"I've got a date," she said.

"A date? Where are we going?" I said.

"Not we honey, just me. Don't wait up," she said.

"Huh? What? What are you talking about?" I said. She put on her most exasperated look, and leaned back against her vanity. I must have looked the total wimp to her as she prepared to unload on me.

"I'm going on a date. I have a date with a man. He will buy me drinks and dinner and maybe take me dancing. After that he will get us a hotel room and do me. Then, I will come home to you, and you will get to have me if you want; I mean if you don't mind sloppy seconds. Actually, the fact is you don't mind them, and I know that for a fact," she said.

"What? Know what for a fact?" I said.

"Mike, you've been getting them for the past four years. The only reason I am up and telling you now is because it has been a pain in the ass trying to keep my little secret. But, don't be concerned. It'll be all right. None of my little flings are a threat to you, none of them. And none of the men I've let do me are anywhere near as good husband material as you are," she said.

"Then why..."

"Well Mike," there was that exasperated tone again, "they have one edge on you. Bedroom skills and in most cases dick size. I don't want to hurt or upset you, but you are kinda lacking in those areas. And, those areas are important to a woman. Not as important as the things you do for me, but important. So, anyway, now you know. I really hope you'll be able to get your head around the fact that it will make no difference between us, nor will it in anyway lessen the sex or the lovin' you'll be getting from me as you always have," she said. "So, tonight, just relax, and get some sleep. Tomorrow we'll talk if you want. But, I have to go, or I'm going to be late," she said. She was on me in a trice planting a kiss on my cheek as she ran out; I wiped it off with the back of my hand; I don't think she saw me do it.

I stood there stunned, as I heard her car fire up. There would be no talking to her tomorrow, or likely any time. Maybe in court, but nowhere else.

I got my old navy trunk out of the attic and cleaned it up. It would hold most of the stuff I would need for the foreseeable future. I was gone an hour after she was.

I didn't know what she expected, but me putting up with her ultimatums was not gonna happen.

I guess now would be the time to introduce us. I'm Mike Covington, my wife Lily Covington, nee Martin and I have been married for the past six years. She's thirty-one, and I'm thirty-three.

Lily is a doll: Five eight, one-twenty, flowing tawny locks, 34Bs, and legs that seem meant for the Rockettes. Oh, and she's quite evidently a whore and an arrogant one.

Me, to carry out the thought: five-nine, one-forty, still have eighty percent of my black hair, and a pretty good build except for a slight paunch that I am fighting tooth and nail.

I hefted the trunk and the two small tube bags into the back of my pickup, and headed out. I didn't have a clue where I was headed, but it was going to be away from her. Six years, six years we'd been married and for four of them I'd been a cuckold, an unknowing one, but a cuckold nonetheless. I wondered how many others knew. Likely all of her friends knew. Lily was nothing if not a status bitch. With her it was never a matter of keeping up with the Jones. No indeed, with her it was a matter of her wondering why the Jones were taking so long to catch up with her.

I Pulled into to the Starlight Motor Lodge; well, it had the virtue of being in the right place at the right time: it was across the street from where I was filling up with gas. And, there was a bar next to the gas station that I was doing my filling up at, The Lamplighter Lounge.

Ten minutes after deciding to spend at least the night at the motel, I was registered and sacked out on the lumpy bed.

"You want me to go in with you. You know in case he tries to be macho with you?" said the tall black man as he helped her out of the car. It was 3:00AM. She laughed.

"My Michael get rough with me? That'll be the day," she said. "Anyway, Lester, no I don't need any protection, in fact the only thing I don't want to have happen is for him see you with me. I kinda rubbed his nose in it this evening. Thinking about it now, that was a mistake; I know I hurt him. I didn't need to do that. I really didn't need to do that. Anyway, I'm probably going to have to eat a little crow in the morning for that little faux pas. But, there's no danger, not from Mikey Covington; he's a teddy bear."

"Okay, Lil, if you say so. We still on for Friday night?" said Lester Boyer. She smiled at him. Kissed him lightly on the lips, and headed inside as he drove off.

It was a quarter past three in the morning and my damn phone was ringing. It had taken me two hours according to my cell to get to sleep and now I was being rudely awakened from that delicious state. Then, it hit me. It had to be her. I answered it.

"Hello?" I said.

"Where are you Michael? I'm worried about you," she said.

"Well, if it isn't my used to be wife. I'm shacked up at a motel. I'll be looking for a better place tomorrow, but as for that; it's no longer any of your business," I said. Your relationship with me ended at 6:40 this evening—oh wait—I mean yesterday evening now I guess. I'll be seeing a lawyer in the morning. You might wanna get one of your own at some point."

"Michael! Shut the fuck up about lawyers and all of that. We're not divorcing, and you're coming home right now. Am I understood?" she said.

"Oh you're understood right enough, lady, but you are not gonna be obeyed. I'll miss what we had. Well, I'll miss what I thought, what I imagined, we had. I won't miss being married to the village whore. That's for damn sure," I said.

"Mikey, why are you being so cruel?"

"Look, Lily I'm tired as I'm sure you are; I mean fucking has to be tiring when you do it as much as I'm sure you've been doing it. Right? I'm going to bed. You get some sleep too. Yuh hear?" I hung up on her. She didn't call back. It turned out she didn't have to. She was knocking on my motel room door at 7:35AM.

I couldn't believe it. Less than four hours and she'd found me. "What are you doing here, Lily, and how did you find me?" I said.

"I'm here to talk and to take you home. And as for how did I find you, the guy I was out with last night is a cop. He has resources," she said.

"Figures," I said. "Look, Lily, we're done. After the way you talked to me and treated me last night, not to mention the fact that you have been making me a laughing stock and a cuckold for the past several years; well, surely you can't imagine that I would lower myself to stay with you. No chance," I said, "none."

She was past me before I could stop her. She took a seat on the bed, and waited for me to shut the door. Well, I supposed that's what she was waiting for. I did, I shut it.

"Mikey, I am very sorry for the way I treated you last night. After I had a chance to think about it, I realized that I had been unnecessarily cruel saying the things I did. I am here to eat a truck load of crow for those words and I mean it," she said.

"Too little too late, Lily. You can't unsay those words any more than I can unhear them. You telling me I was no good in bed was something I will never forget—never! No, there is nothing left for us now. Nothing," I said. She went pensive for a moment. Then she rolled out what I'm sure she thought were her big guns.

"Okay, Mikey, how about this. I give up the men, and we start over, start fresh," she said. She'd stopped me momentarily with that one.

"And why in the world would I, could I, believe anything you say?" I said. "No, let me answer my own question. There is no possible way."

"Mikey, Mikey, Mikey you know you can't live without me. And, in case you're interested I can't live without you. Yes, it's true you aren't much in the sack; but, you're not disgusting. I can deal with your inadequacies," she said.

"Fuck! I said. "You just can't stop killing me with your words can you, Lily. Well, fuck you! Now get out. I'm going back to bed." I went back to the door, opened it and waited for her to get the fuck out, so I could cry myself back to sleep.

She started to laugh. "Just kidding, just kidding. I didn't mean it. The fact is Mikey, I like it when you make love to me. It is so cute when try to please me. You get so desperate sometimes trying to get me off. That's why I never deny you sex: because you amuse me."

"Fuck! Are you nuts! Amuse you! Like I said, get the fuck out. Oh wait, where's my manners? Please! get the fuck out! Okay?" I said.

"No, it's not okay, Mikey I need you; I need you for what you do for me. I'm not going anywhere until you agree to come home. Come on now, come home and make love to me. No, I mean let me make love to you, make it up to you. I was a shit last night. And, I shouldn't have been kidding you just now either. I guess I really didn't realize how much I dented your ego," she said. "Mikey, really, I'm sorry about that. Honestly.

"Really, all of those macho big guys, with their king sized dicks, touch me in places you just can't. But, that said, none of them amuse me. None of them make me feel safe and loved. And, you're as good as any of them with your mouth, especially when you lick my anus. God! how I do love that."

I was staring at her. "Amuse you? Desperately 'try' to please you? Your anus! Jesus, will you please get the fuck out of here! Get out!" I said. She sighed

"Okay, Mikey, I can wait I guess. I mean if I have to. I'll be there, when the bruises to your ego fade a little, and you're ready to ask my forgiveness and come back to where you belong," she said. "Oh, and please don't forget to pay the bills this month. We won't be divorcing; I won't stand for that. But, the house payments are going to still be going on and the rest. So just do that part of your duty until you're ready to come back and take your place between my legs," she said.

"Hmm, so that's it. It's my money. That's why you're waking me up at 7:30 in the morning. Wanna make sure old Mikey is still signing the checks," I said. I think I sneered.

"Of course it is, Mikey, that and the other things I mentioned. Look, I sorry about what I said about your dick. I'm going to be doing my best to prove to you that you are more than enough for me, believe me. Well, I mean as soon as you come home. I mean it, Mikey," she said.

"Anyway, you know my cell. Call me anytime day or night. I'll even interrupt my date to come get you if you happen to call when I'm on one. Though I really would appreciate it if you could see your way clear not to do that," she said.

"So much for you giving up the men and starting over, starting fresh, huh," I said. She bit her tongue.

"I did promise that didn't I. Well, okay. If that's what it's going to take, then I will honor my words. Is that okay?" she said.

"Doesn't matter, Lily. I knew you were lying when you said it the first time, and I know that you're lying now. Oh, you might cut back for a little while and try to rebuild my self-esteem—talk about the impossible dream—but it won't last. You'll just be more careful—sneakier.

"Mikey..."

"Shut the fuck up, Lily. And, since now I know how little you think of me, I won't be getting in your way. Go fuck the whole neighborhood. Just stay the fuck away from me.

"Oh, and again, you better get a job," I said. Now she had a concerned look.

"Okay, Mikey. Okay. I'm going. But, I will be waiting for your call. And please, don't think about it as giving in. Just call me when you mellow out a bit. Think of it as granting me a little mercy. Okay. I really need you to come home. Not just to pay the bills either. I need you for you. I mean it." I tendered her a sardonic wave as she moseyed out. I shut the door unnecessarily loudly.

Showered and cleaned up, I sneered at my reflection in the mirror. So that was it, I thought. It wasn't my loving self she wanted back, nor even my amusing bedroom skills, nor my desperate attempts to please her. No indeed, it was my twenty grand a month income that she was worried about missing out on. Well, she'd erred big time. I sat down at my laptop and began making some transfers. I hit the send key. She really should have waited until after the banks opened to mess with my head.

I cleaned out everything. Working at Central Banking Inc. enabled me to do some pretty remarkable things very fast and very permanent. I did leave five hundred in the checking account for her, and I had a reason for leaving even that. Crawl to her would I—the hell you say! She was going to be crawling to me. With my tech skills I could work anywhere and make really good bucks. She was a housewife; she made nothing. I know she figured, that I'd either do as she said and pay, or the courts would make me pay. But, she was oh so wrong.

I called my boss, Heinz Muller and quit over the phone. I was now technically jobless. He did ask me to come in and talk about it, that he had an idea. I told him I would, but not until around 2:00PM.

I had lunch at the Roundhouse. I ate alone. But, that was all right. I was ruminating about what she was thinking right then. She had to be at least mildly concerned by the fact that I hadn't succumbed to her charms; that, since I always had before. But, before, I had been laboring under the illusion that she loved me. That particular illusion was now gone and there was nothing left for me except to stick it to her every which way. And that was something that I fully intended to do. I headed over to the bank for my meeting with the boss.

Heinz was a good guy and had been my friend as well as my boss for more than ten years. We'd gone to college together. He majored in Business, me in techno.

He waited for me to get comfortable.

"Mike, I want to make you a proposition. Would that be all right?" he said.

"I can't stay, Heinz. I want to..."

"Just hear me out, Mike. I think I can maybe help the both of us here.

"You're going to be divorcing her, right?" he said.

"Not sure. I do not want the courts to be handing her my ass. But, one day, after all of the dust has settled, yeah maybe," I said. He nodded.

"This bank has an operation in Trinidad Tabago. They need a techie with the kind of skills you happen to have," he said.

"Heinz, I don't want to move to the islands..."

"You won't have to. Most of what you'll be doing will be on the computer. You will likely have to make the occasional trip there, maybe once a quarter. But, apart from that, you wouldn't even have to leave you apartment or house or whatever unless you wanted to," he said. Now he had my attention.

"My checks—I mean..."

"She'll never have a clue," he said. I smiled.

"Okay," I said. "Sounds just like something I can get my head around."

We talked a little longer. Made plans for my unofficial transfer. Shook hands, and I left.

It took her two days to realize that she was out of funds. I'd needed that much time to do the things I needed to do; that's why I'd left five hundred in the account for her. But, now I got another visit. At my new place of residence! Her damn cop friend was really putting it to me. I'd have to consider that. I didn't want to get arrested by him once the courts came down on me; that would not be good.

She swept by me once again as soon as I opened the door. "Listen, jackass, this isn't working out. I need to pay the bills, but you've taken all of the money. Whaddya trying to do, starve me out?" she said.

"You dumped me," I said. "I no longer see you as my responsibility."

"First of all, I did not dump you, actually quite the opposite. I told you I did not want a divorce and more would not tolerate one. I did tell you the truth about my sexual activities, but only because I didn't want to be sneaking around on you anymore. Got it!" she said. "I'm beginning to realize that that was a big ass mistake."

"Oh, that's nice. Real nice. Just keep sneaking around, right. You know, you really are a trip and a half. I don't know how you live with yourself. Treating me like shit, lying to me, holding me in contempt, making me the unknowing laughing stock of our little village. Yeah, real nice," I said. "But, to answer your question; yeah, I got it.

"Oh, I got it all right. And, actually you're right. I misspoke. You didn't dump me. You dumped on me! Bad enough, Lily, to drive me away," I said. "Do you have even the slightest idea how bad you hurt me, and how bad I'm still hurting? Do you!" I said. She seemed to deflate. She looked around.

"I do now," she said. "Frankly, I didn't realize it before. Not even the other day when I woke you up. I just saw you as behaving like a little kid whose bike just got stolen or something. I was going to—and I still am—make it up to you. And, I mean in lots of ways, not just in bed. But, that said, for me to do that you have to give me a chance so that I can.

"I see you're packing. Moving again?" she said.

"Yes, these digs are too small. But, actually, Lily, it's no longer any of your damn business," I said.

"You know I could get the courts to force you to pay up," she said.

"Maybe, but you won't get much. I am no longer employed," I lied. Her eyes shot open.

"What! How? What!" she said,

"You really don't seem to get it, Lily. You say you do now, but I doubt it. You destroyed me the other evening, and again at the motel. Destroyed me! I'm not sitting still for it, Lily. Not even. I might not be worth a damn as a lover. And, clearly my dick isn't up to your standards, not much I can do about that. Though maybe I can still learn to be a better lover, even with my miniature equipment," I said. She began to look worried. I was finally making a serious dent in her arrogant consciousness. "Oh, and yes, I am not employed, and I have no intention of paying your bills. Get your cop lover to take care of you, Lily. I'm done."

"Mike, please, I'm broke, and hungry. Okay!" she said. "You took everything. And a bunch of bills are due. We'll lose the house and the cars and everything. You gotta come home. I need you. Please." And just like that the initiative passed to me.

I had no illusions that she might not find some other way to get what she wanted, I mean sexually, but for the immediate future I was the Alpha and the Omega.

"You never did give a damn about me, I mean except for the standard of living I've provided for you, have you Lily. I mean really, it's truth time," I said.

She looked up at me with cow eyes. "Mike that's not true. And—again—I am so damn sorry that I said those things to you, treated you so badly the other night; and yes, again at the motel. I'll do anything you say. Pay any penance if you will just come home and take care of me again like you always have. I don't need those other men. None of them mean shit, really! It was never more than just the sex. They're all a collection of losers when one gets down to it. They, none of them, can hold a candle to you in any meaningful way."

"What about the cop?" I said. "You know, the one with the resources."

"What? Him? He's just a guy. He's okay, but he's history," she said. "As of now they're all history." I smiled. She was the desperate one now; that was clear. I guess I did seem desperate when I screwed her; I did so want to please her, but now it was her turn.

"I have a question, Lily. Why did you lay it on me like that the other night? Was it really just so you didn't have to be sneaking around anymore? Are you so selfish that your convenience is more important than my heart, my feelings, my feelings of self-worth? Because you broke my heart, Lily; and, I have never felt as bad as I did while you said all of those things to me." She looked down. I think she was truly beginning to realize just how destructive her words had actually been.

"Oh Mikey, I guess I really am, was, just plain selfish but not anymore. The fact is I did say all of those things just to make my liaisons more convenient for me. And before you ask, yes, I really did think you'd be all right with me stepping out. Oh, I knew your nose would be out of joint for a little while; but, I had a plan. I was planning to give you twice as much attention as I ever did to make it right with you. You know, so you'd finally realize that my playing around some on the side was actually going to be a good deal for you too. Anyway, that was my plan," she said.

"Twice as much as before? You mean twice as much as our once a week, usually a Sunday night, quickie?" I said. "Twice as much as that? Hoopdeedoo!" She looked down. She was starting to cry. A woman crying, no matter what any of those macho assholes say, is damn hard to ignore. But, I was going to be strong. I had the germ of an idea. It'd kinda come to me over the past couple of days as I'd sat and moped.

I started pacing back and forth as though lost in thought, pondering. "This is the deal Lily. "I'll give you the money to pay the bills. I'll also give you another five-hundred a month for your personal needs: gas for the car and stuff like that. But, there is a price," I said.

She leaped up and hugged me before I could stop her. "Oh thank you-thank you-thank you, honey. You won't be sorry. And, there will be no more men. I promise." I unwound myself from her grasp.

"I said that there is a price," I said. She looked me askance.

"Anything, honey, anything!"

"Okay, good," I said. "Sit down." She did as I told her. "You will not be giving me twice as much sex as you used to. You'll be giving me sex whenever I want it, and wherever I want it. No headaches, no states of exhaustion, no it's my periods, none of it: is that clear?"

"Yes, yes, it's very clear. But, can we go home now? Can we start over beginning today?" she said.

"No. I will not be going home with you. I'm not ready to just forget about everything, not yet. The way it's going to be is this. You will never be without your cell. You will answer it when I call. You will come when I call; you will come at that moment, not later. Not after you finish with your lover, not after you shower. You will come immediately. Clear?" I said.

"But-but, I told you, there will be no lovers," she said.

"Hmm, maybe, maybe not, we'll just have to see about that," I said. I didn't actually voice my distrust of my woman's promise, but I'm pretty sure she got the message.

"I will put the money in the account and you'll be able to draw on it right away with your ATM card," I said.

"Thank you honey, thank you. You're wonderful," she said. "But, couldn't you just come home. You know, and let me start giving you ten times as much sex as we ever had." I had to smile at that. Maybe she was going to try and fuck me to death. Not sure how I felt about that; it made me smile. She misread me.

"You're coming home aren't you? You are! I can tell," she said.

"No, I'm not. So, do we have a deal or not?" I said, evenly. She frowned.

"Okay, deal," she said. We talked for a few more minutes, and then she was gone. I would wait a couple of hours, and call her. Yeah, it was a chicken shit stunt, but I needed a little inexpensive payback. And, if I was lucky, I would be interrupting her and her lover. God! Wouldn't that be the cat's meow.

"So is he coming back to support you?" said Lester. She put her bag down and unburdened herself of her coat.

"No, but he is going to front me the money to pay the bills and to avoid starvation," she said.

"And us?" he said.

"We can still get it on. But rub his nose in it? Not even," I said. "I am on very thin ice. I hurt him bad. I don't know why he can't get it that sex isn't everything," she said.

"Because it 'is' everything to a guy. It's his manhood. It's his pride. It's how he appeals to women—hopefully," he said. "And you took that away from him. And now you wonder why he's bitter? Give me a break."

"I don't know. I told him that he was the 'man' in a dozen other ways, and I even told him he was as good as any man at oral. He just didn't seem to care about any of that," said Lily.

"I don't know what it is about you, Lily. Maybe it's something about ultra-pretty female mystique types like you—something. You don't seem to hear what your men are saying. You demand that they hear you, but you—you pretty ones—don't ever hear, or don't want to hear, what your men folk have to say. Hell, I feel sorry for the guy."

"Huh?"

"We men only care about those other things if the big thing is appreciated first," he said.

"That's nonsense," she said.

"And again, you're not hearing me! It is not nonsense; it's at the core of a man's ego, his feelings of self-worth. Right now, your man is probably crying in his beer about his worthlessness as a man. And, he may never get it back: his pride that is."

She'd been slowly undoing the buttons on her blouse. He stopped talking and started to smile. All of a sudden they were racing each other to get naked; she won the race. He pulled her to him. It wasn't just passionate, she thought, it was magical. It had been just two hours since her meet up with her Mikey. She thought about him now. She even felt a little bit guilty about her about to happen screwing.

She looked over to where her purse lay on the table, some four feet away. Her cell was ringing. She got to it and answered.

"Yes?" her face clouded. She hung up.

"It was him. I have to go," she said.

"Now!" he said.

"Yes, now. I'll be back. Okay?" she was dressing quickly. He threw up his hands.

Hurrying down the stairs, she was talking to herself: "He had to have planned this. Damn it!"

I opened the door, and she smiled, but the smile seemed a little forced. "I am so glad you called, Mikey. Now maybe we—I—can start repairing the damage I've done to us." I ignored her opening gambit; I had my own agenda.

"I decided to do you right away, Lily, to take you up on your offer to do you ten times as much as before. And, I promise to do my very best. You know, to measure up to your standards, no joke," I said. "I need you to want to do it with me. Okay?"

"Absolutely," she said. I was in the driver's seat, and she knew it as well as I did. But, I did not have the brass balls to ask her what she'd been doing when I called. Her demeanor made me suspicious that, whatever it was, that she wanted to be doing it instead of being with me. One had to love it.

My place wasn't large, but it had two bedrooms and two baths. And the front area was large enough to have a love seat and a chair with their usual complement of smallish tables and the like.

"Here or in the bedroom?" she said. I had decided that I would take her in the front room. For some reason the bedroom seemed kind of saccharine. Maybe the bedroom for the second round, but the initial go was going to be a little bit different than the usual.

"Here," I said. I plopped into the chair across from the recliner. The fireplace, which stood ready to light, was flanked by the chair I was sitting in on the one side and the loveseat on the other. Both were angled slightly in its direction.

Lily took up her position in front of the fireplace and looked at me. "Move the coffee table back a little, please, Mikey," she said. I looked at the table, back at her, and got the message. She wanted to have some more room. I did as she asked. She smiled at my little display of obedience.

She came forward a few feet and stood where the table had been. She watched me for a good two minutes, just standing there; then, she started to strip. She went slow. The blouse went first which she unbuttoned slowly. Then the skirt fell earthward. Only her bra and panties remained. Slipping out of her bra, she posed for me, and smiled.

"Getting hard are we, Mikey? You want some of this?" she let her hands trail down her body as if marketing her wares. God she was beautiful! I might be in the driver's seat, but for this briefest of moments, I was her slave, and she knew it.

"You could say that, Lil; yes indeed, you could say that," I said. She turned around and slowly inched her panties down and off: she stood hands at her sides, not moving, her naked back and her absolutely wonderful butt were statue-like in front of me. She turned around and smiled the smile of a woman in control. She turned once again. Her slit was hairless and beckoning—that was new and it kinda bothered me. She crooked her finger. I came to her.

"On your knees mister and worship me," she said. I kissed her slit very gently, teasingly, I hoped. Soon I was sucking on it, and doing my best to munch her clit. She'd spread her legs a little to allow me better access. She pulled my head in tighter. She pushed me back.

"Time to screw me," she said. She moved over to the love seat and knelt on it; her butt to me. I rose and came to her. I rubbed the tip of my cock up and down her slit and when I felt it slip in. I pushed and entered her in a single thrust.

I screwed her for some minutes, slowly. Then, when I felt myself getting close, I gave it all I had hammering her mercilessly. I heard her sigh. No scream, no moan, just a bored sigh. She was a million miles from making it. I unloaded my cache of semen and shrank from her.