Laura sat on the toilet and cried. Joe, her husband, was downstairs on the computer looking for swingers.
It was 2am and their yearly love making session was a disaster. She did not cum and could never cum through intercourse. He rushed sex and ruined their time together by confessing his fantasy for other women while he was buried inside her. The thoughts of him with another woman sickened her nearly as bad as thinking of his desire to see her with not only another man but also another woman.
She stood up from the toilet, wiped the tears from her eyes, and blew her nose. She looked at herself before the full-length mirror, her wild hair, her lined face that showed the wrinkles from the sun and her age, her overweight body that gave him his two sons, and the puffy bags under her eyes from lack of sleep for fear of him leaving her for another.
A 38-year-old mother of two with a part-time job at the supermarket, what would she do without him? Who would want her?
She slid the straps of her nightgown off her shoulders allowing it to fall to the floor. She bought the nightgown especially for this evening taking time to pick out the one that flattered her growing figure. Her breasts sagged more after having breast fed her last baby. She looked a mess, she thought, especially after comparing herself to those young women he ogled at on the swingers' dance floor tonight.
It started with the dance. She did not want to go, but he bullied her about it. Reluctantly, she relented. It was easy for him to just throw a sweater over his beer belly and suck in his gut every time a cute, young thing walked past. She needed to find something to wear, something that made her appealing to other men and, now, to other women, something that made her look hot, and something that made him desire her.
Everything she had no longer fit her. The last baby added a permanent thirty pounds to her frame and she still had not lost the twenty pounds of extra weight from the first baby. She found a cute dress above the knee, one that was cut low enough for all to see that she had breasts. Still, they sat alone at their table that evening. No one approached them. No one asked her to dance. No one looked their way. Later that evening, after the swingers coupled, left, and partied with one another, she and Joe returned to their room alone trying to make the best of it.
She tried giving him want he wanted, a blow job, but after drinking beer all night followed by a couple of shots, he could not maintain an erection long enough for her to pleasure him. Finally, he grew hard enough for intercourse, but he blew his load after only a few minutes leaving her frustrated and unsatisfied. She pretended to fall asleep and he grabbed his laptop and searched the net for swinger sites.
Weeks past since their experiment with swinging and they started drifting apart. She feared he was having an affair. He said that he feared she was getting fat like her mother.
One day, on her way home, she stopped in the better part of town to run an errand. There, in the window of a dress boutique, was a dress, not just any dress, but the dress. It was black, it was slinky, it was short, and it was low cut. The small amount of material that comprised the dress did not seem to justify its $600 price. She had a secret stash of money squirreled away for an emergency and she bought the dress even though it was a size 6 and she wore a size 14.
Excitedly, she brought it home, took off her coat, and held the dress up against her body while looking at herself in the full-length mirror. Carefully, she folded the dress, covered it with tissue, closed the box, and slid it beneath her bed on her side. Just knowing the dress was there, a foot beneath her as she slept each night solidified her motivation to fit in the dress, one day.
The next morning, she went through her refrigerator and cupboard pitching out everything fattening and anything not healthy. She made a list of nutritious food items for her to recreate her new body. She joined a gym and devoted an hour every day to work off the extra pounds, tone her muscles, reshape her curves, and redefine her body. When not at the gym, she walked everywhere forgoing her car. The money she saved on gas helped defray the added expense of buying healthy food.
She had an easy time hiding her ever improving body from her husband; he hardly looked at her anymore. He was more interested with the babes on television, and she made sure she wore her housecoat over her baggy clothes so that he did not see the new her, that is, until she was ready.
Every day, she reached beneath her bed, pulled out the dress, held it up to her body, looked at herself in the mirror, and repacked it away. Every day, she renewed her motivation to improve herself. Every day, she thought about the dance.
It was nearly a year later over coffee when she surprised her husband.
"Isn't the swinger's dance tonight?"
"Yeah, I think so." He peered over his morning paper at her, "Why?"
"I was thinking about how we attended it last year." She took a sip of her coffee. "It was not that awful of a time."
"Yeah, it was kind of fun."
"If you are willing," she paused taking another long sip of coffee, "I would like to give it another try."
He put the paper down, stood up, and put his hands deep in his pocket while pacing the kitchen floor.
"Really? Are you sure? You know, we don't have to do anything you don't want to do. We can just watch. I mean, the dancing was fun and we did have a good time. There are a lot of people there just like us and—"
"Calm down, Joe."
He looked at her.
"You look different. Did you do something different with your hair?"
"No."
"Have you lost weight?"
She shrugged hiding a smile.
"Something is different about you."
"Nope," she sighed, "it's the same old me. You just have not noticed me lately because you are too busy looking at and lusting over other women."
"I'm sorry. I'll try and be more attentive. And if you go to the dance tonight, I will make sure you have a wonderful time. I promise that I won't drink as much as I did last year."
"Okay, agreed."
Taking the day to herself, Laura readied herself for the dance. She had her hair, nails, and makeup done at the ritzy salon in the square. Her husband had to work late and would not arrive until it was nearly time to leave for the dance. He showered while she donned the dress.
She covered the dress with her coat while he quickly dressed.
"Honey, where's my new pants? These pants don't fit me anymore. The dry cleaners must have shrunken them."
"They are in the closet next to your shirts. Hurry or we will be late for cocktails."
They hurried downstairs, got in their SUV, and drove to the hotel.
"Like I said, Honey, there is no pressure, absolutely no pressure. We can just be together like last year if you are not into being with another man or woman or man and woman. Matter of fact, we'll have a secret signal, a sign, in case there is someone who I bring over to the table and who you are not interested in partying with. Okay?"
Laura looked out the passenger side window. She felt like a million bucks. Down from a weight of 170 to her goal weight of 120, she had lost 50 pounds in a year. For the first time in years, she could feel her stomach muscles and she loved the way she looked. Besides, she was wearing the dress and it looked better on her than it did on the mannequin in the window of the boutique.
"So, Joe, how do I look?" She looked over at her husband and smiled. "Do I look alright?"
"Yeah, you look good, Doll," said Joe without glancing over at her. "I hope that couple is there this year. Do you remember them? He had the really pretty blonde wife with the big boobs."
"No, Joe, I do not remember them, but I am sure you will point them out to me."
Joe was out of the SUV and a dozen paces ahead of his wife. He was already at the bar ordering drinks when his wife finally arrived alone without him as her escort.
"May I take your coat?" asked the man at the door of Laura.
"Yes," she gave him a smile and he peeled the coat off her shoulders revealing her body to all the eyes that stared her way.
Laura created a sculptured body that Madonna would have given a million dollars to have. The dress clung to her curves like plastic wrap. She was smoking hot. She had six men around her vying for her attention before she even took a step inside.
Joe turned from the bar with drinks in hand looking for his wife.
"Have you seen my wife?" He asked of the guy standing next to him at the bar.
