Page 25 of Just Past Two

Sam gawked. “What?”

“Yeah.” Mitchell gestured toward the windows, as if the people he loved were standing right out there, which of course they weren’t. “I’m polyamorous. We all are. Me, and Ben, and Hannah.”

“What the hell?” Sam couldn’t keep the disbelief out of his voice. “Nobody does that.”

“Yeah, people do. We do that.” Mitchell was actually fully smiling now. “And it turns out a lot of people do that. We have a discussion group about it here in Mapleton. We meet once a month or so, talk about how to have open relationships, or sleep with other people, or have a relationship with more than two.”

“Do I know Hannah?” Sam was trying to think about who he’d seen Mitchell with. He seldom saw Mitchell outside the restaurant or gym, but maybe he’d seen her at the restaurant.

“My height, curvy, brown hair, wears librarian glasses?” Mitchell shifted in his chair. “She also runs the sex shop Yes Please, the one right next to the restaurant.”

“I don’t know her, I don’t think.” Sam was still gawking. “I can’t believe you’re doing this and I didn’t even know about it. That is…unbelievable.”

“It’s a lot of people’s fantasies, for sure.” Mitchell smiled sheepishly.

Fantasies, right. That snapped Sam back to the conversation. “That’s the other thing. I have been having all these fantasies about Abby with other people. I think it started back at the reunion, when this all first came up.” He ate some more nachos, and then took the glass of water that Mitchell had ordered for him.

“That’s a pretty common fantasy.” Mitchell finished the last of the nachos. “I think it’s called hotwifing. Is it something Abby’s interested in doing?”

“I haven’t told her.” Sam shook his head. “That feels way too far. Even the thought of bringing it up, it’s like, I can’t imagine being someone who has these thoughts in the first place, let alone sharing them. It’s like I’m not the man she married.”

Mitchell shrugged. “You’re not. You’re changing. We’re all changing. It’s life, man. It’s what we do.” Mitchell finally finished the last of his whisky, the same glass he’d somehow been drinking this whole conversation while Sam pounded the booze. “You think it was easy, realizing I wanted more than one person in my life, forever? Falling in love with them? I’ve been in love with Ben for years, and having to confront that, it was scary shit. It’s still scary. I don’t know what’s going to happen with us, but I want to have them both in my life. Once I realized that, it got a lot easier.”

Mitchell, the Dominant, in a relationship with two people at once. Sam really didn’t know this guy at all. “You’re kind of rocking my worldview, here.”

“It’s not that complicated.” Mitchell shrugged. “I get it. I tend to make things complicated. Ben’s always after me to think simpler. You want to be with Abby, obviously, and you want to have this kinky sex and explore this different side of your relationship, go for it. See where it leads.”

“And what about…” Sam hesitated. “What about if we go past just the two of us?”

“What, another person? A threesome?” Mitchell leaned back in his chair. “Bring it up with her. Maybe she’ll think it’s hot, too. Seems like you’re both batting a thousand when it comes to fantasies.”

“Are we going too far, though?” That was the other question eating at his brain.

“For what? For hot sex? It’s just sex, Sam.” Mitchell ate a jalapeño that had fallen off the nachos onto the bare plate. “Just fuck like you want to fuck. Don’t make a big deal out of it. It’s only as significant as you make it, together. It can just be fun.”

“Right.” He wasn’t really convinced, but Mitchell was speaking some sense, for sure. Maybe it could be this simple. Abby was into being watched, clearly, her exhibitionism rising up at new points, and he could play with that. He could tease her, and they could have fun together.

“And listen. You’re gonna find out new things about yourself. It’s okay. Let it happen. Growth, man. Growth.” He clapped Sam on the back. “You want me to drive you home?”

“Actually.” Sam was getting another idea. “You said there’s a sex shop, Yes Please. How late are they open?”

Chapter Five

Sam was normally a pretty easy guy to read. He was straightforward with his feelings, up-front when he was having a bad day or needed some time to himself, a completely open book that Abby could read without trouble. For the last week, though, ever since what she’d been thinking of as Kink Night, he’d been…reserved. Normally, she wouldn’t have read too much into it. She’d tell herself that he was busy at work, and he probably was, but she wouldn’t dwell on it longer than that. Now, with whatever this “give a fantasy, get a fantasy” game they had been playing, she kept ruminating on every action of his like it might mean way more than she expected. After all, it was his turn to share a fantasy, and he’d given no sign of wanting to do anything else. In fact, up until going to the gym last night, he’d been mopey as hell, and then he’d come home late via cab, drunk on a weeknight. It wasn’t like him.

So, sitting at dinner that Friday night, Abby geared up toward ending their game. She’d been rehearsing the speech in the mirror, about how he was obviously upset after playing with power exchange, and they’d gotten in over their heads too fast, and he would clearly be happier if they went back to the way things used to be. She wasn’t even going to talk about how the whole “fantasy swap” had been a bad idea that he hadn’t been ready for. She took a deep breath, and let it out.

“So I’ve been thinking.”

Sam paused, his fork halfway to his mouth, and then carefully finished his bite before setting down the fork and chewing. He had that wide-eyed innocent look that meant she was taking him totally by surprise.

“I know you’re upset about the way things went last weekend,” she began, ready to segue into the part about calling everything off.

Sam interrupted her, still giving her that wide-eyed, taken-aback stare. “I’m not upset.”

Bullshit. “You’ve been distant all week. You’ve been kind of weird ever since we did it. Like you’ve got a secret.” She paused, and he spoke into the silence.

“I look like I’ve got a secret because I’ve got a secret.” He smiled, taking another bite of his dinner.