As the end of the school year approached, Claire became busy at work. She had lunch with Robert once but when he wanted sex, the best she offered was a half-hearted blow job. When he neared his orgasm, she finished him off by hand and aimed his spurts onto his chest; let him clean it up.
One evening at dinner she realized that she had not heard from John in several days. In her quieter moments, she still believed that she could divert him from his cockamamy plan to divorce her. He loved her too much to pull the trigger, she thought. She decided to call him.
“Are you avoiding me, darling? I have missed you.”
After a brief silence, he replied, “Yes, I have been busy settling into my new apartment, and my lawyer advised me to not to fraternize with you. Divorces often become adversarial and I must not weaken my case.”
“You have an apartment? John, won’t you stop this nonsense and come home to me, your loving wife?” Claire sounded a bit miffed at John; was he being intentionally obtuse? “Your friend Dave called me and offered to mediate if I let him fuck me. What did you tell him about me?”
“That’s the problem, you are too loving, to too many men. I wanted you all to myself. Dave saw you and Jim practically fucking on the dance floor the other week. He has always had the hots for you, and I guess he thinks you’re easy.”
That stung. Before she could justify her behavior, he continued,
“And, by the way, we need to inform our sons of the situation. Even though they both have summer jobs, surely one of them will want to come home during school break. We shouldn’t leave them to hear gossip. I have arranged a zoom call with them this Sunday evening; you should come over and we can tell them together.”
Claire’s heart sank, she had dreaded having to talk to them about this, even though she hoped they would be supportive. Deep down, they were her children primarily, though they love their father too. But she showed up at his new place and sat beside him as he made the call.
After exchanging pleasantries, John said, “Boys, there is something we have to tell you; we are getting a divorce.”
John Jr., the eldest, broke the long silence, “What? Why?”
When she didn’t speak, John Sr. replied, “We want different things in our lives.”
Both boys seemed to expect her to expand on their father’s statement. She decided that the time was now. “I have been unfaithful to your father.”
Now Benji, her Gen Z baby, spoke up, “Surely one slip, doesn’t have to mean your marriage is over. Can’t you forgive and forget, dad? These days it’s not such a big deal.” Jr. was shocked into silence.
“Unfortunately, it was not one time or one person, and she intends to continue to see other men.”
John immediately regretted saying that.
“You’re nothing but a tramp,” John Jr. told her. He stood up and left the room.
A tear slid down her cheek but Claire didn’t defend herself. She looked down at her hands. When she looked up, he was gone. John hastily ended the call.
“You should continue this alone with each of them individually,” he said, “I’m sorry I blurted out what I said.”
He tried to hug her, but she rose and left the apartment. He felt terrible.
Not wanting to be alone, John went out to his local pub. It was quiet on a Sunday night. He had not been there long when one of Claire’s fellow teachers sat down on the next barstool.
“Hi John, remember me? Janice from Claire’s school. You seem a little down, anything wrong?” She was an attractive blonde, rather tall, perhaps thirty years old. She put her hand on his arm.
“Oh sure, hi Jan. It’s been a rough evening.”
“I can guess, I know some of what’s been going on at school.”
“I suppose everybody there knows about my wife and her lover.”
Jan waved to the barkeep for another round. “Yeah, they haven’t been real discrete. There’s a lot of that going around though. My husband cheated on me. I kicked him to the curb because of it. It was hard, and now I’m just another single mother cruising bars.
“If you need a shoulder to cry on, I’m available; In fact, if you want to have a drink at my house, just say the word, I have always liked you. But let’s talk about something else, how is business? No, really, you don’t have to put up with her shenanigans, you are a handsome, successful man that any woman would be thrilled to have.”
Jan’s hand was on his thigh, gently rubbing. It felt good and his cock was responding. She was good company, she kept the conversation and her hand moving along nicely. They chatted through two more drinks, carefully avoiding his marital situation, before she decided that it was getting late.
“Well, I have work tomorrow; I need to get home to bed. Let me put my number in your contacts. Call me if you become available.” She took his phone and pecked her number in.
John thanked her and she left after a fumbling kiss which almost became a kiss on the mouth.
After finishing his drink, John went home. He had a restless night.
‘This situation is really fucked,’ he thought as he lay in bed alone. ‘Do I really want to dump her? Will that make me happy? She seems to still care for me even while wanting to sleep around. If she walked in here right now I would welcome her into my bed gratefully. But could I possibly tolerate her sleeping with other men and doing all the sexual things that she seems to want to try?’
He decided to write an apology to everyone beginning with the boys.
Boys,
I have never been more ashamed than I am right now. Outing your mother to you was a craven act of pure malice, which she does not deserve. It was my anger and sense of impotence coming out. Please forgive me; I know that you will forgive her for any perceived transgressions.
For more than twenty years she has been an exemplary wife and mother; you know this. The bond among the three of you was nothing short of a miracle, a bond that I could never quite penetrate. At times I was envious, but mostly I was proud of her and you.
Now she wants to explore her sexuality in ways that I’m afraid of; knowing that I haven’t measured up in her estimation. That is why I must split from her and let her experience whatever lifestyle she wants. I do it knowing that you two will not desert her, for which I thank you, and hope you will not forget me.
Your grateful Dad.
Meanwhile, Claire was in bed crying, “What am I doing? What do I want? This is not working the way I wanted it to. Now the boys are angry with me, and I can’t seem to convince John that I love him, and at the same time I want to try some new experiences. But first I have to mend fences with the boys.”
She sat down and wrote a letter:
Dearest JR and Benji,
Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. I have sinned against your father, I have made him a cuckold, and I feel ashamed. I convinced myself that there was no harm in it, but your father has been harmed in his sense of manliness and self esteem before his sons. I accept the blame and I know that I must win back his respect and trust.
To do that I must first win yours because I will need your support in convincing him of my love and of my promise that it will never happen again. I don’t know if either of you subscribe to today’s casual attitude about sex, but you surely never saw your mother in that light.
Let me begin by assuring you that it was not due to any deficiency of Dad that I embarked on this experiment; I alone am responsible. Please, both of you, forgive me and help me to win Dad’s forgiveness. I await your judgement and advice.
Your repentant Mom.
She meant to write to John also, but the events of the night had exhausted her. She would do it after work tomorrow.
The following day Claire showed up at John’s apartment. He offered her a glass of wine and they sat.
“The boys forwarded your note to me,” she said. “I have thought about things and I can be monogamous again if it will save our marriage. I promised the boys I would, and I’m here to make the same promise to you.
“But, before I do, hear me out. I’m not talking about running around town to bars every other day and behaving in public like I did with Jim. Nor would I keep seeing Robert. Those were very bad, careless mistakes.
“But, suppose we put some parameters down, suppose that once per month I would enjoy a good massage, maybe one with a happy ending. Could you live with that? What if we did it together, one for you and one for me? Wouldn’t that be fun?
“Suppose we met a man who fancied me and you and he like each other. Would you enjoy sharing me, watching me have sex with him and then you joining in? That feels like a wonderful scenario to me. These are the sort of experiences that I am interested in. What do you say? Why not gamble a little and try it with me?
“Of course we could have some rules:
“For example, no overnight stays, no PDA, no long vacations with a lover; home every night with you, just like now.”
“You seem to have it all worked out in your mind,” John said. “I think you had better go it on your own; I would just hold you back. Goodbye Claire.”
He held the door open for her. After she left, he took out his phone and looked for Jan’s name.
