Holding Out For a Hall Pass

I'm not exactly sure how we wound up on the floor with our clothes off after that, but I do remember she's the one who pulled me there. The slow pace we'd enjoyed on the sofa was a distant memory. We just grappled and fucked. It was like wrestling, but the kind where genitalia winds up in all the right places. If I had to give it a name, it would be "Wrassle Porn."

The next morning, we both had physical evidence of our impromptu session the night before. Her tits were covered with hickeys, and I had one on my neck. We both discovered this the next morning.

"Oh my God, you stained me!"

Fortunately Kayla is a mistress of makeup. I went to work the next few days with a good layer of foundation. All in all, I got off easy. Sure I got a few odd looks, all from women. Kayla had rug burns. They didn't show, but she made a point of letting me know she had to deal with scabs and I only had to deal with wearing makeup.

Two weeks passed after that without discussion of the H to the P. Our life continued mostly the same as it always had. The one change was that sex continued to have the same sort of spontaneity it did the first few years we'd dated. I'm sure there's some kind of psychological reason that explains it, even if it's "we're both fucked in the head."

Then Kayla invited me, as always, to her next work party. This one I could attend. It was a cocktail party, no pool. Naturally, Rick was there. It took him only about 20 minutes to make his way over to us. He shook my hand, and did that hard handshake thing. I milked it, "Jesus, that was painful. Why would you do that?"

I watched Kayla as she pretty much drilled holes in Rick with her eyes. Whatever had been discussed between the two of them previously, clearly Kayla was not pleased. I made a point of shaking my hand, as if trying to get feeling back into it. I didn't want to go completely over the top so I said, "Hey Rick, it's all good."

He caught Kayla's look and said the worst possible thing he could have at that moment, "Hey sorry, sometimes I don't know my own strength. I forget sometimes most other men can't handle it."

I put on my most jovial face. "I'm sure no disrespect was intended." Then I excused myself while shaking my hand and said, "I'll put some ice on it." I left to find the hostess, so I could ask for ice. She gave me an actual ice pack, and I made a point of returning with it. I suppose I'm a method actor.

The rest of the night was awkward. Kayla managed to have a few short conversations with Rick. I could tell he wasn't happy. More importantly, I could tell she wasn't happy. My mind filled in the blanks. I guessed Kayla was chewing him out for reinforcing my fears.

When we drove home I said, "Damn, that Rick is an asshole. I know you have no interest in him, but I'm starting to see why you harbor a grudge against Tiffany MacKenzie."

She didn't even try to defend his behavior. I knew her wheels were spinning. I hoped they were spinning in the direction of, "No one treats my husband that way!"

"Yeah, that was awkward. I want you to know, if anyone disses my husband, they dis me. I also let him know his innocent comment was not appropriate." Innocent comment?

To be fair, she did seem conflicted. I took conflicted as a good sign. Also she did not land on his side, another good sign. Not exactly what I was looking for, I wanted her to call him an "asshole." So I just smiled at her and squeezed her hand, waiting for what I thought was coming. Spoiler! It came.

"You caught him on a bad day. He's not normally like that."

This was the second time she'd used a similar justification, but I didn't point it out. What certainly made it easy, was Kayla and I were making out even before the garage door closed behind us. We fucked in the car before going into our home. I couldn't remember the last time we'd fucked in a car. We'd certainly never fucked in our car while in our garage. There was a serious upside to this.

"He was an asshole. I appreciate you putting him in his place."

"He's really not like that at work, honestly I think he's jealous of you."

"Why would he be jealous, he's barely met me?"

"I talk about you all the time. How lucky I am to have a great husband."

"I just find it odd his wife is never there."

"It's not odd, they have two young children. She's a housewife."

Of course she was.

I was completely expecting a repeat of assholish behavior at the next encounter. That's not what happened. The next get together was at Rick's place, "The Home of the Combs." Not my cheesy expression, that was his and he said it to every new arrival.

For the first time, his wife Tamara was present at an event. By default. So were the two children, boy and girl ages seven and five respectively. They were nice kids. I suspected that had more to do with Tamara's influence than Rick's. He seemed to love showing off his son, but when his daughter tried to get his attention, he told her to go see her mother. Apparently, little girls weren't worthy of attention until they became sexually mature women. I did wonder if Kayla picked that up.

As far interacting with me was concerned, Rick executed a deft 180 that day, bordering on obsequious. He and Tamara hung out with us, and paid more attention to me than Kayla. That was unexpected. I assumed Rick and Kayla must've had a talk.

"Gabe, Kayla tells me you are her perfect match."

"Well, I would have to agree. I am. She's also mine."

"What is your secret? I'd like to apply your secret sauce to my own wife."He really said "secret sauce." While Tamara was present. This was going well.

"I don't have a secret, Kayla and I just click. We're Gayla."

Kayla smiled. So did Rick and Tamara. So let's talk about Tamara, the other player in this Game of Bones.

Tamara was a bit older than me, but also younger than Rick. She was a blonde and of medium height. She was certainly attractive, in a typical girl-next-door kind of way. The kind that my parents would say makes "good wife" material. I've never really been attracted to blondes, except for this one Aussie I met before Kayla. The exception that proves the rule, I suppose. I could definitely see why the image-conscious Rick would marry her. One face in public, one in private.

We conversed for about half an hour. I'll admit, the conversation was actually pleasant. I suggested we and his wife Tamara, go out sometime. Rick thought it was a grand idea. I'm sure he thought he had gotten me in his corner. Had there been no hidden agenda, I wouldn't have minded doing just that. Rick could certainly turn it up a notch when motivated. Of course, it didn't last. I was expecting Rick to make a move to get Kayla alone, and I wasn't disappointed.

I'm certain Rick thought he was being clever (while bragging about the size of his home) when he said, "Kayla, I forget where the bathroom is in this house. Can you show me?"

Kayla laughed and said, "Yes, I'll point it out. Men and directions."

Really Kayla? That joke wasn't funny. Perhaps I hadn't made as much progress as I'd thought. She also seemed to take that lame excuse to have a private conversation. Her infatuation might have slowed, but I couldn't be sure it was dead yet. I know Rick wanted to get Kayla alone, no doubt to be congratulated for his changed behavior.

I wasn't sure why he wasn't worried about leaving me and Tamara alone. Maybe he was expecting Tamara to sing his praises. Maybe he thought I was clueless. I have no idea. No matter his reasoning, it was a tactical error. Using a board game as a metaphor, it was definitely a "Risk."

This gave me a quick window to talk to Tamara one on one. I wasn't sure how long they'd be aware, so I cut to the chase.

"So ... I hear you guys have an open marriage, how does that work?"

She looked at me like she thought I was either joking or trying to yank her chain. "Where did you hear that?"

At this point, I was just guessing. An educated guess, but I was fudging a bit. Okay, quite a bit. I told her Kayla told me that Rick told her that. High school was good practice for this sort of prevarication.

"That son of a bitch. We don't have an open marriage."

"I suspected that. Kayla believes it though. She asked if she could have a Hall Pass to do what you two do."

Tamara asked, "Why didn't you just say no to the idea?"

"Where's the joy in that?"

Her mouth was open and silent, not sure how to take it. I noticed she had a small tongue. That's really neither here nor there, but I do notice things at moments like that. She finally said, "Don't you feel like you're playing with fire?"

I can see why she thought I was. I had no intention of winding up like my middle-aged-divorced neighbor down the street. Poor guy, spent all his time with his Ernest Hemingway collection and his dog Buster because he couldn't move on from the one that broke his heart. I really hoped some big-titted sex fiend would drop out of the sky and into his life.

"Nah. She may like the idea of having some strange, but she loves rules. She won't break them. It's kinda her jam."

She looked at me for a moment, then shook her head. I detected a hint of mirth when she finally said, "You are a strange one. You and Kayla belong together."

I couldn't have agreed more. I saw Kayla approaching without Rick. She stopped to socialize with a few co-workers. I said to Tamara,"Please don't confront either of them. I'm positive nothing has happened. I have an idea what we should do. Let's chat again here when we can."

She wasn't angry. Maybe she didn't believe me, or maybe she suspected or knew Rick was a dog. Or maybe she had the same streak of perversity I did. She didn't object, and the next words spoken were when I said "Missed you baby," as I kissed Kayla. She kissed me back and the conversation was pretty superficial until Rick returned, and then after. But Tamara and I did exchange looks. We shared a secret.

Parties being what they are though, Tamara and I had a few chances to talk again without either of our spouses present.

Now I'd never use my Hall Pass on Tamara. Despite the rules we'd arranged, I couldn't rule out the possibility of my wife feeling she could break them because it was an even exchange somehow. My goal was to just make Rick uncomfortable, and make sure my own wife knew she was not on the table. In short, I just wanted to fuck with Rick's head by fucking with his public image.

We worked out arrangements to see each other. Rather, arrangements to be seen with each other. Tamara and I never did anything inappropriate. There were no intimate touches of any kind. We just appeared at public places together, the kind of places where it was likely people Rick knew might be present to observe us.

Working out the logistics was a bit difficult. It was Tamara that came up with an idea. The obvious time I was free was on Tuesday nights, the same nights as Kayla's yoga class. That happened to be the same night as Tamara's poetry slam. Rick never had any interest in accompanying her. I'm not really into poetry, but it was a good excuse to attend an event with Tamara. Let me just say that I was pleasantly surprised and liked the poetry slam. It was not what I'd been expecting.

Now that we'd established a reason for meeting each other, having a reason to meet for lunch was easy. We were now friends. I could never meet Kayla for lunch. Our jobs are in different parts of the city, and Chicago is a big city. Tamara was a housewife though, and the kids were both in school. She could meet me any time, any place. She also had an excuse to always be in my part of town. All she had to say was she was shopping or running an errand in my area.

We started meeting for lunch once or twice a week. We varied the places we would go. The point was to be seen. Granted, I only had an hour for lunch, so we had to maximize the time. We'd pre-order food at restaurants to have it served on arrival, paying in advance. Some of those restaurants were in hotels. Whenever Kayla asked "How was your day?" I told her everything as usual, including lunch with Tamara.

It was working. I heard from Tamara at one of our lunches that Rick was concerned about us our meetings. What I was not prepared for, even though I should have been, was word getting back to Kayla. Life has a way of throwing curve balls into a perfect scheme.

"So, you've been having lunch with Tamara."

"Yes, just like I told you."

"People are starting to talk."

"About what? Has anyone said we did anything inappropriate?"

"No, nothing like that. It's just a perception."

"Is this making your life difficult? If it is, just tell me. I will stop."

"No, not difficult. I just wanted you to be aware."

"Beware of what?"

"Aware. Be. Aware."

"Ah, got it."

She smacked me on the arm as she shook her head.

That was the environment when she took her next trip. Rickhead was also going. They were going to be together for a work thing and whatever happened was out of my hands. So the only possible response I could have, was hang out with Tamara during that time.

Social media is your enemy and your friend. I took photos of Tamara and I together at every opportunity. All I did was post pictures to Facebook on my own timeline. Clearly out in the open, nothing to hide. I even captioned one with us raising a drink together with, "Missing our spouses. Come back soon." She shared it on her timeline.

I had no idea the effect this was having on their trip. In my imagination, Rick was getting both bothered and using this as an opportunity to get in Kayla's panties. She did call me every night. Was it to confirm I was home alone? I was. We did have phone sex. That's another thing we hadn't done in a while.

She also updated her Facebook posts. Boring posts, as if to emphasize I had no reason to worry. I could have had two responses to that. Response A was that my Kayla was fucking Rick. Response 2 was that nothing was happening, and she wanted to make sure I knew it.

When Kayla came home, she was clearly happy to see me. I'm not surprised, I heard from Tamara that Rick had lost his shit over those Facebook posts. I had no idea what effect it had on Kayla, but I can imagine he wasn't on his game. I asked how her trip went.

"Trip wasn't bad, Rick was a bit pissy. I've never really seen him like that. He had a bad reaction from Tamara's Facebook posts."

I pretended innocence, "Why? We both said how much we missed you."

"I'm not sure, he tried to convince me that the two of you were fucking. I think you may have been right about him. I'm positive you wouldn't use your Hall Pass on Tamara."

"Why are you so sure? She's attractive."

"She definitely is, but she's not your type of attractive. I also see how you act around her, you two have no chemistry."

Damn it. She definitely could read me, I wondered if she could read every chapter. I hoped she hadn't skipped ahead to the ending. I'd like to think I'm capable of a few surprises still. I nearly spilled my guts to let her know she'd discerned my machinations.

She saved me from almost making a mistake. "I need to take a shower. Care to join me?"

I did. We spent far more time and soap than I'm sure was necessary to ensure cleanliness. One thing led to another and then ... another. By the time we finished the hot water was gone. We went to bed, cuddled and were both drifting toward sleep when she whispered, "Here's something you'll probably find funny, Rick and Tamara have a Hall Pass like us. That's where I got the idea. He seems more worried about it than we are."

I was so exhausted, I just said, "Kkay. Huh." I'm sure I slept with a smile.

And that was the entire discussion. Kayla seemed on guard again toward Rick. We never talked about it, but she had stopped trying to convince me Rick was a decent guy. She wasn't hostile, and I never asked about him. So far, so good. The breaking point came at the very next party.

Kayla and I were separated, when I happened to overhear a conversation from some of the guys there. I tend to gravitate toward people my own age at these things.

"See, Gabe is the bull in this relationship. He's obviously fucking Rick's wife, and Rick is a cuck."

"What's a cuck?"

"Short for cuckold. Rick knows his role, Gabe is the alpha male."

"What's a bull?"

"I just told you. The alpha male."

"So Gabe is fucking both those women? Those women are flames!"

"That is so sick."

"Oh yeah, you can't quantify that, Gabe has that it quality. I bet they're doing threesomes while Rick watches. If he's lucky, they let him masturbate."

"Really?"

"Oh yeah. I've heard they have a little cage for his cock, and he just has to watch unless they they unlock the cage."

I hadn't realized it, but Rick had also heard that conversation. I have no idea why he was in the same place I was, although I did wonder if it was he had been following me, maybe concerned I was trying to hook up privately with Tamara? Whatever the reason, he heard everything I did.

He threw his wine glass down, smashing it on the ground. He screamed, "I am not a cuck! My cock has never been in a cage! I am the bull, I am the bull!"

Needless to say, the party broke up after that. Tamara took a seething Rick home, and Kayla and I made an exit at the same time as the horde of others. All she said to me on the ride home was, "I wonder what brought that on? He's always seemed so poised. You were so right to put him on your list, not that I would ever fuck him."

I was thinking, Sure but you would have. What I said was, "Maybe I should replace that name then. I'll have to think about it."

After this all ended, my wife asked me, "Have you used your Hall Pass yet?"

I truthfully answered, "No." Then I asked, "Have you?"

"No."

I believed her.

Then she said, "I'm wondering if it's a good idea."

"Why?"

Was she about to confess?

Partially.

"When I thought of you with another woman, and could see that woman in the room, I got jealous."

Time for full disclosure? Of course it was time for full disclosure. So naturally, I started with partial disclosure.

"When you first proposed it, I was worried you were thinking about Rick."

"I was. After what's happened, I almost hate the whole idea."

"Almost?"

"It was exciting. I felt I learned a lot of things. The sex we had during that time was off the charts."

"It was. We can rescind our agreement."

"Do you want to?"

I thought for the briefest moment before replying, "No. Do you?"

"No. I will tell you this, I'll stick to the rules we set up and believe you will too. But no. The thought of having that option just once has made things so much more erotic for me."

"Me too, especially since we both stick to rules."

"You got anyone in mind?"

"Nope."

"Me neither."

"We can always change our minds later."

"We can."

The next day, we were both covered with hickeys.

Thanks to my editor Lue and Bonnie Tyler. Bonnie Tyler didn't really do anything other than inspire the title, just always wanted to thank Bonnie Tyler. Thanks to all who read, comment and email. I read every communication to me. If there are any grammatical errors, as usual it it is Lue's fault, despite the fact I write new stuff after her final edit.