Allison must have sensed my stare because she came over to us. She was pulling on her tank top, the finishing touch in getting fully dressed.
“You two, OK?” Allison asked, looking at both of us warmly.
With my own burgeoning relationship with Allison, and Emily off with Jack, it was easy to forget that it was actually the two women who were best friends. I wouldn’t even know Allison, be on this vacation, if it wasn’t for the fact that her and my wife got along so well.
I imagined it must be hard for Allison, torn between supporting her friend and sexing up her new lover. Especially when you considered that her own husband was off chasing a third person, as well. But then, you could setup that scenario for all of us in some form, right? Everything was inherently awkward if you provided the correct context. Yet I couldn’t help but wonder who Allison was really worried about.
“We’re fine,” Emily answered for both of us, “Though still a little, um, worked up. From before.”
“I know what you mean,” Allison said, smiling wryly. “I thought that game was supposed to help take the edge off, not take it to a whole new level.”
“What’s wrong with my game?” Cassie asked, stepping out of the bedroom. She was wearing a little jade-colored dress that hung to about her knees and bared her shoulders and her back. A wide grin split her face. Man, that woman was never not cheerful. In the few days I’d known her, I’d went from intrigued by her bubbly mood, to being annoyed by it, to being kind of amazed.
“Your game was great,” Allison said, “Except maybe the ending.”
“What do you mean?” Cassie said. She tilted her head. “I think it’s good that we stopped before things went too far.”
“No, definitely,” Emily said, “I think we’re all feeling a little antsy, though.”
“On edge,” Allison said.
“Fucking horny,” Mike yelled from over by the kitchen. “I can’t even put my shorts on I’m so damned… Anyway.”
Cassie nodded, knowingly. She called back to him “With that extra-long dick of yours, I can imagine that being a problem.” It was weird to hear her talk so casually about penises in public. But even weirder was, I was starting to be accustomed to it. Like a lot of the crazy crap we’d gotten up to already. “But a little edge isn’t so bad. It will give us something to look forward to for later tonight.”
“The fireworks after the fireworks,” Allison said, raising her eyebrows alluringly.
“My kind of show,” Mike said, now fully dressed, and walking over and standing next to his wife.
“But keeping some limits in place,” Allison said, looking pointedly my way.
“For sure,” Cassie said, “You’d be surprised, but knowing where the boundaries are actually makes it all hotter. We don’t have to worry about upsetting anyone so you can really let loose.”
Jack came out of the bedroom, back in his standard Hawaiian shirt and jeans. He walked up and put his arm around Cassie, kissing her cheek. Emily had been holding my hand, and I felt her nails dig into my palms. I glanced over at her, and she gave me a smile. But it didn’t go up to her eyes.
“Does anyone want a snack before we go?” Cassie asked, as we headed towards the hallway.
“No, I want to save room for more EPCOT food,” Mike said.
“Ooh, I am in love with all the self-control in this room,” Cassie said, clapping her hands lightly. “It bodes well for later.” She turned around and gave us an over-the-top wink, like we didn’t already get what she was getting at.
We stumbled out of the bungalow, no doubt looking like we’d done the very thing we’d stopped ourselves from. All of us were dressed, but our clothes were all wrinkled and askew. Even Jack’s hair looked slightly mussed. Man, I thought, if Mickey ever finds out about any of this, he’s going to dump our bodies in the Okeechobee.
We started making our way back to the monorail, hiking up the now-familiar paths. As we went, we naturally split into little couplings. Unlike usual, or even our usual unusual, we found ourselves in a totally new set of pairs.
Cassie grabbed Emily’s arm and started talking to her, animatedly, about something I couldn’t catch. Meanwhile Jack asked Allison about her job. Apparently, his daughter also wanted to get into pharmaceutical sales. To be honest, with everything going on, I’d forgotten all about Jack’s family. I wondered what his kids were up to. It was another unusual thing amongst all the other oddities we’d encountered.
With everyone else matched, that left me to walk with Mike. The tall, blond man gave me a serious look and squeezed my shoulder, warmly.
“Hey, we’re OK, right?” he asked.
I tilted my head up at him, confused.
“With everything that’s happening, I just want to make sure we’re cool,” he continued, “This is fun and all but not if it messes up our friendship.”
I was taken aback. With how Mike had pursued Cassie this whole time, I couldn’t imagine he was worried about something so trivial as my feelings. To be honest, I wasn’t even sure Mike and I had a friendship in the first place. It had always been more of an ‘our wives are friends’ man-date thing. But here he was, checking in on me. It was sweet, and it made me see Mike in a different light.
“Like, what’s happening with you and Allie?” Mike said, “I want you to know, I’m good with it. Not good with it. But you know. I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable about what’s happening. It’s fine. And Emily? Your wife is awesome. I mean, not in a… Look, I’m not trying to…”
“It’s OK,” I said, “Allison is also awesome.”
“I know, right?” Mike said with a leer. But then he turned serious. “Look, I know you’re not much of a ‘words’ guy and I respect that. But it makes you hard to read. I feel like stuff kind of got out of hand back there and I don’t want hard feelings. If you’re upset, I hope you’d tell me. I’d stop it in a second, I swear I would.”
I believed him. Maybe we weren’t friends before this trip, but I could see the way forward now. Who knew that fondling each other’s wives was the way to find a real connection.
“No hard feelings,” I said.
“OK, good,” Mike said, “Really good.” He slapped my shoulder again. I almost didn’t mind it.