“What did you say to him?” Sam looked concerned…in fact, I could tell she was balancing on the line between mortification and rage (but, just maybe, there was excitement in there, too?).

“Nothing, really. I just said it would be nice for you to have some experience back in the hospital and wished him luck, that’s all.” I shifted my eyes away as I put the carton of sodas in the cart. She narrowed her eyes and when I involuntarily smiled, her mouth became a tight line. I tried to stifle my laugh. “I’m not kidding. I didn’t say anything that would embarrass you."

It took a minute to assure her but she looked around nervously the whole time we were in the checkout line and hurried out to the car where she grilled me all the way home about whether I was lying–and HAD said something to Steve, or was just winding her up. I must have said it a dozen times. “I’m not kidding, I said it was nice for the V.A. to have him working there and he said he was looking forward to it and I said see you later and he said have a nice day and that was it.”

“I’ll kill you if you’re lying,” she said, and reached to push the button to open the garage door.

**

Sam works for a large veteran’s hospital system in a part of the state that is otherwise pretty remote. Like everywhere else, staffing since COVID has been tough, and her department, and the ones she works closest with, has lost most of its experienced people to retirement or burnout or poaching from other hospitals. She’s the head gardener and takes it seriously that patients at the hospital, and their families, take comfort in the beautiful grounds. Sam looked around one day and realized she was the only one in all of grounds and facilities from before the pandemic.

But occasionally, she used to mention Steve. He had worked in electrical or something more than a decade before and she had once told me, when I was goading her for fantasies, that she thought he was pretty hot. She liked his big hands and she had caught him in a mirror looking at her ass one time as they headed up for a staff meeting. Back then, I would bring it up while she was sucking my cock. “Imagine Steve is about to put those big hands on your hips and sink his cock into you.” She would bob her head faster and take my cock all the way to her throat, moaning in pleasure.

We moved on to other fantasies, though, and when a few months had passed and I asked if she ever saw Steve around anymore, she said (a little sadly), “No, he took another position down-state and moved.”

So Steve fell out of the rotation of our fantasy dirty-talk and I pretty much forgot about him.

Then, last December, Sam and I were making out in bed and she pulled her head back and smiled slyly. “Guess who I talked to at the Christmas party today?” I couldn’t think of a single name that would cause her to act like this. She looked surprised. “Big hands? Tall? Elevator fantasy? Steve?!” She really acted like I would remember who we were talking about but it had been over a decade. I rolled off her and she described our old discussions, how she had caught him checking out her ass back then, how he used to be a staple in our fantasies.

It was kind of coming back to me, but I let her know I got the drift and we should move on to the present. “He came up to help with the new wiring on Green floor and dropped into the Christmas Party because…” And here she went into work stuff that was too complicated to talk about in our underwear. “Anyway, he recognized me and made a beeline to come over and chat and we talked for about 20 minutes.”

I could feel her excitement. “We could call him up? You still want to fuck him?” I asked, and leaned in for her mouth. Now that she was clearly excited I was eager to get down to business.

She pulled back just slightly and smiled nervously. “Don’t be mad...”

I froze.

“I told him about an opening up here and he seemed really interested.” She was massaging the fingers on her right hand like she did when she was thinking about something.

I thought about it for a split-second. I trusted her. And I liked the fantasy and the way it had energized her. We were getting older and I liked that she still got to be looked at from time to time. I ran my hand along her thigh and leaned in for that kiss. “Maybe you’d like those hands to…”

**

Last week, I was making dinner and Sam had just come in and washed the dirt from her hands and was now leaning against the counter drinking wine and looking through the mail. She told me about the new plantings on the South lawn of the V.A. that she was happy to be in now that the snow had melted out. Very casually, she said, “Guess who interviewed for a job at the V.A., today?” 

For a second, I thought she was trying to tell me she was going for a new position. She looked surprised that I had forgotten. “Steve! Steve?”

“Ohhh, Steve.” I rested the spoon on the top of the pot. Talking about it in bed was one thing, I actually had to hide the little tickle of jealousy. “Think he’ll get the job?” I asked, very nonchalantly.

We’ve been married for three decades. My poker face won’t work with her. She went full-on work-mode. “Well, they haven’t had anyone above grade 14 over there in almost a year and I think, if they have any chance of getting Green wired for…”

I picked up the spoon and gave the pasta another stir.

Her poker face doesn’t work with me, either.

**

“Hey Sam.”

I looked up to see a guy about my height, maybe a little taller, salt and pepper hair, was grocery-cart to grocery-cart with Sam. We had split up, onions on one side and potatoes on the other and Sam, half-frozen with a bag of new potatoes in her hand, was blushing just a little. 

“Oh, hi Steve!” she said, and put the potatoes in the cart. They chatted for a minute while I inspected the onions. “Steve, this is my husband, Dan.” I came around and shook his hand. Big hand. Strong grip.

Steve said, "You're the writer! Sam told me you have a book coming out?” We chatted for a few minutes. I liked him and I could see why Sam enjoyed his company. I noted how quickly he had referenced my recent book deal. I wasn’t sure what to make of it, but at the very least, he didn’t seem like he was trying to out-alpha me. No need to see who could piss higher up on the fire hydrant. Yet.

After a few minutes, he pushed his cart away and Sam and I moved over to the wine aisle. She was really studying the various pinot noirs. “He get the job?” I asked.

She was really torn between a bottle with a grape on the label and a bottle with a different grape on it. “Oh yes.” She bit her lip a little. “Starts Monday. I know they’re excited but the poor guy is going to come in to a mess of…”

She had at least a pair of jacks but wanted me to think her hand was a scratch.

After a while, I wandered off to get some soda and happened to bump into Steve again.

***

For the next two weeks, she really did get on my nerves. We’d be watching TV and a commercial would come on and she would ask, “Did you say something to Steve at the store?” She wanted me to know that it would seem deeply unprofessional of her if he thought she had some sort of thing for him. I repeated what I had told her in the car, ever more slowly so it would sink in. 

"We ran into each other. He said hello again. I said hello again. He said congrats on the book again. I said congrats on the job. He said he was happy to have it. I said see you later. He said, see you later. That. Was. It."

After she mentioned it again, about two weeks since we had run into him. I added, “Why? Did he say something to you?”

The commercial was over and she was turning the volume back up. “No. Seemed like you were in that aisle a long time and I just don’t like the look in your voice when you tell me what you said.”

I laughed at that. “‘Look in my voice,’ that’s pretty good.”

“You know what I meant.”

That night, I woke up in the middle of the night with her hand in my underwear. As soon as I opened my eyes, she kissed me. “Want to eat me out?”

**

Steve didn’t come up outside the bedroom for a few months. I got busy. She got busy with landscaping stuff. We’re adults with lives. Sometimes, I would bring him up when we were in bed. Same drill as the old days: she’d be sucking my cock and I would mention him plowing her from behind. Or I’d be eating her and ask if she wished she was sucking his cock while I did it.

One night, I was between her legs, face soaked in her juices, when something tapped on the top of my head. She had a dildo in each hand. “I want you to eat me from behind while you fuck me with this.”

She got up on all fours and wiggled her big ass. She looked into my eyes and slowly took the other dildo into her mouth. I pushed the pink head of the other dildo, the biggest one we owned, against the lips of her pussy and it slipped in easily. She half closed her eyes and wiggled her ass some more. I smiled and leaned in, licking her puckered butt while I slid the dildo in to the big rubber balls. In a few seconds, she was rocking her ass against my face and moaning loudly around the silicone cock in her mouth. 

I pulled my face away for just a second and asked, “Which one is Steve?”

She almost screamed and began to squirt on the big dildo and reached back to grab my hair and press my face between her ass cheeks again.

*

It was early summer when I ran into Steve again. I was getting my car inspected at the shop and he was sitting in the weird auto shop waiting room. A woman was watching an HGTV decorating show with the volume way too loud. 

Steve and I exchanged hellos but I was suddenly nervous and we had to practically shout to be heard so I picked up a corny magazine and we both got back to waiting. 

I was thinking about being in my mid-50’s. Time was ticking and there was a lot we had never tried. A lot we had already missed our chance to try.

It was a nice day outside.

“Hey Steve.” He lowered his phone and looked up at me. I rolled my eyes toward the blaring TV. “You want to walk over and get a coffee while we wait?”

**

Our 35th anniversary fell on a Wednesday, so we couldn’t take a real trip. Sam, always practical, was a little miffed that I had gotten dinner reservations down in the city. “Wish I didn’t have to work tomorrow,” she complained.

I held the door for her. “So call in sick.”

She was dressed for me. I love her curves and, to me, her tight jeans, the low-cut blouse that showed some cleavage, and the sandals that showed off her summer pedicure were the equivalent of a little black dress.

We walked past the front desk and the elevator and into the hallway to the restaurant. “I didn’t know this place got good reviews,” she said as we waited for the hostess.

“Surprises abound,” I said.

The waiter asked if we wanted to order a bottle of wine with dinner, but I was the driver so I suggested we just order by the glass. Sam had a second. The food was decent. We exchanged anniversary cards.

Then the waiter came over with a bucket of champagne. Sam looked very confused. The waiter gestured to the bar, “Compliments of your friend.”

Maybe there was a tone in his voice but who cares. Sam’s face went red. Steve was leaning on the bar and I had to admit, he had out-dressed me. Black jacket, white shirt open at the collar.

Sam was struggling to speak. The waiter was pouring a splash of bubbly in her glass and trying not to make eye contact with anyone.

“Hope you’re not mad,” I said. “But I think you’re going to have to call in sick tomorrow.”

**

Sam paused with her lips half an inch from the tip of his cock and turned to me again. “One more time. Is this OK?”

We had come this far but a jealous little voice deep inside was trying to get me to call it off. I could barely hear it over the noise of my galloping heart. I gulped and nodded. 

Sam kept her eyes on me as she took Steve’s cock into her mouth, the first cock that wasn’t mine for the first time in our 35-year marriage. Steve leaned his head back on the pillow and I rubbed her hip from the opposite corner of the bed.

The suitcase I had snuck into the car that morning was open on the luggage rack and the empty champagne glasses were on the desk nearby. Maybe she would have chosen something less sheer–she can be sensitive about her curves–but now she was in the moment and didn’t bother to pull her teddy back down over her hip.

She kept her eyes on mine while she slowly ran her tongue from the base of his shaft up to the purple head. She batted her lashes at me as she flicked her tongue on the very tip, then she closed her eyes and took him slowly into her mouth. Then she was totally focused on him and I watched her brows furrow with concentration as she stroked him into her mouth, then followed her hand with her mouth back down to the base. Pausing to gasp for breath, she devoured it again. 

She was turned on her side and, without opening her eyes or taking his cock out of her mouth, she raised one knee to open herself to me. I leaned in, just a little, and she felt around for my face, then my hair, and pulled my mouth to her pussy. She was soaked.

I started to lap at her and then we were all shifting around. She never took her hand off his cock, but had me lay down on the foot of the bed, then she climbed over my face and I could feel him kneeling by my knees. She lowered her beautiful big ass onto my mouth and began to grind. She freed my cock from my pants and was stroking it, but I knew she was still sucking his cock.

Every once in a while, she would lift to let me breathe. I could hear him moaning and her making exaggerated sucking sounds for all of our benefit. Then I would grab her hips and pull her back down to my face and sink my tongue into her again.

Finally, I felt his weight leave the bed but she didn’t raise her ass up. If anything, she ground down on my face more. Then, indeed, her ass lifted just as I felt her hot mouth on my cock. His cock appeared just above my face and I reached around with both hands to grip her ass. His hands were there, too. He slipped his long shaft into her pussy slowly and his balls were just touching the tip of my nose. He pulled back slowly and I felt her take my whole cock into her mouth and throat. Then he thrust in harder. The harder he thrust, the more rapidly she swallowed my cock. I could hear her moans starting to increase in volume. 

Then he was pounding her with all he had. A flood of her juices erupted around his cock and I opened up to catch all I could. Now I was licking her clit as it was rocking violently over me and my whole face was soaked. My tongue tried to catch her pussy as it went past and sometimes I found the bottom of his shaft instead. 

That just made both of them go harder.

Sam doesn’t like to swallow. In fact, she’s normally disgusted by the taste of cum. But as I tried to pull out of her mouth, wiggling my hips down into the mattress, he exploded in her pussy and I could feel his balls convulsing on my face as they pumped. She wouldn’t release me so I let go in her mouth and she pushed her mouth clear to the base while both of us pumped.

When he pulled out, she let my cock fall out of her mouth, though she gave it a long lick. “Drink some water,” she said. “We’re not done.” 

Then she lowered herself onto my mouth. I opened wide, hungry for this world.