Mallory's mouth went desert dry right away. She involuntarily coughed, feeling silly and helpless all at once. "So this is it," she thought, "Caught."
Gina watched her with a hint of impatience darkening her eyes and turning up the corners of her mouth. "I said, would you like to have sex with my husband, Mallory?"
Mallory let out a breath of air she hadn't realized she was holding on to. Gina wasn't accusing her of sleeping with Greg, she was...inviting it?
"Why am I asking?" Gina continued on, her rate of speech increasing, "Of course you want to sleep with Greg. You aren't exactly subtle about it. I swear, you sometimes stare so hard, I think you must have x-ray vision. "
"No, no, Ms. Clark, that's not—"
"Relax. This isn't about embarrassing you or yelling at you. It never bothered me that you'd ogle Greg like a schoolgirl with her first naughty crush and it certainly doesn't now. I just have an idea that will help us both out and I want to know if you're onboard."
"So, you are asking me to fu—" Mallory interrupted herself when she saw Gina cringe and restated, "have sex with you and Dr. Clark?"
"Both of us?" Gina laughed. "No, no. Definitely not that. Just Greg."
"As like a present?"
"I guess you could call it that."
"I'm...I'm confused," the babysitter confessed, "I didn't think you guys were into that sort of thing."
As she spoke, Mallory wondered if she and Doc had perhaps underestimated Gina's prurient interests all along.
"Into it? Not normally, no, but desperate times. So, now that you aren't pretending you don't want to sleep with Greg, can I count on you?"
"Wait, wait," Mallory objected, throwing her hands up, "I'm...give me a second. I never said I did or didn't want to have sex with Dr. Clark, first of all. I don't even understand what's going on here."
"What's going on is that you want your job back watching my kids. And you want my husband. I'm promising you if you agree to make that latter wish a reality, I'll make sure the former happens to."
"But it's not a threesome thing?"
"No...I have no interest in having sex with a girl even one as pretty as you, Mallory."
"Okay. Why then?"
Gina sighed and rubbed her temples. This conversation had already exceeded her patience for it. She got that hers was an unusual request but Mal was in college. She should've been all about challenging sexual norms and experimenting, right?
"Not sure why you care since I am giving you something...two things...you want, but if you must know, Greg and I are getting divorced."
"What?!" the babysitter gasped in shock. Could she be so lucky?
"Well, not yet, but the writing is on the wall."
"Are you...how is that?"
"I guess if I'm asking you to sleep with him you deserve some details. Greg is into some things...sexually...that I've never really cared for."
Mallory bit her tongue, literally. It was all she could do not to snort, "Yeah, no kidding."
"For years, he's been fine with that. We did what I enjoyed, he liked it too, and never was a complaint raised. I kind of fooled myself into thinking it would always be this way, but I think part of me knew he couldn't be satisfied not...indulging forever. And now is that time. Our clock has run out."
"So I'm like a...pinch hitter? You bring me in to satisfy those things you won't do and you get to keep your marriage." Although it was almost exactly what Mallory and Greg had been doing behind Gina's back, the coed bristled at the thought of it becoming an official status.
Gina shook her head sadly. "No, I—I couldn't handle that kind of thing," she admitted with a deep sigh.
"Then...what?"
"I can't just ask for a divorce and not expect to get hosed on things. I may not like what Greg wants...sexually...but none of it is weird or dangerous enough that I can claim it is wrong of him or use it to shame him. He's better connected in the community, his job makes more money, and he has more flexibility. If I ask for a divorce, I'll be at his mercy in terms of custody the kids. Nobody is going to have sympathy for a woman who files for divorce from her handsome, successful husband when he's a great dad, kind and loving human being with rather mainstream, if gross to me, interests in the bedroom."
"So...you're setting him up?"
"Well...look, I have three choices. I ask for the divorce and take whatever he gives me, we just wait and wait and wait until we are both so miserable divorce is the only thing that makes sense, or he screws up and my wanting a divorce is justified. And if his screw up is cheating on me, he'll feel so bad that he won't even fight my demands. His guilt will make him want to make it better."
"So I fuck him," Mallory didn't bother changing the language this time, Gina cringes be damned, "and you fuck him over?"
"No, Mallory....not at all. I'm not going demand a ton of money or complete custody or anything. I'm not going to abuse him. I just want to...level the playing field a bit."
"Or tip it in your favor."