In a daze, head swimming, I was lying on my back receiving Doug’s full attention. I was spent. Exhausted, I just let it roll over me until I finally could muster words. “Oh, man,” I said caressing the back of Doug’s head as he worked me over, “I love that.”
To my surprise, before I could figure out what was happening, Doug had jumped up on me, pinning my shoulders to the floor, and he was in my face screaming, “Don’t you say that. Don’t you fuckin’ say that.”
I couldn’t imagine what had occurred. I was still so weak and lost in a daze that I couldn’t muster any strength to fight back, so I laid there in shock as Doug, his face inches from mine, continued to berate me. “Damn, I knew you’d ruin everything. I told Ralph to tell you, but no, and now you say that stupid shit. Well, fuck you. I don’t want to hear it.”
I was scared shitless and in actual pain where Doug was pressing my shoulders relentlessly into the floor. I had no idea what to do. Luckily for me, Ralph was suddenly there pulling him off me. “He didn’t say it, Doug. Calm down. That’s not what he said.”
Doug just shrugged him off and I became aware of the difference in their sizes as Ralph continued to pull, without much success. “Doug, damn it, listen to me. You are the one ruining everything, and for no reason. Doug… DOUG!”
Doug finally slowed down and seemed to come out of his crazed trance for just a second. Ralph knew the window of opportunity, and jumped right in. “He didn’t say it, Doug.” Doug started to say something in reply, but Ralph plowed ahead. “Just shut the fuck up, Doug, and you listen. You are so close to fucking everything up because you have some goddamn crazy rules in your head and you don’t even pay attention to what is really happening. NO. Don’t talk. Just listen for a minute while I try to explain things to Cameron. I have a lot of explaining to do because you are a nut case.”
Ralph pulled the now half-cooperating Doug off me, and shoved him aside. In a second he was down at my side, and very gently he asked me, “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I guess so, but I think I better get out of here now.”
“Please,” said Ralph, “wait one minute and just let me explain. Doug flies off sometimes, but it is going to be okay, and I can make sense of this for you.” He waited for me to answer, but I didn’t know what to say. “Please?”
“Fine,” I finally said. “What the hell happened here?”
“Thanks,” Ralph said, apparently for giving him a break, though I still thought I should be getting my clothes on and starting for the door. “Okay, Doug thought you said ‘I love you,’ to him WHICH,” anticipating my objection, “I know you didn’t. You hear me Doug, he didn’t. He said, ‘I love that.’ That’s all. He was into the sex. Got it?”
Doug looked a little embarrassed, but he nodded.
“Good.” Back to me, “So Doug thought you said you loved him and he, how can I say this, he gets a little crazy about that.”
It really didn’t make any more sense now than before. “Why?”
“Right, okay, glad you are still with me. So here is the thing. We’re both married, and the fact is, we like that. We got wives, kids, lives, and we like regular sex as much as the next guy. You understand?”
“No, I don’t. What the hell…”
“You’re married, too, right?”
“Yes.”
“So, just give me a second. Maybe I can make sense of this. You see, we love our wives. We do. What we are doing here has nothing to do with that. I’ve got an extra itch that she can’t scratch, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t love her.”
I nodded. “I understand that.”
“And Doug, too. He feels the same way.”
“Okay. I can see that, but what…”
“I’m getting to it,” said Ralph, “Just give me a second. You see, this is where Doug and I differ, but I just didn’t think it would come up.” He turned to Doug, “So, just stay calm for a second, okay?” And then back to me. “Doug has this idea that this is fine as long as we don’t get all emotionally involved. It just some fuckin’ between friends. And the truth is, I basically agree. That’s fine. I don’t want any big thing. I’m just having some fun I can’t have at home. But he has this rule that we can’t fall in love and risk messing everything up with our families. We have to keep it very cool. Now me,” he says glaring at Doug again, “I think we could do both, BUT I AIN’T PUSHING IT. I just play by the rules. I don’t say to Doug that I love him and I don’t expect him to say it to me. You with me so far?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Okay, so I was supposed to tell you all that in advance, but it seemed to me like we might just get together once and see how it went before we invited you to join the club and gave you the orientation lecture. I figured with your own family and all you wouldn’t turn into a crush in one day.”
“What?”
“And you didn’t. I know that. I know you just said you liked the sex and ol’ Dougie misunderstood and went ballistic.”
“No, I meant the club thing. You have a club?”
To my surprise Ralph blushed suddenly, and then sort of blurted out. “Kind of. We call ourselves the married men’s club.”
“MMC,” I said, suddenly thinking about the cars.
“Right,” said Ralph, “but it is really a joke. I mean, there are only two of us, and the rules are just this silly agreement that we won’t fuck up our families and our lives just ‘cause we like to fuck each other.”
“It doesn’t seem like a joke.”
“I know. Doug takes it seriously, but he asked you in for a good reason. He figured if you had a wife and kids you might understand.”
“Kid. I just have one kid, but, yes I get it.”
“So, you see, if he wasn’t such a goddamn hot head, and he could hear worth a shit, he really would be a good guy. He is trying to do a good thing. Keep his family happy, keep his wife happy, keep me happy, and still answer his own needs.”
Doug, looking sheepish, chimed in, “I can speak for myself, Ralph.”
“Yeah, we already saw that.”
To me. “I know. I’m sorry. I really am. I shouldn’t have gone off like that. I guess I just had a lot of hopes about today, more than I realized, and a lot of worries, too. You know, Fatal Attraction shit, and I thought it had all gone south on me.”
I thought very hard about what I should do, but in that second I made a decision. I walked over to Doug, and I put my arm around him. He flinched, but I pulled him back closer. Looking him right in the eye I whispered, “I’ll go south on you anytime you want, big boy, and you know what I mean, but if this is a married men’s club, and we have rules against love, then let’s just keep it to fucking and sucking and not go through all this freak-out shit anymore.”
“Yeah,” he said, “okay.”
I reached down and started caressing his package back to life. “I believe we were in the middle of something when you so rudely interrupted.” He smiled.
“Come here, Ralph,” I said. Time for more fun.
TO BE CONTINUED