A Question of Digital Communication

Jerry was sitting in his hotel brainstorming very hard. He was not worried about his client. That deal was in the bag. He was thinking about his love life. It had been many weeks now on the road. This was the typical Spring time rush that set up the moneys for the summer. During the summer, while his wife was very busy, he could slow down a little and breathe.

This year, sadly, things were not going to slow down. If anything, the Summer would be filled with intense west coast meetings. His bride, his love, his treasure, was ramping up for her east coast busy season. They lived on the east coast and her job was expanding up and down that coast.

How would he be able to have time with his wife this mid-year if he didn’t come up with a good enough plan? Betsy had so grown used to the pace that she no longer took them to heart. She knew that Jerry was faithful. All his sappy messages and FaceTime conversations made it abundantly clear that the man was not out running around and messing behind her back.

That was good and secure feeling, but Betsy was feeling a bit more frisky this year than most. She had not had much affection from her man and the local top guy was feeling extra yummy now that he had gotten his confidence stroked with that promotion she had allowed him to enjoy.

That guy looked great. That guy sounded great. Betsy knew she would eat him alive if she ever made a move, but she was not that type of gal. However, type or no type, her body wanted to be touched, caressed, savored. She needed some pipe laid hard.

Her solution to her problem was simple. She would have to sacrifice her man’s ego so her need for sex could be met. She didn’t like it, but it had to be done. All this time without him was annoying to say the least. Now that she saw his travel plans for the summer, she tried hard to push back a bit of anger and resentment. He had chosen his job over her. That was not the plan nor was that his style.

The next time they met, she would sit him down and explain that they didn’t need two incomes to make it work. She was making enough for the both of them. In fact, she wouldn’t even notice the loss of his income at all, but she was not going to share that piece of news with him. Being that he was a good boy, she knew that after some sulking, he would understand and do the right thing. She would reward him handsomely afterward.

The first email from Jerry was a bit puzzling. He never emailed her. He always texted or called. With a lot of encouragement, he eventually adopted video-conferencing. Once he was onboard, that was his go-to method of talking to her.

But email. Either this was an important event that was too serious for just a random calendar invite or he was announcing something serious that needed her undivided attention.

Jerry had hoped that the surprise angle of an email would mean that Betsy paid closer attention. He had to get her curiosity peaked. She was too comfortable making all the executive decisions of their relationship without consulting him. Sure, she made great decisions, but he also had a mind of his own and could make his own decisions. Plus, some of his ideas were better, just never tried much anymore.

During her lunch break, Betsy took a moment to read Jerry’s email. At first, she thought it was a joke, a prank, a trick one of his co-workers was doing. The voice, the tone, the quality, the politeness. It was all very different. Not her good natured Jerry.

This person who wrote this email was very gallant, very sweet, very sensual in word choice, and most intriguing. The way he described her, how he felt for her, how he needed her, how he had plans for her.

Well!

Clearing her throat, she decided to not pay much attention to the steamier parts of the letter. Clearly, those had been lifted from a romance novel. This was a joke to mess with her. Quiet odd of Jerry to do that but not outside the realm of possible pranks from his road warrior buddy. They both traveled a lot together. They both trusted each other with their computers. It was not improbable for one to use the other’s machine to mess around. Guys being guys.

Jerry knew that his wife was not going to respond. He had intentionally gone over the top with this email. He also knew that after her mind went back to work, her subconscious would start to work on the content of that email. It would not be long before her curiosity would be hooked.

That night, when the chatted, Jerry was extra careful not to bring up the email. Betsy was waiting, he knew that much. He also knew that it was his habit to over share information with Betsy. By keeping quiet, she would assume that his buddy had gone in and sent that letter on his behalf to try and re-ignite passion between the two of them.

It did not take a genius to figure that things had cooled some between them. They were apart too long as it was anyway. Plus, Jerry never talked about home on the road. No one with three functional brain cells would not conclude that things were not cool at home from the lack of mention of anything home related.

After their usual chat, Betsy was perplexed. Jerry was very security conscious. How would his buddy get on his computer at all? Then, with how meticulous Jerry was about reviewing all his communications, how did he not notice that unusual sent email? Did his buddy think far enough to erase his tracks?

The strange emails from Jerry’s account started to arrive more frequently. Some were sweet poetry. Others were outright porn. Betsy never replied. Jerry never mentioned them during their chats.

But the day the saucy messages crossed over to text messages, Betsy got alarmed. The timing of an email and text arriving at the same time with similar content was a bit too much. She had to confirm.

Calling him, she was puzzled to get voice-mail. She rarely ever got voice-mail from him when he was not in flight. She texted back. His reply was very polite and very Jerry. No recognition of that weird message. Albeit highly erotic message.