I hit the post office on my way home from work and, as usual, my box was full of junk mail and bills. I leafed through them and dropped most of them in the trash can next to the table. Between the Visa statement and the Conoco bill was an enveloped addressed to me in the flowing handwriting I knew only too well. I'd been getting one a month for over a year. She had figured out that I was having my mail forwarded from the old address so she wrote and sent it there so it would be forwarded to me.

I met Pat at a wedding reception. A fellow I worked with got hitched and the entire office had been invited to the wedding. After the wedding everyone headed over to the VFW for the reception. I'd been there maybe an hour when this tall blonde walked in. She was an attention getter and she definitely got mine, but she was with someone so I put her out of my mind. Well, not completely out of my mind. The VFW hall wasn't all that big a place so she was almost always in view.

Maybe another hour went by and I noticed that she seemed to be getting more and more upset with the man she was with. It was just after the bride and groom had cut the cake and I had gotten up to go to the bathroom. On the way I had to pass by the table where the blonde was sitting. Just as I reached the table I heard her say, "Bastard!" As loud as she said it it almost sounded as if it were directed at me and I turned to her and said:

"I beg your pardon?"

She blushed and said, "Not you, it's this worthless lump that is my date. All he does is drink. I've been trying to get him out on the dance floor since we got her, but all he has done is drink and now the clod has passed out on me. I guess I deserve it though, it's what I get for agreeing to a blind date."

Relieved to find out that she didn't consider me a bastard I continued on to the bathroom and then went back to the table I was sharing with some co-workers.

The next time the band started playing I glanced over at her and saw her watching the dancers on the floor and tapping her toes. On a whim I got up, went over to her and asked her to dance. She said yes and that was the start of a whirlwind romance that saw us married three months later.

Patricia Ann was a computer whiz and she worked for a large corporation as a Systems Administrator. She tried to explain what she did to me, but I am one of the computer illiterate so it all went over my head. I know how to turn mine on and click on the icon that takes me to the Net and that is the extent of my computer savvy. I make my living as a heavy equipment mechanic and I do pretty well at it and it wasn't long before the two of us had saved up enough to put a down payment on a house.

We had a great marriage; at least I thought we did. I was crazy in love with her and she certainly seemed to feel that way about me. But in the sixth year of our marriage something changed. When it started I couldn't pinpoint with any degree of certainty and it could have been going on for quite a while before I noticed. Patty had always stopped with the girls from work one night a week and she was usually home by nine. I didn't notice when it slipped to nine-thirty and then ten and then ten-thirty and it was only later that I thought back to those nights.

Patty started working late a couple of nights a week, usually on Tuesday and Thursday. She explained it away as an unexpectedly large contract that had critical due dates. They weren't geared for such a large order and until management made some decisions about which way to go everyone was being asked to work overtime on shipping dates to get the orders out.

"Decisions?" I asked, "What kind of decisions?"

"They want to make sure the contract is long term before they invest in more equipment and hire more people."

"How long is this supposed to go on?"

"A couple of months maybe. I don't know for sure."

The couple of months had run to eight months before I started bitching about it and she always calmly responded with, "It shouldn't be that much longer baby. I know you don't like it and I don't either. I'm not all that fond of moving those shipping crates, but I promised to help."

And then one Wednesday night she called me and told me she had to work late that night also. "Ann was supposed to work tonight, but she was in an accident and is in the hospital so I have to cover for her."

The next morning over breakfast I asked, "How is Ann?"

Patty looked at me confused and then suddenly she said, "Ann, oh yes, Ann. She's not good. They have her in traction. Both legs and one hip are broken and she is going to be off work for a while. Poor girl is having a hell of a run of bad luck. She went on vacation with her boyfriend and before it was over he told her he had found someone else. On the trip home the airline lost her luggage and now this accident."

"So you are going to be working overtime on Wednesdays now too?

"Yes, and maybe even a Friday or two."

It was about then I started to wonder about some things. Up to that point her working overtime was an irritant and that's all I thought it was - just a stupid bunch of incompetent managers who couldn't get their heads out of their asses and solve the problem. The confusion on her face when I asked about Ann started it. It was like she'd told a lie, forgotten it and then had to hurry and cover it. And if that was the case was she lying about having to work late? It was then I thought about the Wednesday nights spent with the girls from work and how they had gotten later and later. What was a computer type doing moving crates on a loading dock?

That Sunday is when it all came together for me. I was doing routine maintenance on Patty's car. I'd changed the oil, added window washer fluid and then I decided to rotate the tires while I was at it. When I opened the trunk of the car to take out the spare I found two suitcases. Curious, I opened one and found it full of clothes. The other one was full of sexy lingerie, high heels and the like. Heels and lingerie that I had never seen before. I don't know who Patty was wearing them for, but it damned sure wasn't me. So much for Patty working overtime. There could only be one reason for several changes of clothes and all that sexy stuff being in her trunk and it sure wasn't work related.

I can be a little slow on the uptake at times, but I work real hard at not being stupid. I like to look at problems, roll them around in my mind, look at them from all angles and consider all my options before making up my mind on what to do. I finished the tire rotation, closed the trunk and went into the house determined to find out more before doing anything.

Because it was the holiday season and things were pretty busy I decided to put off following Pat and spying on her until after the first of the year. It turned out that I didn't have to wait that long. Patty's company Christmas party was on a Wednesday and she had been looking forward to it. At the last minute I had a job come up that was probably going to prevent me from going with her. She was upset (no, that isn't right - she was pissed!) and she was raising hell with me and I didn't help anything when I shouted back at her:

"Now you know how I feel when you are working your damned overtime."

I told her I would try and get done in time to at least make an appearance, but that didn't seem to mollify her at all.

The day of the party I worked my ass off to try and get done so I could make it to the party. The party started at seven and by hustling my ass off I was able to finish the job, get home, shower and change and get to the party by nine. I walked in the door and the first thing I saw was Patty locked in an embrace and french kissing some guy while people were stomping their feet, banging their fists on tables and shouting out, "Get a room you two" and "Take your affair to a motel." I turned and left without anyone even knowing I'd been there.

On my drive home I tried to make a list things that could have caused her to go looking, but for the life of me I couldn't see what it could have been. I treated her like a queen for God's sake. She wanted it, I did my best to get it for her. I helped around the house. I cooked at least three times a week and cleaned up after myself. I'd do a load of laundry in the evening while waiting for her to get home. I cleaned my den and the downstairs bathroom just off my den. All that in addition to taking care of the house, the yard and both cars.

I never forgot a birthday or an anniversary. I remembered the day we met and I gave her a card every year on that date; ditto on the anniversary of the day I proposed to her. I never even looked at other women. I did everything I could do to be the best husband she could possibly hope for so what went wrong? The only thing I could think of was the twenty pounds I'd put on over the last five years or so. Was that it? I was not physically attractive to her anymore?

Well, it didn't really matter. After what I'd seen we were through. Loving her as much as I did it still wasn't enough to make me share. And it wasn't enough to make me fight for her either. So what if I won her back from this guy, would I win her back from the next one? And the one after him? No, as much as it pained me to admit it, Patty and I were through.

I did make one decision. The twenty pounds had to go. I'd be trim and fit when I started dating again. I also decided no divorce. I would never marry again and Patty and I had managed to get along all right while she was playing with her lover so I'd keep the status quo and save the hassle and expense of a divorce. All I had to do was pretend that I didn't know about her and her lover.

She was in a mellow mood when she came home that night and she wanted to make love. It would have been unnatural for me to refuse her and besides I was curious to see if I could tell I was getting her lover's leftovers. Surprisingly enough she felt no different than she had on any of a hundred other times we'd had sex in the last year, but what the hell, all that told me was how long I'd been being the second man in. I did have to wonder though, was she trying to fuck me to death out of guilt, or was she getting a charge out of giving me her lover's leftovers?

Monday I joined a gym and sat down with a personal trainer and he mapped out a program for me. I hit the gym on the way to work on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and after a month I started running on the off days - Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday - and took Sunday off as a day of rest. My relationship with Patty remained unchanged. She still acted as if I was the one and only and I never let on that I knew better. She was still 'working late' at least two nights a week and I had stopped bitching about it.

By the time two months had gone by I was down eighteen pounds, had firmed up some and was feeling pretty good about myself. Marla and Sally, the two girls who worked in the office, had both commented on the change and Sally asked me what brought it about. I told her that I was trying to get in shape so I'd be more attractive when I started to chase the ladies.

"Oh? And what does Patty have to say about that?"

"We have an understanding."

"Ooooh, an open marriage?"

"Yep."

"Well stud, I'm ready if you are."

That caught me by surprise. I'd always flirted with Sally and Marla and they had flirted back. I'd never expected it to be anything but flirting, but from the sound of Sally's voice she was serious. What the hell, I said to myself, charge in there Jerry. Knowing that Patty was going to be working Thursday I said:

"You doing anything Thursday?"

"I guess I am now. What do you have in mind?"

"You pick."

"Okay, I'll think about it and have something when you pick me up. Dress casual."

"I'll be there at six-thirty, okay?"

Marla, who had been standing there listening, jumped in with, "Hey! I've got seniority here" and Sally laughed at her.

"You snooze, you lose sweetie. You will just have to wait your turn."

I showed up at Sally's at six-thirty and she came to the door in her bathrobe. "Did I get here too early?"

"No. I'm already dressed for our date" and she opened her bathrobe. She was naked except for nylons, high heels and a garter belt. "I thought we would have desert first, dinner later and then decide what we want to do."

She led me into the bedroom and then knelt in front of me and pulled my zipper down. She reached in through my fly and wrapped her fingers around my cock and slowly worked it out into the open. She leaned forward and licked the head and then looked up at me, smiled and said:

"It's a nice one baby, and I plan on having a lot of fun with it."

She licked the head and then the shaft from the tip to the base while she fondled my balls and then she drug her tongue along the underside until she was back to the tip and then she opened her mouth and took me in. It was one of life's better blow jobs and she had me close to coming in just minutes. I let her know that I was getting ready to cum and she took her mouth off of me long enough to say:

"Do it baby, I want it" and then she put her mouth back on me and I blew.

I pulled her up and pushed her back on the bed, pushed her legs apart and returned the favor. I worked a finger into her pussy and my mouth found and latched onto her clit and I worked on her until she put her hands on my chest and tried to push me away.

"In me baby, in me. I need your cock in me. Please hurry baby, please fuck me."

I got up on the bed with her, pushed her legs apart and slid my cock into her and she moaned, "Oh God that feels good" and her legs clamped my waist and she pushed her hips up at me and she started cumming.

We never did get to eat dinner that night and I was one very well fucked man when Sally walked me to the door, gave me a passionate kiss and asked me when we could do it again.

"Tuesdays and Thursdays are the only days I have I can play."

"I'll take them both."

I swung by work on the way home, used the shower in the locker room, changed into work clothes and then went down to Bill's Bar for a beer so I would have alcohol on my breath and then I went on home. Patty was still up when I got home.

"Where have you been?"

"Knowing that you wouldn't be here I decided to stop with the boys after work and shoot some pool."

"I hope you didn't drink too much that you can't rise to the occasion because I'm horny and I want your body."

I was hard put to perform, but I did manage to get the job done. I blamed the amount of time it took for me to get off on the booze. I'd have to watch that in the future. I'd forgotten that Patty always came home horny when she 'worked late' and I would have to make sure that I saved some for her.

For the next six weeks Sally and I went at it hot and heavy and then one night she said to me:

"It's Marla's turn now Jerry."

"I beg your pardon?"

"This is our last time. I'm going to let Marla have a turn now."

"I don't have a say in this?"

"Yes and no. You have a say in whether you and Marla play or not, but no say at all in that this is our last time together. You are a married man Jerry and I'm letting myself get in too deep with you. There is no winning percentage for me here sweetie so I'm cutting you loose. Be a good guy and let it happen. That way we can stay friends and I won't have to quit my job, okay?"

"You think Marla really wants a turn?"

"I know she does sweetie. All you have to do is ask. Then again, you may not have to. She knows I'm ending it and she might just ask you first."

And that is just what happened. Friday Marla came up to me and said:

"I hear you have Tuesday and Thursday free now. Can I have them?"

My first night with Marla was almost a repeat of my first night with Sally in that we never made it out of her apartment. There was a major difference between Marla and Sally in that Sally didn't like anal and Marla loved it and she let me know that right up front. In fact, she wanted it up the butt more than she wanted me in her pussy. Who was I to argue with the lady?

My affair with Marla lasted five weeks and then she broke it off for the same reason Sally did.

"I'm getting in too deep with you Jerry and that is not a good thing to do with a married man."

The way they both put it was that if I were single we could move on together. They were both fun girls and both were great in bed, but get divorced to be with either of them? Get serious! They were both having an affair with a married man. Why would I want girls that would do that? I already had one of those at home.

Over the next eight months I met, dated and bedded nine different women. None of the affairs lasted longer than a month, most going only two or three weeks, but I didn't want anything long term anyway. My home situation was unchanged. Patty still 'worked late' a couple of times a week, almost always Tuesday and Thursday so those were the nights that I played.