Sometimes, you can sense something big is going to happen before it does. The air feels electric. Colours seems that little bit more vivid. The clues are everywhere, if you're sensitive to them.
And on that night, this was enhanced by the fact we were in Paris, in August, on a beautifully warm night.
We were sitting in the open air in the mezzanine of a brasserie. It was a great venue with an amazing vibe, and busy that night, but not too crowded. Delicious smells of cooking carried on the air.
My wife Tiana got up to go to the bathroom, leaving myself and Topher at the table. I watched heads turn as Tiana made her way through the crowd. The French guys didn't play against stereotype as they ostentatiously checked her out. Realising I could see what they were up to, they would look away shame-faced, perhaps worried I'd head over in a rage.
I didn't mind. I liked the thought of guys thinking about Tiana while they fucked their girlfriends or wives later that night, or while they shot their loads stroking their cocks if they hadn't got lucky.
Tiana was wearing a summer dress that perfectly displayed her figure. If there's a sliding scale from "slut" all the way through to "respectable", then Tiana's outfit that evening landed right in the middle. It didn't leave a huge amount to the imagination, but then again, you needed to have a filthy imagination to appreciate it. I mean, I knew she wasn't wearing panties. I knew because she'd flashed her bare peachy ass at me as we were leaving the hotel. But nobody else knew... Unless they had a dirty enough mind to suspect.
Topher had followed my gaze, and was also eyeing Tiana has she made her way through the crowd.
"You are one lucky fucker," he said, before taking another swig of his beer.
"You think?" I said.
Topher raised his eyebrows in mock surprise.
"As if you've no idea!"
"I got lucky. She's out of my league."
"You shouldn't put yourself down. You're an incredible couple. Made for each other."
I nodded, then looked out from our balcony onto the crowds below. This was why it was such a great place to sit. If the conversation lulled, we could just spend some time people watching.
"The sex is mind-blowing, am I right?" continued Topher.
He laughed and a look of relief washed over his face when I laughed too.
He was crossing the line. In fact, he was so far over the line that he was in the next town along.
But, you know, we were several beers into the evening, and hadn't eaten anything yet.
Plus, this was just Topher being Topher.
My business partner of several years, we didn't socialise much. In some ways, I barely knew him.
But this trip to Paris was a spur-of-the-moment celebration of our closing the big deal back home. Topher's wife Marta was supposed to with us, but hadn't turned up for the flight. Maybe Topher would be seeking wife #4 very soon. Who knew? This was kinda why I didn't really want to get too close to him. Topher's life was somewhat wild, and somewhat fast. Certainly faster than mine would ever be. We worked well as business partners. That was enough for me.
"She's damn good in bed," I said, quietly. "She knows what she's doing."
Topher laughed again.
"You are so.... So buttoned-down!"
I didn't know how to reply, so I didn't. Topher looked down at the beer bottle.
"Me and Marta... We're having problems. You guessed as much, right? Been the same now for a few months. We still fuck. Hate fucking, I think they call it. But do you know what I have to do to get it up? To make my dick hard?"
I shook my head, somewhat worried as to what he might share next.
"I think of your woman."
My stomach did a flip.
"I think about Tiana kneeling in front of me and taking my cock. God damn, I want to cum on that woman's face."
Topher looked at me askance, as if asking for permission for something or other. Then he burst into laughter again.
"Oh man! Look at you! Are you actually blushing?"
My face felt warm, I guess.
I tried smiling, and I managed it. But what Topher didn't know was that my cock had started to get hard. He thought he was shocking me and, knowing Topher, he was doing it on purpose. But he didn't have a clue as to the thoughts he was stirring in my mind.
Accompanied by a smile that could melt granite, Tiana arrived back at the table. I scooted over on the bench seat we were sharing so she was alongside me again.
"Topher was telling me a few secrets about you," I said.
Tiana's eyes grew wide.
"You told him?" she said, staring at Topher.
Topher laughed, almost uncontrollably this time.
"I gotta go for a piss," he said, rising, before making his own way through the crowd.
Tiana's words had taken physical form and hung in the air above us.
"What the fuck was that?" I said, eventually.
"I'm sorry. I've been meaning to tell you for years."
"Tell me what?"
"Me and Topher were a thing before you met me. Not really a thing. More off than on."
I felt my face start to get warm again.
"How could you keep something like that secret?"
"It isn't like I could slip it into everyday conversation. Hey honey, can you get some apples from the store? Oh, and I slept with your business partner. Anyway, it's such a strange thing that it's hard to describe. When you introduced me to Topher all those years ago, he didn't recognise me. I've no idea why not. I was shocked but he... He genuinely believed he was meeting me for the first time. I mean, you know Topher. A different woman every night? I guess I was just one of them."
"He forgot about a whole fucking relationship?"
Tiana bit her lip.
"It wasn't a relationship. Do you know what I mean?"
"No!"
"Friends with benefits. Maybe once or twice a month he'd message me, or I'd message him. If we were both free, then..."
I started at the crowd below.
"Wow. But he obviously does know who you are now. Otherwise he wouldn't have laughed like that."
"Do you remember a meeting we had in the boardroom back in the office, about a year ago? You and Topher were there. I was there, and so was the accountant. We were talking about that funding application I'd helped you with."
I nodded.
"Well, that was when Topher realised. I walked in to the room and, I guess because I was in my dress suit, I must've looked that little bit different. I had my hair up, too. I could tell instantly he'd figured it all out. He looked shocked. Then a smile just expanded across his face. I looked back at him and nodded. Then I shook my head, and then it was his turn to nod. His face became blank. That was it. We haven't discussed it, ever."
"There's been nothing since?"
"Nothing. I mean, his attitude changed towards me after that. It was more like we were old friends. I was fine with that. It felt much easier. More honest."
"But you weren't honest with me!"
"The thing is... I have told you about him."
"When?"
Marta slipped the straw from her cocktail between her full lips.
"During sex. Mostly recently, the night before we left for Paris."
Now it was my turn to have wide eyes. While I was balls deep in her pussy, Marta had started to talk about guys she's fucked in the past. She'd told me about this one guy with an 8-inch cock who "knew how to use it to fuck my brains out". She had said she wished he was there, with his cock in her mouth, whilst I pounded her.
There might've been more to the story but I had instantly filled her pussy with cum.
I felt Tiana's hand on my thigh. It moved up to the outline of my hard cock beneath my jeans.
"Hmmm, yes, I thought so," said Tiana, sweetly, gently stoking the outline of the hardness.
I kissed her deeply, then spoke quietly into her ear.
"He said he thinks about you when he's fucking Marta. He fantasises about you on your knees in front of him as he cums on your face."
"My darling, I told you weren't the first to do that to me."
"Did he?"
"More often than not."
Topher appeared at the table again, and myself and Tiana rapidly decoupled as he took his seat.
"Now, what were we talking about?" he said. He genuinely appeared to have forgotten. It was probably the beer.
With a powerful and deep suck that a handful of lucky men in her life had experienced, Tiana swallowed what was left in her glass. I was surprised, because there had been a fair amount of liquid, and the bartender had merrily mixed it from several bottles that on their own were considered potent.
"Has Marta caught the later flight you mentioned?" she asked.
Topher looked up at the sky, as if to ask for assistance, then took a gulp of beer.
"No. She's still back home. We're 73% of the way to a divorce."