Hang in There

She slid out of the booth and walked away.

I did think about it over the next day and a half. Tanya was more to me than a steady piece of ass. I had been thinking of us as husband and wife down the road. I wasn't in any hurry; I was thinking more along the lines of after we got out of school.

Did I believe Rory's story? Yes I did. Been there and done that. In the ninth grade I'd dated Beverly Holbrook and I got a kiss at the end of our second date. A couple of guys had seen it and in the locker room after gym class I was asked if I had gotten anywhere with her. To make myself look good I told them I had finger fucked her and she had given me a hand job and then I told them I'd probably be fucking her after a couple more dates.

Want to know what is as fast as the speed of light? The high school grapevine. Three hours later when I walked out of school I found Bev waiting for me. I was smiling when I walked up to her and I never saw the slap coming. She slapped the side of my head so hard I heard bells ringing and then while I was stunned she kneed me in the crotch, called me a rotten motherfucker and stomped off. It was months before I could ever get another girl to go out with me.

As I remembered that incident a though came to me. I wondered if that was why I couldn't ever get anything going with Pauline.

Friday after class I called Tanya.

"Hello?"

"It's me. I'm calling to apologize for being an asshole. Want to take in a movie with me?"

And we were back to being a couple. Tanya changed her dating habits. To keep her promise to her mother she would date another guy once every two weeks or so, but it was always during the week. I got all of the weekends.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++

There was a change in my life. My stint at the community college convinced me that I didn't want to go on to a four year college and I changed my major from Business Management to Metal Fabrication. I turned into a pretty good welder and was a fair hand at sheet metal fabrication. I graduated, found a good job at XYZ Corporation and put together enough money to get an apartment.

The part that sucked was that as the new guy with no seniority I was on the afternoon shift and the only time I could spend with Tanya was on the weekends. I asked her to marry me and she said yes, but not until she graduated and that was two years way.

One night at work I was on break and I was having coffee in the breakroom with Chuck. Chuck was a long time employee with XYZ and with more than enough seniority to go to days, but for some reason he preferred the afternoon shift. I was moaning about how afternoons were screwing up my love life and he said:

"Just hang in there hoss. There is enough turnover here that you can make day shift in about a year."

He was right. It only took six months for a vacancy to open on day shift that I could move to. Once on days I was able to spend more time with Tanya and things got to the point where my bedroom closet and chest of drawers had more of Tanya's stuff in them than mine.

It was a night when Tanya was on one of her 'placating mother' dates and I was having dinner with my parents. My sister and her fiancé were also there and at one point in the evening my sister said:

"Guess what? I talked to Pauline today."

"So?"

"She asked about you. Wanted to know how you were doing."

"Why in the world would she do that? She wouldn't have anything to do with me when we were in school."

"Don't have any idea, but she does ask about you almost every time we talk."

"Probably sorry she missed her chance."

Sis got a good laugh out of that one.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Life was good. The job was great. Tanya and I were already planning the wedding that would happen the week after her graduation. It was going to be a simple ceremony at the County Court House with the reception being held in my parent's backyard.

I was a bit worried how Tanya's mother would take the sudden marriage, but Tanya told me not to sweat it. She told me that she would handle her mother. I hoped so because I liked her mom and I was pretty sure that her mother liked me.

Tanya was spending some nights with me; telling her mother she was sleeping over with one of her girlfriends and I sure did love waking up in the morning with her snuggled up against me. I wanted more and one morning I asked Tanya:

"Why don't you just tell your mother you've found the one you want to spend your life with and put an end to all the games? She likes me. She'll understand."

"I just don't want to let her down. She is big on promises and I don't want to break the one I made her. Just hang in there honey; it will only be a couple more months."

The disaster struck.

Six weeks before graduation Tanya said "I'm pregnant."

"How the hell did that happen? I mean I know what we did to make it happen, but how? You are on birth control."

"The medicine I took when I had the flue must have negated my pills. As I remember it we went without making love for about two weeks while I was sick and then we screwed like bunnies when I was feeling better and that's when I think it happened. The timing is right. Bottom line is I'm knocked up and what are we going to do about it?"

"We will just have to move the wedding up and you will have to break the news to your mother."

And so it was. The wedding took place took place at city hall with my parents and Tanya's parents as witnesses and the wedding reception took place at my parent's house with it huge backyard. Everyone had a great time and when it was over we went to my apartment and in a symbolic gesture I picked Tanya up and carried her over the threshold.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Life was good. The sex was mind blowing and I got used to waking up with Tanya snuggled up against me. The only sore spot was that Tanya had two months of school left and one or two nights a week she had to meet with a study group or the group she was in that was working on a class project.

Finally she graduated and between us we decided that it made no sense for her to find a job that she would just have to leave to have the baby. When the baby was old enough for daycare she would find a job.

We spent the summer fucking like sex crazed rabbits. Tanya told me we needed to get as much in as we could before we had to stop and then have to wait a couple of months until the doctor cleared her to have sex again. We made it until the first week of her eighth month before she told me no more.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Naturally the baby decided it was time to get the show on the road at 3 a.m. in the morning. Tanya shook me awake and told me I needed to get my butt up and get her to the hospital. I got her there and six hours later she gave birth to a son.

It was a momentous day. Jason Alexander Dalton joined us and I became a man whose newest concern was to find a divorce attorney. I might not have been the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I had paid attention when I was in school and I had gotten an A in both math and biology and I could tell when something didn't add up.

Tanya's black hair and brown eyes plus my brown hair and brown eyes could not equal a redheaded and blue eyed son and the first thing that came to mind when I looked at young Jason was red haired and blue eyed Rory. The same Rory that said he had lied when he had said that he'd had sex with Tanya,

It was not only apparent that he had lied about not fucking Tanya, but that the two of them had kept on fucking. It had been just a little over a year from the time he told me his story and Tanya telling me she was pregnant. I went to the nurse's station and told them that the child was obviously not mine and I told them not to put my name on the birth certificate as father.

I'd called both sets of parents as soon as I got Tanya to the hospital and they were both on the scene when we were shown the baby. I looked at Tanya's mother and said:

"I hope you still have her room available. She will need a place to stay when the hospital releases her and the baby. I'll bring her things over sometime this afternoon."

She asked what I was talking about, but I was already walking away. I hadn't gotten to the car yet when my cell phone beeped. It was my mother in law wanting to know what I'd meant.

"Take a look at the baby's hair color and eyes. There is no way that two dark haired brown eyed people could produce a red haired blue eyed baby. You can be the one who lets her know she won't be living with me when she gets released."

I'd called work from the hospital and told them I wouldn't be in and why. Josh, my foreman, congratulated me and I'd told him I would be in the next day and then I went home and I was no sooner there when my mother called me and asked why I had just walked out of the hospital. I told her the story and she said she was sorry to hear that because she had really liked Tanya. She told me she would pass the word to my dad and the rest of the family. When she hung up I went back to bed.

I woke up at six to the smells of cooking food. I got up, put on my pants and a shirt and left the bedroom. I found Judy (my mother in law) in the kitchen. I knew she had a key, but I was still surprised to see her in my apartment. She saw me and said:

"I was just getting ready to wake you up. Dinner is ready and after we eat we need to talk."

"Talk about what?"

"You and Tanya and your child of course."

"Not my kid" I said and then I just had to laugh. "Probably your fault that he isn't."

"My fault? What does that mean?"

"If it wasn't for that stupid promise you made her give you she wouldn't have been dating other guys and it wouldn't have happened."

"What in the world are you talking about?"

"The promise you made her give you not to date anyone steady until she graduated."

"I never made her give me any promises and I most certainly never received a promise from her about her dating. In fact I got on her several times about dating others besides you. I told her she was risking you by doing it. She told me not to worry because you were okay with it."

"Just one more reason to dump her sorry ass."

"Let's not be hasty here Frank. I know she loves you and I know you love her. You need to sit down and talk things over with her. I'm sure she didn't know that it wasn't your child she was carrying. Sit down with her. Just hang in there Frank. I'm sure that the two of you can get by this."

I liked Judy and I really didn't want to upset her, but it had to be done.

"No we can't get by it Judy" and then I told her the whole story about what had happened with Rory. "The fact that Tanya's baby is almost certainly Rory's means that she has been cheating on me for over a year at the very least and most probably even longer than that. After seeing the baby I can't even discount that she might have been cheating on me right up to the time I drove her to the hospital yesterday. I'd never trust her again Judy. That and the fact that I will not raise another man's kid."

"Other men have done it."

"I'm not 'other men' Judy. You know what is really stuck in my brain right now? It is the thought that Tanya knew the father was Rory, went to him and told him and then said they had to get married and he laughed at her and told her he wasn't going to marry some dumb bimbo who was cheating on her boyfriend. That left her with the only other option being me.

"No Judy; there is no chance of us getting by this. Look on the bright side. You now have a grandson you can spoil rotten."

When Tanya and her child were released from the hospital her father picked them up and drove them over to our apartment, but I'd changed the locks and they couldn't get in. He ended up having to take them home with him.

I hadn't spoken with Tanya since she was placed on the gurney and wheeled into the hospital delivery room so I had no idea of what kind of story she was going to tell me, but I did know that whatever it was I wouldn't believe a word of it. She'd been lying to me the entire time I'd known her. Her promise to her mother was a lie. Her promise to me not to have sex with any of her dates was a lie. Her telling me I had gotten her pregnant was a lie. No sir! No way was I ever going to believe anything she might tell me.

In fact, I wasn't going to let her tell me anything. The phone calls started as soon as she got to her parent's place and I didn't take them. If I answered a call and heard her voice I hung up. After a bit I got tired of it and I got rid of the land line and got a different cell phone with a new number. She called work and I told Marlene, the girl who worked in the office, not to page me when Tanya called and not to bother taking any messages for me.

I was in no shape financially to get a lawyer and divorce her so I settled for just staying away from her. I knew I'd have to have a face to face with her sooner or later and I opted for later. As 'later' as I could make it.

The lease on our apartment was up in two weeks and I told the landlord I wouldn't be renewing and why. He told me he had been through something similar so he knew where I was coming from. The he told me he had another unit in a different location and I took him upon it. The only reason I was giving up the apartment in the first place was because that was where Tanya would come when she finally gave up to trying to get in touch with me by phone.

She did show up at work and sit by my car and wait for me to get off work, but I went out the back door where one of the guys I worked with picked me up and gave me a ride home.

After a month she finally found out where I was living. My own stupidity told her where I was. When I left the hospital on the day Jason was born I knew I was done with Tanya so I did all the things you do in the heat of the moment. I cancelled all the credit cards we had together keeping only the two that were in my name only. I closed the bank accounts and took the money to a different bank and set up new accounts. I had new checks printed with my new address on them and that is where I fucked up.

When I took Tanya to the hospital I had to sign a gazillion forms and one of them was the agreement to pay. After my health insurance paid their portion there was still a balance. The hospital got my new address from my insurance carrier and dunned me. I refused to pay and told them to get their money from Tanya and the baby's real father. That didn't fly. I was informed that I was the one who signed all the forms promising to pay so I had to pay. When I didn't they turned it over to their attorneys. I ended up paying and I did it by check.

Meanwhile, to cover their bets, the hospital was also dunning Tanya. She had gone down to the hospital to discuss a payment plan. They pulled up the account and told her it had been paid and she asked how and was told by check. She asked to see it and the hospital gave her a photocopy of the check with my new address in the upper left hand corner. And that is how she managed to be sitting on the steps leading up to my apartment when I got home from work.

I set the tone for the meeting when I walked up to her and said "What the fuck do you want you cheating whore?"

"We need to talk Frank."

"What the fuck do we need to talk about? The kid is obviously not mine so what the fuck else needs to be discussed?"

"We need to talk about us Frank. I love you and you and you know I do and I know you love me. I honestly didn't know Jason wasn't yours until I saw him."

"Yeah and I'll bet that you immediately knew who the father was when you got your first look at him. What that meant to me is that you had been cheating on me for over a year."

"No I wasn't."

"Sure you were. The day you told me you were pregnant was over a year from the meeting you arranged for that Rory guy to tell me his bullshit story. No doubt in my mind that the redheaded and blue eyed Rory isn't the father of your kid. That means he was fucking you right up to the day you told me you were pregnant. That also means, at least to me, that you were fucking him when you got him to tell me that bullshit story that I was dumb enough to buy. Know what else I'm thinking? That you have probably been fucking him all along. Right up to when I took you to the hospital."

"No I wasn't! Can we go inside? We don't need all your neighbors listening in."

I'd known all along I was going to have to have a face to face sit down with her sooner or later and I guessed it was as good a time as any so we went into my apartment. I told her to have a seat at the kitchen table and when she asked if she could have a glass of water I got her one. I sat down across from her and said:

"Okay Tanya; tell me your lies and let's get this over with."

"No lies this time Frank. I need to go back to when I first started dating. I'd dated a couple of guys before you. No, that's not right. A couple is two and I dated four guys before you. I gave my virginity to one of them and then we broke up. When I started dating again I gave it up to the third guy and then the fourth. The three were totally different in size and the way they did it. Technique is guess you could call it.

"Then I hooked up with you and you were totally different from the first three, but with you I got something I never got from the others. I got an emotional charge. The more time I spent with you the more time I wanted to spend with you. I decided that you were the man I wanted to marry and spend the rest of my life with, but I was in no hurry to do it.

"My older sister and two of my cousins got married and all three ended up divorced because they cheated on their husbands. When I told my sister I was going to marry you she told me why she and my cousins Sharon and Gloria ended up cheating on their husbands. All three wondered what they missed by not playing the field before getting married. All three got curious and eventually circumstances presented opportunities for them to satisfy their curiosities. They got caught and ended up single again.

My sister told me to get it all out of my system before I got married. It sounded like good advice. I looked around, saw a couple of other girls I knew who were married and I talked to them about it. One told me she wished she had experienced more of life before getting married and admitted that she'd thought about stepping out on her husband, but was afraid she would get caught. The other told me that she had sown plenty of wild oats before getting married and was glad she had done it. It had allowed her to satisfy all of her curiosities before getting married. I saw the wisdom in that so even though I knew I wanted to be your wife I needed to satisfy my curiosity before getting married.

"I came up with that promise to mother story to try and keep you close while I satisfied those curiosities and it worked until you overheard Rory talking to Cliff. I was feeling guilty about my promise to you so I quit giving up pussy just before I dated Cliff. He dropped me when all I would give him was head.

"I started dating Rory and I liked him enough to let him have my ass, but I wouldn't give him pussy. Then you overheard him talking to Cliff and everything went to hell. I needed to get you back. Rory's price for telling you what he did was my pussy. I was desperate to get you back so I gave him what he wanted. Then when I was back with you I told him I couldn't see him anymore. He laughed and told me I would fuck him whenever he wanted or he would tell you he lied to you. I had you back and I couldn't risk him telling you or I would lose you again.

"After a couple of months he found a girlfriend and stopped coming around to me when he wanted to fuck. I thought I was free of him, but then he broke up with the girl and when he needed to get laid he would look me up. He started up with another girl and left me alone for a couple of months and then they broke up and he came back for some more of me.