"Honey, we have to talk."

Not words a loving husband wants to hear at the best of times, less so when he has just walked in after a particularly hard day at work.

I look at her, she has a half empty wine glass in her hand, probably to settle her nerves. Shit, even Ray Charles could see she is more than a little apprehensive.

I take off my boots and head up to the bathroom for a shower without acknowledging she has spoken.

As I shower thoughts are running through my head. I was going to ask her tonight who the wanker was that she had been having her lunch with every day this week and most of last week. I already know who he is and I'm asking myself, is she having an affair, is she leaving me for him? Dried and dressed I head down to see if my world is about to end.

There is an opened beer waiting for me, I sit down and look at her.

"Please don't be angry."

I say nothing and pour my beer into a glass.

"Oh god this is not easy."

I sit quietly waiting for her to get to the point.

"You know I love you."

"Do I?" I ask.

"Of course I do, it's just that..."

I look at her, fuck her I'm not going to make it easy on her, no matter where this is headed.

It's just that..." she hesitates. "There's this guy at work... We've gotten to be friends, well more than friends."

Well she's started now. Will she back track or actually say what she wants, the suspense is killing me.

"I've... we... umm I'm attracted to him."

There she has said it. I peer into my glass and watch the rising bubbles.

"I love you Col, so I'm asking if you'd mind, no of course you mind. I suppose I'm asking if I can... If you... Christ can you say something.

"Nights are fair drawing in."

"Oh hell, you know what I mean."

"Do I?"

"Christ now you're being awkward."

"Am I?"

She looks at me, I can see a strange mix of hopelessness and anger in her eyes.

"Col this man I work with, I want him." She shouts at me.

I take another sip from my glass. I hear the clock in the hallway ticking.

"I won't cheat on you Col."

"I wouldn't cheat on you either, that's called commitment. It should follow when people love each other, especially when they are in a committed relationship, such as a marriage. Well that's cleared up then, what's for tea."

"Col you're being deliberately obstreperous. You know damn well what I'm saying, what I am asking."

"Do I?"

"You're going to make me say it aren't you?"

"The clocks change soon don't they?"

"Jesus Christ will you talk to me properly?"

"If that's what you want dear, what did you want to talk about?"

"I just told you I am attracted to a bloke at work and that I want to have sex with him."

"Oh and you want me to reciprocate. Yes dear, I work with a couple of women I find attractive, now there's one, Jenny. I think she is gorgeous and I must admit I would love to spend a few hours between her thighs and I think, if I were to pursue the matter, she would not be averse to me being there. However, there is the one small drawback. I am married to the woman I love and as I already mentioned, I am committed to that relationship. I would never have thought to jeopardise our relationship for a quick bang just because I could."

I give her a minute to digest my words then I say. "I certainly would not presume on our relationship and expect you to forgive me for such a transgression."

I realise my mistake as the words leave my mouth and she seizes her opening.

"What about if I were to give you permission?" She looks at me intently, before I answer she continues. "I mean then it wouldn't be cheating, would it?"

She refills her glass and passes me another bottle.

"That's a good question, but even if you gave permission, would that exempt you from feeling hurt, jealous, betrayed even?"

I scored a point there, but I don't think it will be enough. It takes her a couple of minutes but she comes back.

"But if permission was given, then I would have no right to be jealous, no right to be upset and even if I was, I think I could live with it."

"Do you? What about if I found that I preferred being with her, what happens if we just click and I don't know, maybe I find that the sex we have always had just isn't good enough anymore?"

"That's ridiculous, we are brilliant together."

"If we are so good, why are we having this conversation?"

Another point, that one really hit home.

"But a lot of couples do just that, to bring a spark back into their relationship."

Her answer was quick, too quick, she must have expected that response."

"So I'm not being sparky enough for you, is that it?"

"No, no, no you are plenty sparky enough, it's just that..."

"You want to fuck James Hornsby."

Oops let her know I know about him, worth it just for the look on her face.

"Not only do you want to, but you are willing to make any deal with me so you can do it with a clear conscience, is that right?"

"Yes." Her voice a whisper.

"Are you already fucking him?"

"God no, I told you I won't cheat on you."

"So you don't think your little romance is cheating. You don't think your mutual fan club meetings behind my back are untoward in any way?"

"Look you admitted you and Jenny fancy each other, it's the same thing."

"No I admitted that I could see myself fancying Jenny and I also admitted that if I chose to chat her up, I think I may be able to get somewhere. We do not seek one another out for clandestine lunchtime liaisons. So no I don't think it is the same. Tell me did you discuss with your boyfriend that you were going to sandbag me with this tonight?"

"It was his idea." She confesses.

"Oh great, does he want me to stick his dick into you for him."

"Don't be gross."

"Well sorry, I don't know what the procedure is to hand my wife over to some contemptuous conniving cunt."

"He's not like that. You're getting angry and you promised you wouldn't."

"I did no such thing, whereas you promised to be faithful."

"Col you're making this more difficult than it needs to be."

"Really. So fucking sorry, what do you want me to say, tell you to call him up so you can go on a weekend fuck fest, pick out your lingerie and cheerfully wave bye bye."

"No, but I hoped you would give it some thought."

"How long."

"What?"

"How long have I got to think on it?"

"Oh I don't know."

"Okay, how long have you and arsewipe been having your little romance?"

"Umm, er."

"How long since you decided you want to fuck him? How long since you have wanted to be more than just friends?"

"Uhh ohh, maybe about three weeks or so."

"Right, I will think on it for three weeks and before you say anything it's only fair, you have had three weeks to decide, you should at least give me the same time."

"Yes I suppose."

"I have a question Well two, maybe more as I think of them, and I want answers to them and I want them answered before Monday. Are you asking for a relationship or a one off fuck and what happens if I say no, what happens if I say no fucking way?"

"I don't know, I didn't think you would say no and no we weren't thinking of a one off."

"There you go again, referring to the cunt and yourself as we, the only we in our marriage should be me and you, can't you see that?"

"Sorry I didn't mean it like that."

At least she looks guilty. I fight to control my mounting rage.

"There is also a condition while I am thinking this through. I don't want you and the arsehole having any more meetings, no lunches, five or ten minutes after work, phone calls, nothing. Will you promise me that. If not I'll be seeing a solicitor on Monday."

Ooh, she didn't expect that. "If you agree to my conditions I will allow you one call to tell him that if he wants to stick himself into your hole then he will also agree."

"Do you have to be so crude."

"Oh sorry but where you might see this as some great romantic adventure, I see it as some dirty bastard encroaching on and stealing something precious to me aided and abetted by the one person I never thought would betray me, especially in this manner."

"Col it's not like that, it's not like that at all."

"Keep telling yourself that."

That one hit home too, I find myself incredulous. My world has just been turned upside down, this is probably the swansong of my marriage and I am trying to score points. If I had enough disgust left in me I would be disgusted with myself, however the disgust I feel for her and her wannabe paramour is more disgust than I normally have in a day.

"Chops and chips." She says suddenly.

"What?"

"You asked what was for tea, chops and chips."

"Oh, great... how long?"

I'll get them going in a minute, I'll make that call first.

I could have pointed out, that again she was putting him before me but I let it slide. I walked over so I could listen to both sides.

"Pamela darling, how did he take it?"

"Not as well as we hoped, er he..."

"He's there with you, listening isn't he?"

"He has said he wants some time to think about it."

"What's to think about, he says yes and we get it on."

"No James, he's right, we've had time to think about it, it's only fair that we allow him to come to terms with the idea."

"Why does that matter, he's just going to have to learn to accept it."

"No James that's not what we agreed, that's why I spoke to him, we not going to go any further than we have, unless he is alright with it."

"But babe, you know we have something special."

"Yes, but the reason I am calling, is that he has made, uh he has asked, that while he is thinking it over that we have nothing to do with each other, no lunches phone calls nothing. I have agreed to this and you must as well."

"Can I still send you flowers."

For some reason that makes me angry and I take her phone from her. "Listen here cunt, you will have nothing and I mean nothing to do with her, no meetings, no calls and no fucking flowers. Got that."

"Oh yeah big man what you going to do to stop me."

"Those are my conditions, are you saying that my wife isn't worth the inconvenience?"

The phone is silent, I can almost hear him thinking through the receiver, eventually I hear. "Okay, I'll agree."

I can hear the resentment in his voice as he speaks, but we both know that if he makes a scene it will undermine all his hard work. I am now convinced he is a player, all he is interested in is another notch on his bedpost and no doubt if he wrecks our marriage it is of no consequence to him.

The rest of the evening, in fact the whole weekend is not good. Pamela is trying hard to make me feel good, me on the other hand am spending my time trying to make her realise what she has done to us.

I'm not sure exactly when the idea occurred to me, but the more I thought about it the better it seemed.

I spend almost every night shut in the spare bedroom or computer room as we call it. It took several of my evenings over the following three weeks to make a rough draft and even more to formulate it into the necessary legalise and give it a final read through. The upshot was I had a document that looked as if it was genuine and said what I wanted it to in a way that seemed professionally obscure. I even took a couple of days off work this week, just to finalise a couple of things.

Daily I ask her about cuntface, and daily she confirms that she is honouring my request, although one night she admits to getting a note from him asking to meet. She says she has ignored it.

I am still hoping that he will push to see her, so it causes friction between them, or the three weeks apart has got him to lose interest. I hope it's over with soon, well it will be one way or another I am not going to live with this animosity, nor will I live with an unfaithful slag.

Ah well here we are arriving home exactly three weeks after her "we have to talk" talk, well tonight I'm going to talk.

I walk in and immediately smell something nice, I shout through hello and take off my boots, before heading up for a shower, when I return I am clasping a brown envelope.

A poured beer is waiting for me. She eyes the envelope. "What's that?"

"I'll let you know in a bit, now, what have you got to tell me?"

"How, how did you know?" she asks.

I just raise an eyebrow and look at her, waiting for the confession.

"James came and spoke to me today. I told him he had to wait 'til next week, but he said it was only to arrange where to meet. I got angry with him and told him if he didn't leave me alone there would be no meeting next week. He wasn't happy but he went away." As she speaks, her eyes do not move from the envelope. "What's in the envelope?"

"We'll discuss that after we've eaten, it's going to take some time and I do not want to be the reason to ruin something special."

Yeah okay that was a cheap shot, but these days I have to get my fun somewhere and watching the way she squirms is fun.

We eat our evening meal with very little conversation, she seems to be very nervous. I keep an eye on the time, in fact I ask her the time twice, just to make her aware of the time.

After we had tidied away after dinner I pour her out a fresh glass of wine, before taking her into the lounge and sitting her down.

I looked at her as I sat, I almost laugh because she looks so nervous.

"Pamela, three weeks ago you shocked me. You told me that you had developed a crush on some tosser you work with and that you wanted to start an affair with him. You told me that you had not done anything other than talk but had agreed between you both that you would like to go further. Is it still the case that you have not broken your wedding vows."

"Yes, I mean no, I mean I haven't broken them, the vows." She stammers.

"Are you still wishing to fuck the wanker."

"I think so."

"Well, as I promised I have given the matter some thought, in fact I have thought about little else since that evening. Now, I think that your request for permission was nothing else but an attempt to assuage your guilt. Guilt that you feel for wanting to do something that you know is wrong and hurtful."

"Now I am of the opinion that no man in his right mind should want his wife to have sexual relations with another, so it should come as no surprise that I will state categorically that I really wish you will stop in this ridiculous endeavour."

"However, seeings how you seem to have made your mind up, regardless of how I feel or any damage it may do to our relationship and marriage you have just stated that it is still your wish."

I open the envelope and pull another from it.

"I am concerned that should I forbid you, while you may agree now to my face, at some point in the near future, especially once your seducer is able to start once again his quest for your virtue then he will also persuade you to go behind my back. In view of that possibility I have sought legal advice and had a contract of infidelity drawn up, if you would read through it and if you agree to the things in it sign it, I will sign it and we can get someone else to witness our signatures."

"Contract of infidelity?"

"Yes."

"What the hells that."

"Read through it, you will find it is self explanatory."

She takes the envelope and pulls out the contained document.

She starts to read, I can see that she is getting more and more baffled the further she gets.

"I don't understand all this legal bollocks. What does it mean."

"Well, it states that we the undersigned accept that the other on occasion may wish to betray their marriage vows and such an act could result in divorce should the aggrieved partner feel so totally betrayed they can no longer live in the loving partnership they had previously. It then lists a number of clauses to be met, that are there to try to alleviate the innocent parties concerns and may help to minister somewhat to the emotional wounds that such an act will no doubt open, wounds far deeper than the ones already caused by the intent of betrayal. There are some others to prevent other side effects of said betrayal, such as disease, embarrassment, social stigma and the like, even a couple for your own physical and mental safety."

"What are you on about?"

"Well, if you ever want to have sex with me after you have been off doing the dirty with your spare cock, I want to make sure that I don't catch anything, so I demand that he get checked before and you after, plus condoms must be worn."

"He won't like that."

"Well I don't like the fact that my wife's head has been turned by some predatory peddler of bullshit."

"I'll have to talk to him first and he's not like that."

"No, that's part of the embarrassment clauses. You are not to discuss the document or contents thereof with anybody than myself or certified legal counsel."

"What if he won't get checked?"

"He wants to play he has to pay, or you can move out now."

"What?"

"We will not be staying married if you do not sign. I do not want to live with an adulteress, but I also do not want to spend my life without you, so I, with my solicitor have formulated said document as a compromise. Pam you're ripping my heart out here, please, you're the one that wants to fuck him, you tell him he has to be checked. Jesus Christ nowadays you're a fool not to have each other checked before entering into a physical relationship."

"I suppose, what else is there?"

"You don't bring him here, I don't want the neighbours to know you are a harlot and I don't want my home, much less my bed soiled with your wayward and treacherous immoral philandering , and you don't go to his place, you never know who he could have laying in wait for you."

"You're being ridiculous, and do you have to put it like that."

"Maybe, but I promised to care for and cherish you 'til death do we part. I take my vows seriously and as such I see no other way of voicing your disloyal self indulgence."

Chalk another one up to me. I note the time and smile, Unless she is planning on going to see him over the weekend it will be Monday before she knows he is in hospital. Of course, that is if somebody finds him.

"You shall tell me in advance the time and location of any assignations and if for any reason I deem that assignation unacceptable then you will abide by my decision. For example I might decide to vet a hotel room before you use it, just to satisfy myself he has not arranged for you to be gangbanged."

"He won't do that, you should trust him."

"Yes, I should trust the man that has ruined my marriage and taken my wife from me."

"Really Col, he has not ruined your marriage or taken me away."

"I said he has taken my wife away. I had a wife, now I may have a fuck buddy if I ever choose to have sex with you again."

"I'll still be your wife."

"You haven't been my wife since the first time you put his wishes before mine, a wife and a husband are titles bestowed by commitment, you are no longer committed to just me, therefore you are no longer entitled to be thought my wife."

A look of horror appears as I am speaking, perhaps she is only now seeing the repercussions of her urge to dip her toes in the sea of infidelity.

"Oh yes, no public displays of affection and that includes flowers, especially in the workplace or around anyone we know. No public dates, no dressing to please. No buying lingerie to use with him, and no using our special items with him.

"You must remember at all times that I am perceived to be your husband and you will appear to put me first in all things. You will not ever refuse me sex should I ever choose to lower my standards and dip into the contaminated pool. You will not talk about me to your cock, not in any way and especially not in any disparaging way.

"You will remember at all times that you are my wife, in name at least, if not in practice and so shall behave as if I am with you at all times, with the exception of when you are alone with cockface. You will not do anything with him that you have not done with me. In fact you will keep your illicit liaisons very vanilla, that means no anal, no threesomes or moresomes and when you return to me you will be clean, inside and out."
"This is all very one sided, I don't see you having to live by any conditions."

"Yeah very one sided, you seem to have missed that the same conditions apply to me if I was to choose to break your heart and slag about as you have. If you'd bothered to notice, I have already signed all three copies."

"Do you really think that's what I am going to be doing?"

"That's exactly what you told me you were doing, look you haven't signed yet, ring up your daughter or you mother and ask them if they think what you have demanded is slagging about."

"I'm sorry, I suppose from your perspective that's exactly what I'll be doing."

Finally, a little humility, a little acceptance from her.

"Okay, you win, I'll sign the bloody things."

No Pam, I only win if you decide not to do this.

She signs all three copies, I give her one copy to keep,

"As you know I have spent hours on the computer, I haven't been looking at porn, I have been doing some research." I say before giving her the other envelope. I smile as she takes it and starts to look inside.

I have done research, lots of it, some for the "contract" and a lot on Mr J Hornsby. I am pretty sure I know more about him than my errant wife. He is married with two children aged eleven and nine. They moved from Shropshire a few months ago, that I found out just from social media.

As well as printing up the contract, I also made up an identity card for a fictitious private detective company, with a fictitious name, not to mention a fictitious medical report for the fictitious Jenny.

The last two Saturdays and the last two days I have been trawling his old haunts, only an hour and a half away. Using the fake P.I. card I was able to find out a lot more, it's amazing what you can find out about a person, especially if he is not liked by the person you are asking.

He considers himself a bit of a ladies' man, and likes to pretend to be a bit flash. No-one I spoke to, had much good to say about him and the major bonus I found was that he left his last employer under a bit of a cloud, mostly caused by an allegation of date rape by one of his colleagues. In the envelope were several documents that support that information. Most of which I shouldn't have been able to get hold of. He really is not well liked.

"It says that he's married, and has two boys, he told me he was divorced and didn't have any kids." She says. "He lied to me"

"Shit who would've guessed, I never saw that coming. I would've thought he would be inherently trustworthy." I say, trying not to smile.

"Date rape." She gasps as she says it and then empties her glass, I notice her hands are trembling as I get up and take it to refill, I get myself a little glass for some Jameson's, I think it's time for a little celebration.

I pass her her glass and go pour my whiskey.

"I'I... I, he... he got to me. Col I'm so sorry for what I've put you through. Oh god I feel so stupid, you tried to tell me but I wouldn't listen oh god Col how can I make this right, I've been so thoughtless and selfish, can you ever forgive me?"

"Yes." I say, she gasps in surprise and then I finish my sentence. "You have been totally thoughtless and selfish. It makes me wonder why I shouldn't just get a divorce. You were ready to betray everything just for a few inches of meat and a bucket of bullshit. Now, finally, you have gotten your head out of his crotch, how do you think that's made me feel?

"Oh god Col, I've been a total bitch, I didn't see it, even tonight when you are explaining that stupid faux contract I was getting annoyed at your digs, although some of them did hit home.

"Faux contract, what faux contract?"

"This, silly." She says waving the contract.

"No, I had it checked over, it's legally binding."

"Haa you had me going for a second, even if it was legal it would have to be witnessed."

"I videoed me signing it earlier and you just now, I have sent the files to my solicitor, it's as good as witnessing by signature nowadays."

"It doesn't matter, I'm not going to mess up again."

"That's okay Pam, now I have a question for you." I pull two pieces of paper and pass them to her and say. "STD free certificates," then I ask her. "would Monday at half eight at the Hollydown motel be okay with you, for me to give Jenny the shafting of her life?"

I look at her and smile. Now I know she does know how she made me feel.