Mutual confessions and new rules.

Gary and Bernie sat nude, except for Bernie's glasses, facing each other in the second-floor window seat of Bernie and Joyce Bernstein's house.

Outside the window, they could hear Bernie's mother Joyce splashing in the pool with Gary's sister Lil. Joyce and Lil had finished with Lil's questions about the Advanced Female Masturbation chapter in Joyce's book Free to Masturbate, and had gone outside to enjoy the pool in the late afternoon. Joyce and Lil were also nude, following Joyce's house rules. Joyce's golden skin shone in the low-slanting sunshine. Her large, heavy breasts bounced as she batted a beach ball back and forth with Lil. Joyce's unruly mop of dark hair was damp from splashes of pool water. Lillian, looking pink and pale beside Joyce, laughed as she hit the ball back. Lil's figure looked almost boyish next to Joyce's lavish curves. Her blonde hair, wet only at the ends, danced each time she bent and swayed to reach the ball. Beside the pool, the grill was set up and ready to go, and the skewers waited on a covered tray.

"All right, did we say everything?" Bernie said.

"I think so," Gary said.

"What did I tell you?" Bernie said.

Gary took a deep breath and cleared his throat. "Um. You masturbate with your mom. Every week. Sometimes every day. You use vibrators and dildos on each other. You finger each other's asses."

Bernie nodded. "Go on," she said.

Gary continued, "When your mom has a Pleasure Circle, you show off your vulva to the other women. You almost always masturbate, watching each other, and sometimes you masturbate each other."

"Go on," Bernie said.

"You used to date only women, but since you stopped seeing your girlfriend Habiba, you haven't been seriously involved with another woman. You see your cousin Ben two or three times a year. You always have sex together, and always try something you haven't done before. Ben's been on your side when you needed it the most. You've had a lot of sexual first times with him. But you've never been romantic."

Bernie snorted. "As if," she said. "Anyway, yes. And last time?"

"Last time was a month ago when his college term was ending," Gary said. "Regular sex the first night. The rest of the week your new thing was anal sex. All kinds. He was up your ass and you were up his. And you liked it."

"Yes," Bernie said, her voice quiet, almost a sigh. "I called you to say I had a great time visiting Ben. I didn't tell you why. So." She looked down.

"Right," Gary said. "What did I tell you?"

Bernie bowed her head. "This summer, a few months AFTER we started dating, you started having sex with Sonia Rubin, your doctor's wife, the woman you're doing odd jobs for. She especially enjoys fellatio and anal intercourse."

"Uh-huh," Gary said.

Bernie continued. "For two years, through three girlfriends, Meg, Sharon, and me, you've been fucking your friend Peter Walker up the ass whenever he calls to ask. You thought it was over because he was so into his new girlfriend Sandy that he'd stopped giving you booty calls, but right before last week's cruise, he called to get back together. And you said yes like you always do. And while you were giving Peter a good fuck, your mom opened the door and saw you, but she stayed quiet and watched until you came together."

"Uh-huh," Gary said. He squeezed Bernie's hand. "And?"

"And that night she came to you at bedtime and told you she liked watching you having anal intercourse with Peter. Seeing you come together. She masturbated you like she used to when you were sick and having trouble sleeping. And the next day I saw you and your mom together in the van, masturbating together with a finger in each other's anus."

Gary nodded, his face rueful. "Uh-huh."

"Do you know how that made me feel?" Bernie said.

Gary searched her eyes behind her glasses.

"I wanted to be in there with you, celebrating your pleasure with you and your mom," Bernie said. "I wanted to cheer you on. But I was out there, my nose to the glass. And when I heard you and Peter had been having sex together longer than with any of your girlfriends, I just felt shut out. And that you never told me, not before, not after, how could you? How could you?"

Tears streamed down Bernie's cheeks. She took in a deep, sobbing breath before she continued.

"I still love you, more than ever, now that I know that you've been Peter's lover so long, that you and your mom masturbate together like me and my mom. That's so perfect. Except you hide almost everything about the most important part of your life! What does that make me?"

Gary hung his head down. His shoulders shook. His own tears started.

They sat together in the window seat, looking at the floor, as laughs and splashes came from outside. After a few minutes, their breathing steadied.

"Do you still want to be with me?" Gary asked.

"More than anything," Bernie said. "But not like this."

"What do you need?" Gary asked.

"I need to be part of your life," Bernie said. "Really part, not just your date, your friend with benefits. I need to know I'm important to you. That I'm more important than Sonia Fucking Rubin's butthole."

Gary hung his head down again.

"Okay," Gary said. "So what should we do?"

"This," Bernie said. "I'll tell you what I need. You tell me if it works for you. You tell me what you need. Okay?"

"Okay," Gary said.

After another twenty minutes of talking back-and-forth, they were both nodding at each other and smiling in relief.

Gary looked at Bernie's face. He leaned forward and dabbed a tear from her cheek.

Bernie smiled. "You've got one too, Gary," she said. She took his head in her hands and kissed away his tears.

Gary said, "Okay?"

"Okay," Bernie replied. "Promise now. What we said." She held up her hand, little finger extended. Gary did the same. They curled their little fingers together and held them as they spoke.

"When I have sex..." Gary said.

"I'll always be there with you," Bernie said. "Unless..."

"Unless I'm masturbating, either by myself or in front of your mom. Unless..." Gary said.

"Unless I say it's okay ahead of time. Each time. And you tell me everything. This includes your mom, Peter, or your doctor's nympho wife Sonia. Or anyone else. Now. When I have sex..." Bernie said.

"It'll be with yourself, with me, with your mom, with women at your mom's Pleasure Circles, or with Ben. Or you get my okay ahead of time. If it's Ben..." Gary said.

"I let you know first," Bernie said. "And tell you everything. With my mom..."

"Anything goes," Gary said.

"If I'm gonna be at a Pleasure Circle..." Bernie said.

"You let me know, before, after..." Gary said.

Bernie laughed and said, "Or during."

"Pinky promise," they said together, pressing their twisted fingers tighter, then letting go.

They looked into each other's eyes and leaned together into a hug, holding each other close and rocking from side to side.

"I love you so much," Bernie said.

"I've never loved anyone as much as you," Gary said. His penis, low and soft during their mutual confessions, moved as his arousal recovered again, tight in the arms of his girlfriend.

Bernie laughed. "I feel like celebrating," she said.

"I feel like dinner," Gary said.

"Oh, you!" Bernie said.

"At least we gotta give your mom the good news," Gary said. He stood up and held out his hand for Bernie.

Bernie looked at Gary's upstanding erection. "You won't have to say a thing," she said.

They walked down the stairs to meet Joyce and Lil.