In Brad's Mind

"Oh, my God, Brad! That was fucking unbelievable! You are one terrific lover, baby. My climax just took my breath away. I want more, Brad."

"Please, Diane, I could never continue telling this story tonight. Please don't ask for more."

"No, silly, I didn't mean more talk. I meant that I want more of you than just telephone sex. I want the real thing."

There was a 'Ping' of caution which momentarily rang in my head, but the testosterone and my still erect cock quickly over-ruled any thought of refusing the offer to taste Diane's body to the fullest.

"Let's act the whole John and Marcia thing in real life, tomorrow," I said hopefully. "We'll begin the evening with a dinner at a restaurant, just like our first story. Where should we meet, Diane, and afterwards, your place or mine?"

It all sounded too trite, but that was the best I could come up with while still in a post-orgasmic daze. Diane must have been a little more clear-headed.

"That's a wonderful idea, Brad. But I want our night out to be really great, with a surprise for you. Let's get together and plan everything. Meet me at the Caribou Coffee place in the mall tomorrow at, say, 10:30. "

I eagerly agreed, and fell asleep dreaming of sleeping with Diane the next evening, making a mental note to change the sheets on our bed and clean the bathroom.

The next morning I took an extra long shower, a closer shave, and used some of my special cologne. I wanted everything about me to exude the sexy, good-looking guy that would attract Diane. I even re-ironed the chinos and sport shirt that was to be my sophisticated, yet carefree attire for this prelude to our tryst. By 9:00 I had already completed breakfast and dressing, so for the next hour and a half, my head was whirling with sex – in a bed, on the floor, in the shower, you name it. Diane was going to have the time of her life with this eager stud.

I managed to drive to the mall without mishap, even though my concentration was limited, got to the parking lot for Caribou's at 10:29. It would be unsophisticated to appear too eager, so I made a walking tour around the first floor of the mall before returning to the coffee shop. It was now 10:38 when I entered Caribou's, just coolly late, I figured. And there was the woman of my dreams, sitting on a sofa next to the fireplace, sexily sipping from her cardboard cup. Ah! It doesn't get better than this. She looked up and saw me, beamed a twenty-four carat smile, and waved.

I grinned back, and made a small, suave head nod of greeting, then motioned that I was going to get my coffee and be right back. The serving queue was five deep, and I was forced to wriggle my way past a clutch of customers adding sugar and lightener to join in the order line. Damn! The crowd of people obscured my vision of Diane, and the service time seemed interminable. At last, I got my Colombian latte with a dash of Amoretti flavor, and I navigated through the other caffeine addicts, back to my prospective partner.

Imagine my shock when I finally made it back to fireplace, fully intending to brush hips with Diane on the sofa, when my intended seat was already occupied. By a woman! Whom I know! It was Teri Theriot, the wife of Allen, also one of Kathy's co- workers. Of all the bad luck. Now Diane and I must be very discrete. It was the time for me to be really cool, which is something I'm usually not. (Please don't say that you've already noticed.)

"Teri Theriot," I began while showing a toothy smile. "And Diane Malinovski, too. What a pleasant surprise! Would you mind if I joined you?"

"Mind?" Teri asked. "For God's sake, Diane told us to meet her here, Brad, or should I call you John?" She wore an 'I know the whole story' sort of grin.

I choked on the sip of latte in my mouth, resulting in a most uncool session of coughing. "Oh, shit!" I thought to myself. "Now I'm in the soup." I gave a bewildered look at Diane.

"I take it, Diane, that you've shared out little telephone chats of the last couple of evenings with Teri?" I asked.

"Of course, sweety. Teri and I are the closest of friends. We share almost everything. You might be interested to know that our sharing even includes our husbands and lovers."

More latte down my windpipe. More choking and coughing. Brad the cool was becoming Brad the jerk at a very rapid rate. While I was trying to clear my lungs with a really large cough, I noticed Teri finding all my discomfort and shock as extremely hilarious.

"From the look on your face, Brad, and your choking on your coffee," she said, "I assume that Diane did not tell you that I was meeting with you as well."

"She did say something about having a surprise for me when we talked last night," I managed to choke out between hacks.

Diane and Teri slid toward the arms of the sofa, offering me a narrow seat between them. I squeezed in, making full-thigh contact with each woman. Diane began patting me on the back to help me catch my breath, and Teri indulged in sliding her hand discretely up and down my inner thigh. (Don't you just love these modern, shy ladies?)

"Well, Brad," Diane replied, "I guess that you could call Teri part of the surprise. But my surprise also includes David, Allen, and your dear Kathy as well."

I was now totally confused. "Um, …, I thought, Diane, that you and I were going to discuss, er, that is, …, well, you know."

"How we were going to have sex, you mean, Brad? Well, we are, but I had to have Teri here as well. She's going to be joining our party. How else would the numbers be equal between our night out here at home, and our spouses ménage night out in Arizona?"

My head was clear enough to grasp what she was implying, but the concept made it spin several revolutions. "My God!" I thought. "Here I am just getting my nerve up to the point of discussing an adulterous act with this woman, and she's talking about a swing with her, Teri, and me, and at the same time their husbands will be balling my wife in a threesome of their own."

I tried to act calmly, but my voice cracked with nervous emotion as I asked Teri a question. "Ah, Teri, tell me. How long have you been in on this idea of Diane's and your husbands?"

"Well, Di and I have speculated for a couple of months whether you and Kathy would ever consider partying it up with us four. But it was last Saturday, when Diane shared with us your delightfully funny time with her at Ken's party, that we just knew that we all wanted you two to swing with us."

"And so, Diane, you talked to me for the last two nights to get me turned on to the idea. Why you, and not Teri?"

"Well, Brad, a woman knows which men are attracted to her, and I was attracted to you as well, so it was just natural that you and I got the ball rolling."

She and Teri began to giggle when they realized the entrendre her 'ball rolling' implied. The humor registered with me, but I was still too confused to appreciate it.

"Have either or both of you considered what might happen if Kathy refuses to, er, how did you call it, have a menage with your husbands?"

Teri smiled enigmatically. "Really, David. Women can tell when another woman can be persuaded to be sexually adventurous. We just know that Kathy will party it up with Allen and David."

The look on my face must have told Diane and Teri that I was mixed up in my feelings toward this preposterous, yet temptingly fantastic, idea. The two women then started on me like two lawyers arguing their case.

"Are you concerned about how Kathy would feel if you party it up with Teri and me, or is it your feelings about Kathy doing the same thing?" Diane asked.

Then Teri jumped with a killer question. "Tell me honestly how you feel, Brad. Do you think that Kathy would agree to a threesome with David and Allen?"

If I were forced to describe Kathy's attitude toward sex in one word, it word be just what Teri used - adventuresome. And considering that she will have gone over a week and half without sex, what with conference preparations the week before, and celibacy during the sales conference, I knew that she would be ready for some serious adult partying.

"Without a doubt," I had to admit. "If your husbands, who happen to be quite good-looking, put any kind of moves on her, yeah, she'll be a willing participant."

Back came Diane with the clincher. "Well, then, Brad, if you know that Kathy will be screwing other men, and just ten minutes ago you were hot to plan how to have sex with me, your reluctance can't be guilt about cheating."

"Yeah, you're right, Diane, but for the last several days, my fantasy has been about getting you somewhere alone, and then we'd, well, you know."

Diane touched my cheek tenderly. "And we still will do the you know, sweety. More than once. But you get a bonus, you get to fuck Teri as well."

To try to seal Diane's bonus offer, at the same moment Teri moved her hand up my thigh and gave my cock a squeeze, and whispered, "Both David and Allen have told me that no one gives better blow jobs than I do, Brad."

I had always thought that guys (and gals, too for that matter) make their stupidest decisions in bars, where the alcohol, the cigarette smoke, and a person's ego do strange things to rationale thinking. Perhaps latte with whipped cream in a Caribou Coffee shop, plus that dumb ego, can have the same effect. It did for me, for I heard my voice say that I might as well go along with the crowd, and join a spousal threesome that night, while the company professionals would be doing the same out in Arizona.

Diane and Teri professed their delight in my decision, icing my cake with two hard kisses on my mouth. Our making out next to the fireplace drew stares from the other customers and wait staff, ranging from righteous indignation to admiring grins. The two women then rose from their seats, and said their goodbyes, abandoning me for the hedonistic pleasures of shopping. Teri claimed that she needed a sexy black mini- dress and sequined pantyhose, just like Marcia in Diane's and my story.

Diane puckered and gave me one of those air kisses as she and Teri started for the door. "We'll see you at 7:00 at the bar in the Gallo Nero restaurant, Brad. You are going to have the time of your life tonight, I promise."

Well, the die was cast, and cool Brad Worth was now on the hook for a hot threesome. (I'm certain you have already realized that this was going to be a first for me.) I once saw a person wearing a sweatshirt on which was printed the statement "Anxiety is when your stomach says No Way, but your mouth has already said OK." At that moment, I related to that sweatshirt. My latte was now cold, and it tasted like some bitter potion.

I went to a nearby Tex-Mex restaurant and perked myself up with a salty/sweet margarita, enchiladas, and re-fried beans. To further stoke my fires, after the lunch I visited the mall bookstore, and read through some of the paperbacks on the 'Erotic' shelf. Surprisingly, the tactics worked pretty well, and by about two in the afternoon, I felt eager for the impending action that evening. So much so, that, like an athlete before the big event, I decided to go home and take a nap to conserve my energy.

I woke up around five, showered, shaved, and got dressed for the big date. I selected my dark brown suit (I'm an autumn, by the way), ecru-colored Egyptian cotton shirt, a Gerry Garcia designed tie, and brown tasseled slip-ons. Oh, yes, my only shopping preparation purchase – blue silk boxers. Surveying myself in front of the hall mirror just prior to leaving for the restaurant, I saw handsome Brad Worth, womanizer extraordinaire.

I had expected the Saturday night traffic to be heavy, but for some unexplained reason, I made it to the restaurant with fifteen minutes to spare. Even the parking gods looked down favorably upon this humble mortal, and I made a perfect back-in parallel park at a curb spot only a half-block from the Gallo Nero restaurant (That's 'Black Rooster' for you non-Italians. Take a look at what you see on a bottle of real imported Chianti sometime.) I decided to kill the surplus time by waiting in the car, rather than sit at the bar and get one or two drinks ahead of Diane and Teri. I had no experience as to how punctual these two women are.

My leather-covered car seats recline, so I indulged, languidly relaxing in a nearly horizontal position. Closing my eyes, I tried to imagine the bedroom scene with Diane, Teri, and me. Up until that moment, it had never occurred to me that a person's mind has a funny little trick to play, as one envisions the appearance of your partner in a sexual context. I would call the trick 'Love or Lust.'

I fantasized myself looking at both women, who were still on the other side of the room. The figure in the sexy black dress was Teri, but try as I might, I could not visualize her facial features, especially her mouth and eyes. In contrast, my Diane figure had only a vague outline of body, yet I could see every detail of her face. Her hazel eyes were sparkling with wit and a free spirit, and her smile was beamed exclusively for me. I thought of something funny to say, and her vision face broke up with an amused, earthy laugh. Thinking back to Teri, her body shape just became more vivid, posing like a mannequin.

Perplexed, I tried to fast-forward to a mental picture of us three engaged in sweaty sex. Again, I could see Diane's body, head and hands moving sensually in rhythm, desire in her eyes and a full, open mouth. For Teri, all I could conjure up were close-ups of parts of her female anatomy – all very sexy and beautiful, mind you, but still only parts functioning for the sexual activity. It didn't take a psychoanalyst's assistance for me to realize what was going on in my mind: to me, Teri was only an attractive and available sex object; however, I could see things about Diane that went deeper than breasts, nipples, labia and clitoris. My mind played the trick that I could only lust after Teri, but I was in love with Diane.

I then tried to visualize Kathy, whom I loved very dearly, as she might appear when she was partying it up with David and Allen. Nothing but body parts, male and female. However, when I dreamed about her making love with me, her bright eyes, laughing smile and tender lips and fingers were in vivid detail. Perhaps it is different for other folks who are able to fantasize and see all their sexual partners in the same detail, but I rather doubt it. My opinion would be that anyone who claims to do that is probably not that deeply in love with another person.

I never went into the restaurant. Instead, I drove around aimlessly for a while before returning home. It was only 7:45, so I stopped at Blockbuster, and rented a DVD – Ocean's Eleven. I had seen it already, but it suited me that night – it had little man/woman action, and even that was reassuring, because George Clooney knew all along that Julia Roberts would come back to him, in spite of divorcing him and sleeping with the casino manager (I forget his name). As I expected when I arrived back at our condo, the answering machine was blinking with two messages. Ignoring them, I made myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, poured a glass of milk, and started the DVD.

The movie was about half over, at around nine, when the phone rang. I let the machine pick up, and heard Teri's angry voice.

"Brad, you chicken-hearted sonofabitch, pick up the goddamned phone. I know you're there. What the hell's the matter with you, standing us up like that? Don't ever think that you will get another chance, you asshole. I'll have you know that David and Diane, and Allen and I have worked very hard at keeping our lifestyle discrete. If you go and breathe even one word about us, so help me, I'll make Kathy look like the queen of all sluts."

After a few seconds of quiet, I heard Diane's voice, and I felt a knot in my stomach.

"Brad, this is Diane. Please forgive Teri for what she just said to you. I'm with her, and she is frantic with worry that you are going to expose us to Ken or our neighbors or someone, and our lives will be ruined. I can't believe that you would do such a cruel thing; it's not like you." "I think I now know why you did what you did, and the screwup is probably my fault. Since Ken's party, and this week, I thought that we were hitting it off very well."

"Oh, if only you knew, Diane," I thought to myself. She continued.

"I want to explain why I surprised you by bringing Teri into our party-going. For some time, whenever Teri or I wanted to, shall we say, slip the leash of married life, we went together as a pair, never alone, and always very discrete. I wanted you very much this morning, and my desire didn't let me read your signals that you were trying to give me. After what you did tonight, I can see that you are not the kind of man who wants mere recreational sex. You want to give of yourself to your woman, not simply take what is being offered to you. You tried to take, but you're too strongly principled about mating, even in the face of knowing that Kathy was having sex with our husbands. You are really quite an unusual man, Brad. I could very easily fall in love with you."

"What I am concerned about, Brad, is how you and Kathy are going to deal with this. Teri and I both tried to reach David and Allen on their cell phones, and left messages at the hotel, but they've never called back. I think that they're already partying it up somewhere with Kathy. When they get back to their hotel, David is going to know what happened here, and probably tell Kathy. Please try to reach Kathy as soon as possible, and beg her to act as if nothing has happened, at least until we're all back together again. David and Allen do not deserve to have their reputations and careers shattered, because I did something terribly foolish. Please try, Brad, for all of our sakes."

She was crying as she hung up.

I never thought of how Kathy was going to feel! I knew that she would come back from her adventures wanting to share all with me. But she'd only want to share because she believed that I was out with the wives of the men she was with. If she learned that I was too chicken to risk swinging, she was going to have a horrible guilt trip, and this episode would haunt us until we break up. And, no, she probably would not be able to hide her feelings well enough on the plane trip back home tomorrow. Well, Brad old man, as Stan Laurel used to say, "It's a fine mess you've got us in this time, Ollie."

But then I remembered that Diane said that she and Teri were unable to reach David and Allen. I tried to think out the possibilities.

"There's no way that Kathy could know that I'm not swinging with Diane and Teri, while she is balling their husbands. I'll just have to convince her that I had the same kind of experience as she did, and maybe, just maybe, we can keep things stable. At least until we all can talk about this together. Thank goodness that we're two hours ahead of Arizona time."

I waited until after one o'clock our time, figuring that Diane, Teri, and I would be exhausted by then, and left a message in Kathy's room to call me back when she returned, no matter how late, so that we could share our unique experiences with each other. I had to force myself to stay awake for several more hours before Kathy finally called me back, but I spent the time creating an erotic tale about our local ménage a trios, that I was going to spin for Kathy. It took a lot of imagination on my part, I'll have you know, considering that I had zero experience of doing it with two women at the same time. But with the telephone sex practice that Diane had given me, I conjured up all sorts of exciting and physically challenging things that one man and two women can do in a bedroom.

Kathy finally called me around four o'clock our time. I could tell in her voice that she had had the time of her life, and was very eager to tell me all about it. That was good, because I got to first listen to her story, so that when she asked for mine, I could tell just the right level of sexual activity to match her own. And let me tell you, her story required a damn high level from me. Oh, that's right, she already told her story, so you know what I'm talking about.