Maria was preparing for Nigel's birthday. It was his 45th and she wanted it to be memorable, which in her new state of mind meant that she had transferred $2,000 to Beverly via Venmo for "professional services."
That was also the nomenclature she used when she paid her fitness instructors, beauticians, masseuses, wax technicians, dieticians, doctors, and the rest of the army of people who was attending to her wellbeing.
Beverly was the latest installment on her roster and she had hinted that more was to come if she played her role well that evening. Maria was nothing if not loyal to the people who worked for her: Claire, Roger, Rosa, Lucia, Anastasia, Vera, Michael, Tristan, Ivan, Dr. Rosenthal, Dr. Vogel. The list of assistants, housekeepers, drivers, physicians, and surgeons went on.
Her mind went back to the pandemic year and her WhatsApp chats with Nigel during the months they had been separated. "Do you want to WhatsApp" had become a signal to get naughty, especially at night. She was working late in Milan to be on U.S. hours and when she was lying in her bed at 1 a.m. trying to fall asleep she would message him. He was usually having dinner at home when they started sexting.
Sometimes they pretended they were in an online chat room for people seeking casual hookups. Other times they would describe various scenarios to each other that became quite elaborate.
She thought about how he would be masturbating, sitting alone at the end of the dining table in their living room, sipping red wine. She had bought three different sex toys that spring from the European Amazon, including the lifelike fleshy dildo Nigel had found when he had been rummaging through her things the other day.
She scrolled through their correspondence at the time, their special chat was called 'When Working Late at Night.'
A favorite theme in their exchange had been a threesome with a second woman, which seemed almost innocent now after everything that had happened over the past month. But Maria had kept coming back to this particular type of fantasy, even now when they had so obviously pushed their erotic boundaries way beyond the plain vanilla mΓ©nage a trois.
She was looking the history of their Covid chat. One exchange went like this:
N: A guest is joining us at home for dinner tonight 1:32 AM
M: Oh yes, sounds lovely 1:33 AM
N: It's my secretary 1:33 AM
M: I remember her. Big boobs, no doubt why you hired her 1:34 AM
N: Yes, I'm going to give her some overtime work 1:34 AM
M: Please do, I also need some help with a few private assignments 1:34 AM
N: Maybe she can help us both at the same time. She's very eager to learn and help 1:35 AM
M: I'm picturing this blonde bimbo in a tight dress and a woman's suit jacket and high heels 1:35
N: Exactly. The kind you would want to join in a threesome. Maybe you will surprise us when you come home 1:36 AM
M: Yum 1:37 AM
N: I will have my dick between those boobs when you enter the apartment 1:37 AM
M: Oh boy just picturing you and her. So nasty and hot 1:38 AM
N: So good 1:38 AM
She was thinking about what label someone would put on them and their emerging experimentations. Swingers? Not really, it was more than that, at least in her mind. Polyamorous? Maybe. Consensual non-monogamy was a term that had come up quite a bit in the articles and blogs. It wasn't cheating, it was a flex.
She wasn't even sure what all these labels contained. She thought of her google searches over the past year as she had been exploring the idea of opening up their relationship. The lifestyle, that's what Marco had called it and she had liked that. Nothing too technical or weirdly subcultural.
Nigel was her love, her primary partner, her anchor. That much was certain to her. Her erotic needs were intertwined with his, they had to be. Or may this was all some sort of power struggle in their relationship over who be the conductor of : Who will be on top, who will direct the sex, and whose fantasy will win.
Her mind went back to the book she had bought about the woman who became a swinger in some dreary place in England. She remembered how Nigel had found it and had confronted her about it, not in an aggressive way but more like a curious inquiry before moving on. Another book she had read over the past few years and which he probably hadn't found in their library was about a woman who became a hotwife, having sex with strangers without her husband, or if he was participating them mostly passively watching her and her partners.
Was she becoming that? Had she turned Nigel into a cuckolder with horns and everything? No, he had had his own fun in Rio. Certainly he hadn't stormed out of the room with Dia and Marco in protest. "You owe me one" was what he had said when she had laid out her plans for his birthday. He was a man and knew what he wanted.
She was sure Nigel had also done some google searching since the weekend in Rio. What had he found, she wondered.
Perhaps they were just treading their own path in the garden of sexual practices, blending and mixing what they liked, taking in the new scenery. Did Nigel want it as much as she did? That part was still unclear to her. He was certainly going to want what she was planning for this Saturday night.
***
She had been exchanging WhatsApp messages with Beverly over the past few days to ensure everything would run according to plan.
One place where Nigel's refined Upper East Side taste did not come to expression was in the bedroom. There his civilized art advisor persona had to cede to his baser instincts, as he would say.
Maria had always thought that he was surprisingly kinky for a man with his pedigree, even from the beginning he had pronounced his affection, or more like fetish, for high heels. She had recalled how she had been wearing a pair of Steve Madden black patent point-toe stiletto pumps at that party at Brooklyn where they had met. They had six inch heels and later on he admitted it had turned him on quite a bit. He had continuously encouraged her slutty side when in bed.
She wondered if her working for a lingerie company had turned him on. He had never mentioned it, but he probably didn't mind it when she brought home the latest sample from their Noir collection, the more risquΓ© models of their assortment.
The exchange with Beverly had taken on the seriousness of planning like it was one of her Dolce Vita ad photoshoots.
"It's my partner's birthday, so need this to be a special night for him."