"She won't let us make love at all?"
Amy pressed her head to my chest as we embraced in her hotel room, her anguish sharp as my own.
"Katherine was okay with us!" Amy said. "She asked me to come with you to New York. Now she's changed her mind?"
"Maybe actually seeing us together makes what we're doing more real. But I don't know. We just got here. I'm going to find out."
Amy clung. "She hates me now, doesn't she? For sleeping with you."
"Kate doesn't hate you, Amy. She cares about you. Just like I do."
I leaned down and kissed her. She kissed me back hungrily.
We parted, and I tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "Anyway," I said, we'll survive. We've been fucking non-stop for a week."
Amy looked down, nodding, then looked up hopefully. "Can we do a quickie now? Or later? Before you go to bed with her?" She guided my hand to her breast.
"You've gotten addicted to sex," I said, chuckling. "Go take your shower. Get dressed for the restaurant."
Amy gave me a naughty look, trying to pull me towards her bathroom. "Join me?"
Oh, how I wanted to—run my hands over her firm boobs, then pound her against the wall of the shower. But we had done that back home just before we left for the airport.
I marched her to her bathroom, gave her bum a playful swat, and left.
~~~~
When your wife of fifteen years says it's okay to fuck someone else, can she really mean it? Or, in her love, is she sacrificing her happiness for yours?
That's what I pondered at home one week before. I had just run for the phone, standing naked in our bedroom, and had admitted to Kate that I'd spent the night before fucking our nineteen-year-old house guest. Kate then gave her okay.
Well, not entirely. She was accepting. Understanding. Kate tried to sound lighthearted, but I heard the hurt in her voice. I knew her disappointment in not being able to satisfy my stupid, clawing, relentless sex drive.
When I hung up, I stumbled to our bed, stretched out beside Amy and stared at the ceiling.
Amy, who had been on the bed on hands and knees, eager for another round, saw my face and lay beside me.
"So is... is Kate okay? With us, I mean?"
"She says she is."
"I knew it!" Amy laughed and kissed me, eyes sparkling. "I knew she'd be okay. Oh, Ben... this is so great!"
Amy tried to pull me on top of her, but I guided her back. I burned with guilt and uncertainty about Kate, and questions about Amy returned.
When your homeless nineteen-year-old house guest says she's fantasized about you then offers herself, is she being honest, or is she desperate for a place to stay or someone to belong to?
I turned to her. "Amy, when you came to us, you said you had nowhere else to stay. Was that really true?"
She studied my face. "Why?"
"Just tell me."
Amy shrugged. "Well, okay. I kinda did."
"Kind of?"
"Okay!" she said. "I have friends. It wouldn't have been great, but there were people I can stay with."
"And now?"
"Same thing. I could stay with friends." Amy gasped. "Oh, god. Katherine's not okay? She told you to kick me out? Oh god. Oh, no..."
"No! It's okay." I gripped her arm. "She says we can keep sleeping together. She's not overjoyed, but says she understands. I just wanted to make sure about you."
Amy thought for a moment, then said, "Make sure I'm not whoring myself out for a place to stay."
"Ooh, that's harsh. I didn't think so, but there's something else. There's this thing: power imbalance. Bosses shouldn't sleep with employees. Landlords don't fuck tenants. That kind of thing. Our age difference is bad enough."
"So, if I didn't have anywhere else to go you'd have to kick me out? And since I do, I can stay?"
I laughed.
"Ben, you didn't coerce me, you know. I kinda did that to you. I'm not here because I had nowhere else to go. It's because there's nowhere else I want to be. I told you. I've dreamed of living here. With you. Sleeping with you." She grinned. "After what we did last night I really, really really want to sleep with you." She paused. "Next, you're going to ask if I'm on the pill, right?"
Grinning, I said, "Oh, I know you are. Last week, you left your current pack prominently displayed on the bathroom counter."
Amy winced. "Not very subtle, huh?"
I chuckled. "Not very. But even if you hadn't, I knew you'd never have sex unprotected. You'd never try to trap me."
"Because of mom, right?"
"Huh?"
Amy said, "I'd never trap you because that's what mom did to get my dad to stay. Everyone knows about that."
"Well, I didn't, Amy. What happened?"
"He vanished the second she told him she was pregnant with me."
"Oh, Amy," I said quietly, "That's awful. I had no idea."
She sighed, pursing her lips. "Great. Should've kept my mouth shut. Now you think I'm even more trailer trash than before."
I hugged her to me. "We have never, ever thought of you like that. You're not your mother, Amy. How you grew up and things your mom did don't reflect on you. Even if I'd known that about your mom, I knew you'd never trap me because you're you, Amy. Driven, smart, and so damn honest it hurts."
Amy smiled and pecked my cheek. She laid back, and we both admired the ceiling together. Then she said, "I'm not a child, you know."
"Of course not, Amy."
"Then stop treating me like one. I'm nineteen. I can make my own decisions."
I rolled to face her. "You're responsible for your decisions, Amy. Doesn't mean you're always good at making them. When I was nineteen, I was a fool."
"Yeah? Well, I've never had the luxury of being a fool. I've had to deal with my mom and keep our house since I was little. Pay the bills, deal with all lowlifes she had hanging around, deal with all the endless shit of having no money. I wasn't a little kid even when I was a little kid, you know?"