He had been comfortable in believing for years now that she was trustworthy, that was couldn’t be capable of cheating.
“She’s a grown woman with children, she loves her kids, she loves me,” he told himself.
For the most part, Leila portrayed that interpretation. She had enough wits about her to be attentive and maintenance the impression that she was still very much devoted to the status quo.
But there were changes that really disturbed Joel. The absences that were obvious lies. But lies of what? Did she really just need more space, time away from her responsibilities?
“Am I not doing enough to help with the family,” Joel wondered.
Was it her, or was it him, or was it just the times they were in. They weren’t newlyweds anymore, and work kept them separated so much.
He began spying on her. He would check her cell phone, but she was careful to delete text messages and call history. He found nothing that raised a red flag.
He checked her credit card expenses, nothing. Whenever she was with Ace, he paid.
Joel began monitoring the mileage on her car and it showed she was driving more than what her usual commute and shopping would explain, but so what? What did that mean?
Then there was the sex. It had changed. Leila was more aggressive, nastier, whorish even. She slobbered ravenously when she sucked his cock, like a nympho possessed. He had to admit he loved it, but her behavior in bed was so different.
“Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth,” he told himself. “Maybe I’m better off not knowing.”
But he couldn’t stop thinking about it. And neither could Leila.
She knew she was slipping. There were too many absences; too many times she had given Joel cause to ask, “Where have you been.” The lies were wearing thin and she was having trouble keeping it all in perspective.
Her phone conversations with Ace were getting longer, more argumentative. He was constantly calling on her to meet him at times that compromised her. She was finding herself saying no more and more.
He was like a drug. He was controlling her. I nevitably, he got his way more often than not. Leila was slipping into old habits.
Ace had begun showing up at meeting with friends of his. A few of them she recognized from the old days. They were jocks who had fucked her and she didn’t like being around them. She didn’t want to be around men who knew her that intimately. She only wanted to be with Ace and this caused new arguments.
“What is he doing here?” she’d say as she pulled him aside for a whispering argument. “Get rid of him!”
But Ace would not. And there encounter continued, without privacy. Ace took her into the friend’s apartment during her lunch break and coaxed her into smoking a joint. Getting her high, he massaged her thighs and back while she reluctantly went down on him, sucking Ace’s erection in her altered state while that third wheel sat across from her, watching her stuff her mouth with penis as he stroked on his own aroused erection and offered commentary.
“Mmm, dirty mama, such a dirty mama. When you gonna do that for me? Eh, Leila, I need me some of that hot action, too.”
Leila would either ignore him or told him to look elsewhere. The situation often made Leila tense, even paranoid. But for a while she was holding the line. They might be able to watch, but they didn’t touch.
That all changed after that incident in the bar, her shameful glory hole action. Word got around and Ace, who almost always seemed to have hangers on with him now, was letting his boys touch her. She was constantly fighting for boundaries and respect, only to be met with giggles, hands and dirty looks.
The glory hole incident also panicked her into getting two cell phones and she used the new one just for communicating with Ace. She was too paranoid about not erasing her phone call history in time. She knew one day Joel was stumble onto something there, so she made Ace pay for the second line and she kept it in the glove compartment of her car under a pile of tissues.
It was in this state of affairs that one morning Ace convinced Leila to meet him on her way home from work. He had learned from Leila’s constant expressions of reluctance to meet her halfway on some things. He had her make a list and he shopped for her groceries that afternoon. That would save her time. That was at least an hour of wife’s chores she could take credit for.
In exchange for this favor, she met him at a friend’s apartment that was directly on her way home, so she didn’t have to lose time driving out of her way for a rendezvous.
She wasn’t surprised to see two men she had known from her wild period.