This story contains scenes of group sex.
This story is written at the request of a reader. He suggested the plot.
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"What do you think of the coffee?" I asked my friend Susan.
"It's nice, but you know, all these coffee houses have nice coffee. I'd have trouble telling one from the other in a blind tasting," Susan replied.
"Yeah, I guess you're right. For me, it's all about the ambience," I said.
"You mean the eye candy? Yeah, me too," Susan said.
"Eye candy? I'm talking about the lighting, the noise level, the attractiveness of the furniture, the smiles or lack thereof of the staff, the cleanliness, etc. What're you talking about?" I asked.
"I'm talking about the men at the café I can enjoy fantasizing about. Don't tell me you don't?"
"That's right. I don't," I said.
"Really?" Susan said. She seemed incredulous.
"Really," I said. "I don't fantasize about other men. I have Oscar, you know. He's all I need."
"Seriously? Irene, everyone fantasizes. Don't tell me you're the exception that proves my rule?"
"Well, I guess I am. I just don't have those kinds of thoughts," I said.
Susan just stared, disbelieving, and studying me with her beautiful, bedroom eyes.
"No offense, but I've heard you're not all that Oscar needs..." Susan said. She was clearly nervous.
"I know he fools around from time to time. We have sort of a 'don't ask, don't tell' agreement. Some men are like that. I can deal with it," I replied.
I began to wonder about Susan. She had the supplest skin, without a single blemish, a body I would have killed to have had, and a sexy, pretty smile. Also, she was Black, and I knew Oscar had a fetish about sex with other races. Had she enjoyed an evening with my philandering husband? Oscar, was, after all a man who was hard to resist!
I knew he played around, but I didn't want him playing with my friends, not that I had that many of them. Wait a minute! Susan and Oscar had not yet even met! Paranoia was consuming me. Get a grip, I told myself.
"Really? How? How do you deal with it?" Susan asked.
"I'm just not that interested in sex. Oscar is oversexed. If he were faithful all the time, the pressure on me would be too intense. The key thing is that he loves me with all his heart, all his might, and with all his soul," I said. "I'm fine with that. I consider myself lucky."
Then I made a mistake. I still don't know why, but I added, "Even if..." and then I shut up like a clam.
My mistake was not lost on Susan. Susan is a wonderful friend, but she is a bit of an obsessive compulsive when it comes to gossip. She's the worst gossip one can find north of Central Park, and believe you me, there's plenty of competition for that title in New York.
"Okay, Irene. Finish your thought," Susan said.
"What thought?" I asked, playing innocent as my first gambit towards keeping my secrets.
"The one that began 'Even if...' and you know it!" Susan said.
I looked at her blankly. I forced myself to empty my mind.
"You were discussing your low sexual desire, and how happy you and Oscar were, and then you added, "Even if..." Susan said, looking at me with her penetrating, liquid brown eyes.
"I don't know why I said that. I love Oscar, and he loves me, and we have two beautiful daughters, as you know. That's all there is to it!" I said, and I returned to my best imitation of a clam.
One way to get a clam to open up wide is to cook it in a hot frying pan with some olive oil or better, grape seed oil. It kills the clam in the process, but when it dies it opens up wide and reveals whatever secrets were lurking inside. Being of Spanish descent, well in fact and more precisely, of Catalan descent, I cook clams routinely. It's easy to do, too. Add some sliced garlic, a red pepper or two, and some Italian parsley and you have a delicious dish, ready to pour over some pasta. My girls love it when I cook that dish. Oscar does, too.
Susan turned up the heat. The grape seed oil was sizzling in the frying pan. She was relentless. She beat me down to a puddle with her interrogation. The CIA should hire her: she's more effective than water-boarding, I'm sure. Right there in the coffee house, at East 12th Street and Broadway, she reduced me to a quivering blob, and I opened up wide like a freshy sautéed clam. I became incapable of retaining any of my long-held secrets.
She learned I was a virgin when I hooked up with Oscar, an old acquaintance from high school, at age 25. We married at age 28. She learned Oscar was the only man I had ever been intimate with. She learned that, no, I was not curious about having sex with other men, not even a little bit. The most important thing she learned, however, my deepest, darkest secret, was that Oscar was constantly pressuring me to have an affair. He actually wanted me to have sex with another man!
"You lucky girl!" Susan had said, once she had wormed out of me the dark secret of Oscar's desires.
I was stunned. Of all the possible reactions Susan might have had, calling me lucky was one that I had not even imagined! I hadn't told her that while Oscar claimed my bedding another man would be enough, what he really wanted was to be Oscar-on-the-spot, watching, and perhaps to be naked and tied up, while his 'cute little wife,' ie, me, was fucked silly, right in front of him. I could not possibly tell Susan something as humiliating as that!
Instead, I turned the tables on Susan. Now it was my turn to interrogate her! I did not have her talent. I couldn't even make the detective force of the NYPD, let alone the CIA, but luckily, Susan was happy to reveal her secrets, after I had sworn on a stack of empty coffee cups that I would tell no one. No one at all.
"Duane is a macho man. He wants to lay as many women as possible, especially white women like yourself," she explained, "but he wants me to remain pure, unspoiled by other men."
"You're okay with that?" I asked, a touch of incredulity in my voice.
"Of course not! At least Duane is discreet. He tries to keep his affairs and one-night dalliances secret. But I know. A girl always knows," Susan said.
"Don't I know it," I said.
"And I'm not the type of girl who would be happy in a nunnery, you know?" Susan added.
"Doesn't Duane keep you happy - that way?" I asked.
"Yeah, yes he does, even if sometimes I can taste another woman on his cock. I have my own fun, but that's top secret. Duane doesn't know, and he doesn't suspect," Susan said, speaking sotto voce.
"Well, you have the body for it, don't you?" I said, giggling a little.
"For a lot of men, yes, I do. But some men, like my husband Duane for example, like women with bigger breasts, and as he so charmingly puts it, with a little more meat on their bones. You, for example, would be just his taste," Susan said.
"What? Me? You're crazy! I'm 44, overweight, and my breasts are too big for my frame. Thanks for the attempt at flattery, but I know the score, Susan," I said.
"You're not overweight. Maybe you think you are, and perhaps your doctor thinks you are, but from the perspective of a man like Duane you would be perfection itself. You're not all skin and bones, you know? Like Arby's, you've got the meat. Anyway, I can prove I'm right," Susan said.
"No, you can't. Thanks for your thoughts and efforts, but really, girl, this pig doesn't fly," I said. I almost told her about my belly dancing lessons. Oscar was always pushing for me to do sexy things, like the time on the beach, or to have affairs with men outside the marriage. I loved Oscar, and I wanted to keep him happy, but what he was asking was just not in my wheelhouse. I couldn't possibly do the things he wanted me to do.
I figured I could do something special and sexy just for him, and surprise him with a performance on his birthday, for example. Belly dancing was pushing my boundaries, but maybe it's good to push oneself to the edge from time to time? My goodness, I hope so!