Eve and Jerry's New Baby

Notes: This is a cheating wife story, and there is no hot sex. It is more an adult fiction, psychology story in this tale of people who probably live next door to the reader. Thank you for reading my submissions, and I appreciate constructive feedback. All errors are mine.

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Eve and Jerry's New Baby and Their New World

Another Cheating Wife Story

Jerry Bass waited in the hospital room with his wife, Eve Bass, soon after her recovery from anesthesia. She was awake and now clearly aware that she had just given birth. Eve evaded the real possibility that her newborn had not been fathered by her husband as they were waiting for a nurse to bring the baby to Eve's room. There was an equal chance that her that her husband, Jerry Bass, was the father. In a few minutes, a nurse walked in holding the crying baby and said, "Mrs. Bass, here is your healthy seven-pound-six-ounce boy, and he is ferociously hungry." Both Mom and Dad, who were in their lower twenties, beamed with happiness at the news as the nurse transferred the fussy newborn to his mother's arms as she lay in bed and the father looked on with love. The room grew silent as soon as soon as the infant found her nipple.

Jerry Bass was quiet and watched his wife gently brush the long matted blond hair using the sterilized brush designed for that purpose. He was not emotional about the arrival of his wife of five years' second baby - and almost nothing else as well - but was happy today mainly because his wife was happy. Jerry, for the most part, was laid back and took life easy because the young Mister Bass knew he enjoyed life and accordingly radiated self-confidence.

Several 1099s accompanied Jerry's April 15th IRS filing each year, and the taxpayer and his tax man were summoned for an IRS audit most every year. The audit was because the very high ratio of his income to expenses on Schedule D automatically tripped the IRS computers. He was a finish work subcontractor installing exotic woods - his favorite 'medium' as an artist was Brazilian hardwoods for certain walls and floors in luxury high rise condos under construction. No one else did, but Jerry considered himself an artist, rather than a carpenter.

For example, a particular subcontractor who had kept Jerry busy during the previous year was fond of the 'artist.' The General's Sub said at a Christmas party awards ceremony, "When finish work has to be done right, first time, every time, Jerry is our main man..." He handed a bonus check to the twenty-one-year-old, and continued, "Literally, his eyesight is good enough to see even microscopic misalignment or lack of symmetry on a wall... Thank you, Jerry," as fellow employees clapped politely.

In high school, Jerry was an average student who played trumpet in the marching band and a coronet in the concert band. Five years later, Jerry still jams with friends and sometimes plays a gig blowing his 'horn' - though it's mostly rock dance music, which is not his favorite. His high school girlfriend was in both the marching and the concert band as a flutist. Eve Ann Nash and he started going steady in the eleventh grade, and by spring, both were no longer virgins.

Eve was pixie-like and bubbled with energy. She also was well liked in high school, and dozens wanted to be her friend. Her body language broadcasted that she was an 'ordinary,' home grown girl happy with her life. Eve laughed very much and was loved by her parents. Jerry thought she was the cutest girl in high school. For example, her fun antics made band-trips enjoyable for everyone. After high school, her father paid her tuition at an office skills trade school. She and Jerry were married at 18 the day after she graduated from the office skills school.

After the simple wedding ceremony, she submitted many resumes and applications. One interview was for an entry level position at Ballard and Son, known publicly as a local chemical company. During two more interviews for the same job, she learned that Ballard was, in fact, not a local company but a super-secret government agency. She was made an offer and accepted a temporary entry level clerical job as a GS-7.

She learned on her first day of work the that the site was not a local company but was a DoD facility so secret that everybody but her knew about it. 'Ballard and Sons' was that sprawling company behind a cyclone fence with Constantine wire coiled on top of it that people drove by without seeing. The only cars parked in the 200-car parking lot belonged to employees - as no customers ever came. The only visitors were Fedex and UPS vehicles.

After she began work as a Clerical Tech She came home and told her new husband 'I am an administrative assistant at Ballard and Sons,' and then recited the learned explanation of her job she was to tell her immediate family. She then changed the subject. Each day Eve dressed down and wore baggy lounge pants and sweatshirts to work, but one Monday she came to the kitchen very well dressed. Her husband looked at her asking for an explanation with his body language. She said, "There is a Site Visit by the D.C. office the week of each quarter. Several teams come and stay about a week. I will dress up for their visit and work late. I can not tell you any more than that I draw time and a half for overtime. Please work with me and understand that getting promoted requires dressing for success, Darling."

Jerry had been in the National Guard since he was 17 and knew about IG site visits, so he never thought about the quarterly event again. Both Eve and her husband were pleased in that she never traveled or worked overtime except for one week each quarter. The extra money padded her salary handsomely. Eve never did happy-hour drinking with colleagues, etc. but did tell her husband later that she had a fat lady co-worker. And, that they would never 'talked shop.' The only thing Jerry knew about his wife's colleague was this woman was fat and did exist.

Today in the hospital room, the new Daddy took the now sleeping and satiated baby into his arms to place him gently in the bassinet beside the new mother's bed. Eve forced herself out of the bed to go to the toilet. When she closed the bathroom door, the father looked carefully at the sleeping infant only to see long blond hair and narrow cheekbones. He felt real angst for the first time in their marriage and said to himself, "Our three-year-old has Mack Truck cheekbones - as does all his cousins on my side - plus cold black hair. Hey! Could something be wrong here?"

He turned on more light to study the infant. In the silence, he heard his wife retching in the toilet. He called out, "Do you need any help dear?"

She said, "No, Dear."

Jerry walked to the night table by Eve's bed and grasped the strands of hair from the new brush his wife had used to untangle the baby's hair while the newborn fed. He placed the small cluster of hair in a tissue. Then, just as the commode flushed, he stuck the tissue in the watch pocket of his Jeans and returned to his chair. His wife slowly came out and looked at their sleeping child, and her face forced a smile as Mark Bass calmly slept in his bassinet. She then clasped her husband's hand as she made her way back to the bed.

After Eve lay back down a hospital employee brought in lunch for the patient and then cranked up her bed so she could eat the salt-free food. She put a spoonful of soup in her mouth and said with a frown, "Perfectly awful stuff. Darling, why don't you go to a salad bar and have lunch and then come back. I want to take a nap after I eat anyway as long as our baby sleeps, and the nurse fetches him. Apparently Mark will be quite comfortable until he gets hungry again, and you can not help there. Besides that, the nurse will take him to the nursery on schedule."

Jerry said using his best acting skills, "O.K. Darling, you talked me into it." He kissed her on the cheek and said, "Sleep well. I will check on you later, and if you or both are asleep, I will just go home and pick you two up in the morning for discharge as scheduled."

Jerry got to the parking garage and by this time was shaking with anxiety. He asked himself, "Is it possible that Mark is not your child? He probably is mine because of recessive genes that show up at rare intervals like now, but it won't hurt to check." He asked Siri the locations of area Paternity Checking Labs that analyzed DNA of hair. The second one listed was less than a mile from the hospital, so the anxiety-ridden father-of-record drove directly to it.

The older lady dressed in lab whites who stood at the counter asked, "How may I help you, sir?"

Jerry reached into his watch pocket and pulled out the tissue and opened it. He said, "I may not have fathered my wife's newborn. This hair is from the baby's brush, and I will yank my sample out of my head as I stand here for analysis. How much does that cost and how long will it take to get results back?"

The older lady stood there indifferently and looked at the upset man as he forced back tears. Her expression said to the Artist that she had heard this request before. The counter clerk read the steep price off to Jerry and said, "Hair, as opposed to, swab specimens is more expensive and takes about two calendar weeks. It's cash or a debit card in advance and give me your cell phone number and I will text you when the report is ready for your pickup."

Afterward, Jerry went to a bar to drink his lunch and started an introspective conversation with himself. He thought, "O.K. Mister trumpet player how are you going to play this? He answered himself, 'pretend that it is your baby until you know for sure. After all, there is a chance that I fathered Mark. Until I see the results, it wouldn't be fair to unload on Eve so she must see no difference in my attitude.' How will you play your role for two weeks? ' I will still try to Jam with my friends weekly and practice my ballads most every night because my trumpet brings me peace. And, if there is a gig, I will play it.' Then he asked himself, 'what are you going to do if you are not Mark's sperm-donor?' He answered himself, 'get a divorce.' Then he said to himself sternly, 'Wait! You cannot get a divorce because there is Melissa in your life.' He asked, 'are you going to throw her to the wolves?' He answered, 'God! I don't know what to do. The stats I have read say that twenty percent of new babies do so when the sperm donor is not the father of record. I refuse to accept myself as just another statistic!'"

Suddenly, Jerry gulped his beer fighting an overwhelming desire to flee to somewhere but had no idea where he could go. Driving back toward the hospital hunger pains hit so he pulled through the MacDonald's pick up window and drove back to the hospital to sit with his wife and child. But there, Jerry found her asleep alone and drove his vehicle home.

By now he feared that safely driving home might be difficult but started out. He stopped his car once and practiced some deep breathing and yoga meditation to get control of his mind.

The trumpet player and the friends he jammed with had built one-half of their garage into a sound-proofed music practice room. The materials were job leftovers provided by Jerry, and they spent a few dollars for soundproofing and a window A/C unit. Jerry blew the famous ballads solo and sometimes with a boom-box playing quiet background music (think, Chet Baker). This room was always his refuge because the peaceful sound coming from his horn was like a healing, peaceful balm on his mind when upset - like tonight. Three hours later Jerry left the room hungry and with tired, sensitive, lips but feeling calm now and ready to face tomorrow.

!!

Alone in her hospital bed with her sleeping baby beside her at first, Eve thought, "Our son, Mark, is very different from Melissa and all of her cousins on both sides. Then she had a naughty thought: "I am missing the site visit at work that is ongoing on while I am having a baby, damn it, and I won't get a chance to see my Hunk." She took a photo of the sleeping baby and texted it to Jason Crawford, the executive in charge of each site visit of Ballard and Sons, with the caption, 'I miss you. Say Hello to Mark. Looking forward to your visit next quarter."

And then later in bed, her heart sank as she studied the snapshot she had just sent. Uncontrollable panic suddenly gripped her mind as she studied the picture and then silently screamed in a whisper, "Mark is Jason's baby, not my husband's! Oh! No! He even looks like Jason's children he showed me one day during pillow talk. God! We had marathon sex nine months ago during that visit!" Eve felt nauseous and got out of bed and lumbered into the bathroom just in time to get on her knees to vomit again into the commode. Afterward, she didn't have enough strength to stand, so she rung the assistance buzzer and was helped back to her bed. At that time, the Pediatric nurse returned Mark to the Nursery.

When alone again in bed, she cried to herself, "Jerry is so detail oriented until he can spot dust in a corner on a just-cleaned floor. He will know this child is not his. Oh No! I have ruined my life! And, Jason and I were so careful to conceal our getting it on during his visits - but how could I be so excited and forgot to take my pills during the week preceding that site visit?" Eve's tortured mind finally calmed somewhat but was unable to drop into a deep sleep, and she even heard her husband quietly open the door and note the baby's absence. Like so much of her life, she even faked being asleep when her husband opened the door to check on her.

!!

The next morning an orderly brought in a wheelchair while Eve gave the suckling baby to a nurse and carefully got in the wheelchair. During the procession to the building exit, Eve kept staring at her IPhone looking for a reply to all the texts she had sent her lover. Jason did not send her a single text. Her husband had already called her to say he had paid the cashier and had cleared her for discharge. She wondered as the quartet went down the ramp outside, "Why doesn't Jason say something about our new baby?"

Jerry was standing by his open car door on the circular drive. He smiled when he saw his wife moving towards him. A nurse carried the baby and placed it in the state approved backseat bassinet. The baby slept quietly. Driving home, Jerry, trying to carry on a conversation as he routinely would do, asked, "How many weeks of maternity leave do you get, Dear?"

Faking happiness, she said, "Darling I told you already and you have forgotten, there were six and but now there are five and a half weeks remaining since I worked right up until mild contractions started."

Jerry said, "Well. I will take all the load of tending to Melissa and housework for the week. I plan to return to the job site on Monday - my construction manager ordered me to take some time off." Trying to keep himself in a good mood, he continued, "Just think how important I am, Eve. The General postponed the finish work in the dens in each unit on Penthouse floor because of my absence - hell extensive computer work even had done to reschedule the tasks, and a specialist had to come in and fix the computer. Ha ha."

Eve finally settled down at home to the extent that she could take short naps when the new baby wasn't fussy. Once she heard her phone ding while Jerry was in the MBR bath and quickly rolled over to her phone expecting to hear from her lover, Jason Crawford, but, alas! It was an advertisement for a "Romantic' getaway weekend in Paradise." There was not a cross word from her husband, either, and Eve worried about that. Jerry occasionally changed Mark's diapers even and prepared the child's bath water for Eve. She asked herself, "What should I do? Should I confess to Jerry? I am going to go crazy."

In time, Jerry was carefully cutting and laying in some decorative teak wood pieces in an area on a construction site when his cell phone dinged. He stopped and looked at the message that read, "The result of the lab test is ready for pick up." The text gave the business hours and address. He deleted the message and continued to work, deciding to leave when the other crews left.

He asked himself while driving to the lab, "Do you for certain want to know the results? And if the news is as bad as it can be, do you want to put our daughter, Melissa, through the tortures of a divorce? Well, Dad taught me that one should never be an ostrich, and stick one's head in the sand to keep from knowing something."

Today, the same older woman was behind the counter of the lab when Jerry entered. After he had spoken his name, she said, "May I see your drivers license?"

After Jerry had pulled it out, the lady held the picture beside his face and said, "You are Mister Jerry A. Bass, please sign here."

She gave Jerry a large sealed envelope, and said, "Good day." In the car the nominal father took one peek looking for the answer.

!!

In the blue-collar bar a half hour later that many of his coworkers hung out after leaving the job sites, Jerry sat alone on a bar stool. He had one close pal often on most job sites and today slid into a seat beside him. The newcomer was the General Contractor's son, Greg Pierce, who fancied himself the world's smartest geek. Greg was the systems man for the General. The first thing the newcomer said with laughter was, "Hey Jerry. Buy me a beer as payment for all that work I had to do. You decided to take time off for your wife just to have a baby at the worst possible week for this project. What the hell do I know? The last I heard was that men are not part of that baby-birthing process - and their involvement is over in the kickoff phase, anyway. Heh heh. So, rescheduling construction tasks was a monster."

The finish work carpenter said, "Hey, you must be a friend indeed because you have your hand stuck out. O. K. Barkeep, one more for Greg!"

Jerry said, "My wife gave birth to a healthy boy, and both are doing well. In fact, Eve is returning to work Monday week." They chatted about mundane things like sports and shop talk, and when Greg's beer was nearly empty, Jerry asked, "Hey Buddy. Could we go to my car and chat because I want to say something private, very private."

Greg looked at his close friend with a puzzled expression and said, "Sure, anything for a real friend and who does professional grade finish work, first time, every time." Nothing was said until they were sitting in Jerry's car. The owner reached under his seat and placed the envelope into Greg's hand and said, "Eve's new baby is not mine. Here are the DNA paternity results. Before you ask, let me tell you what I know. First, I don't know who the sperm donor is, and I had no idea she was having an affair, and I thought both of us were happily in love trying to stay afloat. I will be divorcing her, but I won't cause a hardship because of our three-year-old daughter. Finally, it's more than a moot point, but I love my wife. In fact, even now I try not to be angry and rationalize and say that I am just not the right one for her. You know, Greg, I copped her cherry when we both were in the 11th grade. So maybe she just wanted some strange cock and got caught."

Greg sat ostensibly examining the documents but was shaking his head in disbelief and thinking. He finally said, "You will be raped in court, Jerry. I will give you the name and address of the sperm-donor so he will be levied to pay child support for the second child. But, you still need a place to live and will be shelling out a large part of your paycheck to maintain the three people in your house. That is the law. You are fucked!"

Jerry asked, "How do you know the name of her lover, Greg?"

The ultra-techie, said, "I don't, yet. But after you steal her phone and physically give it to me, I will find out. Try to pinch it at a time where she can not remember the last time she used it, and that will convince her that she only lost it. I will give you print outs of all her deleted text messages not overwritten - my guess is that most are to and from a single correspondent who was the sperm donor - I have been here and done this before, you know, as part of my evening job."