Chapter Three
She followed through and Monday got an appointment with her doctor and went to his office on Wednesday. She needed to be examined to get the prescriptions filled. He pronounced her fit and signed the prescription forms.
For the next six months, our life was good. She stayed busy and regardless of the ups and downs of the housing market she always seemed to have plenty of clients. I was busy at my job, researching things and writing my reports.
The sex was good too. She was passionate, as she had always been, and creative. We were both spent after we made love.
But there was something missing. Her passion seemed to have boundaries, limits, that hadn't been there before. I assumed that it was the medications and tried to ignore it.
The problem was, I missed that part of her that did not accept limits.
I guess the word I'm looking for is "placid." And I didn't want her to be placid. I liked that bit of wildness, that willingness to push the limit. I liked the bit of madness I saw in her eyes when she was going all in sexually. I like her throwing away all inhibitions when we were alone together. And it wasn't there anymore.
"Millie," I said at dinner, looking at her across the kitchen table, "what would you think about stopping the meds?"
She looked at me wide-eyed.
"David," she said, speaking slowly, "you know what that would mean."
"Yes," I said simply.
Tears were running down her cheeks.
"Why honey?" she said, her voice soft and low.
I was surprised to feel my own tears.
"I miss you. I miss that streak of wildness in you. I miss so many little things. I know, I know," I said, holding my hand up, "you don't even realize that they are missing, but they are Millie, and I miss them.
She reached across the table and took my hands in hers. I looked down, smiling a little, at her tiny hands holding and comforting my bigger ones.
"David," she said, and waited until my eyes met hers before going on. "David, you know that when I do," and here she blushed, "well, what I do, it's not like it's an affair or something, don't you?"
I nodded, not looking away.
"David," she said, and I felt like she was using my name to drive her point home, "it's not for pleasure. It's humiliating. It's degrading. I hate it. I cry afterward."
Again I just nodded.
"And that," she said, her voice hardening a little, "is what you want for me?"