"Don't look now," Becca said quietly, "but the barista has been checking you out since we sat down."
Ellie did, of course, look, casually, over her coffee cup, and saw her. A young woman behind the counter, pink hair, nose ring, cute in a confident, artistic way. She was making a coffee but her eyes kept drifting towards their table, and not towards Becca.
Towards Ellie.
When the barista caught Ellie looking she didn't glance away. She held the eye contact for a moment, smiled, a little privatesmile that lit up her eyes, then went back to the espresso machine.
Ellie turned back to Becca, feeling her cheeks go red. "She's not checking me out."
"She absolutely is. She's been doing it for five minutes. I've been watching her watch you." Becca was grinning now, enjoying this. "She's cute."
"She is cute," Ellie admitted.
"You should go get her number."
Ellie looked at Becca, trying to read whether she was serious. She was… or at least she was serious about making the offer. Her expression was open, genuine, the look of a woman who was testing a hypothesis she’d formed and was genuinely curious about the result.
"No," Ellie said.
"No?"
"It doesn't work that way round. For me, I mean. It's not..." She paused. “This thing we’re doing, it’s about me watching you being desired by someone else, not the other way around.”
“From where I’m sat, I seem to be watching you be desired by someone else.” Becca’s eyes were twinkling with amusement. “It’s kind of hot.”
Ellie decided to roll with it. “Let me guess. First of all jealousy?” Becca nodded. “Then, a little after, something else?” Becca nodded again. “Feels weirdly good even though it shouldn’t?”
“Yeah,” Becca said, nodding one more time. She took a sip of her coffee, her amused eyes studying Ellie. “I think I might get what you see in it.”
“Good.” Ellie paused and grinned. “But I’m not getting her number.”
“No?”
“No.”
Becca studied her for a moment, then a look of relief crossed her face. "Good," she said. "Because honestly? I am nowhere near emotionally ready for that. If you came home with someone else I'd be a mess. A complete, absolute, non-functioning mess. I’d need some time to get my head around it.”
"So we're in agreement. You're the one who does it. I'm the one who watches."
"We're in agreement." Becca reached across the table and took Ellie's hand. "Although for the record, you are very hot and that barista has excellent taste."
"Noted. But she's still not getting my number."
"Her loss." Becca squeezed her hand and let go, picking up her coffee. "I reckon I’d enjoy watching."
"No you wouldn't."
Becca thought about it for a split second. "No, I wouldn't. I’d hate every moment of it." She laughed, and Ellie laughed with her. “But I feel like I get what you get from it now.” Becca paused. “How about you? How does it feel knowing that herchecking me out has triggered that jealousy-arousal loop in me that you talk about?”
Ellie hesitated, caught in the sudden realisation… it felt good. Knowing that Becca could see Ellie being desired by someone else, knowing that Becca was happy that Ellie was being desired. She knew it could only possibly be a shadow of the depths of feeling that must come for Becca when she was naked, writhing in pleasure, knowing that Ellie was watching and enjoying, but it was a lightbulb moment.
“I think I get it too,” Ellie admitted. “Just a little.”
“Feels good, doesn’t it?”
“Yeah. It does.”
Their food arrived. The migas were perfect, as always. Ellie saw Becca glance over at the barista again and then redden just a touch, and she loved that she’d seen it, thrilling to know that Becca was feeling just a little of what Ellie had been feeling for her in their encounters. And that thrill, she now understood, knowing that your wife was excited that you were being desired… that was part of Becca’s side of it.
