3.
That night I had a dream. In my dream I was standing in the hallway leading to John's office. I was standing there alone, but I knew that they were in there. I was by the door. It was a heavy wooden door, I knew that from when I worked there, and I stood there, listening. I couldn't hear anything. The handle on the door was steel. I was expecting, I think, an electric shock when I touched it. Instead, I had the sensation like I was falling. I touched it, and it began to turn. I watched it turning, and then the door slid silently open, slowly. I saw her there. She was wearing nothing but a pair of stockings – slutty, black, fishnet-style – and a corset that ended below her breasts. Her head was down. She was sucking him. In my dream, his cock was huge. It could not possibly have fit inside her mouth. But it did. Then she lay on his desk, on her back, legs spread, pleading for him. As he entered her, she turned her face to me, her lips smeared with cum. "Oh, yes!" she moaned, "Oh God, yes! Please!"
Around three am, I woke up. I was sweating; panting. I looked over at my wife. She was sleeping on her back, her face turned to the side, breathing lightly. She was wearing a thin cotton nightie, one she knew I liked. I watched the material shift along with the rise and fall of her chest. She looked beautiful, her lips parted slightly; I've known Maria to talk sometimes, in her sleep. She'd thrown off the comforter; the sheet was twisted around her hips. I touched her lightly, tugging at the sheet. She turned her head. I watched her wet her lips. But her expression didn't change. I pulled it back, exposing her thin legs to the summer air. She closed her mouth; the breeze tousled her hair.
She didn't move when I separated her legs; nor when I crept between them.
When I entered her, her eyes flew wide; I covered her open mouth. I shoved myself into her. Hard. I felt her bite my hand; and didn't care.
I released her mouth, just before I came.
"You didn't fuck him, did you?" Her eyes glittered in the dark.
She stared, and then she shook her head. "Only you, Michael" she cried, "You're the only one." I came, for the second time inside of her, inside her cunt, moaning into her mouth.
I slept much better after that.
She left a row of little scratches on my back.
In the morning I drank coffee and juice in the kitchen, and watched my wife preparing breakfast. She was wearing a thin cotton sundress; I could see her figure clearly when she stood, stirring at the window. When she reached up into the cupboard, to get a box of sugar, her hem rose well up on her hips; I saw the floral pattern of her underwear.
"Did you talk to the mechanic?" she asked, turning around.
I nodded. The Camry's transmission was going out; I could not afford to get it fixed.
She started talking about her new doctor. She was excited that she didn't have to go to the clinic anymore. We'd finally re-qualified for health insurance with her new promotion down at work; though it was not as good as the insurance we had lost when I had left there. She was going to have a sonogram.
I pushed back my cup. I stood up. "I'm going," I said. Even with the insurance, I wasn't sure how we'd make the co-pay.
"Wait. You haven't eaten." She held French toast with powdered sugar in her hand.
I stared at it, and then up at her face. "I'll grab something on the way," I told her.
She pouted, but when I started to turn away, she put down the plate and put her arms around me. She rose on tippy toe and kissed my neck. "I love you."
I grimaced. "You better," I said. That old joke again.
I waved at the neighbor on the way to the car, hoping it would start. On the way to work, I thought about the last thing she'd said: "I liked," she'd whispered in my ear, after she had kissed me, "What you did to me last night." I drove to work with my cock straining at my pants.
By early afternoon, I'd done everything I could. I'd had three projects at the time: the first two I awaited payment on; the third still needed client go-ahead. I balanced the checkbook twice, looking for mistakes, and went through our stack of bills again. And then I put them back into my briefcase. There was only one that I could pay. I called the bank, and then sat there, staring at the phone.
Around three I called my sister, in Arizona. She told me all about her latest girlfriend, and complained about wanting children again. She was afraid she'd never have them. She was thirty-one, the same age as my wife. I told her the same things I always did.
"If anyone would make a perfect parent," I told her, "It's you." We'd had this same conversation several times before. She was a social worker in New Mexico, and she couldn't afford to quit her job, and didn't want to raise her kid in daycare.
Then I found myself telling her about the situation with Maria.
There was a long silence at the other end. "Michael," she finally said. She sounded worried. "I don't know what to tell you."
"I know," I said.
"I know how you feel about Maria."
"Yes."
"You remember what I said." She laughed. "She's too beautiful for you."
"You never told me THAT."
"Well," she said, "I've always thought it."
I snorted, shaking my head.
She sighed. "I'm worried about you, Michael. Women like Maria are always trouble for men like you." She laughed again. "I should know."