Chapter 7

“So, what gives ... I know that we had a spat, Nina, one where I accused you of being unfaithful to me with your boss, Vito, and then you accused me of the same with Emily, my ex-girlfriend. Now, you show up here at the house of Vito’s nephew, with Vito’s nephew, Vito’s niece, the neighbors, and your ex-boyfriend, Steve. So, let’s have it out. Have you been unfaithful to me? It sure looks that way,” Matt confronted Nina now rather directly.

“Yes, I have ... and so have you, with Emily, who is, at least for now, Steve’s girlfriend. In his words, that makes two girlfriends that you’ve ‘poached’ from him now. It also makes Emily a cheater now, too, as much as she judged the rest of us in the past. Isn’t that so, Emily?” Nina now turned the tables on her husband and his ex-girlfriend.

“Okay, I’m busted! I ... cheated. Sorry, it was my ex ... and I was a bit ... weak around him. So sorry, Steve, for doing the exact same thing to you that Nina did. Not as sorry as far as Nina is concerned, but that’s another matter entirely. Looks like we’re all cheaters now,” Emily bit her lower lip as she acknowledged that fact.

“Good, because as everyone is now a cheater, we’re all on the same level playing field. No more ivory towers. No more self-righteousness. No more passive-aggression. No more guilt trips. No more martyrdom. No more judgment. Let’s lay out every last card on the table now. Oh, and feel free to drink some wine and eat some breakfast. The rest of us have.

“Now, let me clear about something. My name is Bruno. This is my house, so here, you will listen to me and respect my rights and position as host. I am ... bisexual. I am intimate, sexually and otherwise, with my cousin Lauren here, and yes, she’s my first cousin, my boss’s niece, too. We’ve had a thing going for a while now and that’s not gonna stop. In fact, she’s moving in with me.

“I am also intimate now with Rick and Jessica, my neighbors here. Yes, both of them. That kind of goes back to that whole bisexuality thing. Yes, they are a real, married couple, and I fuck both of them. And I do mean fuck. I penetrate both of them. Orally and anally in his case, orally, vaginally, and anally in hers. I am the Top, they’re the bottoms, mostly, though if they felt like Topping now and then, I would be open to it. Both of them.

“I am not intimate with Steve, but I am with Nina, and so is Steve. And so is Rick now. Rick is now intimate with Lauren, and so is Steve. Steve is now intimate with Jessica as well. I’ve been more cautious with Steve, because I don’t know his sexual orientation. Is he bi or straight? I very much doubt that he’s gay.

“And we all know now that you’re both intimate with Emily as well as Nina, aren’t you, Matt and Steve? So, tell me Matt, are you prepared to share Nina ... as well as Emily, with others? I can already guess Steve’s answer, as he has done very well at curbing his jealousy well for a swap. What about you, Emily? Could you stomach sharing both men? Be honest here,” I spoke very boldly and made both Matt and Emily squirm a bit.

“Just bear in mind that you seem to want a divorce, but I don’t, Matt. I really don’t want to divorce you. Now, I am admittedly carrying an unborn child that is either yours or Bruno’s, not sure which one. You two were my only current sexual partners until today for the length of my marriage to you. I haven’t been that much of a slut ... until now.

“What was all that ‘starter wife’ crap about, anyway? I never would have signed up for a very temporary marriage. I’m not good at being exclusive, but I fully intend to make a marriage last. Permanence, not exclusivity, is the point to marriage in my book. Faithful or not, when I married you, it was with every intention of remaining your wife. I’m playing for keeps here and that talk was very hurtful to me.

“I want both of you. Hell, I want Steve, too. And Rick. And I find myself wanting Jessica and Lauren ... and even Emily. I feel as if the genie has been let out of the bottle, sexually, and I can’t just put her back in now. My inner slut has been liberated. It tends to respond well to forceful, aggressive partners. I am willing to share as I hope to be shared, Matt. For keeps. For good. But the ball is in your court now ... yours and Emily’s. Well?” Nina announced.

“Sorry, no. I’m just not cut out for this. It’s just ... not me. I’ve tried. I honestly shouldn’t have wasted your time and mine ... and Emily’s. And Steve’s. It was wrong of me, not to call you a ‘starter wife,’ but to make you one in the first place. It was wrong of me to ask you to marry me to try to make Emily jealous, so she’d crawl back to me. I used you for that. I’m ... sick to my stomach, just thinking of it.

“God, I really can be a dick, can’t I? A complete asshole, at least at moments like this one. For you, permanence matters more than exclusivity. For me, both matter, and I really can’t picture myself growing old with anyone but Emily. I was stupid and vain and proud of myself for taking two girls away from Steve. I didn’t think about who I would be hurting here by marrying the wrong woman.

“But why? I mean, think about it. Why would I want to be with a girl who lets other men just take her ... and enjoys it when they do? First, Nina, you let me take you off Steve. Then you let Bruno take you from me. Why be with a woman with whom I will always have to look over my own shoulders every fucking day, wondering if this will be the day that another man is able to seduce you through sheer, primal aggression?

“Be honest with me. I was there. I know what happened. You let me do what I wanted with you ... and you enjoyed the fact that I just ... did I wanted. You got off on being taken. You’re turned-on by aggressive, assertive, forceful guys, to use your own words. That’s what excites you, letting men just grab you and have their way with you.

“I can’t live that way, Nina. I need a woman who will kick a man in the balls or at least slap him in the face for daring to touch her when she’s clearly mine. That’s clearly not you, but I dare say that, leaving aside getting with Steve on the rebound and as a revenge fling, it IS Emily. It’s just how she’s made ... and how you’re not made. You’re Old World and respond very favorably to male aggression and lust. When a man takes you, you’ll let him.

“Emily would probably bite a man’s dick off if he shoved it down her mouth. You’d start sucking it with enthusiasm. I was caught up in the chase, the excitement of getting one over on another dude. The competition, but was it really that much of a challenge? No offense, but an older man and a submissive slut of a girlfriend? Sorry, but that’s how I see.

“So, yeah, I get that this sounds all unreasonable to you. What you’re doing, it makes all of the sense in the world to folks like you. The path of least resistance. An amiable, easygoing, very natural life of sharing and free love and all that hippie stuff. It’s not me. I’m just not made that way. I want my redneck girl, faithful and jealous and driving me crazy with her crazy ways.

“Who couldn’t be taken. Who would be independent in some ways, but would also not need a fucking chaperone to be faithful. Who would kick a man’s ass for even suggesting that she cheat on me. And who would probably kick my ass if I ever cheated on her again, knowing her. Hell, she threw three books at me the last time and threatened to shoot me with her twelve gauge!

“It’s not reasonable at all, but I don’t want reasonable or sensible or anything like that when it comes to love. I want to be a dick and have her be a bitch and have a knock-down drag-out fight, and then have hot, heavy, steamy makeup sex after about a week of cold showers! It’s violent and messy ... and a hot mess, and it doesn’t make sense to the Brunos and Laurens and Steves and Ninas of the world. Or even the Ricks and Jessicas, from the sound of it.

“You’re George Michael. Freedom and all that talk. Or Restless Heart and all that talk of ‘why does it have to be one way or other?’ You don’t see a point to monogamy. You don’t see a point to violence, burning the bitch or the bastard, to angry responses and overreactions, and kicking the crap out of someone who’s touched your property. You don’t see things possessively, not like Emily and I do.

“Emily likes Carrie Underwood music. Did you notice that, Steve? I bet that you didn’t bother to ask about that, just muttered under your breath or thought how crazy that kind of behavior was. I get it. I get why a woman would key a cheating boyfriend’s car, even if it would piss me off that she did. I get why she would take a Louisville Slugger to both headlights. You probably think that it’s psycho. And it is, but that’s the difference between us. I don’t care that it is and I can relate to it.

“So, how about it, Emily? Let’s ditch this place, get a fucking divorce, elope, get married, and move wherever you like, even back to fucking Arkansas and a family farm if you wish! I know that you’re a country girl and you act like it. Let’s blow this place,” Matt ranted, stunning me with his tirade against everything that I believed or represented.

“And the baby?” Nina asked, just out of curiosity.

“I can’t stay with someone over that. If it comes to it, I can always sign away my parental rights, if you don’t choose to abort. Or I can just pay child support. If it’s mine. Or have the new husband claim it. I just can’t stay with you only for the kids,” Matt shocked us all with that bit of news.