glass half-wall that was along the border of the patio. She looked out over the Treasure Valley and towards the mountains. It was a beautiful vista, but the beauty was blunted as her situation sank further into her mind.

“Breeding stock?” She repeated quietly.

I could almost hear the gears grinding as she thought about her future.

“So after the house is fixed, we’ll it and I can move in here with you. Right?” She asked.

“Yes, but by then it will be your house and you may wish to keep it. I want nothing to do with the place where you and Peter...”

“Don’t say it!”

“OK. Where the two of you carried on your affair. When the repairs are done, I’ll sign over the deed to the house to you. I’ll also see to it that the house is fully paid off by then. Then, if you sell it, I’ll help you to invest the money so you don’t have to pay capital gains taxes. That should give you a very good nest egg to start your life over, if it turns out that we don’t make it work.”

“If I do move in here, then I’ll sleep in my own room and Penny will sleep with you?”

“Yes, like I said, when she does stay over. But I’m leaving the door open for us to have a relationship. However, going back to my being a father, don’t think for a minute that you will worm your way back into my life just by getting knocked up. You will only be getting pregnant, by me, if I trust you enough to stay and raise the children until they are adults. It won’t work any other way around.”

“And Penny will be having babies too?”

“Not necessarily. If she comes to me and say she wants a baby, then she and I will have a baby. I trust her, and I love her. I may end up falling IN love with her. I may end up falling back IN love with you. Right now, the only leg up she has on you, is that I trust her.”

Deb turned and took in her surroundings again. “This patio is wide open, but no one can see into it.”

“Right.”

“You could walk around here naked all the time.”

“Penny and I were naked out here last evening and most of this morning. We lay out here today and cuddled before she dressed and left before you came over.”

“She seems to be nice.”

“I think so. She is as sexy as I used to think you were.”

“Used to think?” Her hurt was palpable.

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, Deb. And right now my eye sees you as someone much less than Penny is all areas. I’m sorry if that hurts you, but you made this bed.”

“And I have to sleep in it,” Deb said sadly.

I nodded.

“Alone for the time being,” I added, not wanting to sting her, but to drive home the point that she had a way to go.

She returned to the railing and looked out over the lengthening shadows from the moiutains.

“Paul?”

“Yeah.”

“Can we start over?”

“Start over?”

“Can you look at me as a woman you want to ask out, but who you know has slept around with a lot of guys before you met her? We met, you liked me, and even though I had the reputation of being a slut, you decided to try and date me. You’ve decided not to sleep with me until you’re sure I’m no longer a slut. Under those conditions, could we date?”

I looked at the woman I used to love with everything I had. She was asking for a new start. Not a fresh start, but a new start. She wanted to date me without me thinking about her sexual past. Something must have been showing on my face.

“Paul, Monday I’m going to go to the doctor and be tested for any sexually transmitted disease. Before I get the results, would you at least touch me?”

“Touch you?” I didn’t understand.

“Yes. You haven’t touched me since three weeks ago Friday. You hugged me good night and then on Saturday morning I got up and went to slut myself with Peter. Since then you haven’t touched me, except for that stupid joke of shaking my hand when yours were wet from the bathroom after dinner with Mr. Bowen. What I’m asking is, would it kill you to give an old slut a hug?”

I stood and held out my arms. She ran to me and clutched me in her embrace. She’d never held me so tight. I heard and felt her as she sobbed and sniffled into me chest. While she held me, she adjusted and reaffirmed her grip several times. I could have pushed her away after a reasonable time, but at that moment I chose to let her hope. I had to admit to myself that I still loved her. I realized that could let her back into my life. I could have babies with her. I could or not. But being negative never got me anywhere. Hell, I was even in a positive mood when I disabled that fuck, Peter ‘Lover’ Larson.

Finally, she released her grip and looked up at me. Without a second thought, she pulled the front of my shirt out of my pants and used it to wipe her eyes and blow her nose. She did that on our honeymoon the morning after we’d made love as husband and wife for the first time and were overcome by our emotions. Coincidence, or plan?

“Deb, it’s time to get dressed for dinner. Do you want to do simple, normal or sexy?”

“Will sexy get me laid?”

“Nothing will get you laid tonight, at least not by me.”

“What’s simple?”

“We go to a cheap spot and have a little meal. Not fast food, probably a chain Mexican restaurant.”

“Like El Maguey?”

“Yeah.”

“What’s normal?”

“One of the local places that serve good food.”

“And Sexy?”

“Ruth’s Chris or one of the other top dollar spots.”

“Chandler’s?”

“Better than normal, not quite sexy.”

“So slacks and a nice blouse?”

“Not for me, but on you it would be fine,” I said trying to be funny.