Chapter Thirteen

"I think she’s cheating on me," Jerry confided to Billy, leaning in over his beer. It was Friday night, poker night at Billy’s place, or so he had told Carly, of course. He was speaking loudly over the music but trying not to let anyone else hear what he was saying at the same time. This is not something Jerry would readily admit to just anyone, but not only had Billy been his best friend since high school, but he also had first hand experience on the subject. Billy had spent four years in prison after beating his ex-wife and her lover to within inches of their lives after catching them in the act one afternoon five years ago.

"Oh, man, Jer," Billy sympathized. "Who with?"

"I don’t know. I don’t even know if she is or not," Jerry confessed. "I was wondering how you knew when Lori was cheating on you."

At that point, one of the topless dancers, wearing only a purple, glow-in-the-dark g-string, strolled over to the table and sat on Jerry’s lap facing him, squirming erotically and kissing his neck.

"Not now, bitch!" Jerry yelled at her over the screaming voice of Billy Idol’s White Wedding on a sound system playing too loudly for the small strip joint. "Can’t you see I’m tryin’ to talk here?"

"Sorr-r-r-EE!" the stripper sarcastically said with a scowl as she pushed herself away from him. Three seconds later she had her seductive smile back in place and was working the next table, stretching out her g-string to receive a few singles as she rubbed her over-sized breasts in the next patron’s face.

"Jesus, man. You really are worked up about this, aren’t you," Billy laughed.

"It ain’t funny, man," Jerry returned. "And yeah, this is really pissin’ me off."

It wasn’t like Jerry had never cheated on Carly…but that was different. He had twice. Well, once, sort of. One time didn’t count, and the other time was a meaningless two-hour stand. That’s where the difference laid, in Jerry’s mind. What he had done had been harmless. The time that didn’t count was a year ago when he had paid for it. Bought himself a service, just like buying a pizza…a very expensive pizza. He had four hundred dollars cash that night, income tax returns, burning a hole in his pocket. He had been flashing it around, buying rounds for his buddies here at the Hot Times Gentlemen’s Club, though few, if any, true gentlemen would ever frequent a place like this. It was another Friday night of many after a good bowling night when one of the dancers working the floor caught sight of his wad, the green wad, and told him she could help him put some of it to good use. The two had run across the street to the little no-tell motel, checked in, and returned an hour and three hundred dollars later. Jerry with a big grin, ear to ear, plastered on his face, buying another round for his buddies as he gave them a detailed account of how he had spent it.

The time that sort of counted, but still wasn’t an all out cheat in Jerry’s mind, had come four months later. He and his bowling buddies, in this same establishment, on another Friday night escapade, had invited themselves to sit down at a table of four women and started buying them drinks. As the night wore on and the drinks took hold, Jerry managed to talk one of the women into crossing the street with him. He couldn’t remember her name, wasn’t even sure she had given it, but what’s in a name, right? This time it only cost him twenty-five bucks for the room and he got in a couple hours of romping fun. But it was nothing. Just a man doing what a man does. The woman meant nothing to him. He wasn’t going to see her again. He certainly wasn’t going to let Carly know about it, or leave her for the tattooed slut. He was just getting in a meaningless quicky. End of story.

But if Carly was cheating on him, well, he knew it would mean something to her. Not that he thought it was okay for her to have meaningless sex, that would be a direct insult to his manhood. That would say that he wasn’t enough, or good enough for her. And he knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was certainly good enough for her or for any woman, for that matter. But if she were to cheat on him, if would involve feelings beyond the simple sexual stimulation. It would mean more. And she might even leave him for this yahoo she was balling. That was something Jerry just couldn’t allow to happen. The more he thought about the possibility, the madder he got. It was beginning to eat him up inside.

"So how’d you know?" he asked again.

Billy was a sandy-haired, square jawed, scrawny stick of a man with biceps that were so big they seemed out of proportion with the rest of his skeletal frame. It was obvious he worked out with weights, but little else. He also sported a barbed wire tattoo around his left bicep. He had been working the road construction crews since straight out of high school, except for his four year vacation, anyway, but had the leathery, dark brown skin of one who works under the sun without a shirt for a living. He was also missing a couple of teeth in front from a fight or two and, at age 29, was just beginning to sprout what would probably turn into a good sized beer gut by the time he got through his thirties. He was the one that had convinced Jerry to work road construction with him, for the great benefits packages, once Jerry had happened into his unplanned family.

"She quit fightin’ with me," Billy explained. "We were fightin’ and arguin’ all the time, and then one day it just quit. She wasn’t bein’ nice all of a sudden or nothin’, but she didn’t seem to care what I did anymore. Then after a couple weeks, I noticed she actually seemed happy and that’s when I knew. Turned out she met this asshole on the Internet that worked nights and was ballin’ her during the day while I was at work. I wasn’t dumb. I knew she musta been gettin’ somethin’ on the side. I called in sick for work, stayed around the corner and watched the house and sure enough, not an hour later he walked right in the house without even ringin’ the bell first. So I knew it wasn’t somethin’ new, that it wasn’t the first time. And well, you know the rest of the story from there."

"Yeah, you did him up pretty good there. He was in the hospital for a month, wasn’t he?" Jerry snickered, almost forgetting his own problem for a moment.

"Lori, too. She didn’t get out for a couple weeks. But then she went and married the faggot after she divorced me while I was in the joint," Billy said. "But that ain’t gonna happen again. Nobody’d wanna fuck with Jeana. She’s too damn fat and ugly. But I tell ya, Jer, she do what ever the fuck I tell her to do ‘cause she knows damn good and well she’s lucky to have a man to fuck at all," Billy said, laughing and about knocking over his beer on the table while trying to pick it up. He took a quick swig, wiped his mouth with his sleeve, and then added with a devilish grin, "An’ there ain’t nothin’ she don’t do, too, man. I tell you. I just come here and get those faces up there in my head and go home with them fresh on my mind and you can’t even tell the difference."

"You’re fuckin’ pathetic," Jerry said with a laugh.

"So Carly been actin’ all happy without you lately?" Billy asked.

"No, not really. But she called me ‘Rocky’ once last week. Not that I can see her screwin’ anyone named Rocky," Jerry said. "She got all flustered and stuttery, then said she was thinkin’ about the movie Rocky because of the way I had punched her the week before."

"You hit her?"

"Broke her nose."

"Damn, man. You better be careful there. I tell ya, the joint ain’t no fun," Billy confessed. "I couldn’t wait to get out. Can’t get laid in there, man. At least you better hope you don’t get laid while in there."

"Yeah, yeah. You were in county. It wasn’t that bad," Jerry said.

"No. But bad enough. I stayed outta trouble, but it still cost me plenty to stay that way."

"Well I ain’t gonna go bustin’ Carly up and getting’ thrown in jail, man. I got a couple kids to think about," Jerry said. "But I am gonna find out if she’s fuckin’ around on me."

"And what are you going to do if she is?" Billy asked.

"Scare ‘em into stoppin’ somehow, I guess. Hell, I don’t know. She just better not be doin’ nothin’ she gonna regret. And maybe she ain’t, but I just got this bad feelin’. Fuck. I can’t deal with this shit, man," and then Jerry did knock his half full glass of beer over as he tried to grab it for another a swig. Beer flowed over the table into Billy’s lap, making him jump out of his chair.

"Shit, man!" Billy yelled at Jerry.

"Fuck. Sorry, man. What am I gonna do, Billy." Then seeing how Billy was actually pissed, "Sit down, man, let that wench with those big fake titties lick you dry. She’ll love it."

"Fuck you," Billy said, but he was laughing again and sat back down. Then putting on a serious face again, "Okay, man, we’ll figure this out. Why do you think she’s cheating on you? And when?" he asked.

Jerry called over to a waitress and ordered two more beers. When she walked away, he looked at Billy like a light had just gone on inside his fuzzy brain. "She’s been spending a lot of time on the Internet, I think. You know, ‘chatting with friends’ she says. You said Lori met that guy on the Internet?"

"Yep. Everybody’s meetin’ everybody that way these days. I don’t even have a fuckin’ computer anymore," Billy slurred as he polished off his beer making room for the one Jerry had just ordered for him.

"And she knows I never get home ‘til late on Fridays," Jerry continued. "Fuck! She could be balling some asshole right now!"

"Come on, man. Just cause Lori met her faggot on the computer don’t mean Carly did too," Billy said trying to calm Jerry down. "Hey, I got an idea. It’ll at least help give ya a clue, man."

"We should go there now. Maybe catch her in the act," Jerry said, not really hearing what Billy was saying.

"Yeah, right. Then you can kick the living shit outta both of them and take my old cell over in county for a while. No, man. Take it from me. That ain’t the way to go. It’s getting late anyway. Even if she were tonight, he’d probably be gone by now. I gotta better idea," Billy said.

The waitress brought over their fresh beers. Jerry thanked her as he stuffed ten bucks down her cleavage while grabbing as much breast as he could in the brief contact and patted her on the rear. "Tell me," he said as the waitress left them alone again.

"Okay, listen up." Billy slid his chair a little closer so he wouldn’t have to talk so loud. "She thinks you’re playin’ poker at my place every Friday now, right? Okay. Next week, we’ll actually play poker. But we’ll use your place! I’ll call Brad and Gary and Buzz, they ain’t got nothin’ better to do. I’ll make sure they know it’s supposed to be somethin’ we been doin’ every week since bowlin’s done. Don’t tell Carly. We just all show up right around six. I’ll say Jeana was sick and didn’t want all the racket this week so we needed to play at your place. If she’s got some asshole lined up to pop over, or if she was gonna go somewhere without tellin’ you, well, you’ll be able to watch her squirm and try to change plans. Or maybe a babysitter will suddenly show up. Wouldn’t that make her sweat. Then you’ll know somethin’s goin’ on if she gets all nervous about it. At least you’ll know if you got a problem to work out or not. You know what I mean?"

"Oh yeah," Jerry smiled. "And I’d have witnesses, too! Let’s do it. She ain’t gonna be happy about it. But it’ll serve her right if she got anything to hide."

Jerry felt a little better now with a plan. He waved a fiver in front of the near naked nineteen year old girl walking by their table. When she turned his way he pulled the five back, holding it up above his head. The girl stepped closer and took the five from his hand in her mouth while he took a supple nipple in his. He still didn’t know if Carly was messing around on him or not, but having a plan made him feel more like his old self again. He was looking forward to the poker game next Friday night.

* * * * *

Chapter Fourteen


Faith

Front Desk

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As Fate Would Have It

Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Tweny-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Epilogue