Joan and I have been married now for 26 years and sadly the heat that drove us to parenthood seems to have gone out of our relationship. Mind you, ours has not been a terribly adventurous love life. Staid is a good word. Joan had limits to what she would agree to or do. Oral sex was a complete no, no. Anal? The work of the devil. Toys? Far too decadent.
After 22 years the youngest of our three, our beautiful Mary is still in the house. I am not sure what we will do when she leaves home. The house that has always buzzed with life and love and laughter will, I suppose become still. With the older siblings gone, it has already taken on a sort of stillness that neither I nor Joan are comfortable with. As the house has become quieter and more empty, Joan has become more reclusive, less responsive to me. It is sad. I have been faithful but longed for some adventure, some decadence, something, anything.
As an antidote to the silence we have taken to letting out parts of our old rambling house to tourists using one of those booking sites. we don't really need the cash but it fills the house with noise and laughter which is just great as far as I am concerned.
The house is old so privacy is not a problem so long as you close doors and most of our guests are punctilious about keeping doors closed.
There are two rooms that have no privacy mainly because they were one room. When we had a space crisis some time back we split our large living room in half, using concertina doors made of fabric. To cover this rather ugly arrangement we hung curtains over both sides so the divide is not really obvious but still recognisable.
One evening late, we were sitting reading on our side of the divided room. Our guests returned after what sounded like a boozy evening on the town and settled in on the other side of the partition. The TV was switched on softly and a music channel played soft romantic music. I glanced a Joan and she smiled back but didn't say anything so I went back to my book. The soft murmur of voices could be heard punctuated with the occasional giggle, soft and throaty.
Then it went quiet for a while. A soft "Oh." broke the silence. And another, then some sighs and soft fabric moving on fabric sound.