Before I met Will, I thought that I could never compete with the lifetime of affection that he shared with Kristen. When Kristen told me that their sexual relationship was more than a one-time affair, I guess I was afraid that she might leave me for him. When I met him at the airport the other day, he was everything that I was afraid he’d be: he was good looking, he showed a great sense of humor, and he was a genuinely affectionate person.
Therefore, I originally expected that Will would see me as competition for Kristen’s affections. When I met him, however, his words and attitudes did not reflect that at all. Instead of seeing me as a competitor, he really seemed to like me. This took me by surprise.
Thinking about my talk with Will the other day, I knew that Kristen and her brother needed some time alone together. I knew that neither one would ask this of me, so I decided to take the initiative and offer it to them. I’m not sure if Kristen knew my motivation, but I was very sure that Will would understand.
In my heart, I knew I could trust Kristen. She told me that she considered me a long-term relationship, and that her feelings toward her brother were different from the ones she had for me. In addition, Kristen allowed me to play around with Patty after we started going out together. I could at least let Kristen and her brother do whatever they wanted.
Although Kristen was occasionally with me when I was playing with Patty, I didn’t have any desire to be present when and if she played around with her brother. It was one thing to accept such a relationship intellectually, but I didn’t think I was ready for confronting the situation in reality.
I found a few bookshops, and spent a while checking out the titles. There were many books on psychology, but their contents seemed impenetrable to me. I didn’t see too many introductory books in the subject, unfortunately.
After an hour and a half, I found a pay phone and called Will’s apartment. Kristen answered and sounded worried. “Hello? Is this Jim?”
“Yes, love,” I answered. “I was looking at books and didn’t notice the time.” This was a white lie.
“Are you sure you’re all right?” Kristen asked, still sounding worried.
I did my best to assure Kristen. “Yes, darling. I’m going to be heading back toward the apartment. I should be there in about ten minutes.”
There was a pause on the other end, and then Kristen said, “All right. Thanks for calling.” After another pause, “Oh, Will says, ‘Thank you.’”
I smiled. I knew that Will would have understood my motivations. “Tell him it wasn’t a problem. Thinking it over, I see another store that I would like to visit. It may be more like a half hour or so, all right?”
Yet another pause, and then Kristen said, quietly, “I think you are the kindest, and most understanding lover that I have ever known.”
I beamed from Kristen’s praise. I answered, “I know one just as understanding and kind, Kris.”
“I love you, Jim.”
“I know, and I love you as well. I’ll see you in a half hour.”
“OK. Thanks for calling.”
I hung up and walked over to Harvard Square and sat for a few moments to think about things. Once again, I thought about Kristen’s request that she made a month or so ago. I did turn her down, but now that I was alone, there was time for me to reconsider it. I hadn’t thought about Patty sucking me with Kristen’s tacit permission. Did this change anything?
I really wanted Kristen to be the one and only person that I would ever make love to. That meant that I would never have sexual intercourse with any other person. Wasn’t that the proper thing to do? Neither Kristen nor I would be saving our virginity for marriage. Nevertheless, wouldn’t an exclusive relationship be the next best thing?
Apparently, Kristen didn’t seem to think so. Her request seemed to indicate that she wouldn’t mind me fucking somebody else with her around.
Who would be the third person in this scenario? The three people that sprang to mind were Patty, Camille, and Sherry. In my answer to Kristen, I rejected the three of them, and I still felt the same way about Patty and Sherry. I didn’t think it would be fair to either one of them.
Camille, on the other hand, just might be the right person. I saw Camille nude on a few occasions and she once gave me an excellent hand job. I also remembered seeing her masturbate to the point of orgasm while describing a sexual fantasy. Camille was also known to have many male friends, and I was pretty sure that her friendships extended into sexual relationships as well.
I decided that the best thing would be to talk this over with Camille. It could be that Camille, for all her talking about sexual promiscuity, could be quite different in reality. I needed to see how she felt about Kristen’s request, and if she would be willing to participate in such a scenario.
Back at the apartment, I found Will and Kristen playing cards. When Kristen saw me come in, she threw her cards down, ran up to me, and planted the biggest kiss on me. “Just wait until later!” she whispered.
I smiled at my lovely Goddess, and then turned to Will and asked, “So, what are you guys playing?”
“Cribbage,” Will answered, picking up a small wooden board with some pegs on it. “Kristen skunked me last round, and if I lose this round, I’ll owe her five hundred dollars.”
“You play for money?” I asked, incredulous that anybody would play any card game against Kristen for money.
Will grinned. “What can I say? I’m a glutton for punishment.”
I laughed, and Kristen just gave a “harrumph” in mock anger. “That’s about as smart as playing Monopoly against her with real money!”
Will and his sister looked at each other in amazement. “You know, Kristen, we haven’t tried that one! How many five hundred dollar bills do you have?”
Now I knew that they were having me on. I continued laughing, and Kristen invited me to play cribbage against her brother. She quietly explained the rules and the odd way they count points. We played for a few hours until Kristen called it a night.
Chapter 8—Thanksgiving and Christmas
On Saturday, Kristen had an appointment to get her hair done at a salon nearby, leaving Will and me alone. Will took me to the campus at M.I.T. From out of nowhere, Will asked me, “Do you know you have a strange aura?”
The question made me laugh, seeing as how we were walking at one of the leading intellectual campuses in the country. “I do?”
Will didn’t seem to mind me laughing. “I’ve seen your particular aura before, a few years ago, and it scared the shit out of me. Somehow, it’s different now.”
“I don’t think we met a few years ago,” I pointed out.
“You’re right.”
Will then told me about his real mother. She lived in New York City, and gave him up for adoption a week after he was born. She died just another week later, the victim of an automobile accident.