The Cuckold Diet Challenge Ch. 07

"Do you have plans for this weekend?" I asked her.

"No."

"Want to do something, as a family?"

"Anything...but...Angela's..." she puffed.

"Alright. I'll see what I can come up with for Saturday."

At the 25 minute mark, she slowed down noticeably, breathing hard. Her shirt was soaked through. She looked over at me, embarrassed I think. "Worn out. Long day." I could see she was trying to control her breath. She came to a stop, and stepped off the machine.

"I imagine. It's been a long week. Jenny's back and I worked out with her. I won't be doing anything else with her, but I thought you should know."

She gave me a wan smile. "That's good. I think I'm going to hit the sack. The bedroom door is still open," she said hopefully.

"Soon, I think. Maybe this weekend, if you don't mind."

"I'd love that. Thanks for this." She walked over next to my machine and reached out to me, touching my hip tentatively.

"I don't hate you, Danielle. I almost wish I did, it would be so much easier. But I don't. I'd like us to be a family again, but it's going to take baby steps. I hope you can understand." I was almost as bad as her. Jogging along slowly, trying to act like it was a piece of cake. My legs were dragging. My breath wasn't bad, but two weeks of goofing off, followed by hours of treadmill work had my thighs trembling.

"We are a family. I'll try to be what you need right now. You just have to let me know what that is."

"Patient, mostly," I answered.

She smiled. "I can do that. I love you, Rick. I may be an idiot, and a poor excuse for a wife these last couple of months, but I do love you."

"I know."

I think she hoped for more of a response, but that's all I was willing to give her at the moment.

~ * ~ * ~

I was sore when I woke. I took a couple of Tylenol, and got the kids ready for school. Danielle came out when they were working on their breakfast. She gave them each kisses. "Sit down," I told her.

She looked like she was going to argue, but I placed the breakfast that Francine had prepared in front of her, along with a cup of coffee, and another in a to-go tumbler. I had a bowl of cereal, sliced banana on the top. We ate breakfast like a family for the first time in ages.

The kids started gabbing away, which is what I was hoping for. I wanted to try to bring some normalcy back into their lives. Danielle was asking questions, and they were answering, at length. When she was done, I went to her. "I've got the dishes. Have a great day. Knock their socks off."

She smiled, and I saw a shininess in her eyes, as I kissed her on the cheek. She abruptly hugged me, and I let her, holding her loosely. "Go on now, I don't want you to be late."

She let go and nodded. She gave each of the kids a kiss. "Be good for your father," she warned. She turned back to me. "Have a nice run."

I guess she noticed I was wearing my New Balance sneakers. I only wore those for running.

Once I had the kids off, I stretched, and headed out the door for my run. It was 4 tenths of a mile to the park behind the elementary school. There were a number of running paths through it. The longest was almost two miles. A five mile run consisted of the jog to the park, twice around the long path, once around the short path, and a cool-down walk home.

I was on the second big lap, when a familiar face jogged up beside me. "Hi stranger."

"Shelly," I said. I wondered if my wife had given her friend a call to ambush me, when she saw I was going for a run.

We ran together side-by-side for a bit. "You're still mad at me, huh?"

No shit. "Why would I possibly be mad?"

She laughed. "'Cause I fucked up again. Sometimes I don't know how you've put up with me this long. I completely screw up everything in my life except for work, and my friendship with Danielle, and now even that isn't exempt."

We were running slowly. Me, because I was still recovering from the abuse I'd heaped on my body the previous day. Shelly, I figured, was pacing me. "What do you want Shelly?"

"You know what I want. I want you two happy again. I've never regretted anything in my life as much as what I did to you. I know you probably don't believe it, but it's the God's honest truth. And believe me, Rick, I've had plenty to regret."

That made me chuckle, in spite of myself. "I believe you."

She spent the next mile or so apologizing for her bahavior. She didn't make any more excuses, other than her history of bad decisions. I listened, without commenting.

"Please don't hate me, Rick. I can't stand it," she finally pleaded.

I sighed. That's damn hard to do when running, give it a try sometime. Still I made the effort. "I don't hate you, Shelly. I'm very unhappy with what you did. I'll tell you what I told Danielle. Baby steps, Ok? Be patient."

"Can I see Danielle again? She won't let me come over. She'll barely talk to me."

Interesting. Now things were coming into focus. "She and I are barely speaking. We're just starting to communicate again. Please don't make it any worse."

"That's the last thing I want to do. She needs me right now. She's really stressed, and without you or me, she doesn't have anyone to vent with. I swear, all I want is to help her and keep her on the straight and narrow. No more fuckups."

I peeled off the long path, onto the shorter one, down to my last 3/4 of a mile. She missed the turn, and caught up quickly. Once she was back in step, I replied. "Help her if you want. We can't have any more mistakes. We're at the zero tolerance point. I'm afraid the next big one will end our marriage for sure."

"Thanks, Rick. You won't regret it. I'm gonna be the best friend in the world."

"Isn't that what caused half of this shit? Trying to be her best friend?"

"Probably. She's my only real friend. I'd do anything for her. Now that means making sure that none of us do anything to jeopardize your marriage. I hope you believe that."

I believe she meant it. Then again, she always meant well. "Are we done? I'd like to finish my run in peace," I told her.

She looked hurt. Good. "I'm sorry. I'll leave you alone. Thanks for talking with me."

I didn't reply, other than to pick up the pace a bit, pounding out the last half-mile.

It was that kind of day. I hadn't seen Danielle's cousin Anna in several months. She lived on the opposite side of town, a good hour away. Why she'd show up on my doorstep unannounced, risking a wasted trip, was a mystery to me. And yet there she was.

"Hi Rick," she said, smiling easily. "Invite me in?"

She wasn't anyone I was hoping to see anytime soon. One more person that knew about my wife's debauchery. "Sure, Anna. Long time no see. C'mon in. I'm kind of a mess, just finished a run, but if you'll give me a few minutes, I'll be presentable. Make yourself at home, and help yourself to anything you want."

I heard her thanks at my back, as I headed upstairs for a quick shower. I came down feeling a little better, and grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge. I went into the living room to join my guest. "I guess you know that Danielle's at work. I know you two keep in touch."

It was funny to see her blush. "Yes, we talk pretty regularly."

"What can I do for you?" I asked.

"Nothing really. You know that Danielle talked to me about what she was up to. I told her she was foolish, risking her marriage. You screwed up, big time, and if she had heartburn with that, she could throw you out. But that crap she pulled, I don't see how that was going to help anything."

"She told me as much. She said she spoke with you, and you didn't approve."

Anna snorted. "Didn't approve is putting it lightly. I don't know if it helps, but I would have stopped her if I could. I...I understand things are difficult around here at the moment, but I wanted to thank you for trying to work things out. I hope you two can get around this mess. I don't know if there's anything I can do, but if you think of anything, let me know."

"Not much I can think of. I'll be honest, we're hanging on by a thread. I don't trust her anymore, but I'm going to give her a chance to earn that trust back. You should know that if she pulls any more crap, I'll throw her out so fast it'll make her head spin. I'll take the kids, and if she fights it at all, I'll destroy her to the best of my ability. I've told her as much. If you want to help her, you can make sure she stays on the straight and narrow."

Anna paled. "It's that bad?"

"It's worse, but I'm giving it one more shot, for the sake of the kids, and what we once had. I don't know how much she's told you about what happened, but it was reprehensible."

"I probably know as much as anyone. The last couple of weeks, she's been unloading on me. She's miserable, scared to death you're going to leave her. She doesn't know what to do."

I chuckled. "I'll tell you what I told Tom. She needs to stop lying, stop fucking around, stop humiliating me, and start acting like a decent wife again. That, and give me the time I need to get over this."

"I'm sure she'll do whatever you want. She assures me she's not going to jeopardize your marriage again, and she'll do her best to support you in every way she can." Anna looked uncomfortable before speaking again. "You understand that she was confused? She thought you were Ok with seeing the other men. Sort of getting even, as stupid as that sounds."

"She might have been confused the first time. I made sure she knew I wasn't happy about the second time. By the third time, it was abundantly clear, and she had told me she wasn't going to do it again. She did anyway, tried to hide it from me, and lied about what she did."

Anna look of surprise assured me she didn't know everything that was going on. "I didn't know that. I'm sorry. She made it sound..."

"I can imagine how she made it sound. She's become quite the facile liar of late. Not very good at it, but she makes up for the quality of her lies, with quantity."

"But she said you were Ok with her doing it three times," Anna insisted. "It was the way she did it, the stupid sex comments, that caused so much trouble."

"Bullshit. I wasn't 'Ok' with her doing it once! She blackmailed me with divorce and the loss of our children. I made it very clear I wasn't 'Ok' with it before her second time. She had told me she wouldn't do it again, and promised to keep her friend Shelly out of things. Then she was off doing it a third time, secretly with another one of Shelly's fuck-buddies. Shelly was there of course, providing the big dick Danielle now craves."

Anna nodded. "I can see Dani and I are going to have to have a heart-to-heart. I can promise you this, Rick. If she even starts to look like she's causing trouble, I'm going to come down on her like a ton of bricks. I think it's awfully decent of you to give it all another chance. I'm not happy with your behavior that started this whole thing rolling. Not happy at all. But her response was beyond ridiculous."

It was my turn to blush. "Believe me, Anna. I'm as unhappy with my own initial behavior as you are. The worse thing I ever did, and although I can make excuses for it, none of them matter. I fucked up. That's the main reason I'm still willing to give this a go."

Anna stood, so of course I did, to escort her out. Instead she walked up and gave me a hug. "Hang in there, Rick. It'll get better if you give it a chance."

"I'm gonna try. That's all I can promise for now."

"That's a great start. I'm pulling for you, and like I said, if I can help in any way let me know."

As she walked out to her car, I watched her svelte form. She was a lot like her cousin. Same red hair, but I knew from the wife's gossip, that its natural hue was more a mousy brown. The way she colored it, they looked a lot alike. I wondered for a moment if her offer to help in any way was anything like Shelly's.

I shook my head, waving as she left, beating myself up over the thought.

~ * ~ * ~

At my morning weigh-in I was 212. Still 2 pounds more than three weeks earlier, but headed in the right direction again. I was disappointed that Danielle wasn't there, but she'd headed into work for a few hours, promising to join us for lunch and family day.

Yes, I admit it. I'd decided to try to work things out one last time. I'd see how the day went, and do my best to trust her, even though I was already at my desk, checking the GPS report on her car, verifying she was at the office. I'd even gotten up the nerve to call Shelly, to make sure she wasn't colluding with my wife again. I played it off as an attempt to apologize for the rude way I'd left her the day before after our run. She brushed it off, assuring me no apology was necessary.

Danielle was apologetic when she arrive home at 12:30, a good hour later than she had promised to be home. We didn't get out of the house as a family until 1:00, and the twins were bouncing off the walls and demanding to be fed.

After the initial hiccoughs I have to admit it was another good day. Once we got involved in family activities, I was able to forget about her betrayal and my humiliation at her hands. We hit the zoo, and a local train exhibit that allowed us to sit on a miniature train, one to a car, and take a ride around the property. Putt-putt golf ended the main activities, and we headed home with takeout Chinese. I was able to eat pretty healthy, and felt good about the time spent with the kids as a family, and getting back on a healthy track.

By the end of the day, we were all wiped out. I don't think Danielle was too happy when after we put the kids down, I told her I was going to hit the treadmill for a while.

"We must have walked 10 miles today, Rick. Can't you give it a break for once?"

"I could, but I prefer not to," I explained. "I fell off the wagon for the last couple of weeks, and need to get back into the habit."

She sighed. "I had a good time today. Did you?"

"I had a great time," I admitted. "We should have done things like this more often. I hope we will in the future."

That earned me a smile. "Me too. I guess I'll leave you to it then. You know, the door is still open. Falling asleep beside you would be the perfect end to a perfect day."

"I'll think about it," I told her.

She nodded sadly, and left me to my workout.

It was 11:30 when I finished abusing myself on the treadmill. I slipped upstairs to clean up before bed.

Fifteen minutes later I was standing outside our bedroom, trying to convince myself I was doing the right thing. She said she was sorry, and had gone out of her way to show it. Staying together would take the danger of becoming a part-time parent out of the picture. It would be better at work. If I dumped her and things got ugly, there was no way I could be Senior partner or even Managing partner. All our friends and family were encouraging me to give her another chance.

If only I could flush my memories. I braced myself and entered the bedroom.

I trust my wife. She'll never do anything like that again, I told myself. It was a lie, but you know what they say about a lie you tell enough times.

I trust my wife.

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~