“Wait, how many times did you go?” Cassie asked, turning to Allison.
“Girl-gasms are different,” Allison said, “They’re like, worth less.”
“Not to the girl that’s having them,” Cassie said. She kissed Mike on the cheek.
“Paul got me off four times,” Allison said, proudly.
I gave her a surprised look. I didn’t think there were that many. But then, I hadn’t been keeping score like my paramour, apparently.
“First was when he licked me,” Allison said. Like her husband, she obviously felt like details were important. And she had no problem ticking them all off right there in front of everyone. I pinballed between pride and embarrassment. “The second was the nipple one. Then the time on top — that was the biggie. Blew my head clear off.”
All three girls nodded, like they all knew exactly what she was talking about.
“When he went the last time,” Allison said, smiling my way. “It pushed me over the top.”
“Holy crap, calm down,” Cassie said, holding up the palm of her hand in a clear stop signal. “I didn’t realize I’d turned on the director’s commentary.”
I noticed Emily, too, was now grinning behind her coffee tumbler. Apparently, I’d done my wife proud.
“You asked, I answered,” Allison said, “Anyway, how many did you have, Ms. Suddenly Prudish?”
“Two,” Cassie said, leaning back, proudly. Allison gave her a disdainful look. “They were both huge. Massive, really. Like, they should count for double or something.”
Something about Cassie’s claim seemed off for some reason. Though I can’t say why. Her insistence on repeating it only made me wonder about it more.
“Sure, whatever. I won,” Allison said, “We won. We. I meant we. Seriously.”
I looked over at Mike, expecting him to be, I don’t know, upset or something. His wife’s treatment of his orgasm total seemed kind of cruel to me. And worse, at the same time, Allison was bragging about how I, the man who was not her husband, had performed with her. It seemed like a recipe for bad feelings.
But the skinny, blond man sat back, looking bemused. Like this was a skit his wife was putting on or something. I guess the exchange rate on Cassie-cums was more than enough to keep him happy.
“Just admit it, I win,” Allison said.
“Hang on,” Cassie said, raising a finger, “We haven’t heard from everyone yet.”
Emily shrank into her chair.
“Please,” Allison said, “We all know Jack went only the one time.”
“Yes, but it was like, a really big one,” Emily said. She looked horrified to be speaking, but she said it all the same.
“Well aware,” Cassie said, “Don’t care. How many times did you go?”
“I went enough,” Emily said. She sipped her coffee and wouldn’t meet our eyes. Like the architecture of our hotel had become extremely interesting.
Cassie gave Allison a knowing look. “Enough sounds like a lot.”
“Tell us how many,” Allison said, “Come on math nerd, we know you can add them up.”
“Yes, what was your total, Em?” Cassie asked
“It’s no big deal to tell us,” Mike said, as engaged as he’d been all morning. “We all said ours already.”
“I had a few,” Emily said, “A good number.” She was squirming in her seat now, sweating under the spotlight. If I ever needed my wife to testify on my behalf, I was going to be on the bus to prison before she finished her statement.
“A few what?” Cassie said, “A few hundred? A few thousand?”
“Seriously,” Allison said, “Stop with this. How many?”
My wife looked down at the table. Her face flushed. She took a deep breath, like she was about to confess something awful.
“I lost count.” She said it so quietly, I almost couldn’t hear her.
The table erupted with a roar.
“We have a winner!” Cassie cried out, raising Emily’s hand in the air. For her part, my wife looked absolutely mortified over the attention. But I saw a little smile start to find its way across her face.
I looked over at Allison, but she was grinning too.
“We’ll get her,” she said, the fire roiling in her deep brown eyes. “Next time. Don’t you worry. We’ve got this.”
I guess the girl really liked a challenge.
*
After a day of being able to take the monorail to EPCOT, riding the bus to Animal Kingdom felt like a significant downgrade. Still, we swallowed our pride (not like we had much choice) and climbed aboard.
Being short of our sixth member limited our ability to couple up, so the five of us spread out where we could on the overly air-conditioned bus. I ended up next to Mike on one side with the three girls sitting across from us. Both groups shot each other naughty smiles and wicked, lascivious grins as we rumbled down the road.
On the surface, all this flirty fun seemed the same as what we’d been doing the entire trip. But it wasn’t. Up till that point there had been boundaries, places we weren’t willing to go. Risks we were afraid to take. All those limits were long gone, and it changed the tenor of everything we did together. It felt freeing to be so open with our affections. Also frightening.
Despite our messy morning, we managed to get to Animal Kingdom right when it was opening. We walked under the animal-themed gates and straight into a heavy forest. We paused to stare at an anteater, but Allison, in her role as Disney Director, urged us onward.
The forest fell away, opening up to a concrete clearing with a massive baobab tree in the center. On either side were the usual gift shops. A river of people streamed past us.
As we walked closer to the tree, I saw that it was covered in intricate carvings of animals, both familiar and foreign. We turned to the right — past an outdoor barbecue restaurant — and went over a chunky, stone bridge crossing a wide, green river.
On the other side, we entered what was made to look like a south Asian village. There were brightly colored signs, and buildings with tile walls. An abandoned bicycle leaned against a broken-down bus. The tall, bluish mountaintop of the Everest ride loomed in the distance.
We passed several buildings made to look like abandoned temples — tall, tan spires — with little monkeys running around on them. I knew better than to try to stop and look, however. Allison was in full martinet mode, leading us determinedly to the rides. Stopping was for suckers. We all shared a knowing look when Allison preemptively snapped at us that the monkeys would be there later in the day.
It seemed that most of the crowd had gone in the opposite direction, because the walkway was fairly empty. Since the park had only recently opened, most of the shops and food stalls were deserted. It was near-quiet and kind of peaceful.
“I hope everything is OK with Jack,” Emily said, out of nowhere.
The way she said it was meant to sound like a casual thought, but I could tell she’d been ruminating on it for a while. I should have been used to it by now, my wife obsessing over the older man, but it caught me off kilter sometimes.
“Jack’s fine,” Cassie said, waving her hand dismissively.
“I feel bad about this morning,” Emily said, “Like we’re, I dunno, messing up his family or something.”
“Please, that was broken a long time before any of us showed up,” Cassie said, “These are Jack’s choices, not yours.”
“You can tell it’s been going on for a while,” Allison said, unable to hide her disdain.
“Oh, Jack was never like this with Denise,” Cassie said, “Sorry, that’s his ex. He was loyal to her the whole time. That’s what he says anyways. All the other stuff — the, um, openness — came after.”