More Than 50 Ways ...

I laid there with Karen curled into my chest like Traci used to do, breathing heavily, my face covered with Karen's juices. I stared at the ceiling, trying to figure out in my mind exactly why I did what I had just done. I'm sure part of it was revenge, but I know part of it was pure lust. I know in my heart that I still loved Traci -- at least somewhat -- and Karen was as close as I was going to get ... without all of the baggage. Oh, yeah, I know there was some baggage here -- I had just broken one of my personal codes by knowingly fucking another man's wife -- but I owed Dave less than nothing. And considering Karen was part of the unholy triumvirate, I didn't have any problem with doing her just for my own pleasure ... and hers as a byproduct.

I awoke Saturday morning spooned around Karen, my hard-on pressing firmly into her ass. I knew what my little brain wanted, but the big brain was conflicted and confused. The little brain won out when she reached back and slowly wrapped her fingers around my dick. This time we took things slowly, and we only had one orgasm apiece, but at least for me, it felt very satisfying.

"Traci always said you were a good, generous lover," Karen said as we lay side-by-side looking at each other, "But she never went into specifics. I'd say she undersold you by a lot.

"You know, I meant what I said last night. She was absolutely sure you'd let her have her way. Otherwise, there was no way she would have given up what you had to offer for just a couple of more inches of dick.

"But it also was about love, Roger. Seriously. The three of us just grew stronger in our love for each other. I knew we were shutting you out, but Dave and Traci said our love was different than what you two had, and it was OK for us to have that. She was so sure of your love for her. She was so sure you'd never go through with the divorce.

"Then when you let it go through, well, it was only right that we let her and the kids move in with us. She had given us so much. But I started feeling uneasy the longer she was with us. I knew she was developing feelings for him, and him for her, but I tried not to see it. She was bearing us children."

Karen and I continued to get together for sex night every few weeks until her divorce was final sixth months later. Then, when she and David got a regular visitation schedule worked out for the kids, she would spend the entire weekend with me at my apartment on the weekends David had the girls. It started out almost completely about sex for us both, but gradually developed into a real friendship. I had always gotten along with her when she was my sister-in-law, but spending weekends living with her gave me new insight into who she was. I know for her it started out as penance, but I think we both grew as friends, even though we knew it could never be more than that.

And then it got to be more than that.

About a year later, Karen had woken up before me on a Saturday morning after a big Friday night of sex and padded off to the bathroom. I was vaguely aware of her leaving my bed as I was half-awake at that point. Next thing I hear is rather loud vomiting, so I jumped out of bed and knocked on the door.

"You OK, Kar?" I asked.

She vomited a second time, then gathered her wits and answered. "Yeah, I'm OK. Be right out."

She looked a little pale when she came out and sat down on the edge of the bed.

"Maybe I've picked up a bug," she said. "That's the third time this week I've thrown up when I got up. It kinda reminds me of when Traci was pregnant with the girls and had morning ..."

She stopped talking and looked up at me with a look that bordered on fear and exultation, if there's such a thing. I didn't need to be a mind-reader to know where this was going.

"Wait. I thought you couldn't get pregnant, nor could you carry a child," I said in a somewhat shaky voice. "We've never used protection because of that."

The doctor never said I couldn't get pregnant; just that the odds of it happening were rather slim. He called it a million to one shot, and said the odds of me carrying the baby to birth were about the same."

"Wow," was all I could think to say.

We jumped in the shower, and for the first time since we started our fuck-buddy relationship, we didn't have sex in the shower. We were both preoccupied.

We were silent as we fixed coffee and toast. Coffee poured, toast buttered, we sat down at the kitchen table, instead of in front of the TV as usual.

"Look, I don't believe in abortion, except in emergencies, but I'm not the one who would have to carry this child," I started. "But I will be there for you in every way I can, and I will support this child with both love and money if you decide to have it and by some miracle can. I mean to be there always, even if one or both of us ends up getting married again."

Karen started to cry, and I got up, went to her and wrapped my arms around her tightly. Then she started to sob uncontrollably. I just let her go until she was cried out.

"Maybe this is God's way of evening the score, the ultimate way for me to pay you back for ruining your marriage," she finally said.

"If that's the case, then He certainly has a sense of humor."

She smiled at me, and suddenly the world seemed a little brighter. We got dressed and had a full day out, first visiting an art gallery, then a craft show, and then finally going to dinner. Throughout the day, we each thought of a bunch of little things we needed to do if Karen was pregnant.

We bought a home pregnancy test and it confirmed Karen was pregnant. Her OB-GYN visit a couple of weeks later was the final confirmation, and the doctor explained to both of us the risks of Karen carrying the baby. Karen didn't flinch a muscle when she told the doctor that not only would she carry the baby to term, but it would be a perfect, beautiful, healthy baby.

"I owe you that much," she said to me as the doctor looked confused.

Karen had never told any of her family about our relationship before, and considering the way my marriage had ended, that was more than fine with me, but she wanted to make a big splash with this news -- and she wanted me there. I sucked up my personal feelings and went with her to her parents' house for the "family meeting."

The meeting included her parents, Traci and Dave, who had gotten married since Karen and Dave's divorce, and a couple of other aunts and uncles. It was a cake and coffee kind of thing, with various kids running around outside the house. By design, we got to her parents' house last, and when I walked in after Karen the place went deathly quiet, at least until my former mother-in-law found her voice.

"What's he doing here?" she uttered with disdain practically dripping from her words.

"I would think that the father of your next grandchild should be here for the announcement," Karen said icily.

I just stood there with the biggest shit-eating grin I could muster.

The room practically exploded in a cacophony of shocked utterances.

My former mother-in-law went from bitch mode to grandma mode in the blink of an eye, bursting into what looked like happy tears. I spied shocked faces and smiles all around until I glanced over at Traci and Dave. Traci looked gobsmacked, while Dave was gritting his teeth and turning red in the face.

The next thing I knew my former father-in-law had his hand on my shoulder and was leading me into the kitchen. He didn't look happy.

"You son of a bitch! This is how you get your revenge on Traci?" he snarled.

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Fuckhead!" I snapped back at him. "Traci and I have been divorced for over seven years. She's had three kids with Dickhead and married him. And Karen came to me, not the other way around!"

Jerry sat down in a kitchen chair, looking defeated, while the noise in the living room continued on at a good level.

"I'm not trying to be disrespectful, but Karen and I have been friends with benefits since she split from Dave. Since nobody thought Karen could get pregnant, we never used protection. This just happened.

"No, we're not getting married, but I care for Karen very much, and I intend to be every bit the father to this child that I am to Jeremy and Sandy."

"Then I guess I need to shut my stupid mouth and congratulate you two," he said as he stood up, shook my hand, and then pulled me in for a manly hug.

"Wait, I have the perfect way to celebrate this," he said, reaching up into his liquor cabinet above his refrigerator. He pulled out a bottle of 18-year-old single malt and poured each of us a shot. He led me back into the living room, and suddenly the room got quiet again. Everybody was looking at the two of us.

"L'chaim!" Jerry exclaimed.

The noise resumed. We clinked shot glasses softly, then sipped the scotch. You don't throw an 18-year-old single malt down your throat, regardless of the occasion.

It was amazing how fast my stock grew among the family. Despite the fact that Traci cheated on me, I was still the bad guy for not letting her do her "good deed" and getting the divorce all those years ago, but suddenly, I was a hero for accidentally knocking up Karen. The irony wasn't lost on me.

I saved up my vacation and admin times and used them for Karen's doctor appointments and stuff like that. And when they decided to do a C-section on her a little early at 34 weeks, I was in the room with her. Knowing that I was involved in a miracle buoyed my spirits, and I handled all the childbirth stuff as easily as I had in my 20s when Traci had our two.

Miracle Wyatt Platt was perfect, beautiful, and healthy when he came into the world on July 18, 2019, at 10:22 a.m. I didn't think about it at the time, but just before I closed my eyes and went to sleep that night, I wondered about what Dave had to be thinking about me having a son with Karen. Call me a cruel bastard, but I smiled inside as I drifted off.

Between my older two and the baby, life, in general, was pretty full and happy for me. Karen and I still spent our weekends together, although she went on the pill after Miracle was born. We both agreed one was enough.

Two more years passed by, and I was happy with my life as it was, but you know women; they just have to tinker in a man's life. At that point, I hadn't been out on an actual date since Karen and I became a duo almost four years ago, and I wasn't looking for a woman. Apparently, however, Karen was looking for a woman -- for me. Just before taking Miracle home on a Sunday evening, Karen said we needed to talk, so we sat down in the living room while Miracle played on the floor in front of us. She looked more than a little nervous, and I started to get a bad feeling that my happy life was about to change.

"I know we've gotten past the part I played in your divorce all those years ago, but I still feel like I owe you for that. So next Friday night, you're going on a date with a friend of mine -- a co-worker, actually."

I started to protest, but she gave me the stop sign hand, so I shut up and listened.

"Roger, you've become my absolute go-to person in the world -- my best friend, my lover, my child's father. I love you ... but I'm not in love with you, not in that way. But you are absolutely husband material for the right woman ... and after looking for the past few years, I think I've found her for you.

"I've looked long and hard, and I never wasted your time asking you to go on dates with women I thought might be good for you. But I've known this woman for 10 years. I've seen her deal with a lot of life's worst situations, including the death of her husband to cancer seven years ago, and she's shown me the same thing you've shown me -- a tremendous strength of character. She finally started dating again just last year, and I think the two of you would be a great fit. She knows about our relationship, but I've told her, like I am telling you now, that I would gladly step out of the way for you two ... providing I could still stay a part of both of your lives as a friend."

Karen had tears in her eyes as she finished speaking. I had tears in my eyes.

"I can't make you any promises, Babe, but I'll do my best," I whispered.

Sherry Langford was everything Karen said she was ... and more, much more. At 48, she was two years older than me, but I would have guessed she was five years younger than me. She had flawless mocha-colored skin, the result of an English father and an African-American mother, shoulder-length dark brown hair, a pretty face, and a toned hourglass figure that screamed out "gym rat."

I took her to a good Italian restaurant a couple of towns over. Over the three courses of the meal, she told me most of her story and I told her most of mine. She was incredibly easy to talk to and talked like a very smart person. Maybe because she knew me so well, Karen had somehow found what my soul had been missing since I left Traci.

Within three dates, I knew Sherry was right for me, and I think she felt that I was right for her. I explained to Karen that we needed to end the sexual part of our relationship, and she smiled back at me with a smug look that said, "I told you so." We still got together from time to time -- we were still great friends and shared a child -- but she no longer spent the night.

We were married a year later in a small ceremony. She was given away by her son, John, who not only became my stepson but also a trusted friend. And for my best man ... well, she was actually a woman. It just seemed right that Karen was by my side.

Sherry completely understood my friendship with Karen, considering she was another close friend of Karen's, and the three of us often did things together, especially kid things with Miracle. "Sherry-Mom" quickly became one of my son's favorite people.

I'm not saying life was perfect, but we were pretty happy and I had few complaints ... except with a certain Social Studies teacher of Miracle's in fifth grade, who gave my kid a failing grade on his genealogy project. Seems she had a little problem following Miracle's tree. Hell, I'm living it, and I have trouble following it.