BJ Bet

The rest of the week was relatively uneventful. I went to Walmart and bought things I would need in my apartment like bathroom stuff, kitchen stuff, bedroom stuff. Much more stuff than I figured I would buy, and stayed at the motel 6 at night. I spent my time at night researching divorce. We had no kids, we could sell the house, and would come out with about fifteen thousand dollars each after it sold. We didn't have much debt. We made about the same money. This should be relatively easy.

Saturday afternoon I sent Cathy a text telling her to text me when everyone was there. I didn't want to sit in awkward silence waiting for someone to show up, or have to rehash everything that whoever was late, missed.

At five forty five she sent me a text telling me that everyone was there, and waiting in the dining room. At five fifty five I rang the doorbell to my house. I know, dick move.

"Honey, this is your home, you don't have to ring the doorbell," said Cathy when she answered the door.

"Whatever," I replied as I walked past her. I was carrying a small gym bag with my envelopes in it as I walked into the dining room.

All of the furniture in our dining room had been given to us by Cathy's grandmother when she downsized. The table was really big and sat ten. There were four chairs on each side and one on each end. As I entered the dining room, there were three empty seats on the side closest to me. Larry was on the far end to the right, with Sandy to his left, with her back to me. To her left, were the three empty seats.

To Larry's right, and facing me, was Paul, then Brian, then Mary, then Alison . On the far left, at the head of the table, was Terry. Cathy walked past me and sat in the middle of the three empty seats, hoping to force me to sit next to her. I walked to the left end of the table where Terry was and said, "you're in my seat."

"Umm...Cathy told me..."

"Yeah, well, you can go sit next to Cathy. Bet her a BJ that I'll be sitting here, it may lead to something. Cathy, set your phone to record, I have a feeling you're gonna need this someday." Without a word, Terry got up and took the seat on the far side of Cathy. There was an empty seat to my right now, so I put my gym bag on it. Cathy started the recording app on her iPhone and set it on the table.

I sat down and looked around the table. After an uncomfortable silence I said, "OK, we all know why we're here. I'm considering divorcing your friend Catherine. If you give a shit, convince me not to. Terry, why don't you go first."

"Look, Henry, I'm probably not the right guy to ask. My wife cheated on me, and we got divorced because of it. I'm really sorry this happened." Apparently, Terry was not properly prepped before the meeting.

"Thanks Terry, I appreciate your honesty. I may have some questions for you later." I looked around the table. "How about you, Larry? What do you think?"

"For me it's a no brainer. She loves you, and she's beautiful. So she had some guys cock in her mouth, so what? You think she was a virgin saint when you met her?"

"No," I replied, "but I expected her to a saint after we got together. You'd be OK with Sandy sucking some other guys cock?" Larry was silent and Sandy started squirming in her seat. Me being the sarcastic prick that I am, and completely as a joke, I said, "so how long have you two been swingers?"

Sandy turned crimson around her neck and everyone but Larry had their mouth hanging open. Larry was staring daggers at me, but didn't deny it.

Cathy blurted out, "Sandy?! Really?!"

Sandy suddenly had diarrhea of the mouth. "We've only done it three times. I don't like it, but Larry does and says we have to keep doing it but I want to stop. I fucking hate it..."

"OK Sandy," I said calmly. "How about you and Catherine talk about this later? You shouldn't be doing anything you don't want to."

"You know what? You're an asshole!," yelled Larry. "I told Cathy when she started dating you and you couldn't play poker that you were an asshole and that she should dump you! She should've dumped you a long fucking time ago! You destroyed thousands of dollars worth of shit in my house because your wife was doing the right thing and paying on a bet? Maybe I should just destroy all the shit in here!"

"Go ahead," I replied calmly. "All this stuff was given to your friend Catherine by her grandmother. None of it means anything to me." He sat back down, breathing heavy, and staring daggers at me. "Paul, Brian, either of you guys want to try?"

"Look, dude," started Paul. "None of us wants to see our friends divorce. I mean, you guys have been friends of ours for..."

I cut him off there. "No Paul. You are not friends with us. You are friends with Catherine, I happen to be your friends husband."

"But you're friends with my wife," he said.

"I thought I was, then she stood silently by while you three held me back and my wife put another guy's dick in her mouth."

"But Mary didn't do anything, it was us."

I glanced at Mary and Alison, who were both looking down at the table. I don't think this conversation was going they way they had hoped. "Riddle me this, Paul. You walk into a bar and see your friend Brian's wife in the back corner, on her knees, in front of another guy. What do you do? Do you watch? Do you call Brian and hope he gets there in time? Do you step up and get between them to keep her from doing anything?"

"How about this, you go into a bar and see Brian in the back corner about to get a blowjob. What do you do? Do you call Alison? See, I already know the answer to all these questions. If it's Brian's wife on her knees, you step in and get her out of there and tell Brian. If it's Brian about to get a hummer, you sit down and watch and maybe join in. Alison would never find out from you, because Brian is your friend, and Alison Is your friend's wife. What about you, Brian? Want to tell me I'm wring?" Brian remained silent.

"See, the problem is that Cathy's your friend, but I'm not. If Cathy gets one over on me, none of you care because I'm the spouse of your friend, I'm not your friend. If I hadn't walked into that room, none of you would have ever said a word to me. You all would have thought to yourself ' ok, the seal is broken, next time I'll be the one making that bet with her'."

I looked at Cathy. "When did you stop respecting me?"

"What?! Honey, never! I have more respect for you than any man I've ever known!"

"When was the first time I told you it was OK for you to give oral to another man?"

"Well...never," she said meekly.

"How many times has this happened before last week?"

"What? Never!"

"Why do you sound so shocked at that question? Why should I believe you? If I hadn't seen it happen, would you have told me? Would you have waited till we got home and said 'hey honey, a funny thing happened at the card game tonight'? Would we have just gone home where you would have given me a nice, sloppy, post BJ kiss goodnight?"

"I...I..."

"That's the problem Cathy. You were willing to bet your marriage, but not your precious spot in your poker group. I came in second to these assholes. I can't accept that."

I looked over at Brian and Paul. " You jerkoffs knew that Cathy would value her fucking poker spot more than her marriage and you egged her on instead of talking sense to her." I looked at Brian and Paul and said, "how do you think you would take it if you had to watch your wives having sex with another man?"

They smirked and looked at each other and then turned to me. Paul said, "she getting paid for it?" Mary's mouth dropped open.

Not to be outdone, Brian decided to add his own comment. "Would she be learning anything new?"

I just smiled. "So when is the next poker game?"

There was a lot of mumbling between them, then Brian asked, "wait, you still want to come to the card games?"

"Nope," I said. "When's the next poker game, Catherine?"

"I don't know...why? You just said you wouldn't go anymore, but you keep asking when the next one is."

"OK, I've had enough, here it is. I picked up my gym bag and took out all the envelopes. "I had intended to destroy a couple marriages tonight, but you know what? I think they're already doomed." I put the envelopes back in the bag and put the bag back down. "Catherine, you ripped my heart out, and you actually asked you're friends to hold me down while you did it, and you still don't think you did anything wrong. Not only did you cheat on me, you humiliated me without a thought. Your spot with the poker group is obviously more important to you than I am. The worst thing, Catherine, is that these people are not your friends. True friends would never have done that to you, or allowed you to do that to yourself."

Cathy started to cut in. "No, no, no. Honey, you are the most imp..."

"Quiet, Catherine. My turn. You have never even apologized for doing it. All you did was try to get me to understand how you had to 'pay your debts'. You kept telling me we had to get past this, but never even acknowledged you did anything wrong. Even after all this, you still plan to keep going to poker night. If you're willing to bet sexual favors while I'm there, what would you be willing to bet when I'm not there? Am I gonna raise somebody else's kid because you lost a bet and somebody else gets to knock you up? We're done. You have a gambling problem. Get help. I'll be talking to a lawyer Monday. If you want to get a lawyer that's fine. As far as I'm concerned, you can have pretty much everything, including your asshole friends."

"You are such an asshole," said Brian.

"Fuck you, Brian," said Alison, surprising everyone, "everything he said was true. You people shit on his and Cathy's marriage for your own amusement. He was about to fuck with your mind just now by telling you that I fucked him, and I don't know why he didn't. You know what? I did. I'm tired of your shit. You are such an asshole! Henry, will you take me with you? I mean, could you give me a lift?" There was another uncomfortable silence for about ten seconds. Then Mary spoke up."

"You know what, Paul?" said Mary, "What she said. I'm tired of being the only responsible one in this relationship. Henry's right, you don't even sit next to me. Before this bullshit happened, Henry worshipped her. I always wanted you to treat me the way he treated her. This is the first time I have ever seen them not sitting together and touching each other or holding hands. It really pisses me off that you helped cause it."

"Henry," she continued, "last Saturday when this happened, I was as shocked as you were. I honestly thought that it was some kind of joke because I thought I knew how much she loved you. I am so sorry for not saying something then, but maybe it's better you find out now before you had kids. Can you give me a lift too?"

We left the house with Cathy sobbing uncontrollably, Larry and Sandy arguing about swinging, and Paul and Brian telling their wives "if you don't come home tonight, don't bother coming home at all." Both of the girls walked out with their middle fingers high in the air.

I took Alison and Mary to Alison's parent's house, and went back to my motel 6. I finished off the alcohol I still had in the room, and ate the junk food that was left. I finally crashed around midnight.

~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~

The divorce went through without many issues. We sold the house and she put all the furniture into storage. I got everything I wanted from the house, which, surprisingly, wasn't much.

Alison and Mary both split from their husbands and we three remained friends with benefits. I heard absolutely nothing from Cathy. Actually, I was disappointed. I thought she would fight harder and maybe try to force counseling. Apparently, I was right that the marriage never meant as much to her as it did to me.

I never really clicked with either Mary or Alison on a romantic level, but we three became really close.

One year after the infamous BJ bet, i was sitting in a bar that Cathy and I used to go to for special occasions. The divorce had been final four months ago. I sat there, feeling sorry for myself, and still missing Cathy. As I sat there sipping a beer and staring at the wall, I felt a presence behind me. I kept staring at the wall, hoping whoever it was would leave. I really didn't feel like having a conversation, and I was hoping they would just leave if I didn't acknowledge them.

"Is this seat taken?"

I dropped my head down and stared into my beer. "No, no It's not, have a seat."

"Good looking guy like you, I'm surprised that you're here alone."

"Well, I have two amazing friends that I usually hang out with, but they're on a double date."

"Yeah, I thought I had amazing friends too. Turns out my friends weren't so amazing after all. I happened to run into a couple girls that said there would be a hot, single guy, with a really good heart, sitting all by himself here at this bar. Figured I would come here and introduce myself. I'm Cathy."

I chuckled a little and played the game. "It's a pleasure to meet you Cathy, I'm Henry."

"Why are you here alone? Celebrating something?"

"No, I really don't have to much to celebrate. I'm a loser at relationships, couldn't keep my wife from cheating on me, so I divorced her. My two best friends, who happen to be women, are out with other guys. What about you?"

"Yeah, well, I guess I'm a loser too. I literally had the best guy in the world, who loved me with all his heart, and I hurt him in the worst way I could. I cheated on him and he divorced me."

"Did he do the right thing?"

"For him, or me?"

"Lets start with him."

"I'm not sure. I guess you would have to ask him. The people I talk to that know him say he's miserable all the time."

"Fair enough, what about you?"

"That's a tough one. When he divorced me it started the darkest period of my life. It forced me to look at myself really closely. I didn't like what I saw. I started counseling for addiction and have been going ever since. My awesome husband saw it happening and tried to warn me, but I didn't believe him. I guess in that respect, the divorce was inevitable. My addiction would have eventually killed his love for me somehow."

"I didn't stop loving you, Cath. I just couldn't ...I couldn't..."

"I know, Henry. I understand. First, it sounds so good to hear you call me Cathy or Cath again, and not Catherine. Look, I came here to explain my self and assure you that none of it was your fault. I know that, logically, you know that, but I just felt the need to say it to you. That Saturday night at the poker game, I just knew I was gonna win that hand. When I didn't, I was shocked, but determined to pay up on the bet. I didn't even think of it as sex, or cheating. It was like I bet a handshake. I was terrified they would kick me out of the group. I didn't see it as betting my marriage, because I never thought you'd leave me, it wasn't even a consideration. I figured you'd be pissed, but eventually forgive me because it was a debt I was responsible for. I figured you would understand that I had to keep my word. I honestly didn't think it was a big deal...at the time."

"And now?"

"I see that as the single most mean spirited, nasty, disgusting, hurtful thing I have done to any human being. At the time I couldn't believe you were being so unreasonable. When I started counseling, the doctor asked what happened. When I told her about the confrontation and how you had me record the whole thing, she called you a genius. After she listened to it, she said she was surprised our marriage lasted as long as it did. She also explained why you kept asking when the next poker night was. Just so you know, there were no more poker nights. I haven't picked up a deck of cards since that night, and I never will again. I haven't talked to any of those guys since two weeks after our confrontation."

"How is Sandy doing?"

"She's ok. Her and Larry also got divorced. Turns out that he was an abusive asshole, and she was too embarrassed to say anything about it. She finally decided to dump him. She's dating a guy from her work. Henry, you were right about everything. I put that stupid poker group ahead of everything. I loved you with all my heart, and I knew you loved me as well, so I just knew that you would understand and put up with it. If those people had truly been my friends, they never would have allowed it to go as far as it did. I just couldn't help myself. I needed to be a part of that group. I mean, I let that asshole Mark do what he did, and I didn't even like him. If you hadn't done what you did, I can only imagine what those games would have turned into. I'm so sorry about everything I put you through. I truly wish you the best life possible, you deserve it. I would love to be friends with you, but I understand if you don't want to. I'm gonna leave now, before I start bawling like a little girl. Give me a call."

Cathy got out of her seat and started for the door.

"Hey Cath?

She stopped but didn't turn around. "Yeah Henry?"

"Have you had dinner yet?"

I could see her shoulders shaking from the crying. "No, Henry, not yet." She still didn't turn around.

I got up and walked to her and put my arm around her shoulder and pulled her head into my shoulder and started walking her to the door. "Lets go get a nice dinner."

~~~~~^~~~~~

Cathy and I started dating again, and after a few months we started living together again. Nine months later we got married again by a Justice of the Peace on what was our previous wedding anniversary. We figured it would be easier to use the same date as before.

Cathy has stayed true to her word and has given up gambling completely. She never makes a bet on anything, not even as a joke. I know some will say that once a cheater, always a cheater. I don't believe that's the case with Cathy. I believe her addiction led her to do things she wouldn't normally do. I looked at the intent behind her actions. Her intent was not to humiliate me, or find a better lover, it was to feed her addiction.

The guys from the group are still friends with each other, with the exception of Terry, and tell whoever will listen to them that they dumped their wives, although they never have a good reason why. I never did hear from Mark, I guess he didn't want to discuss it any further. Last I heard, he moved out of town.

Cathy and I are still friends with Sandy, Alison, and Mary. Sandy has also given up poker. They are all going to be godmothers to our son...yes, Cathy is pregnant with a boy.

End

I hope everyone enjoyed the story. As long as I know that people are enjoying what I'm writing, I'll keep trying. Yes, dining room hutches come in two pieces and can be tipped as I described in the story. Don't ask.

No, police do not accompany ambulances to every call, often somebody has to request them for them to respond. Unless the ambulance personnel are at risk, or it is a Domestic Violence situation, the police would not be compelled to respond to an ambulance call, or press charges, against anyone, without a complainant (homeowner) that wants to press charges.

So if someone came to your home and damaged something, say a Jaguar car windshield, or a bedroom window, or a curio cabinet, or they drove across your lawn, there would be no charges pressed against the person that did it unless you requested that there be. Food for thought.

Kilty11