Author's Note - This is my first story to be published in parts. The current plan is to publish it in 4 parts, although that might change along the way. As always, interested in any feedback.
"Wow," I began. "I can't believe that we're actually having this conversation," addressing Anna across the restaurant table, "I'm a bit nervous, are you sure we want to go through with this?"
Anna smiled shyly, but the gleam in her eye was unmistakable. "I'm certainly game if you are."
I nodded nervously and took another sip of my wine. We'd gone through a full bottle with dinner, and I was finishing my last glass in lieu of dessert. "Well, I'm sure that I'm game. And with the right persuasion, I'm guessing he will be too."
"So, your husband really has no idea that you're planning this?"
I shook my head, grinning mischievously.
Lifting her glass to mine, with a small clink we both finished our drinks. We were grinning like two teenagers thinking about how the rest of the evening might unfold.
The waiter took our order for a couple of espressos, and we really got down to business.
"OK, so the first thing is, we need a code word of some sort in case we need to abort before things get too far along." Anna looked at me quizzically, "You see, we've talked about threesomes a number of times before, but he seems to be honestly only marginally interested."
"Yeah, right." was Anna's amused response, "He's a man isn't he?"
I understood her point entirely. This was a situation that was seemingly reversed -- I was keen on inviting another woman into our bed, and he was lukewarm to the idea. The first dozen times this came up in conversation I assumed he was just playing down the idea so as not to seem TOO interested, but over time I'd come to realize that it was a take-it-or-leave-it thing for him.
I think that part of it was insecurity about performing for two women at once (why, I have no idea! The man was as skilled as they come between the sheets). But I think the bigger part was that he genuinely loved me and wasn't comfortable with having sex with another woman, with or without my permission.
I told Anna as much and her opinion seemed to soften. "OK, sure, if you feel like he's truly not interested, we can have a code word......how about 'Merlot'?" she said looking at the empty wine glasses.
"Perfect," I said, "Now, we need to have a few ground rules."
"Sure, I guess that makes sense," Anna replied. She had never done this before either, so we were both in uncharted waters, which made it all the more exciting. I'd known Anna for years, and had known her to have relationships with both men and women during that time. Honestly, I simply assumed that she would have experience with both at the same time, but I'd discovered over appetizers earlier that she'd never done a threesome either. After hearing my suggestion for tonight, she was very eager to close that gap in her sexual repertoire.
"So," I said, "what are your no-go items?"
"Wow, ok, ummm....." Anna replied, obviously not thinking that I would feel the need to get so prescriptive in advance. I wasn't normally one who was big on advance planning, but given the potential for this experiment to go sideways, I made an exception.
