Chapter 1
My friend Ian asked me to hang out with him at a bar after work because he thought my breakup with my girlfriend Ann had taken a toll on me. It’s true I had dated Ann since high school and she was my one and only girl. We made plans to marry after I received my raise.
Ann said it was important to get my finances in order before we could marry, and then we can have comfortable life together. Which appeared to be a good idea for twenty something adults who had college debt, she had plenty, but I had none. I worked the entire time I attended college and when I graduated, I was debt free, except for the large diamond I splurged on for Ann who demanded that she had something respectable to rival her friend’s enormous rock.
I took a look at the rock her friend Page sported and I thought, she must be doing something special in bed to deserve a ring that expensive. Maybe if I present Ann with one like that I can get something special too.
So I went to work at this firm, took out of town assignments for extra cash to pay for the ring, and saved my money to buy Ann a large home and a new red sport’s car. But just like that, my world came tumbling down, and it was turned upside down one night.
I returned to my apartment unexpected, tired and exhausted from the work load, and a delay in my flight plans.
I volunteered for assignments others didn’t want to make extra money to give Ann what she expected. We had been living together for a year, but when I told my friends that we had sex only once in that time, they fell on the floor laughing. I never went to a bar or partied like my friends and even though I wasn’t interested in a night out, I never prevented Ann from going out and having a good time with her girlfriends, which she took advantage of and would disappear on Saturday nights and return on Sunday’s but sometimes for days. Besides, I had reports to get out and I never had time for much. I was busy building a future for us.
After waiting for hours for a flight to New York because of a snow delay, I decided to return home get some sleep and try again on a different day. I opened the door to our small apartment, tired and exhausted I glanced around for Ann.
I spotted a pair of men’s shoes setting neatly at the door. I knew they weren’t mine because I hadn’t bought shoes in years and my feet were a size ten and a half. Those shoes were an eleven or twelve if not larger, and looking at the shine on the shoes and the expensive Italian leather they definitely belonged to someone else. I could never spend that kind of money on shoes because I had to save every penny for a wedding.
Then glancing at a trail of a black thong with lace and a black matching bra laying at the foot of the stairs I became curious and followed the yellow brick road. I remembered thinking that I’ve never seen Ann wear black underwear. I ambled up the stairs thinking, whenever I’ve seen her she has on an old pair of panties with a hole in it to match the hole in her dingy tee shirt.
I wished that it was a guest but somehow in my broken heart I knew better. “Well I’d better get this over with,” I murmured to myself.
I followed the sound of groans and moans until the sounds of moaning and groaning turned into “Yes. Yes. Fill me up. Put it inside of me. I can’t wait. More. I want more,” all this coming from Ann who never said a word when I put it in her, except “You’re doing this all wrong.”
I asked her what I could possibly do wrong.
My mind tried to tell me that she was in pain, and that when I walk into the room, she would perhaps have the television on one of the X rated channels, but it was the pain of him teasing her before he put it in her.
When I threw the door open, there was Ann lying with her legs open and a guy who was the complete opposite of me, dark hair, muscles bulging, probably a jock, lying between her legs doing things I had asked Ann if she wanted, but she heatedly refused.
She
Andy Straka
Joan Rylen
Talli Roland
Alle Wells
Mira Garland
Patricia Bray
Great Brain At the Academy
Pema Chödrön
Marissa Dobson
Jean Hanff Korelitz