Part 2

Joyce woke up after the phone rang for its fourth cycle. The voice mail would pick up on the third ring. Whoever was calling at this early hour of the morning wanted to talk to someone badly. She couldn't figure out why Bill hadn't answered the phone. He should be up; he had to go to the airport soon.

She'd been having a wonderful dream about all of the things she was going to do to Bill when he got home. She couldn't believe that she'd gotten away with her fling with Matt. Bill had never found out. She'd had everything. A husband who could provide for her and keep her in the style she deserved. And a younger man who worshipped the ground she pissed on at the same time. Life was good, too good.

"Hello," she snapped into the phone.

"Joyce, ish me Matt. Ah'm not gonna be able tuh make it tuhday. Mebbe not any day," he slurred into the phone. Shit he sounded as if he was drunk. Why the hell would he be drunk this early in the morning?

Shit, she may as well get this over with. Joyce had decided yesterday to end things with Matt. There was no future for her with him. She loved Bill with all of her heart. The picnic yesterday had made her see that. Now that they were going to have another baby, she no longer needed the distraction that the man provided. That was all he'd ever been. Just some sort of midlife crisis fling. Maybe sometime in the future she'd have another one. As long as she was careful, Bill would never catch on.

"I luv oo, Joyce," he said. It sounded like he was crying.

"Are you crying Matt?" she asked. Oh great, she thought. Just what I need, this bastard is trying to make it harder for me to break up with him. That really pisses me off. Some people are too fucking stupid to know when things are over. They fuck things up and then think they can hold onto you forever and things will always just go on because they want them to. He needs to get his head out of his ass and move on, it's over.

"Joyce it hurts so bad," he whined.

"What hurts Matt?" she asked out of pure politeness. "Are you ill, did you hurt yourself?" Joyce was glad that her husband wasn't some whiny little bastard like this. What had she ever seen in Matt? He wasn't good looking. He wasn't in good shape. He wasn't smart or successful. He had no career goals and he still lived with his mother for Christ's sake. He was also horrible in bed. She'd only picked him because she knew that no one would ever suspect her of doing anything with him. And he was no threat to Bill in any way. She'd always thought she could train him to please her sexually, but she'd realized before things really got started that she loved her husband too much to cheat on him. The first time they got together, she'd only given Matt a blowjob. And the second time had been the last. The sex was awkward and unfulfilling.

Her plan for yesterday had been to spend the day teaching him how to make love to her the way she needed it. The way her husband did. Bill's dick was bigger but size wasn't everything and Matt was willing.

"Joyce, we're in trouble babe," he slurred. "I love you so much, but I can't take it. This isn't worth it. My mom is going to kill me."

"Matt," said Joyce calmly though she was disgusted that a man who was over thirty five years old was still afraid of his mother. "You know that love was never a part of our equation. You and I are only about sex."

"Joyce, stop lying," cried Matt. "I know you feel it too, when we're together. But it's still not worth it."

"What the fuck are you talking about you simpleton?" asked Joyce, losing her patience.

"I went to work this morning for the early shift at the supermarket. I figured I could pick up an extra ten by helping them to unload the trucks," said Matt. "I wanted that ten dollars to buy you a present, to show you how much I love you Joyce. But when I got to the store they sent me into the manager's office," said Matt sniffling.

"He told me that they have a policy against employees fraternizing with the customers; especially married customers and that they had to fire me to prevent a lawsuit. I lost my job Joyce. I've worked there since high-school and they fired me just like that." He started sniffling again.

"When I got on my bicycle to ride home, I started wondering whether or not someone had found out about us and was trying to make trouble for us. I had just ridden past the alley behind the store and was starting to peddle really fast, when out of nowhere a big teenager stepped out of the alley and slapped me so hard that I fell off my bike.

When I got up he was gone and so was my bike. I started walking home but before I got very far, two big guys jumped me. They beat me up, really bad. The whole time they were beating me they kept saying that I should have been smarter than to fuck around with a married woman. I woke up in the hospital and my mom was here. She told me to call you and tell you to stay away from me Joyce, but I'll always love you."

The phone clicked and Joyce didn't hear anything except the dial tone. She didn't know whether to laugh out of relief, or cry because she felt so bad about what had happened to poor Matt.

She was sure that Matt's mother was behind all of it. It was probably the woman's version of tough love. She'd found out that Joyce was married and decided to dissuade her son by having him fired, getting his bike stolen and getting his ass beat.

It was sort of an adult version of a child's punishment. Instead of making him quit the baseball team, she'd gotten him fired from the supermarket. Instead of taking his bike away, she'd had it stolen. And since he was too old for her to spank him, she'd gotten some thugs to beat his ass.

Maybe it was for the best. Since she was in love with the only man who really mattered, there was no room for Matt in her life anyway.

She decided to go and make breakfast. Maybe she'd drive Jessica to the airport herself. Jess wanted to prove that she was all grown up by taking a taxi, but they needed some bonding time. Joyce had felt a bit of tension between herself and her daughter at the picnic the previous day and wanted to resolve it. Until very recently they'd been a close family. But now something seemed to be driving them apart.

At least things were going better with Bill. Yesterday had been a perfect day. She'd done everything she could to remind him that she loved him with all of her heart after a couple of weeks of flirting with a full grown adolescent. She was sure he believed in her again.

Just as Joyce got to the kitchen, she noticed a big envelope on the kitchen table. Just as she started to open it she heard a car horn outside of the house. She looked through the window and saw a taxi waiting.

Joyce opened the envelope as she heard footsteps from upstairs. Jessica came down the stairs as Joyce read the note inside the envelope. "Push Play on the DVD player, then read page 2" was all it said.

Joyce pushed play then watched horrified, as her last liaison with Matt played out on the big-screen television in the living room.

Jessica walked past Joyce and said, "Goodbye, mother. I hope you enjoyed your last day with Daddy yesterday. He wanted it to be a perfect memory for you, but you'll never see him or hopefully me again."

Joyce looked back at the note from the envelope. She'd originally thought that Matt's mother had sent the envelope, but as she read further her worst fears were realized.

"Goodbye Joyce, I hope Matt was worth your husband, your marriage and your family. I loved you with all of my heart and was devastated when I found out about your betrayal. In a few minutes a man will come with divorce papers for you..."

Joyce cried out loud as she read that part, then she continued reading.

"The settlement needs to be signed as soon as you receive it. If you sign it, we'll have an uncontested divorce citing irreconcilable differences. My attorney will contact you to discuss custody of Jess for the six months before she turns 18. You will receive 25% of all of our assets including the house which I've put up for sale. You have only thirty days to find somewhere to live. I truly hope that Matt can make room for you in the basement. If you don't sign it, I'll destroy you. Your reputation in our town will be dragged so far through the mud that you won't be able to live here anymore.

The money is generous when you consider that we had a great life and you destroyed it for reasons that still mystify me. I have no wish to ever see you, hear from you or speak to you so I guess I'll never know why you did it. And truthfully it doesn't matter to me anyway.

Yesterday meant a lot to me and I was very conflicted. I thought long and hard about whether or not we could get through this. I guess in my mind I could probably get past the sex. I also have never stopped loving you Joyce and I do to this day.

But I could never forget what you did to us Joyce, and I could never trust you again. I couldn't go through the rest of our lives wondering every time you said you had a meeting to go to or went shopping, if you were meeting someone else. You did that to me many times didn't you Joyce. You'd say I have to go to a meeting, and you'd go out to be with Matt. Sure you didn't have sex with him until recently, but you still looked me in the eye, kissed me on the cheek and told me lies.

In the end, it wasn't a lack of love, or my inability to forgive you that doomed us Joyce, it was the lies. All of those Sweet Little Lies."

Joyce died inside after reading the letter. She'd never expected or wanted any of this. Her only reason for even beginning the affair had been boredom. All her life all she'd wanted to be was a wife and mother. When she met Bill in college her dreams had come true. The problem was that as she aged, it just seemed that life had passed her by.

The past few years had been especially bad. Her kids were nearly grown; actually Brian was a grown man and Jessica so close to it that it didn't matter. They no longer needed her. Bill had his career, and though he'd made choices that limited his travel for work so he'd be with his family most of the time, he was out of the house every week day as well.

When he was at work he even had that bitch, Claudia to look after him. That woman was so efficient that Joyce never needed to help Bill with anything even mildly related to work. After the first couple of years that Claudia had worked for Bill, Joyce had become so jealous of the woman that she'd stopped inviting her to any parties or social events they had. And the fact that she was younger and prettier didn't help.

One of the things that pissed Joyce off the most had been when she went to one of the dinners the company had held and heard someone asking if Bill and Claudia were married.

"They certainly look good together," someone said. "And they work well together and get along great too," someone else had thrown in.

Joyce started wondering whether or not her husband was having an affair with Claudia. From looking at the way the woman looked at Bill, Joyce was sure that given an opportunity, she'd leap at the chance to be with Bill.

Joyce had hired a private investigator to see what was going on. After 3 months and a ridiculous amount of money for services, including 24 hour shadowing of both Bill and Claudia. The firm had come to the conclusion that Bill and Claudia were simply friends and colleagues. There was absolutely nothing untoward going on between them.

Joyce didn't know whether to be glad or pissed. She'd wasted most of the money her dad had left her when he died finding out that her husband was faithful to her. What bothered Joyce the most about it was the fact that she'd known all along that Bill would never cheat on her. He loved her and their kids to much to jeopardize their family.

But sometimes she wondered why he loved her so much. Joyce was a smart woman most of the time and she knew that she wasn't what men typically dreamed about. Her breasts were average at best and small compared to rest of her body. Her ass was a bit big and her legs were so thick that she had to have her boots custom made. But Bill seemed to love those traits about her.

He was always whispering in her ears how he wanted her to wrap those thick legs around his waist and squeeze him while he fucked her. And fuck her he did, every chance he got. There was almost never a time when he wasn't after her. That is until about two weeks ago.

Joyce suddenly realized that she hadn't gotten away with shit. Bill had been on to her affair nearly from the beginning and she'd been too stupid to see it. She didn't know what to do. She heard a car door slamming from outside. She looked outside and saw the Taxi driver had just closed the trunk after loading her daughter's suitcases.

If anyone would know where Bill was going and how to reach him it would be Jessica. Jessica and her father had always been close. Bill loved his son, but he worshipped his daughter and the feeling was mutual. Maybe that was the reason that Jessica had been snipping at Joyce so much lately too. The girl had clearly known that Joyce was betraying her father and the cold shoulder and sarcastic comments were her way of trying to let Joyce know it.

"Jessica, wait," screamed Joyce, at her daughter who was just getting into the cab. Jessica turned and faced her mother and then simply held up one finger, the middle one on her right hand. Then she got into the cab and closed the door. The cab driver began to drive away with Joyce chasing the cab down her street wearing only her robe. She stepped on a sharp rock and cut her foot.

She limped back towards her house. She'd almost made it back to her driveway when she heard a shrill whistle from one of the other houses on the block. The creepy old man who lived across the street from them was whistling at her and waving. She was too upset to be embarrassed so she ignored him. She limped up to her front door and found that it had locked itself as it closed.

She was trapped outside nearly naked. She wanted to cry. Her whole world was falling apart around her. She sat down on the steps and tried to figure out what to do. She couldn't call Bill to come home and let her in. He was out of town on business. Suddenly she wondered if there was any business. Maybe he'd just left her. Maybe he hadn't left town at all, he'd just left his cheating wife.

She also couldn't call either one of her kids. Brian had flown back to school last night. Something was clear about that now as well. Brian had taken the time to kiss his sister goodbye at the airport even though she'd been asleep at the time. But he hadn't bothered to do the same thing for his mother. Her son probably knew what she'd done and was angry as well.

There was a tickling feeling in the back of Joyce's skull. As she looked down at herself, she realized that she was sitting with her legs apart. She saw a glint from inside the house across the street. She remembered that the old pervert over there the one who'd whistled before had a telescope in his living room. He was probably getting his jollies off right now, staring at her private parts.

She slammed her legs together and stood up. She had a thought. Maybe the door to the back of the house was open. She'd have to climb over her six foot privacy fence to get there though. Joyce pulled her robe closer around her. She reached up to grab the top of the fence and pull herself up. Her arms weren't strong enough to lift her weight. She pulled the big plastic trashcan over to the fence and tried to climb on top of it to help her get to the top of the fence.

She was almost tall enough. As soon as she shifted her weight though the top of the plastic can gave way. Joyce took the top off of the can and flipped it over. It was a few inches shorter but still close to giving her the height she needed. She lifted one of her legs up and got it over the top of the fence.

"Good God, look at that fat ass," she heard from behind her. Joyce turned her head and saw the old man sitting on the curb watching her through a video camera. She was too far along to turn back now.

She got her leg completely over the top of the fence and over to the other side. Then she dropped down heavily onto the ground back there. She stepped up onto her deck and grabbed the handle of her sliding patio door. She could see inside the house that the main door was open. As she tried to slide the screen door it wouldn't budge. Joyce tried to kick through the screen but her foot was already cut and she didn't want to damage her own property unless she absolutely had to.