"It's also associated with heightened sexual satisfaction in primary relationships," Becca added, almost casually, going back to her phone. "Which, I mean, we can certainly confirm."
Ellie laughed. "No argument there."
They were quiet for a minute, Ellie finishing her coffee, Becca scrolling. Then Becca said, without looking up, "There's another term I came across. Cuckquean." Becca was blushing, which looked adorable cute.
"Cuck-what?"
"Cuckquean. It's the female version of cuckold. A woman who derives sexual pleasure from watching her partner with someone else." She looked up from her phone, blushing harder now. "Sound familiar?"
Ellie felt herself blush too, which was absurd given what they'd been doing and saying to each other for the last few weeks. "Maybe."
"And the partner, the one being watched, is sometimes referred to as a hotwife." Becca was smiling now, clearly enjoying their mutual discomfort. "I quite like that one actually."
"Of course you do."
"Hotwife." Becca said it slowly, tasting the word. “Hot. Wife.” She laughed. “Accurate?”
They left it there, Ellie heading to work with the word cuckquean rattling around in her head. She wondered whether it really applied to her, but she liked that there was a whole vocabulary for this type of thing. Her inner scientist, she realised… if something has a name then it must be respectable.
But more than the word cuckquean, what stayed with her was the look on Becca's face when she'd said hotwife. Not just amused. Intrigued. The look of someone who'd found a door with her name on it and was wondering what was on the other side.
***
Neither of them said anything more about it. The research, the terminology, the frameworks… all of it got filed away. They didn't sit down and have a conversation about next steps, or boundaries, or what they ultimately wanted. They didn't need to. The unnamed thing between them was working, evolving at its own pace, and forcing a structure onto it would have been like trying to stop a river with a fencepost.
Instead, they just kept living. Kept working, kept running by the lake, kept eating migas at brunch, kept going out with friendson weekends and watching whatever they were watching on the sofa on Fridays. Kept having sex that was better than it had ever been, powered by an engine that neither of them had known existed a few weeks before.
And beneath all of it, quiet but growing stronger with each passing day, was the feeling that they were heading somewhere. Not rushing, not forcing it, but moving, pulled by a current that they'd both chosen to stop fighting.
Wherever it took them, they'd get there together. Ellie was sure of that.
She just didn't know yet that it would happen sooner than she expected.
Chapter 5
It happened on a Saturday night, and it happened entirely by accident.
They were out with three of their closest Austin friends, Hannah, Leah, and Sophie, all single, all queer, all perpetually on the hunt for a good night and more than willing to drag the married couple along for the ride. They'd started at a place on East 6th that they'd been to a few times before, a place that they’d had some epic nights out, but the vibe that night wasn’t quite there… a crowd who were a little too self-important, a DJ who was a bit too desperate to force their set on people who were looking for something different.
Ellie was half-expecting someone to call it, in all honesty looking forward to her bed after a long week at work, when Hannah said, “We should go to Cheer Up Charlie’s.”
Becca looked at Ellie and raised an eyebrow. They'd been to Cheer Up's once or twice before, a bar with a big outdoor area,live music, a queer-friendly vibe that tipped into something more outright on certain nights. Ellie liked it, Becca liked it, it wasn't their usual spot but it wasn't unfamiliar either.
"I'm down," Becca said, and looked at Ellie.
"Yeah, why not," Ellie replied. She could sleep Sunday after all.
Twenty minutes later they were there, and the energy was different, much looser and funner, compared to the bar they'd left. Busier, louder, younger. A DJ had replaced the live act and the outdoor area was packed, string lights overhead and the warm night air carrying the smell of the food trucks nearby and someone's weed. Inside was darker, even more crowded, the music heavy enough to feel like it was resonating deep down in your soul.
Their group found a spot near the bar and settled in with fresh drinks. Ellie was talking to Leah and Hannah about some disaster Leah had had on a dating app, a woman who'd seemed perfect online and turned out to think that their date was only really about trying to sell her a crypto scam in person, when she felt Becca's hand on her arm.
"I'm going to go explore," Becca said close to Ellie's ear, loud enough to be heard over the music. She squeezed Ellie's arm and disappeared into the crowd.
Ellie watched her go, catching the unspoken subtext straight away. Becca was wearing a white top that sat just off her shoulders with dark blue jeans and the kind of low sandals she wore when she wanted to be comfortable but still look good. Her hair was down, loose around her shoulders. She lookedbeautiful, even more than usual, and Ellie knew she’d get noticed as she walked through this crowd in particular.
She went back to her conversation with Leah but kept an eye out for Becca, spotting her a few minutes later at the far end of the bar ordering a drink, then losing her in the crowd, then catching a glimpse of her near the edge of the outdoor area talking to someone.
Inevitably, a woman.
