None of them, except Claudia and Nico, had any idea how to label themselves, but after over a quarter of a century of certainty about their sexual identity, the others were not ready to do away with labels.

Claudia knew beyond a doubt that women did not interest her sexually. She didn't think it wrong or perverse; it just wasn't for her. On the other hand, when pressed she now admitted that there was more to her relationship with Nico than what she'd been saying about him for years, that he was "a topnotch fuck". That he had sex with men played a large part in what attracted her to him; she'd come to realize that thinking about or watching two or more men getting it on together excited her enormously. She was, as Nico liked to say, "a heterosexual with a twist".

The irrepressible Nico had always eschewed labels and called himself a "humanosexual" because his partner of choice would have to be, in his words, "a consenting mammalian biped". The others protested that no one could be that indiscriminately bisexual, and tried the old desert island question on him: if he were stranded on a desert island with another person, would he prefer a man or a woman?

"Oh, definitely men. Lots and lots of men."

"No, there can only be one other person."

"OK then, a woman."

They pointed out that his answers contradicted themselves, made no sense. He explained, "One woman is enough for me - provided she puts out, of course - but I need more than just one man. I'd be frustrated all the time just having one, so I think I'd be better off with a woman."

"Then you prefer men."

"...to women. But I prefer a woman to a man."

Aaron, who considered himself 100% gay, had found the idea of having sex with a woman unthinkable until he did Claudia while Nico did him from behind. He refused to perform cunnilingus on her, but he did bury his face between her breasts and sucked on them, and had not felt the need to run to the bathroom to wash her secretions off his cock the moment he withdrew. Her female smell wasn't nearly so disagreeable as he'd imagined. The day might yet come when he'd go down on a woman.

Frank still found the idea of having sex with another man as unthinkable as Aaron had once thought it would be with a woman, but now that the others knew that his wife had divorced him because she was fed up with his fixation on cross-dressing when he made love with her, they no longer looked at him as simply heterosexual. The word was not specific enough to do justice to his tastes.

"At the very least you have to own up to being a heterosexual with another twist," Claudia told him.

"No," Nico quipped, "he's a closet lesbian."

As for the other three, their friends' revelations were no less unsettling than what they'd learned about themselves, or thought they had. When Tony, more naive than the rest, had told his wife he'd heard she'd had sex with her best friend, the hostility in his voice - "Don't I satisfy you?" - kept her from saying, "Yes, once, when we were fourteen-year-old girls. That's nothing to get bent out of shape about." Instead she challenged him to find out for himself what he was missing with one of their bisexual friends.

"We have bisexual friends?"

"Nico. Didn't you know?"

He didn't; he'd imagined Nico and Claudia were a monogamous couple. He stormed out and went to spend the evening with him to piss her off, not planning to have sex with the guy. It didn't work out that way. He tried it all, and couldn't deny that, physically, he loved every minute of it - not that he'd do again. Now he wasn't so sure. The incident had left his wife wondering if her feelings for her friend contained some sexual component after all. She decided to find out, and her fling left all three more confused than ever. The couple promised each other heterosexual fidelity and adopted a "wait and see" policy on future homosexual relationships so long as they kept nothing secret. They'd waited, but hadn't seen.

Nico was positively gleeful. He mustered his best poker face and remarked that the quickest and surest way to sort it out was to get together and stage an orgy. It didn't surprise him that his friends balked at the suggestion; that they took him seriously did. Did he really come off as that promiscuous? He'd done group scenes, but so had Claudia and Aaron often enough, though always with him. The others' experience was limited to private couplings, and though the seven of them had known each other for years, two of them had slept with no more than two of the others, three had only slept with one, and Frank with none, unless you count happening to walk in on Tony and Nico as a sexual connection. It didn't faze Nico, but it embarrassed the hell out of other two.

Too proud of his reputation as a sex addict not to push, Nico said solemnly, "Whatever, but with me or without me, that's the path you're headed down. You'll get there sooner or later."

"Over my dead body," Frank exclaimed.

"That would only add another wrinkle," said Claudia wryly.

Aaron dissolved in giggles. She waited for him to calm down, then went on: "I'm sure we'll get everything sorted out sooner or later, but I'm not sure the quickest way is the best way."

By way of answer, Nico grinned at her from ear to ear.

After a long silence, Aaron said, "Let's do it."

"Let's not," said Frank. "Some other time maybe."

And that seemed to satisfy everyone.

Author Biography