Page 21 of His Wife

Mac added his two cents worth. “Not sure if I’m much of the stable or caring type. It’s just not me. But you shouldn’t have to sacrifice one for the other. At least not at this point.”

She looked from Matthew’s kind face to Mac’s intense one and back. They might actually be right.

“But I also can’t be sleeping with all of my executives,” she countered.

They laughed. “We want to see you with Bob from Accounting or Susan from HR.”

She laughed, “Yeah, I know. But still…”

“What if you didn’t have to choose? Not right now?”

“Excuse me?”

“You know, see both of us. Neither of us is willing to let you go, but we also don’t want to force the issue.”

“I’m not a puppy, you know. This isn’t joint custody.”

“Come kiss us both and tell us you can walk away from one of us.”

Megan unfurled her slender legs and walked over to them. She kissed Matthew first, out of respect for their history, and his kiss was as it always was – warm and caring and almost loving. She kissed Mac second and it was the opposite – it was hot and needy and demanding and passionate.

“No, I don’t think I can.”

She squeezed in between them on the couch. Mac rested his palm on her bare thigh while Matthew wrapped his arm around her shoulders.

“But I can’t see you both. That’s not how I’m built.”

They both sighed heavily.

“We thought you might say that,” Matthew said quietly.

“Look, I’ll head home after dinner to think it through on Sunday, and you will have an answer by Monday. But whoever I decide will probably lose their job as well. If we are going to this extent, I can’t be seen dating openly.”

They nodded in agreement.

*

At the large, round dinner table in the dining room one could have cut the sexual tension with a knife. Megan giggled to herself when she realized that Bob and Susan were playing footsie under the table. Leaving her staff to visit in the relaxed atmosphere one last evening, she packed up after dinner with the excuse of an emergency and headed back down the mountain.

All day on Sunday she contemplated her choices, Matthew or Mac? Her heart and body were torn between the two. On Sunday night, she texted both of them. Meet me in my office at 7:00, before anyone else arrives.

They were both already there when she arrived at a quarter to seven. Matthew sat anxiously in a large, leather chair, his fingers quickly tapping the ends of the arm-rests. Mac lounged by the window, his expression serious and unreadable as he looked with apparent interest at passers-by outside.

Megan cleared her throat, feeling her insides flutter. “I wanted to do this honestly, and tell you both together. That seems only fair since you’ve both been fair with me.” She looked at Matthew, then to Mac. Her face was white, and under her eyes were dark circles. “Look, I’ve had stability all my adult life. I have been driven to succeed and I have accomplished that. My company has afforded me quite a lifestyle. I’d welcome the challenge of starting yet again.”

They both nodded.

“Matthew, I appreciate your attentiveness and your patience over the last year.”

“Mac, I was overwhelmed by your passion and power.”

“But,” Megan continued, her voice shaking a little, “I can’t keep both.”

“Matthew, if you are willing, I will sell my interest in the company to you and you can have it. If Mac will have me.”

*

The day was warm and sunny. Megan strode along the sidewalk, ponytail bobbing. She wore stylish, comfortable sandals, a cotton tee-shirt and shorts. The papers for her new business venture were in order. She and Mac were heading to the Bahamas to begin operations on her new REIT company there.

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