My Wife’s Co-Workers Came Up to Our Place That Night

It was a Friday like so many others. We’d decided to go out to dinner without any clear plan, more to get off the sofa than for anything else, and the night promised to die early amid yawns. You were wearing that dark dress you almost never wore, and I had put on the shirt you said made me look less tired.

—What if we get a drink before heading back? —you suggested, once we were out on the street.

—Whatever you want —I answered, not imagining where that question would take us.

The bar we went into had low music and lights the color of lazy amber. And there, at a table in the back, were Marina and Carla, two co-workers from your office. You were delighted to see them with that genuine surprise you wear when something good shows up unannounced. We sat with them and the conversation took off on its own.

What was meant to be a quick drink became three. Shyness dissolved with every toast. Marina laughed, throwing her head back, Carla spoke softly, as if everything she said were a secret. And little by little, without anyone deciding it, we started dancing, the four of us, in the small open space by the bar.

The alcohol slowly wove its effect. The dancing became closer, slower. We kept moving nearer and nearer together, and especially the two of them did. I watched you watch them, and I noticed something on your face I had never seen before.

There was a new current running among the four of us, something nobody named but everybody felt. Carla rested a hand on your shoulder as she passed by, and left it there a second too long. Marina held my gaze while she drank, without blinking, with a half smile that was a question. I kept looking for you to know what you were thinking, and you only bit your lip.

—I never told you —you said in my ear—, but the two of them used to go out with guys before. So they say.

So they say. That phrase kept turning over and over in my head for the rest of the night.

***

From there we dragged ourselves to a nearby nightclub, and there things heated up. Amid the noise and the darkness, Marina and Carla found each other in a brief kiss, almost a brush, like someone testing whether the water is cold. You and I looked at each other, and we kissed too, but this time with our eyes open, watching what they were doing.

When the early hours were weighing down on our feet, you suggested the penultimate stop be our place. I didn’t expect them to say yes so quickly.

—We live downtown, two streets away —Carla said, already putting on her coat.

The four of us went out into the cold night. Our building was one of those old ones with a narrow elevator, and we lived on the top floor. In the entrance we had to wait for the car to come down, and in that silence I suddenly heard the breathing growing restless. Marina’s. Yours. Mine.

The four of us got into the elevator and the doors shut with a soft thud. It was as if that metal box gave us permission for everything we hadn’t dared do downstairs. The yellowish light flickered, the motor hummed above our heads, and the four of us stayed too close to pretend nothing was happening.

Marina and Carla kissed again, now without shame, with an urgency that filled the tiny space. You grabbed my shirt and kissed me hard. My hand ended up near Marina’s miniskirt, almost by accident, and then she did something I hadn’t expected: she found my wrist, lifted her skirt a little and guided my fingers to her underwear.

She was wearing black satin thong panties. At first I was scared, not for her, but for you, for how you would react. But when I pulled back for a moment I saw your gaze, and you were breathing faster, and you pulled me against you so I wouldn’t stop.

My fingers stroked Marina through the fabric in the same rhythm as your tongue played with mine. She herself pushed the thong aside, and I touched her directly, slowly, feeling how wet she already was. Every movement of your mouth I repeated with my fingers on her, and Marina bit her lip so she wouldn’t make a sound.

I was incredibly turned on, and Carla noticed. I felt fingers sliding down the zipper of my pants and setting me free. You kept kissing me, more and more wantonly, while I felt Carla’s warm mouth close around me. She licked along me, still tasting of Marina, and I didn’t stop caressing your friend with my other hand.

The elevator stopped on our floor and the doors opened onto the empty hallway. Luckily there was no one there. We stumbled out, laughing under our breath, tugging our clothes into place halfway while I fumbled for the keys with clumsy hands.

***

We got into the apartment and, without anyone saying a word, the four of us started undressing in the entryway. There was no plan, no proposal, no embarrassment. Just clothes falling to the floor and short breaths.

Marina took your waist and started kissing your neck, and Carla turned toward me. For a second all four of us stood still, looking at each other, as if finally recognizing what was happening. I looked at you, kissing another woman, and I had never wanted you so much.

—Come —you said, and held out your hand to me.

We went to the bedroom. The three of you lined up on the bed, with your backs to me, on your knees and hands. Seeing you like that, you in the middle of everything, left me breathless for a moment. I finished taking off my clothes and came closer.

I traced the skin of the three of you very slowly, brushing against you, feeling how you couldn’t stop touching each other, hands searching, lips meeting from the side. The room smelled of perfume mixed with sweat, and the only light was the streetlight coming through the blinds, drawing lines across your backs.

You were in the middle, and I started with you, entering you slowly while my fingers found Marina and Carla, one on each side. I could feel you arching your back against me, turning your head to kiss the one nearest you, lost in something I hadn’t known you needed so badly.

Everything moved to the same beat. The harder I thrust into you, the deeper I pressed my fingers into them. I heard them moan into the pillow, felt them push against my hand. When you came, with a long shudder I recognized at once, I slowly pulled out of you.

—Switch —murmured Marina, and you rearranged yourselves.

You moved to the right and Marina took the center. I started entering her while still stroking you and Carla with my wet fingers. The same rhythm, the same current running through the four of us. Marina came almost at the same time you did again under my fingers, her face buried against your friend.

Lastly Carla changed into the center. While I moved inside her, I didn’t stop touching you and Marina, and in the end the three of you came together, with me, who could take no more. I collapsed onto the bed, spent and dizzy.

For a long while nobody spoke. Only the sound of breathing finding its place again, the warm weight of three bodies searching for each other in the dark. Someone laughed softly, I don’t know who, and that laughter spread to the four of us, a weak laugh of disbelief and exhaustion. Little by little we drifted off to sleep, tangled together, no longer able to tell where one of us ended and another began.

Before I was fully asleep, I reached for you in the dimness and found your hand. You squeezed mine without opening your eyes, as if telling me we were still us, that none of it was breaking us apart. That was the last image of the night: your hand in mine and the other two breathing peacefully beside us.

***

The next morning I woke up surrounded by the three of you, the sheets in disarray, light slipping in through the crack in the blinds. I got up carefully so as not to wake you and went to shower, still not quite believing what had happened.

When I came back, the surprise froze me in the doorway. The three of you had woken up and were seeking each other out again, this time on your own, without needing me. You were lying down, with Carla sitting on your mouth, arched in pleasure. Marina, on top of you, was running her tongue over you while Carla bent down to return the caress. A perfect circle from which I had suddenly been left out.

It didn’t bother me. On the contrary. I leaned against the doorframe and watched you, feeling desire waking back up, and let you all reach the end together, the three of you at once, with a moan that blended into a single one.

I had to shower again. And while the water fell, my mind kept repeating every scene, wondering whether that night had been the beginning of something or just a fantasy we’d let escape its cage for once. None of us said it out loud that morning. But when you said goodbye to them at the door, with a kiss that lasted a little longer than it should have, I knew the three of you were already thinking about next time.