“I don’t know about sleeping,” Tanya replied. “It was a good night, though.”
“Alex?”
She grinned a little sheepishly. “Yeah. Good night.”
“I don’t need to check with you,” she said to Jasmine with a grin. “I know what kind of night you had.”
“You’re embarrassing everyone, Karla,” Kevin admonished.
“All right,” Karla said, not the least bit chagrined. “There’s coffee, tea, juice, and sodas in the bar. Everybody get your own.”
“We’re going to have to go over to the house,” Tanya announced.
“Whatever for?” Karla asked her as she poured hot coffee into a mug.
“I can’t spend the day wandering around wrapped in a towel.”
“You could go naked. Nobody would mind.”
“You’re not naked,” Tanya observed.
‘She’s not exactly demurely covered,” Kevin noted.
“But she is exquisite,” Tom chuckled. “Am I right, guys?”
There were general chuckles of agreement.
“What’s the plan for today, anyway?” Kevin asked.
“Well,” Karla began, “I thought the girls would dress out the place for Halloween night while the guys went for a round of golf or something.”
“I don’t play golf,” Jeremy replied.
“I didn’t bring my clubs,” Ted added.
“Fine. I didn’t realize it would be such a challenge,” Karla said. “But, we’re going to decorate.”
“We could go to that titty bar down on Poplar,” Tom suggested. “I think it opens at eleven.”
“Don’t be an ass, Tom,” Tanya snapped. “You’ve got all that and more right here.”
“Just joking,” Tom sulked.
“My, my,” Karla said. “Aren’t we a sullen group? I thought this was going to be fun for everybody.”
“Kevin was right,” Alex replied. “I think we’re all a little embarrassed.”
“Really?” Karla said with disbelief. “All right. Show of hands. Who hated what happened last night.”
Nobody raised their hand.
“And who thinks their wife or girlfriend is a slutty whore because she got laid?”
Again, there was no movement.
“You need to get over yourselves,” Karla proclaimed. “I don’t know about you, but I had a great time. Anybody disappointed with the performance of their partner or partners?”
There was silence.
“Kevin,” she asked imperiously, “Do you still love me?”
“Of course I do.”
“Jeremy, tell Jasmine you still love her.”
“I love you, Jazz.”
“Love you, too, baby.”
“Tom?”
“Sure. Love you, Tee.”
“I love you, too, Stud.”
“Alex and Ted are exempt, since they’re not a couple.”
“Well, I think you’re all awesome,” Ted chipped in.
That produced a round of easy laughter.
“Yeah,” Alex added. “I hope we’ll all continue to be friends.”
“Friends with benefits,” Tom chuckled.
“Got to love those benefits,” Kevin grinned.
“Maybe we’re all just a little tired and grumpy,” Tanya suggested.
“Okay, okay,” Karla said. “Let’s do this, then. Everybody take a break, all right? Go home, take a nap, a shower, or whatever. Back here at, say, three for decorating? Oh, and the pajama party thing? Just bring or wear something comfortable to hang around in. We all know how sexy we are.”
“That sounds like a plan,” Tanya agreed.
“And we’ll send the guys out to the hardware warehouse while the girls decorate. They can spend hours roaming those aisles,” Karla concluded.
Tanya walked up to Jeremy as everybody was preparing to leave. “You didn’t have much to say,” she told him, resting her arms on his shoulders.
He shrugged. “It sounded okay to me. I mean, this is Jasmine’s thing.”
“No, it’s not, Jeremy. It’s my thing, too. Make sure you’re back around three this afternoon. I’m not done with you yet.”
“You serious?” he asked uneasily.
“Completely. I had a taste of it yesterday and I definitely want some more.” She kissed him lightly on the lips and turned to Jasmine.
“You make sure he comes back, all right?”
“Should I put the dog collar and leash on him for you?”
“You have one of those?”
“Oh, hell, yes! And when I hand the leash to you, he’s yours until you hand him off to somebody else.”
“Jazz!” Jeremy protested.
“I know,” Jasmine grinned. “It was supposed to be our little secret. He likes it, though, when I order him around.”
Tanya smiled brightly. “I sort of noticed that last night.” She turned back to Jeremy. “Tonight, you’re mine.” She kissed him on the cheek and turned to Jasmine, wrapping her in a tight hug. “There’s more to you two than meets the eye, isn’t there?”
“Maybe a little,” Jasmine grinned.
“Do you want me to take Ted with me?” Alex asked Karla.
“No, darling. He and Kevin and I are going to change the sheets on the beds, collect the towels and put out fresh ones.”
“Let me help,” Alex suggested. “The four of us can get it done a lot quicker.”
“If you’d like,” Karla replied. “It would make it faster.”
“Anything else?”
“Not that I can think of. We’ll get started after everyone else leaves.”
+++
“Can we talk?” Alex asked Karla as they worked the bed in the master bedroom.
“Sure.”
“Okay. Uhm. First, this thing with Kevin?”
Karla nodded as she balled the sheet up. “What about it?”
“It was terrific, okay? I…Well, I don’t know why you did it, but I’m glad you did.”
“Okay.”
“So, why did you?”
“Oh, that’s easy. You had needs. He could supply them without the drama. So, it just seemed logical.”
“No, see, you don’t do logical.”
“Well, okay. It was convenient?”
“Honey, wives don’t send their husbands off to screw unmarried women.”
“Well, I guess I’m not a typical wife. And Kevin isn’t a typical husband. We don’t have a typical marriage relationship, I guess.”
“See, that’s the thing. What the hell is your relationship? I mean, for anybody else, this is way, way over the top.”
Karla stopped and looked at her friend. “Is this going to be judgmental? Are you going to tell me that this is all wrong and I should be ashamed or something?”
“No, no! Not at all. I’m just…I guess I’m just trying to understand.”
“Who did you screw last night? I know Kevin, to start. But after that?”
“Tom.”
“Did you have fun?”
“Yes. But, this isn’t about me.”
“So you’re worried about me?”
“I’m just trying to understand.”
“Okay. Let me see if I can explain. Kevin is, let’s just say, a little different.”
“In what way?”
“He likes to watch me having sex, okay? He especially likes it when I have sex with other guys. He says it turns him on to watch.”
“Well, that raises a whole other batch of questions.”
“Go ahead.”
“Shouldn’t he want you to be, I don’t know, faithful to him?”
“I am faithful to him.”
“Uh, not if your screwing other guys!”
Karla chuckled. “I am faithful to Kevin in our relationship. We’re not cheating, not sneaking around to get laid, looking for love. We’re just screwing. When the screwing is done, we’re still together. We are faithful to one another. Kevin gets his thrill and I get laid. It works for us.”
“But then you send him to be with me.”
“He’s not sneaking off with you because he’s lacking something here. He’s offering a service. I know he’s coming home. He’s not looking for love with you.”
“And you trust him that much.”
“I do, Alex. In fact, I’m the one who had to push him into getting laid by other women.”
“You did that? I thought you guys were just swingers.”
“Well, we are and we aren’t. See, I was getting laid, but Kevin wasn’t. So, I thought it would only be fair if he got laid, too.”
“Fair?”
Karla shrugged. “I know this goes against all the rules, Alex. Women are supposed to crave the stability of one guy. Men are supposed to be horn dogs, you know, looking to get laid at every opportunity. But I have the security and stability of Kevin. And he’s got this kink that lets me get laid by other men. The fact is, I like it. Okay? I like the different experiences with different guys. So, I figure I’m getting the best of both worlds.”
“But this party thing. I mean, Tom’s wife…”
“Tanya.”
“Yeah, Tanya. She didn’t get jealous when he slept with me?”
“Tanya’s closer to being in tune with me than anybody. Tom loves her. But if he’s happy getting a little strange every now and then, and still comes home to her, she figures it’s a good trade off. At the same time, she gets to have some variety in her sexual life, too. She doesn’t want or intend to toss Tom over for somebody else. It’s just having sex.”
“And Ted?”
Karla grinned broadly. “Ted is…well, he’s a lot like you. He’s single. He’s a bartender Kevin and I met in Chicago. He’s a sweetheart. He’d been screwing a married desk clerk from the hotel where he works, but it was just an affair for her. So, we brought him down here because we liked him. He’s a wonderful lover and has an uncanny ability to read what a woman wants when it comes to sex. You haven’t played with him, yet?”
“Yet?” Alex sounded astonished.
“Honey, the whole idea of this weekend is that everybody gets to play with everybody. So, you’ve had Kevin and Tom. You still have Ted and Jeremy to go.”
“What if I don’t want to?”
“Then you can go home, sweetie. I thought you’d enjoy the opportunity to experience the variety of our guys, no strings attached.” Karla said it in a matter of fact manner. “I like having sex with all of them. I thought you would, too.”
“I’m supposed to sleep with them all?”
“Not at once,” Karla laughed. “Although, if a gangbang is one of your kinks, I guess we could arrange it.”
“It is not!” Alex said emphatically.
“You never know until you try,” Karla jibed.
“Well, I have no intention of trying a gangbang.”
“Well, it’s not like it’s violent. I mean, it’s purely voluntary. If you don’t want to do that, it’s fine.”
“Are you planning on it?”
“Not planning it. But, if it happens, I’d be okay with it. I mean, I’ve already screwed each one of them, some, no all of them more than once. Doing it one after the other in a compressed time frame might be exciting.”
“So this is all about excitement for you?”
“Of course it is. It’s also about making available the possibility for everybody, honey. But nobody’s forced to do anything they don’t want. You want to stay and watch? That’s okay, too. Who knows, you might find yourself driven by desire to participate.”
“I sincerely doubt that.”
“Well, I don’t. I know you, Alex. You love sex. Always have. That you wound up with a loser like Drake is just a damned shame. But you can put that behind you now and just enjoy yourself and the pleasure of some pretty good people.”
“Just climb on the roller coaster and take the ride for the thrill?”
“Something like that. Come on. We’ve got one more bed to change.”
+++
“I hate the zombie apocalypse stuff,” Tanya said grumpily.
“Some of it’s pretty creative,” Jasmine replied.
“She won’t even watch The Walking Dead,” Tom volunteered.
“I just don’t believe in that shit,” Tanya spat out. “Besides, these are little children. Even wearing the adult-looking masks, there’s something about dead kids that makes me really uncomfortable."
“They’re just playing,” Karla reminded her.
They’d been manning the door, passing out goodies to the visiting children for about two hours. The house was dark except for scattered candles and orange jack-o-lanterns casting their eerie light throughout the room.
The women had collaborated on costumes and make-up. Karla, Tanya and Alex wore black robes and pointed hats with heavy eye-liner, dark rouge and lipstick. Ted had observed that, in spite of their best efforts to look garish, the three of them made for some damned attractive witches. Jasmine opted for the ghoul-look, with a pasty-white based and thick, black accents around her eyes and lips.
Kevin opted for the vampire look, formal attire, complete with cape, and a black wig with the widow’s peak at the front. Jeremy alternately wore and dispensed with a heavy Frankenstein mask. Tom adopted the Wyatt Earp costume and had allowed the women to paint him with a mustache, extended eyebrows, and dark accents that made him look like he’d grown a week’s worth of whiskers. The girls had delighted in accessorizing Ted as a Wild West bartender, giving him a middle part in his hair with the application of a full can of hairspray, thick eyebrows, a heavy mustache, long sideburns, and using garters to wrap around the sleeves of a white dress shirt. The added a vest that Kevin loaned them to complete the look.
They had been taking turns answering the trick-or-treaters who rang the bell or knocked. After a few hours, the novelty had worn off. Karla had established a rotation to minimize the reluctance to move from their comfortable seats to distribute the treats.
“Frankie and the Ghoul,” she announced when the doorbell rang next, signaling Jeremy and Jasmine that it was their return.
“I don’t even like kids,” Jasmine groused as she arose from the sofa, “Except when toasted lightly and garnished with fried onions and green peppers.”
“EEEWWW!” Alex screamed. “That’s awful!”
“What can I say,” Jasmine countered. “I’m a ghoul.”
“There will be no eating of children,” Karla admonished with a broad grin, “Unless they’re properly baked and basted.”
“You’re nuts,” Ted proclaimed. “All of you.”
“Hansel and Gretel,” Karla reminded him.
“You can eat me,” Tanya shot out in general to the room. “No children.”
“Now there’s an invitation,” Kevin laughed.
“Speaking of sex,” Tom asked, “Is there a plan for tonight’s sleeping arrangements?”
“Someone once told me, Tom,” Karla replied pointedly, “You can’t plan an orgy.