Copyright© 2003 by Carlos Malenkov

Married life was all right, Al was thinking, but it did tend to get a bit monotonous. He and Martha had just celebrated their seventh anniversary. A show followed by a restaurant dinner with all the fixings, the obligatory champagne toasts, then off to bed.

They made love twice that night. The second time, when he wakened in the early hours of the morning as she got up to pee, was better. She let him take her in the ass that time, and that was always extra special because she was tighter there and he could feel so much more of her intense inner heat -- the radiance of my soul, she like to call it.

Still, there was something missing. The sex was good, but no longer explosive. He missed the sense of the forbidden, the feeling they'd gloried in as high school sweethearts copping a quickie -- with her straddling him on the front seat of the Chevy at the Double Feature Drive-in. It just wasn't the same.

Al had always had a secret fascination with anal sex. Maybe it was because, as a little kid, before he had learned the details of female anatomy, he'd believed that the asshole was a special place, the place where a man put himself into a woman. Maybe it was because he had gotten such pleasurable feelings from the enemas he'd received when had "tummy trouble." Maybe it was because... deep down inside him, some part of his hidden self wanted to know what sex was like for the receiver, what it felt like to be penetrated, to be fill up, to be fucked.

The next day Al left work early. He told his supervisor that he was feeling a bit under the weather. But he didn't go home. He drove around aimlessly for about an hour, then parked in back of a bar. A gay bar. He told himself he had to at least find out about it. Get it out of his system. Not necessarily have sex with a man. Just get a general feel for what it was all about.

Inside, it didn't look all that different than the neighborhood tavern he hung out in with his buddies. Same fixtures, and even the decor was similar. He sat on a barstool nursing a tequila, trying hard not to stare at the other patrons. Hey, they looked just like regular guys, mostly.

"First time?"

There was a man sitting next to him. A guy about his own age, or maybe a little older. He was tall, had an athletic build and a sensitive face. Al felt perfectly at ease in his presence.

"Yes, it is. Actually, I'm new to this whole scene. I just want to find out a few things and... "

"And?"

"Well, you see I'm married. Yeah, married. Does that make me some kind of freak in this place?"

The man chuckled. "No, you won't find any prejudice against married men here. We see more of them than you might expect. In fact, some of us consider them a special delicacy. Like truffles, I suppose. I'm Mick, by the way." He extended his hand.

He had a firm handshake.

"I'm Al, and I'm pleased to meet you."

It turned out that they had a great deal in common. They talked about sports, politics, trends in art, and quite a number of other things. Al enjoyed the conversation. He happened to glance at his watch and noticed that a couple of hours had passed. "Holy shit! Martha will be expecting me," he muttered under his breath.

"What did you say?" Mick asked.

"I've really got to be going. Good talking to you. It might be nice some day to..."

"Here," Mick said. He passed Al a business card. "Give me a call if there's anything I can do for you."

That night Al had a vivid dream. He was eating a meal in a restaurant. Sitting across the table from him was Mick. The room was full of strangers, making all the appropriate eating sounds and talking loudly. Al had on a suit jacket, shirt and tie, but down below... he wasn't wearing any pants or shorts! He was stark naked from the waist down! Glancing under the table, he saw that Mick didn't have on any pants or underwear either. In fact, Mick had a giant erection. Al felt his own penis hardening. From across the table, Mick gave him a meaningful look. Al couldn't help it. He felt a massive surge of desire...

Al awakened with a stronger-than-usual morning erection. He briefly considered waking Martha, but she was sleeping soundly, and she wasn't much of a morning person either. In fact, she had been acting strange lately. Al got up and dressed. He left for work an hour early.

He called Mick on his lunch break. "Come to think of it, there might be something..."

"... and so, that's pretty much the way it is."

Mick had been explaining the ins and outs of gay sex. Al was surprised to learn that many gays didn't practice anal penetration at all, and that there were so many alternate modalities of physical affection between men. But none of those particularly interested him. He was obsessed with ass-fucking. Nothing else.

"You're what's called a butthole surfer," Mick said. "We run into quite a few of them. Married men and bi's, mostly. They're not much interested in the gay community, and a lot of them don't even particularly care for male bodies all that much. They're just into the anal thing. They just want to take it in the ass, that's all.

"But you know, Al, that happens to be perfectly okay by me. Many gays find guys like you offensive, a real pain in the ass, if you'll pardon the expression. But I'm very much into ass play, and I'm not too particular where I find it. So, your particular politics and preferences don't bother me in the least. When it comes right down to it, one man's ass is as good as another's."

Martha would ordinarily have noticed Al's out-of-character behavior. He had always been such a creature of habit. He loved his little routines. Going in to work early and leaving before his shift ended should have set off alarm bells in her head. Likewise the late-night drives he had been taking. Not to mention the suspicious redness in the area of his anal sphincter. But as it happened, Martha was going through some major life changes of her own.

She had met a woman. A very special woman. A woman she had developed very special feelings toward...