The Joke

"Well, if you have to know, I went down to the spa. I got a facial, had my nails done." She waved her hand at me, sure enough, someone had done her nails. She didn't have any makeup on at all, either.

Now I felt just plain silly.

"I got a nice massage, too." She tittered.

I just looked at her.

"They had champagne, all you wanted." She giggled again. No doubt she most certainly had her fair share.

"The massage was real good, that was fun." She started taking off her clothes.

"They wiped me down with a towel but I still feel all oily."

"They? Who is they?" I asked.

"Oh, just a couple of guys." She had her blouse off by now. There was no bra, I hadn't noticed that.

"What? A couple of guys? And where is your bra?"

"Yea. Cute ones, too. They sure didn't miss much. Oh. I must have left my bra at the spa, I will go get it." Marie giggled again, headed for the door.

"Wait! You can't go out there with no top on." I said.

"Oh. Right." Then she giggled again.

"What's this about TWO guys?" I asked her again.

"They just gave me a massage, no big deal. Besides, you aren't supposed to ask, you promised." She shut the bathroom door. I heard the shower start.

Marie came back out a few minutes later, she was completely naked.

"Will you make love to me, honey? You do still love me, don't you?" She was seriously slurring her words.

"Marie, what happened to you? What did you do?" I asked.

"I saw you with Margaret and that...Sally woman. She had her hands on you." She accused me.

"That wasn't my fault. Sally just did that."

"Well, those guys did too! They rubbed me on my back and they rubbed me on my front and they rubbed on my top and they rubbed me on my bottom." She said that in almost a sing song voice.

"You mean you let two guys....naked?" I asked.

"No, they had a little towel over my twat, but they did rub everything else. That was sure a little towel, it tickled. I told them it tickled too, they just laughed and told me they had to keep my twat covered up or they could get fired. I think they must be gay, at least the one guy was. God that felt good, they even rubbed my titties! They called them 'TaTa's', said they were really pretty ones. The tall guy must have rubbed them for half an hour, I think he was having fun!" Marie giggled some more, then she laid down. She was asleep in seconds.

She used the word, "twat". Up until that moment I had never heard her say that, so I was reasonably sure where she came up with it.

Did she really let two guys massage her all over, even her bare breasts? I was reasonably sure she had done exactly that.

I looked at her for a long time, she was snoring softly. I reached for the covers and tucked her in.

+++

Around 10 O'clock the next morning, Marie woke up. She let out a groan and sat up. I handed her a glass of water, she drank all of it, then went into the bathroom, leaving the door open, something else she never did.

How a woman can pee for five solid minutes is beyond me.

"Hungry?" I asked her when she came out.

"Yea, can we just get room service? I don't want to go anywhere. I need a bath." She shut the bathroom door, I heard the shower start.

I called downstairs, ordered some scrambled eggs and toast, some fruit. She was still in the bathroom when the knock came at the door.

I let the older guy in, he was pushing a cart. Just as he was setting everything up, Marie walked out.

Still naked!

"Oops!" She said, going right back in.

"Sorry." I told the man, tipping him 10 bucks.

"No problem Sir. I didn't mind at all." He gave me a huge grin and left.

Marie came back out, she had a big smile on her face.

"Did you do that deliberately?" I asked her.

"Uh huh." She grinned.

"Why?" I asked.

"To get you excited. Say, aren't you even going to say anything?" She asked.

"About what?" I asked, then it hit me. Her normally very bushy and curly pubic hair was now a tiny little "V".

"You mean you let those two guys do that?" I asked, pointing.

"No, it was one of the women. I bought the whole spa package for $300.00."

"You really did let two guys rub you down?" I asked.

"Yep. I sure did."

"You didn't...I mean..have sex?"

"No, of course not. They just rubbed me, for a whole hour! It was great! But you aren't supposed to ask. I still have one whole day coming, too!"

I managed to hold my temper but it wasn't easy.

Nothing more was said, Marie was back and she wasn't hurt although her head still hurt.

Along towards evening we went down and played some with no success. At one point she was several machines away from me, Allan came by, stopped and talked to her. I saw her look my way and grin, then go back to talking to Allan.

A few minutes later, I saw Allan glance my way, then he got up and left. Marie got up and came over to sit by me.

"I don't want you mad at me." She said.

"Why would I get mad at you?"

"Allan asked me if I wanted to have dinner with him, it's been years since he and I visited."

"You want to go out to dinner with some other guy?" I asked.

"Yea. It's just Allen, we have known each other since we were little kids." She looked at me expectantly.

"Allan isn't a little kid any more." I said, doing my best to keep a straight face.

"Allan is a nice guy, you don't need to worry. It's just for dinner and a visit, we haven't seen each other in years."

I looked at her for quite a long time.

"You did give me that hall pass, honey." She told me.

"That was supposed to be a joke!" I blurted out.

"It was? You didn't tell me that."

"I guess I should have." I said.

"Oh. OK, then." Marie stood up, started to leave. She looked unhappy.

"Honey, wait." I called after her.

"What?" She asked.

"Look, if you want to go to dinner with Allan, catch up on things, it's fine."

"Really? You won't be mad?"

"No, I won't be mad. Let's just say I will honor what I said, you have one more day, OK?"

"Really? Thank you, honey! I love you!" She kissed me, then headed up to our room.

I sat there wondering what I had just done.

This Allan guy was no longer the fat kid that was just there, he was in good shape, well dressed.

I saw him in his room, with Sally so he most certainly was interested in women. Still, Marie and Allan had simply been next door neighbors, friends, so I was reasonably sure that was all there was to it.

I spent the next few hours wandering around the casino, trying different games and not doing very much. Around 10 PM I went up to our room, turned on the TV.

I was asleep in short order, probably due to having three of those free drinks.

I woke up around midnight, no Marie. That I didn't expect, I reached for the phone to call her, then I set it down.

A few hours later, I woke up, realized Marie was in bed with me, I hadn't heard her come in. I sat there and watched her in the light from outside, she was sleeping peacefully.

+++

Marie was up and fully dressed when I woke up at around 8 O'clock.

"Morning, honey." She smiled. I yawned and stretched, sat up. I desperately wanted to ask her about the night before, what had happened, but I managed not to.

Marie got up and walked over to the edge of the bed, slipped down to her knees. She tugged the covers back, reached out and began to stroke me.

"What?" I started to ask.

"Shhh, honey. No questions, remember?" Marie leaned forward and slid her lips over me, my erection began to build and quickly. I would like to say it lasted for a long time, but it didn't, I felt myself going past the point of control in just a couple of minutes.

Marie did not stop, either, for the very first time she swallowed every drop I had to give.

Finally she was done, she lay down beside me and hugged me so tightly I was having trouble breathing.

My mind was full of questions, but I never asked. Marie also never told me one word about that night.

+++

The airplane ride home was uneventful, once home we settled in and things returned to normal...almost.

Marie moved back into our bed, and our sex life returned to closer to what had been normal years before.

Even some of her outfits went back to the way they had been, nothing anyone would consider terribly naughty but certainly attractive. I also noticed that Marie never did put on the extra weight she had carried for years on her lower body. One day I figured out why when I found the exercise channel recordings on our TV set.

She kept a perfect house and now never said no when I reached for her, although some of the teasing was gone. The days of depression she had suffered with for years seemed gone now, too.

We even joined a local bowling league, we now fit right in with the older married couples there.

In the back of my mind was that last night in Reno. I knew damn good and well that something had happened, I just did not know what. I did manage to not ask, though.

The other part was that damned massage, Marie had never gone into real detail about that, either.

I do have to say not knowing bothered me, but I said nothing. It was better that way, I guess.

A full year went by, one day I came home from work and Marie mentioned we had one of those annual invitations to a reunion Margaret was always handling.

"Do you want to go?" She asked after telling me this one was going to be at a resort we knew of up in the nearby mountains.

"Sure, honey, if you want to. Is Allan going to be there?" That just came out of me without thinking.

"I don't know. Maybe." Her eyes studied me for several long seconds.

"Have you talked to him...since that night?" I asked.

"No." She was still looking at me curiously.

"Maybe I can get in a few rounds of Golf, there is a club right there." I said, shifting the subject.

"That would be nice."

That night, right after dinner, Marie handed me an envelope. I opened it, inside she had made up a certificate.

"Hall Pass." It read in large letters at the top.

It read word for word exactly like the one I had given her, except for the very last part.

"I will do anything you say, anything you want at any time, for forever if you will just please keep loving me."

"What's this?" I asked.

"Your turn, honey." Marie smiled.

"Why?" I asked.

She looked down, then back up, her eyes holding mine in a steady gaze.

"So what happens if I decide to cash this in?" I asked.

"That's up to you, honey."

"Like you did?" I finally asked the question. I didn't have to be specific, she knew exactly what I was asking.

Marie hesitated, then she nodded.

"With Allan Thompson?"

Marie nodded again.

I suppose I always did know that, the next question was formed in my mind, but I didn't have to say it.

"You want to know, don't you?" She asked me.

"Yes. I know I said I would not ask, but I guess I figured that by now you would tell me."

Marie took a deep breath.

"OK. It bothers me too. We had dinner and talked, you know I always liked Allan. It really was a good time, he told me all about the company he built, how he got tired of always being heavy so he hired a trainer and worked out. He said it took him over five years.

Then we went into the lounge and listened to the band, even danced a few songs. That was fun, and he kept telling me how good I looked."

"I see." I said, a little bit bitterly.

"Please? Just listen. After, when we got off the elevator, he asked me to stop by his room. I was thinking we would have a drink and talk some more, then I would come back to you since our room was just down the hall. He..he said he had some..pot, too. I hadn't done any of that for maybe 25 years."

"I see." I said again.

"Please, let me finish?"

I nodded, almost holding my breath.

"We got stoned and had a drink, talking about things that happened back when we were kids. He asked me if I wanted to join him in the hot tub, like we did back when we were kids in his pool. We had been laughing and joking, acting up, you know how Allan is. I guess I knew right then and should have said no, but I did anyway. We got....naked, he was looking at me and I guess I liked that and I was teasing him. I wasn't bashful about it, we did that a lot back when we were growing up.

In the pool, he hugged me, told me he had wanted to be with me since we were kids, and it was why he had never gotten married. I think I always was aware he liked me way more than just friends. He never said anything, though, not once. If Allan had asked me out back then, I would have gone out with him, I liked him. Sure he was very fat but I didn't care. Allan was always so nice to me.

When he kissed me, and I let him. By then I wanted him, honey." Marie looked intently at me for a reaction, I was careful to not show any.

"We got out of the pool, he used a towel to dry me off. Then he told me I was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. He began to hold me, touch me. That felt so good I let him. I was still thinking to myself that I was going to stop him, say no, but the words would not come out. I saw him reach for a condom.

Then we were on top of the bed, and doing it, so it was too late."

I nodded.

"You always knew, didn't you? But you....didn't hate me, you didn't divorce me."

"No. I love you." I told her.

"I found out some things. Sex is just...sex. I think I could probably....you know...climax with anybody. But when it's with someone you love, it's way more than that."

"Was he...good?"

"Yes, he was. I am not going to lie about that, not now. He was careful, and took his time. It felt good, I guess, but it wasn't the same. I was never with anyone else but you, ever, until....then. Now I know that I would much rather be with just you. That...doing that? It's like it was just a dream now."

"For a long time after I got sick, I didn't feel..well, like much of a woman." She added.

"Marie, was that the only time? I mean, with anybody?" I asked her.

"Yes, honey. Just Allan, and I don't even know why for sure. He did tell me he loved me, that's when I told him I loved you and could never be with him again. After we were done, I only wanted to get back here to you."

I didn't say anything, I think I understood. I wasn't happy about it, and I was thinking it might be tough to find that level of total trust in her again.

All of it due to what started as a stupid joke? And something that I probably could have stopped at any time.

Yet things were better now, far more so than they had been before. That really made no sense to me. Had Marie figured out that she really was desirable, or was she just afraid of me leaving her?

All there was to do was go on, the last year was much closer to the way we had been when we were young. I had come to terms with the fact that we were not young now, and never would be. But we could still be good together, and the last thing I wanted was to be without Marie for the rest of my life.

I guess I was quiet for a very long time, Marie just sat there waiting.

"Are we all right, honey? I am better now, I want to be a good wife to you. I really do need you to love me." I could see she was right on the edge of tears, so I got up and hugged her.

"Yes. I think so. And I do love you." I told her.

"The massage?" I asked. I wanted to know about that, also. I thought I already did, but wanted to hear her say it.

"Oh, that. That's all it was, really. Two guys rubbed me all over, I think I did that because I was a little bit mad at you. But it was nothing, they kept my bottom covered up the whole time."

"That's all that was?"

"Yes."

"What if that had been different, and they wanted to do more, like touch you down there or something? What would you have done?" I asked.

"Right then? I probably would have...let them." She looked down.

I just shrugged. I knew she was telling me the truth.

Then I deliberately folded up the certificate she gave me, put it carefully into my wallet.

A tiny demonstration of my upset, I guess.

I had been hiding that upset for nearly a full year, holding it in, knowing but not knowing?

Was that now all gone from me? No, of course not, but I knew I could live with it.

She watched me do that, winced slightly and didn't say a word.

It struck me that she expected me to probably tear that up.

Just like I had expected her to laugh when I gave her mine. Let her wonder for awhile, I was thinking.

Marie got up, began to gather up the dishes.

Would I take advantage, use it as an excuse to have sex with some woman? I seriously doubted it, since there was no need.

No need at all, and besides, I didn't have a single clue of who that might even be.

But there was one thing.

"Anything I want, huh?" I grinned at Marie.

She looked up at me.

"You still have that bra I got for you, right?" I asked.

"Yes, I do." She looked slightly puzzled for a moment, then she grinned.

"Would you like to wear that for me, say when we go out to dinner or somewhere?"

"Yes, honey. Anything you want."