Cuckolded at the College Reunion (2 page)

We both worked for different software companies, right in the heart of Silicon Valley, so I got to marvel at Kim in her elegantly sexy blouse, skirt and heels as she cooked. I, on the other hand, was in my usual polo shirt and slacks. You can tell that she’s the one in sales and I’m the engineer.

I’ve known, ever since we met at college, that I landed a woman well above my pay grade. I mean, I consider myself pretty good looking, but Kim’s on a different level. I couldn’t believe it when she agreed to go out with me. I think it had a lot to do with my timing—I met her when she was literally crying over breaking up with her asshole boyfriend of the time. I’d been her rebound, I suppose. And, when she saw how kind and considerate I was, she’d realized she didn’t need to put up with assholes. Nice guys
can
finish first.

I went through the mail as I sipped my juice, opening it over the recycling box so I could dump the junk mail straight in. Junk, junk, junk…
what?!

It was an invitation to a college reunion—ten years since we’d graduated. A big, all-weekend thing, with accommodation provided.

My immediate reaction was to dump it in the trash with the rest of the junk. College had
not
been the happiest time of my life. I still had bad memories of it…in fact, very occasionally I’d still awaken from nightmares about high-pressure exams, cruel hazing pranks…and Brad Dorff.

Brad had been my own personal nemesis. Captain of the football team, he’d pretty much ruled the place—he got all the girls, had all the friends, knew where to get served booze underage…and he didn’t like me. For whatever reason, I got under his skin and, unlike the rest of the geeks, he’d terrorized me rather than simply ignoring me. Every day, I’d wondered if he and his football buddies would appear to slap the books from under my arm, push me sprawling into a ditch or invade another meeting of the astronomy society. I’d done my best to avoid that whole side of the college—the football team, the cheerleaders, even the football field and the stands themselves. Things had gotten slightly better in my final year and then, shortly before I’d graduated, I’d finally met Kim, the head cheerleader. It had always struck me as ironic that I could have maybe met her earlier if I hadn’t avoided the cool kids so fervently.

I let the invite slide from between my fingers and fall into the recycling box. Some things should stay in the past.

Kim gently laid my breakfast in front of me and stood there, smiling but with her hands nervously fiddling with the waistband of her skirt. She really
was
feeling guilty, bless her.

I drew her into my lap and hugged her, kissing her neck again and then her lips, letting her golden hair spill down over my shoulder. “It’s okay,” I whispered in her ear, and she went tense—it was the first acknowledgment that I knew she’d been thinking about someone else. But after a moment, when I kept holding her, she relaxed.

I moved back a little so that I could gaze at her. God, she was beautiful. She was lit up again by the sun, its rays streaming through the window to turn her blonde tresses into gold. Something suddenly popped into my head: wouldn’t it show Brad and his cronies, if I showed up with Kim on my arm and a ring on her finger? Wouldn’t that shut him up, once and for all?

I looked out through the window at my BMW coupe and Kim’s Porsche. We were doing well for ourselves—no doubt much better than Brad had managed. What if we
did
go back to Texas? I could rub his nose in it.
Payback.

“What would you say,” I asked, retrieving the invite, “to a weekend in Texas?”

Chapter 2

Kim drew in a deep lungful of air as we stepped out of the airport terminal and into the Texas heat. She was grinning from ear to ear as she snuggled into my side. “It feels great, doesn’t it?” she asked. “We’re home!”

The thing is, it
wasn’t
my home. My home was in Seattle, but I’d bowed to pressure from my parents to get out and see the rest of America and applied to colleges in places like Texas. It had been a brand new world of heat, steaks, Texas drawls and, yes, some cowboy hats (although not quite as many as I’d first imagined). My parents got what they wanted in that I woke up to the fact that not all of America was like Seattle, and of course I met Kim, so I was eternally grateful for that. But being the pale kid from Seattle hadn’t helped me fit in. Brad, like Kim, had been a local kid. And, now that I was back, I was reminded of how out of place I felt here.

I cheered up when I saw the greeters standing by the shuttle bus. Actual college students, picking up a few bucks by ferrying the reunion guests to and from the campus. One of them was a bespectacled, slender guy, while the other was a beaming, bouncy girl in a tiny skirt. They could have been us, a decade before.
God, were we really that young?!
And the girl really was a lot like Kim, all pert breasts and flashes of bare thigh--

Kim poked me in the ribs. “You’re drooling,” she murmured, not unkindly.

I quickly averted my eyes and pulled Kim close. “I’d rather have you,” I told her, and kissed her neck.

When the bus was full, the girl turned to us and beamed. She explained that we’d all been assigned our old dorm rooms on campus. Most of them were empty since it was the college’s summer vacation, so the college was delighted to make a fast buck by renting them to us. Since I’d made the booking, Kim would be staying with me in mine. “Those of you who chose to rent your old fraternity or sorority houses, we’ll drop you off there.”

I hadn’t taken that option. I’d called around my old buddies from college, but only one other guy from my old fraternity was bothering to go. I couldn’t blame them--like me, most of them had bad memories of college.

But I had something my buddies didn’t have. I looked across at Kim. She was looking out of the window at the scenery, grinning. She’d worn a cute little denim skirt along with her tank top. All she needed was a cowboy hat and she’d be the perfect Texas woman. And she was mine…and, if Brad was at the reunion, I was going to make sure he knew it.

***

“Wow,” said Kim, as we opened my dorm room door. “It’ll be just like old times.” And she gave me a sexy wink. My hopes for the weekend rose. Something about being back at the college had really lifted her. She seemed not just happier but younger.

I tossed the events brochure we’d been given on the bed. I’d briefly scanned it on the bus: there was a reception that night, some sort of lecture we could attend the next day and then a football game on the final day. I was too excited to check the details, though. I was already imagining Brad’s jealous face when he saw what an amazing woman I’d married.

My dorm room looked almost exactly how I remembered it. The student who’d occupied it during the semester had even left his posters up. “I don’t know any of these bands,” I said, worried. “Does that make me old?”

Kim ruffled my hair. “I seem to recall your posters were all for video games or Lord of the Rings. Specifically, female elves from Lord of the Rings.”

I blushed. Kim had been known to play along and do a pretty good elf, when she was in the mood. Of course, that had been back in the early days of our marriage. We hadn’t done anything as adventurous as roleplaying in years. Maybe this trip away was just what we needed—a chance to reconnect, away from home. Kim seemed to be rediscovering her old self—maybe I could, too.

A pang of doubt hit me, at that thought. Kim’s college persona had been bouncy and sexy and fun—she’d grown more restrained over time, if anything. I’d done the reverse. At college, I’d been slow to come out of my shell. I’d only really gained in confidence once I met Kim and got a job. What if being around the old place sent
both
of us backwards? I didn’t want to go back to being my old self.

I dismissed the thought. This was just a reunion—we were all adults, now, ten years older and wiser. It wasn’t going to be like when we were students. Hell, I’d probably meet Brad and he’d be three hundred pounds of Jell-O, and have mellowed into a sweet guy. We’d probably wind up burying the hatchet and becoming friends—that was the sort of thing that happened at these things.

I smirked. That was all fine…but if Brad
was
still an asshole…well, he’d get a surprise when I walked in with Kim.

I was right. Just not for the reasons I thought.

***

The first night’s reception was in the old sports hall, the only room big enough to take the hundreds of people who’d come. The organizers had used blue and white balloons in their thousands to decorate the place, together with banners welcoming us back. There was free non-alcoholic punch and overpriced beer and wine. There was finger food which quickly disappeared as hundreds of nervous people sought something to do with their hands.

Just as I’d planned, I walked in with Kim on my arm. She looked absolutely gorgeous, her long green dress setting off her eyes and golden hair perfectly. Looking around the room, I didn’t see Brad or his friends anywhere.
Maybe they won’t even come.

It was strange how you could see people return to their old groups. The rich kids clustered together again. The jocks reunited. Kim screamed with delight as she saw a gaggle of women and ran into their arms—the cheerleading squad, I guessed. I left her to it, since I didn’t know any of them.

But that left me on my own. I looked around for Hugo, the one guy from my old group of friends who’d said he’d attend. I searched around for his familiar, almost spherical body—he’d been seriously overweight when I’d known him. But I couldn’t see anyone with his waddling gait—

A hand slapped me on the shoulder. I spun around to see—

“Hugo?!”
He looked amazing. His body had completely changed, his rolling fat replaced by a body much leaner and more chiseled than my own. He’d put on some muscle, too. He looked like a damn lifeguard. “What happened to
you?!”
I croaked.

Hugo beamed. “After college, I got sick of never getting a date. I lost the weight in about a year. I’m a personal trainer now.”

My jaw dropped. I couldn’t imagine a less likely transformation. But I was genuinely happy for him.
I guess that’s what these things are all about,
I mused. Now I just needed Brad to show up and be fat and friendly, and the picture would be complete.

“Louis?” A horribly familiar southern drawl. “Louis
Dale?”

I turned slowly to face Brad, almost holding my breath.

Visually, he hadn’t changed at all. He’d managed to keep his muscles and he still wore his hair long and loose—those ash-blond locks had made all the girls fawn over him back at college and I suspected they still did. I had to admit that he’d aged a lot better than I had. Hell, he barely looked as if he’d aged at all, just like Kim.

And I’d forgotten how tall he was. He towered almost a foot over me and seemed twice as wide. There was something about looking up at him that sent me hurtling right back to my college days, my abs tensing up in preparation for a gut punch.

But just because he looked the same, didn’t mean he was the same. He’d probably mellowed and matured. He was probably friendly. Hell, he probably wanted to apologize for the hell he’d put me through.

He grinned at me and, for a moment, it seemed that all my hopes were justified--he
had
changed!

And then he threw his head back and laughed, and I knew that nothing had changed at all.

“
Louis Dale!
Shit, you look exactly how I remember you. What did you wind up doing? Computers?”

I’d rehearsed this a thousand times. I was going to say how I was now one of the top programmers for one of the top companies in my field. I was proud of my job. And yet, when he said
computers
in that sneering way, I was instantly right back in college. “Um...yeah. Programmer.” For some reason, I was looking at my feet.
Why was I looking at my feet? Look him in the eye!
This was all going wrong! “What about you?” I meant it to sound challenging, but it came out as defensive.

Brad grinned. “My company handles all the janitorial services for the schools and colleges in the area. We’re cleaning up, cleaning up.” And he gave me a slow grin, as if he knew it was a lame joke and he didn’t care.

I stood there trying to stare him down, but failing. Why was this happening? I had a good job and he was basically a glorified janitor...so how come I was the one who felt embarrassed? Viewed through the lens of his college bullying, I was still doing a geek job, while he was doing something traditional and manly, even though he knew as well as anyone that the internet ran the world these days.

I could see Brad’s old football buddies sidling up to him, curious as to who he’d found to torment. It wasn’t like they’d actually
do
anything--I mean, we were all adults now, they weren’t going to beat me up...were they?

“What else happened to you?” asked Brad. “Hey, you still single?” He laughed. “You still a virgin?”

I bristled. That had always been one of his favorite taunts. I hadn’t had a girlfriend until my final year and he’d teased me endlessly about it, making a thousand jokes about me whacking off in my dorm room. “No!” I said--louder than I’d intended. Heads turned.