The Community

Cheryl stared at me, her mouth wide. "How do you know?" she asked.

I looked at her gravely for a moment and then said.

"I need you to listen to what I am going to tell you. Please let me finish and I'll tell you everything I know, and how I know it. Once I have told you everything you can ask any questions you have then. Will that be ok?"

She nodded with some obvious trepidation.

I told her my story, How I had come home to hear her and Sheila talking, and decided to try and see what was going on. I told her about the cameras, about the listening device in the Twins' Games console, and played some of the clips for her. When she saw Sheila putting something in her drink she put her hand to her mouth in horror. I played her all the soundtrack recorded on the listening device at Bob and Sheila's including where they talked about Jeremy getting her pregnant, and also the recording from the week before the meeting where the plan to induct us was laid out. I also told her about my visit with Gerald Sykes and what he had told me, and then played the tape of Sheila telling Bob that she was going to introduce Cheryl to "Ramone" as she had Stephanie. I explained how I had come up with the IRS audit to interrupt this plan and to also ensure that Cheryl wasn't alone for the rest of the week, showing her the tape of Sheila once again trying to give her drugged wine.

After I finished my tale I sat waiting for her to assimilate all the information I had given her. This was possibly the most scared I had been. I knew I had crossed the line in spying on her but even now I felt it was justified, given the circumstances. I didn't do it to invade her privacy, I did it to protect her, and us.

"Where are the cameras?" she asked.

"One in here, one in the living room, one in the office, one on the deck, and one in the bedroom," I said softly.

"The bedroom?" she asked her eyes going wide. "Then you saw..." She blushed scarlet.

"I saw my beautiful wife doing something selfless thinking that it would make our love stronger. And if you enjoyed the experience then where's the harm?" I said to her. Her blush deepened.

She was silent for a few minutes after. Then suddenly she looked dead in the eye and said.

"You BASTARD!!!"

I recoiled but she followed me.

"Three FUCKING DAYS!!" she yelled "THREE FULL FUCKING DAYS I sweated on that tax audit and now you tell me it wasn't real??? All that work was for nothing?"

I couldn't help myself; I began to laugh.

For a moment she glared at me, then I saw the corner of her mouth twitch up, and then we were both howling with laughter. The total absurdity of the situation released all the tension that had accumulated in us both over the previous weeks. We laughed until we cried, and then we just sat holding each other, emotionally drained but content. I knew we would be ok.

Six months later.....

We had had to move offices. The business was still growing, and we had employed two more techs, and also we had decided that Cheryl needed to work at the office and needed a desk to work from. As the demand for our services increased there was more for her to do and she was relishing being a part of it.

We had each packed a bag on that Sunday afternoon and moved into a room in a long-stay motel until we found ourselves somewhere more permanent to rent. We listed the house and when we found ourselves another place, had movers go and pack up everything from our old house and put it into a storage unit. We would use another company to move it into our new place and ensure that it would be as difficult as possible for them to find out where we had moved to. I didn't think they would try to follow us, but I wanted as clean a break as possible from them as I could. We changed our cell phone numbers also.

This particular morning, we were happy as we had just received an offer on the house, which was nearly 20k over what we paid for it. So we came out of it financially quite well. It didn't hurt that it was a couple of gay guys who were moving in. I wondered idly if they would be asked to join the cabal.

"There's someone here to see you" one of our techs announced and I looked up.

A beautiful young redhead came into the room, and I stood to meet her.

"Cheryl who was sitting at her desk looked on shocked as this woman dashed over and threw her arms around me crying."

"Umm," I said intelligently, patting her awkwardly on the back.

I saw movement at the door and Gerald Sykes walked in, smiling. Everything clicked into place.

"Cheryl," I said "This is Gerald Sykes the person who owned the house before us. And I am hoping that this is Stephanie?" I tried to disentangle myself from the sobbing woman. Cheryl stood up, came over, and helped to extricate me.

"We were walking down the block and saw your new offices. I pointed them out to Steph, and she wanted to come in and say hello and thank you." Gerald said.

"Well." I said "Hello Stephanie" I handed her a paper towel. While beautiful, a face full of tears and snot was not doing her look any favours.

"I'm so sorry" she sniffed. "When I saw you and thought of how you had saved me, the thoughts of what had happened hit me once again and I lost control. Even now I still wake up thinking that the last six months were a dream and that the nightmare of the previous year is still the reality. I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't helped us"

Cheryl put her arm around Stephanie and led her to the couch we kept in the office. She gestured for Gerald to sit and we sent one of the techs to the coffee cart (we had found a new one near the new offices) to get us all coffee.

While we sat drinking coffee we told them what had happened to us, and how we had, by the skin of our teeth and with a great deal of luck, managed to escape. They both laughed when we told them we had sold the house to a gay couple.

"You never know," I said "maybe that is what they need to strengthen their relationships" everyone laughed.

15 years later...

I can hardly believe how time has flown. The business took off so well that I franchised it and now there are 15 stores with my company name on them. I don't need to work anymore, I just keep a weather eye on the business and make suggestions.

And now I am sitting on the deck of my home. Cheryl is swimming lazily in the pool, a young man pacing her. I have a beautiful young woman curled up in my lap snoozing after her swim.

Get your mind out of the gutter!!!

The young woman is Jodie, our 8-year-old daughter, a real daddy's girl who loves to snuggle up, especially when she is tired. The young man in the pool with Cheryl is our son, Jamie who is 12. He loves to swim and keeps both Cheryl and me fit by almost constantly challenging us to race him.

We kept in touch with Gerald and Stephanie and became good friends. They were due to come over in an hour or so with their three kids.

Of Jeremy and Beth, Dave, Tracey, Bob, and Sheila we heard nothing. They never tried to contact us, nor us them. As far as I know, the two gay guys are still living in the house but more than that I couldn't say.

We don't really care!