No Room at the Apartment

I also realized my cell phone was ringing. The screen showed it was Shannon. I almost didn't answer. I had no idea what to say. How could I explain what we had done, what we were doing?

J A S O N : : : I was having a wonderful dream, where I had gathered all my courage, asked Holly out, and she said yes. Then the sound of somebody else's ringtone shattered that little slice of heaven, and the happy glow of the dream crashed around me as I emerged from sleep and realized that's all it was, just a dream. The infernal ringing stopped, and I heard Holly's voice, right beside me in bed, say "Hello?"

My mind could barely comprehend that she was here, beside me, in my apartment, in my bed, but my dick could -- it instantly sprung to attention. I couldn't hear the other side of the conversation, but Holly's side consisted of a series of rather evasive generalities. "Oh, hi," "Fine," "Not much," "I'm not sure," "Um, okay," "That'd be fine," and "Okay, see ya."

While she talked, I took the opportunity to look at her fine body, all over, indulging myself in enjoying the scenery. When she answered the phone, the sheet covered her all the way up to her chin, but as her body shifted while she talked, the sheet seemed to be under my mental control, slipping lower and lower. It uncovered her upper chest, then revealed her tits, her tummy, then as she shifted her weight from one hip to the other, her sweet pussy.

I had always thought that Holly was drop-dead gorgeous, but somehow that morning, in my apartment, in my bed, softly lit by the morning light filtering through my window blinds, she was the loveliest creature I had ever seen. Her face, framed perfectly by wispy curls of blonde hair, was angelic. Her tits, aw jeez, her tits, nothing angelic about them! D cups, maybe even DD, nice, high, round and firm, with huge tan areolae easily three inches across. Her tummy was somehow both tight and soft, leading down to her pussy, which she had been letting go native, a full bush so blonde it was barely distinguishable from her skin tone. She only trimmed around the edges so it wouldn't leak out of her bikini.

H O L L Y : : : Shannon wanted to meet for dinner that evening. I was probably more abrupt with her than I meant to be, but I was beginning to freak out that maybe we had been found out. Besides, I couldn't exactly concentrate on the conversation while Jason unashamedly ogled my body from right beside me. I admit I teased him: as I noticed the tent in the sheet over his waist getting taller and taller, I stealthily tugged the sheet lower and lower, revealing my naughty bits one by one. I loved watching his hard-on grow as his eyes feasted on me. My nipples usually lay flush on my boobs, but the heat of his gaze warmed them up, and I felt them reach for the sky.

Even though I was getting seriously aroused, as soon as I hung up my gut clinched tight, fearing the worst. I was sure that we had been discovered, Shannon and Mark felt betrayed, and our friendships were ruined. I was sure they wanted to get together to tell us off and officially un-friend us. Jason calmed me, though, reminding me that her call to get together outside of work wasn't unusual. It often meant it was time to plan our next trip, or even better, that someone had an inspiration for a place for us to go. "If she calls me next," he softly said, "then all is good. We'll meet and talk about our next trip."

J A S O N : : : Right on cue, my phone rang. I grinned at Holly, and answered the phone.

My calm vanished In an instant. It was Mark, not Shannon. He also wanted to meet for dinner. Because he called me rather than Shannon calling both of us, I panicked. The normal pattern was, if one of us had an idea for a trip, he or she would call all three of the others. Shannon calling Holly, then Mark calling me meant something different, probably that Holly was right and we'd been busted. My anxiety shattered Holly's short-lived calm, which agitated me more. I said, "They both called us -- shit, they know."

"I told you I saw Shannon at the restaurant."

"I still can't imagine why she would be there. What should we do? They're gonna be so pissed off."

She didn't say anything for a moment, then she almost whispered, "We'll have to face them sooner or later, it might as well be tonight."

We decided to ride together, openly admit we had gone a step further, and face their anger.

: : : : :

S H A N N O N : : : Mark and I reached the restaurant first, so we saw Holly and Jason arrive in his car. It was sweet -- they didn't try to pretend they weren't 'together.'

M A R K : : : We all ordered drinks, and I told them that Shannon and I had begun seeing each other outside of our travel. Shannon added that it was recent, actually this very weekend, and that we wanted to be completely open about it. Holly and Jason were visibly relieved, then they tensed as they realized that they hadn't shown us the same courtesy. Jason took a deep breath and said that they had also spent the weekend together. Holly added that Friday night was their first time together outside of our travel foursome. She apologized for being so absorbed with each other they hadn't gotten around to telling us, but Shannon and I waved it off, saying it was not a problem.

Our drinks came, and the waitress took our food orders. When she left the table, I said, "So, what do you guys think about continuing to travel together?"

Jason said, "Well, we haven't talked about that at all, this is all still so new, but I can say for myself that I'm sure Holly and I will continue to travel, and I love traveling with you guys." Holly said she agreed, and I smiled and said I did too.

Shannon added, "You guys are great road companions. I don't see any reason we shouldn't travel together." She paused a moment, organizing her thoughts, "What I haven't thought about, at all, is whether I want to continue partner swapping. Most of my brain says that doesn't make sense any more, but there's still a tiny part of me that says maybe since we've done it so long some swapping would still be nice." She took my hand in hers and said, "I don't know how I'll end up feeling about it, and Mark and I haven't begun to talk about it."

Holly said, "I also don't know about continuing to swap, but if you're not ruling it out, I guess I won't either, for now, anyway. Obviously, Jason and I also have a lot to think and talk about."

Jason said, "A decision this big should be unanimous -- if we're going to continue swapping, all four of us should want to."

I said, "Well, one thing I know is that I can't decide anything tonight, it's all too new. Except, it sounds like we all want to keep traveling together, right?" I looked around the table and got three firm nods. "Cool. With that thought in mind, I have an idea. I haven't even told Shannon about this -- we've had 'other things' on our minds..." I got three laughs.

I continued, "I've been looking at things to do in the 'four corners' region -- its correct name is the Colorado Plateau, but many of the highlights are in southern Utah. A trip there would center around hiking, and we'd see some of the world's most spectacular scenery. In two weeks we could visit as many as six National Parks in Colorado and Utah. They might not be as famous as Yellowstone or Yosemite, but if anything the scenery is more amazing." I pulled up photos on my phone of those and some other locations and showed them what intrigued me about the area. It would be a different sort of trip for us, focusing on landscape rather than architecture and culture, but they all seemed to like the idea, and asked me to send them links to the sites I had shown them. We parted with hugs all around, congratulating each other on our breakthroughs as couples.

The following Friday at lunch, we agreed upon dates for the hiking trip. The sites we planned to visit are far enough apart it would be a true road trip. We would need to stay in multiple hotels, and we agreed we would get two separate rooms at every stop. We also agreed that we wouldn't decide about partner swapping until later -- "it's all so new."

: : : : :

M A R K : : : Shannon and I were spending weekends together, some at her apartment, some at mine. Over the next couple of weeks, we spent a lot of time researching activities and locations in our target area. Jason and Holly texted and emailed us sites that they liked. We found site after site that looked amazing, but we also found warning after warning that hotels and campsites fill up early, and that not having reservations could be a serious problem. To avoid possibly having the four of us sleeping in a rental car, it was obvious we needed to make reservations as soon as possible.

We met Holly and Jason after work and sketched out a loose, tentative itinerary. We had to make some broad assumptions about how long we'd spend at each locale, but in every case there would be more to do there than time to do it. It was exciting to be planning something so different from our usual trip. With dates and locations agreed upon, we went to work reserving rooms.

S H A N N O N : : : The towns we would be staying in were tiny, and although some of them had chain hotels, the name-brand places were more expensive and less interesting than the places we booked. Most of them were very old-school motels, the kind where it's a single row of rooms and you pull your car right up to the door of your room.

The upside of such places is they cost less, and are charming. The downside is that almost all of them have zero flexibility in their cancelation policy. Every room we booked was non-refundable. Mark and I had our first disagreement as a couple. He thought we should use our credit cards to guarantee two rooms at each place. We'd get Jason and Holly to reimburse us as soon as possible. I thought we should only pay for our rooms, give Jason and Holly a list of which properties and dates we had booked, and leave it to them to get rooms at the same places.

He prevailed. I gave in, mainly because he made the point that there was a very real possibility that one or more of those places could fill up and have no room available by the time Jason and Holly tried to reserve them. The end result was, we used our credit cards to book the dates. Every one of them was non-refundable, but we reassured ourselves that wouldn't be a problem. Holly and Jason would pay us back. We were going to have a great time.

M A R K : : : I started out thinking that now that we had broken the bubble and were now an official couple, of course we should no longer swap partners. I mean, duh, of course. That was obvious.

Except, part of me didn't want to give it up. We had been doing it so long it felt natural and normal, and the more I thought about it, it didn't necessarily violate our 'couple-ness.'

I was reluctant to say that to Shannon, though. If she didn't feel that way, saying that could be hurtful. I didn't want to be the one who didn't seem to be committed to us.

S H A N N O N : : : My mind went back and forth; the idea that we probably weren't going to swap anymore felt odd. Logically, we were two formal couples now, not four individuals, and we shouldn't swap anymore. We had been doing it for such a long time. Emotionally, however, it seemed okay to continue doing it. It shouldn't threaten anything or anybody. I didn't want to say that to Mark, though. I didn't know if he felt the same way, and if he didn't, I didn't want to hurt his feelings. I didn't want to be the one who didn't take our new 'couple' status seriously.

J A S O N : : : Holly and I started spending more and more of our free time together. We always spent weekends at one of our apartments or the other, except when one of us had to work, which was often. Weeknights were even more complicated, since her department and mine worked somewhat different hours even when we weren't working overtime. Also, our apartments were in opposite directions from the ZNN building downtown. Some weeks we spent a night or two together, some weeks none.

Over those first few weeks, Holly got more and more uptight about our travel plans. At first she denied it, but I could tell, and finally she admitted she had changed her mind about several important things.

H O L L Y : : : The more I thought about it, the more uncomfortable I became with the trip we were planning. It wasn't the traveling. I love traveling, and Mark and Shannon are always interesting and fun to travel with. There couldn't be any better travel companions than the two of them.

What bothered me was our history. It was simple: I no longer wanted to share Jason. I dearly love Mark as a friend, but I no longer wanted to sleep with him, even if all we did was sleep. We had all swapped partners so often, for such a long time, I feared that once we were out of town, some of us would still want to swap. I didn't want to be under any pressure to do that. I hoped that if Jason and I skipped this trip, our new monogamy would be cemented more firmly in place, and we could resume traveling together later.

For now, I simply couldn't find a way to be comfortable with this trip, even if each of the new couples had a separate room. Jason disagreed with me, and insisted we should go. He said that if we were ultra firm about our new boundaries, Mark and Shannon wouldn't be difficult. It wasn't that I was worried they would be unreasonable, I just felt extremely awkward about it. I finally brought him around to my side.

M A R K : : : The balance on Shannon's and my credit cards for two weeks of hotel rooms was huge. When Holly and Jason backed out of the trip, I thought the correct thing for them to do would be to reimburse us for their half, even if they weren't going to use the rooms.

They made no such offer. I understood the discomfort Holly felt that caused them to back out, although I mourned the loss of our travel partners. What I couldn't understand in any way was their financial obliviousness. They were sticking us with paying for their half of the lodging as well as ours.

S H A N N O N : : : They stopped joining us for lunch. Maybe it was a heavy load at work, that wouldn't be the first time. I thought that it was too much of a coincidence, though, considering their inaction over the money. And when a second week went by without their workload 'easing up,' I was sure they avoided us because they felt uncomfortable about leaving us holding all that expense.

One day, a little less than two weeks before we were going to fly out on our trip, Mark and I were almost finished with lunch. There were two empty seats across from us where Jason and Holly used to sit. I was ready to head back to the pressure cooker of my office when two people I didn't know approached our table. I glanced at Mark. He didn't seem to know them either. Their employee badges clearly identified them as ZNN staff. They were about our age and quite attractive. He was tall, clean-shaven and sandy-haired. She was almost as tall as him, blonde, and quite shapely. They both looked very fit, probably from regular hiking or running, or maybe from gym workouts.

Interestingly, neither one of them was carrying a food tray, so it didn't look like they were there for lunch. She said, "Are you Mark? And Shannon?"

Mark said, "Yes," and gestured at the empty chairs. They sat.

She said, "Hi, I'm Andrea, and this is Drew. I work with Holly." She paused a moment to let that sink in.

Drew picked up the conversation. "Like the two of you, and Jason and Holly, we love to travel."

Andrea said, "Holly told me about the trip the four of you had planned, and that she and Jason have had to back out due to her mom's upcoming surgery." I found it interesting that Holly had made up a cover story about why they were backing out.

Drew said, "She also told us about the non-cancelable hotel rooms." He glanced at Andrea, and said, "We both can get time off for the dates of your trip..."

Andrea continued his sentence, "...and we love that part of the country. I hope you don't mind, Holly shared your itinerary with me, and it looks fabulous. I've been to two of those National Parks..."

Drew finished her sentence, "...and I've been to one. I loved it. The others look fabulous, too."

They glanced at each other, I think to decide who was going to ask the obvious question. Andrea did. "So, would you guys be open to a couple of strangers buying into your trip?"

Shannon and I stayed up late that night discussing it. We tried to call Holly to get her assurance that she thought we would be compatible enough with Andrea and Drew to be able to enjoy sharing our vacation with them. Her phone went straight to voicemail, though, and she never called us back.

We decided to go ahead with bringing these two strangers on-board. If we truly couldn't stand them after a couple of days, we'd pick up a second rental car and spend the rest of the trip separately.

: : : : :

M A R K : : : We met them at happy hour after work the next day to firm up our plans. Shannon said, "Before we get started, I have a question." They looked at each other like they knew what was coming... I didn't have a clue. Shannon said, "Drew as in Andrew, right?" He grinned and nodded. Shannon laughed and said, "So, Andrew and Andrea? Um... Drew, is that why you're not 'Andy'? To avoid 'Andy and Andrea'?"

Drew shook his head, and Andrea said, "He was already Drew when we met. We were on our second date when I pieced together that we have almost the same name. He says he had already realized it, but I have my doubts." He grinned sheepishly. Obviously they had explained this to new acquaintances multiple times, and had their explanation down to a standard routine. He picked up the narrative, "We've been together a year and a half now, and her mother still thinks it's hilarious. She calls us 'the Andys.' I prefer to spell it 'Andes,' like the mountains in South America."

With that out of the way, and a round of drinks in front of us, we talked about the trip. They gave us checks to cover the hotel expenses. Drew said, "Obviously the dates the hotels are booked determine the overall itinerary, but within that, how tightly have you scheduled what you're going to do when?"

I said, "We like to stay flexible. We've compiled a list of places we want to see and things we want to do. Most of our target sites are near one of the hotels, usually less than an hour of driving. The few that aren't near one hotel are clearly on the way from one place to the next."

Shannon continued, "We've divided the sights we want to see into groups according to which hotel they're near. Other than that, we like to leave it so we are free to do something else we discover later, and also bail out of anything that isn't turning out to be as interesting as we expected."

Drew replied, "Great, because there's a place I've been wanting to go to that I think we should add to the list. It's right in between two of the hotels, so it should be convenient to slot into the running order." He told us about Hovenweep National Monument, which like Mesa Verde National Park, is about abandoned Native American adobe ruins rather than spectacular scenery. It looked amazing; it was a no-brainer to add it to the list.

Shannon said, "There's only one remaining question I can think of. We've rented a four-door Jeep Wrangler for the duration of the trip. It's plenty big for the four of us, if you guys don't bring too much luggage."

We need not have worried. Before we departed, they gave us some amazing tips on how to pack more lightly and compactly. Mark and I each had the smallest amount of luggage we ever had, and Andrea and Drew were as space-efficient as we were. We ended up with room to spare in the back of the Jeep.