Bob and Carol and Gemma and Alice?

I sat there, in the kitchen, suddenly very nervous again. The previous half-hour had started out nerve-racking enough but I had settled, more quickly than I had imagined. Carol hadn't laughed, she had been kind, and interested, and considerate, and she had listened and asked intelligent questions. But then we had heard the car pull up outside and I had dashed upstairs to change - or just to hide. Now? I was sitting in the kitchen for a while. Waiting. Was this a good idea? I wasn't sure. I nervously sipped on my drink and pulled my short skirt down, I didn't want it showing my stocking tops.

I heard cheery laughter as Gemma chatted with Bob, and as he shared a joke about his dinner-with-a-client with his wife Carol. I had heard them go through and start talking quietly in the lounge, I couldn't make out what they were saying. Then the door to the kitchen opened and Gemma came in and looked at me. "OK, dear? Ready for this?"

**********************

It had all started out so innocently that evening. I got home early, as I always tried to do when we had friends to stay. Carol and Bob were old friends, I had known Bob at college and he and I had been each other's best man when we both got married within a couple of years of starting work.

Gemma and I had been happy for nearly twelve years, the usual ups and downs but we had worked to overcome them, and we had no reason to believe Carol and Bob didn't share similar wedded bliss. But that evening when Carol had arrived early, to have a good chatter with Gemma before Bob came along later, we had learned that things were quite not as they seemed. I had been surprised when Gemma had called me in, to join in their discussion.

"I've told Gemma and she seems to think you should know too," said the lovely Carol when I sat opposite her with my coffee.

I had been a little distracted, she was wearing a short skirt and I had always admired her legs. Gemma and I had often joked about that. But I tried to concentrate on what she was saying, not on her legs and her prominent bosoms.