A Real Man in My Life Ch. 05

Parker's assertion that my boyfriend was having sex with someone else was as pathetic as it was predictable.

"Is he really," I said, "I'm sure I would have noticed."

"Really," said Parker, "I have evidence."

"Oh, do tell Parker."

"I've promised not to," he said. He leant against my car and sighed with a deep and meaningful shake of his head, and with his appalling level of amateur dramatics I thought that for once he had copied Bradley rather than the other way around. "I just don't want you to suffer any more pain Natalie, Come here," he said spreading wrinkling his nose with a feu-compassionate resigned smile on his lips and his arms wide.

"Fuck off Parker," I stepped back from him.

"No," he said adopting his voice he used to use to try and boss me around, "Come here Natalie." He moved closer and tried to envelope me in his arms, even though I was a head taller than him.

"Parker, get away from me, you take one step closer and I'll punch you in the face."

He stopped and did his now famous arms outstretched, mouth open, bottom lip protruding, looking around for support 'What have I done now?' dance that Bradley had almost mastered.

"Leave me alone you fucking idiot!" I said getting out my mobile phone and walking back towards the school and the other staff members that could witness his strange behaviour.

I could see his supressed anger in his face, he had always really hated me standing up for myself and 'giving him cheek', he was so convinced that he was in the right. He started with that thought in his mind.

"Natalie, this is your last chance," he growled, "right now I'm prepared to take you back, no questions, no names, no pack drill, even though you're dressing like a slut," his voice dropped a few octaves in disgust, "and... and I'm even... I'm even prepared to forgive and forget that you've slept with Woods!"

He dragged out the word 'slept' and gave it so much am-dram venom ending in disappointment that I thought I was going to laugh and 'Woods' as if my lovely Gray was just the very worst sex pervert.

"Yeah, I slept with Gray, lots of times but at least I had the decency to have waited until I was separated from you first. And you know what, he's a thousand times better in bed than you are. I folded my arms, "he gave me more orgasms in one weekend than I had with you in our whole married life! So other than you slagging me off for the last three years, fucking all of your female employees other than Edith, why should I get back with you again?"

He bit his bottom lip and tried to think. It went on for just too long.

"Because... because I... love you? Yes! Yes," he said dropping to one knee, "I love you Natalie; Woods doesn't he's just using for sex..."

"Yeah and he can carry on as far as I'm concerned."

"But..." he suddenly remembered and then picked up his brown folder, "I have evidence! AND I forgive you!"

"Have you finished Parker?" I said with folded arms and a furrowed brow, "Yes? Good, well Parker fucking Wallace," I spat, "I don't forgive you for screwing Shauna, and then for screwing Penny, and then screwing Stephanie, and then screwing Diana; and I don't forgive you for spending your money on them on not our children, or our house. I forgive you nothing Parker," I shouted, "NOTHING!"

"Natalie!" he scolded like a school master.

The amateur dramatics hadn't finished,

"Natalie," he said with a studied wobble in his voice, "Darling, I... I want you back, you're all I've been able to think about for weeks, please... please give me another chance!" He reached out for me and I pushed him away, the heel of my hand in his unprotected solar plexus. He groaned and fell back slightly then looked angrier than before.

"You're MINE Natalie!" he snarled. That look I'd never seen before was quite scary and I did feel just a little concerned, we'd gone for it more than we ever had before. Well I had at least.

"Everything OK Natalie?" said a voice from behind me. It was Pete Creamer, one of the huge PE teachers and twice the size of Parker.

"This is Parker, my ex-husband..."

"You're still my wife!" Parker snapped at me, eyes blazing, but he came back to himself and starting backing away slightly as the giant Pete moved closer, Parker tried to recover his bravery pointing at me, "don't you forget that!"

"No Parker," I said, "I'm still married to you, I stopped being your wife when you started sleeping with other women."

Parker growled

"Oh my fucking Christ, this is none of your business!"

"OK Mr Wallace, I suggest you leave the school grounds," said Pete, and I could see through the staff room window several colleagues looking across at us, one with a phone to her ear.

"You going to make me boy?" said Parker trying to increase his size.

"I can if you really want me to," said Pete with a grin taking a single pace forward. Parker turned, and stepped towards his car huffing and puffing for the want of some kind of verbal response.

Once he was safely at his car with the door open he did the touching his eyes with two fingers and pointing at me in that 'I'm watching you' gesture.

I proceeded to point at him then raise my middle finger in a 'fuck you' gesture, glad that no children were on site to witness Mrs Wallace's 'difficulties'. Parker's car pulled away with some difficulty, I guessed that on top of everything else that was buggered as well. In a cloud of smoke and some rattling, his old BMW finally got out of the car park. I rolled my eyes and thanked Pete.

"No problem," he said, "glad to help Natalie."

I heard the screech of his fan belt as he reached the junction and I wondered who he was going to get to fix his car this time. So many of the local garages refused to help him because of unpaid bills and bounced cheques and the rather annoying habit of his of trying to bargain the price down or barter with them - after the work was done of course.

One of the people watching the proceedings was the school headteacher who had a discussion with the site manager and before I'd even left the car park, they had captured a still picture of Parker in action and attached it to the banning letter we occasionally gave to pupils and parents telling him that he had no further business on school grounds and would be prosecuted if he set foot on any land belonging the county education department. I wrote out the envelope myself the very next morning.

I rang Gray when I got home and told him of Parker's increasingly irrational behaviour.

"Are you OK Baby?" he said, "Do you want me to come over?"

"I'll have a glass of wine and a nap, I'll be fine Gray honest." I replied trying to sound more confident than I felt.

"So long as you're sure Darling," he said.

"I am honest," I said, "Oh by the way, Parker says he has evidence that you're shafting someone else." I added a giggle letting him know how ridiculous I thought it was.

"If I had the energy to make love to two women, then I'd be at your place every night Baby," he said, "and I'd never let you out of bed."

"Oh Gray you just say the sweetest things!"

"You are the sweetest thing Nats, I love you," he said, "If you need me just call and I'll be there, Promise."

"Thanks Gray," I said and almost asked him to come and stay, even though I knew he was working several cases in London that week.

I went down to the kitchen and as if by magic Tom appeared with his big smile. A couple of minutes later we were joined by Gemma. Bradley was noticeable by his absence but the noise from his closed bedroom door suggested electronic death and violence via his Playstation.

I cooked tea and Gem and Tom just hung around guessing that something had happened with their father. I kept quiet about the incident but did wonder what the fuck had been in the brown folder he'd kept pushing at me. It would be nothing, Parker was involved after all.

I heard nothing from Parker for a week, but as I guessed he was in the shit financially and he was working on a way to pay for his car repair - I found out from Tom just how bad it had got some months later.

On the next Saturday night, I had gone out to dinner with Gray, leaving a now eighteen year old Gemma in charge at home, and it was such a wonderful night that when I got home on the Sunday still dancing on air, neither Tom nor Gemma would bring me down bless them.

Gray had taken me to a wonderful Chinese restaurant and we had eaten the most wonderful food and just loved being in each other's company, and were stupid and soppy with each other. We got back to Gray's house and I suggested a swim and opened the patio doors, stripping off.

As I stood at his open door in just my string panties, he reminded me that we shouldn't really swim after a large meal so I just strolled out onto his patio and saw the moonlight making the ruined church and other buildings look enchanted. The early summer night was warm, the stars shone and I just wanted to go out into onto his land, naked, and just feel the grass on my bare feet.

"Nats?" said Gray a little confused.

"Get naked and walk with me," I said holding out a hand.

He stripped down to his boxers and did just that and we walked out into the moonlight, the screening trees hiding us from the distant road, there being no other properties on Gray's small country estate.

I picked up speed and started to run, I didn't know why and still don't but it was spur of the moment excitement and exhilaration, and as we neared the ruined Saxon church he grabbed me and pulled me down onto the lightly undulating grass, cool and soft against our bare skin; bare skin that had that strange white glow that goes with being bathed in moonlight.

He kissed me and I responded, our mouths meshing in intimate joinder, passionate yet gentle contact that calmed us down and fired us up, and I knew that I would make love in the grass that night, for the first time ever.

"Make love to me Gray," I said, "I've never done it in the open before."

"Wow," said Gray with a smile, "another first to chalk up at my place."

"Yeah," I said, "hurry up and start chalking."

He pulled my panties off in a flash dripping his head to my already damp pussy that he had exposed to the moonlight and kissing the bare shaved flesh above my vulva.

He feasted on me for what seemed like hours but was probably just minutes and I guess was just about making sure that I was as wet as he needed me to be.

He rolled across me and I reached down to remove his boxers only to find he already had done, and was bearing down on me his huge erection ready for action and pointing at me with a purpose.

His one slow thrust entered me in one go and I gasped wondering just when he was going to stop. I raised my thighs and gripped him pulling his face down to mine so we could kiss, me tasting the now familiar tang of my own pussy on his lips and tongue, but I didn't care a fuck. The action I was getting was wonderful and I felt the first of a stream of comes starting in my loins and the pleasure didn't stop until I stared up at the moon crying out as his hot come splashed into me. I lay there and felt his copious gift pour from me, happy that there would be no nasty wet patch for me to sleep in tonight at least.

After we had gotten our breath back we both stood and walked back to the house, and naked I jumped into the pool to refresh myself.

Gray jumped in after me and we kissed and made out for another twenty minutes before towelling each other dry and heading to his bedroom. (One embarrassing moment occurred later that autumn when Gemma was walking across to the ruined church and found a pair of black string panties my size in the long grass and as we prepared another barbecue, she whispered to me asking how they had got that far across the countryside. I just grinned.)

It was a wonderful night for me but an unsettling one back at my house in town. At a little before eleven, while I was stripping off by Gray's pool back at my house Tom heard a noise coming through his open bedroom window from the patio doors and living room directly below him.

He got up and as he came out of his room saw that his brother's bedroom light was on pushed the door and saw that he wasn't there. He got Gemma and they both tiptoed down the stairs with mobiles in hand ready to run and call the police at the same time.

Tom said that he could hear excited voices and pushed Gemma behind him thinking it could be drugged up burglars. Gemma was eldest of course and pushed him out of the way easing the living room door open and turning on the light to see a giggling Bradley helping his father disconnect the TV, excited at whatever ruse the two of them were up to.

"Err..." said Parker caught in the act.

"Err... echoed his youngest son, he caught on quicker than his father basically because he believed what his Dad had told him, "Dad's just recovering his property!" Snapped Bradley, his bottom lip protruding self-righteously.

"What by nicking our TV?"

"It's Dad's TV," said Bradley.

"No it isn't," said Tom, "the one Dad had was that Polaroid that broke down, Dad took it to get it repaired and we used the one from Mum's room."

Gemma looked severely pissed at this intrusion, she was there when I changed the locks after Parker started taking what he considered to be 'his stuff' after the split, the demarcation being what the value was rather than whether he'd bought it or had ever used it.

"Yeah, that one is the Samsung that Mum bought to replace it back before Christmas. She had to borrow the money from Grampy because you kept bitching that her bedroom TV was a 32 inch and way to small, that's a 48," she folded her arms and stared at her Father with some disappointment edged with contempt, "Dad's TV is wherever HE took it to get it repaired..."

"Oh yeah!" said Parker, "Sorry I forgot, it's just that mine has broken down and I thought I'd come and collect..."

"Well it isn't yours Dad," sighed Gemma, terribly let down by her youngest brother for believing his Dad's shit again and more so for letting him in once we had all gone to bed or were out.

"You should still take it Dad!" said Bradley, still caught up in his Dad's convincing story delivered with such passion and vehemence.

"No, it's OK Bradley, your sister is right," he slapped his thigh, "Johnny Morris! That's the bloke that's got it, I'll go round and see him."

"Yeah," said Gemma.

"And I'll thank you not to talk down to me like that young lady, you're not to grown up for me to take my bloody belt off to ya." He stuck his chin out with a slight wag of his head, and Tom had to stop himself laughing as Bradley did likewise, hoping desperately that his bossy older sister would get what was coming to her from their Dad.

"No you won't Dad," said Tom defiantly. He probably wasn't as strong as he Dad but with both him and Gemma it would be a different deal, and the police would be called.

Parker wagged his head again turned to the patio door he'd entered by,

"Well seeing as my children are ganging up on me, it's time I was off."

"I'm not ganging up on you Dad!" said Bradley standing tall with a huge smile, and still proud to have let his father in for his nefarious purpose.

"Not now Bradley," said Parker dismissively.

"But... the Telly!"

"Not now Bradley," snarled Parker, "I'll wish you all a goodnight then." He said, leaving the housing via the patio door with his head held high, Tom overhearing something about the garage not taking a shitty old broken TV.

Bradley looked confused.

"Mum changed the locks for a reason!" said Gemma with folded arms and, apparently looking every inch like me when I'm angry.

"Yeah, well... it's still Dad's house!" said Bradley, angry that his scheme to help out his Dad get one over on his Mum had failed.

"No it isn't, Mum had the house, Dad kept the business, after all it's the only thing he fucking cares about..." snapped my Daughter, her likeness to me driving him to distraction.

"But... the business..."

"And just how were you going to explain the missing TV tomorrow when Mum gets back?" said Tom incredulously, "Burglars with your finger prints? Dad had gloves on Bradley, did you notice?"

"That... bloody solicitor could buy her a new one," growled Bradley.

"But the TV, what the fuck were you going to say to Mum?"

Bradley fumed and just stormed off to his bedroom. Gem looked at Tom, snarled and bolted and locked the patio doors shut, removing the key and taking it to her bedroom with her.

I wasn't to find out about this for another three months however, or the visitor Tom had seen his Dad with from the downstairs bathroom window and listened to their conversation.

Parker came to the final rehearsal the following Saturday and was his usual obnoxious self. He arrived before he was expected and stormed across the car park to me,

"Have you looked at the pictures?"

"What pictures?" I said getting my bag with my lunchtime sandwiches.

"The ones in the brown folder that I gave you?" he said as if I was an idiot not to realise.

"No Parker I gave them back to you."

"Well... well look now," he said.

"No Parker, won't look, because it's just more of your shit trying to create grief between me and Gray and I won't play your bloody games," I hissed.

"Natalie please," he whined actually looking hurt and contrite, "I made a mistake Baby," he said reaching for my hand, but I moved away from him, "I'm sorry for what I did, I'm sorry I slept around, but I know I made a mistake." He stopped moving and looked at me, "I'm begging you, forgive me, please take me back."

"Parker?" I said in shock, I knew he was up to something but this was way beyond what I'd thought for.

"Natalie, I'll do anything. I'll go to classes, marriage guidance, whatever you want me to do, please I want you back, I need you."

I looked at this man that had been everything to me for so many years prostrating himself before me, but I just felt cold.

Yes he had been my life, but now I'd met a man that was so much more, but I knew him and his pie crust promises and Parker Wallace could attend all of the classes on the Planet Earth but save brain surgery and a personality bypass he'd still never be half the man that Graham Woods was.

"Parker, it's too late!" I snapped knowing that the second I used any kind of sympathy or warmth towards him he'd use it against me. "We don't have that spark anymore, we haven't had it years, there's no room for me in the world of Parker Wallace, I don't think there's room for anyone in that world, not even your children, that's it Parker, I want a divorce and I want it soon. I've had it, I can't be doing with your constant grumbling and presence, and you always finding a way to blame me for whatever shit you caused to happen in your life." I turned to walk into the school, "Goodbye Parker."

"And that's it?" he shouted across the car park at me, "nineteen years of 'us' just flushed down the toilet because you've met Mr Wonderful, oh that's just perfect."

I stopped and turned,

"No Parker, nineteen years of 'us' flushed down the toilet because you couldn't keep your trousers over it. Mr Wonderful didn't come along until you were on your second or third lover, I lose track of them."

"Well what about these huh? Your perfect Mr Wonderful isn't that perfect!" He had another folder similar to the one he'd given me the week before and he took some of the colour pictures out and slapped one of them against me. "Look," he growled then hit me with another, "LOOK!" he snarled louder.

I looked at the picture, it was a blurry photo of a man in a suit kissing a striking brunette that was wearing a coat very much like one that Deedee wore, a bright red zipped Harrington.

"It's lover boy, and that slapper friend of yours Diane." I looked at the picture, "I was surprised that no one seems to know that you and lover boy are an item. That piano playing poof just said that he reckoned that Woods was shagging one of the singers, but wasn't sure which one. As soon as I mentioned his name Diane got all stupid and soppy about him. So I got a private detective to see what was going on."