June and Tom's Big Start Over

c1992w's Notes: This a Cheating Wife, new Romance, and a new lease on life story. The usual warnings apply: No hot sex here - it is adult fiction - and contains my POV - All errors are mine. NOTE: My dialog is such that 'people don't talk like my characters talk.' So, please read someone else's work for those who are looking for that.

June and Tom's Big Start over

June Sharp was an RN in a boutique/emergency medical clinic in a suburban city. The three doctors who interviewed and selected her ten years ago did so because she had been eye-candy - which was a boon for repeat business for the startup. Today the clinic was a bustling place where the patients were walk-ins and paid cash only so that there was no wasted time dealing with insurance companies - or, heaven forbid, government agencies. June was one of 6 nurses on staff at the clinic but was physically fit in that she rode a bike to work in the mornings and to the subway station in the afternoon eight months per year (otherwise, she rode the bus or bummed a ride with a co-worker). Further, after she rode the train to a station within three miles of her home, she again mounted another bike and rode to her cold house and repeated the process the next morning.

The twelve miles bike ride daily on the two bikes plus her use of free weights, kept her in top physical condition - a feature that many patients and clinic employees noticed with pleasure since she even at 35 she kept herself classed as 'eye candy.' June's hours were officially from 6:30 A.M. to 2:30 when she was then relieved by another nurse at about 2:30 each work day but the office was very relaxed, and the topic of tardiness never came up as long as the clinic had coverage.

It was Monday afternoon, and when June arrived on the platform after locking her bike in the MBTA's Peddle and Park Cage, her subway train sat in the station awaiting a signal from the computers to take on passengers and began its journey northward. June Sharp usually stood beside the same nondescript construction worker each workday and would board the same car at the same time after the doors opened. She sat on a bench seat of the almost empty subway car at 3:10 in the afternoon. The worker sat across the aisle facing her. They remembered each other and imperceptibly nodded 'hello again' as both remembered seeing each other the past several weeks. They both got out their separate Crossword Puzzles and worked on them. The bell dinged, the doors closed, and the train started moving as expected.

When the subway got to the construction worker's transfer station, June watched him get up as usual to exit the car. She wondered privately, "Hmm. What kind of residence does he have, I wonder?) Two stops later, she unlocked her second bike and peddled home.

On Tuesday, June had locked her bike in the subway's public cage after work, and she began to make her way to the platform. Her cell phone rang, and the LCD showed Millie Bass" as the caller.

Millie Bass, her husband's coworker, had ended an affair with June's Husband, Ben Sharp, two years ago. Millie then confessed everything to Mister Bass, who forgave her after much counseling and soul searching. As part of Millie's atonement, Millie had even informed June of her affair with her husband, but which was now over. June chose not to confront her husband over Millie's admission mostly because it wouldn't change anything. Unusual as such things are, June and Millie became best friends afterward - which unnerved June's husband. When Millie and her husband came around her husband, Ben, was all nerves. But Millie understood this and often invited herself to their house just to piss off June's husband.

"Hello Millie, I am walking to the subway platform so that the circuit might drop. How are you?"

"I am fine, June, but you are not. I am in Cleveland with the whole team, and your lovey-dovey husband, Mister Ben Sharp, sent me to his hotel room to fetch the powerpoint projection machine while we were in a meeting with accountants from the institution we are visiting. The first photo I am sending you is of the family door in his hotel room - note that it is open. Ben and Penny Adams, his Admin Assistant for the past two years, left open the family connecting door of the hotel room. You know, the door which connects his hotel room with Penny Adams' room. I am sure you remember Penny as she is your husband's Administrative Assistant who is cute as a button and in her early 20s. The second pic is of Penny's bed - which has not been slept in at all, by-the-way - covered with Victoria's Secret type lingerie laid out on it. Note her initialed luggage closed and sitting on the luggage rack at the end of her bed. Penny is so young to be caught up with a monster like your husband - and my ex-lover, as we both know. And, she has all those exotic gowns, and Benjamin Sharp's room is right through the opened family door privately connecting the two chambers. Isn't that convenient?"

June's heart started beating faster because she felt extreme anger, and she asked, "Could there be another explanation, Millie? It has been so soon since your brief affair with him."

June's friend replied, "Fat chance! Two years ago it was my room which was always connected to Mister Sharp's when we traveled and, trust me, the family door was always open then as I have already confessed to you. I am going to ask my girlfriend in IT to get me Penny's husband's name and address. One way or another, judgment day is coming for your bastard of a husband, because I am so mad that he would seduce an angel-like young lady like Penny."

June said, wearily, "Well, I am so tired of playing BIG house with my stick man husband and our 14-year-old son will hardly talk to him. If you show this to her husband, you might just start the ball rolling towards a solution to my marital problem." She was quiet for a moment and then exclaimed, "On the other hand, Millie, you might get Mister Bureaucrat Par Excellence Benjamin Sharp murdered. I have met Penny and her husband once at a Christmas Party we gave. I think he said he was a former Marine or Commando or something like that. Oh Shit, Millie! If you identify and give him the pics you sent me, my poor husband just might have his arms torn out of his sockets by a jealous husband! Don't do it, Millie; it's not worth the risk."

Millie said laughingly, "Hey, I gotta go. In this day and age, my Puritan friend, jealous husbands do not commit murder or assault. Relax." The circuit went dead with a click.

After June had made her way to the platform, she and the construction worker both stood juxtaposed to wait for the doors to open and June thought about Millie's news flash about her husband. She pondered as they stood to wait for the doors to open, "During three years at MGH after graduating from Nursing School, the most odious and reptile-like and most unappetizing staff creatures imaginable hit on me every day. But, I had no desire because there wasn't a real man amongst those players trying to seduce me. And then I met Ben. He wasn't the man of my dreams, to say the least, but he had a stable and upwardly mobile job. Losing my virginity to him was a non-event, but I always responded to his needs without ever wanting him or any man I have met so far," and then she glanced again at the man beside her. But, if falling in love was possible for me, I could get excited about the worker standing next to me, and I must figure out a way to do that without being forward and chasing him off. Mom had said before I got married that I would bleed during our honeymoon, but I didn't. I wonder if this giant worker would even fit inside me? What can I do to pique this guy's interest?"

Killing time in the seemingly endless wait, June then started daydreaming about her and the worker getting it on. "Wow! We are making whoopee nonstop! Stop it, June. It's not going to happen because you are stuck with Ben unless Millie's information changes things. Mom was right; I should have waited until I was 30 to get married."

The doors of the coach opened and both took their regular seats in the nearly empty car. But, as usual, he sat as one physically exhausted sits this time each work day. His boat-like, steel-toed shoes stuck straight up as his long legs reached almost across the aisle toward where June sat almost opposite and facing him. Judging from the spatters of concrete and mortar on his lower pants and boots, June guessed, "He is a stone or brick mason going home from a job at a construction site - like most of those in the building trades he started work early mornings and got off work early each afternoon." Under his legs, she observed his stadium-cooler size food box that looked as if it could have contained lunch for two or three people. He had neatly stashed his hard-hat under his bench. The subway terminus town center had several medium and high rise complexes under construction responding to the horn-of-plenty government money pouring into the area. June thought to herself, "He could be working on any one or more of the projects."

Most days, including today, she had watched him once again pull a folded copy of the Globe's Crossword Puzzle from his pocket and start to solve it. June followed suit and pulled out her copy of the Times crossword puzzle that she usually had begun looking at it in the clinic before she clocked out each day.

But June only pretended to work the puzzle today. Millie's news still upset her. So, she was surreptitiously studying the face of the construction worker sitting across from her focused on his puzzle. Then she exclaimed to herself, "His eyes are those of an intelligent and erudite person, but yet he has all the markings of a construction worker even if he does routinely solve a complex puzzle completely. But what can I do to make him interested enough in me to find out who I am so getting to know each other might be possible? I wonder if he is the gentle, foreplay-type in bed? Think about something else, June!"

By the time the subway stopped at his transfer station, he usually left the nearly completed puzzle on the seat when he had prepared to disembark. Two stops later, June peddled home.

The next afternoon, both June and her mystery man were sitting in the subway car working their individual puzzles as usual before the train had started to move when an announcement came over the PA system: "Your attention, please! There are delays due to a disabled train at ... station. We are standing by for the moment. The MBTA is sorry for the inconvenience." The two passengers, for the first time, locked their eyes on each other for a full minute. The worker stood up smiling and put his lunch cooler on the seat to save it and stood in front of June smiling broadly - which she responded to him with a smile. He said, "Hello, fellow crossword puzzle solver, my name is Tom Parks. What is yours, young lady, if I may ask?"

"June Sharp," as she smiled broadly and extended her hand to shake his.

He put his hand behind him and said, "Your dainty hand would find that mine feels like a wire brush, so we had better not shake but thank you for the offer." They both laughed at his comment. He continued as if talking were the only option open while they killed time in the terminus station, "What is a six-letter word that means to put down, with the third letter possibly being an 'R?'"

She answered reflexively, "Try 'berate.'"

He said, "Thanks. I notice that you solve the Times Puzzles rather than the Globes'. Easier or harder to solve?"

She said, "The Times is slightly more challenging. It's just that two of the three doctors I work for subscribe to the Times, and I work yesterday's puzzle each day from their recycled editions.'"

As the door-closing alarm sounded and the train lurched forward, he said, "My preference is also the Times. But, I only use the Boston paper because there is never a New York paper in the recycle bin in the subway station."

She said, "O.K. I at this moment volunteer to bring you an extra copy of the Times puzzle page starting tomorrow?"

As he was retaking his seat, he said, "Hey! That would be great. Thank you very much, June Sharp."

As the subway approached the worker's transfer station, June was waging war with herself inside her mind. She pondered, "If I approached him, would he think I am just a mindless body or would he understand that we might have something in common worth pursuing?" She abruptly stood up when he did and said, "Tom Parks, would you like to meet tomorrow at Duncan Doughnut in the subway station where we boarded, and I will give you the Times copy there - say 2:30ish?"

As he moved towards the door to exit the car, he looked over his shoulder at her and said smiling, "Tomorrow it is, June Sharp, about 2:30 at Duncan's."

!!!!

A day later, on Thursday, June Sharp exited the subway two stops past Tom's transfer station and unchained her second bike from inside the public cage. She then began peddling home three miles away. Her thoughts as she rode towards her spacious and stately 'museum' home on this windless day were, "Dear God! I hate our neighborhood and our home because it cost us so much money to live here and especially to maintain our monster house. It was tolerable when Ben and I were young, but now it's just an old money-sieve museum. My husband investigated then and assured me that the school system was the best in the state for our son but that does not appear to be the case."

The first thing June noticed at home was that her husband had arrived from a mid-west trip a day early because his car was in their one-car garage. After chaining her bike and lowering the garage door, she walked in and saw Ben sitting at the kitchen table with spotlighted red eyes as if he had been crying profusely, and he was unable to say anything to her in greeting, as he stared at her pleadingly.

Benjamin Sharp, her husband of fifteen years, was a GS-15 federal financial regulator. He traveled extensively nationwide with a small team which always included an Administrative Assistant who Millie referred to in her phone call earlier this week - June's attitude about his extensive traveling up to now had always been, 'Thank God for small favors.' This lady and her son spent most weekday and many weekend evenings alone unless her son had a friend over or when a neighbor visited her. With their combined earnings, they had managed to live in their stately home in this fashionable part of the city for seven years - although now she felt chained inside a dungeon with a stick-man as her husband. The joy that even Ben felt living here at first evaporated over the years - as frequently getting to and from the airport was problematic for him. June and Ben had few friends as a couple - though she had hers and he had his, she guessed. Those couples who did visit their house or whom they visited were his co-workers along with others in Ben's office to be 'cultivated' as friends. Those socials were long and dull but necessary for him to be promoted to Executive ranks some day, so he had convinced June.

But, seeing that Ben had been crying, she assumed that some repercussions Millie alluded to had already happened. So, June ignored her husband today momentarily and ran up the stairs to their 14-year old's room.

Her early teen son, Jerry, was brilliant but sickly, a champion chess player, an average student because he was bored with school, and took four meds daily to control his ADHD and other personality problems. June loved her son very much but was forced to play the role of both Mom and Dad for the 8th grader. Her dual roles were mostly performed by her because his father was either absent or just couldn't understand what Jerry's problems were. Worse, her son just simply didn't like his Dad at all and couldn't relate to him.

Jerry said upon her entering, "Mom, Dad has gone nuts - he just sits crying. I asked him to explain converting fractions to real numbers, and he just ignored me. Will you help?"

"Sure son," she said while tightly hugging his neck, "Let me see your assignment." She spent ten minutes going through the process and finally smiled when she saw the light go on in his face. As she rose to leave, "What's your pleasure for dinner that Grubhub will deliver?"

"Surprise me, Mom."

!!!!

June went back downstairs and sat down across from her husband and said, "I am going to order Pizza delivered and then, dear husband, may we talk?" She watched him shake his head, 'yes,' but still unable to speak.

After ordering and breaking the circuit, she looked him in the eyes and said, "What is the problem, Ben? Why are you home today instead of tomorrow as your itinerary shows?"

"June, Darling, I have been furloughed with pay pending the results of an ongoing investigation."

"Investigation? Investigation of what, Ben?"

He looked at her with tears profusely flowing now and said, "The husband of my Administrative Assistant whom you have met, Penny Adams, has filed a suit against me as well as the agency."

June stood up, shaking visibly now, and asked: "What kind of suit, Ben?"

"A lawsuit. Her husband claims I took advantage of his 23-year-old wife of two years by intimating that promotion would be nearly impossible unless she became my lover."

"You mean, you have been having an affair with your Admin Assistant, and her husband learned about it and then went to H-R with a complaint - is that precisely what you are saying?"

At this point, Ben could only put his head down on his hands as his body shook with sobs, "Yes... I am so sorry for doing that, June. Please don't leave me. Can you find it in your heart to forgive me?"

Benjamin Sharp was the quintessential phony at the end of his rope. He had received a finance degree only after extensive tutoring and his frat brothers reviewed practice tests with him when 'studying' for major exams. Devilishly handsome, he managed to get several party-type coeds into bed with him just once in almost all cases. His uncanny ability to spout financial buzz words, even though his rational faculty couldn't grapple with what they meant, was a known attribute by those more capable surrounding him (e.g., "Ben is too fucking stupid to grasp the idea of ...") However, his windblown man-of-the-world face opened many doors. Among those was the government agency that snapped him up immediately after graduation. Those far above him on an org chart heard nothing but 'positive things' about Ben, thanks to the Phony's social engineering skills -"It was not my fault it was xxx's fault." In a few short years, he found himself one grade from the executive ranks after his promotions had been steady and expected by everyone over the years.

But a phone call to him from his Regional Manager yesterday while Ben was n Cleveland, destroyed his whole life: "Mister Sharp, leave your assistant in charge and take the next plane back to my office." Once there the RM walked him to Personnel and read the 'riot act' to him. Ben's career was effectively over.

Today, as his wife looked at the piece of rancid meat that was her husband, she became livid with anger at herself and kept wondering, "How could I have allowed this man to stay in our lives?" But she got a grip and focused on yoga breathing to calm herself. Her thoughts were immediately about their son's welfare since there was no new information here for her - thanks to Millie. She said, "Ben, Jerry has needed a role model Dad for years because of his flighty mind, and now you tell me that you have stayed focused on making whoopee with subordinates while you enjoyed making the executives of the institutions you visit kowtow to you. You have been unable to muster the interest to spend quality time with your son, Jerry? You have been absent from his entire life for the most part.