End of Summer (Continue Story)

Relaxing on the patio out back, I stared out past the landscaping to the thick woods at the far end of the property. Summer was almost over and college loomed bigger than ever. It almost felt weird how normal this summer felt considering the massive changes to my life. I had a girlfriend now. A girlfriend who was the hottest woman on the planet and loved me as much as I loved her. I was closer than ever to my best friend. Most of all, I was happy. Truly happy.

I found myself and was comfortable in a way I’d never experienced before. I had a few odd kinks, but who didn’t? Emma loved me regardless, even encouraged me to explore them and Mike accepted me with little judgment. He still laughed about me being weird, but he no longer had the moral high ground considering how many times he joined Emma and me in bed this summer. Even when he wasn’t directly joining us, he certainly never had a problem taking my girlfriend to bed—even when I was there to watch. Hell, he even joined us in a few roleplay situations, calling them, “Sexy DnD.”

Maybe that was why things felt normal. It was normal. Well, minus the sex part of the equation. It had been filled with normal things. Hanging out with friends, going on dates, family stuff—both Emma’s and mine, and sometimes just plain boredom where nothing was going on.

I was jerked out of my thoughts by cold against my cheek. Giggling, Emma let me grab the cold can of soda before taking a seat in the chair next to me.

“What’cha thinking about?” she asked, cracking her can open and taking a sip.

“Life, the universe, and everything,” I responded as I did the same.

“Hmm. Anything interesting come from it?”

“Other than I’m happy in a way I’ve never experienced before? Not really.”

“You make me happy too.”

I suppressed a smile as I glanced over at her. “Never said it had anything to do with you.”

“But it does.” She said it as if stating an inarguable fact and daring me to say otherwise. Since she was right, I kept silent. A comfortable silence stretched on as we both sipped at our cold drinks and enjoyed the company.

“You and Mike are moving to the dorms next week, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Exciting.”

I glanced over at her, but she was unreadable. Time to poke the bear.

“For sure. Can’t wait to see all the hot college babes in the building. Maybe some of the older ones can show me around. I bet there are all sorts of tricks I can learn—”

“This is concerning. When did you start having these suicidal thoughts?” she deadpanned.

I snorted, unable to keep my smile suppressed. “Love you,” I cooed softly, reaching out to rest my hand atop hers.

She said nothing, giving me the cold shoulder for a few moments. When she spoke again, there was a seriousness to her voice. “We do need to talk about us,” she said softly. “Things are going to change.”

Rubbing my jaw, I nodded. A conversation both of us had been avoiding. Not that we were unwilling, but that it was something we were pushing off in the hopes of enjoying the ‘now’ a little longer.

“Not entirely. The place you and Sarah found is only twenty-ish minutes away. Even if I didn’t have a car, there is a bus stop a few minutes' walk away. Our schedules are a bit wonky during the week, but evenings and weekends are free. There will be plenty of time for us to hang out.”

“I’m not concerned about that. More the intimate part of our relationship.”

“Ah,” I said, letting silence fall as I thought about it. “Well, the dorm isn’t exactly private, but my room is. You may have a few girls in your new place, but you have a private room too. Maybe not as private as we are used to, but when has that stopped us?”

She stared directly at me. “I’m talking about other guys, Isaac.”

“Oh. Right.”

“I want to have clear boundaries and expectations going into this new situation.”

I cleared my throat, shifting in my seat as I glanced down at my open soda can as I fortified myself mentally. “What are you thinking?”

“Uh-uh. This isn’t for me to decide.” I looked up at her in surprise. “What? I may enjoy it, but this is your kink. Tell me what you want, and I’ll see where I’m comfortable meeting.”

There was a long silence as I gave the question the attention it deserved. What did I want? It was harder than I thought sorting through the things that sounded hot in theory but were uncomfortable or unrealistic in reality. I managed to get an answer though. Looking up, I shifted in my seat to look at her.

“I want…” I took a breath, sorting through my words once again to see if they were the best fit to describe what I wanted. “I want to try something like the beginning of our relationship. Not exactly how it was, but the general feel of it.” She silently waited, face unreadable as I spoke. “That feeling where I lacked control. How you were always so dominant. I’m certainly not saying I want it all the time, but I want moments like that. To hear about how I wasn’t there for my girlfriend in her time of need, so she found someone to take care of it for her. Or that she simply found a guy attractive and went for it.” I took a moment to catch my breath, forcing myself to continue. “I know we joke and tease about you being my slutty girlfriend, but now I’m somewhat curious and attracted to the idea. I know that’s a huge ask and different than what we had in school but at the same time…”

“You want to try it,” she finished. I nodded as she let out a long breath. “Not going to lie, that’s a huge ask.” I looked down, cheeks heating. “It’s not the sex or the random partners. I’m concerned about its potential impact on our relationship. Having a few friends-with-benefits is a lot different than me hooking up with random guys. After all, what’s the point of us being in a relationship if you just want me to sleep around whenever with whomever.”

“Yeah,” I said, trailing off. In a way, I felt both relief and disappointment. Maybe it was for the best for this to remain a fantasy.

There was an awkward silence as we retreated to our private thoughts.

Emma broke the silence. “We can have a trial run,” she said softly, breaking me out of my thoughts as I looked over at her. She wasn’t looking at me, staring down at her drink. “I’ll… have a one-night stand.” She finally looked at me, a heavy atmosphere between us as her eyes locked with mine. “But if you agree to this, I want things to be absolutely clear as to what you are agreeing to. Saying ‘yes’ here means at some point in the near future, I will sleep with a man you will never meet. A man I pick. A man I wanted. I won’t tell you that I’m doing it. I won’t even tell you when it’s finished—not right away. Every time we are together, you’ll wonder: has she done it yet? You’ll take me out to dinner not knowing if I spent the hours before it with another man. You’ll make love to me, not knowing if you were the only one I’d been with that day.

“When I do tell you—and I will tell you—I’m not going to hold anything back. If the guy was an amazing fuck, I’ll tell you. If he was awful, you’ll know. I’m going to compare you. I know you are more comfortable with that now, but you need to understand what that entails. You could listen to me complain about how shit the guy was, or you could listen to me gush about how amazing he was; making me feel and experience things you never have. I’m going to push, Isaac. I’m going to push until I’m satisfied, or until you tell me to stop with our safe word.” She crossed her arms. “If you want me to try something like that, those are my conditions.”

Taking a shaking breath, I let the words sink in. “I—I suppose it’s only fair you get something out of this too.” I paused, giving myself one last chance to think it over. “I accept.”

She let out a breath, sinking back into her chair. “Okay.”

“Okay.”

She took a sip of her drink before glancing my way. “If this does somehow work out and is something we want to explore more, one year. I’m only doing it freshmen year and we are going to have regular conversations like this to see if we need to stop or not. The moment I even suspect something is off with our relationship, I’m stopping it.”

I nodded. It was heavy stuff. Dangerous even. Yet at the same time, the excitement was there. I think Emma felt it too. She was doing a good show of looking disinterested, even disgusted, but I knew her. The prospect of her teasing me was too good an opportunity to pass up, and I knew she was probably already thinking of things to say.

Technically, she didn’t need to sleep with other guys. Considering part of the play here was her not telling me until she was ready meant she could make it all up and I wouldn’t know one way or the other. I knew her though. She wasn’t going to do that because she knew I didn’t want her to do that.

I’ll admit that the excitement came with a sense of dread. The early days of our relationship weren’t healthy and inflicted some wounds that had since healed. That was where the trust came in. We had a stop button now. A simple word and I knew it would end. It wasn’t only our safe word that made me feel comfortable with exploring this either. It was knowing that if either of us ever misstepped and hurt the other, the conversation we had after would clarify why it hurt and guarantee it didn’t happen again.

My parents joined us out on the patio and the conversation took a lighter turn. As the night stretched on, I couldn’t help but sneak longing looks at the amazing woman beside me. She didn’t need to put up with my perverted nature, but she did. Encouraged it at times. Just one of the many, many things I loved about her. I felt I knew her fairly well by now, but it excited me to know there was still much more to learn.

I hid my smile under the guise of taking a drink.

Right now? I couldn’t wait to meet her slutty side.