Heard It On The Radio Ch. 2

After his divorce, Jim spent a good deal of his time listening to the radio. His favourite broadcaster was a woman who had the sexiest voice that he had ever heard. She was on the popular 9 'til noon spot on WHOT and had by far the largest audience in the region. He had fantasies about the voice on the radio, owned by KayCee Williams, but that was all. Jim didn't feel like dating, so when romance entered his life again, it came as something of a surprise. The agency that he worked for was a small but highly successful boutique operation and they had pitched for, and won, the contract to work with for the town's radio station, WHOT. They would write and edit the station's online magazine and blog, run their social media sites and write jingles and voice overs for a presenter to record. And the voice they had chosen? KayCee Williams! Jim and KayCee (for Katherine Charlotte she confided in him one day) worked together very well. They dined out a few times to get to know each other better and on one of these occasions the subject of their love lives came up. Jim felt comfortable in the company of KayCee so it felt quite natural and safe for him to open up to her about his disastrous marriage to Rosie. She listened patiently, only speaking to clarify any points that required it. Eventually she said: "It sounds to me like she wasn't ready for marriage. I'm no expert, but maybe with her condition, she never will be ready for that level of commitment? Who knows? Maybe she'll cheat on her current husband, too?" Jim shrugged and said: "It's funny, but I hadn't thought of that. Maybe she will? I hope she does! That'll teach the bastard not to go after married women!" They dated for just over six months. Eventually, he plucked up the courage to have a serious talk with KayCee. He explained that his bad experience with Rosie had left him somewhat gun shy. He wasn't certain that he had it in him to offer any woman the level of utter commitment that he had given to Rosie, only for her to toss it all back in his face. KayCee looked thoughtful. She spoke with him at great length and eventually he nodded and smiled and kissed her lips, passionately. "I do love you, you know, KayCee? And soon I will prove it to you!" Four days later, in their favourite restaurant, Jim went down on one knee and presented KayCee with a large diamond engagement ring, as he proposed to her. In floods of joyous tears she accepted. The whole restaurant responded in applause and the management brought them out a glass of Champagne each, 'on the house.' They apartments they were both renting were a little too cosy for two, so they decided to give up their leases and they rented a larger apartment in the same building were KayCee's apartment was. Jim became a well known and popular face at the radio station. He would help with the cookouts, he launched KayCee's Fan Club and managed it for nothing, he would help out at the station fun days and pretty much ran the station's annual telethon events. And they fucked like bunnies each and every occasion that they could. Children? That subject was broached but they both decided that children was something to be considered in the future, because at the moment KayCee was more interested in concentrating on her career in radio. She had developed a strong desire to be in radio from the times when, as a little girl, she would listen to her late father's radio broadcasts. Jim's career as a copywriter was also doing well. He was now the lead copywriter at the firm 'Write Now, the Stars,' which was owned by Dave Morris and his wife, Kathy. The wedding was considered to be a family affair for the radio station. One of the broadcast staff was a part time minister of the Gospel, so station management asked if it would be OK for him to perform the wedding ceremony and for the station to broadcast it, live? They both agreed and the wedding was not only broadcast live over the air, it was also live streamed on the stations' Youtube account. Dave was the best man, Yolanda Brown, a friend of KayCee's from work was the bridesmaid and, as her father had died several years before, KayCee was given away by the station Manager, Bill Kingsley. The wedding dress was a white/pearl creation that seemed to shimmer as she walked down the aisle. The reception was at the restaurant where Jim had proposed and a great time was had by all, as they say. They took to married life like the proverbial ducks to water. A year later, someone at the corporate headquarters of the company that owned the radio station decided that a broadcaster of KayCee's undoubted calibre was being wasted in the small town station thatemployed her, so they made her an offer of the type that she'd have been mad to refuse. They wanted her to move to a large metropolitan area 400 miles away. The package was to start at $500,000 a year, plus an apartment that the company would pay for. She discussed the news with Jim. "Jim, what'll I do? I wasn't expecting to ever be earning that kind of money. And the fact that Dynamic Radio wants me to be the voice of one of their biggest stations outside San Francisco or New York City is a fantastic thing for me! I feel like I've arrived! Like my ship has come in and I have won the lottery all at the same time!" Jim looked at her. "OK, so, you'd move to the city. Where does that leave us?" She looked a him and a frown clouded her face momentarily. "Well, I'd leave the city on Friday lunchtime, get a flight to the airport and we'd spend the whole weekend together and I'd get a late flight on Sunday for my first show of the week, on Monday morning. How'd that work for you, honey?" He shook his head. "I have a better idea. What if I move with you?" She gasped. "What? But you love being a copywriter with Dave's outfit! You are willing give that up? For me?" He looked at her, smiled and nodded, saying: "I'd give anything up for you. You do know that, right?" She grabbed him and hugged him. "Oh, that's so great of you, Jim! You have made me the happiest woman in the world!" When corporate HQ heard that Jim would be moving with his wife and their star turn, they thought that was a great PR opportunity. They used the fact that Jim would be moving with his wife to allow her to pursue her dream of being a top radio presenter to its full advantage. Dave was sorry to see Jim go, but was very understanding. He asked Jim to do some freelance work for him and Jim, was happy to oblige. "And if you ever find your way back home," said Dave, there'll always be a job here for you." The small office of the boutique copywriting agency gave Jim and KayCee a going away party and a present of a gift voucher for a well-known chain store. The one thing that Jim owned that could cause a problem was his Motorhome. It was a monster. Based on a coach design, it had expandable pods at either side and had two bedrooms (one with a King sized mattress) convertible sofa beds in the lounge, a fridge freezer, cooker, microwave, dishwasher and washing machine in the kitchen and an integral automated vacuum cleaning system. It had been ordered by a local businessman as a surprise present for his wife. What really came as a surprise was the fact that they were both subsequently jailed for 15 years each (a tax fraud scheme) so the government seized all of their assets, including the new, unused mnotorhome, and Jim, who'd always wanted one, was able to win it under a sealed bid auction. His bid had been a derisory one, in effect, Cents on the Dollar, but due to what he could only think was a mistake by the government auctioneers, his bid was the successful one and he ended up owning one of the best and largest luxury motorhomes ever built in the world, let only the USA! All of the belongings would go in a removal truck, KayCee would take a flight to meet up with the managers at her new station and Jim would drive his motohome the 400 miles, stopping off at a parking ground that was about half way. It all worked splendidly, and there was even a large secure parking area at the back of the apartments where Jim could store his motorhome. Almost immediately the decision to bring KayCee to the station paid dividends, as the listenership to the 8 'til 11 Morning slot grew by 25%, and kept on growing, week-by-week. Jim became a sort of househusband. He looked after the apartment, but he also recorded each day's broadcast. He would listen back to it and make notes later on his Galaxy Tablet and share the analysis with KayCee. This was immensely helpful to her as Jim would spot trends well before the official monitoring reported anything, so KayCee was always at least one or two jumps ahead. He was also earning a good salary by freelance writing for Dave and for several new local clients he had picked up. Jim was also making himself useful in other ways, too. He shared cooking duties at radio station BBQs for staff and specially invited listeners and he ran KayCee's fan club, which was growing in numbers, which still included some members from the original club he had launched. He also helped run the telethons at the new station, too. Sometimes he would host dinner parties at the apartment which was mainly for colleagues from the station. One who stuck in his mind, if only due to his size, he was a shade over 6 foot and fairly well built, was Chuck, who was a broadcast engineer and also a part time radio presenter at the station. Almost two years in to their time there, things began to get a little trying. KayCee began to suffer from migraine attacks. This was, he thought, due to the fact that she was having to put more hours in at work. She would sometimes arrive home as late as 5pm and she would be pale and looked washed out. Sometimes the migraines would make her vomit and Jim would solicitously massage her head and kiss her hair. Of course, sex was becoming out of the question. After all, when your partner is busy throwing up, having sex is the last thing on anyone's minds! This situation lasted for several months, but one morning, Jim was awoken by the sensation of his lovely wife sucking his cock to hardness. He said nothing as she worked on him. She looked up at him, took her mouth from his glans, grinned, and said: "Guess what, honey? No headache!" She kissed him passionately, their tongues entwined and Jim revelled in the thought of where her mouth had previously been... "Jim! Please! Take me! Now!" He wasted no time and took her in the missionary position, with her legs draped over his shoulders. They came at the same time. She immediately took his cock in her mouth again, his cock that was gooey and slick with their combined juices and she quickly brought him to hardness, again. This time she made him take her doggy style. And then, damn it, she got him hard again and straddled him, looking directly into his eyes as she fucked him for the third time. They kissed and cuddled for a while until, with a display of reluctance, she disengaged herself and said: "Sorry, Jim! I still have to get to the studio in time for my broadcast! Gotta shower, after all, I don't want to stink up the whole station with what we did! Mind you, with it being Labor Day, there's only a skeleton crew on today! Maybe nobody would notice?" He laughed and said: "Sure! I know what you mean! Look, I'll shower after you. I'll get some coffee brewing and get you some toast." She kissed him on the lips before she left for work. "You'll be here at 4.30, right?" she asked him. He said he would. Then she left for work and after his shower, he got to work on the apartment. Bedding in the washing machine, floors vacuumed and he got himself another cup of coffee. He was still smiling and his cock still felt a little raw from its early morning workout. He couldn't remember the last time they'd had sex that good. In fact, thinking about it, he couldn't actually remember the last time they'd had sex of any kind. He hoped this morning's session was a sample of what was to come. *** The owners of the radio station had decided that, with the extra income generated by the vast increase in the mid-morning show and other scheduling changes that the station deserved to have some money spent on it. They added a new audio processing unit to the feed to the transmitter to boost the quality of the signal and they had a new Central Control Unit, which was basically a computer operated desk that 'flew' the station. Although it had worked well during the trials, the chief engineer of the station, Don McLure, a bluff no nonsense Scotsman who had lived much of his life in the USA, was not entirely sure about it. The mixer desk in the main studio had been replaced with something that would not have looked out of place on the set of the old Star Trek: Voyager TV show, with virtual reality sliders and faders, images on a black glass screen, rather than the ones on the older desk that it had replaced, which used physical controls. Don preferred real, physical sliders, and real physical rotary knobs. He had smiled at that. Perhaps he was just getting a little too old for these technological advances? It was just after 11am later that morning and KayCee and her radio programme sidekick and best buddy Claire Kitson had just finished another one of their highly successful mid-morning shows. The news bulletin from their Washington-based all news affiliate had just finished and it was now time to go over to a syndicated show called 'The Hollywood Housewife.' It was supposed to be the musings of an 'ordinary' housewife who lived in Hollywood, who would offer her thoughts on the doings of her celebrity neighbours. It was all nonsense, as it was actually broadcast from the home studio of a woman who lived in Hoboken, New Jersey. But it was a very popular show and had the knack of, somehow, being more real than the celebrity gossip shows that really did come out of Hollywood, USA! Don sampled the first minute of the broadcast and then headed for the restroom. He had eaten out with some of the guys from the station the evening before and his stomach was playing up. Almost as soon as Don left the studio and the door noiselessly shut, the CCU failed. There were several seconds of dead air. Back at home Jim thought: "Shit! This can't be good! I'd best phone the private line to Don and let him know what's happening!" But the line to the station wasn't working. From the radio there came a series of staccato electronic bleeps like an old style dial-up modem and the CCU found what it had been seeking, an audio signal to transmit. Claire: "Well, that broadcast went well, huh, KayCee?" KayCee: "It certainly did! I think everyone will be pleased about that one!" Claire: "Are you really going to go through with it?" KayCee: "Go through with what?" Claire: "Telling your husband Jim that you are going to divorce him?" KayCee: "Yes. I asked him this morning to make sure he is at home at 4.30 this afternoon. Then, well, then, I have to tell my poor, unsuspecting husband that I want a divorce from him. I won't tell Jim this, but Chuck has said that as soon as my divorce is through, he'll propose to me!" Claire: "Well, are you going to tell him you have been having an affair with Chuck for the past three months?" KayCee: "Oh, my god, no! Of course not! Knowing I want a divorce from him will be enough of a kick in the guts for Jim. He doesn't deserve the added heartbreak of knowing I was cheating on him!" Claire: "So, you're not going to be honest with him?" KayCee: "Not if I know that too much 'honesty' would hurt him." Claire: "What are you going to tell him?" KayCee: "I'll tell him that we have grown apart, that although I still love him very much, that I am no longer in love with him. That I need time and space to find myself, that sort of stuff." Claire: (Laughing) "So, you ARE going to lie to him?" KayCee: "Well, yes, but you make it sound like that's a bad thing! And it isn't. Well, not in this case, as I just don't want Jim to feel bad about himself. If he knows I have taken a lover, he'll think that he isn't man enough and that'd hurt him." Claire: "Well, if he were man enough, you wouldn't have cheated on him, would you?" KayCee: Well, I guess not." Claire: "So... is Jim a wimp?" KayCee: "God, no! He's nowhere near a wimp. It's just that I found out how good Chuck is in bed and, well, what started out as just sex has grown into a full-blooded love affair." Claire: "So, there's no place in your life for Jim any more?" KayCee: "No. Sadly, there isn't. Jim would never accept being a cuckold and I'd never want him to be one. So with my feelings for Chuck so powerful, I'm sorry to say there's no place in my life for Jim, any longer." Claire: "So, you have no feelings for Jim at all, now? Gee, that's too bad." KayCee: "That's not true, Claire. I DO still have feelings for Jim. And pretty strong ones at that. It's just they're not enough any more, not enough to make me give up seeing Chuck." Claire: "You going to throw Jim out tonight?" KayCee? "Now, why would I do that, Claire? I can't be that cruel. I won't be that cruel! Not to... to my... to the man who is still my husband, at the moment. "By the way, the divorce papers are waiting in the top drawer of my desk at home. I have even placed Post-it notes on the sections he needs to sign. Just to make it easier for him." Claire: "What if he doesn't want to sign? What if he suggests counselling, instead?" KayCee: Yes, counselling is the kind of sensible idea he'd suggest. If he suggests it, I'd fake going along with it, pretend to be counselled and then still ask him for a divorce after the 'counselling' is over." Claire: "What do you want to happen to Jim?" KayCee: I hope he can move on, find someone else and have a happy life with that someone else. I really do want him to be happy, you know." Claire: "Just not with you, huh?" KayCee: "Pretty much, yeah." Claire: "How will he do in the divorce?" KayCee: "Quite well, actually. I don't intend for him to become homeless and poor. I can't forget that so I could pursue my dream career, he gave up his own career for me. So under the divorce settlement I worked out with my lawyer, I will allow Jim to stay in the second bedroom of the apartment until he can find himself a job and a place to live for himself. "And so as he will not lose out financially, I'll give him a one off lump sum payment of $100,000. That should tide him over until he can get a job and an apartment." Claire: "Didn't you tell me that his first wife cheated on him?" KayCee: "Ouch! Yeah, that's actually the thing about this I'm most uncomfortable with. The fact he was cheated on by his first wife." Claire: "Won't that make him feel like a two-time loser?" Someone who can't keep his woman?" KayCee: "Oh, shit! I hope not!" Claire: "How will you handle the affair with Chuck whilst you are allowing Jim to live in your second bedroom?" KayCee: "I'll be as discrete as I can. I won't bring Chuck back there. I certainly don't intend to rub Jim's nose in it. Eventually I might sort of let it slip to Jim that I have got over it enough to start dating. Maybe that would help to encourage Jim to start dating again?" Claire: If he wants to date again. Maybe he'll decide to live by himself, instead?" KayCee: "Christ! That'd be such a waste. He's a good catch, for the right woman. I guess I'm just not the right woman for him. At least, not any longer." Claire: "What's it like? I mean having sex with your lover and your husband? Have you ever taken a load of Chuck's cum home for Jim?" KayCee: "Claire! That's just NOT funny! I'd never do that to Jim! The truth is that not long after my affair with Chuck got physical, I stopped having sex with Jim. It was as if I were cheating on Chuck, whenever I had sex with Jim. "So poor Jim got cut off. I told him I was getting migraines. And he... he was so kind and solicitous to me that it made me feel really bad about what I was doing. In fact, I got so stressed out I really did start to get some genuine migraines." Claire: "That's just so messed up!" KayCee: "It's even more messed up than that, Claire. This morning I woke Jim up by sucking on his cock, then I fucked him really, really hard for about an hour. Three times in all! I guess he must have thought all his birthdays had come at once! He got me off at least three times, too." Claire: "I don't understand? Why did you do that if you are dropping the hammer on him this afternoon?" KayCee: "I wish you wouldn't use that term! It makes it sound as if I'm deliberately setting out to hurt Jim. Nothing could be further from the truth, though I know full well he will be hurting. And at my hand, too! We haven't had sex in three months. "I guessed that when we break up, he isn't going to get any sex for months at best or, at worst, for several years, as I know my Jim, he isn't one for one night stands. So I fucked him today so he'd have a nice, sexy memory of out last time together." Claire: "Jeez! That's a mixture of the romantic and the sick, all at the same time." *** Don walked back into the main studio and realised immediately that something was wrong. Normally the lights of the telephone system would be flashing. There wasn't one light. Strange. He touched the board and immediately noticed that it was dead. He realised that the monitoring system that should be relaying the on-air content throughout the building wasn't working. He grabbed a small and battered portable radio from its place on the shelf behind the mixer desk. This was his emergency on-air monitor. It had come with him from BBC Radio Scotland where had had began his career many years before. What he heard coming from the tiny speaker made him gasp with incredulity. "Aw, shite, girls," he muttered under his breath. He immediately had a pretty good idea what had happened. The brand new, million Dollar wonder machine had gone down. He hit the reset button, but it didn't work! He immediately pulled his cellphone out and hit the speed dial for the transmitter site that was a couple of miles away. "Miles! We have a major SNAFU, here! You need to kill the feed from the studio and go over the the emergency broadcast program unit. Put it on as soon as you can, if not sooner!" He knew that Miles, the duty transmitter engineer, would take a few minutes to switch over to the old-fashioned 8 Track cartridge system that held an hour of emergency broadcast materials. Basically it was just a collection of by now badly outdated tunes interspersed with announcements every-so-often. Meanwhile Don hurried through the near-deserted station to KayCee's studio. When he arrived he jerked to door open and pointed to the two women, then with his right hand he made the classic: "kill the broadcast" gesture of a hand slice to the throat. Claire immediately reached over and turned off the microphone. Claire looked at him. "How... how much of what we said was broadcast?" Don shook his head. "I have no way of knowing until I review the log tapes that we record for the FCC. But you both could be in a lot of trouble with management. I'm going to put a call in to Keith Sullivan, our general manager to put him in the picture." KayCee looked sickly. "Oh, God! I just thought! Jim always listens to my show and tapes it. I hope he didn't hear what we were just talking about!" Don glanced at her. He felt angry at her. He hadn't heard all of the accidental broadcast. Just enough to get a flavour of it. KayCee took her cellphone from her bag and dialled Jim's number. Jim had listened to the impromptu broadcast with a mixture of incredulity and rage. He could not recall ever having felt so angry in his life! It was curious. He could actually feel the white heat of his anger burning away, layer by layer, the love that he had felt for KayCee. "Fucking bitch!" he had shouted. "How the fuck could you cheat on me?" He wondered if it could have been a sick prank? What would he find in the top drawer of her desk? A note saying: 'Got you?' He wrenched the drawer open and there they where. The divorce papers. Then his phone rang. He looked at the phone, saw it was KayCee. He was about to ignore it when a brilliant plan came, fully formed, into his mind. He answered it and deliberately made himself sound sleepy. "Hi, honey? You OK? Your broadcast went well?" "Didn't you hear it?" she asked, a tinge of anxiety in her voice. "Oh, sorry baby, I didn't. After you went to work I must have fallen asleep again. You wore me out!" He gave a convincing yawn. "Fact is, your call woke me up. I'll get a shower then get on with some work. You'll be here at 4.30, yeah?" "Sorry to wake you, Jim, honey. Yes, I'll see you at 4.30 this afternoon." They said their goodbyes and Jim's plan began to come into action. She would arrive at 4.30pm. It was now just before 11.30am, so he had five hours in which to get it all together. First, he went out into the back yard. He filled all of the water tanks of his motorhome and plugged the Swedish-made charger in to make sure all the batteries were full charged. He put it on the boost setting. Then he began taking all the belongings he wanted to take with him down to the motorhome. He took his clothing out one drawer at a time and soon had the clothing stashed in the drawers under the King sized bed. Next his electronic gear including his main computer, his laptop, his iPad, his Kindle, the various tools of his writer's career, some mementos of his late parents, his framed degree and several other odds and ends, including his collection of spirits from round the world. He stashed those safely as he would have a long drive ahead of him. It was funny but he hadn't seemed to have amassed much as a married man. Maybe that told him something? He sat in the motorhome and used his iPad to access the US Postal Service and set up a mail redirect service C/O his old employer, Dave. He'd clear it with Dave, later. He also took his name off the one joint account he and KayCee had. One last look around the apartment, then he closed the door behind him. He had left his keys on the table in the kitchen, along with his wedding ring. His first stop was to fuel up his motorhome with enough fuel for the journey. Next stop? He caused something of a stir by parking his behemoth of a vehicle outside the lawyer that KayCee was using. In reception he told the woman behind the counter who he was and that he had come to see the lawyer working for KayCee Williams and that he had the divorce paperwork ready for them. After a few minutes a tall, thin man with a thick head of dark hair came to see him. They shook hands. "Please follow me, Mr Scott. We don't normally meet the spouse of our client like this, so this is a new experience for me!" In a ground floor conference room Jim pointed to some points in the settlement that he did not agree to. The lawyer frowned, asked him if he was sure. Jim was implacable and after a brief discussion, the lawyer agreed to have a new version of the divorce papers printed. Jim read through them, nodded his agreement to the terms and signed them. He shook hands with the lawyer and was soon driving his motorhome heading out of the greater metro area, on the freeway, heading home. But in reality, he had no home... By 4pm he had driven nearly 200 miles, so he was almost halfway to his destination. He left the freeway, following a sign to a parking and picnic area. Fortunately there was enough space for his motorhome. He parked and he waited for 4.30 to arrive. *** At just before 4.30pm, KayCee and Claire arrived at the apartment. "He'll be here," said KayCee. "You can rely on that. Jim's so reliable." Claire gave her a strange look, and shook her head. When KayCee realised that Jim wasn't there, that he had already left her she wailed out: "So he must have heard the broadcast! He... lied to me?" Claire shot her a withering look. "Fucks sake, KayCee! He lied to you? Get over it, huh? He lied once, you fucked around on him for three months. Grow up!" "But what shall I do?" she replied. "Call him. Now!" With your fucking phone!" "But what if he doesn't answer?" "If you don't call him, you'll never know!" To her shock and, if she were honest with herself, fear, he answered on the first ring. "Yes? What?" So abrupt, so cold. But then, what the fuck could she have expected? "It's me, honey. Your... wife... KayCee." "Oh, yes. I used to have one of those. A wife. Haven't any longer. Talk to me." "I didn't want it to end like this, Jim. I truly didn't." "That's the difference between us, KayCee. You didn't want it to end like this and I didn't want it to end at all! So, neither of us really got what we wanted. Life's a fucking bitch like that. So, tell me. What do you want from me?" "I just want you to be able to get past this, and to have a good, happy life, Jim." "Really? You want me to meet someone else, get married, have children and live happily ever after?" "Yes, Jim. I want for both of us to be happy, going forward. Me with Chuck and you with your new lady, whoever she might turn out to be. I really do want that for you. Maybe when it's all settled down, you and your new love and Chuck and I could get together for dinner, and stuff like that?" "Fuck that shit, you crazy bitch!" "Jim! Don't talk to me that way!" "Look, you phoned me. Id just as rather not be talking with you as talking to you. So stop with the shit, OK? "You want me to be happy? To meet someone else? I haven't dated in years, so with my heart breaking from what you did, I'll have to go out to singles bars and night clubs filled with nutty women who are desperate for a sap to be a father to their fucking brats? "Or maybe join a dating site and end up with some psycho bitch putting an icepick through my fucking eye because I remind her of an ex? "I'm not interested, KayCee! Is that the future you have mapped out for me? Trawling through the broken, the bewildered and the mad, just to get my rocks off in the hope of finding someone who could replace you? "To be honest, KayCee, I'd rather live alone for the next 40 years than live like that in the short term!" The next person who spoke was Claire. "Jim, this is Claire. Look... things don't have to be like that. Hopefully, you might meet someone nice, someone who you want to spend the rest of your life with." "Well, Claire, what if I did that? It won't make a blind bit of difference. My thinking is all over the fucking place. What if I did meet that special someone? Someone I'd want to spend the rest of my life with? I did that before, twice, and guess what, Claire? Both times they cheated on me and broke my fucking heart!" He paused before continuing. "Claire, what if it wasn't Rosie or KayCee's fault? What if I am useless in bed? What if I am so rotten a person that people have such little respect for me that they just can't help cheating on me? What if their cheating is my fault?" Jim heard KayCee quietly sobbing, as he heard Claire gasp before she spoke to him, again. "Oh, you poor, poor soul! You mustn't think that way! That's not right, it's not your fault! Please believe me! I'm your friend.?" "But are you my friend, Claire? You knew about KayCee's affair, but you never told me a thing about it. Not even a hint, not even a warning. Nothing." There was a catch in Claire's voice when she replied: "You're right, Jim. I was a crappy friend to you. I'm sorry about that." "Oh, yeah, KayCee, I expect the main reason for your call was to ask me about the divorce papers. You'll have noticed that they aren't in the drawer. "That's because I signed them and took them to your lawyer's office. However, there were two points in the papers that I didn't like. For example, I don't intend to spend my nights in the second bedroom crying into my pillow whilst I listen to you fucking Chuck in what used to be the bed I shared with you. "Also, the $100,000 alimony, I don't think..." KayCee interrupted him. "That's OK, Jim, honey. I will increase it to whatever you think is reasonable." "That's not what I mean. What I mean is that I asked your lawyer to take the amount of alimony to zero. I don't want any of your money, KayCee. Not one red cent!" That news shocked KayCee. "But... Jim... that means I can't do anything to put the situation right! I can't fix it!" "It's beyond fixing, KayCee," replied Jim. "You wanted to give me alimony to assuage your guilt. That's not acceptable to me. You thought you could buy me off. What? We've been together all of these years and you misread me so fucking much? That hurts, KayCee. It really does!" I'm so sorry, Jim. I am sorry that it got like this." "KayCee, I only hope your relationship with Chuck lasts. Because if it doesn't, that means you'll have broken my heart for nothing! "KayCee, you made a very important, special promise to me. And you broke it. You broke your word to me." "Oh, Jim, honey. I know. Those wedding vows were an important promise and I..." "Fuck!" Shouted Jim. "You don't even remember the special promise you made. Good call about you breaking your wedding vows. But that wasn't what I was thinking about. Do you remember the special promise you made to me? The one you swore on your grandmother's grave?" KayCee let out an animalastic sound of torment. "Oh, God! Oh my God! Oh, Jim! I am so.... there's nothing I can say or do to to fix that, is there? I promised you I'd never cheat on you like Rosie did, I even swore it on my grandma's grave and in the end, I cheated on you worse than Rosie ever did! You must think I'm a real piece of shit!" Jim, ignored her remark, as another thought came to him and added to the fiery rage that was burning through his mind. "You cut me off from sex, because you thought having sex with me was cheating on your lover? That's just fucking sick! And then you give me the going away present of a shitty pity fuck? And we fucked bareback, so when I do get back home I gotta get myself checked out for HIV and ST-fucking Ds! Thanks a bunch, you stupid fuck! That's it, bitch! This fucking conversation is over!" Jim disconnected his phone. The talking was done. Trembling, he downed a glass of water, stashed the glass away and after waiting until his rage had abated, re-started his journey home. He put a call through to Dave. He'd emailed Dave the evening before, the evening before it had all gone to shit. He'd sent four finished articles over. He knew Dave had kept him busy with a steady stream of work and that he had promised that a job as a copywriter would always be open for him, well, now was the time to see if hew could come through for him. "Hi, Jim!" Dave sounded pleased to hear him. Always a good sign, Jim thought, when someone wants to speak with you. "How are things with you and the lovely KayCee?" "Hi, Dave. Hope you and Kathy are doing OK. Look, the thing is, things between me and KayCee have gone to hell. She was cheating on me with someone from her work and she accidentally made a live broadcast boasting about how she was going to dump me. Bitch even had the divorce papers ready!" "Jesus, Jim! That's just so fucked up! Look, dude, do you want a place to stay for a couple of days?" "Dave, please, that's be great. I need to ask a favour of you. Do you still have the secure yard at the back of your building empty? Can I have my mail redirected to your address? And is that promise of a job still good?" "For you my man, yes to all three questions. But why'd you need the yard?" Despite himself, Jim laughed. "I have a huge motorhome and I'mdriving home in it and I'd like a safe place to park it in so I can live in it." "Sure, that sounds neat, Jim! When will you get here?" "I figure to get there at about 9.30pm this evening." "Great! Kathy and me will come visit with you and bring some beers!" He arrived a little before 10pm after getting delayed in a traffic snarl-up. Kathy and Dave joined Jim in the eye-popping opulence of the motorhome's lounge, drank the beer and talked long into the night. "Jim," said Kathy, "To say I am really disappointed in KayCee is a real understatement. We'll be here for you, OK?" After they left, Jim tried to sleep. Eventually he gave up and took a good slug of Maker's Mark. Which helped, somewhat. *** Earlier that evening KayCee had received an ominous text message telling her that she -and Claire- had both been suspended from broadcasting, but that, pending the results of an investigation, they would be receiving their normal salaries. However, the general manager, Keith Sullivan, wanted to see everyone concerned at the station the next day at noon. The situation had become somewhat more difficult as the impromptu broadcast had been recorded and had gone viral on the Internet on Youtube, Facebook and a variety of other social media sites. The FCC had asked for a copy of the log tapes to be sent to them for their investigation. There was an accidental gathering of the main protagonists in the lobby, Keith Sullivan, KayCee and Claire and Don McClure and Chuck who was stood glowering on the bottom steps of the staircase from the lobby. With his beard and his biker clothing and his cultivated mean expression he thought he looked menacing and manly, but in reality he just looked as if someone had broken a particularly sulphurous fart under his nose. Keith said: "Jesus! What a mess! Stupid enough to fuck each other, and dumb enough to broadcast the evidence! The FCC will be after us, more than likely. They'll want to establish if this is a fix to get better Nielson ratings or a real, genuine broadcasting fiasco! We need to continue this discussion in my office..." Before he could say any more, a whirling force of nature crashed its way through the door from the street. She was short, well-built, almost Hobbit-like in stature but she was remarkably pretty about the face. She look round the room and spied her target who cringed from her. "Cadfael!" she shouted at Chuck. "You cheating, no good piece of trash! I heard your name on the broadcast when it was put up on Youtube and I thought: "If that bastard Cadfael is cheating on me and the girls again, I'll divorce him!" "Now, look, Sally, I... it's not what you think... I..." KayCee shouted: "You... You absolute fucking bastard, Chuck! You proposed to me and told me to divorce Jim, so we could get married. And you have a wife and children? How could you do this to me? Oh, Jesus! Poor Jim! I divorced the sweetest, kindness man I ever knew and it was all for nothing!" Sally looked at her husband as he walked down the stairs into the lobby. His eyes flashed and he made as if to strike her. Suddenly she gave him two blows to the chin, first left fist, then right, forcing him to collapse to the floor of the lobby. He groaned. "You saw that! She hit me. I'm gonna call the cops on her!" Keith looked at him with disgust and said, sneeringly, "What I saw... 'Cadfael'... was some piece of shit trying to punch his wife who had to react in self-defence. That's what I saw. And I think we see the lie behind your bad boy persona, now, don't we? Anyway, what's with the weird name... Chuckie, baby?" Chuck/Cadfael glowered as he stumbled to his feet. Sally said: "His mother was a fan of some English writer who wrote about a monk in the olden days. It was like an historical version of CSI, with a religious link thrown in. Cadfael was a Welsh monk living in England. Apparently he prefers the name Chuck. Though I think adulterous asshole fits him so much better, don't you? "Years ago, he hit me. He promised me he'd never do it again, but I decided to take self-defence classes. And I'm glad I did!" Keith said: "As for KayCee and Claire, the jury's still out. But as far as you go, 'Chuck' the way you tried to attack your wife, really turned my fucking stomach. You're history. I am sacking you, so get the hell out of this building. Any of your belongings will be forwarded to you." In bad grace Chuck/Cadfael stomped out of the building. The meeting between Keith, KayCee, Claire and Don was somewhat anticlimactic. It was decided that being suspended from work for a week (but with pay) would be sufficient punishment for what had, after all, been an accidental indiscretion. Don face no censure. In fact, he was commended by Keith for reacting how he had to the incident. However, the corporate HQ had decided to sue the manufactures of the new piece of equipment as they no longer had confidence in it. *** Two days later Jim was seeing the doctor who he had seen the last few years before he had left for the big city. Dr Jane Bonner was a fine figure of a woman and was about the same age as Jim. She heard his tale of heartbreak with mounting concern. Jim seemed like a powder keg, about to explode. Although he was hiding it, it was clear to Jane that he was very angry. Very angry indeed. She took samples of blood and, wearing rubber gloves, took a swab from the inside of his penis. He gave an involuntary grunt of pain. "Sorry, Jim. Just try to relax a little. "With modern methods I can have these test processed by the end of the day. I'll test for all STDs and HIV, too. Come back here at 3.30pm, please?" He shook hands with her and went back to work. He was able to work fairly well. An ability to compartmentalise can be handy at times, he mused. Just before 3.30pm he returned to the doctor's office. Once inside, she made him sit down. She looked concerned. "There's some good news and some not so good news, Jim. It seems the last time you had sex with your ex-wife-to-be, she left you with a little present. You are clear of HIV, but you do have a sexually transmitted disease, Chlamydia. It's easily treated, but we'll need to tell every one of your sex partners. Or in your case, just your wife." "Oh, shit, Jane! That just takes the whole thing to a new level!" Jane looked at him. "Jim, the medicine you need is easily obtainable. In fact, I have a free sample from a drugs company I can let you have. But I am worried. Your wife's betrayal has left you so angry that even without checking your blood pressure I knew it was high from the redness of your face." She checked his blood pressure. "Damn it, Jim!" she exclaimed. "Your blood pressure is in going to have a stroke territory! I'm going to prescribe something for this. Also, and I can hardly say I am surprised at this, you are so very, very angry. I have trained in medical hypnosis and I would like to hypnotise you to see if I can help you work your way through your rage?" Jim shrugged. "Sure. That'd be fine. When can you do it?" "You're my last patient for today, so let's do it now, OK?" After the session was over, Jane felt emotionally drained herself. "Jim, I am so sorry about all the shit that's happened to you. All the anger that's raging and boiling within you. To find that the two women you married have both cheated on you, that's too much for a person to cope with, without expert help. Your anger to both women is understandable." Jim interjected: "My anger to both women? I don't recall being especially angry with Rosie. Oh, yeah, I was upset, but..." "That's just where you're wrong, Jim! But in the case of the anger that you felt for Rosie you suppressed it so well that as far as you could recall you'd really felt no anger toward her. But you did. "But it's fair to say your anger against KayCee is far and above the anger you felt for Rosie. And it's hardly surprising as her betrayal of her wedding vows and her special promise was far worse than that of Rosie, at least that's what you told me when you were hypnotised." Jane paused and looked at him. "Have you being eating, Jim?" He shook his head. "Not really. No. Look, this is awkward, but every time I think of eating I see an image of KayCee going down on me, of her sucking my cock which was covered in my cum and her juices and I feel sick to my stomach, literally. "I mean... she'd never done that for me, ever! Was that something she did for her lover that she decided to do for me that last time? The thought of her having sucked his cock, then, me and her... it hurts me, damn it! I can't deal with it!" Jane shrugged. "Can't see why you should have to, to be honest. "From what you have told me, plus what I learned from your hypnosis session, you are suffering from PTSD. I'll prescribe something for that. It's not a magic cure all, it'll take time, but it will help. Meanwhile, try meal replacement shakes to help keep your protein, vitamin and mineral levels up." A week later and KayCee and Claire were back on the air again. "This is KayCee and Claire on the KayCee and Claire Mid-Morning Show, broadcasting to the Greater Metro area on FM and to the world via the Internet." She paused and it was clear from her voice that she was troubled. "Folks, for those who heard my accidental broadcast last week after my regular show was over, when I outed myself as an adulterous cheating bitch, I can only apologise. "However, it's not you good, kind folks who sent my messages of sympathy or those who attacked me I am thinking about, it's my poor, dear ex-husband to be, Jim Scott that I am thinking about. And for those few of you who wrote me criticising Jim, you were wrong. Very wrong! Jim was, and is, a good, kind and loving man. I cheated on him. He never deserved it. And I can only apologise for giving him the STD of chlamydia. I know it could have been worse, but what I did was bad enough. "I am not going to go over old ground, but it's sufficient to say that Jim had been cheated on before and here was I, his supposed loving, faithful wife, cheating on him. And I had no excuse. None whatsoever! "I thought I could have my cake and eat it. Have an affair for sex and have my husband for love. Let me tell you folks, you may think that you can do this. But you can't. Not really. Eventually, you'll be like me, you'll break the heart of the one you claim to love. And all I can say is I am thankful that we don't have children as my affair would have hurt them just as much. "I am going to have counselling. But not the wishy-washy 'now, how does that make you feel?' 'can I relieve you of some of your burden of guilt?' counselling. I am going to have some real counselling that will help me work out how I can make sure I don't screw up my life so badly in the future. "At the moment all I can do is apologise to Jim for the great wrong I did to him. I hope he can find someone who'll treat him a whole lot better than I did. "I also I want to apologise to Sally, the wife of my former lover Cadfael or Chuck Benton. Sally and I are becoming if not close buddies, at least friendly as she is helping me see what a lowlife Chuck is, and how I really did lose everything that I valued. Ome more thing before I let Claire have her turn at the microphone... Dad, I am so very sorry I let you down." Claire said: "I'm sorry, Jim. You thought I was your friend and I thought I was your friend. Clearly we were both mistaken. I was no friend to you. I should have stopped the affair, but I didn't. Sorry, Jim." Needless to say that segment of the show also went viral via the social media channels and was picked apart by talk show hosts from all around the USA. It even made the BBC over in England. Jim heard it as an MP3 file that Claire had sent to him. Claire had also asked if she and KayCee could meet with Jim? It left him feeling ambivalent. The continuing sessions of hypnotherapy were helping him and he asked Jane if he should meet up with them? "It's entirely up to you. But if you do, here's a word of advice. Don't you go to them, make them come to you!" And that's what Jim did. He arranged to meet at the offices of Write Now, the Stars. They used the conference room. KayCee and Claire looked nervous. KayCee was the first to speak. She had thought long and hard about what she was going to say to Jim, but the sight of him changed all of what she had blocked out in her mind. "Oh, Jim! You... oh, honey! You look ill! Have you been looking after yourself? Have you been eating?" Jim shook his head. "It's early days yet, KayCee. I am on medication and seeing the doctor for treatment. As for eating, I have to admit that I'm not doing much of that." Why?" said KayCee, sounding distressed. It made Jim feel like a shit, but he was pleased to hear the distress in her voice. "Because of that last time we fucked, when you gave me the STD. You got me hard by sucking on my cock, even though it was filthy with our combined juices. You'd never done that before. So... my question is why? Why did you do it?" KayCee said: "And you are wondering if I did that for Chuck first, then brought that idea home for you? I can honestly say I never did that for Chuck. As for why I did it for you that morning? I was desperate for your cock and I realised sucking it would get you erect that much faster. And it worked. You did. I wish I'd thought to do it for you before, so you would not get the suspicion that I had done it for someone else before I did it for you." He nodded his head. "OK, KayCee, thank you for explaining that. It's helped." He looked toward Claire and addressed her. "Why are you here, Claire?" "To give moral support to KayCee. And to again, apologise to you. I was a fucking lousy, no good friend to you." She started to tear up and couldn't continue. She left the room, sobbing. KayCee continued to speak: "Jim, I'm sorry I allowed Chuck to work his way into my life. It took him several months of effort until I succumbed to his charms." "What was it about him, KayCee? Does he have a bigger cock than me? Is he a better lover than me?" She shook her head. "He could give me multiple orgasms every time we were together. He had such tremendous staying power. I thought it was some natural gift he had, least, that's what he told me. His wife Sally put me right on that. It turned out he had some special delaying cream that he applied, it allowed him to remain hard for ages and to delay his orgasm. So he tricked me, really. But that doesn't excuse what I did to you. Not at all! And you were the perfect lover for me. And I ruined it all. And I am so, so sorry about giving you an STD. "Chuck encouraged me to divorce you so that he could marry me. But after the broadcast went viral on the web, his wife Sally turned up at the studio, unannounced! So, when he proposed to me on the understanding he'd marry me after I divorced you were a lot of bull! I feel so freakin' stupid!" They talked a while longer and then the two women took their leave. They hugged him, and each planted a chaste kiss on his cheek by way of a token of parting. Perhaps the talk with KayCee had put his mind at rest? Jim's appetite had returned so he celebrated with a Big Mac meal and a large strawberry shake, which he ate at his desk. "Glad to see you have your appetite back, Jim. Did your meeting with KayCee go well?" said Dave. "Thanks, Dave. Yes, it did. We cleared the air, a little." Any chance of a reconciliation?" "No. None whatsoever. I might forgive her, but I could never give her another chance to hurt me again." *** Jim settled into a new normal, living in the motorhome and commuting the several paces to the office every morning to write whatever stuff he was called upon to write. One morning he awoke from a dream, which had featured his first love, Angie Cook. He knew he should have told Angie about what had happened between him and KayCee, but he hadn't had it in him to report back to her that he'd been cheated on, again. But this time he took the bull by the horns and composed a short email to Angie, outlining the latest shit in his life. To his surprise he received a phone call from her a few minutes later. "Jim? Oh, Jim! What am I to do with you? Getting cheated on by your second wife? That's horrible! Actually, I was going to call you today as I was going to invite you and Kay-Y, sorry, KayCee, out to lunch this afternoon. But if you aren't together any more, a repas pour trois will become a repas pour deux, instead. Anyway, I never did like that bitch!" Jim laughed at her joke. It was typical Angie and it was good she was on form. "Glad I can still make you smile, Jim! I'm back in the States and I was going to get a flight to the Greater Metro Airport, meet up with you and KayCee for a meal and then catch another flight home. All I'll do is get my tickets switched to a through flight. My plane gets in at 2pm, so I'll see you at 4pm at George's Place, OK? If you get there first, grab a table, if I get there first, I'll grab a table." They both arrived at a minute before time and a delighted George himself escorted them to a table. "See?" whispered Jim. Even George thinks we should be together!" Jim was intrigued by the expression on Angie's face. Not worry, so what, then? They ordered steaks (with baked potato for Jim and English pub style fries for Angie, a throwback to her time teaching in England) and a bottle of sparkling rose. They ate and drank in relative silence. They paid their bill, promised George (an old friend from High School) that they'd definitely be back and they went for a walk, arm-in-arm. They arrived, eventually, at their town's park. For a town of its fairly modest size, the park was a large one. Their seat was still there, all those years later. They sat and they talked. Jim told Angie all the gory details of the acrimonious split with KayCee, about the accidental on air outing by KayCee of herself. Angie then told Jim about her annulled marriage to a high flying lawyer called Wilson Kirkham. How she had caught him screwing the chambermaid who had been sent to turn the bed down in the honeymoon suite. "I hadn't even had time to unpack my suitcase, so I grabbed it and got the fuck out of there!" "So, when are you disappearing off to your next overseas assignment?" asked Jim. Angie shook her head. "I'm not. There's only so much teaching of random army brats in various locations around the world that a body can take. And I reached my limit a couple of years back, to be honest. The gilt is well and truly off the gingerbread!" Angie got a job working for a software house specialising in educational software and they began a routine of evening and weekend meet ups either in her small apartment or Jim's motorhome and drinking wine, eating snackfood and talking. They talked about their idiot, errant spouses about other ships that passed in the night and eventually they talked about how and why they, Angie and Jim, had split up. And whilst it was easy to at least conjure up some reasonable explanations as to why their spouses had cheated on them, Angie and Jim were really clueless about the whys and whathaveyous behind their split up all those years before. Eventually, after several weeks of dating, they decided that, as they had taken each other's cherries all those years ago that they really might as well make their relationship physical. "After all," said Angie, "We are both now testing clear for STDs, so as I'm on the pill, let's go for it!" "Jeez, girl!" chortled Jim. "With an offer like that, how an I possibly turn your offer down?" Angie, with a sly and slightly dangerous grin on her face reached down and grabbed his penis. "Oh ho!" She shouted. "Here's evidence that you are VERY turned on! Want to do something about it?" Suddenly, the humour left her face, it was replaced by a look of sexual hunger and longing. "Please! Please! I want you now! I want you always! It's been years too long! Now! Please!" They rushed to her bedroom, throwing items of clothing off as they went. They re-consummated their relationship with joyful and rumbustious love making. After a couple of months of dating they contemplated what type of marriage ceremony they'd want. If they'd even want a traditional marriage, after all? They both had church weddings, Jim had had a radio wedding, too, so perhaps this time it should be something special? Something really different? They knew someone from High School who hads gone on to be an arranger of pagan ceremonies including weddings, so they got her to organise them a handfasting ceremony. Dave and Kathy were their as helpers as was the pagan officiant and several people they'd been to school and college with. The motorhome was sold and they bought a house in the same neighbourhood as Dave and Kathy. Eventually they had twin daughters, Alice and Carol. They thought about another child but due to Angie's age decided against it. As for Rosie and Charles, when a mutual friend told them that Charles had left Rosie in Germany after he had formed an affair with a local girl, Jim expressed sadness over this event. This puzzled Angie: "I thought that just after the affair came to light that you hoped Charles would cheat on Rosie?" "I know. But I am over her to the extent that I hold no animosity toward her. I wish her well." Chuck eventually cheated with the wrong person. Whilst working on a radio station in Plymouth, England, he had an affair with the wife of a Royal Marine Commando. Chuck's corpse was found floating in the waters of Plymouth Sound. The cause of death was undetermined. The police interviewed the woman's husband but he professed astonishment that his wife, who was the mother of his three children, would cheat on him. Besides which, he was on an Arctic terrain training exercise in Norway at the time of the demise of Chuck. Claire took over the morning show and KayCee did a late night show which dealt with a number of issues like dealing with infidelity, other relationship issues, the loss of a loved one, and so forth. She won awards for several of the shows. But as she said: "I lost the really big prize." Chuck's wife divorced him and took him to the cleaners. And she eventually married Don Mclure, who had "taken a shine to the wee lassie when she had decked that piece of keech!" 118 3.09/512345