MY Wife's Dark Secrets

Chapter 6

Amelia winked and then clapped her hands at Jayden like he was a confused naive servant.

“Chop! Chop! Open up that bottle, already!”

Amelia gripped her glass and forheld it up with an expectation drawn all over her face while Jayden prolonged his struggle with the bottle. I held my glass up too. Jayden would confidently pop the cork out soon. I needed a drink. But for the next prolonged moment, it was just both of us girls watching his hands - trembling, fumbling, trying.

“I hope it’s ok that we kept it small and intimate tonight.” Amelia uttered as a way of initiating a chat while we waited. “I just wanted you guys to get to meet the star of the night.”

“I hope you girls aren’t talking about me,” a happy Kenyan accented voice premised from across the room.

When I turned around on the couch to look my breath caught in my chest.

Denrique walked in from a bedroom door. He was wearing chic caftan sweat pants and a loose cotton shirt. Up close, I could see he was a big man, tall and thickly muscled. His arms were behind his head, tying off his long hair into a samurai style knot.

“But of course, darling.” Amelia said in a sextually enthralling tone.

“No, no, no. There were two stars of the night and neither of them were me!” He released a laugh and slapped a hand on Jayden’s shoulder. My husband nearly dropped the bottle from the collision.

“Wasn’t it hot, my man? The way these two were dancing together?”

Jayden uncomfortably nodded in agreement. I could see he was fighting to be cool. “It was very exciting. I got very excited.”

“It was a great show, indeed!” Denrique dropped himself on the couch next to Amelia, facing towards me, placing his arm around her shoulder and pulling her in. “And I had the best seat in the house!”

His accent was heavy and charismatic. He was a foreigner with the boldness to be comfortable in a foreign land. That was sexy. I smiled at him from across the tabletop.

“I want to make a toast,” he said.

“Well, we would need some wine for that.” Amelia said in a bitchy manner, rolling her eyes in the direction of Jayden like he was some sort of unskilled waiter killing the vibe.

“Dude! You’re fired. Give it to me!”

Denrique jokingly commanded.

Jayden surrendered the bottle, a little too fast I felt. Even though Denrique indubitably had the larger hands and biceps and everything else, I still expected my husband would finish the job he started. Part of me was bothered that Amelia’s boyfriend was becoming better than my man. Jayden needed to lift his game a bit.

But my annoyance was put to a stop by the sudden pop of the cork. Denrique plashed wine into our glasses and accompanied it with a big smile into our eyes and the good times flowed. Amelia’s boyfriend had the charisma of a big happy kid and we all were swept up in some funny tales he was spitting about life on the road as a musician.

Jayden appeared to be enjoying himself too, leaning back on his couch. I tried to curl myself into Jayden in the similar way Amelia was curled up against her man but Jayden’s body language was a bit too tense for that.

At some point Amelia stood up.

“Bathroom break,” she announced her eyes directed on me. “Coming?”

I could tell she was convening the sacred girl code. Thy shall always go to the bathroom together with thy bestie.

“Be back in a sec, ‘kay?” I whispered to Jayden and gave him a quick forehead kiss.

I marveled trying to figure out what Denrique and my husband would have in common to discuss. I just hoped my husband wasn’t too mind-numbing and that Denrique could stay awake while us girls were gone. The man was the party’s spirit.

Amelia led the way through a door and I found myself transiting through Denrique’s bedroom. I observed the bed was neatly made. There was a candle burning unsteadily on the bed stand. It was staged like they were waiting for someone else. How exactly did my friend Amelia keep things interesting?

But Amelia kept marching into the master bathroom. Once there I excitedly asked my questions about how she met Denrique and how long they had been dating and how committed they were to each other. I got the sense that Amelia was into Denrique a little more than her - “It’s just casual” - answers implied.

We were perfecting our lipstick side by side when Amelia put her stick down and met my eyes.

“What?” I asked suspiciously.

“Okay… I have another idea.”

I sighed. “Fine. Let’s hear it.”

“When we go back out there, let’s try something. You go sit next to Denrique and I’ll sit next to Jayden.”

“Why?” I asked but I knew.