Subtraction

A tip of the cap to Tnicoll among others for the basic premise.

Traci Lindell woke from a short nap feeling the gentle weight of the man spooned behind her. She smiled languidly remembering the sex she had just had with Martin Ellis. It was a "nice" evening, even though she didn't have an orgasm... again.

This had now been the norm for the last several weeks: a nice evening out, some good conversation, a nice meal and... some okay sex.

She knew she didn't feel any connection for the man with whom she had just finished having sex. As she laid in bed listening to him breathing, she realized that she had traded in connection for nothing more than... conversation, a meal and mediocre sex.

"Oh my God," she thought to herself, "I've become little more than an unpaid hooker. When did I trade in my good, comfortable life with Dennis for the life of an escort?"

She rose slowly and started getting dressed. Her partner for the evening, Martin, awoke slowly.

"I need to go home... and reconnect with my husband," she said softly, the last part barely audible.

"I-I understand," Martin Ellis said, without actually understanding.

For Martin, the sex earlier in the evening was good. The woman was probably in the upper echelon of the partners he had enjoyed in the last six months: a fairly tight, curvy body for a mid-50s woman, shoulder-length blonde hair and green eyes. She was fairly responsive and athletic in bed, again for a mid-50s woman.

The meal before that was enjoyable, both in terms of food and conversation. She was definitely worth a second date, probably more, Martin thought.

Traci looked around quickly and didn't see anybody out and about when Martin pulled his car into her driveway 30 minutes later. She leaned over quickly and gave Martin a soft kiss on the lips and told him she had a nice evening. She then got out of the car and let herself into her mostly dark house.

The only light on in the house was a small light over the kitchen table. Traci hung up her keys on the keyring, put her purse in its nighttime spot on the counter and climbed the stairs to the master bedroom suite, stopping briefly to look at the closed door of the guest room where her husband of 32 years was sleeping, she assumed. For the first time in about a year, she actually felt a twinge of guilt when she thought about her husband and what she had been doing earlier with another in an increasingly long line of men.

She had to admit to herself that this was perhaps not quite what she envisioned when she told her husband that she wanted to once again have some fun in her life, to date other men for the new experiences she would have with them--both sexual and emotional--as opposed to the humdrum world she had been experiencing with him.

Elliott Lindell was already up and doing his Sunday morning chores when Traci finally went downstairs. She watched through the kitchen window as he pulled some weeds out of a flower bed in the back yard. She smiled. Elliott was the living embodiment of a certified public accountant: quiet, analytical, boring even, she thought. At one time, he was everything she had wanted in a mate and potential father for her children.

He had fulfilled her wishes for more than three decades, but then last year she decided she wanted more out of a mate. Actually, she wanted the fun and excitement of a new man, maybe new men... while still being able to keep her solid, handsome, quiet husband.

Traci knew the chances of that were slim, at best. In three decades of marriage, Elliott had been unequivocal in his thoughts about marital fidelity. She, too, had been unequivocal, at least until fairly recently when she started having thoughts that didn't quite match her previous feelings. Was it the beginning of menopause or maybe just boredom with her place in life? Or something else, like maybe wanting to experience a man who was her equal in aesthetics? Elliott was handsome and fit, but as her friends had been pointing out to her for 30 years, she was flat-out beautiful and could get almost any man she wanted: and in recent months her libido had been screaming exactly that.

Started under the guise of a discussion, the argument between Traci and Elliott had been epic. She had pulled out the "if you really loved me you would give me this" rationalization, and he had harped on the fact that in the past they had both agreed completely on marital fidelity. There were a lot of tears on both sides, and Elliott finally went where the two had never gone before: divorce.

The two argued back and forth for a couple of weeks before Traci told Elliott that she was done arguing and was going out on a date with a man the next weekend.

"You already had a guy picked out?" he yelled at her. "Did you already have plans to fuck him, too?"

If she didn't end her marriage with her next statement, Traci certainly put it on life support when she explained to Elliott that she wouldn't hesitate to take half of his stuff in a divorce.

"Wouldn't it just be easier to let me do this for a while and come back to you a happier, more satisfied woman?" Traci asked. "This would be outside of us. Sex doesn't mean love."

Elliott was too overwhelmed to come back with a reasonable response. After what seemed like long minutes, he finally told his wife that he would never agree to letting her sleep with other men, even though he wouldn't try to stop her physically.

"So exactly what are you saying?" she asked.

"Every action has its own set of consequences. Divorce is a consequence. You're not a stupid woman, even though you are trying to play stupid here," Elliott said. "Don't mistake my being a nice guy for being a weak man. That's all I'm saying."

Traci could tell that Elliott was incredibly upset the first time she went out on a date. She almost expected her husband to put his hands on her for the first time ever in their marriage.

Elliott had moved his stuff into the guest room from the master suite while Traci was on her date. He was in his new room when his wife got home that night a few minutes after 11 PM. The only light on in the house that Traci could see was the small light above the kitchen table. She didn't find out about Elliott switching rooms until she got to the master bedroom.

"You childish prick!" she yelled toward the closed door of the guest room.

Traci didn't sleep with the first several men she dated. The first that Elliott could figure came on the seventh date. As usual, the two didn't see each other until the morning after the date. Traci couldn't look her husband in the eyes... for several days after that.

******

Lunch as usual Sunday afternoon was a quiet affair. Neither inquired about the other's night. Traci tried to figure out a way to start the kind of conversation the two used to enjoy on a regular basis. She remembered they used to talk all the time.

Traci didn't realize Elliott was studying her as they ate. He wondered how she could have gone from a woman he would have given his life for to a... slut... so quickly.

Traci had no clue Elliott had been having her followed by a private investigation firm since she told him of her first date. He knew she at least was trying to be discreet, but his having her followed by a pro completely pulled open the cloak of discretion. Her claim that sex with other men was just a small part of this equation was looking more ridiculous the longer her dating continued. Since she started having sex with other men almost a year before, Traci had slept with two dozen men... and two women. She slept with one young man--20 years her junior--for five weeks.

That relationship might have gone on longer--still might be going on--if Elliott's PI hadn't surreptitiously informed the paramour's fiancée and broken it up.

******

"I've got tickets to the bourbon show in town next weekend. How about we make a reservation at Pacino's for after that and then we go dancing afterward?" Traci asked while the two were watching television one evening.

Elliott looked over at his wife as if she had two heads. The two had hardly spoken in weeks. He looked around the room blatantly.

"You talking to me?" he asked, his face brightening when he first asked the question.

"You talking to me?" he asked again, this time doing an imitation that sounded like Robert DeNiro in "Taxi Driver."

Traci pursed her lips and waited. Elliott sat in his spot and waited. Traci finally figured out her husband was waiting on her to speak.

"Yes, Elliott, I'm talking to you. We haven't done anything together in a long, long time. I think we need to... reconnect a bit," Traci said.

Elliott resisted the urge to laugh in his wife's face. Instead, he answered affirmatively. She smiled brightly.

The night out was the first of several for Traci and Elliott. Both enjoyed the evening, each remembering when their marriage was loving. Traci still entertained thoughts that Elliott could forgive her and they eventually would return to their marriage. Elliott could almost read his wife's mind and was saddened by the fact that more than three decades of marriage was ending with a whimper.

******

Elliott was completely shocked when his wife of 32 years told him a year earlier she was going to date other men so she could once again enjoy the feeling of meeting new men, having new experiences and... maybe having sex with new partners.

"You can't do that! We've been married for 32 years and you want to cheat on me to fuck other men? No! No! I won't allow it!" an unhinged Elliott screamed when Traci told him her news one night soon after he walked in the door from work.

Traci, seated at the kitchen table with a glass of wine in front of her, flinched big-time when her husband screamed at her for the first time in their three decades-plus of marriage. She completely knew the reaction was coming, though, and had planned for this. She pretended to be calm and took one sip, then a second sip, of her cabernet.

"I can do it, Elliott, and I will be doing it. You don't own me, and I can give my body to whomever I want, when I want," she said firmly but quietly.

"Remember when we were first dating... all the excitement, everything was new and different? I want that back. We--you and me--have gotten stale."

The dawn of recognition came over Elliott's face, followed quickly by a look of utter sadness.

"I guess to a point I understand what you're saying, Traci, but some of that 'staleness' is because we've been together so long," Elliott insisted. "How much out there can be new and exciting after 32 years? But we have familiarity on our side, too. Doesn't that count for something?

"You just want to throw all of that away for some cheap sex with 'new and different' men?"

"I don't necessarily want to throw it all away. I just want you to acknowledge my need for new and different, and let me have it occasionally. I don't want to get divorced; I love you, but I want to be able to have some new conversations, some new experiences, with new partners from time to time.

"I'm only 55. There's still plenty of adventures out there for me. I'm asking... no, I guess I'm telling you... that I intend to sample more of what life is offering."

Elliott had gotten up from his spot at the table and began to pace.

"How about if we move up our retirement plans to travel around the world? Wouldn't we then be able to have new adventures together?" he asked, his voice a desperate whine, even to him.

"Is what I'm asking so unreasonable after three decades?" Traci demanded. "I've been a good wife and mother. Shouldn't I get something out of the deal?"

"I think I've been just as good a husband and father. You don't see me asking to be able to fuck other women," Elliott responded.

"There's more to it than just sex," Traci said. "The sex would be just a small part of it."

"That's bullshit and you know it. I'm not going to allow you to date and fuck other men," Elliott insisted.

"You would throw both of us under the bus. You would ruin everything we've built up after 32 years. It wouldn't mean anything," she harped.

"It wouldn't mean anything to you, maybe. It would mean everything to me," Elliott responded.

"I'll guess we'll see then. I've got a date next Saturday night. When I get home, there won't be any difference, except I'll probably be in a better mood. You'll see."

Late Saturday afternoon, Traci began preparing for her date while Elliott watched baseball in the family room. He ordered a pizza delivery for 6. He was devouring a pepperoni special on a tray table in the family room when Traci swept down the stairway, a cloud of perfume following.

Elliott hadn't meant to acknowledge his wife, but he couldn't help himself. A daring dark blue club dress clung tightly to Traci's body, emphasizing the fact that her large breasts were unfettered by a bra and that her time spent at the gym was certainly not wasted. The dress finished only halfway down her tight legs.

Elliott stared for several long seconds before real life slapped him in the face. She looked 15 years younger than her age and was definitely hot, Elliott noted to himself.

"Wow. You haven't gotten dolled up like that for me in quite some time. Maybe I should divorce you quickly before you bankrupt us buying a whole new 'fuck-me wardrobe'. No, it's hardly about sex at all," he muttered, sarcasm practically dripping off his tongue.

Traci grinned broadly. She knew she looked fantastic.

"You could at least be a gentleman and tell me I look good, instead of standing there drooling pizza," she said.

"You'd better make sure you've got everything you need before your date gets here, because he's not coming into this house to wait on you. And he won't be coming into the house at the end of the date, either. His world begins and ends at our door if he wants to live a second longer. Got that?" Elliott snarled.

"You mean you don't want to meet him and give him the speech about putting his hands on me the way you always used to threaten Katelynn's boyfriends?" Traci sassed, invoking the memories of Elliott threatening his daughter's dates years earlier.

"I don't ever want to meet any of your boy toys, and I'd better never catch any of them in this house. Try me and we'll see how that ends up for the two of you," Elliott threatened.

Traci's face lost much of its animation momentarily before she willed it back into place. Although Elliott didn't know it, Traci's first date had joked to her that he would walk into her house and try to shake hands with her loser husband. Traci suddenly became cognizant of the fact that Elliott had won several pistol competitions through the years, and her friends were always reminding her that Elliott was still a very fit man when they would see him working in the yard without a shirt on.

Traci immediately headed for the door when her date rang the doorbell. Elliott heard her rush the man away from the door quickly. If Traci was listening, Elliott didn't give her any kind of verbal send-off.

Elliott moved his clothing into the home's guest room while Traci was on her date.

Traci watched for the divorce paperwork for the next week, wondering each day why it hadn't arrived yet. Since Elliott hadn't argued with her since the night of her date, and she hadn't yet been served, Traci was under the assumption that Elliott was either not going to have her served, or was waiting for a more strategic time. Either way, she was too timid to ask, hoping that no news was good news.

In truth, Elliott hadn't filed for divorce simply out of indifference. After he got his rage out of his system, Elliott defaulted to his usual setting of going along to get along. He had figured out in his mind that no matter when he filed, Traci was still going to get half of everything, so there was no reason to rush. But he knew that by not responding quickly, he would throw his wife off and maybe... maybe... screw with her plans a bit. This appealed to Elliott's puckish side.

Traci didn't tell Elliott the first time she had sex with one of her dates; she didn't have to tell him. She was out about an hour later than she had been getting home, and she jumped in the shower immediately after she got home, instead of her usual pattern of waiting until the next morning. As far as Elliott could tell, she had sex on every date after that.

As much as it hurt Elliot at first, Traci's continuing infidelity became more like the pain of a bothersome toothache rather than the sharp pain of a punch. He decided to keep his PI on the case and tried to pay more attention at home.

If asked, Traci would have had to admit that from the sexual standpoint, her plan was working out almost as well as she hoped. The sex with her dates ranged from highly satisfying to fantastic, even if much of the reason was because her partners were new and different, not to mention illicit.

The fact that Traci had sex on every date after she started refuted her statement that sex was not an important component of her dating other men, Elliott knew. Even though he knew he had loved Traci with everything he had inside him, her love for him couldn't have been at an equivalent level, if she still loved him at all. Could she really be that delusional, he wondered.

As time went on and Traci continued to date other men, Elliott also had to wonder if she had kept a lot of her past secret from him... or if she got hit by that clichéd Martian Slut Ray somewhere along the line. How could she possibly think he'd be okay with her sleeping with other men once or twice each week? At this point she had become nothing more than a middle-aged slut, and Elliott felt he deserved more as his life went forward.

He wondered how his children would react when he finally gave them the news... if they didn't already know.

Six months later, Traci was sure that Elliott would someday forgive her and return to her side. He still hadn't filed for divorce, and their relationship at home had improved to that of friendly roommates. Her life at the moment was almost everything she had wanted... she had a fairly exciting social life with several partners willing to squire her around town and several new and younger sex partners. The only things missing were the love--and sex--from her husband... but there was still hope that she could get him on board someday.

One could say change was literally in the air at the Lindell house one Saturday evening.

"New aftershave or something? I like it," Traci said as she passed close to her husband in the kitchen of their home before she ascended the stairs to get dressed for her date.

She glanced at what her husband was wearing and realized it was not his usual Saturday evening jeans and T-shirt. She was intrigued.

"Not staying in or hitting Carson's to hang with the guys tonight?" she inquired. "This kind of looks like you're dressed for a casual date."

"Very good observation, babe," Elliott said. "Ribs and beers with a date at that new barbecue place on Westcott. Been there yet?"

Elliott could see his wife was replaying his answer in her head before answering him.

"Umm.... no. You know I've never been much for the barbecue thing," she answered, her brow wrinkling. "A date? But... but..."

She wanted to remind him that he was a married man, but couldn't figure out how to do that without sounding like a 5-6 blonde hypocrite.

"It occurred to me recently that I had not been living life to the fullest... or at least the fullest as my limited vision sees it. Not like I need much. But still, spending an evening out with a new and different woman would help my outlook on things. It seems to be working for you, right?" Elliott commented.

Traci realized that her jaw was hanging open partly in shock.

"Who is she, El? Is it someone I know?"

Elliott resisted the urge to scream at his wife. He purposely kept his voice controlled.

"Just a friend. I don't think you two know each other, although I've never asked. Doesn't matter," he said.

Although she wasn't happy with what she considered a flippant answer, Traci took the hint Elliott gave her and stopped asking questions.

"Hey, gotta run. Have a good night," Elliott remarked as he turned from Traci, grabbed his keys and headed out.

He resisted the temptation to hum a happy tune as he left. He realized his life just shifted again in that two-minute conversation.

Jenna Gibbs was four years younger than Elliott but looked 15 years younger in her casual dress that was four inches above her knees and moved well with her athletic body. She had the confidence of a woman that knew she could turn heads of men of a certain age... and maybe a little younger. Her shoulder-length curly brunette hair was loose about her head. Her large brown eyes danced with life, and drew in one Elliott Lindell several weeks ago when he saw her sitting at a table of what appeared to be 30-something aged women at a bar on a Saturday night.

Although Elliott couldn't have explained it, he felt drawn to the woman and asked her to dance, one of the few times he had approached a woman since Traci had made her announcement. They danced several times before they sat down together. Elliott wasn't subtle when he looked at the fingers of her left hand.

"No, I'm the one not wearing a ring. Want to explain why that seems important to you?" she asked.

Elliott spent the next 10 minutes explaining what was going on in his marriage, and what his wife was doing. He told her he had a couple of photos on his phone if she needed evidence.

"I'm not looking for my next wife right now. I'm just looking to rebuild a little self-confidence while still enjoying life. I've decided I'm not going to just fold up and die. I've got too much life to live... and I can do that with or without someone by my side," he said.

The Christmas holiday presented its own set of circumstances, the two Lindells found out. Although Elliot had always accompanied Traci to the fairly ritzy party her company put on every year, this year he made plans to be elsewhere that evening. When Traci reminded him of the party and he told her he couldn't make it, she threw a fit, until her husband shut her down with some practicality.

"How could I ever show up to another of your company events after you've slept with a good share of the upper male executives?" Elliott queried blankly.

Traci stammered and blushed deeply. Her brain immediately went into self-defense mode as she wondered how Elliott could possibly know that.

"Whoever told you that lied to you. You know I would never..." she started.

Elliott put up a hand in the universal stop signal.

"Stop, Traci," he growled. "I know you've dated at least a half-dozen bozos from your office... which means you've slept with them as well. How could I ever show my face at one of your events again, knowing that a bunch of your co-workers know you've cuckolded me."

"I-I've never told anyone," she asserted.

"Except for your two or three closest friends... and, of course, all the different guys you've slept with. If you're not the company slut, you're at least high up on the list," Elliott snarled.

She sat quietly, suddenly studying the nap of the carpet beneath her feet. Elliott's statement had landed hard.

"So what about your company Christmas party? How many people know about... us?" she asked quietly.

"Us? You mean you? Nobody. I've got enough on my plate that I don't need to out myself as a cuck. But you're not coming with me this year. I gave them an RSVP for one only, said you had something more important come up," Elliott said.

"I-I've never missed one of your Christmas parties before. I would have gone with you, you know?" she said.

"That's okay. You don't need to give up something new and exciting with someone new and exciting for a dull Christmas party with me and my dull fellow co-workers. I made your apologies," Elliott said.

"You're still my husband. I will still be there for you," Traci said.

"Are we still going to Katelynn's together for Thanksgiving? Do we have to say anything to them, or our parents. I mean..."

"Yeah, we can go together if that's what you'd like, and we don't need to say anything to anybody for a while. Eventually, however, everything is going to come out," Elliott said.

Several times in the next few months Elliott went out on dates on Saturday night, always making sure he left the house before Traci did. He was low-key and never drew attention to himself, but both knew what was going on. Traci wasn't exactly happy with her husband, but she really had no recourse.

Jenna Gibbs and Elliot weren't exclusive, but the two were heading that way. Elliott noted how comfortable the two were together... the way he and Traci had once been. Jenna, a good-looking but not beautiful woman on the outside, was everything Elliott was looking for in a woman with which to spend his final working years and retirement.

******

Traci was up fairly early for her on a Sunday morning. She did her Sunday morning house chores while Elliott was outside doing his usual Sunday morning chores. She watched him almost as if it was the first time she was seeing him. She watched him move with the grace of a former athlete, he still looked to be fit... if anything, it looked to her like he had gained some additional muscle in recent months. How had she not noticed that, she wondered.

She admired his understated good looks, the way his salt and pepper brown and gray hair gave him a distinguished look. Unlike many men of his age, his jeans didn't hang on a paunchy body. She had to wonder how many of the neighbor women surreptitiously watched her husband do his chores around the house.

Traci soon realized she was getting aroused watching Elliott do his chores. She hadn't come during sex with Martin Ellis the previous night, even though the sex was okay. This had become the norm in recent weeks. The sex had gone from mostly very good to mostly good but nothing special. She and other men not her husband were engaged in intimate acts with very little intimacy between them.

She thought back to the last time she and Elliott made love... or even fucked, for that matter. She missed that special something she and her husband shared. Elliott might not have been as youthfully exuberant as some of her partners, but none of them knew her body better. Afterwards they didn't share that special... feeling... a real glow because she knew Elliott was with her due to love. Elliott had rarely left her not feeling special... as opposed to her feeling like she was more of a conquest. She knew this was entirely on her.

"How about we do something together next Saturday for a change? Dinner after, maybe some dancing, then maybe more later?" Traci asked midway through a mostly silent lunch.

Elliott looked around the room, then behind him as if he was expecting to see someone else in the room with the pair. Traci pursed her lips but bit back her sharp retort.

"You mean do something with me, Mr. Dull?" he asked tentatively. "Wouldn't that be plebian?"

She thought for a minute, trying to figure out how to answer him without starting yet another argument.

"We're still husband and wife. Wouldn't it be nice if we proved it to everyone for once?" she commented.

Traci could see that Elliott was fighting hard to contain a smirk.

"In for a penny, in for a pound," she thought to herself.

"All right. You pick the activity, the restaurant and the club, since..."

"Yeah, I got it. I called you dull," she rejoined.

"We can do all of it except the maybe more later. I refuse to wear a condom with my own wife, but I know that going bareback with you might not be the smartest thing I've ever done," he said.

Traci had no good response so wisely kept silent. She was incredibly hurt by what Elliott intimated.

"I guess I can take three out of four," Traci finally said. "I'll get an STD test and then someday we can touch all the bases."

"The fact that you haven't been getting regular tests scares me to death," Elliott said.

The two spent an enjoyable evening together as Elliot turned up the charm meter all the way. Traci noted to herself that she hadn't remembered her husband was as fun to be with as he was on this evening. The two would have to have more dates in the future, she noted to herself.

The two did have more dates in the future, all instigated by Traci. She also continued to date other men supposedly behind his back, not knowing Elliott was aware of her activities. None of the dates with Elliot, however, ever resulted in sex between the two, much to Traci's chagrin.

"I've shown you the clean STD tests. We are husband and wife. I know you want me," she whined.

"I'm glad for your sake that you don't have an STD, but I will never again have sex with you. We're done, Traci," Elliott said. "We were done a long time ago."

"Then what has this been all about?" she asked. "I know you've enjoyed our time together."

"This has been two-fold," Elliott said. "One, I wanted to see if there wasn't a piece of the woman I married all those years ago still left in there somewhere. Two, I wanted to show you that I still cared for our marriage, the very little bit of it that was left. The rest you threw away with your selfishness.

"The sad reality is we're all done but the divorce."

"No, that can't be. I know you still care for me, and I still love you," Traci professed. "I-I can stop dating other guys. I will stop dating other guys."

"It doesn't make any difference, Traci. We were done the minute you decided to fuck other guys. This wasn't about me being dull or boring or whatever. This was about you being a selfish bitch and figuring I was too nice of a guy to stop you or leave. The more I gave you, the more you took."

Traci wanted to argue the point but again had no comeback.

******

The Lindells' children were at first disbelieving that their parents were getting a divorce. Elliott knew that it would be tough for his children to believe their mother had cheated on him, so he had several video clips on his phone for them to view. He warned them the clips were explicit, because he wanted to show them her infidelity was hardly inconsequential. He told them to take his phone and go out to one of their cars so nobody in the restaurant they were meeting in would be offended. Both children raised their eyebrows at him.

The two came back into the restaurant about five minutes later looking like someone had punched both of them in the stomach.

"Damn, we're sorry, Dad. We thought for certain you had to be exaggerating," his son said.

His daughter nodded in compliance, her face a mask of disgust.

"I will never be able to erase that from my memory banks. My eyes will never be the same. I wish I was kidding," Katelynn said.

Elliott had moved out of his home right after Traci was served divorce papers. The plan was for the two kids to meet with Elliott first at an IHOP, then go to their former home to talk to their mother. When the kids met their mother at their parents' home, Traci tried to downplay her actions, telling both that Elliott was making her infidelity sound worse than it was to win favor with them.

"Mom... Mom... stop," Katelynn said. "We've seen video. It's every bit as bad as Dad said it was."

Traci turned sickly white as all the color seemed to drain from her face.

"Your father has video? Oh my God! I never knew that. Ohhhh.

"Why did he show you those videos, to make me look bad?"

"Get real, Mom. He showed them to us when we didn't believe him that you had cheated on him," her son said. "We accused him of lying to us, so he showed us... just a few. We couldn't believe you would do something like that. Now we'll have those videos burned to our retinas for the rest of our lives. Thanks, Mom."

Traci was on the phone to Elliott within minutes of the children leaving her to return home.

"How could you show the kids video of me? That was incredibly uncalled-for," she complained vociferously.

"Not that you doing those things with other men wasn't uncalled-for. Nooo," Elliott said. "I had a feeling that they wouldn't believe me. Hell, I'm not sure I would have believed me up until you actually did it, but I'm not taking the hit for you being a selfish slut. Hell, I only showed them a few minutes. I've got lots more."

"Lots more? How did you... Ohhh."

"Yeah. Ohhhh," Elliott mocked. "I know a lot more than I ever wanted to know. I mean, I suspected you were racking them up, but I never suspected you were a whore of epic proportions. Holy shit, Traci. Even if I had been considering taking you back, seeing all that was nothing short of sickening."

******

Elliott asked Jenna to marry him about 18 months after they started dating. While his children liked the woman, they both were privately hoping that somehow Elliott could forgive their mother for being a stupid, selfish slut. They both knew the odds of that happening were slim, at best, but it was their parents, so they held out for what would have been a small miracle.

"I suppose I'll always have feelings for her to some extent, we were married 32 years, but the woman I married was long gone from our marriage at the end," Elliott explained to his kids. "I suppose maybe some of it was my fault because I almost always let her have her way... and I guess she started to feel like our marriage was really her marriage, to do with as she pleased. Maybe I should have been a bastard more and flexed my marital muscles more. Maybe she would have respected me more and treated me as an equal, instead of as an accessory."

With Elliott out of her life, Traci had no reason to hold back on enjoying sex with anybody she wanted... and sometimes in multiples. She even was the star attraction at a wild bachelor party one night, which wound up lasting for two full days before she finally had to leave so she could get some sleep and go to work the next day.

Despite her growing reputation as a slut, Traci couldn't seem to understand why she couldn't attract a quality man to date on a long-term basis. She was complaining to her daughter one day during a call when Katelynn finally cracked.

"You threw away a good man," Katelynn growled to her mother, "And now it seems like everyone knows you're... an easy mark. No man's going to look at you as serious relationship material. You're an aging slut... good for a fuck, a date or two, some fun. But nobody in your age range is going to want to settle down with somebody like you.

"Younger guys look at you as a MILF for the taking. You're still an attractive woman, Mom, but you're not their first choice anymore. They're going to be more demanding of you, in part to justify to themselves why they chose you over a younger woman. You probably had no idea why, but you've surely noticed that the younger guys have been a little more physical with you."

Since it was just a phone call, not a Facetime call, Traci didn't have to hide her grimace. She knew her daughter was on the mark with what she had been experiencing. Her initial success had degenerated into... Even she would have to admit that, but only to herself, in the loneliness of her home at night.

Traci never married again.