Thank you for reading my short story, I hope that you enjoy it. Love Mica xx, Yorkshire England. All email comments good or bad are welcomed. I will try and reply to each and every one but please note that all email comments from an invalid or incomplete email address will be deleted immediately and will not be read. Rude or abusive comments may result in blocking. Please note that I am female and I write in British English.
I was in town for a little shopping. I needed a new slip for around the house, for on those days I didn't want to get dressed straight away, but something that I could pop a dress over the top of when I did need to get dressed. Marks and Spencer had been my first port of call and I managed to snag a beautiful white silk slip in just my size, I was delighted especially as they only had one and it happened to be my size. I was looking forward to trying it on when I got back home.
"Hello Mica," a voice broke me from my reverie.
"Oh, yes, hello Joe, sorry I was miles away, I really didn't see you there." Joe is Jenna's husband, my best friend from Uni days.
"Do you have a few minutes?" He asked, "if so we could grab a coffee somewhere?"
"Oh, yes, no worries, let's nip to Java Lounge, they do a decent coffee."
We wandered down the high street to Java Lounge, a coffee shop just outside the precinct. I like it in there, they have a coffee bean that is strong, but not bitter and they make a great flat white. Joe went and ordered and I grabbed a sofa in the back, away from the window to wait for him.
"They'll bring the drinks over in a minute," he said when he joined me.
"So, how are you doing Joe, Jenna alright?"
"Well, kind of, yes. That is what I wanted to chat to you about. I am not going to ask you to break any confidences, but has she said anything?"
Well, she had, she had said that she thought Joe was going off her, the sex had become mundane and he no longer initiated it, and I had made a few suggestions, but I wasn't going to tell him that.
"Gosh Joe, we had coffee just the other week and she said nothing, why?"
"Well, look, before I say anything, do you promise to keep it between us?"
"Probably, but I don't know what you are going to tell me, so it is not easy to simply say yes in case it is something, well, you know, serious."
"No, nothing like that."
"Okay then."
He took a deep breath and then spoke. "She might be having an affair."
"Wow, news to me, what makes you think that?"
"Well, she used to walk around naked or half naked at home, and that was great, I love her body, she is stonkingly beautiful, but now she covers up all the time, that isn't normal, not for her."
I smiled inwardly, she was doing exactly as I had suggested to her.
"Okay, wow, just that, I mean, er, not getting too personal, but how is the sex, is she, you know, refusing you, so to speak?"
"No, but I have to make all the moves, she never, you know, initiates anything, and she used to all the time. It makes me think she is seeing someone else."
"I doubt that, and if she is, when is she doing that? She certainly never ever gave me any clue that she might be when we met for coffee."
At that point the server arrived with our coffee, and a couple of pastries. My mouth deciding eating was a preferred option over talking, I never do both at the same time. I enjoyed my pastry and then took a drink of my coffee.
"Perhaps," I said after I had swallowed my coffee, "the magic has slipped, perhaps you are both just too comfortable with each other that the magic has slipped a little. I honestly don't think she is having an affair; I am pretty sure that if she were, that I would know about it. She would not be able to keep that big a thing secret from me. There would be clues, and believe me, when we met last week, there were no clues, no indications at all."
"Did she talk about sex, I mean, our sex life, you know what I am asking."
"Well now Joe, if she had, I wouldn't say anything if it had been in confidence, and contrary to many men's opinions, we women do not talk about our sex lives all the time." Actually, we do, but men don't need to know that. "I have no indication that there is anything wrong with your bedroom antics, well, not until you just spoke to me. And it doesn't sound wrong, just, well, boring."
"Boring?"
"Yes, sex is not just shag, roll over, sleep. Sex is exploring each other, exciting each other, teasing, tantalising, varying."
"Oh God, it is like being a fucking teenager again isn't it."
"Oh don't be so dramatic, you just need to add a little variety to your lives."
"What, different positions you mean?"
I despaired. Is that it for men? Variety means not doing it missionary style? Good grief, how has humanity endured?
"No Joe, although obviously that is a part of it, a very small part of it. When Jenna is in the kitchen, and you enter, walk up, kiss her on the neck and walk away, don't touch her in any other way. No groping or fondling, just a light peck on the neck. Believe me, that will do wonders. But not the time after when you go in the kitchen, next time, perhaps, just put your hand on her bum, not smack it, or stroke it, just a gentle touch, do you see what I mean? Variety, variety in your life, but sensual rather than sexual."
"I don't get it."
"No, you really don't, there is no hope for the two of you, you will be divorced within six months." I sat back and cradled my coffee. Obviously, I didn't expect them to divorce, not yet anyway, but they would eventually if they didn't get through this hole that they were in. It would take both of them, and Jenna seemed to have already started along the path I had suggested, but Joe hadn't even realised that there was an issue until Jenna changed her behaviours.
"Fuck, God no, we can't. There has to be something I can do; she is my life."
"Well, make her your whole life, look at her, watch her, make her feel wanted and desired. Not needed, needed is the wrong thing completely, to be desired is what she wants."
"I have no clue how to do that."
"Okay, stop and think a moment. Just pretend, and I do mean pretend, that you fancy me, that you want to get me into a room in the hotel next door. That is desire. You don't need to shag me, no, but you want to, do you see what I mean."
His eyes glazed over momentarily and he looked towards the door, towards the hotel, and then he looked back at me, his eyes travelled up and down my body, eyes focussing on my bust and on my lap. Crikey, had his brain actually imagined the unthinkable that I had suggested?
"Oh," he said, "yes, I suppose so."
"Yes, you need to imagine what you would say to me that would be sexy, attracting, without simply saying you want me naked and screaming in the hotel next door as your dick pumped in and out of me. That is man thinking, that is not how we women think."
His eyes were blanking again, and I had to admit that there was a little moistness in my lower area as my brain very briefly entertained the idea of shagging the life out of him. But that would be an unforgivable thing for me to do to my best friend. Wouldn't it, or would it be marriage counselling?
I was surprised by his next move. He leant forward and using the back of his hand, he wiped some hair off my face. Crumbs.
"You just had a straggler," he said, "and it was hiding your beauty."
Wow, he really was taking the method acting on board. I put my hand gently on his knee.