This was written without the assistance of an editor, so yes. It will be full of grammatical and punctuation errors. Apologies.
It is the first in a series of stories where I am delving into aspects of life, love and marriage. I am not promoting lifestyles or choices. It is merely a fictional look into what might occur under certain circumstances.
*****
"Do you need coffee, or tea, or anything Zoe?" I asked, as I popped my head into her studio.
She glanced up with those gorgeous deep green emerald eyes. "You're a life saver babe. No coffee, though, tea would be great."
"You want a snack as well?"
"Yeah... Nah. If I eat now, I'll never sleep." She sighed glancing at the time on her computer.
I wandered off to the kitchen, I know she said she didn't want anything, but I knew her better than that. Hunting through the pantry, I found the packet of banana and chocolate muffins I had picked up at the supermarket that morning. I know she said tea, but once she refused the coffee, I knew she would actually enjoy a nice hot creamy Milo.
She was still working, when I walked back into her studio. She pushed her chair back from the desk, and smiled. "Is that Milo Sean?" She giggled at my nodding head. "How did you know?"
"I'm psychic, who knew."
"Oh my god, yum. Muffins." She munched into the first one in between sips of her piping hot Milo. How's the work going?"
"Almost done." she sighed with a hint of thankfulness. "This one has been a real pain. Isabel, is so demanding, and pedantic."
"Yeah, you seem to have struggled with this one."
"Illustrating books isn't usually this bad. Especially children's books, but sheesh, Isabel is hard work."
I took a quick peek at the clock on her computer. "It's nearly midnight. Why not leave it until tomorrow, come to bed."
With a tight grimace, she replied. "Nah, I can't. I promised to have it done tomorrow. If I finish up now, and get it sent. I can sleep in tomorrow."
"Okay, do it your way. Just so you know. I'm going to bed horny."
"As if that's a bloody announcement. You're always horny. If you found me in my sloppy old trackies, taking the rubbish out. You'd still be bloody horny."
"Hey, nobody, and I mean nobody rocks old trackies like you. That cute arse wiggling."
"You mean my fat arse." She said with a self depreciating wince.
"Piss off, you know that's a lie. Your arse is perfect. In fact if you pull those track pants down. I'll worship at the idol of your sexy arse."
"Pervert, I could wake you when I come to bed?"
"Yes please." I said, as I picked up her empty cup, and reached for the half eaten packet of muffins. She slapped my hand away. "Hey, cut it out. I'm not finished with them."
"Yeah, whatever." I said as I walked out, and headed for bed.
Wow, she was such a workaholic. Midnight, and I had to be up at six, to go out to site for a bridge inspection. It was nearing completion, and my role as project engineer was drawing to a conclusion. I think I was asleep before my head hit the pillow. I had been working long hours myself. Working as a consultant meant I had to take the work when it was on offer.
Zoe didn't wake me, and I was awoken by the buzz of my alarm. She was snuggled up behind me, but was so tired herself. She didn't even budge when I climbed out.
This had been the best move of our short lives together. We had moved from our home town so I could take up a position with a local firm. Unfortunately, it fell through. The company going under, due to poor management.
They had a bunch of work on the books, and I decided to set myself up as a private consultant, and I took their work, and clients with me. It had worked amazingly well. Zoe, worked from home, as a book illustrator, so where we lived didn't matter.
It was hard moving to a new location. Leaving our friends and family behind. Still, Zoe agreed, it was the best move ever. We had found an old villa, which we were able to buy. Something we couldn't have done living in Auckland, and their million dollar house prices.
Our four year marriage had flown by. Renovating the villa, working flat out trying to establish my reputation. It had been full on. Now we were starting to show signs of winning. The money we had been pouring into the reno, we now put on the mortgage, and we estimated, in eight to ten years. We would be home and hosed.
If there was one drawback to Zoe working from home, it was she couldn't make a lot of friends. Those relationships usually formed through work. Being stuck at home by herself meant, she was reliant on me.
Luckily, I had been able to make some friends, and we went to barbecues, and parties as often as we could. Zoe, did find a strong connection with the wife of one of my colleagues. Stu, and I hit it off pretty well. We played golf together, played on the same softball team. His wife Claire and I played on a mixed seven aside football team.
Yeah, I loved sports, and Zoe often came along to watch, which is how her and Claire became such good friends. Over the last six months or so, that relationship had steadily blossomed. Either Claire was at our place, or the pair of them were out shopping or biking.
Claire and Stu, were at our place at least a couple of nights a week for dinner, or just drinks. I couldn't believe how close they had become in such a short time. Maybe because they like us had made the decision, no kids until we were financially ready.
We were watching a documentary that streamed, it was about marriage. It delved into marriages and customs from all over the world. Zoe and I had watched the first two episodes together, and she was pretty keen to watch the last couple.
When Zoe suggested to Claire and Stu, they might enjoy it as well. We all plonked ourselves down in our living room with drinks, and snacks.
This episode was a little different, and was dealing more with the unusual marriages, Polyamory, Polygamy, arranged marriages, open marriages.
I was a bit startled by the openness of some of the interviewed couples who were living in some of these weird relationships. They were interviewing a couple who were into wife swapping, or as they called it. Swinging.
Holy fuck. What a bunch of weirdo's." I spluttered.
"Stop it." Zoe admonished. "They're happy, and they're not hurting anybody."
"Oh come on." I blustered. "They're having sex with a bunch of different people. Shit, they could catch anything, diseases, murder because of angry partners."
"You're focusing on the negative shit Sean." Claire said as if I had insulted her.
"What, you think there are positives?"
"Yes, lots of them. They are keeping some excitement in their marriages. Look at them, they don't look sad or depressed. They're enjoying sex. What can possibly be bad about that?"
I shrugged. "I think it's weird. Why can't they enjoy sex with their partners, what does adding more people do to improve it?"
With a deep philosophical sigh, she said. "Lets see, new ideas, new techniques. A different partner brings a different perspective. They are not doing anybody any harm, just like Zoe said."
"You sound like you know a little about it." I said teasing her.
She didn't say anything, but I noticed a furtive glance between her and Stu. It was Zoe, who gasped. "Oh my god, you've done it haven't you, the swapping thing?"
"We might have dabbled a little." Claire responded.
I think, Zoe, from her expression was as stunned as I was. "You and Stu... Bloody hell girl. I would never have guessed. Why didn't you say something?"
Claire laughed softly, before choosing her words. "We don't announce it to the world. There are too many people with Sean's attitude, like it's a crime against humanity or something."
"Hey, I didn't say it was a crime. I just said it was weird. What you do behind closed doors is your business."
I did note, that Stu was blushing wildly, and he hadn't said a single word. He at least had the decency to be embarrassed.
Zoe, was on a mission. She reached for the remote, and pressed pause. Leaned closer to Claire, who she was sharing the sofa with and topped up her wine, and. "So, how does it work? I mean, who do you swap with?"
Claire sipped her wine, and gave me a very strange stare. I think she was judging whether she could be honest, with me present. "Zoe, I'm not really feeling comfortable discussing it. Sean obviously has already formed his opinion." Challenging me, she said. "You think I'm a slut, don't you Sean?"
"No I do not." I spluttered. "I've simply never met anybody involved with it before. This is all new to me. I'm not going to say anything to anybody. If that's what you're worried about."
"Come on babe." Zoe said, her eagerness to hear the rest overtaking her manners.
"Okay." Claire sighed. "We used to go to a club, but that was a bit too much. Some of the people there were a bit sleazy." She glanced accusingly at me. "Yes, those people exist, and spoil it for everybody else. Stu and I decided. We would just find some couples we liked and do it privately."
"God, really. How often do you swing, or swap, or whatever you call it?"
Claire sipped her wine, and again I could see her choosing her words. "It varies, we met a few nice couples, and we used to get together every couple of weeks or so. Things are a bit different now though. Aren't they Stu?"
He swallowed a large lump of something as he nodded. "Yeah. You could say that." The way he said it left me feeling very uncomfortable.
