Olivia and David Loving Wives

Olivia and David

David Markson was returning home from an enjoyable Sunday afternoon of golf with his buddies. He’s a “normal” guy. He loves his wife and kids without question. He’s been married to Olivia for 22 years and has 2 great kids, twins, Jess and Mike, who are attending a local university and living together on campus. He’s been employed by the same company for over 20 years. He’s a respected and valued employee. He and Olivia have a great circle of friends. David thought he had his life under control.

Sadly, he was becoming increasingly worried about his home life with Olivia. Over the past 2 years, but especially during the past 12 months since the departure Jess and Mike, Olivia had changed. Gone was the happy, vivacious and loving woman that he had married. She had been replaced by an icy, secretive and distracted person. While their social life continued to a degree, physical intimacy had largely ceased. Weekday mornings centred on preparations for work. Conversations, if any, were perfunctory.

David’s attempts at reigniting their marriage through date nights, flowers, naughty weekends, compliments and the like, had been largely unsuccessful. They were politely acknowledged but not enthusiastically embraced.

David arrived home and entered the house from the garage. The first worrying sign was that Olivia was sitting at the dining room table with nothing but a bottle of wine, two glasses and a sheet of paper. They greeted one another and Olivia asked if David had time for a quick chat. He said that he’d get changed and return in a few minutes. He went to the bedroom, got out of his golf gear, changed into some casual clothes, turned on his phone’s recorder and returned to his wife. She had poured him a glass of wine. David could see that Olivia’s level of anxiety was extreme.

Olivia had rehearsed her speech over and over. Her plan and the associated strategy, had its genesis about a month ago and since then, it had been further developed and refined. She knew that her husband would not take her announcement well but he was a trusting, simple and loving man who had never denied her anything. Today’s discussion would test his commitment to her. Olivia was confident that if she held her course, her future as a 21st century woman would be assured. She reminded herself that she will only get one shot at her life. An opportunity missed is an opportunity lost. For the past 25 years, Olivia had been a loving girlfriend, wife and mother. Now, with the children gone, it was time to embark on the next phase of her life.

She began, “David, first, could I ask you to let me express myself before I answer any questions you may have. I’ve been developing this strategy of some months and it has gone through a number of iterations. I need to apologize for being hard to be around for quite some time. It seems that over time, I’ve allowed myself to drift into a situation where I’ve become ambivalent about the important things in my life. I’ve fallen short of the mark as a wife, a mother and a person. I’ve been doing a great deal of soul searching about my life and I’ve decided to make a number of significant changes that are designed to make me a more complete person. Some of the things might appear small and others might be difficult for you to accept.

“I’m going to rejoin the gym and commence a structured fitness and dietary program. Next, I’m going to take up yoga. I feel that the fundamental tenets of yoga are consistent with the direction in which I’d like my life to evolve.

“I’ve looked closely at my job to determine if it’s an impediment to the “new me”. On balance, even though I have let my performance slide, with their patience and support, I am confident that I will be able to return to the performance levels that I demonstrated a couple of years ago and which they valued. Importantly, however, I want to set a clear delineation between my work and private “new” life.

“I’m going to invest greater effort to improve my relationships with my family and friends. I know I have a lot of work to do to reestablish the loving relationship that I treasured with the twins. I hope that you will be able to help me with this. I know that you have always been closer to them than I have been.

“My relationship with you has been the most challenging issue for me to consider. For me to be the person I need to become, our relationship must be a cornerstone of my new life. We have drifted apart. Our partnership has become stale. I acknowledge that you have tried valiantly to resuscitate our marriage but, as they say, “it takes two to tango”. I need to relearn how to be a wife, a friend and a lover. I want to better understand what I want from my life partner. I want to grow old with you. I want to crave you. I believe with all my heart that our marriage is strong and our love for one another cannot be questioned. I would like to promise to you that, going forward, I will embrace your efforts to improve our relationship.

“I have decided, however, to broaden my experience to better understand what I need from you as a life partner. In order to achieve this, I have decided to begin dating other men. This will enable me to experience the full range of emotional and physical feelings that I need to rebuild our life as husband and wife. I need to relearn how to give and receive emotional and physical stimuli. I understand that this will likely cause you some unhappiness but please be assured that my intentions are just as I have expressed. I want us to be the best couple we can be.

“David, I know that you are a “black and white” kind of person, but I beg you to see this, at least in part, from my perspective. I need you to understand that between the black and white, there are shades of grey. I’ve decided to go on my first date on Friday night. I’ll return to you before lunch on Saturday. I want to be as open with you as possible, so we can then talk about my date over lunch. I’m certain that with time and many discussions, you will agree that what I am doing is a good thing for all concerned.”

By now, Olivia was almost hyperventilating but nonetheless, to her credit, she pressed on with a look akin to abject terror, “David, I understand that all this might be a little confronting for you. Maybe you’d like some time to digest this before we reconvene.”

After a while, David stood unsteadily and with no emotion said, “Olivia, I can see that you’ve given this a great deal of thought. I appreciate you giving me the chance have a good think before I respond. I’m going to head off for a while and gather my thoughts. Maybe we can discuss this later this evening or tomorrow?”

“David, you know that I love you only,” She said with a trembling voice. “Please keep an open mind about this. Please let me know when you’re ready.”

With that, David grabbed his coat and headed for the garage. As he drove away from the house, he growled in anger and repeatedly bashed the steering wheel. He couldn’t imagine how things could have turned out worse. His wife wants to go on dates and fuck other men in order to “make our marriage better”. What a crock of shit! She’s absolutely deluded! What is she thinking?

As he enjoyed his burger and a second coffee, David decided that he had handled Olivia’s speech pretty well even if he elected not to immediately engage her. He was able to maintain an outward appearance of calmness. She had been preparing her ambush for weeks, if not months. He listened to the recording a couple of times before his next move materialised. He was going to consult with his closest confidants, the twins. He called his daughter, Jess, and asked her to set up one of her “threesomes” with her brother Mike.

“DAD! They’re not called “threesomes”! They’re called “conference calls”. Threesomes are very different things.

“… but don’t worry Dad, the lazy turd is lying here on the lounge. Mark my words, it’s really true that Uni students don’t have social lives. All of those stories about the “wild days” at university are just fantasy. DAD! Am I destined to spend the rest of my life sitting on a nasty couch while my brother eats my Cheetos, drinks my beer and farts? Just like he does every damn night. DAD! I’m 19 years old. I need a little loving. I’m ripe!” Jess said with a giggle.

“OK, Jess, thanks for that educative discourse. I need to have a very important talk to you both. This is not a joke. I repeat. THIS IS NOT A JOKE!” We’re talking “911” here!”

“Dad, you’re scaring me. Is everything OK?” Jess said with a nervous glance towards her brother.

“No, baby. Everything is far from OK,” Her father said with a hint of panic in his voice.

For the first time, Mike piped up and with his usual laidback tone said, “What’s up Dad?”

“Is it OK if I come over?”

“Sure Dad. I’ll put some coffee on.” Jess answered.

“I may need something a little stronger. I’ll see you in 30 minutes.”

“OK Dad, drive carefully. Bye”

David arrived at his kid’s apartment and began, “Look guys, you know that your Mom and I have been going through some tough times recently. I have a recording of a discussion that I’ve just had with her. Is it OK if play it for you?”

“OK, Dad. It sounds serious. We’re listening,” Jess said with a concerned note in her voice.

David played the recording.

The silence was deafening until Jess finally exploded, “THAT FUCKING BITCH! Mike and I put up with her shit for 12 months before we had to leave and now she’s done this to you! Ignoring how she treated us, she’s been disrespecting you for years and now she’s kicking you in the balls and expects you to roll over and enjoy it! How stupid does she think you are?”

“Right now, Sweet Cheeks, I don’t know how stupid I’m supposed to be. As you would expect, you guys were my first call, my only call. Maybe we can kick this around a little and figure out what the fuck I should do. I need your help.”

Throughout these preliminaries, Mike didn’t say too much. He’s always been the strong and silent type. He’s sharp as a tack and people tend to hang on his every word. Unlike his sister who is breathtakingly volatile, Mike “thinks twice and acts once”.

David was often amazed at how his twin children could be so utterly different but so wonderfully compatible. He loved them so much. Just now, and despite the absolute clusterfuck that his life was becoming, he couldn’t help but marvel at the type of people they were turning out to be. He looked at them both and somehow felt a little calmer.

He was brought back to the conversation by Jess who, by now, was incandescent with rage. She was prowling back and forth across the lounge room like a panther. Her eyes were on fire, “Dad! Pay attention! We’re behind the game! We’re fifteen points down in the first quarter! FUCK! DAD! We may be in the second quarter! We’ve got to catch up! It sounds like Mom’s been planning this for weeks, if not months. She’s got some guy in the wings and she’s trying to justify her romp in the sack with him, if she isn’t already him! Friday night is our “go hard or go home” moment.”

“OK! OK! That’s why we’re talking!” David exclaimed defensively his hands in the “surrender” position.

While Jess was recovering from her initial barrage, Mike quietly asked, “Dad, are you OK?”

“No, Mike. No, I’m not. While I may have seen something like this coming for a while, it’s kind of surreal to see it arrive. I get the feeling that I’m losing her, or I may have already lost her. Your Mom wouldn’t have made her speech without considering the likely consequences.”

“Have you had any thoughts about “where to from here”?” Mike asked.

“Yeah, I’ve started to sketch it out but you guys are a lot smarter than me. You’ve both got “school smarts” and “street smarts”.”

Jess saw an opportunity to jump back in, “Too right, Daddyo! It’ll be 3 against 1. We’re the 3 Amigos! She won’t stand a chance. She’ll never see it coming.”

“OK. Ninja Girl. I love you more than doughnuts, but you need to take a chill pill,” David said.

Jess jumped into her father’s lap and gave him a big hug.

Meanwhile, Mike calmly mused almost to himself, “I think her entire speech was a smoke screen for the “dating other men” part. And, there’s a lot that she’s not letting on. I agree with Jess, she is definitely seeing some guy. She probably timed her announcement in order to limit the potential damage you can do. She wants to keep you on the back foot until “D Day”. We are a long way behind. We need intel. Mom probably won’t expect you to regroup and get on the front foot too quickly. She’ll pay a high price for underestimating you. She’s obviously communicating with this guy probably via text messages and maybe emails. Yeah, they probably work together. Do you have access to her phone?”

“She rarely leaves it alone and anyway; I don’t have her access code.”

Jess jumped in again, “DAD, I know her code! When Mom and I had lunch last week, she was going on and on about the need to improve her life and blah, blah, blah. Well, it looked like the lunch was never going to end and I needed to call my bestie, Stella, to tell her I’d be late for our study group. I asked Mom for her phone. She grabbed it from her bag and keyed in her code while I pretended not to look. I’m pretty sure it’s 1919. Get it? Mike and I are both 19. It was easy to see on her keypad.”

“Excellent, sis. That might just be the break we need. With any luck, Mom might even use the same code for her laptop,” Mike mused.

“Dad, we can’t do all the work for you. You’ve got to get access to her phone, and quick.”

David thought about it for a moment and then said, “She leaves her phone on the charger on her bedside table when she showers in the morning. That might give me 15 minutes to do some spying.”

Mike then said, “I don’t know much about spyware for phones, so you might have to do it the oldfashioned way. When you get in, go straight to her text message app and look at the most recent messages. There’ll be one from a name you don’t recognise. It will probably be an alias to throw you off the scent, just in case you saw an incoming message. With any luck, the message train will extend back weeks or months. I don’t know if it’s possible to export text messages, so you’ll have to photograph it screenbyscreen using your phone. When you’re done, cover your tracks and “get the hell out of Dodge”. Also, it might be a good idea to take some time off work. This week is going to be tough for you anyway but you might also need some flexibility.”

“Good advice, Mike.”

David then turned to his daughter, “Jess, there’s one other thing I was going to ask for your help with. Your Bestie, Stella’s dad, is a divorce lawyer, isn’t he?”

“Yeah, Dad but he calls himself a “family law attorney”.”

“Well, maybe you could use your influence to get me an appointment to see him ASAP. I just need to understand what I’m getting myself into and whether I need to put in place any measures to protect myself or you guys.”

“Good idea Dad. I’ll call Stella now and get the ball rolling. I’ll give her your number.”

“Thanks, babe.”

Mike’s mind was now going at full speed. David could see that his son had tunedin to the problem.

“Dad, when you get home, you might let Mom know that you’re not willing to be in a marriage where she dates other men. She’ll be expecting pushback from you and she’ll have a wellprepared defence. Just listen to what she has to say. Don’t forget to record the conversation. Try and be calm and measured. Make strong eye contact. Try not to show emotion. If you want to send her a strong message, move in to the guest bedroom. She won’t expect that.”

David was trying to write down each of his son’s suggestions.

“Don’t let her know that you’ve taken the week off. Tomorrow morning, after you’ve checked her phone, it might be good if you leave the house immediately. She’ll be expecting to see you for breakfast and will be keen to gauge how you’re taking her announcement. That might throw her off a little more. Go home after she leaves for work. You can sit down with a coffee and a piece of toast and look at the text messages. Take your time. She’ll probably try and talk to Jess and me. I think we should ignore her.

“The lawyer will want a copy of the texts if there’s anything of interest. During the coming week, Mom will want to be the perfect wife. She’s going to butter you up. It’s going to be a “full court press”. Just rebuff her. Make it clear that her behaviour is unacceptable. Things will get interesting when she realises that her strategy is failing.”

Jess jumped in, “Jesus, Mike! Where do you get all this shit from? Are you basically a closet relationship counsellor or just a sneaky bastard? That’s some serious mind you’ve just laid out. Dad, when you serve her with the divorce papers, can I be involved? I want to see the look in her eyes when she realises how badly she’s fucked up.”

“We’ll see Kitten, it might not even get that far.”

It was getting late and David decided to return home. When he got there, and with his recorder on, he found Olivia sitting on the lounge waiting.

Olivia smiled and said, “Hi, baby. Good to see you. Do you have any questions about our discussion?”

“Well, Olivia, it wasn’t a discussion, it was a declaration. I understand that you have developed a defence of your adulterous proposal. I suppose, in response, I should state, unequivocally, that I will not be part of a marriage where you date other men. Do you understand me?”

“Well, David, I hear what you’re saying. Maybe I haven’t explained myself properly. What I’m doing is for us. I want to be the best possible wife and if I am to achieve this, there are certain things that I’m going to have to do. I understand that this may hurt you in the short term but as soon as you see the benefits, I’m certain that you’ll come around.”

“Olivia, I can see that this discussion is not going to get us anywhere. Please acknowledge that I’m not going to be part of a marriage where you date other men.”

“Fine, OK. I acknowledge it,” Olivia said, with more than a hint of anger in her voice.

“Good, Olivia. Thanks. Now, for the foreseeable future, I’ll be sleeping in the guest bedroom and I would appreciate your respect of my privacy. This coming week is going to be very difficult for the both of us. It may be the last week we have as husband and wife. I’ll try to be civil and I expect the same from you. Please let me know if you have changed your mind. It might not be too late to save our marriage.”

“David, this is not a negotiation. My mind is made up. On Friday at 6.30, I’ll be leaving for my date. I’ll return before lunch on Saturday. Would you throw away 22 years of marriage over this?” Olivia stated defiantly.

“Olivia, you probably won’t be surprised to hear that it’s not me that’s throwing away 22 years of marriage. It is not me that’s committing adultery. It is not me that’s betraying our wedding vows. It’s not me that’s alienating her children. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to get my clothes and toiletries and move into the guest bedroom. THIS DISCUSSION IS OVER!”

With that, David left, leaving Olivia with a look of bewildered anger. She looked down at her clenched fists and thought “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!”.

David woke early. He was showered and dressed before Olivia got up. He was waiting to hear Olivia’s shower turn on. As soon as he heard it, he went to her bedroom and picked up her phone and with fingers crossed, he keyed in the code. The phone came to life and he navigated to the text message app. The most recent message was from someone named “Bekky”. He opened it and saw immediately that it was what he was looking for. Resisting his desire to read them, David proceeded to photograph every message exchange. They appeared to go back about 2 months. When he was finished, he replaced the phone and left the house.

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