More than I Deserve

"You forgot about the part where I grew up in a tiny house with five brothers didn't ya," she laughed. "When Rob found me, ah was a waitress in a tiny diner with terrible food."

"You were a waitress?" I laughed. She nodded and took another sip of my wine.

"And we've been togethah evah since," she said. When she said it, I noticed a glow come over her face.

"So how long did you guys date before you got married?" I asked. She looked at me and just laughed.

"We didn't date," she said. And she started laughing again. "From the time he walked into the diner, I knew he was mine. That's one a the things I love so much about your son. He reminds me so much of Rob. You gotta remember this was a coal mining town with one factory in it. I had been hearing about him for a while, but when I first saw him, mah heart just went ta flutterin' and I just knew."

It was the weirdest thing but I could see how she'd had so many kids. Just talking about her husband had her nipples sticking up like two erasers.

"So, okay you didn't actually date," I said taking my own sip of the wine we were sharing. "Remember the guy I told you about my ex husband, he was so shy that it took him months to even ask me out. I gave him every possible sign that I was interested. I met him in a restaurant too. I gave him my phone number on a napkin. I even followed him around the neighborhood while he fixed things for old people and held his tools. How long was it before he let you know that he liked you."

"I told you, Mona," she laughed again. "We just knew. The first thing he said to me was how pretty he thought I was. I had ta trick him inta staying until ah got done workin' ... Ah told him that ah was upset and my brothers was gonna beat him up."

"And he didn't leave?" I asked, beginning to laugh myself.

"Nah, he told me that ah was so pretty, it was worth gettin' a ass beatin' just ta look at me," she said.

"Oh my God," I said. "What happened then?"

"We talked for a little while and then he fucked me," she said. "He got my cherry right there on that soft grass." I almost went into shock when she said that.

"Wait a minute ... You had sex with him the first day that you met him?" I asked.

"A course ah did," she laughed. "Ah already told Ya, we both knew it from the time we met."

"That's what I like. A woman who knows what she wants and goes after it," said a voice behind us.

I turned and saw Sam standing behind us. He was so excited he could barely stand still. His eyes were huge and he was looking at her with unrestrained lust written all over his face.

He walked over to us and I felt weird. I felt as if I should protect Sam. I knew how charming Sam thought he could be and she probably had never run into anyone as sneaky as he was.

"Mona, I think the kid is about to fall asleep," he said. "There are two little girls already curled up on the sofa."

"Okay," I said. "Sam, let me put Joey in bed, then I'll help you carry the girls down to your SUV."

"I could help her," said Sam. I had never seen him volunteer for anything.

"We'll do it my way," I insisted.

"Okay," he smirked.

"We were never introduced," I heard him say to her as I walked away. I knew I had to hurry, so the sooner I got Joey into his bed, the sooner I could get back. I swear I tried, but I wasn't fast enough. Before I could get Joey laid down on his bed I heard Sam screaming.

I ran back into the living room and saw Sam screaming and writhing on the floor. Meanwhile, Sam was sitting calmly in her chair sipping our wine. I just looked at her. She didn't even crack a smile.

"She cut me," screamed Sam. "That bitch cut my balls. I want her out of here now."

"Ah warned him," said Sam calmly. "He was lean in' all ovah me. And he was staring at places he shouldn't a been staring at. Ah told him Ah wasn't no whore. And then he put his hand on my shoulder so Ah warned him again."

"I was just trying to be friendly ... You bitch," yelled Sam.

"You was tryin' ta be too friendly," said Sam. "He slid his hand down from mah shoulder and tried ta touch mah titty, so he got what he deserved."

"What did you do?" I asked.

"Ah just nicked him a bit ta git him ta back off," she smiled. "Maybe next time he'll keep his hands ta his-self."

Faster than I would have believed possible, Sam's hand moved and I heard a click. There was a long slim wicked looking switchblade clutched in her tiny fist.

"Ah just gave him a warnin' cut," she said. "It wasn't near no veins and I did not touch his balls. Not that I would with a twelve foot diseased pole. It wasn't even a deep cut. He's just a big ole sissy."

I couldn't help it, I just started laughing. I picked up Kimmie from the couch, while Sam got Angela.

We carried the girls down to her SUV. I was astounded by how big the thing was and how shiny. We put her girls in their car seats and I noticed that she had a third car seat between them for Joey. I could tell she'd put it back there for him because it was much too big for her other daughter who was a two year old. Joey didn't have a car seat of his own in my car. Once he grown out of the baby seat I just tightened up one of the seat belts in the back for him.

"Sorry about your husband," she said.

"We aren't married," I laughed. "Like you said he got what he deserved."

"We were havin' a good time too," she spat. "Next time we'll do it at mah place. But Ah ain't got a balcony."

I was still laughing when I got back up to my apartment. Sam had taken off his pants and was holding a rag over his inner thigh to stop the bleeding.

"She cut me," he repeated. "Why did she cut me?" He looked at me as if he expected me to answer him.

"She told you she wasn't no whore," I laughed, mimicking her accent and delivery if not the tone of her voice.

"But it was just some harmless flirting," he said. "It didn't mean anything. I used to do the same thing with you."

"She's from a small town in the mountains of West Virginia, Sam. She thinks any woman who has any kind of sex with a man she's not married to is a whore. And she is fanatical about her husband and her kids. You're lucky, she likes that knife. She told me that she knew how to get blood off of the blade but she wasn't sure that she could get syphilis out of the steel so she didn't go anywhere near your balls," I said.

"That bitch is crazy," he said.

"Sam, tell me the truth," I told him. "Did you really try to grab her breast?"

"I couldn't help it," he yelled. "They're not the biggest tits I've ever seen but they're pretty big on that tiny frame of hers. And her nipples were sticking out like little beer cans. She wanted me. But she's playing some weird assed game. That bitch is hot. I couldn't resist her."

"She got hot talking about her husband, Dumbass. She worships the ground the guy walks on. She didn't even know you were there. You're not as God Damned charming as you think you are. I can't believe you tried to pull that shit right here in MY apartment. With MY son in the next room. What the fuck is wrong with you, Sam? Shit, the real question is what the fuck is wrong with me that I put up with it?"

"Come on Mona," he said. "You know how the game works. This is how we've always been. You know that I've always had more than just you. She's the weird one. We were fucking back when you were engage to that asshole that dumped you and ran off. We were fucking when I was engaged to that lesbian. We're lucky to have had each other when the losers we were with ran off." He walked over to me still holding the rag on his thigh.

"Mona, I want you to stay away from that miserable cunt," he said. "It's probably all of those hormones in her from having all of those Damned kids."

"Sam, how long has it been since I had a real friend?" I asked. "I like her."

"You barely know her," he said. "And listen to me, Mona, I'm telling you this for your own good. Rich women are crazy and that bitch has some money. Did you see that truck she's driving? Did you even notice the shirt?"

"What about it?" I asked.

"Her shirt said, "My husband drives a Shelby GT350."

"Big deal," I said. "So he's got a car. In the words of Shania Twain, "that don't impress me much."

"That's because you're a moron, Mona," he spat angrily. "That car isn't even available yet and he has one. That takes some serious juice."

"Maybe he doesn't have one," I said. "Maybe she just has the shirt."

"Oh he has one,"he said. "That's what we were talking about while I ..."

"While you tried to cop a feel," I hissed.

"Mona, get over it," he said. "If you had titties like those, I'd be all over you too. Any guy would be. Besides, your little friendship is doomed. I'm just trying to spare you some pain."

"How?" I asked.

"If your crazy friend hates whores so much, how is she going to react when she finds out what a whore you are? Think about it. While you were engaged to the man of your dreams you were actively fucking another man who was also engaged to someone else. By her definition that makes you a double secret negative whore at the very least," he said.

I ended up having to give him money to take a taxi to the emergency room. The cut in his leg was less than an inch across but it turned out to be pretty deep. It took three stitches to close it up.

The following weekend Sam and I got together at her house. I almost went into shock as I drove up her driveway. Her house was pretty big and it was also pretty amazing.

I had no idea that she had a pool and a spa on her deck. She also had a swing set and a playhouse for the kids. The thing that floored me was the tree house.

When I told her the tree house could be her balcony, her eyes got huge. "I ain't goin' up in that thing," she said. I also got to see her two year old, Bobbie.

She poured me a generous glass of wine. I was sure that we were going to share it again, but she surprised me again.

"I'm pretty sure Ah won't be drinkin' for a while," she said with a big smile.

"He deserved it," I said.

"He must," she smirked. "God knows he gets it enough. And he does something to me, cuz all he has to do is kiss me or look at me and I'm flat on my back with my legs spread and my pussy gushin' something fierce."

"Uh, Sam," I said. "I was talking about the stabbing you gave the asshole I live with."

"Oh," she said. "Ah was talking about the stabbing my Robby gave me. After three times, I'm pretty sure I can tell when I'm knocked up."

It was a wonderful afternoon, or at least the first two hours were. Sam went to light the grill to make hot dogs for the kids and steaks for us. I was holding her baby, who even at two showed signs of being just as a Pretty as her two sisters and her mom were.

Suddenly the little girl twisted on my lap. She listened and apparently heard something I couldn't hear. A few seconds later I heard what I thought was some kid in one of those street racing cars.

"Dada," said the little girl. That was when the fence opened and the garage door went up. There was a late model Mustang in the garage and the skeleton of another car probably another Mustang that was up on jacks.

The car that pulled into the yard and stopped just in front of the big garage didn't look like any Mustang I had ever seen. It did have the little horse on the front, but it was sleeker, wider and sat lower than most of the Mustangs I had seen.

Sam abandoned the as yet unlit grill and melted into the arms of the man who got out of the car. I couldn't see him clearly but she was all over him. If he got that treatment all of the time it was no wonder she was constantly spitting out kids.

After a kiss so deep that my own pussy started to hurt she grabbed his hand and started walking towards me. His eyes were better than mine were because before I recognized him he stopped. His mouth that had been smiling and happy drew itself into a very grim, very tight line.

I don't think the world stopped spinning. In fact I'm almost certain that the birds continued to sing. The clouds kept passing by and time didn't slow down or halt. The kids kept playing in the pool. The chorus of little girls yelling, "Hi Daddy," and my own son's energetic greeting of, "Hi," to a man he had never met yet looked eerily comfortable around was evidence of that.

And that was it. That one nearly spurious item of minutia roused me from my shock and invoked my anger.

The comparison was so easy it was almost like going back in time. Joey, my son was so much like Bobby, my Bobby that it was like seeing Bobby as a child or seeing Joey as an adult. Their faces were similar. The shape of their eyes was similar. The only difference was that Joey's eyes were the same brown as mine. But Bobby's gray eyes were a recessive gene.

"Mona," he said angrily.

"Bobby," I spat.

"You two know each other?" asked Sam. She showed her true colors in that instant. I had begun thinking of Sam as my long lost sister that I had never been fortunate enough to have. But in that instant, she let me know where her heart lay. She took his hand and inserted herself between us in a clear sign that as she'd told me many times over the scant few days of our acquaintance; no one would EVER hurt her family.

A chill went down my spine as I remembered her switchblade. "You don't mess with a mountain girl," she told me.

Her eyes suddenly softened and she brought him over to the table we sat around.

"Okay folks, it appears that we all have some talkin' to do," she said.

"I'm not sitting down with her," he spat. "Fuck that. Not in a million years."

She grabbed his arm and wrapped her arm around it. It almost looked like his eyes rolled back in his head at her touch. She was very subtle, but I saw it she had his arm trapped between her own arm and one of those big soft boobs of hers. I swear they were both about to cum just from touching each other.

I suddenly remembered how gentle and loving he was in the bedroom. I also remembered how unselfish he was and how he always made sure I came at least a couple of times before he did.

I also noticed that side by side I was a bit bigger than Sam. Without the knife my weight might give me an advantage. And ... and ... I might ... I couldn't. From the look in their eyes when they looked at each other, he would probably kill anyone who looked at her sideways.

Every trace of love he had sworn to have for me had been eclipsed like the sun outshines a dollar store flashlight at noon on the hottest day of the year in the middle of the fucking desert.

"Robby," she cooed.

Robby, I thought. Why the fuck hadn't it clicked with me. She had given me all of the information. She told me her husband was an engineer. I guess the devil really was in the details.

I remembered him as Bobby. Growing up no one had ever called him Rob or Robert. He was always just Bobby. And I never thought of him as an engineer. I always thought of him the way he described himself; as a trouble shooter for the oil company.

Besides, there are plenty of Roberts and Robs and Bobbies and Robbie's and Bobs in the world. Shit every time you take a piss outdoor you're splattering the shoes of some guy named Robert or some derivation thereof.

There are too many coincidences in the world. The asshole I live with is named Sam and so is the woman I've been calling my friend. There is no way that they are the same person. Hell, if I hadn't sent him to the ER a week ago he might have bled to death over night from the stab wound she gave him.

There are no coincidences in the world. Surely she told him about Mona and he had to know. My Bobby changed one letter of his fucking name and became a completely different man. He even changed his career. He became Robby.

"Robby," she cooed. "Do you love me?"

Without taking his eyes off of me, as if I was a black mamba that had stuck my head above the rim of his toilet, just as he was about to take a shit, he answered her.

"More than anything on earth," he said. "And I will until the end of time."

He had always told me that he loved me but it had never been anything like that. And even though he was looking at me when he said it, I knew that he meant every world of it. Every iota of the love he had for me was gone.

They always say that true love lingers. Even when you move on or the one you love dies, a part of you will always love that person. That was the way I felt about him. Even though he had run off on me, I still loved him and I knew that I would until the day I died.

The career change wasn't earth shattering but I would have given anything to know why my Bobby had become so God Damned shallow. Sure, Sam was prettier than me. But even when we were younger there had been girls who were prettier or built better than me. But Bobby had never paid them any attention. I was missing something.

"Sam," he croaked. His voice broke even as he still continued to stare at me. "Do you love me?"

"You don't even have to ask, Honey," she said. She started staring at me too and I got scared. Sam, the asshole had told me that Sam the redheaded goddess who'd stolen my husband was crazy. He had told me that this would not end well. Maybe for the first time he'd been right. That old saying about blind squirrels finding nuts came to mind as she turned those unholy blue eyes of hers on me.

"Why did you bring her into our house knowing what she did to me?" he asked.

"Honey, it is just beginning to dawn on me that MY new best friend Mona and YOUR ex, Mona are the same Damned Mona," she said. "After all she has a Sam and you have a Sam and we are clearly not the same person."

"We all need to sit down and talk about this calmly," she said. It was all I could take.

"What the fuck do you mean what I did to YOU," I screamed. "You were the one. You ran out on me while I was pregnant with YOUR son. Look at him Bobby; he looks just fucking like you. Maybe the reason why you and redhead Barbie over there keep having girls is because you already had a son who's probably your clone."

At that moment, Joey came over. He was wet from being in the pool and shivering even with the summer heat.

"I have to go to the bathroom," he said. I started towards him.

"I've got it, Mona," said Sam. "Come on Joey." She turned and looked at the two of us. "You two play nice until I get back."

"I hate to admit it, but Sam was right about a lot of things. All of you men are the same. No matter how much a woman loves you, you all go crazy for a pretty face and a pair of big boobs," I said angrily. I hoped that he couldn't tell that I was halfway between kicking his ass and kissing his feet and begging him to take me back.

It couldn't have been my words ... Could it? Suddenly all of the hate drained from his face and with it the strength. He turned and walked away from me.

It took me a second to figure it out. It was her. With her gone, so too was a lot of his strength. He was reverting to form. Shit, I knew him as well as she did. I knew where he was going. A wounded animal always goes to its home ground.

He went right into the garage and picked up a wrench. He took off the jacket to his expensive suit, rolled up his sleeves and started working on the car in the jacks.

Just as I had worked up the courage to go to him, she came back.

"Not a good idea, Mona," she said. "Her voice was soft and full of a host of emotions. Among them regret, sadness, confusion and even a tiny bit of joy. But despite all of those emotions that her voice carried, her body language told me that he was hurting and she would protect him from any and everything, me included.

"Give him some time, Mona," she said. "Give me a week and we'll talk again. Maybe we'll all be angry and unhappy, but we'll get to the bottom of all of it, I promise."