ANONYMOUS. SEX. KLUB. (For great extramarital sex without the guilt, just ASK.)
PART ONE
I thought I knew everything about Jenny.
We'd been best friends since school. We'd grown up together and shared all our secret dreams and fantasies. (And even a few boys, when we were still teenagers!) But little did I know that Jenny had been keeping a secret from me – a big one.
We were both 36 and happily married. I'd been her bridesmaid, she'd been mine. Our husband were best friends, our kid played together and went to the same school. Sure, we'd been a little wild in our younger days, but after getting married – almost ten years ago for both of us – we'd settled down to a normal, contented life in suburbia.
Or so I thought.
We were having coffee one morning at a local place we often went to when Jenny went to the bathroom. While she was away, her mobile phone rang. I let it ring for a while, but then decided I might as well take a message for her. I reached into her handbag and searched around for it. Of course, by the time I'd found it, it stopped ringing. (Happens all the time, right?)
But as I was putting it back, I noticed something odd. There was a red piece of silk cloth in her bag that, at first, I'd thought was a scarf. But then I noticed it had holes in it. They looked like eyeholes. I took it out to take a closer look. It was definitely not a scarf. Suddenly I realised what it was – a mask. There were three holes – two for her eyes and one for her mouth. It was a little like a Spiderman mask; it was made to fit right over her head and the lower part was elasticised, so it would be snug around her neck. A total disguise.
I couldn't help but smile. It seemed obvious to me that Jenny and her husband, Pete, were spicing up their sex lives with some dress up fun. I wondered what Pete wore. Leathers perhaps?
I slipped the mask back into her bag just as she came back to table. We were in a small courtyard and there was no one else around, so I thought I might as well tease her a little.
"So, what have you and Pete been up to?"
She didn't catch on to my meaning.
"Not much. Just the usual kids, school, work, weekend hum drum life. You?"
I thought I'd get a little more obvious, so she didn't miss my meaning this time.
"Us? Nothing as daring as you two?"
That confused her. She smiled at me, wondering what I was on about.
"What do you mean, Suzy? Whatever Pete's been saying, it's not true, I can tell you that for sure."
I decided to get straight to the point
"Come on now, we've never had secrets. There's nothing to be embarrassed about. If you and Pete are doing a few new things to sizzle up your sex life, you can tell me about it. Hey, I think it's great – I wish Steve was into it."
She looked me straight in the eye.
"Suzy, I have no idea what you're talking about. Pete and I aren't doing anything new. In fact, we're doing very little at all, if you're talking about sex. He's so tied up with his work these days that he comes home, eats dinner and falls asleep on the sofa. All I get is a kiss goodbye in the morning and a kiss hello and night."
That sounded familiar – too familiar. My husband Steve was just the same. He was at that point in his life where he was working extra hours and even most weekends to build his career. It was working too – like Jenny's husband, Steve was flying through the ranks of his company. That meant there was a lot more money starting to come in, but it left him worn out and with precious little time for me and the kids.
But I was confused. What about the mask in Jenny's bag? I couldn't help myself.
"So you're not playing dress-ups with Pete in bed, doing the fantasy thing?"
She burst out laughing.
"What? Pete in his old school uniform and me as his school teacher? If only!"
I started laughing too. It did seem too silly to be possible. Then I let the cat out of the bag – or out of Jenny's bag."
"Then...what's this?"
I reached into her bag and pulled out the mask.
She stopped laughing instantly. Her jaw dropped. Her face suddenly went pale.
"How did you...."
"Sorry, your phone rang."
I felt suddenly concerned. What was wrong? What was going on? What had Jenny got herself into?" She looked at me with fear in her eyes."
"You can't tell anyone about this. Especially not Pete. Please Suzy, this is important."
"But what's it all about?"
"I can't tell you."
"But..."
"I'm sorry Suzy, I can't. I can't."
Her eyes had started to water. She was genuinely shaken up.
"Jenny...you haven't been doing anything illegal, have you? Robbing banks or something?"
Even in shock, she was able to a manage a laugh.
"Banks? No, no...nothing like that. Nothing illegal. But if Pete found out, it would ruin our marriage."
"What? Have you been..."
"I can't tell you."
"Are you been having an affair?"
She sat back in her chair. Thought for a moment.
"No. No I'm not having an affair. Not exactly."
That didn't seem a real answer.
"You have, haven't you? You've been sleeping with someone."
She went silent. I persisted.
"Jenny, you can trust me. God knows, if I could have an affair that Steve couldn't find out about, I'd jump at it. But it's impossible. And I'd hate to hurt him."
She looked at me sharply.
"And I'd never want to hurt Pete. I love him too much."
Now I was starting to get frustrated. I was almost angry.
"So what is it? Please just tell me. I can't bear to see you looking so unhappy. What have you been doing."
She put her face in her hands. She wouldn't talk. I went round and sat on the chair beside her and put my arm round her shoulder.
"Please Jenny...tell me."
She wiped her eyes and looked at me for a moment.
"Okay. Okay, I'll tell you. But you can never, ever tell anyone what I'm about to tell you."
"You can trust me. You know you can."
She took a deep breath, then started talking.
"You know what you said before? How, if you could have an affair without Steve finding out, that you'd jump at it? Well that's what I've been doing. But it's not an affair. I have sex with total strangers. I only meet them once. We never know each other's names, and we always wear a mask when we get together – the one you found in my bag. It's totally anonymous, so no one can eve find out."
I was flabbergasted.
"What...how...who...?"
"It's a secret club. I found out about it from someone else. I can't tell you who. They asked me if I wanted to join – she'd been a member for years, so she was high up enough in the club to be allowed to recruit other members. I had to fill out all kinds of forms, make all kinds of promises, even reveal secrets that the club could use against me if I ever told anyone about the club. I even have to go to one of their doctors for health checks every three months. It's very strict and very exclusive."
My eyes were popping wide open. I could hardly believe what I was hearing.
"What's this club called?"
"I shouldn't be telling you any of this. I could get into trouble."
"But what could they do?"
"They have everything set up so that if anyone ever reveals anything about the club, there will never be any evidence. There are no records, no names, nothing. But if you try to cause trouble for the club, they know enough about you to ruin you life – starting with your marriage. I understand why they're strict. That's what I like about the club. It means I can get the sex I want without any chance of hurting Pete."
To be honest, I was starting to warm to the idea. Mike and I had barely had any good sex for years. When he wasn't working, he was exhausted. Most of his spare energy he spent playing with the kids, and that was right. I'd had to make do on my own, so to speak. But Jenny's club...it sounded perfect.
"But don't you sometimes get stuck with someone ugly or smelly or....maybe dangerous?"
"No, that's the beauty of the club. The members are vetted very closely. I've been a member for over a year and I've been with 18 different guys, and they've all been in good shape and gentle."
I almost fell over. My best friend had slept with 18 different men in the last year! I was speechless. Jenny kept talking.
"Once you're a member, everything is done over the internet. Secret passwords and all that. Whenever you want to be with a guy, you just go to the site and find any local guys who are available. I never like to travel too far, because I need to be home for the kids after school. You usually get a choice of five or six guys who are available for the day you want to do it. We usually meet at a motel, though sometimes it's at their house. I'd never use my place."
"And the mask?"
"It's simple. We just follow the rules. If it's at a motel, I have to be there at the arranged time. No later and definitely not earlier. The guy gets there first and will have his mask on already. When I knock on the door, he waits in the bathroom while I step inside, put my mask on, and then undress. Afterwards, he goes back into the bathroom, I get dressed, take off my mask and leave. I leave my share of the motel bill on the dresser, if it's at a motel."
It all seemed too easy. There had to be a catch.