If A Tree Falls...

This is just a little note to my favorite "Annie" who likes to point out that I write the same stories over and over again. You know, the nice guy husband gets cheated on but makes a nice comeback with his second wife while the cheating wife either gets hers or doesn't. I'm not going to tell him he's wrong. This is a hobby for me, so I write what I enjoy writing. If you don't enjoy reading my stories... then don't. Simple as that.

Or... here's two challenges for you: first, grow a pair and pick an ID. Second, under that ID, write your own stories and post them.

Yes, another story that's been done before by multiple authors. Three of the best of this story have been done by Nici, Cinical and Cagivagurl.

Ken Jennings had just read a question in the "Hodgepodge" category on Jeopardy when my wife mumbled something that I hoped I didn't hear correctly.

"Pardon me?" I asked in a halting voice as I shifted my gaze from the television to my wife of 25 years.

"I said I've been having an affair with Tony Green for the last year."

My stare turned into a glare as I continued looking at her. My brain replayed her statement.

"What the fuck are you talking about? You've been fucking Tony Green for a year?" I yelled.

She jumped in her seat one place away from me on the sofa. Tears sprang up in her eyes and her delicate hands balled up into fists. I wondered if she was going to start sobbing or attack me.

"You don't have to be crude about it. Yes, Tony and I have been intimate for about the past year," she said in the voice she used when she was trying to be official.

"Crude? Oh yeah, I have to be crude about it, bitch! You've just told me you've been cheating on me. Did you expect me to be civilized like some English nobleman? 'Let's put on the kettle and talk about this,'" I whined at a high volume.

She rolled her eyes at me, which she had to know would incense me even more.

"If you can't speak civilly to me, I guess we don't need to continue this conversation."

She started to rise from her spot, but I grabbed her arm and shoved her back down. That was the closest I'd ever come to hurting her, and for the first time I could see real fear in her eyes.

"You will sit there and we will continue this conversation, regardless of how I speak to you. You've just blown up my world, so you don't get to dictate my civility... unless you're ready to be looking for a different place to sleep tonight.

"Now... start making sense... you cheating slut."

She wrung her hands and looked around the room, carefully avoiding my eyes. She looked... terrified. Frankly, I was terrified, terrified that I might actually do her real physical harm. I was on the verge of hitting a girl for the first time since I punched Susan Mang in kindergarten for stealing my red crayon from my Crayola box.

"I-I have been seeing Tony Green for a little over a year now, and we've been intimate for about the last 12 months. I had to tell you, because the guilt has been killing me," she said quietly, finally looking into my eyes as she finished what I assumed was her confession.

"Wait. Wait. Wait. You had to tell me because the guilt has been killing you, not sorrow for cheating on me? What the fuck am I missing here, Traci?"

"I... umm... I'm not sorry for cheating on you, RJ. I'm sorry I kept it from you for so long. I didn't have the courage to tell you... because I'm not going to stop, at least for a while."

I got up from my spot and sat in the La-Z-Boy across the room, figuring that putting distance between us physically would decrease the chances of me physically assaulting the stupid bitch.

"I love you with all my heart and soul, RJ, but Tony has given me something that I didn't realize I needed, and I'm not ready to give that up anytime in the near future. It's not anything you've done wrong. It's that I've found something out about myself, and I want to keep exploring this."

I was pretty sure there wasn't enough Alka-Seltzer in the world to cure my sudden indigestion... or was this the way it felt when someone ripped your heart out of your chest while you're still alive... at least for a few more minutes. Yet as bad as my stomach felt, my brain suddenly felt like it was slowing to a crawl. I heard the words. I understood the words. But I was struggling to process what they meant in real time.

"How can you tell me you love me right after you tell me you've been cheating on me and are going to continue to do so?" I queried. "You cheating on me certainly isn't loving me..."

"My not telling you for so long was because I love you," she interrupted. "I knew this would hurt you terribly, and I didn't want to do that."

"Obviously, I didn't have a clue about your affair, so why did you tell me after a year? To rub it in my face that you got one over on me, or to brag that you could attract somebody better... somebody more handsome, more well-built, maybe having a bigger dick. What the fuck, Traci," I said.

"I felt guilty about going behind your back. I knew I needed to tell you so I... could feel better about myself."

"So dropping this bombshell on me is all about you being able to feel better about yourself, despite the fact that you're a cheating slut? You can't be fucking serious."

"But I am serious. Now that you know, it won't be cheating anymore."

Her smile was as innocent as that of a virgin sitting on a swing in a pristine garden. Somehow, she really believed the bullshit she was trying to sell me. What happened to the woman I married a quarter-century ago? Up until a few minutes ago, I would have said she was sitting next to me on the sofa; now I was pretty sure she had been replaced by some alien.

"Knowing about your affair doesn't mean you're not cheating on me. I didn't agree to you having a lover; that was your decision unilaterally. You went outside of our marriage, outside of our vows. Therefore, you're cheating, and have been a cheating slut for a year, by your own admission," I growled.

"So you're saying that it would have been better if I would have kept my own secret. That what you didn't know wouldn't have hurt you?"

"Yes. No. I guess truthfully, if I didn't know I wouldn't be hurt, but that's not the point. You shouldn't have cheated on me in the first place, especially if you love me as much as you say. You lied to me... at least by omission and probably in deed, and you disrespected me, in addition to breaking our wedding vows."

She hung her head at my pronouncement, at least for a few seconds.

"But the reason you didn't know about the sex with Tony was because we were incredibly discreet so we wouldn't hurt you, and so no one else would find out so you wouldn't be embarrassed. You never knew, and I never denied you anything in the bedroom. If anything, I think our sex life has probably improved in the last year, in part because I feel so much better about myself sexually and feel so energized."

"Admittedly, our sex life has been better in the last year, but that's probably because of what you've been doing with your lover. Don't you think it would have been better for us if we had done things together, as a husband and wife, instead of you stepping outside of our marriage to 'get energized.'"

I made little air quotes with my fingers to emphasize that last point.

"If a tree falls in a forest and there is no one there to hear it, is there still no disrespect?" I asked.

She dropped her eyes again, then looked up at me. She didn't answer my question.

"So... can't we just continue on as we have been?" she asked in a small voice. "It won't be forever... and we will continue to be discreet. You will never know."

I truly loved this woman, but there was no way I could live with the current situation. I wasn't one of those guys who could share his wife, whether I knew it or not. To me, sex is never "just sex" when it involves my wife.

"You've got to be kidding, Traci. It was bad enough when you were doing it behind my back. No way I'm letting you and Tony Green continue this affair. I'll have to think real hard about not divorcing you for the fucking you've already done with him."

She looked shocked at first when I mentioned divorce. Then her look morphed into what I would call a smirk.

"You won't divorce me, RJ. I know this hurts, but I also know you love me. And you're smart enough to know that if you divorce me, I'll get half of our stuff and I'll still be having sex with Tony. And you will be alone."

It was my turn to look shocked. Considering she loved me so much, she had apparently been doing some homework. The look on her face when she announced that to me told me something as well.

I spoke with an attorney a few days later and he told me that Traci's assessment was correct. Still, there was no way I could ever look at myself in the mirror if I just let her affair continue. Sooner or later, I would have to kill her lover. Divorcing her and being alone seemed to be a better option than killing her lover and spending the rest of my life in a jail cell, maybe trying to avoid gang rape in the showers if what the movies say is correct.

Traci worked as a physical therapist at the local hospital. She went in at 7 AM and finished at 4 PM. I worked from 8 to 6, sometimes later, as a bookkeeper for a small steel factory at the edge of town. That gave Traci more than enough time every day to have her affair, whether I knew it or not. Previously, I was a happy idiot, secure in my life due to my cluelessness. Now I felt like each day was a challenge. I began to chew Tums like candy. I flinched every time she tried to kiss me, wondering if another man's dick had been in her mouth hours--or even minutes--before. The very thought of having sex with her would anger me on my good days, enrage me on my bad ones.

"I always clean up. I would never give you sloppy seconds," she said one night after I turned her down again for sex.

"Always? There's never been a time where I haven't had seconds... or hasn't been a time where maybe you haven't had a good long shower?"

She dropped her eyes and didn't answer. Fuck. Holy shit. The very thought that I may have eaten another man's cum from her pussy sent me scrambling to the bathroom to lose my dinner.

She was sitting up looking perturbed when I came out of the bathroom. She reminded me that I had eaten her out several times after first coming in her.

"Don't act like you don't realize there's a difference between tasting my own cum and eating out another man's load. Would you be okay sucking my dick after I had it inside another woman?"

"Like you could actually attract a hot 20-something," she giggled.

Traci would never know it, but that was the moment that everything changed for me.

Traci giggled again as I got back into bed. I could see a look of ridicule on her face as she thought about her last statement. I'd like to think I'm a pretty good-looking guy and I'm pretty fit for my age, but both Traci and I know that she is way above my pay grade in the looks department. I was fully cognizant that I'd probably never be able to attract a pretty 20-something, but it's not like I'm a troll and couldn't attract anybody decent.

I turned my back to my wife and did some thinking before I drifted off. Okay, I couldn't get a 20-something, but what was wrong with some 40-something pussy? Yeah, that could work, I thought to myself as I drifted off.

My plan was simple. Traci had several friends who were single, most of those being divorced. It would take some lying on my part, but then again, considering the lying my wife had done to get us to this point, I had no qualms doing. I just needed one of her friends to agree.

Allison Rosario was a beautiful dark-haired, full-bodied woman in her early 40s who had been one of Traci's close friends for about two decades. We didn't interact too often individually, but we had always gotten along pretty well. I could tell she was surprised when I called.

After some quick pleasantries, I got right to it. I explained to Allison that Traci was cheating on me with a younger man, and we had decided to open our marriage to make it fair to me. I inquired if she wanted to go out with me... and maybe see where the evening led.

There was complete silence on the line. She gasped when I said Traci was cheating on me, so I could tell she was putting the pieces together in her mind, which is exactly what I wanted her to do. I was throwing my cheating slut wife under the bus while asking one of her best friends to sleep with me.

"We'd need to be completely discreet here, Allison," I added in my most sincere tone. "The deal is we don't talk about our extracurricular activities."

"Wow. I'm kind of shocked here, RJ," she said. "Miss Prim and Proper Traci has been cheating on you? Who with? For how long?" she asked rapid fire.

"His name's Tony Green. I guess she works with him. They've been going at it for about a year, she recently told me."

"She told you? You didn't catch her?" Allison asked.

"She told me," I said. "She liked the sex but she didn't feel right going behind my back. We talked about it and decided to open up our marriage, to be fair to me. So... you're my first ask."

"I guess I'm honored, RJ, but I'm still shocked that Traci would have cheated on you. Can I call her or something to confirm this?"

"I guess you can confirm her cheating, but then we won't be going out. Those are her rules. You know I'm telling the truth about her cheating. You know I'm not a liar," I said while lying.

"Yeah, Traci always said you were one of the most honest people she'd ever met. I'm intrigued. Give me a few days to think about it. Traci and I may not be best friends, but I don't want to hurt her."

Allison couldn't see my smile. This lying thing was a lot easier than I figured it would be.

Our date on Thursday night a week later couldn't have gone much better, once I got Allison off the fact that Traci was a cheater. She seemed to be as shocked as I was at that development. She knew who Traci's paramour was, and said that she could see why my wife would choose him for what we both assumed was her first affair.

Always a good dresser, Allison certainly didn't disappoint me when I picked her up at her apartment. She was wearing a tight sweater with the top three buttons undone, resulting in her showing a good amount of creamy white breasts. Her chic, skintight jeans showed that she kept herself in "fighting trim."

Continuing on with my new skill of lying, I had told Traci that I had a late meeting and would be home no later than midnight and that she shouldn't wait up on me. Allison and I had a good meal, then went to a quiet bar for a nice drink and conversation. After that we adjourned to her apartment and, after some initial butterflies, we wound up in her bed with her riding first my face and then my dick like a rodeo star, providing play-by-play as well.

She got off four times before I couldn't hold off anymore and came like a freight train, that being the first time in quite a while for me. Afterward, we lay entwined on her bed giggling and playing kissy face like teenagers. She told me I was the first man she'd had in several months, and I made her wait worthwhile.

"So you're saying we should do this again?" I inquired.

"Oh yeah. If Traci is willing to share you... well, I'm not going to pass that up."

"Okay, then, I need to make some arrangements," I said.

In the next few weeks, I supposedly joined a Tuesday night bowling league and began going out with my co-workers for drinks on Thursday nights... at least that's what I told Traci. She readily agreed that I needed to have some time on my own, probably thinking she could have more time with her lover. With my eyes now completely opened, I recognized her altruism for what it was. Still, what was good for the goose...

I enjoyed Allison's body several times over the next several weeks, and I know she enjoyed mine equally. I know she also enjoyed getting one over on Traci, even though they were supposedly good friends. She expressed the fact that Traci had always talked about how important fidelity was in a marriage, and here she was being a slut. She wondered aloud if Tony was her first lover. Believe me, that was the very same thing I was pondering in my head.

Despite being married for 25 years, I apparently had no clue about what goes on in the female brain, because what came next threw me for another loop. After a robust lovemaking session with Allison, she told me she had to go away for a week... but then she offered up another of Traci's close single friends for an alternate.

"S-seriously?" I stammered, completely blown away by that offer.

"Absolutely. I know several of Traci's friends would absolutely kill to have a shot at you. They just wouldn't ever make a move on you, though, because you are Traci's husband, and friends don't fuck friends' spouses... unless, well, it's something crazy like this. I mean, if you were single, I know a lot of her friends would be lining up to... date you," she giggled, wiggling her eyebrows.

"I can give you a few numbers, and let you do your thing... except there's one caveat. You and I have been going bareback, but if you still intend to play with me, you've got to wear a condom with the others. I love the girls, but who knows who everyone has been with. This way we're not taking any chances. Having fun is one thing, but there's no reason to be careless or stupid."

Hmm. Somebody has been giving this some thought... actually, a lot of thought. My plan just got upgraded and upsized. God bless you, Allison.

Allison's list had five names on it. All the women were decent-looking and nice. None were supermodels or could probably compete with 20-somethings, but that's not what I was looking for. I was simply looking for a good sex partner to get some revenge on my wife.

I decided to go through the list alphabetically. Grace Hansen, a mid-40s blonde with a few extra pounds and the tits of a goddess, was up first. I gave her the same opening spiel I gave Allison, and she announced she was in before I finished. Like Allison, part of her agreement came because it was a way to stick it to my wife, who, I was finding out, was kind of a smug bitch around her divorced friends.

"She's not necessarily subtle when she throws her marriage to you in our faces," Grace said. "Who would have thought Little Miss Goody Two Shoes had a dark side. And the chance to get a shot at you... hell yeah, I'm in."

I made up my mind that I would enjoy every woman for what each had to offer. I wouldn't compare any of them, because not only wasn't it fair to them, it wasn't fair to me. I would treat each woman like a fine meal to be consumed at a leisurely, enjoyable pace.

All five of the other women said yes to my inquiries about sex. I have to admit it was an exciting time in my life... having regular sex with six different women. The women helped bolster my "fragile male ego," reassuring me that Traci's decision to cheat on me was probably not my fault, as she had said. Traci's friends repeatedly told me that I still had it.

Probably because she had been living such a great life fucking her boy-toy several times a week, Traci never said a word to me about the fact that we hadn't had sex in almost six months, until one day she finally did. We hadn't slept in the same bed since she told me she was cheating on me, and she only tried to initiate sex with me once or twice early on after she told me. I turned her down harshly, so I knew she wouldn't try it again anytime in the near future. The near future turned into the far future as well, until my wife remembered she and I were supposed to be more than just roommates.

"How about we go out and see if we can't resurrect something of a sex life, RJ? Go to a restaurant, maybe hit a club, then come home and play the night away. Come to think about it, it's been a long time since we've done anything. You've got to be building some big muscles in that right arm of yours."

"This isn't on me, Traci. I'm not the one who decided to include Tony Green in our marriage," I said. "You keep telling me you love me, but if you really did then you'd stop fucking Tony Green. Maybe then we could consider... just consider... saving our marriage."

"We've had this discussion. I-I'm still not ready to end my journey to find out who I am," she said.

"That's bullshit, Traci, and you know it. You can't have it both ways. Just because I haven't pulled the trigger yet doesn't mean I won't at some point. You can only abuse my love for so long," I said.

"If I could get you back in our bed I could show you I'm not abusing your love," she said.

"No, fucking me stupid doesn't show me you love me. It just shows me that you think I live to make my dick happy.

"I won't share you with another man. I keep telling you that. I. Don't. Share."

I was well aware that my marriage had deteriorated to Traci and I being little more than roommates as the next six months went by. If she noticed, she never said. At the same time, however, my overall sex life was flourishing. At 47, I was having good to great sex several times a week with a mix of six different women. I called them my sex-pack, and it was like living out a fantasy.

I never asked any of the women if they were sleeping with other men in addition to me. From the way they talked, they all knew that I was doing the whole group of friends. I grew to enjoy all six emotionally as well as sexually. Not wanting to be a pig, I inquired occasionally if everything was going as well for "my women" as it was for me in this relationship. To a woman, they all said they wished we could have started this much earlier.

They all also expressed the opinion that my wife was obviously an idiot to give another woman the chance to steal me away from her. It was nice to hear that, although sad at the same time.

If Traci had any second thoughts about our current lifestyle, I would have thought that our week vacation in the Jacksonville, Florida, area would have brought them to the forefront. That's exactly what happened on the second day, when we spent a great day at the Jacksonville Zoo, then went to a high-end restaurant followed by a dance club.

I could tell Traci was feeling amorous by the end of the evening, and she practically attacked me when we got back to our room that night. We were soon kissing passionately on the king-size bed in the room, but when we got to the part where clothes would have normally been coming off, I stopped and got off the bed, quelling the action.

Traci looked stunned, her eyes wild with lust. She tried to talk, but no words came out. I walked over to the TV, turned it on and sat down in a chair to watch some inane movie; I couldn't tell what.

"Wh-what the fuck, RJ?" Traci screamed at me, her ability to speak suddenly returned.

"I... I'm sorry if I led you on, Traci. I shouldn't have done that," I apologized softly.

"You... what? Led me on..." she mumbled. "Nooo... we're on vacation, RJ. It's just you and me. Why can't we reconnect?"

I looked at her sadly.

"Because you'll be back in Tony Green's bed two days after we get home... if it takes that long. This changes nothing for you, does it?" I asked.

She looked away. For a second I wondered if she was feeling guilty. Then she turned back around and smirked at me.

"I decide who gets my body, and when. If you can't live with that..."

"Obviously I have a problem with that, which is why we're not going to have sex as long as you're still fucking your boy-toy," I answered.

She harrumphed, got up off the bed and went into the bathroom. She came back out a few minutes later, her hair re-brushed and her outfit straightened up. She posed for a second, I'm assuming so I could see what she'd done, then headed for the door.

"I'm going out. Don't wait up," she huffed.

I had wondered, but never asked, if she was exclusive with Tony. Considering she didn't seem to hesitate before going out, I had my answer. I wondered if Tony knew she was doing to him what she had done to me. I, for one, wasn't going to tell him.

I gave her a big wave but never responded audibly. She harrumphed again and slammed the door on the way out.

I peeked at my watch to see she had been gone 2-1/2 hours when she quietly let herself back in the room. She stripped, walked into the bathroom and took a quick shower. I continued to pretend I was asleep facing away from her side when she quietly slipped into bed.

"Thank you for showering," I said quietly after about a minute.

She took a longer shower in the morning after I took mine. We went down to breakfast in the hotel.

"Do you use the same lame excuses on Tony when you go out on him... or haven't you told him the way you told me. Considering telling me didn't work out too well for you, I would think that you've been smart enough not to tell him," I said.

She grimaced while she chewed on her food. She continued to watch me for several long seconds and I watched several emotions play across her face. She decided to maintain her silence.

The rest of the week went off without incident. We resumed a friendly if somewhat standoffish relationship for the remainder of the vacation, although she stopped the whispered "I love yous" she had done several times during the first two days.

I let things continue as they were for another two months after our vacation before I decided to pull the plug on my sham of a marriage. By this point Traci had been sleeping with her lover for more than two years. Even if she quit him that day, there was no fucking way I could ignore two fucking years of her fucking another man, no matter how many times she told me she loved me. She had to know this was coming.

I idly wondered if she had fucked her lover earlier in the day as I descended the stairs after changing clothes when I got home from work. She had dinner on the table a few minutes later.

I waited until Traci was about halfway through her meal when I dropped my bomb, using the same phrase she had used on me when she announced her affair.

"I've been having an affair with Allison Rosario for a little more than a year," I dropped into the middle of what had been a conversation about which movie we were going to stream that night.

"Wait. What?" she said quietly after a delay of several seconds.

"I said I've been having an affair with Allison Rosario for a little more than a year."

I watched her face as it switched shades from pale white to flushed red. Wait for it...

"You son...

I stopped her cold by holding up my hand in a stop motion, then started talking again.

"And Grace Hansen, Barbie Parker, Connie Lewis, Shae Turner and Nancy Sweetin."

I know I grinned like a smug bastard. My wife's mouth opened in shock as she stared back at me. She made a strangled sound, then coughed to clear her throat.

"How... how could you do this to me? Those are all friends of mine," she hissed.

I continued grinning at her while she continued starting back at me for several long seconds.

"Hello. I'm the guy married to the woman who's been fucking a young guy from her office for more than two years now... because she's finding herself or some such bullshit."

She looked like I had just slapped her, like she couldn't believe what I was saying.

"You... you fucked my friends to get revenge on me?" she asked barely above a whisper.

"Sort of," I replied. "It started out as revenge with Allison, but then it got to be much more when the others came on board. Call it revenge and finding myself, if you will."

Traci deflated right in front of me. I could see her brain was working overtime.

"You told my friends about my affair with Tony? How could you do that to me, and to yourself for that matter. You outed yourself as a cuckold," she said.

"Yes, I did, and I also outed you as a slut. I told your friends that after you had been cheating on me for a year, we decided to open our marriage to be fair to me. Each one of your friends was on board with the plan... once they got over their shock at your behavior," I explained.

"You lied to them. We never opened our marriage!" she yelled at me.

"Huh. Imagine from whom I learned that skill? Turns out I'm pretty good at it, although I have to admit I came clean to each of them after a little bit because I felt guilty... but considering you were cheating, all of your friends decided I should be able to get some, too, so they all decided we should continue to play around."

"Wow. None of my so-called friends gave you up... for over a year. So I'm guessing you must have satisfied them.

"Wait a minute! Is that why you haven't made love to me... in forever?" she screeched.

"Actually, if you recall, I haven't touched you since you announced your affair to me. I didn't start... seeking my own affair for a year after you. I gave you every chance to stop yours, but you kept telling me you weren't ready to do that. I'm really not sure it would have made a difference if you would have quit after screwing around for a year, but after two years, well, not a chance in hell. Besides, there's no way I want to give up my women. This finding myself thing... is really great," I asserted.

She had stopped eating completely and was glaring at me with malicious intent.

"So why are you telling me now after doing this for a year?" she snarled. "Are you rubbing your revenge in my face?"

"I guess I am, but that's not why I'm telling you now. I'm telling you because I've decided to end this joke of a marriage. I'm tired of living with a roommate who insists she loves me but won't stop cheating with another man. When did you stop respecting me? Did that happen before you stopped loving me, or after?"

I could see the anger rising. I pre-empted her next comment by raising my hand and continuing to talk.

"You will be served divorce papers at home late tomorrow afternoon. If you aren't home because you're busy fucking your lover, the server will show up at his apartment. Failing that, you will be served at the hospital the next morning. So it's up to you how bad you want this to look. I'm trying to be respectful, after all we did have a pretty good run and you gave me two great kids."

She exhaled loudly.

"I know you don't believe me, but I still love you, RJ. I'm not going to be with Tony forever, then you and I can go back to being what we used to be," she said.

I was proud of myself for not laughing in her face. She could see that I wasn't buying it.

"I'll be home tomorrow afternoon. Thank you for being considerate," she said quietly as I got up and walked away.

A week after I filed, I got a phone call from my mother-in-law. Traci's mother and I had always gotten along great, and we had become even closer after Traci's father died three years ago of a heart attack. Mom still lived in her home about an hour away from us, and we usually drove over to visit her at least once a month. I usually brought my tool kit with me when we went, and I did the little fix-it things around her home that my father-in-law had always done.

"Robert, I'm very disappointed in you," she said when I answered the phone. "I know there are going to be rough spots and spats in every marriage, but you can't just run away from an argument after 25 years of marriage."

I knew from the first minute that Meredith was incredibly mad at me. She and my parents were the only ones who called me by my given name, and that was only when they were upset with me. Her being upset with me told me that Traci tried to soft soap the reason I filed for divorce.

Meredith continued to lecture me for another couple of minutes before I lost my temper and interrupted her diatribe somewhere between Adam and Eve and Harry and Bess Truman.

"Mom... Mom! What reason did Traci give you for my filing?" I interjected.

"She said you got jealous over her friendship with a co-worker of hers. Really, Robert, she's a big girl, and she's allowed to have male friends as well as female friends. This is the 21st century after all..."

I stopped listening after another minute and waited for her to take a breath before jumping back in.

"By any chance, did she happen to mention that she'd been having sex with this friend for the past two years?" I inquired.

I heard Meredith gasp, then fall completely silent. The quiet lasted for about 30 seconds, and for a brief moment I thought she might have passed out on the other end of the call, which was still showing active despite the quiet.

"You can't be serious, Robert! Traci loves you completely and would never do that to you," she rushed out.

"The confession came from her lips, Mom. She admitted to fu... having sex with some young guy for more than a year... and apparently the sex was so good that she wasn't going to stop for a while longer. It's been over another year now and from what she says they are still going at it several times a week. She was lying to me for over a year, and has been disrespecting me for over two. Do you call her having sex with another man being loving to me, because I sure as hell don't," I said.

"I-I-I... I don't know what to say, Robert," Meredith responded shakily. "Her father and I certainly didn't raise her that way. I don't know what to say to you... except I'm sorry for what she's done and extremely embarrassed."

"At least one of you is sorry. She's certainly not," I grumbled.

Twenty minutes after I got off the phone with Meredith, Traci called me in an absolute shitfit. After calling me several words that I had never heard her use before, she asked me how I could throw her under the bus to her mother.

"What happens in our marriage is private and should stay just between us!" she screamed at me over the phone line.

"Except what happened wasn't in our marriage. You went outside of our marriage, and then you lied to your mother about it. I just told her the truth, after she accused me of being unreasonable over your friendship with another man. You called fucking another man a friendship... really, Traci? I would think after all the practice you've had lying the last couple of years, you could have at least done better than that."

I heard her start crying over the line.

"She called me a slut... a whore. She said she's glad my father wasn't alive so he didn't have to hear about this. It would have killed him."

"It hasn't done much for me either, Traci," I said blandly before ending the call.

Traci's attorney tried to get counseling, but when my attorney noted to the judge that my wife told me repeatedly she wasn't going to stop having sex with her lover, the judge looked unimpressed, to say the least.

"Is this true, Mrs. Lyons, and keep in mind this is a courtroom, and even though you are not under oath, Iying directly to me would still be considered perjury," the judge noted sternly.

She turned to her attorney, mouth open in shock, I guessed, before the two leaned into each other for a quick, quiet conference. I couldn't hear what they were saying, but I saw her attorney nod several times.

"Yes, your honor," she rasped. "But that..."

She shut up immediately when the judge raised his eyebrows in what I assumed was reproach.

"Counseling denied. Let's not waste any more of Mr. Lyons' time," the judge said harshly.

"I shouldn't have said a damn thing," Traci said under her breath but loud enough that I could hear her. "I grew a conscience because I loved him. If I didn't say anything, I'd still be married."

Neither one of our children wanted to believe that Traci cheated on me. Both were surprised when I told them she confessed to me.

"Oh... shit. In that case..." our daughter mumbled over the phone during our conference call a day after I filed.

"So... any chance of reconciliation?" our son asked. "You guys have been married for a quarter-century. Surely that's earned her some... points toward forgiveness?"

"She's been having sex with this guy for more than two years now," I answered. "She confessed after she had been sleeping with him for a year. I've tried for over a year to get her to stop, but apparently this young guy makes her feel sexy and younger. She wants to keep exploring this for a while longer. I can't figure out why she think's I'd be good with this. We've always agreed that infidelity is a game-changer, but somewhere along the way she figured the rules no longer applied to her."

"You've always given her whatever she's asked for, Dad," my son noted. "Maybe she figured you'd eventually give in on this, too."

"Apparently. But in this case, she was wrong."

Thanks in large part to my women, my life was coming along much better than it probably would have been if I had let Traci continue to dominate my life. A year after my divorce was final, I was still rotating among four of the six, the other two having moved on to become exclusive with other men. We left as friends, and I totally understood and respected their decision to stick with one man, especially after my ex-wife couldn't seem to do that.

Being divorced meant that I could spend more time with each of my women. We didn't have to worry about where we went and who saw us together. Also, on the weekends, my date could spend the entire night at my place, instead of us being on the clock, so to speak.

After the third of my six women left to become exclusive with another man, I realized I had a big decision to make. I needed to decide if one of my three remaining women could be the one I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, or if I needed to move on and let all the women move on as well. I decided we all needed to talk, so I called an "executive board" meeting at my house. I brought in a full meal from my favorite Italian food place with several bottles of fine Italian wine.

I had explained to each woman what the meeting was to be about, so no one was ambushed. We were all friends, so at the least I anticipated a fun evening. It was Allison, Grace and Shae. Both Allison and Grace were divorcees, and Shae was a widow who would have been a divorcee had her cheating husband not gotten killed in a car accident when he ran off the road at high speed while getting a blowjob from his mistress.

We had started on the appetizers when Grace got right to it.

"What if we decide that none of us wants to go to the finish line with you?" she asked snarkily.

It got real quiet at the table for about five seconds before the women all broke out in fits of giggling.

"Gotcha!" they yelled in unison.

In the end, we left the possible future of our lives up to "Rock, Paper, Scissors." Just kidding. The three women made me leave the room and as I was later told, they had a very serious decision as to who would get to be the first one to see if one was, indeed, "the one."

Maybe because of the circumstances of her husband's death, Shae seemed to be the most damaged of my women. Outside of the sex, getting to know Shae emotionally was slow going in the time we had been sex partners. In particular, she seemed to have major trust issues, which made sense to me. That was one of the reasons she liked our "arrangement," she told me. She had always been impressed with me from what Traci had said about me, and with the six friends involved she didn't think I would dare try anything too objectionable.

She admitted to being worried about being in a full one-on-one relationship, something she hadn't done in the five years since her husband's death.

"I'm not sure I could go through that again, RJ. If you decide I'm not the one, tell me first. Don't do me wrong. Don't keep secrets from me," she pleaded with me.

"The same for you with me, Shae. My ex really hurt my ability to trust another person with my heart."

It wasn't always perfect, but somehow our two damaged souls became one, so to speak. Allison and Grace seemed truly happy for us, although it didn't stop them from grousing about not getting a shot with me one-on-one. I told both I would always have a special place in my heart for them, as I would for my other three women. All of them helped me survive the worst period of my life. I would be in their debt forever.

The wedding a year later was a small one, just a few select family and friends.

Although I never asked about their mother, my kids kept me somewhat informed about what was happening in her life.

Traci opted to keep the house in the divorce, giving me more of our cash to balance out for that. Six months after the divorce was final, she moved in her boy-toy, making that part of her threat two years previous a reality. I think my kids took more exception to that than I did at that point.

Surprisingly, that arrangement didn't last very long because Tony was gone from both my former home and Traci's life about 18 months later. According to my kids, the split was amicable. Tony wanted children of his own. Traci wasn't going to provide them for him in her early fifties.

According to my daughter, Traci dated several more youngsters over the next year or so until menopause finally slowed her libido. She explained to my daughter that she chose younger men because she knew men her own age were only good for once a night, and she had gotten used to two or three times every session with Tony.

"Sue me. I like sex. I like sex a lot," she told Karen.

"TMI, Mom. TMI," my daughter said she responded.

Epilogue:

Although I had considered getting some sort of vengeance on Tony Green, I never did, not wanting to wind up in jail over that fuckhead. My son, however, had my back. He was still single when Tony finally got married, and made it his personal mission to seduce the young woman Tony had wed. It took him almost six months to get it done, but when he finally did, he and Mrs. Green were going at it several times each week for about six months before Derek finally sent an anonymous text to Tony with an attached video.

I know it was childish, but I still snickered like a demented loon as I watched my son hit the send button on his phone as we sat on the sofa in his apartment drinking beer.

"She was a really good fuck, Dad, but I'm glad I could help you get some closure on the bastard. Think this dish was served cold enough?"

"Ice, Derek. Ice," I responded.