Fast forward thirty years and we are still friends and still, occasionally sleeping together with them. Professionally, I now have a Stanford MBA curtesy of the company and am in the C-Suite, as head of operations. We are financially secure and I am starting to mumble about retirement.
Our two sons are married and have provided Cassie with a grandchild each to love and care for; she is day-caring the preschooler. When she is not busy with them, she and Jill are usually off together doing, I don’t know what.
My company has made a successful bid to acquire another on the East Coast and has asked me to go there and supervise the take-over. It would be a month-long assignment after which they would pay me a large bonus and I could retire.
Cassie flatly refused to be away from the grandkids for a month, but I was not free to refuse the assignment. So, regretfully, I said goodbye to my family and went east with a promise from her to visit one weekend soon.
In the quiet of my first-class seat, it occurred to me that we had not made love the night before I left and she dropped me off at the airport with a mere peck on the cheek.
After a week at work, I realized that I was too busy to sightsee with her anyhow, better that she didn’t come to Boston. My days started too early to phone her in the morning and finished in the evening when, for reasons that were unclear to me, she was never available to answer her phone.
Her texts were mostly recitations of the antics of the grandchildren. In the middle of my second week, she sent me the flight info of her visit of the coming Friday. I enthusiastically arranged to be free for the weekend.
She arrived too late in the evening for more than some wine and cheese, then sex and sleep. When I inquired about things at home she assured me that all was well, “Jill is looking after the house.”
“Did the house need looking after for three days?” I wondered; strange.
We made slow, gentle love to each other. She began with her usual superb cock sucking, which I hardly needed after two weeks of celibacy. I was anxious to get between her legs and study her beautiful pussy, hoping it, too wanted to be licked before welcoming my hard cock.
It was sublime for me, like the old days when we were young lovers.
Before nodding off, Cassie laid her head on my chest and said, “Jim, you are a kind, gentle and generous lover. Thank you for being you,” A strange testimonial, it seemed to me.
Saturday started late and was full of New England historic sights followed by dinner at one of Boston’s famous seafood restaurants. Anticipating more sex, I went light on the wine and got us home early.
We were sitting on my sofa with drinks when Cassie said, “Jimmy, there is something I have to tell you.” She uses my nickname when she wants something.
Alarm bells immediately went off in my head. “That sounds ominous,” I replied.
She took my hand and looked me in the eye, “We have had a long and wonderful life together. I could not have asked for a better family or husband. You have given me everything that you could in life,” she paused. Those brown eyes that have entranced me for years.
“But you’ve found someone else, and you no longer love me,” I couldn’t believe I was saying those words. Only last night we made special love together.
At first she said, “Yes,” then she amended it to, “I still love you, but I am not IN love with you. Does that make sense? I’m in love with someone else.”
“Do I know this person?” I could barely get the words out; my heart was pounding so, I thought I might be having a heart attack.
“Yes, it’s Jill.” WTF?
“Does Frank know about this? How long has it been going on?”
“She and Frank have separated. She has moved in with me; we have known for some time that we wanted to share our lives more than we could as wives.”
“In my house?” I was incredulous; this couldn’t be happening.
“In our house, yes; in our bed with me.”
“And where am I to go when I’m done here?”
“That will be up to you. For convenience, we have moved what clothes you left behind to the guest room closet.
“When you return we will have many details to work out. My fond hope is that you will remain in my life and perhaps even under the same roof. I really do love you, you know.”
At that moment, I was glad that I had a two-bedroom apartment. I went into my bedroom, picked up her partially unpacked suitcase and threw it out into the living room.
I slammed the door and went to take a shower. I needed to wash this night away ASAP. After showering, I put on slacks and a tee shirt and opened the door, planning to leave.
The suitcase and Cass had not moved; a wad of tissues told me she had been crying. “Jimmy, please sit down so we can figure this out,” her eyes were pleading.
“Why didn’t Frank tell me about this? He’s supposed to be my friend.”
“I asked him to let me talk to you first. He agreed; you know he has always had a soft spot for me.”
“Jesus, not him too. I know about his hard spot for her,” I thought. “OK, go ahead, talk.”
“As for Jill and me, it has been building for several months. When she learned you would be away, she made her decision to leave Frank for good.
“But as for me, I have had these feelings of attraction to women since I was young, maybe because my mother was absent so much. I sublimated them to my desire to have a family with you. You were, and are, such a handsome and loving partner that it took a long time and heavy persuasion to reach where we are today.
“I could have gone on as things were, but Jill won’t share anymore. She is angry with Frank and, to some extent, you. She says you two have been pimping us out for your own sexual gratifications, exploiting us.
“Recently I have realized that I have been holding my breath; I need to stop pretending to be what I am not; I need to be open with the children and you, whatever the cost.”
I could not believe what I was hearing; thirty years of suppressing her gay side? And now this; I would like to strangle that bitch Jill.
“So what now when I return home? Am I supposed to move into the guest room in my own home while you two shack up in my own bed, our bed?”
“Jill is looking for a place for us, but Frank is not cooperating on money. He has been aware of their problems for a while and has sheltered his assets. She will need to go to court unless their daughter can change his mind.”
“So, you are here because you need money,” it was not a question. I did not recognize this woman, what have you done with my wife?
“Jimmy, I know you pretty well; in spite of your anger now, you are not a spiteful person. You would not deprive me of the use of my share of our resources.”
We talked into the wee hours until I couldn’t think straight. Cass talked of the many times that she had been attracted to a woman and been encouraged, but never acted on it. This, interspersed with expressions of admiration and affection for me until I thought I would barf.
When I got up to go to bed, she asked, “Can I sleep with you and hold you this last time?” The look on her face almost got to me.
“Fuck no! You are lucky I don’t boot you out on the street. Sleep in the guest room like you expect me to do when I slink back into my own house.”
I awoke later that night to find her wrapped around me, wide awake. When I stirred she whispered, “Am I making a horrible mistake? I need to follow this where it goes, but I pray that you won’t banish me forever. My whole adult life has been with you, and I will never love another man.” Then she fell into a troubled sleep.
I tolerated a kiss on the cheek when I dropped her at the airport next morning. Then I tried to screw my head around to the problems of the merger.
Cassandra’s last words to me were, “I love you and I’m not giving up on us; we are soulmates. Jill will have to accept me as I am too, just as I know you will eventually.”
