Peter Jenkins - The reluctant neighbor

"We can't. I didn't do shopping today." She felt like hitting him. He had no idea what had happened to her, didn't even seem to care if anything had. She had never realized what a drag their very existence had become.

"Didn't go shopping today? Then we have nothing to eat, do we? I mean since we only eat fresh vegetables and fresh fruit, we must be out of luck," he glared at her.

"You only eat fresh fruits and vegetables. I don't really care that much. I'd like to go out to dinner. I'd like to have a large steak and drink before dinner, too. Wouldn't you?" She asked, knowing the answer before she put the question.

"I would not. I don't care to ruin the organic whole of me even if you do seem bent on self-destruction. Not for a minute. But, we could go to the living health store and dine since there is nothing here to eat. That is, if you wish. Is it too late to go shopping now?" He wanted to know.

"Perhaps not. I think the store stays open until nine, but I don't care to go to the store. Not today." She sat down in a chair opposite his.

He peered at her, then turned his head away and seemed to look at the wall. Then he turned back to her abruptly and in a slightly lower voice than shout, "Marily, I demand to know what's troubling you. I am your husband, you know, and I want to know. I come home and you're in bed and then you asked me if I wanted to make love on a Tuesday afternoon and you've done nothing by way of preparing dinner and… you don't look right. Now, what is the trouble?" He sat forward in his chair and eyed her suspiciously.

"Fred, are you satisfied with our sex life?" She asked, not realizing that she was going to say what she said before it was there between them.

Fred jumped from his chair, paced the floor, then with his back to her, said: "I am. We are married and we have what some people would call a normal sex life, I believe. At the least the normal people would call it such. You are not?" He questioned the wall.

"I don't know. I suppose so. I just… It was a stupid question. Forget it." She, too, stood and turned toward the kitchen.

"Marily," he said, softly, still to the wall, "If you'd really like to go out to dinner, we can, I suppose. I shouldn't try to stick too close to a schedule, I guess. It's easy for me but I know it gets on your nerves. Let's. Where would you like to go?"

"For a drink and a steak," she said, still facing away from him. "Perhaps to the Red Ox."

"Very well," he agreed, "But the money will have to come out of the household budget. I'll just have a salad so that should save some."

Marily turned and went to the bedroom. She dressed hurriedly, feeling that she had won a victory over him, wondering why she felt so depressed. She shook off the feeling, entered the bathroom, then called to him so that he could dress while she was in the bathroom making up her face.

Thirty minutes later they left the house and got into the car. Fred was permitting the car to warm up, even though he had been driving it only an hour or so before, when Peter drove into his own drive way. He jumped out of the car, waved a hand gaily in their general direction as though nothing at all had happened then entered his house. Marily felt her face grow warm, her whole body trembled. Before she could examine her feeling, Fred interrupted.

"He's quite a nice looking man, I hear that he is a very good attorney, also. I don't know why he would choose someone like her for a wife, she can't possibly help him get ahead." Fred mused, steering the car onto the street.

His wife didn't bother to answer. She wished that she could sort out her own feeling toward her attacker. Her sensation when she saw him was not an unpleasant one, but he had, damn him, that very afternoon, assaulted and raped her. She should hate him, she told herself, but she didn't. Instead she wondered if he would come back as he had promised.

God, what would she do if he did? Would she fight and scream to protect her honor with a greater intensity than she had this afternoon? Or would she… Yes, she mused to herself at the broken thought… or would she? Perhaps, the slight trembling and gnawing sensation she had felt in her loins when he had waved at them a moment ago had given her the answer. But now… now wasn't the moment to think about it… that would all come in due time…

Marily enjoyed the dinner. She had consumed two drinks, much to Fred's consternation, then had eaten a delicious steak, blood rare. She felt great. She had admonished herself for looking at the men in the room, feeling each time she looked thoroughly at one of them (sitting alone at the bar, with other women, with men friends) the sensations that she had had earlier in the afternoon. She was just as pleased to leave the restaurant as she had been to arrive there.

Once home Marily tried to shake the feeling of need and desire that bunched up inside her demanding an outlet. She couldn't. While Fred had been showering for bed, she had wandered out to the patio, had looked in the direction of Peter's house, had tried to figure which bedroom might be his. Then she remembered his wife, she frowned and, in her own mind, agreed with her husband: how could he live with such a silly woman? She returned to the house, went to the bathroom, stopped in the bedroom and stifled a giggle when she realized that Fred was doing his deep breathing exercises, as he did every night, before going to sleep. She stripped in the bathroom, stood straight and looked at herself in the mirror. She liked what she saw. She was tall, five feet eight, she had nice large breasts that had not the slightest trace of a sag. She ran her hands over her breasts, lifted them so that the nipples, pink and soft, pointed straight into the mirror, then let them drop, ran her hands from her chest out over her breasts, to the end of the nipple, then down, under and across her stomach, marveled at the smoothness of it, then along the outside of her thighs. She stopped, shook herself, a need that had never been there before today rushing through her, and slipped her black negligee over her head. She gave her hair a couple of quick strokes, then returned to the bedroom. She stopped just inside the door and looked at Fred. She couldn't tell whether or not he was asleep because he often, as he explained, went to sleep in stages. She walked softly to his bed, circling her own, and lay down alongside him. He gave no indication that he was awake, that he knew she was there.

She carefully put her hand under the cover, let it rest gently on his stomach. He still made no move to indicate that he was aware of her presence. She started to massage his stomach, moving her hand across it back and in a circular motion and suddenly he sprang up to a sitting position, reached out, turned on the lamp. Marily was startled.

"Marily, what are you doing over here in my bed?" He wanted to know, scowling at her.

"I came to… I want you tonight, Fred." She leveled her large, hungry stare at him.

"This is Tuesday night! I just don't understand you, Marily. I broke up the entire schedule for the day and now you want to take it into the night, ruining our whole weeks' plans. I just don't understand." He was perplexed beyond doubt. "Don't try to understand. Let's just make love, Fred." She moved to him, put a hand behind his back. Fred sighed, turned out the light, then crawled on top of her. He lifted her negligee, took his penis out through the opening of his pajamas, then eased himself down to her so that his soft, fleshy prick was pressed against her warm, open vaginal slit. She moved slightly, put her hand on his back. He shook it off. She lay still, fear somehow almost paralyzing her that she would go crazy and give all that happened away and then he moved against her. She felt him begin to harden, and she wanted to kiss him, to be kissed, to have his tongue inside her mouth just as Peter's had been, but she dared not. She felt him enter her, easily, then push himself all the way in, then move in and out of her. She felt a rush of memories from the afternoon and before she realized what she was doing her legs went around his back, her arms circled his neck. He withdrew immediately. He was shocked, she knew.