Chapter 8
Kelly appeared around the corner a few minutes later, walking with a bounce in her step that made her honey-blonde hair swing, her phone in one hand and her jacket in the other. When she saw them she broke into a grin so wide it was practically luminous.
"Ok, I have been speed-walking for three blocks trying not to look like a crazy person and I need you to know that I texted Colt and he said, and I quote, 'hell yes, go have fun, send photos.
'” She paused and looked at them. "Obviously I am not going to send photos.
Unless you're into that. Are you into that? I'm getting ahead of myself."
Ellie started laughing, and next to her Becca was laughing too. The tension that had been building since the booth broke like a wave and for a moment they were just three women laughing over a joke on a warm Austin night.
"No photos," Ellie said, still laughing. "But I'm glad Colt approves."
"Colt approves of basically everything I do.
It's either his best or worst quality, I can never decide.
" Kelly looked between them, still grinning, then held up her phone.
"Ok, but one photo. Just us on the street, nothing scandalous.
He'll lose his mind if I don't at least send him this. At least let him see who I’m hanging out with.”
“Ok, that can’t hurt,” Becca said, and Ellie shrugged her agreement.
Kelly squeezed in between them on the sidewalk, held her phone out at arm's length, and said, "Smile, ladies.
" Ellie heard the shutter sound and Kelly turned the phone around to show them…
three women grinning on a sidewalk, Kelly in the middle with an arm around Becca, all of them looking happy and like they were about to do something they really shouldn't.
Kelly typed something quickly and hit send.
"There. That'll keep him happy. Now he gets nothing else until I'm home. "
She pocketed her phone and shook her head.
"Seriously though. This night. I came out for my friend's birthday, which was boring as hell by the way, she left at like ten thirty, and then I figured I'd check out Cheer Up's because I'd heard it was fun, and now…” She gestured at the three of them. "This. Life is wild."
"Our place is about ten minutes' walk," Ellie said. "Is that ok?"
"Lead the way. I'm all yours." She paused and looked at Becca. "Well mostly yours, I guess."
***
They walked three abreast when the sidewalk allowed, Becca in the middle, and Kelly talked enough for all three of them, which Ellie was grateful for because it filled the space that might otherwise have been loaded with a nervous silence.
Kelly, she discovered quickly, was great company.
She was twenty-five, worked in commercial real estate out in the hill country, which sounded boring until she described a deal she'd closed involving a historic dance hall and a very stubborn county board, and Ellie realised she was both funnier and sharper than she'd initially seemed.
She lived on a small ranch with Colt, who she'd been with for years and who she described with an offhand affection that reassured Ellie that their relationship was solid and happy.
"We started playing with other people about two years ago," Kelly said, as casually as if she were describing a new hobby. "It was his idea first but I took to it faster than he did. We’ve had threesomes, if I play with a man on my own or he plays with a woman the other one has to be there. A woman on my own I’ve done a bunch of times without him and he’s fine with it.
It works because we talk about everything and neither of us is the jealous type.
" She glanced at Ellie. "Although I hear jealousy is kind of the point for you? "
Ellie felt her cheeks redden. "Becca told you that?” She saw Becca blush while Kelly nodded. “She’s right I guess,” Ellie conceded.
"That's cool. Honestly, that's really cool.
I've heard of it but never been part of something like this.
" Kelly's enthusiasm was genuine and infectious, and Ellie found herself far more relaxed than she’d expected. It wasn’t just that this was familiar territory, at least in part, for Kelly.
She was enthusiastic, open, completely un-weird about the whole thing in a way that kept Ellie from confronting the weirdness of the situation.
At one point on the walk Kelly's hand found Becca's, and they walked like that for half a block, fingers interlaced.
Ellie noticed their hands and felt the familiar jealousy-arousal loop spinning up, but she said nothing.
Then Becca's other hand found Ellie's, and for a moment the three of them were connected, walking in a chain.
It felt both absurd and exactly right.
***
Their apartment seemed weirdly different to Ellie’s eyes as the three of them walked in, as if the context that night had moved everything around a bit.
Everything was the same of course, the same windows with the skyline beyond, the same framed wedding photo on the table by the door, but all of it recontextualised by what was about to happen.
"Holy shit, this view," Kelly said, walking straight to the windows. "You can see the whole city."
"Ellie's salary, not mine," Becca said with a smile, dropping her keys in the bowl by the door.
"Something to drink?" Ellie asked, heading to the kitchen. "We've got wine, beer, I think there's some champagne somewhere..."
"White wine would be amazing," Kelly said. "I'm already buzzed but what's one more, right?"
"Same for me," Becca added.
Ellie poured three glasses, taking her time, letting the mundane action settle her nerves.
When she took them through to the living area, Becca and Kelly were stood on the balcony, Kelly pointing at something in the skyline and Becca leaning close to see, their shoulders touching.
Becca turned and took two glasses from Ellie, handing one to Kelly.
They stood in a loose triangle, drinking, and it was Kelly who steered the conversation to the thing none of them had said yet.
"So." She took a sip of wine and looked at Ellie, then Becca, with an expression that was equal parts excitement and genuine curiosity. "I kind of asked this at the bar but now we're here and it's real I want to make sure. What do y'all want tonight? What does this look like for you?"
Becca looked at Ellie, deferring, and Ellie said, "I want to watch.
I want to watch you and Becca together. I want to see her with you, see how she responds to you, see her enjoy herself.
And I want to see you respond to her too.
That's what this is about for me." She surprised herself with how definite her response was, not realising until then how clear this all really was in her mind.
"And you’re sure you won't be joining?" Kelly asked. “More the merrier.”
Ellie grinned. “Not tonight. Tonight I watch."
Kelly smiled back and nodded, then turned to Becca. "And you? Same question."
Becca toyed with her wine glass as she thought.
“I want you," she said to Kelly, her voice steady and sure.
"I want tonight with you, and I want Ellie to see it. I want her to watch you do things to me and me do things to you that I normally do with her. And I want her to see us do things that are different to what we normally do. I want her to see all of it.”
Kelly held Becca's gaze, then said, "Ok.
I like both your answers. Now let me tell you what I want.
" She drained the last of her wine and put the glass down.
"Ellie, I want to have an incredible time with your gorgeous wife while you watch.
I want to make her feel things. Becca, I want you to make me feel so, so good.
And I want to know that when I leave later, y'all are going to promise me that you have the best night of your marriage when I’m gone because of what happened here.
That's what I reckon gets me off about this.
The whole picture." She paused and flashed that grin again.
"Plus, you know, Becca's really hot. That helps. "
Becca laughed, her eyes fixed on Kelly, almost hungrily Ellie thought.
"Then come here," Becca said, putting her own glass down.
Kelly walked over to her and they stood facing each other by the window, the skyline behind them.
Ellie stepped away, taking a seat on one of the stools at the kitchen counter, settling down to watch.
Kelly reached up and pushed a strand of Becca's hair from her face, tucking it behind her ear, the tell, performed by someone else's hand, and the sight of it sent a jolt through Ellie that she felt in deep inside.
Then Kelly kissed her, and this time it didn’t start off tentatively.
It was the kiss of a woman who had been given permission and knew exactly what to do with it, confident and thorough, her hands on Becca's waist pulling her close, and Becca responded immediately, her arms going around Kelly's back, her body pressing forward, and Ellie watched from a few feet away and felt the world tilt.
***
They kissed for a long time by the open door to the balcony, their hands starting to explore, and Ellie sat on the stool and watched.
She felt both necklaces against her throat, and let the jealousy and the arousal do their familiar dance, each feeding the other, each making the other more intense.
Like the times before but a hundred times greater.