Chapter 16
For the next two weeks, Leslie led a double life.
Her husband would go on trips, then return. He went on a number of short excursions, and it made it difficult for Leslie to anticipate when he would be gone and when he would be at home, so she had Peggy constantly juggle her schedule.
She began having sex with a number of different men, and as she did so, she developed a real facility for moving those fingers around over their bodies.
She would give them thorough massages, rubbing their backs, their legs, and their buttocks. Then she would get involved in the actual sex with them, and most, of them ended up paying the same two hundred dollar price that Charlie and Eddie had.
Even though she was doing her best to keep Bruce happy, he could sense that there was less enthusiasm on her part. In addition, whereas she had formerly wanted him to have sex with her quite frequently, now she was not nearly as demanding. She would not ask him to go down on her as she once had sought from him on so many occasions.
He was becoming skeptical, and at first he thought that maybe she was just going through a phase. But when the pattern continued, he was beginning to feel that the situation was of critical importance. The kind of critical importance that needed some kind of immediate resolution.
So unknown to her, he hired a private detective to follow her actions.
He was fearful that perhaps his wife was engaging in sex with another man, but he hoped that that was not the case. He wanted to prove to himself that his doubts were baseless. So for that reason more than any other, he sent out the private detective for purposes of checking out her actions.
For the first few days the private detective did not notice anything out of the ordinary. Then he observed her going to the massage parlor for appointments with various men.
The private detective checked out the massage parlor locale. He found out about the fact that an advertisement was being constantly run in an underground newspaper, and also learned that some of the most prosperous men in the community were going there for secret rubdowns and sex with beautiful women. The private detective called Bruce at the bank one afternoon.
"I've got a report all made out, Mr. Davis," he exclaimed.
"Okay, Pat. I'd like to talk to you about it."
"The phone isn't the place. I'd like to meet with you."
"Fine, you know where I work."
"Sure I do."
"There's a bar and restaurant on the first floor. How about meeting there at five o'clock."
"All right, I'll be there," the detective said.
"Fine, Pat. I'll see you then."
At five sharp, Pat, a bulky, red-faced man in his late thirties, arrived at the bar. Some ten minutes later Bruce Davis appeared. , "How's it going, Pat?" he greeted the detective with a smile, shaking his hand.
"Fine, sir," Pat said.
"How's the report?"
"Could I buy you a drink first?"
"I was going to buy you one."
"That's okay. I'll buy you one. But please sit down."
"From the expression on your face and the way you're talking, it sounds like you're about to tell me something pretty serious."
"I hate to have to say it, but it's very serious," Pat said with urgency.
At that point the bartender arrived.
"I'll have a vodka gimlet," Pat said. "What will it be for you, Bruce?"
"Well, I'll have the same. I'm actually a pretty light drinker."
"Okay, two vodka gimlets," Pat said.
A few moments later the bartender arrived with the drinks.
"Well, Pat, don't keep me in suspense any longer," Bruce said. "Out with it."
"All right, I'll give it to you straight. Your wife is working at a massage parlor."
"A what?"
"A secret massage parlor. She's been taking appointments while you were out of town, or, on some occasions, while you were in town and at work."
"She works at a massage parlor?
"But that isn't the worst part. It isn't just an ordinary massage parlor."
"What kind is it?" Bruce looked at him with concern.
"It's a massage parlor that some of the wealthiest men in Miami attend. They don't go there just to get their bodies rubbed down."
"Are you trying to tell me?" Bruce's eyebrows popped upward noticeably.
"I'm sorry, but that's exactly what is happening," Pat nodded sympathetically. "You wife is apparently having sex with these men."
"But how do you know that?"
"Because of the nature of the operation. It's run by a gal named Peggy. She's very well known around these parts. You see, she advertises in an underground newspaper. I can prove all this to you. And I've seen the guys leave the place with your wife. They'd be in there sometimes for an hour or two."
"My God, I just can't believe it," his head dropped.
"You don't know how hard this was to tell you."
"You don't know how hard this is for me to take."
"I can certainly appreciate what you're going through." Pat nodded. "You see, I've been married three times. Twice I've been exposed to the indignities of having my wives play around on me. But with you it's much worse. I know that. In your case your wife is doing it with a number of guys, and she's being very well paid for it."
"Gosh, I don't know of her coming into any money."
"I checked on that too," he nodded. "You see, she had a separate bank account at another bank. Not this one. She did this on the sly."
"Oh, I just can't believe it," he shook his head. "I'm in shock."
"Maybe if you'll just drink that gimlet. That might help you a little bit."
"No, that won't help at all," he said sadly. "Thanks for telling me, Pat. I know you had to do it."
"It really wasn't easy."
"No, I know. It wasn't easy on either one of us."
Bruce got up slowly from the barstool, then walked out of the bar.
As he headed toward the parking lot, he was in a daze. He didn't know what was happening in the world around him. He was insulated from everything and everyone else. All he could think of was that the woman he loved had betrayed him.
He drove home immediately, then got out of the car and entered the house.
His lovely wife Leslie was just finishing the act of preparing dinner, and was setting the dishes down on the table as he arrived.
His face was as pale as that of a ghost as he entered the house, his hands trembling. As Leslie came out to greet him, she observed the crestfallen look on his face.
"Hello, dear," she said with concern. "What's wrong?"
"It's all over between us," he said. "I found out all about you."
"What do you mean?"
"I'm talking about what you're doing behind my back. I sensed that you were lacking in some of the enthusiasm that you had demonstrated before. I figured that there was another man. I was hoping that I was wrong, but I had a private detective check out your actions just to be on the safe side. Well, it isn't another man. But I almost wished that that was it. That would be a little easier to take than what you've been doing. My God, my own wife turning into a whore."
"What are you saying?"
"There's no use pretending. I know all about it. And, baby, I'm going to see to it that you wind up with nothing in the divorce settlement. You don't deserve a thing after betraying me like this."
"But I can explain, honey. You've been away too much of the time. I just got bored and I needed something to do."
"Oh sure, that's a great excuse," he snarled. "The wife is a little bored, so instead of joining the local bridge club, she instead goes to work at a red-hot massage parlor where she takes on every guy in town. Or at least every guy with enough dough to make it worthwhile. Just how much money did you make anyway?"
"I don't want to talk about it."
"No, but I guess you can talk to the judge later. The judge and my attorney."
"Let's talk this over, honey. Let's talk it over now. I don't want to divorce you."
"You're not going to divorce me," he said coldly. "I'm going to divorce you. That's the way it's going to be, baby. You're going to get the short end every which way. What an act of deceit. I would have done anything to preserve this marriage. If you had really been feeling that terrible about everything that was happening, all you would have had to do was to tell me. If need be, I even would have quit my job at the bank. I would have done any of those things to save our marriage. But here you went ahead and torpedoed the whole thing by behaving like a tramp. No, it's all over."
She looked at him in the eyes. There was a look of searing determination in them. Now she was able to see things as they really were. No longer was she operating under an illusion. She recognized that the man who truly loved her, and the man she loved, had been alienated by her conduct.
She had received some pleasure, certainly. But it was the kind of pleasure that was obtained at a very costly price.
Now he was through with her, and she was very well aware of it.
She thought about Peggy, and about the men that she had performed sex with, like Eddie and Charlie. No longer did those acts appear beautiful. Now they seemed every bit as ugly as they way her husband had described them.