Kinky Confessions

“You’ll need your commercial license first. And more ground school.

Pass a couple of FAA tests and you’re an instructor.”

“Sounds good,” I said. “Get started on the multi-engine first? Then go over what I need for the rest?” He nodded and still didn’t move, so I gestured impatiently.

“What, you mean now?”

“Is that chair gonna fly away without you?”

His cronies hooted. Earl glared, but they were immune, so he stood and hitched up his pants.

“All right, hotshot, let’s go.”

A few days later I returned home to find Christy at the kitchen table with her arms folded and her head down. She heard me come in but didn’t look up.

“You okay?” I said as I opened the fridge for a drink.

“No,” she grumped.

I closed the fridge, grabbed two apples instead, and took down the peanut butter. I quietly fixed a snack while she sulked in silence. Then I set the plate next to her, slid into a chair, and peeked under her curtain of hair.

“Leave me alone.”

“Sorry, no can do. Now c’mere.” I waited her out and then snapped my fingers. She sat up with a jerk. I moved her onto my lap, where she curled up with her head on my chest. “Eat first,” I said gently, “then talk.”

She shook her head.

“Eat.” I held up an apple.

She obediently took a bite and chewed quietly. Then she took another bite. Her energy gradually returned as she ate the first apple.

“More?” I said.

“Yes, please.”

So I fed her the second one. Afterward she dabbed her lips with a paper napkin. She grinned when I used my finger to wipe up stray peanut butter from the plate. I held it to her lips and she sucked it clean.

“Better?”

“Much. Thank you.”

“Good. I need my sunshine girl.”

She smiled up at me and then nuzzled my chest.

“So, tell me what’s going on,” I said, soft but firm.

“School. Project. Brooke.”

I knew about the first two—we all did—so I focused on the last. “What’s up? She okay?”

“No. She’s having guy problems.”

“Ah.”

“She told me about them today. And now I feel guilty for telling her how good things are with you and me.”

“I see.”

“She’s been dating this guy, Fletcher, for about a year. But now she thinks he’s cheating on her.”

“Does she have reason to? Or just vague suspicions?”

“No, she has reason. He’s been acting weird and won’t tell her where he’s been sometimes. Last week she found an earring in his bedroom. Today, a pair of panties.”

“And they weren’t hers.”

“No.”

“She going to break up with him?”

Christy shrugged. “She wants to work it out. She says she loves him. And I didn’t know what to tell her. I mean, you and I have such a weird relationship. I didn’t feel like I could give her advice.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know if I can explain it.” She thought for a moment. “Before I met you, I’d’ve said break up with him. But now… I was thinking about how I’d feel if you had sex with someone else. Without telling me, I mean.”

My eyebrows shot up.

“Exactly,” she said when she felt my surprise. “I know you’re going to do it with Wren, but that doesn’t really bother me. Not anymore. I know it’s just sex with her.” She laughed, in surprise as much as a release of tension. “It feels weird to say it like that, but that’s how I feel.” She swatted my chest, light and playful, which was at odds with her mood otherwise. “You’re a bad influence.”

“Or a good one.”

“Very good,” she agreed. “But yeah… I know you’re going to have sex with other women, especially if I work up the nerve to become a swinger.”

“Probably, yeah.”

“But what if you do it without telling me? I mean, I did the same thing with Wren, although that was different.”

“Right.”

“I think I’d be upset, but I’m not sure. Is that my autopilot or for real? I don’t know anymore. So that’s why I didn’t know what to tell Brooke. She’s a lot like me, but she doesn’t have someone like you to explain it.”

“Her boyfriend probably isn’t like me either. I know the difference between love and sex.”

“Exactly. You love me, but it’s just sex with the others. Except for Leah.

But I think I understand the difference between her and me.”

“I’m committed to you.”

“You always know how to say what I’m thinking,” she said with a smile.

“Anyway, I didn’t know what to tell Brooke. Still don’t. I feel bad for her, but worse that I can’t help.”

She fell silent, so I simply held her. Then we heard the front door open.

Trip and Wren came in together and immediately headed upstairs. He and I hadn’t been to the gym together all week. He had a study group for his accounting final, and I used the extra time to get ahead on Joska’s project.

Wren was working on her honors thesis (for real), so she and Christy hadn’t spent as much time together either.

“Do you know if they’re going out tonight?” I asked her.

“Yeah. Date night. Wren was talking about it this morning at the pool.

They’re going to that steak restaurant he likes.” She shivered in revulsion.

“And then he wants to see a band for his dad. He’s getting pretty good at picking them. Wren said the record label signed two of them. Trip gets paid for those. It’s pretty good money. He’s gonna need it if he wants to keep her happy.”