The Ask

New York Quotes Volume XXIV

"Not one of the cute bits, for instance, was the night we had a foursome with that lascivious couple whose Greenpoint loft, perhaps because of the hillocks of cocaine on the coffee table, we found ourselves the last to leave. After some preliminary dialogue that wanted so much to parody the clunky verbal vamping of vintage porn, but had veered into grim, jaw-grinding consequentiality, Maura and the other woman had stripped and entangled themselves on the bed, all pinches and strokes and theatrical licks. Even through the fog of powders and booze, the sight of them aroused me and I turned to grin at the other guy. He smiled back, held up a palm for a louche, almost Wonderlandish high five. I shoved my tongue in his mouth. Really, just meant to be friendly, to complement the writhings beneath us, complete the servicing circuit, but suddenly it seemed I'd broken the sacred swingers code.

'What the fuck,' the guy said. He pulled away, wiped his lips. Then he stuck himself in my wife, glared as he pumped.

'I'm not into that,' he said. 'You had no right.'

I crawled off to the coffee table, decided then and there I had no fondness for Greenpoint."

Sam Lipsyte in The Ask