It was early spring, and I, Sophia, was meeting a friend to take the dogs for a walk in the park. I say a friend, James and I are friends now but he is also my ex-boyfriend, the one from directly before I met my husband, Luke. James and I hadn't really seen much of each other since ending our relationship, but had stayed in touch online over the years.
James was no different to how I remembered him from 5 years ago. Tall, dark haired with a cheeky mischievous smile. Walking around the woods and the canal with him was almost just like old times, but without the hand-holding and random kisses. Conversation flowed easily between us as we became reacquainted. After an hour of walking, we agreed the chill in the air was becoming too much so we decided on coffee at his place.
Back at James', we sat in the living room, fire on and drinks in hand with the dogs passed out in the back room. The perfect way to spend a Saturday afternoon. Having had an intimate past with James, it meant no topic of conversation was off the table between us, and things always headed in the direction of sex when we spoke online, I don't know why I expected today to be any different.
"So, am I the last person you slept with other than Luke?" He asks. I know he is not asking if there was anyone between him and Luke, instead he wants to know if I've ever been unfaithful which is not a question I wanted to answer truthfully.
"Yes, you were the last one I was with before I met Luke" I answer, tactfully.
"You know that's not what I meant" I should have learnt I can never get away with word play around James, instead I fire the question back at him.
"I know it's not, You want to know if I would or have ever been unfaithful. Were you ever unfaithful to Hannah?" Hannah is James ex-wife, they met not long after I met Luke and married at a similar time to us. I'd never met her, but he had told me about her several times.
"No, well not exactly. OK maybe."
"Well now I'm intrigued, tell me more about not exactly, maybe being unfaithful."
"She kissed me. Julia from Uni before she went travelling. Hannah went mad when I told her."
"Well didn't you fancy Julia for ages? Of course she went mad at you, you idiot" The conversation kept flowing like this, I was impressed I'd distracted him from his initial question. But eventually the questions became quite probing again.
"Have you ever had a threesome?" James asked as he handed me another drink.
"No but I had the chance once at Uni. I was seeing a guy who really wanted me and his mate to have one with him. Ultimately I said no, it was a bit weird having two straight guys approach you for a threesome. Plus he wanted me to return the favour and arrange another one with a girlfriend of mine, but that was never going to happen with my friends!"
"Would you want to have one?"
"I've thought about it, but Luke and I are married now and you know how jealous I can be, I don't think I could share him. Have you had one?"
"No but Mia suggested she would have one with me, I just wondered..." Mia is James' new housemate. He's only mentioned her once or twice previously, but he gave me the impression that she had a somewhat adventurous sex life where little was off limits. That reminded me of my early 20s, it was how I wanted to be during University, but a voice in the back of my mind always stopped me from doing anything too 'out there'.
"Look, James, you know I love Luke, I could never plan to cheat on him. If something just happened I'd deal with it as it's up to me to decide if I want to let it happen, but I'm never going to purposely set out to do it. OK?" That was the end of that conversation, and neither of us really knew what to say next so instead we ventured to put on film on Netflix as a distraction.
At some point during the film, Mia came home and joined us for the rest of the film. She was prettier than I'd imagined, short and slim with long chestnut hair and bright blue eyes. She was also very relaxed that you couldn't help but like her. After the film, we talked about getting takeout for a while, arguing over the best places to go and whether it should be pizza or Chinese.
"You girls decide what you want, I'll order it once I've been to the loo." Once James was out of the room, Mia came and sat next to me on the sofa.
"You know he's really hoping we will hook up" she whispers "I heard you talking earlier, I'm sorry if he was pressuring you."