The Neighbour's Secret - 2

My phone rang as I digested what Jane had said. “Hello,” I answered without looking to see who it was, still gaping at her. She'd just told me she wanted a real man for sex while her husband, or sort of husband, was in the same room.

He showed no reaction apart from a sheepish expression.

Click here for Part 1

“Hello, Alexa?” Jack’s voice came from the little phone speaker and jerked me out of my frozen state.

“Er, yes, Jack,” I said my eyes flicking between Jane and Robyn with a ‘y’.

Robyn tottered around the room on his high heels carrying a duster, wiping the surfaces of the tables and other furniture. He seemed to be more comfortable now I was in on his secret, enjoying it I'd have said

He bent to get down to dust the TV unit and exposed the back of his large frilly white panties. I switched my head as if my eyes burnt to look out of the front windows. I twisted so hard, my neck muscles twanged.

I noticed the visibility from outside would be cut by the white net curtains. They were a little old-fashioned for an otherwise contemporary home and now I knew why.

I heard Jack say, "Hello", from my phone still at my ear. “I’m next door,” I said. “I told you that when I left.”

“Did you?” Jack hadn’t been listening to me. What was new?

Jane leant forward from her chair and touched my knee. “Tell him to join us, Alexa.” She turned to Robyn. “Stop fussing around the furniture, silly sissy, and go and make another coffee and get a slice of sponge cake for Alexa’s husband.”

Robyn turned, went bright red. He hestitated for a moment then curtsied. “Yes, Mistress Jane.”He walked to the kitchen, a little unsteady on the heels.

I watched him go with rapt fascination, in the way you can’t tear your eyes from something so weird it's like they are held there by an invisible thread. And yet, seeing Robyn submissive and in female clothes gave me odd warm feelings and electric tingles. I was beginning to think there was something in this, as peculiar as the situation was.

I then thought about what Jane had said. “Oh no, Jane, very kind of you but I don’t think it’s a good idea for Jack to come around. He’s busy. We’ve got lots to get on with. Besides, you said you wanted a girl’s chat.”

Jack heard me and his voice rang out from my phone. “I’ve got nothing to do. On my way.” He hung up and my stomach twisted. This was going to be embarrassing. For Robyn. And Jack. I wasn't so sure I was.

Jane smiled a strange smile of assertiveness, knowing and arrogance that didn’t spread past her lips. She nodded and my conversation dried up, which was a first, I have to say.

I scanned their living room. It was like a staged showhouse on a new housing development. Everything was new and in its place, polished and sparkling clean. “We had the girl’s chat, Alexa. I asked if you would look out and suggest a real man for me. Now we’ve done that, your husband can join us.”

Still lost for words, I took a gulp of my coffee and then a bite of the sponge cake. I’d never heard of a lifestyle like this before but there was something jangling in my mind that told me Jane had something good going on. Who wouldn’t want a husband who had a little more of the feminine ways? Someone who looked after me rather than watched Star Trek reruns every Sunday afternoon before the football came on. A small change in our relationship might be nice. Very nice.

The doorbell rang. I felt my heart miss a beat. What on this Earth would Jack make of Robyn? I was about to find out as I heard Robyn go to the front door. Their conversation was muffled so I couldn’t yet make out Jack’s reaction. I looked back at Jane who merely widened her eyes and held them on me.

Jack strolled in. “Cool. You have a maid. She's kinda cute.”

He raised his eyebrows at me as he walked to Jane to greet her but she remained seated. She held out a floppy hand as if she expected him to kiss it. Jack frowned for a moment then shook it and threw himself down next to me on the sofa. “Pretty girl, the maid,” he said. He lowered his voice to a near whisper. “Her dress is very short, Lexie, I could see her panties.”

If I ever got anywhere near having a marriage like Jane and Robyn's, I'd make Jack stop calling me Lexie as my first rule. After all these years of telling him not to, it goes in one ear and out the other.

Robyn tottered in on his high heels carrying another tray with a coffee for Jack and a slice of cake. I looked at my husband with mounting horror as his stare flowed over Robyn and down his legs. He thought Robyn was the housemaid and my husband’s narrowed eyes betrayed a deep lustful desire.

I spotted Jane examining my husband who seemed unaware; his mind elsewhere. On Robyn's legs if I wasn't mistaken. “Do you find my housemaid attractive, Jack?” she asked.

Robyn instantly went red and rushed from the room almost tripping. Jane gave out a single loud laugh.

“She’s cute, I guess,” said Jack, his tongue slathering like a dog expecting fresh meat. He thought for a moment and turned to Jane. “Where’s your husband?”

"Somewhere, darling," Jane said dreamily.

This was beyond surreal. My masculine husband hadn’t spotted the housemaid was Jane's husband and he was lusting after him. Robyn looked pretty good, I had to admit and I wasn't jealous, why would I be?. Funnily enough, I couldn’t wait to tell Jack he was attracted to Jane's husband. That’d puncture his macho pride.

“Jackie, darling,” said Jane in a deeper, sleepy voice. “Robyn is working out in the kitchen, why don’t you go and join her for a chat while we ladies have woman’s talk.”

“Jackie?” I said, feeling my forehead crease into a hundred lines. “Jane, that’s a girl’s name.” I turned back to Jack who hadn’t seemed to notice. He had a wistful grin on his face and was looking out to the kitchen.

Jane looked content with how things were going and I got the impression she was manipulating this. “Is it, Alexa?" she said. "I thought it was like Bill to Billy, Steve to Stevie, John to Johnny.” Her smile dropped and her face hardened. “Robin to Robyn. And Jack to Jackie.”

The double meaning of what Jane had said was sinking in. I was stuck for words for the second time that day which was twice as much as in the previous thirty years combined. Jack got up and sauntered into the kitchen, trying to look casual but I knew him. He had a look I hadn’t seen since the early days of our marriage. He closed the kitchen door behind him.

“So, Alexa,” said Jane. “We’ll let the sissies get acquainted while we think about real men.”

Sissies? Think about real men? Why did I think I was like a fish being reeled in. “Jack’s not a sissy, Jane.”

She looked at me as if I was a little dense. Her face changed to one of pity. I sat back and breathed out long and slow. If anyone had said my afternoon was going to go this way I’d have said they were on something illegal. I felt Jane’s eyes on me. I looked up at her.

“No, Alexa darling, Jack’s not a sissy.”

She smiled that odd smile again; the smile of superiority, as if she knew something I didn’t. It transpired she did. “Not yet.”