Friends and Lovers

"Stop. Please stop. I thought you'd be okay. Greg, please."

He turned. "I'm not okay. Maybe I'll never be okay with you. I've had enough of this shit. Do what you want, but you don't have me anymore."

Lotte started sobbing, "I won't. Please, Greg. I love you. I thought I'd give us all a push."

Jeri said, "A very bad idea. He's never going to go for it."

Greg turned and strode off toward Jeri and Tom's house. Jeri followed. Lotte shouted at them to stop, but Greg didn't.

By this time, Tom, Jane and Dick were dressed and in the living room.

Jane said, "We have to go. We didn't want to cause this stuff." She led Dick outside. They hustled to their own house.

Lotte turned to Tom. He handed her the dress, and she put it on.

He said, "Now what? Are we screwed? I believe he's going to....dunno, divorce you. Cut you off? What?"

Lotte was still crying, but not with the intensity of before.

"I don't know what. I screwed up. What's wrong with me? It's beyond restless."

"Maybe I just don't do it for you anymore. So you want some other guy."

"No, Tom, you know you always get me off. I wanted a new experience. We've all been together for so many years."

"Greg said he wanted to go to the Caribbean. Do new stuff. We can do that. I have over a month of vacation."

"Well, if he ever speaks to me again, we can propose that. Something new and exciting, like we did in Mexico a while ago."

"We can talk about it tomorrow." They went to bed. Lotte was ambivalent about sex. Tom wasn't.

Jeri followed Greg upstairs. He was still quite angry, and she was reluctant to try to calm him. Finally she said, "Lotte doesn't mean harm. She doesn't see the sex like you do."

"Neither do you, Jeri. You'd have been happy if I agreed. You'd have let Dick fuck you."

"I....I mean, that's true. We've always been great in bed. You and me. And even Tom is just fine. But I don't see it as....sacred. You see it as sacred. Like it's the most important part of us. I see it more like it's...sometimes so loving. Sometimes fantastic animal fun. We have both, you and I. And all four of us, really."

"Okay. But to me, if you spread it around, you lose it. The intimacy that seals the deal, and allows us to stay with each other. Or with each others."

"If Lotte or I had good fun sex with Dick, that would...."

He said, "It would end it for me. Sorry. Just what I am."

"You haven't really changed since we became a foursome. You didn't want it then."

"I only did it because of you. There was love all around. But with Dick and Jane, just excitement."

"Okay. How do we proceed now?"

"Greg smiled. Let's go to bed and talk later." They did. A long, slow caress filled session.

Lotte and Tom came over to his house the next morning. Lotte was sheepish.

She said, "Greg, please forgive me. Lately I haven't been a good wife. I can stop."

Greg said, "Lotte, I don't get it. I'm so sorry, but I cannot go for it. And I see that you want it badly. So....?"

"I said I could stop. I will."

"But, you'll be frustrated. Denied. And I'll always wonder."

Lotte paused. "I'll always want what we have now. If there could be extra sex, I'd like it. But if not, then not."

Jeri said, "Greg thinks we should all go an adventure in the Caribbean."

That's what they did. They had three weeks in various exotic locales, with the nights saturated with sex. Sex amongst the four was newly intense, probably because of the change in locale. Also, the places they stayed were rife with sexy bodies of all kinds. Ogling bikini clad women, and thonged guys seemed to rev up the four. Jeri was at a pool one day when a guy walked by who particularly struck her as hot. Her eyes followed him as he walked toward a cabana. Greg was next to her. He watched her watching the guy. He took her hand and led her into their unit, and into the bedroom. A new meaning for prophylactic sex.

Well, fifty came and went. Twice a year the four of them went on adventures. Winters in a warm spot. Summers in Maine or Canada, or Norway. They also did the British Isles and Ireland. Greg loved driving on the wrong side of the road. So did Lotte. Tom and Jeri not so much.

When sixty was just over the horizon, there was another type of crisis. Tom got ill. Cancer. Lung cancer, although he never smoked. He lasted only four months. The three others brought him home after some hospital time, and got him into hospice.

Tom knew he was going, and he asked Greg for a discussion, while he still could think straight.

He said, "Greg, I wanted to be sure that you took care of Lotte when I'm gone." He started to chuckle.

Greg laughed a little, too. He said, "She's my wife. I won't let her down. Or you. I know how much you've come to love her."

Tom said, "We kinda switched wives. But you can still do two. You're quite fit."

"Don't worry, Tom. I'm in love with both of them. Maybe Lotte has been the more difficult one, but I never stopped loving her. And I love you, too, big guy."

They shook on it. A month later Tom passed.

The memorial service, and surrounding social events were difficult for all three. They got through it. Liberal use of sex was a mainstay in their grieving.

Jeri sold up and moved into the house with Greg and Lotte. Or, rather, Jeri sold up and Lotte moved back into her own house.

Lotte and Jeri agreed to be constrained somewhat in their demands on Greg. They didn't want to kill him off.

Greg remained remarkably fit. But he did resort to the blue pill at times. He wasn't superman.

Today, the three are in their early seventies. All of them still look pretty good. Certainly, they look good to each other. They all have memories of younger, tighter bodies. (Close your eyes and you can rely on those memories. Maybe make new ones.)

End.