It had been a very long time since Daniel had the house to himself. Sharon and the boys would be at her mother’s for the next 4 days, and he did his best to pretend he was forlorned about not being able to join them. He had told Sharon that he had some work to catch up on, with the hope that she would encourage him to stay behind. It didn’t work exactly as planned, but after a bit of negotiation, Daniel was off the hook. He did actually have some work to catch up on, but not the kind or volume of work that Sharon had assumed. Daniel was very frustrated. He and Sharon had been highschool sweethearts–married at 19, kids by 21, suburban white-collar job that will eventually lead to nowhere. This isn’t really what he had in mind when his adolescent fantasies took him to far away cities, rock-stardom, action and adventure. Alas, the life path paved by the dust of a thousand crushed dreams was no less difficult to traverse. The inanity of his office job kept him near the edge of psychosis, reminding him daily that he could easily be replaced by an inexpensive piece of software. He spent more time trying to remain relevant than performing actual, measurable work. He often told himself that he’d get out of there, find something better, maybe do something creative for a change. Though, each and every day he would follow the same routine. Up at 4:45 AM, prepare lunches for the kids, make breakfast for the family, ready himself for work, commute, slave and toil for 9 hours, then back home. Wash, rinse, repeat. He was coming up on his tenth anniversary in this position, fifteen with the company. It’s a good job. It pays the bills and allows Sharon her freedom to freelance, when she feels motivated. His role as provider was taken for granted, but he loved his kids more than anything. Sharon, on the other hand, had an iron grip on Daniel’s sack, the likes of which only Darth Vader could rival. He had already lost most of his close friends, and his coworkers never really piqued his interest, nor he theirs. No, he was a homebody by proxy. Daniel had turned to running to release his frustrations. He had maintained his physique, and was regularly running 5k races whenever he could. Sharon had an endless list of complaints and criticisms, seldom stopping to take a breath, let alone give Daniel some time to regroup. This trip was a godsend. There’s nothing he wanted more than a little peace and quiet. Well, that and to finally get the chance to pleasure himself. You see, in addition to her nagging, Sharon had become quite frigid since the youngest was born. The second son would be starting high school in the fall. Over a decade of neglect made these short sabbaticals shine like a beacon in the night. Daniel had planned for his right forearm to be sore by the end of the weekend, and he had been saving links to his favorite porn sites, just for this occasion. To do this, Daniel had to disguise the cache in other documents. He chose to use linear equations to mask the URLs he chose, knowing that Sharon would just skim through them and not put it together. Yes, she even checked his work. Daniel was a slave in his relationship. Sharon used sex as a weapon–a very sharp weapon–and Daniel was often emasculated and humiliated into submission every time he made a reference to it. He had learned not to ask for intimacy of any kind, lest he was prepared for a week-long fight, culminating in further humility and celibacy. He enjoyed sex with Sharon, and he was still attracted to her, but it wasn’t worth the effort. If Sharon were a willing participant, Daniel would turn her inside out with his flaming libido, but she insisted on keeping him at arm’s length, then insisting that he was the one who showed no affection. On the extremely rare occasion that something physical did happen between them, Sharon played the critical starfish, lying there motionless, criticizing his every stroke. This is psychological torture to a man. Daniel reminded himself that there was an optional out–when both kids have graduated from highschool, he would remove himself from the situation, and finish his life happy. In the meantime, he would use breaks like these to help keep himself from going insane, or simply picking up and leaving without notice. He wanted to do what was right for his boys, and even though she had tortured him, he didn’t want to hurt Sharon if he could help it. Read more »