Wichita Woman Pt. 01

Wichita Woman Pt. 01

This is the tale of a reader's real-life encounter retold with artistic license.

It is the story of a sexually dissatisfied wife from Wichita, Kansas who engages in an online affair with a man from Texas that eventually turns into a real-world encounter.

This is part 1 of a 3 part story. This first chapter has limited sex scenes as it serves mostly to set the stage for the gratuitous sex littered throughout Parts 2 and 3 (which are complete, so all three parts are being submitted at the same time for publication).

Please take note of story tags if any of the subject matter is a turn off. Otherwise, enjoy.

*****

Wichita, Kansas - 2004

"Hey Sara Beth, can you prep more mashed potatoes?" the supervisor asked.

"Hey Dottie, do you ever dream about anything more than working in a middle school cafeteria?" Sara Beth asked her supervisor as she poured instant mashed potato flakes into a pot of boiling water.

"Dreams?" the older supervisor grumbled. "What good are they? You've got to learn to be happy with your lot in life, my dear."

"Shoot me if I ever become jaded like her in my old age," Kelsi leaned over and whispered to Sara Beth, and both women laughed.

Dottie walked out to the cafeteria floor to refill the napkin dispensers, moving well out of earshot of the two younger women.

"Who are you fooling?" Sara Beth asked her younger crew mate. "Acting like you ain't gonna get married and settle down like the rest of us."

"I'll get married when I find the right man," Kelsi rebutted. "But right now, I'm having too much fun playing the field. I don't mind settling down, but I won't settle just to settle down, if you know what I mean."

"Oh honey, what are you saying?" Sara Beth asked.

"Just that you married Dwight right out of high school. How old are you, girly?"

"30," Sara Beth answered.

"And already married for 12 years. My point exactly," Kelsi remarked.

"Are you saying I settled?"

"I'm saying you don't know cause you didn't test drive more engines. There may be someone out there with a better motor. How would you know?" Kelsi said with raised eyebrows.

"Let me know how it works out for you when you end up an old maid, Kelsi," Sara Beth joked.

"All I'm saying is that life is meant to be lived. We've only got this one life," Kelsi pointed out. "Take Dottie over there. She's been working at this middle school ever since it opened 30 years ago. And what does she do for fun. She watches her grandkids, which is all good and well, but their joy is her joy. If they're happy, then she's happy, but what the hell is that crap? That ain't living. She's living vicariously through other people instead of living life herself."

"What do you know about living?" Sara Beth questioned as she fluffed the mashed potatoes. "You just turned 19."

"Tell me I'm wrong," Kelsi dared her co-worker. "That's why you asked Dottie about her dreams, ain't it? Because you're afraid you're gonna end up just like her. One day, you'll wake up, and 30 years have passed by, and all you do is tell stories about your grandkids, but you ain't got any stories about yourself, because you lived the most boring mundane life on earth. That's why you've got to live your life. If there's something you want to experience in life, then you should do it. Don't wait on a moment that'll never come. Don't live with regret, just wishing you did something more when you had the chance."

Just then Dottie re-entered the kitchen, having finished refilling the napkin dispensers. "Let's get a move on. First lunch session is in 15 minutes," she declared.

Sara Beth grabbed the pot and filled a serving tray of mashed potatoes as Kelsi laid out the trays of food on the serving line.

"You're telling me this ain't living," Sara Beth joked.

"If this is your idea of living, then you need way more help than I could've imagined," Kelsi laughed.

*****

"Honey, do you ever get tired of me?" Sara Beth wistfully asked her husband as they watched tv in their bedroom.

Dwight looked at his wife. "Why would you ever ask me such a silly question?"

"No reason. Just we were each other's first. You ain't ever wanted to sow your wild oats, as they say?"

"You want me to sleep with someone else?" Dwight questioned.

"No. I was just asking," Sara Beth backed down.

"You know, the baby's asleep," Dwight pointed out.

"Is that the only thing that's ever on your mind?" she ridiculed him.

"What if it is?" he retorted.

Sara Beth faked as if she was mulling things over, but then she flashed a playful smile, rolled over, and slid down on the bed.

"What do you think you're doing?" Dwight asked, startled by her sudden movement.

Sara Beth was positioned near his crotch. "What does it look like, silly? I'm trying to do some sexy time," she teased him as her hands ran over his crotch.

"You find something you like down there?" he asked her.

She didn't respond. Instead, she reached her hand under his waistband and reached for his manhood. At first it was small and gummy, but it immediately responded to her touch, growing hard and long almost instantaneously as she wrapped her fingers around him and gave him a few light tugs.

"Mr. Pecker's been starved for attention," her husband informed her.

"I just gave him some attention last night," she laughed. "How much dang attention does he need?"

Nevertheless, she pulled down his pants and whipped out his cock. She felt a slight disappointment at the sight of him. His cock was the same size, but he'd gained some weight over their marriage, and his expanding belly now made his manhood look smaller by comparison.

Not that she could complain. She still carried an extra 20 pounds on her 5 foot tall body after the pregnancy that proved pesky and hard to lose.

Still, she took him into her mouth. He was five inches long, and she slid her lips over his shaft as her tongue began to lick over him lovingly.

Dwight moaned, "Oh baby, you're such a good woman."

She let him drop out of her mouth for a moment. "Pipe down," she scolded him. "You're gonna wake the baby." And then she resumed giving him a blow job.

Her fingers played with his balls, fondling them and running her fingernails along his taint. The sensation was ticklish and erotic all at the same time, and his body shivered in pleasure.

His cock throbbed in her mouth, and her panties were growing damp. She was on her hands and knees on the bed, giving her husband head while his hands ran through her long curly blonde hair.

"You sure do know how to spoil your man," he remarked.

She looked up at him and then sat up, letting him fall out of her mouth. Then she jumped to his side, sitting down next to him on the bed. She pulled down her sweatpants and panties in one swift motion and pitched them aside.

Sara Beth patted her soaked pussy and said, "Now it's my turn to be spoiled. I want to be mounted."

"Yes, ma'am," Dwight dutifully obliged as he instantly sat up. He turned around and positioned himself in front of his wife's spread legs. "The pleasure's all mine," he grinned.

"God, I'm so horny. I'm ready for you," she sighed, spreading her legs even wider and slipping a finger in and out of her pussy.

"Pull off your top. I want to see them puppies," he barked back.

Sara Beth smiled. Dwight was raised as a Baptist, and he didn't swear, although he wasn't above employing sexual innuendo.

She might've been a small 5 foot tall package, but she wore a C cup bra, and he loved her large tits. Her husband's cock was throbbing as he stood before her, and she sighed in anticipation, her needy pussy longing to feel a good hard cock inside it.

"That's my baby," he marveled as she let her titties swing about freely, much to his delight.

Then he pressed his cock inside his wife, and a wave of pleasure passed through her body as she leaned back, propped up on her elbows. Her back arched and her head hung back as she let out sigh of deep satisfaction.

Dwight pulled back and then pushed himself back in her, and she lifted her head and smiled at him as she felt his shaft slide effortlessly in and out of her pussy.

His hands grabbed her ankles and held her legs wide as he pulled out and in again, and Sara Beth bit her bottom lip, loving the feeling of her husband inside her.

And then he thrusted one more time, and she saw the look on his face as he closed his eyes. His cock pulsed inside her as his warm semen dripped out and filled her hole, and then his cock quickly softened as he finished ejaculating.

She couldn't hide the disappointment on her face, and he saw it.

"I'm sorry, honey. I get so excited," he apologized. "You turn me on so much. I just can't hold it back."

"It's alright," she said as she looked away. The first few times it had happened, she found it almost endearing to think she turned him on so much that he ejaculated prematurely. Now after over ten years of marriage however, the novelty had long since worn off.

His cock slipped out of her, and Dwight rolled over and plopped down on his side of the bed, while she laid next to him, still horny and sexually dissatisfied. A few minutes later, he was snoring away while she was fuming, frustrated that she was left high and dry while he had his needs fulfilled.

Sara Beth fingered herself for a bit, but the moment had passed, and she tried to sleep, but her adrenaline was still pumping, and she laid awake, just wishing her husband could make her climax the way she did for him.

*****

"Dottie, we're going on a smoke break," Kelsi called out.

"Fine. Be back in ten minutes. We've still got a lot of prep left to do," Dottie shouted back.

Kelsi hooked her arm in with Sara Beth's and pulled her along. "Come on and keep me company."

"But I don't smoke," Sara Beth protested, but Kelsi literally dragged her friend outside.

"So, I hooked up with this guy last night and ended up back at his place, and one thing led to another," Kelsi explained as they stood outside the back door.

"Where do you meet all these men? Do you just spend all your free time in bars?" Sara Beth laughed.

"No, silly. No one is doing that anymore. I go online," Kelsi replied.

"Like online dating?"

"Not exactly. I prefer internet chat rooms," she clarified.

"What's that?" Sara Beth asked, plainly unaware.

"Lordy, how old are you? Do you have a computer in your house?"

"We do," Sara Beth answered defensively.

"Do you got AOL?" Kelsi pressed on.

"Yeah. We use it to email our cousins that moved out of state."

"Well, you can use it for a heck of a lot more than just that," Kelsi laughed.

"And what the heck are you doing on there, missy?" Sara Beth replied with her hands on her hips.

"Chatting up men and sometimes meeting them," Kelsi answered without hesitation.

"How?" Sara Beth asked, genuinely curious.

"AOL has chat rooms," Kelsi explained. "They have a million of them for every subject on earth. There you can talk with like minded people. Everything from gardening, knitting, music, politics, or sex."

"Sex?" Sara Beth replied incredulously. "Who'd talk to a stranger about sex? How do you know who's even on the other keyboard?"

"How do you know what kind of person someone really is you just met in a bar?" Kelsi pointed out.

"You can just tell," Sara Beth insisted.

Kelsi eyed her friend skeptically. "Suit yourself. But I've met a lot of men on chatrooms for Wichita singles."

"You really meet a lot of men that way?" Sara Beth still questioned in disbelief.

"It's hit or miss. Just like meeting people in a bar," Kelsi explained. "Anyway, we should be heading back to work before Dottie comes out to yell at us."

*****

That night Sara Beth laid awake in bed while her husband snored away dead to the world next to her. The evening had played out like an exact replay of the night before, and now she laid there sexually frustrated once again. Cum leaked out of her, but her pussy still burned, still yearned to be stuffed full of cock and driven to climax, but instead she stewed, perpetually unsatisfied.

She loved Dwight, but she was resigned to his underwhelming sexual performances, which she had taken to derisively describing in her head as 'pump, pump, shoot', or PPS for short. Still wide awake, she rolled out of bed and made her way to the dining room, where their desktop computer was perched on a little table in the corner.

Kelsi's words from earlier that day rang in her ear as the screen came alive and the Win95 logo appeared while she waited for the computer to boot up. She logged in, thankful they had switched to DSL a few months earlier. They had used dial up internet for years, but both Dwight and herself were always annoyed that it tied up the home phone line, so they were much happier now, not that she expected any calls at this hour. She glanced at the clock on the wall. It was nearly midnight, and her alarm was set for 5:30 AM so she could be at work by 6:30. Nevertheless, she knew that sleep was hopeless, and her curiosity was piqued, so she pressed ahead.

She launched the AOL software and scanned the screen after it loaded, not quite sure exactly what she was looking for. But then she spotted a link she'd never noticed before labeled 'Chatrooms', and she clicked on it, curious to explore the mysterious online world that Kelsi had mentioned.

From there the AOL portal presented a selection of categories she could choose. Still mad at Dwight, she selected 'romance', and a list of specific chatrooms appeared, and she noticed that some were marked 'adult', which caught her eye.

Curious, she clicked on one called 'chance encounters', and two frames appeared on her screen. She quickly realized that one frame displayed a list of users currently in the chat, which indicated there were almost 50 people logged in. The other frame was the actual chat, although the messages appeared and scrolled by so quickly that she could barely even keep up.

And then she saw someone posted the following message in the chat, 'witchchick74 asl?', which puzzled her. Witchchick74 was her AOL username, not that she was a witch, but she was a woman from Wichita born in 1974.

And then someone else posted the same message again.

Confused, she input her first message to the chat, 'what is asl?'

'Age/ Sex/ Location' someone immediately responded.

The request was basic, yet so direct. She was stunned by its superficiality. Were the only things important about Sara Beth her age, sex, and location? What if someone she actually knew figured out it was her, although she quickly realized how many 30 year old women there were in Wichita. Still, she couldn't help feeling apprehensive, but an excitement also overtook her, as well as a realization that she was hidden behind a wall, and her keyboard and computer screen afforded her a measure of anonymity. And now within that anonymity, she felt a certain freedom.

The next think she knew, she was engaging in the chat. After a few minutes, some of the men requested she enter private chats with them. She remembered the old nursery rhyme, 'sticks and stones can break my bones, but words will never hurt me', and she convinced herself that it was all just words on a screen.

Thus, she ended up in private chats with a string of different men, all to varying degrees of interest. Most of them started innocently or playful enough, although many of them quickly took on overtly sexual tones, which scared her away.

Some of the men were single and some were married, but she was a married woman herself, although she reminded herself again how it was all just words on a screen. Everyone she chatted with shared a similar trait, a loneliness that seemed pervasively sad, but it was a loneliness she could relate to.

The next thing she knew, it was 4AM, and her alarm was set to go off in just over an hour. She cursed herself for staying up so late, knowing she'd be dragging at work in a few hours, but she finally pried herself away from the computer to catch a few minutes of sleep before getting up to get ready for work.

*****

Sara Beth returned home that afternoon after picking up the baby from her mom. She was tired, but she felt an adrenaline rush, an intense pull drawing her back to the AOL chat rooms. Dwight worked a swing shift at a utility company, and he wouldn't be home for a few hours still, so she had the house to herself.

She popped in a DVD of a kid's program to distract her child while she logged back on the internet. This time she selected an adult category and entered a chat simply titled 'Sex'.

Soon enough the ubiquitous ASL question was posed to her, and she took pride in the fact that she knew how to respond. The next thing she knew, she was engaging in private message chats again. Most of the men were nice enough, although she didn't click with any of them. The men were either too grossly sexual or the conversation was forced and contrived.

And then she entered a chat with a man under the username 'NTXProf940'. He claimed to be a professor at a university in north Texas, and she was immediately drawn to his educated status. His messages and demeanor were more mature than the other men she had engaged with.

She had grown up working class, her father having worked in the factories producing the airplane parts that earned Wichita its nickname as the 'air capital of the world' while her mother raised the family. Even now, her mother watched Sara Beth's child during the day while she and Dwight worked.

But no one in her family had gone to college, and NTXProf940 seemed so learned and sage, possessing a worldliness she found intriguing. He was patient and listened well, and the next thing she knew, her life's story poured out. She didn't hide the fact that she was married, but she also didn't hide the frustrations in her marriage, namely her husband's lack of sexual prowess.

The anonymity of the internet provided a safe haven where she could talk freely, more openly than she ever would've dared in real life. She told him she was a larger woman, thinking that would turn him off, but he persisted. And since he lived over a state away in Texas, she couldn't imagine they'd ever meet in real life. He seemed safe, offering an open ear she could vent her frustrations and dreams to.

The hours passed, and she realized that Dwight would be home soon, so she ended the chat, but she felt a rush, her heart aflutter from the new connection she'd made, and she was walking on air as she prepared dinner for her family that evening.

The next day she logged in once more, and she was pleasantly surprised to see NTXProf940 online again. They quickly entered into a private chat, only this time the conversation took on a more sexual tone right off the bat, only instead of her complaints about her husband, the discussion shifted more to her desires.

Sara Beth talked about how she wished she had a real man who could stay hard and drive her to climax. She talked about how she loved giving head, but she wanted a man who reciprocated.

Kelsi had recounted some of her most recent sexual experiences, and it made Sara Beth jealous as she realized how vanilla and lacking her own sex life was.

She realized that Dwight wasn't getting any younger, and he certainly wasn't getting in any better shape, so she held out little hope that his sexual stamina or prowess would ever satisfy her. She didn't want to leave him; they had a daughter together, after all, but her mind became consumed by the idea that something, a key sexual component, was missing from her life.

Life was made up of moments, and a moment was missing from her life. The more she thought about it, the more it consumed her. And the more that it scared her. And excited her.

She had years ago taken to fingering herself to orgasm while Dwight laid sound asleep next to her, but she still longed for the feel of a man inside her. Then she bought a large dildo from Patricia's, a local store that sold novelty items, thinking that might do the trick. The dildo helped for a while, but something was still missing.

She wanted the feel of a man's body on top of her, to feel his chest and muscles pressing into her body, his legs thrusting his cock, driving it ever deeper into the nether regions of her body. She wanted the real thing.

Dwight was a good man. He made a modest wage, but they had all of life's necessities. She felt guilty as her mind wandered to thoughts of cheating, but she rationalized her emotions.

She knew there was more to life than physical pleasure, and it would be foolish to upend her life and marriage for literally a moment's pleasure. But she likened her desires to someone who dreamed of traveling to a dream destination.

Her own grandparents always talked of flying to Hawaii their entire lives. The islands looked so exotic and foreign compared to the flat prairie grasslands of Kansas, and they finally went after her grandfather retired. But they didn't need to live there; they had no desire to actually move, not with their families and whole life rooted in Kansas. But they visited the island paradise for a week, and that was enough to satisfy their curiosity and fill them with memories to last a lifetime.

And now Sara Beth began to view her own urges, her own desires through a similar lens. She still had sex with her husband once a week, and as much as she loved Dwight, she wanted a sexually fulfilling experience, just for once to know what it was like to be satisfied by a real man, physically ravished to the point that she completely surrendered to her wanton desires and had a mind blowing, toe curling orgasm, to have that memory to last a lifetime.

*****

The next day, NTXProf940 was online, and they quickly entered into a private chat again.

WitchChick74: Can I ask you something?

NTXProf940: Anything.

WitchChick74: I want to be satisfied by a real man.

NTXProf940: IRL?

WitchChick74: What is IRL?

NTXProf940: In real life?

Sara Beth paused before answering.

WitchChick74: Yes.

NTXProf940: Are you asking me to be that man?

Sara Beth sat back and took a deep breath, realizing the enormity of what she was considering. The shroud of anonymity, the excuse that her chats were just harmless words on a screen, all that would be tossed out the window if she met up with him in real life.

But who was NTXProf940? What did she really know about him? She trusted him, but she realized that the safety provided by the screen she hid behind also applied to him. What if he wasn't really a professor? The skepticism she voiced to Kelsi over her online affairs played in her head, yet, his words rang so true, and she decided to trust her instincts.

She told herself she was still a faithful wife, yet she felt the need to hide her actions from her husband. She knew Dwight wouldn't approve. He was raised as a Baptist with very conservative views on sex and marriage. Those values made him a loyal husband, but it also shaped him to be very unimaginative in the bedroom, whereas Sara Beth wanted to experience more sexually.

Across the room, her daughter watched the same child's program dvd for the hundredth time, her eyes glued to the screen, the same way Sara Beth's eyes were glued to the computer monitor. The screen flickered, the cursor blinking in the chat box, and then another message appeared.

NTXProf940:???

Sara Beth leaned forward and started typing.

WitchChick74: Yes, I want you to be that man.

Now it was NTXProf940's turn to pause, and Sara Beth was on the edge of her seat, fearing that he was conjuring a way to reject her, to let her down easy. And then the next message appeared.

NTXProf940: Are you sure? I'm willing, but I don't want you doing anything you'd regret.

A wave of relief washed over Sara Beth's face.

WitchChick74: The only thing I'd regret is not doing this.

Sara Beth felt a huge weight lift off her shoulders, freed after openly admitting what had been creeping to the forefront of her mind in recent weeks.

NTXProf940: What's your name? I'm Robert, btw.

His message floored her as she realized she was ready to jump in the sack with this man, and she didn't even know his real name. For a moment, she questioned herself, worried that she was acting rashly and irrationally. But then she realized that his name was just a moniker, just something he called himself, but after so many hours spent getting to know him, he was no longer just a stranger on the other end of the private chat. After all, the measure of a man wasn't in his name, but in his character, and that she was ready to bank on.

WitchChick74: I'm Sara Beth. It's nice to meet you, Robert.

Whether he was Robert or NTXProf940, either way, she trusted him enough to break her marriage vow and drive clear to another state without her husband's knowledge just to let a real man fuck her.

*****

They quickly worked out the details over the coming days. It turned out that Robert lived in Denton, Texas, which was about a 4 1/2 hour drive from Wichita, and they agreed to meet in the middle in Oklahoma City, which was a straight shot on Interstate 35 for both of them.

They'd meet next weekend on Saturday afternoon in a public location. Sara Beth felt guilty insisting, but the extra precautionary measure settled her nerves, and Robert readily agreed. It would give them both an opportunity to get to know each other face to face before any sexual activity, especially if Robert turned out to be any different from his online persona, or if the chemistry was just completely lacking between them.

She felt as if she already knew Robert, yet she realized there was still so much she didn't know. He was older, about 50 years old, and his maturity appealed to her. Still, they had never exchanged pictures. He said he was about six feet tall and 180 pounds with a fairly fit build, but she felt better knowing they were meeting in a public location first, in case he didn't turn out as advertised. So, if he turned out to be 75 years old or weighed 500 pounds, she could hightail it out of there and head back home. If needed, she had a cousin, Darlene, who lived in OKC, and maybe she could pay her a visit if things with Robert went south.

Not that Sara Beth looked like a model herself by any stretch of the imagination. She tried to temper his expectations, presenting herself as a BBW, although she was really more thick and big boned than she was fat. Still, she was self-conscious of her body.

Dwight was the only man who had ever seen her naked, and when they took their baby to the water park last year, she wore shorts and a tee shirt in the water over her bathing suit, since she was too uncomfortable with her figure to put it on display. On normal days, she kept herself covered up, opting for the comfort of jeans paired with a flannel or a tee shirt, and she was nervous what Robert would make of her body.

She breast fed her daughter for the first year, and her large breasts were beginning to sag, much to her chagrin. Still, she remembered Kelsi's advice about not living with regret. After all, it wasn't like her breasts were magically going to improve and become firmer again as the years passed.

She sighed as she saw Dwight playing with their baby across the room, completely unaware of the undertaking she was preparing to embark on. He'd be crushed if he knew what she was plotting, yet she couldn't face the alternative. There was something deep inside, a hunger, a nagging feeling that ate away at her, and if she didn't go see Robert, then she'd always wonder 'what if', and she was determined to quell that hunger, to know if there really was more to sex than just the PPS performances that her husband delivered. Maybe there wasn't. Maybe satisfying sex was just a fantasy, just a Hollywood myth in stories and movies, but either way, she was determined to find out for herself.

*****

"Dottie, do you have any regrets in your life?" Sara Beth asked her supervisor one morning.

"Regrets? Ain't no use crying over spilled milk. What's to regret?" Dottie shot back.

"I mean, maybe not regrets, but do you have any dreams still that you're chasing? Anything you've always wanted to do but haven't done yet?"

"I've got my grandkids. They keep me plenty busy outside of work," Dottie replied.

"You don't want to travel anywhere?" Sara Beth persisted. "Hawaii? Europe? Or go skydiving or hike the Appalachian trail?"

Dottie just laughed. "I'm too blame old to go skydiving or go on a fool's hike like that. Earl and me used to talk about going on an Alaskan cruise. We've been saving up so we can go when we retire finally in a year or two."

"You should do that," Sara Beth encouraged her.

"Yeah, I think we will," Dottie smiled.

"What was that all about?" Kelsi whispered after Dottie had wandered off to take out the trash.

"Nothing. Just you said the other week that Dottie didn't have dreams, but she does," Sara Beth smiled triumphantly. "Maybe they're more simple and not as big as yours, but they're still dreams."

Kelsi smiled. "Will wonders never cease. Maybe you're right about the old bat. And what about you?"

"I've got some of my own, too. I'm working on them," Sara Beth grinned.

"Sara Beth, well, I do declare. We're all full of surprises today."

"That's enough yip yapping," Dottie barked out as she returned. "That food doesn't serve itself. Doors open in 15 minutes and then that avalanche of kids will hit. Get a move on."

Kelsi and Sara Beth looked at each other and giggled like little schoolgirls as they got back to work.

*****

"Honey, do you remember my cousin Darlene in OKC?" Sara Beth asked her husband.

"Yeah, you haven't seen her in ages," Dwight answered lazily.

"Well, she called me on the phone earlier. Anyway, we got to talking about how we both have toddlers and a mother's job is never done. It's exhausting, but anyway, like you said, we ain't seen each other in ages, and she wants me to go down to see her in OKC. She wants us to go out to Bricktown and have a girl's night out while her hubby watches their baby. It'd be fun and give us a chance to catch up. Did you want to come along? You could hang out with Damian."

Dwight looked up, his face clearly not excited by the prospect of hanging out with Darlene's husband, Damian. "Oh, there's a big order we're trying to get out the door this week at work. I'm going to be pulling some long shifts. Why don't you just go without me? Just have fun. I can take care of our little girl, so you don't have to worry about her."

Sara Beth smiled. Her pitch had worked out perfectly, just like she hoped. Darlene's husband, Damian, was an avowed atheist, and Dwight had gotten into several loud arguments with him at past family functions, so now he wisely avoided him like the plague.

"That's too bad. I'll send her your regards," Sara Beth answered in a chipper tone. "Are you sure you'll be okay with the baby all weekend?" she asked, feigning concern.

"I'll be just fine with our daughter. You have fun without me, darling," he insisted.

"Oh, I will," she promised.

*****

To Be Continued...