It was a difficult situation. On the one hand I owed the man my life and on the other the same man had just ruined my life and I wanted to kill him. Oh God did I ever want to kill him.

I'd known Chuck damned near all my life. We grew up three houses from each other on Delancy Street. We went to school together, dated the same girls and played on the same teams. We were closer than brothers. He'd had my back and I his any number of times and everyone knew that if you fucked with Chuck you were fucking with me and if you fucked with me you got Chuck in the bargain.

If Chuck dated a girl and he scored he would tell me and I would try my hand with her and if I took one out and hit a home run I would tell him and he would ask her out. We shared a lot of girls that way.

But grade school and high school relationships sometimes come to an end and it happened with Chuck and me. After graduation I followed my old man into the foundry, but Chuck wanted something different than the hot hard work in the foundry and he joined the Army.

I saved my money until I had enough to get myself an apartment and then I started out on my own. I dated some, scored some, but never did find a girl who gave me that special tingle. That is I never found one until I met Merrily. It was at the company Christmas party and the only reason I was there was because that was where they handed out the Christmas bonus checks. My plan was to show up for the free feed, listen to the inevitable rah-rah speeches, get my bonus check and then leave to go check out some of the really jumping parties that I knew would be going on.

I saw her sitting at a table with one of the recently hired draftsman. From the look of him I thought that she would probably be his daughter and not her husband or date. She wasn't a raving beauty, but something about her kept drawing my attention. I was looking at her when she turned her head and her eyes met mine and she smiled. I'd always heard about smiles that would light up a room, but I'd never seen one until then. All thoughts of leaving the party went out the window and when the band set up and played its first number I got up and went over to her and asked her if she would dance with me. She said she would be delighted and when she stood up I almost said:

"Oh my God."

You couldn't see it when she was sitting down, but she had a killer body and she was a tall girl. I'm six two and her nose was level with my chin. Of course the fact that she was wearing four inch heels helped put her there. Those heels told me something about her. They told me that she was one confident woman. Most tall girls won't wear a four or five inch heel because they feel it intimidates guys to have a girl as tall as them. Merrily's shoes said:

"Here I am! Are you man enough?"

I've never been a shy one and as soon as I took her in my arms and introduced myself I asked:

"Are you married?"

"No."

"Engaged?"

"No."

"Going steady?"

"No."

"Any guys around that you are hung up on and are hoping that they will ask you out?"

"No. None of the above at this time."

"Then please allow me to apply for any or all of the above."

"Well, I might consider you for the last one, at least for starters."

"In that case I must do what is expected of the man who holds that position. Will you have dinner with me tomorrow?"

"I would love to."

And so began my relationship with Merrily Ashton Martin. It was not a smooth road, at least not from my perspective. I wasn't the only guy who liked tall, confident women. Her "Are you man enough" attitude made quite a few guys step to show that they were, but I was persistent and I hung in there and eventually Merrily and I became a couple.

At the next company Christmas party I danced her over to be under the mistletoe, kissed her and then went to my knees and proposed. I don't know whether she was more surprised or embarrassed, but when I handed her the little velvet covered box she opened it, took out the ring and handed it to me and offered me her left hand so I could slip the ring onto her finger. When I stood up she put her arms around me and gave me a passionate kiss as everyone in the place hollered, yelled and applauded. We were married in a civil ceremony the first week of June.

Merrily was a secretary in the home office of a large insurance company and we decided to bank her paycheck until we had enough for a down payment on a house. My apartment was larger than hers so she gave up her apartment and when her security deposit was returned it went into the down payment savings account. When I got my Christmas bonus at the end of the year it gave us enough and we found a nice three bedroom that was equidistant from her office and the foundry.

Life was good. I liked married life. I enjoyed waking up in the morning snuggled up to Merrily. I couldn't wait to get home to her when I got off work. When I was home I wanted to be with her - close enough to touch - no matter what she was doing. Merrily owned me!

I wasn't stupid. I knew that regardless of how I felt about her and she felt about me (and it certainly seemed to me that she felt about me like I felt about her) my "hovering" would eventually get on her nerves. She needed some personal space. I told her she needed to get out of the house, have some personal time, at least one night a week. She said that the same held for me and we decided that would each take one night a week as a 'night out.' That actually gave each of us two nights away from each other. I took mine on Thursdays and bowled and Merrily took whatever night the girls she worked with decided to get together for dinner and drinks.

We talked about kids, but we both decided to wait a while before taking on that responsibility. We would wait until after we had been some places and done some of the things we wanted to do.

Merrily and I had been married just short of three years when one night the phone rang and Merrily answered it.

"Honey, it's for you. Some guy named Chuck."

Chuck had been discharged and was back in town. He wanted to know if I could meet him at Riley's Tavern to suck down a few beers and catch up on what had gone on since he left town.

"The major thing that happened is that I'm now a married man."

"It goes without saying that she is invited too. Only fair since I'll be there with my bride."

On the way to Riley's I explained to Merrily who Chuck was and what our history was. Chuck was sitting in a booth in the back with an absolutely ravishing redhead. He rose to meet us and after a double bear hug with lots of back slapping I introduced him to Merrily and he introduced us to his wife Rita.

We drank beers and talked about where he had been and what he had done and I brought him up to date on what was going on with our old classmates and friends. I asked him what his plans were and he told me that he was home to stay.

"I talked to Ferguson this afternoon and I start at the foundry on Monday."

It was getting late so we made a date to have dinner on Saturday and maybe go to Grady's Road House for some drinks and dancing. As we were driving home I asked Merrily what she thought of Chuck and she hesitated just enough so that I noticed before saying:

"He seems real nice. I like him."

"Him? Not they?"

She hesitated again before saying, "I didn't like her."

"Any particular reason?"

"Just a feeling."

"A feeling? What kind of a feeling?"

"She's just a little too full of herself. Didn't you notice how she was constantly checking out the guys in the place to see if she had their attention? How she constantly moved in her chair to show a little more leg to the guys who were looking at her? I'm betting the marriage doesn't last and I'm betting that other men will be the reason for the break up."

"Is this some of the famous "woman's tuition" that I've heard about?"

"Laugh if you want to baby, but believe me when I say that girls know about things like this."

We had dinner with Chuck and Rita on Saturday and then went out for drinks and dancing. Regardless of her misgivings about Rita Merrily and Rita seemed to get along fine. In the coming months, and not surprising given my friendship with Chuck, the four of us spent a lot of time together. Chuck and Rita had an apartment and curiously enough it was the same apartment that Merrily and I had lived in. I don't mean the same apartment complex, but the same exact apartment. Talk about weird! Anyway, because their apartment wasn't really big enough to entertain in they spent a lot of time at our house. We would play cards, have barbecues and stuff like that. Merrily and Rita never did get really tight, but they were friendly enough to each other even to the point that they went out on a couple of 'girls nights out' together.

Chuck had been back about six months and the four of us were at the Starlight Lounge one Saturday night and I was dancing with Rita. I was into the music, had my eyes closed and was grooving when I heard Rita whisper in my ear:

"I want it. When can I have it?"

"When can you have what?"

"Your cock lover. It wants me and I want it."

That is when I became aware that I had an erection and that Rita was rubbing her leg against it. I quickly pulled back from her and she giggled and said:

"Not to worry lover; she has her back to us and my hubby is clueless as always."

Just then the music ended and I pulled away from Rita and led her back to our table. We were only there for another hour and I never asked Rita to dance again, but every time I looked in her direction she was looking at me and as soon as she saw me looking at her she would give me a small smile and lick her lips. I wrote it off as too much to drink and/or a joke in poor taste. I didn't mention it to Merrily.

It was two weeks later on a Sunday and Chuck and Rita were over for a barbecue. We had been drinking beer and shooting the bull for about an hour and I got up to go use the bathroom. I took my whiz, shook off the last few drops and washed my hands. I unlocked the door and opened it to leave and found Rita standing there. She walked straight at me so I had to step back and when we were both in the bathroom Rita pushed the door closed and locked it.

"What are you doing Rita?"

"Shush baby, we don't have that much time. It would have helped if you hadn't already tucked it away."

She went to her knees in front of me and I tried to step back but the sink was behind me. Rita's hands went to my zipper as she said:

"You know you want this baby. Hurry up, let Rita see whatcha got."

She had my zipper halfway down before I could stop her and I will admit that looking down at that gorgeous face on a level with and only inches away from my cock gave me an erection. She saw the tent form and she giggled and said: