Adultery Cheating and Rivals by xleglover-COMPLETED

[Ramesh_Rocky]

"I'm just getting here," Maria explained. "QC's my 2nd gig. My main job is search and rescue."

"Oh okay," Mike said, not knowing what search and rescue was in the context of CATF. Although, no offense to Maria, he didn't really care. The fact was, Mike had little interest in CATF. He felt like a slave with a guillotine over his head. His plan was to bide his time and then break ties with CATF. But was CATF like the mafia? Did they ever let you go?

Trying to be polite, Mike asked "What are you working on?"

Maria turned back to her iPad. On the screen was a picture of the white board in the bunker. "We've been going round and round for weeks on this algorithm," Maria said frustrated. "Brent changes something, Abraham changes something. But we always end up in the same place. We're stuck."

Without thinking, Mike said "Yeah but, try looking at it from this point of view ..." He took Maria's iPad and made a few changes to the equations. The changes were subtle but they changed the equations completely. It was like, Mike's nuances turned the equations upside down and inside out.

"Holy shit," Maria said, her eyes going wide. The other Turks were shocked too.

Brent and Abraham were debating in the corner, continuing their conversation from before the break. They noticed the commotion around Mike.

"What's this?" Brent asked. Maria handed Brent and Abraham the iPad. It took a moment but then their eyes opened wide. "Amazing," Abraham said shocked. He gave Mike an impressed look.

"You did this?" Brent said to Mike. Unlike Abraham, Brent didn't look impressed. Instead he looked resentful.

"I helped Maria a bit," Mike said. Mike's comment seemed to enrage Brent, who looked sharply at Maria.

"Okay people, break's over," Brent said. He led the group back into the Bunker.

"Let me guess, Brent's your boyfriend," Mike said to Maria as they followed the group into the Bunker.

"Just dating, nothing serious," Maria said. "Don't worry about Brent. He's under a lot of stress. By the way, your baby's beautiful."

"You've seen Anna?" Mike said surprised.

"Ah yeah, you know that thing called Facebook?" Maria teased with a laugh. "Let's catch up later."

"Yeah, sure," Mike said distractedly. His thoughts were already back on the QC project. He cursed himself. Why had he said anything? The problem wasn't solved, but now they were moving in the right direction. Because of him. He didn't trust the government, he didn't want them to have a working quantum computer.

Later that night Mike was in his dorm room reading sports pages on his iPad when there was a knock on his door. He opened it. It was Maria.

"Hey stranger, feel like getting some coffee?" Maria said, smiling at him.

As they walked to the cafeteria Mike gave Maria a quick up and down look. The young Spanish girl was definitely a beauty. She had long lush dark hair and a beautiful face. Maria was more curvy than Jen. Since it was after-hours, Maria was dressed casually in a loose blouse and yoga pants. Maria looked really hot in the yoga pants. She had long legs and a shapely ass. Fuller than Jen's slim ass but still tight and alluring. Mike noticed Maria wore flip flops. She had really attractive slim feet. Her toenails were painted a pretty pink.

"How long have you worked for CATF?" Mike asked a few minutes later. They were in the CATF cafeteria with steaming coffee mugs in their hands.

"About 3 years," Maria said. "I bounced around after college. It doesn't pay much but I like the excitement. All the spy stuff. And I feel like I'm doing something important."

"Do you get involved in the spy stuff?" Mike asked.

"Not really," Maria said with a laugh. "I'm like you, a computer geek. But sometimes I see the real spies. The field agents. CATF doesn't have many actually. We mostly provide analysis for other agencies."

"Do the field agents look like James Bond?" Mike joked, grinning.

"Which iteration of Bond?" Maria joked, grinning back. They both laughed. Then Maria said "Actually, they're kind of too muscle bound for me. Too much testosterone. That gets old really fast." She laughed as if thinking of something else. With an intrigued smile on her face, she said "So I've got to ask you. What was it like dating Jasmine Kelly?"

"It kind of got over blown," Mike said with a shrug. He didn't like talking about that time of his life. Part of it was guilt. Jasmine helped him get out of jail, then he dated her even though he was still in love with Jen.

"Over blown?" Maria said, a skeptical smile on her beautiful face. She had a lovely Mediterranean complexion. "Mike, when they start calling you JasMike, that means it's serious."

"It was never serious," Mike insisted. "Jasmine's nice and I owe her a lot. But I think I was just a stepping stone in her career."

Maria laughed again. "God Mike, you seriously don't give yourself enough credit," she said smiling at him, a sparkle in her eyes.

There was an awkward moment of silence. Wanting to fill the empty space, Mike asked "You're staying in a dorm tonight? Don't you live around here?"

"Yeah I have a condo on U Street," Maria said, referring to one of the vibrant hip places in DC for young professionals. "But the commute's horrendous so sometimes I stay over in a dorm, especially when I'm working late."

"Oh okay."

"So Jen's okay?" Maria asked. "Anna?"

"Yeah, they're great," Mike said.

Maria hesitantly asked "You broke up a while? But got back together? That must have been a lot of drama."

"Well, you know, true love," Mike said. He hesitated, thinking of their game, of that weekend. Jen with Frank, falling more under his spell, letting him pierce her nipples. She was his wife. As her husband, by right her body was his, her breasts were his. Yet Jen let another man pierce them, pierce her sweet perky nipples. Mike was still processing all that. Yet, even with all the angst and jealousy, the fear of losing Jen to Frank, the whole scene got him hot. Mike forced his wife from his head. He didn't want to get a hard-on while talking with Maria.

"It sounds like a but in there," Maria said, sensing his mood change.

"What?" Mike said. He had been so distracted he didn't hear what she said.

"You said true love," Maria said. "You and Jen got back together because of true love. But it sounds like there's a but in there."

"I'm not sure about that," Mike said with a humorless laugh. There were times he was consumed by the game; it was like a drug and he couldn't get enough. There were other times, like now, like this past weekend, when he thought they were taking it too far. When he worried about their marriage. When he worried Jen might be falling for another man. For real this time. Really falling for another man.

The risk of losing Jen to another man was part of the cuckold fantasy. Maybe that WAS the cuckold fantasy at its core. But if he lost Jen, what then?

Mike gave Maria a shrug. "I guess love is complicated. Marriage is complicated." He shrugged again. "People are complicated."

Maria looked at Mike, like she was studying him. Mike wondered if she had her own demons. After all, girls as beautiful and sexy as Maria don't usually make it to 29 still single. She probably had disappointments and drama in her love life. Maria seemed to confirm it when she said "I guess I'll toast to that." They clinked coffee mugs.

"So, they call you the Phantom," Maria said grinning at him. "Very hip code name. Kind of spy master mysterious."

"I'm not sure where they got that," Mike said with an embarrassed laugh. "Or why I need a code name."

"You haven't heard?" Maria said looking at him.

"Heard what?"

"God Mike you haven't changed," Maria said with a laugh. "You're so clueless sometimes." She grinned to let him know she was teasing and not being mean.

Maria was silent for a moment, thinking. Then, as if deciding to tell him, she said, "Remember that time, Jen asked me to visit you in London? When you were doing the Barnes Fellowship?" (Author's note: See Cheating and Rivals Part 7).

"Yeah?" Mike said, prompting her.

"I thought she was setting us up," Maria said with a laugh.

"What?" Mike said not understanding. "We were dating."

"I know but, if a girl wants to dump her boyfriend she sets him up with another girl," Maria told Mike. "Especially if she's already with another guy and feels guilty. So I thought that's why Jen wanted me to hang with you in London."

"Oh," Mike said, his head suddenly spinning.

"Anyway that's what I thought," Maria said with another laugh. "Stupid right? Obviously I was wrong. I mean, you guys were inseparable, you got married."

"Yeah, we got married ..." Mike said.

A few minutes later Mike made an excuse to Maria and they parted. They hugged briefly and Maria gave him a peck on the cheek. "It's great seeing you again Mike," she said looking at him, her eyes sparkling. "I hope we get to work together."

Mike hurried back to his dorm room. He needed to process this. He closed the dorm room door and sat on the bed, thinking.

While he was in London, Jen was cheating with Wesley (Allie's friend). She was cheating with Wesley when she told Maria to meet him in London. (Author's note: See Cheating and Rivals Part 10).

Was Maria right? Jen tried to set him up with Maria because she wanted to dump him for Wesley?

Okay, that didn't happen. Jen didn't dump him. He returned to Penn State after the Barnes Fellowship ended and they moved back together as a couple. It was like they were never apart. They graduated, lived together in New York and then got married. So Jen didn't dump him for Wesley.

But Maria still might be right. Maybe Jen was thinking about dumping him for Wesley. Maybe she sent Maria to him in London hoping they would hook up. To give her an excuse to break up so she could be with Wesley. After it didn't happen, maybe Jen reconsidered and decided to stay with him instead of moving on to Wesley.