Jennifer and Bob are the best friends we have. They were the first to come greet us when we moved in, and have grown to be, by a long shot, the closest friends we have in this town. It was difficult picking up and moving this late in my career, but the promotion was supposed to be more than worth it. If it hadn't been for the friendship of Jen and Bob, and their circle of friends that eagerly included us, it would have been a much more difficult transition. We're older than Jen and Bob by almost a decade, but that doesn't seem to matter to them. We're even older than that compared to most of the rest of the circle of friends we've been included in, as much as a full quarter century older than Ellie and Ronald's thirty years.
Bob and I hit the gym together twice a week, just to keep me in shape, as he puts it. Secretly, I think he likes to outdo me in reps and weight, just to help him think that he's still in decent shape. Both of us can be easily outdone by Ron; but, at my age, I can accept that a guy almost half my age can out run, out lift and out endure me.
As I was saying, Jen and Bob are our closest friends. We frequently do things together, dinners over at each other's house, host parties for our group of friends. We take them, and some of the others, out on our boat or to the lake for a relaxing weekend. We'd even taken Jen and Bob camping, introducing them to the joys of unplugging and getting away from tech for a weekend. So, it wasn't a big surprise when they invited my wife, Mandy, and me, over for dinner on a Friday evening.
In our fifteen years of friendship, we've had an open door policy. If the door is unlocked, it's okay top walk in. This had occasionally caused some awkward situations, over the years. I've gotten a few brief glimpses of various parts of Jen naked, or nearly naked, as she has of me. Though none of those were nearly as complete as one day, a month or so ago, when I accidentally walked in while she and Bob were on the sofa having sex. I got a complete, unobstructed view of Jen from the stomach up, as she bounced on her laying husband's lap. I just slipped back out, not even sure if she knew I had seen them. Today, though, didn't appear to be one of those accidental days, as she responded from the kitchen. "In here!" We walked into the kitchen and were both greeted with an enthusiastic hugs from her. "Bob is out back grilling."
"Ok. I'll go out there."
"Better take a couple of these." She added, handing me two bottles of beer out of the fridge. I took them from her and walked out the back patio door to where Bob was standing by the grill. "Hey Bob, how's it going?"
"Well, the meat will be done in about fifteen minutes." He answered, seeming a bit nervous, the way he was tapping the tongs on the grill.
"Everything alright?"
"Um. Yeah, sure. You?"
"Fine. Busy day, but most Fridays are."
"So, um, Jen hasn't talked to you yet?"
"No, she said hi. That's about it."
"Oh, okay."
"Was she supposed to?"
"Um. Well, Uh, yeah."
"Maybe after dinner?"
"No, before."
"Hon? Would you come in for a minute?" My wife asked from the door, interrupting our conversation.
"Sure." I answered, intrigued now about what was going on. My wife led me through the now empty kitchen, to the living room. I saw Jen get up from the sofa and stand waiting for us, now looking every bit as nervous as her husband had been. We sat down on the sofa and she took a seat across the coffee table from us in an overstuffed chair that she had pulled around.
"Okay. Here we are. What's going on?" My wife asked her friend.
Jen sat on the edge of the seat, leaning toward us, almost as if she was ready to run away, at the spur of the moment. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Well, this is really awkward and embarrassing. But we need your help."
"You know we'll always help any way we can, that's what friends are for."
"I know, but this is really asking a lot." She said as she clasped and unclasped her hands nervously.
"Well, ask; and we'll see what we can do to help."
Jen took another deep breath and let it out as slowly as the last, clearly trying to muster up the courage to broach whatever it was. "So, Bob and I have been having some issues."
I immediately had a bad feeling. Issues was married people code for marital discord.
"Money?" I asked quietly.
"Oh, um, no." She answered.
"Relationship issues." My wife said, matter of factly.
"Well, yes. Sort of."
"Have you two been to see a counselor?"
"Actually, we have. Which is why I need your help."
"Our help? How can we help?"
"The counselor has been having us do various exercises and such, trying to drive down to the root of the problem, but haven't been able to solve it yet. So, she gave us a new exercise, one that requires some really good friends to help with."
"Okay. We'll do what we can. What exactly is the issue you're trying to solve?" My wife asked, clearly feeling as confused as I was.
"It's a, um, uh, sexual issue."
"You're having sex problems? And you need our help?" My wife asked even more confused.
"Yeah. We've been seeing a counselor because, well, Bob can get it up but can't keep it up. We've been to the doctors and it's not medical. It's psychological."
"Okay," my wife prompted questioningly. "And you need our help how?"
"We've done everything we can alone and it hasn't worked. The counselor gave us this visual test, with something like a lie detector. She showed us all kinds of sexual situations on VR goggles and measured our response. Now she wants us to engage in this game with another couple to see if, well, if she has the right hook, as she calls it."
"Game? Jen, you aren't asking us to do...you know...couple swapping or anything like that? Are you?"
"OH! Lord no! It will be all with just our own spouses, but, well, the game, we kinda play the game at the same time, together."
"You mean we have sex at the same time, together, in front of each other?"
"Well, maybe, sorta. Okay, she said if everything went the way she expected, we'd have sex in front of each other." She said quickly, spitting the words out almost as fast as she could. "But you don't have to. I mean, if it's too big of an ask, well, we'll just have dinner and not ever talk about it again, okay?"
"Why us?" I asked, quietly.
"Well, you're our best friends. I know I can trust you to be discreet, and not tell the world about our problem, and well, to be honest, you're the only guy, besides a doctor, or my husband, that I've ever been naked in front of."
"What!?" My wife snapped.
"OH! It wasn't like that Mandy. Jack came over a few weeks ago to see Bob, and well, we were kinda doing it on the sofa. He just slipped back out. I'm not sure who was more embarrassed, him or me. But; he saw me from about here up." She said, holding her hand just below her boobs. "I figure if he could keep that a secret, well, maybe you guys would help us out."
"Just exactly what do we have to do?"
"Actually, I only know the first step. After that, well, it's all in sealed envelopes that we open, based on how things are going."
"Okay, so what's the first step?"
"During dinner we all take our clothes off."
"We take our clothes off?" My wife asked quickly. "In front of each other?"