How It Started How It's Going. Pt 6.
The Epilogue.
Tags. Interracial. Sex. Open Marriage.
Bill hand was raised about to knock on room 2501 but it was wasn't moving. A question was running through his mind. Why am I here? He let his hand drop back down to his side and he was about to go back to the elevator when the door opened.
"Having second thoughts?" Keisha queried him.
"Yes," Bill answered truthfully.
"And why is that?" Keisha lent against door jam. She had changed into a short silk robe. "Are you worried I'm too much for you?"
"Partly, mostly I'm just not sure what I'm doing here."
"Why not come in. We can talk. We have a lot in common."
"Like what?"
"Our spouses both like, well in my case liked, to fuck other people... including each other."
"Is that enough of a reason?"
"Come on, I won't bite." Keisha pushed the door open wider. "Not unless you ask me too."
Bill shrugged and went inside. He walked down a short entrance corridor that opened out into a larger room. It had a lounge, an armchair and coffee table. There was a large TV mounted on the wall. Along the back wall was timber cabinetry. Two glass sliding doors opened onto a balcony which also had a couple of outdoor chairs.
"Would you like a drink?" Keisha had opened one of the cabinet doors to reveal a refrigerator.
"Water."
"Sorry unless you want to go to the tap in the bathroom there's only wine or beer or spirits."
"Beer then."
She bought him one then picked up a half full wine glass from the coffee table.
"Cheers," she held her glass out towards Bill but he just lifted his bottle a little to acknowledge her toast rather than click it against hers. "You really are prickly tonight aren't you."
"Why did you invited me up here tonight?"
"I told you, to talk." Keisha pointed to the chairs out on the balcony then led the way out there before she continued. "I've got some questions about what happened all those years ago with JT."
"I'm not sure it's any of your business." Bill countered. He stood looking out over the flashing lights of Vegas while Keisha sat down. "What did he tell you?"
"He said it was just a casual thing that happened a couple of times. That doesn't gel with him taking your wife to the cabin."
Bill was quiet for a minute. Inside he debated what he wanted to say. What the ramifications could be if he told the truth. He didn't owe this woman anything. There was another voice that wanted to tell her everything. Get everything that he's kept suppressed out.
"This stays between you and me?"
"Of course."
Bill sat down in the other chair. He gave a bare bones account of the encounter with the security guard when they were young and the resulting roleplay that developed. Then moved onto the expansion of it when their two boys went to college. Keisha didn't interrupt or show a sign of any emotion she might have had.
"Anyway um, we were playing around outside near the pool and JT came through the garden gate and joined in."
"Playing around?"
"We were fucking, I'd finished and JT had a turn like the security guard did." Bill stopped and had a drink.
"So that was the first time. What happened after that?"
"A lot of soul searching."
"So why go back?"
"In the end what happened only amplified our fantasy."
"How? This is what I don't understand. For your wife sure, she's getting fucked, but you, why is it your fantasy?"
"Obviously I've had a lot of time to think about this. I'm still not quite sure I have an answer that I can put into words. First thing to understand is I was having sex as well, at first anyway. Sometimes one after the other. Other times we would be going together with me and JT at either end. That wasn't all of it. There was something about watching Casey lose control and become almost a different person. Sexually confident, brazen in the way she initiated some of the sexual acts."
"Okay, maybe I can see where you're coming from. I don't completely understand it but... how many times where there? JT would just say a couple. That doesn't gel with how hard he took it."
"Took what?" It was Bill's turn to ask a question and Keisha took some time to respond like she'd said more than she wanted to.
"Um, just the way he acted when he came back home. He was happy to be there, with me and the kids but every now and then, in a quiet moment, I could tell something was different. Then when Tank died and the inheritance stuff blew up he got quite upset. That's why I want to know how many times, a couple doesn't add up to that sort of anxiety."
"Seven maybe eight, it's a while ago. That doesn't include the cabin trip. I didn't know about it when it occurred and I'm not much wiser now. How did you find out about it?"
"An old girlfriend who worked at diner they stopped at on their way home. She rang me. Told me he had been there with a white lady and they looked like a couple."
"One thing Casey did tell me was you told him to leave after the birthday party. So after you find out he's back cheating again you take him back... why? I mean wasn't that the deal breaker?"
"Yes it was," Keisha stood up, went to the safety barrier and lent on it looking out into the night. "You're a man, you wouldn't understand."
"So you're not a cuckold?"
"I was a young mother of three under five whose husband already had one ex-wife. I'd seen the way he reacted to her phone calls, the relationship he had with her children. I didn't want to be his second ex."
"So you chose security."
"Yes, like I said you wouldn't understand. It's different for a man with a job and assets in his name."
"Maybe. Maybe I understand more than you think."
A helicopter came towards her hotel. They both watched as it got closer. The noise got quite loud as it hovered above the building before it landed.
"So, how about you? Why did you take her back? You'd been publicly humiliated, she had another man's child..."
"Compassion."
"What's that mean?"
"When a woman is penniless, homeless and looking at spending a night on the streets with her four week old son am I supposed to turn her away?"
"Plenty of men would, nowadays some would gloat on social media claiming justice has been done."
"I guess I'm not one of them."
Keisha returned to her seat and lent forward to close the gap between them further.
"Okay I'll give you compassion. But how do you go from compassion to happy hallmark family."
"Time, lots of time."
"How long before you shared a bed?"
"A few years. Look you've got to understand, I still loved Casey, even though I hated her. When I saw her that first night so looked so frail and vulnerable and it wasn't just her welfare to consider. I bought them a ticket to come back to Washington with me. I was in a one room apartment so Casey and the baby got the bedroom. I was on a foldout lounge bed."
"You upended your life for her."
Bill shrugged, "I seriously thought it was about life and death. She wasn't eating, wouldn't leave the apartment. It took her a long time to heal. And I guess we both did in the end. The house sold and I got a raise. I was looking for a house you buy. Casey got a job and said she was moving out. I sort of flipped out. We hadn't been intimate but I don't know, I just couldn't see my life going forward without her."
"And the baby?"
"He wasn't mine biologically but I'd been his father for two years. For part of the time when Casey was unwell his father and his mother. I didn't want to part with him either."
"How long before she wanted to fuck other guys?"
"How long did JT stay faithful?"
"Six months, a year, I don't know for sure. Now answer my question."
"Michael was in middle school so eleven, twelve, something like that."
"So you have taken her back, got her life back on track and she says okay I'm going back to fucking black guys."
"It wasn't like that," Bill did a poor job of hiding his irritation.
"What was it like then?"
"Casey had changed jobs. Moved into a not for profit practice that did a lot of work with wounded veterans. I was helping them out with some IT stuff and I noticed the way she interacted with one particular colleague. Flirting and stuff and she would sometimes be talking to him on the phone at home. I asked her what was going on. She said nothing."
"She lied."
"That's what thought. We had a pretty big fight about it. During that discussion she told me he had asked her to go on a date with him but she had declined."
"Did she ask for permission?"
"No. After things had cooled down between us we talked again. I asked if she was attracted to him. She said yes. I asked if she wanted to take it further. She talked all around it but I could tell she did. I told her it was her decision. If she wanted to she could."
"After only just climbing out of shit up to your eyebrows you offered to jump back into it again?"
"No, it's different this time. I'm not involved at all. We have an understanding, no rules, an open relationship. Ethical non monogamy. The only important thing is truth, with each other and ourselves." Bill paused and Keisha wondered if he was trying to convince himself as well as her. "And like you there's the security thing although I get that it's a little different. I loved her, I'll always love her. Having her sneak around like she did with Tank. That was more of a danger to my future with her than having an occasional lover."
"That's fucking weird. Do you have girlfriends?" Keisha shook her head in disbelief.
"I've had a couple of relationships but not recently."
"And Casey?"
"She's had several. The first one lasted for a year. They probably went on a date once a month. He wanted more she said no. They stopped see each other and she had to change jobs. That was he last workplace lover. Since then she's always had at least one friend with benefits."
"Do your children know?"
"We don't invite lovers for Christmas dinner. Obviously they all know the history from Michael's dad and the court cases but we don't flaunt what we do."
"It's still fucking weird."
Before there was any more conversation Bills message alert chimed. He pulled it out of his pocket as Keisha stood up.
"Do you want another drink."
"I'll just check this, it's from Casey." Bill opened his message app then looked back up at Keisha. "Yeah I'll have one more."
