Rachel and I had finally finished unpacking our belongings and arranging the furniture, and the house was becoming somewhat habitable now. Given the size of the house and the lack of time we would inevitably have when we both returned to work we decided to hire a cleaner to keep the house in some order for us, and a gardener to maintain the house's equally sizeable garden.
Once we were satisfied we had fully got our affairs in order we set out to meet the other neighbours within our close proximity. On the opposite side of the house to Jessica and Peter lived Tom and Holly, another seemingly happily married couple of just a few years older than us, each with their own child they had both had fairly young in previous relationships. Tom was a solicitor, and his daughter Meredith was a nineteen year old psychology student recently home from university for the summer. It was her who had greeted us as we walked into their front garden to find her sunbathing on the lawn. I couldn't help but allow my eyes to run over her bikini-clad body, and smiled as the cheeks of her tight arse swallowed the bikini bottoms as she ran inside to fetch her father, stepmother and stepbrother for introductions. Holly was a senior of human resources at a local online retail company. Her son Jack was twenty one and had recently completed a degree in Music & Sound Engineering. When he wasn't "lounging around at home", he interned in a recording studio in the city, and by night had a resident DJ spot at one of the local clubs.
We stood and chatted for a short while upon their doorstep while we basked in the scorching sunlight. When they asked if we would like to come in we thanked them but politely declined as we were doing the rounds and wanted to meet all the neighbours. Rachel announced that we were going to be having a house warming party, though we didn't know when as this was the first I was hearing about it, and they were all invited. We waved them goodbye and headed across the street to the house opposite to us.
This house was a little less grand, and likely more affordable, than ours had been but was still pristine and appealing. Here lived Dale, a forty seven year old manager of a nearby Audi salesroom, and his partner Tammy, a much younger and stunning woman of some east-Asian origin. Politely we chatted to them for close to twenty minutes learning a little about them. Dale had met Tammy in the Philippines and soon after had her brought her back with him. Despite only having lived in the country for a couple of years her English was mostly fluent, though she did occasionally, and sweetly, slip up. Rachel again invited the pair of them to the party and we made our way.
Meeting and briefly getting to know the two families was already exhausting and we both sighed in relief as no-one answered the door to the third neighbour we had visited. Rachel and I agreed we would meet them, and any other imminent neighbours, at a later date and began to head back to our home for lunch. Rachel made a tasty Caesar salad while I poured us each a glass of apple juice. We sat at the breakfast bar in the kitchen to eat our food and gaze through the large patio windows at our stunning and vibrant garden.
"Oh, you sounded a bit coy when I asked you how your shopping trip was yesterday. I never asked why?" I asked her before taking another fork full of lettuce and dressing into my mouth with a crunch.
She giggled slightly around the rim of her glass as she sipped at the juice. "It was just an average shopping trip mostly, but I bumped into Jessica at one of the stores later on," she replied and I raised my head with interest. "In the lingerie section of all places. Guess I would have been embarrassed about that had I not already been embarrassed about passing out on her couch that is. Or well... watching her attend to Tariq," she added smiling.
"Yeah? She ok?" I enquired as I scraped the last of the salad from my plate.
"Fine. We ended up going for coffee for a chat and then she took me to a few more stores. She was telling me ALL about her sex life," she explained brushing her brown hair behind her ear. "Honestly, the two of them are fucking dirty. She fucks other guys like twice a week at least, and not always with Peter around. He does the same apparently."
"I wouldn't know, he didn't really get into it that much," I added.
"Does he seem like a nice guy?" she asked though I wasn't sure why.
"Erm, yes nice enough," I answered while I waited for Rachel to scrape her plate clean. I swiped her plate from underneath her and took both to sink to rinse. "From what I could tell anyway. Still early days," I added.
"I guess," she replied and twisted on the bar stool to stare at me silently for a minute or two while I cleaned up after us.
I turned and met her gaze with a furrowed brow. "What?"
"You've really thought about... doing stuff... with a guy?" she asked sheepishly while continuing to stare intently at me.
"Yeah. I have," I answered and she almost looked as surprised as she had done upon hearing it for the first time.
"But... you don't fancy men?" Rachel continued to probe.
"I mean, I can acknowledge when one is good looking but no, not really. It's weird, I don't really know how to explain it. It's like, a sexual attraction or something, not physical. You know?" I replied struggling to put my desires into words for her.
She sipped further on her juice. "Why have you kept this from me so long?"
"I don't know hon. It's something I don't think of very often, and when I did I was worried about scaring you off thinking I was gay or something," I stepped closer to her and placed my hand on her knee. The truth was that it was all I could think of over the past two days.
"Of course I wouldn't have you idiot, I love you," she said looking up at me sweetly, and I took the opportunity to kiss her. "I just wish you'd have told me. I don't like you keeping things from me."
"I'm sorry babe," I replied as I parted from her lips.
"It's ok."
I continued to stack the dishwasher with our plates and wipe down the surfaces while she continued to stare quietly at me, as if studying me like a specimen at some zoo exhibit. I turned to her and glared back at her playfully. "What? You sure it's ok?"