Sharing Ch. 01: Sven's Story
Sven, darling,
I'm putting this right at the top for you to find.
Go to Pat's Story when you've read this and you're ready
all my love
Pat
Pat,
if you followed the shortcut you found this, my sweetheart - I know we said we could do this, and not tell, but she wanted me to write it down, didn't want their to be any secrets between you and I, and I guess her as well.
In the end it was Jan.
Why was I surprised?
It was always Jan.
Jan was kind.
Jan was thoughtful.
Jan was sexy.
Did I just say that?
Hmm - guess I did.
Anyway love, this was what I wrote a day or so later...
Jan was the mother confessor type. Oh - go on! You've met them, you must have met them. Everyone knows one. The sort that you suddenly find you've ended up telling them far, far more than either you realised or intended. Jan never wheedled anything out of anyone, she was just so easy to talk to. She didn't ask leading questions either come to think of it. It didn't matter, you still told her 'things'. Naughty 'things'. Indiscretions. That was the problem really.
My other half, Pat, was away for a month, a residential course, too far away to travel home at the week end. Anyway the participants were expected to stay and 'join in', whatever that involved. Group discussions for one thing. Poor lass! Apparently they were an uninspiring lot, she was bored to tears and ending up taking to her room early and catching up on some reading, or course preparation. Still, the mid-life change of career was her own idea, and by all accounts she was looking forward to the end result and getting to grips with things once she got going.
Then there was Jan. No she didn't really go away, still in my thoughts. In fact given my present situation, it would have been damned odd if she hadn't been. I'd bumped into Jan earlier this morning and had allowed myself to be seduced into having coffee with her. The thought had been a pleasant one, Jan's company was welcome. The thought of going back to our empty house had been banished as she stuck her arm though mine as we walked back across the park. I'd better add that no one thought it odd of Jan, or you, if you walked arm in arm with her - again that was Jan.
And now here I was, coffee mug in hand, sat on a cushion at her feet, leaning back, the settee edge against my back, my left arm over her knees. At peace with the world, conversation momentarily ceased as we both gazed into the flickering flames of the log fire.
She spoke first, "But Sven, if that were the case, and you were worried about Pat's possible infidelity, why did you let her go?"
I thought carefully for a while before I answered. "In the end we have to trust each other. We've been together a long time now - we know each others needs. I know she will want to have sex, note I said sex, not make love, before this course finishes. I don't know whether she likes anyone there enough to sleep with them. Perhaps she will, perhaps she won't. But the opportunity will be there if she wants it to be. In the same way as it might be here for me." I paused for a moment at that point, then continued, "We did discuss some while back. Rather more matter-of-factly than I thought we ever would."
Jan asked, "who brought the subject up?"
I responded, "It sort of happened, but in retrospect I think she steered it that way. I think she was thinking of this month - we were trying to cover eventualities for the time she was away."
Jan said "very pragmatic..."
"Yes - wasn't it." I laughed a little and went on "the only thing we couldn't decide on was whether we should tell each other about the experience when we got back together again."
"Well?"