Sunrise Sunset Ch. 01

He looked across the table and asked, "Jesus, man, you aren't going tell Lynn about this are you? You might not think so after what you saw, but I really do love her and the kids. I don't want to walk out or get thrown out, but you also have to understand that things between us aren't really super hot anymore. I'm just looking for something to keep me from suffering death by frustration. Basically, so is my married lady friend who's in the same situation. It's not like we're hung up on each other. We're just sort of friends with benefits as they say. We're just compatible in and out of bed, and we're a good sounding board for each other. If you say anything to Ellen or Lynn, things could really go up like an a-bomb for us."

We had a long talk, and I ended up sharing more with him than I probably should have about the lull between Ellen and me. "Hey buddy," he said putting his hand on my shoulder. I know exactly where you're coming from. You should really consider finding somebody you can spend some nice times with. It doesn't have to get all complicated. Seriously, there are a lot of women out there with the same story. They all have kids and a marriage they don't want to end. They just need a compatible bed buddy to give them an understanding ear as well as maybe some attention to other parts of their body. She might just need to feel young again or to have a like-thinking guy help them explore the more adventurous sides of their sexuality. If you want, I'll even talk to my lady to see if she has a girl friend who may be interested. You know how, women talk. They know which of their friends may be thinking about spreading their wings or filling lonely afternoons in a no-strings part-time relationship."

I told him I wasn't interested, even though I couldn't deny to myself that I really was. He kept bringing it up from time to time, but one day, he called me up and really sounded serious. "Hey, bud," he said on the phone, "meet me after work. I have something super important I have to talk to you about."

We sat in a booth at the back of our regular place sipping on a couple of Smithwick's while he laid it out for me. "You know about my lady friend and must know that we do talk to each other about everything. It's just natural that we sometimes talk about our friends. I might have said something about how you could use some help to get out of this awful 'poor-middle-aged me' mood."

"Oh great," I said. "You've broadcasted my little frustrations all over town?"

"Hell," he laughed, "not all over town, just with my lady, and I swear, I've never actually dropped any names. Besides, she gets it. It's sure no shock to her about how lots of people deal with this sort of thing. OK, so anyway I told her about how you sometimes seem to have this kind of depression going on. It turns out, and here's where it gets really interesting, that she has this friend who confided in her about her own marriage woes. My lady has known this woman since high school. Apparently my lady was even a bridesmaid in her wedding, so they're sort of close. They basically lost touch because my lady's girlfriend has been out of town for years since she got married. But then, she, hubby and the two kids moved back here not long ago. She and my lady have been burning up the phone lines and having lunch every couple of weeks or so because my lady is about the only connection her friend still has back here after all of her time away. Anyway, you know how it goes after a few glasses of wine. Her friend starts talking about how she's going through issues in her marriage. Her husband is always up to his ass in his job, and he travels for several days almost every week. They don't go out much or do much of anything because even when he is home, he's working on his computer or just too tired. When they do have sex, it's like he rolls on for five minutes of pump and dump, and then falls asleep. She doesn't want to leave the guy because she still really cares about him, and there are the kids to think of. Besides, I hear that he's apparently pulling down about 300 grand a year in this new job, not counting bonus. I figure that she's not about to walk away from the kids or the goose laying the golden eggs. Still, she's pulling out her hair, and wearing out her vibrator."

"Right, and your lady feels sorry for her friend, just like you do for me, and you both are just dying to help out too lost souls. Sometimes, you amaze me, Paul."

"Right, no, ok, look. Long story short, my lady tells her friend about me and my good buddy who is also at a marital speed bump. She tells her that there's this a nice, smart, witty, stable, straight, half-way good-looking guy that's her mirror image; a guy in decent shape that doesn't bar-hop and mess around with questionable single chicks who could potentially harbor questionable germs. There you are, a guy who's just dying to find, let's call it, a special lady friend for some uncomplicated mutually enjoyable afternoons. Bottom line, she might be interested in meeting you. No promises. If you say the word, we can set up a time to get together, casually, for a couple of drinks and a pizza. No names. If you guys hit it off, then it's up to you two to take it from there."

I looked at him in disbelief. "You really are fucking nuts, aren't you? You're sitting there telling me that you want me to go on, let's call it a blind date, with you and your married 'friend with benefits' so I can meet some other married woman who's perhaps also looking for a 'friend with benefits' to see if she and I feel compatible enough to go fuck and suck together?"

He slapped the table and grinned. "I couldn't have put it any better. Where else are you going to meet somebody ready-made like this? Safe, smart, in a marriage she absolutely doesn't want to walk away from, but lonely and horny and looking to expand her boundaries. It's perfect. She'd be as discreet as you because she's just like you."

"Jesus, Paul. I've known you more than half my life and you've talked me into some pretty crazy shit, but this moves to the top of the list."

"Listen, Mike. This is the primo golden opportunity of your life knocking at your door. If you don't turn the knob and open it, I'll never speak to you again. Hell, maybe I wouldn't even come to your house anymore for football and pizza, even if you do have a 64 inch flat screen with surround sound with a sub woofer."

"Can I get that in writing?" I asked unable to hide my grin and watching him grin back. Unfortunately, crazy as it sounded, I found myself saying, "OK, but no names, and no promises about anything more than a few drinks and a pizza."

He raised his arms in a "TOUCHDOWN" signal, and exclaimed, "Yes! I'll call my lady tomorrow, and we can set up a time good for all of us. Mike, old buddy, you are going to thank the living hell out of me one day. Maybe you'll even give me that super fucking TV system out of immeasurable gratitude."

Mike and his lady worked their shuttle diplomacy, and we all agreed to a casual lunch meeting at a place across town. Paul told me to meet him on the parking lot of the restaurant; that way we could go in together since I really didn't know his lady friend. We'd time it so that his lady and her girlfriend would be waiting there for us.

I was pretty nervous walking into the restaurant as Paul held the door and made mock doorman gestures. Hell, I hadn't been on a blind date for 30 years, especially one where my date was a married woman meeting a married man for the type of relationship that most people certainly frown upon, if not condemn outright. As soon as we approached the booth where the two women sat, my blind date and I made eye contact. Immediately the world crashed and the floor collapsed. She jumped up, grabbed her handbag and started saying, "No! Holy shit, No way! Oh my God! No!"

Paul and his lady looked at each other in disbelief as my "date" rushed out the door. A few seconds later, Paul's friend went out after her. I sat down in a bit of a daze. Paul put his hand on my shoulder. "Jesus, Mike. What the hell just happened? She freaked. Maybe she got cold feet when she realized it was for real. Maybe, she's just not wound too tight. I mean my lady said she was really interested. I can't believe that even if she ended up not liking you, she couldn't at least sit through lunch to be nice." He was talking, and I could see his lips moving, but all the words weren't registering.

Paul's lady friend came back. "She's gone. I couldn't catch up with her. I am so sorry. I don't know what she was thinking."

"It's ok," I said. "I'm going to leave," and turned to walk out without saying any more. Outside, I looked up and down the street to see if I could see the other woman, but there was no sign of her. I got into my car shaking. I couldn't stay back there with Paul and his friend, and listen to them try to explain or say how sorry they were. There was no way they could understand what had happened, and I wasn't about to explain it to them. My blind date....... was my wife's niece, Jennifer. I suppose that in a way, that made her my niece too, or at least my niece-in-law.

"Holy fucking shit," I said out loud to myself banging my fist on the steering wheel of my car. "What a fucking, fucked up, fuck-up! Jesus! How could this happen? What the hell would happen next? I sort of assumed, or at least hoped, that she wasn't going to tell Ellen or Keith, her husband. How would that go? "Oh, Aunt Ellen, guess what? I met Uncle Mike on a blind date where he planned to hook up with some married woman who was planning to hook up with him. Why was I there? Oh yeah, I was the hook-up woman." No, I figured I was safe on that account. I couldn't see this getting to Ellen or anybody else for that matter. Would she call me? Should I call her?

It was all playing through my brain in fast forward. It was something I should have seen, but how could I have really recognized it. I re-thought about what Paul had told me. I already knew the story, but didn't recognize it. Jennifer grew up here, and then moved to Denver not long after she married Keith. They had lived out there for 12 or 13 years before moving back here a year or so ago when Keith got a promotion to division manager for his company's operation in this area. Ellen had mentioned to me that Jennifer was feeling a lonely because she hadn't found a job, and knew only a few people in the area anymore. She was frustrated with the move and the effect Keith's new job was having on him and their life in general. Despite the big salary and status, he was on the road all the time plus working many evenings and weekends.

We had just seen Jennifer and Keith a couple of months ago when they had a Labor Day cook out for the family at their house. Of course we had seen them now and then when they came back to visit their parents at holidays. However, I hadn't had that any real contact with her other than at family events. I always thought about how the relationship between Ellen and Jennifer was both strange and special because they were only about 11 years different in age. My wife had been one of those "maybe-an-accident" mid-life babies for her parents. Her brother and sister were considerably older than her, and Ellen was only about 11 years old when Jennifer was born. When Ellen and I started dating, Jennifer was just a skinny, gawky adolescent with braces and training bra sized titty-buds. By the time she finished college and married Keith, she was a very attractive young woman. She always had that pretty, wholesome look with a great smile, yet not so beautiful as to be intimidating. She was still very attractive even though she neared that infamous 40th birthday that a lot of women seemed to dread.

The next day, Paul called, and wanted to meet me after work to talk about what had happened at the pizza place. He was so apologetic, and going on about how he couldn't understand it. He said that Kathy (the first time he had ever dropped the name of the woman he usually just referred to as "my lady") was going to talk to her friend to see if she could smooth it over. Maybe we could try again. "No!" I said emphatically. "I'm not interested in a do-over. Tell Kathy not to bother because I have a feeling that if she does talk to her friend, she'll probably get the same answer. What's done is done. Things happen for a reason, and it would be best if we just let this whole thing drop. Trust me on this one." He tried to tell me how I was being stupid by letting what could be a golden opportunity slip though my fingers, but finally he just conceded.

I still wasn't sure what to do about Jennifer. I had called 411 to get her number, and had the phone in my hand about 10 times that day thinking I'd call her, but chickened out. What would I say anyway? What made me nervous was that Thanksgiving was only about two weeks away, and Jennifer was doing the dinner at her house for the whole family. How the hell was I going to get through that?

Thanksgiving Day came, and I stood on the porch with Ellen as the door swung open. Thank God it was Keith that answered and not Jennifer. As we went in, I could see her in the kitchen with a couple of the other women working on food of one sort or another. Keith took our coats and carried them upstairs while Ellen and I made our way into the living room. Our one son had gone to his wife to her parents house for dinner. Our other boy had missed his flight from school, and it had been impossible to get another until today. He would be getting in late. It was the typical chaos with about a dozen people sitting, standing, or moving about: Jennifer's parents, Keith's parents, Jennifer's kids along with Ellen's other sister and husband plus their daughter and son both home from college. Jennifer and I hugged hello when she came out of the kitchen. We wished each other "Happy Thanksgiving", but didn't say anything else. I wasn't sure how to read her. We really didn't talk much at all. There was the usual chatter during dinner and our eyes met only once or twice and then darted away.

After dinner the guys congregated around the TV to watch the game. The women tended to group in the living room talking. I slipped down stairs to where there was pool table, and started playing around with a couple of balls on the table. I looked up as Jennifer came down the steps. "Hey," she said.

"Hey back at you," I responded.

"We need to talk," she answered. "But not here. Somebody could come down." She ushered me out the back door. The sun was going down and it was getting chilly. "Where can we go where it's a little warmer?" she said folding her arms across her chest against the breeze.

"My car is just around the corner," I answered, and we walked quickly to it.

During the day the sun had made the car warm so it was still comfortable inside. We both just sat there for a minute. I broke the silence. "Jennifer," I started.

"Wait," she interrupted, "me first. I know you were probably about to go into some sort of apology or explanation or whatever, but the fact is that we both knew why we were at that restaurant that day. I'm sure your friend told you all the things about me that my friend told me about you. How great we each were, and how we were both looking for the same sort of 'thing'. Let's just admit we knew what we were doing, and not make stupid excuses. Let's just pick it up from there. I don't know what you think about me anymore, or what you assume that I think about you. We haven't had that much chance to really get to know each other all that well over the years. Still, the facts are that we both are apparently at a bit of a flat spot in our marriages, and we both know what our respective friends have done about their own situations. I certainly knew I was going to meet a man at that restaurant, but when I saw that it was you, I just panicked. I didn't know what to do except to run like hell. I didn't know if you were going to phone me later to chastise me, or to call me ugly names, or what.

I started to speak, but she held up her hand. "Please, me first. Just hear me out, and then you can say what you want. The truth is I'm not a bad person, Uncle Mike. I'm just very lonely and frustrated in my life right about now, and I need somebody to be with to help fill some voids and maybe feel desirable as a woman. Keith sure doesn't"

It looked like she was starting to tear up a little. "Jennifer, I don't think you're a bad person. The same way I don't think I'm a bad person either. I think I'm pretty much in the same dilemma as you. I'm just like you in a lot of ways. I don't want some grand romance that's going to complicate or fuck up my life and marriage. I can understand your frustrations because I feel them along with you. Hell, I've been married at least ten years longer than you, so they've had even more time to simmer. I thought that after our boys went off to college and graduated, your Aunt Ellen and I would be like kids again. I thought it would be like a new marriage, and we'd have more time together. The thing is, she just got more and more interested in other things, and I sometimes think I need a secretary to make an appointment with her. I'm not getting any younger, and I suppose that's starting to become quite obvious to me in a lot of ways."

More silence, but then I added, "I'm not an ogre, Jennifer. I've never done anything like this, but my friend who has, made it seem so ideal. I've watched you grow from a skinny kid into a beautiful, smart, sexy woman. That's a given. But, seeing you at that restaurant made me realize that maybe this isn't who I am. I'm not upset that you wouldn't want to get into this sort of thing with me. Just don't think I'm terrible"

She looked up and locked eyes with me. "No. No. That's not it," she said putting her hand on my thigh. "I don't think you're terrible at all. I'm trying to find a way to tell you that I DO want to get into this sort of thing with you. It may sound awkward for me to admit this to you, but I am a very, very sexual woman, much more than you might realize. I need someone in my life that can help me satisfy that part of who I am. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that you are the ideal person. You know, when you first started dating Aunt Ellen, I had the biggest crush on you. I saw you as this sophisticated older man, handsome, sexy, smart, and witty. The fact is that I envied her. I still do in a lot of ways. At first I used to have these romantic fantasies about you, and then after you married Aunt Ellen, I'd dream about finding somebody like you. Keith was, actually, probably still is, like you, but he's so damned locked into this new job that he acts like I'm more of cook and cleaning lady than his wife. It's getting to me. I don't want to leave him or the kids or try to start some new life. I just need somebody to help me get through the one I'm already in, at least till things can hopefully get back to normal with Keith. I pray it will settle out someday, but it's been like this for almost three years despite my trying to get through to him just how unhappy and frustrated I am. It doesn't register with him. I just get more excuses. Can you understand that? "

"Absolutely," I admitted.

She continued, "When Kathy started telling me about her relationship with your friend and how there was a guy I might like for the same thing, I was really curious. When you walked into the restaurant, my mind just exploded. But later, I had time to think about it and consider all the advantages of being with you. It started making so much sense to me at so many levels. Who better to be with than someone I feel physically attracted to, but who I also know I can trust as much as you? In many ways, I've always been attracted to you, but obviously felt that I had to stifle it. You know; the incest factor? But, this isn't really incest, is it?"