Kyle looked at Ann forcefully, willing her to nerve herself for what was to come.
“Well…we are, but that’s only part of the reason we’ve been seeing a lot of each other,” Kyle said. “Ann, we got to do it,” he said slowly. She nodded, sighing. Kyle shifted his eyes to Paul.
“Paul,” Kyle said slowly, “we have something to tell you that is going to be hard for you to hear…and I don’t know exactly how to do it, so bear with me. Please…let Ann and me say what we have to say and then you can do whatever you want to, okay?” His eyes brimming with suspicion, Paul nodded curtly. Kyle breathed in deeply and held it. He let it out and began to speak.
********
“That’s all there is to it?” Paul demanded, his voice crackling with impatience. He looked at his wife. She nodded. “You mean to tell me you started sucking Kyle’s cock by mistake at the Valentine’s Day party? By mistake? How the hell do you do it by mistake?”
“It was dark, honey,” Ann said patiently. She was going over things she’d already explained, but this was her husband and it was important he understood.
“I heard Kyle fart; it sounded just like you do when you’ve been drinking beer and I didn’t stop to think it might be someone else. It wasn’t until he called me Peggy that I realized what had happened and I stopped right then…”
“So this sordid little affair started with a big, ol’ fart? Is that what you’re telling me?” Paul inquired sarcastically, his voice strained. Ann looked up into his eyes and found something there. She doubled up her fist and hit her husband in the ribs–hard.
“Damn you, Paul Anderson,” she said hotly. “This isn’t one bit funny.”
Paul had a small grin on his face all the same. In the relief that quickly spread around the table though, she and Kyle were soon smiling broadly and all three gave in to chuckles a moment later. It was a few minutes before they could completely stifle them.
“Uh…Paul…look, I’m really sorry this happened,” Kyle said sincerely. “I’d give the world if it hadn’t happened but we…Ann…I…” Paul waved his hand carelessly at his friend.
“I know you didn’t mean it,” Paul said. “I can see it on your faces. Besides, I’m well aware Ann has…ahhhhhh…had sex with other men,” he said, trying to be delicate about what he was saying. “She was divorced when I met her, for Pete’s sake,” he added.
“I’m not terribly upset about the “accident” as you put it, but Iam upset about what you two put me through the past two weeks.” Kyle and Ann looked at each other shamefacedly.
“If you’d just come to me right away,” Paul said, “I wouldn’t have lost so much sleep and I’d be a lot less stressed out. How come you didn’t just tell me?” he asked Kyle and Ann, his eyes traveling from one to the other. Kyle looked uncomfortable.
“Peggy,” he said quietly. “Once we told you, we’d have to tell Peggy.”
“Oh,” Paul replied. The three of them looked at each other glumly.
********
It wasn’t that Peggy Whitley wasn’t a good person. Heck, Kyle’s wife was the first one to put an arm around a neighborhood kid with a scraped knee; she’d be on your front porch with a pot of chicken noodle soup if you were ill and couldn’t get out; and she was generous to a fault with all the neighborhood charity drives. It wasn’t any of that.