"I need help, baby." Sarah stood facing the skinny mirror hanging from the closet door, hands on her hips.
Derrick rose from his seat at the foot of the bed and approached her from behind.
"With what?" he asked coyly, knowing the answer was more than she'd let on. He zipped the back of her favorite little black dress and kissed her shoulder. "Sarah, your love is everything to me."
Sarah flashed a brief but genuine smile, then looked away.
"You are everything to me," Derrick continued. "I'm nervous too. I think we will feel a lot of mixed emotions tonight." Sarah continued listening, feeling a mixture of validation and nervousness at Derrick's admission.
Derrick finished his diatribe. "But there is nothing that will ever come between us. No matter how many times we all cum tonight."
As a lover of breaking the ice and stupid dirty jokes, Sarah laughed. She finished applying her red lipstick and picked up her phone. She texted Dante one word. "Ready."
Twenty minutes later, Dante arrived in his red Jaguar F-Type. He waited in the car. He wasn't one to go inside and meet the men whose wives he was fucking.
Sarah's phone lit up and Derrick's stomach flipped upside down. But he kept his cool. Derrick knew this feeling, this moment of indecision and wondering what the hell he's doing was temporary.
Before she left, Sarah sat beside Derrick on the bed. She looked him in the eyes to make sure he was ready. He looked in hers. They kissed. A long, loving kiss that only stopped because Derrick didn't want to keep Dante waiting any longer.
When Sarah and Dante arrived at the valet parking for Hotel Cheri, he opened the door and took her hand for the first time. He had been quiet on the drive downtown. In all the times Sarah knew Dante as Derrick's friend, before they decided to make Dante their first bull, he was smooth, witty, a gentleman who didn't take himself too seriously. Maybe he was nervous that night, too.
As it turned out, Dante was just nothing like Derrick. He didn't talk, and talk, wait for you to finish talking, then talk more. Dante sat patiently as Sarah went into more detail than she planned about work, finishing her Master's, finding a dog-sitter. Maybe Sarah was the talker, she realized. She stopped talking and waited for Dante to tune back in, but he answered with a question that actually showed he was listening.
When they got the dessert menu, it was an easy no from Sarah. She needed to get stuffed somewhere else.
When Sarah thought about it later, she was amazed how quickly the tension and awkwardness melted away around Dante. Not only in the way of hotwifing Derrick for the first time, but in general. Sarah thought she hated going out. Making reservations, stressing over an outfit, trying not to get into a fight about something stupid to ruin the mood, all of it was torture for her. While Dante talked, Sarah looked around the room and saw a few eyes dart away. Couples looked at them, wondering who this woman was with this tall, handsome bachelor who probably brought women here all the time. Maybe they knew why. Sarah didn't care. As all the eyes in the restaurant watched them leave, her arm wrapped around his, Sarah felt seen, attractive, and powerful. She had forgotten this feeling.
Back at Dante's apartment, five minutes from the restaurant in the posh section of town, she eased into her role as his for the night, letting him lead wherever the night may go. Dante poured two glasses of chardonnay and handed one to Sarah. They sat on his black, leather sectional. He looked into her eyes.
"Tell me," Dante said. "Why are you doing this?"
"Doing what?" Sarah asked coyly.
Dante stared back in silence, knowing he'd win.
"Well," Sarah began, "This was not my idea at first. Or really at all. I mean I always thought you were hot," her face turned red. This was already more than she planned to say.
"NOT that I told Derrick that!" she corrected herself. "He truly is the love of my life. As my life partner, lover and romancer, I want him. Only him."
Dante nodded along, waiting for the truth.
"It was just the more he pushed this idea of.. like, him sharing me. Me fucking someone else." Sarah looked down, losing the eye contact battle too. "I started to really like it. We talked about it and did these fantasies more and more. As soon as I realized he loved me, and this, I knew we'd eventually do it."
Dante smiled. She was almost there. "Try anything once, right?" He said.
"Exactly!"
