EARTHQUAKE J.E. POWELL

CHAPTER FIVE

Calling her friends and making the arrangements started the following day as soon as she had discussed it with her husband and his parents.  Conveniently, everyone was available the coming Saturday, after that it would have been dicey to get them all together.

Four days gave her enough time to plan for a party with nine ladies and even though they offered to take at least one item for the party, she still tried to prepare enough just in case.  Only one person was missing from the group and that was Niecey.  She was a bit leery about her so, even though she would have made her feel welcomed had she been able to join them, she had not minded her absence.

Her least favourite memory surfaced of a Friday evening when she had gone to an after-work jam with people from the industry.  At the time Zach had been out of town on an assignment and had encouraged her to go along and have a good time.

That night, Niecey had asked her for a ride back to the office because her husband had been out of town as well and was late getting back.  Actually, her husband was very late since they had left the party after ten that night and she had arranged to meet him at the office since they shared the one car. 

And she and Niecey had got to talking.

Niecey had told her that at one time she and her husband had separated and when they decided to get back together, they had started to work on their communication skills.  They had found out that they had the same fantasy.

The fantasy was that they would each find a third party with whom they would have intimate moments while the other watched.  That was a bombshell to her because before that, Niecey, like most other women, tried to keep it a secret that they actually indulge in sexual activities, even with a husband.

Then came the piece de résistance.  Her husband had already found a man for her to be sexual with, and watched.  She had paused dramatically before she delivered the final tidbit and said she had finally found the woman for her husband so that she could watch.  By that time Phaedra was nonplussed.  She could not figure out why she needed to know that information and wondered where the conversation was going.  

“It’s you,” Niecey had said.

“Me!”  It was the height of incredulity.

“Yes.  My husband likes you and feels he would be comfortable with you.  I really think you are the right person,” as calmly as if she had been inviting her to tea.

Phaedra had laughed uproariously.  It had been especially hilarious after having had two bottles of beer.  What a proposition that had been!  Of course, she had declined.  She had already been struggling to get comfortable with her own sexuality and with having a husband.  How in the world could she wrap her brain around sex with a strange man?  Because he was a stranger, and to know there was an audience even though it would be his wife.

She could definitely see him agreeing to such a tryst because he fancied himself as some kind of player according to the word around the office.  More than one woman had alleged that he would get busy ‘chatting-them-up’ while he waited for her to get off work.

She had promptly told Zach about her proposition and he had found it very funny but he never thought it serious enough to bear any malice towards her.  He had said as long as she was strong in her convictions he did not think it necessary to end the friendship with her. 

“Be cordial because you have to continue working with her, just don’t get in a situation where you’re alone with her and her husband, that’s all,” he had joked.

She had kept in touch for a while after she had stopped working and Niecey had even invited her to church, which she had of course declined and wondered why the invitation to church had not taken precedence over trying to get her involved in some pathetic sexual fantasy.  Anyhow, she had not heard from her in a long while.  Not since she had told her about the debacle regarding the loan to purchase the land to build the house.  By the time she had heard it from her, other of Niecey’s so-called friends had called her to tell her about it.