The Talk

Toby phoned Linda, asking her to meet him at a public place. He and she had some memorable moments together there, all good ones.

She asked, "Is something going to happen?"

He replied, "Maybe."

They were going steady, and not for the first time. She wondered which prospect made her more nervous, breaking up or tying the knot. But she was calm when she said, "I'll be there." To herself: It's probably time to find out. She had, however, enjoyed the past few days of emotional coasting.

The Municipal Museum had, under one roof, an art gallery, an aquarium, a planetarium, a local history center, a science museum, a concert hall, and a children's museum, with curated overlaps. Linda and Toby, and pretty much everyone else in their mid-sized city, called this place the MuMu.

The building had a huge central courtyard and lobby. Toby waited on a wide, curved, padded bench in the lobby, knowing that she'd look for him there.

Linda smiled as she approached, and he did too as he stood. Their kiss wasn't excessive, but the hug may have been, made less obvious by their winter coats. He took both her hands and brought her to sit next to him on the bench, and she had a flash of panic, which faded.

Toby had worked out what to say. "I'm ready to get you a sparkly thing in a little box. But first, I think we should have The Talk."

Her eyes brightened a little at this, but her flash of joy lasted no longer than the one of panic. "We should," she said, relieved that she generally felt good about this.

His reserve broke as he looked at the straight ash-blond hair escaping the sides of her blue ski cap, the slight reddening of her lean, smooth cheeks, the big eyes that matched the cap. "You look amazing," he said happily, while knowing that this was what worried him most about getting serious with her.

Linda stifled a sigh. What he'd said made her feel obligated to reciprocate, and find something to say that set them on equal footing. She always felt put-upon when complimented on her looks. But, having learned from one of their dark times, she knew better than to lie to him.

She considered Toby okay-looking, given that men are seldom held to the kind of visual attraction standard that women are. The beard was thick enough to look good short. He was hefty, maybe more than he needed to be for his height and build, but similar to most men in this city surrounded by farmland. He was expressive and attentive and she could read him like a book.

"You look like someone I might want, and need," she said, finding that it was true. Enough.

His eyes widened. That gave her a little swell of pleasure. It didn't fade.

They strolled through the MuMu, poking into various parts of it, not at all minding the place's familiarity. Admission was cheap because it was public, the tax-supported centerpiece of a downtown revival. She and he both liked getting as much entertainment as possible from a small pile of cash.

Which would matter even more, she thought, if we become one household.

And in The Talk, she thought further, we'd decide how much really cheap entertainment we'd look for beyond the household.

He asked her to pick a cuisine as they walked through the darkening late afternoon, into the hipster district. She chose South Asian, as exotic as one could find in this town. Linda hugged his arm and leaned against him as they walked, enjoying his solidity, musing on how it would feel later. Getting more in the mood than she'd expected.

The dinner conversation was light and impersonal. Each made the other laugh a few times. Toby clamped down his tendency to try too hard to impress her. This was a crowded, well-regarded restaurant. Surely there'd be at least one better-looking guy who'd swoop down and take her away. Yet here she was with him, in about their fourth go-round of dating, and she didn't seem inclined to be taken by a swooper.

They went to his apartment, which he had spent hours cleaning. Once their coats were open she burrowed in for a closer hug. This kiss was excessive, with her craning her neck to meet his lips with hers, and then getting their tongues involved. In a few seconds she had to break and gasp.

They moved to the sofa and began making out, more gradually. Linda enjoyed the slow kissing, the fondling while clothed. It was nice, it didn't have to be anything else right away. She felt calm and safe.

He had just turned 30, she was 28. They knew each other well. Did either of them think, after all this time, they could do better with someone else?

He's companionship-better, anyway, she thought. Maybe even start-a-family-better. As for wild-passion-better...

Toby stirred a little, and tugged at the waistband of his jeans. He was a grower, and the briefs that were comfortable 90 percent of the time were becoming an issue. He got enough cock space for the moment, then pulled her into his lap. Maybe being with her and worrying, he thought, is better than not being with her. Maybe.

She sighed, sliding her torso along his, and ran fingers through his hair while she kissed his forehead. He spread his fingers to hold and knead her compact but nicely rounded buttocks.

She thought, Wild-passion-pretty-good, at least. The makeout was no longer enough for her.

Without looking, she undid his belt, snap, and zipper. He lifted his trunk from the couch. She put her weight on her knees to either side of him and, without looking, hauled down his jeans and briefs, and got a hand around his prick.

Then there was some reconfiguring, as he pulled up her sweater and she unbuttoned her jeans and he got out of his flannel shirt. Then they were on the rug as they got rid of shoes, so as to bare their legs, and he got her on her side and hugged her while unhooking her bra. Skin-on-skin was good for about thirty seconds, then she clambered up and said "Gotta freshen up," and headed for the bathroom, still in sheer black undies.

He took advantage of being the sole resident of this apartment by washing down his crotch in the kitchen sink. She was willing to pleasure him orally if he wasn't repulsive.

They met in the bedroom, lit slightly by a lamp in the living room. Linda had a healthy, gym-toned body, but among the thousands of corn-fed rural women in or near the city, she counted as skinny. Her breasts were widely separated, and were somewhere between A and B cup, and she didn't want them looked at. Toby liked them just fine, they were high and pert, and he treated them with care and respect. Once he even got her tiny nipples close to orgasm, adding to the intensity of her overall climax. He fondled and nuzzled her nipples now as they clung side-by-side on his narrow bed. She put a leg over his hip and set her vulva against him. The press of warm wetness made his prick flex.

They could sixty-nine on this bed if he lay on his back and she straddled, both faces to crotches. She stroked the shaft while licking the underside, down to the balls, trying to tongue thick hair out of the way. He was already at full width and almost at full length. As ardent as Linda was, especially with his tongue and fingers making her clit and folds swell, she knew that they would have to take the usual steps to bring her pleasure, and as little pain as possible.

But I want him to fuck me and be happy and make me happy, she thought, and the consciousness stream continued, and yes I want to do this all the time and be in the same home with him so we can just grab and fuck whenever we want and fuck and fuck some more. Even a painless fuck by Toby left her needing a day to recover, but she clung to the dream.

"Might cum," she gasped, then got the head of his cock in her mouth, and a couple more inches. Straining her jaw, she tongued his wang helically and sloppy-drooled all over it, saliva trickling past her lips. She kept trying to make him bigger, but save him for her pussy. She squeezed his balls, sliding the pinky down to the brink of his anus. He moaned, but didn't cum.

His pushed a finger into her vagina and curled to seek her G spot, while he tongued her clit rapidly. She loves this and I want it to be good for her, he thought, but does it always have to go on this long? She was making his putz feel so very good and he wanted it to go where it would feel even better. Waiting even a few seconds was almost agony.

Her thighs spasmed. Shivers traveled her abdomen. She yelled hoarsely, head jerking away from his prick. She mashed her vulva into his face six, maybe eight times, thrills almost making her faint. Finally she pulled away, their commingled fluids sluicing into his beard.

She moved around to lie alongside him, kissing his face and again stroking his prick. They laughed together while her breath calmed.

"Lube," she said. She felt, more than saw, him reach back and open the drawer of the nightstand.

Linda arranged herself by the foot of the bed, on her left side, with her legs drawn up. Toby spread lube thickly all over his prick, and inches into her vagina. "If we're going to have The Talk," she said, "I want a clear notion of what we're talking about." As he crouched on the floor past the end of the bed, she reached to stroke his erection. "I want all of you. No matter what happens."

But she knew this would work, and so did he. It was during their third stretch of dating, last year, that they had found this ideal way for them to copulate. Side entry, ninety degrees from both missionary and doggystyle, matched the oval cross-section of his penis with that of her vagina. It was still a tight fit, and a sudden jerky move could give her pain, but most of the time this allowed them to fuck each other to orgasm.

It was during the current round of dating that they agreed to stop trying to fuck any other way. Their points of contact were few this way, but it worked, and didn't hurt her. She's still her, Toby thought for maybe the tenth time, and this is still her pussy, and I'm the one fucking it, and she can cum from what I do.

He was halfway in when she clenched. No pain, just a reflex. As she tried to calm the affected muscles, she said, "It's okay, just lift my leg a little more." Gently he raised her right thigh.

Then he eased all the way in, and her mouth opened wide. Slowly he pulled back. Then he advanced again. After two or three more cycles, she felt glorious heat, and said, "Go Baby!"

Neither of them timed it, but they fucked for nine minutes in ever-rising pleasure. He came first, his body jerking and twitching. After a halt of a few seconds, he resumed pumping. With his prick less rigid, but still thick, she was able to grind a little more around it, and she came with a long whoop.

His eyes searched through the dimness, getting a limited view of her beautiful face in ecstasy, the wobbling of her breasts.

When she was able to speak, Linda said, "Hold still."

Slowly she rotated around his pliable cock, until she was flat on her back. She spread her legs and reached out to him. "Kiss me."

He did, staying inside her. They held each other in postcoital bliss.

"I'll definitely remember this when we have The Talk," he said, chuckling.

Which was after each took a solo trip to the bathroom. Neither was especially fond of showering together in a small bathtub.

They met again on the couch, fully dressed.

"This was your idea," Linda said, angled towards him, a few inches away. "So you start."

Toby nodded. He thought he was well prepared, but still stammered a little. "If we get married, will you want to have sex with, with others?"

She put a hand on his, which rested on his thigh. "I think we both should. We'll be happier that way. At first. Before we have kids."

"And you want kids."

Her mouth tightened. "I think so. If we can make it work." He handled leases for farm equipment, she was a junior realtor. Both of their commission-dependent careers had seen lean times.

"We'll have to wait on that, I guess," he said.

"For a while," she said. "But a woman only has so much time."

He was quiet for a moment. Then: "At first I hated it, when you dated other guys. Partly because of the breakup. It was less intense later, and then you and I got together again. Then, after we drifted apart, I kinda shrugged it off when you went with somebody else. So maybe I'm over it. But if you're my wife, I might hate it again."

She knew that in her mind there were twists and knots that could turn into anger. Toby and Linda had a history, and some of it wasn't pleasant. "Haven't we learned about each other?" she said, trying to stay above it. "Haven't we accepted the reality of our bodies, and stopped accusing each other of not trying hard enough?"

He had to smile. That was a spectacular fuck, he thought. That was a wedding night that could lead into a lifelong honeymoon. Even if we can never have 'normal' sex together.

"Let me put it this way," she said, impatient, even with his expression having conceded her point. "I have a pinhole pussy, and what you have between your legs belongs on an elephant. We were terrific just now, but that might not always work out. I think we can be in love, and be lovers, but still give our bodies a break now and then."

"Maybe," he said. "I might be able to give it a try, if I knew we'd always come back to each other."

She slumped back on the couch, exasperated. "We've already done that."

He asked, "Can I be real?"

"If you must."

"Every guy we know wants you. And some of them don't have the reality-of-the-bodies problem, do they?"

"No they don't," she said quietly.

"So you're asking me to let you sleep with guys who look better than I do, and have wangs small enough for you to ride all night, singing hallelujah."

"I guess I am." She closed her eyes, trying to keep them from leaking.

"And you also expect me to believe," he pressed, "that you doing this won't make you decide to stop being my wife."

She looked at him. He was surprised to see anguish. "I waited for you," she said. "Somehow those all-night rides weren't enough. I broke up with Ed without having anyone else to go to. You and Dana were still together, but we all knew there were problems. I stayed far, far away, from you and other guys. It was two weeks after you split that I got close enough to say hello. And then I had to wait and worry. Maybe it couldn't happen again."

Anger replaced anguish. "You're worried about my looks? You could walk into any bar where you're a known quantity and get at least three women ready to sing hallelujah, while I'd hope I could get by on blowing you. Hell, I'd better have looks. If that's what got you back, I'm not apologizing."

In the silence, he felt his heart beating faster.

"That was real," he said with a stammer.

"And no, I won't be happy, exactly, when my husband goes out to dip his wick where it'll fit, but it might get him what he needs. Or are you going to claim that you have no interest at all in banging some big-tunnel babe face-to-face, hugging her whole body, motorboating her double-D tits, and being free from worry about hurting her?"

His impulse was to declare no such interest, that he'd be totally happy with her and her body and what they could do together. But he, too, recalled what had happened between them because of lies. And the thought of another breakup from her filled him with terror.

Toby forced himself to look Linda in the eyes as he said, "I won't claim that. You have me dead to rights."

"I'll take the chance that you'll come back to me." She had calmed enough to show a small smile. "That's what we've done for years. Come back to each other."

A little more silence, with a little more smiling. Then hugging, with happy tears from both of them. They weren't normally inclined to say 'I love you,' but they did that now, and realized that they meant it. Each gained faith that the loyalty of their hearts and minds could persist through a few excursions elsewhere by their bodies.

In time, The Talk gave way to The Deal.

"No hanky-panky at all for the first three months," he offered.

"Three months for me, two for you," she countered. With a theatrical sigh, "I can't deprive the ladies of your pleasure device."

"Thanks, I guess. And how about, in the first year, each asks permission and the other can refuse?"

"More than that," she said, "you have to ask permission, and say who it is."

"I have to?"

"Both of us," she said, flustered by his language precision. "You know what I meant."

Then there was some laughter, as she accused him of reading contracts too carefully and he accused her of not reading them carefully enough.

He asked, "Do we let people assume we're cheating?"

"No," she said. "Maybe bring the spouse into the discussion, to show the shiny new hall pass?"

"Maybe," he said. "We might need to work that out in more detail."

"By all means, let's talk debauchery to death." Before he could say anything she added, "Yes, you're right, but later, okay? We've got some time."

"After the first year," he said, "if we haven't already split up, we give advance notice, but don't need permission?"

"That sounds reasonable," she said. "We probably shouldn't put these in the vows. That could make for a weird wedding."

He grinned, feeling fully at ease with her, for the first time ever. "May I kiss the future adulteress?"

Beaming, she moved in and clamped lips on his. Then she jerked up, lips parting from his with a pop. "Forgot! No fluid exchanges with our outsiders. Condoms, and nothing in the mouth. No love children or STIs. Right?"

"Oh yeah, definitely. And fidelity if we decide to have kids?"

She kissed his nose. "We can blow up that bridge while we cross it."

"Can I request one thing, just for the two of us?" he asked.

Linda was a little worried by his tone, which hinted at a whine. "What?"

"Can I make love to my wife with the lights on, and enjoy those looks you won't apologize for?"

She was surprised by her resistance to this. She told herself, Get over it already!

"Yes," she said. "I will show my cutesy face and pathetic body to my husband, in full lighting, any time he wants to look at them, when we're alone together privately." Then, in a sudden rush of joy and freedom, she yanked off her sweater and bra in a single grab, and leaned back to receive all of the room's light. Undulating on his lap, she said, "Can I get away with a strip and a handjob on my pussy recovery days?"

He stared at her in wonder. He was able to say, "Your husband will be very happy with that."

She leaned in to hug him, and murmured in his ear. "And when I sing hallelujah with someone else, it'll be in the dark."

Toby almost choked up. "Um, should I, uh, hold back anything, if I, um—"

"Hell no," said Linda. "Fuck 'em 'til they can't walk. Maybe they'll learn to be careful what they wish for."

The first strip-and-handjob happened five minutes later, on the living room rug. She enjoyed it almost as much as he did. Being mock-slutty with the man she loved was kinda fun.

Flat on his back, semen drying on his belly, Toby croaked, "Tomorrow I'll go shopping for something sparkly in a little box."

"First, shop for a bigger bed," said Linda, rubbing her breasts on his beard. "At least a queen size. We should have something where we fit together."