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!