The next morning Annie opened her eyes and in about five seconds realized she needed to pee...bad! She rolled over, sat up on the side of the bed, and tried to shake away the morning cobwebs. Something was different in the room but she couldn't immediately pinpoint what it was, so she got up and stumbled into the bathroom just in time! Sitting on the commode with her chin in her hands, a playback of last night's events began in her mind. "Wow," she thought, "that was about as good as it gets!" A smile played at the corners of her mouth as she took the toilet tissue and wiped herself. All of a sudden though, the "difference" in the bedroom hit her; it was light outside...MUCH too light! She looked at the clock; 7:41. "OH MY GOD! The kids need to get to school! FUCK!"
Throwing on some clothes she hurried down to the kitchen but found everything eerily quiet. No one was there. She called loudly, "Cassie! Derek? Hey...Kids!?" Nothing. Then a voice came from out on the patio, "Hey Babe...out here!" Chris was outside relaxing on one of the loungers.
"What the hell is going on? Is it Saturday? Did I sleep for two days?"
He grinned at her, "No, it's still Thursday. Cassie woke me up this morning tapping on the bedroom door. They needed a ride to school so I did that for you; I figured you could use another hour of sleep!" He winked at her, "You obviously slept well?"
She giggled at him, "Pretty well, yes! I might still be asleep if I didn't have to go! Hold on..." She returned to the kitchen, got herself a cup of coffee, and sat down next to him, "You even made coffee too! Such a man! Thank you!" Then she added, "And thank you for last night also! Oh my God, that was fun!"
"You're welcome! The fun was off the chain, Babe! So...my little 'slut' is feeling pretty good this morning, huh?"
Annie searched her feelings, "You did exceptionally well, Hon! At the moment...I don't feel horny at all!"
Chris chuckled and looked at his watch, "I give you about another two hours before the 'I'm-not-horny' wears off!" They both laughed and then sat in silence for a few minutes sipping their coffees.
"Yes, this IS fun!" thought Annie, "Our lives are anything but boring!" She took another sip of java, and at that precise moment her thoughts turned to Joyce's proposal about the Max "something." Her husband looked so relaxed and content sitting next to her; she wondered if she should bring it up.
Chris got up to refill their cups and when he returned, these thoughts must have been registering on her face because he said, "Hey, what's running through your mind right now? That look is telling!"
Annie shook her head as if to wake up, "I had a look?"
"Yeah, and if I didn't know better, I would say you're cooking something up." He sat back down and added, "Or am I wrong?"
She giggled, "Maybe all this 'fun' we're having is messing with your perceptions."
"Could be, so then...were my perceptions wrong?"
"No." Chris burst out laughing at the matter-of-fact way she said it, and almost half his coffee sloshed out of his mug; in the nick of time he guided it sideways and the mess just missed his pants. Annie just grinned at him, "Nice save, Sweetie!"
He took a moment to collect himself; then said, "Okay, hit me...what weirdness are we gonna try next?"
"It's too weird to mention; I might need to think about it some more."
"No fuckin' way, Babe! Spill it now!" He looked at his cup, "No pun intended!"
Annie smiled, "Okay, but I warned you!"
As she told him about Joyce's phone call, Chris's facial expressions began with amusement and slowly switched over to incredulous! At one point he was going to say something, but she recognized it and put a hand on his arm to stop him. After getting to the part about how much money might be offered, his eyes nearly bugged out of his head. "Knowing how you think now, he doesn't know you would do it for nothing, huh?"
She laughed, "No, but that's the thing; it's HIS fantasy! He wants the offer to break the straight woman's resistance!"
"Oh my God! So are you going to do this?"
"Do you think I should? I'm telling you because I don't want any repercussions."
Chris sat lost in thought. She heard him muttering, "Goddd!" Then with an "Oh-Well" kind of look on his face, he said, "I guess I'm okay with it, so YOU decide! But I have to tell ya'...our lives are getting wild, Babe! Is this a 'slippery slope' we're on?"
"It sure feels like it, right?"
"Yeah, it does; at the moment I like it. Someday I may need to put the brakes on this stuff; will you be okay with that?"
Annie got up and kissed him, "Perfectly, I'm perfectly okay with it! And after we've been in the swing club for six months, if you decide it's over, then it's over!"
Chris's coffee sloshed some more!
That afternoon Annie picked up the kids from school. Stopping at a red light, they all noticed steam streaming out from under the hood! "Oh God, NOW what?" she said out loud. By sheer happenstance the shop where they did business was one block down, so she pulled in there and turned off the engine. She thought for a minute, "Cass, maybe Steve is available to take us home?"
Cassie tapped his number into her phone, and thirty seconds later she confirmed, "He'll be here in ten minutes."
Derek looked at his mother's frustrated face, "Life's a bitch, ain't it, Mom?" he deadpanned, and both women howled! "If it helps, I could break open my piggy-bank for ya?"
"We need you to go to college; with one less mouth to feed, car repairs will be easier!"
"How much is college these days.?"
"Shut up!"
Annie emerged from the shop office just as Steve arrived, and a few minutes after that they were home. When they stepped into the kitchen, Annie said to them, "You know what? I have such a headache; do you think I could lie down for a while before starting dinner?"
"I have homework," said Derek.
"Sure, Mom," and Cassie offered, "Is there anything I could do for you?"
"Well, if you want, you could chop up some carrots and celery that I need for the veggie platter I planned. That would be nice!"
"No problem, Steve will help me," and she batted her eyes at him, "Won't you?"
"How could I say no?"
"You can't!"
"Great," Annie continued, "I just need thirty minutes for the Tylenol to kick in."
She and Derek headed up the stairs; in the bedroom, she took a couple Tylenol tabs, pulled the drapes closed, and had just lain down when thoughts started hitting her. "Oh oh, those two are alone in the kitchen; I wonder what they'll be up to?" She tried to shake it off and get her quick nap in, but five or six minutes later she realized it was no use. She smiled and thought to herself, "If this was a month ago, I'd be asleep by now." Dragging herself out of bed, she opened the door quietly and stepped into the hallway.
Derek's door was half-open and he was sitting up on his bed with a book; headphones were on and his uninjured leg was bouncing rhythmically to some song on I-tunes. At the top of the stairs, she paused and listened; hearing nothing she crept down. On the third step from the bottom, the angle was good enough to see into the kitchen.
