Tina enjoyed telling me about it. "She's been having all kinds of fun. I guess it's rebounding after a divorce or something. When she talks about romantic dinners out with strangers, then bringing them back to her place, well, it sounds so exciting and sexy. Maybe I'm jealous. She sure seems to be having a lot of fun these days."
I offered my opinion. "She's paying a pretty high price for it, though. Divorce is rotten, and she's just making the best of a sorry situation."
"Yeah, I know."
" She is 'socially active', though, isn't she? I guess when your husband screws around on you, that's one easy way you can remind yourself that you're still an attractive woman," I suggested.
"Maybe. She's already dated more guys in a single week than I did in my whole lifetime", was Tina's reply.
"Well, you found the right man early - and twice." I shouldn't dig at her about leaving me for the convent, I know. "Are you really jealous of Betty?"
"Sometimes. I'm jealous of all of the new men she's meeting. And of all those women you dated, for that matter."
Tina was obviously mulling something over, and finally asked a life changing question. "Bob, I know you 'dated' - a lot while I was in the convent."
"Yeah, Tina, I did. I'm sorry about comparing you to them. Let's not go there again, honey."
"Bob, I know you had a couple of 'serious relationships'."
"I probably shouldn't have told you about them."
"How many 'serious relationships', Bob?"
"Just a couple, you know about Barbara and Harriet."
"Do you mean you slept with two women before you married me?"
"No, I was talking about serious relationships, you know, where you think you might have found someone you might actually marry, serious like that. Just having sex wasn't the same as having a serious relationship in my mind."
"So how many women DID you have sex with, Bob? That's what's I want to know."
"I don't remember. . ."
"Bob, everybody remembers. Now tell me, how many? Truthfully. I really want an honest answer."
"Tina, why. . ."
"Bob, you've never lied to me before: don't start now. How many?"
"About twenty five."
"Twenty five! My God, when did you start?"
"In high school, with Ruth, right after the prom."
"Oh." Tina's eyes filled with tears. "Well, I guess I had that one coming. Was she any good?"
"Come on, honey, we were just kids. We didn't know anything."
"You mean, sort of like me, now? No experience, pretty screwed up about sex, not very good at it?"
"No, not like that: besides, I love you."
"Well, at least tell me this. Those kinds of things you want to do. . . sexually: were you taught them by some of your partners, or did you just make them up all by yourself?"
"Honey, please . . "
"Bob baby, you keep wanting me to be better in bed. How am I going to I learn? Can you teach me?"
"I don't know," I replied, "we have so many hang-ups and habits with each other now. I just don't know if I can, now."
"I guess I was stupid, not doing anything like when I was younger, or when I came out of the convent . And, maybe that's why you act as though sex with me isn't very exciting. It's almost a chore, isn't it Bob. I don't have as much experience as some of those other women you screwed around with and I guess I never will. You'll always see me as a 'lousy fuck'! "
This was turning into a fight. I responded "The problem is that you're very inhibited, and now you're in the habit of being inhibited with me."
"So you 'love' me, but you'd rather FUCK all those other women?"
My "Of course not" didn't carry any weight. Soon, we were asleep, with a physical and emotional space between us.
I was afraid this subject wasn't closed.
And I was right.
The next evening the conversation continued.
"Maybe I needed more sexual experience, Bob, to be a good wife for you."
"No. I love you for who you are, not for your sexual experience."
"Then how come," she went on, "you ejaculated all over the blanket at the beach when those guys were looking at me at Fire Island last summer?" She would remember that!
I still didn't have an good answer for it, either.
But she did. "I've been thinking about it. Maybe you're a voyeur! One of those men who just likes to watch!"
Now I was getting angry. "Well, I'd rather be that than screw around!"
Again we went to sleep, miles apart emotionally.
But the door was open. Our intimate moments began to include some of Tina's stories about Betty's dates, and I encouraged her to tell me more about her the kinds of experiences as a single woman she'd have wanted to have.
By now she knew what she'd have wanted pretty well: how she would have been touched, what she would have touched, how dating progressed to long erotic weekends away. I at times became a surrogate for these imagined lovers, and at the same time all of this awakened a strong voyeuristic aspect of my own personality. Our intimate moments often became more erotic than loving, and each of us began liking that. The long silent times, as our minds thought about other people while our bodies were coupled, often ended in mutual orgasms, and then embarrassment. We are open enough so we could at least hint about, and joke about, what was on our minds while we used each other's body.
Then another piece fell in place for us. Computer Associates, a major employer on Long Island, was in a hiring frenzy. They wanted to rent our apartment until May, at a fixed monthly rate, for executives in transit. But, it was going to remain empty for the next four weeks. Paid for, but empty until the end of January.
I was getting more interested in being a real voyeur, and wondering what it would be like to be willingly cuckolded. When I held her, and thought about her with another guy, I got horny.
What really gave me the courage to do more than think about being a voyeur happened between Christmas and New Years. We agreed to meet after work for dinner at Squadron 56, an interesting restaurant nearby that also is an active singles bar. We watched people meet at the bar, and I turned to her, and said "Hello, my name's Bob. What's yours?"
My wife's very smart, and very quick. She reached for my hand, shook it, and said "Tina".
I invited her to join me for dinner, and she told me about having just separated from her husband. After dinner she 'invited' me to follow her home for an after dinner drink.
I had forgotten what it was like to date someone. As a married couple, we'd undress, get into night clothes, and meet in bed. As strangers, it doesn't work that way, and it was a LOT more fun.
She 'led' me to our house, and waited while I parked the car. She took me by the hand - and we went - to the apartment!
We started in the living room, sitting on the sofa, having a cocktail.
And somehow, we were kissing each other. And somehow we slid from sitting, to laying beside each other, holding each other, and the kissing became more intense.
It's been too many years since I found myself fumbling with the buttons on her dress, and far too many since I felt someone else's hand release my belt, undo a pants clasp, and move against my skin, my belly, and lower, until it found my penis. And too many since my own hand moved up a nylon clad leg, and hip, to that place where the hose ended. And then feeling skin, and soon, warmth and moisture, too.
It was amazing and wonderful to watch as my wife, the woman I picked up, sat up and said "we really should go to my bedroom", and led me there.