The house was unusually silent when I returned from work. I stood in the downstairs hallway a moment, straining to hear any signs of my wife.

Nothing.

Strange. Her car was in the driveway.

"Anna?"

No reply.

The mirror alongside the front door reflected only my unshaven features that I rubbed once. My eyes appeared duller blue than usual, I was sure. The merger was more complicated than I expected and finalising it was taking its toll. Too many hours. Too many broken nights of worry. I ran a hand through my sandy shock of hair and told myself it would all work out. It had to.

Twisting away I kicked off my shoes, padded to the living room and stopped at the door. Taped to it was an envelope, one word on the outside: Marcus in my wife's neat cursive, an imprint of her lips in a glossy scarlet alongside.

With a smile, I peeled the tape and opened it to reveal a birthday card, the large silver 45 on the cover catching the light. Inside, a simple inscription:

Your present awaits upstairs.
Anna xx

My mind immediately filled with thoughts of her lithe figure. Of kissing it. Undressing her and feasting as if she was the last supper. Hearing and feeling her excitement soar beneath my lips and tongue. It had been too long since I'd been able to appreciate her splendour close up. We'd just not connected much and I hoped this was the U-turn.

With refreshed vitality, I headed upstairs alongside the diagonal strip of captured family moments; Anna and I at our wedding, little Joshie in various stages of life, the beach vacation. At the turn, Anna’s prized oil painting, The Constant Gardener, its portrayal of a straw-hatted gardener tending to an overgrown bed of flowers added a splash of colour to the wall of predominantly black and white photos. I carried on up, the occasional complaint from the carpeted risers the only sound.

Our bedroom was at the end of the short hallway beyond the family bathroom and entrance to Josh’s bedroom, recently spare. As I approached, excitement building in my stomach, I wasn't sure what to expect. Maybe her waiting for me wearing nothing but an impish smile and red nail polish to match the lipstick.

What I didn't expect as the door swung open under my gentle push was my wife's best friend. She was kneeling upright, naked in the centre of our queen size bed facing me and the footboard, hands behind her back. I took a sharp breath at the way her milky skin contrasted with the giant red ribbon tied in a bow around her ample chest so I couldn't see her nipples. Her curvy belly plunged between womanly hips into a sexy thatch of dark pubes. My gaze roved, noting her almond-shaped eyes were moist, paths of dried tears on her cheeks.

Pacing into the room I ran to her aid. "Zoe, what the hell's goin-"

A sharp crack and a searing flash of pain tore from my upper thigh and I yelled, whirling.

Framed in the en-suite doorway was my wife as I'd never seen her. Strappy high heels led to silky, sheer hold-ups that encased her shapely legs. They shone in the light from the window behind her, the dark bands that wrapped trim thighs leaving a tantalizing strip of flesh before similarly sheer panties covered her pussy. Just enough was left to the imagination. I swelled in my trousers, doing a double take. Through the translucent fabric, the prominent outline of her lips indicated she was shaved beneath; something I'd never known her to do before.

I blinked at the heavenly sight, rubbing my thigh where she'd struck me with the riding crop gripped in her right hand. "Jesus, Anna. What the…"

"Mistress!" she thundered.

I gulped, stunned at her magnificence, powerful and alluring. "M… mistress?"

Her chest heaved beneath a matching bra, locks of burnt oak hair tumbling over the material. She nodded past me at Zoe. "Hands off the prize. You have to earn it."

My mind swam. "Earn… her?"

"She'll do whatever you desire, but you mustn't touch her until I say. And she will only speak to me."

I gawped, unable to process everything. Anna's bronze eyeshadow glittered, accenting caramel irises that roved my body, settling on my stirring crotch. There was a new look in her eyes, one I couldn’t quite place, but certainly one I could not recall ever seeing. Unfettered determination, perhaps. The corners of her pretty mouth lifted a fraction before the crop swished and struck my member.

"Owwww." I bent over as the pain ripped through me, but my erection didn't get the memo. It grew instead.

"Strip," she commanded.

I straightened. "What?"

"You heard." She raised the crop again and I put my hands out to block any attempt, our eyes meeting.

She meant business.

Slowly I began to undo my shirt, revealing my chest, button by button to her salacious gaze. My trousers went next, socks tugged with them. Breathing in deeply, I then dragged my boxers down and stepped from them, goosebumps forming despite the warmth of the room, my cock bobbing between us.

Anna ran the crop up my thigh and over my hips, drawing it north to circle each nipple with the leather tip. I shuddered as she raised it higher, lifting my chin to make eye contact.

"Such a lovely body. Shame to mark it, but…" she sighed, her expression hardening. "Turn around."

I paused a moment wondering whether to obey, then decided it best to play along. She'd clearly put some effort into this surprise gift and, although I wasn't sure I had the whole picture, I owed her the benefit of the doubt.

Rotating on the spot I faced Zoe. Demure, I thought. Her deep brown eyes seemed almost as dark as her hair, something intangible etched on her expression. She shook her head fractionally, then squeezed her eyes shut. I focused momentarily on the pretty Medusa stud nestled centrally just above her upper lip, the silver catching the light.

It was an open secret she wasn't happy with Stephen, just staying with him until the kids left home in a few years. He was probably the only one who didn't know. But I detected something burning inside her. Was it remorse? Regret? Maybe Anna and her had talked before I arrived home. They’d been friends since school and probably shared everything. I shivered again.

There was no time to reflect or take in what was going on. My bottom stung as the crop landed with force on the bare flesh and my hand flew to cover the area. "Fuck!"

Intense heat radiated my body from the strike point out, rippling over my ribs to flush my chest and beyond. Zoe's eyes snapped open and she overtly ogled my erection surging with blood, making it lazily rise. I flushed further at the attention.

The crop pressed at my wrist to ease it away from my bum. "Hands by your sides and keep them there. Look at her."

I took in Zoe's sexy hips, her tiny belly hump the only interruption to the classic female shape. The swell of her cleavage was tantalising as it disappeared beneath the oversize ribbon, the material rising and falling with each breath.

I recalled the gentle pressure of her chin buried against my shoulder the month before when I'd dropped back some DVDs we'd borrowed and found her drunk and red-eyed, barely holding it together. The heat of her quivering body pressed to mine and the way her breath had played across my neck turned me on. I'd held her as she sobbed, stroking her hair to calm her, which eventually led to her pulling away a fraction and gazing up at me. So vulnerable. The kiss came from nowhere and I didn’t stop it. Powerful. Strong. She tasted of salt and alcohol and citrus and steamy promise. Stephen was a fool to neglect such raw beauty.

Another strike rang out across the room, closely followed by my cry of pain. I squeezed my eyes shut to prevent them popping from my skull while the heat swirled, somehow keeping my hands by my sides as instructed. The throbbing heat eddied and grew to arousal just before the next swish of the crop crackled through the air and landed. Then the next.

I began to pre-empt the measured strokes, tensing my buttocks in an attempt to minimise the stings. Anna must have noticed because she started randomising the delays to catch me out.

When I reopened my eyes, burning them into Zoe's, I swear she mouthed 'Sorry' as a tear escaped to roll down her cheek. I frowned but it turned to a grimace as my wife arced the crop, slamming it into my bottom before reaching around with her free hand to grasp my full erection.

In stark contrast to the spanking, her touch was soft and I swelled, despite wincing when her lingerie brushed my tender rear.

She purred in my ear. "Isn't she beautiful all wrapped up for you?" I nodded. "Don't you just want to touch her? Feel how soft she is? Kiss her everywhere? Make her wet?" I murmured my affirmation as she bit my earlobe, an edge to her voice. "Would you like to fuck her?"

Clearly, my cock didn’t care if it was a trick question and surged in her palm. I panicked all the same, skin suddenly clammy, hands damp. Did she know about the kiss? Fuck. It was innocent. Heat of the moment. But then, maybe it wasn’t innuendo. We’d talked about this fantasy, but that was ages ago and we were drunk. Christ, could she have remembered?

My wife’s hot breath tickled my ear. "You want to fill her up with this, don't you? Screw her on all fours. Hear her whimper as you pick up speed. Feel my mouth slip against her jumping clit an inch from where your dick splits her. My tongue slithering up over your balls, taking them in my hot, wet mouth as you pound her."

I wasn't the only one expressing disbelief at her words. Zoe's eyes seemed to dominate her sockets as my wife continued her monologue. "When you pull out, dick all covered in her come, I’d suck you clean then bend and eat her from behind. Isn’t that part of your fantasy? To watch me make out with another woman? Perhaps I’d be extra naughty just for you. Spread her peach and tongue her darkness, making her squirm as I probe her tight rear, opening her up for you to work your way inside. Split her arse open with this fat cock until she gasps. Until she's begging for more."

She’d never been so explicit, even while we were making love. She was usually fairly quiet, the odd moan, the odd whispered encouragement. Nothing like this. It was as if the outfit had awoken something inside her. Or perhaps she'd been in the drinks cabinet. Whatever it was, I remained solid in her hand as she stroked my length.

Anna raised the crop in the space between Zoe's body and mine, trailing its tip up to caress her friend's cheek. I watched the woman ahead of me shudder as the loop of leather worked its way down her sensitive skin until it curved into the space between her splayed thighs. Zoe breathed in sharply when Anna stroked the crop over her bush and slid it forward. From the look on Zoe's face, I could make an educated guess at which parts the crop reached, sawing back and forth across and between her nether lips like a cellist's bow.

There was something mesmerising about watching Zoe's excitement rise. Each sweep of the crop made her twitch and jerk like she was being stung, and when Anna brought the end away it glistened in the light. She raised it to my lips and I detected arousal moments before she commanded I lick it.

Zoe's cheeks coloured when I tentatively outstretched my tongue, swabbing the leather, smooth across my taste buds. She was heavenly. Aromatic. A delicious concoction of zest and lust that made me lightheaded as I savoured her juices.

My wife whispered in my ear. "You like that? Like the taste of that wet pussy?"

"Aha."

"Then tell her."

I snapped my attention to Anna. "What?!"

"Tell her what you want."

"Are you crazy?"

She squeezed my cock firmly, whether as a warning or promise I wasn't sure. Said nothing, just nodded for me to begin.

Swallowing, I stared at my bare feet then drifted my eyes up those soft curves. "Zoe, I w…” I swallowed again. “I want... to fuck you."

Zoe stiffened and Anna smiled. "There, that wasn't so difficult, was it? Is that all you want? Don't be shy."

I stared at her a moment. "Well, no. I'd also, ummm."

Anna stroked my hardness and smeared a drop of pre-come around the head, making it glisten. "It's your birthday, Marcus. Go wild."

Was this for real? Carte blanche with a beautiful woman while my wife watched? Or even joined in? A drunken conversation about fantasies was one thing, but acting it out sounded like the sort of thing that happened to other people. Luckier people. I took a breath. "I'd like you to sit on my face. Properly sit. Crush me to the bed and own me."

Blood surged into my cock in Anna's grasp and she cooed. "Did you hear that, Zoe? My husband wants to be dominated." She reached out to smooth a lock of hair behind Zoe's ear, the crop dangling from her wrist by its strap, and traced fingertips down her neck and shoulder. I watched the raven-haired beauty shudder as my wife's fingers worked their way to her midriff, then lower to cup her snatch. Zoe drew breath. "He wants this-" She slipped her fingers over the girl's labia, "Hot." Zoe's mouth opened as my wife's fingers explored. "Wet." She curled her fingers inside to the first knuckle and Zoe's eyes rolled back. "Little pussy to smother his face."

Drawing her fingers out, glistening with Zoe's arousal, she brought them to the girl's mouth and smeared the juices like lip gloss, then slipped her fingers in. Zoe sucked, hesitantly at first, before ramping the vigour. Anna smiled. "Would you like that?"

Zoe nodded.

"You want to own my husband?”

Another nod.

My wife smiled. She released us both, sashayed to one side of the bed, laid the crop on the pastel duvet and climbed on to kneel alongside her schoolmate. With a speed that surprised us both, she grabbed a fistful of Zoe's dark locks and tugged her head back, snarling, "Suck his cock well and you might earn it. Don’t hold back. He likes it rough."

She guided her friend forward and down, steadying her so she didn’t overbalance due to her hands being bound in the small of her back. The heat of Zoe’s breath played over my bobbing cock as her face came to rest an inch above its sensitive flesh. Anna's words were raspy. "See that?" Zoe nodded as best she could with the limited movement afforded. "It's your world for the next few minutes. Make them count."

Giving the woman a little slack while still holding enough hair to prevent her from tipping forward, I swelled as Zoe opened her mouth and swallowed my bulbous head. Hot and wet, her tongue swirled and I groaned. Whether it was the angle, being piloted by Anna or she was simply skilled at cocksucking I couldn’t tell, but the net effect was electrifying. Working her way down my shaft, inch by glorious inch, she forged a path deeper and deeper until the entirety of my length disappeared and she spluttered at the extent. The sensation of her throat clamping the head of my fat prick made me draw breath, sharp and cold between my teeth.

To my utmost surprise, she didn’t stop. Coughed. Gagged. Strings of saliva swung and looped from her lips to my balls, then to the carpet like white jungle vines as she gurgled and swallowed every millimetre. Then she was gone, cool air swirling to replace the heat around my throbbing pole, head eased back by her hair. Our eyes locked and she gasped over and over, heaving in deep lungfuls of desperately needed oxygen, makeup streaming down pretty cheekbones, lips engorged and smeared with spit. I was slack-jawed. She looked so fucking sexy.

Both women gazed at my jumping cock but it was Anna who spoke. “He likes that.” She leaned into Zoe’s ear, twisting the girl’s head towards her mouth a little in the process. “You want more? I can help you take it properly, just how he likes it. You do want to please him don’t you?”

Zoe bit her lip and nodded, still breathing hard.

My wife’s lips curled upwards at the corners. “Deep breath.” With a little more force than earlier, she pushed her friend face first onto my prick amid the vacuum of air drawn in. I was plunged up into her wet mouth in one stroke, her teeth raking my length, throat closing around the tip as her lips brushed my pubes.

Her cheeks puffed and the muted coughs and spasms sprayed thick cords of bubbling saliva from the base of my cock to drip from my balls. Zoe’s eyes were squeezed tightly shut as I invaded her throat, hands still obediently by my sides. Each time she choked, I surged inside her, orgasm rapidly surfacing. It was incredible and I glowed inside, the welts across my tender rear connecting with a heat deep in my belly.

Anna must have noticed the telltale signs of my end as I drew deeper breaths with each passing moment. She yanked her spluttering best friend to the vertical again and watched me fight my way back from the brink as Zoe recovered.

“Good boy,” she chided as our eyes connected. “You don’t come until I say so. Otherwise, she gets a spanking.”

Before today I’d have thought she was bluffing. Thought I knew her after twenty-one years of marriage, but in the last half hour, I wondered if that was the case. Had I missed a sign somewhere? Left the toilet seat up too many times? I knew she was under pressure at the agency. We’d talked almost ad nauseum about how her boss often imposed on her to stay late for last minute client work. Designs that always needed to be done yesterday. I’d asked her to seriously consider leaving if it was too much, but she assured me she enjoyed impressing him with her capabilities. Working to tight deadlines drove her to produce her best work, and she was extremely talented.

Maybe this was her fucked up way of apologising for the late nights where I’d already be asleep when she got home. She knew I liked to be dominated. We’d role played last year. No, the year before. Or was it before that? Fuck, my memory. Full of work. Full of crossing T’s and dotting I’s and lawyers and handshakes and meetings and endless vending machine coffee around oval tables. Well, if this was an apology, it was off the charts. Best birthday gift ever.

I tore myself from her gaze and glanced down at my spit-soaked cock, slippery and angry and wanting. Anna released the grip on Zoe’s hair, knelt on her haunches and patted the bed alongside her friend’s thigh. “I think she’s earned a little reward after that, don’t you? Lie here.”

Shuffling onto the bed over the low wooden footboard, I did as instructed, coming to rest face up, wincing slightly as my bottom nestled into the duvet cover. Heat radiated from Zoe’s curvy leg against my cheek.

Anna held out her hand as support and let Zoe take it, guiding the slightly larger frame of her friend sideways, knee brushing my nose as she ended the move straddling my face. Tantalisingly out of reach, glistening folds maybe two inches above me, her wiry pubic hair was dappled with droplets of perspiration and sticky juices. The mouthwatering scent of her arousal washed over me and I was aware of my cock bobbing in anticipation. I’d never wanted someone other than my wife so much.

The bed deformed as Anna climbed from it and moved to stand alongside us. She had evidently retrieved the crop as the next thing trailing up and down my wet cock was the strip of leather. Slow strokes that circled my balls at one extreme and flicked off the sensitive head at the other, where she smeared pre-come and saliva with it.

Her voice was uptight. “I think he would like his gift from you. And do it properly, like he asked.”

Almost immediately, Zoe’s knees inched outward as she lowered herself to my waiting mouth. Her pussy was hot and wet and swollen from the arousal that had forced blood to her lips, opening her labia to my salacious gaze. My extended tongue slipped into her receptive canal with ease as she gently pressed more of her weight onto me. I could taste her heady flavour. So different from Anna. More metallic, but delicious.

I kept my tongue stiff allowing her to fuck herself against it, penetrating her with each roll of her hips. Each time she ground down, I would dive deeper until I tasted a change in her tangy elixir. I lapped at the wet silk of her walls as they began to tighten and thicken until the sensation against my tongue just seemed to disappear. A mix of pussy juice and saliva coated my chin to create a slick pad for her to mash her clit methodically and ever so slowly, back and forth.

Anna’s voice cut through the relative quiet. “Properly.”

Zoe flinched as a bare-handed slap echoed around the room. The shockwave of Anna’s hand blasted over my forehead immediately before Zoe circled her groin harder against my face. My cock jumped, meeting the tip of the crop that was being held above it, as Zoe crushed her hips down into the bed. Her pussy lips splayed against my mouth and I treated her to a wet kiss, jamming my tongue as far inside her drooling cunt as I could.

She rocked her hips forwards and backwards, my nose nestling into the crack of her gorgeous peach, the musky, forbidden scent mixing with the taste of her drizzling flow, clashing inside my head and igniting my senses. Fuck, she was delicious.

Heat raced from the tip of my cock and eddied in my abdomen as Anna snapped the crop against the exposed mushroom head. I groaned up into Zoe’s core, the vibrations making her quiver against my mouth.

Once again, a stinging slap to Zoe’s bum whistled above me amid a rasped, “Harder.”

Zoe did as instructed, crushing her needy centre against my face. “Yesss.”

She yelped as Anna slapped her with a firm strike. “No talking. Take what you need from him. Make him service you. Come on him. Drown him.”

With a fierce grinding, Zoe gyrated powerfully above me, my air supply rhythmically cut off as her butt clenched around my nose, and soaked pussy lips smothered my mouth. A thrill coursed my body, transferring blood to my engorged member that Anna scuffed and scratched with her nails and riding crop. Zoe’s hands, still bound behind her, gripped my temples as she used me. I was more excited than I could ever remember.

Anna again must have sensed that we were both rapidly ascending to the pinnacle of an explosive orgasm. She abruptly wrenched Zoe from her mount and positioned her to stand alongside the bed. Zoe’s feet were forced apart slightly broader than shoulder width. The remnants of my saliva, mixed with her thickening juices, formed a somewhat translucent thread that hung deliciously from her lips.

“You,” she snapped the crop onto my dick. ”Stand here, behind her.”

I rose from the mattress with a slight wince. My cock, now like forged steel, was at full attention, angled toward the ceiling. My balls, tucked neatly at either side of the base, were poised to discharge their payload the moment my mistress commanded them to do so.

As I took up position at her rear, Zoe’s stunning ass made me draw breath. So inviting. Her cheeks held slightly more weight than Anna’s, the deterioration of her marriage perhaps the catalyst, but I had no complaints. There was something about a full, healthy woman that excited me. I had often admired the ripples Anna’s ass flesh would make as my thrusting hips slapped into her cheeks on the occasions we fucked doggie style.

Anna took a firm grip of my shaft as I neared. “Are you ready for the finale, birthday boy?” She let out a soft chuckle. “Silly question. Look at how hard you are.” She gave a squeeze and I twitched. “Don’t think I’ve known you so big.” I sensed a tinge of cynicism.

She pulled me closer to Zoe, the exquisite heat of her cunt radiating as Anna held the head of my cock against her entrance. Lowering to kneel beside the bed, Anna dragged my cock the full length of her friend’s dripping slit. Repetitive. Tantalising. Up and down, cooing as the dome gathered sticky nectar that drizzled down the shaft and over her fingers.

She mewed, pulling my cock to the side and gently kissed my engorged helmet. “I’ve been waiting to watch this for a while now.”

One hand still gripping my cock and the other now cupping my ass, she eased my manhood forward until I was parting the swollen, silky entrance to her best friend.

Millimetre by millimetre, my meat disappeared, swallowed by the incredible heat until my tuft of pubes nestled snug against Zoe’s asshole. I paused there for a treasured moment, savouring the first pussy wrapped around my cock since before Anna and I had begun courting.

I turned my head to face Anna, still kneeling below me. My eyes caught her focus, not up at me, but gazing intently at the union of her husband with another woman’s searing cunt. What an amazing, selfless woman. I made a mental note to be sure to thank her properly once this was over. Maybe a gift of some sort? What do you give a wife as a gift to say ‘thank you’ for letting me fuck her mate?

My thoughts were snapped back to the task at hand by a firm, loud, stinging slap to my already tender ass. “Fuck her!” Anna barked.

I vigorously pulled back, admiring the shiny glint of woman juice that now lubricated my veined member, and thrust forward with conviction. As my hips ploughed into Zoe’s alabaster ass, the sound of our flesh meeting echoed around the bedroom.

Using every ounce of core strength I thrust over and over, harder and harder into Zoe’s tender snatch. Her restrained whimpers of delight drove me on, knowing she would love nothing more than to repeatedly cry out if it weren’t for the threat of another spanking.

Anna rose to her feet and placed a hand on my shoulder, her lips grazing my ear. She began to seductively seethe with what I thought was going to be a monologue of encouragement.

“I see the way you look at her, Marcus.” She paused as I slowed until a firm hand squeezed my rump to urge me back to full speed. “That cocktail party, you remember it, right?” She didn’t wait for confirmation. “I saw the way you two shared looks. Thought it was all in my head, but I recall you were the only one who found her quips so amusing.”

My thoughts began to swirl, but Christ, Zoe’s pussy was impossibly snug, sheathed around my steel. Should I stop? Has this gone too far?

Anna’s voice raised in pitch. Urgent. “Fuck her! I‘ve waited for this. I want to see you fill her pretty little hole with your seed. The same seed that started our family.” Her voice trailed.

That was it, I tried to pull out but Anna dug her nails into my ass and I yelped.

Her breathy words tickling my ear started a full body shiver as the prickling heat of orgasm welled. “Come inside her now, Marcus. Take your gift.”

The erotic combination of the burning sting and those words were all my balls needed. The rush surged from deep in my belly and travelled fast, firing load after ropey load into Zoe’s womb. My body shuddered and Zoe’s walls constricted around my throbbing cock as she cried out and came too.

Nothing existed for several long seconds as my hips jerked and I emptied inside her delightful snatch, our groans only interrupted by Anna. “This was your fantasy, wasn’t it, Marcus?”

My focus drifted to my wife. Her hands were in her hair and her voice seemed to change tone as she continued:

“I don’t know, maybe it was my fault? I brought up a threesome that drunken night we shared our wildest fantasies. I always imagined it would be with a nameless face. Some girl we both chose and seduced back to our place for a night of debauchery, with the promise of never seeing her again. But you were so quick to mention Zoe. My best fucking friend.”

My thrusting slowed to a sombre pace. My gut twisted at her words and I wanted to stop, but my primal instincts kept my hips unconsciously gyrating, spewing the last drops of seed into Zoe.

“You…“ she swallowed. “You fantasize about her. Did you know you murmur her name in your sleep? Of course not, how could you?” She stepped away from us and I was gripped by a potent mix of fear sprinkled with confusion. My body froze, so much that to remove my softening cock from its pussy sheath seemed as monumentally difficult as removing Excalibur from its stone. “How could you?”

Anna turned and made her way to the nightstand. She yanked open the top drawer and withdrew a legal size manilla envelope. Walking past us, she placed it — the second envelope of the day inscribed with my name — onto Zoe’s ass as if it were a coffee table.

“Happy birthday, love.”

My mouth fell open as she strode from the room. “Anna! Anna, wait!”

The only reply was her footsteps retreating down the hall and stairs, dread bubbling like the come that oozed around my cock from Zoe’s throbbing heat.

I regarded the envelope, stomach twisting, telling myself it couldn’t be happening. That it was an elaborate joke and my wife would come back all smiles and wishing me a happy birthday for real. But there was nothing except the roaring of blood in my ears and the laboured breathing of Zoe bent ahead of me.

Suddenly galvanized, I pulled out, globs of spunk stretching and dripping to the carpet before I raced for the bedroom door, flinging it open, tearing down the corridor and onto the staircase.

I froze at the turn, naked, the wheels of a roller case squeaking in the hall, the lounge door shutting under its own weight. Anna came into view, coat over her lingerie, dragging the case.

“Anna! Please. Don’t go.”

She paused at the bottom of the staircase and glanced up at me. For a moment there was a wedded connection and I no longer saw the mistress. But her expression bore a look I did recognize; one of anguish. Something deep in her eyes. Something painful. Oddly, hope sparked then just as quickly faded as she spoke: “It’s for the best, we both know it in our hearts. I’m giving you what you want. What we both want, but have been too afraid or maybe just too naïve to admit.”

The air filled with silence. A heavy, almost deafening silence as her words were digested. I tried to find words of my own. Frantically digging into recesses of my brain, I searched for words to change her mind. To stand in front of the locomotive rolling downhill and by some miracle coax it to reverse. No more words formed. Just nothingness. A weight.

Anna continued to speak, a soothing calmness to her voice. And, although I heard her next words, my brain refused to fully process them, as if it were in some state of mindless suppression. I knew we had drifted, it wasn’t the first time, but we had always figured a way to rebound. Nothing remotely close to letting me fuck her best friend was ever a part of the reparations. What was I missing? There had to be something.

My eyes flitted back and forth. From her to the family photos on the wall, back to her, then to the… I went cold. A moment of clarity.

The painting.

I recalled her gushing over the print as she made it square on the hook I’d put up. Relationships need a gardener, Marcus. And a flower. The roles may ebb and flow but two of the same for an extended period results in failure, a breakdown. She’d bought it soon after we moved in as a reminder of our strength together; two people fulfilling different roles in a relationship. And I’d let the picture become part of the furniture. Faded into the background. Something so familiar that it fails to register, like the name of the fridge manufacturer that I saw every day but couldn’t recall.

Twenty-one years of marriage. I’d taken it for granted. Perhaps we’d both taken it for granted. Her lips were still moving. God, they were gorgeous. I didn’t want to hear what they were saying. I didn’t want to, but I did.

“I have planted a new flower for you, Marcus. Tend to her well.” She wiped at a stray tear before reaching for the handle and swinging the front door open.

Unable to hold my own weight, I sank to sit naked on the nearest step, burying my face in my hands at the same moment the front door closed.

I don’t know how long I stayed there. Long enough that when Zoe sat on the step behind, the warmth of her body was a welcome, consoling embrace. She’d removed the bow, the soft mothering flesh of her breasts flattening against my back, her pubes tickling my sacrum and the drumming of her heartbeat a surrogate for mine that seemed to have stopped beating.

She stroked my hair, whispered everything was going to work out in time and gave another firm squeeze. It was too soon to know if they were just words or if by some harmonious irony they would become circumstance.

We didn’t move. Just huddled in the silence of the house.