Deviants Pt. 03

"Guys. We need to go. Someone is waiting outside to buy a girdle or some shit." Naomi said.

"Go. Pay. I'll get dressed."

As we walked to his truck Naomi handed me my bag. I tossed the Merry Widow inside. "What the heck else did you buy?"

"Wait till you see the robe." Naomi said. "Thank's again, Eddie. I got off easy. Didn't even have to put out. "

"I did not put out." I said.

"I didn't say I wouldn't. Seriously. Whatever you did to Nat, do me next."

"Just stop." I told her.

At the truck he held the back door for her. As she hopped in she grabbed him by the neck and kissed him way too intimately. "Thanks again for the britches, Trip."

"Knock it off." I told her. Resisting the urge to scratch her eyes out. "What's this 'Trip' business?"

He held the door for me and I climbed in grinning at him. Who still holds the door?

"His parents called him Trip, remember. He's the third. Eduard Snooty Britches the Third."

When he climbed in his side of the giant Lincoln Sport-Utility I had to ask. "Why don't you go by "Trip" anymore?"

"Nick hates it."

"Trip, we have two hours till the kids are out. Its only 3:00 What do you say I buy you a cocktail?" I offered him.

"Yeah, Trip. I owe you one too," said Naomi.

"She is going to hate that," he said.

"She hates, everything, Trip. Or didn't you notice," offered my sister.

"Gnome, stop helping."

Nine,

Still Natalie.

We went to the little Italian place by the school. It was a bad idea. The kids all go to parochial school. I think it's a horrible waste of money. Eddie and Nicole, they have it, bid deal. Crap, I forgot, I was calling him Trip now. Our kids go there because Tommy's parents pick up the tab. It is seriously thousands of dollars. It drives me insane every time I see the statement. I was going to be equally appalled when I unpacked my shopping bag from the afternoon and saw it was almost a thousand dollars for panties and a robe. It is a really pretty robe.

The school has mandatory extra curriculars. My boys both play soccer. They are too young to do much else. They are large happy children and it looks ridiculous. Eddies daughter plays the violin badly and his son plays basketball. Who knows if he is any good or not, he is ten. The kids were busy till five so we settled in to drink wine. It was a bad choice because all the other parents were also there until five drinking wine and interfered with my desperate need to hold him, to sit near him. Trip now sat next to my sister. She was drunk and turned on and was doing her best to convince him to do whatever to her he had just done to me.

When Trip went to the men's room she teased me like a schoolgirl. She sang that old song about Trip and G-nat sitting in a tree, K I S S I N G.

I wanted to be mad but I couldn't. I was smitten. I liked that she sang it.

My new no bra thing was drawing attention, and Trip had been right. I enjoyed it.

We were heading to dinner. I was going to enjoy my time with him.

We left Naomi at the bar. She said Brendan was coming to get her. She was also enjoying the attention of a couple gentlemen all too willing to buy her more drinks. I would be worried about her but I knew Naomi. It was more appropriate to be worried about the poor guys that were hitting on her.

Trip held my hand as we drove to the school and waited in the circle of cars to pick up our kids. They were all together when we got there. Trip and Nicole's daughter was an in charge kind of person and I cringed knowing she was going to be just like her mother. The kids piled in and we told them about pizza. The party started before we even left the parking lot.

We threw cash at the kids when we walked in the door. We stood in line bumping shoulders, smiling, giggling, and waiting to order.

Trip ordered. He ordered two pizzas, two salads, some wings, more tokens, a pitcher of soda for the kids and then a pitcher of diet coke for us. I had to look up at him. "No beer?"

"I can't get in any better mood than I am right now," he said. I squeezed his hand.

We talked about politics, sports, religion, and in hushed tones about dildos, handcuffs and nipple clamps.

I had heard of nipple clamps. I had never used them, never actually seen one.

He told me I would, and very soon.

We talked about the kids, and the one teacher they all hated. Trip said he liked her. I teased him that he would, she was six foot tall, blonde, and hot.

He said he preferred five seven. I smiled at him. I was closer to five nine but what did he know. Guys are bad at that.

He told me about New Orleans and how he was going in a couple of weeks for a conference.

I told him he should take me.

He said okay and we stared at each other for a long time in quiet. How would I ever make that happen.

The pizzas came and the kids had to be pulled away from the games.

He did his daddy thing while I sat and watched. He was silly. There was no yelling. There were silly jokes and nose twisting. There wasn't a single profanity from anyone, something very different than I am used to. He ate with the kids. I took the chance to play with my phone. It was after seven and there was no word from Mack. He had to be off by now.

I remembered what I had needed to ask Trip about and sat and looked at him letting his new old nickname roll off my tongue. Trip... Trip... Trip...

I liked it so much better than Eddie.

I didn't need ways I could like him more.

I was getting sad. I didn't want to get sad. I wandered to the counter and ordered a pitcher of beer. It was extremely cold. Ice crystals floated to the surface. I needed it.

He held them as long he could. They wanted to play. Who could blame them? I wanted to play. I wanted to be alone in an oversized bed in New Orleans playing. The scary thing was I wanted to do more than just play. I wondered how long I was going to hold out.

"You gave in," he said. Slipping back into the grownup booth.

"I did. I have a question."

"Fire away."

"When did Nicole decide she hated you?"

"Hate is a strong word." He said. I loved that he would say something like that, standing up for her when I knew she was horrible to him.

I didn't respond, I just gave him a look. It was enough.

"I don't know. A while ago I guess." He sipped at his beer. "I think I noticed it when she called me a pervert the first time." There was another long pause. We both drank. "I mean, yeah, I'm a pervert. But she didn't use it like that. She thinks it bad." I felt for him. I wondered a little if there was some deep dark perversion that might be too much for me as well but then I remembered the changing room. I figured I could handle it.

"It's not little kids or animals or like dead bodies is it."

"What? Jesus! No!" I felt bad for having asked the question. "Well, are we talking like dead supermodels or something?" He'd smiled as he said it. I had to smile back.

"So, Naomi was shitfaced today. She sorta told me a secret she probably wasn't supposed to share."

"She didn't tell you about that thing with the lemur, did she?"

"Stop. I'm serious."

"Sorry."

"She told me about a Saturday night a long time ago when Ben was a baby and she was still seeing that guy Evan."

"There are a lot of Saturday nights."

"Trip. Come on."

"I like that you call me Trip. It makes me miss mom and dad, but I like it."

"Good." I gave him a moment. "There was a threesome."

"Yup."

"And she brought it up."

"Yup. Evan had a joint. She got high. It was a good time."

"But she didn't enjoy it?"

"She enjoyed it that night. Said we should do it all the time. Said we would get another girl. She wondered if I would like that. Two girls."

"Okay, so now I have other questions but we will get back to those. She liked it, but she decided you were a pervert?"

"The next morning. Sober. She sat me down at the kitchen table. She apologized. She hoped I would forgive her. I asked her why. I told her there was nothing to forgive."

"Okay."

"Then she raged. I mean, we have all seen her angry but this was different. She threw things. How could I be okay with her fucking another guy? She said I was only okay with it because I was fucking around on her. She said I was a sick bastard. She said I was fucked up for wanting to whore out my wife. She left me."

"Left you?"

"She moved out. Got an apartment."

"For how long?" I was shocked. How did I not know about this?

"Oh, only about 4 days. She talked to an attorney. Found out we could barely afford what we had. That was way before the new house. She came back. We had the apartment for six months though. I used to hang out at the pool during the week."

He refilled his beer. "It's good you got beer."

"That's kind of fucked up."

"Yeah." He was so sad now I wanted to hold him. "She came back but never all the way. The toy box, it was basically abandoned. The pajamas. She will still sleep with me but you know. Missionary only. I think we went a little over a month until earlier this week."

"She's been different this week?"

"Yeah. She bordered on friendly at times."

"Mack too."

"Yeah." He said. He killed off the pitcher. "We might need to talk about that too."

Ten

Natalie

It was after eight and we didn't want to drink anymore, at least not at the pizza place. We still had to drag the kids away from the games. He was going to drive me to my car, then we were just going back to their house, then I thought better of it all and asked him to drop me at home.

In the driveway we sat there forever. The kids were watching a movie. They weren't paying any attention to us. I held on to his hand in desperation. What I wanted and what I had suddenly weren't the same thing and didn't in any way fit together.

"Do you want to come in?"

"Desperately?"

"But you're not going to."

"I don't think so." It was the answer I suspected I would get. Again, not what I wanted.

"You could. We could wait for them. We would be in the right."

"It's hard to say we are in the right." He said. It hurt me.

"We should stop." I told him. We both knew it was the right thing.

"I can stop seeing you." He said, then turned to the kids to make sure they were focused. His were in the back-back, mine were clueless. "It's not going to stop the way I feel about you."

"I've always loved you." I said. When I realized I said it I more or less fell out of the truck. It was a long sloppy process of opening the door and ending up on the ground but that sums it up. I ran to the front door. I was crying. I went straight to my room. For just a moment I had forgotten my other responsibilities. That is awful. It is unforgivable - unless you have someone looking out for you. When I came out of the bedroom the kids, all four of them, were in a pillow fort made out of the couch cushions and all the sheets and pillows from their beds.

I poked my head in. He had brought out a tablet. The Panda movie was playing. Ben was asleep. Priscilla was the oldest but she was close to sleep too.

"They're at Charlie's" he whispered.

"Both of them?"

"Yes."

"Come talk to me." I whispered. He followed me to my room.

We were lying in bed like we had before. A no mans land separating us. This time though I held his hand. I was out of control. He explained to me the app on his phone. We had used it at Disney to find each other. Neither Mack nor Nicole knew it was still on he figured.

"Do we bring it up?"

"I'm not."

"I feel like I am upset with him for cheeting on me while I am cheeting on him." I admitted. I don't think I had called what we were doing cheating. I don't think I had even called it that to myself.

"It's pretty fucked up."

"What do we do?"

"You go to sleep. I will go lie with the kids. I will text her. Tell her we came back here. The kids are passed out. I'll leave it up to her."

"Will you stay?"

"Depends on what she says. She is sitting right next to him. They can decide."

"He still could hunt you down and beat the shit out of you."

"It still will have been worth it."

"What if we both get in the fort. It will be safe in the fort."

"It will be crowded."

"Good."

I have no idea what time it was when I heard noises and woke up. I was lying on the floor on a blanket. My boys were both snoring. Priss was snuggled in my arms. I no longer had the warmth of Trip lying behind me and I missed him instantly.

They were loud but it was very unclear what was being said.

"Where is she?" I heard my sister shout. "If she's fucking naked she's fucking dead food. Dead meat. I'll kill her."

I heard him quieting her down. I heard him explain the fort. The kids were all in it. They were having a good time.

"Where were you?" I heard Mack ask.

"In the chair. There's my water. There's my glasses. It's all good. Just relax. You guys are drunk."

"I'm not fucking drunk... ED DEE." Mack could be such a dick.

"It's all good. Nick. Lets go home."

"You built a fort. More like you pitched a tent. You fuckin my wife ED-DEE? You fuckin' your sister ED-DEE?"

"Dude. It's all good. Why don't you get some sleep. We'll be back in the morning to get the kids."

"Your wife's got the sweet tits, ED DEE. You wanna fuck Nat, I get the better end of that deal ED DEE. You just say the word. I'll take this sweet ass any day."

"Tommy. You're so sweet." I heard Nicole say. I guess there wasn't really any doubt now.

I heard a little more vague shouting and then the door slam. It was another minute or two until I heard our toilet flush. That was the last thing I heard. The kids had slept though it. I wrapped my arm around my Niece. "I won't let that happen to you princess. Not ever."