I awake in bed, in my favorite nightgown. I yawn, and start to get up to go the bathroom, when the memory of what happened last night hits me. Oh, god, did I really have sex with a stranger by accident at the bar last night, just as I'm ovulating? Recalling the sex made me want to throw up, despite my recollection that in the moment it was mind blowing. Of course, I thought it was my husband, so I shouldn't feel bad about that. But honestly, I don't know what I'm supposed to feel, but I know that I felt guilty and sick about it now.
I feel around on the night table for my glasses, and find my usual pair right where they're supposed to be. I put them on, and got myself up to hit the bathroom. It looked like my husband Greg was up already. I piddled, wiped myself, and resolved to get this over with as soon as possible. I splashed some water on my face, grabbed a bathrobe, and headed downstairs.
Greg was cooking pancakes, our usual Saturday morning indulgence. "Morning, honey. Hungry?"
"No, not right now." I grabbed a glass from the cabinet, and poured myself a glass of water. He was just finishing the first batch of cakes. As he pulled them off the griddle, I turned off the burners.
"Come, dear, sit down. I need to talk to you."
"What's up? I'm cooking here."
"Leave it. Sit, please."
"OK." Greg puts down the cooking implements, wipes his hands on a dish towel, comes over to the dining table, and sits across from me. We have these really comfortable swivel kitchen chairs around the table, and this is one of our favorite places to sit in the house.
"I have to tell you something, this is very hard. You might get upset with me, but I need you to hear me out."
"OK. What is it."
"Last night, at the bar, well, I think I might have accidentally had sex with a stranger." Greg's eyebrows went up. "I mean, I couldn't see anyone because my glasses broke and when I came back from the bathroom you were gone and I walked around looking and I thought it was you, really, the guy was wearing the same clothes and glasses, and even drinking scotch and ..."
"Stop," Greg said, loudly but calmly. He swiveled around in his chair so he was facing away from me. "That's pretty serious."
"It was an honest mistake, I didn't know, really, and I'm so so sorry, and could you please turn around and look at me."
"No. I can't look at you right now."
"Oh god, I'm so so sorry Greg, how can I make this better?"
"Well, first, I need you to tell me exactly what happened. Every single detail. From the moment you left the bathroom the first time until I found you. Leave nothing out. Tell me exactly how you felt and what you said and what he said."
"He never spoke to me. He must have figured out I thought he was someone else, and took advantage of that. I think he knew that if he spoke, I might know he wasn't you, well, whomever I thought he was. I swear, Greg, I didn't know, I was so sure it was you, it wasn't my fault, ..."
"That remains to be seen. Start from the beginning, please."
"Fine." And I do. I describe how I left the bathroom and wandered in the bar, half blind, and couldn't find him for a while, and then saw someone who had the right clothes on. How I tapped him on the shoulder, was sure that it was Greg, but apparently it was some stranger who looked enough like Greg so that I couldn't tell the difference without my glasses. How I gave him a peck on the cheek, and then he looked at me, and kissed me back on the lips, and I was sure the stranger was Greg when I tasted the flavor of the scotch he had been drinking. How he led me by the hand to the performance area, and started caressing and arousing me, how I complained it was too public, and how this stranger practically dragged me to the bathrooms, kissed me, groped me, and eventually screwed me.
"Was it good?"
"It was, but I thought it was you. If I had known it was someone else, I would never have done it, and it would have felt horrible if I was forced."
"Did you come?"
"Umm. Yes. Yes I did."
"Did he use a condom?"
"No, if he had I would have known it wasn't you."
"So he came inside you?"
"Yes. So we need to go to a pharmacy and get a morning after pill, I don't want to have his baby, and I, ..."
"Never mind that for now. What happened after that?"
"He wiped himself clean, and slipped out without saying a word. It took me a while longer to get myself cleaned up, my clothes were all askew, and then I left the washroom and you found me. You asked me where I had been for the last half hour, and I suddenly realized it wasn't you I had just been screwed by, and felt sick. That's why you had to take me home. I blacked out in the car, and woke up just now in bed. And that's all of it."
"I don't think so."
"What do you mean?"
"Did you, or did you not, tell this stranger that it was the best sex you had ever had?"
"I, ... I did. I'm sorry."
"And was it?"
"I thought so at the time. But I didn't know it wasn't you."