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9/11. 2020. The day that GeorgeAnderson launched “February Sucks” onto the world.
There had been stories with multiple spinoffs before. “Law of the Heart” was the previous champ, with about 10 adaptations. “One Slip” and “How High a Price” are a couple of the others.
Obviously, the “February Sucks” phenomenon dwarfed them all. Maybe 1520 years on, Literotica just had that many more writers. Or it could be the poignancy of the itself. And almost certainly, dissatisfaction with how it turned out. After all, what Linda did was so heinous, so unforgiveable.
And Jim forgives her.
The list of authors who jumped in to take a crack at this reads like a veritable who’s who of LW: Harddaysknight, Hooked1957, saddletramp1956, carvohi, MattblackUK, Just Plain Bob, Skippy47, Kalimaxos, laptopwriter, sbrooks103, PKenny5860, GTO_Racer, Just_Words, satindesires, 012Say, demander, and Farmers_Son, just to name some.
And then, a little over a year later, along came GodivaFan to move the goal posts.
Before, all the FS redos were just that. Alternative versions. Moving the ahead by twenty years, “February Sucks Aftermath” was so perfectly consistent with the original that Legio_Patria_Nostra eloquently referred to its “artisan touch.” Though there have been over 100 more FS’s since, all have ignored the updated world GF created.
Until now. To know the context of my tale, you’ll need to read the original ( ) and GodivaFan’s sequel ( aftermath ).
This begins on the day after Dee and Linda’s meeting at the coffee shop, and is told from Jim’s POV.
I woke up, a little groggy, to the sound of excited voices. I could hear that Tom and Grace had already arrived to join us for today’s look at another college, and they were talking with Linda in the kitchen. Michael was probably still sleeping in, after his date last night. Since we had a half hour drive ahead of us, I thought it’d be OK for him to get another hour of sleep. Hoping that the coffee was on, I stretched out after a night on the lounger, and went in to join them.
Linda saw me come in and asked “coffee, honey?” while pouring me a cup. “Thanks,” I replied, and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. Then we all talked about the day ahead. Our private college visit could be thorough, and still get us back home by midafternoon. The plan was to host Emma and family to dinner, along with the 5 of us, or go out if Linda was too tired to cook.
After pocketing early acceptances from several schools who wanted him on their baseball teams, Michael had decided that visiting only the most likely prospects made sense. We’d already visited the state university campus nearest us, and today we’d be looking at a private college even closer by. The plan was to check out another state campus, this one about four hours away, over Thanksgiving weekend, and then sometime during Christmas vacation make a trip to Tennessee to look at the Division II school offering him a free ride. The state campus where both Emma and Tom went, and where each was finishing up masters, was out of consideration, as it didn’t have a baseball program.
When I’d finished my coffee, I went upstairs to shower and change, and figured that once I was ready to go, I could also see if Michael was awake and getting ready. I was certain that he’d already planned the morning timeline, and would be good to go around the same time as me. Still, Linda was anxious about it, so I promised to make sure.
Ah, Linda. Alone in the shower, which I made nice and warm to help me shake off the effects of a night on the recliner, my thoughts turned to why I’d fallen asleep there last night. The fact that Dee was back in town certainly threw me for a loop, and although Linda explained that she had firmly shut the door on any revived friendship, it was still too close for comfort. So I had retreated to the den, and wound up missing dinner, having dozed off in that easy chair.
Although her night with Asshole was over 20 years ago, anything connected with it could still drive me into a mood. I hated myself for that, but couldn’t help it. Yes, I had forgiven her, and together we raised a wonderful family. But forgiving isn’t forgetting, much as I’d like it to be.
I’m not proud of it, but I became a different man. If my loving wife could do what she did, then anyone can do anything. So my guard has been up ever since, except with our children. That circle of fairweather friends became hi, mostly at my insistence. This cost Emma and Tommy their best friends, Phil & Jane’s kids.
And my relationship with LW, bless his soul, was never the same. Although he meant well by his ploy with that beautiful escort, Ellen, I couldn’t help but feel that by not paying her to take it all the way with me, LW cheated me out of a chance to equalize Linda’s transgression with one of my own. And there is no doubt I would have followed Ellen out of that club, just as Linda had followed Asshole out of Morrison’s. The awareness Linda and I gained from this incident would have been no less if Ellen had gone all the way, instead of merely showing me how easy it could have been for me to do what Linda did. As a result, there’s always been an imbalance between us. Had I had a “leap night” of my own with Ellen, I might have been able to forget as well as forgive.
Be that as it may, I certainly don’t regret my decision to work with Linda to rebuild our marriage. After all, if we hadn’t reconciled, there wouldn’t have been Michael.
Although I completely love all three of our children, Michael and I share a unique bond. Mostly because by the time he was old enough to play, my promotion (thank you, Ann) had given me the freedom to spend time with him that I didn’t have available for our first two. Also, Michael is close to a “mini me.” We share a cautious approach to life, usually having a backup plan for everything, and can communicate wordlessly with ease.
Still, I must admit that Linda’s third pregnancy was a shocker. It wasn’t long after she had offered me a divorce during one of our counseling sessions, which I turned down for the same reason we hadn’t two years earlier I didn’t want to disturb Emma and Tommy’s lives. But we certainly hadn’t discussed having more children, and I wondered if this was a ploy to ensure that I couldn’t reconsider. Although I was all in, especially after Michael was born, I couldn’t still the voices in my head. So I swabbed him and got a DNA test, which happily showed he was definitely mine.
Anyway, these ruminations ended when I noticed the water cooling off, so I got myself dried and dressed. And I was right about Michael. His bedroom was empty, and he’d even made his bed.
So off we went. Michael sat up front with me, and although we exchanged some knowing looks, we were silent for the most part during the drive, while Linda, Tom and Grace chattered away in the back seat.
One has to drill deep to see the differences between college campuses. They are almost always green and lovely, whether as an oasis within a busy city, or one consistent with the small town surrounding it. This campus was more of the latter, and Michael was clearly impressed, while still asking probing and relevant questions. While going here would be a bit more expensive than the nearby state school, or the fullyfunded scholarship in Tennessee, that wouldn’t have to be a consideration, as we’d saved more than enough to pay for any school he chose.
By the time we were done there, it was indeed only midafternoon. Which got us home in plenty of time for Grace and Linda to head over to the market to buy the fixings for a big dinner. Linda wasn’t at all worn out; in fact, I think seeing Michael so excited about a college so nearby energized her, since she was obviously hoping he’d stay near so we could continue to go watch him play.
Not that she said as much. But frankly, Linda is no genius, and I can read her like a book. Especially since I had learned the hard way to pay attention to my instincts. So though she might have thought otherwise, she wasn’t too subtle in encouraging Michael about the nearby schools, and expressing little enthusiasm for the faraway one.
In the meantime, while Linda and Grace were out, Emma arrived with Chase and little Nancy. At 16 months, Nancy was beyond delightful. Clearly a bright girl, she could walk now with assurance, and even say a couple words. And as good a job as Linda and I did with our three, I was still impressed with how easily both Chase and Emma interacted with Nancy, encouraging and teaching her. They make a good team.
And our family dinner was, as always, a joy. Looking around the table, I couldn’t help but think that despite everything that happened a little more than twenty years ago, my decision to stay with Linda was the right one.
Michael wound up choosing the school in Tennessee.
Pretty shrewd of him, since he convinced me to parlay some of what we were saving in tuition into a new car for him to use down there. Meanwhile, Tom finished up his masters, and instead of getting an immediately highpaying job in big tech, decided to form a startup with a couple of his friends. They all moved to Silicon Valley, where not only the competitive action is, but also the venture capitalists.
So now only the Scotts (Chase, Emma and little Nancy) remained in town. And outside of visits with them, our nest had become empty.
Looking back, I can see that this was a bigger loss to me than for Linda. After all, she still had me. But although I still loved her, admittedly the love of my life had become the children, and having both sons (and our daughterinlaw) miles away, and our daughter fully occupied with husband, baby and MBA, left a gap that Linda just couldn’t fill. Especially since there were still those walls around me.
I didn’t see any of this at the time, even though I should have been aware and honest enough to realize that we had been the cliché couple who “stayed together for the kids.” And although it now being just the two of us could have been an excuse to ramp up the intimacy, that didn’t happen.
One reason is that over the past twenty years, with Linda was, least for me, mostly to relieve my needs, while giving her enough attention to “keep her on the reservation.” The free and easy love we shared before that awful night was gone. Oh, don’t get me wrong, she tried. But it was no longer just the two of us in bed, at least in my mind. Sometimes during, or right before, the actual , my dick would go soft. And she was much less attractive to me now, and I could hardly bring myself to lick the cunt which on that February 29th had overruled any love for me. Sure, I gave her just enough to make her think my desire for her was back in full. But it wasn’t, and now at 53, my libido in general had probably slowed down, anyway.
And another problem hit, coincidentally with the boys leaving. Linda’s menopause had begun a year or so earlier, but really began taking a toll that fall. Not only did she get more moody (which at first I misinterpreted as ual restlessness, a la Assholery), but she also needed a lot of lube for penetration. So much for spontaneity.
She did her best to overcome all this with shows of love (and blow jobs), and I think she often responded to me, or initiated herself, to make me happy, despite her lack of real desire. But there was now an emptiness inside me that her best efforts couldn’t fill.
I also felt stagnated at work. I’d been department head for eighteen years now, but the only way up from there was to run the whole place, and my boss wasn’t going anywhere.
Again, I didn’t see it, but I was probably depressed. Dozing off in the den became less an escape from Linda, and more something that just kept happening. Looking back, I realize she was worried about me, and did what she could to bring me out of it. And if you’d asked me at the time, I would have told you everything was going great, I was happy, and loved my wife and the family we’d built together. But I was also around the age when my father had started to get sick, so I guess I was subconsciously getting ready to die.
We decided to escape another sucky February, fly down to visit Michael, watch him play some baseball, and maybe see a few sights. Given my antipathy to hotels (another byproduct of “that night”), I booked us a twoweek stay at a B&B not too far from the school.
This would be our first visit there since that trip fourteen months earlier to check it out. Since I could read Michael so well, it was obvious to me at the time that he had fallen in love with this campus. So it was no surprise to me when he wound up picking it. Though he gave a lot of thought to his decision, I think in the end he realized that since his heart and mind agreed, why fight it?
I suppose Linda hoped that being away and back in baseballwatching mode would be a tonic for the two of us. Indeed, we did slip back into how things were when Michael was still living at home, and we were focused on going to see his games. The schedule in February was two or three games a week, and so that was mostly what we did on our winter vacation.
There were a couple of two or three day breaks between games, and there was only so much time Michael could spend with us, since he had to attend and study for classes. So we thought we’d make a field trip to one of the two legendary music cities in Tennessee. Problem was that Memphis was nearly 7 hours away by rental car, and Nashville was a little over 4. I made the command decision that we’d get up super early, make the four hour drive, visit the country music sites, have lunch, and then head back. So although she wasn’t as keen a morning person as I, she went along (like she did when the kids and I became avid campers, though she had always been more a dinner and dancing girl).
Anyway, we got on the road super early (4am!), grabbed breakfast along the way, and so had more than enough time to visit both the CMA museum and the Grand Ole Opry. Truthfully, I felt a lot closer to my wife than I had in a while, as we shared these new experiences together. We wound up having a late lunch at the very busy Fido restaurant, an exciting end to our Nashville day.
We were enjoying our coffee when I saw a chunky middleaged woman bedecked with jewelry approaching our table, shouting above the din, “Jim? Jim? Is that you?” It took more than a double take for me to recognize Jeanie Masters, who was my first secretary when I’d been promoted to department head. She only lasted six months before leaving to start her own business.
Based on the amount of jewelry and the quality of her clothes, she must have succeeded. Not shocking. She had been so efficient as a secretary that I learned I could take off time as needed, and the department could run itself while I was away. I used that template with all the secretaries who followed, which helped facilitate my working with Michael on his baseball skills.
“Jeanie, it’s good to see you. We’re just finishing up here, but would you like to join us? This is my wife, Linda.”
“Pleased to meet you, Linda. Sure, I’m between meetings, but would love to visit with you. “
“So what brings you to Nashville? Linda and I are visiting our youngest at LMU. How about you?”
“Oh, I live here now, got a place out of the city. You remember I was divorced from my cheating ex, and got custody of our son. Well, I figured getting any child support from him would be a struggle. So instead of asking for any money, I settled for complete ownership of all his paintings. He hadn’t sold much of anything, but I still thought he was real good, and that I could make a business out of his work.”
“Right, I remember. How old is your son now?”
“Bobby is 27, and working in graphic art. He got the art genes from his father, but is more responsible. Got that from me, both nature and nurture. His father moved out to California, and scratches out a living doing novelty portraits on Venice beach. How about you? Are you running the whole show now?
“No, Ann is still there, and I’m still head of my department.”
“They glassceilinged her, huh?”
I had to laugh. “Yes, their loss. Mine, too, I guess. But really, I couldn’t ask for a better boss. She’s been real good to me over the years.”
“Yeah, she’s good people. Too good for that old place.” She checked her watch. “Sorry, I got to run to my next meeting. But would you two like to come to dinner tonight? I’d love to talk more with you.”
“Sure, that’d be great. OK with you, Linda?”
“Sure, honey. We can find a place to spend the night here if it’s too late to drive back after dinner.”
“Good then, it’s settled. Let’s plan on 5. Does your rental have GPS?”
“Yes.”
“OK, give me your phone. I’ll put in my number and address, and if you can’t find me with the GPS, then call me and I’ll give you directions from wherever you are.”
“Great, see you then.”
After she left, we decided to get a place to stay the night, so we could check in and rest up before heading out to Jeanie’s for dinner.
Even with GPS, it wasn’t that easy to find her place. “Out of the city” was about right. Not only was it in the next town over, but also in a country neighborhood of large homes spread far apart. And it was already getting dark, too. “She must have done well for herself,” I remarked to Linda. “So have you, Jim.” “Take my phone and call her, so she can direct us from here. I can’t follow these roads from the display.”
Turns out we were pretty close, so with Jeanie’s verbal directions, Linda was able to guide us the rest of the way, to an impressively long driveway leading to the house.
Which itself wasn’t all that big, though it was extremely wellappointed. High ceilings, the most modern of appliances, and yet as rustic as it would have been 100 years earlier. What was most stunning was all the land surrounding it, and a nice lake view in the distance. The camper in me reveled in the possibilities. All our family camping had been at public sites within driving distance. Oh, to have been able to just walk out into our own backyard. Sure would have been easier on Linda, who could have gone back and forth between campsite and house.
Obviously, Jeanie had done very well. As was also obvious from the outbuildings on her property, which she casually told us was staff housing. We didn’t see any staff inside the home, other than the cook (chef?) who prepared dinner. Jeanie insisted we help ourselves, so there was no one actually serving us. Which I, at least, prefer to asking for something, and then having to wait for it.
Our table conversation was mostly catching up with our respective lives, filling in a lot of blanks, especially for Linda and Jeanie, who had never met before today.
“So, Jeanie, how did you get from there to here?”
“Long , Jim. How much do you know about my life before I became your secretary?”
“Well, I knew you were divorced, had a young son, and a business on the side, but that’s about it.”
“OK, well, I was a freshman at college, and met this senior who got my cherry. He was a good looking guy, an art major, who I suppose found it easy to seduce the fat girl.”
I could see Linda wince at this, and I wasn’t too far behind.
“Anyway, he got me, and the first time we didn’t use any protection. I quickly got on the pill, but it was already too late. When I found out I was pregnant, I was sure that John would head for the hills. He was just about to graduate, planning to just paint and paint until he made it to the top. Surely a wife and child wouldn’t fit into those plans.
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