Couples of South Pointe Lake

11. More Conversation

It was a Saturday and Steve had nothing important on hand to do with himself; nothing too urgent to take up his time.  He reluctantly went into the garage and got out the lawnmower and spent the next two hours trimming the front lawn, after which he then washed his car, including that of Angie’s in the driveway.  He opted to leave cutting the backyard grass for later.  

Afternoon came, and he and Angie went shopping at Costco.  Steve wasn’t keen about it but figured anything to get him out of the house and get him to quit thinking about his South Pointe buddies and the issues of the past week.  This being the weekend, he wanted nothing external to burden his thoughts.  He solely wanted to attend to Angie and whatever might interest her, and he reckoned he could accomplish that until she grew tired of him and decided to shoo him away to do something else.  Besides, he had been coped indoors a majority of the week and figured it was about time he acquired some sunshine.

They went their separate ways in the supermarket, with Angie pushing a cart ahead as she went about investigating the household items’ aisle section.  At the same time, Steve made for the electronics section to check out the latest pair of headphones in the market.  He found the aisle and was reading the back label of a pair of Bosch headphones and didn’t look up to notice the familiar figure perusing the opposite aisle.  As if on a whim, the figure turned around and recognized Steve, then astutely came around the aisle and pretended to view the other headphone sets. 

“You going to buy that, or would you like me to gift-wrap for Angie?”

Steve raised his head in recognition of the voice, then turned to his left, and the man then smiled at him.

“Why Steve,” Garry slapped his arm.  “Fancy running into you here.”

“Yeah, I’d just about say the same,” Steve smiled modestly to hide his surprise.  “Whatever it is that brought you this way?”

“What does it look like?”  Garry indicated the shopping cart he carried that contained several beverage items and toiletries.  “You act like a guy like me is too big to come shopping alone.”

 “I didn’t mean it like that, Garry.  I just never expected running into you here.”

“Neither did I, but here we are.  You alone?”

“Angie’s somewhere checking out some household stuff.  If you’re done here, let’s go find her.”

They followed the aisle directions to the section where Steve presumed Angie was, while scanning the faces they passed.  He was about resorting to calling her phone when Garry tapped his arm and pointed Angie from amongst the shoppers’ crowd.  She had moved on to the cereal section.  When they met her, she was also surprised to see Garry with her husband.

“Garry,” said Angie after letting Garry kiss her cheek.  “Fancy running into you here.”

“I know, imagine that.  I was busy strolling along when I thought I recognized Steve get past me.  I had to be sure.”

“Is Ellie here with you?”

“No, I’m alone with myself.”

“Hmm, how nice.”

“How’s your shopping going, hon?” asked Steve.

“I’ve got some more stuff to look into here, and then I’ll head over to frozen foods section,” she said.  “Why don’t you two go on and do what big boys love to do.  I’ll find you when I’m through.”

That was all the answer Garry need to grab his friend’s arm and pull him away.  “Come on, Steve.  There’s a food court outside where Macy’s at.  We can sit there and grab ourselves a bite.”

“Yeah, sure.”  Steve looked to Angie as if wanting her to rescue him from this bit of socializing.  “You sure you don’t want me along, hon?”

“Don’t be silly, hon.  You act like I’m going to get lost in Costco without you.  Go on, I’ll meet up with you later.”

“All right, sure,” he turned to Garry and sighed, “Lead the way then.”

They went to the check-out line, and Steve waited for Garry to settle his purchases.  They left Costco and covered the concourse of shopping malls toward the food court Garry had mentioned.  The sun was at its zenith.  It felt great stepping out of the heat when they entered the building and sat down and ordered snacks and soda.  An awkward silence passed between them while they waited for their order.  Steve wasn’t looking forward to another long argument like the one they had last time.  This wasn’t something he envisioned when he woke up this morning.  Putting the past week behind him had been foremost on his mind, but seeing Garry here made him realize that won’t be likely.  He and the rest of his buddies had let the genie out of the bottle when they connived in watching that short flick of Ellie having s*x with whoever was her lover.  Besides finding him here, he wondered if Garry gone around confronting the others.

Their order arrived and Steve dug into his cheeseburger.  “How’s Ellie doing?” 

“She’s doing great.  Thanks for asking.”  

“She out doing something else, or did you leave her home?”

Steve wasn’t savvy about hiding subtle the meaning in his question.  Garry was aware of it and gave him a smile that declared that he wasn’t offended.  

“Last time I checked before I got in the car, yeah, she was home.  But who’s to know what she might be up to right now.”  Garry finished his meal, then washed it all down with his soda.  “With some wives, you never know.  She has no idea where I am, though.”

“Why not?”

“I’d have gotten nothing but questions from her if I did.  But the truth is none of this is an accident—I did follow you guys here,” he admitted.  This made Steve stop to look at him.  “Don’t tell me you didn’t suspect that?”

“What makes you think I did?”

“The look in your eyes told me you knew.”

“You’re right, meeting you here did get me thinking.  You’re the last person I expected running into here.”

“I wanted to apologize for some of the stuff I said when you came by the other day.  I had plenty of time to think about everything.  It felt as though I was trying to shove my agenda into your face, and that I shouldn’t have.”

“There’s nothing to it, Garry.  It was my fault to press you on when I shouldn’t have.  Nothing we discussed that day would have come up if I hadn’t raised the subject.  I guess I ought to blame Larry for that.”

“It must have been off-putting when you and the others talked about what you all saw that day, didn’t it?”

“It was awkward,” Steve agreed.  “Not that we should have.  I mean, it ain’t the sort of thing you expect to find when visiting a friend.  It’s like walking into a room and finding two know people screwing.  It’s a good thing you weren’t there with us.”

“Won’t that have ruined the mood?”

“I think it would have made us gone to drinking.”

“You’re probably asking how come I keep such video around where anybody like you guys can accidentally stumble upon it, right?”

“That did cross my mind.  These days, you can’t be too careful with identity theft.”

“You have a point there.  The video helps me to kill time when I’ve got nothing on hand to do,” Garry said.  “You know how days sometimes go when it becomes way too boring, especially when you’re home with yourself.  The wife and the kids are away, and suddenly you want to do something crazy like masturbate.  Ever had that feeling?”

Steve couldn’t help but blush.  Of course, he’d had those sorts of days, not once and certainly not twice—who hasn’t?  Though it was a good thing he and Angie were yet to have kids.

“Nothing wrong with getting horny when you’re alone, Garry. But if someone else got to see that video instead of us . . . ” Steve raised his hands as though that answered the question better. 

“To each his own, Steve.  So what if others see it?  Seriously, who cares?  They just might like it to give it a try.”

“Unlikely, Garry.  I can tell you right now, I’m never going to settle with videoing Angie in bed with another man.”  Steve glanced around to make sure they weren’t being overheard.  “That’s just too f*****g weird.”

“You learn something new every day.”

“Who was the black guy she was with?  The guy in the video with Ellie.  You didn’t pick him off the street, did you?”

“He’s a regular; Ellie’s got several of them.  We hooked up with him a couple of months back.  It took a while, but we got to know each other, and Ellie often prefers him more than the others.  Once she gets to liking someone, there’s no stopping her.”

“How does she get to know if he’d be good for her?”

“Ellie has her way of feeling things.  I can’t explain it.”

“You guys didn’t shoot that video at home, did you?”

“No.  We had ourselves s a weekend getaway at a hotel, and then he came by.  It works better that way.”

“I’m still amazed both of you have been living like this, and I got to find out this way.”

“You and the fellas.” 

Steve nodded in agreement.  “Yeah, me and the fellas.  Ollie’s an exception, though.  He and Hanna are swingers—another shocking thing I recently found out.”  He looked at his friend.  “Did you know?”

“No, I’m just hearing it from you,” Garry said.  “When did you come by this?”

“The same day I stopped by your place.  I went over to his and told him what you and I discussed, then he told me.  Even Angie wasn’t all surprised when I told her.”

Garry stopped him.  “Don’t tell me you told Angie.”

“Yeah, I did.”

“No s**t.  No wonder she looked at me kind of peculiar when she asked about Ellie.”

“Can you blame her?  But she was pretty cool about everything.  And don’t worry, your secret’s safe with us.”

“Oh, I’m not that worried,” said Garry with amusement.  “It’s my fault the way you and the fellas found out about this.   I hung out with Shep yesterday, and he never once raised the subject.  I was kinda happy he didn’t.”

Steve drank his soda and didn’t seem to care for it anymore.  He looked toward the establishment’s door, wondering how long before Angie came looking for him.  He figured she was probably taking her time, wanting him and Garry to enjoy their buddy talk without her intruding.  If that was the case, then he saw no reason for going further with his curiosity.

“Last time, you mentioned that it was Ellie that clued you into this kink.  How did that come about?”

Garry gave his friend a peculiar look as if he sensed Steve making furtive attempts at leaving the shores of his straightforward life to once again cross beyond the threshold into some complicated territory.  The idea hovered between them like a potent energy force, though neither made mention of it. 

“I kinda tattled too much that last time we talked,” Garry said.  “But if you really must know, I was aware of this kink way before Ellie and I got married.  It took years for it to manifest itself, and that didn’t happen until we were married.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I’ve always harbored submissive tendencies going back to my high school days,” Garry spoke candidly.  “You might think that as odd, but it’s true, and I’m no longer ashamed to admit it.  I didn’t know at the time, but I sorta felt something.  Something was always off about me whenever I found myself around black kids of my age.  The reality hit me in the face during my college days when I got raped.”

Steve gave his friend a wide-eyed look.  He immediately thought that Garry was joking, but the seriousness in his friend’s eyes told him that wasn’t the case here.

“My God,” Steve gasped as he then leaned forward to hear his friend better.  For the first time, he was glad Angie wasn’t here to interrupt their talk.  “For real?”

“For real, yeah.  Ellie knows this—I finally confessed it to her during our Nigerian trip—though I’d prefer you keep it to yourself.  My parents knew nothing about it; I was too ashamed to tell them.”

“I’m so sorry.”

Garry waved a dismissive hand and smiled.  “It was a long time ago, Steve.  You and I hadn’t met, and besides, it wasn’t like you played a hand in it.”

“How did it come about?  Did you know the guy that did it?”

“It wasn’t one guy but multiple.  But yes, I did know several of them.  It took me a while to search them out.”

“Go on.”

“We stayed late that evening for football practice.  I was a good tight end back in my day.  We finished our workout, then decided we were done for the night and went in to have a shower.  We were like regular guys, you know.  Sometimes we did things together like brothers on the team that we were.  We got to joshing each other in the shower like we often did: snapping towels at each other’s butts and playing catch with the soap . . . that sort of thing.  We mouthed off about each other’s girlfriends . . . played with our d***s under the shower spray . . . I was always lagging in that department.  The fellas got a kick out of teasing me about how much p***y they were getting and how I hadn’t clocked one yet.”

Garry’s eyes grew distant as he recounted the locker room episode.  Steve, at that moment, would have loved to call it quits.  He assumed it was hard for him, delving into this traumatic moment in time.  He certainly wouldn’t have minded if Garry decided against talking about it, but instead, he continued as though nothing was holding him back.

“Things went too far that night.  Too far for any of us to realize what was going on, or that we should have stopped.  It never occurred to me back then the repercussions, whether it was right or wrong.  I know it’s strange, but I guess you can say that deep down inside myself, I kinda liked it.”

“What was it?”  Steve’s voice sounded hollow and strange coming from him.  He shouldn’t have asked the question but found himself compelled to know what his friend had to divulge.

Garry spoke with an expressionless voice.  “They guys got me down on my knees and had me perform fellatio on each of them.  They slapped my face with their manhood and cursed me to go on and do it.  They called me all sorts of foul names, then one of them came knelt behind me and stuck it to me.”

Steve tensed when he said that.  He felt a shiver run down his backside and he grimaced like he wanted to throw up.  “My God.”

“You wanted to know, right?  Now you know.”

“Yeah, but . . . this is crazy.  It’s damn insane.”

“Crazy insane, insane crazy.  Call it whatever you want, but it happened.”

“Was there a second time?” 

Garry shook his head. “It was that one time and never again.  Nobody spoke about it after that night.  We were sort of embarrassed about it, and we all made an unspoken pact never to bring it up again.  We wore back our clothes and went our separate ways home.  Word of it never even got out.”

“You never mentioned it to anybody, not even visit a psychiatrist?”

Garry gave his friend an odd look.  “Why on earth would I want to do something like that?  Steve, I’m not crazy or suicidal, if that’s what you’re thinking.  This wasn’t a traumatic episode that I can’t stop living down.  What happened has never once impacted on my life in any odd shape or way.”

“So you’re saying you blocked it out of your memory, and it’s never manifested itself until you began this kink?”

“No, I’m saying it was an episode in my life pointed out where it was I was heading.  It made me realize what I really am inside.  That I’m a submissive, and nothing in the world is ever going to change that.”

“Okay, I’ll buy that part.  How did you and Ellie get this ball started then?”

“Now that was a revelation,” Garry smiled, feeling himself lighten up from the dark road he had entered.  “That happened on our honeymoon.  We went to the Cayman Islands for a two-week fun and surfing good time.  While we were there, we hooked up with other couples who were there for their anniversary celebration.  There was this one couple—I remember their name—Donald and Mary Clauston.  They came there with a black man that was her boyfriend.  They initiated us into learning about this kink, and we’ve kept in touch since.”

“That’s quite a story.  Why do I get the feeling that you’re leaving out a lot?”

“Maybe I am.  Maybe I’m saving some for later when we can talk better on this subject.”  He looked at his watch. “Damn, can’t believe we’ve sat here this long.  We’d better go look for your Angie.  Don’t worry, I’ll take care of this.”  He referred to the tab for their meal.

Later, they met up with Angie.  Garry mentioned that he had other appointments to take care of before heading home; he shook hands with Steve and promised to keep in touch.  Angie kept glancing at Steve as they drove for home. She kept quiet for much of the ride, waiting until they had gone halfway before raising the subject.  

“You guys talk anything interesting while I was away?” 

Steve turned to her and smiled.  Angie observed the strain on his face and knew whatever it was they had discussed, it had probably been overwhelming for him.  

“Nothing you won’t like to hear, darling.  We kept up on things since our last meet.”

“He’s looking good with himself.”

“Yeah, he sure is.”

“You brought up that cuckold subject again?”

“We talked about it, but not much,” Steve lied.  “Mostly, we talked about other stuff, much having to do with business.”

Angie sensed he wasn’t forthright with her but didn’t sweat it.  “Too bad.  I’d have liked to know what he and Ellie are up to since then.”

“You’ll probably learn a lot better if you asked her, don’t you think?  I thought you and her were close.”

“Come on, hon.  That’s not exactly the sort of thing you’d bring up in a conversation.  She’d likely get upset if I asked.”

“You won’t know until you give it a shot,” Steve replied.  “Personally, I’d prefer we leave well enough alone about it.  Unless we want to start giving them weird ideas.”

“What sort of weird ideas?”

“You know,” Steve tried thinking up a word or sentence that best summed up his thoughts but couldn’t come up with any.  “The last thing I’d want is giving any hint that we’d want to get involved with whatever it is they’re into.”

They drove into South Pointe and stopped when they noticed someone familiar along the way.  It turned out to be Shep’s wife, Morgan.  Steve honked his horn to catch her attention.  Morgan responded by waving at them as they drove down a different route while she continued her walk toward Cinnamon Drive. 

Morgan carried a grocery bag with her.  She arrived at Ollie Moss’s home and thumbed the doorbell.  

Ollie was engrossed on the phone with a business client when he heard the bell ring.  

“Listen, Mike, I’ve got a visitor at my door.  I’ll talk to you later about the numbers thing.  Gotta go now.  Bye.”  

He jetted toward the door, thinking it might be Steve or any other of his friends.  The smile froze on his lips when he saw who stood in front of his door.  Morgan was here on important business.

“Morgan.  How are you today?”

“It’s Cera to you,” she said.  “Is Rosa home?”

Ollie shut the door after she marched into his abode. 

“Hanna isn’t home,” said Ollie, referring to his wife’s name, instead of her alias.  “Is it important for me to call her about?”

“Not really.  I’m here to collect Master Shango’s dues.  He also wishes for Rosa and I to come to him tonight.”

“Okay.  Give me a second.”  Ollie rushed to his office that was adjacent to the lounge room.  He opened the top drawer of his desk and took out a white envelope that had laid there for the past two days.  He had kept it solely for this moment; Ollie was always on time when it comes to paying his dues.  He handed it to Morgan, who took a moment to count the bills inside, before dropping the envelope into her grocery bag.  

“The Master said for me to make sure,” Morgan explained.  “He said that last time, you were a little short.”

“That was an error on my part.  But I’ve made up for it this time.”

Morgan turned to leave.  “Be kind enough to pass my message to Rosa.”

“I will,” Ollie said.

Morgan opened the door and left the house without so much as uttering a goodbye.