Thirty - Jill Emerson [19]
“Like an orgy?”
“Well, like three.”
“No, never.”
Looking off into the distance, “I knew this girl with an absolute passion for going to bed with two men at once. She told me she had done it a couple of times and it was fantastically exciting to her.”
“Two men at once?”
“Yes.”
“You mean one right after the other?”
“I mean two at once.”
“I don’t see exactly what sort of thing they would do.”
“Well, use your imagination.”
“I’m sorry, I’m stupid tonight. But they couldn’t both get into her at the very same time, could they? I don’t see—”
“There is, how to say this, there is more than one aperture in a girl, love.”
“Oh, one in the mouth.”
“Or one here.”
“I never thought of that.”
“Haven’t you there?”
“Never. It’s painful, isn’t it?”
“Not if you know what you’re doing.”
“I’m not sure I see the appeal.”
“You weren’t sure about the calamari, either.”
“Touché. I must admit I’m interested. I don’t know if I’m personally interested or if it’s just that I like to hear what different people do in bed. They would both make love to her?”
“And to each other.”
“Oh, then they were queer?”
“Everybody’s bisexual, they say.”
“Do you really believe that? I’m not sure I do.”
“Well, that’s the new sexual freedom. The new morality. The kids coming along these days are very open about it. They do whatever feels good.”
“I don’t think I could ever have anything to do with a girl.”
“Maybe that’s your hangup.”
“Maybe.”
I put out a cigarette, and looked down at him, and he was quite urgently erect. “Oh,” I said, and he chuckled, and we made love quickly, just a rapid urgent bang, and I made it seconds before he did.
Then, lying together facing each other, I looked at his now-little penis (his is absolutely tiny when it’s soft but respectable enough when it’s not, a complete transformation) and I thought how innocent it was now, how soft and innocent, and I looked up at his face, and all at once I knew.
I didn’t stop to think it over or I might not have said anything, but instead voiced the thought as soon as it came along. I said, “You were one of the men. With that girl. You were one of the two men.”
“Why do you say that?”
“It just came to me. I don’t know why. It’s true, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”
“And you would want me to do that. With you and another fellow.”
“Maybe you would like to think about it.”
“Oh, God. I really don’t know.”
“It excites you, doesn’t it?”
“Oh, damn it, yes, of course it does. Anything sexual excites me if it’s just a matter of thinking about it. I don’t think I could do it. I really don’t. I don’t even think I could let anybody screw me In the bottom, as far as that goes. I don’t think, oh, I don’t even know what I think. I can’t imagine being in bed with you and having you do things with another man. What do you do with him, anyway?”
“The usual things.”
“I just can’t take all this in, Arnold.”
“Why don’t we have some wine and talk about something else?”
“Yes, maybe we should do that.”
And we did, and he hinted that he wouldn’t at all mind sleeping over, it being cold outside and all, and I said no, that I had to be independent now and that I had made up my mind that one part of my independence was that I would not spend the whole night with anyone. That this was one of the things I had been running from when I left my husband. I had not previously decided any such thing, but I didn’t want him to stay overnight I guess because I wanted to be alone when I woke up and also because I frankly didn’t want to hear any more about group sex until I had a little more chance to digest what he had told me.
The independence aspect went down well, though. Made perfect sense to him and he seemed to respect me for it. He had a last slug of wine, lit himself a cigarette, and away he went into the night, leaving me with more new thoughts to echo around in my head than I had room for.
He is really weird.
Two men at once? I don’t think I could relate to that sort of scene.
Or is it that I don’t want myself to enjoy something like that?
March 3
I am still recovering from the other night with Arnold.