Ed note: this story includes wife swapping, if that is not of interest save yourself some time!
*****
On Monday morning, everything was awesome. My business partner Mike and I were just a few days from closing the biggest deal our young commercial real estate company had ever had. Big enough to put the company in the black. Big enough to pay off some mounting debts that we both had, both business and personal. Big enough so that we had planned to take our hot wives on a long weekend celebration to Vegas starting Wednesday.
Tuesday, things went south. In the morning, the deal hit a legal snag. By midday, it was looking like it might fall apart. By closing time, the deal was all but dead. We had gone from planning to hire staff and buy new cars to having conversations about how to declare bankruptcy.
Mike and I were lifelong friends. We had meet in the first grade and been best friends since then, sharing interests and personalities. We were both fit and athletic, low key and even keel. We had married a pair of beautiful, fit women who became our best friends as well, so the four of us spent quite a bit of time together socially. We were all in our early 30s, happy, healthy, and beautiful, in the prime of our lives. We were on the edge of being financially successful, but also on the edge of financial ruin.
Our company motto was "Don't give up on the idea that things will get better." While that motto had been useful in the past, it seemed hollow in the face of losing everything we had worked years to build. We were sitting in my office on Tuesday afternoon, commiserating.
"So what do we do about Vegas?" I asked.
"Well Dan, we have two options," said Mike. "Option one, we pretend like everything is ok, go have a great time, and then break the news to Jen and Erica on Monday morning that we're going bankrupt. Option two, we tell them tonight, cancel the trip and have a miserable weekend on the way to our bankruptcy hearing."
I nodded and smiled at my friend. "Vegas it is, then, reality can wait."
Reality just didn't want to wait though. The four of us were driving to the airport Wednesday morning and got a flat tire. We got to the airport late and missed the flight. We had to stand around in the airport for another five hours waiting on the next available flight. We were actually talking about cancelling. When we finally arrived in Vegas it was still early afternoon, but then we found out that half of our luggage was missing. We gave up on that after a few hours and went on to the hotel, tired and hungry, where we found out the hotel did not have our reservations and was full. They had one room available, with two twin beds. That was the best we were going to do, so we just had to take it.
We dropped our bags off at the room, which was even less impressive than described, and went to the casino, where we all immediately lost a few hundred dollars each. We went looking for a place to eat, and ended up waiting in line for an hour for a fairly awful dining experience. The meal was capped off by the girls figuring out that the deal had fallen apart, and that we might all be declaring bankruptcy Monday. All in all, it was about the worst day ever.
Lucky for us, the girls took the news as well as they could. My wife Erica and Mike's wife Jen shared our laid back, stoic attitude and were not going to fall apart over spilled milk. Instead, they ordered around of tequila shots.
One of our running jokes whenever we took trips together was that we would have company votes, so we could write off some of the trip expense on taxes. When we formed the company, the men were co-presidents and the women were co-vice presidents, and all the votes were equal.
"I vote that we have a great time this weekend and trust that things will work out in the end," said Erica, holding up her shot for a toast.
"I second the motion!" said Jen, downing her shot and ordering another round. "Things will get better."
We all voted in favor and had a good laugh. Mike and I looked at each other and smiled, sharing in the same emotions. We were feeling very fortunate to be married to such great ladies, but devastated that we were letting them down.
After knocking back several more rounds of shots, the group staggered back to our room, which was luckily on the first floor.
It was a bit awkward getting ready for bed out in the open. Wearing shorts and a t shirt was also a bit uncomfortable for four people who generally slept nude. Making it worse was the horny factor. For the last few weeks, I had been working so hard for so long that Erica and I had had no time for sex, and I know from water cooler discussions that Mike was in the same boat. We had both said that we were really looking forward to getting to Vegas and having some serious hotel sex. Erica had been teasing me for a week with how much sex we were going to have.
Instead, we were in a small room within a few feet of another couple, in an decidedly unromantic situation. Still, the lights were out, it was dead dark in the room, and frankly, I was too horny to not press the issue, so I started to quietly make out with Erica. She resisted at first, but she was too horny to stop me, and things heated up quickly.
At first, we were careful and quiet as we made love, but as things picked up the sheets started rustling, and then, a soft, sexy moan pierced the air ... from the other bed. We stopped for a moment and listened, and fairly quickly we realized that Mike and Jen were getting down to business in the adjacent bed. It seemed pretty clear that they knew what we were doing, and we knew what they were doing, so we just loosened up and started going at it. Erica can be pretty vocal during sex, and it wasn't long before she let out a fairly loud "mmmm."
Which led to a bout of giggling noise from the next bed, which led to us giggling back, and pretty soon we were all laughing out loud.
"I don't know what y'all are doing over there, but if you don't stop I'm going to call the front desk and demand a quieter room," Mike said.
"They'll probably put you in a closet," I laughed back.
As the four of us returned to having sex in the dark, it took on a different feel. None of us were trying to hide what we were doing, and pretty soon it turned into a game. Jen was the first to let out an exaggerated, over the top moan, followed by another bout of giggling. Then we were all taking turns, moaning and even talking dirty, and laughing the whole time.
"Give it to me big guy," said Erica giggling.
"Ride it hard baby," said Mike.
"You're so big," said Jen, screaming and laughing.
"Bend me over and slap my ass," I said, which led everyone to break out laughing.
We continued on like this for a long while, this weird combination of sex and humor playing out in the darkness just a few feet apart. Eventually the jokes became less and the passion took over, and as fate would have it, friends that shared so much in common also shared hang time. I could hear Mike quickening his pace and trying to grunt quietly, which was a huge turn on for me, and I started fucking Erica hard, rocking the bed. The combination of hotel sex, having another couple fucking wildly in the next bed, and a two week sex hiatus made it impossible to come quietly, and we both shared a loud and lengthy orgasm.
We lay in bed for some time, listening to Mike and Jen slowing their breathing down.
"Well, I hope it was good for you too," Mike said out loud.
There was a roomful of giggles and a brief pause.
"Meh," said Erica, leading to another round of laughs.
Despite everything that had gone wrong, we were still finding ways to laugh. All four of us had the same, silent thought. "Don't give up on the idea that things will get better."
The next morning, things got better. My phone woke me up early in the morning, before I could even complain about being hungover. It was the attorney working on the deal. They had solved the problem and they were closing the deal today.
I jumped out of bed and woke up Mike to tell him the news. We looked at each other with wide, unbelieving eyes, wondering if we were dreaming, and then we were high fiving and dancing around the room like we had won the lottery. Which in a very real sense we had. It didn't take any genius to figure out what was going on, and the girls joined in the celebration. Pretty soon it was four people in t-shirts and underwear dancing around the room and hugging each other like crazy.
The news was still settling in when there was a knock on the door. It was the manager of the hotel, coming in person to apologize for the mix up.
"We did find your reservation, I am so sorry we had to put you in this room last night, it is actually a room that we were getting ready to renovate," he said. "We still don't have two separate rooms available, but I am able to upgrade you to a nicer room. I am also giving you each a $200 credit at the casino to make up for the mistake."
He handed us the keys to the new room and told us the staff would take care of moving our stuff up.