"I think they might be swingers."
"What?" Theo turned and stared at the side of her face but Mia did not look away from the traffic. A good thing; she was driving. "Why would you think that?"
"Well, I guess what I mean is... they are swingers. She told me so."
"What? When?" Theo heard how ridiculously flummoxed he sounded, but his mouth was moving faster than his brain and both were trying to catch up with this conversation.
"Oh, on that drive to the conference. The backup from the accident, remember I told you we were just sitting still forever? At first, we had hardly talked, she was on her phone. But after a while, there was nothing else to do. We started to chat. Work stuff at first. But that only lasts so long. It started getting personal. You know how when you're stuck with someone, you sort of become fast friends? I don't know, it was like that."
"Okay..." Theo offered. When Mia did not immediately continue, he rushed in again. "But somehow she told you they're swingers? Aimi and Davis? While you were just... chatting."
"Well, it was quite a chat. Like I said." Theo thought Mia seemed rather blase about the whole thing. As if it were more amazing they had chatted than that their new friends were swingers.
Everyone was new friends for Theo and Mia. It was only a matter of months since they had moved here. The flight from their old home to their new one was only a few hours, but at times the couple felt as if they were in a new country. They were not country hicks, both had grown up in the city and considered themselves current, progressive, metropolitan. But they had talked often, in the wee hours of the night since the move, about how foreign they felt at times.
This couple, Aimi and Davis Martin, had been their first inroad into social life here. Mia worked with Aimi, software implementation for lots of big clients out here. That was the reason for the move.
"I'm sure you're not going to drop that bomb and leave it at that. Give some fucking details," Theo said in exasperation, and his wife laughed, taking a quick smiling glance at him in the passenger seat.
"We were talking about... well, sex. Like I said, things had got personal. I'm not going to walk you through it all. Girl stuff. But she was telling me that things got stale for them years ago, when their daughter Sarah was young, and they had tried all sorts of things to get the spark back."
Theo was frowning at this, looking at the side of Mia's face. Of course he knew why the two women had been talking about that. Mia was always talking about "the spark" and that now that the girls were grown, they had no excuse not to find it again. The whole subject made Theo uncomfortable. Not as much as imagining Mia telling Aimi, who was a gorgeous sexy woman, that Theo wasn't getting it done for her. He felt vaguely ill.
"They did romantic dates, and roleplaying, and kinky stuff. She said the kinky stuff helped. But what really got the two of them excited was swinging. Or 'opening up the marriage', I guess she called it. Sounded like swinging though. Meeting up with other couples. She said it was super common out here, Theo." Mia turned and gave him a weighty look before turning back to traffic. "So, like probably some of our other friends do too."
"Jesus," Theo muttered. He looked out the side window. He was shocked. He was also turned on. And trying not to imagine Aimi fucking. But when you heard this, you kind of had to, right? Mia must have imagined Davis... "Shit, well what are we going to do? We were going to bring the girls with us." They had been on the way to get Alexandra and Joey from home and take them over to the Martins for a frigging dinner party.
Mia laughed, then glanced at Theo. "Oh, you're serious? We can bring the kids still. We've been there a dozen times." Mia shook her head. "You sound like my parents. This isn't some Satanic cult. They just fool around. Doesn't mean they do it at *dinner*, Theo." She laughed again.
"I guess." It was awkward though. He kept imagining those two fucking. Trying to imagine who out of the crowd they fuck around with. Imagined his daughters, sitting around the Martins' pool, not knowing anything about this. Hell, he hadn't know anything about this. And now that he did he felt sure it was going to show on his face. "Didn't it weird you out, to find out though? I mean, you just sprung this on me now. Do you think she was trying to get you to, you know, join up?"
Mia smiled, but kindly. "No, you're right, I was a bit freaked out. I've never met a swinger, or didn't know if I had. And they are not who I would have picked. I mean, I guess that's dumb, maybe they should be. They're both super fit and energetic, and kind of youthful, right? I don't know, I never pictured such put-together, attractive people doing it. But why not? They haven't given up on sex, is all."
Mia chewed on the corner of her lip. Theo knew she was thinking about the two of them again. "But no, I don't think she was propositioning me. It didn't even come up for like an hour. And I don't think it would have if we hadn't been stuck." She reached out and squeezed his forearm, bringing his attention back to her. "But they should want us to join, right? I mean, look at us."
Theo found himself matching her grin. Mia looked fantastic. They were both pushing 45, but Mia could easily pass for 35, nothing but a few lines around the eyes to give it away. Her breasts remained amazing, as he told her whenever they had sex. And he didn't think he was a catch, but he stayed really fit. He was in better shape than he had been 10 years ago, having gotten into cycling and watching his diet.
"There's certainly worse options out there. I just don't think we have the, I don't know, confidence? Chutzpah? I can't imagine going around propositioning folks. Man, that's the best part of being married. Not worrying about that anymore."
"Well, maybe you don't worry as much about rejection. You've already got a partner, and it's just a bit of fun on the side, so who cares." Mia gave a shrug. Theo looked at her carefully. Was she thinking about this?
"Are you wishing she had asked you?" he asked, trying to keep it light. But he saw from her face that she heard the familiar worry in the edge of his voice.
"It would be a nice compliment," she answered off hand. But she met his glance and added, "You know how I feel about *our* sex life. I'm not jumping in bed with these folks, but the fact that someone solved this issue for themselves means something. We had two girls, they only have one, took us a bit longer to get our act back together. But I'd like to think we could. They sound happy. Maybe some of their energy will rub off on us."
Theo ran his fingers along the side of his face. He was having a hard time not thinking about Aimi 'rubbing off' on him. "Well, hopefully it doesn't rub off on the girls. I promised them a good start out here. Do you think everyone at their parties is a swinger?"
Mia laughed. "I think we would have noticed if so. We'd be the only ones left out. And do you think Patti and Max are swingers?" They both laughed. That was not a possibility. "I'm sure they have regular friends too. I shouldn't have told you until we got home. Don't make things weird tonight, Theo!"
He gave her a mini salute, glancing out the window. "I'll forget you ever told me."
====================================
Theo could not stop thinking about Aimi and Davis swinging. He had managed to smile, and chat, and take part in the general conviviality of the party that evening. But every time there was a moment of respite, a break in the action, where he did not need to attend to anything, he found himself picturing it.
How could he not? Davis was standing there, an arm around Aimi's waist, and Theo of course had to imagine how things got started. Would the two couples trade and head off to separate rooms, separate houses? Did they all go at it at once? Two guys on Aimi? Jesus Christ, did Aimi and the other wife get at it?
He had idly envisioned Aimi having sex before. She was a gorgeous woman, who wouldn't? She was shorter and slighter than his wife, dark-haired, dark complexioned, her family Japanese. She always dressed fashionably, skirts and dresses that showed off her toned legs, or pants that suggested the curve of a perfect ass. He'd always wondered what her breasts were like, but she tended to bare her back more than her chest. She obviously kept in fantastic shape. It was easy to imagine her being an active, enthusiastic lover.
Theo had always imagined her with her similarly athletic husband. Or himself. But now Mia had opened up a whole new world of possibilities in his imagination. The Aimi he pictured now was voracious, adventurous... horny? Theo had to shake himself out of this thought train multiple times during the evening. Particularly when chatting with Aimi herself.
"Theo, Mia tells me you've got yourself a big break." Aimi's well-manicured fingers were just resting on his elbow, pulling his attention to her. Not realizing that it had already been on her, all night.
"Well, that might be an exaggeration, but it's a project I'm really excited about. A book proposal was accepted." He couldn't help but notice how solid her gaze was, Aimi's dark-brown eyes giving him unblinking attention. Was she paying him more attention than usual? Was this all part of a plan?
"A book is new, no? I know you write a lot of articles." She had left her fingers there, resting lightly on his arm. Had she ever done that before?
"Yes, you're right. I've published a number of papers. Have to, really, in academia. But I took this sabbatical with the hope of putting together a book - well and because of Mia's work of course, your work. But it wasn't a sure thing. Now I'll actually have something to be working on."
She smiled widely at him, her hand squeezing his bicep now. Theo found himself tensing his arm. Davis was so freaking fit. "That's wonderful. You'll have to drop the girls off then, so you can get some work done. You work from home, no?" She paused and he nodded. Why did she want to know that? "I can drop Sarah off sometimes too, keep your girls occupied. Would that be good?"
Theo's girls were plenty old enough to keep themselves occupied. But that wasn't a polite response. And what if she was asking because... "Oh wonderful, yes. I'll need to hole up in my room for sure." Oh Christ, why had he said that. Was he coming on to her now? Theo broke his gaze, looking around for Mia. Was she getting cornered by Davis right now?
"Then let's get together before your project starts. And school for the girls starts. And Mia's project gets intense. You all come for dinner next week." She gave his arm another squeeze. He tensed again. Was she testing him for something? Was dinner a pretense?
"Sure, sounds great." He hoped his smile wasn't as weak as it felt.
