This series of stories follows Jake and Jade, an English couple happily married for over two decades. The stories start with their youth, and continue to the present day. Any similarities to actual people, living or dead, is completely coincidental...or is it? A quick note about me. I was born and raised in the US, and although I would love to someday, I have never traveled to the UK. With a little help from some Brits I know, and my studies of British cultural anthropology (Monty Python, Dr. Who), I will throw in a smattering of the UK vernacular. If you happen to be from the UK, please forgive any noticeable stumbles. I will do my best to be better than amateurish but will make no guarantees.
Jake was methodical and precise even as a youth. By age fourteen, after the passing of his father, he dropped out of school and turned his fascination with small engines and automobiles into the financial support his family needed to survive. This early act of necessity and utility grew into a career as a light vehicle engineer. Jade had always loved art in her youth, but her first venture into the work world was as a Saturday worker in a hair salon. She learned quickly that she loved cutting hair and this became her professional passion.
Both had come from working class London families. Hers was a little more liberal and open-minded in their approach to family and child rearing. His was more conservative leaning, with a more traditional family approach. It was not quite the Capulets and Montagues, but they did experience very different childhoods. In the end though, as with the most famous lovers in modern literature, their differences paled in the face of their undying love. And like many young lovers, their relationship started with a healthy dose of fluttering stomachs and physical attraction.
As young teenagers they were aware of each other at school, but the real connection wasn't made until the day they both attended the birthday party of a mutual friend. Jade saw Jake first, standing with his back to her across the garden. He let out a hearty laugh while standing in a circle of friends, and she was struck by its warmth and its depth. The butterflies started when she took in his tall, strapping frame. He was broad shouldered and wore a short sleeved shirt that showed off the sturdy and well defined arms of one who knows hard work -- or spent a fair amount of time in the gym. Embarrassed by the butterflies she was feeling, she turned away abruptly and headed inside to see if they needed help in the kitchen.
Jake noticed the interested gaze of one of his friends, standing across from him in the circle. He turned to see what the friend was gazing at and it immediately became clear. Her slender form moved with grace, swaying the long skirted white party dress as she walked, and the sun shone on the sandy brown hair falling across her shoulders as she retreated into the house. He didn't know why but felt like he was being drawn to follow. It was subtle, and it might have been easily ignored another time, but today for some reason he felt a strong need to follow. He had no idea where it would lead or what he would even say if they came face to face. He crossed the stone pavers, skipped up the few steps onto the back porch and awkwardly stopped short in the open door to the kitchen. Jade was there, just a table length away. She looked up, startled, at the same time her face registering recognition and surprise. Jake thought that was odd considering they had not spoken, and he felt like he had broken some rule just by being there. Rules be damned he could not pull his gaze away from her eyes, gold-flecked brown and glowing with intelligence and a little attitude.
After Jade recovered her composure, she responded with a firm and unabashed stare to answer his...and then came her butterflies again. The silence was deafening and she finally awkwardly broke it. "Can I help you with something?" She didn't TRY to sound annoyed but that was how it came out.
He stammered at first, taken off guard by her apparent annoyance, but stammering was not really his thing. After a beat he sensed the awkwardness she was feeling, and with as much confidence as a lanky fourteen year old could muster, he replied, "Yeah, you can. I'd like to talk with you for a while." It was straight forward, confident and with a hint of a grin, and it was all she needed to let her guard down.
"So," she quipped, "what do you want to talk about?"
That was the beginning. The beginning of a long, occasionally bumpy, usually lusty, always interesting and always loving relationship. They dated through her secondary school years, and shortly after her graduation they were married. He was well established by then, having spent his teenage years earning a living and growing his expertise in auto mechanics. In addition to providing for his family, he had managed to save enough to give them a modest start. They purchased a small home on a nice sized lot, a few miles off the beaten path. And although it had great potential, the main reason they were able to afford it was the fact that it was in need of a significant amount of work.
One of the many projects they knew they would tackle in the new home was the garden. Gnarly vines overwhelmed a leaning trellis that was gray with age and neglect. Stone pavers were tipped and cracked and the joints between them burgeoned with weeds. And on this cloudless and crisp spring morning, they made their plans and dug into their first big home project. The first few days were going to be filled with toiling, heavy work.
They talked as they toiled. Both were experiencing the giddy feeling and satisfaction of working side by side on their new home. They had been together for several years, but were still learning new things about each other every day. The willingness to share their thoughts and grow together was the foundation of their happiness. As frequently happened, their conversation turned to sex. Jake had asked previously what some of Jade's favorite fantasies were, and she had shared some of the more tame ones: sex in public places, being tied up or blindfolded, dabbing whipped cream on sensitive spots and the like were her common answers. But she always held something back from these conversations. There were deeper and darker fantasies that she kept only to herself.
Hidden in the dark recesses of her mind were fantasies like being taken against her will, being coerced by someone in a position of power, and the one that turned her on more than any of the others, being fucked by another man while Jake watched. This one always brought her off quickly when she was pleasuring herself. It was her favorite, but she really felt it was too dark to share with her new husband. Although she had never intentionally stoked his temper, she did fear that sharing something like that might set him off. Her good sense had kept that naughty, dark fantasy hidden from him for all this time, until today.
They were hours into their project and into their conversation, and they had shared many of their fantasies, when Jake asked a dangerous question: 'What is your favorite fantasy...that you have never told me about?' And now she had a dilemma. It was one thing to avoid the topic in response to general questions, but now he had asked her a very specific question, putting her in a precarious position. She could boldly lie to him, but she had never lied to him before and never wanted to. She could refuse to answer, but that might make him feel untrusted or like she was hiding things from him. Or, she realized, she could be honest with him, and risk the consequences. This one decision would prove to be a turning point in their young relationship.
After a great deal of cajoling, and Jake was a great cajoler, she finally gave in. Perhaps it was his repeated promise that whatever it was it would not make him angry. Perhaps it was that he was more likely to be hurt by her NOT telling him, than be hurt by hearing it. It was, after all, just a fantasy. So, after a long and nerve wracking pause, Jade finally said the words out loud, "I have this fantasy to be fucked by another guy while you watch."
Silence followed...