A Break in a Marriage

Author's Notes: This is a two-page cheating wife story, with zero get-a-hard-on descriptive sex, and it is Adult Fiction, and written mostly in the stream of consciousness format - with necessary action interspersed. All errors are mine. I appreciate the private feedback from all. However, a note to the Anon's - I am sorry as I only scan those but don't get into them because there are only 24 hours in a day. Thanks to those who wrote cogent comments about and who marked my last submission as a 'favorite.' Finally, thanks to Literotica for providing this platform for writers in training.

*****

"Laurel is green for a season,
and love is sweet for a day;
But love grows bitter with treason,
and laurel outlives not May."
A. C. Swinburne

Preston Black was a widely published and quoted research physicist whose area of expertise was nano-devices for surgical use. He met his wife, Harriet, in graduate school when both were writing their respective doctoral dissertations interspersed with teaching their classes.

Harriet Black was a petite blond with medium size tits, but far removed from the 'dumb' label. Her kind of life when she met Preston, is illustrated by the fact that she couldn't even find the time to go to dinner with him without checking her day planner.

Alicia and Alvin were their two trilingual and bright youngsters who managed to avoid the ravages of peer pressure as they grew up. Alicia lost her virginity when the attractive young high schooler chose the lucky male to deflower her, while Alvin learned about pussy in a brothel patronized by him and his best friend.

Preston's wife of 19 years, Harriet, and their two children sat at their Saturday morning breakfast table chatting. The 18-year-old high school senior, Alicia, said, "I have a date tonight with Bud who lived around the corner until he left for college. He is in town this weekend and has invited me to dinner this evening."

Harriet said, "I had forgotten about Bud. Obviously, he is doing well, or he wouldn't be coming all the way back to Starnton for a weekend visit."

"Yes, Mom, he will be awarded his Ph. D in the spring, and has been on the Dean's List for six consecutive years. And, he has accepted a job as a researcher with a Wall Street firm. He is now 24, and it's funny that he only remembered me as a snotty nosed kid. But we have been corresponding, and I have convinced him that I have learned to wipe my nose Heh Heh. My telling photos convinced him, and so he asked me out tonight after he took his Mom out last night. In fact, he flew into town specifically because of his interest in me."

Her Dad said, "My, my Alicia! You have learned how to wrap a man around your finger at a tender age. If both you and Bud should fall in love with each other, that will be your lucky day."

Alvin, the 17-year-old Junior, bored with the whole conversation, asked, "Dad, may I use the Cooper tonight? I have a date as well."

Preston said, "Maybe not, Son. After we pick up the dishes, I want to talk about something that will certainly be of interest to all four of us and the answer to your question will come out."

Alicia said. "Well, I have a busy day ahead as well so I will clean up the table and come back to listen with my ears wide open."

Later Preston stood up when the other three were again enjoying coffee. He reached behind the china cabinet and retrieved a large envelope. Then the calm man of the house proceeded to place two large, colorful photos on the table. Both were of his naked wife, Harriet, riding a naked man reverse cowboy while rutting. Amidst the gasps and sounds of disbelief his family members expressed - because their Dad would do such a thing - the husband nonchalantly continued, "The gentleman enjoying himself with your mother is one, Hal Robertson. He is the principal designer of the largest Interior Design studios in these parts - they cater to the owners of the luxury homes. Fortuitously, their suite of offices is one floor below the Market Research Firm where your mother is employed." Preston brought out one more photo and said, "Here is a snapshot a waiter took of Misses Robertson and me having Coffee when we were discussing the pictures you are looking at right now and what to do about them."

Alvin said, "Dad, you are a monster! Showing this is a terrible thing for a civilized man to do at his breakfast table."

Dad replied, "I don't think so, Son. Please keep in mind that none of us here are virgins, so there is nothing new in the photos. Guilt and shame trips today, Alvin, are so 20th Century in our 'let's-get-it-on' modern world. But, on to more important things: Harriet, a constable will be serving divorce papers to you later today, and I need to finish packing my clothes and get moved into my newly rented apartment. It is my wish to be out of here before the uniform arrives."

Alicia burst out with anger directed at her Mom, whom the youngster had understood less and less over the years. The brutally angry daughter asked, "Mom! If you were so unhappy with Dad why didn't you ask him for a divorce and then tell him you wanted to take a lover?"

Harriet remained in a state of shock with all blood seemingly drained from her face. She kept moving her lips as if she were trying to say something while scrunching further and further down into her chair, but no sound came out.

Finally, the father spoke, "Meeting an exciting local celebrity whose picture is often in the Sunday Supplement, is a major event. They met in a crowded deli on the ground floor of their office building. The magnetism 'just happened' and after several such meetings, she did the 'natural' thing by acting on her intense feelings of desire before thinking. The lesson to be learned here, Alicia and Alvin, is to think and then act on feelings - not the other way around."

Alvin said, "I still think laying it out like this is brutal to Mom."

"Son, there is no pain-free way to terminate a marriage." After a pause in a silent room, Preston continued, " Well, Unhappy Campers, if anyone wants to help me load the Cooper - I am leaving the paid off Lexus for your Mom - All help is appreciated."

Alicia jumped up and asked, "Dad, have you an extra bedroom for me until I leave for college in a few Months? Oh, and by the way, please reassure me that you guys splitting up won't include the gold coins you have collected over the years for Alvin and my college expenses, right?"

"Yes, I have an extra room. You may live with me rent-free if you will keep the place clean. Don't worry about your Mom and me splitting our assets affecting your college fund - both of us love you two.

Alvin, I suggest you continue to live here with your Mom and her paramour - she needs mucho help, and Mr. Robertson will have no other place to live either," Preston looked at his watch, and continued, "starting about now because he will, effectively, no longer have a home. Mister and Misses Robertson has two young ones and a third one on the way for whom your Mom will be the lucky visitation step-mother. After paying child support, his diet will consist of peanut butter sandwiches plus any scraps that your Mom can throw him."

At that point, Harriet's iPhone dinged announcing a text message received. Instinctively the lady reached for the phone at first but then decided not to look at it. Her daughter said to her Mom, "Don't you need to read that text as poor Mister Robertson might already be looking for a home!"

Harriet hadn't said a word but could take no more. She finally jumped up and ran into the downstairs half-bath and locked the door.

Later, after three previous round trips, Preston and his daughter drove back to the home where Alicia and Alvin grew up for the final load of Dad and Daughter's personal effects. As the two walked towards the front door to leave, first the brother and sister hugged each other with tears streaming down their two faces. Then, Alvin moved over to look directly at his Dad, and said, "Bye Dad."

Preston said, "Young man, this rift between your Mom and me is not about you and Alicia in that both of us love you two and are committed for you to reach 21 with an employable skill. Your Mom will need lots of help so be strong for her, will you? Please visit your sister and me from time to time, and I do have a couch that lets into a bed should you want to stay over for a night."

By now the wife, who had silently watched Preston and Alicia load the Cooper for the previous trips, was actually feeling better. She thought, "Oh boy! Hal and I are going to fuck every day after he moves in with me." She stood next to her son with something akin to a smile on her face.

The two watched the vehicle loading as it was finished. She then looked at Preston almost as if she expected her husband to hug her neck, 'goodbye,' the way he did Alvin's neck.

The man grasped both of Harriet's hands and said, "Hey, I detect a hint of a smile on your face - may you find lots of happiness. We had many good times and raised two beautiful children - and that is worth something! Keep smiling!" He kissed her lightly on the cheek and said, "Make a good life for yourself, Harriet. Ohh. I am sure there will be issues to resolve, and there will be a three or four-person conference to do that."

He joined his daughter already in the car and cranked it. At that time a sedan with an antenna whipping on top stopped in front of their house, and a uniform constable exited the vehicle carrying a large envelope.

The moment Harriet saw the uniform walking towards her, she put her hand to her mouth and silently screamed. Then she noticed the Cooper pulling into the street, and out of her life, and then the full reality of what was going down hit her, and the scream became an audible plaintiff cry. While the uniform was reciting the prescribed speech she thought of a thousand things she should have said to her husband and then screamed to herself, "I will never get a chance to say any of what I should have said to Preston."

While Alicia and her Father were driving the daughter asked, "Dad, how did you get all this information and photos?"

"Honey-Bunn, money opens all doors and reveals all secrets - I am quite certain your Civics teacher didn't point that out visa vie the D.C. region. I purchased a complete dossier on your Mom and her Paramour about two months ago and had been preparing for this morning since then. The lesson for you, when you enter into a committed relationship, is never to forget that there are no secrets - and if you want out of the relationship, just negotiate one with your partner. Nobody owns the right to anyone else's life."

"Wow, Dad! Bud, my date tonight, is the only other person I have met who thinks somewhat like you do."

Preston smiled big, as he backed the Cooper up to the loading dock of the high-rise where his new furnished home would be on the fourth floor. He said, "You know I always knew that guy had a head on his shoulders ever since he was running around during our neighborhood parties cracking jokes and eating like a horse. Come to think of it, since my and his thinking is similar; I like the guy already."

!!

It was two years later, and Alicia and Bud were living together in Brooklyn. His daughter, enrolled in CUNY, commuted to School. Bud's name had already led on the credits for a newscast that appeared on Financial Cable TV. Both commuted to their daily activities via the NYC Metro. Preston and Harriet's son, Alvin, had just started his sophomore year at Rensselaer.

The former cuckold husband had a petite woman who at first rented a room from him at a reduced rate in exchange for keeping the apartment clean. That morphed into the nice looking forty-something lady sleeping with Preston in his bed. He no longer used the second bedroom the past year except for storage. Once after a vigorous sexual coupling, the Research Physicist thought, "My you'll-do woman, Carol, is working out better than I anticipated. She is trustworthy and keeps the house spotless and spurts on our rubber blankets beneath the sheets when we get it on, and she doesn't cost me so very much. But the downside is that I don't see the best part of me in her. She is a non-observant Jewish lady and wants a soul mate from that population in her heart of hearts, I think. Very much a private person, she pulls her weight, and I like that. But it would be nice to find another bright woman, not unlike Harriet, who set my soul as well as my body on fire, and who looks at the world more like I do. I wonder how life is treating my Dear Ex-Wife since our children won't say anything about her at all to me and vice versa??? I wonder if she thinks of me from time to time - or even at all."

!!

At that moment, Harriet was on the floor in the original family home doing yoga poses by following a DVD of Rodney Yee leading the exercises on this Sunday afternoon. These sessions usually relaxed her, but not today. She thought while trying to do the poses, "Hal Robertson - who forgets to pick up his dirty underwear - is thankfully out of the house finally. He should be returning from taking his three small children home to their mother in about an hour. Damn! I can not believe it as two were crying as he got them ready. Their bi-weekly visitation on Saturday and Sunday, set by the court, was today, as usual, stressful and noisy." Her thoughts continued as she did the poses, "I am too old to be contending with three young children, one still not completely potty trained. Hal looks at me sometimes like I am aging at 42, and delights in pointing out a grey hair when he sees it. Being ten years younger than me didn't matter at first, but suddenly that becomes an issue in his mind. Worse, Hal is boring when not fucking. He can not talk about anything except designing rooms in upscale homes - I don't think the artist-designer has ever read a novel or just enjoyed a moment of doing nothing. On top of that, he is a news and talk-show junkie, as if burning hours of his life with that crap makes a difference. My live-in lover is the proverbial one-trick pony, except that Hal is well hung and has had an appetite for enjoying my body at least up to now. But, he then gets up and turns on the TV or the gaming box after getting it on. I certainly enjoy our rutting but I have this empty aching feeling that Hal is living here because he is chained to me financially since he has little discretionary income left each month. And, sometimes I think that down deep he supresses his contempt for 'this old woman.'

"So what are you going to do about life, Harriet? I have the feeling that there has got to be something more than what I am experiencing. And, I fully expect Hal to move out because I am not an exciting party girl and can not introduce him to prospects or otherwise help his career. Maybe I have become just another one of his wet fucks who provide him with room and board. I wonder if he has another woman on the side by now - he is gone a lot lately?

"More importantly, what and how Is my ex-husband, Preston, doing now? Neither of my children will say a word about their father when they bother to call or visit. I wish there were a God so I could pray that he or she would send back my husband I threw away for some cheap thrills - hell! If Preston would just call to ask, 'How are you?' I would walk on clouds. My children won't even tell him that I have been promoted to branch manager of our Investment Research firm. For sure, I spend enough hours in the office studying world markets, so I won't have to spend so many hours with Hal. The irony is that I am avoiding him and he is avoiding me. When we both are at home, there is nothing for us to discuss, and the clock hands move glacially..."

The DVD speakers interrupted her thoughts and said, '...this is relaxation pose...' but she tensely continued her internal soliloquy. "I am so tense and irritable until there is no way I can relax. God is cruel to me! When Hal gets back from returning his children to their mother, he will walk in the door with a hard on and want to fuck just to relieve himself 'Bam! Bam! Thank you, Ma'am!' The fucking feels good, but there is nothing to have a conversation about afterward. This house has been bedlam since Friday evening when it became a circus after the children arrived, and we have been unable to get it on all weekend. Life has come to this?"

After Bud returned, they did fiercely fuck and after it was over, he calmly picked up the controls of his gaming box and ignored his lover.

Harriet screamed silently, "Jesus Christ! I want my husband back!"

It was ten days later when Harriet was studying four annual reports, and it was late. She was tired and alone in the office. Her secretary, who left for the day at 5:00 P.M, had placed a stack of must-read correspondence on the manager's desk. Her head was signaling a beginning headache and she only had a salad for lunch, and she was beginning to feel dizzy from hunger. She drove home sipping black coffee after stuffing the must-reads into her briefcase.

The first thing she noticed when she stepped into the kitchen was that Hal had left his door keys and garage door operator and a note to Harriet. It said, "...I have found another apartment, and this is goodbye. Thanks for the good times and helping me with my children when they visited. HR"

The cheater crashed into a chair, very dizzy now and let out a low-level scream. Then Harriet got a hold of herself and repeated the famous Haiku idiom to herself, "...No one can hear your screams..." and then started laughing like a mad person. She popped a TV dinner into the microwave and dialed her Son, Alvin. "Hi Mom, I am with four classmates now. May I call you in an hour or so?"

She replied, "Sure Son, tomorrow is O.K. if you are super busy."

Her daughter answered when Harriet called, "I am on the subway, Mom, and I will soon be going under the East River on my way home."

Her Mom replied, "Alicia before we are cut off let me tell you that Hal moved out today and..." their conversation ended at this point.

!!

Twenty minutes later, Preston Black sat on the couch in his apartment alone eating take out and playing some quiet trumpet music of Chet Baker on his Wave Radio. His Roomy would be coming home from work in two more hours, and the Physicist was reviewing the parameters of a Nano-surgery tool experiment soon to be completed by an independent lab as early as in the morning. This tool cut into tissue, removing diseased cells and leaving the healthy ones. He was vaguely excited because "This time it just might perform as my careful design predicts."

His phone rang, and it was Alicia. "Hi Dad."

"Hi Pumpkin, how are you?"

She replied, "FYI, Mom just told me Hal Robertson has moved out, and then my phone went dead under the river."

The mention of her Mom broke his chain of thought and left him bewildered and silent for a moment.

Alicia asked, "Hello Dad, are you there?"

He relaxed and said, "Hello Darling Daughter, I had been lost in thought about an experiment at a lab to be completed in the morning and then your news rattled me. Maybe your Mom will land in the arms of Mister Right next time - let's hope so."

"Dad, you are her only 'Mister Right,' and you know it and she knows it. My opinion is that she is your Misses Right as well. You guys need to stop pretending otherwise to yourselves. Besides that, Bud says he doesn't want to play the 'half day at each house' game again this coming holiday season."

Jokingly Preston said, "Heaven forbid, I don't want to piss off Bud on Thanksgiving, so I will think about a way to not do that although I can not see me moving back in with Harriet."

She said, "I am in the lobby of our apartment building and gotta go. Bye Dad."

!!

Harriet had just hung up her office phone at 2:00 P.M. ending a three-hour conference call. The International principals were discussing the company's reaction to the hubristic blather that would follow the coming FED pow-wow, how it might affect their client base, and defensive measures the firm should recommend to their subscribers given some possible outcome scenarios. She was exhausted and said to her secretary, "Route critical calls to my cell, as I am dizzy from hunger and going to the first-floor deli."