You'd pass my wife on the street without giving her a second look. There is nothing really distinguishing about her, at least visually. She is medium height, very thin, thick hair, narrow face, big eyes, longish noses, tight mouth and pointed chin. You'd just walk on by.
And if you heard her speak, you'd probably try to tune her out. She has an oddly cackling voice that can grate on the ear.
But if you tried to get to know her you would be faced with the challenge of understanding a woman who is a riddle of complexity, a character of opposites: compliant-determined, domestic-adventurous, feminine-masculine, serious-frivolous, active-passive.
And that's why I'm so utterly in love with her. She is just so fucking interesting, so magnificently unpredictable, so naturally uninhibited. And she is so aggressive about everything. If she wants something, she works to get it.
"Do you want some help?" I was passing the computer room and just lobbed in the question.
"In about a half hour," she said, without turning from the screen, so I went to my den to read.
I was lost in Harpers when I heard her call, "OK!" So I ticked my place in the article, put the magazine on the table and went to her.
She was swiveled away from the computer and looking at it sideways. I got down on my knees in front of her and gently kissed at her naked thighs. "What are you reading?" I said, then I pressed my face into my favourite place, the little trail of hair that travels to her navel.
"It's a lesbian piece."
That surprised me. I looked up at her, trying to read her face, "I didn't think you liked that stuff."
"I don't usually, but this one's interesting. It's not about some college girls tearing their clothes off, its about two older women finding each other. It's a bit of a psychological piece. It's interesting."
When I gently pulled her legs open she slipped down on the chair and I could smell her, "I think the story's getting to you."
She laughed, "No kidding."
When my tongue felt the mild sting of her juices, she turned away from the screen and pulled my head into her.
My wife loves sex, sex of every kind. She doesn't insist on it, usually doesn't initiative it but she enjoys it and the more adventurous the better. Particularly roll playing. We both have pretty good imaginations and a couple of times a month we create a play together. Sometimes it ends in laughter, sometimes it ends in gushes and a few times it hasn't ended at all, or not for a few days while we try to stay in character. And a lot of the time we do what we're doing now. One of us logs on to Literotica.com and reads for awhile before the other comes in to help with the ending.
"You were beautiful," I said, as I kissed her.
'Thank you," she said, as she rubbed her juices from my face with a tissue. "Are you OK?"
"Later? In bed?"
She reached for her panties, "You got it, Pontiac."
And I returned to my magazine. But I couldn't concentrate. What was in the story that made her so hot? She had never been into lesbian lit before, why was this story different? I found her in the kitchen an hour later and asked.
"Read it for yourself," she smiled.
It was a couple of days later, we were in bed, the lights were out, "Did you read that story?"
"Story?" I asked, shifting on my pillow to see the dark outline of her profile.
"The one in Literotica."
"About the lesbians?"
"Hmmmmm."
"Ya, I read it, I agree it was hot."
She hadn't moved and seemed to be staring at the ceiling, "It made me think about lesbianism in a different way."
"How?"
"Those two women were friends first, they had connected mentally and emotionally before they connected physically, sexually. They were mature, and made a mature, rational decision. I think that's what turned me on. It turned me on to think that a lesbian relationship can somehow be a result of a close friendship, almost a natural consequence of it."
"All close friendship between women should end sexually?" I was teasing her and she knew it so she threw her right arm against my stomach with some force.
"But some can, I can see it, I can imagine it happening."
"Would you like it to happen to you?"
There was no hesitation, "Yes, I think I would." Then she turned to face me. "What do you think? How would you feel if you knew I was having sex with a woman?"
I laughed, "I'd react like any man, I'd want to know ever tiny detail."
"Seriously."
"Seriously."
"Really?"
"I wouldn't want it to weaken our relationship, and it could, but if you want to experiment, and it seems you do, why not?"
"I knew you'd say that," she said, lying on her back again.
"But be careful. We have worked hard for our reputations."
She leaned into me and kissed me on the cheek.
The subject wasn't mentioned again. I can't say I forgot about it, I didn't, but it seemed she had so I was more than a little surprised at a conversation I had at my wife's annual office BBQ a few weeks later. I was sitting at a picnic table drinking a beer, watching my wife pitch a frizz bee with some kids when Wendy Shanks, a vice-president of the company, sat down beside me. "Stop drooling."
"Drooling?" I turned to face her, not knowing what she meant.
"The way you look at her, I've never see a man so obviously in love with his wife."
I shrugged my shoulders, "Well, ya, but drool?"
When she took a drink from her glass her eyes bore into mine, "You have wonderful sex together, don't you?" I guess she could see how startled I was by the question because she quickly added, "Gloria's told me."
I didn't know what to say so I just smiled, it felt like a particularly stupid smile.
But Wendy wasn't smiling, "Do you know why she's told me about your sex life?"
I didn't, but it didn't surprise me that she had. Gloria, as I've already implied, was capable of anything. "She's a natural braggart?"
Wendy laughed, "She wanted me to understand her. She wanted me to understand how much she loves you." Then she got up and took a few steps before looking back at me, "She's asked me to dinner next Friday." She walked away.
It was only then that I made the connection and when I did, I was stunned. It wasn't that Gloria had actually acted on her whim or that she had acted so fast, it was who she had acted on. It really surprised me that Gloria would want to have a sexual relationship with Wendy Shanks, if that, in fact, is what this is about. Wendy is very good looking with what looks to be a fairly good body but she is at least 10 years older than Gloria. I would have thought Gloria would have gone for someone 10 years younger or even someone around 20 years old — 20 years younger! But then I laughed and thought, no, that's me talking, not her.
It wasn't nearly as awkward as I thought, in fact it wasn't awkward at all. Wendy arrived at 6:30, we had a lively conversation about some shared acquaintances, had a first rate meal with a really nifty white and were on to coffee when Gloria asked Wendy, "Have you thought about it?"
Wendy took the napkin off her lap, folded it, put it on the table and sat back in her chair. "I have," she said to Gloria, then she looked at me, "Do you know what we're talking about?"