Elizabeth Ann – my wife, affectionately known to friends and associates as Bess, is every bit the people-person I am not. We hadn’t spoken all evening, which was strange for her. Bess stood with her back to me, pouring a glass of wine. I leaned against the kitchen counter, lost in thought. Guests were gone, and servers were tidying the house before they left.‘Bess will be thrilled,’ Lindsey had said. But she had refused to tell me what she meant.Bess glanced my way, on her way out of the kitchen, but said nothing. I closed my eyes and took several deep breaths. I caught the scent of my wife’s shower gel and opened my eyes to Lindsey walking into the room wearing Bess’s robe.“Oh,” she said, seeing that I was alone. “Bess?”“Great-room,” I said, motioning with my head.“Ah,” she said. “Coffee?”“Just finishing,” I said, nodding at the second pot.Lind made her way around the bar, careful not to touch me. I left her there, setting my mug on the bar and went for my turn in the shower, still trying to process how life had changed in the last few hours.After showering, I wandered into the yard to survey the damage after the storm. The sun had long set, and the moon was climbing into the sky, bathing the yard in pale light. It didn’t look too bad. The tent was still up, but some of the chairs and tables had blown around. Small branches littered the yard, leaves and flower petals floated in the pool.At the sound of the sliding door, I looked up. Bess came out to stand beside me.“Not too bad?” she asked.“Doesn’t look like it,” I said.“Might need to add chlorine to the pool.”“Probably.”When she stopped talking, the silence grew between us like a real, tangible thing. We stood for perhaps ten minutes, neither saying a word.“Will you say something, please?” she asked. As she was talking, her phone Bostancı Escort chirped. She took it out and glanced at it.“It’s Cathy,” she said. “Her roommate’s mother is visiting the country next month. She wants them to stay the night.”“Does she speak English?” I asked. Cathy’s roommate was Japanese.“I assume so,” she said.She dashed off a quick text and put her phone away. Our daughter, Cathy, was a college student who lived about an hour away. She spent many weekends here studying when she wasn’t waiting tables.I sighed. Did Bess know about Lindsey and me? Is that why she was like this?“Are Lindsey and Kayla still here?” I asked.“Yes, they’re putting the dishes away. They might stay the night. Reg is on a late flight to Denver, you know.”Reg, our son, frequently traveled for his job. His wife Kayla worked with Lindsey and Bess. She managed social media, answered mail, and generally helped keep the writing machine running. She’s smart and pleasant to have around, but Bess and I needed to talk.“Christ, Elizabeth, it seems like there’s always someone staying over.”And it was true. If it wasn’t Lindsey, who had stayed too late and didn’t want to drive home in the dark, it was Kayla, who didn’t like staying in an empty house when Reg was away. And Bess didn’t like making love if anyone else was staying over.She started to say something but stopped. She turned to gaze into the woods and then walked into the yard to view the fields to the east.“You’re right,” she murmured at last. I kept my silence, waiting for her to go on. “What I mean is,” she said, her voice no longer steady. “I…I know you’ve been…naughty, but I’m afraid I’m so much worse,” she whispered.A wave of nausea swooped through my belly, but I didn’t move. Despite my recent infidelity, Bostancı Escort Bayan I was poised to explode in anger.“Tell me,” I said, my voice shaking. Best to get it all out in the open.“Oh, Greg. I’m so sorry. Once Lind and I started, I just couldn’t get enough. I always thought that I must be bisexual, which was a huge, huge thing for me.”Not nausea now, but vertigo overtook me. I held up a hand to stop her, wishing that I was sitting down.“Wait… wait. What? Bisexual? You and Lindsey?”“Yes, that’s why I sent her out there to you this afternoon. I thought that maybe you wouldn’t hate me so much,” she said. “But, no, honey. I’m not bisexual.”“What? How can that be?” I asked. “If you’re fucking Lind, then yeah, you are.”Which, truthfully, wouldn’t have bothered me all that much. I always thought that Bess could cheat on me with all the women she wanted, and I wouldn’t care. I just didn’t want her sleeping with other men. What does that say about me? Am I insecure? Maybe. I just never thought it would bother me.She walked away a couple of steps then turned back, tears rolling down her face.“No, sweetheart. I’m not bisexual.” She put a hand on my chest and broke down completely. “I…I…I’m gay!” she wailed, finally collapsing in sobs on my chest. I held her as she cried uncontrollably.Gay? A lesbian? I thought. What the fuck?After several minutes I cleared my throat.“Where do we go from here?” I asked. We had moved to the patio table and were sitting in relatively dry chairs.“That’s a good question,” she said, wiping her eyes and nose with a tissue she produced as if by magic. “Before we get to that, you need to know something else.”“Jesus, Mary, and Joseph!” I said, my voice rising.“One little thing,” she said. “Okay, one big thing. One kind Escort Bostancı of relatively huge thing.”“Goddammit, spit it out,” I grumbled.“You know how Lindsey and Kayla are good friends?”“Yes.”“And you know how Reg spends so much time away?”Oh god.“Yes.”“Well, they’re really good friends.”“Are you fucking with me right now? Is that it? Is this some kind of emotional payback?”“No, darli…”“Don’t “darling” me!” I growled. “If there’s something more, spit it out.”Speaking in a low, quick monotone, she said, “Kayla came over one day to work on something and found Lindsey and me swimming naked. She joined us, and then she and Lind started fooling around. One thing led to another, and I got pulled in, too.”“Christ on a crutch woman! Are you telling me that you cheated on me with our daughter-in-law?”“Kind of,” she said. “They have a semi-open marriage, so she doesn’t think of it as cheating.”That was news. “Semi-open? What does that mean?” I asked, intrigued in spite of myself.“They won’t have ongoing affairs, but if one is away, they don’t mind a little fun on the side.”“Lucky bastard,” I said, thinking of my son, Reg.“Lucky you, you mean,” she said.“What? What are you talking about?”“I’m talking about you and me. Kayla and Lindsey. I’m talking about being gay and…and I’m really sorry about this…not wanting to have sex with you anymore.”“What? You want a divorce?” I asked.“No,” she said. “At least I don’t think so. Not if we can work it out. I still love you, and hopefully, we’ll be grandparents someday. But I’m just not attracted to you that way. I’m not sure I ever was.”That was one hell of a blow to the ego, let me tell you.“So, how is this a good thing?” I asked.“It’s a good thing because both Lindsey and Kayla want to… er, take over for me.”“Take over? For you?”“That’s right.” She picked up her phone.“Sorry. Hang on.”She answered a text and set the phone back on the table.“Yes,” she repeated. “They’re willing to take care of your physical needs if you want. Of course, if you would rather divorce and find someone else…” Her voice trailed away, and tears rolled down her face again.