On Sunday, Emma really
was
fidgety. Peter and Derek left before 8:00 since they had an early tee time. As he was getting into his car, Derek had winked at her, and she hoped that he could draw her husband out and help her make sense of the mess her life was in.
Peter was getting her increasingly upset. Why couldn't he just
loosen up
? I mean from what she'd read on the Internet and heard around, it was usually the wives who were uptight about sex. Didn't he want to have a wife who was adventurous and willing to do nearly anything to please him? Wasn't that every man's wet dream?
Maybe Derek could coax him into a little boy talk on the golf course.
Giving up the day as lost, she went to the movies that afternoon to watch a something that Peter, or Derek, for that matter, wouldn't want to see in a million years. At least it might take her mind off her current problems.
When she returned, she found Peter and Derek on the back deck, thick as thieves. Emma's heart leaped that maybe some progress had been made. Now that her libido had been unlocked, she was unwilling to put it back in its little box where it had been relegated for so many years. The pretty 34-year-old had never felt so alive.
As she joined the men, they greeted her enthusiastically, both probably having consumed a number of beers already.
"Now isn't Emma just the most beautiful, sylph-like creature you've ever seen?" Derek said expansively.
"Yes," Peter slurred. "I have a very fine-looking wife."
"I hope you don't mind me saying it," Derek answered leaning over as if talking only to Peter, "but I'll just bet she's a real tigress in bed."
Emma couldn't help it, she almost choked on her beer. What the heck was Derek up to?
"I give her all she can handle," Peter said waving in her direction vaguely.
Only Derek's hand motioning under the table kept Emma from voicing her strenuous objections. Was this really the way Peter saw things?
"Would you like some dinner, guys?" she asked, unable to sit still.
"Sure," Peter said.
"Would you like some help?" Derek asked.
Emma was nearly beside herself as she entered the house with Derek as Peter called for more beer. "Do you want to know what happened last night?"
"From your tone, not much, but I didn't say it would be an easy, short road."
"Did you find out anything today?"
"Your husband is very confused. He had thought you were one way and now he's finding that you're another. He doesn't know how to deal with it. In his mind you're supposed to be the dutiful little wife, a decoration on his watch chain."
"Well, isn't that 17th Century!"
"We talked a lot today. It may bear fruit."
"What did you talk about?"
"I promised I wouldn't say anything, and I honor those promises. I wouldn't breach your confidences and I won't breach Peter's."
Emma scowled. "All right, be that way," she hissed. "Go outside while I'm doing the dutiful little wifey thing here, getting the men folks' dinner ready." When Derek didn't move right away she pushed him towards the door. "Leave!"
"I'm just trying to help you."
"Well, you're not doing a very good job, are you?" Emma snapped and pointedly turned her back on him.
Outside she heard her husband chuckling about "modern women".
She kept her temper in check all through dinner and went in early to read in bed. When she heard Peter coming into the house, she switched off the light and pretended to be asleep. He climbed into bed without his usual shorts and cuddled up behind her, his pecker poking into her rear end. She did nothing.
It was his turn to go to bed frustrated.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Peter was naturally in a bad mood the next morning and barely spoke as he ate his breakfast. Emma longed to sit down and have a talk with him, a real talk, about them. She really felt it was time. As he left, Peter grunted something about possibly having to work late. She didn't even get his usual peck on the cheek.
After that, she went out for a very long run, trying to work out her frustration with some punishment to her body. If anyone had asked, she wouldn't have been able to tell them the route she'd taken, her brain had been in such high gear.
In a few short weeks, her life had changed completely. In early June, she'd been a happy school teacher. Her 2nd Grade charges all loved her, and their parents did, too. She didn't have any real friends at work. That was all due pretty well due to the shyness thing. At least she still had that to go back to in a couple of weeks, and this year, she'd try her best to make some friends. Right now, it would be very good to have some female perspective on everything that was going on.
At home, Emma couldn't say that she'd been particularly happy for the past five years, but she hadn't been particularly unhappy, either. She saw now that she'd been waiting for something. Peter was basically a good man, but he was stiff, unimaginative and clearly saw himself as the boss in his marriage. Had he never heard that marriage is a partnership? She'd been too shy, too unsure of herself to be able to bring up "sticky" subjects. The few times she had begun discussions of things about their marriage that were important to her, she'd either gotten a condescending pat on the head, or Peter had yelled at her. Thinking back, that's the same exact relationship his parents had. Basically, she'd married Peter's father.
Back at home, she toyed with the idea of bringing herself off in the shower. But having a bit of edge was good for what she wanted to do next: a bit of shopping, but shopping with a difference and it would require a fair dose of her new courage.
Late in the afternoon, Emma's last stop was at the supermarket. She was there partly because she needed to pick up a few things for dinner, and partly to try an experiment.
Anyone who knew her would have done a double take. In fact, she carefully noted that a lot of people she
didn't
know did a double take, and they were all male.
Emma was wearing some of her new purchases. Her jeans were skin tight, the kind that take a few minutes to wiggle into. They could have been made with her body in mind. The sales woman had convinced her to buy the kind that had no back pockets because they would "accentuate your very fine assets back there". On her feet, she had sandal-like shoes with 3-inch heels. Two months ago, she would have called her top "immodest". It was white, dangerously sheer, and hugged her breasts. It also showed a fair bit of her cleavage since the front part wrapped behind her neck. Her back was almost totally exposed. Oh, and of course she couldn't wear a bra.
She'd also stopped at the hairdresser and the result was a slightly more shaggy look to her hair with some lighter blonde highlights. It was all done in a very understated way, but it required more courage than anything she'd done that day. She could always hide the clothes, but Peter would immediately see what she'd done to her hair. The finishing touch was a fair bit of make-up applied by the hairdresser.
"Honey," the hairdresser had said as Emma left the shop, "you look like a movie star."
As the seriously sexy-looking woman made her way around the supermarket, she noticed that she'd developed a following: all of them male and all of them trying to look casual about what they were doing. She even caused a three-cart pileup in the meat section.