Good Friends

She saw that the table she'd first sat at with Sally, Mark and Elliot was still there. She was pulled from her memories by the sound of a chair being pulled out at her own table.

"Hi," said the woman who sat down across from her.

Kathy took a few moments to look at the woman as the woman was doing to her. Claudia was taller than Kathy and she had an incredible body. She wasn't fat, she was barely bigger than Kathy, but she had large breasts and a thicker rounded booty. She was dressed in a business skirt outfit that was cut much shorter than anything that Kathy would have worn. Her hair was very short and very dark and her eyes were a very dark emerald green.

Her makeup was very well done and her lips were dark and shiny. Kathy could tell in an instant why Elliot had picked her. She was the exact opposite of Kathy. Where Kathy was slightly built, Claudia's body could probably stop traffic. The last thing Kathy wanted to contemplate was her husband having sex with this woman.

Elliot had always loved Kathy's long blond hair. She'd been growing it out again since it had been hacked off in the hospital following her accident. Claudia's hair was very short and curly. It was also a very dark shade of brown and very shiny. Kathy wore very little makeup and dressed demurely. Claudia looked like a model and her clothes seemed to say, "Look at me."

"Hi," said Kathy back to her.

"I'm glad you came," said Claudia. "I don't want things between us to be bad and cause problems for you or anyone else. I've always thought that the best way to get along with people was to be totally honest with them from the beginning. And I think that talking to people builds bridges. You and I have a few things in common so I'd like us to be friends."

Kathy didn't see how that was possible but she said nothing.

"I know that you still love Elliot," said Claudia. "The only thing I want for him is happiness. If I ever see that he'd be happier with you, I'll tell him that and move on. But at least for right now he doesn't want anything to do with you. I know that this probably hurts you badly seeing him with someone else. But he's pretty badly hurt too."

"It's been almost three years since your divorce. Kathy, he still barely speaks to people. He doesn't trust anyone. You miss him terribly, but he's still at the point where anytime your name is mentioned he either gets angry or he looks like he wants to cry. I pass by this restaurant every day. It wasn't until recently that I came in here. I made a terrible mistake Kathy. I almost sat down at that table over there. Some of my co-workers had a fit and explained to me about you and Elliot and how that table was pretty much the start of your relationship. If it had been anyone else sitting there it would have been fine. But since I'm dating Elliot, me sitting there was too much for some of them."

"Elliot himself won't set foot in this place. I guess there are just too many memories. From what I understand you guys had an almost fairy tale romance. What happened?"

Kathy didn't know why, but she told Claudia the story of what happened with her and Mark and how she'd hidden it from Elliot for all of those years. Claudia told Kathy about her modeling career and how she'd been attacked by a photographer who couldn't understand the word," no." He'd later stabbed her in his rage and the whole thing had left her unable to deal with men until she'd met Elliot, His shyness had brought out something in her.

Claudia laughed when Kathy asked her about Mark. Claudia had known about Elliot's divorce but since he no longer worked at the plant and he and Mark were no longer friends, she hadn't put two and two together. She explained to Kathy that since she and Elliot were dating, she would never even flirt with another man. It wouldn't be right and she didn't need other men's attention. Mark wouldn't stop trying even after she told him she was in love with someone else so she had no regrets. Now that she knew who he was, she'd still have done the same thing.

Kathy sighed. She wished that she'd been smart enough to do what Claudia had done. If she had, they wouldn't even be here and she'd still be married.

The two women ended up talking for over two hours and though they weren't quite friends when they parted, they both understood what each other was looking for.

Over the weeks and months that followed, the two women did forge a kind of friendship. Claudia offered Kathy something she desperately needed, a way to stay at least a part of Elliot's life. Elliot screamed bloody murder the first time that he and Claudia had a birthday party for one of the kids and he found out that Kathy had been invited. Claudia refused to give in and over the days that preceded the party, Elliot came to terms with it.

The day of the party, Elliot heard the door bell ring and Claudia told him to answer it. Elliot opened the door to find Kathy standing there. He stared at her for what seemed like hours, then finally turned and walked away with a grunt. Claudia came in and saw Kathy standing there and brought her inside. "I don't think Elliot wants me here," said Kathy in tears.

"He knew you were coming and he didn't close the door on you," said Claudia. "Him leaving the door open means that he gave you permission to come in, whether he welcomed you or not. Give it time."

A few months later it was Elliot's birthday. When he opened the door this time for Kathy he actually spoke to her. "Claudia is out by the pool," he said.

Kathy almost cried again she was so happy. Elliot hadn't been rude to her at all. He didn't speak to her or touch her but that one sentence marked a lot of progress.

As Kathy and Claudia sat at a table near the pool talking Elliot came over and hugged Claudia. "Happy birthday, Elliot. I love you," said Kathy. Elliot was in shock.

"Oh El, give it a rest," said Claudia. "She's always loved you. And to be honest, you still love her too. She did something that you can't get over, so the two of you can't be together, but deep down inside you still love her too and we all know it."

Claudia refused to marry Elliot. She told him that the two of them would be together until one of them died. She also told him that she loved him with all of her heart but she couldn't marry a man who loved two women. They made love frequently and were always together. They bought a newer, bigger house together but they never married.

Over time their vacations and their extended family came to include Kathy and it wasn't unusual to see the three of them talking and socializing late into the evening. Claudia became almost a second mother to the children, though sadly she was never able to have any of her own. The photographer's stab wound, though not fatal robbed her of the thing she wanted to give Elliot more than anything else.

The same stab wound was responsible, on her forty ninth birthday, for the hemorrhage that took her life. The knife had weakened an artery in her abdomen that failed early one morning while she, Elliot and Kathy were taking a walk through the woods to look at the fall colors.

Kathy called 911 on her cell phone and Elliot ran with Claudia in his arms all the way back to his Mustang where he drove her in a white knuckle ride, 8 miles to the nearest hospital. He thought that she was having a heart attack and so did most of the medical staff until they noticed the massive internal bleed that had by then taken her life.

Elliot was devastated. He literally had no idea of how to put his life back together. He spent the first two weeks after the funeral alone. He refused to see or speak to anyone except for the occasional call from his children. He was going through Claudia's documents looking for insurance papers and other things he needed to take care of, when he found a large envelope with Kathy's name on it.

Elliot did something he hadn't done in over ten years. He called Kathy.

Kathy knew who the call was from as soon as she looked at the caller ID. "Elliot, what's wrong? Are you okay?" she asked.

"That used to be my line," he said.

"Elliot, I'm so sorry," said Kathy. "She was like a sister to me. She helped me to come to terms with my life and to be able to live with the awful thing I did to you."

"She left you a letter," said Elliot. "Should I mail it or just wait and give it to Steph when she comes to visit this weekend?"

"I'll come over and get it now," said Kathy, hanging up the phone before he could object or tell her not to.

Kathy arrived at Elliot's condo a few minutes later. She rushed up to the door and knocked gently on it. Elliot tried to hand her the envelope through the door. She walked past him into the house. She did what she'd longed to do since he'd first found out about her and Mark. She took him into her arms and hugged him. They both started to cry partially for their shared grief over the person who had kept them in each other's lives, but also because they still had the deepest of feelings for each other.

Kathy opened the envelope and a letter fell out. "Elliot can you read it to me, I don't have my glasses," said Kathy.

"Since when did you start wearing glasses?" asked Elliot. "I've never seen you in them."

"I never wear them around you," she said. "It was all I could do to even get you to look at me with Claudia around. She was really beautiful and a very special lady."

Elliot mumbled something that Kathy couldn't quite make out, but then he started to read.

"My dearest Elliot,

If you're reading this letter, it means that I've passed before you have. I don't know the state that you'll be in or where we'll be living, but I'm sure that when I passed, if you were still in my life, I was loved. You've made our time together very wonderful and I could never have asked for a better husband or a better friend. I addressed the envelope that contained this letter to Kathy because I wanted both of you to read it and understand some things. More than likely you'll have to read it to Kathy if she's there, because she's nearly as blind as a bat, but she won't wear her fucking glasses around you. It's the same reason that she's nearly 50 years old and still won't get a God damned hair cut. Elliot, everything she does, is to please you.

I don't really know what to write here except that I love you both and I need to apologize to you both for being so selfish. Elliot, when I met you, you brought back feelings that I thought I'd never have again in life. I clung selfishly to you, though I've long known that you were simply never mine.

I know that you loved me very much and also that you never cheated on me and that you really did want to marry me. I'm also sorry that I could never give you any more children. But the fact is that you and I should never have been. We were an accident, no more. We were a blip in the face of life.

You and Kathy were always supposed to be together and if I hadn't come along, I have no doubt that the two of you would have gotten back together. The only thing that stopped it from happening before I came along was your pride, my love.

You loved Kathy in a way that most will never experience. She felt it as well, which is why she never even looked for another man. The problem was Elliot, that you put Kathy on a pedestal and when she slipped, as humans do, your concept of her as being more than human was shattered. In your eyes she became damaged goods, when all along she was only a very special, very human woman.

Over the years she and I have become very close. So close in fact, that I know many things about her that she doesn't know that I know. For instance, she still has every item that you left in the house and she smells them hoping to catch a whiff of your scent. She also has this annoying habit of talking to you, as if you were still there sometimes. The saddest thing to me, is that on vacation once when she and I shared a room while you bunked with Steph and Benny, I noticed that the very last thing she says every fucking night before she goes to bed and the first thing she says every morning is, "I love you Elliot."

So Elliot, love of my life, forgive me for being so selfish and standing in the path of true love. For the past several years I've also noticed that though you barely speak to her, you can never take your eyes off of Kathy either. You may as well admit what everyone in the family including your children already know. You still love Kathy as much as she loves you. If you've ever loved me, even one tiny bit, please do me one favor. Don't wait any longer. Life is too short to live without love or happiness. In a few years her pussy will be as dry as the Sahara and your dick won't work. Where ever you are right now, whatever you're doing, I'm sure she's there. Tell Kathy the truth, that you've never stopped loving her, let go of the anger and go on with your lives. I love you both. sincerely, Your Claudia."

By the time he was done reading the letter both Elliot and Kathy were crying. She reached out and took his hand. He squeezed her hand back and she moaned from the pleasure that something she'd thought she would never have again brought.

"I never stopped loving you, Kath," he said. "I was just so angry and so hurt. We just wasted all of these years."

"No Elliot," she said. "My anger caused it to happen in the first place. Your anger just made it last a lot longer. I swear to you that if you give me another chance I'll make the rest of our lives the best time we've ever had."

"I'll hold you to that promise," he said.

"As long as you hold me," she replied.

"So should we move in together again? Or is this too sudden?" he asked.

"Uhm, Elliot," she said. "First things first, okay"

"Oh yeah," he said. "We should get married again first. I'll go out tomorrow and buy you a ring."

"No dummy, I never stopped wearing the first one," she said holding out her hand so he could see it.

"Then what?" he asked smiling.

"Uhm, Elliot, I may be in my forties but I haven't dried out yet," she said. "There's something I've been missing for a long time. I loved Claudia like a sister, but she borrowed a part of you that I'd like to have back, if it still works."

"It works just fine," smirked Elliot.

It was no surprise to anyone who knew them that Elliot and Kathy remarried. Most people wondered what had taken them so long. They lived happily ever after.

The end again

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Okay there you have it, my endings. I know that some of you are going to feel a bit cheated because there was no ending where they didn't get back together. As I said from the beginning these were my versions. Mikothebaby and I liked them so much that we posted them. If you didn't like them, please take this as the way I meant it. Back in the old days JPB used to do a thing he called an invitational. He'd leave a story unfinished and invite writers to come up with their own endings and post them. That's what I'd like to see here. You can do whatever you want with the characters. Just keep the title so we all know what is going on. I'm looking forward to seeing what you guys write. Usually the things you suggest in your comments are better than my versions anyway so have at it.SS06