Rain came down in sheets. All Oliver was trying to do was get home on a Friday, but instead, he sat parked on the freeway behind a semi-truck.
He sighed in exasperation at the traffic for the millionth time in his life. His podcast droned on. It wasn't a particularly great episode, and this irritated him more. He checked his phone and texted his wife, Evelyn, or Evie, for short.
"Are you home already?"
"Yep, just got back from the store and getting all setup. How's traffic?"
"Shit. The map thing says twenty minutes."
"Okay, don't worry, you'll make it in time, I think. Besides, they're always late anyway." Oliver sighed again. She was right, of course, as always. He was just excited to spend the night with their couple friends, Lucas and Grace, for potluck, snacks, drinks, board games, and a movie.
They could only get together about once a year because their friends had an infant, and they all had work and life. Plus, they lived forty-five minutes away and now with this rain. It surprised him they were even coming at all, but it'd been a long time and he knew they all wanted to see each other. It'd been at least a year, maybe more.
Lost in his thoughts, the freeway exit finally appeared, and he turned off.
"Thank fucking god."
Oliver broke through the front door of their house soaked. He slugged his work bags along and set them down next to the couch. He needed a cigarette after that drive, but first, he wanted to kiss his beautiful wife.
"Babe? Where are you?"
"I'm in the kitchen!" Just as he reached the doorway to the kitchen, Evie hopped out with a bubbly grin, her hands interlocked in front of her. The hop giggled the generous cleavage behind her black, v-neck blouse. Oliver grinned, knowing she'd done it on purpose. She giggled when he stepped forward to kiss her. He slung his arm around his wife's waist. They held the kiss for a few seconds, taking in each other in after a long day, reconnecting even though they'd only been gone a few hours at work.
"Mmm, yes please," Oliver said, and broke the kiss. He took his wife's hand and held it up for her to model her outfit.
"You like?" she said.
"I do. Is it new?" he asked. Besides the casual blouse, she wore high waist, maroon yoga pants. One of Oliver's favorites because it turned her ass into two loaves of bread, fresh from the oven.
"You'll never know!" She squealed and went back into the kitchen. He shook his head. The mound of her clothes in their bedroom could clothe a women's homeless shelter. It was like laundering money. She mixed in the old with the new, and Oliver was none the wiser.
"Did you go to the gym?" He asked and passed her in the kitchen.
"No, it's too cold outside," Evie said, and arranged the ingredients on the counter to make their party platter.
"What did you get?"
"You know, the usual: chips, salsa, wings, more chips, mozzarella sticks, cookies." Evie pointed to each thing.
"You know! The usual. Do you know what they're bringing?"
"I think Lucas is bringing Brazilian BBQ or paella. I can't remember what he said," Oliver said.
"That's two pretty different things, Olie," Evie mocked him. He laughed. She knew he hated that nickname.
"And I think Grace is bringing some Korean BBQ." Oliver shrugged. "It's going to be too much food, as always."
"Oh hush, it'll be fun, and besides, you can never have enough for a party."
"One of these times we should actually coordinate with everyone."
"Alright, get out of my kitchen, and go do your smoke," Evie commanded. Oliver loved planning, and his wife hated it. Oliver smirked, knowing he'd gotten on her "nerves'' by pointing out how chaotic and unorganized their potluck's always were. He turned back to the kitchen from the backyard patio door.
"A FEAST OF KINGS, I SAY!" he shouted, and stole away.
Outside, he chuckled at his own joke and pulled out his phone. Oliver hadn't texted him since yesterday, so he sent a message to the foursome's group chat.
"Hey, are we still on for tonight? Just wanted to confirm." Oliver swiped out of the chat app and lit a cigarette. The first drag is always the finest, he thought, and leaned back in the wicker patio chair. He reached back with his other hand and massaged his neck. This new job stressed him out. The boss wanted his design team to have their new portfolio for the next marketing campaign ready to pitch on Monday, so he'd worked like a dog this week trying to get it done. Thankfully, it was done, but a thought gnawed in the back of his mind that they hadn't done the best they could.
"Fuck it," he said. He'd recharge over the weekend and be ready for Monday, and if not, they could fire him. He wasn't the creative director for no reason.
His phone vibrated.
"Yeah, we might be a little late, but we're coming." Lucas responded. The girls added emojis, and Oliver swiped to Lucas's Instagram. Lucas and Grace Bustillo were a handsome couple. Lucas: 6 ft., about 200 pounds with a brown high cut fade and jade eyes. Usually, he kept a close shave, but let it grow aesthetically stubbly from time to time. Oliver had seen him with a full beard before. He could pull it off. Lucas reminded Oliver of a soccer player who played for Barcelona or something and was great back in the day, but had now retired and let himself go a little. Lucas was still in much better shape than Oliver, though. Oliver chided himself. He needed to lug his smoking ass back to the gym.
He liked a few of their newer photos. For example, they'd taken a camping trip recently. Oliver and Evie had gone with them to the beach before. It'd been a good time.
He took another drag on his cigarette when a random image flashed into his mind of Grace at that camping trip on the beach.
Oliver brought two cases of cold beer to the shore. Lucas and Evie splashed in the water, trying to keep a volleyball up between waves rolling in. With each step, Grace's figure came into view as she watched their significant others and Oliver checked her out. White bikini bottoms struggled to cover her wide, pear-shaped ass. Against the sun, her fair, East Asian skin glistened with sunscreen. On top, a halter bikini top and a white sun hat with massive sunglasses to cover her face. He couldn't help but check her out while he slogged across the sand. A grain of guilt nagged at him once he arrived.
Stopping beside her, Oliver set down the beer.
"The calvary's here," he said. She laughed.
"I'm so jealous of them," she said. And in an ominous tone, Oliver thought. Evie screeched in the distance as Lucas splashed her to distract her from getting to the volleyball.
"They don't have to wear sunscreen." Grace turned to Oliver with a smirk.
He laughed.
Shower jets blasted against Oliver's white skin. The warm blanket of steam enveloped him. Hot showers in thunderstorms were one of life's greatest pleasures, he thought. He ran his fingers through his cinnamon locks of hair and closed his eyes to embrace the heat and water. The thought of Grace still hadn't left his mind, and neither had the fact that he'd become retroactively jealous of Lucas in that memory. Why hadn't he been jealous at the time? It was good that he wasn't, he supposed, because it was totally innocent, and they were just having fun.
Oliver reached for some beard shampoo and noticed a full erection between his thighs.
"What the hell is this about?" he asked himself. His eyes betrayed him and darted over to his favorite lotion for masturbating. He looked away with a wry grin.
"They'll be here in fifteen minutes!" Evie shouted through the bathroom door. It startled Oliver.
