Last Anniversary

"Why the fuck do they let retired people run loose during lunch hours?" John Houston wondered to himself as he fidgeted behind a blue-haired lady at his favorite florist while the woman debated with herself whether to purchase yellow roses or daisies for somebody's gift.

John had already ordered and paid for a dozen roses in tissue paper over the phone two hours earlier. All he needed to do was have the clerk hand him his purchase, but first the clerk needed to finish waiting on the woman in front of him.

John was going to meet his wife right outside of her work, present her with the roses and take her to lunch at Casa Luisa, a high-end Italian restaurant in town that required him to get a reservation two weeks earlier. He was trying to get to Avalon's work at the start of her 12:30 PM lunch hour so she wouldn't get away and go to McDonald's or some other fine establishment for her midday meal, and the blue-haired woman seemed to be trying her best to make him late.

"They've got all damn day to get their shit done, but working people usually only get to run their errands from noon to 1:30 or so. They should just declare noon to 1:30 off-limits to retired people. That would make things so much easier," he thought.

The older lady finally decided on yellow roses, paid for her order and got out of the way. John picked up his roses and was out the door in 10 seconds.

That day was the 12th anniversary for John and his wife. Although he had given his wife her anniversary cards earlier that morning before they both left for work, John hadn't told Avalon--Ava as almost everyone called her--about the special lunch, and the flowers were a last-minute addition to his plan.

Up until six months ago, John thought he had a perfect marriage and an almost-perfect wife. Then, for some reason, he felt his wife pulling away from him and their 10-year-old daughter a bit. She was less communicative, seemed to be more inside her own head and... their sex life had gone from what he considered robust to mediocre at best. Ava stopped initiating at all, and when John initiated, she seemed to just be going through the motions, if she deigned to participate at all.

Troubled at the least, John repeatedly asked his wife to talk to him about what seemed to be bothering her, but she repeatedly fobbed him off with weak, deflective answers. John tried everything he could think of to bring a spark into his wife, including date nights and a busy weekend in Boston that included a play and dinner, but she kept insisting that she was fine and there was nothing wrong.

John exceeded the speed limit by just a few miles per hour on the way to Parkview Orthopedics, where his wife worked in the billing department. As he pulled into the firm's large parking lot at 12:32, he saw his wife heading out of the building, her hand clasped around the upper arm of a young, fit man. The pair appeared to be smiling brightly as they made their way to a late-model dark blue Chevrolet Silverado pick-up.

John quickly maneuvered his black Lexus ES 350 to a parking spot and was about to get out of his car to call to his wife when he saw the young man open the door for his wife, then lean in and give her a soft kiss on the lips before she stepped up and into the passenger seat. The call died in his throat.

The young man then went around to the driver's side of the pick-up, got in and soon had the vehicle moving out of the lot as a dumbfounded John watched from his parking spot.

"Oh fuck," John whispered aloud to no one.

As his stomach roiled, John sat and reviewed what he had just seen. For all intents and purposes, his wife and this man appeared to be a couple, based on the way she held his arm and the gentle but meaningful kiss they just shared. Their interaction may have been for only a minute at best, but John could tell they appeared to be familiar--very familiar, actually--and what he witnessed told him this was hardly the first time they had been together. Although he knew he needed some sort of confirmation that his wife really was cheating on him, for right now he could safely tell himself they were in some sort of relationship.

"Oh fuck," he again whispered to no one.

When John got back to the public relations firm he co-owned with his longtime partner Ben Riley, his heart was beating a mile a minute, his face was red and he was gritting his teeth like a dog biting down on a cherished bone. He was holding the roses firmly in his right hand, the thorns in the stems embedded into his palm as blood seeped out.

"What are you doing back so quick?" his partner, Ben, said when he spotted John heading back to his office. "I thought you had reservations for an anniversary lunch."

John spiked the flowers at his feet as he glared at his business partner.

"Fucking bitch is cheating on me!" he growled to Ben as he went into his own office and slammed the door, the plaques on the wall rattling but holding.

"Oh fuck," Ben whispered to no one, although by this point there were several employees gathered in the area trying to figure out what was going on.

John was known around the office as the quieter of the two partners. Most employees considered him affable and a good guy. He probably hadn't raised his voice more than a handful of times in the five years since he and Ben had started the agency.

Ben carefully picked up the discarded roses from the floor and threw them in a trash receptacle. After telling the firm's receptionist that neither he nor John were to be disturbed, he quietly opened John's office door and walked inside, closing and locking the door behind him.

******

"You remember that I won't meet you at your place tonight because it's my anniversary, and I want to get home early and make John a nice anniversary meal?" Ava asked Gavin Fortson as the two sat in an out of the way booth at a local restaurant a few minutes away from their workplace.

"Yeah, I remember," the young man answered, a glum look on his face. "Gotta keep the old ball and chain happy on your anniversary, I suppose."

Ava winced at Gavin's response, having a quick flash of guilt about her affair with the young man. Like Gavin, though, she was also unhappy over the fact that the two wouldn't be enjoying each other's bodies on this night, as they had been on a regular basis for the past six months.

She knew instead that she would have to make love to her husband, a not entirely bad prospect, just not near as good as what she would have had with Gavin. She loved John, and sex with him was passable, but at the moment she was in love with Gavin, and sex with him--and his big, thick cock--was always a celebration of sorts. The young, fit therapist reached places in her pussy that no man had ever reached before, and he could make her body absolutely sing, whether they were fucking or, as had been more of recently, making sweet, passionate love.

She smiled internally when she looked at the young man's hangdog face.

"Men are so easy," she thought. "The kid's getting more pussy than my husband, but he pouts like a 5-year-old because he's got to skip one night."

"How about I make up for tonight by stopping by Saturday morning," she said. "I can tell John that I'm running some errands. He'll buy that every now and then, because I really do have to run some errands."

Gavin's bright smile nearly split his handsome face in two... and made Ava's pussy moisten, as it often did when he smiled. His perfect teeth, dimples on both sides of his mouth, his large brown eyes, his soft, thick lips and his wonderful big, thick cock... made Ava once again consider his request that she divorce her husband and marry him. If only... she wondered.

Ava definitely knew her affair with Gavin was no mistake. She and the 25-year-old had been together emotionally for about a year, and sexually for the last six months. Ten years her junior, Gavin had most certainly revived Ava's flagging spirit.

After 12 years of marriage, Ava felt her life was in a rut--mentally, emotionally and especially sexually. She longed for the days before her marriage and in the first few years, when everything with men was new and exciting: the give and take of whether or not she was going to have sex with her date for that night, how many times they might do it and what positions they might use.

Ava was a sexual woman, with a high libido and a complete understanding of her needs and wants. She was fully aware that she was a pretty woman with a good body, and that both men and women were constantly looking at her as a possible sexual conquest. She was nowhere near a virgin when she met John, but up until Gavin came along, she had never entertained even a passing thought about having sex with another man after marrying.

John was a solid 6-foot, 180-pound man, with blue eyes, a ready smile and wavy brown hair. He and his wife were well-matched sexually, and at least until she got pregnant the two had sex almost every day, usually multiple times on both Saturday and Sunday. The sex slowed down some after their daughter was born, and then some more as family and work intruded.

Ava had worked at the orthopedic firm for six years before Gavin came to work there. The two crossed paths only occasionally until Ava started to use the physical therapy department gym after hours three days a week. After-hours gym use was one of the perks of working at Parkview Orthopedics, and Ava decided to take advantage of that perk. John agreed to pick up the couple's daughter from afterschool daycare on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, come home and start dinner.

She had been working out at the gym for almost a year when Gavin spotted her one evening. Although she was dressed in very modest gym clothes, it was still fairly easy to see that the woman had nice-sized boobs to go along with shoulder-length strawberry-blonde hair and sparkling green eyes. Gavin decided he needed to become the woman's lifting partner.

A month later the two were good friends, lifting together three evenings a week and going out to lunch together several days each week. Both enjoyed the other's company and, if asked, would have admitted they also admired each other's physiques. Ava had ditched her modest gym clothes for form-fitting Spandex togs, and had no problem with Gavin enjoying the sight of her tight body up close, even when she occasionally caught him looking down her more lowcut tops.

Turnabout being fair play, the young man also had no problem when he would occasionally catch Ava checking out his package. Gavin was very proud of his genetic gift, and enjoyed members of the opposite sex looking at him with lust in their eyes.

The two talked and flirted discreetly as they worked out for several months. The first time the relationship turned truly intimate was almost anticlimactic... almost.

Ava had never seen a dick as big as Gavin's up close and personal when the young man removed his sweatpants and boxers at his apartment that first evening of sex. She reminded the young man of a kid with a brand new toy as she fondled and jacked him for several minutes before she tried to take the bulbous head in her mouth. She barely got that accomplished, but it took her several tries, and by the time she got it done she was drooling like a rabid dog down her chin and onto her naked breasts. She could barely swallow with that big nob in her mouth and was completely soaked from her mouth to her waist before a highly aroused Gavin pulled his hard rod from her mouth, laid her down on the bed on her back and slowly but surely fed his cock into her tight, hot pussy, which seemed to be almost as wet as her drool-covered upper body.

"Nnnggg. Aahh. Unngghh. Ooohhh. Aahh," came rolling out of the women's drool-filled mouth as Gavin slowly got his giant anaconda completely situated in the woman, who immediately responded by dribbling a mouthful of saliva while spasming into a ridiculous climax. Gavin held still until Ava finished the single biggest orgasm of her life, then started pumping into her hard and long.

Ava had two more spectacular orgasms before Gavin filled her pussy to overflowing with a bucketful of thick cum, the young man roaring out his completion at full volume.

Gavin laid quietly on his elbows for several long seconds while Ava twitched below him. He then got out of bed, got a wet washcloth out of his bathroom and proceeded to clean the woman's body. Ava blushed and thanked the young man, who assured her she was not the first woman to choke on his large member.

Ava would have liked a second go-round that first time but they both knew she couldn't stay beyond the length of her usual gym workout. The two kissed passionately at the door and Ava left after telling Gavin that he had just given her the best fucking of her life.

"I aim to please, ma'am," he responded.

As she thought about things on the drive home, Ava was surprised that she felt not one iota of guilt over her first infidelity. She specifically called it her "first infidelity" to herself because she knew she and Gavin were going to do that a lot more.

As she had done every time she worked out, Ava made sure she went straight to the shower when she got home, saying hello to her clueless husband and daughter on the way to the stairway.

An unsuspecting John tried to initiate sex with Ava later that night, but Ava quickly made sure her husband got the message that there would be no sex on this particular night. He grunted his understanding, as the knockbacks were starting to pile up more in the last few months.

After the first time they had sex, Ava and Gavin never again worked out when they got together after work, swapping horizontal workouts for those of the gym kind.

Ava realized that she would occasionally have to allow John the use of her body to keep him from getting suspicious. While she admitted to herself that John was still a better than average sex partner, better than average no longer did it for her. She had the best in Gavin; she merely tolerated John's efforts, often closing her eyes and imaging it was Gavin between her legs instead of her husband.

She didn't realize that John was able to tell that she no longer found him sexually satisfying, when she actually consented to have sex with him. Combined with the increased turndowns and her distancing herself from him and their daughter, John knew his marriage was sliding toward the dumpster. Repeated efforts to get his wife to tell him what was wrong continued to fall on deaf ears.

******

John and Ben had been friends since they were 7 years old. Ben was the loquacious one, the natural born salesman. John was the quieter one, the deeper thinker. Ben led the firm's sales side, John headed up the creative side. Together, the pair made a great team.

After Ben had locked John's office door, John brought out a bottle of Crown Royal Black and two coffee mugs, filling each with three fingers of the rich amber liquid. As they did when they ran their business, the two started making plans for their next campaign, which in this case was John's divorce from Ava.

John tossed a pad to Ben and got a second one for himself. They started exchanging ideas and thoughts, keeping track on paper.

John admitted to Ben that he never had a clue his wife was cheating on him. He had always thought he was a fairly observant person, but outside of some recent coolness in their relationship, he wouldn't have known Ava was cheating on him if he hadn't seen her with the man he assumed was her lover.

"I never saw it coming, Benji. We've been a little off lately, but I never thought she'd cheat on me. I guess I just trusted her to do right by me. When you trust somebody completely..."

John wasn't sure if he could be as good an actor as his wife apparently was, at least until he got certain things lined up in his life.

"It's probably a good thing for her we've got a kid, because if we didn't have Katie, I'd probably just put a pillow over her head tonight while she's sleeping and smother her to death. But then there'd be nobody left to take care of Katie after the police would put me in jail," John said.

While the two were making notes and plans, John was also combing through the Parkview Orthopedics staff directory on his computer. He assumed by the way Ava's boyfriend was dressed that he was some kind of a "physical terrorist," the staff joke for what patients often called physical therapists due to the pain they sometimes had to inflict upon a person recovering from an injury or a surgery. John knew he would never forget the man's face if he lived to be 100, despite the fact that John probably only saw him for less than a minute.

"Got him," he told Ben. "The fucker's only been there less than two years. He graduated from Indiana University three years ago. Fuck, that makes him about 25. He's 10 fucking years younger than my wife!"

Ben could tell that John's anger was ratcheting up by the volume of his voice and the increasing use of the "F-bomb." Ben knew that John had a large vocabulary of fancy words he often used, but when he got angry, the words got smaller and harsher. He had a particular affinity for the word "fuck," noting that the word could swing from noun to verb to adjective to adverb in a heartbeat, depending upon his level of anger.

Two hours later the pair came out of John's office with a plan. The bottle of Crown Royal was back in a drawer, half the contents gone.

John was surprised to see his wife's car already in its spot in the garage when he got home after picking up his daughter at daycare. Ava usually lifted Monday, Wednesday and Friday, so he assumed that since this was a Wednesday, she would be home about an hour later. Ava was in the kitchen fixing John's favorite dinner, chicken parmigiana and spaghetti, when he and Katie walked into the kitchen from the garage.

"Happy anniversary, sweets!" Ava called out to him when he walked in. "I'm making your favorite meal because... I love you."

John hoped Ava didn't see the momentary look of disbelief that played across his face at her statement. He plastered the sincerest smile on his visage as he could, walked across the kitchen and gave his wife a hard--almost too hard--kiss on her soft, pouty lips.

"Aww, Dad, really?" the couple's 10-year-old whined. "I don't need to see that. You two are going to scar me for life."

"Get upstairs and do your homework, you little smartass," John told his daughter with a smile on his face.

John spent the evening pretending he was oblivious to all the little hints his wife gave him that she was in the mood for sex. He had no way of knowing that she was horny because she had skipped her usual Wednesday afternoon sex romp because she went home to make him dinner for their anniversary.

John practically jumped into bed, rolled away from his wife's side and pretended to be asleep when his wife came out of the en suite bathroom at the end of the night. There was no way he wanted to stick his dick where another man's might have been just hours earlier.

Ava's pussy was practically leaking her juices down her legs, but her anger at John for getting in the way of her making love to Gavin was more intense than the throbbing in her pussy. She crawled into bed and stared at the ceiling in the dark. She only briefly thought it was odd that her normally lustful husband didn't try to initiate sex on their anniversary.

******

When the world didn't destruct after Ava's first sex with Gavin, she knew she would be going back to that well as often as she could. Sneaking around with the young man was exactly the rush of excitement she had been needing, and the size of Gavin's dick and his proficiency with it was a bonus of immense proportions.

Four months later Ava would have said her life was just about perfect. She had a loving husband and daughter and a fantastic lover. Then her lover complicated matters.

"Why don't you divorce your husband so I can marry you and then we can be together all the time?" Gavin asked one Friday evening after he had given Ava two large orgasms during their lovemaking. "Then we could spend the rest of the weekend in bed together, instead of you jumping up and running home. I wouldn't have to share you anymore."

Ava smiled brightly, hearing the sincerity in Gavin's voice. Yes, she, too, had developed feelings for the younger man. The two had added lovemaking to their menu after just fucking for the first two months, but as they both noted they were developing real feelings of consequence after eating almost every lunch together and having sex three days each week.

"You do remember I have a 10-year-old daughter and I would want custody of her in a divorce? No way could I give up my daughter," Ava said.

"I love kids. We've talked about that. And we could give your daughter some siblings," Gavin enthused.

"How often do you think about knocking me up?" Ava asked.

"Honestly? Every day," Gavin answered. "Personally, I don't think we should wait until you're divorced. You've said your husband and I have the same eye color, same hair color. He would never have to know, the way he doesn't know about us."

"But I would know. Raising another man's child would be the ultimate in disrespect. I still love my husband, still respect him, despite the fact that I have you.

"Yes, I love you as well, but having you isn't about not loving nor respecting my husband. Having you... is strictly for me. You make me feel special here, here and especially here," she said, touching her head, her heart and then her pussy in that order.

******

Ava had been touching herself gently while she laid in bed next to her husband, thinking about her lover. She covered her mouth with her other hand to muffle the noise of a small climax she had given herself.

John, who could feel Ava gently diddling her pussy, heard the small orgasm and knew his wife was thinking about another man. A tear escaped his eye and slid down to the bed. He didn't get a lot of quality sleep that night.

It wasn't difficult for the private investigator John hired to get the information he asked for, because Ava had no clue she was being followed and watched. Two weeks later the PI informed John that Ava and Gavin were meeting for lunch every day, with no sex happening at that time, but they were having sex in Gavin's apartment Monday, Wednesday and Friday after work, at the time she supposedly was working out in the Parkview gym. The PI guessed from the way that the pair acted in the parking lot that probably several people at Parkview were aware, or at least had suspicion, that the two were having an affair.

Armed with that information, John waited until he knew his wife was gone for her lunch the next day and called her best friend at Parkview, Beth Horton. Beth and her husband, Ed, had been over at John and Ava's home several times in the past, and John considered both his friends as well as Ava's.

After a minute of pleasantries, John got right to it with Beth, who honestly was wondering why John called her, something he had never done before.

"I understand you've been Ava's friend longer than mine, so I'm not going to ask you to rat her out to me," John said. "I already know she's been cheating on me with one of your physical therapists, so the only thing I need to know from you is how long this relationship has been going on."

There was almost complete silence on the line for about 30 seconds, before Beth sighed.

"You can't tell her we talked. Please, John. I don't want to be in the middle of this. Hell, I don't want to be anywhere near this. Ed and I consider both of you to be friends.

"They've been going to lunch, just the two of them, for probably a year now, but I don't think anything happens during lunch, except for them touching a lot and holding hands out in the parking lot, from what I can see. But I know she stopped working out... they both stopped working out... in the gym about six months ago. I assumed they were going to his apartment, which she later confirmed, on gym days. She's never outright admitted that they were having sex, but she's dropped some hints here and there. She seems pretty taken with him.

"I'm sorry for not saying something to you, but..."

"I get it, Beth. I understand," John said quietly.

"H-how did you find out?" Beth asked.

"Does it really matter?" John retorted.

Three weeks after John confirmed his wife was cheating on him, Ava was served divorce papers at Gavin's apartment as the two were in the middle of having noisy sex. Ava had just shrieked out a loud orgasm when the two heard loud knocking on Gavin's apartment door. When it didn't stop after about a minute, Gavin threw on a T-shirt and a pair of shorts and answered the door. He considered lying when the person at the door asked for Ava, but figured the person had probably heard her through the door, so he told her to throw on some clothes and go to the door. Not being totally clueless, the young man had guessed that the envelope the man at the door was holding contained divorce paperwork. Gavin's first thought after that was that this particular session of sex was probably over.

A shaken, disheveled Ava walked into her home about 45 minutes later. John surmised that she had been interrupted mid-fuck, and was still in a state of disbelief.

"Pizza should be here anytime now. I wasn't in the mood to cook tonight," John said. "You should straighten up before we eat, because you look like you just got out of your boyfriend's bed. We can talk after Katie goes to bed tonight."

Ava nodded slowly and headed upstairs.

Ava was mostly silent during and after dinner, watching her husband interact normally with their daughter. As much as she was shocked to be served divorce papers earlier, she was surprised at how normal he was acting this evening. She completely missed the irony.

"Why do you think we need to get divorced? Can't we talk about this first?" Ava asked her husband after their daughter went to bed for the night.

"Like the way we talked about this before you started fucking another man? Hmm. I must have missed that meeting," John snarked.

"As far as I can tell, you've been seeing another man for about a year, and probably fucking him for the last six months. Did we talk about that first?"

Ava grimaced. John's timeframe seemed to be right on the money. She quickly wondered why he waited so long to drop the hammer on her.

"OK, we probably should have talked earlier, but things have been good. Why would you want to ruin that?" she asked.

"Things have been good?" John asked incredulously. "For you maybe, but things haven't been good for me for some time. You've been distant emotionally. On the rare times we do have sex, you're barely there. Do you know we haven't made love in more than a month. You've probably fucked your boyfriend a dozen times in that same timeframe. You call that good, you delusional bitch?"

Ava visibly recoiled every time John cursed. Her husband never before talked to her in that tone, with those words.

"No. That can't be right," she argued back. "We made love..."

"Exactly!" John barked. "You can't even remember the last time. But based on how you looked when you got home, you were in the middle of fucking the golden boy when you got served.

"He gets your pussy, but I get knocked back. You and he exchange cutesy 'I love yous' over lunch, while Katie and I get some inconsequential conversation and a lot of half-assed mumbles over dinner. Yeah, you've been cheating on her, too."

Ava dropped her head. Just maybe, John thought, she understood what she had done.

"I'm sorry for hurting you, John. Can't we work something out?" she asked.

"You've been cheating on me for months. What do you think we can work out?" John remarked. "Wait. Is this the part where you tell me you love me, and you want to stay with me?"

"Well... of course I love you, but I guess I've also developed feelings for..."

"Gavin. Gavin Fortson. It's okay to say his name, Ava. I know who he is. Obviously I know where he lives. I know you and he have been a thing for a year."

"Why? How did this happen, Ava? I thought we had something," John added.

Ava looked uncomfortable. She squirmed in her seat. She hesitated.

"I... we... got boring, baby," she started. "I wanted to feel some excitement again, like when we first got together. You remember. Things were new... and exciting.

"And then I met Gavin, and things were like that again for me... new and exciting. And... then when we had sex, it was magical. He's... he's... really hung, and everything with him felt really amazing, maybe even better than our best. It was new and exciting, and the sex is so great...

"But I still love you, and I don't want a divorce... but if that's what you really want, I guess maybe that's for the best. Before I left his place, Gavin reminded me that he has asked me repeatedly to divorce you and marry him."

That set John back on his heels. He definitely didn't see that coming. He also wasn't prepared to see Ava smirking back at him.

"I love you, John, but if this is the way you want to play it, then game on. Gavin has done some research, and I'll wind up with half of our personal assets, half of your half of the business and custody of Katie. And just maybe I can persuade Ben that he and I can be a good team, and you'll wind up working for me," she said, giggling for emphasis.

John shook his head as if to clear his wits.

"Game on... no, I don't think so. Game over, Avalon," he said slowly, emphasizing the use of her full name.

"Remember all the paperwork you and I and Ben and Maddie signed when Ben and I set up the company. One of those was a post-nup to protect me in case you ever cheated on me... I won't lose the company. Maddie signed one, too, so Ben wouldn't lose the company if she ever cheated on him.

"You don't get to cheat on me and still take half my company."

"You... you have no proof that I cheated. You'll need proof to make that agreement valid," she hissed.

"What makes you think I'd make an empty threat?" John asked. "You of all people know me better than that. But if you make me present my evidence to a judge, I'll also be presenting it to your parents. Do you really want that?"

It was John's turn to smirk as the smile left Ava's face and was replace by a scowl of shock.

"You... you wouldn't do that. You're too nice of a guy to do that," Ava said hesitantly.

"I probably was up until you threatened me. Now all bets are off. Oh, by the way, I want joint custody of Katie. Call that a penalty for being a bitch and listening to your genius boyfriend," John said, flipping a thumb drive at his wife. "Highlights of some of your greatest moments."

"Ohh," she gasped.

"You won't show this to my parents if I don't fight you, will you?" she asked, suddenly sounding pathetic.

"No business. No alimony. No child support. You get to keep the house until Katie goes off to college, then we sell and split the equity. That gets done then your parents never see ALL of my evidence," John said.

"All?" she whispered.

John was surprised that his daughter wasn't more upset about her parents getting divorced when he told her the next day. He explained to his daughter that Ava had been cheating on him with a younger man.

"Wow. So Mom has a boyfriend. That's cool. I hope he's handsome," Katie said a lot more enthusiastically than John was expecting.

"Wait. You seem to be very good with this. Did you know about this?" John asked.

"Nah. But I kind of figured she had something going on by the way she's been acting for the last several months," Katie said.

"And that doesn't bother you that she's been cheating on me, on us?" John asked.

"Well, sort of, but it's not the worst thing in the world, Dad. Marcy's mom has a boyfriend. Marcy says he's pretty cool... and handsome."

John was completely nonplussed by his daughter's laissez faire attitude about her mother's actions. He figured he would need to schedule several sessions with a psychologist.

If John couldn't quite understand his daughter's attitude toward the divorce, his soon-to-be ex-wife was incredibly dismayed when she found out Katie had been telling almost everyone who would listen that her mother had a younger boyfriend and was having sex with him. Ava's parents were definitely not pleased when their granddaughter said that very thing to them one Saturday when she was spending the weekend with them.

Ava had not given her parents any specifics about the reasons for the divorce, telling them that she and John had grown apart. John knew by their attitude with him that Ava didn't give them the accurate story, but he wasn't going to be the one to tell them the truth and hurt them if they didn't ask him directly. Although he told Ava he wouldn't show them his evidence as long as Ava let the divorce be on the terms he dictated, he also told his wife that he wouldn't lie to them if they asked for the truth.

"What did you say, Katie? Your mother has a boyfriend?" her grandmother responded back when the child made her statement.

"Sure, Grams. I guess she's had him for a while, that's why Dad's divorcing her. You knew that, right?" Katie asked innocently.

Both grandparents looked at each other surreptitiously, trying to downplay the significance of what the child said. They knew a serious discussion was coming with their daughter when she came to retrieve the child the next day.

After taking a dressing down from her parents when she went to pick up her daughter the next day, Ava then had to endure the disdainful looks from several of the mothers of Kate's friends when she encountered them around town. She only got positive reinforcement from Marcy's mother, Lara, a woman she long considered a slut due to her divorce for cheating on her husband several years earlier.

When she sat down and thought about it, Ava completely got the significance.

Kate's gossiping about her parents' divorce had unintended positive results for John. Two months after the divorce was final, four divorced women whose children knew Kate had called to express their interest in dating John, much to his surprise.

Six months after the divorce was final, John hadn't yet been on his first date. He admitted to Ben and Maddie over dinner one evening that he still felt dead inside from Ava's betrayal, and the fact that he never saw it coming.

"When you love somebody completely, you trust them completely, take everything they say at face value," John said. "Right now I don't think I trust anyone with my heart."

Several weeks later, Lara Murphy, the mother of Kate's best friend, Marcy, gave John the key to the kingdom, so to speak. John was sitting at the end of the bar in a quiet restaurant on a Friday evening when Lara walked in, saw John and headed straight for him, sitting in the chair next to his. John glanced over at the woman, and despite the fact that he didn't much care for her, was at least polite enough to greet her cordially.

"Hello, Lara. Can I buy you a drink?" John queried, noting quickly that the woman was dressed casually but smartly, her clothes tight enough to warrant a second--and maybe--a third look.

The two exchanged banal pleasantries for several minutes, which served John's purpose well. He noted Lara's ample chest still looked good in her pink sweater, which was unbuttoned down to reveal the swells of her breasts. Her green eyes flashed brightly, her strawberry-blonde hair hanging loose a couple of inches past her shoulders. Especially up close, it was easy for John to see why so many men chased this vixen, despite--or because of--her reputation as a free-spirited slut.

John knew that his ex-wife, Ava, as well as many of the women in the neighborhood regarded the woman as a pariah. She cheated on her husband and got divorced, and now seemed to be little more than a 30-something party girl. He snorted to himself when he thought of how Ava always looked down her nose at Lara, even though, in the end, she had become Lara to some extent.

"How is the dating going, John?" Lara began innocently.

John found Lara easy to talk to. For some reason, he completely unloaded his soul to the woman, telling her the same story he had given to Ben and Maddie several weeks earlier.

"You're doing it wrong, John," Lara explained. "There's dating, there's dating with sex and dating for a relationship. Knowing you, you're the kind of guy who thinks there's only dating for a relationship, right?"

John was impressed with Lara's observations. He rolled his hand in a forward motion, wordlessly telling her to go on.

"A lot of people think I'm a slut because I mostly focus on the first two of those," she continued. "Not every date has to lead to a relationship, a marriage. You can go out with someone--maybe even have sex--just to have a good time, no strings attached.

"I'm not looking to get married again anytime soon, but I do like male companionship and sex. I can distinguish between sex and love. Sex without love can be enjoyable, as long as both parties are thinking the same way. This way no one gets their feelings hurt. It's all about communication."

Lara saw the light of recognition turn on in John's eyes.

"Ahh. I-I guess I never thought about it in those terms. How about we move to a table, order a meal and you can teach me more, Sensei. My treat," John said.

The two had an enjoyable dinner followed by after-dinner drinks and dessert. Lara accepted a date with John for the next Friday night.

John dated Lara several times before Lara become one of three or four regulars. Sex was a regular thing for John on most of his dates. John knew he was also one of several for Lara. Neither hid anything from the other. They were friends--good friends, even--just enjoying themselves, no strings attached.

John's daughter, Katie, was fully aware that her father dated Marcy's mother occasionally, and that the two were friends with benefits. The two adults never did anything overt in front of their kids, but just by how they interacted with each other, it was obvious to the girls that they were sexually involved. If anything, Katie was happy for her father, who seemed to be as happy as she could remember him for the last several years.

Ava expressed her displeasure to Kate when she found out her ex-husband was dating Lara. Kate held her tongue until Ava called Lara a slut.

"Really, Mom? You did the exact same thing to Daddy that Marcy's mom did to her husband. Why do you think you're any better than her?" Kate snarked.

******

Gavin had moved into the house with Ava and Kate on the day her divorce became final. A year later the two were married, despite Gavin's parents having misgivings about their son marrying a woman 10 years older. Ava reassured Gavin's mother in particular when she quietly promised Gavin's parents that she would give them at least one grandchild.

She delivered on that promise another year later.

Ava stayed home for a year after her second daughter was born, but since she and Gavin weren't doing as well as she and John had done, she needed to go back to work. Instead of returning to her previous job at Parkview Orthopedics, Ava went to work at a near-by hospital since it paid better.

******

John was enjoying his life five years after his divorce. His business was doing well and both his social and sex lives were good. He wasn't looking to upgrade or find the next Mrs. Houston when Lynette Marchand literally fell into his life.

John and Ben were heading to their favorite diner for lunch one drizzly Wednesday afternoon when a woman walking in front of them slipped on the sidewalk, tried to re-balance herself and finally fell on her back in front of them, her legs apart and her knee-length skirt bunched about her waist.

John and Ben quickly knelt to help the woman to her feet. She had apparently landed hard on her right hand and was disoriented, not bothering to pull her skirt down to cover herself before John did so for her as the two men were able to get her up and steadied.

"Thank you for protecting my modesty. Somebody's mother obviously taught him manners," the woman said with a shy smile.

As she spoke, John looked up into the woman's big brown eyes, which appeared to be shining as brightly as her smile. Her sexy, frilly, French-cut white panties were almost forgotten by John as the two stared at each other for several seconds before Ben cleared his throat, his hand extended.

"Oh, yeah, I suppose I should get up. Thank you, gentlemen," she said.

John invited the as-yet-unnamed woman to join them for lunch. Ben, being both a sharp guy and a good friend, insisted when she tried to beg off. Ben was fully aware that the woman didn't have any rings on the fingers of her left hand.

Lynette Marchand was a 40-something pharmacist who had been divorced for the past 10 years. John had her cell number when he and Ben left to go back to their office. Ben advised him of the status of her ringless left hand on their walk back.

"Nice observation, Benji," John enthused. "I was too busy looking into her eyes."

"Yeah, after you memorized the pattern on those frilly panties," Ben joked as John blushed.

John and Lynette went out to an orchestra concert and a meal the next Friday. They each were impressed with the other. At one point during the meal, Lynette could see that John was wrestling with something. When she asked him what he was thinking, he blushed crimson.

"I'm sorry..." he started to apologize.

"Oh please, I'm a big girl," she said with a bright smile.

"Uh... okay, but remember you asked for it," John said. "I was wondering about your lingerie. The other day you were wearing very sexy panties, and that was just for a workday, so I was kind of wondering..."

"If I'm wearing something really, really sexy? Do you think you deserve something really, really sexy?" she asked, her voice sultry.

"I always think I deserve something really, really sexy. Just ask me," John said, raising his eyebrows.

"I always wear sexy lingerie, every day. Pharmacy is kind of a boring thing, so I wear something sexy underneath my clothes and my smock to make myself feel good.

"Trust me, though, I have even fancier lingerie for special occasions."

"Would this date be considered a special occasion?" he asked hopefully.

"Do you want it to be?" she asked, already knowing the answer.

John found out later the lingerie was indeed for a special occasion. As the two laughed about it in later years, the special occasion turned out to be the beginning of the rest of their lives.

Maddie Riley was eating lunch in a restaurant several years later when she spotted a familiar face across the room having what seemed like a somewhat intimate lunch with a face that should have been familiar but was not. Maddie knew what Ava's second husband looked like, and the man she was holding hands with, smiling brightly at and touching lightly was not him.

She watched carefully for the entire meal, and it was obvious to her that the two were more than just lunch mates.

Maddie waited until she got home before calling her husband with her news. After she told Ben what she witnessed earlier in the day, he got John to join him in his office and had Maddie repeat her news to him.

"Damn. They've only been married for six years. Her excitement time with Gavin was only half as long as it was with me," John said.

"Will you be able to hold the gloating down to a manageable level when you tell Gavin that Ava's given him the old 'John treatment?'" Ben inquired.

"What makes you think I'm going to tell that asswipe anything? Fuck him. She cheated on me for a half-year; she can cheat on him forever as far as I'm concerned," John said.

"I do think somebody needs to tell him. I'd want to know if my wife was fucking around on me, but I'm not that guy. The bastard is lucky I didn't beat him to death when I found out he was cheating with my wife. You can tell him, Benji, or Maddie can, but not me."

******

Ava was more aware of what she was doing with Max Kaufman than when she started getting close to Gavin all those years ago. Like with Gavin, she was looking for something more exciting in her life. She still loved Gavin, but their marriage and even their sex was no longer as exciting as when they first got together. Hard to believe, she thought to herself, but she had gotten too familiar with Gavin's big dick and the sex the two had been having, and she again needed the thrill of new, different and illicit.

Considering how she got together with Gavin, she thought he would be more open to her affair with Max than John was with her affair with Gavin. She was pretty sure she wouldn't have too much trouble getting him on board, should he find out.

Although John, Ben nor Maddie told Gavin about Ava and her new man, somebody did tell him, but not for another two years. He was devastated when he found out. He did think it was ironic that his wife was doing to him the exact same thing she was doing with him when she was married to John.

After careful reflection, he found he didn't like what he considered Ava's betrayal one bit more than John did. He was both angry and sad when he sat down with his wife for their "come to Jesus" meeting.

Ava was angered when Gavin called her affair with Max Kaufman a betrayal.

"You're nothing but a hypocrite," she yelled at him. "You moved in on John without even blinking. This is no different, except you're on the other side now and don't like it. You're trying to have it both ways."

John was surprised when he got a phone call at his office from Gavin one day, asking if John would meet with him at a downtown bar and grill. John already knew what the topic of discussion was going to be. He agreed to meet Gavin.

Gavin was seated at a booth when John got to the meeting place. John was almost shocked at how old Gavin appeared to be.

"I guess I owe you a big-time apology, man," Gavin started. "I-I never realized how much this hurts. This really does hurt. I just thought you were being a possessive dick, man. Now I think I understand. Sharing someone you love is... ridiculous. The love-sex argument just doesn't seem to hold as much water when you're on this side of the argument.

"How long have you known about her cucking me? I bet you really enjoyed getting one over on me after all this time."

"I found out about two years ago," John responded. "Not my place to tell you... considering everything that went down between Ava and me. You and I are not friends; never have been, never will be. Can't say that I didn't feel a measure of revenge, though.

"Your interference in my marriage fucked up my life big-time. I considered a lot of revenge scenarios against you and my former wife, including just shooting both of you. But neither of you were worth going to prison for the rest of my life. Fuck you both.

"Her cheating on you is just good karma... for me."

Gavin sat there staring straight ahead. John assumed it was because of his tongue-lashing. He was wrong.

"She's been cheating on me for two years," he whispered. "I never had a clue. I mean I knew we weren't quite as 'together' as we once were, but I just assumed that was everyday life. She was cheating and lying to me for two years... at least."

John actually started feeling bad for the younger man as he watched him crumble emotionally. Of course, the bad feeling only lasted for a few seconds before real life set back in.

"You got her because she cheated on me with you. Did you think you were so fucking wonderful that she wouldn't cheat on you with someone else?" John asked. "Haven't you ever heard the old saying, 'Once a cheater, always a cheater?'"

"I never thought that was a real thing," Gavin again whispered.

"There's more than a bit of truth to all those old sayings. That's why they hang around long enough to be old sayings," John said.

"So, why did you want to see me, Gavin?" John asked.

"I just want to ask one question, and I needed to do it face to face," Gavin said.

It was John's turn to stare for several seconds before answering.

"OK, fire away," John said.

"Do you ever regret divorcing Ava?"

John thought for almost a minute before finally answering. Gavin watched several emotions play across his face.

"Every day... until I found Lynette," he said. "I loved Ava with everything in my heart, but apparently she didn't feel the same way about me. Nobody likes to admit they made a mistake, but I made a huge one there. But if I had still been married to Ava, I wouldn't have found Lynette... and I would have been looking around corners and over my shoulder every single day.

"I can't tell you what to do about Ava, if that's what you're asking. All I know is I couldn't trust her, and I wasn't ever going to share her with you. You've got to make your own call on that one."

"Damn, we've got a kid. That complicates things, you know," Gavin said.

"I do know. I had a kid, too. Didn't seem to matter to you at the time," John growled.

Gavin looked uncomfortable.

"Yeah, you're right. I never gave anything a thought other than wanting Ava. I didn't care who I hurt..."

"I noticed," John said.

"So if I divorce Ava and she marries this yutz, do you think he'll be having this conversation with me in some bar a few years from now?" Gavin asked.

"Pretty sure you can count on it," John responded.