Me:
It is raining when we alight. He pays the cab driver and I head to the office to sign in and get the key. He carries our bags to the cottage. I open the door and squeal in delight when he picks me up and carries me across the threshold. Putting me down just inside the room, I noticed he's a little breathless.
By the time I set the cases at the end of the bed, the motel assistant brings the ice bucket as I’d requested. Peeling the damp paper bag from the bottle of champagne I put it in the bucket, then turning to face him, I open my trench coat like a wanton flasher, “Ta-da!”
He smiles as he sits heavily on the bed watching me. I pull down one shoulder of the coat and dance around the room as I hum, kick off my shoes and carelessly toss the coat onto the floor. Underneath it, I'm wearing a silken slip, stockings and garter belt. Taking the pins from my hair, it tumbles around my face and shoulders as I shake my head. His eyebrows raise momentarily. I stand in front of him. We lock eyes. There are beads of sweat on his forehead.
I pause, “Are you all right, my Love?”
He nods.
I move closer.
We kiss softly.
Putting both hands on his shoulders I push him back onto the bed. Bending down, I tug off his shoes. My hands walk their way back up his legs to his torso. I'm a cat climbing on top, sitting astride his hips with the slip crinkled in folds at my hip line. Arching my back, I stretch then bend and kiss his face. When I attempt to open his shirt, he caresses the back of my neck but I can tell he isn’t really into having sex. I give him one last big kiss and roll off him and onto the bed.
He says, “I’m sorry. Too much on my mind right now.”
“Would you like to talk about it?”
“Later.” We gaze at each other. “Don’t worry,” He says as he caresses my cheek.
I kiss his palm and say, “Okay.”
Getting under the blankets, I invite him in, “We can watch a little TV if you like.”
He nods in response and climbs in beside me, still partially dressed. We peck, he turns over and soon he's asleep.
I watch him sleep for a few minutes, then rise, throw on my coat, leave the room to cancel the dinner reservations and order Chinese take-out. By the time I reenter the room, he's snoring. I flick through pay per view and choose a rom-com. The dinner arrives. He stirs a little and I ask him if he’d like to eat? “Not now.” He says as he shuts his eyes and turns over again.
When the movie had finished, he wakes up, peers at me through half-closed lids and says, ”The champagne is getting warm.”
“Want some?”
He nods, ”Please.”
I get out of bed, pop the bottle and pour two bubbling glasses.
“Oops” I giggle, as the foam spills onto the carpet.
He smiles weakly and sits up, I offer a glass, “Feeling better?” He takes a sip then smacks his lips.
Getting up, he starts searching through the bag,“Where’s the wet pack?”
“In the bathroom.”
Taking the glass of bubbly with him, he locks the bathroom door behind him.
Him:
“I don’t feel at all well. I should have said something way before this. I’m so in love with her, she’s the light in all this darkness. God, I’d hate to disappoint her. She’s already been so let down. (I grip the sides of the bathroom cabinet.) Ugh. (I pound my chest with a the flat of my hand.) Indigestion… since that meeting at lunch … Breathe!…I’ll have a drink, that’ll make me better, then I can give her what she’s been looking forward to.”
I swallow the little blue pill.
Her:
I’ve known about her for a while. There she is standing in the hospital corridor, wearing a short trench coat with stockings and heels. Here am I, in a trench over flannelette pjs. She’s all sex and I’m all comfort. She’s a little younger or maybe she’s well maintained, yet she looks the way I feel: an emotional wreck. I thought he’d have gone for something prettier but she’s ordinary, like the girl next door. I fear, loathe and pity that woman. Hope she doesn’t come to the funeral.
