Page 10 of Opening It Up (Humbled Superstars #2)

Harley

“ W ant to go out for lunch?” I asked Makayla later that week.

Did I actually want to go out with Makayla?

Not particularly, but by God I wasn’t going to be caught sitting by myself like a loser since I knew Lily-Mae was going out with Leopold.

I felt aggrieved.

It wasn’t like Lily-Mae and I had discussed lunch dates. Because I had assumed she would always be available to have them with me .

They were great, really.

My wife always helped me brainstorm topics for my podcast and questions for my interviewed guests. I hadn’t realized how much I depended on her input and ideas, because suddenly my show was feeling slightly weak, not as sharp as it usually was. The last two episodes had felt really off.

“I guess,” Makayla said, after scrolling through her phone for a minute.

The elevator ride down was silent.

Not really how I expected things to go with Makayla.

When we headed into the café for lunch, I expected to see my wife down there eating with Leopold, but to my surprise she was nowhere to be found.

I sat next to Makayla dispiritedly.

Where could she be? Suddenly I didn’t feel hungry at all, and could only pick at my burger and fries.

“Do you like to play any board games?” I asked Makayla.

“Board games?” she snapped, her mouth curled up in disdain. “You mean like Candyland?”

“No, I don’t mean like Candyland. I mean like Pioneers of Swampguard. Like complex, multi-leveled strategy games.”

“No.”

After that, conversation languished for a bit.

Why the hell had I wanted this so badly?

Instead of sitting with my wife cracking inside jokes, playing games, and working on my business, I was eating in silence with this random woman I had thought was hot.

What the fuck had been wrong with me?

Meeting new people was extremely overrated.

Having new experiences was not all it was fucking cracked up to be. And surely Lily-Mae could see that. Surely she would agree it was not worth it.

I was. . . very tempted to suggest stopping our three month open marriage experiment early.

“What the fuck is going on out there?” Makayla yowled, breaking into my thoughts and pressing her nose against the café window.

“Huh?”

I twisted around to see a bunch of shiny food trucks pulling into the high-rise parking lot, followed by a limo I recognized as Leopold’s.

The fuck?

One food truck said Crème br?lée.

Another said Macarons.

The third Croquembouche.

And finally Crêpes Suzette.

“Oh my god!” Makayla shrieked in my ear. “He’s set up an entire French dessert paradise for her!”

I clutched the windowsill in shock, but it was true.

There could only be one her this referred to, because there was only one person I’d ever seen Leopold look sweet for.

My wife.

The limousine pulled up to the building and Leopold helped my wife out of it.

And what had they been doing in that limo? I thought jealously.

I was really struggling with the images of Leopold Beauchamp with my wife that I absolutely could not get out of my head.

What the fuck was I need a pillow to sit on supposed to mean?

Lily-Mae looked absolutely delighted, jumping up and down with excitement, her beautiful face lit up with pleasure and the dimples popping out in both cheeks.

Maybe she’d turn around and see me with Makayla and get jealous?

But no, she never glanced in my direction, so I was forced to sit there and watch as she sampled every single delicacy.

“I wish that was me!” Makayla moaned, pressing her entire body against the glass window.

“You look like a chimp at the zoo,” I couldn’t help saying, but she only glared at me.

“Oh, shut up. You’re just as jealous as I am.”

“I’m not jealous,” I said, but my stomach had sunk to the level of my balls. I wanted to throw up.

“So. . . you and Leopold,” I burst out on the way home.

My wife said nothing for a moment, only licked a bit of cream off a cream puff.

Eyeing her sideways, I couldn’t help noticing how happy and peaceful she looked, and how absolutely drop-dead gorgeous, with the boxes of leftovers resting on her curvy hip, and the few sexy inches of soft skin I could see as her T-shirt rode up just the tiniest bit.

“And?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

I said nothing.

“You have a problem with him?”

“No, of course not, but. . .”

“But what?”

“Well, isn’t he a little old for you?”

“Are you worried he won’t have enough stamina to keep up with me? You don’t need to worry about that,” she said, smiling sweetly. “He’s more than capable of satisfying me sexually.”

“I’m not worried about that!” I said hastily, feeling bile rise in my throat.

But what does satisfy you sexually mean? my brain screamed.

“Super sweet of him to send a bunch of extra desserts for the boys,” she added.

“I thought we agreed we weren’t introducing anyone to the kids,” I snapped, unsuccessfully trying to keep the pettish sound from my voice.

“I’m not,” Lily-Mae said, but I still felt resentful.

It was totally irrational, though. There was no threat to my marriage at all. Right?

Then why did even the thought of my wife and Leopold together make my skin feel too-tight, my tie like it was choking me?

“I, too, am having sex,” I said into the silence of the car.

“Good for you,” Lily-Mae said with unconcern, shifting in her chair.

Silence descended again.

I noticed she was now sitting on a little soft pillow and the jealousy ran like lava in my veins.

I mean, the two of us could have so much sex she needed a pillow. She had never said she wanted to have that much sex. I would have of course been game if she had, because Lily-Mae was sexy as fuck.

“You know, if you’re too uncomfortable,” I said, swallowing hard. “If you’re finding dating too. . .upsetting, we can call this arrangement off. I’m fine with that. I won’t miss it.”

But Lily-Mae waved her hand dismissively in the air.

“You don’t have to worry about me. At first I wasn’t sure about this whole thing, but now I’m all in. I’m loving all these new experiences.”

“Great,” I said. “That’s just great.”

I hit a pothole with slightly unnecessarily speed, and my wife winced, wrinkling her nose up prettily.

“Ouch! Careful, there. I’m a little sore, Leopold is pretty big.”

“Sorry,” I said between gritted teeth. “I’ll try to be more careful in the future.”