It's all Kathleen Turner's fault.
A little over five years ago my wife, Susan, and I bought a condominium in a somewhat rundown complex of mid-eighties townhomes. Between our two high-earning salaries and a modest mortgage, we were able to whittle away at student debt and start to think about owning a real home.
Then COVID happened. I was home all day, every day, working at the computer. Susan's a doctor at the local hospital, so she was overwhelmed with work.
Mary's an RN at the same hospital my wife works at, and she lives three doors down in our complex. They don't work in the same department and, most of the time, not even similar shifts, so there was only a nodding familiarity. Nonetheless, as COVID eased, Mary started "movie night" for our block of six townhomes and we got to know her better that way.
Mary's not an attractive gal. You'd never look at her twice. Her curly blond hair is usually up in a tight bun, with an overlarge, yet piggy nose and two beady eyes. She's overweight in a kind of solid way and wears scrubs, even when she's not working. She often goes braless, but her saggy boobs are not really large. Her body is more lumpy than shapely, with wide hips, and massive thighs that she tries to hide.
The way movie night worked is that each household would pick a movie to watch on rotating weeks. Thursday night, Mary would queue it up on her giant screen, pop popcorn, and chill a box of cheap white wine. Everyone would turn up with whatever they'd prefer to drink and maybe an appetizer and we'd watch the film.
At first, Susan and I were regulars along with the Batchers (Pete and Belinda). Levon and Lakeisha Jones live between Mary and our place. They come if we are showing a horror movie or maybe a blockbuster action film, but they're often busy. Cindy McGill, who lives in the other end-unit would come sometimes. She didn't seem that interested in movies, but once in a while she'd go for the company.
After a few weeks, Susan started to beg off and eventually it was a given that I'd go out to Mary's Movie Night on Thursday. I'd come home to her sleeping. She'd be up before dawn and gone before I'd see her. She had no energy for anything physical these days anyway.
So it came to be that, after initial enthusiasm, many weeks it would just be Pete, Belinda, Mary, and I turning up for movie night. There was a brief flurry where the Jones's got us to watch all of the Saw films back-to-back. We were discussing maybe having a more romantic film and who great romantic ladies were. Someone mentioned Romancing the Stone, which I had somehow never seen. Mary said we had to watch it next week.
The next week, there we were, watching Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas. We often talked during the movie and, seeing as this was a romantic movie, this week the conversation turned to our love lives.
Mary is not the most subtle gal and she bemoaned going "oh for COVID". Pete then chimed in with too much information. It seems that previously they had been active swingers and this is how they kept things "fresh" in their marriage, but, of course, their swinger group had been out of action. Belinda didn't say anything, but didn't really disagree. For some reason, it seemed like this wasn't news to Mary.
I allowed as how things were slow to get going again, citing Susan's need to keep isolated during the worst of the pandemic "for professional reasons". Although, at that point, it had been months since we'd done more than a peck on the lips.
Pete thought the solution was obvious: he could break Mary's drought and I could scratch my itch with Belinda.
"I don't know," I said. "It would kill Susan if I fooled around on her. Besides, we're neighbors."
"Nah, it'll be fine. It's just casual," he replied. "We know how to be discreet and where to draw the line."
"Maybe we should test drive it. Here, you sit with Belle and I'll sit with Petey," Mary smirked.
I know I described Mary physically before, but I think that one expression captures her better than any physical attribute. Her face was bound up in a perpetual smirk--smug to the point of arrogance, as if she's two steps ahead of everyone else. Combined with her looks and it's no wonder she's single.
Still, I went along, not intending to do anything more than enjoy the movie. Belinda seemed normal, not as cocky as her husband. We were kicking back on the couch, while Mary and Peter were on the love seat at an angle to us.
Pretty quickly Mary and Pete were putting the "love" in love seat, as they grew progressively more handsy with each other. Not long after that they were lip locked. Peter was letting her long blond hair down and they dropped out of the conversation.
That left Belinda and I sitting there, watching the movie and trying not to watch her husband making out with our hostess. Belle and I were both a bit nervous, wondering what was going to happen. If I thought this was all Pete's idea, it started to become clear that she was a willing participant. She flirted with me, both of us stealing glances. The movie was just an excuse for whatever we were doing. It felt good to have a woman's attention, to feel her next to me. Her hand was on my thigh for a second during an action scene and she was leaning into me. I was trying to play it cool, not letting my budding arousal show. She had the slim body of a dancer, short with a flat chest and butt, but full of lean muscle. Having her next to me was making it harder to hide the effect she was having.
