Joan's Story
Completely naked, she studied herself in the full-length mirror. She performed a slow pirouette to gauge all sides of her fifty-year-old body. It wasn't exactly the form she wanted to see; however, given her age, she was not particularly disappointed in her figure. Her breasts sagged slightly, but not nearly to the extent one might expect for her years. On the other end, she still had a nice ass, even if she did think so herself.
The question was, could Joan Crane compete with Roxanne Bullock? Did she really need to?
She and Robert had just returned from dinner with the Bullocks. They had been out with them many times, but tonight was somehow different. Roxanne seemed a lot more . . .
seductive
. . . this evening. Robert had done his best to be unobtrusive in stealing glimpses of her, but Joan had still noticed him doing it.
She recalled the conversation she and Robert had when they arrived home.
"Well, she was in rare form tonight," Joan had remarked.
"In what way?"
"Well, for starters, that, that, hell, I don't even know what to call it. That . . .
costume
. . . she was wearing; who wears anything like that?" It almost looked like a tennis outfit, though maybe not as short.
"It was . . . different. What else?"
"I don't know. I can't quite put my finger on it." She did everything but spread her legs for you, Joan thought. And who knows? Maybe she did when I wasn't watching. "I feel sorry for Brad having to put up with his wife making a spectacle of herself. I'm going to have to have a talk with him."
"Joan, don't meddle."
She looked at him sharply. "How would you feel if
I
did something like that?"
"Maybe he wanted her to be like that, or at the very least, likes it. There are guys out there like that, you know."
"Well, if they are, they need to be like that when we're not with them. It's embarrassing." She really did need to talk to Brad. Although she had no idea what she would say.
"Remember, they're supposed to be our friends. We shouldn't judge them."
"They are our friends. And for the most part, I like Roxanne. But I don't like
that
about her."
And so, here she was, in her bedroom standing in front of her mirror. Nude.
She was not overly concerned that her husband looked at younger women. After all, he was a man, and men looked at women, particularly older men and younger women. And she might have actually contributed to his interest in other females of lesser age. After she'd had her hysterectomy a few years ago, she'd found her interest in sex waning. She still enjoyed it—just not as often as the four or five times a week they'd done it in the early years of their marriage.
Joan had talked to friends her age about it and was relieved to learn that she was not alone amongst women in their fifties who were just not as interested in sex as they had once been. Robert, on the other hand, had not been so understanding in the beginning, but he had respected her wish not to have sex as often. She wondered now how he was compensating. He claimed to have adjusted, but now she wasn't so sure. There was just something about Roxanne that seemed to interest him like no other.
That
was what Joan would have to talk to Brad about. Was he noticing his wife's interest in her husband also?
* * *
Roxanne had mentioned at dinner on Friday that her office was having a girls' night out on the following Tuesday. Conveniently, Robert told her that he had an evening meeting with a client that night also. And there became the perfect opportunity for Joan to visit Brad. However, as she knocked on his door, she realized she really had not prepared an approach to the subject.
Brad answered rather quickly. "Well, hello, Joan." He eyed her up and down. She had not even changed out of her work clothes, which consisted of a suit with a gray top, matching above-the-knee skirt and heels. "I don't think I've ever seen you in business attire. You look very nice."
"Thank you," she said, somewhat embarrassed.
"Rox is not home. Girls night out tonight."
Maybe this was her opening. "Oh, that's right," Joan said as though she had forgotten, her tone implying she had come to visit his wife. "Robert is out with a client."
"So, were both alone tonight," Brad noted, somewhat gleefully. "I was just about to have a drink. Would you like to join me? We cannot be alone together. I'm sure our spouses wouldn't mind."
"No, I suppose they wouldn't," Joan agreed. She entered as he stepped aside.
"Wine?"
"Sure."
"Red or white?"
"Whatever you have open."
"Get comfortable," Brad suggested as he fiddled with drinks. "We keep red for company, but Rox usually prefers white."
"That's fine," Joan said as she sat on the sofa, her skirt riding up. She tugged it down a bit, but still allowed it to remain four inches above her knees. She noticed three small unmarked containers sitting on the coffee table that looked like gift boxes for various sized pieces of jewelry.
Brad appeared with her glass of wine and a bottle of beer for himself. He handed her the glass slowly as though eyeing her over again. Her top, she realized, showed a bit of cleavage. She did not want to be obvious by fixing it, and somewhere inside, she felt a tingle because a younger man was taking notice of her. He then took a seat across from her.