Fallout

"Maybe, but she's also a whore; I couldn't believe those photos. It's not something I find the least bit erotic."

I looked at Gwen, something was still wrong.

"What is it, baby? I can tell something is still rattling around waiting to get out. What's on your mind?"

"Sam, I hope you won't hate me, but something else happened this weekend and I'm ashamed of myself."

Oh-oh.

"I'll try to stay calm, Gwen. Go ahead, tell me."

Gwen took a deep breath and began, her eyes alternated between looking up at mine and looking down at her hands as she spoke.

"The girls all wanted a massage and convinced me I should have one, too. I didn't see any harm in it, the spa seemed like a reputable place. This is when I saw all the women naked; it didn't seem like a big deal, I've seen naked women since my days playing high school and college sports. I wrapped a towel around me and laid down on the massage table. The girls served me a glass of wine. Two massage therapists came into the room, I was surprised they were both men. One was a tall blonde, the other a stocky Mediterranean looking fellow. But they each started working on Joan Green and Tina Collins first. I sat up to watch while drinking my wine, I was making certain the massage was legit and it seemed to be. Nothing either of the men did aroused my suspicion. At the same time, the wine was making me feel warm inside, by the time I finished the glass, I was feeling tingly.

"When it was my turn the girls said they had a special treat in store for me. I laid down on my back with a sheet across my middle, covering me from my thighs to my breasts, one guy started working my neck and shoulders, the tall blonde my feet and calves. They slowly made their way toward my center; the guy on top had his hands under the sheet working my pecs and lats, the guy below now working my knees and thighs."

Gwen paused here to catch her breath, I didn't like where this was heading, but held my tongue. Gwen was having trouble with this and I didn't want to interrupt her. She looked at me and continued.

"Once or twice the guy on top gently rubbed across my nipples, almost like it was done in error. The guy below had his fingertips running back and forth on the outside of my labia, carefully avoiding the lips themselves. I looked over at the girls. They were sitting on the other table, just watching me. At that moment I wanted the tall blonde to just start playing with my clit. I wanted him to stick a finger or two in my vagina, I wanted the other guy to grab my nipples and squeeze.

"And then, just as the blonde moved his fingers to where I wished them, I sat up. I grabbed the sheet, wrapped it around my body and got the hell out of there. I ended up back in my room; thank goodness you talked me into having my own room. I cried for at least an hour, not answering the door or the phone. I couldn't believe how close those two men came to using me like that. I'm not like that - I've never been like that."

"You were drugged."

"What - drugged? How, with what?"

"'X', Ecstasy."

"How do you know?"

"Oh, I can't say for certain, but I'd bet a thousand dollars on it. The way you described the feeling after one glass of wine. You always handle your liquor better than that. And the other night, David was bragging how the women go wild after taking some ecstasy. He showed me a photo of Joan fucking some big cock, said the women need some "X" to take it all the way. Those people are making me sicker by the minute; setting you up that way."

"What are we going to do?"

"Probably too late to have a blood test. But let's call Doctor Malone and see what she says. Then we need to think."

I realized Gwen never heard the full story of why Julie and I divorced. She knew Julie cheated, but never the part about the attempted swap with the Taylors. Gwen listened as I told her everything, it was a long day.

Now I had a huge problem. Gwen and I just bought this house and now lived next door to a sick couple that tried to manipulate us with lies and drugs in order to get us into their perverted group of swingers. We couldn't afford to sell the house, we'd lose tens of thousands of dollars, besides, with the exception of the Greens, we liked the neighborhood. And the kids had just settled in, too. But how do you live next door to people that you absolutely hate and who disgust you?

Plus, part of me just wanted to make them suffer for their attempt to manipulate us without regards to our marriage. Maybe they were even the cause of the previous owners' divorce.

If we couldn't move, maybe the Greens could be convinced to move, but how?

I racked my brain for days until it hit me. Both the Greens and the Collins had reputations and prominent positions in town. They were swingers, but they kept it very quiet, and even if someone thought the Greens were swingers, in a liberal leaning town like Portland, was that such a big deal? Most people would think it implied two couples exchanging partners, what's the big deal?

But, I had seen those playing cards, the photos Donald thought would excite and entice me to join their little gang. I saw Joan take one guy up the ass, sucking on another's cock. More than a few photos were taken out by their pool. The Greens had a high privacy fence and shrubbery that prevented any snooping. I even looked from our upstairs bedroom window and couldn't see a thing.

Plus, it wouldn't do me any good to film their next orgy from anywhere on our property. Chances are, that would constitute an invasion of privacy. I could embarrass the Greens, maybe even into moving away, but I'd end up in court being sued and possibly losing.

I had to find a way to film the orgy from a location that couldn't be tied to me.

A drone!

I researched drones and found even the quietest ones could be heard hovering overhead at night. How to get the drone in position to film without hovering overhead? I looked at the peak of the Green's roof and an idea came to me. It would take practice and patience, but I think it could be done.

With an outline in mind, I sat down with Gwen and told her my plans. I thought it would take some hard-core convincing, but not only was Gwen on board, she shot some holes in my original plans and suggested improvements. One thing was clear, this was between the two of us; no one, not the kids, our parents or best friends, could know what we did, at least until the statute of limitations ran out.

I bought the quietest drone I could find, paid cash for it.

Anyone who grew up playing video games will attest to how simple it is to operate a drone. With a few hours practice any gamer can land a decent drone with a good camera on a dime - or better yet, with a few extensions on the legs, on the peak of a roof. A second, proboscis style camera would be affixed to the front of the drone, giving it a mosquito-like appearance.

I took a few days of vacation and headed out to the country to practice; by the second afternoon I could get the drone to hover from the back of an abandoned barn, along the peak to the front, land the thing on the front tip of the peak with its proboscis hanging over the edge. I was ready, now I needed a way to know when the Greens were entertaining.

That proved to be simple. Although I couldn't see inside their compound from the second story window, I could from a small hole I drilled in the wall from the attic. I placed a second camera in the hole and set up the relay to my laptop.

Every Friday and Saturday night for the next three weeks I checked the camera every few hours to see if a party was going on. Saturday night of the third weekend I hit pay dirt. There were three couples and four unaccompanied men in the pool area at ten o'clock. Nothing was happening at the moment, but the situation had possibilities. I went into the garage, uncovered the drone and started it up. I stepped out of the garage and looked up and down the street. Everything was quiet.

With the controls I lifted her off the garage floor, out the door and up over the Green's front yard. Running back in the house, I turned on the monitor and opened the app for the drone's camera. Now I controlled her using the camera to skirt along the roof line until she was just at the edge of the peak. She landed on the peak smooth as silk, exactly where I needed her.

I turned on the proboscis camera and focused. The camera caught two-thirds of the pool area, sharp enough to make out faces, even in the low light. One of the females was topless in the pool with a man; I didn't know the couple so it may have been her husband. I let the computer record the activity and went into the kitchen to grab a beer. It was my first chance to tell Gwen, who was watching a movie in the family room, what was happening. She grabbed a glass of wine and joined me in the study.

Just after midnight we had enough footage for a decent porn movie. Nice shots of Mrs. Green taking on more than one man at a time, her eating out one of the other ladies, her taking it up the ass, and the piece de resistance - getting airtight. But my favorite of favorites was getting five minutes of Donald Green eating her cream pie after two of the studs finished with her.

I had all the footage needed. When the party next store went inside, I fired the drone back up and steered it back into our garage.

I spent Sunday morning editing the video. There would be no doubt who the principals were, the faces of both David and Joan Green were highlighted prominently. The movie editing software was simple to learn; within an hour I learned how to zoom in on the parts I wanted to feature, I even learned how to freeze the action. When one of the studs pushed his cock in Joan's ass I did a split screen, one frozen on the invasion of her ass, the other screen a montage of stills with Joan's face in contortions. Altogether, thirty minutes of what I considered excellent porn. I showed Gwen the final product; Gwen's evil grin told me all I needed to know.

It took a couple days to load copies of the video on various free sites. Multiple Tumblr accounts were happy to load bits and pieces on their sites, a few other amateur sites loaded the entire thirty minutes. With enough copies out in the ether, I started the final phase, letting Greens' neighbors, business associates and co-workers know the videos were out there to see. I was especially careful to make certain the publicity campaign couldn't be traced back to me, but once the campaign was started, it took on a life of its own and grew.

A week later there was a 'For Sale' sign in the front of the Greens' lawn. I heard they moved to LA. Probably fit in with the right crowd down there. No one ever guessed how the video was captured. Since the camera angle left no doubt the video was captured from Green's own house, most people assumed the Greens were filming their own orgies and the feed was intercepted or the video stolen. Whenever the topic arose, I gave my own theory; the Greens taped their orgies, had the videos stored on the computer, and the Greens computer was hacked. Someone trying to steal identities found an unexpected goldmine. One of the other two couples at that night's orgy even tried to sue the Greens for invasion of privacy. I heard that suit was quietly settled, but that's only a rumor.

I must admit, for a few months after the Greens left, I wondered whether there would be any bad Karma flowing my way for how I ruined their lives in Portland. I believed my actions were justified; after all, if the Greens had only asked us to swap, we would have given them a straight answer and refused. But I couldn't abide by the manipulation; if Karma has a problem with my nuclear response, well - bring it on.

I didn't have to wait long for an answer to my concerns. I came home from work one afternoon four months later to find my mother and father in our living room. Gwen's folks were there, too; sitting with Jake and Robin on the large couch.

"Mom, Dad, what brings you into town?" I looked over at Gwen, then at her folks and the kids. Everyone but Gwen was wearing the same look of puzzlement.

Gwen broke the silence. "I asked your mom and dad here because they need to hear this first hand. And it wouldn't be fair to either my parents or the kids if everyone didn't hear it at the same time, no favorites in this family, isn't that what we said?"

Gwen's words made me think of a vow we made to each other the day I proposed. What if she and I had children of our own - would I play favorites?

"Sam - we're going to have a new baby in eight months. You're going to be a father," Gwen looked at Jake and Robin, "again."

Group hugs, handshakes, some kissing and of course, lots of tears.

Later that night I was sitting on the back deck of our house, smoking a cigar. My father was sitting beside me. After a few puffs he started to talk.

"Your mother and I are thinking of selling the house in Michigan and moving out here. Your mother wants to be closer to her grandchild and we've both come to view Jake and Robin as our grandkids, too. Have any thoughts on this?"

"Dad, the one thing that always made my move to Portland difficult is the distance it placed between me and the both of you. I'd like nothing better; and I know Gwen feels the same way, too. We couldn't be happier."

"Sam, your mother and I couldn't be any prouder than we are of how you've grown up."

"Most of it is your fault, and granddad's of course. I would have had to be one big screw-up to mess how many advantages were handed to me."

"Yea, but a lot of kids get the advantages and just piss them away. Add to that the rotten luck with those two females back home, and you get a recipe for failure."

"And I was heading that way until you and Pete pulled me out of the house that day and sobered me up."

"Oh, I have no doubt you would have gotten there yourself, it just may have taken a bit longer."

I looked over my shoulder and made certain we were alone.

"Dad; I've never asked and you don't need to tell me, but was Mom your first love?"

Dad looked over his shoulder now, I figured I was in for some big, dark secret.

"Sam, I saw your mother in chemistry class when I was a junior in high school. It took me a few weeks to build the courage, she was just so damn beautiful, but I asked her out and we've been together ever since. It's one in a thousand, but I've been that lucky."

"So why did you have to look over your shoulder before telling me that?"

"Because I have one secret I've kept from your mother all these years. Your mother thinks she pursued me all those years ago, I never told her I was sitting two rows back with puppy dog eyes. She doesn't know it took me all those weeks to work up the courage to ask her out, she figured I was too popular to notice the new girl in school. It may sound stupid to you, but I always thought I'd keep this one secret until my dying day, and I'd tell her this one and only secret on that day. Kinda like something out of one of those trashy romance novels she reads. Corny, huh?"

I took a big drag out of my cigar after hearing Dad's confession. Didn't want him to see the bit of moisture in my eye and know I was choking up. Then Dad continued.

"You're only thirty-eight. With a little luck and some hard work, you and Gwen will celebrate your fifty-year anniversary together and you'll have your kids and grandkids to celebrate it with you. I have a feeling about that girl in there that I never had with the other two. Gwen's the one and a keeper."

I had to take another big drag. I doubt Dad was fooled.

That conversation on our deck with my dad took place five years ago. Gwen had a girl we named after our mothers eight months later. Mom and Dad sold the house in Michigan and bought five acres on the river just northwest of the city in St. Helens. Kevin and I are resisting the overtures from a large national beer brand to buy our four pubs and the brewery. We're resisting because financially we're doing great and best of all, we're still having fun. Neither Kevin, Sally, or Gwen are getting greedy, so it just works.

When Gwen and I had the second baby, a boy we named after my granddad, we decided that four was enough. How Gwen kept her shape after four is a miracle. I look at the woman every chance I can, she laughs out loud because I'll sit on the toilet and just watch her shower sometimes. It's like my own private porn show, one I'm not willing to share.

It took a few years, but we've even had Matt, Nancy and their two kids at the house for Thanksgiving dinner. It was a tough decision, but we decided it would help Jake and Robin as they grew up if all the adults in their life could be in the same room, especially if it was to celebrate and give thanks for all the blessings we've had in life. Gwen parents and my parents were there as well. We had to sit down with Gwen's mom the night before the dinner and explain the rules, that woman can have a sharp tongue on her and she still gets riled when Nancy's name gets mentioned. But the first Thanksgiving went off with nary a hitch. So we did it again this past year. I think it made the right impression on my step-kids.

So, I guess this was my way of telling you - a bit long-winded maybe - but hell, we weren't doing anything else sitting on this river pretending we're going to catch some fish today, that life sometimes just throws you a curve, especially when it comes to finding the one, it took my dad one turn, me three, but hang in there, I'm a big enough romantic to believe everyone has a soul-mate out there. Just remember not to settle.

Epilogue

With that Sam reached back into the cooler and pulled out two cold ones (yea, they were canning their own ales now in the brewery). He tossed one to William, his young protégé, the thirty-year-old kid would one day be taking over as general manager of restaurant operations, but first William would have to get over the broken heart he was suffering when his latest girlfriend took off - with their dog, no less.

Sam wondered if anything he said that morning would sink in or if the hurt was too raw. "Oh well, I tried", he thought as he popped the top and took a swig of Kevin's most recent creation. "Damn, Kevin knows his hops!" he silently smiled.