A Young Couple's Journey - Pt. 01

Author's note: Thanks to Anora/MorbidOrb for feedback and help.

This story / series takes part after the events of The New Tenant Part 1-9. It will still be NTR in my opinion, but quite different from the regular style you see here abouts.

*

It felt like it had been ages since the last time I had lifted weights. I usually preferred doing sports, martial arts in some form, and other sorts of activity, but the local gym was more often open than not. It was a 24/7 gym, after all, so it was easy to pop by during my morning runs. Kim also had something planned for us later, so I had to work out a bit earlier than usual.

The few months I had been in a transition period back to our regular normalcy. Kim was back at her esport broadcasting, as there had been a small hiatus for her, and I was back working with Entrendy. The business mostly worked itself out as an online store, but ads, campaigns, production, and sponsorships were still moving parts I had to take care of.

As much as I loathed what had happened, I also had to admit that some of our sex had increased in intensity. We made love quite often, as the young horny adults we were, but Kim also showed that she had a wilder streak too, with much dirtier talk. I can't say I didn't like it, even with how she had uncovered those parts of herself. And some of the lighter roleplays, the teasing she sometimes did just walking around the house... I can't say I didn't mind walking into a room and finding her naked tan cheeks ready to get clapped.

It was also a matter of time before Luna moved in. As much as I loathed our previous tenant, I was more than happy to finally have another voice in our giant house. It just felt a bit empty, I guess. Kim had joked we should do something about that in terms of starting our family, and I wasn't too far behind in my agreeance. We were still young, but neither of us wanted to be grumpy old parents when our kids grew older, and both wanted to have the energy during raising the kids and the time after.

But we didn't rush anything. I mean, we knew better than to act brashly, especially with what we had endured due to our previous tenant. I can hardly even think of his name. It was so anti-climatic not being able to break his fucking neck. I had let myself be carried away, and when my head cleared, he was unfortunately gone. Kim had tried to make a joke that we don't even have any shovels, and I have to say that stifled my anger at the time. I can't recall exactly how she said it, but it was pretty funny.

But yeah. We spent some time puzzling together some of what he-who-shall-not-be-named had done. What scared us the most was the extent of the damage he was willing to do. If I hadn't come home earlier than I did, who knows what he'd be able to accomplish. We saw that it was obvious he wanted to knock Kim up, that was for sure. We dodged a real bullet there.

Honestly, fuck that guy.

"Hey! Long time no see," I heard, as I skipped between songs. I turned and saw Zach and two buddies of his approach. I didn't like their vibe immediately. Looking more at their phone than anything, both trying to be the ultimate alpha-sigma douchebag in their entire getup.

I slid my Beats down, and greeted Zach, pulling him into a quick hug. I don't know if I could call Zach a friend, but it was actually nice seeing someone familiar for once. Kim and I had been cooped up in our house a bit, both making up for lost time and reconciling. Thoroughly, heh heh. So it was nice to get out and see people. Even if it was Zach.

"What's up?" I greeted. "Who's your friends?"

"You've met before, but I know you're way too popular to remember pieces of shit like them," Zach chuckled. "Alex and Charlie. This is Josh."

"Yo," I said, as he gave me a nod. "Where's Amanda?"

"Pff fuck that bitch. Tossed her to the wayside," Zach chuckled, though this time it was definitely forced. If anyone dumped someone in that relationship, it was Amanda. "What you working here?"

"Just some isolation curls. Doing back and arms," I said, nodding to the dumbbell in front of me.

"Holy shit," Zach muttered, looking at the weight.

"Pfffff, look at that," Alex said, suddenly coming up from the deep seas of his phone, nodding towards a smaller figure just finishing her squats over in a corner not too far away. "That's some fucking ass, dawg!"

"Wouldn't mind at all! Ahooga!" Charlie joked.

"Finna snap my fuckin' neck over here... thank fuck for yoga pants," Alex replied.

Finally relenting to their comments, I tossed a glance toward who they were talking to. It was none other than Linda. Her smiling gray-onyx eyes and shoulder-length brown hair were easily recognizable. She glanced over at us through the mirror as she had no doubt heard them. And she was indeed in yoga pants, clinging to her wide, yet very fit curves.

"Hey now," I said, but Zach barged ahead.

"Stay clear of that one, bois," he warned.

Linda seemed to indeed notice they were looking and talking about her, popping out her earbuds, and looking over at the trio questioningly. And me. Frio, I guess. Not that I wanted to take any part in this. Linda was attractive, but that didn't warrant getting harassed to the point of interrupting her workout.

"What's up?" she asked, keeping friendly, despite the guys being idiots.

"Nothing, just go back to pumping those weak-ass squats," Zach said.

"Sure. I don't know what I like pumping more, more iron than you or your mom," Linda shot back, getting a snicker out of the others. Zach turned beet red.

"Yo, shut the fuck up you fucking tran-"

"Hey, Zach. How about you fuck off?" I said, shoving at him. He just reminded me why nobody really likes him. Zach was a lightweight so he stumbled back, visibly shocked at my sudden reaction.

"Joshie gonna rizz that bitch up!" Alex cheered from behind me, thinking I was staking my territory, but I ignored it.

I'd buy the whole gym and toss them out, I swear to God. After reracking the dumbbell I had been using, I headed over to Linda to make sure she was at least okay. She had turned away and was obviously hurt by Zach's comment.

"Hey. Sorry about those assholes," I said to her, as I made my approach. It sort of dawned on me that this was the first time I talked to her sober.

"Oh, didn't see you there behind the wall of douchebaggery," Linda said.

"So I'm not counted as one of them?" I asked, jokingly.

"Hell no," Linda smiled, then looked over my shoulder. "Where's Kimberly?"

"I think you can call her Kim, all her friends do," I chuckled. "She's on her way, actually. We're going out for an early lunch. What we pulling here?" I asked, looking at her barbell. Well over 300 lbs by the looks of it. "Damn, you're pretty strong."

"Thanks," she replied, blushing a bit. I guess getting compliments veined her everlasting charisma. "You're pretty strong too," she added, nodding towards the bench where I had done my curls. "I couldn't even lift that if I tried."

I shrugged. Coming from fairly athletic stock, I was used to being strong. I never thought much of it. Like I said, I prefer sports anyway. I'd swim more but with it getting colder outside, we decided to save the electricity and shut down the pool until next season. Save the environment while saving some cash. Just then my phone dinged. Kim wrote me a text. And yes, it was actually Kim.

'Outside,' she wrote. See? Nothing too conspicuous.

"Speaking of Kim," I said. "See ya later, alligator."

"Get 'em, tiger," Linda smiled, playing along with the animal allegories.

So I jumped in the shower to quickly rinse off. I guess I was sort of still struggling with a few things when it came to this whole thing that happened with Kim. And it was something that I honestly had a hard time dealing with, let alone talking to her about. Not that I didn't think she'd be understanding and lay her own 'agenda' aside, for the lack of a better word, but it was honestly hard to put the right words on it. I guess I still, even now, found it sorta arousing thinking of Kim fucking someone else and being a nasty slut as she could never be with me. Sure, we'd play around and stuff, but someone else treating my hot wife that way just did something to me. Maybe it was something awoken within me that just wouldn't go away. Not easily, anyhow.

You may think, 'You call this quickly rinse off?' and wonder how the hell I could think this much while quickly rinsing off. Well, don't underestimate the amount of thought a guy can have during a shower. And honestly, it was something I contemplated a lot. The whole ordeal.

I hated that it was that motherfucker, and I hated how it happened, but I also loved every second of Kim acting like she did before it all went awry. I couldn't decide if it was the act or the person who made the tabooness so tantalizing, or if it was due to Kim being so... yeah, slutty, honestly.

"Hey babe. Guess who I ran into," I said as I jumped into our brand 'new' 2011 Civic. We needed something more ordinary than our Lamborghinis, Rolls Royces, and Jaguars, so we got one through Hope's Branded Cars, a business we bought some percentages of.

"Howdy, partner," Kim greeted me. She had hosted a 'Red Dead Redemption 2' speedrun tournament in Indianapolis last weekend, so a lot of weird lingo had crept into her vocab. "Zach?" Kim said, looking past me and seeing the always sour-faced Zach also exit the building.

"Him too," I said looking over at him. "No, I meant Linda."

"Oh!" Kim said lightning up. "Damn, it's been a while. Hey. Maybe she needs a new place to live? We like her, right?"

Luna had said over a Discord call last night, after a small gaming session, that she might consider one of the guest rooms instead. It felt so secluded down in the annex, I guess. Where she stayed made no difference for us, so didn't matter much. It meant that we could rent out the annex if nothing else. We both were looking forward to Luna moving in though. Both that the house, as I said, felt a bit empty, but also because Luna is pretty awesome, and Kim and her always got along pretty well. Aside from Kim, Luna was probably one of my best friends and Kim's as well.

"Sure. I mean, yeah Linda seems pretty cool," I said, unsure how much I could talk up another girl to my wife. Kim was fond of flaunting me, but that was mostly when we weren't exactly sober.

"Oh I know how you like that big, muscly, juicy booty," Kim joked, shoving at me as she pulled out of the gym's parking lot.

"That's make two of us," I shot back, remembering that Kim had shown Linda quite some admiration way back.

"Touchè," Kim retorted. "Anyway, Luna is coming next week. And until then, I have an idea."

"Oh oh," I joked.

"Pff, shut up," Kim said, before continuing. "So. Change of plans. I still feel like shit, and fucking stupid if I'm honest, about all the stuff that went down. I had so many conflicting thoughts when I thought you ignored me... and I thought so many times I played into your fantasy... There's so much still. And I feel like we haven't - no, let me finish - and I feel like we haven't really figured out that whole thing. Of course, we knew what he did and shit, but we never really talked about what led us to that point where we let it happen. So. Change of plans, like I said. I changed our reservation, which Fabio hated, but whatever."

"So you want us to talk about it now?" I asked a bit unsure and dumbfounded. "Driving directionless? And is it honestly something we want to rip up?"

"I think we have to. I fucked up, and you're the victim. And I'll do absolutely anything to make amends," Kim said. "Fuck, if it means you railing a bitch while I watch, I'm down."

"Why do I get the sneak suspicion you'd be down either way?" I teased.

Yeah, it was hurtful what our tenant had done, but Kim had somehow awoken by it. She was always crass and stuff, being a hefty gamer girl, but rather modest when it came to sex. Ever since that first bottle-dare party we had waaay back she had been way more open to her sexuality. I guess I could thank that little shit for that... you know what, come to think about it, it's actually Amanda who deserved those thanks. It was her game, after all.

"Whatever. So. Amanda," Kim said. Speak of the devil. "You remember she has a degree in psychology right?"

"Yeah?" I said unsurely. No, I wasn't sure I remembered that, but I was eager to learn where this was going? "I think she's working on her PhD, right?" That much I did know. She had applied to something when I wrapped up my Masters.

"Yup. So. I was thinking. This is gonna sound a bit weird, but I want her to help us out," Kim said. Now I certainly was confused and unsure.

"We can afford therapy, if that's what you mean?" I retorted.

"I know but she's like a friend and stuff, so I thought perhaps she would have some other perspective," Kim said. Didn't make much sense to me. What would we do? Tell her the whole shameful, humiliating truth of it? How some asshole tricked Kim and me into a space where he could sleep with my wife? "She promised to not be judgmental, and given how she is, I actually think she's capable of that. I mean, she's almost a pro."

"You already talked to her?" I sighed.

"No. Well. Kinda. I don't have many friends down here, and I couldn't really tell Luna either, so I've talked a bit with Amanda. I mean, she can be a bitch but she's, y'know... our bitch. Not in any innuendo kind of way," Kim explained, rolling the car into toward our driveway.

"I get it," I said, wanting to be understanding. If this was what we had to make 'amends' as Kim said, then so be it. Honestly, I was still hurting a bit, but maybe a third perspective would be nice. And if she dumped Zach, at least she wouldn't gossip to that asshole. "So is she at our house now?"

"Yeah. I wanted to break the news to you before anything, instead of texting you to come home," Kim said, getting slightly flustered. Phone communication was something we kept at a minimum nowadays. It made sense. And I could sense that Kim really tried to put a foot forward to fix things. Perhaps it was a good idea after all. Though, I just wanted our normal life back. And it was honestly, but Kim still felt guilty about how another man had been able to manipulate her so easily. "But it's okay if you don't wanna."

"No no. Like you said, she's a pro. And if you already confided in her. Shit, who knows. Maybe venting this out helps us out."

"That makes me so happy," Kim smiled, opening the gate with our clicker.

*

Seeing Amanda was way easier than I thought it would be. I thought there would be a long awkward pause and whatnot, then us slowly telling stuff while she pierced us with her blue condescending eyes. But no. Amanda pulled me in for a hug as we came in. A hug that lasted a fraction too long, I think, but meh.

Then Amanda took over. She guided us to the lounge area where she took the couch she always took, the one facing the pool area. Kim on the two-seater to my left, and me with my back towards the said pool.

"So Kim says there has been some trouble," Amanda began. I quickly scanned her. She wore a professional blazer and a white blouse, commended with black suit pants. She at least dressed the part. "And I wanna say. I'm honored to be your 'sex councilor' or whatever. My degrees are in behavioral science, but I'm sure we can sort this whole thing out."

"Wait, I thought she was taking her Ph.D. in therapy or something?" I said. "And trouble, meh. We're over it."

"I doubt it," Amanda said confidently. Annoyingly, I should add. "So the first thing I want to say: you guys were playing with very dangerous fire. I can't diagnose anybody, but playing trial and error like that, well, let's say you've found the error. Plus it doesn't help that Toby was probably a narcissist or a socio/psychopath."

"You think so?" Kim asked.

"Hold up, hold up," I said. "How can- what's the plan here? I mean, we're by just gonna lay it all out just like that? And no offense, but how can we trust you with all this? It's pretty sensitive stuff."

"Yes, Josh, I'm still a bitch, but I'm still educated in a related, almost relevant field and... erh... well, I've had some self-discovery myself... since last I was here. Or starting from when I was last here... So I want to help you guys navigate your troubles. Believe it or not, I can be a very helpful friend in need, if need be. And that is why I think perhaps a friend with a degree might help better here than, y'know, regular therapy," Amanda explained. "And I know this can be difficult, but we'll work through it. So, what I understand is that at some point it was fine until it no longer wasn't. And this is something I ask of you, Josh. When did it stop being fun, in your opinion? Not arousing, but fun. Take your time and be honest."

"I'll get a bottle of red wine," Kim said. It was midday, but alright.

"Good idea," Amanda said with her glittering smile. It wasn't the heavy mood I expected. Rather, I don't know, I was looking forward to this. Maybe this was our whole ordeal's funeral, we would finally be able to move past it fully. If so, where's the shovel? I'm ready to dig.

"It's hard to tell, really," I started. "I think... erh, well, perhaps when we got back from Nebraska and Kim was so fast to get down there again... And I think that is also when I learned Toby had pushed Kim into blowing him, and that was never something we talked about. I found it hot, but I sort of learned how Tob- how he wanted to undermine me. I trusted Kim, I still do, but I knew then I couldn't fully trust him. Though, not how little I actually could trust him. I should've tossed him out right then..."

"Is it fair to say it was Toby and his implied motivation that was the problem?" Amanda asked, more or less nailing it. "Would it be easier if it was someone else? Or even, if it came more naturally in the form of a mutual thing?"

"I'm not sure about 'someone else' but I get what you're saying. Probably yeah," I admitted. "And that is honestly a bit scary."

"Can I ask you something? Before Kim is back," Amanda said, turning her voice almost to her familiar devious whisper. "Are you bi?"

"What?! No!" I exclaimed, utterly perplexed.

"I'm not judging," Amanda said, shooting her hands in the air. Just as Kim was back.

"What's up?" Kim asked.

"Just Amanda wondering if I was bi," I chuckled, accepting a glass. It was not like it was a big secret or anything like Amanda seemed to think. Kim chuckled as well.

"So. What did you like? I mean, you find it arousing some of it, but you don't like it. Why is that?" Amanda asked.

I took a long sip from the wine. I was more of a light beer guy, but it gave me some space to think. It was kinda hard putting words on it.

"Like... I like having fun. And I like having fun with people I like. He kinda removed that by doing what he did," I said.

"So if it were to happen again, I'm not saying it would, you'd prefer someone you'd bro up with?" Amanda asked. "Or if you find the person attractive?"

"I'm not bi, god damn it," I said. "But yeah. It kinda got tainted. Toxic. He certainly had a toxic attraction, you could say, which made the whole thing tainted." It truly did help to talk it out. Barging past it could probably work with time, but with every admittance and barrier broken, it was like a million pounds getting lifted off my shoulders already.

"Would you be okay with Kim fucking Toby again, if she wanted to?" Amanda asked in a low voice, which could almost be described as sympathetic. Kim was about to jump in, but Amanda held out a hand for her to keep quiet.

"No," I said easily. If I ever saw him again, I'd spend time in prison for murder. It was that simple of a fact.