Open Doors (Suncoast Society #27)(44)

Marcia walked over to her. “You’re going to have to have some hard conversations with Mike. Don’t give up on him just yet. He might surprise you.”

Mel’s eyes filled with tears. “No, I don’t think he will. That’s the sad thing.”





Chapter Seventeen


Marcia had a lot of mixed feelings about Mel sitting in on her class. It was not uncommon for people brand new to the lifestyle to experience epiphanies as they heard someone speaking about their fantasies out loud and assuring them there was nothing wrong with them for feeling like that.

Unfortunately, she also knew the chances of an immediate happy ending for her friend being slim to none unless Mel’s husband decided to nut up and fight for his marriage and his wife.

By the time Marcia was ready to start the class, with twenty-three students including Mel, Mel had calmed herself and pulled herself together. As Marcia went through her PowerPoint presentation, covering relationship dynamics, power exchange roles, and BDSM basics with a heavy emphasis on safety and finding what works for a particular individual, she could see the lights dawning for many of the students.

Including Mel.

Derrick had arrived by the time class ended. He was waiting out in the office and chatting with the volunteer manning the front desk for them that evening.

Derrick offered Mel a hug. “How you doing?” he asked her.

“Better and worse. I didn’t think that was possible at the same time.”

“You ready for dinner?” he asked.

“I’m not sure if I’m going to be good company tonight.”

“It’s okay,” Marcia assured her. “They’re friends of ours. Kinky friends. At some point in their lives, they all were where you are now, in some degree or another.”

“My mind is just…blown. Seeing stuff as fiction is one thing. It’s like watching Ancient Aliens on TV and then suddenly finding yourself standing face-to-face with a real alien.”

“That’s a pretty accurate summation,” Marcia said. “If you think your mind’s blown now, wait until later when we bring you back here.”

“Part of me doesn’t want to come,” Mel admitted. “I already think I know how this story is going to end. I’m not sure I want to hasten the inevitable.”

“We won’t force you to come back here,” Derrick assured her. “We can take you back to our place so you can get your car.”

“No, that’s not what I meant.” She took a deep breath. “I suspect after I have dinner with your friends and then come back here, I’m really not going to want to go home or keep settling for what I have now.”

“You might be right about that,” Marcia gently said. “But like you also said, life is short. If you’re miserable, and he refuses to see there’s a problem, or he doesn’t think there’s a problem, you have to decide if you’re going to be happy living like that for the rest of your life, accepting him for who he is now, or if you want to move on.”

“I think I already know the answer to that,” Mel said. “To be honest, I think that’s been the obvious solution staring me in the face for a long time now and I didn’t want to admit it. It’s like this is the last piece of proof I needed, on top of everything else, that my marriage isn’t working. I can sit there and lie to myself all I want, but I’m still young and I have a husband who I have to beg to touch me. And who more often than not says no.”

“You sure it’s not something medical going on with him?” Derrick asked.

“I’m going to try one more time to get him to go to a doctor, and to go to counseling with me. I already suspect what the answer will be. So I have one more question?”

“Yeah?” Marcia asked.

“Do you know a good divorce attorney?”

Derrick held up a finger. “Funny you should mention that.”





Ed was at dinner that night. Marcia had made sure to text Ed ahead of time to let him know what was going on, and to save them seats near him and his wife, Hope.

As Marcia thought, Mel started unburdening herself on the attorney, who listened thoughtfully to everything she had to say.

By the time dinner was over, Ed had given her a business card. “Once you make a decision, let me know. It won’t be my first kinky divorce. Nothing you say can shock me, and I’m pretty adept at sidestepping any accusations the other party wants to toss at my client. You don’t have any children, so that simplifies things.”

“I don’t want to gouge him, either,” she said. “If he won’t work things out with me, I just want out.”

“You need to protect your interests, though. You can’t just walk away from what’s rightfully yours. We don’t have to engage in a protracted mud fight, but we also need to make sure you’re not giving things away that don’t need to be abandoned to him.”

“I guess we’ll have to sell the house.”

“Likely, unless he or you can refinance and pay the other off for the equity you’ve built up.”

“No, and that’s going to piss him off.” Marcia watched as Mel stared down at her empty plate. “I always regretted not having kids. Now, I have to admit, I’m glad we don’t. How sad does that make me?”