"Happy birthday, honey," he said. Charlie leaned in and gave his wife a kiss as she lay beside him. The sweat of their lovemaking heavy in the air. "I hope you have a good day."
Eleanor sighed deeply. "If it continues as well as it's started, it will be a great day!"
They got up and started their morning preparations. He hopped in the shower first while she brushed her teeth, still naked. She watched her breasts jiggle with the strokes of brushing. After she finished, she looked at herself in the mirror and contemplated her body.
"Do you still think I'm sexy," she queried as she lifted and dropped her breasts one at a time.
From in the shower her husband replied, "Of course I do. I think you're sexier than ever."
She walked over to the the shower and pulled the door open. He recoiled from the cold air.
She looked at him sincerely and asked again. "No, really. Do you think I'm still sexy? I mean, we've been together for ten years now, I've had two kids. This," she gestured to herself, "is not a tight young thing. It's not the body you married."
He stopped sudsing the shampoo in his hair, reached out, pulled her into the shower with him and held her tight.
"I love you for more than your body, and even then, I think you are the most beautiful woman in the world. I wouldn't want to be with anyone else." He gave her a squeeze.
They stood for a moment, the hot water running over and between them. He felt, rather than heard her chuckle.
"What's so funny?"
"Oh, I was just remembering that this is the 20th anniversary of losing my virginity. I was thinking you might have different thoughts about my sexiness if you could have been with me back then."
Still holding her close, he looked down at her. "What do you mean?"
She stepped back from him a little and made her best Bring It On pose. "I had a hot little cheerleader body, and all the boys wanted me. And honestly, I was so horny all the time, if we had been together back then, I'd have worn you out." She winked. "Hand me the soap, I need to get ready for work."
"You lost your virginity on your birthday?" He handed her the soap and began washing her back.
"Yep, my 20th. I was so proud I hadn't had sex as a teenager. Of course, I'd done other things, but not sex. I thought you knew that."
"Maybe I just forgot. So was it your boyfriend, or just a hookup?
She turned to him with a sly look. "Aren't you nosy. What, are you suddenly jealous of 20 year old me?" She leaned in close, rubbing her soapy body against him. "Or are you jealous of the guy who fucked me?" She tugged his cock and licked his nipple before stepping away to continue her washing.
He stood, silent for a moment. His member hardening from the touch. Finally he answered, "I was just wondering. I don't really keep up with your relationships. I certainly wasn't judging."
"I know. You know, I was just teasing you. It wasn't anything special. I was making out with my boyfriend and I just let him keep going. I'm not even sure I came." She finished rinsing off and got out of the shower.
"That's too bad," he answered.
"Eh, it was the first time. I didn't expect it to be earth shattering." She dried off and left the bathroom to get dressed.
He kept thinking while he finished his shower. He was imagining his wife at 20. He'd seen pictures of her that time and had always thought she was cute, but for some reason he'd never really considered her sexually at that age.
"Are you going to be all day in there?" She called from the other room. He shook himself loose from the mental images of his wife making out with with an unknown 20-something and finished his shower.
They finished getting ready, got the kids off to school and then headed their separate ways to work. He kissed her and wished her happy birthday again before they parted and she reminded him of dinner reservations.
All day at work he was distracted by the new found interest in the beginnings of his wife's sexuality.
He kept imagining how the evening (was it evening?) might have happened. Who's place were they at? Did they get drunk? Did she go down on him? Did he go down on her?
He had a hard time focusing on work.
He was snapped from one of his fantasies by his friend, Jacob knocking on his office door.
"Hey man, is everything alright?"
"yeah, why?" Charlie tried unsuccessfully to look busy.
"You've been really out of it today. Is everything okay?"
Jacob and Charlie had been friends for a long time and knew each other's families. Charlie waved him in and motioned to shut the door. Jacob complied, beginning to look worried.
"So, yeah, everything's okay. You know today's Eleanor's birthday right? Sit down, man. Well anyway, this morning we're talking and she tells me about how she lost her virginity 20 years ago today."
"On her birthday? That's a pretty sweet present, especially for the dude. It was a dude right? She's not one who's hung up of that kind of thing."
"Yeah, of course, I think. I dunno. Anyway, since then I just can't stop thinking about it. About what happened. For some reason I'm just totally stuck on this idea of her first time."
Jacob, who had already sat down and was leaning in close, sat back. " I don't know what to say may. I'm the one who fucked Stacy for the first time, so I know exactly what her first time was like."
"Gee thanks," Charlie said sarcastically.
"I'm sorry man, I don't know what to say. Think of it this way though, whoever that guy, or girl, was, they maybe got to have sex with Eleanor a few times, maybe a few dozen. I know what you two are like. You've done it hundreds of times and you know how to work each other, so it's got to be way better. Don't worry about it."
"I'm not worried, and you're right our sex is better, I have no doubt. To be honest, I'm kinda turned on thinking about the whole thing. Imagining being that guy."
"I hear ya. Look, I didn't come by to talk about fucking your wife. We have that meeting in," Jacob looked at his watch, "shit, five minutes.
"Oh, man, I'm sorry. Yeah. Let's go. Thanks again for listening to my pathetic problems."
They got up and left the office. An hour later Charlie returned. His head was a little clearer. The meeting had been a good distraction and he was able to focus on work. About thirty minutes after he sat down he got a message from Jacob. The subject just read: You might like this.
He never knew what type of digital harassment he was in for from Jacob, so with trepidation, he opened the email. All it contained was a bit.ly link. Figuring it was mostly safe, since Jacob had sent it from his work email, Charlie followed it. At first he thought it was a joke; the page was poorly formatted and looked like something form the late 90's. As he sorted through the animated graphics and poorly aligned text, he found the meat of the page.
Jacob had sent him a link to a guy who taught a sort of joint hypnosis. He claimed it allowed someone to experience another's memories from the perspective of someone else in the memory. According to the website, if you did this guy's method, you could relive parts of someone's life, not as them, but with them. It all seemed kind of hokey.
Jacob was just giving Charlie a hard time. It's how they were as friends. Charlie was about to close the page and send a sarcastic thanks to Jacob when he caught sight of one particular flashing button in the corner of the page that simply stated "Free Trial."
Charlie paused for a moment. If this did work, he'd be able to live through Eleanor's first time with her and then he wouldn't be so hung up on it. If it didn't, then there was no harm and since it was a free trial, no cost. He debated just a bit longer before he figured "What the hell," and clicked the link.
The page it took him to was much like the previous. There didn't seem to be any sign-ups, just a list of directions. It all seemed very new-agey. Still, Charlie read through them, but he was surprised by the last entry.
"The person whose memories you are reliving will not remember this has happened since you are playing back an existing memory of theirs. You, however will have total remembrance, even if their memory of the event is fractured by time. Please use carefully."
Charlie read the directions several times, wanting to commit it to memory rather than risk a hard copy. Finally he was sure he had it all down. To cover his tracks, he cleared his browser history and sent Jacob that sarcastic thanks.
He pushed himself to focus on work for the rest of the day and was actually surprised when five rolled around. He said his goodbyes and accepted birthday wished for Eleanor on his way out.
The evening was lovely. The kids gave their mom nice hand-crafted gifts and Charlie gave her a new watch. They went to dinner and ate just a little too much. Eleanor broke form her usual habit of not drinking in front of the kids to have a couple of glasses of wine. She explained it was an extra special occasion. "Your mom is only going to turn 40 once."
They went back home and the kids went to bed. Charlie and Eleanor got ready for bed and sat, cuddled under the blanked watching an episode of her favorite show on Netflix.
"Did you have a nice day, honey?" Charlie asked.
"Mm hmm," she replied and nuzzled him.