There are four of us. We're all in our late forties and we've known each other since college. We're all married. Our husbands didn't know any of us or each other until they married one of us. Our kids have all graduated from college and working on their own careers or married although none have produced any grandchildren as yet. For all practical purposes, we're all empty nesters adapting to what comes next.
We all married career oriented men who have done well financially. Even with college degrees, we women opted for strong families. Over the last two plus decades, we dedicated ourselves to be mothers, wives and supporters of our husband's careers. We've all gained some weight, no longer obsessed with our figures. We're not overweight by any criteria, just full figured. We have what we all might not want and what my husband describes as love handles. We just don't have the incentive to exercise enough to turn the handles into finger pulls. The sole advantage that our husbands celebrate is that our boobs have gotten larger.
Our sex lives followed the usual pattern, frequent sex before the kids were born, more sedate and declining sex while they were home and attempting to recreate the frequency and intensity that we all remember since.
Amazingly, we all settled within a few miles of each other. Giselle lives in the same neighborhood as I do, Jessie in the same town and Cathy two miles further away in the next town over. We've been able to keep in contact over the years with occasional holiday gatherings at one of our homes. Retirement is a dozen or more years away and recently, the contact with each other has increased considerably as we attempt to fill in our time while our husbands are still working.
For all practical purposes, every weekday, except for some charitable activities, is the same for all of us, except Thursdays. Thursday afternoons we gather at one of our homes to play cards and exchange news and gossip. The conversations over the card table range widely, from family, kids, politics, sports, news and celebrities. The most frequent topic is sex.
Some portion of every Thursday afternoon is dedicated to sex. We all love sex. Contrary to some opinions, we all admit to less sex as we age. If anything, we all would like more sex and better sex if possible. But the reality is that less and worse sex seems to be the direction we're headed until it reaches zero.
Unfortunately, none of our husbands seem to share the same improved sex desire. They do love sex but, unless we start something, they rarely initiate something on their own. This is a reversal of our early years when our husbands seemed to have nothing but sex on their minds and we had to almost hide to get rest. Most people would consider that, "Normal." We're not most people.
Thursday afternoon, the card game was at my house. Cathy was the first to arrive. "Hi, Maddie," she greeted me with a hug. "Am I the first to arrive?"
"You are," I told her. "Drinks are in the kitchen." Giselle and Jessie arrived a few minutes later.
We settled around the card table in the den. Jessie was shuffling the cards. "What's the game this week?" she asked.
"Canasta?" suggested Cathy.
"We'll need another deck of cards," said Jessie.
"Bridge then?" Cathy tried again.
"How about Hearts?" suggested Giselle. "I don't have the concentration necessary for Bridge."
"No concentration," I spoke up. "Nothing exciting last week?"
"Nothing at all last week," admitted Giselle.
"No wild and exciting sex?" I prompted.
"No sex at all," Giselle confirmed.
"Damn," said Jessie. "That's my week as well."
I looked at Cathy. "How about you?" I asked.
"I guess I did better, if you can call once better," Cathy revealed.
"Twice for me," I stated. "And I thought I was in a sexual wasteland."
"We have to do something about it," stated Giselle.
"We?" asked Jessie. "I thought my problem was mine alone."
"We have to have some way to help each other to have more and better sex," stated Giselle.
"I love you guys," said Cathy. "But I'm not attracted to lesbian activities and neither Mike nor I are interested in companions while we have even infrequent sex."
Jessie looked around the table. "How about you, Madison? Any thoughts on the subject?"
"I'm certainly not happy about twice, or less, a week but I don't have a solution, except ..." I responded.
"Except?" asked Jessie. "What are you thinking?"
"It just occurred to me," I told her. "When did each of you do anything with your husband outside the home?"
"Scott and I went out to dinner Saturday night," Jessie said.
"Okay," I said. "Let's work with that. "Tell me, was Scott his usual self or was he more animated?"
"More animated I guess," stated Jessie. "He likes going out to dinner."
"You think it was the meal or the surroundings?" I asked.
"He usually orders the same thing every time," explained Jessie. "Probably the surroundings."
"Was it the architecture, the interior decoration or something else?" I asked.
"Something else?" questioned Jessie. "What else is there?"
"Let me try it another way," I said. "What about the people?"
"The people? I guess he was amused by the people," Jessie said.
More men or more women?" I pushed.
"Most of the diners were couples. About even," Jessie guessed.
"How about the waitresses?" I asked.
"Oh. If I add them in, then there was significantly more women," Jessie reconsidered.
"And was Scott focused more on the men or the women?"
"Certainly the women," Jessie confirmed. "Wait, I think I know where you're going. You're suggesting that Scott likes to go out to dinner to ogle on the women."
"I am but I'm not suggesting that he's doing it consciously. Even if he doesn't know their names or a snowball's chance of meeting them, they're someone different," I speculated.
"He does banter with the waitresses," Jessie observed. "Does that mean he's bored at home?"
