I’ve seen it said that the opposite of love is indifference. Right now, I would disagree. For me, anyway, the opposite of love is hate – blind, seething hatred. I used to love my wife with all my heart and soul. I would’ve done anything for her, even taken a bullet. But that’s not the case anymore. She tore my heart out and destroyed my once-happy life. And now, it’s time for me to destroy hers.

The house was dark as I slowly crept up the stairs, doing my best to keep from giving myself away. Of course, the two cheaters in what was once the master bedroom I used to share with my wife couldn’t hear me anyway, what with all the racket they were making.

I got to the door of the bedroom, which was only partially closed, and pushed it the rest of the way open with the 12 gauge pump shotgun I had with me. There they were – my soon-to-be ex-wife, Alice, and my boss, Jake Harmon. He was pumping furiously between her spread legs while she grunted with each stroke.

I pumped a round into the chamber and watched as the two fuckers stopped and stared at me, surprised. There’s nothing quite like the sound of a round being pumped into the chamber of a shotgun to get someone’s attention. Jake got off Alice, his still-hard dick jutting out in front of him.

“What are you doing here, wimp?” he asked. “You’re supposed to be in Jonesboro. Why are you here? You wanna watch a real man fuck your wife? Is that it? Are you some kinda pervert or something?” Alice giggled at that.

“Yeah, baby, he wants to watch a real man give it to me good,” she said. “Maybe he wants to eat your cum outta my pussy.” Jake laughed as he stepped toward me. That’s when it began.

I said nothing as I fired a round at his crotch, blowing his private parts to kingdom come. He screamed in pain as he fell to the floor. Alice’s screams joined his almost in perfect harmony. I pumped and fired again, this time taking off the top half of Jake’s head. Alice kept screaming, so I turned my attention to her.

The first round silenced her screams as it removed most of her face. The next fifteen rounds left her a bloody mess on the top of the bed. I wasn’t finished, and kept firing, alternating between Jake and Alice. At one point I looked down and saw my feet were almost buried in a pile of spent shotgun shells. Damn, I wondered. How many rounds are in this thing? I kept pumping and firing round after round into the goo that was once Jake and Alice.

I finally stopped, my rage now gone. The room reeked of gunpowder and I could see smoke hanging in the air like a thick blanket. I looked at the bloody mess before me and knew my life was over. Once the police arrived, they would probably shoot me dead. If they didn’t, I would probably end up on death row. No, thanks. I checked and found I still had one round left. I put the muzzle of the shotgun under my chin, then reached down and pulled the trigger with my right hand.

...

I sat up in my bed, my body soaked with sweat. At first, I didn’t recognize my surroundings. Then it came back to me. I was at a Day’s Inn in Jonesboro, Arkansas, and had been since Sunday. It was now early Thursday morning. I was here to take care of a customer upgrade at Jake’s direction. The job was finished on Wednesday and I had wrapped up my paperwork before going to bed. I had planned on driving back after checking out of the hotel after sunrise.

As my head cleared from the remnants of the nightmare, I caught my breath and looked at the clock. It was only 3:30 am. Shit, I thought. I’ll never be able to get back to sleep. I got up out of bed, washed my face, then made a cup of coffee. I turned the television on, and tried to calm myself down.

This wasn’t the first time I had experienced the nightmare, and something told me it wouldn’t be the last. It had been like this almost every night for the last week, since I first learned of Alice’s betrayal. Each nightmare had been quite similar, with the only variation being my weapon of choice. I remember one time I dreamed that I was carrying a mini-gun and had shredded both their bodies with thousands of rounds of ammunition.

In another dream, I actually carried a rocket-propelled grenade and blew them – along with the bedroom – into oblivion. Then there was the dream where I actually used a nuclear device and destroyed half the county along with the two cheaters.

Mind you, I’m not normally a violent man, and even though I spent four years in the Marine Corps, had never once fired a weapon in anger. Sure, I have a few guns, including a 12 gauge shotgun – hell, everyone in these parts has a gun or two. But I never once considered using any of them against another human being. Until recently, that is. Why the change, you ask. Let me tell you...

My name is Thomas Jefferson Langley. My parents had a thing for history, so I was saddled with the name from birth. My sister and only sibling was named after Betsy Ross – seriously. I joined the Marines straight out of high school and was made a Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Defense Specialist.

With the exception of a one-year tour to Okinawa, Japan, my time was spent stateside, mostly working as an instructor. My last six months in the service, I was one of the guys who ran the gas chamber at the base where I was stationed. I realized early on in my military service there was little to no use for someone with my skills in the civilian world, so I went to school and got a degree in networks and business.

It took three years to finish my two-year degree, so I got out at the end of my four-year stint and went back to school using my benefits. When I graduated, I went to work as an account representative for Empire Tech Solutions, a nationwide IT company headquartered at my home town in Missouri.

I met Alice when I was doing a survey at the local newspaper. She worked as an editor and was one of the people who decided what photographs would work best with their articles. We talked, dated, fell in love and eventually got married. That was five years ago.

The next four and a half years were good ones. Alice and I got along quite well, and enjoyed spending time together whenever we could. We made love several times a week and began to talk about having children. We made pretty good money, so we bought an old four-bedroom farmhouse in the country that sat on four acres. It needed some work, but we both loved it. She liked the fact that it was a bit rustic, and I liked the separate shop that sat on the property. Both of us also liked the fact that the master bedroom had its own gas fireplace. And there was plenty of room for children.

Then the world went to shit – at least for me. My boss, Bill Michaels, retired, and the company began searching for his replacement. I thought this would be a golden opportunity for me, so I applied for the job. I didn’t get it, but I was told by Jon Carlson, the man in charge of the company’s service operations nationwide, that I was seriously considered, but the Board selected someone else – Jake Harmon.

I looked up Harmon on the company intranet, and found that he was being moved here from Boston, where he worked as the senior account representative for the northeast region of the country. He had a bit more seniority than me, but not that much. His uncle also happened to be one of the senior members of the Board of Directors. Naturally, he got the job. I studied the picture of his face and took an instant dislike to him. There was something about that crooked smile of his that just screamed, “trouble.”

He came on board and made all the rounds. The women in the office took to him like a moth to a flame. He stood a few inches taller than me, and was quite muscular. He smiled that crooked smile as he shook my hand the first time we met.

“Well, I finally get to meet my opposition,” he said. “I’m told you almost got my job. Don’t worry, I won’t let that interfere with our relationship.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” I told him. He smiled, then left my office. Something about him really set me off, but I wasn’t quite sure what it was. I told Alice about it one night after dinner.

“Why don’t you invite him over for dinner one night,” she said. “Maybe you can break the ice with him. Is he married?” I shook my head.

“I don’t think so,” I said. “I didn’t see that in his online bio.”

“Maybe he’s just a bit lonely,” she said. “A single guy in a new town surrounded by strange faces. It can’t be easy for him adjusting, especially after living in Boston.”

“Maybe you’re right,” I said. The next day I invited him to dinner and he eagerly accepted my invitation. “And feel free to bring the family if you want,” I told him.

“There’s no family,” he said. “It’s just me. But I’d love to come have dinner with you and your wife. Thanks for the invite. Should I bring anything?”

“Just your appetite,” I said.

“Okay,” he said. “I’ll be there.” He arrived at the house on time and we had a good evening, overall. We got to know each other a bit and I thought we had established a bit of a rapport. Alice went all out, making a pot roast with potatoes and vegetables. She even put some in a Tupperware container for him to take home.

“He doesn’t seem like such a bad guy,” Alice said after he left. “You two seemed to get along okay.”

“Yeah, I guess,” I said. Still, I had doubts niggling in the back of my mind. “That was a wonderful pot roast, by the way. Let me help you with the dishes, then I’ll thank you properly upstairs,” I added, giving her a swat on the rear end. She giggled, then pranced into the dining room to start putting things away. The next day at work, Jake came by my office.

“I just wanted to thank you for dinner last night,” he said. “That was some pot roast your wife made.”

“You’re welcome,” I said. “Yes, Alice is a very good cook.” He smiled as he nodded his head. I couldn’t help but wonder what else he was thinking.

“Listen, Tom, I’m going to need you to start making more trips out of town,” he said. “I know my predecessor limited your time out of town, but I’m concerned we may see some business slip if we don’t get a bit more aggressive.”

“What are we talking about?” I asked. He was right. Bill made sure I took no more than one trip every two weeks at the most, concerned about the impact on my home life. That was one of the things I really appreciated about him.

“I’m thinking maybe one trip a week,” Jake said. “I know it may be rough on things with Alice, but I’ll make sure you get well compensated for your time away from home.”

“When is this starting?” I asked.

“Next week,” he said. That wasn’t much advance time, given that today was already Friday. “In fact, I’d like you to go to St. Louis on Monday. Peters and Lystrom is talking about updating some of their servers in preparation for tax time, and I’d like you to assess the situation and make some recommendations. Normally, this would be done remotely, but I’d like you to be a bit more hands-on.” Peters and Lystrom was an accounting firm that we had done business with for years, and this was the first I had heard of an upgrade.

“Alright,” I said. “How long are we talking about here? This shouldn’t take me more than a few hours at most.”

“You forget, they have satellite offices all over the city,” Jake said. “You’ll need to visit them all.” Crap, I thought. That could take two or three days. Maybe even four.

“All right,” I said. “I’ll let Alice know. She’s not gonna be happy.”

“I think she’ll get over it when she sees your paycheck,” Jake said before leaving my office. Alice wasn’t happy with me being gone potentially four days the next week, but I took her out to dinner and dancing that night and we spent much of the weekend in bed.

“Call me when you get settled in, and I’ll expect a call every day,” she said when I packed my bags in the car. Fortunately, St. Louis was close enough that I could drive there. “And you’d better be on your best behavior.”

“Aren’t I always?” I asked before giving her a kiss. I called her cell phone when I got settled into my room in St. Louis, and later that evening after my first meeting with the client. I called the house phone every night and we enjoyed nice, long discussions, always ending on a happy note. As it turned out, I was finished with the client early Thursday morning, so I drove home, planning to surprise my wife. We had a great reunion, and I thought everything would be alright.

The next couple weeks weren’t too bad. I ended up being gone only one night on those weeks. After that, things started to change. The trips got longer and for the next four weeks, I was gone four days, and one trip lasted five full days.

Jake was true to his word, and I did see a hefty increase in my paychecks, but that hardly compensated for the time I was away from Alice. At first, Alice seemed to be able to deal with the absences, but I could tell they were starting to affect her after the fourth week. After I got home that week, I thought I detected the odor of cigarettes.

Both Alice and I smoked when we first met. After we got married, we decided to kick the habit together. It was hard at first, but we finally did it. We’ve been smoke-free for about two years when all this started up. I asked Alice if she’d been smoking while I was gone.

“Yes,” she said. “I’m sorry, it’s just so hard when you’re not here.”

“I understand,” I told her. “You do realize I have no choice. Jake’s the one sending me out all over the place.”

“I understand,” she said. “I just don’t like it, that’s all. I wish you were home more often.”

“I do, too,” I said. “Maybe I’ll have a talk with Jake, see if he’ll let up just a bit.” I did talk to Jake about it, but he put me off and said it was part of the job. If I didn’t like it, he said, I was welcome to find another place to work. Like a good company man with bills to pay, I sucked it up and kept working, but I did put out some feelers.

About a week later, I had just arrived home from a trip and was getting ready for bed when Alice asked me to turn on the fireplace. We both enjoyed having it on as we made love, so I went to turn it on. That’s when I noticed the pilot light was out. I wondered what could make that happen, and couldn’t get it to stay lit. So I turned off the gas to the unit and made a mental note to call in a technician.

Because of my schedule, it took a couple weeks before I could get anyone out to take a look at it. After doing his diagnostics, the tech looked up at me and shook his head.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Langley,” he said. “But that regulator’s shot. It’s probably been in there at least 60 years now.”

“Can you replace it?” I asked. He shook his head.

“‘Fraid not,” he said. “They quit making those about 30 years ago. Frankly, I’m surprised it’s lasted as long as it has without causing problems. You realize you could’ve had one hell of an explosion up here. If I were you, I’d replace that whole insert.”

“I’m not sure when I’ll have the time to do that,” I said. “My schedule’s pretty screwed up.” He handed me a card.

“Well, when you get the time, come on down and take a look at what we’ve got,” he said. “Hell, we’ve got units with remote controls and one you can control with your smartphone over the Internet. In the meantime, I’d keep the gas shut off to that thing, otherwise you could have a serious problem.”

“Thanks,” I said, taking his card. Unfortunately, I was never able to get around to replacing the insert, despite Alice’s constant reminders.

Jake kept sending me out, sometimes over the weekend. As a result, things got very frosty in the house. Our sex life all but disappeared and Alice started getting very short and snippy with me. I did my best to maintain some semblance of calm, but it wasn’t easy.

As the trips continued, Alice got even worse. Jake didn’t seem to care, though, as he kept sending me out to one client or another. Several times when I called the home phone, I got the answering machine and when I called Alice’s cell, it would go straight to voicemail. When I asked her about it, all she would do is offer excuses.

“Sorry, but I decided to go out for a drink with the girls and I didn’t hear the phone ring,” she would say. Then the worst possible thing that could happen did happen. I finished a site visit a day early and decided to come home to surprise Alice. As it turned out, I was the one who got the surprise.

As I pulled into our driveway, I saw Jake’s BMW sitting in front of our garage. I wondered what he was doing here. I got out and put my hand on the hood of his car. It was fairly warm, so I knew he hadn’t been here very long. I went into the house and saw Alice sitting on the couch with Jake. I saw her quickly pulling her hands back as I opened the door.

I also took note of what she was wearing – a short black dress that showed off a lot of leg, and a lot of cleavage. The smell of cigarette smoke was also quite thick in the house.

“Tom, you’re home,” she said, standing up. Jake also stood up and looked at me, a smirk on his face.

“Yes, this is a surprise,” he said. “You were supposed to be gone until tomorrow. What happened?”

“We finished the job a day early, so I thought I’d come home and spend some time with my wife,” I said. “What’s going on here?”

“Jake was just going to take me out to dinner,” Alice said. Jake smirked as I nodded my head.

“I see,” I said. I turned to Jake before speaking. “Well, I’m home now, so if anyone is taking Alice out, it’ll be me, her husband. I think you should leave now.”

“And if I don’t?” he asked.

“Then I’ll just have to kick your ass out of my house,” I said. “You may be my boss at work, but not here, in my home.” He chuckled and looked at Alice.

“I’ll take care of this,” Alice said, looking at Jake. “I think you should leave now.” Jake said nothing for a few moments, then nodded his head and got ready to leave.

“I will be discussing this with Jon tomorrow,” I said before Jake opened the door to leave. “I don’t think he’ll approve of you horning in on an employee’s wife.”

“You better not say anything to Jon,” Jake said. “You forget, my uncle is a senior member of the Board. He’ll have your job as well as Jon’s. And don’t forget, you’re supposed to be in Jonesboro on Sunday.” He turned to Alice. “I’ll talk with you later,” he added before closing the door. I turned back to Alice.

“What the hell is going on here?” I asked. “Are you sleeping with him now?” Alice said nothing, but looked down, embarrassed. I had my answer. “You are, aren’t you? How long has this shit been going on?”

“A while. Dammit, Tom, you’re never home,” she said.

“Yeah, because the asshole you’re fucking keeps sending me out of town,” I said. “My God, Alice, how can you be so fucking stupid? You KNEW he was the one sending me away. Surely you’re smart enough to figure out what he was doing. How many times have you fucked him in our bed?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “I haven’t counted.”

“Fucking terrific,” I said. “Have you fallen in love with him?”

“A bit, I’m afraid,” she said. “But I still love you. I just wish you were home.”

“You know what this means, don’t you?” I asked.

“What?” she asked.

“It means I’ll be getting a divorce, as soon as I can,” I said. “There’s no way I can put up with this.”

“Please, Tom, don’t,” she said. “I don’t want a divorce.”

“So, what, you think you can have Jake when he sends me away, then give me his sloppy seconds when I get home?” I asked.

“I’ve never given you sloppy seconds,” she said.

“You haven’t given me anything in a couple months or so,” I said. “Not even a blowjob. Dammit, Alice, how could you be so damn selfish?”

“So, what are you going to do now?” she asked. “Do you still want to take me out to dinner?”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” I asked. “I’ll have to get a motel room for the night. There’s no way I’m sleeping in the bed again, not after you’ve fucked him in it, and there’s no place else here for me to sleep. I’ll be damned if I’m going to try sleeping on the couch. Besides, the whole fucking place reeks of cigarettes. Do you let him smoke in here, by the way?”

“We both smoke in the house,” she said. “I’m sorry.” I stood up and looked at her before speaking, trying to control my rage.

“Let me get one thing straight,” I said. “I’m going to find a motel room for the night. I’ll come by tomorrow while you’re at work to get some of my stuff. If you bring that asshole into my house again before the divorce is final, you’ll both wish to God you’d never been born. Understand me?”

“Yes,” Alice said, tears falling down her face. I couldn’t help but wonder why she was crying, since she’s the one who caused all the hurt. I stormed upstairs to grab a suitcase and some clothes and saw the ashtrays on both nightstands. They were both filled with ashes and cigarette butts.

The room reeked of stale cigarette smoke and sex. It was all I could do to keep from throwing up. I packed enough things for a couple days, then went back downstairs. Alice was still on the couch.

“I’m leaving now,” I said. “Here,” I added, taking off my wedding ring. I tossed it on the table in front of her. “I won’t be needing that anymore. Remember what I said. Goodbye.” I walked out of the house, got in my car and left. I don’t know what she did after I left, and I frankly didn’t care. All I know is that she didn’t pepper me with calls or texts after I left.

I found a motel that rented rooms with kitchenettes by the week and paid for two weeks in advance. I had a feeling I would be there a bit longer than that, though, and I didn’t want to risk the room being taken when I got back from Jonesboro. I got settled in and that night was when the nightmares began.

The next day, I got to work a bit early and turned in all my paperwork. Purposefully avoiding Jake, I went to see Jon Carlson, who was the next one up in my chain of command.

“Tom, you’re here early,” he said. “How did everything go?”

“Went well, Jon,” I said. “I’ve already turned in my paperwork. Listen, I have a personal problem I need to deal with before I leave for Jonesboro and wondered if I could take the rest of the day off.”

“Have you spoken with Jake yet?” he asked.

“Well, Jake is part of my problem,” I said. He looked at me, startled.