At last he said, "I've only ever slept with one woman."
That made her turn and look at him. He was biting his thumb, the way he did when he was nervous. She said, "Only one person? Your whole life?"
"Only one woman. There was some canoodling I'm not counting. But one, yeah."
Jenna heard his careful correction, but now was not the time to pursue that. Maybe later. Maybe after he'd had another glass.
She said, "Yeah, that's kinda not my thing. Even though Richard and I are steady. It's fun to be able to date other people. I'd miss women if I couldn't be with them."
"Only women?" He had a little sideways grin on his face. Jenna nudged him.
"There are men, from time to time. I don't get around all that much. This job, you know?"
Peter giggled and squeezed her against his side for a moment. "But here's the thing. I didn't tell you the truth the other night."
"What d'you mean?"
"How I felt about it. Told you it was foreign to me. Thing is--"
"Yeah?"
"It's not. Not-- not in the sense of a lifestyle thing. But Elaine and I talked about something like it once, years ago now. We made a deal."
"A deal?"
"I get one," he said. "One fling. One--" he flapped his hand around-- "incident. Cheating's the wrong word, because it's allowed. I have to tell her, but that's the only rule."
"How about Elaine?"
"She used her go. Not going to tell the story, but she has good taste and I'd have done the same."
Jenna smiled at him, because he did always get that faraway fond look on his face when he talked about Elaine. Relationship goals, she supposed. Some day, with Richard, it would be like that for her too. If things continued to work out.