and fucked? Is that what you heard?”
It seemed insanely ludicrous.
“Well, Tamara was in there with them.”
I was startled. Hearing her name made my heart drop.
“Tamara?” I said.
“Yes.”
“OK, continue, and—?”
Craig looked exasperated, almost squirming in his chair.
“What did you hear, Craig?” I said finally “Please, I need to hear this. What is the rumor, exactly? So Tamara was in there?”
“Dave, I work there and it’s really none of my business.”
“Craig, we’ve been buddies since college. Please, bro, if there’s talk going around about my own wife… please, let me know the rumor.”
“OK,” he said, sighing, “I’ll tell you, Dave.”
I silently braced myself
“It was basically this,” he said. “At some point, I don’t know when, Ashley and Tamara went into the bathroom together.”
“OK, and—?”
“Well, Tamara then invited Jim into the bathroom. I heard they put on a little lesbian show.”
“Lesbian show? Meaning what?”
“It was supposedly just an act. It was like a mock pseudo kind of show type thing. They kissed and got topless in the tub.”
“Mock pseudo?” I said. “Ashley and Tamara? Who was the show for? It was for Jim?”
“Yes.”
“OK and then?”
“Well, then Tamara told him to take it out and stroke himself.”
“ What? Take it out? You mean, his dick?”
“Yes.”
“He stroked his dick in front of them?”
“That’s what I heard, yes.”
“OK so my wife was topless in the bathtub and Jim Murta was stroking his dick, looking at her?”
“Tamara was also in the tub with her.”
“OK, all right, and then?”
“And then Tamara asked him.... Tamara asked him which one of them he wanted.”
“Wanted?”
“Supposedly Tamara said, ‘Which one of us do you want to fuck?’ ”
Tamara’s comment made my stomach sink.
I could picture her saying something like that. But I continued, “OK and—?”
“And he chose, uh—”
“He chose my wife? He chose Ashley?”
He didn’t reply at first and then nodded, “Yes.”
“And then he had sex with her?”
“Yes.”
I tried to keep my emotions in check and focus. I wanted to get it straight, make sure I was hearing this all correctly.
“OK, so the rumor was that Ashley and Tamara went into the bathroom during the party—the one off the kitchen downstairs—and Tamara invited Jim Murta in. They did some lesbian show, and Tamara told him to take out his dick and stroke it for them.”
Craig nodded, “Yes.”
“And then Tamara asked Jim ‘Which one of us do you want to fuck?’ And Jim chose my wife. And then Jim had sex with Ashley right there at the party—I mean in the bathroom—as the party was going on?”
“Yes, that’s what I heard.”
“Did you hear where in the bathroom?”
“What?” Craig asked.
“Where in the bathroom?”
“Over the sink,” Craig mumbled, looking away.
Then I looked away. I was stunned, unable to process the sheer idea of it.
“I’m sorry to be the one to tell you,” Craig added.
“Oh hey, Craig, no, thank you. I appreciate you telling me.”
We sat in silence for a minute.
“So this rumor,” I asked, turning back to him, “do people think there’s truth to it? Office gossip is pretty typical there, right?”
“Typical?”
“Like it’s a big-time rumor mill over there?”
“I haven’t noticed that. I mean maybe it is, and people just don’t include me.”
“So, rumors like this aren’t typical?”
“I don’t know. After last year’s Christmas party, there was talk of a VP making out with his Assistant.”
“Do people believe it?”
“Yeah, there were several witnesses. And the VP got a dressing down about it.”
“I mean about this? About Jim and
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