Rudy sat in the booth, feeling the warmth of Sylvia´s thigh and shoulder next to him. He looked down. She wore a dress that laced up the front, but now gaped enough to show the firm slopes of her breasts. When he tore his eyes away, they noticed Dana´s t-shirt, her nipples punching forth. Jennie sat nearby, her man´s shirt frankly unbuttoned most of the way down, showing nothing. Rudy felt Melanie´s hand on his thigh and looked into her eyes.
She smiled. “Isn´t it great?’ she said. “We all look so great, and we all love each other.’
“Well, it sure is, and I hope it lasts. Can´t tell, though.’
Sylvia´s hand landed on Rudy´s other thigh and moved to touch Melanie´s. She leaned forward. “About last weekend. I still don´t know what to think about it.’ She pulled Rudy´s hand onto her inner thigh and reached back to his.
Melanie looked at her. “Well, then, what do you feel about it?’
Sylvia smiled. “I feel great. I had a great time and so did Phil. And it doesn´t seem to have had any effect on how we feel about each other. We´ve talked about it since then, and we both admit we really enjoyed all that uninhibited sex. I´m kind of surprised, but it didn´t really change how we feel about each other. I guess I just haven´t figured out what it means.’ She looked across the table at Ned. “And don´t tell me it doesn´t need to mean anything.’
“Did I say a word?’ Ned replied.
“No, but … I guess I need to get some perspective. I mean, there we were, us girls, at Cherry Creek and we go to your house, and you´re all bare-ass, and then we´re all bare-ass, and I think I screwed every guy in the place except the guy I go with. I´ve been trying to figure that out ever since.’
“What does Phil say?’ Dana asked quietly.
“He´s fine with it. And I´m not exactly bent out of shape, here, either. I guess I just haven´t folded it into the ‘greater scheme of things´.’
“Toni and I talked about it later,’ Ned said. “She says we´re just beginning to face up to what we´ve got here.’
“What have we got here?’ Dana asked.
Melanie spoke up. “Look, guys. None of us were virgins when we started this Wednesday club. We were just going ahead with what they call ‘serial monogamy´. One partner at a time. How many of you had ever had group sex before?’
“I´ve been thinking about that, too,’ Sylvia said. “I think most of us have had times when we had more than one lover at the same time. We just didn´t often have them all in the same room – back yard, I mean. And, I´ve gotta say, it´s a real turn-on. I never would have guessed.’
“Usually, it was because we didn´t want the other lovers to know.’ Dana said, “or because we thought there was something wrong with being seen to enjoy what we all enjoy. Admitting it. Enjoying it. I mean, I love watching Ed and Jenny make love. And I loved watching us all enjoying ourselves this weekend. It made me feel good.’
“You can say that again,’ Rudy said, grinning.
“Well, Rudy,’ Ned put in, “we all felt sexually satisfied. But do you feel good about it?’
“Actually, Ned, yes. See, I have this feeling about this bunch. Both of us have for some time, haven´t we?’ He looked at Melanie, who looked quizzical.
“I mean, we´re a family. We´ve talked about that, haven´t we?’ he said to Melanie, who nodded assent. “Somehow we´ve all become closer than just a gang of people who meet in a tavern for beer and hamburgers. We´ve all touched each other´s lives.’
Ned nodded. “That´s true. It seems to have made a difference. On the other hand, we are all super horny people it seems, or perhaps we are just all attracted to each other. That´s part of it.’
Sylvia said, “Anyone can be attracted to more than one person. What keeps people from screwing everyone they meet is culture and personalities and relationships and role-playing. I´m not quite sure what´s happened with us – what´s allowed us to set so much of that aside.’
Rudy replied, “Well, my theory is that all of us have done something to help someone else, to pull each of us a little closer. That´s what´s built this feeling of togetherness that´s just gone on into the sexual side of our lives.’
“Most people are good people, worthy of loving,’ Dana said. “It takes a lot to bring them together to the point where they care about each other that much. But, I think that, once that happens, the rest can come naturally. Respect, love, sex, they all flow together.’
“Does it mean anything that this weekend we did something we´ve never done before?’ Melanie asked.
Ned said, “I don´t think so. It was the first time we were all in the mood at the same time and place. I´m not sure when that´ll happen again. We sure can´t schedule it, or I think it´ll break.’ There were noises of agreement. “But, I´ll tell you one thing I´m sure of.’
Sylvia said it, “Okay, what?’
“It won´t be the last time. And I´m also pretty sure we´re all going to be getting even closer than we are now.’
“I´m ready for that,’ she answered.