I glanced up at the calendar on the wall of Karen's kitchen. It hadn't seemed possible. It had been over a year since our first fateful meeting. On the other side of the table, Karen was on her cell phone, speaking with one of her partners in her clinical practice about a particular problem that they were having with one of the patients.
As she spoke, I thought about the past year; and what a year it has been! It seems like everything has fallen into place. My husband Gary and I finally got off our butts and completed our graduate degrees and I'm even thinking of going for my PhD. (Whoa, "Dr. Lisa"? How cool would that be?)
As for Karen and her husband Doug, it's been pretty much the same story. Karen was recruited by one of the major physical therapy clinics in the metro Atlanta area and, in no time at all, was made a full partner. As for Doug, his business is going great guns and he's even moved into a larger building. Although I hate to use a sports metaphor, it just seems that we're all "in the zone".
So, at the risk of sounding like some smug bitch, I have to say that life has never been better. And, the relationship between the four of us has grown tremendously. As I may have mentioned before, Karen has become the sister that I never had and there isn't anything that I wouldn't confide in her.
Of course, it goes without saying that the physical relationship(s) that I described last year have continued and have grown even stronger. Certainly, Karen and I would never stoop to anything as vulgar as saying that we "swap" husbands. Being "Southern" born and bred, we're much too genteel for anything such as that. We prefer to call it, "Husband Sharing". (I'm glad we got that out of the way.)
At any rate, Karen ended her call. "So, what do you want to do this weekend?" she asked.
I shrugged, "Same as always, I suppose."
Karen scrunched up her face, "God, why don't we do something different?"
I was slightly taken aback. "What are you talking about?"
"Look, we do the same thing all the time. Twice a month, you and Gary come over here or Doug and I go over to your place. We sit around for awhile and then the guys take us upstairs and fuck our brains out."
I pretended to be concerned. "Oh, my heavens honey. I had absolutely no idea that you were getting tired of having your brains fucked out."
Karen gave me her most exasperated look. "You know better than that. It's just that it seems sometimes that we're in a rut."
I thought it over. Karen did have a point. However, a lot of it was due to our busy lives. I mean, for the last year, Gary and I had been in classes at least two nights a week and both Karen and Doug had been working killer hours in their careers. Still, maybe Karen was on to something.
Karen continued, "Look, I've thought it over. Why don't we have a 'date night'? I mean, we could really dress up, meet the guys at a nice hotel, have drinks and let them take us to their rooms. I mean, we'll still end up at the same place but, at least, it'll be something different. How long has it been since we've really dressed up? How long has it been since we've bought new dresses?"
Wow! Now my interest was really piqued. During the past year, I think the only time Gary and I have really dressed up was for a Christmas party. In our teaching jobs, neither of us wears more than casual clothing and, as for Karen; she wears medical whites virtually all the time. Doug is the only one of us that really gets dressed up for work. And, even when the four of us go out for dinner, it's usually to a place where the dress code is casual. For the most part, Atlanta restaurants (except for the hoi polloi places down in Buckhead) have casual dress codes and, well, there are just very few places to get dressed up for.
Karen pressed on her final point, "Hey, if nothing else, it's an excuse to go shopping."
Uh oh, that really sealed the deal! I mean, any "Southern Girl" worth her salt will go shopping at the drop of a hat!
"Do you think the guys will go for it?" I asked.
"Hey, we have these guys so pussy whipped, they'll go for anything."
I bent over laughing. The thought of these two macho guys being "pussy whipped" was too ludicrous to contemplate. Still, I have to admit, there has been a perceptible change in Gary during the last year. I mean, Gary has always been laid back; very little bothers him. However, since he's been bedding Karen, he's turned downright mellow. In our marriage, there used to be little "niggling" things that we would disagree about (whose turn it was to do the grocery shopping, etc.). However, in the last year, even these little disagreements have disappeared. So, what's the reason? Is it because of the enhanced sexual "arrangement"? Maybe, in a roundabout way, Karen had a point.
At any rate, both Gary and Doug agreed to the "date", so Karen and I made for North Point Mall. Between us, we must have tried on a hundred dresses (all the while, giggling like a couple of school girls getting ready for the prom). Eventually, we made our choices; a hot little burgundy number for me and a clingy, equally hot, dress for Karen. No doubt, the dresses set us back plenty but both of us were just in the mood to strut our stuff.
Saturday night, "Date Night", soon arrived. When I awoke Saturday morning and began making preparations, I noticed that my mood (that had begun in the mall) was, shall we say, considerably "enhanced". Look, everybody knows that there are certain times of the month that a woman feels, for want of a better word, "sexual". Yes, yes, yes, I know that it has to do with our hormones and that being "horny" is just part of our physiology. However, for me, there are times of the month where, I just don't want sex; I REALLY want sex. Karen and I have talked about this a lot and Karen describes her sensation of desire to be a "tingly" feeling "down there". For me, it's almost too hard to describe; it's sort of a combination of an "ache" and an "itch" that radiates from my lower abdomen into my vagina. To make a long story short, I woke up with this feeling on Saturday morning and the feeling seemed to increase every hour.
As planned, I drove over to the hair stylist. I sometimes hate going there because it seems like each time that I'm there, a woman (either a stylist or customer) will be moaning and bitching about their relationship or lack of one. I've always hating listening to this. Hey, you make your bed and you sleep in it.
It took awhile but finally I finished up; my hair was perfect down to the last follicle! I drove the short distance back to our home. I had less than two hours before the evening kicked off.
Gary was getting his clothes ready for the evening when I came in the door. I looked at the suit laid out on the bed. "Hey, pretty spiffy. You going somewhere?" I asked in my best Southern draw.
Gary smiled back, "You never know."
Gary undressed and stepped into the shower. I prepared all my clothing and transferred everything I needed into the purse that I had picked especially to match my new dress. As Gary stepped from the shower, I quickly stepped in. Tilting my head back so that I didn't spoil my perfect 'do', I lathered up, rinsed, and stepped out.
Not seeing Gary, I stepped over to the full length mirror while I toweled off. I studied the reflection in the mirror for a few seconds. Tanned, tight legs. Curvy butt. Flat belly (well, reasonably flat!). Breasts, well, they could be bigger but they'll do. Hair, perfect. All in all, not too bad. Good old Doug was definitely going to get lucky tonight!
