The Hedonic Treadmill - 750 Words

Carol was gasping and moaning behind our bedroom door. I sighed and bowed my head, then pushed it open to find Bob, my best friend, plowing her from behind.

They froze like deer caught in headlights. Carol exclaimed, "Alan! You weren't supposed to be home until tomorrow!"

I nodded and hung my suit bag in the closet. "Yeah, we got done early. Thought I'd surprise you."

I loved that beautiful, slightly crooked grin. "Aw, babe! I missed you!"

Bob waved. "Hey, man, want to join us? Give her a nice spitroasting?"

"Nah, I'm beat from the trip. You two have fun."

I left our bedroom to the renewed sounds of their passion, grabbed a beer, and sat on the couch, idly flipping through the channels. Hopefully they'd be done soon, and I could be alone with my wife.

A few minutes later, the voices and the squeaking of the bedframe crescendoed and then ceased. Not long after that, Bob came down the stairs. "Gonna get going. We still on for racketball on Saturday?"

"Of course! I'll see you then."

I locked the door behind him as Carol descended the stairs in a loosely-tied silk dressing gown, hinting at the treasures beneath. She purred, "Hey, handsome. Want to come to bed and reclaim your slut?"

A shake of my head was clearly not what she'd been expecting. "No, not tonight. I just..."

Her brow wrinkled with concern as she sat next to me. "Babe, what's wrong?"

My hand gestured vaguely. "I'm just kind of tired of all of this."

Carol's shoulders sagged as she sighed, "Oh, thank god."

"What?"

"I thought it was just me. I'm so glad-- " She kissed me. "So, so glad we're on the same wavelength." She rolled her eyes. "If I had to get airtight one more time or suck your cum out of another woman's snatch again, I was gonna scream!"

"Why didn't you say something?"

"Well, why didn't you?"

"I thought you were happy!"

"I thought you were!"

We both laughed, and I said, "It was fun at first. The first couple of threesomes. The fetish club. Even after that. But..."

"Yeah, it started to bet too much effort for not enough return."

I nodded. "I was reading something about this. Well, not this specifically. It's something called 'the hedonic treadmill.'"

"Oh?" She settled in to listen.

"Yeah. The basic idea is that as you do something fun over and over, it becomes less fun, so you have to do more of it, or a more extreme version of it, to get the same rush, and eventually you get sick of it."

"Oh! Like when you eat brownies! The first bite is orgasmic. The first whole brownie is great, the second one is really good, but by the third, you're tired of them."

"Right. I was going to use heroin as an example, but sure. Brownies work, too." I paused. "Say, why was Bob here?"

"We were going to make a video to send to you; you had seemed so bummed last night."

I cupped her cheek. "You're so good to me."

Carol kissed my hand. "So... what are we going to do now?"

"Well, I've thought about that. And I realized there's one thing I've never gotten tired of. Never felt less happy about."

"Oh?"

"Being with you." I kissed my wife's lovely red lips.

Carol had a huge grin then. "You big softie." She kissed me back. "I feel the same way. This has been fun, but only because we shared the experience. You're all I need."

I considered. "Well, I have a suggestion, then."

She cuddled up to me. "Do tell."

"What if we just stop? Stop everything, go back to just us and enjoy that."

"Like, permanently? Always?"

"Well, maybe we have a threesome every now and then. Birthdays. Vacations. That type of thing. But not for a while. We go back to just us."

"Monogamy? How kinky! Count me in." I loved this woman.

"I know, right? Such perversion!" I kissed her once more. "Go take a shower, wash that cum out of your pussy, and put something sexy on. We're going dancing, then we're going to come home and make sweet, monogamous, vanilla love."

Carol stood and I swatted her ass, drawing a laugh and a gasp. She wiggled it at me. Then, just before going up the stairs, my wife paused and asked, "Wait, how vanilla? No more anal?"

"Hey now, no need to get too crazy."