The Caller
By: KK (mak41750@hotmail.com)
THE CALLER by KKAuthor's Note: Once again I want to thank Techsan for taking time from his busy schedule to edit this story for me. Please provide feedback. It is the only payback we authors get for our efforts. Thanks.
It had to be a hoax. An ill conceived, mean spirited practical joke but who would do such a thing. Who would chance destroying a good marriage just for a laugh? Those are the thoughts I was left with after that first phone call.
This all began six months ago as I was sitting in my office at Apex Office Integrators waiting for my two o'clock conference call on a Wednesday afternoon. I am a project executive for Apex and I have responsibility for three or more network integration projects at any one time. This meant I spent a lot of time on the phone on conference calls to get updates on my projects or to deal with problems and put fires out. It was only 1:30 PM so I was surfing the Internet looking at a digital camera I wanted to purchase when my phone rang. I reached over and picked it up without taking my eyes off the computer screen.
"Hello, Apex Office Integrators, Mike Fulton speaking."
"You are Mike Fulton?" asked the female caller.
"Yes. How can I help you?"
"I don't think you can help me but I hope I can help you," she said.
"Help me? How?"
"Is your wife's name Brenda?"
"Yes."
"Does she have a good friend named Kara?" she asked.
"Yes," I said suspiciously, "what is this about?"
"I just wanted to warn you that if you don't act soon your wife is going to have an affair."
"What? Who is this? Is this some kind of a joke because it isn't funny," I said.
Her statement came from so far out of left field that I didn't know how to react to it. Should I just laugh at her or get angry. Or maybe I should just hang up on her.
"I can't tell you who I am. I just wanted to give you a chance to prevent this before it happens."
I knew my wife and I knew she would never cheat on me so this call had to be some kind of a joke but who would perpetrate such a cruel joke. If I believed what this woman was telling me I would be extremely hurt and angry. Why would anyone want to put me through that? I wondered if the caller knew it was a joke or was she just doing something she was asked or told to do by someone else? As much as I wanted to slam the phone down, I decided to wait and play along at least for a while to try and find out who was behind this hoax.
"Why do you think my wife is going to have an affair?" I asked as calmly as possible.
"I heard them talking about it."
"You heard who talking about what?" I asked.
"Your wife and her friends Kara and Francis, I think. They go to a place called Vinny's for lunch every Wednesday and sit at the same table, right inside the door in front of the windows. I also go there for lunch on Wednesdays and I have been sitting at the table next to them. Eating by myself is boring so I tend to listen in on other people's conversations for entertainment," she said.
Kara was Brenda's best friend and they had been friends since college. We all went to the same college and I met them both at the same party. Kara had been dating her husband John for more than a year when I started dating Brenda. We have been close friends ever since. Francis was a name I didn't recognize. I didn't ever remember hearing Brenda mention anyone named Francis.
"And you heard my wife planning to have an affair?" I asked.
"Not exactly. Let me explain. Your wife's friend, Kara, has been telling your wife, about the affairs she has had over the last couple of years and how exciting they are. She has also been trying to talk Brenda into having an affair. She has been telling your wife that not only would the affair be exciting but it would also make sex with you more interesting.
"So far your wife has been reluctant but over the last few weeks I have noticed that her objections to Kara's suggestions have gotten less forceful and she has even begun to ask questions and generally show more interest in the subject than she did at first. I just think that you need to do something to stop this before it goes too far," she said.
"Why do you care? I mean, why are you telling me this?" I asked.
"I just don't want to see someone ruin their marriage because she took bad advice from a friend," the caller said.
"You say that Brenda is showing more interest lately? How long have you been listening in on their conversations?"
I was starting to see holes in her story but I didn't want to shut her off yet. I still needed to try and find out who was playing me this way.
"It's been six or seven weeks now. What are you going to do about it?" she asked.
There it was, the hook. I wasn't ready to cut her off but I wasn't about to bite either.
"I don't know. I need to find out more about what's going on before I do anything. Can I call you if I need to?" I asked.
"No. I'll call you if I think we need to talk again."
I knew she would never give me her number but I had to try. I felt that my only options were to either ignore the whole thing or act as if I might believe what she was telling me in hopes of finding out whom the caller was and why someone would be fucking with me this way.
"Okay, you'll call me," I said. "Please do."
I set the phone down and sat for a minute while I tried to make sense of the call. I knew what the caller had told me was bull shit. Brenda would never cheat on me. In the thirteen years we had been together, two years of dating and eleven years of marriage, Brenda has always been a loyal and devoted wife. She has never given me any reason to doubt her love for me and it seems she is always finding new ways to demonstrate just how much she loves me. For my part I can honestly say that I have been just as loyal and devoted to her.
There are two more reasons I couldn't believe that Brenda would cheat on me. Kevin and Michele, our children. Kevin is six years old and Michele is eight. I know that Brenda would never do anything that would hurt our kids so I knew this whole thing had to be bogus.
I had to put the call out of my head and get on the two o'clock conference call. Problems brought to light during the conference call kept me busy the rest of the afternoon, which helped me put the strange call out of my mind while I was at work but it was right back in the forefront of my thoughts as I drove home that evening.
When I left my office I fully intended to tell Brenda about the call but as I thought about it on the way home I decided that was not the best course of action. I didn't want to worry Brenda unnecessarily. I would tell her all about it as soon as I figured out who was behind the joke or hoax or whatever it was.
All that evening I kept considering and reconsidering whether I should tell Brenda about the call. As it turned out it wouldn't have mattered what I decided as the opportunity to talk to Brenda that night didn't present itself. Kevin and Michele kept me busy helping them with their homework and when they finally went off to bed I got a call from one of my project manager in California. While I was talking to him Brenda came into my office and kissed me on the cheek and then whispered that she was tired and was going up to bed. By the time I got off the phone Brenda was already asleep.
*****
Thursday was a busy day for me and I pushed all thoughts about the previous days phone call out of my head. Early in the day I wondered if I would get another call but by lunchtime I had forgotten about that and there was no call that afternoon.
I half expected a call on Friday but when it didn't happen I just pushed the call and the associated annoyance out of my head. Once I had been able to put the call out of my mind it just faded into the background and I didn't think about it again until the following Wednesday.
*****
Wednesday morning went very well and it looked like the afternoon would also go by quietly. That afternoon Jake Peterson was in my office. Jake is the project executive with responsibility for the Northeast. We were discussing some common problems we were seeing in our projects and trying to see if there was a common solution when my phone rang.
"Mike Fulton here," is answered.
"Hi Mike, it's me again," came the now familiar voice.
"Can you hang on a minute please," I said. "I have someone in my office."
"Sure."
"Jake, I have to take this call, do you mind," I said.
"No problem," Jake said as he got up and headed for the door. Just before he stepped out he turned and said, "That your girlfriend?" then he laughed as he closed the door behind him.
"I'm back."
"You didn't do anything, did you?" The voice asked.
"What?"
"You didn't do anything to stop your wife, did you?"
The question caught me off guard and it took me a moment to come up with an answer.
"I haven't quite decided how to handle this," I said. "Is there something else I should know?"
"Did you forget that today was Wednesday?"
I said, "No," but the significance of it being Wednesday didn't come to me immediately.
"Right, you remember that today is Wednesday but you forgot that your wife was having lunch with her friends again today," the voice said.
My stomach muscles tighten involuntarily when she said that. Trying to remain calm I asked, "So, did you listen in on their conversation today?"
"Yes, and I am telling you that you had better decide what you are going to do soon or it may be too late," she said.
"Why do you say that?"
"Today it wasn't Kara that brought up the subject of having a fling, it was your wife."
That was not possible. I knew she would never do that. I was angry again. How was I going to get to the bottom of this if this unless I could find out who my caller was?
"What did Brenda say?"
"Your wife asked Kara if she had been out on one of her secret dates in the last week."
"That doesn't mean that Brenda is looking to have an affair," I said.
"No, it doesn't but when Kara said that she had been out last night your wife told her she wanted to hear all of the sordid details," she said.
I didn't know how to respond to that. I was trying to play the role of the suspicious husband when all I really wanted to do was find out who I was talking to. I tried to think of what I would say if I believed what I was being told by this woman.
"I'm sorry, I am just having a hard time believing what you are telling me," I said.
"I know this is difficult for you but you have to believe what I am telling you or you may have a big mess to deal with later on."
"Can we meet to talk about this?" I asked hopefully.
"No. I will call you," she said. "You better fix this soon."
The caller hung up on me before I could say anything else.
I was too angry to get much work done after the call so I went home early.
*****
Wednesdays are Brenda's late nights. By late I don't mean late at night. On Wednesdays Brenda picks Michele and Kevin up at school. She drops Kevin off at her mother's house and takes Michele to her Brownie meeting. Brenda is an assistant leader for the troop so she stays for the meetings. After the meeting she picks Kevin up and the three of them get home around six o'clock.
On that Wednesday I got home at 3:30 PM and went into my study. I got a pad of paper and started to analyze the problem. Being a project executive I am responsible for making sure my projects stay on track. Anytime a problem crops up on a project the first thing I do is get pad and pencil and start to break the problem down and analyze it until I know the cause and the fix. It is really the only way I knew to deal with problems so that is the way I chose to deal with this new problem.
I started by summarizing what the caller had told me. "Kara is bragging about affairs she has been having. She is trying to talk Brenda into having an affair. Brenda hasn't agreed but has been showing some interest. These conversations have taken place over six or seven weeks."
Next I made a list of the reasons I thought the story was bogus.
1. Brenda would never cheat on me. 2. I have known Kara as long as I have known Brenda and I don't believe she would cheat on her husband John. 3. I knew that Brenda and Kara used to get together for lunch once a week but Brenda hadn't said anything about their lunches in so long that it was doubtful that they were still meeting weekly. 4. The caller mentioned a third person named Francis. Brenda had never mentioned anyone named Francis. 5. The caller said that she sat at the table next to the three of them six or seven weeks in a row. I found that very hard to believe. The idea that three women would always have the same table and that my caller managed to get the table next to theirs every week didn't sound believable to me. 6. Brenda is a very observant person. She would notice if the same person kept sitting next to them and she would also notice if that person seemed to be listening to their conversations. If she thought someone was listening to them, Brenda would have put an end to that, either by changing where they sat or going to a different restaurant for lunch.
Next I made a list of all the explanations for the call that I could come up with.
1. Practical joke by one of my friends. 2. Practical joke by one of Brenda's friends 3. Nasty trick by one of my enemies 4. Nasty trick by one of Brenda's enemies 5. Nasty trick by old girlfriend of mine 6. Nasty trick by old boyfriend of Brenda's 7. Some guy has a crush on Brenda and wants to break us up 8. Some girl has a crush on me and wants to break us up 9. As an after thought to numbers 7 an 8 it could be a woman with a crush on Brenda or a man with a crush on me (just trying to cover all of the bases). 10. We are just a random target for someone's idea of a good joke 11. We are the target of a reality TV show that plays mean jokes on people to capture their reactions for a television program (This was really reaching but I was running out of ideas) There were seven or eight other items on the list that were as equally absurd as the TV reality program that I no longer remember. The last item on the list was, ?The caller was telling the truth and Brenda is contemplating having an affair.'
I spent the next hour considering each possibility and reordering the list, moving the most unlikely possibilities to the bottom of the list thus moving the most likely to the top. I quickly ruled out a practical joke by either my friends or Brenda's. None of our friends were into practical jokes and none would ever do anything so mean spirited. Nasty tricks by enemies didn't compute either. I didn't have anyone I would consider an enemy. I knew there are people that may not like me but I have never treated anyone so badly that they would do something like this to me. I was equally sure that Brenda didn't have any such enemies. Old girlfriends? I had two girlfriends before I met Brenda and neither of those relationships ended badly. I only knew of one boyfriend of Brenda's but they had stopped dating more than a year before I met Brenda. A gay or lesbian crush was not a possibility either as far as I was concerned.
I went through the list four times making sure I considered every possible factor. When I was done the TV reality show made the top of the list followed by the caller was telling the truth and Brenda is contemplating having an affair.
I wasn't happy with the result and didn't believe them to be correct. I knew that there was no TV reality show. It just wasn't plausible, but then none of the other possibilities had been plausible either. That brought me back to the basic problem. The caller was either telling the truth or she wasn't. If she was lying, why did she do it and who else was involved. If she was telling the truth, which I still did not believe, my marriage was in big trouble.
In order to determine where the truth lay I was going to have to ask Brenda some questions. I was going to have to do that in such a way that it would not make Brenda suspicious. If she were innocent, as I believed, she would be hurt to think that I might possibly not trust her. On the other hand, if the caller was telling the truth and Brenda became suspicious about me questioning her she might figure out that I knew something. If that happened I would never find out the truth. It might stop Brenda from having an affair but I would never know if she had actually considered having one or not. I had to get information from Brenda a little at a time in order to avoid making her suspicious.
When I heard the garage door opening I destroyed my notes and walked out to the kitchen to greet my kids and my wife when they came into the house. As soon as the kitchen door opened Kevin ran over to me and slapped my thigh and said, "Hi dad. Can I go watch TV?"
"Yes."
"Dad, look what I made at Brownies tonight," Michele yelled as she ran over to show me the pinecones she had glued small candles to. "They're for starting fires in the fireplace. You light the candle and then the pinecone catches on fire. Isn't that a good idea?"
"That's a great idea sweetie. We can use these this winter when we use the fireplace," I said.
Michele's face lit up to show that she was happy with my response and then she ran off to join her brother in front of the television.
Forty-five minutes later the four of us were at the dinner table eating spaghetti.
"How was your day?" Brenda asked me.
"Pretty much the same as any other day. My projects have been running pretty smoothly for the last few months so I haven't had any fires to put out," I said.
"If you need to start a fire you can use one of my pinecones dad," Michele said as she giggled."
"I'll do that Shell. Next time I want to set fire to one of my projects I'll use one of your pinecones."
Michele laughed and scoped up some spaghetti on her fork.
I turned to Brenda and said, "Have you seen Kara lately?"
"I had lunch with her today," she replied. "Why?"
"Really? I didn't know you were still doing that," I said.
"We still have lunch together every Wednesday, but why did you ask if I had seen her?"
"It's just that you haven't mentioned her in a long time and we haven't been out with Kara and John in nearly a year. I was just thinking that we should go out to dinner with them sometime soon," I said.
"You want to do it this weekend? I'll call Kara and ask her," Brenda said.
"Why don't you? It would be nice to see the two of them again."
I had established that Brenda and Kara were still meeting for lunch every week so I decided to risk digging a little deeper.
"So, you still meet for lunch every week. Where do you go?"
"We go to Vinny's. It's a little Italian restaurant in a shopping center over on Apian Way."
I knew where the shopping center was. It had a large super market, a drug store, several small specialty stories, a coffee shop and a Domino's Pizza store. I hadn't been in that part of town in a couple of years so I had never heard of Vinny's.
"You always go to the same place?" I asked.
"Yes. They have good food and it's not expensive. Most of their lunch business is take out so it's easy to get a table and the service is fast and it is the most convenient place for the three of us to meet," she said.
I was starting to get a sour feeling in my stomach. So far everything I found out matched what the caller had told me.
"Three of you? I thought it was just you and Kara." I said.
"Kara's college roommate started working with Kara about a year ago and she has been coming to lunch with us every week."
"Do I know her?" I asked.
"I don't think you ever met Francis. She was Kara's roommate for two years but she had already graduated before you met Kara and me."
"So the three of you go to lunch every week. Maybe I'll join you there sometime," I said as I watched Brenda to see her reaction to that.
"That would be great we'd love to have you join us."
"Yeah, I bet. The hens want the roster to join them for lunch. Isn't the reason you get together for lunch so you can complain about your husbands?"
"Of course it is. But I would complain about you to your face so it wouldn't matter if you were there or not," Brenda said as she laughed at me.
After dinner I helped Brenda clean the kitchen and then we put the kids to bed. That's the best part of my day. I sit down on the sofa in front of the television and Brenda sits next to me and leans her head on my shoulder. This only lasts about a half hour and then Brenda stretches her legs out on the sofa and lays her head in my lap. Then I gently run my fingers through her hair and around her face until she falls asleep.
I really love having her head in my lap so I can just look at her while she sleeps. That night I didn't enjoy it as much. The seed of doubt had been planted in my brain and as hard as I tried, I could not keep it from growing.
*****
Thursday was difficult for me. Every time the phone rang I wondered if it is was my caller again but the only calls I received that day were business related. One of the calls was from my project manager in Denver. We were doing a network migration for a large corporation headquartered there. The project had been going on for more than a year but it had gone extremely well so far. Tom, the PM, called to ask me if I was coming out to do a quarterly review of the project with the customer. I told Tom that I would call their Vice President of IT and make an appointment in about two weeks.
I had a good relationship with the VP and looked forward to going out there for the review. The trip was usually four days. I would travel out the morning of the first day and meet with Tom and go over the project schedule and status. Tom would bring me up to date on any issues or concerns and anything he would like me to discuss during my meeting with the VP. The next day I would meet with Tom's team and get their input. The third day would be my meeting with the VP. That meeting usually lasted an hour and then ended up on a golf course and then dinner that evening. The forth day was to travel back home to Richmond.
That evening Brenda told me that we were going out to dinner with Kara and John on Saturday and we settled into out usual evening routine.
Friday was a busy day. I had three conference calls and then a problem popped up on my project in Tulsa. I spent the better part of the afternoon on the phone with the customer, assuring him that the problem would be corrected by the end of the day and that the project would be completed on time.
By the time I got home Friday evening, Wednesday's call was the furthest thing from my mind. When I walked in the house Brenda greeted me at the door with a kiss.
"Dinner will be ready in twenty minutes," she said. "The kids are upstairs playing so we have time to sit and have a quiet drink before we eat. What would you like?"
"A cold beer in a frosted mug is what I have been fantasizing about on the ride home."
"Sit down and I'll bring it to you."
This was not unusual behavior. This is the way Brenda always treated me. I never took it for granted and I always found ways to return her favors.
I was sitting in my favorite chair when she brought the drinks into the family room. Brenda set the drinks on the coffee table and then walked around behind my chair. She leaned over the back and ran her hands down over my chest and back up to my face and then she kissed me on the cheek. Brenda bit me gently on the ear and then whispered, "I was thinking about you today."
I knew exactly what Brenda meant. Whenever Brenda said, "I was thinking about you today," it meant that she was horny and wanted me to make love to her that night.
Our sex life after eleven years of marriage was still good. Most of the time I initiated sex but occasionally Brenda would get into the mood and her way of telling me was to say that she was thinking about me. Our lovemaking was always good but on those nights when Brenda initiated sex it was especially good.
Brenda kissed me several times leaving no doubt that she was horny and leaving me with an erection that was making me uncomfortable. The worst part was that I would have to wait until the kids were asleep before I could get relief. The only satisfaction I could have until then was that Brenda also had to wait.
Brenda put the kids to bed at eight o'clock and then came downstairs and suggested that I open a bottle of wine. We sat on the sofa drinking wine and necking like teenagers until we were sure that Kevin and Michele were asleep. Then Brenda got up and took my hand and led me up to our room.
Brenda took my head gently into her hands and pulled me toward her and kissed me softly on the lips. I responded by slightly parting my lips and allowing our tongues to touch. As our kisses became more passionate Brenda seemed to melt into my arms.
After a few minutes of our passionate kissing Brenda stepped back and took hold of the hem of her skirt and slowly raised it until I could see her panties.
"Do you like what you see?" she asked.
"Yes. Now I would like to see you without those panties," I said.
Brenda pushed the panties over her hips and let them drop to the floor and then let her skirt drop back into place. As Brenda was sliding the panties down I caught a glimpse of her dark bush and I felt an immediate response from my cock.
I picked Brenda up and carried her to the bed and I laid her down. I opened her blouse and opened the snap in the front of her bra. Then I began kissing and licking her breasts while caressing her body with my finger tips. When I began to suck on her nipples Brenda let out a soft moan and pulled my head tighter against her chest. I slowly worked my way down over her stomach until I reached the top of her skirt. Then I lifted her skirt up over her hips and I pressed my face into her pubic hair and inhaled her scent. Then moved down and began running my tongue lightly over her vulva. Starting on the soft flesh between her rectum and the bottom of her slit and going up over her clitoris and onto her pubic mound. As I did this the lips of her pussy separated allowing me to run my tongue around her lips and then pushing it inside her aroused pussy. The taste was fantastic. I couldn't get enough of her sweetness so I continued pleasuring her orally until she had a shuddering orgasm.
"Come inside me now," she said as soon as her orgasm passed.
I climbed on top of her and pressed the head of my cock head between the dripping lips of her excited pussy. As I push myself all of the way inside Brenda she said, "That feels wonderful."
After that she just made mewing sounds in her throat until she started her second orgasm.
"Oh, God, that's so good. Ahhhh... Ohoooo... Oh yes..." she said.
Then as she peaked she just made a deep guttural sound in her throat. No sooner had she finished than my climax began. My orgasm left me temporarily exhausted. We didn't speak for a few minutes and then I got up and asked Brenda if she wanted some wine. She said yes and I poured us both a glass.
As we sat there sipping our wine Brenda looked at me with her big brown eyes.
"Mike, I've been thinking about this for the last few weeks. What do you think about the idea of having another child?" She asked.
"Are you serious?"
"Yes. I am thirty-three years old and I don't think I would want to risk a pregnancy two or three years from now," she said. "Kevin will be seven in a couple of months, it just seems that if we are ever going to do it, we should do it now."
"If you are sure that's what you want, then of course we can do it," I said.
"Then we are in agreement. I can stop taking the pill tomorrow and will start trying to get pregnant?"
I kissed her on the nose and said, "Yes and I think we should get in some more practice tonight, don't you?"
"Absolutely," she responded.
I took Brenda's wine glass and set in on the bedside table with mine and then I crawled up between Brenda's legs and started licking her pussy lips. Brenda usually doesn't let me go down on her after we have already had intercourse but on those nights when she is horny she loves it when I eat her messy pussy.
That night Brenda had me move around so that she could return the favor so we spent the next ten minutes in the classic sixty-nine position. I was able to give Brenda an orgasm orally and then I had to get my throbbing cock back inside her hot pussy. I pounded into her hard and fast and she loved every stroke of it. After we both had our final orgasms of the night, we just lay in each other's arms.
We were both quiet for a long time and then Brenda broke the silence.
"Boy or girl?" She said.
"What?"
"Do you want a boy or girl?"
"How about one of each?" I said.
"Come on, be serious. Do you want a boy or girl?" She asked.
"I honestly don't know. I'd be happy just to have another healthy child." I said.
Brenda kissed me on the cheek and said, "Right answer."
That night after Brenda fell asleep I lay awake thinking about us having another baby and then my mind wondered back to the phone calls. If Brenda were contemplating an affair, she sure as hell wouldn't be planning on getting off the pill so she could get pregnant. That was more evidence in support of my view that the calls were a hoax.
When I finally drifted off to sleep I had a dream that Brenda did have an affair and got pregnant. When I woke up and realized it had just been a dream I was extremely relieved but at the same time a black cloud began to form in my thinking.
I again thought about telling Brenda about the phone calls but decided against it. It occurred to me that if I told her about the calls it could easily start a chain of events that would prevent me from ever finding out what this was all about. I knew that if I told Brenda she would tell Kara and whom would Kara tell? I could only guess. I figured that it wouldn't take long for word to get back to the perpetrator that I had told Brenda about the call and that I didn't fall for the scheme, whatever it was, and that would be the end of it. Then there was that small possibility that the caller was telling the truth. I needed to know. I couldn't let it end there. I had to know the truth.
*****
There were no more calls that week but that didn't help me. I was beginning to feel stressed out over the mystery of the calls. Saturday evening, as Brenda and I were getting dressed to go out to dinner with Kara and John I hoped that I would get some kind of relief from the stress but I didn't know how that would happen.
That evening the four of us had a great time. The meal was good and the conversation was interesting and enjoyable. I discreetly watched the interaction between Kara and John but I saw nothing that would lead me to believe that Kara was cheating on him.
In spite of the enjoyable evening, when we got home I was still without an answer as to what was going on. There was no apparent problem between John and Kara. Kara and Brenda didn't look like they had any dark secrets that they were keeping from John and me. This should have made me feel better but it didn't. I could feel myself slipping into a depression until Brenda kissed me on the ear and said, "I was thinking about you today. Time to go make a baby."
I followed her up to our room where I gave my best effort to make a baby. As soon as we were done Brenda said, "You do know it is too soon for me to get pregnant, don't you. I only stopped taking the pill two days ago."
"I know," I said. "Can we try again tomorrow night?"
Brenda said, "Of course," and kissed me.
*****
It was Monday morning and I was sitting at my desk when the thought hit me. If my caller was at the restaurant where Brenda went to lunch with Kara on Wednesdays, all I had to do was go to the restaurant on Wednesday and see who she was. I had to think it through carefully before I did anything. I had kind of threatened to show up for lunch some day and Brenda acted as if that would be a good thing. So, if I did just show up at the restaurant it wouldn't cause her any alarm. The problem was, if my caller saw me before I could identify her she would disappear and I would have lost my chance.
I didn't know if the caller knew what I looked like. It is quite possible that she did and she would spot me if I got anywhere near that restaurant. I took a long lunch on Monday and drove over to Apian Way and checked out Vinny's. There would be no way for me to get inside Vinny's without being seen but there was a space in the parking lot across the street from Vinny's where I could park my car. There was part of a fence there that would block most of my car from view but would allow me to watch the restaurant.
Monday night I put my binoculars in the car so that I wouldn't forget them on Wednesday. Tuesday was very stressful. I managed to keep myself busy with my job but I hated that I had to wait until Wednesday to do anything about my problem.
I left my office at 11:00 AM on Wednesday and drove to the parking lot across the street from Vinny's. Luckily, the space behind the fence was available and I parked there.
I looked around to make sure no one was paying any attention to me and then I got the binoculars out and checked out the view. The binoculars brought the front of the window of the restaurant up close. The problem was the glare of the sunlight on the window made it difficult to see inside the restaurant. There was nothing more for me to do except wait so I got out the sandwich and soda I brought with me and ate my lunch.
At 12:05 PM I watched Brenda, Kara and another woman, who I assumed was Francis walk into Vinny's. I took out the binoculars trained them on the window. I could just make out the three of them sitting down at the table. Well, they were sitting at the table by the window. The caller had that much right. I couldn't really see the table next to them that well but it didn't appear that anyone was sitting there. I watched the front of the restaurant closely for the next forty-five minutes and while many people went into the restaurant, most of them left with their take out orders after only a few minutes.
As far as I could tell, no one had sat at the table next to Brenda and her friends. I waited until they left and watched to see if anyone came out after them. No one did.
That left me to wonder if my caller didn't make it for lunch today or was it possible that she spotted me and took off before I had a chance to see her. I had to hurry back to my office so that I would be there in case she called. I wanted her to think I had followed my usual routine of eating in my office, not that there is any reason to believe that she would know that was my routine.
As I walked into my office the phone began to ring.
"Hello, Apex Office Integrators, Mike Fulton speaking."
"Mike, I am beginning to worry about you," the voice said. "You still haven't done anything to stop your wife."
"How do you know that I haven't done anything?"
"I know because of what your wife said at lunch today?" she replied.
"You listened to their conversation again today?"
"Of course. What else do I have for entertainment? You had better start listening to me. I enjoy eavesdropping on their conversations but I don't enjoy reporting this bad news to you."
"Then why did you call me?"
"I guess it makes me feel better about listening in on their conversations. If I can help you, then maybe I am not such a bad person," she said. "Anyway, things are getting to the danger point."
"Just exactly what does that mean?"
"It means that today your wife told her friend that the next time that you have to go out of town for work she is going to have her little fling. It even got to the point where Kara was suggesting that they double date and that she knew just the right guys to go out with."
I could feel the tension building and growing up my spine. I didn't know what to say or do. I still couldn't believe that my wife would consider cheating on me but the story I was being told was starting to sound believable. My thoughts were interrupted by the voice on the phone.
"Well, are you going to do something to stop this or are you going to just let it happen? If you don't plan to do anything, tell me now so I can stop worrying about you."
"I'll take care of this," I said and then put the phone down hard.
I thought about everything I had been told over and over again and by the time I got home I was sure I had a problem but I still wasn't sure that my wife was the problem. I had just about talked myself into believing that I was right and that Brenda was innocent of the things my caller had been saying about her but them I got hit in the head with a sledgehammer.
At dinner, as I was asking the kids about their day at school Brenda asked me a question that made my blood turn cold.
"Don't you have a trip to Denver coming up soon?"
I had scheduled the trip for the following week but with everything else on my mind I had forgotten to tell Brenda about it. What had disturbed me so much was the timing of the question. My caller had said that Brenda told Kara that the next time I went out of town that she would have an affair and here she was asking me if I had a trip to Denver coming up soon. Coincidence? I didn't know what to think.
I tried like hell to put it out of my mind when Brenda asked me if we were going to work on making a baby that night. In the end I had to tell Brenda that I wasn't feeling well.
*****
Thursday morning I made a decision to do something I never thought I would do. I made an appointment to meet with a private investigator. I arranged to see him Friday morning and then I called my customer in Denver and postponed my trip one week. I was going to have to end this mess before I left for Denver.
That evening I got some photographs from one of our albums to give to the investigator.
*****
Friday morning at 9:30 I entered AAA Detective Agency. I knew better than to think that AAA had anything to do with the quality of their work. They chose the name so they would be close to the top of the list of detective agencies in the phone book. It worked; they were the third on the list. They got my business because I never call the first name listed and the second agency didn't answer the phone.
I was escorted into Brian Dunston's office where I spent twenty minutes telling him exactly what I wanted him to do and then I handed him the pictures.
?Good looking woman," he said.
The way he said it disgusted me. I already had a pretty low opinion of him. I didn't think much of a man that would make his living off the pain of others. Spying on cheating spouses was not a career that I could respect.
"Yes, she is," I said tersely. "Now let me go over my instructions one more time. First of all you have to be discrete. I don't want her to know that you are following her around."
"No problem, Mr. Fulton," he said. "We are professionals here. She won't know we are following her."
"If you find that she is meeting anyone and having an affair or affairs I want proof. Photographs, video, or voice recordings, I don't care which as long as they clearly prove what she is doing."
"Don't worry about a thing Mr. Fulton, if she is fooling around we will get the proof."
"I need whatever evidence you get by next Thursday, I said.
"I understand. Why don't you plan on coming in next Thursday afternoon around three o'clock and we will give you whatever we have been able to uncover."
"Okay, next Thursday at three. I'll see you then," I said.
I was feeling sick to my stomach when I left Mr. Dunston's office.
*****
The next several days dragged by. I managed to keep Brenda from noticing that anything was wrong. I didn't want her to think that I was suspicious of anything and I certainly didn't want to upset the children. I was proud of myself when I was able to make love to Brenda four out of seven nights.
On Wednesday afternoon I sat in my office waiting for my caller. At 1:30 PM the phone rang.
"Have you done anything yet?" she asked as soon as I said hello.
"I have everything in hand," I said.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"Sorry, I can't tell you that. I can only say that it will be over by this weekend."
She tried to question me more but I told her that was all I would say and then I hung up the phone.
*****
Thursday at three o'clock I was sitting in Brian Dunston's office at AAA Detective Agency.
"Mr. Fulton, I have what I assume is bad news for you. We caught her in the act and we have the evidence to prove it," he said.
Mr. Dunston handed me a DVD.
"It's all on here and it is all admissible in court. All of the video on this DVD was shot in public, there are no hidden cameras in homes or hotel rooms. We have a DVD player set up in the room next door if you would like to view the video now," he said.
"I'll take it with me and view it privately if you don't mind. If you would just give me the invoice I'll pay it on my way out."
*****
Back in my office again I locked my door and loaded the DVD into my laptop and hit play. Dunston was right; the evidence was all there. The first scene was time marked on Monday at 9:00 PM and showed her sitting in a booth in some bar with a man. The man had his arm around her neck and his hand was resting on her breast. They kissed a few times and then got up to dance. On the dance floor they were all over each other. The next scene jumped to 10:15 that same night and it showed her getting into a car with the same guy. As soon as they were in the car the guy pulled his cock out and she went down on him and she sucked him to completion.
The next scene was at 11:05 and showed the two of them going into a motel room at the downtown Ramada Inn. At 1:25 AM they came out of the room and went back to the bar where she got into her car and drove home.
The next scene was on Wednesday morning at 9:07 AM. She was with a different guy sitting in a dinner eating breakfast. He kept pinching her tits and would stick his tongue in her ear every few minutes. In the next scene the detective was following a car that apparently belong to the guy. At first I didn't think she was in the car with him, as her head couldn't be seen above the seat but then her head popped up as the car turned into the parking lot of an abandoned warehouse. In the next scene the car was shown at some distance from the camera. It was too far away to even see if anyone was in the car. Then the camera started to zoom in until I could see the guy fucking her doggie style in the back seat.
That was all I could handle. I uploaded the video to my hard drive and then copied it back to a blank DVD then erased the file. I put the DVD in a protective sleeve and then slipped it into a large manila envelope. I put the original DVD in my office safe and headed out to run my devil's errand.
*****
That evening I got home about twenty minutes before Brenda. As soon as the door from the garage into the kitchen opened Kevin and Michele came charging into the house without even taking the time to say hello to me. Brenda came in behind them smiling.
"You're home early tonight," she said.
"Just getting ready to make a baby tonight."
Brenda laughed. "Good, because I was thinking about you all day," she said. "Did you get the mail?"
"No, I forgot. I'll go out and get it now."
"Sit down, I'll get it," she said. "I wouldn't want you to get your little boys too tired to do their job tonight."
Brenda came back into the house with the usual assortment of credit card offerings, real estate ads and other junk mail. Along with all that she had a large manila envelope. Brenda quickly scanned through the mail and dropped everything except for the large envelope onto the coffee table. Brenda handed me the large envelope and said. "Addressed to you with no return address."
I didn't say anything. I just took the envelope from her and set it on the table next to me and said, "How about a beer?"
"I'd love one."
I got up and went into the kitchen and got the two beers and brought them back. I handed one to Brenda and then I sat back down on the sofa. We talked about work for a few minutes and then Brenda said, "Aren't you curious about what's inside that envelope?"
"It's probably just junk mail," I said.
"I know but why don't you open it anyway?" she suggested.
I picked up the envelope and started to pull the flap open when the phone rang. Brenda jumped up and answered it and as I sat looking at Brenda I heard the first part of her conversation, at least her part of the conversation.
"Hello?" Normal beginning.
"Oh hi... What? Are you serious? Just a minute..." At that point Brenda went into the kitchen and I couldn't make out anything else she was saying.
The call lasted no more than ten minutes and as soon as it was over Brenda came back into the living room and said that she had to go see Kara, that it was an emergency.
"Emergency? What kind of emergency?" I asked.
"I'm not sure. Kara was too upset to make much sense on the phone. Can you feed the kids and put them to bed?"
"Of course. I have done it before you know."
"I know. I'm sorry I am just worried and upset."
Brenda grabbed her purse and keys and headed out the door.
"I'll be back as soon as I can," she said.
"Don't worry about me, take care of Kara," I said.
After Brenda left I went into the family room where Kevin and Michele were watching television.
"Mommy had to go out for a while so I have to feed you. You have two choices, I can cook some liver and onions or we could go to MacDonald's. It's your choice," I said.
Kevin started yelling, "MacDonald's... MacDonald's... MacDonald's.
Michele, with her usual sense of humor said, "UM... That's a tough choice. You know how much I like liver but I am sure that you would rather not have to cook so I'll go to MacDonald's just to make it easy on you."
I picked Michele up and swung her around over my head and put her on the floor and tickled her. "You're such a silly kid," I said.
Kevin wasn't about to be left out so he pulled on my arm. "My turn. I want to fly like Michele did."
I gave Kevin a ride and then tickled him too.
The three of us went out to MacDonald's and were back home in less than an hour. Then I sent them upstairs to get ready for bed. By eight o'clock they were tucked into their beds and Kevin was already asleep and I was sitting on the edge of Michele's bed listening while she told me about something that happened at school that day.
When she finished her story, I kissed her on the forehead and turned off her light. Then I went downstairs and got a beer. I settled onto the sofa and took a long swallow of my beer and then picked up the large envelope and opened in. I dumped the contents of the envelope onto the coffee table. The envelope contained two copies of the itinerary for my trip to Denver, my airline tickets, my hotel reservation and my rental car reservation.
I took one copy of the itinerary and put it on the refrigerator and held it in place with a magnet shaped like a bunch of bananas. I put the rest of the papers in my briefcase and then picked up my Sports Illustrated and began reading.
*****
It was almost midnight when Brenda got home and I could see that she was stressed over whatever happened to Kara.
"What happened?" I asked.
"Huh?"
"What was Kara's emergency?"
"Let me get a beer and then I tell you what happened," she said. "Do you want one?"
"Yes."
Brenda came back with the beer and sat next to me on the sofa.
"Okay, let's start again. What was Kara's emergency?" I asked.
Brenda took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "John threw her out of the house tonight."
"What? John did what?"
"When Kara got home from work at 6:30 tonight, John was waiting for her. He had already packed a bag for her and he tossed it out the door and told her to go with it."
"Oh my God. I can't believe this. Does John have another woman, is that why he threw her out?" I asked.
"No. Of course not. You know John, he would never do that."
I was quiet for a minute and then blurted out, "It's Kara. She had another man. Is that what this is about?"
Brenda looked down at the floor and said, "Yes. John found out she was fooling around."
"Jesus Christ! What the fuck is the matter with her. She was married to a great guy. I thought she loved him."
"She does love him," Brenda said.
"If she loved him, how could she cheat on him?"
"I don't know. I don't know why she did it," she said. "I feel so bad for her."
"You feel bad for her? What about John? She cheated on him."
"I know but he didn't have to throw her out of her house. He hit he, too."
I didn't like that. "He did?"
"He called her a slut and slapped her face."
"Is that all?" I asked.
"What do you mean is that all? He slapped her. He shouldn't have done that," she said.
?You're taking her side? She cheated on him. You know how much he loved her. This must have hurt him terribly. If that happened to me, I would have done the same thing or maybe worse. I love you more than anything else in this world but if you ever hurt me that way I don't think I would handle it any better than John did."
"I'm not taking her side, I just think John should have given her time to talk to him about it."
"What would there be to talk about? You mean that John should have given her time to make up lies to tell him about why she cheated on him." I said.
"Why are you so angry about this?" Brenda asked.
"I'm angry because I can feel John's pain. I'll bet if it had been John that cheated you wouldn't be as sympathetic toward him."
Brenda started to say something but stopped.
"You are Kara's best friend. You have lunch with her every week. Did you have any idea that she was cheating on John?"
"What? Why are you asking me that? What are you trying to say?" Brenda sputtered out.
"Brenda, you have always been honest with me, please don't start lying to me now. Did you know Kara was fooling around with other men?"
Brenda couldn't seem to look at me and then she meekly said, "Yes."
"For how long?"
"Several months."
"Did you try to stop her?"
"How?"
"Did you even try?" I persisted.
"No."
"Then you were an enabler. By not trying to stop her, you in effect encouraged her to do it," I said.
"No... No. I did not encourage her. I didn't like what she was doing, I just didn't know what to say so I didn't say anything."
"That makes you partly to blame for what happened tonight." I said. I surprised myself at the level of anger I was feeling toward Brenda at that moment.
"How can you say it's my fault? I didn't tell her to cheat on John."
"But you never did anything to stop her from cheating and now that she has been caught you are taking her side. I don't think I know you anymore. Aren't you the one that was always talking about how important fidelity was to a marriage? Does that only apply to the husbands or is it that it doesn't apply to your close friends?"
"Kara made a mistake. She's my friend and I have to stick by her. She's in a lot of pain."
"What about John? Don't you think he is in pain? What Kara did doesn't just affect her and John. Look what it is doing to us right now," I said and then got up from the sofa. "I'm going to bed."
Brenda didn't say a word.
I lay awake in bed for a while thinking about the argument I just had with Brenda. I was angry with her for not seeing the damage Kara did and I was angry with myself for getting angry. At least the situation would give Brenda plenty to think about. Any idea she may have had about having an affair to spice up her life should be gone now.
When Brenda came to bed a half hour later I pretended to be asleep so I wouldn't have to talk to her.
*****
The next few days were a little chilly around our house. On Monday morning I caught my flight to Denver. I decided that I wasn't going to call Brenda on Monday so she called me at nine o'clock, eleven o'clock her time in Richmond.
"Why didn't you call me when you got out there?" She asked.
"I didn't think you wanted to talk to me."
Brenda was quiet for a moment and then said, "I don't care what you thought, you should have to called me."
"Okay, I am sorry I didn't call. It won't happen again."
We only talked for about five minutes. Brenda said she had to make sure I got to Denver all right before she could go to sleep. Then she told me to make sure I called early enough to talk to the kids the next day.
The next couple of days Brenda was more friendly when I talked to her. We both avoided the subject of Kara and John.
My flight home on Thursday was due in a little after seven o'clock in the evening. I called Brenda before I left Denver and told her what time I expected to be home.
"Can you get yourself something to eat on the way home?" she asked. I am taking the kids to have dinner with my parents and you won't get here in time for dinner."
"No problem. I'll see you at home."
My flight arrived on time and I decide to stop by this little bar and grill I knew that served great burgers. When I walked in I saw John at the bar picking up a drink. I decided to talk to him and see how he was doing.
By the time I caught up to him he was already sliding into a booth and to my surprise he was sitting with a woman I didn't know.
"Hi, John, how are you?"
"Mike, it's nice to see you. I'm doing okay. About as well as can be expected under the circumstances," he said. Mike, this is my friend Fanny... Fanny, Mike."
"Nice to meet you Fanny," I said.
"If it weren't for Fanny, I might have gone completely off the deep end over this," John said.
"In that case I am really happy to meet you," I said to Fanny.
"Mike, we're just having a drink before we go out to dinner. Why don't you get a drink and join us?"
I ordered a beer and pulled a chair up to the outside of the booth. We didn't talk about Kara or what she had done. John spent most of the time talking about Fanny. He said he had known her since college. He talked more about their time at college and then he asked me about Brenda and the kids.
After about twenty minutes John said he had to go to the rest room. When he left the table Fanny smiled at me.
"Fanny? I assume that's a nickname. I am guessing that your name is Francis, am I right?"
"You're right. I must say you did a good job," Fanny said.
"That's what I do. I solve problems." I said. "So, how long have you been in love with John?"
"Since I met him in college."
"You were Kara's room mate then, weren't you?"
"Yes. You are good."
"So, you used me to get rid of Kara," I said.
"Yes. I am sorry but I couldn't do it myself. I didn't want her to know I betrayed her and I didn't want to be the one to have to tell John that his wife was cheating on him."
"Do you feel good about what you did?"
"I don't feel bad. Listen; if Kara hadn't started cheating on John I would have forever stayed in the background. I would never have done anything to hurt either one of them. But when she started bragging about cheating on John, I had to put a stop to it and why shouldn't I help myself while doing it."
"But why did you have to drag Brenda and me into this?"
"There was no one else. I am sorry to put you through this but I just couldn't let her get away with what she was doing to him,' Fanny said.
"How did you know that I would alert John to Kara's cheating?" I asked.
"I have been having lunch with your wife every week for more than a year. She talks about you all the time. She painted a pretty clear picture of someone that has high moral standards and I could tell from her description of you that you would put a stop to Kara's cheating one way or another and I was sure that in the end John would find out the truth.
"It was a real streak of genius to do it anonymously. John thinks the wife of one of Kara's boy friends hired the detective to follow him and then she sent the pictures to John."
"I guess I have just one more issue with you," I said. "You lied about Brenda being interested in having an affair, didn't you?"
"Yes. I had to say that to get you involved. That fact is that Brenda was very upset with Kara over this but she never said anything to her about it. Brenda and I talked about it a few times. Brenda kept hoping that Kara would come to her senses and stop fooling around. I never told Brenda this but I kept hoping that John would catch her."
"So Kara never tried to persuade Brenda to try fooling around?" I inquired.
"Actually, Kara did suggest it once and Brenda made it very clear that she would never do that. That's where I got the idea about calling you. I twisted things a bit but it was based on Kara making that suggestion," Fanny said.
I wasn't sure if I hated Fanny or admired her gumption. She found a way to alert John to Kara's cheating and then she was there for him to help ease his pain.
Before I could say anything else to Fanny I spotted John on his way back from the restroom.
We finished our drinks and just before they left John turned to me and said, "I don't know what the future holds but I hope that you and Brenda will still consider me as a friend."
"I am sure we will, John."
"It was very nice meeting you, Mike," Fanny said as a sly smile briefly appeared on her face.
"Likewise," I said.
After they left I ordered a cheeseburger and fries and another beer. As I sat eating my dinner a strange feeling came over me. It was a kind of euphoria and it took me a few minutes to realize why I felt that way. All the stress of the last few weeks was gone. Although I keep telling myself that I didn't believe that Brenda would ever cheat on me, a part of me was worried that maybe she would. When Fanny told me that Brenda had never shown any interest in having an affair and in fact had made it clear that she would never do that, the significance of that didn't sink in immediately. It all hit me at once. That was the best Cheeseburger I had ever had.
As soon as I finished my dinner I called Brenda to tell her I was headed home. Brenda said that she was almost ready to leave her parents house and would see me at home in about a half hour. Suddenly a half hour seemed like an eternity.
*****
I arrived home fifteen minutes before Brenda. I was so jazzed from the conversation I had with Fanny that I couldn't sit down. My mind was buzzing with all the emotions I was feeling. I needed to apologize to Brenda for the way I acted the night John threw Kara out of the house. I wanted to hold Brenda close and tell her I loved her. I wanted to make love to her. I wanted to grab her as soon as she walked in the door and make love to her on the floor in the kitchen but I knew I could not do that. I wasn't going to be able to do any of those things until the kids were asleep.
Suddenly it struck me that Brenda was angry with me when I left for Denver. I wondered if she was still angry. This home coming might not happened the way I wanted it to. I could end up spending the evening trying to get Brenda to forgive me for being so hard on her about not trying to intervene with Kara and stop her from destroying her marriage.
I thought about the times married guys I worked with bragged about their conquests while on business trips. I didn't approve of their behavior but I never said anything. I guess I was just as much of an enabler as Brenda had been with Kara. The only reason I was so hard on Brenda was because I was trying to use what happened to Kara as a warning to her that if she did cheat on me she could expect no better than what happened to Kara. Finding out after the fact that Brenda had never considered cheating made my behavior indefensible. I could never tell Brenda the truth about why I acted that way so I had to hope that she would accept my apology and forgive me.
Another issue I had to deal with was the way I solved my problem. I hired a detective to follow Kara and get the evidence of her cheating and then I had it delivered to John's house. I blew up their marriage to save my own. John learned the truth about Kara and she got what she deserved, but I am not sure the way I went about it was right. Maybe I should have gone to Kara and set her straight.
Suddenly I said what I was thinking out loud. "I did a selfish thing to save my marriage and I would do it again. I feel bad for John but it is not my fault that Kara cheated on him and there is no reason to believe that she would ever have stopped."
I was sitting on the sofa in the living room when I heard the garage door opening and I debated whether to
