Even after two years, Mallon could still feel the sting of realizing that she had lost her husband's interest. The marriage didn't last long after that day. His attention had been captured by another, and with the kids out of the house, there was no reason in his mind to stick around. She had been mother and devoted wife for 23 years to the only man she had known. How could it have been so easy for him to abandon her?
She had done most of what he asked of her. She stayed fit, exercising daily to shave years off her 40 year-old figure. She gave her body to him every Saturday night and many Tuesdays and Wednesdays too. She had gone down on him, pretending to enjoy it, even swallowing just to give him pleasure. Yet the same love and attention had never been returned to her. She felt that she was somehow undeserving, and so she tried even harder to be a pleaser.
She had grown to believe that orgasms were the god's gift to men and not something that was intended for ladies. She didn't believe what she heard or read on the topic and considered the big O a myth that was propagated by the same people that sold health and beauty products. The one time that she had come close was from a well-placed jet in a Jacuzzi bathtub when they had stolen away for the weekend. But he had managed to take that one away when he walked into the room to use the toilet.
She had left that all behind when she sold the house and everything that she couldn't pack into the car and moved to the coast, taking her share of the divorce settlement. She looked forward to a new life, away from the memories of a small Midwest town. It felt good to shed the prying eyes of the local gossips and vultures, single and married alike. She was once again a carefree Mallon, free from the chains of that small town; looking for adventure not a husband.