That's What Friends Are For Ch. 03

It was Wednesday. Barbara and I were seated in the same little place we used to meet for lunch about once a month when Kyle, her husband and my lifelong best friend, was overseas with the Marine Corps. A Gunnery Sergeant and career Marine, Kyle was currently in the first month of a nine-month deployment to Japan.

The restaurant was on a side street, offered outdoor seating in good weather, and the tables were well shaded so that Barbara could avoid the sun's ultraviolet rays. She had no malady that required such precaution, just a desire to protect her flawless skin from solar harm. As usual, she was dressed in her customary sixties-style hippie garb and her wild blonde hair was haphazardly held in place by a couple of odd looking clips. The ever-present straw hat was beside her chair in case the sun found a way to misbehave.

Kyle had recently completed a two-year assignment at Camp Pendleton near San Diego where we all lived, and this was our first lunch alone together in a long time.

Before leaving, Kyle had asked that I take care of Barbara's sexual needs during his upcoming deployment. Needless to say I was stunned; both by his request and the circumstances that prompted it.

Leah, Barbara's best friend, occasional lover, and periodic participant in three-way sex with the couple, had also been told about the new arrangement and decided to take matters into her own hands. A week or so after Kyle's departure, she called to insist that I take her out for drinks and dinner. We ended up spending the weekend at her apartment fucking our brains out.

The following Saturday, Barbara and I had sex for the first time. Two days later Leah and I had our second encounter. In slightly less than two weeks, I had more sex than I'd enjoyed in the previous two years.

Both women were extraordinary in bed, although each in her own way, and both were a revelation to me. I had never been with any woman who was as responsive as either Barbara or Leah.

Barbara's invitation to lunch was a bit of a surprise. We had just been together a few days earlier, so I suspected something was on her mind beyond indulging in our old habit of enjoying a casual lunch together when Kyle was overseas. Both of us had full-time jobs and rarely drank alcohol at lunch, so when Barbara ordered a Cosmopolitan my suspicions were confirmed; something was amiss. Not wanting her to drink alone, I ordered a Manhattan.

"Do you realize how long it's been since we were here last?" I began. "More than two years," I added, answering my own question.

"I know Jake. I love this place and I've missed meeting you here," she said with a little smile. "But to be truthful, I didn't lure you here just for old time's sake."

"I didn't think so. I assume there's something you want to talk to me about in person," I prompted.

"There are a lot of somethings I want to talk about," Barbara said, her smile fading.

"Then I can take the rest of the day off if need be," I offered. I was employed by an information technology firm and had enough seniority to take a few liberties with my working hours.

"I can too," she responded, still not smiling, "and depending on how our conversation goes it may come to that."

"Then we have all the time in the world, so let's enjoy our drinks, our lunch, and resolve whatever is troubling you," I said, just as our cocktails arrived and menus were presented to us.

"Do you want to order now?" I asked.

"Not yet. I have some things to say first."

Selfishly, I hoped she hadn't decided to end our budding sexual relationship. I had enjoyed a lot of sex with Leah but only once with Barbara. I wanted more of her.

"First of all I want to apologize for forcing you to appraise my body and tell me the results of your assessment. I'm aware that I have a nice figure. I wanted to show you what I had to offer before we had sex for the first time and I wanted your approval. But that was presumptuous of..."

"Hold on," I interrupted. "You have nothing to apologize for. Revealing your body to me was a gift. The only problem I had was trying to find the right words to express your perfection."

"I'm not perfect," she responded, a small smile returning to her face, "but your words were. No one else has ever said anything as lovely to me and now I'm embarrassed to have appeared so pathologically needy."

"You didn't seem the least bit needy to me," I told her with a smile of my own. "With your body, you have no reason to feel that way. You are the most beautiful woman on the planet."

"Thank you," she responded, her smile brightening. "Secondly, I know I made you feel uncomfortable about the oral sex thing. Leah and I do it, but no man has done that to me in a very long time. I was just surprised."

"I didn't mean to startle you, but if I recall correctly, it worked out pretty well," I offered with a grin.

"Have you done that to Leah?" she suddenly asked, just as I had taken a sip of my drink. It was all I could do to keep from spraying Manhattan mist all over the table.

"No," I choked.

"Why not?"

"It didn't occur to me and she didn't ask."

"Then why did you do it to me?"

"You told me you wanted more intimacy from me than you had with the guys you picked up in bars. You only mentioned kissing and touching, but I decided to take it a step further for purely selfish reasons."

"What do you mean?" Barbara inquired, clearly puzzled.

"Because I...well...I guess I wanted to experience you by bringing all of my senses to bear; looking at you, touching you, inhaling you, listening to you respond to me, and tasting you."

"What a nice answer!" she declared with her first high-wattage smile since our arrival.

"Since you asked about Leah, do you want to talk more about what she and I do when we're having sex?"

"Later," she replied. "She's already described a lot of it and I have more to tell you."

"I'm listening."

"I know Kyle told you he and I always share the details of our sexual indiscretions as soon as possible after the fact. We do it with encrypted satellite phones. In the past, it always turned us both on."

"Yeah, he told me that and I saw the phone in your bedroom."

"The details of my hookups were always fairly simple. They never lasted longer than necessary for me achieve an orgasm. His affairs were usually more involved because of where he was and the circumstances under which he indulged in them. He often had sex with the same woman more than once because of limited options. When he was more sexually active than I was, I didn't bear him any ill will. After all, he was in a combat zone and was more or less in constant danger."

"Why are you telling me all this?" I asked. "It sounds like a private matter between you and Kyle."

"I'm telling you because I've never lied to Kyle before."

"Before?" I echoed.

"Before you and I had sex. What we did, and how I felt about it afterward, went far beyond the wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am sex I had with those other guys, and all that ended more than two years ago. What happened Saturday was very special to me and I decided not to disclose any more than absolutely necessary to remain in character."

"What did you tell Leah? She told me the two of you talked after you and I had sex, but her story didn't match what actually happened."

"I told her exactly what I told Kyle."

"Which was?"

"You finger fucked me and then did me missionary style. I admitted to only two orgasms but didn't make a big deal out of either one. I deliberately left everything else out, particularly the oral sex and the mind-blowing orgasm it produced."

"Why? I thought that was the whole point; arouse each other with the details."

"Because you didn't just fuck me, you made love to me," Barbara replied. "I have not experienced anything like that in a very long time and I wasn't about to share it with Kyle or Leah. And don't have a stroke because I just used the L-word. I'm not talking about romance," she added with a smile.

"May I take your orders now," asked the server who had suddenly materialized by our table. I was glad to see him. I needed time to think. My best friend asked me to do him a favor a few weeks ago; a bizarre favor to be sure, but a simple one. Now, what had seemed straightforward at first was beginning to sound complicated.

We ordered what we always ate at that restaurant, quiche for her and nachos for me. Barbara had always given me grief about the nachos.

"You're going to kill yourself with those things," she admonished with a grin.

"Worse ways to die," was my usual reply. When the server departed, I restarted our conversation. "Anything else you want to tell me?"

"There are still a couple of things on my mind, but I know I've caught you by surprise. Do you have anything you want to talk about? Any questions?"

"Yes, but they're kinda personal."

"Go ahead," she said. "If I don't like the questions, I won't answer them."

"Fair enough. I was led to believe I could expect your need for my services would surface only once a month or so. Kyle had only been gone about two weeks when you called me. Why the departure from the norm?"

"I was very curious about what sex with you would be like. Plus Leah got my attention with her description of how well you did her. Thinking about the two of you having sex got me worked up and I knew you were available, so I called," she replied with a smile. "Anything else?"

"Apparently Kyle doesn't tell you how stunning you are or what a beautiful body you have. It's also clear that you don't have oral sex like most couples. Why? And why doesn't he 'make love' to you, as you phrased it?"

Barbara stared at me for a long time; long enough to for me to think I had just fucked up by being too intrusive.

"Because he has lost interest in me," she eventually responded.

"I don't believe that. How the fuck could he lose interest in someone like you?"

"Because his interest now lies elsewhere." It was my turn to stare.

"With whom?" I finally croaked.

"Leah."

"Jesus H. Christ!" I exclaimed, turning a few heads at other tables.

"Hush!" she chided with a frown.

"Okay, okay. I don't know what else to say anyway."

"Please call your boss and I'll call mine. We're going to need the rest of the afternoon," she ordered as she fished her phone out of her purse.

Each of us completed our calls just as our orders arrived. Neither of us said much while we were eating, both clearly needing a little more time to think. When Kyle and I had our talk before his departure for Japan, I believed my head was going to blow off. Lunch with Barbara was beginning to feel like Déjà vu all over again, I thought to myself, smiling inwardly a little at the old Yogi Berra line.

"Would you like another drink," I asked as we finished eating.

"No. What I'd really like to do is go to your place, relax, drink some wine, and finish our discussion in complete privacy. "You do have wine, right? Not just beer?" she inquired with a smile.

"I am a very sophisticated bachelor. Not only do I have wine," I replied with a grin as I signaled to the server, "but I have an opener and genuine wine glasses. You won't have to drink the stuff out of a coffee mug or a Mason jar."

Five minutes later, I had paid the bill and we were on our way.

****

"So how did Leah and Kyle get involved?" I asked when we were settled on my sofa with wine glasses in hand.

"It must have started with the three-way sex, and that began four or five years ago."

"Four or five years? I really did have my head in the sand," I responded, still amazed at how clueless I had been.

"More like five," Barbara corrected. "Leah and I were having sex at the house one Saturday afternoon when Kyle returned early from some military function on the base. I noticed him standing in the doorway to the bedroom and let out a little squeal of surprise. Kyle knew we occasionally had sex, but we had always been careful to keep it private. I didn't know what to do, but Leah, ever the one to jump out in front, just grinned at him and asked if he'd like to watch. As you might expect, he willingly accepted her offer and took a seat in the same chair you occupied for a while on Saturday."

"As you might also expect, he became aroused after watching us for a few minutes. I had always formed mental pictures of him screwing someone overseas, and suddenly saw his presence as an opportunity to actually watch him do it. To everyone's surprise, I asked if he'd like to join us. A minute later the three of us were naked together on the bed. Before long I was watching my husband fuck my best friend a foot or so in front of my face. Then he screwed me for a little while, but soon turned his attention back to Leah."

I couldn't think of anything to say, so I kept my mouth shut, trying to maintain a neutral expression in spite my surprise at her candor.

"I learned one thing very quickly about threesomes," she continued. "If two of the participants are married, the third party is going to get ninety percent of the attention. And that's the way it turned out to be with us. Leah had the unfamiliar pussy in the equation, so Kyle spent most of his time fucking her."

"How often did you guys get together?"

"Once every couple of months at first. But as each of his next deployments drew near, either he or Leah would suggest that we have them more often. I didn't get suspicious until he returned from Afghanistan the last time and wanted to do it very soon after his arrival. I now believe they stepped over the line and began to have sex on the sly during this last assignment at Pendleton."

"How sure are you?" I asked. "It all seems so out of character to me, for Kyle I mean. I don't know about Leah."

"I thought so too at first, but now I'm fairly certain. About a year ago he came home, supposedly from having to work late, and I smelled Leah's perfume on his uniform. He should have known better. Leah and I have been having sex for years, and I know her perfume like I know my own."

"Why didn't you confront him? Or her?"

"No real proof, just suspicions. The perfume thing only happened once, and could theoretically be explained away by a chance meeting and a hug. And until recently I guess I had started to accept his lack of attention as our new married normal. Now I'm no longer willing to live like that, but I chose not to pick a fight just before he left for Japan."

"I wasn't going to mention this, but under the circumstances I think you have a right to know," I began.

"What do you know that I don't?" she asked with raised eyebrows.

"I was with Leah at her apartment Monday night and I saw a satellite phone on her kitchen counter. It is identical to yours which really grabbed my attention. It wasn't in a charger, which led me to believe the charger was stuffed away in a drawer somewhere and the phone had been recently used. I asked her about it before I left. She told me a story about an old boyfriend, a Marine, who bought a pair of them before he deployed. Supposedly he broke up with her before returning stateside, never saw her again, and didn't ask that the phone be returned. She said she tries to keep the battery in good shape by charging the phone occasionally. I think she was lying."

"It's possible she was telling the truth. She has dated a couple of Marines in the past," Barbara responded with a straight face.

"Are you buying that?"

"Not even a little bit. If she had a satellite phone from some previous relationship, she'd have told me. Now that I know she has one, its presence solves a mystery. Occasionally, when I'd call Kyle's phone, I'd get a message that said his phone was in use. I thought it was some sort of technical glitch. Now I know he was probably talking to Leah. The existence of that phone pretty much brings everything into focus for me."

"I'm sorry to be the one to confirm your suspicions."

"Don't be. You've just set me free," she responded with a sudden smile. "Free from doubt, and ultimately free of this whole mess. Thanks for telling me."

"So what are you going to do?" I asked with my heart in my throat since I had a stake in the so-called whole mess.

"Nothing."

"Nothing?"

"Nothing right now."

"Help me out here," I said. "Why?"

"Because doing nothing makes the most sense to me. I didn't want to raise the issue with Kyle before he left and I don't want start trouble with Leah now. Let me ask you something."

"Okay."

"How is sex with Leah? Do you enjoy it?" Barbara asked with a hint of a smile. "I know she's good in bed. She's good with me and I've seen her in action with Kyle. Don't sugarcoat anything for my sake."

"She is good, in sort of an animalistic way. She's physically strong and uses her strength to enhance her own pleasure. It can be a little bit like hand-to-hand combat, except it's a lot more pleasurable. She also cums easily, which is gratifying for me."

"Yes, she does cum effortlessly and often more than once. She isn't rough with me, or during our three-ways, but the combat thing alone with a guy might be part of what makes her so appealing to Kyle. How many times have you fucked her?"

"I don't know, maybe a dozen. I'm sure she told you we spent a whole weekend together. And then there was Monday night."

"A dozen? Wow!" Barbara exclaimed with a wide grin. "I'm jealous."

"Do you think Kyle knows what Leah and I have been doing?" I asked, ignoring her comment.

"Of course he does. He set the whole thing up. Do you honestly believe Leah called you out of the clear blue right after he left?"

"Why on earth would he do that?"

"For the same reason he asked you to take care of me."

"He was concerned for your safety."

"He was concerned for hers too. If Leah and I kept trolling in bars, sooner or later she was going to run into a wacko like I did. You are guarding his harem and keeping us both in line by meeting our sexual needs. He loves you like a brother and the thought of you screwing both of us doesn't bother him at all. This way, no strangers are involved and we are no longer at risk."

"That's nuts!" I exclaimed.

"Not from his perspective, probably not from Leah's, and certainly not from mine. He's just protecting his turf."

"None of that explains why Leah approached me almost immediately after Kyle left."

"Most likely curiosity, but I also think she was drawing you further into their plan. I doubt you'll be spending another weekend with her. She'll want to continue having sex with you because she enjoyed it, but mostly because she wants to keep up appearances.

"That's a lot of intrigue for a simple affair," I offered.

"I don't think it's just an affair. I think they're serious about each other and all of this is part of some strategy they've concocted."

"Why do you think it's serious?"

"Because if it was just about sex, they would have handled it differently. All they had to do was tell me and we'd work something out. Maybe more three-ways. Instead, everything is being done in secrecy which tells me there's more going on than simple fucking."

"You seem pretty calm about it," I said, a bit surprised by her casual manner. "If I were in your shoes, I'd be really upset. How do you feel about all this?"

"How do I feel? Right now I'm ambivalent about their relationship. The sneakiness is what really pisses me off. Everything has been out in the open with the three of us for years, but now they're betraying my trust. As for being calm, I've had lots of time to deal with my suspicions. Are you willing to keep having sex with Leah?" she asked, suddenly switching gears.

"Not if it means I can't have sex with you," I answered, surprised by her question.

"It doesn't mean that at all. Last Saturday you brought me back from the dead," Barbara declared with a little smile. "I have no intention of giving you up."