"Hey, Ang."
"Hey, Jill, haven't talked to you for a couple of days. I found a new dress shop with fabulous couture knockoffs. I can't wait to take you there."
"That's sounds like fun. Maybe this week? Say, listen, I called because I need to talk. Billy and I are having problems. Some really big problems. I'd like to come over and get some sorority sister advice. Is this afternoon okay? Please say yes, I'm really frantic here."
"Whoa, this sounds serious. Sure, come on over. Hey, I'm out here raking leaves with Doug. Thought we'd get ahead of them this year so we're starting early. Any reason is a good reason to get out of this."
"I'm on the road right now. Be there in 15 minutes."
"That doesn't leave me much time to get cleaned up. I better get started, huh? ["Hey Doug, Jill's coming over. Guess you're on your own."] See'ya in a few."
Angela met Jill at the door with her hair wrapped in a towel. After a hug and a kiss they went to the kitchen. "Hey kids, get your stuff together and move to another room. Aunt Jill is here and she and I need to talk."
"Hi kids. It's alright if they stay. I was hoping we could talk in the den."
"Thanks, Aunt Jill."
Fortified with coffee Jill and Angela closed the den's door and got comfortable. "Okay, what's this all about?" Jill eased into her explanation of events that led to the gangbang. In particular, she explained Billy's one-man gangbang role-play and how it added so much to their sex life. Angela was intrigued and made a mental note to try it.
Then she started laying out the planning and preparation for the gangbang. About halfway through Angela leaned forward and said, "Oh, my God! Please don't tell me this actually happened. I thought those wild days in school worked all of that out of our systems. Geez, do you remember the times we did poor Harry? It was so funny in the beginning. None of us knew what we were doing or how to go about it!"
"Yeah, well, having lived through those wild days is the only reason I didn't dig my heels in and tell Billy no. I still have a lot of fond memories. I don't know. Maybe I miss the excitement." She explained that the gangbang took place in her home a week ago with Billy's friends during the football game.
"I hope we'll get to all the juicy details at some point, but what's the problem with you and Billy?"
"I believe he took me down this path because of self-doubt about his ability to satisfy me. Something like a selfless act of love. Afterwards he had second thoughts and has condemned himself ever since for talking me into it. He can't reconcile what he hoped to get with what he got.
"Right or wrong, he was right. I never had a sexual high like that before. I've always loved sex but now I feel there is a side to it and depth that I never knew existed. Maybe because I'm older now I can better appreciate the intensity of behaving with total abandon. So much so that I'm not sure what I should do next. One thing's for sure, sex will never be the same for me again. But, I'm not the problem. Billy is so depressed and disgusted with himself that he's in a funk that I don't know if he can get out of by himself."
"How about counseling or analysis?"
"Oh, I don't know. I never really bought into that Freudian stuff. If he and I could work it out I would be much happier than if someone nudged us there. What do you think?"
"Well, first I'd give him plenty of time to work it out on his own. All the while you should be loving and nurturing to show that you aren't mad or upset with him. That would also show that you're comfortable with what happened. You are, aren't you?"
"Yes."
"If nothing changes and he's still in a slump or getting worse then I'd confront him head-on. You just said you have little faith in interventions, so be true to yourself and be more direct."
"That's what I thought, too. Maybe I just needed to hear it from someone else."
"Okay, problem solved." [Not really.] "Now, fill me in on the details."
Later
"This is more than I can understand, let alone deal with right now."
"Billy, the reality is that right or wrong, we are at a new place in our marriage. We can try to got back to where we were. I don't think that's possible. That would be like trying to pretend it didn't happen when we both know it did. Or, we could try to go forward recognizing where we've been. That's what I want. Or we could go forward separately. That I don't want. One thing's for sure, we can't continue this way. It's tearing you apart and watching you go through this everyday is killing me. I can't let you drag me down with you."
"Jill, I have a firm grip on reality. What happened happened. Nothing is going to change that. And, I don't want to leave you, or you leave me. But, I didn't plan on it being as bad as it turned out to be for me."
"Okay, I had sex with your friends. No big deal! No, it is a big deal but that's all it was, sex. I didn't make love to them!" [Well, that's not completely true. His friends had been so attentive and solicitous of her needs that it would be hard to see the difference she was trying to make. Perhaps the distinction is they were making love to her while she was just having sex with them.]
"To be honest, it was a good experience for me. It was as if my arousal and releases were responses to the cumulative effect of each one, not that any one of them was so much better than the others. But, it did keep getting better and better. By the time Jimmy got me off I was somewhere I've never been before. It was wonderful. I was totally satisfied, beyond satisfied. All my wants and needs were met. I think if I had one more man it would have been one too many. What we did was just right.
"Was it a one-off thing or do I want to continue? I absolutely want to continue reaching for new and different highs, just as I want our marriage to remain strong. Is there anyway we can have it both ways. Is that possible?"
"I was so sure that this was the right thing to do. To do for you. Listening to you now tells me I succeeded. What I didn't count on was my reaction. I don't feel betrayed, how could I? What I feel is that I betrayed you. If you had sex with them on your own for the same reasons I would feel differently. It would be, like you were reaching out for something I didn't or couldn't do. Sure, I'd still blame myself but it would be blame for not having done something instead of blame for having done it. There's a difference that's important to me. I should never have put you in that situation.