Well, two "brothers in arms" is common. Though mostly the ones I personally don't have a modern setting, so it's more like 2 knights or a knight-mage pair or the two-man crew of a mecha or small space ship, or a nobleman and the bodyguard who has been his best friend since he was a teenager. Sometimes they are co-survivors of a ship crashing or an apocalypse. I like the settings where there's a shortage of women so the two men are looking for a wife to share, and this is pretty normal for the setting.
In my experiences, the stereotypical male goes through the life cycle ritually beating his chest. If the neighbor buys a mower, he has to buy a new RIDING mower. He has to piss longer, belch louder, and his farts have to stink the worst. Share a woman? What woman once she had sampled all this fabulousness could possibly want another man unless she is a slut?
Ironically, those are typically the first in line drooling over the idea of "two wimmin 'n' me" and they don't see an issue.
Double irony, I've met exactly two men in real life that DIDN'T like the idea of two women when it was presented to them. There might, of course, be others that were never given the option to choose. But, I think the fact that only two that I'm aware of said "get the hell away from me" is a telling statistic in there somewhere.
Just how the hell it is that a man who has two women is a stud but a woman that has two men is a slut is something I have never understood. Hell, if it bugs you that much, buy a "clone-a-willy" kit, then pick your spot and give her the clone in another. Sheesh. Or better yet, have her girlfriend use it as a strap-on and get a two'fer.
All joking aside, Stella hit the nail right on the head as far as it went. The one additional point I would throw out if I might be so bold is a disrespect on the part of one or both of the men involved towards the woman. It's hard (if you will forgive the pun) to find even two people that will love and respect each other equally, much less more.
As for firemen, cops, soldiers, etc... I know plenty of each that would cheerfully try to kick my ass for saying it out loud, but I call them like I see them. No greater love hath any man than he would take a fuckin' bullet for 'em. They may not want to screw each other, but they do love each other. (At least I didn't see any mention that one or both of the men were bi-curious?) (The way I hear it, the unofficial SEAL mantra is "My wife, sure. My toothbrush, maybe. My knife, never.")
However, when the stereotypical male mentioned in the first paragraph reads a story involving one woman and two men, his lizard brain is automatically going to scream "cuckold cuckold cuckold" if there is any sort of existing relationship because he can not help but put himself in place of the male in the existing relationship. Because, of course, all of this fabulousness has absolutely no problem getting a woman so he couldn't possibly be the other guy.
Write it anyway and just know when they gripe that they've probably been telling women their whole life that this is six inches or they are waiting for the other one to drop.
Oh, damn. Did I take my meds? Holy crap! Did I take two doses?!
Uh, I gotta go. But I just want to say that I see three factors that would play a part in your OP question.
1) How does the husband view himself?
2) How does the husband view his wife?
3) How much of a damn does the husband give about anyone else's opinion on anything?
In my experiences, the stereotypical male goes through the life cycle ritually beating his chest. If the neighbor buys a mower, he has to buy a new RIDING mower. He has to piss longer, belch louder, and his farts have to stink the worst. Share a woman? What woman once she had sampled all this fabulousness could possibly want another man unless she is a slut?
Ironically, those are typically the first in line drooling over the idea of "two wimmin 'n' me" and they don't see an issue.
...Just how the hell it is that a man who has two women is a stud but a woman that has two men is a slut is something I have never understood.
