Chapter 22: Shock and Awe

Much to my surprise Mel was more broken up by Katie’s leaving than I was. She’d break into tears and blamed herself for the breakup; however, we both avoided a long discussion about her leaving or placing any blame. Truthfully, I did feel that Mel and her attitude about Richard had been partly to blame for Katie leaving so suddenly. I also wondered whether I’d come on too strong to her – or not enough. Had I been deficient in some way to Katie’s needs and she never mentioned it.

That first week, the Pixie and I proved to be each other’s rocks. I steered the conversations to the fun times we had while Katie was with us, and reflected back even further for the first time in years on the fond memories we had of Joy when the three of us lived together near the University.

A couple of months just slipped by. The sadness Mel and I felt with Katie’s departure scabbed over leaving us with both happy memories of our year together and a deep melancholy feeling about her departure. We’d helped her heal, removing the pain of her shattered marriage with our own love.

Ashley and Catrice missed their second mom, and often asked when she was ‘coming home’. On those occasions, our hearts would break, but we tried to gloss over it with the kids.

Love is often a bittersweet experience and our relation with Katie was no exception: sweetness for all the time we had together, the shared experiences and passionate love making, and the joyful memories; and sadness about her return to a traditional life style back in her hometown.

Mel and Katie stayed in touch about the development of the software package, but Katie made her promise not to try to lure her back to Ohio. “I’ll need my space and time to create a new life. Please let me do that,” she’d told her. Mel had promised for both of us and we honored her request, although that hurt too. In any case, she said their infrequent discussions were more by email and somewhat formal – ‘left brain’, she called it.

Mel’s idea of a liaison with Richard didn’t come up at all after that night in October. I didn’t think Mel would have her fling without talking further about it. I think Mel realized that had been the trigger-point for Katie’s departure. One cool night as we sat in the spa, I finally broached the question with her.

“Mel, what ever happened to your idea of you and Richard getting together? You’ve been very quiet about it since Katie left.” I paused and added, “I’m not promoting anything except the subject was so controversial and then evaporated when Katie left.”

Mel slid across the hot tub into my arms, “Well, truth be told, I haven’t lost interest in the idea. I just put the whole idea on ice while we got over Katie leaving. Moreover, I wanted you to get used to the idea that I still want to have ‘outside’ friends.”

I said, “I have mellowed a bit about the idea, but give me a little longer. Is he cool waiting for you?”

Mel told me, “I just said I wasn’t ready to go any further – yet. He accepted that. It’s a ‘nice to have’ for him too; he’s married and has close to the same kind of relationship with his wife that we have.”

I wasn’t surprised at Mel’s continued interest but let the obvious questions and opportunities implied by her statement pass by for the moment. I really did want more time to get my head around what a relationship with another male or couple would be like and how that would be different from involving women like Joy or Katie in our lives.

The Pixie and I mostly had a great sex life. For over half the time we’d gone together or been married, another woman had been involved. Nonetheless, we often looked for ways to spice up our sex life. Heck, even the Joy of Sex, the primary book Mel had me read in great detail early in our relationship, recommended using sexy stories or movies to spice up the sexual side of a relationship.

Thus, we had a small collection of DVDs, a pile of Penthouse Letters magazines and a few books of erotica that we periodically watched or read to each other on our ‘spice it up’ nights.

Towards this end, I stopped at the Triple-X Adult Film and Bookstore on the way home one night to pick up something to add to our collection. After ten minutes in the store I settled on a special two DVD set. The accompanying display and flyer promoting the heterosexual set extolled their virtues, alluding to their possible showing – in less graphic versions – at the Sundance Film Festival. One DVD was called Love Comes Twice and the other was called Trial and Error. Supposedly, they were the hottest things on the porn market according to the clerk.

I gave Mel a peek at what I’d bought so she’d know my plans for later that evening. She gave me a lusty look and said, “Oh, boy. Great.”

Our two daughters got special stories from Dad that night after Mel had bathed them and also read a story to the two of them. I’m not sure the one-year-old understood the story but she loved the attention. We did prayers, drinks of water, brushed our teeth again, and had one more potty stop and diaper change, all in the name of extending bedtime. Finally, they were abed and sound asleep.