It was a staid meeting on a late spring, Tuesday afternoon in a high-rise office building in Raleigh. The three o'clock afternoon break rolled around as a temporary relief from the tedium at hand. The attendees rose gratefully from their seats, stretched, refilled coffee cups, and relaxed.
I rose with the rest of the attendees. My function was to provide legal advice to two tech companies in Research Triangle that were merging their businesses. This meeting was to hammer out the final details. Things were going quite smoothly. It was just a routine and very stodgy business meeting.
I made the dull six-plus hour drive from my home in Atlanta yesterday. The meeting was scheduled to last through Thursday afternoon, and I would then make the same monotonous return drive home Friday morning. It was just a profitable but dull week in the life of an commercial business lawyer.
I excused myself and went to the men's room at the start of the break. As I returned to the conference room, I stopped in the hall briefly to check for messages on my phone. There were a couple of minor questions from the Atlanta office that could wait until later and one from my wife, Julie.
As I headed back into the meeting, I dutifully glanced at Julie's text to see what she wanted. My jaw dropped in shock as I read my wife's stunning, terse missive.
The message began with a caricature of a grinning, red she-devil placing a rack of horns on a doleful-looking man sitting on a stool. Julie is an author and a skilled computer graphic artist who enjoys making computer art work. This had the hallmarks of some of her tongue-in-cheek clip-art renderings.
The text under the figure read simply: "You said you fantasized about me with other men. Okay, you have your wish now, my little cuckold. Details in email."
I sat through the rest of the day's meeting on tenterhooks. I didn't want to explore Julie's email on my phone while sitting in front of other people in the meeting. It would have to wait, but I was dying to know what in the world was going on with my wife. This sounded insane.
My emotions were in a roil. Red hot anger and green-eyed jealousy raged in furious competition with one another. My wife was screwing another man and letting me know about it by text while I was 400 miles away; how else was I supposed to feel?
At the same time I was utterly humiliated and embarrassed. My bile boiled, and acid indigestion clawed at my throat. I broke out in a sweat, and my face felt flushed with shame. I realized that I had probably stupidly triggered my wife's adultery.
A month ago, as Julie and I sat in rocking chairs on our back porch one Friday evening, we consumed several stout Manhattans, well above our normal limit of one. We were talking about sexual fantasies, and both of us became pretty uninhibited under the influence of old man Barleycorn.
Somewhere in the midst of that free-ranging and unfettered discussion, I remarked that she was such a sultry little minx that I would love to just sit and watch her having sex with another man. I am not sure what triggered that observation. However, under the influence of the alcohol, the idea of her undulating and whooping in passion while I simply sat and watched seemed to be incredibly sexy at the time. What a dumb idea.
Julie just laughed and said, "Pervert! That's not ever going to happen."
Then with a quizzical smile, she asked, "That would certainly be fun for me, but honey, why in the world does playing the cuckold seem like fun to you?"
I shrugged my shoulders and said nonchalantly, "I don't know. I enjoy observing you when we have sex and especially when you have an orgasm. I guess that is all; you're just fascinating to watch when you are in the throes of it. Even, like now, just imagining you entwined passionately with a lover strikes me as highly erotic. Sexy nudes are a big part of the art world in painting and sculpture; maybe it is all wrapped up in some kind of genetic awe of the public sexuality of the female."
Julie looked at me curiously and just said, "Oh," in a thoughtful tone.
I forgot about the incidence until now. Obviously, Julie took it under further and more serious advisement.
When the meeting finally ended at 5:30, I begged off of going to happy hour and dinner with the gang by lying that I had a memo to get back to the office tonight. I hurried back to my room in a swivet and opened up my private email account on my laptop. As promised, there was an email from my wife.
It read: "Honey, you shared your fantasy about me being with another man, which was surprising and, I must admit, a little unsettling. Nevertheless, it was your personal fantasy so I'm not judging. We all have our own peculiar sexual peccadillos. You listened to mine sympathetically. So fair is fair, I'll indulge your fantasy too."
"Well, this morning I stopped in Starbucks for a Latte after making a run to the post office first thing after it opened. The line at Starbucks' was long at that time of the morning, and I got to chatting with this very attractive man in front of me. His name is Jim, by the way. He got one of those super big blueberry muffins and a gourmet Columbia-bean coffee, paid for my Latte, and graciously invited me to join him while we drank our coffees."
"I had planned to take my Latte home and get back to the grind of writing on my new novel - the one I have been working on these last six weeks. You know how those publisher deadlines have a nasty habit of slipping up on me!"
"But then I remembered your fantasy of me with another man and thought I could tease you a little bit about my having coffee with a good looking hunk like Jim. Did I mention Jim has blond hair, blue eyes, and is built like a Hollywood macho man? Whoo Hoo!"
"I only intended to flirt a little with Jim. Nothing serious. Harmless stuff. Just a little naughty something to stir up your cuckold fantasy and whet your male jealousy for our mutual amusement over a drink upon your return."
"Jim shared his muffin with me, and we chattered away like magpies. And then Jim got refills of our coffees for us. They really have delightful coffee at Starbucks. Anyway, Jim is a really sweet and witty guy. Very easy to talk to."