Disclaimer: There may be some content in this chapter not suitable for minors. Read with your own discretion.
Authors Note- This is a long chapter but it covers a lot of ground. Be sure to read all the chapters. Each one contains important content to help develop the following chapters. You don't want to miss out on anything important.
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x xx x x x xx x x BOOK TWO: CHAPTER SEVEN- MIRROR MIRROR ON THE WALL x x x x xx x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
Charlotte comes home for dinner and sits down to another one of her favorite meals prepared by Cooper. Allison has taken the kids out for ice cream. Cooper asked her to since he needs to talk to Charlotte tonight.
"What's the occasion now?" Charlotte smiles and looks down at the meal. "I'm guessing you want more of what you got last night."
"I do." Cooper looks at her. "But I need to talk to you about something else first. There's no good way to tell you this Cricket. I've been trying to for the past week but there's never been a good time."
Charlotte swallows and looks at him. His expression is anguished. "Tell me, Coop."
"I accidentally slept with Allison. There I said it, I had sex with Allison." He blurts it out fast and looks away. He waits a few seconds then looks to see her reaction.
Her mouth is half open in shock. Her hazel eyes are wide open and staring at him, "That really takes the cake!" She folds her arms against the chest and breathes hard, "Explain to me how you accidentally have sex with someone? I can't wait to hear this." Her heart is beating fast and she suddenly has a knot in her stomach.
He looks at her and tries to talk calmly, "It started out innocently. She was helping me with my therapy the day it was canceled last week. I told her how to massage my legs like the therapist does. She did and I felt myself starting to you know" He looks at her. "I felt myself getting excited. I should have told her to stop then but, you know, I haven't been able to get stimulated since the accident. I didn't want to stop her just yet.I wanted to see how far my body could go with it."
"And then?" Charlotte asks standing with her arms folded.
"She started massaging higher and touched me. I told her to stay below the waist and she listened for a while but then her hand moved back up and into my pants."
"You should have stopped her then." Charlotte says gritting her teeth.
"I wanted to see how long my body would keep it up, literally speaking" He chuckles. She's not amused. He continues. "Then she pulled her clothes off and things just happened from there."
"Were you able to finish the job?" She asks.
"Yes." He looks down at the floor and answers.
"Bet you were real proud of yourself!" She slams her hand on the table and gets up.
"I'm sorry Charlotte. It was just sex. It's wasn't intimate like it was with you last night. It was all about the physical pleasure, I haven't felt in so long."
"Damn whore!" Charlotte yells out. "She asked me the other night about helping you with your therapy at home. I can't wait to fire her tramp ass."
"The kids love her Charlotte."
"Do you love her?" Charlotte asks hesitant for the answer.
"Of course not," he puts his arm around her and she pushes him away." I told you it was just sex. It was accidental sex. She's great with the kids. It's not fair to them that I made a mistake and they lose her" Cooper pleads.
"You don't expect me to let that skank around my children after she seduced my husband!" Charlotte's yelling and her eyes are fierce.
Cooper's relieved to hear Charlotte thinks Allison seduced him. Well, she did kind of the first time when it was therapy but the second time in bed he initiated it. He decides not to tell her about that time. Admitting he had sex with her once was bad enough.
Charlotte grabs her keys and hurries towards the front door.
"Where are you going?" Cooper tries to follow her holding on to his walker.
"I don't know." She tells him. "I don't want to see her. I don't want to be here when she comes back with the kids. I'm going for a drive."
"Are you coming back?" Cooper asks.
"I've got two kids that live here; of course I'm coming back." She looks at him and thinks he looks pathetic holding on to the walker pleading for her not to go.
"I mean, are you coming back to me? I know you'd never leave the kids but you have to forgive me. I forgave you for Archer."
"Is that what this is about? Is this payback for something I did almost five years ago? You're trying to get even with me for sleeping with Archer?" She yells at him.
"Of course I'm not, Cricket. I told you it was accidental."
She rolls her eyes at his idea of accidental sex. "You're barking up the wrong tree with your Archer argument. We weren't married then. Heck, we weren't even engaged. We were just dating." She pulls open the front door.
"Please forgive me, I love you Cricket."
"Don't call me your Cricket now!" She snaps.
I'm sorry Charlotte." He has tears in his eyes.
"I'll be back, Cooper. I need some time alone to think. Just let me do this."
"Okay, go and think but I'll miss you." He tells her as she walks out the door.
An hour later
Charlotte's been driving for about an hour and she's tired, exhausted. She's too angry to cry right now. Her cell phone is ringing every ten minutes. She looks at the name "Cooper again" she says to herself and ignores the phone. She knows she can't keep driving. She's tired and upset and bound to crash her car sooner or later. She finds herself pulling into his driveway. She's thinks it might be a bad idea but he's been a good friend, a good listener and she knocks at his door. It's late. Todd opens the door. He clad in only his jeans. She's never seen him without a shirt and her eyes are drawn to his six pack abs. "Charlotte? What are you doing here at this hour?" He can see by her red eyes that she's been crying. "Come in." He tells her.
She enters his living room and looks around. His charts for work are sprawled out on the coffee table. "Doing your homework?" She asks.
"I'm trying to get familiar with all of Cooper's patients." Todd stacks the charts up on the table to neaten the place up. " Cooper's an excellent pediatrician. I hope I could be half as good as him..."
Charlotte interrupts. "I don't want to talk about Cooper tonight." She blurts out.
He's a little surprised. "Okay...Can I get you something to drink?" He offers.
"A martini would be nice."
He chuckles. "I meant water... lemonade... maybe a glass of milk but if you want a martini ...I can make you one. Have a seat."
"Please." Charlotte relaxes on the couch.
Todd has a wet bar in his living room and mixes up the martini's as she watches from the other side of the room on the couch. "What's going on Charlotte?"
She thinks about it and decides to tell him. She needs to tell someone or she'll explode, but instead she says. "Savannah called the babysitter momma, right in front of me."
Todd hands her the martini and sits down next to her on the couch. "She's a baby, she probably can't pronounce the babysitter's name."
"The bimbo's name is Allison." Charlotte scowls out as she tastes her martini.
Todd puts nudges her knee. "Aren't you overracting? Savannah must love Allison if she calls her momma. It means your babysitter is doing a good job with her."
Charlotte snaps out. "She's doing a good job with Cooper too!"
"What does that mean?" Todd asks.
"Apparently she's been helping him with his therapy." She sips down the martini and tells him. "Cooper hasn't been able to have a purposeful erection since the accident, but he got one for Miss Allison alright."
Todd shakes his head. "Why would he tell you that?" Todd gets up to mix some more martini's.
Charlotte waves her empty martini glass around as she speaks. "She's young and pretty, got the body of a lingirie model."
"So do you my fair lady." He refreshes her martini. "You're a pretty hot thing yourself, you've got nothing to worry about."
"He didn't just have an erection, he had sex with the her. He bit the bullet and told me tonight."
"Oh Geez, I'm sorry." He puts his arm around her shoulder and squeezes it for comfort.
She tastes the martini. "This one isn't bad, almost as good as mine."
"Excuse me?" He smiles, "I bartended in college. I can mix up a pretty mean drink." He boasts. "I happened to win for best martini in my bartender training class."
"Oh it's good. But you haven't tasted mine yet." Charlotte tells him.
"Feel free to mix up the next batch, my lady." He points her to the bar area in his living room.
He watches as she gets up to mix the next batch of martini's for them. "So what are you going to do about Cooper? Are you going to leave him?"
"We have two little rugrats." She shakes the mixture.
"We're not living in the dark ages Charlotte you don't have to stay with him because you have kids." He chugs down the rest of his martini so he can taste the one she just made.
"Yeah and him cheatin' one time doesn't erase all the years of me lovin' him." She hands him the martini. "I still love the bastard. I can't leave him as pathetic as he may be."
"I don't know if I could be as forgiving if I was in your shoes. I don't know what I'd do if my wife ever cheated on me...not that I have a wife."
"Oh, I'm steamin' mad right now. I want to brand my name into his penis with a hot iron,... slowly... all ten letters." Charlotte imagines it in her mind. "See what Allison does if she saw that...my name branded into him. ...and I could burn my last name into his testicles." She takes a sip of her martini and looks at Todd. "I could do it too. I'm a urologist."
Todd snickers. "Remind me never to get you mad."
Charlotte gets quiet then tells Todd. "I cheated on Cooper once before, while we were dating and he forgave me like that." She snaps her fingers. "He just forgave me, no questions asked. I was shocked. I thought he would never want to see me again but he forgave me." Her voice is trailing quietly as she thinks about it.
"That's surprising." Todd offers.
"Cooper's full of surprises." Charlotte answers "So I'll forgive him too but..."
Todd interrupts "You want to make him sweat it out a little?"
"Exactly!" She taps her finger on his chest. "I don't want to make it too easy on him. I''m no pushover!" She's starting to slur her word after all those martini's
"No you're not." Todd pats her back. "You can crash here tonight. I have a spare room." He offers. "And by the way you make a mean martini. I'd call it a tie."
Charlotte laughs about that "That'd be great if I could stay here tonight. I'm three sheets to the wind you don't want me on the road." She slurs out and finishes off her martini.
"You can borrow a pair of my sweats and a t-shirt. The bathroom is there if you want to shower before you go to bed." He points to a room down the hall.
"Great, I could use a shower." She gets up and makes her way to the bathroom.
The shower feels good. She cries thinking about Cooper with Allison and the water washes away her tears as quick as they fall. She gets out of the shower and wraps herself in a towel. She calls out of the bathroom for Todd to bring her the clothes. He doesn't answer. She walks out of the bathroom and finds him asleep on the coach. "Todd, Todd" She calls loud and shakes him. "Wake up! You were supposed to bring me some clothes to sleep in."
His eyes startle open and he stares at her for a minute. She's soaking wet and only wearing a towel. He thinks he's dreaming and stares at her. She says again, "Todd you were supposed to bring me some clothes." He snaps out of it and remembers why she's there.
"Oh yeah" He says "I must have fallen asleep while you were in the shower. The clothes are in my room. I'll get them." She follows him into his bedroom. He looks through the drawers for something that will fit her small frame and she looks around the room. "Is that a water bed?" She asks.
"It is" He answers. "You can adjust the firmness. It can be hard as a rock or feel like your swishing in the ocean. Go ahead sit on it. Try it."
Charlotte sits on the bed and the water swishes under her. "Nice." She says and she lays her back down on it. "Comfy."
"You can sleep on it tonight and I'll take the guest room." He tells her as he pulls his smallest shrunken t-shirt out of the drawer.
"That doesn't seem fair." She's lying on her side, on the bed, with only a towel wrapped around her torso.
This doesn't seem real to him. Dr. King is lying on his water bed in just a towel. He sits down next to her and hands her the shirt.
She takes the shirt from him and unwraps the towel from her body, in front of him. He watches in awe as she slowly pulls the t-shirt over her head and onto her body. It's a small t-shirt, one that shrunk and it's a tight fit. It barely covers her thighs. "Sorry." He says "I didn't think it would be that small."
"S'kay" She makes herself comfortable on the bed shifting around. As she shifts, the t-shirt pulls up to her belly button and she's completely aware of it. He stares at her. She catches his eyes checking her lower half out and says. "That's not fair." She reaches over to him and unbuttons his jeans. She unzips them and tugs them down.
"What are you doing Charlotte?" He swallows and asks a bit nervous.
"You saw mine. Now show me yours. It's only fair." She tells him in her naughty voice. She playfully pushes him down on the bed and pulls his jeans and briefs off. He lies there and lets her. He's a little shocked about what's happening. He's not sure what to do so he does nothing right now.
"You're a big man." She announces as she looks him over. "You wanna play doctor? I could teach you a few things" She whispers into his ear.
"I'm sure you could, but it's the alcohol talking." He tries to sit up. "We'll both regret it in the morning."
She pushes him back down with both of her hands. "And check out the six pack you're sportin?" She rubs her palm in circles over his chest and abdomen.
He takes a deep breath in as she moves her palm lower."We're not exactly playing fair here." He tells her.
"What do you mean?" She asks moving her hand even lower on his body.
"I'm lying here buck naked and you have a shirt on."
"Easy enough to fix." She pulls off the shirt she borrowed and now they're both naked. She lies on top of him pressing her body into his and starts to kiss him.
He stops her. "Wait Charlotte, are you sure you want this? " He takes his hands off her body."Are you're trying to get even with your husband?"
"So what if I am?" She tells him. " It'll make me feel better and you won't feel so bad yourself." She nips at his neck.
"Will you still feel that way tomorrow morning?" He asks.
"I'm not doing this to get even with Cooper. I'm doing this for me." She slurs," This will make me feel better about forgivin' him." She reaches down and strokes Todd between the thighs. "I'll make sure you feel good too... Think of it as one friend doin' a favor for another friend." She smiles at him.
"You're using me." He kisses down her neck.
"You don't seem to mind too much." She answers.
"As long as you're honest, about it, I'll be your fuckin' friend?" He flips and rolls her so now he's on top.
"So you're good with this?" She asks. "One friend doin' a favor for another friend?" She runs her hands through his hair.
I'm good with this." He kisses her neck. "No regrets tomorrow? After the martini's have worn off?"
She looks into his eyes "No regrets. Let's go whole hog."
He positions himself between her legs and enters her. She closes her eyes and moves with him. They get a good rythym going and it doesn't take them long. He shoots his warm fluid inside her and then lies down next to her in the bed. Neither one of them says anything. After about two minutes she stands up and gets out of bed.
"Where are you going" He asks.
"To the bathroom to clean up." She walks across the room.
"Do you want me to sleep in the guest room tonight?" Todd asks not looking at her.
"What would be the point of that? You already saw me naked. You can stay where you are." She hurries off to the bathroom.
Once in the bathroom she hops into the shower. She turns the water as hot as she can get it without scalding herself and rinses off. She's not crying this time, but she can't get Cooper off her mind. She thinks she should check her messages. She shut off her phone because he kept calling while she was driving around earlier. She knows he's worried sick about her. She doesn't feel guilty about sleeping with Todd. She didn't do it to get even with Cooper like Todd thinks. She doesn't want to hurt Cooper anymore, the poor guy's suffered enough since his accident, she thinks. The accident took away his pride and his sense of manhood, which has always been a sensitive issue for Cooper. No, she did it for herself. She did her for her pride as a woman. She needed to feel wanted by another man. A younger attractive woman wants her 42 year old handicapped husband, she needs to feel wanted and attractive by another man. Todd has certainly made it known that he finds her attractive. She needed to do this for her own peace of mind in order to forgive Cooper.
After she finishes in the shower she pulls the small t-shirt Todd gave back over her body. She climbs back in the waterbed. Todd's already asleep on the opposite side of the bed. She whispers "Goodnight Cooper, Goodnight Brycie and Savannah" to herself then closes her eyes and falls asleep.
They awake in the morning. He rolls over and looks at her. He asks. "Any regrets?"
She looks around and remembers why she's there. She remembers what Cooper told her about sleeping with Allison. "You wanna do it again?" She blurts out. What's done is done, one more go at it can't hurt anything she thinks. It'll just boost her confidance after being cheated on by her handicapped husband. She needs to do this for her.
He smiles. "That answers my question." He starts kissing down her neck.
"As long as you understand. I still love Cooper and I'm going to mend fences with him today." She rubs her hands along his back.
"You're just using me, got it" He continues to kiss her flesh.
"I don't want you to holler about it like a stuck pig tomorrow."
"I don't know what that means but you can use me anytime." He tells her as he leans down to kiss her flesh and enter her again.
Afterward, she lies in bed next to him and feels confidant about herself. She feels like a an attractive, sexy woman again. It won't be so hard to forgive Cooper anymore.
"Do you feel better about your husband cheating on you?" He rubs her head.
"I do." She smiles at him. "Thanks for helpin'."
"Anytime you need a friend, I'm more than willing to help out." He grins.
She smiles and smacks his butt. "I'm not ready to go for round three yet" He laughs out.
"There's not gonna be a round three. I'm fixin' ta take another shower, go home and tell Cooper I forgive him for his accidental sex and we'll live happily ever after." She says sarcastically as she wraps the towel around herself.
"Are you going to tell him what we just did?" He watches her get out of bed.
She tightens the towel around her tiny frame. "Do you think I should?"
"From my stand point it's not a good idea." He pulls his pants on. "Cooper's likely to come over and give me a beating."
Charlotte smirks. "You could out run him." She leans against the door watching him get dressed. "My two and a half year old could beat Cooper up in the state he's in."
Todd pulls his shirt on. "That's just plain sad and that makes me plain sad for sleeping with his wife." He zips up his pants. "You should tell him. He told you about the babysitter. Right?"
"Right."
"Honesty's the best policy." He walks over to her and plays with a strand of her hair. "You both cheated. He told the truth about it. Don't you be the liar and whatever happens...happens."
'I'll think about it in the shower." She straightens his shirt out for him.
"And remember, my fair lady, he takes her hand in his and kisses the top, "I'm always here if you need me."
She smiles and pulls her hand back. "I better take that shower now." She walks out of the room.
"Anytime." He watches her walk away. He wonders if he was really such a good friend to do that favor for her.
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..TBC...