Chapter 32

The next few weeks were pretty similar except for one small detail. Michelle asked Shaun to take her to the club Saturday nights, then went home with him. I missed those great fucks when she came home so horny, but twice I did bring Trisha to our house with me after she got off work. It was funny with Trish; I’m obviously a guy who falls in love pretty quickly, but that wasn’t happening with her. I liked her, a lot, but certainly not like what had happened with Jacqui. Maybe that’s because I was rapidly falling in love with Ginger.

Before I talk about Ginger, maybe I’d better update on what was happening in Jacqui’s life. She did go on a date with her co-worker’s brother and was seeing him pretty regularly now. I had such mixed feelings about that. I wanted her to be happy, but the thought of what we’d had and losing her forever brought tears to my eyes more than once. I guess I knew it’d be inevitable even before she left but it still wasn’t easy.

Ginger, I’d fallen hard for Ginger. We continued going to dances every Friday and dinner afterward. Sometimes Ginger and I danced as couples, and sometimes we coupled with our spouses. Michelle’s plot that first time had worked however, and there wasn’t any turning back. It undoubtedly would have happened even if Michelle hadn’t forced Ginger and me together so much, but all I knew was that I couldn’t get enough of her.

Our “yellowrocks” had become harder and harder to break away from and that few moments when saying goodbye had become tortuous. We hugged and kissed cheeks and touched lips briefly one time. I simply had no idea where this was going or how. I desperately wanted more with Ginger but had no idea how. Then in late November, November 24th be exact, Michelle dropped a bombshell on me, two to be precise. She made both a suggestion and a request that each rocked my world to its core!

First the suggestion, she said she’d been talking to Ginger, and she knew that both Ginger and Eric were looking for more from my relationship with her. I wasn’t sure what Michelle meant by “more.” I was afraid of “more” without there being a “lot more”.

“Eric wants you to take Ginger out, alone, just the two of you. Ginger wants that too.”

My mind instantly sprang to alert, “Does he understand what that might mean?”

“She hasn’t come right out and said it, but yes, I think so, they both do.”

I wondered if Michelle had any idea how badly I wanted what she’s suggesting. “Okay sweetie, do you have any good suggestions, such as you’re not home Friday night and I take Ginger to the dance alone?”

“Well actually, now that you ask, I do have an idea, something a bit more extreme than that. Do you know about the big formal dance they have at the Pendleton Convention Center in December, the Christmas Cotillion?”

“I’ve heard of it but never thought anything about it.” When I lived near Pendleton when I was a kid, there wasn’t any such thing as a Christmas Cotillion, at least not that I knew about.

“I think you should invite Ginger to go to it with you.” She paused just a bit before adding, “And then spend the night in a hotel.”

I looked at her a little slackjawed, “Are you serious?”

She looked straight at me, “Yes, I am.”

“And you honestly think Ginger would do that, and Eric would want her to spend the night with me?”

“I think so, but there’s only one way to find out for sure.”

I was having trouble digesting what I was hearing, my dream come true! I thought about asking Ginger to spend the night with me and didn’t know if I had the courage to do that. Yeah, I know, I’ve mentioned several times how much my confidence around women has changed, but this was a bit much. If it was just asking Ginger to a dinner or even a dance, then something happened spontaneously I’d be able to handle that. But asking her to spend the night with me? That’s entirely different! The only thing I could think of at the time was to ask my wife, “Would you ask her for me?” What the heck, it worked the first time we asked Jacqui out.

Michelle laughed at my suggestion. I didn’t think it was funny. “No silly, not this time. You’re asking her. I’ll help, though, after the lesson Friday, I’ll find a way to give you and her a few minutes alone together so you can ask her.”

I guessed I could live with that. Then I realized I didn’t know when it was, “Umm, when is it? Maybe I should know that before I make an idiot of myself.”

“December 12th, starts at eight.” She’d apparently been thinking about this and done a little research.

Then Michelle dropped her other bombshell on me.

“There’s something else I need to talk to you about too.”

The way she said that I was a little wary, it sounded ominous.

“Shaun called me today. He’s going to the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas next week.” Ok, that doesn’t surprise me, but she went on, “He asked me to go with him.”

I didn’t have any problem with her going to a rodeo with him. She has before and where better than Las Vegas? As they say, ‘What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.” I didn’t know anything about the National Finals Rodeo, it’s probably similar to the Pendleton Round-up, and they’d be there over a long weekend. Besides, she’s encouraging me to spend a night with the girl I’ve fallen madly in love with, I can hardly complain about her spending another weekend with her lover. “When is it?”

“It starts next week.” She has this irritating habit of stopping, leaving me dangling when I know she has more to say. Her voice dropped to almost a whisper when she finally went on, “It’s ten days long.”

I stood staring, uncomprehending for I’m not sure how long before what she just said registered in my pea sized brain, “Ten days!” My wife wanted to spend almost half a month with her lover in probably the most sex oriented city in the country! She’d be away for like two weeks! We haven’t been apart that long since before we were married. And this isn’t just apart, it’s with her lover! No way in hell was I going to let her do that, and I was going to be firm about it!

“When are you leaving? Do you know when you’re coming home?” How’s that for firmly telling her no!

“It starts December second, and he wanted to leave Friday to give us a few days of fun before he has to work. I told him I had to wait until at least Saturday because we already have a commitment Friday night. The last day of the rodeo is the twelfth, so I assume we’d come home on the thirteenth.”

Leaving Saturday, so soon! I quickly clicked it off in my head – fifteen days! I couldn’t help but think to myself, “if she came home.” I know how she already feels about Shaun, who is single and unencumbered by the way, two weeks with him, especially in Las Vegas – lover capital of the world, would test our relationship like never before. I still felt that I had to trust her, however. Our entire relationship, especially the last year, has been based on love and trust. I didn’t want to let on that I was fearful that this might be too much for her, that I felt a slight crack in that trust.

If I told her no, which I desperately wanted to do, I knew she’d sense my lack of trust, and it could change everything. “What about your job, can you take that much time off?”

“I still have a week’s vacation that I can use this year. I’d have to take one week of leave without pay but with what I’ve been making from the Honey Bunzz we can afford that and we’ve been pretty slow the last couple weeks so they won’t have a problem with a two week vacation.”

She was right, the money wouldn’t be an issue. Then I realized something else, “You know what that’ll mean for my date with Ginger, don’t you?” I’d made it a firm policy that I wasn’t going out with anyone whenever Michelle wasn’t here. I felt okay exempting a date with Ginger because it’s something Michelle wants me to do too. But I knew how I’d feel after Michelle being gone two weeks before that night.

Michelle knew what I had realized and gave me that sexy smile of hers, “You’re going to be horny as hell!” It didn’t sound very ladylike coming from Michelle, but that’s what I was thinking too.

When we went to bed and were making love that night, I couldn’t help but think about her with Shaun in Las Vegas; then when we were about to go to sleep, my upcoming night with Ginger crossed my mind just a little too. I thought to myself that I was going to have nice dreams tonight! I have no idea if I did, I don’t usually remember my dreams past the first few minutes of waking up.

Michelle spent Wednesday and Thursday with Shaun. Friday night I was a nervous wreck at the lesson. By then, Jim had taught the majority of the mainstream square dance movements and was mostly working on ingraining the calls with repetition. Michelle still made sure I danced most of the evening with Ginger, and I can’t even begin to describe how difficult it was to stay platonic with her. When we started going to the lessons with them, I described my touches with Ginger as an electric shock. By this time, that electric shock had become more of a lightning bolt! Every little touch sent a surge through me.

I thought of a thousand different ways to ask her to the Cotillion. They all seemed lame and as we got closer to the end of the lesson, the more nervous and scared I was getting, almost like high school again. This time, though, I, at least, had enough courage that I wasn’t going to let my fears return to the point of missing the opportunity again.