Author's note: Absolutely no animals were harmed in the development of this manuscript.
*
Sandra was a trophy wife. She had met her husband, Marvlyn, when they were in college, he was an early draft pick for the NFL, and she was the aspiring cheerleader. When he was drafted his second phone call was to propose to her, his first call was to his posse, they had always been there for him; they were the family he never had.
Life was comfortable for Sandra; she wanted for nothing, had most any material desire filled immediately, if not sooner, and played the trophy wife role well for her husband. With all the endorsements and notoriety, the bank account was not a worry. Her love life though had never been much to speak of. Marvlyn was not the stereotypical black man; he was undersized as a lover and did not possess the sexual drive to keep her satisfied.
The year after his retirement from professional football Sandra had discovered Marvlyn with a young member of his posse in a close embrace in the pool house. Marvlyn had the young man's penis in his mouth and was obviously comfortable with the act. She made no mention of it to him; she was after all a wallflower, an object to prop up his charade. Her first inclination was to leave him, but that would serve nothing; no...being the dutiful wife was her lot in life and had provided her with a very good lifestyle, she would continue as she had all along and ignore this newly discovered idiosyncrasy.
Sandra's family had not approved of her marrying a black man. They didn't attend the wedding nor did they send congratulatory sentiments. They didn't disown her, but they might as well have; she grew apart from them. With all this emotional baggage it was difficult to call home and confide in anyone, but she desperately needed someone to talk to and she couldn't trust anyone she knew with such intimate information. She picked up the phone and dialed the number for her brother's home phone.
"Hello?" a male voice intoned.
"Chuck, is that you?" Sandra asked, not having spoken to her older brother in years.
"Yes, how can I help you?"
"Chuck, this is Sandra."
"Oh my gads, how have you been Sandra?"
"Ok...well not so ok...Chuck I need to talk to someone, I'm so desperate, can we meet?"
"Are you in trouble? Do you need a lawyer?"
"No, no, nothing as dramatic as that, I just need a shoulder and I can't trust my friends. Will you help?"
"Of course, when and where?"
"Can we meet at your house this evening?"
"Sure!"
"Its good to talk to you again Chuck, I'll see you there, bye."
***
As she drove toward her brother's house she thought of all the time Marvlyn spent with the posse. Had he always been this way? Had he been with all of them? Did he even like girls? These thoughts haunted her to Chuck's door step.
Chuck greeted her warmly, if not affectionately. He listened as she recanted the strange tale of her life as a trophy wife to this sports superstar. It seemed very odd to him that people would prostitute themselves this way. Still, he listened. And as Sandra began to describe her sex life, or more accurately the lack of a sex life, he was spellbound by the tale of this man-amongst-men and his impotence with his wife. Then Sandra explained Marvlyn's posse of young men and how she had found him with one and the realization that it was young men he had a taste for and not her.
Chuck had been a good listener up to this point, but had to interject a thought, "Sandra, any man would be lucky to have a woman like you. You are beautiful, and smart, and you have the grace of an angel. What he's done to you is not an indictment of your femininity; on the contrary, it's an indictment of his manhood."
Sandra broke down and cried at this reaffirmation. "Oh god, what am I to do?"
"Leave him."
"I couldn't do that. He would keep everything, he has lawyers and friends...And I couldn't live any other way."
"So that's really it, isn't it?"
"What?"
"It's about your life style, not him."
"I suppose...yes! You're right it is about the money. But I've earned it for all those years of being there for him throughout his career. Haven't I?"
"What price for your dignity?" Chuck said a little too smugly.
"I didn't come here for a lecture Chuck"
"I know, I'm sorry, really I am."
The door bell rang and interrupted the siblings just in time to dispel the mounting friction. Chuck answered the door and invited his step son, Jim in. Chuck introduced Sandra to Jim and they greeted each other nervously. Jim was just dropping off things for his mother. Sandra saw the opportunity to leave and excused herself; Chuck said if she ever needed a shoulder, she knew where he was.
"Thanks for everything, Chuck, goodnight." She said and left.
"Wow, Dad, how come you never told me your sister looked like that?" Jim burst out as the door shut behind Sandra.
"Keep a civil tone young man, that's a confused young woman and she needs sympathy not molesting."
"Sure Dad."
***
Weeks had passed and Sandra was still unable to reconcile her contempt for Marvlyn's penchant for the down-low and her unrequited sexual needs. She had to do some thing, anything to stave off a confrontation with Marvlyn. She wondered if she could have a back-door man and keep it secret. No, someone would find out, or her lover would blab his mouth. What if she had a girl friend instead? No, she just wasn't cut out to be a lesbian; foiled, and foiled again.
She was lounging around the house when a perverse thought crossed her mind; what if she had an affair with her brother? Of course it wasn't a serious thought, her mind was just grasping at straws. But later, as she readied for bed, she had the same thought again; "what if?" She gently placed a finger between her legs and began teasing her clitoris, mewing tiny little kitten sounds as she did. Moments later she sobbed an "Oh" as she climaxed from the dual impetus of imagination and stimulation. She went to bed with her secrets, and cried herself to sleep.
The morning came with a fresh new outlook, Sandra was invigorated, and had to celebrate the change with someone. She picked up the phone and called her brother.
"Hello?"
"Hi Chuck."
"Hi Sandra."
"Chuck, I feel great and need to celebrate with someone, are you available?"
"Well...I guess so."
"Great, I'll pick you up, bye."
Thirty minutes later Sandra was driving them both to a neighborhood bar to celebrate.
"You won't believe what happened to me yesterday, Chuck." Sandra started off, prattling.
"You're sure in a good mood, what a change, huh?" Chuck commented.
"Oh, you won't believe what I've been up to." She said, incredulously.
"Well don't keep me in the dark, what's up?"
"Well, I was still down – you know – then it hit me, I had to have an affair too."
"You what?"
"Well, I mean I didn't really have one mind you, I just thought about it."
"You thought about having an affair and now you're happy?" Chuck asked confused.
"Sort of..."
"How do you sort of have an affair Sandra?"