This story is about a journey and like all journeys it is best if you begin from the beginning.
Sometimes you think you know where you are going when you set out on a journey but then you may discover that you have arrived at a destination that is not what you expected. But such is the nature of journeys.
There are numerous references to songs in this story. It would be helpful to more fully understand the situation that is being described if you could go to a music site and play the song and then read the passage again while you listened.
Sunday morning breakfast was usually a quiet time for my wife and me. An extra hour of sleep, some freshly ground coffee in the French press and a muffin or an omelet instead of a bowl of cereal made it a little more special. That's why I was surprised when my wife looked across the table at me and asked "Ed, what is your best sexual fantasy? And don't say you don't know or you don't have one because everybody has at least one and they are very clear about what it is."
"Well..." I hesitated and finally admitted that I had always wanted to have sex with an Asian woman. "Of course I've also wondered what it would be like to be with two women at the same time. Is there a point to this question or are you just curious?"
"There is a point" she replied. "I don't want you to take this the wrong way but you must realize that our sex life has cooled since we first met. I'm not complaining mind you but we're like comfortable chairs that we've gotten used to and I've been thinking that we're both turning 50 this year and I wouldn't want you to feel like you had missed out on something exciting that you want to do while you're still young enough to enjoy it."
"Since you brought this up, do you have some ideas about reinvigorating our sex life?"
"Actually, I do. It's not exactly a well thought out plan yet but I've considered a few things and done some research on the Internet and there are some possibilities that I would like to talk to you about."
"OK, I'm always ready to listen to suggestions. In this case, I'm rather intrigued to hear what you have to propose."
"I explored the usual things, porn movies, toys, swingers clubs, going to a sex club in Las Vegas and while I haven't completely ruled out making some of those activities part of our life, I felt like there should be something more appealing and less intimidating to jump start this experiment. But first I had to be sure you were OK with this and that you didn't think I was having a middle aged crisis or just going crazy. I still love you every bit as much as I always have and I wouldn't want to do anything to mess up our relationship at this point. I really need you to understand that I think this can be a lot of fun for both of us. It scares me a little bit to think of turning 50. That's the time when so many marriages get into trouble and somebody ends up having an affair or runs off to 'find themselves' and I don't want that to happen to us."
"Even though I'm surprised by this, I do get what you're saying and I'm willing to try something as long as we're both comfortable with it and it doesn't wreck our marriage. I love you very much and I appreciate the risk you've taken to even bring this up. Now, what else have you considered?"
"When mother died last year she had a life insurance policy worth half a million dollars with me and my sister Marsha as beneficiaries. My half of the money has just been sitting in CDs at the bank and some of them are due to mature soon. What do you think about going on a really nice cruise?"
"You mean they have some sort of sex cruises for swingers or singles that have orgies instead of shuffleboard for entertainment?"
"Well actually they do have those but I don't think that's the best way to begin. I was thinking we could each find somebody that could fulfill our fantasy and spend a week indulging it while we visit places we've never been before. In and out of bed."
"I'm not sure exactly how that would work. Are you talking about us staying in one cabin and having our fantasy partners down the hall so we could just trot off to them whenever we wanted to?"
"No. I think that would inhibit us. That could get the jealousy thing going if things didn't work out for one of us the way we expected. It would also be unfair to our partners to make them feel like they were just sex toys that we could switch on an off as we felt like it. I think it would be best if we each go on our own cruise. That way we could be totally selfish and do only what we want without worrying about what the other one was feeling."