Catalyst: an agent that provokes or speeds significant change or action.
It should have been a simple phone call, a quick conversation between a husband and wife, a non-event. Instead, a few careless words spoken during a phone call in the car became the catalyst that launched our family into the depths of sexual exploration and forbidden pleasure over the course of the summer.
I spent a lot of time thinking about it, as the summer ended and the slower pace of autumn set in. In retrospect, it all seemed so clear -- how the varied circumstances of our lives had brought us all to a place where our inhibitions were at their lowest, and our desires at their highest. All the ingredients were there, like a pot of simmering water, just waiting for that one single event to set everything else in motion, turning the water in the pot into a rolling boil, overflowing the rim and spilling out into a torrent of uninhibited lust and pleasure.
It was plainly obvious to everyone that I had been putting in too many hours as a real estate agent; what wasn't obvious was the toll it had taken on the intimacy I shared with my husband, Rich. We had a wonderful, passionate, erotic, adventuresome sex life, and we still both had needs and desires to fulfill; but the mental and physical exhaustion from my job had caused our sex life to grow stale. I knew Rich needed more sex than what he was getting; and I knew he had a penchant for wanting to push the boundaries. In our earlier years, this had led to some very kinky and erotic adventures, which we had both enjoyed to the brim. Neither one of us were ready for those days to be over.
Our three children -- Mandy, Dylan, and Jenna -- had all emerged into full adulthood as mature, curious, and open-minded individuals. We didn't know all the details, but we knew all three of them had taken their first few steps in exploring their sexuality while still in high school, and had continued to explore as they went on to college.
Mandy was 25 and had been married to Trevor for almost 3 years. They had met when both he and Mandy were seniors in college. They hit it off and fell in love. It was only afterwards that I found out they had met first at a fraternity party and had hooked up for the night. She never bothered to learn his name, until the next weekend, when they met up again at another party, and hooked up again. After several other casual sex encounters, they decided to begin dating, although apparently it was never an exclusive relationship, as Mandy had hinted several times of other men she had seen, as well as other women he had spent time with.
They made a beautiful couple -- Mandy was short, petite, with a narrow waist and just a hint of wideness in her hips, dark brown hair that hung in thick curly locks down her shoulders and back, a perfect match to her dark brown, alluring eyes. Trevor was tall, muscular, with light blue eyes and short, light-brown hair, and had a gentleness about him that belied his passionate, fun-loving personality.
Although Trevor had earned his bachelor's degree in business, he instead decided to follow his true passion and became a firefighter, doing construction work on his off days to bring in some extra income. Mandy was a special needs teacher at a local elementary school. They were doing their best to make it on their own, but it was obvious they were financially strapped most of the time.
Dylan was 23 and was in his first year of graduate school, going after an MBA. His true passion was mountain biking, and he spent most of his free time with a group of friends traveling all over the western part of the US exploring trails. There were several women he dated in high school and college, but so far had not found the one woman he was ready to settle down with. Like his father, he was tall, muscular for his thin frame, and had dark brown shaggy hair and dark brown eyes.
Our youngest daughter, Jenna, 21, had returned from college for the summer. She was a beautiful, bright young woman, eager to explore and see the world. In many respects she was a clone of me -- she not only had my blue eyes, but also had my straight, dirty blonde hair, which she kept tied up in a ponytail most of the time. She had earned herself a full-ride volleyball scholarship to college and looked like the typical California beach girl, a beautifully toned, lithe, tanned body. She was at least four inches taller than Mandy and was almost as tall as Dylan. Although Mandy got my breasts (C, almost D cup), Jenna got my curves and my plump, curvy ass -- although hers was solid muscle. She was absolutely gorgeous, and turned many heads, but somehow didn't fully realize it.
We all lived very busy lives, and it had been a long time since our entire family had been together for more than just a weekend. So I was particularly excited knowing I would have both Dylan and Jenna home from college for part of the summer. Jenna came home after her last final, but Dylan was mountain biking with some friends and wouldn't come home for a few more weeks.
What I was most excited about was the family vacation Rich and I had finally been able to put together. It had taken some wrangling, but we finally got all our kids to commit to spending some time to be together, and had pulled out all the stops reserving a very nice cabin on Lake Tahoe for 9 days over the 4th of July. It was just over three weeks away, and both Rich and I were looking forward to unplugging and having some downtime with our kids.
Jenna had only been home a few days, but had immediately plugged back into her group of friends from high school, and I hadn't really had the chance to spend much time with her. I decided to take Friday off to go out to lunch with her and do some shopping.
We were driving on Highway 101 in heavy traffic, on our way home when Rich called. Not thinking about it, I hit the speakerphone button and said hello.
"Hey, Jackie."
"Hey."
"So I was doing some laundry and found that green thong. Wow. Just... wow. Absolutely mindblowing. Couldn't get over how amazing it smelled and tasted. Got me rock hard in an instant."
It was like my mind was in neutral. I had no idea what he was talking about, and didn't realize what he was saying until it was already out. And he just kept talking about it, going on and on about the smell and the taste, even as I belatedly yelled out, "You're on speakerphone, Jenna is in the car with me!"
A few moments of silence were broken by him laughing and saying, "Oh... oops... uh... sorry, Jenna, forgot you were in the car with Mom."
Getting angry and embarrassed, I asked, "What are you talking about?"
"I was doing laundry, and... came across this... sexy green satiny thong. I assumed it was yours."