I brooded too much in the house by myself. When Jane arrived home I was in bed. When she joined me there I feigned sleep. In the morning I let her wander away before I thought about getting out of bed.
Despite the green light and my "catch up" fuck I still felt cheated. So much had happened behind my back. I was experiencing a complex mix of emotions: freedom, hurt and resentment. I wasn't sure what was worse, knowing what I had been missing out on, or, still not believing that I knew the entire story. What if she had been screwing around in Sydney?
The more I dwelt on it, the deeper my depression. So, the trust was gone. So what? Might as well make the most of it. I looked in the mirror. Time for action. I joined Jane in the backyard. I looked at the kitchen clock on the way through. Nearly Noon.
"Hi, Bob, how are you?" She looked concerned, her red T-shirt accentuating her braless nipples.
"Fine, now. I was pissed off but I took it out on the neighbor A couple of times."
"I hoped you might." She paused to see my reaction but I just stared blankly at her blue eyes. "Where do we go from here?" She knew that something had shifted.
"I think" I spoke slowly and quietly "that I want an open relationship. We do what we want, when we want with who ever. Two rules, though."
"What?" Jane leaned forward on the sun lounge. Her nipples were growing.
"Don't catch anything and don't bring anyone back here."
"OK"
"OK! You're OK with everything else?"
She nodded.
I went into the kitchen and made some sandwiches. So, we were just fuck buddies now. We spoke about the group sex of the last few days. It occurred to me that she had been part of some real orgies while I had only been involved in threesomes. We agreed to redress that imbalance at the beach on Wednesday. I rang Bill and told him to forget about the BBQ on Wednesday.
We agreed to meet on the sand around ten on Wednesday.
I concluded the phone call with ".....maybe Becky will rub lotion on Jane's breasts...." as I stared at Jane's red T-shirt. She was starting to sweat.
Jane and I got to the beach first that Wednesday. We hadn't had sex in the intervening two days, but I'm not sure why. Maybe we were saving our energy for the big events or maybe we were bored with each other.
We parked and walked past our usual spot. We walked to the far end of the beach, where the rocks marked the edge of the bushy hills. Bill had told me of a great spot and we soon found it. There was a line of rocks that separated a patch of sand into a secluded hide-away. The waves had worn small gaps into the bottom of the rock so, if you lay down you could see what was going on without disturbing the people on the other side.
We spread out our towels on the ocean side of those rocks.