The dishes were cleaned and put away from dinner and Rhonda went upstairs while Danny pulled out his laptop and sat down to research some things for work. It was his normal evening activity, checking financials and researching the latest trends in the wholesale industry, of which his warehouse was a part. They lived well in a nice neighborhood full of nice people doing their nice things. Everybody put on a good front, so of course there were no issues anywhere. Everybody was happy, just like it was supposed to be.
But then Rhonda came back downstairs and all the good, nice, happy normal ended in one house. She wore a snug, mid-thigh red dress with a scoop neck and a two inch wide black faux latex belt that Danny had never seen before and she began transfering a few items from her everyday purse to her small special event purse.
Danny looked up, confused. "What are you doing?"
She smiled and closed her smaller purse. "Oh, I'm sorry, I assumed you weren't interested so I forgot to tell you before. I'm going on a date. I'll probably be late, so don't stay up for me, dear." She walked toward him to give him a kiss, but he wasn't ready to just give up and not plant his flag.
"What do you mean, you're going on a date, and you forgot to tell me? You're my wife, so what kind of date can you go on that I'm not part of?"
She stopped a few feet from his chair and tipped her head a bit. "Honey, I'm going dancing. I know you don't like dancing, at least that's what you've told me for the 27 years I've known you, so I didn't think to invite you along. If you want to be part of the date, you're certainly welcome to go with me. I think you and Martin would really get along well and you can talk while I'm dancing with some girls. There are always girls dancing ..."
"No," he said.
"Oh, ok, I thought you wouldn't want to go, but I did offer ..."
"No," he said again. "You are not going on a date."
Now Rhonda stood a little straighter. "Danny, dear, are you trying to tell me what I can and can't do? I'm offering you the chance to come with..."
Now he stood up. "You are not going on a date with, what's his name, Martin, or Tom or Dick or Harry or anybody else. You're staying home where a married woman belongs."
They stood facing each other, about five feet apart. Rhonda was about five and a half feet tall, a little higher now with two inch pumps, he was a few inches taller. She was trim, with a bit of leftover belly she hadn't been able to lose after three children, despite her best efforts to exercise. Still, her light brown hair, parted to one side in an 80s cut without the poof framed a pretty face, the dress highlighted moderate sized breasts, nipples just barely showing through the clingy fabric, and her waist flared gracefully to hips and ass before her legs tapered down to her shoes. He had short dark hair, parted on one side, a bit of a belly from too much sitting at work and not enough exercise away from work, and jeans that covered legs that used to be athletic but now had a bit of extra skin above the knees.
They had met at college when they sat next to each other in a literature class. Neither really liked lit, but they needed an English credit for their programs. They started dating at sports events, then going to parks, or just hanging out and enjoying each other. The first time she suggested they go dancing he said he didn't dance. She prodded. He added, "Ever." She had tried a few more times, but overall the issue was dead. Their wedding dance was the only time he had danced with her and she thought he did well, but he said he was terrible and hated showing everybody how bad he was. It always struck her odd that a guy who broke into management and raced up the rungs fast enough to break off and start his own company before he was 40 had so little confidence in his dancing.
They had raised three children through their 24 years of marriage. One was now out on her own with a wedding in three months. The boys were in college, one graduating in two months with plans to find a job somewhere other than near his parents. The other was dating, had a job, and he was considering staying in his apartment over the summer. Since they had starting living as just a couple again, life had gotten very routine for Rhonda and Danny. They rarely went out, had few mutual friends, and he usually worked on building his business or on home projects when he wasn't working.
She had graduated with a degree in teaching and did that for 20 years. Feeling overwhelmed by the changes in schools, she had retired and now worked in training for one of the larger companies in town. She had suggested she could set up training at his warehouse, but he told her she didn't understand the work and he would do the training himself. They had drifted farther apart, and then Martin had stayed behind after a supervisor training class and asked why she was so sad.
Now she was ready to go on a date, and her husband was telling her to stay home like a married woman should. It was too much, but she had been a teacher and had lots of training in how to not blow up when you wanted to.
"Danny, are you saying women belong in the house, but men can go out when they want to? Because you went to watch a baseball game with a couple of your friends last week."
"My friends are guys. I'm not going out for drinks and rubs with women. We're married and I think I have a right to expect you to behave like you're my wife."
Now she squinted her eyes a little. "You're suggesting I plan to go out and make a whore out of myself? I know I'm married, Martin knows I'm married. It wasn't like he asked me to dance and I threw myself on top of him."
"Wives are only supposed to go out with their husbands, not with strange guys they pick up, where did you find him?"
"He's a respected supervisor at work, and I didn't 'pick him up'. You obviously don't think very much of me. We talked, got to know a little about each other, he asked what my favorite dance club was and I told him my husband won't go dancing. He offered to take me dancing once and then we picked tonight."
"You know he's going to try to get under that dress. It's what all guys do when they get a married woman. They want to take away another man's gold."
Rhonda softened a little. "Thank you, honey, for calling me gold, but it isn't like that, or it won't be. Look, I want to go dancing and you won't take me. I offered that you can come tonight and keep an eye on things. I've offered that you can meet Martin and judge him yourself. I don't think it's fair that you're making all these assumptions."