I couldn't have asked for a better set up. Tina was at the bottom of the stairs looking up at me as I came down. She took in the suit and tie and said:
"I didn't know we were going out tonight."
"We aren't."
"If we aren't going out why are you dressed up?"
"Because I'm going out."
"What's going on here Billy?"
"I have a date. I'd love to chat, but I'm running late. I'm not sure what time I'll be home so don't wait up."
"You have a date? With who?"
By then I was at the front door and as I opened it I heard "Just a god damned minute William! We have to ta..." and I went out and closed the door before I could hear the rest of what she said. Fortunately Silverado extended cab truck wouldn't fit in the garage which cut down on the time she could get to me. Also I guess the shock of things caught her off guard enough to slow her down some as I was already in the truck with the motor running by the time she came out the door yelling:
"God damn it Billy; get your ass back here!"
I just smile as I backed down the drive, turned left and pointed the truck toward the condo where my date for the evening lived. I guess a little back story here is in order.
I met Tina Marie Clauson during my senior year at Metro State. I was a Business Management major and the class was Management Decision Analysis. The class was full and the only empty seat was next to me. The instructor walked in followed by a girl who headed for the only empty seat.
I know that most people (ones that I knew anyway) think that love at first sight is just a figure of speech and there ain't no such animal, but my first look at the girl had me thinking "She's the one." I hadn't even spoken my first word to her and I was already wondering if I had enough money to get her an engagement ring.
She sat down, looked at me and said "Good morning." It is now I thought, but before I could reply Bivens called the class to order. I don't think I heard half of what he said during that class because the raven haired beauty sitting next to me had almost all of my attention.
When the class let out I was right behind the girl and from Bivens rollcall I knew her name was Tina. Once out in the hall I tapped her on the shoulder to get her attention and when she turned to me I said:
"Hi. I'm Bill Dalton. I know this should take place under more romantic circumstances, but I don't want to waste a lot of time. Will you marry me?"
She laughed and said "I don't know yet if I will or if I won't, but I might, just might mind you, agree to a date if properly asked."
"Are you free this evening?"
"It just so happens that I am."
"Would you like to have dinner with me this evening?"
"I think that I'd like that."
We found out we both had classes that let out at eleven forty-five and we agreed to meet in the student cafeteria for lunch. Over lunch I found out the reason I'd never seen her before on campus was she had gone to a community college and this was her first term at Metro. We swapped information and I found out she was an only child and both of her parents worked. She was an Accounting major and her goal was to become a CPA, her favorite color was blue and she liked almost all music except rap noise. She refused to call it music.
She found out I was also an only child and a Business Management major to prepare me for taking over the family business when my father finally decided to retire. I had no color preference and I agreed with her about rap. We arranged for me to pick her up at six and then we headed off to our afternoon classes.
Our date went well although she did laugh at me a lot. Mostly I suppose because she wasn't taking me serious when I asked the size of her finger and what she would like in the way of an engagement ring. I asked what she would like in the way of a wedding and did we have to wait until after we both graduated to tie the knot.
As I drove her home I told her I was dead serious. "When I first saw you I knew without a doubt that you are the one I'm supposed to be with. Face it; the fates, karma or whoever is in charge saw to it that you would take the same class I was taking and that the only empty chair in the room would be next to me. We are meant to be and you need to accept it."
"You are being silly. We hardly know each other."
"That's why we need to keep dating so you can learn all there is to know about me. I've already told my parents that I've met their future daughter in law and they can't wait to meet you. How about we have dinner with them this coming Friday?"
"I don't think so. You are moving a little too fast for me."
"That's because I know we are meant to be and I want to get on with our lives together."
"Well you might be sure, but I'm not and until I get to know you one hell of a lot better I'm not committing to anything. You are cute and I like your going after what you want attitude, but I'm not a rush into it sort of person. I'm going to want to see what else is out there before making any major decisions."
I was unhappy at hearing that, but I knew, just absolutely knew that we were meant to be so I was going to hang in there.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Over the next three months maybe every third time I would ask Tina out she told me sorry, but she already had a date for that day or evening. As the Christmas holidays approached I decided to drop things where Tina was concerned until after the first of the year. I hadn't lost interest, it was more along the lines of self-preservation. I knew Tina dated other guys, but I'd never seen her with another guy and I damned sure didn't want to.
My thinking was that if I asked her to go to say Joe's party with me and she said that she already had a date for that night I could go to the party stag, but she would avoid the party knowing I'd be there. Was that an example of fuzzy thinking? Hell no, that was an example of stupid thinking. Like she wouldn't go to the party anyway A college student with a 3.78 GPA and I was that stupid?
There was a party at my fraternity house and I asked Tina to go with me and she told me she already had a date for that night. I went stag and forty minutes into the party Tina came in with Jake Cohorn. It was bad enough seeing her on the arm of someone else, but Jake Cohorn? You could not find a more obnoxious asshole if you searched the whole world over. I couldn't take it. I had to leave five minutes after they got there. I saw Tina looking at me as I left. I decided to just skip all of the holiday parties for the rest of the year.
That didn't work out either.
My Uncle Paul and Aunt Peggy came to visit and they had my cousin Rachel with them. I got talked into taking Rachel to a party at my frat house. I didn't want to; I really, really didn't want to, but how are you supposed to resist the pressure put on you by your mom and dad and your aunt and uncle?
On the way to the party Rachel asked me why I was so reluctant. "Are you ashamed to be seen with me?"
"Good Lord no. You are seriously hot and you know it."
Then I told her what the situation was.
"So if she's there point her out to me. She doesn't know I'm your cousin so I'll hang all over you and see if we can't make her jealous."
"I doubt she'll even give a damn."
"Won't hurt to try."
Wouldn't you just know it? Not only was Tina at the party, but she was looking straight at us as we walked into the room. Rachel heard my sharp intake of breath and she figured it out.
"Where is she?"
"Straight ahead, next to the wall in the blue dress."
Rachel looked at me and gave me a dazzling smile and tightened her grip on my arm. Ignoring Tina I introduced Rachel to my frat brothers and their dates. Maybe twenty minutes after we arrived Tina came up to us and said:
"Hi Bill; introduce me to your friend."
I introduced them to each other and then Tina stunned me when she asked Rachel "Are you trying to steal my man?"
Rachel laughed and said "If he was your man honey he would be here with you instead of me. Come on sweetie; show me around" and she pulled us away from Tina.
It was a fun party and we had a good time. Rachel attracted a lot of attention. A few of my frat brothers, knowing of the way I felt about Tina, asked me if I had anything going with Rachel and I told them no and that she was just a date for the party. In effect what I did was give them permission to ask her out.
Just before we left I had to go to the bathroom and when I came out I found Tina waiting for me.
"I meant it you know."
"Meant what?"
"That you are my man. If you had asked me I would be at this party with you."
"I didn't ask you because the last three times I asked you out you turned me down because you already had a date. I got tired of hearing no so I've stopped asking. Excuse me, but I need to go find my date" and I walked away from her.
On the way home Rachel said "Your frat brothers are a bunch of back stabbing assholes."
"Why is that?"
"Even though I was your date they kept hitting on me."
"They aren't assholes. They know how hung up I am on Tina and they asked me if I had anything going with you and when I said no they asked me if I would mind if they tried their luck and I told them to have at it."
"I wish I would have known that. There are a couple I would have said yes to."
I hung a U-turn and she asked me what I was doing. "Getting you back to the party to see if those couple are still there."
Once there I turned her loose and went down to the game room and played pool until she came and got me and said she was ready to go (one of those she would have said yes to was Ed Catron and they ended up getting married).
The next morning I got a call from Tina asking me if I would meet her for lunch at the Village Inn. Curiosity made me say yes. She was already there and seated in a booth when I arrived. I took the seat across from her and before I could say a word Tina said:
"I know what I want for Christmas."
"What?"
"An engagement ring. You once asked me what my ring size was. I don't know, but when we leave here we can Go to Zales and find out."
"Not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth, but why the sudden change?"
"I've dated enough guys to be able to compare and you come out on top."
"Seriously?"
"That and the stunt you pulled with your cousin woke me up to the fact that I might lose you to someone else."
"How did you know she was my cousin?"
"She told me."
"She told you? How did that come about?
"She noticed me casting nervous glances your way and figured that I was upset seeing you there with her so she came up to me and told me not to worry, that she was your cousin and not someone trying to steal my man."
"Just to clear things up it was not a stunt I pulled" and I explained my reluctance to even go to the party because I might see her there with a date and how everybody pushed me into taking Rachel to the party.
"Whatever; it was effective."
Indeed it was effective. Six weeks after I graduated we were married. Tina still had a year to go to get her degree and I wanted to wait until she graduated, but she didn't want to wait and she insisted and I gave in. I wanted a simple civil ceremony, but both our parents wouldn't hear of it so we ended up having a full blown wedding and the next seven years were some of the happiest of my life.
******************************
Tina and I were still behaving like we were still on our honeymoon and then a snake slithered into our garden. His name was Darin Goodman. He had transferred into Tina's office from the company's Cleveland office. He decided he wanted Tina and he went after her. Maybe it was the Seven Year Itch thing, but whatever it was Tina was receptive to his advances.
At first it was lunches together and then it was stopping after work for drinks. What Tina had forgotten was that Hal Thomas, one of my frat brothers, worked in the same place she did and since she didn't seem to care whether her co-workers knew what she was doing or not Hal was able to find out quite a bit about her actions. Hal gave me a call and brought me up to speed on what Tina was doing.
I asked him to keep me up to date as much as possible. So far the consensus was that things hadn't progressed past the hand holding stage and kissing. The lunches weren't long enough for anything to have happened and after some drinks and dancing when they stopped with the crew after work they didn't leave together. When I added all that up and added in the fact that she was never too late in getting home I figured that Goodman hadn't yet managed to get her in bed.
That afternoon I'd gotten a call from Hal. He'd heard them talking about going out on a date Saturday and from some of what he heard they intended to end the date in a hotel room. One of the things he heard Tina say was she was going to come home and hit me with it. Straight out tell me that she was going to date another man.
I told dad I needed to leave a little early to take care of a personal problem. On the way out I stopped in Accounting and asked Angela Harding for a favor.
"Whatcha need Billy baby?"
"I need a date for dinner and dancing tonight."
"Whoa! Mr. Straight Arrow stepping out on the wifey. Stop the presses!"
I explained the situation to Angie and she was shocked that Tina would do something like that. There wasn't any doubt in my mind that Angie wouldn't jump at the chance to go out with me. At the first company Christmas party I'd taken Tina to I'd found out that Tina and Angie knew each other and that there was bad blood between them and knowing that I was going to make sure that that Tina heard all about the date had Angie jumping at the deal.
When I picked Angie up I mentally cussed myself out for not doing things differently. I should have waited for Tina to cheat with Goodman then I would be justified (in my mind anyway) in having revenge sex with Angie. I'd always known she was a good looking girl, but in her little black dress and heels she was seriously hot!
She smiled and said "Thank you."
"For what?"
"For the compliment your eyes just paid me."
I'm not sure but I think I blushed. I offered her my arm and we headed for my truck.
We had dinner at Duke's Steak House and after eating we went to the Alhambra Lounge for dancing. I picked both of those places because Tina had good friends who worked at them and I was sure that one or more of them would be on the phone to Tina before I got home.
During the slow dances Angie plastered herself against me and she just smiled as she pushed against my erection. She was enjoying the hell out of things knowing that she was lighting me up and Tina was going to find out about it. It was obvious to me that Angie fully intended to get me on her bed before the night was over and not because of my manly charms, but because she would no doubt let Tina know about it. And while Angie just knew she had me locked in I was just as sure that it wasn't going to happen. Did I want it to happen? Hell yes I did, but it just wasn't in me to cheat on my wife.
I walked her to her front door and thanked her for a great time. She grabbed my head and laid one hell of a hot kiss on me and then invited me in. I think I shocked her when I said no.
"We both know what would happen if I did it and that's not what this night as all about. I told you up front what the deal was and you agreed to help me pull it off. Don't think for one second that I don't want to come in because we both know that I really want to. Thank you for helping me."
I kissed her cheek, turned and walked back to my truck. I drove to the Waffle House and drank coffee and read the newspaper until four and then I went home.
I got home at four-twenty in the morning and I expected Tina to be in bed sleeping when I got there, but that wasn't the case. She was up, sitting on the living room couch and reading a book when I walked in. I just smiled at her and walked by her and went upstairs to our bedroom. I took my suit coat off and was putting it on a hanger when Tina walked into the room.
"I can smell her perfume on you. Who is she?"
"I would have thought at least one of your friends would have called you by now and clued you in."
"Two did, but they didn't know the bitch."
"You know her. Angela Harding."
"That pig? You tossed your marriage in the dumpster for that pig?"
"Oh come on Tina; no need to get all dramatic over things. Tell me something? How did you feel when I walked out the door? Tell me Tina; I really do want to know."
She just stared at me. Her rage was evident on her face, but she was somehow containing it.
"Were you maybe asking yourself why I was going out with another woman? Asking yourself why you weren't woman enough for me? Asking yourself how you had failed me? What had you done that drove me away from you?"
She finally reached the point where she couldn't hold it in any longer.
"How could you? Seven years! Seven of what I thought were damned good years and you threw it all away for a roll in the hay with that slut!"
I smiled at her and said "Keep going; you are on a roll now."
"What the hell is wrong with you William? You are treating this like it is some kind of joke."
"Well I am finding some humor in the situation. Let me see if I've got this straight. You are pissed that I went out on a date with another woman. So pissed in fact that you are thinking about divorce. That about right?"
She was shaking her head in disbelief at my attitude.
"And another question for you. What is it that makes Angie a slut?"
"Well duh! What else would you call a woman who goes out with a married man?"
"That brings up another question. What would you call a married woman who goes out with a man not her husband?"
"A slut! An unfaithful slut!"
"Thanks for clearing that up for me. I wasn't quite sure of what I should call you."
"You are inferring I'm a slut?"
"Just calling them like I see them."
"You fucking asshole! How dare you call me a slut!"
"Hey! Back off! I'm only calling you what you just said you were. A married woman dating a man other than her husband. You are a married woman and you are dating Darin Goodman. Ergo you are, in your own words, a slut."
Her face paled and I could see "How much does he know" written all over her face. I smiled and said "Here's something for you to think about. Take how you felt when I walked out of here last evening and roll it around in your mind until you see the other side of it. That's how you intended to make me feel when you go out on your date with Goodman tonight. You know, the date that supposed to end up in a motel room? There is one thing that puzzles me though. I can't seem to remember what I did that made you think I would stand still for it when you told me you were going to date another man. I can't for the life of me remember what I did that made you think I would be wimp enough to say:
"Yes dear. Have a good time."
"I would have thought you knew me well enough to know that when Goodman arrived to pick you up I would stomp the shit out of him. Of course now that won't happen because you will no doubt call him and tell him not to pick you up and that you will meet him some place. Whatever; it's been a long night and I need to get some sleep."
I left her standing there looking shell shocked and went to the guest bedroom and went to bed. I half expected her to follow me and want to talk, but she didn't.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
When I woke up and went downstairs she was sleeping on the couch. Why on the couch instead of our bedroom I wasn't about to ask.
I went in the kitchen and then quietly, so as to not wake her up, I made a pot of coffee. When I was done I poured a cup, went out onto the patio, drank my coffee and thought about what to do next. Divorce? Maybe, but it was a final option. I did love the silly bitch and I really didn't want to let her go. Love or not, if she had already screwed Goodman, she would be history, but from everything Hal had found out it sure appeared that she hadn't. What to do, what to do? In the end I guessed it was going to be up to Tina. If she didn't want to stay with me there really wasn't anything I could do about it. If she kept her date with Goodman she would be telling me goodbye.
I'd been out there about ten minutes when she came out, cup of coffee in hand, and sat down opposite me. She took a sip and then said:
"What would you like for dinner tonight?"
"I don't feel much like cooking so I'll probably go out to some place."
"No; I'm asking what you would like me to fix you for dinner."
"I thought you had a hot date for tonight."
"Not anymore."
I looked up from my coffee and she said "I got a wakeup call earlier this morning. I woke up to the fact that I was about to throw away a pretty damned good marriage to a great guy for a fling with a guy who couldn't hold a candle to my husband. There is really no excuse for my actions. I let a bunch of compliments and flattery turn my head.
"I got the same compliments and flattery from my husband, but somewhere along the line I decided he was only doing it because he had to; it was in his job description. Coming from someone else it was an affirmation that I was still a desirable woman. Fortunately for me, at least I hope it is, all that ever happened was some kissing and handholding. Now, because of my stupidity. I'm going to have to work extra hard to convince a suspicious and doubting husband that I've pulled my head out of my ass."
"Well I'm not going to say you have an impossible task in front of you, but I will say that you have your work cut out for you."
"Then I'd better get started on it. Would you like to come back inside and work up an appetite before I take you out for breakfast?"
"I would" I said as I got up to follow her into the house. It was a good sign I thought. Apparently she did want to stay with me. We just might make it after all.
Wish me luck.
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