Second base also took a while. I was patient.

Kim’s sixty-four. Willis is fifty-something. There won't be any hormonal urges. Know what I mean?

When I could, I put the two of them together. She likes him. He likes her. He’s awkward talking to her when I’m around. I say nice things about him. He does things for her or to be noticed by her. These are all good signs.

He’s a good man. Divorced. Volunteers for community shit. Talked her into helping him a couple of times. She came home buzzed about it.

She’s chatty about him around me. I encouraged her to talk to him. I told her he doesn’t have anyone to talk to. I said he’d appreciate it if she spent time just talking to him. Not easy, I said, to have new friends that don’t know his ex. She thought about that. That was another good sign.

We had another cook out maybe three weeks later. Same as before; same people, same me. I made myself scarce when I could. Towards the end I suggested we all go on a picnic next weekend. To the state park. Willis said yes immediately. None of the others could make it. The three of us said we’d go anyway.

She fucked me hard that night. Like she needed to mark me as hers. I told her it was a good fuck. She snuggled close. I said “You know, I still want you to fuck another man for me someday. When you do, I want you to fuck him just like that.”

She punched me. She said, “If I ever fuck another man, he better fuck like you. I’d be disappointed if he didn’t. But this isn’t happening.”

Second base. She’d gone from completely opposed to my “pervert” idea to being playful about it.

She dressed for him that day at the state park. For me she’d wear jeans, sneakers, and a woman’s tee. For him she chose culottes, a sleeveless blouse, and sandals. Willis’ opinion of her had become important. I could see that.

He dressed up, too. Dockers, polo shirt, canvas walking shoes. The two of them matched. I was odd man out. Jeans and Tee. Both upscale but not at their level.

It was a good day to be outside. Sun was warm. We walked a trail for a while then we sat on a blanket and ate sandwiches. We drank Margaritas. Stiff ones. I faked a pee and left them alone. They were used to it by now. I gave them twenty minutes. When I started to come back, I saw her hand was on his back, tapping him. Comfort taps. She was leaning into him. She was consoling him.

I waited. Whatever that was, it was personal. That was another good sign.

He straightened. I could see him getting control of himself. She put her arm around his shoulder. She gave him a squeeze. He put his hand on her shoulder. Gave it a squeeze, too.

They separated. Went back to sipping their Margaritas. He was talking. She was quiet and nodding to whatever he said.

I waited some more. I waited until they looked around for me. Then I went back.

They asked what happened to me. I made up a story about running into an old friend.

All was normal again. Normal again, except they were quiet. Like we-just-had-a-moment kind of quiet.

Now it was Willis’ turn to pee. He left.

“He’s lonely,” she said. “He needs a girlfriend”.

I said, “I kind of figured that, being divorced and all.” I followed that with “Should I find him one?”

She told me no and then she said “He needs to hang out with us. A little while. He shouldn’t be alone.”

She decided she had to pee, too. She left. I sat there waiting. I thought about her saying no when I asked if I should find him a girlfriend. She’s not one to share her stuff. If he wasn’t special, wouldn’t she want me to find him a girlfriend? I wondered if she wanted to keep other women away.

They came back ten minutes later. Both in good spirits.

We packed up and brought Willis home; we cooked a couple of burgers; we drank wine. We laughed and joked till it came time for him to go. I hugged him like a brother and slapped his back. Told him I had a good day with him. He gave me a bro hug back. I told Kim to come get a hug. I said “Willis gives the best hugs.”

She came to get one. He folded his arms around her to prove he gave the best hugs. I’d given him a challenge and he rose to it. She patted him on the back while he hugged her. He took his time, too. He looked like he needed it. She looked like she wanted to give him all the time he needed.

She'd seen Willis as a sexual being that day. She was aware he had needs and that he needed someone to fill them.

I was definitely at third base with a good lead towards home plate.

I’m telling you all of this so you know we’re not some kind of confused teenagers in puberty our second time around. We’re functional adults. Married and over sixty in our case; divorced and over fifty in his. We fuck on purpose at this age. Not by accident, not by drugs, not by drink, and definitely not because of hormonal urges. We fuck on purpose...like adults are supposed to do...not because we have to but because we want to.

I call it My Bucket List of Fucks Before I Die. The name tells you what you need to know. Kim was on this list to fuck another man before I die. I was working it.

After our picnic weekend, Willis asked Kim to another charity event. A charity ball. The Annual Black-and-White-and-Read-All-Over Ball hosted by the St.Paul Pioneer Press. If you know the newspaper joke, you know why men wear tuxedos with red flowers in the lapels at these events. Women wear red, mostly red, or white. It‘s elegant and it’s for charity. Not my cup of tea.

Willis asked me first. God bless him. At sixty-six there’s nothing more satisfying than being respected. He said he wanted to go; that he’d never been; that Kim was really the only one he wanted to dance with; and that he would pay for my tux, her gown, and he’d make a donation in our name.

He said, “Will you both come and be my guests?”

I said, “Nope. Not me, Willis. This isn’t my kind of thing. But I’m okay with you asking Kim to go. It’s yours and her kind of thing to do.”

I saw it on his face. He was more delighted than surprised. He stammered something so I told him, “Don’t be an asshole, Willis.  This thing isn’t me. Ask Kim. She’ll love it. She likes this shit. She knows I don’t.  But you gotta be the man in this. You gotta ask her in private so she can say yes or no without anyone knowing. And you gotta respect her decision when she gives it. Can you do that?”

He said he could. He said this was a huge favor. I told him it was friends helping friends when they needed it. Not a favor. He shook my hand like a fuckin’ Viking warrior. Thought it was gonna break. I think he floated out of the room after that.

Kim told me the next day. She said she asked him if I knew about this. He said yes so she said yes. Then he told her I wasn’t coming. She told him she was mad at him for not telling her that fact first. Then she told him she was mad at me for not telling her about it at all. Then she told him she was going with him anyway.

That was when she surprised me. “If I go to this ball with him…without you…I’ll fuck him.”

I was all stoic and shit. I didn’t let her see how happy I was to hear that.

She told me she didn’t have sex after senior prom like other kids… because no one…no one…had asked her to go. She said she wasn’t going to miss a second opportunity to fuck a date after a prom. She said she was sixty-four years old and she would fuck Willis if I didn’t go with her. Maybe she said sleep with him, don't really remember.

I told her I understood this feeling. I said I felt the same way about things I hadn’t done in my life, too. As long as she didn’t fall in love with him, I said, I was okay with it.

She punched me. Hard. “Bastard.” She called me that when she got her way without a fight.

I said, “Look, let me be real. I want you to fuck another man and I’m okay if it’s Willis. He needs a good fuck from someone who cares about him and…you know it’s true… there’s no one here for him but you. You’re right. You’re sixty-four, we’re adults, it’s the prom you missed, you should go.”

Her eyes were hard. She wanted me to fight her and then give in to whatever she wanted to do. That’s the way we usually fight. But I wasn’t fighting. I told her we’d been married all these years for a reason and the reason was because we love each other…no matter what. I told her she wasn’t going to change and I wasn’t going to change. Just because she fucked someone else once…when I wanted her to…our marriage and our relationship was not going to change.

I pulled her close and said, “If you decide to fuck him that night, fuck him good. Let him know he’s special. Let him know he’s your first. I’ll be here when you get home. I’m not going anywhere.”

She hugged me hard. I hugged her hard. “Let’s fuck,” I said. We went to bed and slow-fucked a very long time. It was good for us.

 Adults fuck on purpose. I told you that. That’s what we did that night and several other nights while we waited for the ball.

We didn’t talk about it again. It was there…but we didn’t talk about it. She had me along when she picked out her dress. I was okay with that. She chose red. The color of sin. It fit. And we didn’t talk about that either.

We had Willis over twice before the ball. Once with friends and once by himself. I told him to impress Kim. Limo. Flowers. Dinner. Dancing. I said “Willis, she’s sixty-four years old and I expect you to go all in on this. This prom-like experience… she didn’t have this when she was young. Make it special.” He said he would and thanked me again.

Everyone asked “what’ll you do while they’re at the ball”. I said, “I don’t know.”

I ended up accepting a cookout with the Madisons across the street. They had a hot tub. Might be nice to sit with them. She had big tits. They might float.

When Willis showed up in the limo, he looked really good. Kim was a fuckin’ knockout. She wore her age like a queen. I had them pose for pictures. They looked good together. Willis gave me a Cabernet from Alexander Valley. My favorite. I drank most of it across the street. The Madisons had shit wine. Every fuckin’ time. But they were fun people and she had nice tits. They float by the way.

Kim kissed me goodbye in front of Willis and the limo driver. I told them to have a good time and to call on their way home.

They didn’t call. She didn’t come home that night until four in the morning. I heard her but the wine and the hot tub had done me in. I noticed the time and fell back asleep.

When I woke up, she was naked under the covers. Her dress lay on the chair. She didn’t have a bra on when she left last night. She did have panties though. Red ones. They weren’t on the floor or on the chair.

 She smelled like sex.