Chapter 27

Tuesday at work was a long day. My wife was gone, I had no idea where, and Jacqui had left for Montana. I had no idea when we might be together again. Thank goodness it was a reasonably quiet day, no irate customers. I might have done or said something to get myself fired.

When I got home to my quiet, lonely house, I sat down and turned on Fox News. O’Reilly was about half over. I was lost in my thoughts and had no idea what was on his show. Michelle was gone; she’d said just to think, but that she’d be back. I turned the TV off to think about our future myself.

Michelle, my wife, said she was offered a weekend job as a stripper! Is that what I want?

I thought back to our time before Michelle read my first story and how much we’ve changed. We had a great life; our primary entertainment was either camping or square dancing. If Michelle couldn’t go with me to a dance for whatever reason I was too shy to ask another girl to dance with me unless it was one of our regular club members. Once in a while, if I saw some girl alone, looking like she wanted to dance, I’d gather my courage to ask her, but it was pretty rare.

When Michelle dragged me to Victoria’s Secret to ask Jacqui for a date that first time I remember how scared I was, asking a girl on an actual date. And now? I’d asked a girl I barely knew to a strip club date that I knew would end up with us in bed making love. I realized I liked the new me much better than the old!

Michelle, my prim and proper wife, now had a steady boyfriend with whom she spends nights regularly; she’s opened up sexually, she’s proud of her body to the point of becoming an exhibitionist, and I love every second of it! I think of her either alone with Shaun or on a stage, slipping her sexy panties off, and it makes me so hard I nearly tear the fabric of my jeans.

I’d never imagined anything was missing from our marriage, especially from our sex life. Yeah, I occasionally thought back to that night in Kodiak and wanted some repeat of watching her with another man, but it certainly wasn’t a need I had, it was just a fantasy. I didn’t think it was something Michelle especially needed either. I guess we’ve discovered the last couple years that neither of us had realized how much we both wanted more from our sex life. Kind of sick, but it’s a fact.

What’s it doing to our marriage? If anything, making it stronger. Our love life is on a perpetual high that I’d never even imagined would be possible. We communicate better with each other, we understand and support each other’s desires and needs, and we just enjoy being around each other and others more than we ever have.

Ask her to back up or stop what she’s doing? Even if I wanted to, my craving wouldn’t let me. But I don’t want her to, I enjoy her newfound sexuality too much. I want her home to tell her that; I’d even tell her on the phone but she said not to call her, and I was going to respect her wishes.

I knew my feelings for Jacqui as well, and realizing I wouldn’t be able to see her brought tears to my eyes. I realized I needed to talk to her, so I pulled my phone out of my pocket and dialed her number. It rang a few times, and her voice came on the line. I was about to say something when I realized it was her voice mail, “Hi, this is Jacqui. I can’t come to the phone now, so please leave me a message.”

Heaving her sexy voice but not being able to talk to her almost did me in. I left her a short message; “Hi, I just wanted to tell you how much I miss you already. Love you, bye.” Then I clicked the ‘end call’ button and climbed into bed to wallow in my loneliness.

When I got home from work on Wednesday, I didn’t want to spend another evening alone so decided to do a little shopping at Costco. I thought about calling Trisha to see if she wanted to go out somewhere but it didn’t feel right while Michelle was gone. I still hadn’t heard a word from my wife since Monday lunchtime.

Before I left, I called Jacqui again. I missed her immensely and wanted her wrapped in my arms! She answered, leading to a warm conversation. I was careful not to let on how depressed I was, inquiring about her first day as a manager. She sounded so excited that I couldn’t help but feel happy for her, lifting my spirits somewhat but making me realize even more how much I cared for her. She already loved her employees, and it sounds like they reciprocated the feeling. “No,” she teased me, “no new boyfriend yet.” When we finished and hung up I felt a little better.

I picked up the few items we were out of; toilet paper, ribs for the grill and a few other little things, and was waiting in the checkout line when I realized that I recognized the attractive lady in front of me. It was Ginger, a girl I had a major crush on in high school, my first love. How I’d wished back then not to be so shy and afraid of girls. She sat in front of me in French class with her cute, flaming red hair and had the sweetest voice when trying to speak French.

Ginger was tall, 5’ 11” to be exact. I know because she was on the girls basketball team and led them to two district championships and games in the State Tournament in Olympia. They didn’t fare so well there against the schools on the west side of Washington. The best they managed was to finish sixth one time and brought home a trophy. Our school was darned proud of our team, though.

I remembered how lovely I thought she was back then, and she certainly hadn’t lost any of that! She was thin and pretty flat-chested, but I thought she was gorgeous with her beautiful red hair. I guess her parents had probably named her Ginger because of that red hair. I noticed she’d filled out quite nicely since then. Her bright red hair certainly didn’t detract from her appearance either. The intervening years certainly hadn’t done her any harm.

When my wits finally returned, I did something I’d never have been able to only a couple of years ago, “Ginger?” I asked her. I actually spoke to her.

She turned toward me and a big grin spread across her face, “Oh hi, Robert, long time no see.”

She remembered my name, after all these years! We both tried to initiate a conversation at the checkout, but it was difficult with her having to talk to the clerk and both of us unloading our purchases onto the conveyer belt. I finally asked her if I could buy her a polish dog or something at the food court so that we could catch up.

We sat at one of the tables next to the wall and both started talking at once, laughing at the rush of mutual interests. I wanted to know everything about her since school and it seemed she wanted the same. She’d been my first crush. She was thin in school but so pretty. Her clothes weren’t revealing at all, but I could still tell that she’d filled out a little in the right spots but was still pretty thin. Her attractive face had blossomed into a stunning woman.

I told her about Michelle and me, though maybe not everything. I left out the little parts about Michelle’s boyfriends, my girlfriend, the exotic dance club and so on.

I learned Ginger had married a guy she met in college, Eric. He’d gone to high school in Richland, one of our biggest rivals in sports. Richland, Kennewick and Pasco are considered the Tri-Cities as they’re all immediately adjacent to each other, and their school sporting teams are fierce rivals. She told me that Eric is a math teacher and he’d just gotten a job at his old high school so they’d recently moved back here. Ginger’s a travel consultant and was looking for a job with a travel agency in the area.

I couldn’t take my eyes away from her; my old feelings from school had returned with a vengeance! I was feeling like a nervous but much more confident teenager again, sitting with this lovely lady from my youth. I didn’t want this evening to end, but alas it had to. At ten till nine, the store announced they were closing in ten minutes. Ginger and I continued to sit at our table and talk, our polish dogs long gone, until an employee walked over and said they were locking the doors and we had to leave.

Ginger had purchased a fifty-pound bag of dog food, so I used that as an excuse to walk her to her car, to help her load it. The parking lot was nearly empty, as it was well after closing time. After loading the big bag of food and her other boxes into the trunk of her car, I walked her to the driver’s door and told her, “Ginger, I enjoyed seeing you tonight.”

“So did I! We need to do it again sometime,” she responded warmly

“I’d love it, maybe you and Eric could come over for dinner sometime? I’ll talk to Michelle about it; I’m sure she’d love to have you over.” She found a pen and piece of paper in her purse and gave me her phone number, asking me to call.

I know I shouldn’t have, and couldn’t have possibly done it just a few months ago, but I leaned in and kissed her on the lips. She didn’t reciprocate the kiss, but didn’t pull away either. After a few seconds, although it seemed forever, I pulled away. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have done that,” I told her.

Instead of slapping me like I knew I deserved, she initiated a second kiss, this one much more intimate, her mouth opening and her tongue exploring my lips until I opened mine as well, meeting her tongue with my own. Her hand went around my neck pulling me tighter to her, and her body slithered up against mine. My heart was racing at a thousand beats per second, enjoying this kiss that I’d wanted so long ago. She finally broke away, breathing hard and said, “No, you shouldn’t have. Why did you?”

My mind at that moment was reeling with what had just happened, it was so unexpected! I tried to formulate some words together in my fog. The one thing I had avoided mentioning earlier was how I’d felt about her in school. Now was the time to fess up, “You remember French class? I sat behind you and the whole year I fell in love with you more each and every day. When we had the little Christmas skit and you hugged me, for just a second I thought maybe I’d get up the nerve to ask you out but I couldn’t. But Ginger – I haven’t ever forgotten you.”

She looked at me, her eyes shining, and softly told me, “Well, if you had I would have accepted.”

A little explanation here; our French class put on a skit at the Christmas concert (it was still legal to call it a ‘Christmas’ concert then). I was Santa Claus, tall, about 6’2” and 140 pounds. I made a perfect Santa! One of our class members had a little Radio Flyer wagon I scrunched up in, and Ginger was the reindeer, pulling Santa across the stage. She had on a little reindeer outfit with horns on her head and her nose lipsticked bright red as Rudolph.

Ginger pulled Santa to the middle of the stage, stopped, and we both waved to the audience, which included adults and the students who weren’t a part of the concert. When it was time to finish the trip across the stage, she pulled on the wagon, accidentally flipping it up, dumping poor Santa straight onto his back, legs and feet sticking straight up in the air. When I recovered from the shock from getting dumped out onto the stage, I struggled to my feet and gracefully walked to the other side and behind the curtain.

Everyone behind the curtain was laughing hysterically, and Ginger came over to me, wrapped her arms around me with a cheek to cheek hug. Up to that point in my life, I think that hug was the most exciting thing I’d ever experienced! I came so near to turning my face just a little and kissing her, but I was so bashful I simply couldn’t do it. As I think back, it wouldn’t have been very appropriate, but that thought didn’t even cross my love-struck mind at that moment.

The rest of our skit, Santa slid down the little cardboard fireplace and distributed presents, talking to the little boys and girls (French class members), all of our conversation in French. After our skit was over, I came close, but couldn’t bring myself to ask Ginger for a date. I spent the rest of the school year in a constant haze of lust but couldn’t force myself to do anything about it - until that night at Costco, twenty plus years later! With those years gone by, having never forgotten about Ginger, I discovered my lust for her hadn’t dissipated a bit. If anything, it was stronger than ever!

“I’m sorry Ginger, can I still call you for dinner with you and Eric at our house sometime?”

Ginger’s face was a little flushed from our kiss. I expected her to tell me that we better not, but she surprised me, “I’d still like that; maybe we can all get to be friends.” Then she slid into her car, closed the door and drove away, waving at me.

What the hell had just happened, I wondered? I hadn’t said a thing to her to imply that Michelle and I had an open marriage. I certainly didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize Ginger and Eric’s marriage, but I still had to wonder about the possibility.