A Day at the Races

"He seems to be drinking a lot," Ashley commented.

"I don't know him very well, but yes, he does seem to be taking the races a bit hard."

Ashley paused for a moment in thought. Then she moved closer to me.

"Listen Nora, I know things between Jeffrey and you are tense, but the way Matt is drinking and acting, well, I would like to offer you a ride home with us, if you would like, just to be on the safe side."

I was taken aback from this offer. I thought about how Matt was acting, and I was getting a little worried with his behavior.

"Ashley, that's very generous of you, but I don't know how Jeffrey or Matt for that matter would take it."

Ashley grabbed my hand. "Just think about it, we both know Jeffrey would be fine with it. You don't have to worry about Matt. If he gets better and sobers up before the end of the races, then fine, if not, just know that we can take you home."

I smiled. "Thank you, Ashley. Let's just see how things go."

-------

"Jeffrey?" I knocked on the guest room door. The ride from Jason's house had taken me thirty minutes. During that time I thought about my husband, about me, about what I had done.

There was no answer.

I knocked again. "Jeffrey, please open up."

I heard some movement and the door opened. "What is it, Nora? Come to gloat about another lover?"

His words shocked me. Not because of what he said, but in how he said it. There was no emotion in them. The pain, the hope, the anger, the fear, all of those emotions had disappeared from him. It was at that moment that I feared for our relationship. From him I heard nothing but the words of a stranger.

"Can we talk?" I asked. He shrugged. "It's late Nora. Maybe we should wait until the morning, after you have cleaned up."

In the morning we sat down at the table to eat breakfast. It was the first time we ate together in months. I looked into his eyes. Blue! They were blue eyes.

"I don't think things are working out, Jeffrey," I opened.

Jeffrey drank his coffee, waiting for me to continue.

"I had this fantasy, of you eating me out after another man came in me. To accept that I was your Master, and that you would be my cuckold slave, at my beck and call, powerless to stop me."

"Well you pretty much succeeded, Nora," he said. "I can't stop you from fucking whatever you want to fuck, but I'll be damned if I will accept it, or eat you out."

I took a drink of my coffee and swallowed.

"I'm realizing that now," I said. "Look Jeffrey, I want to say that I might have been wrong about you. My fantasy overrode my reasoning and, well, I just couldn't give it up. You know how stubborn I get." That didn't come out right, I thought to myself.

"Might have been wrong?" He glowered. "How stubborn you get? You are right you are a stubborn bitch. I begged you, pleaded with you, tried to give you the room to work things out, but you had to push me, Nora. You had to take everything away from me, my hopes, my dreams, and my love. You destroyed everything, and never gave me a chance. Every choice I had was taken from me, by your scheming and threats. I couldn't knock any sense into you, because you made it clear that you would charge me with assault and let me rot in prison. You not only threatened divorce if I left you, but you promised you would ruin me, my name, my business and my finances, leaving me with nothing. You forced me to accept that you had become a slut for other men while ignoring your husband, the man who loved you with all his heart. Then you tried to force your lifestyle literally down my throat by trying to get me to eat your creampies. How much of a man do you think I am? Where's the love, honor, respect for me? What did I ever do that was so wrong that you abandoned me for strange cock?"

He stood up. I felt tears roll done my face. "I thought our sex and love making was special. You never once mentioned that I couldn't please you. So imagine the shock I have when I come home one day to find you all slutted up for someone else."

"Jeffrey, you're right. I was wrong."

He stared at me. I guess he was waiting for more. I had no other words. What was it he wanted me to say?

"Your experiment failed, Nora. I have no idea why you latched onto that fantasy, but it cost you me. You still don't get it. You still can't see what you've done. You still can't find the words I need to hear."

He sighed and started to leave the kitchen, his unfinished coffee still on the table. "Let me go, Nora, set me free. If there is an ounce of decency still in you, please, I beg you, set me free and let me get on with my life. Why do I need to continue to pay for something not of my making?"

He walked out the door. I stared at his cup of coffee.

I set him free. We split our assets in the divorce. He kept his business. I never dragged his name through the mud, but a part of me resented him. How could he abandon me like that without even trying. What happened to "till death do us part"?

---------

Matt had been gone since the sixth race. It was now two hours later and the ninth and final race was starting. Ashley had switched seats with Jeffrey and was now sitting next to me. Jeffrey had been happy to see us getting along while he tried to concentrate on the races. I looked around for Matt and made my decision.

"Ashley, if the offer still stands, I would like to take you up on your offer."

Ashley smiled and nodded. She turned to Jeffrey and whispered in his ear. It took Jeffrey a moment to realize what she was saying. He looked at her for a moment, searching her face for meaning. Then he looked at me, and nodded.

"Nora, I think it would be best that we take you home."

My heart skipped a beat. Now why would it do that?

"Thank you, Jeffrey, and thank you Ashley."

The final race started and finished, with none of us winning. Oh well, the weather had been pleasant, the company, had been interesting and Jeffrey had returned my winnings from the horse I had won. We got up and started to head out when Matt came back. He was drunk.

"Come on babe, let's roll." He grabbed my hand and tried to pull me up the stairs.

"Hey!" I told him. "I'm not going home with you. Where the hell have you been?"

Matt lolled where he stood. "I was at the bar. The day was a fucking waste, didn't win one single race."

He tried to grab my hand again. I yanked my hand away. "You're drunk," I said.

"Damn right," he said as he reached out and tried to grab my body.

"Matt! I said no! Take your hands off me!"

"Let's go! You're my date, you do what I say!" He was getting annoyed.

Jeffrey climbed over the rail and stood between us. Others were gathering around curious.

"I think the lady told you no," he told Matt.

"Oh! So the cuckold husband thinks he's grown some balls!" Matt reached out and pushed his finger into Jeffrey's chest.

"Matt! Stop it!" I screamed.

"Matt, you've had too much to drink," Jeffrey said.

Ashley looked around trying to find a security guard to flag down.

"Don't think I don't know your story. Your slut wife running around on you and you just let her. Go back to being a pussy. Now move over so I can take my slut home and get me some," he pushed Jeffrey back. Jeffrey staggered and bumped into me, knocking me down.

"Back the fuck off!" Jeffrey raised his voice as he stood face to face with Matt. Matt was nearly twice his size.

Matt smiled and quick as lightning threw a wicked punch to Jeffrey's face. With no time to react, the punch connected and Jeffrey's head snapped back. Ashley screamed and jumped over the railing and started punching Matt. The other people watching jumped forward and pulled Matt away from us. Matt pushed his arm out and hit Ashley who staggered back and toppled over the chairs.

Just then two security guards came in and broke up the scene. I had crouched down to check on Jeffrey, who was coming to his senses.

"Are you alright?" I asked.

He blinked and focused on me. A sadness fell over his face as he recognized me. "You always knew how to pick them, Nora," he said. My face fell at that remark and my cheeks burned with shame. He picked himself up and saw Ashley on the ground. He dropped down to her and forgetting me, he tried to comfort her.

Matt was screaming and yelling and it took the two guards a few minutes to get the story out of everyone, after they had cuffed Matt. Jeffrey gave them his information and said we would wait for the police to arrive. He was going to press charges on Matt.

Matt tried to jump him again, with his hands cuffed behind his back upon hearing this. "You little pussy! Fuck you! I'll kill you!"

Jeffrey turned to the security guards. "You both heard that? You're witnesses to his threat on my life?" The guards sadly nodded. They were used to squabbles. In a place where money and betting and liquor changed hands, this was an all too familiar setting for them.

Ashley was up and alert. She was pretty keyed up from the events and Jeffrey had to calm her down. A dark bruise was growing on his left cheek, the evidence of Matt's belligerence becoming more apparent by the minute.

I looked at the couple, the married couple, and then at Matt. This is what I had given my husband up for? A brute that treats me like a whore, thinks he owns me and ignores me until he's ready to fuck me?

Matt, I realized was just like the other "men" I had taken with in sharp contrast to Jeffrey who had stood up to Matt, a man twice his size, for me.

Seeing Ashley and Jeffrey together, tending to each other's wounds, I realized that the two of them were equals, both supporting and protecting each other. At first Ashley seemed jealous of me, but as the day wore on, she seemed genuinely concerned for me.

After the police arrived and took our statements, Matt was taken away and we were free to leave. Jeffrey asked for a wheelchair for me, he told them that I had injured my ankle in the scuffle, and they wheeled me out to his car.

The ride to my apartment was sober and quiet. We all were deep in thought. I thought about the morning in the kitchen, that was the last time we had spoken to each other.

Jeffrey helped me limp into my apartment, while Ashley prepared an icepack in the kitchen. He helped me into bed, checking to see if there was anything else I needed.

"Jeffrey," I said. Ashley was still in the kitchen. We were alone.

"That morning in the kitchen, when I told you I was wrong."

Jeffrey frowned. "Yes?"

"You told me that I still couldn't find the words that you needed to hear. I didn't know what you meant back then."

He stiffened and looked past my bedroom door, wondering if Ashley had come in.

"I know what it was that you needed to hear, Jeffrey. I'm sorry. I loved you. I'm so sorry." I told him. Tears worked their way out of my eyes.

Jeffrey choked back his own tears. "Nora, if only you could have said those words back then. I don't know if we would have stayed together, but even after all you had done, I was looking for something, anything, some shred of hope and decency from you, to try to save us."

Ashley, had appeared at the door, but froze and listened as Jeffrey had his back turned to her and didn't realize that she had listening.

"But it's too late, Nora. The damage has been done and you squandered my love away. I found that someone else was willing to take my love, to cherish it and to find value with it. Nora, it's not too late to change. These men of yours are no good for you. Find someone who treats you right, maybe you can find some love within you to treat them right as well."

Jeffrey released my hand. I hadn't realized he was holding it until now. My hand now felt empty. He stood and noticed Ashley had been watching us. She smiled. He smiled back. She came over and placed the ice on my ankle.

"Goodbye, Nora," Jeffrey said. He had to leave the room.

"Goodbye, Jeffrey," I called back.

Ashley finished adjusting my ankle and the ice pack.

"You take good care of our Jeffrey," I told her.

Ashley smiled. "I will, Nora. I will."

She stood and headed out. She stopped at the door and turned to me.

"You take care of yourself. Take Jeffrey's advise and find someone special."

She turned and left.

"I did once," I muttered to myself. "But then I went and ruined it."