We by Richard Hughes
‘We have an open relationship. It works for us. It’s what we need.
We have rules. Of course we do. We never bring anyone back to our home. That’s our special space, and we want to keep it that way.
No second dates. We don’t do serious. And no staying over.
We’ve never slept apart. We like spooning! We practically moved in after the first date! And after two years together we still have fantastic sex.
We do stuff together of course. Threesomes, parties, cruising. We find that makes our relationship stronger. We like the same kind of guys which helps.
We’re great at communicating. We talk. Every Saturday morning we do a check-in. When we’re out in the car, we use the time to air stuff that’s bugging us. We find sitting side-by-side non-confrontational.
We don’t keep secrets. We know everything about each other. If we wanted to we could read each others WhatsApp messages. We’ve done that in the past, but we don’t now. We did, but generally we don’t.
So things are good! We’re happy!
We decided to come here, to couples counselling, because we wanted to explore Michael’s childhood trauma, and how that might be impacting our relationship.’
The counsellor turned to Michael.
‘Michael? How about you? How do you feel about the open relationship?’
‘Me? I’ve never been more miserable in my life.’
Richard Hughes lives in London. He writes about relationships and LGBTQI experiences.
Photo – Richard Hughes
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