Mark had booked a table for Valentine's Day at their favourite restaurant, though he was unsure whether he and Joy would still be together. Counselling hadn't helped. Trying new things in bed might even have made things worse: watching porn together had made it clear that Joy was more attracted to women, and threesomes with her colleague Kate made it more obvious still.
Mark had accepted long ago that his wife was smarter than he was, and tried to understand what she and Kate were working on at the lab. He knew it involved using low-powered lasers for behaviour modification, whatever that meant, but Joy's explanations soon became incomprehensible, and Kate's were worse. This had contributed to their drifting apart, and yesterday Joy had suggested that he move into the spare room so Kate could move in. The argument had ended in screaming, swearing, and tears on both sides, and Joy'd spent the night at Kate's instead.
Joy met him at the restaurant, looking ravishing in a red dress, but was obviously uncomfortable and suggested they skip dessert.
"There's one thing we haven't tried," she said, once they were inside the house.
"What?"
"Anal."
He stared at her. "What?"
"I know you love those scenes in porn," she said, unzipping her dress. "And I've always said no before. But..."
"But what?" he replied, when he was able to speak coherently. "I mean, yes, I've wanted to try it, but you didn't even come when I rimmed you. It's not like this is going to fix our marriage like waving a magic wand!"
