“I’m glad you texted early. I don’t have any clients until ten.” Whitney did nails at a salon down the street.
“Well, that’s good. We might need the whole three house.”
Elysia appeared a minute later in a flutter, with coffees and two avocado toasts.
“Oh, thanks,” said Whitney, pulling a coffee cup and a slice of toast toward her.
“Welcome. Okay, what’s going on?”
She took a deep breath. She’d known these girls since middle school. Known them since before her first kiss with Will. She didn’t know if that made this easier or harder.
“Will… Um. He…” She took a bite of her cake and couldn’t even enjoy the rich cream cheese frosting. For God’s sake, the man had broken her. She put her fork down and pushed the plate away. “He asked for an open marriage.”
Elysia and Whitney just stared. Then looked at each other. Then back at Sam. “He…” Elysia said at the same time Whitney said, “What…”
“Will,” Whitney said. “Willasked you for an open marriage. Straight-arrow, khaki-pants, never-drinks-more-than-one-glass-of-wine Will?”
That almost made Sam laugh, but only almost, because actually, it brought up a very good point. All the ways in which Will lived his life—cautiously and expectedly—had always seemed like his own impulses, and certainly not something to be pushed off onto her or the institution of marriage.
He was a reasonable man. Down to his socks, which always matched.
That made her feel a little more validated in her reaction. He’d never done anything to suggest he wanted something like this. She’d had no reason to suspect he wasn’t as content with things as she was.
“Yeah, the very one,” she said. “I… I don’t know what to do.” She could feel tears threatening again, tears she didn’t want to cry here, or ever, actually, because tears felt helpless, and what she hated most about this was feeling helpless.
“I don’t know what tosay,” said Whitney. “He just doesn’t even remotely seem like the type.”
“Oh,” Sam said, laughing now instead of crying. “I know. You can imagine my shock when he said this to me while we were out on a date.”
“This happenedlast night?” Elysia asked.
“Yes.”
“What did he say he wants, exactly?”
She felt exasperated because she couldn’t say she really understood what he wanted, even after the discussion last night. “To have sex with other women. I mean, he said it was more than that, but that’s…you know that is the real sticking point for me. We’ve never… He’s the only man I’ve been with. I’m the only woman he’s been with. It’s… I can’t even process it.”
Her friends were quiet for a moment. “What do you want?” Whitney asked slowly.
“Uh…to not have to think about this? To have not ever heard my husband say that? To go back to my wildly happy, perfect life? Because that’s what I had. That’s what I’ve always had. You know that. He and I…we’reus. You know what I mean. It’s been us since we were sixteen. We’re the forever ones.” She shook her head. “I just can’t… I can’t believe him. I can’t…” Hysteria suddenly had her in its grip. Panic was making her heart beat faster, making her breath short. “I was this man’s first kiss. His only. He’s jeopardizing our life,us, because he wants to have sex with other people.”
“I mean…at least he told you, assuming he hasn’t already done it.” Elysia’s words were soft, firm, and felt a little unfair.
Though it was Elysia’s husband’s affair that had driven home some very deep truths about her own possessiveness.
You have to leave him, she’d told Elysia then.How can you stand knowing he touched someone else?
“Hesayshe hasn’t. But I don’t know how that makes it better. He’s turned it into some kind of thing where he expects me to, like, sign a permission slip, and if I don’t do it, I’m holding him back, and if I do…”
“No, it is better,” said Elysia, looking at her directly now. “I’m not saying it’s easy or nice to hear. I just know what it’s like when your husband does something behind your back and makes you feel like a fool. I know what it feels like to have him already make those decisions about your relationship without bothering to tell you.”
Sam closed her eyes. The thing was, she did feel like a fool.
Will’sI’m not happywas haunting her.
She felt like a fool forhappilyliving herhappylife while her husband was decidedlyunhappyin it.
“But I have to do something.Decidesomething. I love him. I want to be with him.”
