The whole thing was beginning to feel surreal.

Out of nowhere, for the first tim

e since before Michelle and I got married, Angie, her nominal best friend, calls
and says she needs to talk. So Michelle sends me and tells me that I was better
suited to take care of this. You know that feeling you get when you feel there'
s a set up and you're in it? Yeah, well, I had that feeling and I had it spades.

Angie had moved to just outside of downtown KC. I'd made this trip dozens of tim
es with Michelle, so with all of the scenery passing by; I allowed all of the qu
estions running through my head to have a chance at voicing themselves. Followin
g Angie's directions wasn't difficult so soon I was parking in front of a Fortie
s era apartment building; a typical urban brick building. Angie said she was on
the third floor.
When I got up the stairs and found the right apartment, I knocked and a very mas
culine woman answered the door asking why I was there. I asked to speak to Angie
and she bade me wait a moment. About a minute later, Angie came to the door. Sh
e looked tired, worried, and generally haggard. Her blond hair was browner than
I recalled and her eyes didn't have the brightness they used to. I understood, s
omething really was seriously wrong. She was dressed in a t-shirt and a pair of
grey shorts, surprising for winter, but I wasn't asking. She seemed relieved to
see me at the door and she had me follow her back to a bedroom. I had been in cl
ose quarters around Angie before so I didn't think a thing about it.
We both entered the room and she shut the door. She then gave me a holding on fo
r dear life hug then sat down on the edge of what she called a bed. It was a mat
tress on the floor. There was a small lamp on a milk crate beside the mattress w
hich was feebly trying to chase back the darkness without much success. The wind
ow was covered over with aluminum foil to keep any outside light from sneaking i
n. It was bleak and stark.
Angie told me that one of the women out front was her girlfriend. I knew that An
gie went both ways, so the news didn't surprise me. What did was her mentioning
that her girlfriend hated men and that, as much as she loved seeing me, this wou
ld have been much easier if Michelle would have come instead. I nodded, I couldn
't take offence when I could see that Angie was stressed out. Apparently, the gi
rlfriend was convinced Angie was out sleeping with any male who happened by. I k
new that Angie had developed a reputation, but she was never that bad.
I asked Angie what was going on and why she'd disappeared. She promised she woul
d get to that, but she just needed this part off her chest first. I nodded, I wa
s there to listen to her, so I could wait. She started telling me that things wi
th her girlfriend had been going south for a while and she felt scared to do som
ething about it. Her folks had told her she could move home, but she didn't know
how that would be for her and what she could do about it. She had everything sh
e owned, or most of it, sitting in the suitcase in the corner. She asked me what
I thought she should do. I told her if she was afraid of her situation, take he
r parents up on the offer, get a job again, and then start back to school. If it
was going to get hairy, either Michelle or I could help her with getting hersel
f and her things out of the apartment. She seemed relieved to think that she had
a plan and there was help there should she feel she needed it.
The conversation then turned to what had happened over the intervening year. Ang
ie asked me how much time I had and I answered that I belonged to her for the ni
ght and my availability was all up to her. She grinned and retorted that if we w
ere at her parents' house, she would test that statement and just how much belon
ged to her. That was the interplay she and I had while Michelle and I were datin
g and it was good to see it again. She started by asking if I thought that Miche
lle had changed from the woman I dated and I had to admit she had. She seemed a
lot more depressed than she did when we were first going out. Angie silently nod
ded then added she had been seeing it since Michelle and I started dating. I sta
rted to apologize and Angie cut me off. She told me quickly it wasn't anything I
'd said or done, it was how Michelle reacted to dating me and that Michelle had
decided that Angie was a rival and treated her as such. I told Angie I didn't un
derstand how Michelle would see her that way. Angie nodded and took my hands in
hers again.
"Do you remember that evening we three went to the park and Michelle was upset a
bout the light being fixed?" she asked.
"Yes, I remember, you seemed disappointed as well, but not as much as Michelle w
as," I answered.
Angie nodded again and then said, "Well, you don't know all of that story, so to
make sense of what happened, you need to know the rest of the story."
It was a Friday night and I didn't have to work. Right after I started dating Mi
chelle, my bosses started giving me Friday nights off. It wasn't coincidence, An
ne-Marie noticed the extra lift in my step and wanted to see it continue, so she
worked with Jesse, the director, to ensure I had Fridays off. I went out to Ind
ependence to hang out with Michelle. I took my homework with me. We were those k
inds of kids. Michelle said she wanted to get out of the house, so we hopped in
her car and headed out. As we were leaving, she asked if I was ok with grabbing
Angie, her best friend. I didn't care. I was spending time with Michelle and tha
t was good enough for me. When we got to Angie's house, Michelle blew the horn a
nd Angie came bounding out. I shifted to the middle and made comments about sitt
ing between two lovely ladies. After we left, Michelle drove to a park and was l
ooking around for a specific area of the park, almost behind the shed in the bac
k. However, when she looked and saw the light above us, she was visibly disappoi
nted and seemed frustrated. Apparently, for the longest time, that light was out
and never repaired. Finally it was, right when Michelle wanted it least. She an
d Angie brainstormed, but we just ended up sitting in the car, listening to the
radio, and talking.
Angie told me that the reason Michelle was so upset was she had made plans which
were supposed to be a surprise to me. Angie knew what was supposed to come next
. The park was rarely visited and the parking place she chose concealed you from
view of the street, if the light was out. Even with the light on, it was diffic
ult to see. However, Michelle didn't want to risk anything on the off chance tha
t the police, who knew her car because of her dad, would see her and check it ou
t. Michelle had concocted a plan where she would start making out with me and as
that happened, Angie would start touching me and engaging me as well. If I star
ted to tense up, Michelle was going to tell me it was all fine. Then Angie would
start making out with me while Michelle kept up the stimulation. The goal was t
hat I would get hot and bothered by both women while Angie kept working her way
out of her clothes. When she was finally nude, she would move me to a position w
here she could have sex with me, preferably with my head in Michelle's lap. The
original agreement was that Michelle and Angie would share me, Michelle intellec
tually and emotionally, and Angie physically while Michelle got comfortable with
it.
Angie noticed the shock on my face and held my hands a little tighter. She then
told me that was the first chance, but there were others afterwards. Angie then
asked me about the night we were playing strip poker in her basement. It was, ag
ain, the three of us and at first Michelle was all gung ho for it. Apparently, t
his was her pattern according to Angie. Michelle would start out interested and
enthusiastic, but as things progressed and became more real, she would start hav
ing second thoughts and back out. As the poker game progressed, it was obvious t
hat Angie had been throwing hands and Michelle didn't know how to play. They wer
e both quickly in the nude which didn't bother me. Angie said that if Michelle h
adn't said we should stop since I was the only one with clothes, she was going t
o change the bet to favors which would be immediately redeemed. Again, the idea
was to force a sexual encounter in front of Michelle. Angie had hoped that with
Michelle also nude, she would either be more comfortable or would try to join in
. Angie confirmed that Michelle had been accosted by a former boyfriend and that
made her very uncomfortable about sex. The same guy also was very nasty to her
about her body image, so Michelle always seemed on edge about it. I knew that wa
s true from being married to her and how she always complained about not feeling
attractive.
The last opportunity and, for Angie, the final straw was the trip to the lake. H
ad the original plan been kept, the trip was going to be three people, not four.
The original plan was that we would all three go down there and Angie and I wou
ld keep that relationship going there, in front of Michelle, and their hope was
Michelle would become comfortable enough to join in. The plan hinged on Michelle
getting over her hang-ups and then when she joined in, Angie would back off and
start pulling back on things. When Michelle announced she had fallen in love an
d that she couldn't do this any longer, Angie saw an opportunity, with Ed coming
along, to try another way of getting Michelle into the mood. She and Ed were as
loud as possible in hopes that it would spur Michelle into something. Michelle'
s competitive streak came close to being her undoing though. We ended up in a lo
ng game of "Truth or Dare" and as it started getting more personal and more sexu
al, Michelle and Angie seemed to be pushing each other into more outrageous stun
ts. Finally, Michelle looked at Angie, when confronted with a dare and after nea
rly 10 minutes of silent staring, Ed suggested we all stop.
Angie told me then, that the dare coming, Michelle confirmed to her, was to take
me to the fold out couch and have sex with me right there in front of everyone.
Michelle was trying to determine if Angie would follow through. Angie told me q
uite plainly, she would have followed through as soon as Michelle stopped speaki
ng. She wanted to make a point at that stage. It was no longer about what they h
ad discussed, but became a point of pride to Angie of "I can do this and he'll l
ike it better than anything you've played at."
I told Angie there was almost a fourth opportunity. She cocked her head and look
ed a little confused. I asked her if she remembered the double date with John an
d Dennis. She rolled her eyes, she remembered all right. I told her that I was s
upposed to be her date, but didn't try to get the time off because the last doub
le date was a disaster. She laughed, told me she understood and then told me if
I had gone, she would have been more than glad to take me home and rock my world
.
Looking at Angie, I saw a dichotomy which was always difficult to answer. She ma
de it clear, even then, she wanted to be intimate with me, but she also loved Mi
chelle so much, even after all of their problems, that she wasn't going to act o
ut of loyalty, but was equally certain, if she did, I would belong to her instan
tly. She told me a couple of times she had hoped that if she and I started doing
something that when Michelle joined in she would be able to become intimate wit
h Michelle as well. I think that is what froze Michelle up. Angie knew, but love
d so much, she hoped beyond hope.
As the discussion ended, I finally understood what had happened and why Angie wa
s so upset. First and foremost, Michelle had turned her back on Angie when I cam
e along. As Michelle fell for me, she started, because of their discussions and
agreements, looking at Angie as a rival and the fall from best friend to silence
was painful, as it would be to anyone. Slightly less important was Angie feelin
g the promises Michelle made had been broken. The whole thing was Michelle's ide
a and when she backed out, Angie was confused as to what had happened, since Mic
helle wasn't talking. When I left that night, I knew I wouldn't see Angie again
and I admit, I was saddened by that because she was a good friend, who in light
of things, could have resented me and never did.