They kissed briefly.
"Hi," she said.
"Hi," he said back.
They were in Costa, and the abruptness of the hello was not the only warning sign that this might be a difficult conversation. She was wearing a second earring in her left earlobe. He had come across this in the past when she prepared herself for a "summit". When she wanted to unload her anxieties, or wanted to give him a piece of her mind. She wore that earring so infrequently that she had to re-pierce the hole herself, and the pain seemed to set her up for a confrontation.
He liked the second earring. It was an incongruous look on a 60 year old, straitlaced, middle class woman from the suburbs. He thought it was sexy, and he immediately felt a familiar stirring in his loins.
Scarlett's tan from their holiday in Mykonos had faded, and they hadn't had a chance to see each other since. It was October, and there was a chill in the air. They were both in jeans and jumpers. Both still looked great for their respective ages. Both were trim; she remarkably so, with a petite body of a much younger woman: her jumper did not hide her pert breasts, her jeans showed off her remarkably full bottom, her platinum blonde/grey hair contrasted beautifully with her dark top. Her eyes were a piercing green, and lips were still full and eminently kissable. The only giveaway of her age were the crows feet around her eyes and her smile, and a little 'pot' at her belly that no amount of dieting or exercise would make go away.
What a horny looking GILF, thought Rick, who despite the upcoming discussion, was failing to control his developing erection.
In contrast to Scarlett, Rick was tall, athletic, chocolate brown, with Harry Belafonte type looks and nearly 20 years her junior. Whenever she saw him, her heart skipped a beat, she felt excited, and almost immediately deflated, questioning why he was going out with her, why after so many years they continued to see each other, when he could choose his pick of younger, less ancient lovers.
And then there was the elephant in the room... they were both married and not to each other.
"We need to have a chat," she said, coming to the point.
Here we go, he thought, "Oh yeah?"
"Charlie knows about us"
"Shit."
Silence.
"How?" Rick asked, once he had internalised her statement..
"He hacked into my laptop. He knows everything."
"Fuck." More silence. "How has he taken it? How are you? What do we do?" The questions came tumbling out, as quickly as he thought them.
"Well, it's complicated. I'm not sure. I'm of two minds really. It's very difficult for me. And I don't really trust you to help me decide..."
"What the fuck are you talking about?" interrupted Rick angrily, as he tried to decipher Scarlett's own vomit of consciousness. "Has he given you an ultimatum to finish with me or he goes?"
"No. Quite the opposite," she replied matter of factly.
"Eh?"
"We've had many conversations about it."
"Rows you mean," he piped in.
"No, conversations, discussions, like this one," she responded, in an unusually calm way. "He's gone off sex, you see. Sex with me at any rate. He says he can't get it up normally..."
"Normally? That implies he can get it up... er abnormally."
In effect, yes," she whispered, he can only get off by masturbating... masturbating to the thought of me having sex with other men. Other... black men."
At that, Scarlett lost her demeanour, and blushed, tears appearing in her eyes. Rick's mouth had literally opened as all this sunk in. He was literally gob-smacked.
"He's a pervert, Rick, I can only take one pervert in my life, ie you, not two," she cried, alarming the customers nearest to them. "It's too much, I feel like leaving both of you," she sobbed, holding her head in her hands.
"Wow," was all he could reply.
They drank some coffee, he wisely kept his mouth shut and she slowly recovered.
"He's shown me stuff on the internet," she whispered, porn sites with categories such as 'Cuckold' and 'BBC'. That stands for..."
"Big Black Cocks. Yeah I know." he interjected with a hint of a smile.
"You would," she said, rolling her eyes without any smile. "He says I can continue to see you, but he wants to watch occasionally. I can't believe he thinks that is going to happen. It's disgusting!"
Rick became thoughtful, and they drank the last of their coffee in silence. Then Rick got up, and surprised her with a kiss on the lips.
"I'm off, see yer."
"What? We've got to talk about this!"
"There is nothing to talk about. I'm game, I don't care who's watching so long as I can fuck you. I would fuck you now on this table if I knew I wouldn't be arrested. So it's really down to whether you want to continue seeing me or not. So it's your problem".
Then he leant in close to her, looked into her eyes and whispered, "And we both know that under that twin set and pearl, granny image you like to put about, there is a whore who loves a bit of kinky sex. Cheerio."
He pecked her on the lips again and left her with a face that was burning red.
*****
"Lovely to meet you at last!" was Charlie's greeting, shaking Rick's hand and leading him into the house.
Rick refused to be fazed by the warmth of the welcome, gave a friendly "hello" as he studied the balding, short, overweight, bespectacled man who his lover had cheated on all these years. He wasn't surprised she had done so, and he felt a pang of sympathy for him and even a little guilt on his part. Charlie came over as a harmless, likeable guy.
"Forgive me, I'm a little nervous. Actually, I'm petrified to be honest," Charlie continued, shyly. "It's just the only solution I could see that might keep us all genuinely happy." He stopped leading Rick down the corridor, turned and very seriously added, "I love her, you know. Always have. Always will. I can't bear the thought of losing her. You do understand, don't you?"
"I love her too," replied Rick.
"Yes, I guess you must," said Charlie, slightly crestfallen on hearing that reality. "Must talk to you about that some other time."
At that, they walked into the lounge.
She was seated on the settee. Dressed to kill. She wore a black cocktail dress. Far too short for her to be worn in public, riding up her legs and showing the tips of her black, fully fashioned stockings. Her feet were adorned with four inch black stilettos. Again, shoes that she would never normally wear. She wore bright red lipstick. Not her colour, but fitting for the role she was about to play.
"Hello Scarlett," Rick said coolly as he sat down next to her.
"Hello Rick." she replied, demurely, like this was a Church coffee morning.
"Can I get you both a drink?" asked Charlie, breaking the ice.
"We'll both have G&T, Charlie. Rick likes his strong," she said, taking charge and making a point at the same time.
"Righto," Charlie said chirpily, and as he fixed the drinks, got down to business. "Rick, I thought we should establish some ground rules between us, so we all know what to expect."
"Such as?"
"Well, I don't have many requests. Feel free to make love to my wife however you like."
"Can I kiss her?"
"Absolutely."
"I mean really kiss her. With tongues."
"By all means."
"Can I see Scarlett without you present?"
"Yes, but... I need to be there a certain number of times a year. Let's say, four times a year."
"What! We have to perform for you four times a year? That's a bit stiff," huffed Rick.
Scarlett came to Rick's defence. "Rick doesn't get away from his wife very often, Charlie."