Cheating for a Promotion

"I want that promotion. I need that promotion. It is everything I have been dreaming about ever since I was a little girl. I want to be in charge. I am going to do whatever it takes to get that promotion."

"What I choose to do with my body to get that promotion while I'm away from you has nothing to do with us," she said. "It's a straightforward exchange -- something I might need to do to secure the promotion. It's just sex, Kevin. It doesn't touch our love. I've never withheld anything from you, emotionally or physically. I've never shared our love with anyone else, and I don't intend to start now."

I leaned in close, my voice low and shaking with fury. "Lois, everything you just said is exactly what people say when they're trying to justify cheating and betrayal. You say 'It's just sex. It doesn't mean anything.' I can't believe that you're saying that."

I jabbed a finger toward my own chest. "Well, it means something to me. That's why I've always been faithful to you. But you decided -- on your own, without even talking to me -- that fidelity doesn't apply to you anymore because this is what you want."

I leaned toward Lois, getting into her personal space as I took hold of her shoulders so I could try to keep her from pulling away. "I don't know which is worse - the disrespect, or that I've misread you and our marriage so badly. I can't believe that me and our marriage take second place to your ambition."

"Kevin, whoa," Lois said, holding her hands up, trying to quiet me by using her steely voice and looking at me with deadly serious eyes. "You're making this into some life-or-death crisis. You're acting like I've already committed adultery. But I haven't even done anything yet. Nothing has even happened yet. I haven't decided anything."

"Lois," I sighed, my frustration boiling over at Lois' inability - or refusal - to understand how abhorrent her plan was to me. "Stop repeating yourself. I need you to really listen to me because I am only going say this once, okay?"

"Yes, Kevin. I'm listening," she said, her voice dripping with that patronizing calm tone she used whenever she'd already made up her mind. She folded her arms across her chest, signaling that she was done talking.

"Lois, you're right," I said, my voice steady and unwavering in a way that surprised even me. "It is your decision whether you choose to cross that line and fuck your boss for a promotion. It's your decision whether you stay faithful to me -- and to our marriage."

I took a breath, letting the weight of my next words settle between us. My pleas had no effect on her whatsoever. Her face was stony and her eyes looked at me with a conviction that I could not overcome.

"But if you go through with it, there will be consequences. Cause and effect. That's life." I met her eyes, refusing to look away. "And here's the final truth you need to hear: if you choose to fuck Jock Hanson, that will be the end of us. That part is my decision."

Lois tilted her head, studying me as if she were seeing a stranger. When she finally spoke, her voice carried an edge of cold certainty.

"Kevin, if you can't respect my decision, then maybe you don't respect me -- or love me -- as much as you claim. If your ego can't handle the choices I make when I'm away, especially something that means nothing and doesn't affect you or my love for you, then that's your problem. Deal with it."

"Okay, Lois. I'll deal with it," I said, my jaw sore from clenching my teeth, amazed at how cold and steady my voice was. "If you go through with your decision, then as far as I'm concerned, our marriage is over."

Lois continued to just stare at me, arms folded across her chest. I said "If that's your decision, Lois, don't touch me. Don't talk to me. And if you choose to cross that line, don't bother coming home afterward. Take your things because you will have already left me."

"Real mature, Kevin," Lois huffed, waving me off as if I were an annoyance instead of her husband. Within minutes, she climbed back into bed, turned her back on me, lay down on far side of the bed, pulled a pillow over her head, signaling that we were finished talking for the night -- as if our entire world hadn't just cracked open. I lay awake staring at the ceiling, feeling the weight of a future I no longer recognized.

For the rest of the week, the wall between us grew higher. I refused to touch her, talk to her, or do anything that might suggest that I was willing to accept her decision. She kept insisting that we needed to talk before she left, that we couldn't 'let things fester,' but every conversation she tried to start was just another attempt at forcing me to accept her decision.

One moment she'd coax, trying to soften me. The next she'd sneer, calling my silence 'immature sulking.'

After two days of hitting a wall of ice from me, she stopped trying altogether.

During the week before Lois left, I felt overwhelmed, misunderstood, and hopeless.

Finally, as a last resort, I called the two people I thought might be able to change Lois' mind, her mom, Evelyn Aimsley, and her aunt, Maxine.

My call with Evelyn was quite brief. I explained the situation from my point of view, she asked some pertinent questions and then said that she needed to talk to Lois and would then get back in touch with me.

However, my call with Maxine went very differently. Before I could explain what Lois has decided to do, Maxine started lecturing me about how some feminists think that a woman has a right to bodily autonomy that meant that a woman has a right to choose what to do with her own body without having her choices second-guessed by male spouses or by society in general.

Although Evelyn and Maxine live together, unlike her sister Evelyn who doesn't work, Maxine works as a professor of women's studies and feminist ideology at a small college. A long time ago, Maxine left her husband and since then she has been trying to "find herself," while she lived with Evelyn and helped raise Lois. Maxine remains a former hippie who believes in free love and thinks that monogamous marriage is a doomed relic of an oppressive patriarchal society. Even though I sensed that Maxine never thought I was liberated enough for Lois, Maxine had an earth mother personality and was always ready to hug and kiss me whenever we all got together, even giving me hot kisses on the lips that she always tried to laugh off, claiming that she had too many cocktails. I may have been imagining it, but I definitely felt a spark when we were together.

During my call with Maxine, I tried to tell her what Lois was planning to do at her corporate retreat, but before I could explain myself, Maxine began interrogating me almost accusatorially about what I had done to cause the situation with Lois and asking me why I didn't trust Lois to make her own decisions. Before I could explain, Maxine got mad. She asked if I had called Evelyn first and when I said I had, Maxine got mad at that too. I knew Maxine was trying to support Lois, but I had always sensed some competitiveness between Maxine and her sister Evelyn. I also got the sense that Maxine had some mixed feelings about me as well. She had always sent me mixed signals. One minute, Maxine would tease me for being a clueless male, but in the next minute, she seemed to like flirting with me. In any event, after talking at me for fifteen minutes, Maxine hung up on me, and I went back to brooding about what Lois was going to do.

My calls with Evelyn and Maxine were completely different because they had such different personalities. But I was extremely attracted to both of them because one trait that Maxine shared with her sister Evelyn was that they were both beautiful, though in completely different ways. Where Evelyn was tall, blonde, and slender, Maxine was short with curly black hair, and an hourglass figure. Where Evelyn was always perfectly put together and wore only the latest designer apparel, Maxine never wore makeup or a bra and favored long flowing skirts and peasant blouses. While Evelyn had a warm motherly, though flirtatious manner with me, Maxine was sharp-edged and judgmental.

One other thing Evelyn and Maxine both had were big breasts that were even larger than Lois' perfect set. I am not ashamed to admit that I loved all of their big tits.

The morning of Lois' departure finally arrived, and things were still ice cold between us. I was in the kitchen nursing a cup of coffee when she came downstairs wheeling a large suitcase. I had noticed that she had packed some of her sexiest lingerie and several of the slinky dresses that she wore when she went clubbing with her girlfriends and work associates. She was wearing one of her snazziest business suits with a blouse that showed too much cleavage for my taste. I looked her up and down, frowned, and turned back to my cup of coffee.

"Seriously?" She snapped at me. "We have barely spoken or touched each other for more than a week and now I am about to leave for two more weeks, and you are not even going to say goodbye?"

"You're right, Lois. Like the old song says, let's just kiss and say goodbye." With that, I pulled her into a tight embrace and kissed with all the passion I could muster. She kissed me feverishly until she finally stepped back and whispered, "I have to go."

I did not let her go for a moment and then said, "Let me look at you for just another minute so I can remember how you looked before you do something that can't be undone."

Lois pulled herself from my arms and said in what had become her usual condescending tone, "You can't stop being a drama queen long enough for us to say goodbye like two adults, can you?"

"Remember what I said, Lois. If you fuck your boss, don't bother coming back."

She just smirked and said, "Oh, I'll be back. This is my home and you are my husband until I say you aren't."

"Then this really is goodbye, Lois."

With that, Lois stomped through the doorway, got in her Uber, and was gone.

Chapter 3 - Evelyn arrives.

After Lois departed, I had no word from Lois. I promised myself that I was not going to mope, cry, or sit around waiting to hear what she decided to do at her corporate retreat. But the day after Lois left, I was crying for the first time in my adult life and doomscrolling on my phone looking for some message about Lois on social media, but there was nothing. I cried and cursed my decision to marry such a corporate whore. And I drank Johnny Walker Black scotch, lots of it, until at noon on the day after Lois left, the doorbell rang.

At first, I was tempted to ignore it. I was not expecting anyone. But the doorbell kept ringing, cutting through the fog clouding my brain. Finally, I stumbled drunkenly to the door, prepared to tell whoever kept ringing the doorbell to leave me alone. But it was Evelyn at my door.

I was shocked to see Evelyn. She was an older, more beautiful version of Lois. Evelyn stood before me, perfectly put together in a blue designer dress that was accessorized with pearl earnings and a gold necklace. Evelyn was slender, but her dress could not hide her lush hips and the tight fabric stretched across her bosom. In high spiked heels, Evelyn stood almost eye to eye with me.

I stood open mouthed, staring at Evelyn's sparkling green eyes, and voluptuous figure. I never understood how Lois' father could have cheated on Evelyn. The bitter divorce that followed had left Evelyn with the veneer that hid a deep distrust of men. She rarely dated and I always sensed a profound loneliness behind the perfectly appointed front she always presented to the world. Evelyn had apparently done quite well in the divorce because she now lived the life of a rich Southern matron. During my years with Lois, Evelyn had become comfortable with me, taking my arm when we walked down the street, brushing my hair out of my eyes, and staring at me with an unreadable expression whenever she thought I wasn't looking.

Now the beautiful Evelyn stood in front of me on my porch. I was surprised to see Evelyn at my door because she was not one to drop in unannounced.

Evelyn looked fresh and stunning, almost taking my breath away, in a conservative blue dress that could not hide her large breasts and full figure. Her long blonde hair was perfectly coiffed. She held a bottle of wine in one hand and a large overnight bag in the other. As I opened the door, she struck a pose with a sympathetic smile as she drawled in her rich Southern accent, "Surprise, honey. I'm here." But one look at me and her face fell. "Oh Kevin," she cried. "You look terrible. You're not holding up well at all, are you?"

I didn't expect it, but Evelyn stepped into my arms for a hug that felt like a life raft thrown to a drowning man. Surprising me even more, Evelyn kissed me on my face and cheeks, and she pressed her large breasts warmly against my chest. We stood there for a long moment, her hair smelled of coconut and honey, I could feel her large breasts pressed against my chest.

Evelyn then pulled my face down for a long kiss on the lips that said far more than just hello. She looked up at me with a new glint that I hadn't seen before in her eyes as she wiped her lipstick off my lips with her thumb and drawled, "Well, aren't you going to invite me in?"

Trying to get my bearings, I stammered, "Evelyn, what are you doing here?"

"Well, one reason I'm here is to apologize," she said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I wanted to tell you in person how sorry I am about my daughter. Maxine and I raised her better than that."

"Come on in," I said, grabbing her bag as she strode in, her hips swaying and high heels clacking on my hardwood floors.

She spun around, taking in the large, sparsely decorated room.

"This place looks like a lonely bachelor has been living here. Well, I was sitting alone in my big old house, and I thought, why can't you and I be lonely together. You know, keep each other company, at least while my fool daughter is off doing who knows what. I've been lonely for so long. It's okay that I've come up to be with you, isn't it?"

I mumbled, "It's wonderful that you are here. I was going crazy by myself."

Evelyn sniffled. "Well, I'm here now and we're going to get everything fixed up just right."

"First things first," she said, "Let's get you some coffee."

She glanced pointedly at the half empty bottle of scotch on the kitchen table.

Once the coffee was ready, we took our steaming cups into the living room where Evelyn sat so close to me on the couch that our knees touched. Taking my face in her hands and looking into my eyes, Evelyn sighed, "I am so sorry, Kevin, that I couldn't talk Lois out of her horrid plan."

I kissed her soft cheek and said, "You don't have to apologize for what your adult daughter decided to do."

Her eyes filled with tears. "Yes, I do. But having been cheated on myself, I hate cheaters. I hate to say it, especially about my own daughter, but cheaters deserve every bad thing that happens to them. I know all about the loneliness, self-doubt, and paralysis that you feel when something like this happens. I went through it for so long and I'm not going to take it anymore. You have to grab for any happiness you can get. So, I know exactly what you are going through and what you need to do."

I nodded, remembering that Evelyn's ex-husband had cheated on her - a betrayal that led to a bitter divorce I hoped I wouldn't have to repeat.

"Evelyn," I said, my voice dropping as I couldn't help opening up to her. "I know you are here to apologize for your daughter. But there's no need. If I'm being honest, I'm the one who should be apologizing because I'm partly to blame for what's happened. I can't believe I misread Lois so badly and that I missed the many warning signs she gave. I also believe that I love your daughter so much that she may have believed that she could do anything and I'd forgive her. But most of all, I'm sorry that I have put you in the middle of this mess."

"But what can I do?" I asked, putting my head in my hands. "All I can think of is to wait until I find out if Lois cheats on me too."

"Oh no, honey," Evelyn shook her head firmly.

She kissed me again - harder this time.

"You have plenty to do. You need a plan. You need to take action to protect yourself."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"First, you need to hire a private investigator to find out everything that Lois and her boss are up to."

"Next, we need to find you a shark of a divorce attorney in case things go that way."

"Then we protect your finances."

"And finally," she paused, studying me. "You need to think about what happens if she doesn't go through with it. Would you be able to forgive her? Are you willing even to consider counseling?"

"Wow, you are right." I said. "I do need a plan - something concrete."

Then I hesitated.

"But I must ask... why are you so willing to go against your own daughter? I thought you two were close."

"Kevin," Evelyn said, her tone turning serious. "I'm torn up inside. I love Lois and always will. But I hate what she is doing to you. It is wrong, and I will not stand by while she goes through with it."

"And," she hesitated slightly. "I've come to care about you too. I've always envied Lois for how you treated her like a queen. I wanted it to be me."

We sat together, Evelyn holding me in her arms, kissing my cheek again.

Slowly and deliberately, I turned my head and our lips met.

For a moment, we froze... then we gave in.

Soon we were kissing like teenagers. Our hands roamed each other's backs and buttocks. Her tongue swirled around mine.

When we finally pulled apart, we stared at each other in shock. She was blushing, and I couldn't believe how right it had felt.

She whispered, "What are we doing, Kevin? You're still married to my daughter... and I'm your mother-in-law."

I let out a harsh laugh.

"I guarantee you that, right now, Lois is not thinking about me or our marriage. I think she may have broken us the moment she told me about her decision."

I paused, then looked at Evelyn.

"But enough about Lois. What do you feel is going on here, Evelyn?"

"For instance, you didn't come all this way just because of what your daughter is doing at her corporate retreat, did you?"

"And you didn't come all this way just to comfort me while Lois is gone, did you?

"You feel what's happening between the two of us, don't you?"

She blushed again and nodded her head, her voice soft. "I do feel it. And... I have a confession to make. I didn't come here just to apologize for Lois. I mean, what she is doing is wrong. And cheaters should get what they deserve."

"But she is my daughter and I love her. And in her own way, I think Lois still truly loves you."

"But, honestly, the real reason I'm here is... I came to see you."

"I know it's wrong and I shouldn't feel this way about my daughter's husband." She swallowed and went on. "But I've had a crush on you ever since we met. You're kind, steady, everything that a woman could want."

"And if my daughter can't see that - if she is willing to throw you away for a promotion, then maybe she doesn't deserve you."

Her voice dropped.

"You deserve someone who puts you first. Someone who would never make you doubt her. Someone who would never do what Lois did."

"If she destroys your marriage, Kevin... I won't pretend I'm unhappy about it."

"I've spent years being the one left behind, too long hiding how I really felt, Kevin... I'm not doing that anymore."

She pulled back slightly. "I know I shouldn't be here doing this. And I know this might not be the right time... but I need to be straight with you."

"What do you think?"

I was shocked, not sure what to say.

"Evelyn," I hesitated. "I feel the same way about you. But I'm still married to your daughter, even though I'm tortured by what she's done. And I would never want to ruin your relationship with Lois."