Chapter 01: "I want your wife to have sex with my husband"
My earlier story 'Vanessa and Marnie In Conversation' concluded with a dilemma rather than an outcome: Should Marnie do as her next-door neighbour Vanessa suggests and have sex with Vanessa's husband Will? And if she does, should she tell her own husband Barry?
A couple of readers challenged me to provide an ending to the story. So, despite my statement that I wouldn't, here is a story, every bit as fictional as the original, that could possibly follow on from that conversation.
Neighbours
"Hey Barry, I'd say it's about wine o'clock. What do you think?" Vanessa's voice came from over the fence. It was Saturday afternoon, I had just finished mowing the lawn and Vanessa had been doing some gardening in her back yard.
"Yes indeed," I called back. "The sun is long past the yardarm. Give me a few minutes to have a shower and I'll get a bottle and bring it over. I've got a light red that should slip down well on a warm afternoon like this."
"OK Baz. I'll do the cheese 'n bikkies. Seeya soon."
Vanessa is an interesting lady. She and her husband Will moved in next door to us about four years ago. They run a social research business, with Will often out conducting field work on something or other while Vanessa works from home doing the number crunching and producing reports. He's a bit of an intellectual kind of character, but I get along with him really well despite our different outlooks on life. My thing is property development projects which can get a bit down-to-earth at times, dealing with some fairly tough characters. I see Will as a thinker. I'm a doer.
Vanessa is apparently some sort of statistician, but she comes across as a lot less nerdy than Will. She's also very easy on the eye. She formed a close bond with my wife Marnie almost as soon as they moved in, but she also became very close to our two daughters Lynn and Ellie. They see her as something like a big sister and they tell her things they think they can't go to their mother with. Vanessa then tells Marnie and sorts things out for the girls. It's quite funny, really.
Both girls have left home now to go to university, but we see them on occasional weekends and uni holidays. So Marnie and I now have this big house all to ourselves most of the time and it will be interesting to see what happens in this next phase of our lives. She talked about taking a holiday, but business has been crazy for the past few months and there's been no way I could get away for a break. Apart from that, Marnie has her volunteer charity work that she's tangled up with and that keeps her busy. But we really should think about a holiday together sometime soon. It's been a long time since the last one.
A few words about Marnie. I said Vanessa is easy on the eye and yes, for a lady going on forty she's quite something. But when it comes to looks, Marnie leaves her in the shade. And Marnie's had two kids which Vanessa hasn't. When I first met her, Marnie was an innocent little thing sheltered from the world by the most incredibly protective parents. She hadn't ever had a real boyfriend until I came along. I had to calm down, give up all the other girls in my life and scrub up to look like the sort of bloke her stodgy parents would let their precious little girl go out with. It worked like a charm and just over a year later, we were married.
It was the best thing that ever happened to me. It's been a bit over twenty years now and I have two lovely daughters who are far more intelligent than their father, a successful business providing an income I couldn't have dreamed of in my younger days, plus a beautiful wife who loves me more than anything else in the world. Or so I thought until that Saturday afternoon drinking wine with Vanessa.
*******
Saturday Afternoon, Wine O'clock
I showered quickly, shoved on a fresh pair of shorts and tee shirt, grabbed a bottle of light red from the cooler downstairs and made my way over to Vanessa's back verandah. She had two wine glasses on the table and a plate of cracker biscuits plus a very large wedge of crumbly cheddar. I do like a bitey cheese.
Undoing a screw cap doesn't have the theatre of pulling a cork, but I played the game for her anyhow, pouring a sample and requesting her approval before one-third filling both glasses. "So what's Will up to today?" I asked as I raised my glass.
"He's had two focus groups today and another this evening," she replied. "I'll be dead to the world by the time he gets home tonight. What about Marnie?"
"She's down at the home," I said. "They have this program where they are showing the elderlies how to use the net to stay in touch with the outside world as well as their friends and rellies. After that, she's going out for a bite to eat with the other volunteers. Like you, I could be well out of it by the time she gets home."
"In that case, I'll get a few more nibbly bits and we can stay out here and chat until it's time for bed," she said, getting up and going into the kitchen. Several minutes later she returned with another plate piled with antipasto and more crackers, as well as another bottle of red. It looked like Vanessa was settling in for a long session. Good thing tomorrow was Sunday and I would be able to sleep in.
"This old vine grenache is a bit rougher than your light red," she said. "But I think it'll go down well as the evening wears on."
Then she sat down and looked me straight in the eye. "I am about to tell you the weirdest thing you have ever heard in your life," she said.
"What, you discovered fairies at the bottom of your garden while you were doing the weeding?" I looked at her quizzically.
"That's an everyday occurrence. No. I want your wife to have sex with my husband."
I was in the process of taking a sip of red when she said that. I coughed and spluttered and red wine went down the front of my shirt. "Far canal! You do come up with some doozies, but that one has to be your best yet. Can we go back to the fairies now?"
"Nah, I'm not away with the fairies." She was smiling at me with a strange expression on her face. "No, this one is definitely serious. I really do want Marnie to have sex with Will."
"For fuck's sake! Why?" I exploded. "What in fortune's name makes you think I could possibly agree to something like that? What the hell gives you the idea that Marnie would want to do it anyway? And what about Will? Does he know you've got this stupid fuckwitted idea?"
I rarely swear in the presence of women. But at that point Vanessa had removed herself completely and totally from the category 'ladies in whose presence a gentleman does not swear'.