This story is set in the UK. At sixteen students leave school and some start college. At eighteen those with the right qualifications can apply to universities to study their chosen subject. They can drink legally too, though most start illegally a bit earlier. All sexual activity in this story takes place between adults over the age of eighteen.
Purists may need to note that this is a fantasy written slightly tongue in cheek. Please don't be annoyed if the characters' responses don't always align with your literary expectations. There's also an opportunity to explore further in subsequent parts if I sense an appetite.
--------------------------------------------------
This is Mike. He is thirty eight years old and on his second marriage. His first ended amicably when Jan decided she did, in fact, want to start a family after all, despite agreeing that wasn't what she wanted when they got engaged. Mike's father was a remote, distant man, and Mike never felt he had learned the skills to be the father that his and Jan's children deserved. So they divorced, quietly and without rancour. If they met in town, they would stop and chat as friends do; and, six months ago, Mike sincerely congratulated her and her partner on the birth of their third child.
On Saturday evening, Mike got in from playing cricket for the village team, to find his wife, Liz, in the kitchen checking that their casserole was on track to be ready to eat by seven o'clock. She told Mike that gave him plenty of time to shower and change while she set the table and opened the wine.
He arrived downstairs with time to spare and asked if there was anything he could do to help. Liz sent him to sit and watch TV until the meal was ready to serve. When called, he followed the gorgeous aroma into the kitchen to find a spectacular meal and a glass of excellent wine awaiting him
As they sat down Liz spoke, "Mike, we need to talk."
"Oh," said Mike. "That sounds ominous. You put lovely food and good wine on the table and then say four words that never end well. Can't it wait?"
"I think that we've put this off for long enough now," she replied. "Surely we can have a mature conversation while we eat."
Mike pondered. He hoped that he was wrong, but he was concerned that this might be something that he had considered but dismissed before he even proposed to Liz.
When his parents died, he and his brother were surprised to find how much they had inherited. His father may not have been a warm man, but he had obviously been an astute investor, and the brothers discovered that they each had access to hundreds of thousands of pounds, probably into the millions by now, in trusts and investments in tax havens across the world. Mike used some of his share to set up his business and invest in property, but left the remainder as a reserve for his old age.
Mike was a generous man, but careful and nobody's fool. Wary of being targeted by gold diggers, when he decided to ask Liz to marry him, he engaged an enquiry agent to find out why her first marriage ended. He had heard her side of the story but wanted to hear her ex-husband's version. The PI reported that she had chatted to the ex in a pub; he seemed like a nice guy, but cynical and disillusioned. His version of events was that his marriage seemed, indeed was, great for six years and then his wife announced that they should 'take it to the next level' and see other people. He claimed to have tried 'swinging' once, hated it and eventually divorced her.
Mike considered what the detective had told him. Perhaps it was true but Liz was intelligent, vivacious and beautiful. She was tall, 5'10", blonde, slender, with perky tits and a shapely arse. Mike hit six foot and was athletic, comfortably wealthy and good looking. They shared a lot of interests and easily tolerated those interests that they didn't share; cricket being one. On balance, Mike decided that he loved her too much to let her go based on the word of a man he didn't know, and he proposed. But he made contingency plans too, just in case. One example was the house they rented: It was actually owned by one of Mike's more discreet trusts, but if they separated it wouldn't appear as one of his assets to be shared in any divorce.
Liz claimed that she and her ex had divorced because he became complacent and dull and didn't even try to keep their marriage alive. Mike had wondered if the cycle was about to repeat as they had been happily married for seven years now but something seemed to have changed, almost imperceptibly, in her behaviour over the last three months. Was he about to find out why?
"So," he offered. "While I eat, perhaps you can enlighten me. What is this conversation that I didn't realise I was avoiding?"
Liz finished her mouthful of food and took a sip of her wine. "Well, it's obvious to me, and I'm sure you've noticed too, that our sex life has become very routine. I think you'll agree that we have to do something to reconnect, at a sexual level before we," she paused. "Well, before we just drift apart." She took another forkful of food and looked to her husband for his agreement.
"Are you suggesting couples counselling?" He asked, barely managing to prevent himself from laughing in her face.
She actually took him seriously, "No. I'm worried that you are getting bored only having sex with me, and I think you should have the opportunity to look outside our marriage for women to sleep with."
"Fuck me!" Thought Mike. "She sounds more like a telesales scammer than a wife. What happened to the woman I married?"
He continued, aloud, "But I'm not interested in having sex with other women. And what about you? Wouldn't you be jealous if I were having sex with other women while you were at home alone?" He carried on eating. She may be coming out as a slut, but she could cook.
"No, honey," she started look impatient at how dense he seemed to be. "If you're having sex with other women, it's only fair that I can see other men."
Mike noticed that this conversation was being framed so that he was 'having sex', while Liz was 'seeing'. He would be attracted by the first and not be discouraged by the latter; either she'd been on a marketing course or someone had been coaching her.
"Are you saying that you're bored having sex with me?" He asked feigning a hurt voice. "You said I was a wonderful lover, only last night. Were you only saying that to spare my feelings?"
Liz started to panic. She was losing control of the dialogue because Mike wasn't sticking to the script they had prepared for. "No, darling, you are the best lover a girl could have, but I think we both need more variety to bring us closer together."
Mike tormented her by appearing to think deeply, and for far too long for her liking, as he continued to eat.
"So how would this work then?" He asked, taking a drink of his wine. He made a note to buy another case; it was very good. "It's not like I want to go clubbing to pick up women, all the women I work with know I'm married and there's no fucking way I'm putting my face on Tinder, where someone I know may recognise me."
She recoiled a bit at the vehemence in his last comment, but she soldiered on. His Tinder reference had given her an opening. "Perhaps I could help then. I think I've heard a chap who works at the dealership with me make references to 'swinging'. Maybe, if I understood him correctly, I could approach him discretely and have him put us in touch with couples with the same... Issues."
