Working Relationship Ch. 12

The next morning Sarah was woken by a discreet knock on her bedroom door. Glancing at her clock she realised it was 7:15 and time to get up.

"Come in," she called out.

The door opened and John entered with a tray containing a cup of tea and a piece of toast. "Your breakfast will be ready downstairs as soon as you come down Sarah," he said, placing the tray on the bed beside her. "What would you like this morning?"

Careful not to let her surprise show, Sarah replied, "Just a bowl of cereal I think this morning John, thank you, I will be down as soon as I have finished in the bathroom."

John stood for a moment as if he expected more.

"You may go now John," said Sarah, "Thank you for the tea and I will explain what is going to happen today when I come down. Last night before I went to sleep, I did a lot of thinking about our new relationship. Now we have both had time to sleep on what has happened, I think you will agree new boundaries and rules need to be established. There are still things I want to know about your activities during the last few years. I hope that you now understand that the days of lying to me are at an end. You said you wanted us to stay together and, for the moment I am prepared to try to make this work. Tonight David will be coming to dinner and after dinner I will expect you to make your excuses and go to the social club for the rest of the evening. Mick will not be there and you will say nothing about our new relationship to anyone. As it is Friday night, as usual Lorraine will be there at the club to help Bill behind the bar and I will be speaking to her today to ask her to keep her eye on you. There will be no sneaking off to that other club in town. Is that clear?"

Yes Sarah," John said, "But why do I have to ...?"

"Because I say so." Sarah said, interrupting him, "That's all you really need to know. I shouldn't need to, but on this occasion I will explain. I don't have to remind you that all of this is a completely new experience for me. This will be the first time I have ever been with another man and so, after dinner, I want a little time to be alone with David in private. I don't want you listening in from the next room. I know that tonight you will be in the spare room and so you may hear things, but our first time together is going to be private, just for the two of us. Now, if you don't mind I am going to get ready for my day, so close the door behind you on your way out and please make sure you are ready to leave at 8 O'clock as usual. I will drop you off at work and I will pick you up when you leave work tonight at 4."

Without a word John nodded and quietly left the room, closing the door behind him. Sarah smiled, obviously he had accepted that his place in the home was now on a completely different footing. Knocking and waiting to be invited to enter in accordance with her instructions of last night was something he would never have thought of doing before. It was also a long time since he had woken her with a cup of tea. She hoped the other changes she was going to impose would be accepted as readily.

Breakfast was waiting when she entered the kitchen and she noted that John was ready to leave for work. She gave him her new mobile number and while she ate, he changed her number on his phone.

After dropping him off at his office, Sarah continued to the supermarket to shop for ingredients for tonight's meal and to stock up with other essentials she might need if David spent the weekend.

As she shopped she allowed herself to think of the coming night and she found she was shaking; she felt as nervous as she had been on her wedding night. She tried telling herself this was silly, that although it would be with a different man it wasn't really anything new, she wasn't a virgin anymore as she had been on that night, but that didn't seem to help. She would be sending her husband out of the house so that she and her new lover could have some privacy when she led him upstairs and into her marriage bed.

This was a huge step she was taking; effectively her marriage to John was over. As long as he continued to abide by their new agreement, they would continue to live together in their house, but she had no intention of making love to him or allowing him to have sex with her ever again. As far as she was concerned her husband was gay and as he hadn't seemed to have any trouble finding gay partners for sex, he could continue to satisfy his sexual needs in that way. As these thoughts ran through her mind another 'rule' occurred to her. John was not going to bring his boyfriends to the house. Whatever he did with them, he had better find somewhere else to do it, because it wasn't going to happen in her house.

Leaving the supermarket she returned home and put her groceries away. She had the rest of the morning before she went into work to see Mr Macintosh and set the rest of the plans she and David had discussed last night in motion. If she wanted Lorraine to keep an eye on John at the club, she thought she had better have a quiet word with her and the sooner the better. She picked up the phone and rang her.

When Lottie answered, Sarah asked if she could pop round as there was something she wanted to ask her.

"Please do," said Lorraine, "I'll be glad of the company. Bill has gone to the club as he has a brewery delivery due. Did you find out any more about that trouble the other night?"

"I think I have got most of it out of him" said Sarah, "But I don't want to say too much over the phone."

"Oh dear; that sounds serious" said Lottie, "You had better come round and you can tell me what it's all about over coffee. Bill will be out of the way until about 12, so we won't be disturbed."

Sarah collected the things she wanted for her trip to work and then drove over to Lorraine and Bill's house. As she pulled into the drive Lottie came out to meet her.

"Now I know it's serious," she said, "If you have the car instead of John he really must be in the doghouse."

"I think you could say that," said Sarah, "That's why I need to talk to you."

"You had better come in," said Lorraine, "The coffee is on and we might as well get comfortable. It sounds to me as if that idiot husband of yours has done something else really stupid and you need someone to confide in. You know that anything you tell me will go no further, I won't even tell Bill if you don't want me to."

Sarah hugged her, "I know that Lottie" she said. "You have always been a good friend. Last night, as I told you, I intended to find out from John what had happened at the club. Now we have sorted out Mick, and thank you again for your help there by the way, I don't think he will bother us again, but John has been acting a bit strangely for some time and I had a feeling that the row in the club was connected to it."

Lorraine led her through into the kitchen; where the coffee was already dripping through the percolator. As she poured the coffee Lorraine said, "I felt there was something more going on than you were telling me yesterday, you wouldn't usually get so upset over a couple of sexist comments from such an obvious idiot as Mick, but I didn't want to pry. We both know the man thinks he's God's gift to women, but he must have had some encouragement and I didn't think it likely it had come from you. When you said you had dragged it out of John last night and needed to chat I guessed that it must have been something John said that started him off. Anyway, let's take our coffee into the lounge where we can be more comfortable and you can tell me what's been going on."

As soon as they were seated, Sarah said, "I am going to ask you to keep this to yourself Lottie. I know a secret shared isn't a secret anymore, but this is something I really need to get an outside view on and you are the only person I can trust not to blab it all over the town. A lot of this is very personal so I really can't get too deep into it but I will tell you what I can."

"I think you had better start at the beginning," said Lorraine, "Just take your time, if Bill comes home I will send him out again, we have all the time you need."

Sarah thought for a moment. She hadn't really decided how much she wanted to tell her friend but knew she would have to take her into her confidence if she wanted to enlist her help. "A lot of things happened yesterday, all at once" she said, "At this moment I don't know if my marriage is going to survive it; or even, if I am being completely honest, that I really want it to. John is going to be at the club tonight but I have told him that he has to stay there until closing time and he is not to leave until then. I am asking if you could make sure, as a favour to me, that he arrives at the club and doesn't leave early."

"But I can't stop him from leaving if he wants to." said Lorraine.

"What I am going to tell you," said Sarah, "I am going to ask you not to reveal to anyone. This is related to the problem we sorted out yesterday. It appears he has been sneaking off to a rather unsavoury club in town, where he has made some 'friends'. Last night, after some 'encouragement' from me, he confessed he has certain desires that he has been harbouring for a long time. This, together with the activities of a certain builder of our acquaintance, were what brought things to a head the other night."

"But if you don't want him going to this other club, why are you sending him out at all?" asked Lorraine. "If I thought that Bill might have been seeing someone else, if he could still walk, which is doubtful, I wouldn't let him out of my sight."

"I have been worried for a long time that things were not right between John and I." Sarah said. "Nothing major; but little things he has said and done just didn't seem right somehow. Then, the other night when he came home from the club, he was obviously upset but he was so secretive about what had happened that I knew there had to be more to it than 'A bit of a row at the club'; which was all he would say. Then something happened at work yesterday, which was why I was at home and was able to come over to go to see Mick's wife."

"I did wonder why you were not at work yesterday," said Lorraine, "I know your job means a lot to you so you wouldn't just take a couple of days off for no reason. That's why I knew, as soon as you phoned me today, that whatever this was about was extremely serious."

"This 'work' thing is extremely confidential at the moment, it involves other people so I can't go into that," said Sarah, "Something was said which connected in my mind with something which had been bothering me for some time. It upset me so much that I signed out of work and came home. I felt sure that the row at the club was connected somehow so decided to find out what that was all about."

"So you came here to see if we could shed some light on what had happened," said Lorraine.

"Yes, but of course you didn't know much more than me. Before I came here though I had emailed John at work and told him that I was determined to sort out what had been going on and what was happening between us. That was why I said I wanted to be home before he got in from work; I wanted to confront him as soon as he came in. That email was intended to make him nervous and I wanted to keep him 'off balance', I didn't want to give him time to get comfortable and begin to talk about other things to avoid talking about this. Anyway, I confronted him and I think I have pretty much got to the bottom of what that was about, although it didn't completely answer everything."

"He says that thing with Mick goes back to the club dance. Mick asked me to dance and as I thought he was a friend of John's, I had a couple of dances with him. He was a bit too 'tactile ' for my liking, but I didn't say anything, some men are like that. During the second dance he began to get a bit more 'touchy' and began making, what I suppose he thought were subtle advances. I moved his hands back to where they were supposed to be and thought he had taken the hint. Then when he asked me to dance again he seemed to have decided that a more direct approach would get him what he wanted so after telling him I wasn't interested I left him in the middle of the floor and returned to my seat. The row at the club was basically because he thought he still had a chance with me."

"Oh My God!" exclaimed Lorraine, "He didn't approach John to try and get a date with you, did he? I knew he wasn't the brightest bulb in the pack, but I didn't think he was that stupid."

"What I am going to tell you now I am asking you to keep to yourself, it mustn't go any further. It seems Mick did some building work for someone and ... Well, the job took a little longer than it should have because of additional requirements that the lady of the house wanted seeing to. Her husband not only was aware of this 'additional work' she required, but had approved it and actually supervised it while it was going on. It was a similar arrangement that Mick thought he could set up with John. Comments were made regarding the dimensions of John's equipment compared to Mick's and my inability to have children and that was what led to the disturbance which Bill had to sort out in the club. I hope you weren't too hard on him for not having told you, I think he might have heard something which was said when he broke it up and he was just being discreet."

"He did say there was a lot of shouting going on and he managed to get between them before it got past the pushing and shoving stage," said Lorraine, "So I expect he had an idea of what it was about, but he hasn't told me anything more. He just said if you wanted me to know, you would tell me."

"That husband of yours is a gem Lottie," said Sarah, "There were plenty of other boys who wanted to go out with you at school, but as soon as you saw him you grabbed him and the two of you were inseparable. I am beginning to see why."

Lorraine grinned. "Oh he has his moments," she said, "As I said yesterday, there are other benefits as well."

"I'll have to take your word for that," said Sarah, giggling, "Anyway, to return to John. I haven't been able to confirm this as yet, but from what I found out last night it appears that John has been 'messing around' with some other people. He met these persons at that club I mentioned. Maybe Mick picked up something about that and that was why he thought he had a chance with me, I don't know. Because of what occurred at work yesterday, I have invited my boss, David, to come for dinner tonight, so we can have a private discussion and make decisions about the future. That's why I am off today as well. All this is extremely confidential so I can't say any more, but I want John out of the way after dinner, so we can talk freely."

Lorraine nodded, "But you don't want him sneaking off to see someone else while you are working this thing out with David," she said, "I can understand that. If he has been seeing someone else what are you going to do, are you going to divorce him?"

"I honestly don't know Lorraine," said Sarah, "That's one of the reasons this dinner tonight is so important to me. Before I can make any decisions about what to do about John I have to be sure of where I stand in regard to my future with the firm and one of the major points David and I have to sort out tonight concerns that."

"I understand," said Lorraine, "Even if you are not actually discussing John's behaviour, you don't want him sitting in on this, trying to guide you to make choices that suit him. I will keep an eye on him and I assure you he will not leave the club before closing time. If he tries to leave what do you want me to do?" She grinned, "Another casualty of that piece of scaffold pipe?"

Sarah chuckled. "I don't think we need to go quite that far, well not yet anyway," she said, "I will tell him that you will be watching him for me and you will phone me if he tries to sneak out. If he is stupid enough to ignore that warning I would be grateful if you would phone me and let me know. If he disobeys me over this and sneaks off to that other club, I am telling you now that when he does come home his clothes will be in a suitcase on the front lawn and this will be the quickest divorce you have ever seen."

"You really mean that, don't you," said Lorraine, "You really would just throw him out."

"You can put money on it," said Sarah, "He has already forfeited all married rights and privileges. He is sleeping in the spare room as of last night and my bedroom is totally off limits to him. We now share a house purely for convenience and he can stay as long as he does as he is told and doesn't upset me, but if he steps out of line, he will be out. He can sleep in a cardboard box in a shop doorway for all I care."

Sarah looked at her watch, "I really must get on now I have loads to do. I'm sorry I can't tell you more, but this is all very hush-hush at the moment, so please keep it to yourself."

----

Sarah felt a little better now she had spoken to Lorraine. Although she hadn't told her everything, she hadn't actually told any lies that could jeopardise their friendship. Now she had to concentrate on her visit to work.

As she drove towards the office she thought about how she should progress the situation with Janet. She was in a line of traffic, waiting for some traffic lights to change when a car that had been parked in front of an M&S food store indicated that the driver wanted to pull out into the traffic. She let the driver pull out and turned into the vacated space. She knew the sandwiches from here were always fresh and probably the nicest in the area and her idea was to invite Janet to have lunch with her in the 'canteen', where they would be seen chatting, so she went straight to the chilled display. She didn't know what filling Janet would prefer, so she selected three different packs of sandwiches, any of which she would be happy to eat herself, and a couple of cream cakes.

She arrived at the office just after 11:00 and after parking the car, entered the building. At reception she quickly realised that yesterday's episode had become common knowledge. As she signed in the receptionist, who she had probably only spoken to three or four times before, asked if she was better now. She said she was and that she expected to be back on Monday. Dodging the question, "What happened? I heard you collapsed at your desk." Sarah gave a non committal, "I had a bad shock, but it was personal and I really don't want to talk about it," and headed into the building. Arriving at Mr Macintosh's office, she tapped on the door before opening it and stepping into the outer office. Christine stood up as she entered and came to meet her, giving her a hug.

"How are you Sarah?" She asked, "We were so concerned when Mr Branson phoned to say you were not well. Are you feeling better now?"

"Much better thank you," said Sarah, "I will be back at work on Monday and I have come in to let H.R know. I wanted to personally thank Mr Macintosh for allowing David to take me home; I don't think I could have coped with the bus journey and the walk home from the bus stop."

"But what happened?" asked Christine, "I spoke to Mr Branson this morning but all he would say was that it was a personal matter and he couldn't tell me. There are rumours of course, there always are, but no one really seems to know anything."

Sarah looked down at the carpet and covered her face with her hands, her shoulders shaking as if she was about to start crying. Then she shook her head and, taking her hands away looked straight at Christine. "I will thank David later for his consideration, I asked him not to tell anyone. It was a personal matter which my husband and I have been struggling with for several years. I received a text from a firm who should have known better and it caught me off guard. Normally I would have shrugged it off, but this one came right on top of something else which had happened at home and it hit me very hard."