Dean looked up at Dave and said, “Man, I’m starved. I’ll cover for you if you go to Geno’s and get us some subs? My treat.”

“Man, that’s all the way across town. It’ll take me at least 30 minutes to do it. Why don’t we just order something in? We can get done sooner.”

“Yeah, I know but we deserve a treat and the boss’s paying for it. He never said we had to get something close ya know. All he cares about is we get this program done ASAP (as soon as possible) and let him know when we leave so he can close out our timesheets and set the alarms. Come on, man.”

“Ok, you’re the boss,” Dave said as he stood to leave the cave as they called the programming and server room.

Traffic was a bear as Dave knew it would be on Friday evening. To make it worse, Geno’s was all the way across town and a popular night spot to boot. He’d only been there once but had to admit, for bar food, there was none better. Their sandwiches and even pizza was tops.

Dave had to drive through the parking lot twice before he found a space to park and ended up, naturally, near the back of the lot. On his way to the building he passed a car that looked identical to his wife’s but it couldn’t be. She was home with her sister that had come to visit on the way home from college.

When he got to the bar he walked up to the cash register near the kitchen and stood until a waitress stopped to see what he wanted. “I’m Dave Brown. I need to pick up a phone order please.”

“Sure hon, let me check and see if it’s ready.”

The waitress went back into the kitchen and returned almost immediately. She said, “I couldn’t find an order for you. Are you sure you called it in here?”

“Yeah, My work partner called it in almost twenty minutes ago. I drove all the way across town to pick it up. You sure you don’t have it?”

“No record of it. Who did he talk to?”

“I don’t know. Let me call him.”

Dave quickly dragged his phone out of his pocket and called Dean. When he answered, Dave asked, “Hey, they don’t have our order. Didn’t you call it in?”

“Yeah man, you stood here and listened to me didn’t ya? Crap. Well, go ahead and wait on them to make it since you’re already there. I’ll cover for ya. I just got off the phone with Tony. He was calling to see how much longer I thought we’d be here. I told him at least two or three more hours. So we have time.”

Dave verified Dean’s order again and turned to the waitress. He said, “He said he called it in here. Look, I work all the way across town and we’re pulling a late nighter. Can you get them to rush it through so I can get back please?”

“Yeah, sure honey. What’ll ya have?”

Dave gave her the order and found a chair at the bar while he waited on the take out. He was watching the customers while he waited when he got the shock of his life. He saw his wife Sandy dancing with his boss Tony, then he saw her sister dancing close by also. What the heck?”

Dave was going to walk over and find out what was going on when his world ended. Sandy stood on her tip toes, wrapped her arm around her partner’s neck, and gave him a deep diss. While he was kissing her, one of his hands kneaded her ass and the other slid up to cup her breast. Even from across the room Dave could see Sandy grinding on the obvious bulge in the bastard’s pants.

Dave was halfway across the room, pushing people out of the way when Tony broke the kiss, half turned and wrapped his arm around Sandy’s waist. He guided her off the dance floor and toward the door. While they were walking he let his hand slide down to cup her ass again.

Dave quickly snapped a couple of pictures and turned to follow them out of the bar. They walked across the parking lot toward the row Sandy’s car was parked in. Every so often they would stop and kiss before turning to continue their walk. Dave managed to take a couple more pictures while they were kissing.

When they got to Tony’s super crew truck, parked near Sandy’s car, they stopped and Sandy leaned against it. Tony pressed against her and they fell into another deep clench and kiss. Soon, Tony pulled back slightly and unbuttoned Sandy’s blouse. In the dim light Dave could see her braless breasts before Tony reached through the gap and began playing with them.

After several more kisses Tony opened the back door of his truck and pushed Sandy into the seat. He stood for a moment to unbuckle and unzip his pants before he crawled inside with her. After they closed the door Dave walked up to the vehicle and stood watching his happy life come crashing down.

Sandy had her blouse open and her short skirt rucked up to her waist, her legs spread and knees pulled almost to her shoulders while Tony was driving his cock into her unprotected cunt. Even from outside Dave could hear the rhythmic slap, slap, slap and the grunts and groans of their copulation. While his heart was breaking, he took pictures with his phone. He smiled to himself when he heard Sandy ask, “Honey, what’s that flashing light?”

Tony didn’t miss a beat while he answered, ‘Don’t worry about it sweetie. It’s probably lights from the passing cars. Relax, no one can see us.”

Dave saw Sandy do just that before she locked her heels around Tony’s thighs and began meeting his strokes. Her peak arrived shortly afterward and she let out her signature wail. Tony rose up on his arms and gave a few more hard thrusts into Sandy before he let out a loud grunt and gave a final hard lunge into her before holding himself tightly against her crotch while he pumped her full of his seed.

A wildly angry Dave wrapped his handkerchief around his head like the movies showed the old western bank robbers did then pulled the door open on the two lovers. He pulled Tony from the truck, gave him a quick, hard kick in the balls before he rummaged through his pockets to find his wallet and keys.

He placed the keys in the truck tailgate keyhole but took the wallet with him. He hoped the two lovers wouldn’t see the keys and the truck would end up being stolen. He planned to throw the wallet out his window on a trip through the bad part of town on his way back to the office.

Dave quickly walked back into the bar and took his seat. The waitress soon came over and said, “There you are. I thought you’d left or something. Your order’s ready.”

“No, I’ve been here all along. I was over there talking to a friend of mine. Sorry I didn’t see you before.”

“No problem. Here’s your food.”

“Thanks,” Dave said taking the food and leaving the bar. He walked to his car on a round about course so he would reduce the chance of being seen by his cheating wife and boss. Just before he got into his car he saw Sandy help Tony into the truck and try to comfort him.

Dave was shaking with anger during the drive across town. Twice he almost had an accident because of it. He finally pulled back into the parking lot of his office and entered the building carrying the food. He made sure to lock the door behind him and walked angrily toward the server room where they were working.

When he entered the room with the food Dean smiled and said, “It’s about darn time you got back. What’d you do? Stop by home for a little?”

Dave threw the bag with the food onto Dean’s workstation before he almost collapsed into his chair beside it. Dean turned and yelled, “What the FUCK!” He stopped in mid rant when he saw Dean’s face, then continued, “OH, Shit. You ok man?”

“Yeah, no, not really. Sandy was there. She was fucking Tony in the back seat of his truck.”

“Fuck! Man, I’m sorry”

“Yeah, well, not your fault.”

“Yeah, man, it sortta is.”

Dave turned toward Dean and his face showed his anger. He said, “What do you mean by that asshole?”

“You know I’m system administrator. I was doing my spot check of e-mail to verify it was only being used for business when I came across a group of messages from Tony and Sandy. They agreed to meet there tonight. He said he’d keep you busy here and they could party safely. Man, I’m sorry. I didn’t want to say anything in case she blew him off or it wasn’t what I thought it might be so I sent ya for the sandwiches so you could see if anything was wrong. That’s why I really didn’t phone in the order. I wanted you to be there longer in case things weren’t kosher.”

“Yeah, well they weren’t. I have some great triple X rated pictures of them fucking in his back seat.”

“Sorry Dave. What next?”

“You have to ask? I cut the bitch loose and leave this shitty job.”

As might be expected, neither man got much more work done that night. They spent quite a bit of time discussing Dave’s next moves. Dave showed Dean the pictures and told him what he’d done to Tony as well. Dean laughed and said, “That’s good. If he shows up here at work tomorrow we need to be sure to give him a ration of crap, especially if he’s moving gingerly.”

Dave sat in his chair a moment longer before he stood and started gathering his belongings. Dean watched a moment before he said, ‘Hey man, you leaving? We’re not through here and I can’t get done in time without you.”

“Yeah, I’m outta here. Fuck Tony and his damn job. Sorry man.”

“Dave, wait a minute. You can’t just take off half cocked. What’re ya gonna do? Just go home and confront the bitch? And what aboutTony? Ya can’t just let him get away with this. You need to get your ducks in a row, ya know, plan this out, or you’ll lose more in the divorce than you have to. Come on man, let’s finish this up and make some plans for you. They don’t need any more warning than you have to give them.”

It was after 1:30 a.m. when they completed their project and could go home. They were standing outside the door to the office when Dean tried to phone Tony so he could remotely lock the doors and set the intrusion alarm. For some reason, he didn’t answer. While they repeatedly tried to phone him they laughed about him not answering. Finally, after 20 minutes Dean phoned the security chief and told him they couldn’t reach Tony and needed him to lock the door and set the alarm.

Just before they got into their cars Dean said, “Ya know, this is Bull. This is the only place I’ve ever worked where I didn’t have a key and the alarm code. If something goes wrong inside during non-business hours we have to dick around until Tony or the duty security can either meet us here or unlock and turn off the alarms.”

Dean got a strange look on his face before he said, “You now, it just struck me. The only time we have to call Tony is when we’re working late. I wonder if that’s because he’s messing with some of the other wives too?”

“Beats me but I really don’t give a shit. He fucked with mine and I’m going to make him and her pay. I’m tired. See ya tomorrow. Well, I guess I’ll see ya today. Later.”

Sandy still wasn’t home when Dave stumbled into their small rental house. He was still angry over what he’d seen and wanted to confront her, yet was glad she wasn’t there. He did wonder where she was but figured probably with the asshole.

Dave took a quick shower and fell into bed. He was asleep almost before he lay down and didn’t know anything until the sun hit him in the eyes the next morning at 9:30. He threw the covers back and noticed Sandy’s side of the bed hadn’t been slept in at all. Before he dressed, he stumbled into the kitchen and started a pot of coffee.

After coffee, a quick frozen breakfast sandwich, and more coffee, Dave headed off to work. He was still super angry and trying to decide how to make Tony and Sandy pay for what they’d done.

When he arrived at work, he found everyone there except for Tony. He asked Shiela, Tony’s secretary, where he was and she said, “I don’t know. No one’s heard from him at all.”

It was a long day because Dave and Dean were still exhausted from their late nights work, but the project was now in its final stages. The rest of the group were doing code checks and trying to stress the program before they installed it in the customer’s servers. Dave walked from place to place supervising the work and trying to stay awake. He had trouble keeping his mind on the work because of his discovery the night before.

Finally quitting time came and he returned home. Sandy was curled up on the sofa with a glass of wine, dressed in her old ratty robe. There were large dark circles underneath her eyes. She looked up at him with a guilty expression when he walked into the room. Dean immediately said, “Where the hell were you last night? You didn’t even call to tell me you weren’t going to be home and then, you never even came home. Where’s your sister, too? I thought she was going to be with us for a couple of days?”

“She got a call and had to leave early. I took her to the airport yesterday afternoon and stopped off for a drink with the girls on the way home. It was horrible. One of them was mugged in the parking lot and I spent the night in the hospital with her. I’m sorry I didn’t call but my phone battery died.”

“And you couldn’t find a phone in the hospital, borrow a charger, or use your sisters?”

“I just didn’t think. I’m sorry honey.”

“Yeah, right. If I didn’t know better I’d think you were out screwing around. What’s for supper?”

“I haven’t got that far yet. What do you want?””

“I don’t know. Something quick. I’m beat. I didn’t quit last night until after 1:30 and it was nearly three before I got to sleep.”

“I really don’t have anything to cook that’s going to be fast. Why don’t I call for a pizza?”

“Yeah, fine. I’m going to clean up.”

While Dave was in the shower he continued to think about how he was going to get his revenge and extricate himself from the mess Sandy made of their marriage. While he was washing he had a thought that seemed like it would work and be a valid way for him to become aware of Sandy’s cheating.

Tony only had a rudimentary knowledge of computers and programming. He was the business manager of the company but only had a minor in programming. He thought he was an expert and continually gave his staff problems. His attempts to ‘program’ had shown Dave how inept he was. Dave decided he would set up a web page and post the pictures he took of Tony and Sandy on it. He’d then send himself an e-mail with the web address so he could legitimately ‘find out’ about their tryst.

He would have to hack into Tony’s home or office computer and use it to set up the page using Tony’s name, address and personal information. That afternoon, he went to an internet cafe and began his work, first hacking into Tony’s home computer. Before he began setting up the web page, like most hackers, he scanned the hard drives to see what he could find. JACKPOT! He found pictures of Tony with several other women. Two of the women Dave knew were married to men who worked with him.

Dave quickly began his preliminary work on the web page, after copying the folder of pictures to his machine. He called the web page ‘T’s TWATS’ and inserted leads to it from several porn websites and even some more innocuous sites. It took him several days to complete his programming and get the web site live. Each and every action had to be taken and posted through Tony’s computer at home to make it look as if he was the one actually doing the work. Some days he couldn’t work on the site for either personal reasons or because Tony had turned his computer off.

After he went live with the site, he began working on other methods of revenge. A few days after he went live on the web site, Dave prepared an e-mail with the link that was sent to everyone he could find that knew either Tony, Sandy, or any of the other women. That was supposedly the way he became aware of Sandy’s cheating.

After receiving the e-mail, Dave confronted Sandy with the information and got all the excuses from the cheater’s handbook like, “I’m sorry Honey, it didn’t mean anything, it was only the one time, I just ran into him there when sis and I went out for a meal, etc, etc. the next morning, Dave drove back to work and confronted Tony before he resigned on the spot, leaving Tony with another bruise on his face, ass and head from Dave’s punch and Tony’s fall to the floor.

The divorce quickly became nasty with Sandy trying, first, to get Dave to reconcile, then she began a counter suit. During that time, tempers flared and she decided to get revenge on Dave for even daring to divorce her. She turned him in to the Prosecuting Attorney for operating an online gambling website.

The website was Dave’s baby, starting out as a hobby for him and his friends to play online Texas Hold’em with each other. The site soon grew and grew until Dave opened it up to anyone world wide. Each person who joined the site was given 2,000,000k chips (No monetary value) and each day they were given an additional 1,000,000 as a bonus to play with. When the site first began, if they lost all their chips, they couldn’t play again until the next day.

After the site had been live for two months Dave, as administrator, received so many requests for more chips he set up a way for people to purchase more and continue playing. It wasn’t a gambling website, per se because no one ever received anything in return for their payments, except the right to continue playing with the chips they were given or purchased.

Dave had been running the site for over a year when his marriage went belly up and was making obscene amounts of money on it. When he found out about Tony nailing Sandy, he was about ready to resign from his job and devote his full time to the web site but wanted to complete the project he and Dean were working on first. Over the course of the past year he’d added other card games and even slot machines to his website. He was amazed at how much money people sent him to buy chips for the games, never winning anything other than more chips which they eventually lost.

He was glad now that the purchases all went directly into a bank account in the Cayman Islands. He was incorporated and only pulled a minimal salary from the company. As far as he knew, no one even knew he was the sole owner of the company. He knew Sandy thought he was just a contract programmer for them. Now he was glad he’d done it that way. She might be able to get part of his small salary from the web company but probably not. Since he’d quit his job with Tony’s company he actually made less than she did.

Sometime during the divorce proceedings, Sandy turned Dave in to the police as operating an on line casino. They investigated and called him in for questioning twice but since he was an employee and none of the players received anything for their money except chips to play more games with they found no reason to prosecute him. Her attempt to get him in trouble just angered him more though and he became more hard nosed about the divorce.

Finally, after seven months of wrangling, the divorce was final. Dave was ordered to provide minimal support to Sandy for three years based on the fact he was still employed when he filed the divorce. She graciously agreed to take a lump sum instead of monthly payments and Dave was a free man. He hated to stay in the town where his life went to hell and decided to leave.

Dave loaded all his belongings into his truck and a 14 foot trailer before driving down the road heading who knows where. One of his first stops was going to be a nice river where his grandfather and father used to take him fishing. They used to camp on a gravel bar, catch, clean and eat the fish right there. Damn, his mouth watered just from the memories.

Dave found the gravel bar and set up camp just in time to hit the stream for evening fishing. They were biting and he had a blast, quickly forgetting why he was there and began enjoying his time on the river. He camped, swam and fished for two days before he ran out of drinks and staples. Leaving the camp set up, he jumped into his truck and headed for the nearest town that had a grocery store. It was small, only about 850 people living there according to the sign, but they still had a little mom and pop grocery and a cafe where all the farmers hung out when they could get the time.

It was sort of sad to see the town when Dave drove through. He remembered it being much larger and busier when he was younger. Some of the fine older houses were empty and many of the smaller ones were empty and almost falling down. There were several for sale signs on the empty houses and he wondered how long they’d been on the market. Some of the yards didn’t look as if they had been mowed all year and probably not in the years before.

One of the nicest, largest houses in years gone by was completely hidden from the road by trees and brush that had grown up in the yard. All you could see was an occasional glint of metal from the roof when you looked through the tops of the trees. That house had been owned by one of the doctors that worked in the hospital (now closed) in town. At one time they had 40 beds and many times it was completely full of patients. Now, it was just another empty building on the main drag of town. So sad.

Dave was surprised when he found the local, small and privately owned, phone company still in business. They had old equipment years ago when his grandfather had a small cabin on the river nearby. He wondered about it now. Before purchasing groceries Dave decided to treat himself to a meal at the cafe. To his surprise, when he went inside he found the phone company had upgraded. They now provide internet and cable TV service via their lines.

After a very good burger Dave went back outside to his truck and got his computer. He quickly established himself at a quiet table and began working on his website, doing maintenance he’d been unable to do on the river using his phone as a hotspot. He received several curious looks over the afternoon while working but no one bothered him, except for the waitress asking if he needed anything. He completely caught up with his work.

When he closed his laptop the owner of the small cafe walked up and said, “We don’t see much of that here. I’ve been thinking about stopping my subscription to the internet since no one except a few kids use it. I’ve not seen you here before. If you don’t mind me asking, what were you doing so long? I heard you typing more than if you were just surfing the net. Are you new in town?”

“Naw, I don’t mind telling you. I’m camping on the river while I recover from a nasty divorce. My grandfather and I used to fish and camp near here when I was young and I loved it. I thought I’d see if it would help me relax. As for what I was doing, I operate a website and was doing some housekeeping on it that I couldn’t do as well using my phone as a hotspot. I hope you didn’t mind.”

“No, that’s fine. It’s why we installed the internet service. It was partly for me and the help but I hoped it would draw in some customers too. The phone company gave me the basic package on the video free to advertise if I would agree to pay for the ‘net so I jumped on it.

“So, how long are you going to be around?”

“Don’t know for sure. I guess until I get tired and want to move on. I have everything I own in my truck or trailer. I left my old home after the divorce and planned on just driving until I found someplace I wanted to stop. This was my first stop and I haven’t gotten tired of it yet.”

“Wow, foot loose and fancy free. Must be nice.”

“It is in a way but I’ve always wanted to find a place and work I loved and put down roots, find a good woman and raise a family. Struck out with that so far so I’m wandering again.”

“Well, good luck. I need to get back to the kitchen. Let me know if you need anything else.”

Dave watched the woman turn and walk back toward the kitchen. Just before she entered the kitchen he yelled, “Hey, if you don’t mind would you bring me a salad and another burger and fries? And what time does the grocery store close?”

“Sure honey. Coming right up. You might want to go to the store before you eat. They close at six and it’s five thirty now. You won’t be done with your supper before they close if you don’t. If you want, I can just wait a few minutes before I cook your supper and you can buy your groceries.”

Dave smiled and said, “Thanks. I’ll do that. Be right back,” as he stood and headed for the door.

Dave walked down the street about a block and entered the small grocery store. He quickly made his way down the aisles picking up items on his list such as canned soup, bread, chips and a few cans of vegetables. Then he made his way to the coolers where he picked up lettuce, cheese, lunch meat and even a couple of small steaks.

Like most small town stores, the prices were significantly higher than in the large cities but, not having business in a larger town, if he factored in the cost of fuel they were reasonable. He quickly paid for his purchases and made his way back to his truck where he placed the cold items in his cooler. He had an inverter on the truck so it would cool without ice. His small camping generator on the trailer kept the batteries charged so he could use it on the river as well as have some light at night and charge his computer and phone.

Dave walked into the cafe again and smiled when he saw his host carrying a salad toward the table he’d been using all day. She sat the salad, dressing and some crackers in front of his chair and said, “Here ya go. I put your burger on when I saw ya packing your groceries in the truck. Shouldn’t be long at all now.”

By the time Dave finished his meal there were a few other customers in the small cafe. Some alone and even a few couples and one family. When he paid, the woman thanked him for his business and said, “Hope ya come back again. It was nice having someone here during the afternoon. Gets kinda lonely here some days. If you’re here still, come Sunday, ya need to come have lunch with us. My special’s always fried chicken and all the fixings, ‘course we still have the regular menu items too.”

“You know, I just might do that. Thanks,” Dave said before he turned to leave.

Dave made his way back to town a few days later and made a bee line for the cafe first thing. When he walked inside, for some reason, he stopped and looked at the bulletin board on the wall beside the cash register. There was a list of properties for sale and one list on county letterhead of property going up for auction on the courthouse steps for back taxes. The sale would be the following Tuesday at ten in the morning.

Twyla, the owner of the cafe, saw him looking at the list and smiled before she greeted him, “Good to see ya back Dave. How’ve ya been?”

“Good Twyla. Needed some groceries and thought I’d pop in for another of your good burgers.”

“Good. Want it now or ya gonna wait awhile?”

“Wait I think”. He raised his computer case and continued, “I thought, if you didn’t mind, I’d work a while first.”

“Sure, can I get you anything right now?”

“Yeah, some unsweetened ice tea would be nice.”

When Twyla brought his tea she asked, “Saw ya looking at the bulletin board. Are ya looking for something or just looking?”

“Mostly just looking. I started looking at the auction flyers and then saw all the property for sale. I’m surprised at al the property being sold for back taxes. It looked like there’s three or four places here it down.”

“Yeah, there is. The same ones year after year, just once in a while a new one comes up. One of them’s old Doc Fisker’s place. Been on the list now for six years and no one has even bid on it. As far as anyone knows he didn’t have any family left when he died and no one wants the house enough to buy it. ‘Course that’s not surprising. There’s several places in town for sale and maybe one or two a year sell.”

“Where’s his house Twyla?”

“You drive by it when ya come into town. In fact, ya can sortta see the yard from here. See all them trees on the hillside there by the creek? Once in a while, ya can see the roof shine when the sun hits it just right.”

“Yeah, I see it. Looks like a pretty big house. I’m surprised no one wants it.”

“At one time, not only was it the largest house in town, it was the fanciest. Don’t know about it now. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s in pretty bad shape. Kids have probably broken in and done whatever inside. A couple of the other empty houses have actually burned down from them getting inside and smoking their dope and catching them on fire.”

Dave didn’t know why but he was intrigued by the large house hidden in the overgrowth of its yard. He was more relaxed and, surprisingly, happier in this small town than he’d been in months or even years. Every so often while the was working he found himself just sitting and thinking about the old house and tax sale.

Finally, Dave managed to get his mind off the old house and began working. About one in the afternoon he closed his computer and leaned back in his chair. Twyla saw him and yelled from the kitchen, “You ready for your lunch now Dave?”

“Yeah, thanks Twyla. I think another salad and burger but could I get onion rings with the burger today?”

“Sure. Be right out,” she said.

While he was waiting on his meal Dave made small talk with a couple of farmer’s who hadn’t left after their lunch. One of them said, “Been seeing ya around and about for a couple weeks now. You move nearby or something?”