Chapter 18: Marcy

Wednesday, March 1, 2023

“Are you close with your mom and dad?” I asked Gretel.

“About the same as anyone else, I guess,” she said, not taking her eyes off her work.

Gary had assigned me to work with Gretel. She was a talented journeyman plumber close to getting her master’s license. But Gretel only liked working with women, which meant it was me or Merry. Merry, however, was on worker’s comp due to an on-the-job injury, which left me and Gretel doing two-person jobs for the next several weeks.

“My moms keep giving me shit about getting back together with my ex,” I said. “I was supposed to talk to her a couple of weeks ago, but when I got to her place, it was clear she’s moved on.”

“Is this the girl who talked you into dating a dude and her at the same time?” Gretel asked.

“Yeah. Well ... I didn’t date him. It was complicated.”

“Hard pass. You did the right thing.”

I wasn’t sure I was looking for Gretel’s approval, but it was nice to have her on my side. We were in the basement of a small veterinarian’s office working on a new water heating system. Gretel had shown me how to install it more efficiently than the previous plumber had done.

“Life’s complicated enough without people fucking it up for you.”

“Right,” I said. “When we finish this job, is it okay if I bounce a little early? There’s a new girl I’m sorta seeing. It’s her birthday, and I want to surprise her for lunch.”

Gretel wiped her face and slipped her wrench back into her tool belt. “You can leave now. I’m pretty much done. Just meet me at the next site by two o’clock.”

I glanced at my watch. It was only 11:15 a.m. “Thanks! I owe you one.”

“Don’t forget it!” she called after me as I speed-walked to my truck.

We were in Robin’s part of town, so getting to her place only took me eight minutes. It was her twenty-fourth birthday, and she had plans with her husband to celebrate that night. She and I had agreed to have lunch together. I had one of the cute outfits she’d bought for me packed in a bag, which I would change into at her place, then back into my work clothes afterward. But getting to Robin’s place early would leave plenty of time for birthday sex.

I pulled to a stop outside Robin’s home and jogged up the driveway. She had told me enough times to let myself in without knocking or ringing her doorbell that I just let myself in through the unlocked front door. The house was quiet, and I briefly wondered if Robin was even home. What if she forgot and had gone out with friends or her husband?

I slipped off my work boots and went upstairs. I was already hard when I found Robin naked on her bed, earbuds in her ears, head bobbing to music I couldn’t hear. From her position and the wrinkled state of the sheets, Robin had been getting herself off. Maybe she’d been expecting me. After slipping off my pants, I put a hand over Robin’s mouth and slipped my cock right into Robin’s snatch from behind. Robin groaned into my hand. Her pussy was ridiculously drenched.

“Been getting yourself off without me?” I asked. Then I slapped Robin’s ass hard. Funnily enough, it was already pretty red.

I needed to cum badly. I pounded into Robin hard, keeping my hand firmly over Robin’s lips while using my other to slap her butt.

“What’s that noise?” a voice asked from the bathroom as a man appeared in the doorframe.

I cried out in shock and rolled off Robin, who saw me for the first time and gasped. I glanced down at my throbbing member and saw that it was coated in cum. Another man’s cum.

“Who the fuck?” I asked aloud as I turned away from the door and covered myself in one of Robin’s sheets.

“Josh is here!” Robin squeaked as soon as she regained her wind.

Under the sheet, I tweaked my right nipple and pulled my left earlobe. My cock rapidly shriveled into a clit while my scrotum divided back into twin labia. Josh sauntered from the bathroom, naked and flaccid. He was staring at my thinly veiled crotch.

“What the hell?” he stepped back. Then, he rubbed his eyes again as he stared at me. “I thought—I thought I saw—”

I knew what he was thinking. He thought he’d seen a cock. But I didn’t care what he thought anymore. I glared at Robin.

“You’re still fucking your stepson?” I spat as I threw the sheet off my body and got out of bed.

“Only on the days you can’t come over!” she exclaimed as though this made everything better.

“You’re doing it with chicks now?” Josh asked, staring at my nude cunt. “No way! Can we have a threesome?”

“Fuck you!” I shouted. “And fuck you, too, Robin!”

“No! Wait!” Robin said, rolling over. “Don’t go. Let’s talk.”

“I don’t want to talk to you. You said you weren’t seeing anyone else.”

“You said that, Robin?” Josh asked.

“I said no one new. I thought you were cool with Josh.”

“Then why has his name never come up?” I shouted.

I hated Robin at that moment. She was not the old soul Jade was, nor did she have my ex-girlfriend’s intelligence, but Robin did possess a unique layer of depth. An empathetic depth I’d been attracted to on another level. She had opened up to me, worrying about her marriage and how long it would last. She worried about her father, whose health grew poorer every year. She had several siblings who were struggling, and she tried to help them without her husband’s knowledge.

Robin couldn’t just throw money at everyone. Her husband’s wealth wasn’t limitless. And as her husband’s beard, there was only so much spending he was willing to tolerate before Robin became too expensive to keep. So, Robin had to be wise about what she could and couldn’t do, which made her family somewhat resentful. More than once, we had talked late into the night, with Robin crying about what to do while I listened or offered advice.

Robin froze. “I guess ... I guess I just wasn’t sure. And I didn’t want to cause problems? But I don’t want to stop seeing you, Marcy.”

“I’m done. Happy birthday.” I grabbed my belt and jeans and covered myself up as I left the room. Out in the hall, I quickly pulled on my clothes.

Robin pulled sheets around her body and tried to follow me, but she tripped over them and hit the floor. “Please don’t go.”

“Can I watch you two bang?” Josh asked. “I’ll just sit in the corner and jerk off.”

“Shut up, Josh!” Robin screamed. “You don’t get to see jack shit!”

I hurried down the main stairs and grabbed my boots. I didn’t even bother putting them on. Just before I left the house, Robin finally hobbled down the main stairs, clearly wincing from the pain of her fall.

“I’m returning all the clothes you bought me.” I pulled the one outfit I’d brought with me out of my bag and tossed it to the floor. “The rest I’ll leave on your porch.”

“I don’t want them. They’re yours.” Robin wiped her eyes, still coming down the stairs. She reached out to me. “Please talk to me. I want to make this right.”

“Don’t touch me!” I jerked my arm out of her reach and turned the door handle. “I don’t want your charity clothes! If I can’t bring them here, I’ll donate them or throw them away.”

I slammed the door behind me and walked in my socks to my truck. A spring snow had begun while I was inside the house, and by the time I reached my truck, my socks were soaked, and my feet nearly frozen.

Robin didn’t follow me out of the house. She couldn’t be seen chasing a woman down the driveway clad in only her bedsheet. Any neighbors who spotted her would have a pretty good idea of what was going on between us. Above all, Robin had to help her husband keep up appearances.

I got into my truck, slammed that door, too, and pulled away from the curb. A bitter laugh escaped me. My love life was a shitshow.

“Seriously,” I told myself in the mirror, “you need to swear off relationships of any kind.” It was time to play the field. Sleep with as many women as I could with my new cock. Maybe that would be the easiest way to find someone who didn’t want to cheat.

A little voice in my head said, Robin didn’t cheat on you. You cheated on Jade. I had cheated on Jade. I ignored that voice and kept driving.

“Robin cheated on me.” I said the words aloud, and I didn’t know why.

That same little voice came back. You and Robin never committed to having an exclusive sexual relationship. You slept with Jamie two weeks ago.

“Shut up!” I screamed. “Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!”

I drove faster to escape the voices. I was lucky not to get pulled over on returning to work, but I was almost two hours early. A part of me wanted to get a drink to wait, but nothing would be dumber than being drunk on a job. I’d get fired, lose my license, and have to start my career path all over again. Not to mention, Phoebe and Diane would be livid.

Instead, I stewed in my truck for two hours, waiting for Gretel to arrive. During that time, my phone buzzed several times, each with another text from Robin. I read each one as they appeared but did not respond.

Robin: I need to talk to u

Robin: Plz

Robin: Im so sorry

Robin: I dont wanna end this

Robin: I rlly care about u. U r the only thing keeping me sane.

Robin: I messed up. I shoulda talked to you b4 I fucked Josh. I shoulda set boundaries or something.

Robin: I am so so so so sorry. Plz dont ignore me. U r the best thing in my life and I cant lose u.

Robin: Im not saying this is love or whatever but I dont know and I def feel something.

Robin: Plz txt me or call me

I needed to talk to someone, but I didn’t know who. I was hungry, but I didn’t want to eat. I was furious but couldn’t sit in my truck screaming like a madwoman. And then a miracle happened. My phone buzzed again. It wasn’t Robin, which I had first assumed when I saw the text.

Jade: Can I come by and see you?

My heart stopped beating for several seconds. Or at least it felt that way because everything else stopped. My brain, my ears, my tongue, my lungs. They all stopped working.

Jade had texted me.

Jade wanted to come by my place and see me. Any thoughts of Robin were swept from my mind. How should I respond to Jade? A simple “yes”? Should I dig for more information before accepting? What if she just wanted to return something she’d borrowed or get something I still had but forgot about? I wasn’t sure if I could deal with a situation like that today.

After typing and deleting several responses, I finally settled on a simple answer.

Me: Sure. Is everything okay?

A few moments later, she texted me back.

Jade: Yes. Everything’s fine. Just wanted to talk and catch up. Is tonight okay?

Me: Yes, Everything is fine here too. What time do you want to come around?

Jade: After work? Maybe 10:30 if it’s not too late?

Me: See you then!

I waited in my truck, musing over this turn of events until Gretel arrived. She was speaking angrily to someone when she got out of her vehicle, and when she saw me, she quickly said into her phone, “I gotta go.”

I followed her inside, not daring to ask any questions.

We worked quietly for the first hour before she asked, “How was your lunch date?”

My mood soured slightly, and I said, “It was a bust. I think I’m done with her.”

“The rich bitch?” Gretel asked, grunting as she loosened a pipe. “The married one?”

“Yeah.” I had told Gretel about Robin over our last few days working together.

“You want to talk about it?”

“She had just finished fucking a guy before I arrived.” Again, I heard the voice in my brain telling me Robin had not cheated on me, but I ignored it. I was angry. I turned some of that anger toward Gretel. “Has Sofia ever cheated on you?”

Gretel’s expression changed subtly. She wasn’t the type to wear emotions on her sleeves, but I could tell I had touched a nerve. “No.”

I don’t know why I felt so emboldened to push the issue, but I did. Gretel intimidated me a little, but I was so full of emotion I didn’t care. This was the woman who had supervillain tattoos. How mean could Gretel be?

“Remember when we had dinner together that time last fall?” I began. “And Sofia said I made a pass at her in the bathroom?”

Gretel’s face tightened, and she began playing with her lip piercing. “Yeah.”

I swallowed hard. “It was Sofia who made the pass at me. And just a few weeks ago, she was hitting on a girl at the Umbrella. When I confronted her, she said she’d never cheat on you. She just liked to flirt.”

Gretel didn’t respond at first. She kept working on a loose valve. When she finally spoke, she said, “Pass me that wrench.”

I watched her work for several minutes before she finally addressed what I had told her.

“I’m not surprised to hear that about Sofia. I’ve caught her flirting several times. She likes the attention. Likes to feel wanted. But she’s never physically cheated on me.”

I wasn’t sure if that was true. Sofia had seemed very into Jamie at the Umbrella.

“Honestly,” Gretel said, “I’d be relieved if she did cheat.”

“What? Why?”

Gretel finished tightening the valve, dropped the wrench, and wiped her face. “Because then I’d have an excuse to dump her ass.”

I didn’t press my luck by asking more questions. I figured if Gretel wanted to tell me more, she could do so. We talked about other things for the rest of the shift. I was tired by the time I was done. We’d finished two big projects in one day. The boss and company owner, Gary, had gotten his money’s worth out of us.

I showered and shaved when I got home, wondering if things with Jade would even merit such attention, but I wanted to feel nice when she came over. I ate with Phoebe and Diane but did not tell them who would be stopping by later because I didn’t want to raise their hopes.

I worked out after dinner, then played video games on my couch. I got up and peered out the window every few minutes to see if Jade was coming up the driveway. Sure enough, at 10:31, I spotted her. Punctual as ever. I assumed she would let herself in as she always had for the last few years, but she did not. She texted me.

Jade: Here.

I went downstairs and opened the door. Jade stood at the bottom of the steps, eyes on her screen. She gave me a small, nervous smile when I invited her up. She wore her green snow coat, cute jeans, and a pink sweatband that lifted her curls and covered her ears.

“Hi!” she said brightly. “You look cute. Wow. Are those Guess jeans? When did you start buying those kinds of clothes?”

I just shrugged and went in front of her up the stairs, showing off my pair of expensive jeans and an overpriced white blouse. A pang of guilt plagued me because I’d threatened to throw these clothes away earlier in the day. It was one of the outfits Robin had purchased for me. But they were cute and pricey, and they looked great on me. Was it really so terrible to keep them?

I opened the bedroom door for Jade and let her enter first. As I was about to offer her a drink, I remembered my mothers had exorcized all alcohol from my apartment. I had nothing to offer my guests except...

“Want some water?”

“I’m fine, thanks,” Jade said in a kind but formal tone. I knew Jade well enough to know she would want water eventually, so I got her a glass from the kitchen, filled it up, and set it on the coffee table for her.

When we sat down, I gave her a more thorough examination. She looked thinner, not that she was ever chubby, but she’d been exercising. Her hips and thighs were slimmer, giving her more of the coltish legs she’d had when we first started dating. Her hair was longer. She hadn’t cut it in the last four months. And she had a certain look about her, which took me a moment to identify.