How High a Price (Simple Solution)

Many thanks to Jedbeaker for the editing of this story.

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This new story "Simple Solution" is one of several alternative endings to The Troubador's story "How High a Price" (Please read his story) that he left open and suggested other L.E. members write their own different endings. I'm grateful for this opportunity to share my own thoughts about what could have happened with Susan and Early under similar circumstances.

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It was only a hint, it seemed innocuous, and he almost ignored it.

Business had called him out of town, and as usual he left a detailed itinerary with Susan, his wife. Also as usual, she had kept him informed in detail of her schedule. It was automatic after all these years together. She had told him the great news that after feeling ill for some time she had seen a doctor on Tuesday and had been told that she was pregnant. They decided to celebrate when he was back home on Sunday.

Wednesday evening Susan told him a lot about her struggles with a very important "Melrose account" that meant a lot to the law firm where she worked. She mentioned a man named John Stickner, who in her opinion had been very helpful assisting her. Early had met Stickner at some of Susan's company parties and didn't like him at all after he once saw him trying to get his hand under the hem of her short skirt on the dance floor. Susan had convinced him she could handle such matters so he hadn't interfered.

To Early's great surprise, his current work project progressed much better than expected and by Thursday morning the deal suddenly came together. By 11:00 AM, the people he was negotiating with had signed the contract and departed to deal with a crisis in one of their East Coast operations.

Early, a friendly, sunny natured man with a constant smile on his face was a trouble shooter/negotiator for his company. Business trips such as this one, while not common, did come up several times a year. This week long trip away from home was scheduled to last through Saturday. He had planned on catching the plane out of Los Angeles at 9:15 Saturday evening. As he would be arriving in Seattle after midnight he had insisted Susan not meet him at SeaTac Airport. He planned to catch the Airport Shuttle home. It would drop him at his door in Bellevue by 1:30 AM.

Early hustled to LAX and had his tickets changed. He was on the plane by 1:45 PM. In the air he used the in-flight phone to call home to let Susan know he would be home that afternoon, but of course she was at work. So he dug into his briefcase, pulled out her office number and tried to call her at work.

"Jenson, Sharone and Anderson, how may I help you?" the receptionist greeted him.

"Oh, where's Jennifer?" Early asked. Jennifer was Susan's personal secretary. His calls usually went directly to her desk.

"Mrs. Conroy's secretary is out of the office today and tomorrow. May I help you?" came the perky response from the office receptionist.

"Uh, well, can I speak to Mrs. Conroy then?" he asked.

"Mrs. Conroy? She's... um, who can I tell her called?" was the reply from a suddenly mildly flustered receptionist.

"This is her husband, please patch me through," he requested.

After a noticeable short pause, then, "Oh, uh, Mrs. Conroy is tied up at the moment, and I'm not sure when she will be available. May I leave her a message?"

Early thought for a moment, "No, I'll talk to her at home tonight. Just tell her I called," and he hung up.

Something about the call didn't fit, but it took him another half hour to put his finger on it. Susan told him on the phone last night that she would be in the office all day today. Still, it was possible she was working on a legal file or with a client and couldn't be pulled away. The real stickler was Jennifer's absence. Susan made it a point to have Jennifer working the same hours she did. The only times Early remembered Jennifer out of the office when Susan was working were when she had a nasty flu bug, and the few times Jennifer herself was out of the office; out of the office on personal business.

The plane landed on time in Seattle, and he was dropped home by 6:35 PM. Susan wasn't home and the house was dark, which was surprising. His wife was almost always home by 6 PM so he rang her cell phone and to his great satisfaction she took the call after several rings.

"Early, I was beginning to wonder if something had gone wrong!" were the first words rushing out of her mouth. She sounded worried. "I called your hotel after coming home, and they told me you had checked out. Are you alright?"

"Yeah, just a minor change of plans," he replied. "Anything unusual come up for you today? I tried to get you at the office this afternoon but neither Jennifer nor you could be reached there. Jennifer couldn't even take my call, isn't that very unusual? "

Oh! Well... no, nothing special. She did help me with some papers and we must have been tied up with John Stickner at the time. He got me through that mess with the Melrose account this week. I owe him big time for that," she said with a voice that seemed to have a hidden meaning in it, one which Early couldn't fathom.

She continued, "Honey it looks like I'm going to get that partnership! So it looks like we will have two important matters to celebrate on Sunday when you are back. Isn't that a reason for grand celebrating?"

Early asked, "Is that John Stickner invited to that grand celebration or is he getting his big time reward while I'm away? By the way, Honey, where are you right now?"

Susan sounded slight worried when she replied, "No my darling, of course not. Our celebration will be a family affair between you and me. I'm in the kitchen and just finished cleaning it up. It's been lonely around here for too long. Will you be home on Sunday?"

"Well, I'll be home all day Sunday, no problem but why are you in John Stickner's kitchen now and how come you are lonely there, where is he?" Early asked.

That question took Susan with such surprise that she almost stammered her reply, "My dear Early, what do you mean by saying that? Of course I'm in our kitchen, how can you think anything else?"

"I didn't hear your reply, Honey, would you please repeat where you are right now?"

"As I said, of course I'm in our kitchen. Why would I be in John Stickner's kitchen?"

"Good question, yes indeed a very good question. Why should you be in Stickner's kitchen when you obviously prefer to be in his bed? Please be honest and tell me where you are now Susan? Are you invisible here in our kitchen or are you a lying cheating slut in Stickner's bed? Why in the hell are you doing that to me now when we are so close to starting our family?" Now Early at last had lost his temper and shouted the last sentence.

"Oh my God Early! When did you get home?" a terrified Susan shouted in a shaky voice.

"Get dressed and be home within twenty minutes or you can stay where you are forever. Be late and you'll find your belongings on the lawn." Early said with a cold voice and quit the call.

Early unpacked, tossing his dirty linen in the hamper before changing clothes. When Susan wasn't home in 20 minutes, he began worrying. Did she prefer staying with her lover or had she been in an accident on her way home? He was too restless worrying about Susan to sit still and he found himself pacing the floor until he could calm down. He poured himself a glass of a Jack Daniels and sat down in the dark living room with a good view of his well lighted kitchen. But only a few minutes later he heard a car in their driveway.

Susan with her usually pretty face in total mess ran into the house. She was wearing a Campbell plaid wrap-around skirt and a bright red sleeveless blouse. The top two buttons of the silk blouse were open and her Thai cloisonné necklace, a gift from him on their third anniversary, shimmered around her slender throat.

She threw an overnight bag on a chair and shouted, "Honey, I'm home, where are you?"

Early let the silence drag on. It was only seconds but seemed much longer before he replied.

His voice, normally so alive and vibrant, sounded dead, "I'm in the living room, but we can talk in the kitchen."

Susan's knees seemed to sag, and she dragged out a kitchen chair from under the table and sat down. Her face was frozen in shock. Early came in to the kitchen with a glass in his hand and took a chair on the opposite side of the table from Susan.

"Why didn't you tell me you were coming home today? Why didn't you call and tell me that?" she asked.

After taking a sip of his whiskey Early replied in a voice devoid of all emotion, "I did call. I called today in the afternoon. You weren't home, and you weren't in the office... Jennifer wasn't there, either." Letting the silence drag out again, he took another sip of his whiskey.

"I was sitting here in this chair when you lied to me, straight in my face and pretended to be here. Is that John Stickner really worth more to you than our baby and our marriage? Do you love him so much?"

The only sounds were Susan's strangled sobs, "No, no, no, I don't love him. Early you are my only love. My visit to his house doesn't limit my love for you and nothing happened between him and me there, no, nothing. We were cooking a dinner when you rang me. Please let me explain, please listen to me honey."

After a moment, Early continued, "If you could cheat on me and lie to me today, you could have done it the whole week while I've been away. Have you spent all those 'lonely' nights with that Stickner? Have you? Where you did you do that, in his house as today, in our house or in both?"

Susan continued sobbing, "No, Please believe me because I haven't cheated you today and I've spent all of my nights alone at home. I swear I've been at home and I've been alone."

He slowly rose from his chair, took up her overnight bag from a chair, opened it and poured everything on the kitchen table. It contained a short sexy nightgown, stockings two sets of clean sexy underwear and a makeup bag. After looking at the items he began speaking in a voice so quietly that she had to strain to hear.

"Susan, I want to shake you; shake you so hard your teeth rattle. I have never wanted to hurt a woman before, much less my wife, my love. It would be a very bad idea if I were to meet John Stickner now, despite your implication that it was you that wanted to reward him." Susan made a small sound, maybe denying she had intended to seduce John Stickner.

Early continued, "You told me you owed him big time, which obviously meant a weekend of fucking. Just to toss another little problem at you, now that he has tasted your fruits, given to him with almost no effort on his part, isn't he going to expect those fruits will be available to him later? No matter what you explained to him, he now has to consider you easy."

Susan's protest was cut short when he spoke over her words. "Maybe he won't think you are available for anyone but if he brags about his easy married slut even others will try their luck. It doesn't matter what you do or say, he will believe you are available to him. To him, you are easy. Over time your reputation as Stickner's slut will cause your co-workers to lose a lot of respect and value for you. Maybe that has happened already."

After a sip of his whiskey Early continued, "What about V.D.? Do you really know how many other sluts this Stickner been fucking unprotected during the last months? I didn't find any condoms in your bag and I can hardly believe Stickner said 'no thanks' to a bare pussy. Did you think about what a big risk you took both for yourself, the baby and for me? Testing for V.D. must now be of high priority for you.

A loudly crying Susan began to sob, "Please believe me Early, I have never had any sex with John Stickner but I can't deny it could have happened if I spent some nights in his house. I made a big mistake, lied and acted in the most shameless way to you but I never had any kind of sex with him. Please forgive me for what I did. Please Early, I love you so much, please say that we can get past this?"

"I want to know what you have done during all your lonely nights and the whole day today. What happened as soon as you arrived at his house today? You had many hours available for giving him the first part of his 'Big time reward'. Please don't think I am stupid."

"We left the job at half past twelve. First I went home to pack a bag and to change my clothes, and then we had a long lunch at the new Indonesian restaurant. After that I assisted him when he bought a new suit and new shoes. Later we went to a car dealer where we had a long drive in a new model of BMW that he is interested in. Somehow we decided to fix a dinner together at his house, so we went to a supermarket for shopping. From there we went back to the parking lot where I had left my car.

I then drove my car to his house where we began to fix the dinner when you rang. I can tell you that I got cold feet when you asked what I was doing in Stickner's kitchen. I felt remorse and regretted my silly fling with John. I can swear and promise you that is the truth and the whole truth." Susan sobbed.

Early thought It was a good story told by a skilled lawyer, maybe even too good to be the whole truth, especially because she had lied without any hesitation earlier that evening. He said, "Wife, I still love you and if you, if we, want somehow to make this marriage work and be a family, we are going to have to face some important changes in some matters."

Taking a long breath, he continued, almost whispering, "I don't know if it can be done. I do know we have to make serious decisions today and it will be months before we can again be truly comfortable with one another. For tonight, after we have talked about the future, whatever it will be, I'll sleep in the guest room. If we agree on continuing our marriage, then tomorrow we will replace our king sized bed with a separate bed for each of us. The master bedroom is large enough. Somehow, if we work hard at it, we may be able to get through this; but only if we both want to make it work. At the moment I wonder if you do. For now, this is the best I can do. Susan, I love you."

Now when it was Susan's turn to speak she said, "Early I love you so much and I promise to do everything I can to save our marriage. I can promise that nothing of what I did was your fault and I really hope that you can forgive me for my stupid actions so our child, or I may say children, will be able to grow up with two loving parents. Please forgive me and let us work together for a good marriage."

Early said, "I love you Susan and I'm willing to try. As I said before, if we agree to remain married there will a few changes. First, for the time being I don't trust anybody for anything so I want you tested for V.D. Do you agree?"

"Yes, I agree to do that."

"The next condition will be new separate beds in our bedroom, do you accept?"

"Yes I do."

After a slight silence Early continued, "My last condition will be your final choice between John Stickner and me. If you still feel that you owe John Stickner further big time, I suggest that we'll file for divorce tomorrow and after that you are free to do whatever you want to do with him. But if you prefer to share the future with me, you have to terminate all your connections to John Stickner once and for all and you have to quit your job tomorrow morning.

It will be a high price for you but there are no other available solutions. I can't have a wife who is called 'Stickner's slut' at her job. Sorry Susan, but your choice is limited to Stickner or me. Feel free to have all the time you need for thinking."

Susan sighed and said, "OH MY GOD, it is a high price but I don't need any time to think because you, my dear Early are and will always be my first choice. I love you so much and I'm happy to begin our journey back to happiness. Thank you my darling Early for giving me this second chance."

Early was both surprised and satisfied when Susan accepted his conditions without any objections and threw away a partnership in a high class law firm to remain as his wife and to be the mother of his child. He decided to treat her nice and avoid nagging about what had happened.

Susan had terrible remorse and couldn't sleep that evening. Her planned first and last affair had gone straight to hell and left her to pay a high price for the consequences of it. During the years she had envied several of her friends who bragged about how romantic affairs spiced up their marriages.

When Susan had said "No thanks" to many great cheating opportunities she had been teased that she was a nun. She had understood that now, before she had her baby, was her great chance to taste some forbidden fruit in the paradise. So she, after several doubts, accepted John Stickner's suggestion to be with him from Thursday lunch to late Saturday evening. That turned to be the worst and most painful mistake she ever made in her whole life.

Jennifer going home on Thursday was a regretful mistake; otherwise she would have been warned about Early's unexpected homecoming and could have been at home before him which would have saved both her happy marriage and her good job. Though her expected romantic affair had turned out to be high priced crap, she accepted to pay the price for not being thrown out. And she decided to do her best to be a good loving wife to Early and the baby so he never regretted forgiving her for what she almost did to him.

Friday morning they went together to Susan's job where she immediately got an appointment with her boss Mr. Jenson. He thanked her for an excellent job with the Melrose account and then turned pale when she told him that she had to quit her job immediately for personal reasons. When he wanted a word with her husband, she told him he was waiting in the reception.

In the meantime Early had a serious talk with the receptionist, who happened to be the same girl who had lied to him the day before. He got her to confess that it was John Stickner who had told her what to say if Mrs. Conroy's husband happened to call and ask for his wife.

Mr. Jenson sent his secretary to fetch Early so he could be part of the meeting with Susan. He told Early that his wife now was in turn to be a partner and responsible for several very important accounts that they probably would lose if she quit. Early replied that a John Stickner had soiled his wife and her reputation was worth much more than all her damn accounts. But if that John Stickner hadn't persuaded the receptionist to lie to him the matter would have been solved in time to avoid the problems. His wife could have still been working with her important accounts. But now he had to get some advice from Peter Hastings from Cooper, Hastings & Waldstein who took care of such matters at his own job.

Jenson knew Peter Hastings and feared it would be a hard and expensive matter if it went too far so he suggested that Early should come back at two o'clock for a deal. Early accepted and they went to Susan's desk to collect her personal belongings. She did it with tears in her eyes surrounded by non-understanding ex-fellow workers who thought she had taken that day off for celebrating a successful job with the Melrose account.

After fixing their bed problems at a furniture store and eating lunch at a high class restaurant they went back to see Mr. Jenson. He said he was sorry for losing Susan but had to accept it given the circumstances and said that the best deal he could offer was: John Stickner immediately fired and Susan would get her salary until she found a new job but not for longer than six months.

Jenson said it would have been difficult to fire Stickner if Susan had kept her job, but now that she was out, it was possible to fire him because he had an earlier warning for harassment.