Courting Infidelity
Book One
By Steve Mierzejewski
Copyright 2012 Steve Mierzejewski
Table of Contents
Book 1: Darek
Chapter 1: "I need a prostitute"
Chapter 2: Outside of the house in which Darek hoped to find a prostitute
Chapter 3: Darek met Iza at a coffee shop
Chapter 4: Helen's husband was sitting at a table with three other men
Chapter 5: Darek was pleased with Iza's report
Chapter 6: Michael was waiting for her at a table near the door
Chapter 7: "I think he's in love with me"
Chapter 8: She let him kiss her
Chapter 9: "He told me he talked to his wife"
Chapter 10: "Iza, I wonder if I could meet with you"
Chapter 11: "Hey, Pavel!"
Courting Infidelity
Book 1: Darek
Chapter 1
"I need a prostitute," Darek muttered, as he stared into his half-empty glass of scotch. To Pavel, it was not clear if Darek was speaking to himself, the scotch, or him. Still, Darek's words seemed to paralyze him. His arm stopped moving just as he was about to take a sip of his own scotch.
"What did you say?" Pavel asked, believing he might have misunderstood.
"I need a prostitute." Darek repeated. This time, though, he looked directly at Pavel with a sincere, yet, tense and tired look.
Pavel stared back at him, half expecting some joke to follow, but none was forthcoming, and, by the expression on Darek's face, Pavel realized the extent of the effort Darek had made in saying these words.
For some seconds, Pavel studied Darek's face, and his mind worked on what response that statement deserved. "Look, Darek, I've known you for years, and, I have to say, these are about the last words I'd ever expect to hear from you. What the hell are you talking about?" He waited for a response, but Darek said nothing. So he continued. "Yeah, okay, I know things haven't been going too well for you recently, but don't you think you should just try to meet some regular girls? Come on, I'm sure your friends could help you out with this. Hell, I even know a few girls you might like."
Darek sighed and shook his head. He seemed disappointed in Pavel's answer. "I have a girlfriend." He said. "What I need is a prostitute."
"Yeah, I know what you said." Pavel continued. "But, hey, you're not a bad looking guy. You could pick up a girl, you know, in some bar or something, if all you want is a little action." He paused, suddenly realizing what Darek had just said. "You have a girlfriend?"
"Yes."
"And you've never told me about her?" Pavel looked confused.
"It's a difficult situation. She asked me not to mention her to anyone." Darek explained.
"Then what's with this prostitute talk. Oh, I get it, she's not giving you …" Pavel intentionally let his sentence trail off.
"I don't want a prostitute for sex, if that's what you're thinking."
"What the hell else would you expect me to think?" Pavel said, dumbfounded.
"Listen", explained Darek, looking nervous, "I'm only mentioning this to you because you once told me you knew of a… of a…brothel in town."
"What!"
"Yeah, you told me you drove by one with your friend, remember?"
"Oh, that." Pavel said, remembering the conversation. "Yeah, I was driving with one of the guys from the university and he pointed it out to me. It's not like I'm one of their customers, for chrissake."
"Look, Pavel, have I ever asked you for any favors?" Darek asked, looking even more serious than before.
"No, never."
"Well, I need a favor now. I need you to take me there." Darek said.
Pavel breathed a sigh of relief. He had expected something much more difficult. "No problem. I can draw you a map right now."
"No, that's not what I mean. I need you to go there with me." Darek continued as if he had not heard Pavel's remark.
"Okay, wait a minute. That's a different story." Pavel said nervously. "I'm a professor at the university. I'm a married man with two kids. I can't just put all of this on the line like that. What if someone saw me there?"
"Yeah, I know, but I need a little support right now. This is new to me, too. I don't know, couldn't you just wear a disguise or something? Maybe we could go late at night when no one is around, if that's how these places operate. I just don't think I'd be brave enough to go there on my own, but I have to go there and I need you to make sure I don't back down at the last minute." Darek almost pleaded.
Pavel felt trapped. He could see Darek was sincere and needed his support, but what he was asking seemed to be too much, even for a friend. Yet, it was true what Darek had said. He had never asked him for a favor. On the other hand, Darek had helped him get his job at the university in the first place. Darek was simply too nice to use this as a way to persuade him, but it was something that hung in the air, understood.
"Maybe I can help you out, but only under one condition." Pavel finally said with resignation.
"Okay."
"You tell me what the hell is going on here." Pavel added, somewhat angrily.
Darek emptied the glass of scotch and sat back in his chair with a sigh. He looked up at the ceiling as if searching for some answer there. After considering the proposition for many seconds, he finally took a deep breath and said, "Okay, here's the story, but it stays between us."
"Of course", Pavel replied.
"Do you remember me talking about a girl in my office, Helen? She worked with me a couple of years ago? I went out with her a few times?" Darek began.
Pavel remembered nothing. He should have. Darek told him very little about his personal life and even less about the women, if any, in it.
Darek continued. "Don't you remember that I told you she would be the perfect woman for me if she wasn't married?"
That struck a chord. Yes, Pavel remembered that moment because Darek had never said such a thing about any woman. "I didn't remember her name." He said. "But I remember you saying something like that, yes."
"Well, recently, I started seeing her again." Darek went on. "We went out for coffee a couple of times, and I invited her over to my place for dinner and a movie."
"But she's still married, right?" Pavel asked, somewhat hesitatingly.
"Yeah, but it didn't matter because I had no romantic intentions. Sure, I found her attractive, but as long as she was happily married, I had no desire to disrupt her life. I just liked being with her as a friend, and that was all."
Pavel would have doubted this coming from any other man, but he knew Darek, and he knew Darek was not lying about this.
"Well, we were talking about our lives and I told her about Anna and our break-up. Anyway, I seemed to be doing all the talking so I said something like, 'But you wouldn't understand what it's like to have such problems'. She kind of looked nervous so I waited for her to say something. I mean, she had the look of someone who wanted to talk but was having problems finding the words. The pressure of the silence almost forced me to continue speaking, but I held back. Finally, she told me about her husband, about how he had cheated on her, not once, but twice." Darek had become more animated.
"You don't know her, Pavel. She's a very sensitive person, fragile, almost. Anyway, as I looked at her, I could see how much her husband had hurt her. How difficult it was for her to tell me this. Anyway, I told her I would get her some tea and she got up and stood by my woodstove. She was just staring blankly into it. I was kind of keeping my eye on her, trying to imagine what was going through her mind. And it was looking at that scene of her standing there that changed my life forever. You see, when I saw her there, looking so alone, so lost, I saw a reflection of my
self. I understood her. I mean, you know how I was when Anna left."
Yes, Pavel remembered. It was the only other time that Darek had opened up to him. For now, Pavel only nodded and Darek continued.
"And when I saw her there, some force, I mean this literally, Pavel, some force pulled me close to her and I put my arms around her. She hugged me as if she was drowning and I was all that she had. I felt this… this electricity that I had not felt with anyone for years. Yes, and if you must know, I've been hopelessly in love with her from that point on."
Pavel felt surprised and uneasy. He had never heard Darek speak like this; never heard him say the word, 'love'. It made him understand the importance of this woman. Yet, he knew that, as a friend, he had to raise some uncomfortable topics. "So has she decided to get a divorce?" He asked, simply to begin the discussion.
Darek shook his head disconsolately. "It's more complicated than that. She has two young kids."
Pavel knew Darek needed some support. "But this isn't the 19th century. Women with children get divorced every day. Fathers stay in their children's lives even if they are not with their mothers. Certainly, she's aware of that. I mean, let's face it, she doesn't owe any special loyalty to her husband. She…"
Darek laughed, which made Pavel stop what he was about to say. He was confused as there didn't seem to be anything amusing about what he had just said. "Why are you laughing?"
"Oh, it's only that you used the exact words I had just said to her." Darek explained.
"But she clearly owes him nothing, right?"
"Yeah, well, in an ideal world where people fall in love and everything proceeds smoothly, yes, you're right. She owes him nothing. But, as you are well aware, this is not an ideal world." The energy seemed to drain from Darek's body as he spoke. "You see, unlike me, Helen is a very religious person. After she caught her husband cheating the second time, she told him she was going to leave him. He begged her not to, he cried, he pleaded, he promised he'd never do it again."
"Yeah, that's what all men do when they get caught." Pavel remarked, sarcastically.
"Maybe. But Helen told him that if he agreed to talk to a priest, she would give him a chance. And so they talked to a priest, and the priest persuaded her to give him one more chance. She promised the priest she would. And, in her mind, promising the priest was like promising God, I guess. I found all this out later, of course. At first, I was elated that we had found each other. The very next day I got an email from her telling me that she could never have a relationship with me. She then explained why."
"And that's it?" Asked Pavel in disbelief. "You've never seen her since?"
"Well, that's just it. I respected her answer. I figured, 'who was I to break up a family?' I agreed to let her go. It would kill me, but any decision had to come from her."
"Of course."
"But a few days later she wrote me back in a state of complete distraction. She was depressed, crying, unable to go on with her life. She needed me. She wanted to see me. And we met again. And it was wonderful. We fell more deeply in love. But then, after she returned home, she again wrote me an email telling me how guilty she felt and telling me she couldn't see me any more. And so it has gone on ever since; meetings and guilt, meetings and guilt."
"This can't be easy on you either." Pavel remarked. "She must understand what she's putting you through. It's not just her who's suffering."
"No, she understands, but that only makes her feel more guilty. It seems no matter what she does she feels guilty. Even saying that she loves me in an email makes her feel bad, because, according to her religious beliefs, she should say such things only to her husband."
"But she doesn't love her husband, right? So, how can she tell him that she loves him?" Pavel asked.
"I've asked her the same thing. She says that she doesn't love him like she loves me, but she still has 'affection' for him." Darek signaled the waiter to bring two more scotches. Pavel realized this was going to be a long conversation.
"I can't understand how she can feel affection for a guy who clearly never respected her." Pavel stated with a note of disgust.
"Damned if I know", Darek said, reflecting Pavel's tone. "She says he's a good father and has changed for the better."
Pavel gave a short laugh. "If you ask me, he just hasn't gotten caught again." Pavel added with a note of bitterness. "I know this type of guy. If the opportunity arises, he'll do the same thing again. A good father? He didn't seem too concerned with his family when he was cheating. If you ask me, she's in some kind of denial."
Darek laughed again. "That's just what I told her."
"And?"
"She just got angry. Anyway, it's gotten to the point where I've completely cut off communication with her. I'm hoping something will happen that will wake her up." The scotches came and Darek wasted no time taking a long sip from his glass. He was clearly shaken by what he had revealed.
Pavel also took a drink from his glass. "Completely cut off communication? That can't be easy." And then it all came together. "Ah, I see, so that's why you need a prostitute!"
Darek looked at him and nodded. "I think it's my only chance."