The Next Day

When they went to bed James didn't really seem himself.

Sara felt a bit apart from her husband. She even tried to initiate sex, which she rarely did, but James said he really wasn't in the mood and she knew that she had upset him. She even tried to snuggle up with him, to ease his tension, but though he let he snuggle up to him, he really didn't make much attempt to be snuggly himself.

Sara slept fitfully.

The next day was a quiet start.

Then Sara decided she needed to deal with this. She needed to make sure he understood that she loved him and no one else would ever, EVER, replace him.

She came up to James. "I love you." She said, and he turned towards her. "I know and I love you." He leaned against the counter in their kitchen. Sara gathered up her strength. "I just wanted to explain about yesterday. I don't want to replace you. I love you. I don't know what started me thinking about it, but its not as important as you are to me. I really love you. Your the best!" He raised up his hand asking for her to stop.

"Baby, you want the experience." He said in his calm, reassuring voice. It was a voice that assured her he wasn't mad. "I'm sorry if I seemed distant, I get that way sometimes when I think about things." She nodded and smiled, then stepped forward and hugged her husband tight and he hugged her back. "I love you I really really do." She said to him again.

When she stepped back he caught her eyes. "Did you have someone in mind?" She froze, was this a test? He smiled at her. "I did think about it baby, just like I said I would." He took a deep breath before continuing. "I know you want the experience. You really didn't have the chance to play the field much before you met me. I did. So its really only fair I give you this chance. I trust you baby and if you want to do this then I am ok with letting you have a bit of fun." Then he pulled her against him. "But there are some ground rules we need to talk about."

Sara was stunned. She didn't really even know where to begin! She gulped as he continued. "If you want to go off an play with someone, then there will be rules. If your ok with the rules then you can, if your not, then I wont agree to this. Ok?" Sara nodded her head. "Ok, lets talk about the rules."