He gets his priorities in order

The kiss was sudden, shocking and…one of the most passionate Jack had ever received.

Rhonda’s tongue pushed through his lips and began to explore and massage his own, doing her level best to devour as much of his face as she could. Her hands, surprisingly soft as they were, began to explore and massage his chest and shoulders. The woman was worked up, and for a moment, so was Jack.

But even in his drunken state he knew that this exchange was wrong. And though it felt like agony, he gently pried himself away from the young woman’s affections.

“Rhonda,” he said, catching his breath, “we shouldn’t be doing this…”

Initially she was still caught up in her fog of lust, but then seemed to find sobriety and looked at him in concern and shame. “Oh my god,” her voice grew hoarse, “fuckfuckfuck... I’m so sorry I don’t know what the hell was going through my head. It’s just that you’re always so nice to me, and I’ve been alone for so long and…”

“Hey, it’s ok,” he rubbed her shoulders gently while a burst of calm was projected at her. “We’ve both had a lot to drink, and we’re both stressed with work. It’s no big deal.”

She nodded for a moment before suddenly looking horrified again. “Fuck, you’re married!” Her breathing sped up, “I don’t…please, I’m so sorry, I don’t want to be a homewrecker!”

This time Jack sent a persistent puncturing **** of calm into Rhonda’s mind. It felt strange, applying more effort into an emotion and it wasn’t unlike stretching a muscle. Her breathing levelled out and her shoulders sagged a little after a while.

“Really, don’t worry about it,” he gave her a reassuring smile. “My wife and I…well, between you and me, the marriage is basically on its way out. We haven’t been husband and wife for a long time, so please don’t let that worry you.”

Really, the concept of adultery wasn’t as heinous to him as it had once been. In his youth Jack hadn’t even so much as looked at another woman, but the years of cold indifference and spite had eroded his loyalty. Sharon had broken their wedding vows first, and he began to wonder if he was doing anyone any favours by trying to stay faithful.

“I’ll admit...I’m attracted to you. Shit, you’re funny, you’re smart, you’re kind and you’re utterly gorgeous,” he **** himself to look her in the eye, despite how much his manhood demanded that he ogle her sweaty and excited state. “But I’m your boss. It wouldn’t be appropriate, people would talk and there would be trouble with HR...it would be a mess. Our jobs might be on the line.”

Rhonda looked at him thoughtfully for several heartbeats. Her eyes took in every inch of him, the processing of her brain working like a high powered computer as she absorbed the information he had given her.

“So you’re not really with your wife anymore,” she spoke slowly, as though trying each word out for size, “and you feel the same attraction that I do…and the only reason you haven’t acted on it is because of how people at work would react? Jack...who says they have to know? This can stay entirely between us.”

He opened his mouth to speak, only to close it again. Rhonda took that as an opportunity to reach out and press the palm of her hand against his chest. “Work helps pay for our lives, so why don’t we actually live?”

Hearing his own words thrown back at him, Jack felt his resistance crumble. Sure there was a workplace issue, but the truth is that was a trivial thing that people often looked the other way for. Ultimately he was just denying himself a chance at some small measure of happiness that he wasn’t going to find with his wife.

He looked at the beautiful young woman standing before him and thought to himself, Why not?