Page 14 of Opening It Up (Humbled Superstars #2)

Harley

M aybe this double date at the steak restaurant had been a bad idea. In fact, I knew it was.

I didn’t want a double date at all. I wanted to go out with my goddamn wife. By ourselves.

But now Leopold and Lily-Mae were looking sickeningly comfortable with each other.

Like he was her husband. Not me.

My tie felt way too tight, my skin crawling with the wrongness of it.

Why had I ever thought I could share my wife?

But if I broke down and started begging her to give up this whole stupid open marriage idea, she’d know I’d only suggested it because of my lust for Makayla.

At least this way I could show I hadn’t just gone out with Makayla.

I fought down my revulsion at the random woman beside me.

“Leopold, Lily-Mae, this is my date.”

They both stuck out their hands pleasantly.

Why the fuck wasn’t Lily-Mae jealous? I was eaten up with jealousy every time I even thought about her with someone else, but my wife couldn’t have been less affected.

Why didn’t she care? The woman beside me was literally a model. But Lily-Mae couldn’t give a fuck.

And then I spoke.

“I want you to meet. . . Flea.”

“Flea?” Leopold asked, raising his eyebrows. “You sure you’ve got that right?”

“Nice to meet you, Flea,” Lily-Mae said.

But my date was looking angrily at me.

“My name isn’t Flea!” she hissed. “It’s Bree. B-R-E-E. Bree .”

Damn, fuck.

“Sorry,” I said.

And that was the high point of the dinner.

Glaring angrily at me, my date sat down.

Leopold and Lily-Mae glanced at each other, and in that glance there was something that made my stomach lurch uncomfortably. There was humor in that glance, affection, a shared sense of the ridiculous, a silent understanding that they were both only refraining from laughing out of politeness.

I clutched the table as my throat felt dry as sandpaper.

It was more than just sex. They liked each other’s company.

I couldn’t stand it, I couldn’t survive it.

I couldn’t talk, could barely concentrate, jabbing my finger randomly at a dish on the menu when the waitress came by.

With my eyes, I tried to beg Lily-Mae to stop this.

“ I love you ,” I mouthed, but she only frowned at me and pointed to my date.

“ Bad manners ,” she mouthed back.

“Did you know,” Flea said, “that there’s an herb you can take that will make you lose 25 pounds overnight? It’s called the Lighter Than Air Herbal Mix.”

“Really?” Leopold said, cutting a piece of his juicy steak and raising it to my wife’s mouth.

Lily-Mae opened her pretty pink lips and Leopold’s eyes dropped down to where her tongue closed around the fork. I wondered suddenly if my wife had sucked his dick.

The thought made me lose all my appetite and distracted me so that I barely even heard what Flea was saying.

“How would you procure this magical herb, I wonder?” Leopold was asking.

Lily-Mae was looking at me with such pity that I wanted to sink into the ground.

Nothing had gone right since I suggested an open marriage.

And now I couldn’t even find one single normal woman to take on a double date without looking like the most complete fool.

“For nineteen easy payments of $19.95 apiece,” she said, “You too can reap the benefits. And I am looking for investors in this up-and-coming company, if you are interested.”

“No, thank you,” Lily-Mae said politely.

Leopold shook his head.

“Flea, I don’t think we should be talking business at dinner,” I croaked, desperate for this conversation to be over.

“ Bree !” she cried loudly. “My name is Bree!”

“Ok, Bree, I don’t want you trying to sell your pyramid scheme on our double date.”

“It’s not a pyramid scheme!” Bree said hotly.

“It isn’t? Lighter Than Air? You sound like an idiot right now. Get up on that table and fly then, if it’s not a scam!” I cried, losing my temper because the whole thing was so ridiculous.

“Please wait until after dessert,” Leopold said, but I could tell by the way his mouth quirked up that he found the whole thing very amusing.

“Bree, you don’t have to do this,” Lily-Mae said to Flea. “Your date is a very very sad man.”

But apparently Flea had had a few glasses of wine too many, because she instantly jumped on the table and held out a tape measure.

“Just look at me! It’s all due to this proprietary blend of special herbs! Join me and let’s build wealth together!”

I wasn’t sure what level of delusion she was at, but just as one of the waiters started to rush over and insist she get down, somehow this Flea managed to tumble off sideways headfirst into a large potted plant.

And after that, it was pandemonium, with Flea screaming bloody murder, and the other diners either scattering to complain to the manager or getting up to leave.

Flea was eventually dragged out of the plant and had to be escorted from the premises.

“I’m going to go give the owner a massive tip,” Leopold said, laughing heartily. “That was the best entertainment I’d had in a while. Babygirl, send me a message if you want a couple of orgasms.”

“ I can give her orgasms,” I protested, but Leopold had already walked away.

“I’m so sorry about that,” I said when we arrived back home. “I don’t actually want to go out on dates with any other women.”

“I see,” Lily-Mae said, but I had a horrible fear she didn’t believe me.

“How is your podcast going?” she asked instead, placing her heels neatly in the closet.

“Not going too well,” I choked out.

In fact, I had lost a bunch of sponsors after my embarrassing livestream chasing after her at the dive bar.

Lily-Mae slithered out of her dress, and I felt drool pool in my mouth at the sight of her curves, the delicious softness of her belly and the way I could just see the rosy tips of her nipples as she pulled on a tank top.

I knew exactly how those heavy breasts felt in my palms and they itched to feel her again.

“Do you want to have sex tonight?” I asked.

“No,” my wife said. “I do not.”