"Just so I understand, you want to open our marriage so you can sleep with other men."
She nodded, too enthusiastically for my comfort. As an afterthought, she said, "And you with other women."
I toyed with the whiskey glass she'd handed me when she guided me into the living room and said, "Let's chat."
I'm not a fan of hard liquor. She knew I preferred a quality craft beer. She must have thought I'd need something stronger to calm my emotions or to dull my senses.
The first question I had was,
why
, but I knew she'd have rehearsed an answer. I'd learned in our six years of marriage, Susan considered herself adept at negotiating domestic issues.
She'd "persuaded" me to let her remodel the master bathroom, despite the fact the house was only three years old. She literally seduced me into trading her two-year old, fully loaded Acura MDX for a brand new, fully loaded, electric ZDX, "to save the environment."
I was certain she had a master plan for this scenario and most possible contingencies. What I didn't understand was how she could think
any
scheme would work, no matter how well conceived. My goal was, on short notice, to assess whether our marriage was salvageable.
"Who are you going to fuck first?" I calmly asked.
She fidgeted with her wine glass, seemingly interested in the color of her rosé.
Good, plan derailed early
, I thought.
