"These Gaea sluts are trying to undermine the American family!" Clyde Garland exclaimed.
Sally Garland looked over. As usual, Clyde's eyes were glued to the TV. He always got worked up whenever the Gaeans were in the news. This time their spokesperson wore only a black lace bra on her torso. Clyde would never let her go out dressed like that. "Now, honey, lets watch the language in front of the kids."
"That's what she is! A slut! I'm sure they hear worse at school. They're almost adults, anyway."
Janie would go off to college next year, and Clyde Junior was just two years younger. "Still."
"You're right, Sally." Clyde said. "It's a sign of the times that the s-word is all over the place."
Clyde watched more news than he used to, and always the same station, the one that was ever so scandalized by the way the Church of Gaea was spreading. "Dinner's almost ready. What are they up to this time?" Sally asked. She was curious, and she didn't have as much time to watch news as Clyde did, although she hated to ask for fear of provoking a rant.
"No-fault divorce, on demand! Can you imagine? If they push this through, marriage won't be sacred anymore! I could just leave you for some young floozy!"
Not sure the young floozies want you, Clyde, thought Sally. "What's their reasoning?" she asked.
"They claim that the legal construct of marriage--don't know who fed that bimbo words like that--constitutes a form of involuntary servitude. Something about consent only being valid if its ongoing, blah blah blah, otherwise it's just people owning each other."
"I don't own you, Clyde."
"Darn straight!"
She sighed. He ignored her unless he wanted to rant about something he saw on television, and she was tired of it.
***
The next morning as Sally got dressed for work, she unbuttoned a few buttons on her blouse, showing just a hint of cleavage. She wasn't sure why she did it, but people wore less on TV lately, and more and more women were dressing more provocatively at work. Sally knew her large breasts were one of her best physical features, and today she didn't feel like being Mrs. Frumpy.
"You're not going out dressed like that," Clyde said. "That blouse is way too tight."
"I'm wearing a blazer over it before I step out the door," Sally said.
"Good. Keep it on. And button up!"
She buttoned the buttons. "Why does it matter to you?"
"Because you're my wife, Sally. I don't want other people gawking at what's mine."
"Ah," she said.
As soon as she was out the door, she formed the words "farm you," with her mouth, and unbuttoned the buttons again. By the time she got to work, she unbuttoned one more, and she hung her blazer up on the hook outside her office.
She got a few looks that day at work, and she enjoyed that. It reminded her she was still an attractive woman, after two kids and a few years past forty. Some of the other women told her that the "new look" looked good on her.
The way Clyde had said "my wife" kept grating on her. She had always been proud to be "his wife" and had usually been proud to say, "my husband." But it wasn't pride she heard in his voice this time. It was possessiveness. And when he said "see what's mine"--did he think her body was his? Were her breasts his breasts? Maybe her back soreness was his fucking back soreness, too. He wouldn't much like carrying around all that extra weight up front all day long.
She snorted. If he had tits he'd probably spend the whole day playing with them.
"Going to happy hour?" Dinah asked her.
"Um... yeah, what the heck," Sally said. She almost never said yes.
Dinah laughed. "Heck? Anyway, glad you're joining us."
Sally sent a text to say not to wait dinner on her, that she had a really important work thing that was going to make her late. If Clyde knew where she was going, he'd be annoyed. But not half annoyed as he'd be if he knew she was showing off her cleavage--his cleavage?--at a bar, of all places.
She tossed the blazer into the back seat of her car before walking to the bar with her co-workers. She was reclaiming her body and reclaiming herself.
She ordered a drink, a Mai Tai. Drinking meant she'd have to stay for a while. Couldn't get into a car until the alcohol wore off! Her co-workers were soon laughing and swapping stories, unwinding after a long day preparing a demo for their client. Clyde was right about the world changing. There were at least three women in the bar without shirts on, and Dinah had stripped down to just a bra the moment she'd left the office. There were a couple of guys shirtless, too, and they were both built. Sally tried to decide if it was unfaithful to look, and decided that if she didn't stare, it was okay.
"What made you decide to join us, Sally? Things opening up with your husband?" asked John.
She nearly choked on her drink. "Opening up? Uh, no. My husband's not the reason I don't come to happy hour usually," she lied. "It's my kids. And I'm not much of a drinker."
"You're different today," insisted John. "What's up?"
"What you're noticing," said Dinah, "is that she has a fantastic rack."
John's gaze lowered. He didn't quite stare, but he took a good look. Sally decided that if her looking wasn't cheating, her being looked at wasn't, either. But asking John if he agreed with Dinah's assessment would be taking things too far.
"Well, I'm just glad she joined us," said John.
"Hush a second, I want to hear this part," said Dinah, pointing to a television. It was showing the news, although not the station Clyde always watched. Sally recognized the woman being interviewed from the night before. She was wearing a tight red vinyl top unzipped to her navel. It was so tight she didn't need a bra for support, although it might have stopped her nipples from making such obvious points. The reporter with her was a redhead wearing a bustier that displayed a fair amount of cleavage as well, pushed from the bottom rather than pushed from the sides.
"The news has just broken that the Supreme Court has ruled that laws against adultery are a violation of the Thirteenth Amendment, which forbids involuntary servitude, and that Ohio's restrictions on divorce constitute an unconstitutional burden on people seeking, as the ruling declares, 'freedom from such servitude.' I'm here with Sister Desiree of the Church of Gaea for a reaction. Sister Desiree? This is a big win for you, right?"
"Oh yes, Alexandra. Not for me personally, but for men and women everywhere who have felt they can't leave unhealthy relationships because of the burdens the state created for doing so."
"Critics say that this will weaken marriage. But I gather you have a different take?"
"Everyone in a marriage should know that their partner or partners want to be there. The ruling doesn't just make it easier to get a divorce. We're going to see stronger marriages, based on genuine affection and trust rather than legal requirements. It stops people from holding sexual activity over their partners' heads, and returns the basic right of sexual freedom to married people. We're all endowed by our creator with the right to pursue happiness, and happy spouses are better spouses."
"That's what an open relationship is all about, isn't it?"
"Yes, but before this ruling, even if someone agreed to an open relationship, they often denied it or claimed their partner pressured them into it at child custody hearings. It was nasty, and we saw it time and time again."
"Thank you for your time, Sister Desiree."
"Anytime."