Chapter 10

Melanie's View

It was getting near the end of my shift. Today was New Years Eve. I was still quite pissed at Rob. How could he do that to me? We have been married for over 16 years and he decides to have an affair. It has been fun putting Rob though all of that guilt. He makes it easy to use guilt as a weapon. It's actually been fun watching Rob squirm for the last month.

After completing the last of my rounds, I clocked out and headed toward the back door. I had to wait for a moment for Kim to get off work before I could leave. She was my ride home. I looked out the door and noticed Rob sitting in his car. This is just what I needed, Rob trying to sweet-talk me again.

I walked over to the car and got in.

"What are you doing here? Bored without your troll to play with?"

"No, I'm here to take my lovely wife out for breakfast this fine morning. I hope you're hungry."

"Oooo, like you care about her."

"More than life itself. But then you already knew that."

We went to a local restaurant for breakfast. It was nice to eat something after the long night of work. I was still giving Rob the cold shoulder all through breakfast. Once we arrived back home, I went to bed for the morning. It may be 7:30 am, but that was late when you work the overnight shift.

As I lay there trying to get to sleep, all I could think of was how nice it would feel to have Rob in here to cuddle. I miss having his arms wrapped around me in a loving embrace. I wanted to hear the beating of his heart as I lay my head on his chest, feel the warmth of his lips as he kissed me from head to foot. God do I miss him. But he has to be punished. He hurt me.

I spent my New Year working. Holidays always seem to make us busy at work. I returned home at my usual time to find Rob setting the table.

"Happy New Year honey. Come have some breakfast."

I decided to punish the guy just a bit more.

"No thanks Rob. I don't feel like breakfast this morning."

I really was quite hungry. I just couldn't resist making him twist in the wind just a bit longer.

I turned and went toward the bedroom to get some sleep. I stopped and turned toward Rob and noticed that he had sat down. He had his head in his hands. It appeared the he was starting to cry. That made me feel good.

The next two weeks went pretty quickly. Rob was around more because school was still out. That meant that he was spending more time with the kids. He was also still trying to win me over, but I was still making him squirm quite a bit.

Jen was back to work, so I also was starting to work the afternoon shift every couple weeks. It was nice to be able to sleep at night for a change. It would have been better if Rob was here cuddling me at the same time.

The third week of January meant that Rob was back to school again. That would keep him too busy to bother me. I was really starting to feel lonely. I wanted Rob's arms around me so much. It was getting more difficult everyday going to bed without him. Even Christy started to notice the change in me. It was our normal Tuesday lunch when she said something about it.

"Are you doing Ok Mel? You seem distant today."

"I've been feeling lonely is all. I want Rob to hold me so bad, but yet I feel he still needs to be punished."

"You better be careful Mel. If you keep the punishment going too long, you may chase him away. You want him to feel bad, not hopeless."

"I know. It's just that every time I think of him with that little troll, it makes my blood boil."

"Yeah that's true. At some point though, you're going to have to either cut him loose or forgive him. Stringing him out will only serve to alienate him enough that he'll leave angry. Then you will have lost him forever."

"I know Christy. It's hard for me. I'll work on it."

"You better or you'll really be alone."

We both went home after lunch. I still had so much to think about. I really wanted my life back. It just felt like it was lost cause. I still didn't know how Rob could do this to me.

The next few weeks went quickly. Before I knew it, February was upon us. I was back to my normal Friday and Saturday's off. The date was Friday February 12th to be exact. I still had Rob dangling by a string and I was starting to enjoy it much less than I had been. I was in the living room relaxing when there was a knock at the door.

I got up and went to answer the door. Opening it, I said "Hello."

I was totally unprepared to see the person at the door. It was Julie. She looked like she had been crying. Needless to say, I was not happy to see her.

I asked very rudely, "What the hell do you want?"

She had to wipe back a few tears before she answered.

"Is Rob here?"

"No, he's at work. What do you want? You trying to steal him away again?" I was getting angry just thinking about it.

"I need to talk to him Melanie."

"I don't think so you little troll. You already tried to steal him once. Wasn't that enough?"

"Never mind Mel. I knew this was a mistake." She turned to leave and upon taking a step, she collapsed to the sidewalk bawling like a baby.

I just stood there staring at her for a minute watching her cry. At first it felt good, but the longer it went on I started to feel bad. I stepped outside and sat down beside her. I figured that I would be nice for a bit. If she needed someone to talk to, I figured that it was better me than Rob.

"What's wrong Julie?"

"Everything. My life is a total mess. Everyone hates me."

"What are you talking about?" I put my arm around her to hold her a bit. This seemed to have settled her a bit.

"My Mom decided to surprise me. My roommate had let her in to our room to wait for me to return. I got back from my class and had my jacket off when I noticed her there. She started to talk to me until she noticed my condition. She started yelling at me, telling me how ungrateful I was and that I was a slut."

"Didn't you tell your parents over the Christmas break?"

"No. I was able to hide it then. I've put on so much weight since then that I'm no longer able to."

"Why didn't you?"

"I knew how she would react. I knew she would be pissed. I figured that since I was giving Rob the baby, that she didn't need to know. I figured that I would stay around here for an extra few months, have the baby, then go home with nobody back home needing to know."

"Let's go inside where it's warmer and talk Julie. I get the feeling that you have quite a bit more."

"Thanks Mel."

I helped her up and inside. I took her to the dining room.

"Would you like something to drink Julie?"

"Diet Pepsi will be fine."

I went to the fridge and retrieved 2 Diet Pepsi's and returned. I handed Julie a bottle and opened one for myself.

"Thanks Mel. I needed this."

"Julie, why did you come here? What about your friends at the college?"

"Jessica had helped me seduce Rob. I failed to tell her that Rob was married and had kids. She was pissed when Rob told her later when he came back to finish repairing the faucet. When she saw me the next day, we had a big fight. She told all of our friends and now none of them will talk to me."

"What did you expect from them? A medal?"

"No, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised."

"What did she help you with anyway? The way Rob tells it, she couldn't have planned much."

"Well, it was her idea to slip Rob a few Viagra pills without him knowing."

I had to do a double take with this. I didn't expect to hear this.

"You did what?"

"We slipped him some pills to make sure that he would be sporting a good hard-on. We wanted him to be thinking with the little head more than the big head."

I was so angry I slapped her. It must have caught her totally off guard. It knocked her off the chair. This caused her to start crying again.

I yelled at her. "How could you do that to me? To my kids? Do you have any idea what this has done to our life?

"I'm sorry, I only wanted to get laid. I didn't want any strings attached. Instead it just ruined my life and left me pregnant." She was back to her bawling again.

I just sat there staring at her. I wanted to laugh at her, but after my life before Rob, I knew how she felt. As I thought about the Viagra, I realized that Rob did have a bit of help in losing control of himself. I helped her up and led her to the living room where we sat on the sofa. I put my arm around her to hold her close. I could tell that this was relaxing her. She had stopped crying.

"Julie, why did you choose Rob? I mean there must have been many others at the college who would have gladly taken you."

"I didn't want them. They were pigs. Rob was always a perfect gentleman. At the same time, since he was married, I figured that there would be no strings attached. If he tried to demand more, I could blackmail him by telling his wife and he would leave me alone. I didn't expect Rob to have a conscience or be so nice. I also didn't count on getting pregnant."

"You chose him because he was nice to you? I feel like I should slap you again..." I raised my hand to slap her again.

Julie started to cry again, "I'm sorry Mel, I should never have done it. I fucked up big on this one. I hurt everyone I knew, pissed off every one of my friends and even my parents disowned me." Again she fell to the floor crying.

I felt a bit of compassion for this crying child. I had done a good job messing my life up before Rob came along. I don't know why but I started to feel bad for her.

"It's Ok Julie. We all have skeletons in our past. When I met Rob, I already had an 18 month old daughter. My prior boyfriend got me drunk so he could have his way with me. He abandoned me after he found out that I was pregnant. My mother found out much the way your mother did. I'm afraid that she didn't react any better."

"Really?"

"Yeah. My life before Rob was horrible. My parents both abused me. My boyfriends only went out with me because they thought I was easy. Of course it helped that I was. We all do stupid things when we are young. It will get better."