interruption to our anniversary. Iâd been vaguely discontented for months and it was starting to spill out of me, pore by pore. This just accelerated it. I forced a smile anyway.
âTo us,â I toasted.
âTo us,â Marc echoed.
We clinked glasses and I took a small sip.
âWhat a wreck of a night, huh?â
âOh, itâs not all bad,â Marc said. âAt least the candles are romantic.â
âTrue.â
âAnd we have a fridge full of food.â He opened the door and pulled out a strawberry. âYou be Kim, and Iâll be Mickey.â
âOh, Marc,â I laughed. âReenacting 9½ Weeks ? Youâre such a cliché.â
I was mostly joking, but Marc recoiled as if Iâd struck him. His face took on a hard look Iâd never seen before.
âReally, Max, weâre going to do this tonight, are we?â
âI donât know what you meanâ¦I was just making a joke.â
âNo, you werenât. At least have the courage to own up to it. This has been brewing for months and Iâm sick of dancing around it. Nothingâs ever good enough for you, is it, Max? Iâm not good enough for you.â
I started to reach for the customary excuses, but then thought better of it. There was no point lying; it felt good to finally get things out in the open.
âItâs true. Things havenât been right for a while. You know it as well as I do.â
âWhen were you going to tell me, Max? When you left me for someone else?â
âWhat are you talking about?â
âDonât play dumb; Iâve seen the way you look at other men,â he hissed. âThe signals youâre sending can be seen from fucking space. Iâm not blind.â
âYou could have fooled me,â I was shouting now. âWhen was the last time you even looked at me, really looked at me?â
âI donât know, Maxine, dah ling,â he mocked. âI sure looked at you tonight, poured into that tight dress, ready to parade around for total strangers. Are you even wearing panties, you little tramp?â
âHey, fuck you , Marc!â
The blood was racing through my veins. It felt good to feel something again, even if it was anger.
âDonât raise your voice at me, princess; itâs not my fault youâre such a cosmic slut.â
His face was inches away from mine now, and it was barely any effort at all to reach out and slap him, hard. Arousal bloomed between my legs at the same rate as the handprint bloomed on his cheek. Fast as anything, he grabbed my wrist, his big hand circling it like an iron band.
âYou are never going to do that again.â
âOr what?â I taunted. âYouâll break my wrist?â
He pulled me against his chest, and my pulse quickened to match the pace of his heartbeat thundering through the thin silk of my dress. I could feel the beginning of his erection branding my belly.
âNo, you beautiful idiot.â He thrust against me and groaned. âYou want to fight? Then hereâs the deal. You and I are going to go into that living room, and weâre going to wrestle for three rounds. If you can pin me down for five straight seconds, then
you can do whatever you want to me, for fifteen minutes. But you have to earn it. If I can pin you down for a minute, then I can do whatever I want to you.â
âI know what you want to do to me,â I smirked. âBlow job, hand job, fuck.â Marc was strictly vanilla, or so I thought.
âWhat makes you so sure, Max? You have no idea what I wantâand you havenât for a long while.â
There was a bitterness in his voice I was unprepared for, and I realized that he was right. We were familiar strangers. I wondered how it was that in a marriage you could know everything and at the same time, nothing, about each other.
Round OneâMarc
Max lost the first round, as I knew she would. She
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