Eka groaned, trying not to succumb to the pressing need to laugh, "But...but, wait a minute, I thought we hated everyone at Global Press and we wanted them dead."
Rita's eyes widened and the laughter continued.
"That's the attitude, but step away from the morbidity and you'll be just fine," Nene advised, sniffling and wiping laugh tears.
"Babe, few seconds ago, you just commanded me to rape my..."
"Who's raping who?"
The mirth ceased like someone had hit a switch. And indeed, someone had. Jude had returned home at the point of an inopportune statement. He looked pissed.
They were speechless and scrambled to their feet to find Jude filling the door way. How they hadn't heard his car or his arrival at the door, was lost on her. And Rita worried, how long might he have been standing there?
She cleared her throat, "Hey, Jude, welcome."
"Hi, Jude." Nene greeted.
Eka cleared her throat, rubbing her neck uncomfortably. "Um..." she couldn't even get a greeting out. Rita noticed she looked jittery.
"I asked a question," Jude snapped, his eyes narrowed on his wife.
Indeed, this was a different Jude they weren't used to. Rita and Nene exchanged alarmed glances and proceeded to gather their belongings in a warped speed that communicated a need to vamoose the premises.
Still, Eka was yet to speak. They were witnessing what their friend had become. And it seemed, the more timid she became, the angrier Jude got. Speak, Eka; be you, Rita mentally prodded. She wished she could speak into her friend's mind and prod her.
"Tell him, Eka. Tell him about the sex," Rita whispered loudly. This could work, but if it didn't, then she'd be remembered as the woman that destroyed her friend's hanging by the rope marriage with her craziness.
Eka turned bulging eyes to her, "Hmm?"
Even Nene looked like her eyes would fall off at her words.
"You know, what you told us you would allow Jude to do to you in bed." She wanted to laugh at Jude's stricken look, because, he was hearing this conversation, about him, in front of other women apart from his wife that he'd not slept with for months.
Rita was recalling that Jude had encouraged Eka in their early days of marriage to be sexually adventurous. Jude had enjoyed embarrassing Eka in front of them by speaking about such things.
Fear powered through Eka's gaze. It was so heavy, Rita felt suffocated with it. And as was her reaction when she felt constricted in any form, she exploded.
"Eka has been longing for you to tie her up, blind fold her, and do all those things you'd only spoken about. Not for anything, but the fun of it." Rita's peripheral vision caught Eka practically shrinking into herself. But she also saw Jude swallow with some difficulty, his eyes not so angry as much as they were smouldering...in lust, she hoped.
Rita shifted to Eka, not taking her eyes off Jude, she pinched her friend's thigh to bolster any reaction that wasn't fear or timidity. Eka gasped at the pain, standing straighter and trying to move from her fingers but Rita held on. This resulted in Nene busting into laughter at the comic picture they both made and Eka joining in laughing but tried to curb it, so it looked like she was being coy...the same way she'd been in the past when Jude would bring up the topic in the presence of her friends.
Jude shifted his weight and cleared his throat. "I heard rape." His voice had changed. It had changed enough to catch Eka's attention, because she stopped being timid and stared at her husband, her mouth dropping open.
Was this their sex call; the wife recognising the need in her husband's voice?
Nene coughed mildly. "She believed you wouldn't want to do it. That would be when I advised her to...err, seduce you and well, if that didn't work, she should...um, rape you." She had finally gotten Rita's aim. Or maybe, she'd also noticed the shift of emotions in the room.
Rita thought Nene looked like she would want the ground to open up and swallow her. Even though she could be crazy with her friends and was opening up more and more with her husband, this was different; but she'd summoned courage to do it...to save a friend.
"So, wife," Jude left the front of the door and seemed to avoid the sitting room, where they gathered. He dropped his suitcase by the monstrous bookshelf and loosened his tie, but left it draping around his neck. "Will it be rape or seduction?" his eyes held challenge and he licked his lips.
Jude wanted his wife. It was glaring. So, Rita leaned into Eka and whispered in her ear.
Eka sucked in breath and levelled come hither eyes at her husband. "Rape," she pronounced and marched to where his stood. His eyes widened when she dragged down his neck by his dangling tie and fused her mouth with his.
"Wowza!" Nene exclaimed in a loud whisper, giggling when Rita slapped her arm and then dragged her from the room. They endeavoured to close the door softly while husband and wife moaned into each other's mouths.
"Oh God, I'm so happy. I hope they work things out," Rita gasped, having just giggled as they got outside and approached their cars. Dusk had once again fallen while they'd talked and like clockwork, Nene's phone buzzed and her reply confirmed that her husband had called.
"I hope so too," Nene concurred after the call. "Wait, what did you tell Eka to get her all fired up?" she looked interested and mischievous at the same time.
"Exactly what she did." Rita smiled and then laughed when her friend cackled.
Then she levelled Rita with a knowing stare. "And what about you? It appears you've slipped from our fingers again."
Rita grinned as she opened her car, "It's more like an opportunity to bring more juicy details next we see." She winked.
Nene chuckled, shaking her head, "Well, good luck, sister."