Harry crossed to the door of the Parker’s bedroom, and looked in to Gay sitting up in bed. She smiled broadly at him, and waved comically.
“Well, everything seems to have worked out all right, wouldn’t you say so, Tom?” Harry grinned.
“Yes… yes I guess it has,” Tom answered, looking at Jill, and smiling with a meaning both of them understood clearly.
“Well, that’s great!” Harry cooed, and then turned to his wife. “Come on, Gay, let’s leave these two love birds to themselves.”
“Coming, dear,” Gay answered, appearing at the bedroom door. “Why don’t you give me the bathrobe you’re wearing, Jill, so I can make it back to our place in comparative decency?”
“Oh, of course,” Jill said, and disappeared into the bedroom, appearing shortly dressed in her own bathrobe, and holding out Gay’s to her.
“Say, listen, you two,” Harry said. “There’s a party over at our place tonight for the whole group of us from Jamieson… you know, the Barnetts, the Wellingtons, the Prescotts… I hope you’ll be rested enough to be there.”
Tom looked at Jill, and she nodded. “Sure, we’ll be there,” he smiled. “But Harry… I mean I don’t want to imply that I’m not having a good time, or anything, but… well, I thought Jamieson was meeting down here to get some work done. When do we get on with the business?”
“The business?” Harry queried, grinning over at his wife.
“Yeah…1 mean, the week’s almost half gone, and we haven’t met together, or.
“Wouldn’t you say the four of us have met together, in a certain sense, Tom?” Gay laughed. Tom blushed, and looked a little confused. “I didn’t mean that kind of business,” he managed.
“Oh, but Tom,” Harry grinned, “that’s the only kind of business".
Tom, more confused than ever, looked down at Jill, but she seemed just as lost as he.
“I don’t understand. I mean, you’ve got the four top executives from Jamieson here, and.. and what do you think they have been doing while we’ve been together; Tom?” Gay Sommers smiled.
Tom hesitated, the truth beginning to work its way like a breaking dawn into his brain. “You mean.
“Exactly, Tom my boy,” Harry laughed. “I’m surprised you haven’t caught on sooner. The Barnetts, and the Wellingtons, and the Prescotts, have all been amusing themselves in much the same way the four of us have for the past couple of days. That, I’m afraid, is the business of this conference.”
Tom was dumb struck. He couldn’t believe it! All the time he had been so preoccupied with the tumultuous events in his marriage, and he hadn’t even thought about the others. Of course! They must all be in on it! Suddenly, Jill began to giggle, quietly at first, and then louder, and Tom had to join her. They looked at each other, and laughed out loud, laughed for their naivet‚, their susceptibility, their relief
“Tom,” Jill coughed, almost choking on her words, “We’re members of a… a… a swap club!” And both of them howled from the incongruity of the situation, while Gay and Harry Sommers stood by perplexed, taking their turn at being confused.
“I don’t get it,” Harry said. “What’s so funny?”
“Nothing… nothing…” Tom managed to gasp through his laughter. “Only everything, that’s all…"He made his way to the sofa, and collapsed nakedly down on it, his face beet red.
“Well, I think you two are crazy,” Gay giggled, “Completely nuts! Come on, Harry, let’s get out of this place before these two loonies give us whatever they’ve got.” And she took her husband’s arm and began to steer him toward the door, more and more infected herself with the contagious laughter of the Parker’s.
“No… no… it’s all…” Jill managed to say, trying not to look at her husband.
“We’ll see you at the party tonight, Tom?” Harry mumbled, as he disappeared out the door.
“See you two tonight, then,” Gay said as she left. “And come prepared for anything. This is a wild group we’ve got here.” And smiling, she closed the door behind her.
For a while Jill and Tom laughed. on, unable to avoid the completely amusing, and yet painful realization of what had actually happened in the past few days. To come from the depths of a dissolving sterile marriage, from the frustration and torment of a disastrous sexual relationship, to the ultimate membership in some kind of swap club, and all that in the space of only two short days… it was too much to comprehend! Finally, the two of them calmed down somewhat, and Jill came to join her husband on the sofa.
“Well, darling,” she said, exhausted. “What do you think?”
“About what?” Tom answered, breathing heavily.
“About this whole thing… everything that’s happened.”
Tom paused a minute, gazing into his wife’s eyes, and then he drew her to him across the sofa, kissed her fervently on the lips, and settled her down in the crook of his arm.
“I think, Jill… I think that no matter how strange this all seems. How unreal and dreamlike… I think that it’s wonderful. Maybe only this crazy an occurrence could have brought us back together.”
“Ummmmm… I think so too, dear.” “But what about tonight? Are you game to go one more round?” Jill paused, and then giggled again. “I’m so tired.” Tom laughed, and pulled his beautiful young wife even closer to him. `We don’t have to go if you don’t want to,” he said. “Do you want to go?” “Yes, I think so. That is, if I can get some rest this afternoon.” “All right… I want to go too.” “You’re sure?” “Absolutely.”
And Jill threw her arms around her husband, and kissed him passionately on the lips. Yes, she wanted to go! She wanted to give the new Jill Parker free rein to grow and mature… this new being that gave her such an overwhelming sense of freedom, of worth, and of happiness. She knew it would be difficult, because the old Jill would always be present, watching and condemning. But she also knew that that old being must be vanquished, and could be vanquished.
These past two days had been the finest of her life, for not only had she learned the secrets and the wonders of her own flesh, but the marriage which had been so shaky upon their arrival was now firmly cemented on a rock-solid foundation. She had realized what the cause of their problem was… truly realized it, because Tom had known all along and had told her all along. She had been unresponsive, frigid, refusing to understand the basic needs of her husband and how the unfulfillment of these needs could lead to frustration, anger, even a kind of hatred destroying the marriage completely.
But she understood those basic emotions now, because they were her emotions as well. She needed fulfillment as much as Tom did… perhaps, since she was still a neophyte, even more than he… and with her understanding of that came her understanding of many other things as well. She and Tom could now talk together, about the past and the present and the future, about life and love and sex; they were able to communicate, something they hadn’t been able to really do all along, on a mental level as well as on a physical one. Tom’s love for her was rekindled, grew into a raging fire… and her love for him was stronger, more inspired, than it had ever been.
Jill turned her face up to her husband’s, and found Tom already dozing off She shook him gently, and then whispered to him gently.
“Come on, darling, let’s go to bed. We’ve got to get some rest before tonight.”
“Uhhhhh?” Tom grunted. “Oh yeah, to bed.” He got up, taking Jill by the hand, and began to make his way toward the bedroom. “Are we going to take a little nap?”
Jill smiled, and squeezed her husband’s hand tightly.
“That depends on you, darling.”
The party began at 8:30. Jill and Tom had wakened at about 7:00, dressed, and made their way through the back garden to the Sommer’s cottage. By 8:30, the entire group had assembled, and Jill looked around with some embarrassment at the other executives of Jamieson Advertising, and their wives. It struck her as odd, somehow, that they all looked completely normal that there was nothing to distinguish them as participants in this illicit and exciting society of group sex.