"... he hasn't tried to talk? Text? Anything?" asked Ali.
"No... nothing," admitted Beth. There was an accusation in Beth's tone over the phone.
Ali keep silent for a moment, considering the implications.
"Beth, trust me... I don't have this wrong." Ali started back in to her best friend since high school. "He'll take some time to cool off, then he'll come back. Then you'll have an apologetic Jeff."
"You two will work on things, you'll be all lovey-dovey for a while, and he'll pay a lot of attention to you. You'll give him hints about what you want, like usual, and he'll make it happen, like a trained monkey. Like always."
"Then, some time after that, you start discussing opening things up again. You be gentle and stuff, and you may have to give something up for a while, but after you get things going, you take back what you need to from him, and BINGO... you have what you want."
"Ali, you weren't there." Beth said, sighing. "He was so close to hurting me."
"Oh, come on. It's Jeff." Ali scoffed. "He wouldn't do anything to you. He's worked his ass off giving you what you want for years. That dope loves you. It's just this one is tougher for him than most."
"Yeah, it's a lot, and most men won't go for it, but this is Jeff! He'll eventually give it up to you." Ali assured. "Look, he's proven your happiness is important to him, right?"
"You aren't hearing me, and you weren't there..." Beth said, more accusation in her voice. "... I've never seen him like that. He even told me before I walked out that night... he said it would change things..."
"Of course it changed things!" Ali confirmed. "It's a new framework for your lives! He just doesn't like it yet!"
"I don't think it's about 'yet,' Ali... I think I've lost him."
"You haven't." Ali assured. "I told you, this is a process, it takes time and it's emotional. That's where you are now. The rewards later are..."
"Reward?!" Beth had raised her voice now. "You think a divorce is a reward?!"
"You aren't getting divorced!" Ali came back with, trying to navigate the hot emotions of Beth. Ali was convinced Beth was just in a moment of doubt, and besides, she'd called her for assurance.
Assurance... Maybe if she heard it from another person...
"Beth, how about this... we go and talk about this with Kiera." Ali suggested.
"Kiera?" Beth sounded surprised. "She's a lesbian, and our boss! We can't do that. She knows nothing about..."
"Kiera is the smartest person I know, and you know, about how relationships work and how to manage things to make them work. She's a management expert, that's her job."
"And she's as sympathetic as a rock!"
"No, she just thinks like a man at times." Ali steered. "That's all. It's part of why she's so good at the job."
"... okay, maybe she can help." Beth capitulated.
++++++
Three days, three hours, and twelve minutes after that night, Beth and Ali sat down with their boss, Kiera, after work.
Kiera had insisted the two women were buying her dinner, expecting she was about to go through a passive-aggressive discussion in which the two would humble-brag about how good they were at their jobs and wanted raises.
Again.
What she got was completely different, and fundamentally changed her viewpoint on the two women.
"You..." Kiera stated after she'd heard a condensed version of the disastrous night from Beth. "... you wanted to open your husband, Jeff, to the idea of opening your marriage. So you arranged for Bob... 'been-here-for-six-months-Bob?'... to meet you at a restaurant, and you were going to go off with him, after you handed your husband back your wedding ring?"
"Well,.." broke in Ali, seeing her old friend was hesitating to answer. "... the original plan was for Beth and Bob to go to a bar across the street, and just make Jeff jealous..."
"What was with the purse thing?" Kiera asked.
"I threw that in..." Ali responded. "If Jeff waited, keeping her stuff safe, it would be another mental step toward his going along with it."
Kiera just looked back and forth between the two women.
"Why did you need to try this kind of jealousy game thing? Where did that idea come from?" she asked in disbelief.
"We used to do it in high school..." Ali confessed. "We'd have boyfriends, then we'd act like we were suddenly interested in some other boy, and out boyfriends would start paying us a lot more attention, and we'd get what we wanted..."
"This isn't high school..." Kiera almost growled. "... this is the adult world, with adult concerns and consequences."
"I know..." Beth said meekly.
"You said Jeff mentioned your makeup?" Kiera probed. "Why? What was that?"
"I didn't have my makeup on anymore." Beth admitted.
"You said you had just gotten home? Did you take a shower? Clean it off?"
"... I took a shower before I went back to the restaurant."
"The bar you and Bob went to offers showers?" Kiera asked, naked disbelief in her voice.
"... no."
"Oh, you stupid bitch. You two pathetic, stupid bitches." Kiera said, reaching for her drink. After taking her fill of the diet soda, she put it down and said "Get me a double bourbon. I need to think."
Ali raised her hand to get the waiters attention.
The waiter was a little surprised that one of the three women wanted that particular drink. The woman in question looked to be in deep thought, her chin in the palm of her hand.
Taking a sip of her freshly-arrived drink, Kiera looked up at Beth, and started.
"What was wrong with your marriage?" Why start this with your husband?" She asked, her tone not one of tolerating nonsense.
"Uhm... well... nothing..."
"She wanted more from him." Ali broke in. "She wanted him to pay more attention to her."
"Did you think I was asking you?" Kiera asked, piercing Ali with her stare.
"Geez..." Ali protested. "I'm trying to help!"
"Yeah... 'Help,'..." Kiera accused. "Don't worry, I'll get to you. Let her talk. I think she uses your voice to make decisions with too often. I want to hear from her. You want my assessment and maybe advice? Let me get to this."
Kiera then turned to look back at Beth, waiting for an answer.
Beth glanced at a now semi-cowed Ali, then back to her manager.
"... I don't think anything was 'wrong,'... I just wanted some changes..." Beth started. "Jeff's always been good... I just think that I could have more. He could have more."
"Like what?" Kiera asked.
"Well... Ali kept telling me that if our bond is really strong, we... we could open the marriage."
Kiera narrowed her eyes a little at Beth.
"Ok, let's start there..." Kiera said slowly. "Why? Why do you want to open the marriage?"
"I like the idea?" Beth answered, hesitantly. "I mean, it sounds good. It eliminates cheating, and it keeps things fresh?"
"Were you cheating?" Kiera asked.
"No... no." Beth said, without much conviction.
Kiera, her eyes still narrowed, glanced at Ali, who was sitting there with her arms crossed under her breasts, looking like she wasn't involved in the conversation. Then she looked back at Beth.
"Well, I don't think you can say you haven't cheated in your marriage now..." Kiera breathed heavily.
"Were you worried about cheating?" she then asked.
"Well, yeah..." Beth admitted. "I mean... men are dogs. We all know that."
Beth looked at Ali, who was giving a small closed-eye nod of agreement, and back to Kiera, who was just keeping her eyes focused on her.
"Men cheat... it doesn't mean they don't love us... they come back to us, after all." Beth said, conviction coming to her voice. "I thought if we had some kind of... arrangement?... then we could head off the problem."
"You were expecting your husband to cheat on you?" Kiera asked.
"Well,... it's possible."
"All men cheat." Ali supplied.
Kiera fixed her with her eyes. Ali sat back again.
"So, he hadn't cheated, and you don't sound convinced he would." Kiera asked, looking back at Beth.
"... I don't think so." Beth said. "I mean, I've caught him looking at women before, and I know a few who look at him."
Kiera digested this. She took another sip.
She glanced back at Ali, who wore a look of confidence.
"And you want to cheat?" Kiera asked, pointing at Beth.
"It's not cheating, if there's agreement and something set up..." Beth answered.
"Agreement." Kiera nodded. "Good point."
She gave herself a moment to consider what she'd just been told.
"Ok, where did you get the information on how to go about making your plan happen?" Kiera asked, just to confirm what she suspected.
"Well, Ali and I talked about it a lot."
"Did you talk to your husband about it?" Kiera asked.
"...no, he wouldn't want to do it, without being eased into it."
"This is how you ease him into it? I'd call this the deep end." Kiera accused.
"It's not like that... I'd been easing him into the idea before that."
"...How?" Kiera asked suspiciously.
"I'd been bringing up the idea of him... I think it would be sexy if... he watched me with..." Beth trailed off.
"Make that clearer." Kiera said.
Beth looked frustrated, huffed, and looked over at Ali.
Ali inhaled, and looked at Kiera.
"Still not talking to you." Kiera said, in a closed manner.
"You aren't like this at work..." Ali answered sullenly.
"I don't allow shit like this to happen at work." Kiera said back. "Beth..."
"When we had sex... I'd been changing things... I would tease him about me with other men." Beth answered after a hesitation.
"How did he respond to that?"
Beth's eyes unfocused, and she looked thoughtful.
"Ok, let me ask this... what do you mean by 'changing things'..." Kiera switched tactics.
"About six months ago..." Beth looked to Ali again, who gave her a thoughtful nod of agreement. "Yeah, six months ago, I started taking charge in the bedroom more."
"That's good." Kiera responded. "It's good to let your partner know what you need and what you like."
"Yeah." Beth agreed. "I was getting a bit more dominant, is basically it."
"How so?" asked Kiera.
"Well, I started not giving him oral for as long, and making him do other things longer. I like him going down on me, you know?"
"I know." Kiera nodded. "He's good?"
"He's better now..." Beth smiled. "I told him what I like, and he just went with it. He can get me off pretty quickly now, especially since I told him how to scratch my thighs as he does it."
"You didn't tell him before this?"
"Well, no. He's always good, and he really cares. I'm always happy with what he does... except that one time, but we'd both been drinking... Anyway, he's improved now that I let him know what's better." Beth answered.
"And for this... do you do what he likes?" Kiera asked.
"He likes everything I do."
