Emily’s eyes raced to the ground. “Yeah, you know. Disney.” She waved her hand dismissively.
The fireworks show started and we all turned towards the castle to watch. By now, explosive spectaculars seemed almost banal. The soaring music and bright colors were amazing, of course, but they couldn’t live up to the other events we got up to in the evenings.
When it was over, the pounding of everything we’d done that night finally caught up with me. My knees ached something awful and I was sure I had multiple blisters on both my feet. I looked at my watch and saw it was after 10:30. What had seemed like an incredible amount of time at the start of the party had burned away in a blink.
“We should do Dwarven Mine Train,” Cassie said, “It’s the only ride I wanted to do that I didn’t get a chance to go on.”
Allison immediately agreed. “There should be almost no wait now,” she said.
The six of us hurried around the side of the castle and over to Fantasyland. The park was near-empty — people were either gathering by the castle for the next appearance of the parade or heading for home. But there was a small line trailing out of our ride.
Because we’d raced over, any semblance of our pairings had been broken apart. I ended up standing next to Mike of all people, with Jack, Emily, Allison, and Cassie all grouped up a few yards in front of us.
The taller man put his hand on my shoulder, convivially. “Emily’s so much fun,” he said.
I did my best to hold back my grumble. I had no doubt of the kind of ‘fun’ Mike had been having with my wife.
“I mean, I don’t know. She seemed so quiet back home,” Mike continued, “She’s funny, though. And I love that she’s into stuff like Star Wars, Zelda…”
“Catan,” I offered.
“Wait, really?” Mike said, “Fuck, she didn’t even mention that. I’m used to Allison, all women honestly, looking down on the things I like because it’s too geeky or whatever. I guess I’m just saying. I don’t know what I’m saying. I’m not doing a very good job of this, am I? I just thought you’d want to know.”
I shrugged. I wasn’t sure how to respond. I knew that Mike was trying to compliment my wife, but with everything I’d seen and heard that evening, all that we’d been up to the last few days, his amiable nature bounced off my chest and puddled on the pavement below. So, I didn’t say anything at all. Silence isn’t my best trick, but as I’m sure you’ve figured out by now, it works quite well most of the time.
“Anyway, I’m hoping when we get back to PA, when all of this is over, we’ll be able to all hang out more,” Mike said, “Maybe a boardgame day or something.”
I agreed, but something about it felt disingenuous. Were we all really going to be able to sit around and roll dice after all this? I couldn’t imagine it without also picturing our wives naked and bent over the table. Although maybe that wasn’t such a bad thing, either.
We got to the front of the ride and organized back into our assigned pairs. I sat with Cassie and the other two couples climbed on right behind us. Our train took off, rolling and rumbling over the hills. We entered the mine, itself, saw the Dwarves, then came back around to the end.
With that last ride done, we started heading for the exit. The party had another half hour to go, but we were all clearly finished. The six of us limped down Main Street, barely noticing the world around us. The sign above the exit said, ‘see you real soon!’ and I legitimately couldn’t tell if that was a promise or a threat.
There was quite a crowd lined up for the boat back to our resort, so we turned up the ramp to the monorail. The wait there wasn’t terrible — the party and the late hour had gradually weeded out most guests. Still, we were crushed in with two other families in our car. I stood off to the side, holding on to one of the silver poles.
As the monorail whooshed off, I stared out the window at the night sky and wondered what was next. I knew, despite the fact that we were all tired, that going right to sleep was unlikely. I imagined Cassie would come up with some new game for all of us to play. Maybe strip shuffleboard or whatever. And slowly we’d end up, once again, surrendering to our worst/best impulses.
I glanced across the car at Allison. The athletic blonde was also staring off into space. I’ll admit, while my evening with Cassie had been fun, I was looking forward to being with my usual partner once again. Notice it didn’t even occur to me that I might spend the evening with my actual wife.
The train curved around the lake till we got to the Polynesian. Once we were in the lobby, I assumed someone would propose we head to one of our respective rooms. A suggestive tilt of the head or a little flirty back and forth
Instead, we simply walked out of the building without any discussion. Emily was in the crook of Mike’s arm. Jack and Allison casually held hands. Cassie twined my fingers with hers.
When we got past the pool area, we all turned towards the bungalow. Like we’d agreed to it without actually talking. It felt inevitable, in a way. The magnetic pull of all our uninhibited evenings.
At the front door of the cabin, Jack waved his wrist to let us inside. The six of us dutifully marched into the hall. As I’d imagined on the ride over, now was when Cassie was going to come up with some new sexy shenanigans to get us started.
Here we go, I thought.
Emily led Mike over to the couch. She sat, pulling his face down to hers. He leaned forward, practically bent in half, and they kissed.
Jack pinched Allison’s rear. The athletic woman gasped, then sprinted off. Jack chased her into the living room. Allison fell back onto the floor and the older man went with her, pressing his lips to hers.
Cassie turned to me in the hallway. She gave me a little shimmy. Again, I was struck by how good she looked in that princess dress. Like a dirty fantasy brought to life.
“Hi,” she said, smiling shyly. She tucked her blonde hair behind her ear.
“Hello?” I said, confused. The beautiful blonde pushed me back against the wall, kissing me hard. I found my hand running through her golden hair, while her own digits rested possessively on my chest.
OK, well, we’d fallen into making out pretty easily. But I thought for sure it was going to take some encouragement for us to go any further. Despite my expectation, though, we didn’t need it. I realized, the days of needing a push, of tricking ourselves into doing things, were gone. We simply were this now; it was comforting and frightening all at once.
Mike reached for the hem of Emily’s long white dress — all the way down at her ankles — and started lifting upwards. Just like that, my petite wife was wearing only her little, lacy white bra and panties. Emily responded by pulling at Mike’s outfit, like she was desperate to see more.