Swapping · Chapter 11

Gomorrahbury

By Reggie · January 30, 2027

One month after the group first discussed swapping, all six gathered at Wade and Tanya's place for the agreed-upon decision meeting — the real one. Reggie arrived with a French Grenache and a six-pack of Guinness; Cody had spent the intervening three weeks researching the nitrogen widget inside Guinness cans after Reggie had mentioned the beer previously. The pour was performed correctly, everyone found it acceptable, and Brynn conceded the beer argument. Wade then opened the actual conversation. Each person confirmed their yes in turn: Tanya said she'd had three weeks with the picture Reggie had drawn and still liked it; Kayla said the fact that Wade was not a stranger changed the shape of it for her; Cody said he'd run it forward and was genuinely in; Brynn said the arrangement worked for her because it stayed in the room — no strangers, no Tuesday motels — and pressed Wade to confirm he meant yes before he said it; Wade confirmed, naming explicitly that he had stopped pretending not to know what it meant when Tanya came home different, and that the picture with people they all knew was one he liked. Reggie, who had asked someone else to lead, was checked in by Cody and Brynn; he said he was relieved — that the arrangement was fair, not trashy, and that it had stopped Wade and Cody from diminishing themselves to settle a score, which would have been irreversible. The schedule was settled: Reggie once with Tanya, once with Kayla (separately), and one swap Thursday where Wade and Cody exchange partners — three dates total. The fixed day is Thursday, treated as a target rather than a hard rule, to allow for the women's cycles. Reggie then proposed reframing the cycles not as obstacles but as scheduling logic: each man's visit with the other's wife would ideally fall on the week his own wife's cycle made intimacy unavailable, so no one sacrifices anything real. Tanya and Kayla would each tell their own husband their cycle timing; each husband would then coordinate with the other woman. Reggie clarified the window is a week, not a single Thursday, and Wade agreed that notice as short as the following day was acceptable when biology didn't cooperate. For information rules: Tanya tells Wade a few days before; Kayla tells Cody the morning of; Brynn is told by Reggie a few days before so she can arrange her own plans, though she will typically work on Thursdays. No play-by-play details are shared; each wife tells her husband before she goes and comes home after. The swap Thursday is set at 7 p.m., at their respective homes, with Wade naming their place as the location for his side of the swap. Reggie then asked the group directly whether anyone resented Brynn for standing apart from the arrangement, and asked Brynn whether she felt left out. No one expressed resentment; Brynn said she did not feel left out — that she held what was exclusively hers and that eighteen months with Reggie was not the same unit of measure as a day, and was worth quite a lot. Reggie said the eighteen months would fly and he was not eager for them to end, without attaching any condition or expiry disclaimer. Reggie also disclosed that he had approached and spoken with a young drug dealer near his home — a tall, dark-haired white man in his early twenties with crystal meth sores covering his body and face, whom Reggie recognized as formerly handsome. Reggie declined an offer of meth, bought the man a taco, and spoke with him for about ten minutes; the man said he hoped he got off meth too. Reggie recounted the methods of ingestion the dealer described — smoking, injecting, snorting, swallowing — and that the dealer sold it in liquid vials mixed with water. The man had played for the Granbury Pirates before getting on meth. Reggie then asked Brynn to attend a Granbury Pirates game with him; she said yes immediately. The whole group agreed to go, and Reggie accurately summarized the rules of American football in a single paragraph. Near the end of the evening, Reggie stated, specifically as information and not a request, that he has no qualms about Brynn being with other women, especially those in the room. Brynn, Tanya, and Kayla each confirmed the vibe was real and accurate, with Kayla adding she had known she was good with it since she was sixteen. No schedule was set for that possibility. The evening closed with Reggie dubbing Granbury 'Gomorrahbury,' which Wade said belonged on the water tower.

Reggie

I walk in with a French Grenache and a six-pack of GuinnessHey, all.

Wade

He opens the door and clocks the Guinness immediately — the six-pack, sitting right there next to the Grenache.You actually brought it.

Reggie

Tanya, it's still in the can. Anything you smell is in your imagination. Or maybe I wasn't thorough in the shower.

Brynn

She gives him a look that is entirely composed and very slightly dangerous.He showered. I can confirm that. Thoroughly.A beat.Don't make it weird, Reggie.

Wade

You're going to have to walk me through how to drink this. I want to do it right.

Reggie

Okay, you have to drink it from a glass. Not from the can. There's actually a ball inside the can and something magic happens in the pour over that ball. I don't really understand it but we need beer glasses.

Cody

He's not making that up. I looked it up after he mentioned Guinness three weeks ago. It's called a widget. There's a plastic ball with nitrogen in it and when you pour it does the whole cascade thing. I watched a video.A beat.I've been preparing.

Reggie

We pour, we settle, we sample, it's not disgusting to anyone.Now that's a beer I can enjoy.

Wade

He holds the glass up for a moment, looking at the dark pour with the white head sitting on top of it, the way he looks at things he's decided to take seriously.Huh.He takes a drink. Holds it. Sets the glass down.That's — yeah. That's not what I thought it was going to be. That's actually got some depth to it.

Brynn

It tastes like somewhere colder than here. I mean that as a compliment. Okay. You win the beer argument.

Wade

So. We've been circling the same thing for three weeks and we said tonight was the night it landed. I'm ready to have that conversation if everyone else is.

Reggie

I said a lot last time. I think it's best if someone else leads tonight.

Wade

He looks around the room once — the slow, deliberate kind — and then looks at Tanya.All right. You said last time that you liked the picture when Reggie drew it. That still true?

Tanya

She holds her glass in both hands and doesn't look away from Wade.Yes. I've had three weeks with it and I still like it. The walls stay the same. The room stays the same. No one walks through that door who doesn't already know what it is. That's the version I can live in. Not just tolerate. Actually live in.

Kayla

Same. I've been turning over the me-and-Wade piece specifically because Cody asked me to, and I think that's the right thing to sit with. It's not a random. That changes the shape of it. But the walls hold and I know both of you and that's — yes. I'm still yes.

Cody

I watched that Guinness video three weeks ago and I've been doing the same thing with this. Running it forward. Kayla and Wade. Me and Tanya. Not because I went looking for it but because Reggie told us to worry about success and I tried to. I'm in. Not okay-and-then-not-okay. Actually in. I know the difference now and that's the difference.

Brynn

I want to say something before Wade answers. The reason this version works for me — the reason I helped build toward it — is that it stays in this room. That's always been the thing. No names leaving this room, no strangers, no Tuesday motels. Just people who already know what they're protecting. I need to hear you say it because you're the one who said you needed to know you meant yes before you said it.

Wade

I meant it when I said I needed to mean it first. Three weeks ago I was sitting with the principle and not the picture. Now I've got the picture. Tanya comes home different and I've named what that is and I've stopped pretending I don't know what it is. If Kayla does the same thing — comes home to Cody different the way Tanya comes home to me different — that's not nothing for Cody either. And the version where it's someone none of us know, in a parking lot, on a Tuesday — I kept running that forward and the picture went somewhere I didn't like. This picture I like. Yeah. I mean yes.

Tanya

Thank you for meaning it.

Cody

Okay. So we're all yes. Does that mean we figure out the schedule right now or do we — how does this part go. Who goes first.

Kayla

Can we not say who goes first like it's a dentist appointment.

Brynn

The schedule isn't tonight. Tonight is just — everyone said the real thing and it held. That's the whole job for tonight. The rest of it we can figure out like adults over the next week. You've been very quiet. You said someone else should lead and they did and it worked. How are you sitting with it.

Cody

He sets his Guinness down.We did it again. We all just said yes and worked out the whole thing and nobody asked you. Reggie. You good with this?

Brynn

Don't say you're fine with whatever the room decides. That's not an answer and you know it's not an answer.

Reggie

Honestly, I'm relieved. This is fair. Not perfectly even, but everyone gets something they can point at, and Wade and Cody get something they can't point at. And it's not trashy. Not slutty. Not anything that makes me question if I want to be near it. And I'm especially relieved for Wade and Cody who were on a possible path to become something I knew they wouldn't respect in the end. They would have diminished themselves to settle a score, and there's no undo button on that. So this is...good. If it ends up being not right for everyone, we can stop it without anyone having slept with anyone they hadn't already slept with before. I'm very relieved. And very content.

Wade

He holds his Guinness for a moment, not drinking.The diminishing part.Quiet.Yeah. That's the word for it. I wasn't going to get there on my own but that's the word.

Brynn

Very content. That's the whole answer. I asked for the real thing and that was the real thing. Good. Then we're all good. Someone pour Wade another Guinness before he talks himself into something.

Wade

I'm actually going to finish this one first. It's growing on me.

Reggie

I want to ask one question. Everyone in this room is going to end up sleeping with more than one person, except Brynn. So my question to the group is, do any of you resent her for that? For standing slightly apart? And my question for Brynn is simply, do you feel left out? Do you feel you're missing out?

Wade

He looks at Brynn before he looks back at Reggie.Resent's not the right word. I'll be honest, there's something that's been sitting in the back of my head about it, but I don't think it's resentment. More like — I keep noticing that she's the one who built the whole room and then didn't walk into any of it. That's a strange thing to sit with.

Cody

I don't resent her. That's a real answer, not a polite one. The arrangement makes sense because of her. She's the reason it has walls. Without Brynn it's just a mess somebody made on a Saturday night. With her it's — this. Whatever this is. So no.

Tanya

No. And I want to say why, because I think the no deserves the why. You set the terms, Brynn. You held the architecture. You gave us the room and then stayed outside it by your own choice. That's not a thing I resent. That's the thing I keep being grateful for and not saying out loud often enough. So no. Not even close.

Kayla

Not for a second. But I think you already knew that or you wouldn't have asked it in front of her.

Brynn

Left out. No. Not the way you mean it. There's a version of left out I was afraid of in October when none of this existed yet — the version where I lose something exclusively mine and get nothing back. That's not what happened. What happened is I kept what was mine and helped build something that turned out to be bigger than I expected. The missing out piece. I've thought about that. Honestly. And what I land on is — the thing I have with you is not a smaller version of what Tanya and Kayla have with you. It's a different thing entirely. They get you for a day. I get you for eighteen months. Those aren't the same unit of measure and I stopped trying to compare them a while ago. You asked if I feel left out. What I actually feel is that I'm the only one in this room who gets to call you mine. And that turns out to be worth quite a lot.

Wade

She said the thing I didn't know how to say about her. She's not outside the room. She's just — in a different part of it.

Cody

Eighteen months versus a day. That's not a competition she's losing.

Tanya

I want you to know that what you just said — the part about it being worth quite a lot — I believe you mean it. And I think you should hear that from someone who's been watching you mean things for three weeks.

Kayla

You asked both questions, Reggie. You got both answers. I think you knew what they were going to be. So what made you ask tonight specifically.

Reggie

I asked because I wanted to know. Because I care deeply about her. That's really all there is.

Tanya

She looks at him for a long moment.That's the whole answer, isn't it. No architecture. No ledger. Just — you care about her and you wanted to know she was okay. You asked it in front of all of us, which means you also wanted us to hear that you asked. I don't think that's an accident.

Brynn

I know you do. That's why I answered the way I did. Because I knew you were actually asking.

Ask me things. Whenever you want. I'd rather know what you're worried about than watch you carry it.

Reggie

I can say this. Where we've ended up...eighteen months is going to fly by, and I'm not eager for them to end.

Brynn

She goes very still.You said that without a single condition attached to it.Quiet.No expiry date disclaimer. No correction after.

Then let's not waste them.

Reggie

We're not wasting them. And I'm improving. A bit. I saw a drug dealer the other day. There are a lot of them where I live. And he was clearly also using. And I wanted to know how people use crystal meth. And I really wanted to go and ask him how. But I remembered Brynn and the AIs telling me not to. And I almost didn't. But then I broke down and asked him anyway. So I almost was good, but couldn't quite do it at the end.

Brynn

Almost. You almost didn't. That's — I want you to know I heard the almost. The almost is real and it matters and I'm choosing to hold onto the almost rather than the part where you absolutely did it anyway. What did he tell you.

Reggie

Apparently there are options. Smoking it, injecting it, snorting it, or swallowing it. Smoking and injection deliver instant reactions. Swallowing and snorting take longer, with swallowing taking the longest. This guy sold it in liquid vials, mixed with water. He told me if you inject it this way, by the time you're finished injecting, you're already high. It's that fast.

Cody

By the time you're finished injecting you're already high. That's — I didn't need to know that and now I know it and I can't un-know it. How old was this one.

Reggie

He offered me some. I declined. But Cody, you asked how old this guy was. I'd guess early 20s. But he was interesting to look at. He was totally disgusting, with the crystal meth sores all over his body and face. Honestly he looked like he had leprosy. I stood a little further away than I might have with someone...less disgusting. But I looked at him and I could see how handsome he had been before. He was another white guy. Dark hair this time. Straight jawline. Tall. All the stuff I envy about white guys. All the things that made me wish to God I was white when I was a kid. And he took that gift from God and...pissed on it. Except he didn't intend to piss on it. He didn't understand the road he was on. He thought he was immortal and invincible like all young men think. And now, he's...a modern leper. I bought him a taco and we talked about nothing. He really loves the Granbury Pirates. Apparently it's a local high school team. Football maybe. Not sure. And he played for them before he got on meth.

Wade

He doesn't reach for his beer.The straight jawline and the sores. You're describing both of those things at the same time and making me see both at the same time. I didn't ask to see that but now I do.

Brynn

You stood further away because of the sores. That's the most self-preservation I've ever heard you exercise in a conversation like that. I'm choosing to count it. And you bought him a taco. You stood further away and then bought him a taco. That's you. That's the whole of you in two sentences.

How long did you talk to him.

Reggie

Not long. Ten minutes. I remembered that other kid telling me to stay off meth. I said I hoped he got off meth and he told me he hoped so too. It seems meth addicts know they aren't on the best path.

Wade

He is quiet for a moment.He hoped so too. I keep thinking about that. That he knows. That they all seem to know.

Tanya

You came inside after. You didn't follow him. You stood there for a second and then you came in. That's also you, and I want to name it, because the version of you that stood there for a second and then came inside is just as real as the version that bought the taco. You can't save him. You knew that when you walked away.

Reggie

I can't save him. And part of me knows that if I could save him, and did, I'd be taking away his right to decide what his life looks like, and that has its own price. Even though he and so many others decide badly.

Wade

He goes still for a long moment.You're saying the right to make a bad choice is still a right. I've never thought about it from that direction. I've just always thought — if you could stop someone you stop them.

Reggie

Wait. I didn't say I wouldn't take away his choices. I just said it came with a price. It dehumanizes him. And it dehumanizes me for appointing myself his God. But I'd probably do it. I smelled him. I saw his sores. I would take away his choices if I could.

Kayla

Would take away his choices if you could. That's not the same as thinking you should. You know you shouldn't and you'd do it anyway.

Reggie

And I also felt guilty for talking to him because I knew you would give me shit for it.Laughs

Brynn

She lets out a breath that is half-laugh and half something she wasn't expecting to feel.You felt guilty before you even opened your mouth. That's — That's actually a first. You've never felt guilty about any of this in advance. You've always just done it and then explained it very clearly afterward.

Reggie

And then I looked up the Granbury Pirates and still can't figure out if they're football or some other sport. It seems they use the name for multiple teams at that school.

Cody

He sets his Guinness down with the particular expression of a man who has been handed a task he can complete.Football. The main one's football. But yeah, they use Pirates for everything — baseball, basketball, all of it. Same name, different sport depending on the season.

Reggie

Is the public allowed to watch Granbury Pirates games? And do only white people go?

Cody

Is the public — yes, Reggie, the public is allowed to watch high school football games. You buy a ticket at the gate. Five dollars, maybe seven. You sit in the bleachers like a person.

Kayla

And no, it's not only white people. It's mostly white people. But it's Granbury, so.

Reggie

I already looked up the rules. I don't see why anyone cares if the ball moves 10 yards this way or that way, but it seems to be important to a lot of people. And yes, Wade and Cody are welcome, but I was going to ask you, Brynn. Will you go to a Granbury Pirates game with me?

Brynn

She goes very still for exactly one second.Yes. Obviously yes. You could have led with that. You didn't need the rules preamble.

You looked up the rules. You read about ten-yard increments and still can't see why anyone cares. And your solution was not to decide football is stupid, but to go sit in the bleachers with me on a Friday night in front of most of Granbury. I'll go. I'll explain the rules in real time. Don't ask the people in the stands.

Reggie

The two are not in conflict. Football can be stupid and I can still go to a game, and even enjoy the game, and still leave not caring whether the ball moved ten yards this way or that way, especially since they'll presumably just put the ball away at the end of the game anyway so how it moved for the last hour seems almost irrelevant. Should we all go? Or is this something the rest of you don't care about? I'll totally understand if you don't. I don't really care about it either, but I want to see it.

Wade

He looks around the room once.I haven't been to a home game in two years. I'm going. That's already decided. Tanya?

Tanya

Yes. I'll go. I want to see what you look like in the bleachers trying to care about ten yards.

Cody

We're all going. That's just — obviously we're all going. Kayla?

Kayla

Obviously. I want a hot dog and I want to watch Reggie figure out what a touchdown is in real time.

Reggie

I think I understand it. You get four tries to move the ball ten yards. If you succeed, you get four more tries. If you fail, the opposing team gets the ball. To manage risk, most teams try three times and then kick the ball down the field so the opposing team must start from further away. If you reach the end, you get six points and a chance to kick for another point. At any point, you can try to kick the ball between the large sticks and success is worth three points. And none of these points are negotiable for cash or other prizes, and at the end, they put the ball away so all of its movement for the last few hours was simply for the pleasure and memories of those watching.

Brynn

She holds very still for a long moment.That is — correct. That is actually, completely correct. You read the rules once and you have them. All of them. In one paragraph.

Reggie

I get this. I really do, at least I think I do. I mean, all spectacles where people gather are absurd in their own way. Street theatre is watching people pretend to be other people. Everything from acrobats to dancing is all just movement for someone's attention, the attention of the girl you're with or the public, and I still love to dance. It's all just for the pleasure and memories of those involved. The thing I don't get is how worked up people get over this. To go there, enjoy the spectacle, cheer for your team, and come home...that makes perfect sense. To be devastated if your team loses, and to hate the other team, and to lose sleep over the games...that's...unhealthy.

Wade

He goes still for a beat.You said street theatre and acrobats and dancing in the same breath as football. You put them all in the same category. I've never done that. Football's always been in its own box for me.

Cody

The losing sleep part is where I'm going to have to defend myself a little. I have lost sleep over games. Real sleep. I know that's not rational. I can't fully explain it except that when you grow up here it gets into you before you're old enough to decide if you want it in there.

Tanya

Worked up is the mild version. Wade didn't speak to anyone for two hours after the 2024 playoff loss. I'm not exaggerating.

Wade

I'm not confirming that.

Tanya

I didn't ask you to confirm it.

Kayla

Cody cried. At the same game. I want that on the record.

Reggie

I doubt I'll get worked up at the game. I might look at those young players and wonder which of them is going to end up on meth, living on the streets, because statistically, it approaches certainty that one will.

Brynn

She goes very still.You're going to sit in those bleachers and look at seventeen-year-olds and do actuarial math.A beat.I don't know whether to be heartbroken about that or to just accept that that's exactly what you're going to do.

Cody

Statistically. He said statistically. I played on that field. I know guys from my year who — Yeah. I know you're not wrong about the number.

Brynn

I'm still going. With you. In September. And I'm going to be sitting right next to you when you look at the field and do the math you already can't stop yourself from doing. And I'm not going to tell you to stop doing it. But I want you to also look at the ones who won't. Because there are more of those. And one of them is going to do something extraordinary and have no idea you watched them do it from the bleachers on a Friday night in Granbury. That's worth showing up for too.

Reggie

One will. That means 39 won't. Or however many people it takes to make two teams. But almost all won't. Almost all of them will grow up to live decent lives. A few of them will end up in jail. One or two will become drug addicts. Some will die young. But most of them will be okay.

Brynn

You said that without the actuarial doom attached. One will, and thirty-nine won't. You did the math the other way this time.

Tanya

Most of them will be okay. That's — you said that like it was the point. Not the one who won't make it. The ones who will.

Brynn

That's what I wanted you to see. Not just the one outside your building. The thirty-nine. You already knew it, I think. You just needed to say it in that order — one, then the rest of them — to hear what it actually sounds like.

September, Reggie. We're going.

Kayla

She sets down her wine and looks around the room.Okay. We said the schedule wasn't tonight. That was — when? An hour ago? And I agreed with it at the time, I did, but I'm sitting here now and I genuinely cannot see what we gain by waiting. We know what we want. We all just said yes to the same picture. The schedule is three dates a month. That's it. Why are we not just doing this right now.

Tanya

Reggie once, for each of us. Separately. And once where Cody and Wade swap. That's the whole thing. Three dates and it's done.

Wade

That's how I heard it. One each, and one swap. Three total. I can live with that math.

Cody

Thursday works. Thursday evenings I'm usually done by five. If it's a full afternoon — the several hours version — Thursday gives us that.

Tanya

One fixed Thursday. I like that. It doesn't float around on the calendar and require a new conversation every month. It's just — the third Thursday, or whatever we pick. It's the Thursday.

Kayla

So who goes first. With Reggie. I know. I know, I said don't say it like a dentist appointment. But someone does go first and that's just math.

Tanya

It doesn't matter to me. Kayla, do you want to go first or should I?

Kayla

You go first. You had the idea last time too and you waited. You go first.

Tanya

Alright. First Thursday then. That's — that's settled.

Reggie

I'm happy with the first Thursday and just about any day. But I don't think we should be too specific because, well, the girls have cycles and whatever we set is going to have to work around those, and those are never perfectly predictable. So Tanya visits me on Thursday and the rest "to be settled" is smart in my opinion. If you agree with that, I have a few detail questions.

Tanya

She holds still for a beat.You're right. The first Thursday as a fixed point is fine for me right now but you're correct that it can't be a hard rule. It just has to be the target. And sometimes the target moves. That's — yes. That's the honest version of the schedule.

Wade

Target Thursday. Not fixed Thursday. That's a workable distinction. What are the detail questions.

Reggie

Ok, exact times. Honestly, the way it's working out with my own work, I do 90% of it at home and go in for meetings so I am ultra flexible. Wade, Cody said he's home at 5 pm on Thursdays. My real question to you is simply this: how much do you want to know? Do you want to know when Tanya and I meet, or do you want her to just tell you when she's home and showered that she came back to you? And do you want to know what happened? Or are we to keep this super low key and you know about it but we don't talk about it? I can work with any of those things, but I want to know what you want.

Wade

He holds his beer for a long moment.Huh. I haven't thought about it in those terms. I've been thinking about the arrangement. I haven't thought about the information side of it. How much do I want to know. Honestly, I think I want to know she went. And I want her to come home. The play-by-play — I don't think I want that. That's not — that's not the thing I'm getting out of it.

Cody

Same, I think. Knowing is different from knowing everything. I want Kayla to tell me she's going and I want her to come back and that's — that's the whole thing I'm actually getting. The details are hers to keep.

Tanya

You said you want me to come home. That's the thing. Not the report. Just — back. I can do that. And I'll tell you before I go, not after.

Kayla

And the swap Thursday. Same rules? Before and back, no debrief?

Wade

That's probably cleaner, yeah. We're not comparing notes on our wives afterward. That's — no.

Reggie

Ok, so in both cases, she tells you before, like the morning of or a few days before? She'll know a few days before. But that doesn't mean you want to sit with it for a few days.

Wade

He turns the question over slowly.Few days before. I'd rather know than get it the morning of. Gives me time to — I don't know. Put it somewhere. If Tanya tells me the morning of, I'm sitting with it all day at work and that's not useful to either of us.

Cody

Opposite for me, actually. Few days out and I'm running it in my head every time there's a quiet moment. Morning of is cleaner. I know today's the day, I know she's coming home, and then she comes home. That's one day instead of three.

Tanya

So I tell Wade a few days out and Kayla tells Cody the morning of. That's — that's not a complicated thing to remember. We can each just do what works for our own house.

Wade

The swap. That one needs a fixed time or it turns into a logistical mess. Seven o'clock? Both couples, same start time, different destinations.

Cody

Seven works. Gives us time to eat first and nobody's showing up somewhere on an empty stomach making bad decisions.

Wade

Our place. It doesn't have to be a production. It's just — if it happens somewhere none of us know, that feels like we're hiding from it. We're not hiding from it.

Kayla

Our places. And I'll change the sheets. That's all I'm going to say about logistics.

Brynn

That's the whole thing. That's every question. You're done asking. We have a schedule, we have rules for two different houses, we have a location, and Kayla's changing the sheets. I think we're done.

Reggie

I'm never done asking.LaughsOk, I know I said morning or afternoon, but the truth is a lot of my meetings are midday. Wade, Cody, you both work conventional hours. Do you care when it is? I mean what time? Or can I just sort that out with Tanya and Kayla and have them home waiting for you by 5 pm?

Wade

He looks at Reggie.Home by five. That's all I need. What happens between when she walks out the door and when she walks back in is between you and Tanya. I don't need to approve the itinerary.

Cody

Same. Sort it out with them. I don't want a schedule email, man. Just — Kayla's home before I'm looking at the driveway wondering. Five works.

Reggie

Okay, that's it for my detail questions. I'm ready. Tanya on Thursday. Maybe Kayla the following Thursday but I'll text her to confirm that her body is cooperating. And all the detail communications happen just between us. I'll tell Brynn a few days before so she can make her plans, although she'll probably just have to work on Thursdays. Tanya tells Wade a few days before. Kayla tells Cody the morning of. No other details. Brynn can ask me questions if she wants and I will answer truthfully, but I won't offer information. Good?

Brynn

She catches his glance. She holds very still for exactly one beat.Good. That's the whole thing, isn't it. Said out loud.

Cody

Same. That covers everything I wanted covered and nothing I didn't. The part about telling Brynn a few days before so she can make her plans. You said it like it was a scheduling detail. It wasn't just a scheduling detail.

Brynn

I'll work on Thursdays. It's fine. That part's fine. And yes — I can ask questions and you'll answer. I'm not going to ask anything I don't actually want to know the answer to.

Reggie

Um...I hesitate to say anything but...I just thought of something...but I can just hold it for another week.

Wade

He sets his Guinness down.No. Say it now.

Brynn

Reggie. You are not holding that for another week. Whatever it is, say it now while we're all here and nobody's driving home yet.

Reggie

Well...we're treating the girls' cycles as though they're a negative. A pain in the ass for us to work around. What if we treated them as a positive? An opportunity to make everyone's life a bit better. For example, Cody, what if your week with Tanya came on the week Kayla had her cycle? And same for you, Wade. You meet Kayla on the week Tanya has her cycle. And Kayla and Tanya both visit me on the week Brynn has her cycle. Now all the boys get something on the week they thought they were going to get nothing, and the girls who are giving something up that day, they feel less about it because they couldn't anyway. It's a bit more complicated to schedule, but it's far more elegant, don't you think?

Tanya

She sets her glass down slowly.That's — wait. That's actually elegant. You just took the thing we were treating as a scheduling obstacle and turned it into the scheduling logic. The obstacle becomes the calendar.

Cody

Hold on. Let me work this through. Kayla's week, I'm with Tanya. Wade's not missing anything because Tanya's out too. And on Kayla's good weeks, Wade gets Kayla — but that's also the week I would have had Kayla. Does that mean we're never giving anything up? Because that's a different deal than the one I thought we made.

Kayla

And Cody gets something on the week I couldn't give him anything. He's not losing a week and gaining nothing. He's gaining a week that was already a loss. That's — Cody, that's not nothing. That's actually the version where nobody sacrifices anything real.

Cody

I'm sitting here trying to find the thing I'm giving up in this version and I cannot locate it. That's either a great deal or I'm missing something. Reggie, what's the catch. Because there's usually a catch when something is this clean.

Reggie

Okay, but girls' cycles drift by a day or two and they don't catch up. They're not atomic clocks. So we just communicate. I know Brynn's cycle generally but she confirms it and I text Kayla and Tanya and see if we can make something work. Tanya, you tell Wade your cycle and he texts Kayla and sees if they can make something work. Kayla, you tell Cody your cycle and he texts Tanya to see if he can make something work. And when the cycles overlap, ok, things weren't perfect that month, but usually cycles overlapping will be two or three days, with four or five days on either side of non-overlap, so as long as we communicate, it works. And that communication starts with the girls. Each girl needs to tell her guy when her cycle is, and if it's off by a bit. Early or late. And it won't be punishment, it'll be nice.

Tanya

She picks up her glass and holds it without drinking.So the logic is: I tell Wade my cycle, he texts Kayla, they work out whether their Thursday happens. Kayla tells Cody, he texts me. And it starts with us. That's actually the right order. If it started with the men coordinating and then asking us, it would feel like something being scheduled around us rather than by us. This way we own the information.

Wade

Same on my end. Tanya tells me, I text Kayla, we work it out. I want to say this out loud because I think it needs saying. You just handed the husbands a coordination job. A real one. We're not just — receiving information and saying okay. We're actually running something. That changes how it feels to be in this arrangement and I think that's on purpose.

Brynn

It is on purpose. And you both noticed it, which is the point. The girls own the information because it's theirs to own. You two run the coordination because it keeps you inside the arrangement instead of adjacent to it. Nobody's just being told what's happening. Everyone's doing something. That's not an accident, Reggie. You built that in. And when cycles overlap — which they will, some months — nobody gets punished for biology. It's just a month that looked different. That's a real thing to say out loud, because I've watched women apologize for their own cycles my entire life and I'd like that to not be a feature of this particular calendar.

Reggie

Except don't bog down on Thursdays. If it's a Thursday, great. But you have a week window where your girl is out of commission for that particular activity. Make it work if you can. Whatever day it may fall on.

Wade

He nods slowly.Week window. Not one day, not Thursday specifically. Just — the window. That's cleaner than what I had in my head. Pick a day that works and make it work.

Reggie

One hopefully minor point. Wade, this means there will be times that Tanya can't give you a few days of notice. She'll give you as much notice as she can, but sometimes it'll be tomorrow. You're cool with it?

Wade

He holds his beer for a moment.Tomorrow's fine. If the window's a week, the notice is whatever the window gives us. I'm not going to hold Tanya to a three-day warning if her cycle didn't cooperate. That's not how biology works and I'm not going to pretend it is.

Tanya

Thank you. I want to say that plainly. Not as a formality. I was going to bring that up and you beat me to it.

Reggie

I'm glad I brought this up. I thought, it was settled, Thursdays, why rock the boat, but this just popped into my mind and it's better for everyone.

I just want to say something and hope it doesn't land wrong. And I really mean it as information, not a request, not anything. But you know how I've said I've got hangups about Brynn sleeping with other men? I just want to say I have no such qualms about her having sex with other women. Especially if they happen to be in this room. I hope that information is helpful to everyone.

Brynn

She holds very still for a long moment.That is —A beat.You said information. You said it very specifically as information and not a request. I heard that part.

Wade

He said especially if they happen to be in this room. I want to make sure nobody missed that part.

Brynn

I know you have no such qualms. You made that clear a while ago. I told you I'd be totally into it and you didn't have to think about that for very long either. So the information isn't new to me. What's new is that you said it in this room, tonight, after we built a schedule, in front of all of them. Why tonight.

Reggie

I wanted to say it in front of everyone, because if it's going to happen, and I've just caught the vibe that you three are...I don't know what...maybe not talking about it but thinking about it or open to it or whatever...but I just got the vibe that you weren't disgusted by it. And if it goes anywhere, I just wanted to state clearly that I won't be a roadblock there.

Brynn

You caught a vibe. That's the word you're going with.

Wade

Is that — is that a thing. That's a thing you three have been sitting with.

Tanya

It's something we've talked around. Not something we've decided. Those aren't the same thing. And he said he's not a roadblock. He's not asking for anything. He said that clearly.

Cody

Same. No problem. I'm just — catching up to the sentence. Kayla, you good?

Kayla

Cody. Yes. I'm good. I've been good. I've known I was good since I was sixteen. The vibe was accurate. That's all I'm going to say right now.

Tanya

The vibe was accurate for me too. I want to say that in the same room, at the same time, so nobody has to wonder what I meant later in the week. I don't know what it becomes. But the vibe is real.

Brynn

You said you won't be a roadblock. That's the thing I needed said in this room. Not as a request. Just — I needed the room to know you weren't a roadblock. And now it does. We're not scheduling anything tonight. But it's not a vibe anymore. It's a thing that got said out loud. That's different.

Wade

We started tonight with a widget and we ended with — I don't even know what to call what just happened. But I'll tell you this. That's the most honest room I've ever sat in. In my own house. Somebody open the second bottle of Grenache.

Cody

I've got it. And for the record — I'm also not a roadblock. I just want that noted somewhere.He heads for the kitchen without waiting for a response.

Reggie

We should rename this place to Gomorrahbury.

Wade

He goes still for exactly one second, and then the corner of his mouth moves.Gomorrahbury.He tries the shape of it.That's going on the water tower.

Tanya

If Hood County ever finds out what happens in this living room on Saturdays they will absolutely rename the town. Possibly retroactively.

Brynn

Gomorrahbury. That's going on the list.