The morning after my wife's first official "date night," we were initially very excited to do it again. I was working up the courage to ask her to ask him. Part of me wanted to see what their text exchanges looked like (she said he loved to text dirty), but part of me was nervous, although more so about appearing as if I was pushing her. I wanted to make sure she wanted this too. Anyway, I was excited when I set off to the gym the following morning - until life intervened.
At the time, I was training for a powerlifting competition, specifically, a bench press and deadlift competition. On that morning I was working on my deadlift, about two weeks out from competition. I was working up to a weight I could do about three times, then going back down in weight and working on form. So hit three reps of 405 pounds, then after a rest, started working some much lower weights before moving on to some assistance exercises. Then I heard a "POP” and looked up into the mirror only to see my right bicep rolling up like a window shade. Then came the pain, and an awkward, one-armed drive to the ER. There would be no more competitive lifting for me, but I did have surgery and a bunch of rehab in my future.
How does this factor into the story? Well, after getting an MRI, and a bunch of pain killers, and then my initial surgery, my excitement about our little lifestyle had kind of waned. I felt like a wounded old man, and the thought of my wife getting the soul-fucking of a lifetime with one of her exes no longer appealed as much. So I asked her to call things off, at least for now, and she agreed.
This was kind of an awkward time because we had the one incident, plus her "solo" episode, and now I felt almost impotent, or at least unconfident. This feeling persisted until one night, toward the end of my rehab, about a week before my giant arm brace came off, we went out drinking with some friends in the city and ended up at an after-party at one of the nicest homes in Philadelphia. I honestly don't remember how, but I remember being a little drunk, and a LOT concerned about breaking something over my pay grade with my giant brace. Anyway, while there, my wife began flirting with me, like when we were dating. For whatever reason, this turned me on.