A Little Marital Difficulty

We had been married a long time, quite how long is of no consequence. Suffice it to say we had 3 children, one recently married, one at university and one in the Navy, so apart from occasional visits we were back by ourselves. For the benefit of telling this to you I will call myself Ray and my wife Jane. They are not our real names, but for our privacy, that's who we are. Likewise where we live is not important to the story, but we don't want our family and others we know putting two and two together. The others involved will recognise themselves if they read this, but their names are changed also. Anyway they are no longer part of our circle of friends, and quite honestly I don't give a hot damn about them.

We had lived in our town for long enough to make friends with people from all walks of life. Some through work, some the parents of our children's school friends, some through our recreational activities. Some of my friends did not know Jane well, just in passing, and some of Jane's friends I knew from their flying visits to the house, but I had little knowledge of their husbands. You know how it is.

We had been part of a dinner party circle since the last of our children moved out. Once or sometimes twice a month 4 couples would meet up for dinner and a pleasant evening of conversation or maybe a game of Trivial Pursuits or something similar. These nights were organised by Jane and her friends so sometimes I would know the three other husbands well, but now and then we would be just acquaintances. Getting to know these guys was part of the fun and some were becoming good friends and becoming closer members of our circle. All in all the idea of the dinner parties was working well.

Jane was a stay at home lady. I earned more than enough to support us and keep us comfortable. There was no Rolls Royce in the drive and we didn't have a 20 room mansion in 50 acres of ground, but we didn't want that. We had a modest 4 bedroom house in a quiet fairly modern estate and we were happy. We both had our own cars which we changed every 4 years or so, we could afford good holidays and we were happy. Now that's twice I've said that

Like all married couples we had some bumpy times in the past, but don't all married couples have those? However, we never came up with a "show stopper" and always worked things out. Often going to bed after a row to make things up would be fun. Without going into detail, our bedroom fun was as good as when we first met, and cuddling up together in the afterglow of post penetrative sex was just the best thing in the world. We were very much in love, even after all the years that had passed. We believed in communication and spoke to each other about everything, always making joint decisions about the important stuff.

I had never strayed from our marriage although like most men I had had opportunities. Why would I? She was to me the most beautiful funny, intelligent girl in the world. But then maybe I was a little biased in my views. I never had any reason to believe she had, or ever would stray. I thought we had the best marriage that any couple could ever have. We trusted each other.

Some ancient Roman once said "If you want peace, prepare for war" Well, perhaps I should have taken note of that. I thought I had peace, and I was totally unprepared for the war that broke out. This then is the story of the war and the aftermath of war. Like all war it was not pretty, it caused unexpected casualties, it ruined everything and when it was over the survivors were impoverished and wished they had never bothered in the first place. Did my marriage survive you might ask? You will need to read on to discover that. Even I'm not sure if it did or didn't. So; on with the story.

As I mentioned, we were part of a dinner party circle. Jane and her friends set them up and we husbands turned up when we were told to. In the most part they were fun innocent evenings. Some of the girls were better cooks than others, and some of the husbands were more entertaining than others, but in the most part we had good times and looked forward to them. The dinners moved around from house to house on a rota so all the girls got a chance to play hostess. Jane and her two close friends Mary and Carol were the leading lights in the circle and were always in each other's pockets setting things up, arranging menus, encouraging and helping the other girls and keeping the whole show on the road. It was about eighteen months, give or take,, after the dinner circle began that this particular evening came along.

Jane, Mary and Carol had set up a "home match". The dinner was to be at Mary's house about a 10 minute drive away and Carol, her husband John and Jane and I were to be guests along we a couple of Mary's friends that Jane and I had not met before. Their names were Bob and Ann. I didn't know Mary's husband Bill well. We had met a few times in passing but being men, we were too busy with other things to become close buddies. I knew more about John. He was a nice guy, quite fun, a bit flirty around the girls, but nothing to get worried about. Bob and Ann were a closed book to us. We were all about the same age, all had good jobs and all were just as comfortable off as us two.

You need to know I have a thing about drink driving. I was first on the scene at a horrible accident some years ago. I won't go into details as I still sometimes have nightmares over what I saw. A bunch of youngsters were on their way home after a boozy night out and drove slap bang into the rear of a big truck that had stopped at some traffic lights. The car went under the truck which took the top of the car off and, well, you can work it out for yourself. The truck driver was unhurt, but was so shaken up by what he saw that he had a breakdown and never worked again. The families of the 3 guys and the 3 girls who died in the car were destroyed by it all. After that, I never drank any alcohol if I was going to drive. The night of the dinner party I was going to drive the 10 minute trip over to Mary's house, and drive Jane and I home afterwards. It was going to be a booze free night for me.

What I did do is pretend to drink. I worked out ways of letting people think I was drinking and joining in the fun while not actually doing so. That way people didn't think I was a killjoy. Gin and tonics with no gin, were a specialty of mine, but now and then when I had no choice a drink or two may have been tipped into a flower pot or down a sink when nobody was watching. I became quite good at that.

So, back to the story. Jane seemed very nervous, but excited about the evening and spent a longer time that usual getting ready. I put it down to the new couple attending the dinner, and that she wanted to help impress them to joining our dinner circle. I had dressed in a casual shirt and chinos with a pair of slip on deck shoes. Jane came down ready to go in a lovely red halter neck dress, a couple of inches above the knee and which showed a bit of cleavage The design of dress meant she wasn't wearing a bra under it. Nothing excessive, but a bit more dressy than she normally wore for these evenings. She had on a pair of black stockings and red 3 inch strappy heeled sandals. All in all she looked good enough to eat and I told her so. "Plenty of time for that later she told me swatting my hands away from her backside.

It was a dark wet and cold November evening and we put on our winter coats and ran to the car. The car heater did its stuff and soon warmed us up while we waited for the windscreen to demist. Once we could see through the glass we set off. Jane was like a cat on a hot tin roof, even suggesting that if I thought the weather was too bad we could cancel and stay home. After all the trouble she went to get ready I dismissed the idea saying that Mary would have prepared things for the evening and would be disappointed if we didn't show up just because of a little rain. Looking back on how things panned out, I rather wished we had stayed at home.

We arrived at Mary's to find the other two couples already there. Bill met us at the door ushering us in out of the cold and rain and taking our coats. Mary was presented with the customary bottle of wine as our offering and kissed us both on both cheeks. She lingered a little too long with her kiss to me and pressed herself against me. Just a bit over friendly I thought, but nice none the less. Bill gave me a firm handshake and we went into the living room to meet the others. Everything seemed normal.

My first thought was how warm Mary's house was. They must have turned up the thermostat quite a bit as it was almost tropical. Introductions were made drinks were passed out and all seemed well with the world. I asked for a coke but Mary insisted on putting a shot of rum in it. OK, time for me to begin the secret dumping of booze trick. The others already seemed to be 2 or three drinks in and were not watching as I regularly found excuses to nip into the kitchen or go to the toilet or even stand close to the large potted plant in the room. My rum and coke, and the next two were distributed in different places but not inside me, without anybody seeming to notice.

We had arrived about 7pm and around 7.30 we sat down to dinner. Mary had set us so that each of the 4 couples sat together on one of the four sides of their large oak dining table. It was to be a three course dinner with a choice of wine and port and brandy after the coffee. Mary insisted that after each course the men all moved one place to the left. This would allow everybody to get to know their new seating partner a little better. I thought it an amusing idea, as did Jane.

By the time we sat down to dinner my very nervous wife had downed 3 strong Gin and Tonics and was much more relaxed. A couple more and she would have been as relaxed as a newt. I whispered in her ear that she should take it easy so I didn't have to take her home early. "God no" she said "we can't leave early and miss all the fun" Slowly, but without any obvious reason that I could make out, the alarm bells were starting to ring in my head. Something, and I didn't know what, was planned for the night. Janes excessive time preparing that night, the over warm house, the plying everybody with booze, including me when Mary knew my views on drink driving, even Jane's nerves during the short drive over and Mary's over friendly greeting. Yes, something was up. I needed to be careful.

I decided to let the others think the booze which I was dropping around the house rather than drink was starting to get to me. The 3 other men seemed to be on their guard with me when I arrived, but were relaxing with me as I seemed to get more drunk. Maybe it was just because we didn't know each other all that well, but maybe there was another reason. The 4 girls were helping get the dinner ready and spent a fair bit of time in the kitchen. Every now and then peals of laughter came from there, but just as often periods of silence. Maybe they were whispering and didn't want to be heard. Maybe I was getting paranoid about this. I remembered the old saying that "Just because you are paranoid it doesn't mean they are not out to get you". My radar was now fully up and running while we 4 guys stood in their living room drinking and talking sport, politics, and all sorts of inconsequential stuff. All the time Bill was pushing the booze and I was finding ways of not drinking it.

Mary called us all to the table and we sat down in our couples. The starter was accompanied by a white wine. I played with it, wetting my lips but not swallowing. All the men moved one place to the left as the girls cleared away the starter and brought in the main course. I was now sitting by Carol. Bill carved a very handsome looking leg of lamb and served the eight of us while we made small talk with our new partners. Carol put her hand on my leg and asked me if I was enjoying myself and looking forward to the rest of the evening. I told her I had no idea what was to come after dinner. She gave me that look that said "yes you do, but you are teasing me" She then squeezed my thigh and giggled. I thought it a bit over the top, but she had put down a few martinis by then so I put it down to that.

All the time I was watching Jane like a hawk. She was now sitting by Bill our host and seemed to have moved her chair a little closer to his because they were now rubbing up against each other. I could hear the occasional snatch of conversation. Bill was telling her not to worry and relax. Everything was going to be fine. Then later she was saying she'd never done this before, but was excited about Bob, and that Mary had told her all about him. Bill told her Bob was an old friend and he had seen him in action loads of times. Jane would have a great time tonight.

OK, I'm not dumb, it looked to me like some wife swapping event was planned and everybody knew about it except me. Nothing overt had come my way yet, so I might still be wrong. I decided to just go with the flow for the time being and see how things panned out. If I was right I just couldn't understand why Jane hadn't talked to me about what was being planned. We talked about everything. Maybe she knew that if she had suggested it I would have closed the idea down in a heartbeat. It looked like the plan was to get me drunk and just hit me with it when I was too out of it to object. Well, I had some news for them. I was still as sober as a judge and planning to put a bit of a spoke in their wheel. Then I half heard Bob who was sitting by Mary our hostess whisper that he had spiked my drink as they agreed and I should be starting to show the effects soon. So, the bastard had tried to drug me. Just as well I hadn't drunk anything. I expected the one he had spiked was now soaking into the potted plant where I had dumped it. However, I would start to pretend to go sleepy and slur my speech to give the impression their plan was working.

Main course completed the girls cleared the table while the men moved around another place. I made a point of stumbling and apologised in a drunken tone of voice. Bob smiled at Bill and Bill winked at him. The girls returned with dessert and settled back in their seats. I was now by Ann who welcomed me with a kiss and a squeeze to my knee. She asked me how I was enjoying the dessert, and that she couldn't wait until we could enjoy second desert later. I smiled weakly and said "me too in a slurred voice. Bob was now by Jane, and this made sense of the fragment of conversation I heard earlier between Bill and her. Jane was not exactly all over him, but was much friendlier than you would expect a wife to be with somebody she had just met for the first time. I was now certain that after dinner was over we would be expected to pair off with the girl sitting beside us. I didn't know if we were supposed to be together all night or keep swapping round till all the girls had been with all the boys. To be honest I didn't care. All I was interested to find out was how complicit Jane was in this impending shit show.

What would happen next depended on what Jane did. I was hoping she would slap Bobs face and demand I take her home. Maybe she was being seduced and had a little too much to drink. She might come to her senses while he was trying to get his hands on her tits or up her dress. On the other hand maybe she was into this and was looking forward to getting a new man in her bed. We would soon see.