"Maybe not like this..."

Alice looks down at the floor, sadly.

"What I meant was, I want you to talk to me first and be safe. No more drunken club hook-ups with guys you don't know," you explain to her. Alice looks up, relief on her face.

"I can do that," Alice says, "if you're okay with it".

You admit, "I really don't know why...but yeah. If you want to have sex with other guys, I'm okay with that, as long as it's just sex." Alice nods, still looking unsure about the situation.

"Okay," she says. "I'm...sorry I just dropped this on you. I should have said something sooner."

"What's done is done," you say, "complete honesty from now on, all right?"

Alice nods. "Thank you for taking this so well," she says.

"You're welcome," you say, "thank you for thinking of me when it happened". You're actually amazed you said what you just did, and the words feel incredibly odd coming out of your mouth, but you realize they accurately describe the situation, which grants you a large amount of comfort. You add, "I love you", for good measure.

Alice smiles, and says, "I love you, too". She stands, quiet, for a moment and a bit of awkardness descends. Finally, you say something. "Aren't you forgetting something?"

"What?" she asks, nervously.

"Your post-sex shower," you say. Alice bursts out laughing, and her sudden bout of laughter breaks the ice a bit further.

"Right," she says. She stumbles past you, carrying her sports drink, kissing your cheek on her way to the bathroom. As she staggers there, she takes her dress off and is naked before she even walks into the room. Before long, you hear the shower running. You walk to the bedroom, saying "I'm going on to bed, baby, don't stay up too late" into the bathroom on your way there.

You hear "I won't," as you shut the lights off and lay down. You fall asleep before Alice joins you in bed.

She sleeps through the morning, when you get up and get ready for work. Finally, during midday, she texts you and mentions she found a dating website for people in open relationships and swingers, and that she signed up for it. She also mentions she started a conversation with a nice man who is part of a swinger couple. Alice doesn't mention anything more about it during the week, and for the time being that seems to be the end of it.