Give & Take Among Friends Ch. 09

Lila had time off from her teaching job. I suggested we do something, but she had decided to drive to a mall on a highway about 50 miles away, on the fringes of the urban area, where there was a specialty food store that would have ingredients not available in our local stores.

"I can use some time alone too," she said. Perhaps I looked hurt at that, as she quickly added, "I need to think about winter things -- what we're going to need -- clothing, cooking, all the stuff you don't want to bother about." She stroked my chest. "You'll still be here when I get back to help me relax. You're good at that," she said with a coy expression.

So I waved goodbye as she drove off, and continued sipping my morning coffee, then contacted the office to see how things were there and made a few phone calls in connection with work. Things were slow with us too, due to the holiday, and I ran out of official duties by noon.

My headphones had lost sound in one earpiece, so I dialed Lila's cell to ask her to pick up a new one at the mall. The call went to voicemail, which was unusual since she seldom turned the phone off. I left a message. After making myself a light lunch, I tried her again, without success.

I decided to track the phone through a computer program which displays its recent GPS location on a digital map, even if it is not on. The map indicated Lila and her phone had reached the mall, been there a couple hours and left, but instead of heading back home she was going further into the urban area. I wondered at that, and tried calling again, still without success.

It was a nice fall day, and I decided to work off a newly restless feeling by getting some exercise on my road bike. I peddled steadily up and down the hills in our rural area for about an hour to a small crossroads hamlet where I took a break, and again dialed Lila. Again no answer. I had packed my tablet in the saddlebag, and was near a WiFi hot spot, so tracked the phone again. It showed no GPS movement in the last half hour or so. Lila had apparently stopped. I zoomed in on the location.

It was the university where Eli was on staff. I called up a satellite "earth" view to hone in closer on the location. I recognized it as the campus building where Eli's office was located, having met him there a few times in the past.

I got back on the bike and picked up my pace even more vigorously. I supposed there was no real reason why this should bother me -- except that Lila had spurned my offer of company, saying she wanted to be by herself, but apparently she had decided she wanted companionship after all, just not mine. And that thought did irritate me.

In another half-hour of pedaling, without any conscious intent, I found myself only a short distance from Eli and Rachel's house, and decided to take another break. We were usually informal when calling on each other, even before the extended informality of recent weeks, so I opened the door and entered without knocking or calling out. Rachel was not in the parlor. Near the small sofa there were various items of clothing scattered on the floor -- men's boxers, two pairs of jeans, a bra and bunched-up panties that looked as if they had been taken off and dropped in a hurry. Sounds were coming from the bedroom area -- passionate groans and stressed bedsprings.

You did not have to be a Sherlock to figure out what was going down. I turned to leave, but realized that while Eli might be making similar recreational noise with Lila right now at the university, he could not be contributing to these bedroom sounds; I should check that Rachel was okay. Following the sounds to their source, I peered around the open door of the guest bedroom and saw the fleshy bare ass of a fairly hairy guy undulating in rapid rhythm as he gave it doggie style to a woman on the bed in front of him. From the back, the guy resembled Eli's nemesis, Mike, not that I had any familiarity with Mike in this posture. The maiden had the blonde hair and well-shaped body of Rachel, and judging by her own body language and a gasped exhortation to "go deeper," she was not in any distress.

I had a brief flash of anger -- Rachel was cheating on me! -- immediately realizing the absurdity of that reaction. Just because I had been fucking Rachel with the permission of her husband and my girlfriend, I had no claim on her. I had become involved with Rachel only because Eli enlisted me to occupy her (literally) so that Mike would not (also literally). Anger rights belonged to my buddy.

My presence had not been detected by the active couple. The creaking bed, their groans and skin slapping against skin had masked any sounds of my approach. I backed away silently, left the house, closing the door quietly, and got back on my bike. I was going to ride back home, but on impulse went across the country road and down the well-packed grass farm road to the river. Sitting on the large log where Rachel and I had engaged in our first tête-à-tête a couple of months ago, I reflected on the vicissitudes of life.

Thinking about the copulating couple, anger was displaced by a sort of sadistic satisfaction -- Eli had stolen the affections of my girlfriend, who he was probably pounding right at that moment in his fabled office boudoir at the university. Now his own wife was being fucked by the guy who he most loathed and feared. If I was a true friend, instead of discretely backing away I would have rushed over and forcibly ejected Mike from the pussy of my best friend's wife. But at this moment I did not feel any true friendship. In fact, still smarting over Lila's secret journey to Eli's office, I considered this payback time.

But being smug over Rachel's betrayal of Eli did not mitigate my own feelings of betrayal. Rachel had passionately accepted my advances, professing long standing desire. She was kind of cheating on me too. And as for Lila, I recalled my girlfriend condemning my betrayal or her with Rachel, and voicing suspicions about the motives of Eli, Rachel and me. She had sanctimoniously pronounced the importance of candor and the horror of deception in our evolving ménage à quatre. But now she had gone off by herself to do some "shopping." Had she lost her way and just happened to wind up with Eli, without premeditation? Ha!

After further reflection, I decided that Rachel's transgression greatly exceeded any by Lila. Even if my girl had gone to the university to shag Eli, it should come as no real surprise to me. She had been very open about her attraction to him, and up to now had made no secret of each tryst they had. Indeed, each had been made with my knowledge or in my presence. Maybe this visit to his lair was just an impulse, and she would tell me about it when she arrived home.

Rachel, on the other hand, knew Eli would be hurt and angry if he knew she was fucking Mike, but she did it anyway, and probably not for the first time since their marriage. Presumably, she had no intention of telling him about it. Eli had willingly acquiesced to her need for other men, Mike excepted, and offered her my services. Shouldn't that be enough for her? Shouldn't she be true to our polyamorous ménage, and forgo other adventures? I now felt a little moral indignation on behalf of my friend, along with some renewed irritation that my services were not sufficient.

Suddenly I did feel some guilt for sneaking away from her tryst with Mike. Of course, it would have been ridiculous to play the moral cop -- "Hey Mike, stop fucking my best friend's wife. That's my job." Or, "Rachel, you whore, when you get hot pants and Eli's not around, you're only supposed to shag me." I had to laugh at how ridiculous such exhortations would sound.

No, I had no moral ground to stand on or defend. Nevertheless, I decided to go back, if only to make them aware that I knew, and also to share my conflicted tension. Why should I be the only one to be upset at circumstance this day, while the two primary women in my life got their jollies with other guys.

When I got there, and entered the house again, Mike was just coming out of the bedroom, still nude, his stocky flesh moist with sweat, or perhaps from a shower, as I could hear water running in the guest bath, probably flowing around Rachel's beautiful, despoiled body. Mike was stepping jauntily, his pecker pretty long even in a flaccid state, swinging triumphantly from side to side. I noticed a "salt and pepper" color scheme to his hair and beard, and reflected that he was about 10 years older than Eli and I, close to 40. He stopped short upon seeing me, looking startled and apprehensive, but realizing I was not Eli, his expression turned to surprise and then to something like embarrassment. We had known each other for a while, although we had never been close. He mumbled a brief hello, picked up his clothes from the floor and began putting them on.

I was enjoying his discomfort. "You're looking well, Mike," I told him, with a smile.

"Thanks," he mumbled. "You too."

I decided to twist a little more, asking, "Are you still with the local fire department?"

He nodded in the affirmative.

"Were you called here to extinguish a hot spot?" I asked, straight-faced.

He looked perplexed for an instant, then grinned painfully.

"Sure is hot today, isn't it," I continued.

"I hope you won't say anything about this," Mike mumbled. "It would just cause a lot of trouble." He looked at his watch and said he had to go pick up his kids.

I assured him I would give Rachel his apologies. I could not help smiling. His discomfort lessened my own. After he left, I sat down on the couch to wait.

Before long, Rachel came down the hall, wrapped in a robe, running a comb through her wet hair. "Well, big guy, it's been a great..." She stopped cold, seeing it was me. Her eyes widened as her mouth fell open.

"Mike said to tell you goodbye. He had to go take his wife and kids somewhere," I said, trying to keep a straight face.

"Oh, shit," Rachel said. "This day is full of surprises. How long... When did you get here?"

"About a half hour ago, the first time," I said. "I did a quick check that you weren't being raped, but didn't announce myself because it appeared you and Mike were in the middle of something. So I went to our log by the river and did some thinking."

"Oh, shit," she said again. Did I detect a momentary look of guilt? She slumped in a char, looking at me with her wide eyes. Her robe fell open, exposing those big, beautiful jugs. "Mike just dropped in, and things led to things. If I had known you were coming, I would have told him I was busy and he should boogie on." Her expression became more sultry. "I'd much rather have a visit from you."

"I didn't know you and Mike were still an item."

"We're not," she said quickly. "Well, not really. This was the first time in... I don't know, months. You're the only guy I see regularly, besides Eli."

I probably had a skeptical smirk on my face. Her mood suddenly shifted. She closed her robe, tossing her wet flopping hair. "Not that you and Eli have any ownership rights. My life is my life, and I can choose my friends, and you have lousy timing today."

Which scuttled my amusement. "Sorry, I thought we knew each other well enough that I could just drop over, but next time I'll call first," I replied sarcastically.

She softened again. "I didn't mean that. It's just... I just don't like being interrogated and browbeaten... I..." Another first -- Rachel at a loss for words.

"I'm not condemning you," I said, more seriously. "Fuck who you want. I don't have any right to dictate propriety to you or anyone else."

We did not speak for a moment. She looked sad and uncomfortable, and I did not like to see that, especially since I was the cause of it. I did have feelings for this woman.

"I was probably a little rude," I said. "I should confess that I felt a spark of jealousy when I saw you and him going at it, not that I have any right to jealousy either. I guess I've just become used to being your surrogate Eli."

She smiled tentatively. "Wow, look at the time," she said. "You hungry? I'm starved. How about I whip us up something?"

Before long, we were consuming a skillet dinner of seasoned peppers and potatoes, washed down by red wine. As we ate and were mellowed by the wine, we both fell back into a comfort zone at being with one another.

"You know, now that I've eaten, I find I still have some energy left," she said, stroking the back of my wrist. "If you're not too mad at me, and don't mind sloppy seconds, why not work off that jealousy I caused. I can show you that you're still Surrogate Number 1."

She was smiling seductively, and that siren demeanor usually turned me on, but I had a sudden vision of Mike's undulating fleshy ass, which dampened any eagerness to insert my tongue or any other part of my anatomy where he had just been.

"It's tempting, but I have a long bike ride back, and it's already getting dark."

"Oh, you biked over here? I didn't know," she said, looking out the window. Sure enough, no car there, and it was almost dusk. "Well, if I can't talk you into dessert, at least I can give you a ride home. We'll throw your bike into the truck."

While driving, she shared some personal history. Mike had been her second "older man," she said. "The first one was my Uncle Jack -- my dad's younger brother. He broke me in when I was still almost jail bait."

I grunted.

"I don't hate him or anything," she added quickly. "He's 15 years younger than my dad, and when I was growing up he seemed more like a cousin than an uncle -- like a big kid. When he came on to me, about 10 years ago now, he was about 22."

I did a calculation and realized that Uncle Jack was not much older than Eli and myself. Perhaps we could also be numbered among Rachel's "older men."

"My parents had gone away on a trip, and Uncle Jack was helping my grandma 'babysit' me," Rachel was going on. "Grammy went out to bingo one night and he made his move. Came into my room while I was doing homework, sat down beside me and explained some of it to me. He had his arm around me, and before long was fondling my boobs and my thighs. I figured out what was going on, and I was curious."

"Jack was good at seduction. He built up my ego, told me how beautiful I was, so mature. He got me all primed and hot, and showed me his stiff dick. Asked me to help roll a condom down it. Broke me in gently. Not much pain or bleeding, and it felt good enough that I looked forward to a repeat, which was only a few days later. My parents were gone three weeks, and my grandma was half senile and didn't know what was going on, so Jack and I had the run of the place. After a few times with him, I had to admit I sort of liked sex. As you already know," she added, smiling in my direction.

"I started branching out with boys at school, and a few college studs who suddenly discovered I was alive and I liked to fuck. I developed quite a reputation. My mother was impressed at how popular I had become, until the crank phone calls started -- the guys calling up half drunk asking to talk to 'the slut,' the silent calls with heavy breathing, all that shit. Then she and my dad figured it out and came down on me hard -- early curfews, forbidden to go out. I became like the fairy tale princess locked up in the ivory tower. I fantasized growing my hair long like Rapunzel, and letting it down from my bedroom window so some guy could climb up and screw me." She laughed, and I joined in. "My folks never did suspect Uncle Jack as the culprit responsible for my disgrace, and even trusted him to come and 'keep an eye' on me while they went out to take a break from their jailer duties. Jack did his best to relieve my loneliness." She smiled slyly.

"You're lucky you didn't get knocked up," I said.

"Yeah, well Jack was considerate enough to wear condoms, and he educated me early on to require any guys I did it with to use them too. And before long, I found a sleazy doctor who prescribed me pills in return for some 'special compensation' as he put it." She winked. "I'm on the pill, but still require new guys to wear a wrap -- present company excluded, and Mike too -- although there aren't many new guys these days."

"So your parents just about locked you into a chastity belt, but you still let down your hair for Uncle Jack to make the climb," I said.

She laughed. "I became a 'good girl' again in their eyes. They thought I had reformed enough so I could be trusted to go away to university and live on campus. I was happy to escape. I met Mike my first year. He was taking some courses toward a business degree. He came on to me, but in a mature, respectful way, and I liked him. I joked that he was my second 'older man' -- he's actually got a few years on Jack. Mike had a good job, some bucks and a nice car. We got to keeping pretty steady company, although it wasn't exclusive. Eli came into the picture, and there were other guys, but I kept seeing Mike for a long time. He went out with other people too, including my university roommate, Serena." She laughed again. "Once she and I took care of Mike together." She looked at me again, smiling. "I was a regular slut for a while. Still am at heart, for that matter."

"You met Eli when you took one of his courses, right?" I asked. I already knew the answer, as I had met Rachel through Eli back in her student days. In that pre-Lila time, I was living with another woman named Amanda, and we would often go out with Eli and Rachel.

"Eli got his instructor position the first year I went to the university," Rachel said. I was one of his first 'special instructions.' I helped him break in the couch in his office."

"You guys got serious pretty quickly, as I remember."

"Yeah, Eli has always been special," she said, dreamily. "I've always had a thing for older men, I guess." She winked at me.

"Although if I remember right, Mike was still a factor during your university career."

Rachel and Amanda had become close friends, and a couple of times, I was surprised to find myself in a double-dating scenario where Rachel showed up with Mike instead of Eli. That was how I met the man who had become Eli's nemesis. Once, without telling me, Amanda even loaned our apartment to Rachel and Mike for a tête-à-tête. I discouraged such ventures because of my friendship with Eli, who frequently ranted that Rachel was standing him up to go out with "that bastard Mike."

"Mike was around a lot of the time," Rachel admitted. "He got his degree the end of my junior year." She seemed to be thinking of something, and smiled. "We were close, but I wasn't ready to settle down and follow him. He hooked up with my roommate Serena, and they got married and bought a house -- the one they still have not too far from here. They started a family pretty quickly. Around then, Eli proposed, and you know the rest -- you were best man." After a moment, she added, with a smile, "You still are Eli's best man, and mine too, after him."

I acknowledged the compliment with a smile of my own.

"As for Mike, there's still some feelings there," she volunteered. "We have lunch every so often. If the stars are right, we fuck once in a while. That wouldn't make Eli happy, or Serena, so we don't tell them." She took her eyes from the road to look at me pointedly. "Eli's usually tolerant of me and my hyper-sexuality. He just has this thing about Mike. It would cause problems if he knew."

"I'm friends with both you and Eli, and you're both adults. You have to work this Mike thing out yourselves. I don't want to make it more difficult, so my lips are sealed."

"Thanks," she said. We drove in silence a while.

"It's funny, because I don't even think about most of the men I've been with. But Mike and Uncle Jack are hard to let go completely."

"Do you still see him too?" I asked, my interest piqued.