Jumping to Conclusions

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I finished up in Atlanta and headed for home. I left the airport and checked into a hotel close to work and then I went in to the office and brought Ben up to date. We talked about my taking the Atlanta office and set a timeline for it to happen. Then I took a couple of days off to take care of some personal business.

I was parked down the street from the house when Shari went to work and as soon as she turned the corner I punched a number in on my cell phone, said we were good to go, and a couple of minutes later a Ryder rental truck driven by my brother George pulled onto the drive way. Behind it a car pulled in and parked and Skip and Cory, two very good friends of mine, got out and joined George and me. In two hours I had everything I wanted out of the house. I took all of my personal things, the home desktop computer, printer and enough furniture to set me up in an apartment in Atlanta.

I saw an attorney and had him draw up a power of attorney for my brother and then I put a copy of it in an envelope along with a note that said:

"Call George when you are ready to sell the house. He will act for me."

I didn't bother to sign it and I dropped it in the mail. She would get it in about two days and by then I would be on the road to Atlanta. I didn't care about the house. We had refinanced to put in the swimming pool and tennis court and I doubted that there would be any equity to speak of when the costs of selling were deducted from the proceeds.

I had one more stop to make and I told the man what I wanted, gave him some money and then I drove over to the place where I had rented the truck and they hooked a car hauling trailer on the back. I drove to George's house and loaded my car on the trailer and a half hour later I was Atlanta bound.

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I called Ben and let him know that I was in place in Atlanta and he set his plan in motion. He flew into Atlanta that night and the next morning he went into the office and terminated Falstaff and sent all the people home for the day after telling them there would be no loss in pay and for them to return to work the next morning.

I'd spent the day checking out apartments and had settled on one by the time I met Ben for dinner. Over dinner he told me that Shari had been in the parking lot almost every day and sometimes twice a day -- in the morning trying to catch me coming in to work and then again in the evening to catch me when I got off.

"Once she even stopped Carol and offered her a hundred dollars to get her past the security guard in the lobby and get her up to your office. It appears that she still doesn't know that you are gone."

The next morning we were in the office to great the staff when they came to work. Ben brought them up to date on what was happening, wished me luck and then headed for the airport.

The next week and a half were spent moving into my new apartment, gathering the reins of my new office and getting to know my staff while they got to know me.

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On the last Friday of the second week I received a package in the mail and I set it aside for review over the weekend. My apartment was on the second floor and had a small balcony that overlooked the swimming pool. I bought a small patio table and two chairs for use on the porch. Saturday morning I sat at the table drinking coffee and going through the contents of the package I'd received.

It had cost me a pretty penny, but I felt that it was well worth it. Operating on the assumption that Shari had enlisted Steve (he was the co-worker that I had recognized) to help her organize the gangbang and that they had set it up in a day I was sure that he used some of his buddies to fill out the gang. I gave the private detective all that I knew about Steve and then I gave him the physical descriptions of the other three men that had been there with him that night. I told the detective that I wanted him to follow Steve and see if Steve met with anyone who fit the descriptions and if so get me the information on them.

The results were way better than I expected. Steve had indeed met several times with three men who fit the descriptions that I had given the detective and a stroke of pure luck confirmed that the three were the men I wanted to find. The operative that had been following Steve saw him meet the three in a sports bar and he had gotten the booth next to them. He overheard them discussing the gangbang and talking about when they could do it again. He didn't hear if it was going to happen because he had gotten up to call for help in following the three when they left the bar. It had been hideously expensive, but I had the names, addresses, and places of employment of all four of the assholes. I began to make plans.

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It was three months before I was able to arrange a weekend trip. I drove -- no airline trail for anyone to follow -- and I carried extra gas in cans so no fuel stops would trip me up. When I went into work on Monday morning I was carrying the satisfaction of knowing that it would be a hell of a long time before Steve Bowen used his sexual equipment again. Cast iron pipe applied repeatedly to the crotch area sometimes had a detrimental effect on the male reproductive organs. It seems that a hooded man had caught Bowen in his apartment parking lot and stomped the shit out of him before taking his watch, rings, wallet and everything that was in his pockets.

Three weeks later the same thing happened to Archie Mellon and Jeff Montrose. By the time I made my third trip Norm Reed had apparently figured out what Bowen, Mellon and Montrose had in common and he took a job in another state and got the hell out of Dodge. Pity, but three out of four wasn't bad. I debated hiring a private detective to find him, but then decided not to.

The next five months went by and the job was going well. I'd met several of the bikini clad ladies that lounged around the apartment pool and I got to know a couple very well. One, a flight attendant named Brandy, managed to find her way into my bed and when she wasn't flying or visiting her folks she was keeping time with me. It was a good arrangement for both of us until the day she told me that she was getting married to one of the captains she regularly flew with. I guess when she wasn't in my bed she was in his when they overnighted somewhere. As a parting gift she did set me up with another flight attendant named Gloria and we hit it off. Gloria let me know up front that she wasn't interested in anything but a friends with benefits relationship which suited me just fine.

I was in the dumps for a couple of days after losing Brandy and before hooking up with Gloria and then it got worse. I got home from work one Tuesday night, pulled into the parking lot, shut off the car, got out and heard:

"Hello Rob."

I turned and there stood Shari. I just stood there and stared at her.

"Surprised to see me?"

"More disappointed than surprised."

"Disappointed?"

"I hoped that I'd never set eyes on you again. The way I left you should have told you that."

"Maybe it would have if you had filed for divorce. The fact that you haven't made me hope that we could patch things up and get on with our life together."

"No chance of that. Your gangbang put an end to that."

"How can you hold that against me after what you did?"

"I don't even know what it is that I'm supposed to have done."

"Bullshit Rob. I told you that I was getting even with you for having that whore in your room when I called."

"I didn't have a whore in my room Shari."

"Don't give me that Rob. I called you and a woman answered the phone. I asked her who she was and she told me and then asked who I was. When I said I was your wife she giggled and said:

"Oh, you are the lucky one who gets his great cock all the time" and then she hung up on me."

"So you, without bothering to talk to me about it got stupid and had a gangbang to teach me a lesson. That about cover it?"

"Exactly!"

"First of all Annie wasn't a whore. She and her husband were waiting for me to use the bathroom in my room and then they were going to take me to a party where there were some people I went to school with. Annie had taken on a few more drinks that she probably should have and she was probably trying to be cute when you called."

"Get off it Rob; she flat out as good as told me that she was aware of your cock size."

"She was. Annie was my girlfriend through my first two years of college and then we broke up. Again, she was with her husband. All of that you could have found out if you had bothered to talk to me before ruining our marriage. As far as divorcing you is concerned it was in my best interest not to file, but let you do it."

"How do you figure that?"

]

"I would have had to split our assets equally with you if I had filed before I left."

"You will still have to even if I do file."

"Maybe, but the assets we would have to split would be the assets we held jointly at the time of filing and as of right now that is only the house and there isn't enough equity in it to waste time on."

"If you are going to wait on me to go for a divorce you've got a long wait coming. As long as we are married there is always a chance."

"No Shari; there isn't a chance in hell. You showed me what you really think of me when you put on your display of pique. You showed me that you have no trust in me and you showed me that you thought I was a spineless wimp who would just accept what you did and say:

"Sorry; I'll be a good boy from now on."

"You killed the marriage Shari and there is no way in hell that it can ever be resurrected."

"You are wrong. I don't think you are spineless. I expected you to be outraged just as I was when that woman spoke to me on the phone. I know you aren't a wimp. That's why I had them tie you to the chair to keep you under control. I love you Rob. I love you, want you and need you."

"That's just too fucking bad Shari because I don't want you. Not after being tied in that fucking chair and watching you for hours. You know what struck me the most as I sat there? The ease with which you did it and how quick you managed to set it up. As if it was something that you had done many times before. You seemed very comfortable with those four guys. It was almost like you were attuned to each other. Relieving a shared experience as it were."

Her face paled. "Oh no, oh no Rob. Never. I swear to God, never before."

"Unfortunately Shari I don't have any trust in you anymore so I don't believe it. But no matter; the once was enough. Look on the bright side. You did say it was awesome and that you could get used to it so now you can. Call your four studs and have at it."

"I couldn't even if I wanted to."

"Why not? I'm certainly not going to be in the way."

"You know why not. You know what you did and even if they can't prove it they know it was you."

"Sorry Shari; I have no idea what you are talking about."

"I'm not stupid Rob. When three of the four end up in then hospital emergency room and the only thing they have in common was that evening with me it wasn't all that hard to figure out who was responsible."

"Only three? Why not four?"

"Because Norm figured it out too and moved out of town before you could get to him."

"Any idea where he went?"

"Why would you want to know?"

"Just curious."

"You aren't that good a liar Rob."

"So those four aren't available so what? You came up with those four quick enough. It shouldn't be all that hard for you to come up with some different guys."

"I don't want any other guys. I want you. I've put the house up for sale and as soon as it is sold I'm moving here to Atlanta."

"Why in the hell would you want to do that?"

"To be close to you. There isn't anyway we can put things back together if we are six hundred miles apart."

"Haven't you heard anything I've said? We will not be getting back together. You being here and me seeing you from time to time will only remind me of you and your four fuck buddies and that is a memory that I am trying to get rid of not reinforce."

"Say what you will Rob, but I intend to get you back. It might not be easy and it might take a while, but I am going to do it."

"In a pig's ass" I said as I turned from her and went into my apartment. I never did ask her how she'd found me. Hired a private detective I suppose. I did wonder why I hadn't heard the phone ring when she called. It must have been when I was using my electric razor.

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She did sell the house and move to Atlanta and she managed to get an apartment in the same apartment complex where I lived. Not in the same building thank God, but still way to close to suit me. It seemed like every night when I came home from work there was a note slipped under my door telling me that she was making one of my favorites and inviting me over for dinner. Notes inviting me to go to this or that with her or to meet her after work for a drink. I ignored all of them, but the one I found last night had me thinking. It said:

"We both like sex and I haven't had any since you know when. How about a friends with benefits relationship? Or forget the friends and do a neighbors with benefits. What do you think?"

I thought about it most of the night and part of the morning. Shari was damned good in the bedroom and .... Suddenly I woke up to what I was thinking, shook my head to clear it and muttered "Fuck no!" I made a mental note to call Gloria when I got back from camping and then I reached over and turned the radio back on and listened to Toby Keith sing about how much he liked a bar.