Joan was wearing a one-piece strapless swimsuit that was fairly conservative being loose and not very form-fitting. It was a hot, beautiful summer day and the pool was pretty busy with lots of kids and adults in the water and lots of the kids’ parents sitting around the deck.
We were in the water mostly wading around, since it was really too crowded to swim much. As we got closer to the deep end, there was a group of five or six dads who were obviously assigned to watch their children as they swam. They were probably in their mid-30s with younger kids and were sitting on the edge of the pool drinking beer and enjoying their adult company and conversation. Their jobs as familial “lifeguards” were certainly being ignored if not altogether forgotten. Joan gave them a look of concern as she recognized the scene that was unfolding based on having scrutinized my lifeguarding skills when our daughter was a child.
As we splashed around one little girl, probably 4 or 5 years old seemed to be getting into the water that was soon going to be over her head and she was starting to panic. Joan was the first person to see her struggling as she started to cry out for help. The “dads” group wasn’t paying any attention to the girl, so Joan immediately went over to help her out. As soon as she got to the girl, other adults were also realizing what was happening but for some reason weren’t yet jumping in to help her.
When Joan got to the girl, her flailing arms grabbed the top of Joan’s swimsuit and pulled the front down to completely expose both her breasts. And since she was holding the girl so she wouldn’t go under, she couldn’t free her hands to pull her top up. So, her alternative was to pull the kid to her chest in an attempt to cover up her breasts. But then the girl’s father came on the scene quickly and rather roughly grabbed her out of Joan’s arms. Having removed the child from Joan’s arms, he really got a close-up view of her chest, as did nearly everyone else nearby in the pool, and most certainly the group of dads sitting closest to us.
I think Joan was a little stunned by everything that was happening, because it took quite a few seconds for her to perceive her situation and pull her suit back up. And the kid’s father left without so much as a “thank you” for her literally saving his daughter. I hugged Joan and told her she was certainly my hero for preventing a possible drowning.
Everyone around us in the water pretty much scattered. I figured they were a little embarrassed that they saw my wife’s breasts and didn’t quite know what to say., or equally aghast at the father’s poor behavior. The dads group took advantage of Joan’s predicament for all it was worth, trying to see as much as they could for as long as they could. I about expected them to give Joan a round of applause, and not for her lifesaving effort. We decided not to hang around the pool much longer either. Being caught half naked and being anonymous was one thing, but now people were recognizing her as the topless hero and pointing her out to their friends and families.
Back in our room we tried to postmortem the pool event. It was easy to castigate the father; first for failing to watch his child, and second, for his rudeness to Joan and not thanking her at all. Assessing the group of dads sitting by were more complicated. While the child in question was not one of theirs, they still didn’t see a kid in trouble in time to jump in to help. Then there was the unabashed ogling of Joan’s breasts. I knew how I was feeling about that and if I told her I’d likely sound like a possessive, jealous husband. So, I asked her how that made her feel.
“Pour us a glass of wine and let me relax a while before I answer,” she said. “I want to think through my feelings.”
After an hour and a bottle of wine, Joan said to me, “I’m a little conflicted about those guys looking at me. They sure weren’t watching their kids or other people’s kids in the pool, but when my chest got exposed, they sure didn’t miss a second of the show. When a child is at risk, it should be off limits to look for a sexual thrill out of it. But once I knew that girl was safe and with her dad, I have to admit I did feel a little excited to have my 45-year-old breasts displayed for those young guys to enjoy. I think that’s part of the reason why I couldn’t find the will to immediately pull my suit back up. Does that make any sense to you?”
“Wow, now I think I need a little time to process what you’ve told me. And maybe a second bottle of wine,” I replied and refilled our glasses.
The wine helped me get over my first feelings of possessiveness for my wife’s bare breasts being shared with other men. Or maybe it was her telling me that she had gotten over her own possessiveness of her body? In any case, I was looking at things far differently now and sharing in Joan’s feeling of arousal. She explained that the accidental nature of being exposed, gave her permission to savor the moment once the child was out of her arms and safe.
We got ready for bed and snuggled, both of us naked, which had become a less frequent occurrence for us over the years. We let the mood take us to the most enthusiastic sex we’d had in some time too.
In the morning we headed home. We talked about how we could regain some of the sensual attraction we’d lost or just overlooked, and how an accidental exposure could ignite nearly spontaneous combustion in our love life. We both were now very open to accidental situations like this, and maybe some accidentally-on-purpose ones too.