I hated that stupid little ring on her left hand. And I hated it more that he wasn't a bad guy. He was generally pretty funny, knew how to throw a good barbecue and seemed to worship her. His timeline was filled with posts about their little dates, and cute pictures of her with coffee, with their little terrier, and out on hikes.
More than I want to admit, I'd find myself alone in my bed, gripping my hardness while I remembered the little comments she had made last time we talked. "It's been a hell of a week, I just need to get railed." Fuck, was he not up to the task? I could do better. And she knew it. My mind replayed over and over again our one drunken tryst on an overnight trip to the west coast, before she had met him. The way she had asked me to use her body like a toy, the way her black hair looked matted with sweat as I pinned her wrists down, the way she smiled as she melted into a puddle when we finally finished. I knew what she needed, and that damn ring meant I couldn't give it to her.
I was halfway through a black coffee and bacon breakfast when I saw the notification on my phone.
The text was short, and polite. "Would you be interested in coming over tonight?"
As I picked up my phone, my fingers instinctively began to swipe the word "Sure" before I deleted it. I was sure I was interested, but I wasn't sure I was interested in going home at 10, blue-balled and frustrated from watching her play Little Miss Housewife. I started to craft a delicate excuse in my mind when the second text came in. "He and I worked out an arrangement. I need another Sarasota."
Those four words hit that same as a double of Jack, immediately to the pit of my stomach and then up to my brain. My head spun. The final text was one word. "Please." I knew her well enough it wasn't politeness anymore. It was desperation. It was a whimper.
My half-hearted excuse faded away.
"I'll be there at 7."
----
He offered me a beer as soon as I arrived. "I knew about Sarasota, but holy shit man. You left quite an impression." The more he talked, the more it was clear he was trying his best to be friendly. I still hadn't seen her yet, but could hear the shower cut off upstairs. We chatted about work, about the Braves but the conversation fairly quickly turned back to the real reason I was there.
"You know, she's been really patient with me. I've been working a lot more, and bringing a lot stress home. And with our anniversary coming up, I wanted to give her something really special. She told me the Sarasota story and I'll be honest, I just kind of want to watch y'all."
We laid out some basic boundaries. He wanted to stay in the room to watch, but would let us know if that boundary changed. We established that I wasn't interested in doing anything with him, but he was free to do whatever he wanted with himself while he watched. He let me know that her only boundary was that I be the only one to touch her tonight, and what her safe-word would be in the event that she needed to pull the brakes. He looked at a notification on his phone, smiled, and turned his phone off.
We finished our beers just before she texted me to let me know she was ready. He grabbed the empties and turned towards the garage. "You head up, I'm going to take care of a few things downstairs and then I'll head up. We've never done this before, you know." The first sentence had nothing to do with the second, and somehow lit the fire even more than anything else so far.
--
She was sitting on the bed when I got there, candles flickering in little tin cups on the dresser. Her black hair was carefully curled into soft waves, her makeup impeccably done, yet understated. I had expected the full lingerie experience, but what I got was better. She wore stockings but nothing else, leaving her body on full display.