Claudia answered her phone on the second ring. "You got one too, didn't you?"
"Uh huh," her friend Leslie replied with obvious excitement. "But I haven't read through the whole invitation. It's as big as a book."
"Do you know what a takeover is?"
"Not exactly, but I've got a pretty good idea."
"It's what you'd think. Except that Jonathan is hosting it, so it will be over-the-top. "
"Are you and Gabe going?" Leslie asked referring to her friend's husband.
"If we can. We haven't been out and had fun in a long time."
"Hey!" Leslie exclaimed with fake offense. "You don't consider going out with me and my husband fun?"
Claudia laughed recognizing the tease. "That's not the kind of 'fun' I was referring to. We do enjoy going out with you and Mitch. And we'd love to have the kind of fun the four of us did at the Halloween party. It's just every time we get together we wind up drinking, dancing, and talking until it's so late that we're all too tired to do anything more. Maybe next time we should all be a little less 'fun' so that we can actually have 'fun' together."
Leslie laughed. The previous Fall she and Mitch, after a fiery night of sex, decided to expand their sexual boundaries and dip their toes into the lifestyle. Their friends Gabe and Claudia had been swingers for years, so they sought out their guidance before doing anything. They all met at Jonathan's Halloween party and by chance showed up wearing matching costumes, Zorro and Cat Woman. Amped up by a combination of powerful drinks and the sexy outfits, Leslie had mistaken Gabe for her husband, and pulled him into a back room for some impromptu sex. Claudia had made the same error with Mitch. When they all realized the mistake, they didn't stop, and instead engaged in a wild four-way sex romp that ended only after Leslie had experienced her first spit-roast (twice) and she'd prodded Mitch into fucking Claudia. It had been an amazing night, especially for their first lifestyle experience, and one she and her husband often talked about repeating. But just as Claudia said, even though they'd gotten together often, they hadn't had that kind of 'fun' since.
"Are we setting a date for Jonathan's party thing? What's he calling it, 'One Thousand and One Nights'?"
"It's more than just a party, it's a whole weekend, Friday through Sunday. Gabe and I have been to the hotel before. It has an awesome pool and it's super private. That's probably why he chose that place."
Leslie heard the front door rattle. "I've got to go, Mitch is home. We'll talk again after he and I read through the whole invite. Love you."
"Love you too, bye." They ended the call.
Leslie and Mitch caught up with each other's day while he mixed martinis for them. "We got something interesting in the mail today," Leslie said holding up Jonathan's invitation.
Mitch raised his eyebrows. "I can guess what it is just by looking at the envelope. You've read it I assume."
"I just the first page. There's a ton of stuff and I didn't have time to go through all of it."
"Gabe and Claudia get one too?"
"You hoping to re-live our Halloween adventure?"
Mitch chuckled, "And I'll bet you are too."
"Maaaaybe," she said in a teasing, sing-song voice. "But not without you."
Mitch swooped her into a bear hug and kissed her. "Let's see what Jonathan's cooked up." He opened the fat envelope and began reading. Jonathan had rented an entire sixty room boutique hotel at the edge of town and invited what he called "a select group of like-minded friends" to party the weekend away to the theme of Ali Baba, Aladdin, and Scheherazade.
"I remember learning about the "One Thousand and One Nights" in college," Leslie said. "It's very erotic, nothing like the G-rated Disney version."
Mitch made another round of drinks. "Tell me more about it."
"It's a collection of folklore stories that first appeared in the ninth century. One of the main characters is a king, who kills his wife after she had an affair while he was away at war. He decides to remarry and then kills the bride that same night so that she can't ever cheat on him. He vows to keep doing it until there are no more women left in his realm. Scheherazade, the other main character, is the daughter of one of his advisors. She devises a plan to save herself and every other woman in the kingdom. She marries the king and spends their wedding night telling him an engrossing story, but leaves it unfinished promising to complete it the next night. Scheherazade does this again and again for one thousand and one nights engrossing her husband. Over time the king falls in love with her, and abandons his murderous scheme."
"How's that erotic?"
"All the tales include lengthy and detailed descriptions of sexual acts. The women in the stories are lust filled, and embrace their sexuality as much, if not more so, than the men."
"I see. Sounds racy."
"That's putting it mildly. The stories were very arousing when I read them in college. Most of my friends felt the same way."
"So, Jonathan's invited a bunch of 'like-minded' people to a sexual Persian themed weekend at a remote hotel in the countryside."
Leslie nodded her head and took a sip of her drink. "That about sums it up. You do know what he means by 'like-minded' don't you?"