Page 97 of Once a Month

“Isn’t it the weekend?” I ask.

“Yes, but it was a client thing, so I had to call them. I’m here now, though,” she says. “Missed me that much, huh?” she teases with a smile.

“Yes,” I say, smiling back.

“We should get a room before they fill up,” she says, nodding toward the stairs.

“Can we talk first?” I ask.

“Of course, we can talk,” she says as if I should know that. “We can find the room and talk as long as you want, babe.”

“It has to do with the room,” I say, walking us to the sofa and sitting down.

She sits down next to me. There are two women in the corner of the room making out against a wall. I focus my attention only on her, though.

“Is this yours?” she asks.

“Yes,” I tell her.

“Can’t wait to see what’s inside,” she says, squeezing my hand. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” I reply.

“I can tell something’s up. Are you okay? We don’t have–”

“I’m okay,” I interrupt and lean in to kiss her on the lips. “I just have something I wanted to run by you. If you don’t want to do it, we’ll find a room.”

“Okay. What?” she asks.

“My friends,” I say.

“You want to watch them tonight?”

“I want to join them tonight,” I say.

“Oh,” she says, pulling her hand away.

“Never mind,” I say, taking her hand back. “It was a stupid idea. I–”

“It’s not a stupid idea,” she says. “You’ve been with them before, so…”

“Just that one time I told you about.”

“Oh, I assumed you’d…”

“No,” I say. “I thought tonight would be a good time.”

“I see,” she says. “Well, this is unexpected, but they are members, so… if they’ve requested you tonight, and you want to be with them, I can’t really argue. I’ll just…” She stands up.

“Where are you going?” I ask, grasping her hand so she can’t pull away entirely.

“To figure out how to spend the rest of my night,” she says. “I think I’ll just go home. I–”

I stand up and pull her against me.

“You’re misunderstanding, babe. I don’t want it to be the three of us. I was thinking, it could be the four of us.” I tell her.

“All of us?” she asks.

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