After a cordial but strained breakfast, Cassie went about packing a suitcase. When I asked her what her plans were she was vague, but said that, initially, she would go to our son’s house to sit for our grandchild. Then either stay there or if that wasn’t OK, she might stay with Frank. Well, that was the last straw!

“You mean you intend to shack up with Frank too? Can I have any friends? What in hell is going on between you and that couple? Have you been fucking that bastard behind my back?” My hackles went up and my suspicions grew stronger.

“No, no never. But I need someplace to stay and I can’t stay with Jill’s friends right now. Frank has been kind to me in spite of what is happening with them.”

“I’ll bet he has. Frank would love to have you move in with him permanently. I wonder how kind he has been” I thought to myself, but I said,

“The spare room was supposed to be good enough for me when you and the bitch were shacking up here. Why isn’t it good enough for you now?” I was getting very suspicious of her for the first time in our entire relationship.

“I thought you didn’t want me around.”

“Don’t pull that passive/aggressive bullshit on me; it’s beneath you. It was you who told me to piss off so you and she could take over the house. This is all your doing. I never wanted you to leave.” But my anger was losing steam.

“Then I would like to stay.”

“OK then, but no Jill.”

“I understand.” Did she really? I had better not find that woman has been there.

I went off to work, secretly pleased that she would be around. I have never been able to stay angry with her, mainly because I have almost never had a reason to.

Given the new circumstances, retiring didn’t have much appeal to me and I was not pushed by the company to leave. I needed work to occupy me.

Frank answered my call on the second ring, “Jim, how are you?” he asked.

“As well as can be expected I suppose. We need to talk. Are you free for dinner tonight? He was, so we made a date.

My relationship with Frank has become somewhat fraught. We have known each other for years; we have been intimate, and he and my wife have been intimate, possibly more than I know.

I suspect that he is in love with her, his offer to take her in a case in point. I have no doubt that if his ex manages to separate her and me, he will be on her like white on rice. I don’t understand his role in this fiasco with Jill.

My sense is that he is basically an ethical guy, but sex and love have a way of distorting people’s perspective. I know that I won’t hesitate to throw him under the bus if it means Cassie and I can be right again.

We met at one of our regular pubs that has reasonable food. We took a booth away from the crowd. He shook my hand. “It’s good to have you back. How was Boston?”

“It has lost some of its charm lately. Have you been fucking my wife?” I decided to take the direct approach. He thought about his answer for a while.

“Not recently.” He sounded and looked very guilty.

“But while I was in Boston,” it was not a question, and he did not deny it. I wanted to punch his fucking head in. “I guess friendship doesn’t have the same meaning to you as me.”

“Not in this case, no,” he spoke quietly, but not regretfully. What did that mean?

“Does that fact have anything to do with the mess with Jill?”

“Which mess do you mean, my mess or yours? For my mess possibly, but not entirely; Jill and I have been at loggerheads for months now. But her decision to move out was triggered by your going away, I’m sure.

“I have protected my assets, so she had limited options until Cassie was alone and lonely. As for Cassie, I can’t believe that she is letting Jill drag her around by the nose; that’s not the Cassie I know.”

“All of this, you included, is not the Cassie I thought I knew. What happened to Jill?” I was beginning to wonder about the Cassie he knows.

“She has been hanging around with a bunch of radical sexual deviants. They have convinced her that my wanting to share her sexually with our friends is exploitive and shameful. Then she learned about me and Cassie that one time, and by the way, it was Cassie that told her, the damn girl scout. Jill was furious.

“I’m convinced that Jill is bent on splitting you up and then dumping her; she has a vindictive streak in her a mile wide, and she can be very devious. And she has a large cheering section in her gay gang.

“In truth, I believe that Cassie thought you would be OK with us hooking up; how many times in the past have we all swung? And if things had not blown up, we both would have ‘fessed up to you, the first chance we had.”

“Well I appreciate learning what you have told me; but, if you value my friendship at all, do not let Cassie stay at your house, ever. If you do, I will become your worst enemy, and I may have the power to impact your wellbeing.” I got up and went home.

When I arrived, the lights were on and my wife was cooking. She smiled at me and asked if I was hungry. I really wasn’t, even though Frank and I had not eaten, but I said, “Sure.” As I sat down, I said, “I met with Frank this afternoon.”

She replied, “I know, he called me.” This really sounded bad to me. “She wouldn’t poison my food, would she? What are those two up to?” I wondered.

“What is the deal with you and Frank?”

“I guess you know that he and I had sex while you were away. I planned to tell you, but things got so heated so quickly that it didn’t seem wise.”

“No, not wise, and not wise to cheat on me. Don’t you have any integrity, any sense of honor? A simple phone call might have defused that bomb. I would hope that, after all these years you would be aware of how important honesty and trust are to me.”

“Jimmy, I really did not think you would mind, he is your friend, and we have had sex dozens of times.”

“Yeah, and how many times behind my back and his wife’s?” I wondered. “Well, I guess you were wrong about that too, like when you thought to let that cunt take over my house, our home, and move me out of my, our, bedroom, the most special room in the house for me.” This suspicion was strange and counter to my nature; I didn’t like it.

I stood and went to the den to watch the news; she cleared away the uneaten food and went into the spare bedroom.

Cassie woke me later, sitting on the edge of our bed. “Can we talk?” I nodded groggily, sitting up.

“I have not heard from Jill, she isn’t taking my calls and none of our friends can or will tell me where she is. I don’t know what is going on.”

I told her Frank’s theory and watched the truth of it dawn in her eyes, and then I turned over and went back to sleep. In the morning she was sitting in the den, looking as if she had spent the night there.

“What’s happening?” I asked.

“Well, I have had the scales ripped from my eyes. What do I do now?” I chose not to offer advice.

“Do you want me out of here?”

“Cassie, I have never wanted you out of my life, or out of here, and I don’t now. But we have a lot of trust issues, and I can’t say that I like you very much right now.

“When did you become a lying cheater? Do you want to be my wife or do you want to join the sexual deviants?” She smiled.

“I never liked them very much; too strident and negative. I’m a lover, not a warrior. Does this mean I can sleep with you?”

I didn’t answer for a long time, scratching my head. Then I shrugged and said, “Oh, alright.”

I expected we would endure a long, difficult reconciliation process, but that woman owns me and we both know it, I’m putty in her hands. I even forgave Frank, though it will be a cold day in hell when he gets to fuck her again.

And she will have to find a new girlfriend.