My attitude toward women definitely played a part in what happened. For the sake of clarity, it would probably be a good idea if I explained how my attitude took a radical turn from a romantic who loved his wife to whatever it was I turned into. I do know this for a fact: Marcy was the turning point.

Marcy and I had been married for three years, and I worshiped the ground she walked on. I had scored way above my level, and I knew it. I worked at keeping our marriage as fun and sexually gratifying as possible. I studied everything I could find on any number of sex-related subjects, from Tantric sex to light bondage. I knew every inch of Marcy’s amazing body and could arouse her in moments.

Marcy was ecstatically joyful in our sex life. She loved sex and was very adventurous. Our sex life was wild, varied, full of fantasy, and between just the two of us. Well, three of us. Marcy’s best friend, Bella, was her confidante. I knew that Marcy shared a lot with Bella, but I didn’t find out that she shared everything until it didn’t matter anymore anyway.

As I mentioned, Marcy was adventurous, and we often talked about swinging, sharing, and so on. Marcy knew well my feelings on either of us fucking someone else. I didn’t marry her to share her. I married her to seal the promise I made to be hers and hers alone for all my life. I expected the same fidelity from her. I considered our discussions as a way to understand things like sharing and as a good way to heat up our fantasies.

Marcy and I were snuggling one evening and just talking. Somehow, the subject got onto sharing and swapping. Marcy rolled in my arms so she could look at my face. “You can’t say you don’t get a bit of a thrill thinking about fucking another woman. I’m not saying you’re going to. I’m just saying the thought must have crossed your mind on occasion.”

I gave her a smirk. “Duh! I’m a man, so of course, I look, and sometimes I wonder, but I would never consider it seriously.”

She raised an eyebrow. “You never think about a little variety? Fantasize about a little strange with no strings? Ponder picking up some little hottie and having a little fuck for fun?”

What the fuck? “Why would I want any of that? You give me everything I need, and I can’t imagine some stranger making me feel the tiniest bit as good as you do. So, the answer is ‘No’, I don’t think that way. Do I notice an attractive woman? Of course. Do I wonder what she would look like naked? More often than I care to admit.

“That’s fantasy stuff and a million miles from actually screwing another woman.”

She gave me a sly look. I knew that look. It was the one she used when she was about to fuck with me. “You would absolutely never do it, without a doubt? What if I said it was all right? What if I wanted you to? What if I found the woman and brought her to you?”

That was an easy set of questions to answer—way too easy—but I told her the truth anyway: “Nope. I'm not interested.”

That’s when she dropped her bomb. “What if it was Bella?”

I’m sure she thought she would stun me with that question. The thing is that Bella hits on me every time she’s around me. Never once has she not taken a shot. Never once have I not flirted with her unmercifully. And, never once have I come remotely close to doing anything sexual with her. Bella is gorgeous, single, and a joy to be around. If I had never met Marcy and had met Bella, I have no doubt I would have fallen for her hard. In the world I live in, she is my wife’s best friend and my friend. The idea of fucking her for pleasure and putting everything I love at risk makes my chest hurt. I could never fuck Bella because the guilt alone would cause incurable shrinkage.

I answered without hesitation, “I don’t care what the woman’s name is. I’m not interested.”

Marcy looked at me, puzzled. “Here’s what I don’t get. You are one of the most open-minded and accepting people I have ever met. Yet, on this subject, you couldn’t be more ironclad in your opinion. I’m having trouble understanding what the big deal is if I’m asking you to do it.”

I looked at her hard. “Are you asking me to fuck your best friend?”

Her eyes got wide. “No! That’s not what I meant, you perv. What I meant was, if I didn’t have a problem with it and welcomed you home with open arms, what would be the harm in you having a little sexy fun?”

I shook my head. “For the sake of argument, let’s assume that I don’t feel as strongly as I do about our marriage vows. Let’s also say you want to set me up with a woman. It can even be Bella if you want. I’m assuming here that what’s good for the gander is also good for the goose. It would seem only fair that you get to fuck the hunk of your choice.

“I would never agree to that. I will not share you with another man for a lot of reasons. We don’t just love each other. If that were the case, we could have just decided to live together. We love each other so much that we married and we promised to only be with each other. We made a lifetime commitment.

“Now, you talk about it just being a fun little fuck, like it would be meaningless. This isn’t loaning your neighbor your car. This is giving your body to another man so he can be as intimate with you as I am. It might be fun at the moment for you, but I promise it wouldn’t be meaningless to me.

“It would crush me. I’d feel like I failed you in some way, and you needed another man to give you what I couldn’t. I would wonder why you never came to me and gave me a chance to give you what you need. It would hurt to know that you could easily set aside your love for me to be with another man.”

Marcy frowned. “I understand what you’re saying, but given that permission was granted, I don’t think it would make my love for you any less at all. In fact, I think the fact that you trusted me to have some fun and come home to you would make you even dearer to me.”

I shrugged. “I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree on that one. But, just for the sake of discussion, let’s say we were both fine with it. What if he’s abusive? What if she gets pregnant? What if either of them has an STD? Am I supposed to send you off to fuck someone either I don’t know or barely know and trust them to keep you safe?

“What if everything goes perfectly for you and you have the best sex of your life? I know I’m a good lover, but you won’t find my name at the top of the list of the best lovers on earth. There are better lovers out there. Me sharing you is like I’m holding you up and daring fate to steal you away. Fuck that. I worry enough about you finding someone better and leaving me. The last thing I’m going to do is help that happen.”

Marcy just looked at me for the longest time. “Well, I think you’re being darker about it than you need to, but I’m glad we talked about it.”

Life went on as a few months passed. Marcy never returned to the swapping or sharing discussion, though we did continue to feed our fantasy life. We went out most Saturday nights, and Bella nearly always went with us. The three of us had a great time together, and the two women would wear me out on the dance floor. The club we liked to go to wasn’t far from our home, and we liked the atmosphere. Recently, I noted some new faces who were becoming regulars.

The new faces were attached to a group of guys that I discovered played professional football. They varied between four and six in number. They came as a group and left individually, usually with a hot chick on one arm and sometimes both. They tended to hang out in the VIP area, which meant they were about as far away from our usual table as they could get and still be in the same building. I was perfectly happy with that arrangement.

I didn’t know it when I got up to go to the men’s room, but that evening marked the beginning of my attitude change. The wait was only slightly intolerable, and I finally felt the relief that is only surpassed by an orgasm or a good shit. I got myself situated and turned toward the door. Two of the football players were standing just inside the door. Everyone else had disappeared. I knew something wasn’t right but didn’t have a clue as to why.

I took a step toward the door, but the football players didn’t move. These guys were professional athletes, and the only way they were moving was if they wanted to. The one on my right tilted his chin up. “Didn’t your momma teach you to wash your hands after you take a piss?”

I shrugged. “The guy next to me was pissing all over the sink. Anyway, my dad taught me how not to piss on my hand, so I’m good. You mind letting me out?”

They both held up their hands, palms out, “Nah, we’re all just gonna hang out here for a while.”

What the fuck is going on? “I don’t suppose you guys would care to tell me why you won’t let me leave?”

They looked at each other and grinned, then the one on the left turned his gaze on me. “You’ll find out soon enough.”

I pulled out my cell phone and noticed I’d been gone from Marcy and Bella for almost twenty minutes. I started to call her, but a massive paw grabbed my hand. “Put the phone in your pocket and leave it there.”

A while later, his buddy’s phone went off, and he looked at a text. He looked up at his teammate and walked out the door. The teammate let go of my wrist and followed him. I walked out right behind them and headed to our table. When I got there, Bella was sitting alone. “Bella, where’s Marcy?”

Bella looked up at me, and the look on her face scared the crap out of me. “She left.”

I was completely confused. “She left? Why would she leave?”

Bella grabbed my hand. “Sit down, Dan. I have to tell you something.”

I sank into the chair, knowing something really bad was coming. Bella looked up at me, and a tear ran down her face. “She left with a football player, Dan. I’m supposed to tell….

“She left with a football player! Why would she do that? Those fucking football players held me fucking hostage in the restroom.”

Bell gripped my hand hard. “Dan! Listen to me! She told me to tell you that she’ll be home soon. She said it’s just a little fun, and it doesn’t mean a thing. She said, now you can have some fun, too.”

The next thing I remember, I was outside. I fumbled with my key fob. I couldn’t see it and Bella grabbed it from me. The next thing I knew, she was pulling into my garage. Then, I’m on my couch, and Bella is next to me. “Dan, please! Dan, I need to tell you the rest of it.

“Marcy and I go to the club for lunch a couple of times a week. The football players come in for lunch sometimes, too. One of them started talking to Marcy, and the next thing I knew, he was joining us for lunch whenever we went in. Eventually, Marcy started meeting him for lunch alone. Nothing happened between them, but I guess it was building up.

“Marcy decided that she wanted to fuck him, but she knew you would never agree. She thought that if you had your own experience, you would understand, and everything would be fine. Then she told me that now was my chance.

“Dan, I promise you, I tried to talk her out of it. I told her she was making a huge mistake, but she wouldn’t believe me. She said, “Dan loves me more than anything. He’ll understand after you two become lovers.

“I told her there was no way I was going to do it. I told her that I refused to let her use me to manipulate you. She told me that if I loved you like she thought I did, I would. I called her a selfish cunt, and she laughed. She thought I was joking, even though I screamed it at her. She’s convinced herself that there is nothing wrong with what she’s doing. I think that’s why she pulled the stunt she did tonight without telling me beforehand. She knew I’d tell you if I found out what she was planning.”

My eyes bore into hers. “Why didn’t you tell me about this football player? At least I could have fought for her! I could have talked to her and tried to change her mind.”

Tears began to fall. “I told her I was going to, and she asked me to wait. She said she was going to talk to you about it tonight. Then she pulled this.”

I didn’t know what I was feeling, so I went with numb. “She expected you to fuck me and change my mind?”

The tears kept coming, and Bella choked back a sob. “I’m so sorry, but I told her a long time ago how I felt about you, and she used it against me. My so-called best friend used my love for you as bait to get me to go along. It didn’t work, Dan. I’m not here as your consolation prize. I’m here because I love you, and you’re my friend.”

I wanted to scream at her and blame her, but in my heart, I knew she was just as much a victim as I was. “Your friendship is welcome, Bella. As far as the rest of it goes, I can’t imagine being less interested in having sex than I am right now. The love of my life is fucking another man, and I feel like I’m about to die.”

I got up from the couch and fetched the whiskey. Bella and I sat together in silence, drinking.

I woke up at ten the next morning with a pounding head and was overwhelmed when the events of the night before landed on me like an anvil. I made myself shower and dress before heading toward the kitchen. I didn’t have a plan. All I was doing was putting one foot in front of the other. I went about the business of making coffee before I noticed Bella asleep on the couch.

I was staring off into space when I felt her hand on my shoulder. She rubbed my shoulder for a moment, then poured herself a cup of coffee. She sat down across the table from me and asked, “What do we do now?”

I shrugged. “Her phone’s off, and I have no idea where she is. The only thing I can do is wait until she gets home. She said she would always come home. I just never thought she would need to after…”

Bella left a little while later and made me promise to call her as soon as Marcy came home. I told her I would. Marcy didn’t come home that day. I was frantic and called the police. Based on a description provided by Bella, they quickly determined who the football player was. Then the officer told me what they could do legally, “We can knock on his door and ask to see your wife. If she is unharmed and is there voluntarily, there is nothing else we can do."

An hour later, when they came back, Bella was standing next to me. The officer gave me a sympathetic look. “We went to the player’s home, and your wife was there. We asked her to sit in the squad car away from him so she could talk freely. She told us to tell you she was fine and not to worry. She thanked us for coming by and went back into his house.”

“Mr. Stephens, I am sorry that this has happened to you, but I have to caution you to control your emotions. Your wife has made it clear that she is there of her own volition. If you confront her, him, or both of them, you will be in the wrong, and your life could get much worse.”

They left, and Bella soon followed. She didn’t want to leave, but I didn’t want the company. Days went by without a word from Marcy. Nearly a month later, I was leaving the house when a man wearing a nice suit stopped on the sidewalk and looked at me. “Dan? Dan Stephens?”

He walked right up to me. “It is Dan Stephen’s, isn’t it? You live here?”

Dumbfounded, I studied his face. “Yeah, that’s me, and this is where I live. Do I know you?”

He held up his cell phone as if reading something on it, then reached inside his jacket and pulled out an envelope. He tossed it to me, and I caught it. “Hold that up, Dan.”

I didn’t set out to follow his instructions, but the result was the same. I meant to hand it back to him, and as I tried to do so, I heard the shutter sound come from his phone. He’d just taken my picture, and as my mouth opened to ask him what the fuck he was doing, he slipped the phone into his pocket. “Dan Stephen’s, you’ve been served.”

He turned and walked away, leaving me in total confusion. I walked back into the house and opened the envelope. Inside was a cover letter on the letterhead of some legal firm, along with a bundle of legal documents.

I sat at the kitchen island and began reading the letter.

Dan,

                I know this letter is confusing, coming as it is on my legal counsel’s letterhead, but I have been advised that it was the only proper way to do it. They asked me not to write anything, but I felt it was the least I owed you.

                I never planned on things happening the way they did. I did plan to be with Joseph and to come home to you. I thought that after spending time with Bella, you would understand and see that it wasn’t all that big of a deal. What I never planned on was how Joseph stole my heart. He wants to marry me.

                Bella has been in love with you for a long time, and I know you have feelings for her. I choose to think I did you both a favor by getting out of your way. Now I’ve found new love, and you have yours.

                Joseph and I don’t want to make this harder than it has to be. The divorce contract that my lawyers have provided will give you most everything except a few mementos that my counsel will arrange to have picked up.

                I don’t think it would be good for either of us if we were to see each other again. I didn’t set out to hurt you, and I hope that Bella will soon make you forget me. There is no reason why we both can’t be happy. I think this is the best for both of us.

Sincerely,

Marcy

I think that if I had a gun in my hand at that moment, I would have ended it right there. My marriage to the love of my life was dead at my feet, and all I had left were tears. Bella came by the house a few hours later, and I showed her the letter. Then I sat her down. “Bella, I don’t know what your expectations are. I hope that you don’t have any because you didn’t ask for any of this, and I don’t want to hurt you. I need you to know that I have valued your friendship and in another world, I would gladly give us a chance. This isn’t another world. In this world, the woman I loved more than life left me for another man. In this world, every time I see you, I think of her. It would never be you and me because Marcy’s shadow would constantly be hanging over us. I realize now that I was never meant to be in love with a woman. There is something about me that isn’t quite good enough to keep a woman happy, to make her want to be with me.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I know that I can’t see you again. I’m sorry if I’ve hurt you, but seeing you is almost like seeing her, and the pain is too much. You don’t want me anyway. I’ll never make you happy in the long run. I would fail with you just like I failed with her.”

We were both crying, and she tried to reach out for me, but I took her hand instead and walked her to the door. “Have a good life, Bella. You are wonderful, and you deserve a wonderful guy. Goodbye, I’ll miss you.”

I closed the door and found the whiskey bottle. The next afternoon, I took the divorce contract to our, now my, lawyer. She read the cover letter and contract, then sat back in her chair. “Jesus Christ, what a cruel thing to do. I never dreamed that she could do something like this. I’m sorry. You didn’t come here for my personal opinion.

“My advice is that you sign it and do your best to move on. The terms are the most one-sided I’ve ever seen, and they are all in your favor. You also have to consider the downside if you don’t. Her legal team is top-tier. The legal fees those yahoos are charging are at least ten times the value of everything you jointly own.

“That tells me there is serious power behind this. What’s lying on my desk is the carrot. Believe me when I say that you don’t want to experience the stick. If you don’t sign, they will make your life a horror show, and they’ll do it all using the law. They’ll tie you up in court until you run out of money. They’ll come at you from every direction, and before they’re done, you’ll lose your money, your job, and most of your friends. The best legal minds in the country will set out to destroy you, and they will succeed.

“Dammit! This sucks so fucking bad! I’m so sorry, Dan. Nobody deserves to be treated this way, but there is nothing I can do that will change any of it. If you insist, I will fight for a while, but it won’t be long before they come after me, too, and let’s not forget about Bella. It looks to me like her best friend fucked her over as much as she did you.

“Speaking of Bella, is Marcy telling the whole story?”

I told her about our friendship and how I had told Bella I couldn’t see her again, and my lawyer lowered her head. “Damn, that’s too bad. She sounds like someone that would be good for you.”

“I’m sure she would be, but eventually, she would leave too. There’s something about me that isn’t enough. It might take her a few years to figure that out, but she would eventually. No, I’m destined to be alone. Where do I sign?”

I signed, and she took the contract. “I’ll have this couriered to them in the morning. As soon as they give me the list of items Marcy wants, I'll send it to you.

“Dan, you need to believe that this wasn’t your fault. She did what she did, and it was a purely selfish act. She did what she wanted to do, not because of you, but because it was what she wanted, and she didn’t care who got hurt.”

“Yeah, sure thing.”

I got the list of stuff Marcy wanted the next day. None of it had much monetary value. It was all stuff that reminded her of happy times in her life. None of it included our marriage. No pictures of us or me. Nothing that would indicate that I had ever been a part of her life. I gathered it all up, wrapped it in towels, and beat it into powder with a ten-pound sledgehammer. I beat it until my clothes were soaked with sweat, and my arms couldn’t hold up the hammer. I woke up from my drunken rage, my cheek on the concrete floor and the nearly shredded towel full of broken pieces right in front of my eyes. The towel was a metaphor for my life. What was once precious and joyful was now nothing but broken shards. Nothing was left except trash and lost potential. I shook the shards into a box and shipped it to her.

A month later, I sold the house and moved out of state. I bought a small two-bedroom place in my new city and settled into a lifetime of bachelorhood. My attitude towards women was avoidance. I wasn’t about to be tempted into another relationship with a woman. Men held no sexual attraction to me. I settled into a life of celibacy. I still masturbated, but only to keep my sanity, and then my only stimulus was cheap porn with transparent plots and horrible actors. I wanted to see the parts and the act to stimulate myself, but the last thing I wanted was to detect any real emotion. I didn’t need the reminder of what I was incapable of having and keeping.

I had decided when I left my former city to also start over career-wise. I couldn’t continue to work in an office where I had to interact with women every day. I gave up my engineering career and started my own one-man handyman company. Anything a guy working alone could do to a house, I tackled. I learned a lot of the skills I needed early in life. When I was young, I helped my dad with remodeling projects. He wasn’t all that skilled at it, and by the time I was a teenager, I was pretty much working on my own. If I didn’t know how to do it yet, I was more than capable of learning.

After a year or so, word got around, and I made a reasonable living at it. My neighbors knew that if they had an emergency, I wouldn’t discuss money. You help your neighbors because it’s the right thing to do. Of course, that applied in times of need. If my next-door neighbor wanted a new entertainment center built, it was going to cost him.

The hardest part was talking to the woman of the house. I believe in customer service and was always polite and as nice as possible. Nearly all the women I met were married, and that helped me be comfortable around them. They were already spoken for, so I knew there was no risk of any emotional stuff. Even the married ones would flirt, though. After I had pretended not to notice a few times, they always stopped. Looking back on it, I’m sure most, if not all of them, were just having a little fun and had never intended to go further than a bit of innuendo. I wasn’t about to take the risk.

I met Penny by disaster. It was early afternoon, and I had finished my job early. I’d come home, cleaned up, and thrown on some shorts in preparation for some television time. Pounding on my front door and high-pitched yells of ‘Help!’ brought me running to the door. I opened the door, and a soaking-wet woman was standing there looking panic-stricken. “Please help. Something broke under the sink, and my kitchen is flooding!”

I motioned for her to go, and I ran after her as she ran to the house next door. I followed her in and ran to the kitchen. Water was pouring out of the sink base cabinet. I yanked the door open and got a face full before spotting the shutoff valve. I gave it a twist and shut the water off. When I looked up her blue eyes were staring at me with relief. She was drenched. Her hair was still dripping, her t-shirt was so wet it was practically transparent, and her shorts were soaked through, revealing the tiny thong she wore.

My first instinct was to laugh, and I did. “God, we look like a couple of drowned rats.”

She laughed along with me, as much in relief as in humor. She had a wonderful laugh, and that’s when I realized my new neighbor was beautiful. Her body was as perfect as I had ever seen. Her breasts were pert, and her nipples stuck out proudly. I could even see that she kept things well-trimmed down south. I froze.

Her laugh faded to silence as she studied my face. She looked concerned, I guess. I really wasn’t sure, but I had to get out of there for a minute. “I’ll go get some stuff to help you clean up all this water. You, uh, might want to change into something drier.”

I was on my feet and headed toward the door when her husband walked in. “What the fuck is going on here? Who the fuck are you, and what are you doing with my wife?”

He looked pissed as hell, but instead of waiting for an answer, he ignored me for the moment and grabbed his wife by both arms. “You fuckin' around on me bitch?”

She cowered, and he raised his hand. I grabbed his wrist. “Not gonna happen. I won’t let you hit her.”

He tried to spin on me. I let him and used his own momentum to drive him to the wet floor. “You need to calm down. I’m not fooling around with her, and she’s not fooling around with me. The reason your face is wet is that the water line broke, and I came to help. That’s all it is.”

I waited and held him in place until his breathing calmed. “I’ll let you up if you can be reasonable.”

He nodded and I stepped back as I let him go. He got to his feet, and I wondered for a moment if I let him up too soon. His face was red with rage. “You’re in your underwear, and she’s damn near naked. What was I supposed to think?”

I shook my head. “Look around you. Does this look like we were having fun? If I stick my head in that cabinet to see what the problem is, are you going to behave?”

His shoulders dropped. “Yeah, fine. Take a look.”

I had never wished for eyes in the back of my head more than I did at that moment. It didn’t take long to find the problem. “Someone replaced the water line with some plastic tubing and hose clamps. The tubing wasn’t designed to take the pressure and split right up the side.”

He knelt down and looked. “Oh yeah, I fixed that last week. The old line was dripping, and I found that stuff in the basement. I figured it would work.”

I shook my head. “You wouldn’t be the first guy that didn’t know how to work on plumbing. That’s why there are professionals. I recommend you use one when you aren’t absolutely sure you know what you’re doing.”

He snorted. “Those fucking guys just rip you off. There’s always something more that needs doing, and it always costs more than it should. They live a hell of a lot better than I do.”

I looked him dead in the eye. “I’m one of those guys. I fix stuff like this for a living. The funny thing is I don’t remember ever ripping anyone off, and my house is right next door. You can see for yourself that it isn’t a mansion.

“I can fix this in five minutes. I’ll be right back.”

I left to get a supply hose and an adjustable wrench from my truck. I figured he needed a few minutes to get his head on right. I returned with the hose, and within five minutes, the water was back on. His response was priceless. “I suppose that’s gonna cost me a hundred bucks for five minutes of work.”

I was at the end of my patience with this asshole. “I don’t charge neighbors when they have an emergency. If you call me in the middle of the night to fix your fuckup, it will cost you. What do you expect? I should work for nothing because you don’t want to pay for the work to be done the right way? That hose costs money. My tools cost money. My time is worth something."

I don’t know why I bothered. “Anyway, your water line is fixed.” I stood and walked out the door. I had just dried off and put on some dry shorts when I heard the knock at my door. When I answered, she was standing there, “Hi, I’m Penelope, but everyone calls me Penny. I wanted to thank you for helping me. I don’t know what I would have done if you hadn’t been home.”

She was so captivating, I couldn’t look at her. No, no, no, don’t go there. “That’s all right, Penny. I was glad to help. I hope I didn’t cause problems for you with your husband.”

She paused. “Will you tell me your name?”

“Oh, sorry. I’m Dan. Uhm, listen, you better get that water cleaned up before it damages your floors. I’d be glad to help, but I don’t think your husband would approve.”

Her face turned red with embarrassment. “I’m sorry for how he acted. He has a temper, and he’s super jealous. He took off right after you left. He’s in one of his moods, so the soonest I expect to see him is after the bars close. Sometimes, he’s gone for a day or two.”

I was stunned. “He just left you with the mess?”

She shrugged. “Yeah, he says that kind of stuff is women’s work. I don’t know how I’m going to clean all that water up before stuff gets ruined. He’ll come unglued if that happens.”

I knew I shouldn’t, but dammit, she was desperate. She needed the help. “I’ll help you. Come on.”

I walked through the kitchen and out into the garage. I started handing her mops and a squeegee. When she got a good grip on them, I piled a bunch of old towels on her arms. I grabbed a couple of buckets and some more towels and opened the garage door. I started to walk out, and she just stood there. “Is there a problem, Penny?”

“Uh-huh. I can’t see.”

I turned back to look at her, and all I could see was a perfect set of legs, a cute little ass, three handles, and a pile of towels. Her head was hidden in there somewhere. I reached over and took a bunch off the stack, and her blue eyes looked at me with humor. A beautiful smile lit her face, and I couldn’t help but chuckle. I added her stack to mine, and we headed to her house. Two hours later, the cleanup was complete. Fortunately, the kitchen floor was tiled and we caught the water before it got to the living room carpet.

I put the wet towels in the buckets and gathered the rest of my stuff. Penny helped me carry it all home. We walked into the garage, and I closed the garage door without thinking. We dumped the towels by the washer, and I escorted Penny through the house to the front door. She paused, then turned towards me. I could see that she intended to give me a friendly hug, and I tripped over my own feet, backing away from her.

She looked down at me as I lay embarrassed on the floor. “I can honestly say that I have never gotten a reaction like that when I tried to hug someone. Have I offended you?”

I didn’t trust myself to speak and shook my head.

“Is it a religious thing?”

Another head shake from me.

“Okay… Are you gay? Hate women? From another planet? What gives?”

I sat there for the longest five seconds of my life. “I’m not someone you should hug. You’ll just end up disappointed.”

I saw the look on her face change from curiosity to sympathy and that about undid me. I couldn’t face her anymore, and I started to get up. She was within inches of me when I stood and still had that pitying look on her face. “I don’t know who she was, but there is no doubt in my mind that she fucked you over horribly.”

I reached for the door. I needed her gone right now. She put her hand on my arm. “Dan, you’ve been wonderful to me and I would like to be your friend. Maybe one day you can talk to me about what she did to you. It’s okay if you don’t want to, but please know that I appreciate what you’ve done for me, and if I can return the favor, I will do it gladly.”

Her hand reached up and settled on my cheek. “I promise that I will never hurt you. You’re safe with me. I’m married, and I don’t cheat, so you can treat me like any other friend. We just won’t be using the same restrooms.”

During that late spring, she found some way to speak to me nearly every day, and I gradually spoke back. It was Saturday, and she was always out working in the yard at some point. I didn’t see her all day and was disappointed. That was the first time I let myself feel any emotion for a woman since Marcy.

I had a bad feeling, and the feeling persisted even after I told myself I was blowing things out of proportion. Sitting on the couch in the living room was making me crazy. I left the outside lights off and went out on my back deck. I sat in the chair closest to Penny’s house and listened. I wanted to hear her voice. I knew if I heard her voice, the feeling would pass, and things would be fine.

He must have followed her from the front of the house to their bedroom because I could hear his voice getting louder. The window lit up in the room closest to where I was sitting. I suspected that it was their bedroom, but I didn’t know. I couldn’t make out his sentences, but I could clearly hear the rage in his voice. I heard that unmistakable sound of a fist hitting flesh, followed by Penny’s scream, and I was on my feet and running across the yard like a shot.

Our little neighborhood in our little town is a wonderful place to raise kids. Crime is rare and usually timid by big city standards. Most of my neighbors don’t bother to lock their doors unless they’re leaving for vacation. I don’t lock my house. My tools are locked in my truck or in cabinets in my garage. Outside of a high-end audio system, there’s not much worth stealing.

I hopped onto Penny’s deck and was very thankful that Penny’s views on locked doors matched my own. I needed stealth and speed. Her unlocked back door facilitated that. I still had hope that I was misreading things. If that were the case, I would prefer to find out, then sneak my ass back out of their house before I got caught.

I also didn’t want him to know I was coming, especially if my fears were correct. I didn’t want him waiting in ambush when I entered the room. Getting myself shot or clubbed in the head would only be good for getting my picture taken next to Penny while they drew the chalk outlines around us. I was edging my way down the hall toward the bedroom door, ten feet away, when I heard Penny start to choke. Speed was the only thing that mattered after that horrible sound.

He never knew I was there. One moment, he was choking the life out of his battered wife, and the next, he was out on the floor while I shook my bruised hand. I knelt down and punched him again. Now that he was down, I fully intended to keep him there. If he moved again, I’d hit him again. Penny was gagging and crying. She’d been beaten badly and was in obvious pain, but she was breathing. I dialed 911 and got the authorities on their way. I knelt on the floor next to Penny. I kept an eye on her asshole husband while I gently stroked her hair. “You're safe now, Penny. I promise I’ll protect you.”

Her hand came up and tried to grip mine. I couldn’t hold back the tears of rage when her dislocated fingers wouldn’t cooperate. I told the 911 operator to have the cops come in the back door. The last thing I was going to do was leave her alone while I opened the front door.

Soon enough, the cops arrived, and moments after that, Penny’s husband and I were in cuffs. I must have whacked him pretty hard because he was really groggy. He was in his own little world and had no idea two cops were watching him and listening to every word he said. The things he said he was going to do to Penny had me shaking with rage.

The cops looked at each other, then looked at me. “Are you going to be a problem? You look pretty pissed off, and I’m not taking off the cuffs until you calm down.”

Penny struggled to rise from the bed. “Let him go. He saved me. Leave him alone!”

“Penny! Penny, look at me.” Her eyes slowly focused on me. “It’s going to be okay. I need you to go to the hospital and get treated. The police need me for a while, but I promise you I will come to the hospital as soon as I possibly can. Please don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.”

I turned to the cops. “Where’s that ambulance?”

Penny had a death grip on my hand with her good one and wouldn’t let go until they lifted her into the ambulance. I watched them drive away with her and walked over to one of the cops. “You need a statement from me, and I need to get to the hospital. How can we make those things happen?”

It turns out not well. They wanted me at the station for the statement. The better part of three hours later, they released me. I finally arrived at the hospital, but they wouldn’t tell me anything about Penny’s condition. I sat in the waiting room for an hour before I realized that I wasn’t going to get anywhere that way. I wondered if Penny had family nearby. I left the hospital and went home. I went out my back door and in through hers and went to the kitchen. I needed to find her purse.

I found it easily enough, pulled out her wallet, and apologized in my head for violating her privacy. Her wallet had one of those plastic picture-sleeve things. The picture of a generic family that came with the wallet was the only one in it. I pulled out her cell phone and was shocked to find that it wasn’t pass-coded. I checked her contacts. There were two. One for her husband and one for me.

It’s like he’s all she has. Well, and me, I guess. I put her stuff back into her purse and took it with me to the hospital. I figured she would need her insurance cards and ID. I talked to the charge nurse and explained the situation. I knew she couldn’t tell me anything, but I asked her to let Penny know I was there and gave her Penny’s purse. Penny was in intensive care, and I wasn’t allowed in. I went to the waiting room and found a seat. Outside of a trip home to shower and grab some takeout, that’s where I stayed for the next three days.

I don’t know what Penny told them about me, but when they came and got me, they took me right to her and updated me on her condition along the way. He had hurt her badly, and she was going to be recovering for a while. They wanted to know whom to contact for her care and I told them that would be me. Who else was there? She didn’t deserve what happened to her, and she needed help to recover from it. I’d be a pretty shitty friend if I walked away now. I’m not sure when I admitted to myself that she was my friend, but it was almost certainly during that time. It was a huge milestone, and I absolutely refused to think about it.