Looking for a Third

Have you ever said something into a quiet room that gets a completely different reaction than you expected, especially the reaction of shock when you were expecting nods of agreement? I feel this stems from the unfortunate fact that everyone else can't hear all the other thoughts that lead up to that comment. Or maybe it is because everyone doesn't think about the same things I do. Perhaps it's because people have different associations with phrases and words than I do. In any event, it's often embarrassing. Case in point:

The other day, while gathered with my parents, my sister and brother-in-law, and my grandparents, I casually mentioned, "Cody and I are always looking for a third in our relationship."

The room was suddenly dead silent. Then my mom proclaimed, "I don't want to know about this!"

At which point it occurred to me that everyone in the room was probably thinking that I meant that I wanted a third person for sex. I guess that was the logical conclusion. I suppose that's what all those people mean in the personal ads of newspapers. You know, the "Young couple seeking adventurous woman who likes to travel," which is probably not a request for a chauffeur. However, that wasn't at all what I meant. (As if I would say such a thing in front of family!)

Mainly I think about how great it would be to have a third person in our relationship when I'm thinking of money. It's rather shallow of me, but I think about how great it'd be to have three incomes. Then we could buy a house, buy new furniture, buy new cars, get more cats (we'd have more square footage for them to roam in), I could write full time, we could travel more. The list goes on and on. Of course, it'd be great to have another person I cared about as much as Cody, for there's no such thing as too many people to love and being loved by too many people in my book. But that's a secondary thought. Mainly it's the selfish, shallow "want" thoughts that make me blurt out things like, "Cody and I are always looking for a third." The sex rarely enters my mind, I swear :)