I got home from work that Friday ready for a drink. It had been one of those weeks where everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. Thankfully, we’d corrected our problems that morning, and were all looking forward to a much-deserved rest over the weekend.
I pulled into the garage, and went inside, expecting to see my wife pouring my drink for me, as she always does when she hears the garage door open and close. Instead, she was sitting on the couch, laughing with her new pal, Betsy, from across the street.
"Hi Babe!" Kelly said. "How was work?"
I went over and kissed by wife, happy as always to see her smiling face. "Good, for a change. The system’s finally stable, so we don’t have to work over the weekend."
"Great, Honey! I’m glad."
"Hey, Betsy."
"Hey, Max. Rough week?"
I headed to the bar and poured myself a stiff scotch and soda.
"Could have been better. What are you two up to?"
"Oh, just hanging out." Kelly replied. "So can you stay up late, tonight?"
I sat next to her, squeezing her bare thigh.
"Sure, you want to go out or something?"
She looked at me with the tiniest hint of mischief in her eyes.
"I dunno, maybe. Let’s just wait and see how you feel."
Hmmm
, I said to myself.
So she’s up to something.
Knowing her, that meant things were about to get very interesting.
"So Betsy, how you been?" I asked. "Staying out of trouble?"
"Oh, I guess," said she. "unfortunately."
"How’s work going?" I asked, and the so the early evening began. It had passed happily for us all, when finally the sun set, and dusk shifted into night. We talked about our work, the kids (all visiting their dads that weekend), and joked and generally had fun. The girls drank their beer, and I my scotch, none of us shy about getting their next one. I found myself wondering what Kelly was up to, when I noticed, for the first time since I’d known her, that Betsy was wearing a black bra under her white blouse. She was a blond beauty to start with, and I’d always liked the way she wore her miniskirts, but she’d always dressed a bit conservatively, for work, I’m sure. That night, though, the black lace of her bra suggestively outlining her chest against the clean white cotton, left me staring for a moment. She wore a tight black miniskirt, showing off her slender legs, and her wavy blonde locks danced around her neck when she spoke. All in all, Betsy was a very sexy woman, and I suddenly had an idea of what might be on Kelly’s mind.
The talk had shifted to books, and Betsy was telling us about the latest Grisham novel. I looked back at my wife, and noticed that, though she was apparently dressed in her typical day-clothes, shorts and a loose midriff, she’d also had on fresh mascara and lip gloss, and her jet black hair was pulled back into a neat ponytail. A beauty of exotic olive skin and dark, wide eyes, she’d turn heads everywhere we went. Her tight waist curved sensuously out of the top of her jeans shorts and disappeared up underneath the gray midriff.
She noticed my inspection, and glanced wickedly at me, for just a moment.
"Oh, Betsy, did I tell you that Max is a writer?"
Uh oh…
"Really? What kind of things do you write?" she asked, her green eyes the picture of innocence.
"Uh, well…" I stammered, knowing for certain that I couldn’t just come out and tell her that I mostly wrote erotica.
"He mostly writes erotica." Kelly piped up, cheerfully.
With that, I knew exactly what was on my darling Kelly’s twisted little mind.
She was going to seduce Betsy.
Betsy’s eyes went wide, and I just swallowed, staring in disbelief at my little vixen of a wife.
"Really?? Like about sex?" she said, leaning forward, her elbows on her bare knees, cradling her beer in her hands. Her voice lowered. "Wow, that’s so- I don’t know…"
"Hot?" Kelly suggested.
"Yeah," Betsy looked directly at her. "…hot." She looked back at me.
I finished my drink in one swallow and headed for the bar.
They both giggled at my cowardice. I didn’t care. I’d long ago come to accept that life just isn’t at all predictable, when you’re married to a woman like my wife. And yet, we had more fun than any ten people I knew, so I learned, wisely, to just go with the flow.
For now, the scotch flowed. I saved room at the top for about three and a half molecules of club soda, and skipped the ice altogether. Heading back to the couch, I saw that Betsy was now huddled in whispered conversation with Kelly on the couch. They giggled like school girls.
They broke their huddle as I sat, and looked at me, heads still close together, like two conspirators sizing up their victim.
"Honey," Kelly said, ever so sweetly. "Can Betsy read one of your stories?"
"Please?" Betsy pleaded.
This
, I told myself,
is one of those moments most men only dream of. A moment that holds promise of tantalizing beauty and unexplored desires. All I have to do is go with the flow.
I looked at my lovely, oh-so horny wife. She waited, knowing probably more than I what I would say next.
I shrugged my shoulders.
"Sure, why not?"
"Great!" Betsy said.
Kelly jumped up, heading for the stairs. "C’mon Betsy. We’ll print one off and bring it down."
"Can I pick which story we read?" Betsy asked, close behind.
"We’ll see." Kelly answered. "I have one or two in mind I’d like to start with."
To start with?
As I watched their shapely asses rocking back and forth as they climbed the stairs, I wondered what story Kelly had in mind for "starters". Was it
The Camping Trip
? Or the one about the girl who got picked up at Victoria’s Secret? Surely, she’d start off with something more mild than wild… wouldn’t she? She wouldn’t
dare
start with
The Beach,
or some such frenzied story written with equal parts alcohol and abandon.
"How about this:" Kelly said from the master bedroom. "Its kinda romantic."
"
The Beach
?" Betsy replied. "Sure, that sounds good."
Ho, boy…
While I knew Betsy was probably conjuring up images of a man and a woman on the beach, rolling and kissing in the surf like something out of
From Here To Eternity
, the shameful truth was that
The Beach
has always been one of my most, well, imaginative stories. It’s centered around a spicy young couple that seduces a bikini-clad stranger at a Caribbean beach bar. Kelly, I could see, didn’t want to waste any time. I hoped I’d remembered to run spell-check on it.
The printer went silent, and they came downstairs, Kelly holding the ten pages in her hand like some magic key.
"Why don’t you grab us a couple more beers, Betsy?"
"Sure thing!"
"So," I said in my best naïve voice. "What’d you two pick?"
"
The Beach
," Betsy said ominously, as if it were a murder mystery.
Kelly sat down on the couch and looked at me, supremely satisfied with herself. I suddenly felt like Ricky Ricardo: