Dinner with the neighbors

After Carrie departs your apartment to have her girls night out with Natalie, you stay on the couch and veg out for a little, before finally pulling yourself together to put on some clothes appropriate for leaving your apartment. Too late and too lazy to make your own dinner, you decide to pick up some takeout, eschewing delivery as you find the delivery charge when combined with the tip to be too much of a surcharge on a meal.

You exit your apartment, but before you can lock your door you are greeted by two of your neighbors walking down the hallway towards you: Chelsea and her husband Victor. You haven't seen Victor in a while, so you try to review what you know about him. The Asian man is far from ugly, with clear and defined facial features and a wiry strength that suits his frame well. He's a couple of inches shorter than you, but he's not short enough that any sane woman would turn their nose up at his height. And he's most assuredly intelligent, given the fact that he's in his final year of medical school at the most prestigious medical school in the city. He's currently wearing a t-shirt bearing the logo of said medical school and a pair of jeans, and carrying several bags of groceries in his arms.

Chelsea, on the other hand, was taking advantage of the warm weather with a crop top blouse and jean shorts. She had a couple of bags of groceries in her hand as well, and being the ace detective that you surmise that they have just finished shopping for groceries.

"John!" Victor greets you cordially. "How's it going? You heading out to see your girlfriend?" Chelsea doesn't say anything, but she does nod at you in a silent and chilly greeting.

"Alas, no. My girlfriend has abandoned me for the evening, deciding that a night out with her best friend was a better choice than staying in with me." You see Victor struggle to hold the vast quantity of groceries, so you ask, "Do you need help with that?"

"Yes, thank you." Victor hands you three bags, then turns to unlock the door to his apartment. "I got greedy and convinced Chelsea that we could make it in one trip."

"I know that feeling," you reply with a light laugh. Victor opens the door and holds it open for his wife who you follow in. The layout of their apartment is identical to yours so you have no trouble following her to the kitchen. A tantalizing aroma greets your senses as you enter the kitchen. You see that a hearty stew is simmering on the burner, and you realize that they're about to start dinner. You set down the bags, and not wanting to intrude, you formulate your exit. "Well, it was nice seeing the two of you. Have a lovely dinner."

"Wait." Victor says, halting your departure. "You should stay for dinner. Chelsea made way too much stew for the two of us, and it sounds like you've been left out in the cold. Stay here, and warm yourself with our company."

"Victor, honey." Chelsea interjected before you could reply. "I'm sure that John doesn't want to stay here and eat with an fuddy duddy married couple like us. There's almost certainly many things John would rather do this evening than stay here."

Your mother raised you to never intrude on other people's hospitality, but Chelsea's response piques your interest. While you certainly have your suspicions as to why she didn't want you there, your curiosity definitely wanted confirmation. Besides, the stew smells real damn good.

"Nonsense, Chelsea," you answer, addressing the two of them. "I'd love to enjoy an evening with the two of you.

"All right," Victor exclaims, clapping his hands in delight. "Come, let's sit down."

You take your shoes off and follow Victor to the living room where they've set up a small dining area. You sit at the proffered seat while Victor goes to find some wine to pair with the dinner. Meanwhile, Chelsea dishes out healthy helpings to all three of you. Victor soon returns with the wine, and all three of your are suddenly sitting down in your seats. Victor does hold hands together and murmur something under his breath, but before you can inquire for more he's already finished and digs into his stew.

You take your first spoonful of stew and as expected, it's delicious. You articulate your impressions, "Wow, this is absolutely divine."

"Yes it is," Victor states, eager to brag about his wife. "This is one of the many dishes in Chelsea's expansive repertoire. I'm incredibly lucky to have her, in more ways than one." He gushes, putting a hand on his wife's hand. Chelsea gives him a polite smile but remains silent, focused on her meal. Victor continues on, clueless of the tense atmosphere between you and Chelsea. "She'll get even better down the road. Once I'm earning big as a doctor and she can quit her job as a massage therapist, she'll have even more time to perfect her craft."

"I'm not necessarily going quit my job when you finally start making money, Victor," Chelsea replies sharply. "I enjoy what I do; every day I go to work and I make people feel better."

Victor waves her off and you get the impression that this is not the first time that they've had this conversation. Wanting to end this awkward moment, you attempt to tactfully change the subject, "So, uh. Out of curiosity, what is in the stew? My palette isn't the most refined, so I can't quite place some of the flavors." That sufficiently distracts the two of them as Chelsea answers you.

"Well, this is a Japanese beef stew, taught to me by my grandmother. Obviously, the large chunks of meat are beef." You nod in confirmation; you're not that dumb. "It's cooked with soy sauce, mirin, which is a popular Japansese cooking wine, ginger, lemon and winter squash."

"Well, thank your grandmother for me next time you see her. It is absolutely scrumptious, and she taught you well."

"She's dead," Chelsea replies flatly.

Not knowing how to respond to that, you murmur a "Sorry for your loss." At this point, Victor has noticed the weird air between the two of you and he presses Chelsea.

"What's the deal with you tonight, Chels. You've been weird ever since we got home." Chelsea sniffs and evades her husband's question, so after a couple moments of silence, you provide an explanation.

"It's my fault, Victor," you confess, as the man turns to look at you. "This past weekend, Chelsea caught me kissing another woman, which led her to the reasonable conclusion hat that I was cheating on Carrie. What Chelsea didn't know at the time was that I had full approval from Carrie to kiss this woman and more."

"So...the two of you have an open relationship?" Victor asks.

"Not exactly," you answer, trying to decide the best way to articulate your response. "I have an open relationship, as Carrie has given her blessing to pursue certain other women."

"Damn." Victor says, looking into the distance. "That's the dream right there."

"Well, it's not my dream to live next door to a hedonistic pervert." Chelsea spits out. "I don't care if Carrie claims that she's okay with it; no woman should ever be fine with infidelity."

"I do admit that it's atypical," you utter calmly. "But I wouldn't be pursuing other women if Carrie wasn't the one to suggest it and guide me into it. For some reason that I can't explain, she's aroused by the idea of me with other women."

"Oh, so she's a cuckqueen, right?" Victor suggests. Chelsea whips her head to look at her husband, curious as to how he knows the definition of that word. Victor, seeing his wife's reaction, clamps his mouth shut, intent on not digging himself into a bigger hole.

"Yes. It really came out in the open last week after we had a threesome for the first time. Since then, she's been trying to convince me to 'spread my wings' sexually, so to speak." Victor whistles along in admiration, which earns him another sharp look from his wife. You feel like you've poked the bear enough, so you refrain from mentioning anything sexual for the rest of the meal.

And as expected, without you to shift the conversation into sexual topics, the rest of the meal passes by normally, though Chelsea remains silent for most of it. You eat a delicious meal complemented with a solid wine, with you and Victor shouldering the brunt of the conversation. Chelsea wolfs down her meal and places her bowl and wineglass in the kitchen before retreating to her bedroom, leaving Victor to lead you out.

"Sorry for intruding. If I'd known that the dinner conversation would go that poorly, I would have declined joining the two of you."

Victor shrugs and downplays your missteps. "It's fine. She just doesn't realize that you're living the dream of every guy on the planet right now: the blessing of your significant other to pursue other women."

"Yeah. There are times that I can hardly believe it myself," you say, chuckling.

Victor slaps you on the shoulder to say goodbye and you wave back at him as you head across the hallway to your own place. Not sure if Carrie will come back tonight, you keep the door unlocked for now and sit down on the couch and mindlessly turn on the television. As you relax in the comfortable plushness, you review what you learned tonight. You wanted into interact with Chelsea since she'd been avoiding you, and what you learned was that your current lifestyle disgusted her. That, or maybe the lady doth protest too much.

After a time, you head to your bedroom and begin your nighttime ritual to go to bed. Soon you're drifting off into a dreamless night of sleep.