Chapter 6

When Darren got home Melissa was sprawled out on the couch, asleep. She was still wearing the dress she's had on when Darren left. Her panties were nowhere to be seen. As Darren looked at her, the first thing he noticed was that the area around her vagina was red and puffy. He went up the stairs quietly and packed a few personal items into an overnight bag. He sat at his desk for a few minutes and finally wrote her the note he'd told himself he'd write a few days before.

He went back down the stairs and left the folded note beside her. Except for having her legs spread out like some cheap whore, Darren was shocked that she was still so beautiful. Despite his anger at her and the way things were going between them, he loved her so much it was painful. He wished that there was some way for them to get past this. But now this was the end. She'd threatened several times to go out and fuck someone, she'd finally done it. There was no going back now.

The tears in his eyes spilled over and ran down his face. He gently kissed her one last time and left. As he pulled away from her some of his tears fell onto her face causing her to wake up. By the time she became conscious, he was gone. She was still too drunk to get up so she fell back asleep, thinking she'd dreamed that Darren had been there and crying.

Darren checked into a motel. He fell asleep on the hard and lumpy mattress in his room. He tossed and turned all night. He was conflicted. On one hand he loved Melissa so much, that it hurt him to know that she had just gone out and fucked some guy. There was simply no way he could get over that.

On the other hand, he had enjoyed kissing Jessica. It wasn't anything like the kisses he'd had with Melissa for the last ten years. Jessica put everything she had into kissing him. Her kisses seemed to tell him that she was giving herself to him totally. Kissing Melissa was like kissing someone over a wall. It was like there was always something between them keeping them from truly being together.

How could he love his wife, if he enjoyed kissing another woman more? It really didn't matter much though because as of tonight, he no longer had a wife.

The next morning Darren called in and told his secretary that he was taking a couple of days off to sort out some personal problems.

He called his attorney and got a copy of his divorce papers. There were two sets. One set listing adultery as the cause and the other, mental abuse and cruelty. Darren still hadn't decided how to file. Ryan told him that neither cause mattered. They were only after the best settlement and Darren's freedom.

Darren felt badly about trying to leave Melissa homeless defenseless and destitute. He wanted to give her at least enough money to survive on while she got her life back together.

Ryan assured him that they'd actually negotiate the settlement with Melissa and her attorneys. But if they started from an absolute scorched earth position, when they gave up a few breadcrumbs so Melissa and her attorney could save face, they'd still win.

Ryan also reminded him that Melissa had treated him like shit for over ten years so there was no reason for him to feel sorry for her. On some level she deserved it.

Melissa awoke feeling really sad and with a huge headache. She knew she shouldn't have drunk so much last night. The drinking was the reason for the headache. She couldn't put her finger on the reason for the profound sadness she felt.

Sure her marriage was on the rocks, but she was sure that it could be saved. She knew that she'd treated Darren badly but she was only trying to protect herself. The problem was that she'd realized over the last few days that her protection had failed.

She loved Darren deeply, but simply didn't understand how to tell him. She'd been locked in a pattern for so long that breaking it was hard. Would it be harder to lose him? She asked herself, that and about a hundred other questions as she sat on the couch.

She decided to take a shower and just take him to lunch so they could finally talk about their problems. Over the past day or so he'd stopped accepting her calls but if she just showed up there was no way he could avoid her.

As soon as she got to their bedroom, it all fell apart. She noticed that all of Darren's drawers were hanging open. His closet was also severely depleted. Many of his favorite business suits were gone. In the bathroom, she saw that his shaving kit and all of his toiletries were missing.

They were all still there when he left last night and she had never left the house. She tried to focus on what had happened. God damn it she would never drink again.

Right after Darren had left her, after telling her not to bring whoever she was fucking home, she had been so angry she'd started drinking. On some levels what Darren had said to her in his anger was funny. If only he knew how stupid he was.

The part about not letting the guy she was fucking into their house was hilarious. He was the only guy she was fucking. She had only been with two men in her entire life. That asshole Ryan back in college, the one who had fucked up her head so badly that it was still affecting her now. The second man was Darren himself. She'd let a couple of men at the club feel on her boobs outside of her clothing, but that was all. Anyone who even tried to touch her outside of her clothing below the waist was rebuffed. Darren was such a fool. She only started telling him all of that stuff about screwing some guy to keep him jealous and keep her in control.

Still, there was something funny going on. There was a voice in the back of her head telling her that she was in danger, or there was something she'd overlooked. As she looked at the couch she saw her panties dangling over the back, she'd taken them off after she started drinking. Then she'd been so horny that she had used her fingers and relieved herself. She'd been thinking of Darren licking her pussy and fucking her. She'd fallen asleep thinking that as soon as he came in, they were going to settle this once and for all.

That was when she'd remembered. Darren did come home last night. She remembered him kissing her and she vaguely remembered him crying about something.

Maybe he was crying for being stupid enough to believe that she was fucking somebody else.

Suddenly her phone rang and she staggered over to answer it. It was Helen and she was screaming at her.

"Helen, please stop yelling at me, I have a headache. You only live a few miles down the road. Why don't you just come over instead of screaming at me over the phone," she said.

Melissa went up the stairs and took a shower. She put on a pair of casual pants and a nice blouse. She didn't bother putting on any make-up because she was going to change clothes before she went to lunch with Darren.

She let Helen in when the doorbell rang.

"You look like hammered shit," said Helen.

"Thank you so much, Helen. That's why you're my best friend," snapped Melissa. "You always cheer me up."

"If I'm your best friend, why don't you ever listen to me instead of the sluts?" asked Helen. "I really hope you're proud of yourself. But let me ask you something, who are you going to find that's better?"

Melissa looked at Helen with a confused look on her face.

"I mean don't get me wrong, I'm happy for my sister. If you're stupid enough to do this, I hope things work out well for her and Darren. It's you I'm wondering about."

"Helen ... Whuh?"asked Melissa.

"Let me finish. You always listen to the sluts. This time I'd like to have my say," said Helen. "I know that I'm older than you guys are and chunkier, and probably not as pretty. But you guys will be where I am in a few years. When I was younger I was even wilder than you are. And I was married at the time. My husband George and I both experimented a bit. Usually drugs were involved."

Helen looked at the floor. "Melissa, I got high and let another man fuck me. George couldn't get over it. I thought we were going to get a divorce. A friend of ours convinced George that he should have sex with someone else to balance the scales. After he did, and he did it with one of my friends things still weren't the same. George said it was because he'd done it with my knowledge and consent, and in my case he hadn't had a choice."

"He slept with someone else, then I did. The next thing I knew we had what everyone called an open relationship. I felt more like a whore than anything else but I was stuck because the whole thing was my fault. I'd never wanted anyone other than George, it just happened while I was drunk and high. That's why I don't drink anymore, We ended up joining a swing club. I actually thought it would help us. Instead of us having affairs on the side, we went out together and had sex with other people and then came home together."

"George seemed to be happy. He was making his way through all of the women in the club at an alarming rate. And me, well, you know women can handle far more sex than men can. I was on the bottom in a threesome one night when I looked up and saw George watching me. I smiled at him and he asked me if I could get someone to take me home. He said he was tired."