[NOTE: This piece is a snip, it may feel incomplete but it's intended to be a simple slice.]
"I think we should try a blindfold tonight," he said without taking eyes from the television.
"Why the fuck would we do that?" she answered, taking another cracker and a bite of cheese.
"Something different. What could it hurt?"
"It's a stupid idea."
"I know. So what?"
She laughed. "You're full of them, aren't you?"
He took another drink of wine and waited until the next commercial. "Well?"
"Sure, why not?"
It was the second Wednesday of the month. Sex night. After twenty-five years of marriage, they'd given up fighting about it and come to a truce. They'd agreed that the only way to get him to shut up about it was to schedule it. So, twice a month, they headed up to the bedroom and she performed her wifely duties.
For three years, it had been almost exactly the same: lights out, she slipped under the covers and undressed, he gave her a backrub, got in and finished as quickly as he could, then used the vibrator to give her an orgasm. Once, a few months into it, she gave him head to get things started but that hadn't happened since.
They still loved each other, but it was the kind of love that anticipated porch swings and broken hips and waiting for the grandkids to visit. Anything else seemed like too much work.
The show ended and Roland stood up. He picked up the wine glasses and took Karen's plate. She grabbed the last bit of cheese and ate it while he walked into the kitchen and put everything in the sink.
"So, do you have a blindfold?" she asked.
Roland smiled. He'd bought it last month but had been afraid to bring up the subject. It was long and white and made of silk, long enough to wrap around her head twice and tie comfortably at the side. He'd read that tying in the back would be uncomfortable when she laid down. No point making her more uncomfortable.
"Yes, I'll go get it."
Karen got up and went into the bathroom. She brushed her teeth and splashed some water on her face, pulled her hair back and looked at herself in the mirror. Still healthy looking at fifty-five, if a bit overweight. She didn't much like her body but didn't dislike it enough to change anything.
She closed her eyes and stood still for half-a-minute. It felt...interesting. She felt her feet on the floor, her hands on the sink, even felt her hair on her shoulders. The darkness felt comfortable. What would a blindfold be like? she wondered.
Roland walked into the bedroom with a sense of heightened anticipation, a heady mixture of arousal and dread. They'd been doing the same thing for so long that trying something new almost seemed criminal. And, if it was anything less than perfect, they'd be back where they were five years ago. Both of them defending their territory, him chasing and her denying. What had pushed him to try this? To ask for this?
It was an article he'd read about "keeping your love life fresh". Evidently, therapists thought that a good sex life included trying something new every now and then. He wanted to see if that was true. Roland had never fantasized about blindfolds before, or much of anything else. It confused him when he read about it the first time. But when he reread the article, something inside him stirred. He went to his computer and launched his browser and looked up photographs of women wearing blindfolds. It was amazing, there were hundreds of thousands of shots out there. Professional and amateur. Women with small blindfolds, women with large blindfolds. And even more! Women wearing hoods, zippers where the eyes and mouth should be. Women wearing latex hoods with holes for them to see and breathe through. It turned him on more than it should and he clicked the X, shutting down the browser.
But, the image of Karen with a blindfold wouldn't leave.
She came upstairs and said, "well, let's get on with it."
Roland stood and held up his hand. "Don't. Stay right there."
Karen had a puzzled look but stopped just outside the bedroom door. Roland took the long piece of fabric out of the box it came in and brought it up over her eyes.
"No, not here," she growled. "Wait till I get in bed."
"Shhh..." he said. She crossed her arms and said, "whatever the fuck."
Roland wrapped the blindfold around her head, tying a knot over her left ear.