Chapter 3

"Peter, I'll do it." she said.

The kids were in bed and they had just watched a soapy melodrama of a couple caught up in infidelity who discover each other again for the typical "and they lived happily ever after" ending.

"Try what?" he asked.

"The... the... the... swinger thing."

His head popped up from the sofa, instantly alert.

"You... you want to try it?"

"I didn't say I wanted to, I said I would. I can't say I'm crazy about this at all, but we both know the sex in our marriage is dying. We've tried everything else either of us can think of. This is about the only thing we haven't tried."

"You sure?"

"No, I'm not sure at all. But I am desperate to regain what we once had. If going to bed with someone else will get us back..."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. Look, why don't we just go take a closer look, see what's involved. I'm pretty sure it said we could add our profile without revealing our real identities. We can set up one of those on-line e-mail accounts and receive any responses there. That way we stay anonymous until we actually want to make contact with someone."

"Okay, because I don't want..."

"I know what you're going to say and I agree. We want to be in control. We want to choose who and when and where."

"If we choose at all."

"If we choose at all," he agreed.

In the den, Peter clicked on the web site and within seconds they were perusing some of the profiles.

"These will give us an idea of what we want to put in ours," he said.

They laughed at some and some almost made them want to gag, but a few minutes later, after an abortive try or two, they had completed their profile and had it ready for posting:

Attractive and curious first time couple,

28, 26 are interested in exploring a

relationship with another couple for

purpose of putting excitement back

in their marriage. Please respond with

photo and background.

Peter had created a new disposable e-mail account and posted that with the add as the means to respond.

"Peter, I feel so..."

"Naughty?" he laughed.

"Yes, I guess so," she answered.

"I haven't actually submitted it yet. We can still forget this."

"I'd like to, believe me."

"All I have to do is hit delete."

"No, no! Don't do that. We've come this far."

"But we don't have to go any farther."

"I know, but you said yourself, nobody knows who we are and this way we get to pick and choose."

"Then do you want me to... ?"

"... Yes, go ahead."

A single click of the mouse and their profile became a part of the swinger web site to be seen by millions.

"What do we do now?" she asked.

"I guess we sit back and wait to see if anyone responds," he replied.

And with that they shut down the computer and went to bed where both laid awake in the darkness for some time considering what they had just done and whether they had committed to something which might prove to be irreversible.

"Holy crap!" laughed Peter.

"What is it?" Samantha hollered from the kitchen.

They had agreed to give it a week before checking the responses to their profile. Peter had even given it an extra day hoping they wouldn't be too disappointed if they got very few responses or none at all.

Samantha appeared at the doorway. "Did no one respond?" she asked.

"Respond?" he said. "Look at the counter." There was a small window to indicate the number of responses they had received.

"Two hundred seventy-three? Surely that can't be right."

"Think not? I've been scrolling for the last ten minutes and I've barely made a dent in them."

"Mr. and Mrs. popularity," she giggled.

"Boy, I'll say."

"Well, dinner's almost ready. Let's eat and when we get the kids to bed we'll start checking them out."

"Sounds like a plan," he said.

Donna was her usual chatterbox self at dinner while Sean, always the quiet one, had little to say although he seemed to enjoy a joke Peter had heard at the office today, one of the few which parents would repeat for their children. Vowing to remember it so he could share it at school tomorrow, the boy offered none of his usual resistance to getting to bed at

ten o'clock on school nights. Both kids had completed their homework early so Peter (it was his turn) read to them for a while before he was joined by Samantha to kiss them good night.

Peter and Samantha changed into pajamas and adjourned to the den where they began sorting through the responses. Three more had come in since they had checked the site earlier.

Indicating they did not wish to read all two hundred seventy-six responses they devised some criteria to weed out the obvious rejects. The pictures were the obvious first choice. While they knew some couples could have submitted bogus photos, it was a quick way to weed out those they knew were of no interest.

After deleting those who did not submit a photo or whose pictures were not "sexy" enough, as Peter put it, or who seemed the wrong age, they had the list down to fifty-two.

"Okay, we're down to fifty-two good looking couples. Where do we go from here?" he asked.

"Eighteen of them are black or hispanic," she mused. "Is that a problem for you?"

"Not at all. I'm a lot more interested in whether they're experienced at this sort of thing. I don't think we want another novice couple. That would be like the blind leading the blind."

Sorting out the neophytes, the list now stood at thirty-eight.

They read through the remainder. Many they laughed at and others were just plain offensive. Several were located much too far away. At last they had narrowed the possibilities to seven. They read and reread the profiles.

"I kind of like this one," said Peter, pointing to the photo and profile of a white couple in their middle thirties. "The Cravens."

"Yes, but I still wonder about this one, the Masters," she said scrolling down to the picture of a ruggedly handsome bearded white man and exotic black/asian woman. Their profile indicated he was forty-two while she was thirty-one. "They are a little older than we are but they talk about discriminating taste and look at that art work on the wall behind them in the photo. And they live in McDermott which is only twenty-five miles away."

"Yeah, that's true," replied Peter. "The Cravens are over a hundred miles away. Not that we couldn't manage that but..."

"So we can eliminate the others?" she asked.

"I'm agreeable to that, which leaves us only these two."

"You were pretty experienced when we got married," she said. "Did you ever make love to a black or asian woman?"

"No. I was going to ask out a black girl once, but she got engaged and that was that."

"She is beautiful."

"That she is and the guy's no slouch."

"Well, either couple seems okay to me."

"I feel the same way."

"Yet I can't help but wonder about the surprise that the Masters alluded to."

"Let's see," he mused under his breath as Peter scrolled to the right profile and read. "We have guided several couples through a sexual reawakening. We know exactly how to provide what every couple needs. And there will be some surprises waiting -- we promise."

"Hmmmm, I wonder what kind of surprises?" she asked.

"Sounds like you're interested."

"Well..."

"All right, it's settled. Shall I e-mail the Masters and tell them we're interested?"

"Peter, I... I..."

"Say no and I'll shut this off and discontinue the e-mail address."

"No, it's not that. I have to admit, I'm intrigued -- maybe even a little excited. I'm just not sure I can go through with it."

"Look, we can send them our photo. Maybe they won't be interested. If they are, we can set up a meeting -- just a meeting. Nothing happens. We just sit down and get to know them. Then we can all decide if we want it to go any further."

"I... oh, okay. Just a meeting -- promise?"

"Just a meeting," he smiled in return.

"I hope they get here soon. The sitter has to leave at midnight."

Samantha and Peter were seated at a table in a small, out of the way restaurant. Peter was wearing a turtleneck sweater and dark slacks while Samantha had on a dress she had not worn for some time. At Peter's insistence that they make a "sexy" impression, she had donned the floral print which was characterized primarily by its deep plunging neckline which revealed lots of cleavage and necessitated Samantha going sans bra, and the shortness of the hem. Peter had always thought Samantha's legs her best feature and they were exhibit one since the hem came only to mid thigh, if that far. She kept tugging at it and kept her legs crossed for modesty as the tablecloth dropped less than a couple of inches below the level of the table which meant her lovely legs were on full display.

"Nervous?" he asked.

"I'm a wreck. I can't believe we're actually going to meet them."

"Yeah, but remember. This is just a meeting. A few drinks and we get to know each other. Then if either couple..."

"Yes, I know how it's going to work. I just... I mean here we are meeting real life swingers when we have two kids at..."