The evening of Sunday 17th June

I got home from Veronica’s around six p.m. and wasn’t remotely surprised that the drive was empty, with no sign of Jill’s car there. Still absent, just like when I’d arrived home two days ago on Friday night and I’d patiently waited at home before heading out and watching her first try-out as a club manager.

I smiled a wry smile to myself. Of course, she wasn’t back yet. Unlike Veronica, Jill had outgrown her motherly responsibilities and only had a husband to come home to now, our kids having all flown the nest. Why wouldn’t she make the most of the weekend and return home from her weekend with her new lover as late as possible?

Knowing she was almost certainly still with Malcolm, a strange mix of desires drove me to pick up my phone, gazing at it and wondering if I’d call her.

I certainly wanted to hear her voice again. It was now Sunday evening and we’d not spoken properly since Friday night when she’d called me to tell me about Dee’s plan for her to spend Friday evening, seeing how it was helping to run one of Luther’s clubs.

But I also wanted the strange masochistic high I’d so grown to love. The one that would come from speaking to Jill, knowing she was with another guy. A guy she’d temporarily put on top of the podium as she relegated me to second place to spend time with him. It was a bittersweet and intoxicating pleasure, one that both hurt and excited and that if taken to the extreme, could have consequences I didn’t want to think about. And it was a pleasure I knew I couldn’t resist.

I was just about to press speed-dial for Jill when my phone lit up with an incoming call. ‘Veronica mobile.’ I smiled to myself. It was good to be wanted. We’d been apart less than an hour and she was already calling. It reminded me of my very first puppy love experiences with the girl I’d first dated back in High School when being apart for an hour felt too long.

“Hi, honey,” I answered the FaceTime call. “Missing me already?” Not the most original line, but good enough for a man who was still exhausted from the way that this lady had sexually used me all afternoon.

“Even if I was, I wouldn’t tell you,” she quipped back. “After all, you’re a happily married man with a wife waiting for you in the family homestead.” Ouch, that hurt, but nonetheless I smiled.

There was a pregnant pause between us, neither sure whose turn it was to speak next before Veronica broke the silence.

“Before you get too big for your breeches, mister, thinking I’m only calling to hear your voice, I had a question to ask you, and it’s important as I don’t want to get Haley’s hopes all up and then dash them.”

I had a feeling I knew where this was headed.

“D, baby,” she asked, mirroring my single letter affectionate nickname for her, “when we were in bed earlier, you said you’d take Haley and me to the Aquarium when you get back from the wedding.”

I stayed quiet as she continued.

“Well, before I tell Haley and get her hopes up, I just wanted to check if you meant it. After all, you were rather ‘pre-occupied’ when you made the promise,” she smirked. “So, now that you’re back on planet earth, I just wanted to check, because she’s been asking after you and asking me when she’ll next see you again.”

Great! I was really getting used to these mixed emotional parcels that my complicated life seemed so often to deal up these days. I’d loved spending time with Haley, making her happy and the nostalgic memories that it brought back. But I wasn’t sure I was ready to be her ‘new daddy’ just yet, I had a wife and kids of my own. It felt good to make her happy and to be wanted, but I guess little kids aren’t renowned for their sense of emotional calibration and steady as she goes pacing.

But a promise was a promise, and the rational part of my brain reminded me I’d spend the next couple of weeks with my real family, so a trip to the Aquarium in a couple of weeks was no big deal. No real betrayal of Jill and my own kids.

“Sure, V. I meant what I said, even though someone may have had me ‘under duress’ at the time I promised.”

She grinned broadly. “Under duress! What a strange choice of words. I seem to remember you ‘under duressed’ all over my tummy and tits. And as I recall you weren’t exactly complaining at the time.”

I grinned right back into the little phone camera. She had me there. We shared a moment, just smiling, and neither with anything to say.

As I looked at her pretty Latina features a thought came back to my head. Something I’d meant to ask her earlier, but which I’d forgotten as the strange events of the afternoon had unfolded.

‘V, baby, do you mind if I ask you something? Something about what Malcolm said when he and Jill were talking in bed Saturday afternoon.”

She looked a little nervous, aware I’m sure of where my question was headed.

When Jill had asked Malcolm whether he was dating or whether there was anyone special in his life, he’d casually mentioned that he’d dated Veronica for a while. And now knowing this, I felt an irresistible need to know how I compared to Malcolm. Both in Veronica’s eyes and by inference also in Jill’s eyes.

“V, honey… you know how Malcolm said on the video, about you and him dating.” Veronica was now looking at me with a slightly perplexed and slightly annoyed look, but I was helpless to stop.

“Sorry for asking, but when you were with Malcolm… how was it?”

Veronica’s expression on the little screen had slightly softened, now almost with a look of pity mixed with tenderness. As if she realized how bad I had it. “Dave, do you really want to know? And what is it you want to know anyway? How it was with Malcolm? Or how it was with Malcolm compared to you?”

She might not have a college degree or letters after her name, but she’d seen right through me, and all I could do was quietly mumble ‘both’.

“Shit, you do have it bad, don’t you?” she said softly. “Do you really want to know?” she asked again. “You might not like the answer.”

Even though my guts were twisting and turning like a tank of live eels, I felt a little stronger. “Veronica, I’m not under any illusions. I kinda already know.”

She shrugged her shoulders. “Okay then, you asked for it, so fair warning.” And then she was off. “If you really want to know, he’s an amazing lover. Not only the size of his cock and that big, muscly body of his. But he’s also very skillful and sensitive. Not at all what you’d expect from a guy looking like him, with his job. With guys, Malcolm’s all gruff and tough exterior. But when he’s with a girl he cares about he’s sensitive and thoughtful, letting them see the real him. And you take it all together, he’s a wonderful lover and boyfriend. I honestly wish we’d never broken up.”

Wow! I’d only really asked about the sex, but instead, I’d gotten a whole essay in praise of Malcolm – telling me how great he was between the sheets and also describing the kind of sensitive, rough diamond kind of guy that many women found irresistible. Part of me wished I’d never asked, as Veronica’s words left me even more nervous and worried than before. But even despite the kick in the guts her words had delivered, I was the moth heading straight for the flame as I asked Veronica to answer the second part of my question. “How was he compared to me?”

She knew I was asking not just for her, but also how Jill would compare me to Malcolm. Even knowing this, Veronica didn’t pull any punches, looking me straight in the eye as she spoke. “Honestly, Dave honey. I enjoyed our time together yesterday and tonight, what we enjoyed was special and I hope we have many more days and nights like that. But if you really want to know the truth, as a lover, physically, there’s simply no comparison. But I guess you already know that.”

I thought she might go on, but she left it at that. Anything more would have been a crude anatomical exercise in describing the differences between being with a guy with a normal-sized body and a cock that didn’t stretch and only went shallow. With a guy whose body was the very archetype of maleness and whose cock both stretched wide and penetrated as deep as a woman could safely accommodate. There was no need for me to hear these words. Just hearing Veronica’s words ‘no comparison’ had been enough.

With my mind still slightly numb from Veronica’s words, we looked at each other for long and rather awkward moments, before Veronica broke the spell. “But from my chat with Jill on Friday, I know just how much she loves you. Malcolm doesn’t have that,” she added, trying to still use the truth to make me feel better.

***

I had a stiff drink as I thought about what Veronica had said. It was nothing I didn’t already know or suspect, although the kind, sensitive side of Malcolm that Veronica described came as a bit of an unwelcome surprise to me. What girl wasn’t programmed from her first storybook to want the handsome knight who combined bravery, safety, and also a lover’s sensitivity? But the strange man I’d become shivered with both fear and excitement at the implications of what Veronica had told me, in terms of how much of a threat Jill’s new guy represented to my hold on Jill’s heart.

I was half-way through my second glass when I suddenly remembered I’d been about to call Jill just before Veronica phoned. To call her to be soothed by speaking to her for the first time since Friday and at the same time of getting my unhealthy kick of her being in touch with her when she was in another man’s home. ‘With him’ in both the physical and emotional sense of the word.

I looked at the wall clock. It was now just after six-thirty. Maybe Jill would be home soon, the part of me that wanted to avoid the gut-churning nerves told myself. Maybe I didn’t need to call.

But when there was still no sign of Jill by eight o’clock, with nervous fingers and clammy hands I picked up my phone and rang.

The phone rang once, then twice, then a third time. It carried on like that six, maybe seven times. Before with a sinking feeling in my heart, I heard it go to voicemail.

‘Hi, this is Jill. I’m afraid I can’t come to the phone right now. If you’d like to leave your name, number, and a message, then I’ll call you right back as soon as I can. Thanks for calling.”

My gut felt like it was right down in my boots, my heart aching and painful from the reality that my wife was ignoring me. Maybe only temporary, but it hurt like hell and felt as bad as if it was permanent. Her new man still on the top podium as she declined the call from the also-ran guy standing in second place.

But a little voice in the back of my head told me this was the game I’d wanted to play. It was the game we’d played with Chris which had brought such highs and lows and nearly cost me my marriage. And it was the game that I’d pushed Jill back into barely two weeks after the near-miss with Chris. Not that she’d needed much pushing, with the temptation of our three hunky black neighbors just over the back-garden fence.

I calmed myself, telling myself she’d be home soon, hearing Veronica’s recent words in my head, about how much Jill loved me. Even if she wasn’t picking up, and even if she was making the most of her time with Malcolm, I knew that what Veronica had said about Jill’s love for me was true.

I used this fact to calm my fears and dull my pain as I poured away a half-drunk glass of a very expensive single malt from the shores of Islay.

***

Jill’s car finally rolled into our drive just before ten-thirty. I peeked out of the window to see Jill getting a small suitcase out of the back of the car. I don’t think she saw me as she walked towards the house, looking tired and like her mind was still someplace else.

I heard the sound of her key in the lock and then the opening of the door. “Hi honey, I’m home. Where are you?” she slightly flat voice called.

“In the lounge.”

Jill’s beautiful face appeared around the corner of the lounge door frame. A soft and warm smile making my heart skip as I felt a warm feeling in my chest. She walked across to me, wearing a plain but quite tight white T-shirt which showed he had no bra and tight light blue denim jeans. Plain and simple, but to me she looked a million dollars. Partly because she did look good, but mainly because she was finally back where she belonged. Next to me in the place that had been home for so many years.

She snuggled up next to me and kissed me, smelling the whiskey on my breath.

“I don’t suppose I could get me one of those, could I?” she asked with a tender smile.

“And make it the good stuff, please. None of that cheap stuff you keep for guests. Islay I think, unless my nose deceives me,” even though she was obviously tired, managing a proud little smirk of victory. What a nose? If anything ever happened between Jill and me, where would I ever find another woman to share my life and my interests like this wonderful woman did.

Returning with a large glass and two cubes as she always demanded, I handed her the drink and gave her a long and needy kiss. I smiled. “I needed that,” I unashamedly told her, giving her just a little glimpse of the pain and worry I’d been feeling.

Jill put her arms around my neck, smiled at me with a love that melted my heart, and said words that melted it for a second time. “Dave, honey. Let’s go to bed so I can show you how much I love you and how much you mean to me.”

***

As we pulled our clothes off each other, my eyes were drawn to the sights and marls that Jill’s weekend with her three-hundred-pound black lover had left on her. Her boobs had several red marks, with her nipples looking swollen and a little sore. There were a couple of hickeys on her neck and a couple more on her chest, and I could only imagine what her normally tight and snug pussy looked like. Jill caught me looking, and just looked straight back with a slight smile on her face as if owning it and making clear she wasn’t the tiniest bit embarrassed by the marks she’d allowed Malcolm to make on her.

We dived under the duvet and lay next to each other, for a moment just smiling at each other like love-struck teenagers, before after a few seconds kissing. A kiss that lasted and lasted, moving from tender and gentle to hot and steamy.

I felt Jill’s fingernails walking down my belly (in an adult version of ‘round and round the garden’) before she chuckled as her fingers hit gold and wrapped themselves around me. Feeling her grasp me like that made me think back to just a few hours ago when Veronica had taken me in hand, the memories of the anal dildo also flooding back and making me feel guilty.

As Jill’s hand squeezed and pumped, I wondered why I was so reticent to tell Jill what had happened. ‘Maybe later,’ I kidded myself, knowing very well I wouldn’t, the stigma and shame just a little too fresh to share when I was processing so many other hard to handle emotions.

Jill’s voice broke my thinking and brought me back to the here and now of our marital bedroom.

“What’s gotten into Mr. Floppy? Or maybe I should say ‘what’s not gotten into Mr. Floppy?'” my grinning wife asked. “You’ve never had this problem before, honey. Is this what happens when I lend you to one of my staff, then I’m not sure I’m going to let her play again. After all, it’s bad manners to send a toy home broken and pretend it’s still working.”

It was the perfect opportunity to tell her about the anal dildo and the other things Veronica and I had done which explained my current predicament, but the words just wouldn’t come, so I just grimaced and tried not to blush too much.

Jill continued to try, but that third and last time with Veronica was obviously one time too many, so with a sigh of frustration, Jill gave up, for now, biting her lip as something else occurred to her.

“Go down on me, honey,” she whispered into my ear, pulling back to look into my eyes with a guilty look. I’d always loved going down on Jill, over the years my touch, tongue, and fingers being my most guaranteed way of getting her off. But in all the months we’d been playing our new games, I’d never once gone down on her when she was fresh back from one of her lovers. Not with Darryl, not with Chris and not with any of the other marks on the bedpost she was rapidly accumulating.

Jill and I just stared at each other, each knowing that I faced a decision, another lock to the next level in our game. We both knew this, and I could see Jill nervously biting her lip as she waited for my response.

With a shaky voice, I asked the sixty-four-million-dollar question. “Is he still in there?”

Jill’s face slowly moved from lip-biting nervous blush to a mischievous grin, her breathing deep and excited. “Why? What would you like the answer to be?”

We shard another moment while she just looked at me, waiting for me to answer, before realizing I was too frightened to speak so she’d speak for both of us, giving me my answer.

“I showered before I came home to you,” but her smile told me more was coming, as she also played on my love for her. “But I’m sure there’s still some of him in there. Why don’t you take a look and see, baby? After all, my poor pussy’s all battered and sore from Malcolm’s big black cock. It could do with some TLC from my loving husband.” Her voice her best exaggerated ‘little girl lost’ voice as she reached the end of her request.

I carried on looking into her eyes, looking deep into my soul. I’d already crossed one new threshold earlier today with Veronica when I’d allowed her to use the finger-sized anal dildo on me. Jill was inviting me to cross another. Invite being too weak a word, what she was doing was actively requesting me to soothe her battered pussy with my mouth. At the same time, shower or no shower, inevitably tasting the salty tang of her new lover. A powerful, six-foot-seven black man-mountain of a guy who’d been in bed with Jill most of the weekend as far as I knew.

It was a difficult decision to make, but as I looked into Jill’s eyes and tormented myself, I could almost hear Veronica’s voice in my head. That same voice that had reassured me about the dildo and my masculinity telling me that this thing didn’t make me gay. It just made me brave and adventurous, somehow closer to Jill as the two of us together explored new sexual horizons. No longer just her exploring and me cheering on from the sidelines, both of us as a couple trying new things.

My instincts told me that Veronica was someone I could trust, but in truth, I had no real idea whether the voice in my head was one I should trust or a serpentine voice that would lead me to my doom. But gazing into those beautiful sparkling hazel eyes I knew I’d do what Jill wanted and what I might want.

Kissing Jill on the lips and then gazing into her eyes, I told her, “I hope you appreciate this.” Trying to make a joke to hide my nerves, I kissed my way down her neck, chest, and tummy. Each kiss as soft and loving as I could make, trying to convey to her the depth of my love, despite how things might sometimes look to the outsider.

I was rewarded with Jill’s happy moans as I kissed my way lower, each kiss taking me closer to her core, to her womanhood where she’d incubated my seed three times, our joint DNA intertwined to make three wonderful children. “Yes, baby… yes… that’s it… mmm… yeees… yes… lower, honey… lower…” I loved the noises she was making, loved the way she was urging me on.

At that moment, promising myself that whatever the taste and whatever I might find I was going to bring off my wonderful wife at least once and maybe twice before I let her up. And then I’d be good and ready to put my little cock back in my wife and make love to her, reclaiming her body to go with her heart.

I kissed her thighs, left then right, licked a little, and kissed all around her pussy, but not once giving her the satisfaction of my mouth actually touching her. She moaned and begged, please in her throat maybe five or six times, and only then did I put my lips and tongue where Jill so desperately wanted them. Immediately I heard her sigh of relief, as I started gently lapping at what as a very sore and reddened pussy.

As my tongue and lips soothed and excited in equal measure, I couldn’t help but wonder how many times Malcolm had shot his seed deep into my wife’s pussy over the last couple of days. And I couldn’t help but ask myself the morbid question of whether Jill had douched herself up there, or whether she’d deliberately avoided so she could carry Malcolm inside her for the whole weekend. Thinking that even if she had douched, they’d almost certainly had a last fuck before Malcolm let Jill come home to me.

Jill’s pussy truly looked battered and worn. I’d seen it like that many times since we’d started this game less than a year ago, but honestly, this looked the most worn I think I’d ever seen it. Her love lips stretched and distended, letting me and anyone else who looked see right up past her vulva into her normally snug vagina. From the look of it, I wondered just how loose I’d find her womanly channel as and when I managed to get hard and make love to my wife.

I might not have known whether or not Jill had douched before returning from her new lover, but I certainly detected a new smell and taste down there. Not unpleasant, but definitely different. A tangy, salty taste, and smell that told me that Malcolm had left at least some of himself in my wife before sending her home to me.

As my tongue found Jill’s clit and started slowly and gently flicking back and forth, her excitement built up, her hands soon grasping my hair and pushing me in closer and deeper. “Ahh… yes… mmm… so good… so good, baby… that’s it… just there… mmm… more… yeess… yes… oh shit, that’s good…” her encouragement now in full flow.

If she could dig her nails in and scrape my scalp, it was fair game for me to hold her hips in a vice-like grip and lap away as hard and fast as I could. Sometimes still the soft and gentle soothing she’d wanted, but more often the hard and fast strokes designed to make her cum on my mouth just like she’d been cumming all weekend on her new boyfriend’s cock. Sometimes all my attention was on her little nub, sometimes I’d stiffen my tongue and push as deep as I could, then more than ever aware of the new and different taste in my wife. Sometimes I’d really take her high, dragging the hard serrated edges of my front teeth over her sensitive and sore clit, not caring if she squealed and sobbed and asked me to go slow, only slowing down and going softer when I’d made my point.

Jill’s juices were really flowing now as I used every trick in the book, mouth between her legs as she pushed me in tight, hands stroking her hard nipples and squeezing her big boobs with a milking action she loved.

With her hands forcing me in so tight I nearly struggled to breathe, I don’t know why but I just decided to up the ante.

Between my own desperate gulps for air, I told her just what I could taste. “Jill… Jill… I can taste him… I can taste your fucking lover… I can taste his black seed… for fuck’s sake, baby, coming back here with his muck up you…”

Excited my words and this new part to our game, Jill’s nails somehow found a way of taking a firmer grip on my hair, to dig deeper into my scalp and I heard her slowly start to make words. Between sobs and pants gradually her words started to make sense, started to reach me through her thighs wrapped around my head. “Oh, baby… honey… is that right…? can you… can you taste him… oh, baby, he pumped so much… so much of his spunk into me… it felt so good baby… so fucking good… and honey… baby… now you’re sharing it too… oh, baby… oh, Dave honey…”

I don’t know why I’d decided to start this, but Jill’s words excited me, driving my mouth and hands to work on her harder and faster, a growing determination that I wanted her to cum in an earth-shattering climax. Everything together was really making Jill pant and moan, her breathing now finally in that familiar pattern that I knew meant she was close, this knowledge just driving me on in more frantic playing with her pussy. Until she finally screamed, her nails drawing blood from my skin as she exploded in a prolonged series of screams and spasms.

Bucking her hips hard at me as wave after wave of orgasm hit her until finally, her muscles started relaxing and my head was released from the death grip of her thighs. Still gulping down oxygen in huge spade loads of air, eyes still squeezed shut as her descent to earth slowly soothed her body. My face now next to hers, my lower face covered in her juice, as I smiled at her and awaited the moment her eyes would open and she’d look around like a newborn animal blinking their way back into consciousness.

As predicted, just a few moments those beautiful hazel eyes, soft with emotion and the intensity of what she’d just experienced, looked left then right. Alighting on me, at first confused, then understanding, then thankful and loving. “Oh, honey… wow, that was amazing… wow… just fucking wow… I don’t think I’ve ever come like that before… with you… thank you, baby.”

Exhaustion in her arms, still she reached out for me, and having proved myself, I was tender and loving as I took her in my arms, cradling the woman who’d cradled our kids. At that moment the way she looked at me telling me more than any words could how much she loved me and that nothing would ever split us apart.

***

As the two of us lay there in our togetherness, there was no hint of accusation or hurt as we each shared about our weekends. My cock was finally hard, but we both knew it would still be there and still do its job as we talked and shared. Jill was occasionally squeezing and stroking him, just to keep him warmed up and race-ready for when we’d finished sharing.

I don’t know why, but the way Jill had come on my mouth made me feel a whole lot more comfortable telling her of my slightly unnerving experimentation with the anal dildo. Relieved that Jill’s first response was a huge grin and a peal of laugher. “Who’d have thought it? My beloved, buttoned-down, strait-laced husband on his back, legs writhing around like a dying fly as sweet little Veronica does you in the ass with an anal vibrator. I’d have given a million dollars to see that!”

I didn’t need to tell her about my reticence and deep-bred fears, she was making me see the funny side so there was no need to get all deep and Freudian about what she saw as just a bit of fun. Jill’s final word on it being that it was good to know she wasn’t the only one taking it up the ass. Which gave way to a quizzical look as she made a mental note to self to ask Dee if she’d suggested it to Veronica, as it had been Dee who’d been the one to do Jill with a long thin anal dildo just two nights before.

As we cuddled and held each other Jill told me about her weekend. Everything from the fun she’d had learning about running the club on Friday night. Though how she’d enjoyed the ‘games’ on Friday night, Saturday morning when Dee and Luther had acted as joint master of ceremonies as Luther, Malcolm and our two black neighbors had run a train on her. How they’d then headed back to Luther’s house and how she’d spent the rest of the weekend with Malcolm. First at Luther’s place, and then at Malcolm’s home.

I didn’t need or want all of the mechanical details, but from what Jill did share and the way she talked about Malcolm I got a sense of how that even just in two days she’d grown closer to him. No doubt the same disarming openness I’d seen between them on the video was just a small part of what they’d shared. The sex and love-making between them just cementing and deepening all of this.

As we talked, the way that Jill was now stroking me told me she wanted me, and I kissed her softly and slipped into her, balls deep in an instant. Jill had a playful grin on her lips, but neither of us mentioned the elephant in the room. Both wanting this to be a special moment, just the two of us reconnecting, no outside parties involved, even if only by name.

Jill’s arms and legs wrapped around me, pulling me in deeper and our mouths locked together in love and union, as they’d done so many times down the years. We were just lost in each other’s eyes, a feeling of absolute total love and trust between us. Each knowing that there were still many laps to run in the race and that there might be many bumps and twists in the road ahead. But each believing none of these would derail us as a couple.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Monday 18th June 2018

Exhausted from both the physical and emotional highs and lows of the weekend, Jill and I drifted off to sleep before I’d had a chance to remind her she still owed Chris an answer about his request that she come across before the wedding to sort some things out face-to-face.

As Jill and I pottered around in the kitchen I reminded her, and she uttered a most unladylike expletive, saying that the whole thing had slipped her mind, what with everything else that had happened since Friday.

“What do you think, honey?” She asked. “If I am going to take the job with Luther, then my best chance of getting Chris to agree to a short notice is if I help him this week and get a chance to talk to him face-to-face. But of course, I’d understand if you prefer not, after everything that happened.”

‘If I’m going to take the job with Luther’ – those had been her words. She’d been pretty open about everything that happened since Friday night, but last night she’d left out that single little detail. That she’d toasted Luther and accepted his job offer, telling her soon-to-be new boss that she could sweet-talk me round to agreeing as I loved our new lifestyle so much. I was learning a lot of new things about our new lifestyle these last few days, including the fact that Jill keeping this little detail back from me excited me more than it pissed me off.

I chewed my toast and thought a while. Perfectly aware that Jill was trying to pretend to be relaxed about my decision, but the slight blush in her cheeks and pattern of her breathing gave her away.

Still chewing and now on my third slice, I wasn’t taking my time to be mean. I was taking my time because I genuinely wasn’t sure what I was comfortable with or what I wanted. My decision made more complicated by the fact that I had to be in L.A. myself on Thursday-Friday for work, as we had the first major update to deliver to the client my incompetent team members had so royally fucked over with their negligent and poorly executed modeling and analysis. I really wasn’t looking forward to this as I had so little confidence in the local team and I knew we’d not get another chance from the client if the local numbskulls screwed up a second time.

“Can I think about it, honey?”

Jill winced and pulled a face. “That’s a bit difficult, sweetheart. I was meant to be in L.A. already, so I’m pretty sure I’m going to have Chris on the phone first thing, asking me what’s happening.”

I saw her point, the germ of an idea finally starting to form in my mind. “You know I have to be in L.A. Thursday-Friday anyway, well how’s about you fly across with me Wednesday evening.” At least that way I’d be able to keep tabs on her. I was feeling a lot more confident that she’d not run off to L.A. to join Chris after everything that had happened with all of Jill’s new friends and the way she was looking forward to her new job – the one she’d not gotten round to telling me she’d accepted yet.

Jill winced again. “There’s lots to do and he really wanted me there all week, Monday to Friday. And now you're suggesting less than half of that. If I flew out Tuesday night then at least we’d be giving him more than half the week, which should at least keep me in his good books if I decide to take the job with Luther.”

There it was again, still talking about the job with Luther as an ‘if’ not a ‘when’. Her lack of transparency still excited my cuck gland, but it was beginning to piss me off just a little more.

“Why not go the whole hog and fly out tonight?” I replied in a sarcastic tone.

Something in her face told me there was something more that Jill wasn’t telling me. And the way I looked at her and the way she looked back told her I knew, and that I knew she knew. Jill and I have always had that level of understanding, with the brief exception of the end of her affair with Chris, when and I found her difficult to read for the first time ever. I just looked at her and waited for her to tell me.

I could see the gears whirring, as my smart and normally open wife worked out what to do, before wisely choosing her customary openness and honesty. “Sorry, baby. There are a couple of things I didn’t tell you last night, I was so tired. I kinda already told Luther I’d take the job,” as she paused to see my reaction before continuing her explanation. “He said a whole bunch of things about me and about you and made me realize that even if we’d not told him yes, we would do so in the end. And when I thought about it and realized he knows us better than we know ourselves, I told him yes.”

She paused again, letting her words sink in. “But honey, nothing’s set in stone. If you’re not happy with it, then I’ll tell him I’ve changed my mind. I’ve not signed a contract or anything.”

She looked at me, waiting for my answer for the second time today. And we’d not even finished breakfast.

Better late than never, I thought. To be fair we’d both been pretty wiped out last night, so at least she did have some cover for her omission. Hell, she’d forgotten all about Chris’s need for an answer, so it wasn’t like the job thing was the only thing she’d forgotten.

Jill read my expression, and although she tried to hide it, she smiled a little before she even heard the words. “No, it’s okay. I can see how much you want to do it, and we’ve always supported each other, so no, I’m on board with it.”

Her suspicions now confirmed Jill’s smile got a little wider and a whole lot less concealed. “Thanks, baby. Which brings me on neatly to the other thing I forgot to tell you last night, and this one I promise I didn’t give an answer to before we’d had a chance to discuss.”

So, this was the second thing she’d ‘forgotten’ to tell me last night, and this was the one about which I was in the dark.

“It was last night, just before I left his place,” she told me, suddenly less smiley and little more nervous. “Malcolm said he wanted to thank you for the weekend, and that to say thanks he’s invited you and me over for dinner, and the invite’s for Monday night, which is why I didn’t suggest flying over to L.A. end of work this evening.”

I could see she felt better for getting it off her chest. But her honesty, combined with Malcolm’s supposedly kind and altruistic offer, had put me in a spot. I’d been really looking forward to some alone time with Jill, having not seen her since Thursday night.

Jill grinned at me. After all the games we’d played and all we’d learned about each other's foibles and desires, she knew exactly the equations going on in my brain as the two parts of my personality played tug-of-war with my plans for Monday night.

With that ‘butter wouldn’t melt’ look on her face, Jill smiled sweetly at me. “No need to decide now, honey. Let me know sometime this morning or early afternoon, and I’ll let Malcolm know a yes or no. Meantime, I’ll email Chris and tell him I’ll fly across Tuesday.”

While we’d been talking, Jill had finished the last of her fruit and coffee, and she was out the door before I had a chance to say anything. I’d not signed off on her Tuesday flight to L.A., but given her last words and the fact she was already backing out of the drive I knew it would be hard to make changes to her plans.

And whether by accident or design, Jill and I both knew I’d be spending most of the morning trying to make up my mind on Malcolm’s dinner invite.

(Thanks as ever to cbears52 for his kind support and help in editing.)