Kalimaxos finished with the end of Marcey's letter and a brief conversation with Leslie, the sacrificial lamb offered by Marcey as a bedwarmer in her absence with her fuckbuddy, Dr Trey.
"I have reserved a room for us at the Ambassador Hotel near the airport. If you still want me meet me there two hours after my flight is due back. I plan on going there alone after my arrival. Please don't come to the airport when my flight lands. Please don't make a scene. Either take me back or walk away.
I plan on seeing you at the hotel. I'll be waiting for you in the lobby."
When I finish reading it, I noticed Leslie was at the kitchen island filling her glass again.
"Are you OK?" she asked.
"I will be," I replied.
She nodded and came back with the bottle and her filled glass. Sitting next to me this time, she refilled my glass and turned to look at me with those doe-like eyes.
"So, Rick? What do we do?"
THIS IS MY CONTINUATION. I'VE WRITTEN IN UK ENGLISH & ITS UNEDITED I OWN ALL MISTAKES. THIS IS MY FIRST ATTEMPT AT WRITING. IT'S PROBABLY TOO LONG, IF SO AND YOU HATE IT, SORRY FOR WASTING YOUR TIME. I'VE TRIED TO THINK OF THOUGHT PROCESSES RATHER THAN JUST EMOTIONAL RESPONSES. IT'S NEITHER BTB NOR RAAC. I HAVE ASKED AND BEEN GIVEN THE AUTHOR'S PERMISSION TO WRITE THIS ENDING, FOR WHICH I AM GRATEFUL.
"Leslie you are both beautiful & very tempting to an old guy like me, but, barring a 15 minute flirtation with a fellow soldier after she and I were almost blown up by a roadside IED, I've never cheated on my wife."
"I've never planned or wanted to cheat, what I did what I did in shock, with a woman who was scared damn near to death and she was a soldier and not easily scared. We both needed a human touch after extreme peril, my God, some of our colleagues that day never got the chance to come home.
Leslie, I can't excuse myself for what happened but feeling as bad as I do with the contents of Marcey's letter, how can I make things worse? It would just make me as guilty as she is. No moral high ground for me if I take advantage of what is your really tempting offer.
So no Leslie, we are not going to do anything together. You have no idea how good for my ego you would be but that is it. Genuinely thank you, but no thank you. I'm clearly no saint but I just can't do it."
Leslie smiled, a slightly embarrassed smile, she couldn't quite believe he was rejecting her, no matter how gently or how well explained. She had wanted him, her husband had wanted to see them together, but here was a scorned husband holding to his marriage against what he must know, it is rocked to its foundations and likely to crumble.
His marriage at best is on life-support not seeming to have the remotest chance of a future yet he was turning down a beautiful woman offering herself on a plate. The sucker must be completely In love with the bitch despite what she is doing to him.
"I understand Rick, but do you remember an actress called Lauren Bacall? I've been told I look a lot like her, and I think she was really hot. She spoke a line in a movie: "You know how to whistle don't you, Steve? You just put your lips together and blow." Well Rick, I find you attractive so if you change your mind, you know how to whistle Rick? Right?" With that she left.
I settled into a chair with a cold beer and started to think of what my future held. I couldn't see any way that divorce wasn't in it, what Marcey had done was so stone cold, so calculated, all about her and I didn't rate a moments consideration. Shit, she hadn't even bothered to answer a text never mind talk to me until I embarrassed and threatened Penny and then Marcey's asshole new man Trey.
That fucker was going to pay a price, maybe the ultimate price the way I was feeling, maybe something to fuck up his life or maybe even his ability to work as a surgeon. I'd take my time but no way that smug bastard was going to fuck my wife for 6 weeks and not suffer.
Then again, was she really my wife anymore in anything but name? Was she worth going to jail for? Probably not, but I would have my pound of flesh, from him at least. Almost certainly from Marcey too and perhaps for some of the others in the party like Penny who confessed on the phone that she too had thrown aside her wedding vows and then begged me not to talk to her husband. I'd threatened to when she didn't want to answer my questions about Marcey.
There is no way I'm going to be the only one feeling pain in this, I could probably get a few of Marcey's colleagues' spouses to turn up at the airport and blow the crap out of a few marriages, these clowns had been out of the country and out of their frazzled minds it seemed and seemingly having a sexual free for all.
I had to consider if me doing that and damaging others was reasonable or should I mind my own business and go after targets much closer to home?
NEXT DAY
After a night of broken sleep, my thoughts weren't even beginning to crystallise, other than that I couldn't see how I'd ever get past what she had done. I was bordering on rage most of the time. How in hell do you do something so blatant to someone you claim to love and you've spent half your life with?
I needed to start to really consider the way forward but what I needed to get my head around was do I go scorched earth, or could I see a way to remaining married? Something in between maybe... really?
Her letter clearly said she still loved me even if her actions said differently. I was hurting but I knew my love for her was damaged but still there, but I really saw no way of getting past her disrespect.
Many beers and some heavy spirits later and honestly far too much of both drinking and thinking over the next week or so and I was still undecided exactly how to proceed.
WEEK THREE OF HER HOLIDAY FROM OUR MARRIAGE
I was still trying to get my head around what I really wanted, the last 2 weeks had been full of doubts about what my future held. Backwards and forwards, to & fro nothing close to certainty, but divorce still the likely outcome.
My main concerns about going for divorce was how it would play out with our kids? We were now empty nesters, so no immediate responsibility but either way I reacted, we would always have family get-togethers, that would mean there would never be a clean break, I'd have to deal with her in family matters, weddings, Christmas, birthdays and occasions in grandkids lives.
Could I get past what she had done for the long-term benefit of our family? The family would not want divorce but I couldn't reconcile with her cheating just for family. Surely I owed the man in the mirror more than that?
I'd spoken to a lawyer specialising in divorce, recommended by Joe, a corporate lawyer who is a friend. Joe was a friend of both Marcey & I, someone we both mixed with socially, we'd spent an hour and more together and he was truly shocked at her behaviour.
He told me what a divorce would cost me and yeah it would bring pain but as empty nesters with adult kids who were no longer reliant on us for anything material, no mortgage to be paid, I knew I could pay the price and have a decent financial future. 50:50 on our marital assets, yeah, I'd cope.
WEEK FOUR -- TIME RUNNING OUT TO DECIDE MY FUTURE
I took a few more days to clear my head a little, I'm a retired soldier, what fills my days now is mainly voluntary work with some projects I like, so I had no problem taking time out to get all the thinking time my circumstances demanded.
Probably far too much time as I vacillated between wanting to destroy Marcey and that slippery little shit she was fucking and trying to see some kind of future with her.
I'd met him once and considered him a pompous self-important small man with a huge ego. He'd feel pain either way I decided, how and how much pain the only consideration.
Other times I wondered could I reconcile my mind with to her blatant disrespect? It seems so calculated that she couldn't possibly actually want me to stay, how could she really want that after how she'd left me and what she'd done? Bigger question: how could I want her?
I wondered what life would be if I rid myself of the woman who in quiet times sitting at home, I realised I really didn't like right now, but yeah, in the lonely hours I also knew I still loved her with most if not all of my heart. You don't lose decades of that quickly, much as my love for her was badly damaged.
What stung so much was that she had done this to our marriage seemingly in such cold blood, no worries about my reaction, just an ultimatum to love her or leave her.
DAYS OF UNCERTAINTY DRIFT PAST TOWARDS HER RETURN.
I still had to get my head around if I could get past what she had done. It stung like hell but I still love the bitch and the complications included what was best for me, our family and of course there was no doubt that in her mind I had cheated on her first.
What had that dumb bitch Deidre been thinking when she talked to Marcey and left a half-truth hanging. I hadn't seen her in years and had no plans to ever again, with the trouble she had caused me, she was dead to me.
Shit, I felt incredibly disrespected, but Marcey had felt the exact same sting as well given what she thought I had done in Iraq. In my mind it was nothing like what she had pulled but then all she really just knew "something had happened", not the details.
Probably from what she had been told by Deidre, she imagined that someone who told her she had "looked after" her husband in Iraq meant I'd had been screwing Diedre for much longer than her 6 week sojourn with Dr.Trey. I could like it or lump it. Get over it or end the marriage was her ultimatum, fuck Deidre what have you done to me? Why? I'd probably never know.
I began to realise that I should have talked to Marcey about Deidre long ago, I should have trusted her enough. Of course, I knew in my heart without doubt that she would have understood, she'd have hated it, but she would have forgiven me for sure once she knew what had actually happened and the dire circumstances. Then perhaps this shitstorm would not have happened.
I understood now that despite how seemingly cold her actions were, Marcey had her own rage to get past and this 6 week fuckfest was how she decided to even things up. It dawned on my angry mind that this was partly due to my not trusting her to understand my brief and unfulfilling infidelity.
I hadn't explained it, hadn't paid her the courtesy of trusting her with the truth, shit, was I really entitled to my assumption that I had the moral high ground? I realised I'm far from blameless but still I couldn't see a way past her action of seemingly blowing up our marriage with no care for the consequences.
I understood that no matter how painful her letter of justification had been to read and how justified I felt knowing the scales of what I had done compared to what she was doing were hugely out of whack, the fact was she didn't know my truth because I hadn't given her thing chance to hear it or understand it.
I knew now that I had to talk to her before going nuclear, on our marriage, I'd thought of having her served as she came off the plane in front of all the other betrayers. Now though, I understood where I had failed her, but reconciliation was far from my mind. All I owed her now was honesty so that we could have some way to move forward, Christ, we had 24 years together and we had our children.
ONE WEEK BEFORE HER RETURN
In her letter Marcey had asked me to stop fucking Leslie a week before she returned and we had not spoken since the angry phone call when she was shacked up in that bastard Trey's room. She didn't know that Leslie hadn't made it to my bed, nor me to hers. I hadn't been giving her husband Vincent any new wife-watching thrills.
She had asked that I would get an STD check, just as she would be doing and by now, she would have cut off Trey's access to her body to abstain as she'd asked me to do. I wasn't sure that would happen. The last week before coming back stateside and she'd cut him off? Really? Did it even matter now anyway?
My last conversation with her had been painful, no way was I going to call her again but yes, I would look her in the eye and we would talk, perhaps for the last time as man and wife.
DECISION TIME
Marcey's flight was due to land the next day, I'd followed legal advice and had done the usual things about splitting our assets, nothing that couldn't be repaired or reinstated. I'd done it partly to protect myself & partly to let her know how I was as serious as a massive heart attack that she was not coming back to what her letter showed she apparently wanted, a night in a hotel and a return to our marriage.
I'd had divorce papers drawn up ready to be served for I couldn't see that we could survive together after how she had left without a word, not even a kiss nor any idea of her plan. It even took several days and my angry call before I had been presented me with her terms for our marriage to survive in that damned letter when amongst the hurtful things she said that I'd been "playing at being a soldier". Fuck her, I'd nearly died in Iraq, friends did. Playing? Just fuck her.
Tomorrow I'd meet the bitch and still there was a lack of certainty what would happen. One thing was sure, there would be a confrontation and love would be nowhere to be seen, I was still uncertain about what I wanted other than a confrontation. Of that I was certain, shit and the fan were going to meet.
CONFRONTATION DAY
Marcey asked in her letter that I did not go to the airport, that I didn't make a scene, that she would meet me in the lobby of the hotel 2 hours after the flight landed.
Two hours? What could possibly take 2 hours to achieve, there was no reason why anything should take as much as one hour for her to make it to the hotel lobby. Fuck that, I wasn't going to play that game. I'd decide I'd be there at the airport to meet her when the group left the baggage claim, area.
There was a man I was very keen to meet for the second and last time. Whatever else happened he was going to see what a warrior's rage was like, he wasn't coming home from fucking my wife to slip quietly back into his routine. Actions have consequences, I may be a cuckold in his eyes, but he would discover the price of making me an unwilling cuckold.
AT THE AIRPORT- GAME ON
I knew many of the party of doctors and nurses, so as the first of the party that I knew emerged with their baggage I was sitting quietly to the side watching and waiting. I was alone despite the temptation to clue in some other spouses.
Amongst the first of the group was Penny Washington, the slut had betrayed her husband Josh, admitting it to me in that one phone call and she was arm in arm with her lover. None of them seemed concerned that their spouse would turn up to meet them so when Penny saw me, she stopped as if frozen and went suddenly very pale.
Shaking off the arm of her lover she came slowly towards me. "Hello Rick, I didn't expect to see you here, Marcey said he was meeting you at the hotel later to reconnect." She was scanning the area as she spoke, doubtless looking for Josh and she started to recover some colour to her face when she didn't see him.
"Looks like you didn't call Josh, thank you Rick, I know you may not believe it, but I love him just as much as Marcey really does love you. This was a bit of a crazy idea some of us had to relieve the stress of working so long in a dangerous country. A one and done fantasy plan. It's over with now, nobody has fallen in love, we all want our real relationships back."
Over her shoulder I saw Marcey walking out chatting animatedly with Dr Trey with what seemed a degree of tension. When our eyes met, she seemed to go through a range of emotions quickly. I saw anger, then fear just before she glued on a half-smile which she obviously hoped looked genuine.
MARCEY, TREY & I
She tried to move away from Trey but he took her forearm and guided her so that together they approached me. Marcey looked like she was still trying to shake his hand off but the smug little bastard held his grip and before she could speak, he did.
Trey said, "Hello again Rick. So, you just couldn't do as your wife asked, had to make the big statement, eh? Well Rick, I can't tell you just how much I've enjoyed your wife's... friendship these past weeks but you can have her back now."
He delivered it with a smirk much to Marcey's clear embarrassment. "Fuck you Cuckold", is what his words meant. Cocky little bastard had no idea what he was facing, but he was about to find out.
I moved closer to them and spoke first to Marcey, as calmly as I could manage, I said to her "Marcey, you and I owe each other some explanations, but first I need a few minutes alone with your boyfriend. Can you take a seat over there for a few minutes, then we'll talk, OK?"
"Christ Rick, he's not my boyfriend, why couldn't you just meet me at the hotel as I asked? Please don't make this more than it is, please don't make a scene. Don't do something we might all regret."
"Marcey, shut up and take a seat, I promise I'm not going to kill him...if he plays nice, not yet anyway. We can just talk Trey, can't we? Just to clear the air?"
"Sure we can Rick, we can be civilised, there has been no harm done, isn't that so Rick" he said with his trademark smirk.
Looking unconvinced and worried Marcey moved away to the seating area, far enough away that she would not hear our quiet talk. I closed the distance to Trey getting so close that despite his apparent confidence, I could smell his fear. The smirk had gone and with it the bravado, he looked like what he was, a frightened little man.
TREY HEARING WHAT IS IN HIS FUTURE
"OK dickhead, let's talk man to man, keep your face neutral and just listen, if you overreact, I'll beat you to a pulp and take my chances with the law. Got it?" He gave the faintest of nods and his trademark smirk was just a bad memory.
"Don't interrupt as I speak and just nod if you understand what I tell you, got it? If you can't manage that, I promise you will get to try the food at the hospital where you all work, as a patient.
Listen moron, I'm a retired US Marine Corp officer, I am going to punish your disrespect, just not right now or here in public view but you will face consequences. Nod if you understand... good boy.
Now listen to your choices, you will feel some retribution that will be painful but not life threatening, or you can ignore me & face career ending injuries, I mean look at those tiny little hands of yours, as a medic you know exactly how many bones there are to break, how many tendons that can be ripped and mangled. Doing that to you over an hour or so would test your bravery and your bodies waste disposal system. My guess is you would both piss & shit yourself before half of the bones were shattered. Nod if I make myself understood.
Good, we are getting this sorted better than I'd expected. I'm not sure if I might have preferred that you acted like a man and not a frightened little slimeball. I'd have enjoyed slapping you down in front of your lover.
Now listen carefully, it's vital for your ability to continue your career that you take this in. You will resign from the hospital and be out of this city within four weeks, gone and never to return. Nod again asshole. Good.
Before you leave town you will feel some pain, not from me personally I'm afraid for I would enjoy it, maybe too much and do too much damage it's so tempting, but take it like a man and I promise those surgeons hands with not be damaged. Can't say the same for your balls, but hey, actions bring consequences. Nod your understanding. Good.
OK, time for you to fuck off out of my life but remember, I'll have a cast iron alibi when the foot falls on your balls. Take it and move on or you will invite more serious consequences you will not recover from. Go to the police and make trouble for me and I've enough friends in low places that it will end you and your hands will be the least of your worries.
OK, now that we have an understanding you can fuck off, don't talk to Marcey don't even look at her as you leave. Go now."
MARCEY THE CONFRONTATION
Watching Trey leave without a word or a look, Marcey came to me. "Fuck you Rick, you just couldn't stay away, had to be the big soldier, had to confront your enemy face to face, no consideration for my wishes. Yes, I know that sounds like severe irony after what I've done, but I told you to take me back or walk away, I wanted to meet just me & you.
I wanted not bring in other people to muddy things. I told you I don't love him, he has a smaller cock than you, he isn't close to being as good as you are in or out of bed. He's just a slick predator, I found him attractive and a good mark to have my revenge fucking, but that's all.
I don't want him and Rick, these last 6 weeks have told me I don't want anyone but you. Six weeks of mediocre sex and yes, I wanted it, I needed to get even with you for Deidre, but I can't tell you how disappointing is was.
Why could you not just give me that one small piece of respect after betraying me with your soldier slut for months in Iraq where she "took care of you"? I just wanted you to decide if you still wanted me. To either come to me at the hotel or leave me."
BALANCING THE SCALES
So, I was right, this was her idea of balancing the scales. She had felt the same disrespect for years that I had over these last four or five weeks after I'd eventually discovered where she'd gone and read her letter. It was her revenge and everyone knows, what good is revenge if the subject of it doesn't feel the sting and understand why it happened?
I stared hard at her, offered no sign of affection. She knew that things were not going as she had hoped but, I'd expected her to wilt at my burning anger but she just returned my glare, showing me that she felt she had right on her side no matter how she had blindsided me and betrayed her wedding vows. She felt just as betrayed as me.
"Marcey I came here because there was no way I was allowing that jumped up philanderer to walk back into his life here without hearing what I have in store for him.
That was never going to happen, so if you want any sort of future with me in it, cut out the demanding stuff. You will be best served if you listen more than speak until we get somewhere we can talk out what you've done in the past weeks and what you think I've done and what I actually did in Iraq. Once that is done, we will both speak from knowledge rather than bullshit thoughts.
"OK Marcey, I understand you; I know what you are feeling since Deidre ambushed you because its exactly how I'm feeling now, completely disrespected by the person I care most about in the world.
I tell you now that I will not be sleeping with you tonight, either at the hotel or in our home, or what is likely to be our former home. We may never sleep together again, I've got my backpack here and there are divorce papers inside.
But before I give you the divorce petition, I do understand some of what you have done, I want to give you the truth I should have given you some years ago so I'm offering to go to the hotel but just to the lobby, just to talk. I won't go to that room. We both need to finally tell each other exactly what is in our minds and our hearts and then decide our future. Are you up for that?"
"Let's go Rick"
AT THE AMBASSADOR HOTEL
Quickly we were at the hotel, we sat in a quiet area of the bar and got some drinks. We had not shared a single friendly word or made any show of affection on the drive, we were two angry people, spoiling for a fight but somehow both old enough and wise enough at least understanding that we needed to talk, if not for us, for our kids and future grandchildren. After 24 years we could not just say, fuck you and walk away. Too much shared past but what about the future.
"Marcey, if you are OK with it, I'm going to start, to tell you the whole truth and to let you know where our marriage stands in my view" She nodded her acceptance.
"Marcey, I've loved you for as long as I can remember, I've realised in my darkest moments since you've been gone that aside from the anger, I do still love you. So please let me get all the way through, then you can ask any questions and have your say. I'll be completely honest and hope you will be too. We know each other inside out, either will know if the other lies and because of that, I hope you will understand too when I talk I'm telling you the truth. She quietly nodded.
"We have both felt disconnected at times, mentally as well as physically when my career took me to other countries. I understand that life wasn't easy for you and the burden of raising our kids was mainly yours.
I have to tell you something that is very important to me. I don't think you understand it, I think you have added 1 & 1 and got 3, three being the number of people you thought were in our marriage while I served overseas & also the number who have been in it these past 6 weeks.
Marcey, I know you think that I betrayed you for months in Iraq with Deidre. I think that if you accept what I'm about to tell you, you will be surprised. I've no idea what was in that crazy bitch's head but our affair lasted exactly 15 minutes and Marcey, when Leslie gave me the letter I sent her home after I read it. I never touched her sexually, not once. I think both she & Vincent were disappointed, they will both confirm that nothing happened."
Marcey's eyes widened in surprise, I could see she had no doubt I was telling the truth, I knew beyond doubt she would know if I lied, I knew that there was no point in lies, so we both knew this was true.
Before she could respond I continued, "Marcey, Deidre and I didn't get past her giving me a blow job and I went down on her afterwards. Over and done in 15 minutes. Not only did I never fuck her, but I have also never fucked or wanted to fuck anyone else in our entire married life.
I was so ashamed with what I did, it has eaten me ever since, I should have told you when got home. I believe now that if I'd explained the circumstances to you, you would have understood and forgiven me. I didn't have that courage.
Marcey, we almost died that day, if we had been on the other side of the vehicle, it would have been us in the body bags and not Sam & Craig. We had barely a scratch, a few cuts and some concussion from the blast.
A little later when we were back in camp, our despair at losing our guys and shock demanded a human comfort and what happened happened. I'm not proud of it but it was a primal response to terror and shock. I didn't plan anything; it was over almost as soon as it started. We never so much as kissed in the months we were still there after the incident.
Marcey, I'm so guilty that it happened, I'm heartbroken I didn't trust you enough to ask for your forgiveness, I was too scared that it would kill our marriage & hurt the kids as much as you, too scared you'd throw me out and I'd be a weekend dad.
But Marcey, I don't think you got even. I understand that I never gave you the chance to understand what I did, but fuck, you went way overboard, even with what you thought happened."
I saw recognition in Marcey's eyes, I also saw that she had tears in her eyes, she was shocked that her interpretation of Deidre's words was so far removed from the truth. Her justification was falling apart. I could guess her thought process was screaming, "fuck what have I done?" She looked like all her hopes had gone for her marriage.
She had not got even; she had seriously fucked up. She looked broken and totally bereft. Her heart almost visibly falling apart as tears streamed down her cheeks. In that moment I understood that yes, she's fucked up but she really did love me, she wanted to return tour marriage. Could I?
And just like that my hatred vanished and I felt compassion for my broken wife, but compassion is not the same as forgiveness.
Sobbing she blurted out "I'm so sorry Rick, I thought you'd treated her as your wife for months while I lived alone with the kids with just my fingers for company. I thought I was getting my revenge, that we would have a rough spell but then forgive each other our affairs and go back to our lives. God I've ruined everything for weeks of third rate sex with a jumped up little predator.
Rick, I may not have shown it recently when I pulled this stunt, but I love you now just as I've loved you from when we started dating. I did this to get past my anger at what I thought you did in Iraq, she put all those things in my head.
God but it seems now she was trying to break us up. I thought I'd get it out of my system and then we'd eventually be good and it would be just us forever but I know now I've gone way too far. So is it divorce Rick? Is there any hope for us as a couple?"
"Marcey, when I came here today and saw Penny & lover, then you and Trey, I had decided I was over our marriage, it was a done deal for divorce. Now looking at you and understanding the hurt you have had for such a long time, I'm not as sure. Let us finish our drinks without talking and quietly consider what's happened. Let's both decide what we truly want, then see how we accomplish that. Another 5 or 10 minutes talking can't hurt."
So that's what we did, I barely looked at Marcey, just thought was there any way I could move forward with her in my life after the hurt we'd caused each other. Neither if us blameless, both in reality cheaters so time to set hurt aside and think clearly.
THE PLAN
Marcey:
When we had both come to our conclusions, we acknowledged each other by finally our eyes meeting & a small smile, each hoping that the other person had thought of some way to get past the hurt the other had caused.
This time Rick decided to allow Marcey to speak first.
"Rick, I know what I did must have hurt you so much. I did deliberately want to hurt you as revenge for what I was sure you had done, I won't lie, I've carried the burden of how you betrayed me with Deidre, ever since she called to see me 18 months ago.
That's a big burden to carry for that long. I had to get revenge, I needed to hurt you to get past it, to jerk you into realising things were wrong in our marriage, you seemed to have decided my feelings didn't matter after 24 years. I needed you to feel what my pain was like.
That was when that bitch Deidre convinced me she had fucked you twelve ways to Christmas, that your betrayal was not just complete but you had quietly put it behind you, I lived with it every day until I could take it no longer and then this trip came up. Some of the nurses though of it as a chance for some sex outside of their marriage, then it came to me how I could force the crisis our marriage needed, to get better or die.
Of course, you are correct, if I'd known the truth I'd never have done what I did on the trip, I'd never have shown you such disrespect, we'd already have gone past Iraq & that bitch. But Rick, I did what I did but Rick, two things to think about.
I'm the one who was hurt by what you did, that's on you. Also never doubt that I love you, that is why along with the pain I tried to look after you by arranging for Leslie to keep you company. Believe it or not, that was an act of love. She is so beautiful, I've no idea how you resisted her when you knew what I was doing.
Was that your act of love? Resisting her? Can our marriage survive? That's all I've got Rick."
Rick:
"Marcey, when I saw you shatter mentally when you heard the truth about me & Deidre, my hate for what you did to us just left me. But the disrespect remains, there has to be a reckoning for that. The only question is who pays the price and how high it is.
I know that I cheated first, at least that we know of. I heard whispers about you when I was overseas, early starts to your days, parking at a motel near the hospital, but look Marcie, let's agree we've hurt each other and get back to the settlement cost.
Two parts, the first involves you and me, I can hold off on divorce but right now I can't live in the same house, it's all too fresh. I'm proposing that we have a trial separation, I'll move out for a while, we can try reconnecting, first just as friends, then see where it goes, if we can grow back into our marriage full on."
Marcey looked conflicted, it was an olive branch of sorts that Rick was offering her, the possibility of them surviving as a couple but she'd hoped nothing like a separation would happen, if for nothing else that she really needed him in bed after the disappointment of Trey, the man with nothing much but a small cock and an ego.
Still, she knew it was the best offer she would get from Rick. "OK, what else?" she said.
"Now the price. It's going to be paid by Trey, but you are going to help me make him pay. You will be my alibi when he pays. That is the price you pay. To make him pay with a betrayal of sorts, it seems appropriate don't you think?
If you were straight with me that he means nothing to you, it shouldn't matter to you. But Marcey, if you want a future with me, the price is not just a separation but you also play this part in my revenge on Trey, the asshole who fucked my wife.
He's going to be hurt Marcey, it's going to be bad, I'm going to hurt him more or less where he hurt me but if he makes the right decision he gets to save is surgeon's hands if two things happen, he makes the right choice I offered him and you play your part in my revenge. You play the dutiful wife and provide my alibi."
3 WEEKS LATER
The next week Marcey returned to work at the hospital on a Tuesday, Trey hadn't met her in person, he knew not to risk Rick's wrath, he really was how Rick thought of him, a scared small man. He had Penny Washington deliver a message to Marcey.
"Marcey, Trey has resigned, through a friend he's managed to get a job back east that pulls a bigger salary and it allows him to live with a dying relative who needs him. Because of health issues the hospital board have released him from his contract here at the end of next week."
In the Saturday of the next week, Rick took Marcey to dinner in Rossini's, they had a pleasant evening on what was effectively their first date since their separation, Rick had been attentive throughout but a little preoccupied, his thoughts seemingly elsewhere for much of the meal.
That was until he got a call during desert, he excused himself, then he turned to Marcey and gave her his first smile since her return. "It's done" was all he said.
The rest of the evening passed with Rick's head more involved in giving Marcey attention and his whole demeaner warmed, he was smiling more and talking to his wife as if there was nothing wrong between the couple. To all appearances they looked like a long-established couple enjoying date night.
When their shared taxi dropped Marcey at their home they'd shared for the last 15 years Rick had even given Marcey a small kiss on the lips that lasted long enough to encourage her that he still wanted her, but no, he wouldn't come in that night but they made another date for the following Wednesday.
On their second date Marcey told Rick "Remind me never to cross you, well...never again I mean. He's in hospital recovering from surgery, lost both balls, he'll never be a father and his days as a playboy are over. That was quite a price he paid Rick, though I'm not saying undeserved, but I can't help thinking that although he pursued me, I'm deeply responsible for what happened."
Rick looked at Marcey with undisguised glee at her update on Trey, he was not a hypocrite so saw no reason for false sympathy. What happened after all is exactly what he had asked his friends in low places to do. Nothing more, nothing less.
Marcey continued, "The police interviewed me on Sunday night and asked about where I was on Saturday night. Of course, I told them I was with my husband having dinner at Rossini's as the restaurant would confirm. We were both there from 8pm until we got Bill's cab which dropped me home at 11:30 and then left with you in it.
Guess what they told me? Trey was mugged, and badly beaten, at 9pm as we were eating. The funny thing was his hands were not damaged, none of the defensive injuries you might expect. Almost as if he accepted his beating. They said it was a pretty clear case of a guy being punished, but he said he has no idea who would do that do him and it was too dark to identify anyone.
With me giving you your alibi, you are in the clear. So what now Rick? Are you coming home soon?"
EPILOGUE
Rick wasn't ready to go home, revenge was one thing, the disrespect was much harder to leave behind. It took several months and an ultimatum from Marcey before they had sex.
After five long celibate months of mostly loveless but increasingly affectionate dating with only occasional touching, she told Rick that she was climbing the walls with frustration and warned him she didn't think she could hold out if he remained unwilling to be her husband in the bedroom.
Rick was having his own dissatisfaction with sister palm and her daughters so after their next date, he finally accepted Marcey's invitation into their home. He spent the night, and they fucked each other to a standstill.
The next morning, they made love, proper married for years love, completely different from the previous night, for the first time since before her trip to central America.
The fucking was raw and exciting with hints of anger but the lovemaking saved their marriage. In the afterglow both shed tears, confessed their love to each other and decided it was time.
Rick spent the next day signing off the lease on his apartment and moved his shit back home. Marcey arrived back from work to find a smiling Rick with a beer and the kitchen in a mess, but hey, he was back and that was all she needed. Dinner was passable, the sex later was first class, it was lovemaking.
Trey had left town as soon as he was medically discharged. Effectively now a eunuch, He would never be a father and in the following years although he could occasionally have a erection, sex ceased to be a pleasure and explaining his lack of testicles too embarrassing. Had Rick known he would have smiled.
For Rick and Marcey it was never quite the same, both had a degree of shame over infidelity, Marcey found it hard to understand how she could have so badly betrayed the man she loved, she struggled over following years with depression.
Rick knew he was loved and felt that his wife would never again stray but that didn't mean that trust wasn't damaged. Theirs was a damaged marriage, but it survived into their old age and they shared the joy of having grandkids and retirement for both. As many older couples do, they grew closer in intimacy in every way but sexual, as their physical love life naturally waned with older age, they truly loved each other as much as they ever had.
In her early seventies Marcey died after a short battle with cancer. They had survived together for over 20 years after "the incident" and never regretted remaining married. Now on his own, Rick who had earlier thought the saying trite nonsense knew that he had definitely "been better with her in his life than without her".
Amongst their closest friends in recent years had been Leslie and Vincent who still lived in the house behind Rick. Their marriage had survived Vincent's sharing fetish and eventually they had raised a family.
When Marcey died Leslie had been the first to sympathise with Rick .... and no, he never fucked her nor anyone but Marcey, the only woman he loved.
The day after the funeral, Leslie surprised Rick by handing him a letter with Marcey's handwriting on the envelope, the writing was less steady than many years ago but clearly hers. It was a letter that only Rick ever read and he treasured it for the rest of his life, drew comfort from it when he was lonely and missed her every day for the rest of his life.
Many years previously, after giving Rick Marcey's first letter, Leslie had asked Rick, "Are you ok?"
Rick had simply replied "I will be." He had been right.
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