Edited by BarneyR. Messed with by me. All errors are mine.

Author’s note: All references to military and VA actions are figments of my imagination. They never happened and of course, there is no politics being practiced in the military.

She wasn’t stupid, but she was one of the people who had an almost obsession with an idea once it was in her head. She also obsessed about a few male celebrities and pro sports figures. She was a long-time believer and subscriber to ’People’ magazine and ’The National Enquirer’

My name is Gary Caswell, I am an only child of deceased parents. I was at the time 6’2” and 195 lbs. I am a little heaver now, at 200 by my eyes are still changeable blue to steel gray and my hair is still dirty blonde.

I took an eight-year sabbatical from my education to serve my country in the U.S. Army. I had planned to make a career of it and get my education while serving but left the service because I refused to join the battalion politics. It was so bad, I reported it to the JAG office. When the battalion brass heard that I was denied a promotion to sergeant first class, and so when my second enlistment was up, I left the service.

I had enough college credits earned online while serving to reenter the civilian education community as a second semester college junior. I decided to complete my degree in financial planning and business administration.

I met Rebecca (Becs) Stanton at college. She was an incoming transfer from a local community college. I was a senior working on a dual major B.A. degree in business management and financial planning. She was 24, and I was 28. I had not gone to college directly from high school. She was in front of me as we were standing in line to get parking passes for our cars. We started talking and I got her to agree to meet after we were through to have a cup of coffee.

The coffee went well, the conversation was interesting. Becs was 24 and had delayed starting college to get married to her high school sweetheart. He came from a local rich, business owning, family. When she found him in bed with a male friend and went to his daddy for a divorce, the family paid her big bucks to just divorce and leave the matter alone quietly.

She secretly planned some revenge as the family had treated her like pond scum. Her revenge was interrupted when the friend’s wife found them and shot them both, before the divorce was final. Becs got some additional big bucks as the grieving widow. Hubby’s papa decided that sonny’s share of the company needed to stay in the blood family and bought her out. It was much more than enough for Becs to get a trust fund set up and to allow a generous monthly stipend. She told me she was getting a big enough stipend that she would never have to work if she didn’t want to.

I guess I should describe Rebecca. She was and still was the last time I saw her, beautiful. She is 5’ 6”, reddish blonde hair, blue-green eyes, and a smile that lights up a dark room. She was well proportioned and had an ass to die for.

She truly was, at first, one of those ladies who you hated to have leave but enjoyed watching her go.

We exchanged contact information and after school started we started dating. I was exclusive, without telling Becs, and if she wasn’t, she must have been defying the laws of physics as we were together almost every waking hour except when we were studying or in class.

An unexpected and strange thing happened. I had been out of the military for about eight months when I received a recall notification and orders to go to a VA hospital for my medical retirement physical. It seems someone in the battalion chain of command thought that the politics was wrong and had ‘blackmail’ material on the people who screwed up my promotion. There revenge was to have me declared a medical discharged disabled veteran.

Now I had some serious injuries from my two tours in the Middle East sandboxes, but I didn’t think at the time that they rated a disability label. My benefactor thought otherwise. He also arranged for and included a reward check for a number with six zeros left of the decimal point. As it was labeled a reward, it was tax free.

Well, the fix must have been in, when I arrived at the VA hospital, all of the paperwork was filled out, and I was rated at 100% disabled. I was there less than 25 minutes and was informed that I would be receiving a make-up disability check from the time I was discharged and a nice check every month. Of course, it too was tax free. To safeguard and grow my money, I had a trust fund created.

We had been dating all the through this time. When I graduated and found a position at a national brokerage house I asked Becs to marry me. She squealed and said yes. That summer, after we agreed that she would graduate before the ceremony occurred, She, her mother, and her sister went into plan mode. I was more or less ignored when the plans were discussed, but when we were alone, Becs had decided that we could start practicing.

Our sex life was fulfilling, energetic, and varied. She like almost everything, except any BDSM, not even tie-up or spanking games. Nothing else was verboten.

The summer after she graduated she asked if I was averse to signing a prenup. As I had thought about it occasionally, I told her I was not against the idea. I asked her if she was going to use her choice for a lawyer or could we go to one that neither of us chose.

She came back with, “Mother asked a family friend to draw one up. I have it at the house.”

“Ok,” I said, “give me a copy, and I will have my lawyer check it out.”

“Why, don’t you trust my family?” She asked with a little bit of heat.

“Why, because you have large amounts of money, and I have large amounts also. If I can’t have my lawyer look it over and approve it, I will think that your lawyer is trying to screw me over. It has nothing to do with my trust or feelings, just that I am a money man, and I won’t sign anything financial without his approval.”

“Oh, I guess that makes sense. I haven’t even looked at it. I just took mom’s word for it.”

“Fine, I think your mother would make sure you were protected. I need to make sure we are both protected equally. That way, there will be no doubts or mistrust in our marriage regarding finances.”

Well, I got my copy of the prenup, and while it was fair to both of us with our incoming assets, it was totally one sided with the marriage assets if we were to divorce.

My lawyer left the parts about pre marriage assets alone but wrote a new even split of marriage assets except if we divorced because of adultery or abuse. Then the offending party would forfeit all marriage assets.

Becs took it to a different lawyer than the one her mother used, and we signed the result. We were both happy with it. There were no more dramatic things in the way. We married in a September wedding attended by mostly her family, and a few of my cousins.

We honeymooned in Costa Rica on the Atlantic shore in a little village that I heard about while in the service. A couple of my army buddies had retired down here with their wives. They were older and had retired after their 20 from the service.

After a couple of years things settled down. I was advancing in my career, and Becs was running an internet business from a small warehouse we rented. Life was good, and we made friends from my work and the neighborhood around the house I bought with my trust.

We decided to host a party/barbeque. As with most of these gatherings, the women were on one side and the men on the other. The guys were talking about sports, cars, and women. The women were talking about who knows what. We had eaten, and the beer and wine came out. The guys were still talking sports and comparing the different beers. The women were apparently enjoying the wine immensely. They were talking louder and louder and laughing like they heard the best joke every told. About the only words I recognized were “Marriage Wild Card” and “He’s such a hunk”, each was followed by much intense cackling laughter.

The next week, Becs was acting like she was walking on glass with golf shoes on. I finally had enough that Wednesday, “Becs, what is wrong? Have I done something to piss you off? Did you do something that will piss me off?”

“No dear, I have just been obsessed with something the ladies were talking about at the barbeque. I know that most of it was stupid, but one thing has gotten me wanting to sound you out and I am afraid you’re going to be upset.”

“Well, just get it out. If I’m upset, I’m upset. You’re walking around like I’m going to pound on you or leave you is really pissing me off.”

“Ok, here goes. The girls were talking about creating a ‘Marriage Wild Card’. What we all were talking about was that there should be one person in the world that each person should be able to use a ‘Marriage Wild Card’ on in their marriage. You know, one that the man or woman could spend one night with without destroying their marriage.”

“What!!! Did you all talk about that when you were sober, or when the laughter drowned out the sound of the fire engines that went down the street? And before you ask; not just no, but hell no with a capital N.”

“Well, the reason I have been like I have is because I think it is a great idea, and I knew you would react like you did.”

Well, you just keep thinking it is a great idea. I’ll sleep in the guest room. Then you can fuck your dream lover before I see the divorce lawyer in peace.” I was actually screaming by the time I was finished. I turned, grabbed my jacket and car keys, and left to cool off.