“It is a cult.”
“If the messenger were another person, then I might believe the words coming out of your mouth.”
“Amber, you are the one who sat down next to me at this empty table in this enormous backyard.”
“I wanted to see when the birthday cake came out, and you are seated closest to the buffet.”
“Buffet is generous. It’s a plastic tablecloth with an array of chip bowls and cookie platters and pizza boxes clumped next to rainbow balloon centerpieces.”
“Gourmet pizza boxes, Jax. Those Bergdorfs never skimp on a party, especially not for their middle child. I detected both feta and kale on one of those vegetable slices that none of the guests dared to sample. Stick to cheese and pepperoni, Priscilla!”
“You’re not supposed to make me laugh. You are supposed to be mad at me.”
“I am mad at you. But for some reason…”
“You can’t quit me?”
“I’m not Quigley. I probably will not recognize your movie quotes.”
“But you realized my quote came from a movie.”
“With the gay cowboys.”
“Ha!”
“Like my husband, they were cheating on their wives, too.”
“They were.”
“I don’t understand… You both knew you both were married.”
“I knew he was married because when we first met, he told me. I didn’t know he was married to you. I didn’t even know you at that point.”
“But then you found out. And you kept going anyway. Both of you did.”
“We stopped before–”
“It hurt so much, realizing that one of my best friends… If he had been with a stranger… Are you sure that’s not his baby?”
“We told you: we had an emotional affair, not a physical one. And it ended–I ended it, I was the one who ended it, months before my husband impregnated me.”
“How did Kevin get over it?”
“He didn’t. We’re maneuvering through the wreckage.”
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why did you… Why did Q…”
“I can’t speak for Quigley. Do you ever glance at yourself in the mirror and say, ‘Ugh, I look terrible’ and avert your eyes from your reflection?”
“On occasion.”
“How often?”
“Maybe once a month, when I am PMSing.”
“Try once a day, every day. This bun in my oven halted my PMS temporarily, but I continue feeling like I’m hideous.”
“But you are so pretty, Jax.”
“I don’t see it.”
“Doesn’t your husband? Kevin married you, right?”
“That’s what he said. And, as I explained to Kevin, I wondered if lightning could strike twice. Then Quigley came along. Now he’s in a cult.”
“It’s not a… He described Terra Lifeforce as a motivational group. Like Toastmasters for healthy living.”
“That’s the tagline. When we were still hanging out after our movie club meetups, Quigley told me… He saw Lifeforce as a way to prove his manhood. I talked him out of it. I figure he joined the moment we split last summer?”
“How did you talk him out of it?”
“I recounted the story of how my friend Luma got caught up in the organization. It started as a weight loss method. Measuring your cosecant, which is not a real thing. It ended with a cross-country intervention and an FBI investigation. That ringleader, Z. Chelsea, is not a good person.”
“Q is eating better. Vegetables, fruits, flaxseed.”
“That’s how they get you, Amber, with the food, then the meditation techniques. Once he starts talking about the lessons of his Popat–”
“Pope hat?”
“Popat. The captain of his cohort.”
“He’s more relaxed. I thought it was this spring weather. He has more energy. Particularly in the bedroom.”
“It’s a tradeoff: happy humping versus corporate indoctrination.”
“You think you know my husband better than I do, Jax?”
“I didn’t say that–”
“You didn’t have to.”
“–nor do I think so… Amber? Where are you going…? I would storm out of this kid’s birthday party right behind you, but I could never catch you, even without this belly. Or my acid reflux.”
“Here’s a Tums. Now, leave me alone.”
“You’re the one who started talking to me!”
…
Amber checked that rest of her family members were tucked in for the night. Then she returned to her room to find Quigley about to take a shower.
Amber stood in front of the bathroom door, blocking his entrance. She placed her hands on her husband’s chest and guided him to the edge of their mattress.
Bemused yet compliant, Quigley sat down on the corner of the made bed, wearing only his boxer briefs.
Amber untied her silky wrap dress and let the fabric fall to the carpet. In her satin bra and cotton hipster bottoms, she stepped closer to Quigley. She slipped her fingers underneath his waistband and tugged, the underwear slinking to the floor. Then she entwined her fingers around his shaft, which rose to half mast. Her manipulations caused his skin to tighten. Once his head began to swell, droplets of precum dribbled near her fingertips. She bent down to plant her mouth on her husband’s rod, sucking the head clean.
Quigley gripped the sheets. His eyes rolled back as his wife swirled her tongue around his growing cock.
After one last playful nip, Amber released her oral embrace. She wriggled out of her panties.
Quigley grabbed her hips, lifted her up, and set her down slowly, easing his staff into her dewy slit.
Amber wrapped her strong calves around his lower back, drawing her husband deeper, immersing his dick in her moist cavern.
As they undulated on the edge of the bed, their oscillations creating the sweaty friction wrenching them closer to climax, Quigley tapped his right index finger on Amber’s lower lip.
She licked that finger. Then she sucked that finger like she sucked that cock.
Quigley retrieved his hand. Then he smacked her behind as she bounced on his thighs.
Amber lifted her hips.
Quigley glided his wet digit inside her crack.
This set her off. Amber squealed as she came, writhing ferociously on his lap.
Quigley had to catch up. He flipped his mid-orgasmic wife onto the bed, hoisted one of her caramel legs over his shoulder, and went to pound town.
The sudden movement and change in position triggered another wave in Amber. She lay back and enjoyed the ride, her discerning partner stroking against her familiar spots, aiming to make her cum again, which would make him erupt in turn.
The gamble paid off. Alternating his pumps in a quick-quick-slow rhythm, Quigley saw Amber gasp and performed his crescendo, gyrating like a cyclone between her sprawled thighs.
This time, Amber grabbed Quigley’s hips, her peaking climax causing his balls full of cum to explode through his cock, soaking Amber’s pulsing canal.
Quigley pistoned languidly through his ejaculation, wringing every bit of pleasure out of the encounter for both of them.
When Amber couldn’t take any more, she brought his torso on top of hers, their breathing ragged, their sheets damp, their desires sated.
For now.
…
“That was magnificent.”
“Splendid, indeed. Hand me my panties?”
“After I give them a sniff. I’m not complaining, but what got into you tonight, babe?”
“An undeniable attraction to my husband. We grok each other, don’t we? Is that the word?”
“Yes and yes. We do, babe.”
“Good. Good.”
“As Popat Leader Kinon said, ‘Praise be to CH Omega for our corporal blessings.’”
“What did you say, Q?”
“I forgot, you haven’t read the scriptures yet. I found that verse fitting.”
“The scriptures?”
“It comes from the third book in Z. Chelsea’s program. The first volume was an easy read. The second one was a slog. But I’m whizzing through this third book.”
“How many books are there?”
“Six so far, babe. And a Terra Lifeforce movie. Z. Chelsea is writing the seventh volume based on the divinations of Kinon.”
“I don’t understand…”
“You will, Amber, once you have your cosecant weighed. Then you can join me on the pilgrimage.”
“Quigley?”
“Kinon will suggest you change your nutritional plan, of course, to correlate with the exordium of the primal tenets.”
“I need to… I am going to check on Cory and get some water.”
“Water, the only element that can combat fire, the element burns that which is unclean, returning the essence to the Earth, freeing the Phoenix from her gilded cage.”
“Another verse?”
“From Volume One. Can you bring me a glass, too, Amb? I’m going to go get clean. In the shower. No flames, no fire.”
“I’ll be right back.”
…
“It’s late, but I hoped you would be awake.”
“You sound scared. Where are you? Your voice is muffled.”
“In Cory’s closet. Jax, I have to tell you something, and I hate saying these words.”
“’I love you?”
“You were right. About Lifeforce… Are you there?”
“Heartburn. My second trimester is a beast. I didn’t want to be right.”
“Jax, what am I going to do?”
“Now I have to say something I’m going to hate.”
“You still love my husband?”
“As a friend, yes, but that’s not… Amber, you have to tell Imogen what is happening. And I have to tell her what I did to you, which sucks.”
“Is it necessary to trouble my husband’s ex-wife with this nonsense?”
“Amber, you are currently hiding in the closet of Imogen’s oldest child, whom you are raising with Quigley. She would want to know if her baby’s daddy has gone off the rails. Wouldn’t you?”
“Why are you so logical?”
“Also, you are going to need all the help you can get.”
“Including you? Will you help me? Jax?”
“Yes. I owe you one.”
“You owe me plenty.”
“Amber? Babe? Where’d you go?”
“Jax, he’s looking for me. I gotta–”
“Don’t call me back. Meet me at the patisserie when it opens tomorrow morning.”
“I will. And Jax? I do love you.”
“I love you, too.”
