She knew that Josh didn’t think it was ladylike for a woman to say “fuck.” It was one of those things he’d learned to get used to. Sarah even suspected that it secretly turned him on. She was so different than his friends’ wives. She was more like the wives in Penthouse Forum.
Sarah shoveled the eggs into her mouth along with the rest of the bacon and then stood up, still chewing. She walked over to the garbage can and scraped the pancakes off the plate into the trash.
“Hey!”
“I love you, honey. But there’s no way I’m eatin’ that shit. I do appreciate it though. You’re sweet for trying.”
“Thanks. Sweet is exactly what I was going for.”
He looked truly hurt. He looked down at his own plate full of burned pancakes, then walked over to the garbage and tossed his uneaten breakfast in as well.
“Oh, well. I tried.”
“And I love you for it.”
Sarah stood up on her tiptoes and kissed Josh on the cheek. Josh was not a small man. He was six foot four and over 250 pounds. He’d played hockey in college and had once had aspirations of making an NHL team. That was until he’d lost his athletic scholarship and had to admit that he didn’t have a hockey player’s killer instinct. He still played hockey on the weekends whenever he didn’t have to work or when Sarah didn’t nag him into staying home with her, which she did often. After he’d worked all week, if he finally got a weekend off, she didn’t want him spending it chasing a bunch of men up and down the ice with a stick. She wanted him all to herself. She knew it was selfish and she ought to have felt guilty about it but she didn’t. Sometimes she tried to be supportive and went to watch him play. The hotel he worked at sponsored their league and they played against other hotels, bars, and strip clubs that all had their own teams. Sarah knew that it made Josh feel great to compete in those games. It was the closest to the NHL he’d ever get. And it was a good excuse for him to stay in shape. His size and muscles made Sarah feel safe and when he hugged her she felt like a child again, without a care in the world.
“Okay, I’ll go put some clothes on and we’ll go say hi to another neighbor that we’ll probably never speak to again as long as we live here. But when we come back in I’m going to fuck you like I paid for you.” She smiled mischievously, then skipped up the stairs.
Upstairs in the bedroom, Sarah began to sweat. Her hands shook as she reached for the T-shirt. She was shrugging into a pair of jeans and almost fell over. Her legs were trembling.
What the hell is wrong with me?
She began to hyperventilate. The room tilted and whirled like a carnival ride.
I think I’m having an anxiety attack. Either that or a stroke.
She held on to the closet shelves and took deep breaths, waiting for the moment to pass. She thought about calling Josh but her pride prevented her. Sarah didn’t want her husband to think she was weak. She had always been afraid to show weakness around him or any man. She considered herself the rock of the relationship. She was the strong, steady one, the one who never worried, never panicked, never flipped out no matter how difficult things got. Josh was the one who panicked whenever they were late paying a phone bill and rushed to the doctors whenever he had a cough or a stomachache. Sarah always kidded her husband about being a hypochondriac. The last thing she wanted was for him to see her freaking out.
“Sarah? Sarah, you coming?”
After a few more breaths the trembling in her body stopped and her breathing settled back into a normal rhythm. She finished pulling on her jeans and slipped on a pair of flip-flops.
“Sarah!”
“I’m coming right now!”
Sarah trotted down the steps and met her husband at the front door.
“What took you so long? Why are you all sweaty?”
“Well, you wouldn’t fuck me so I had to do it myself. You wouldn’t want me meeting the neighbor when I was all horny, would you?”
Josh’s eyes widened.
“You didn’t.”
“A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.”
Sarah walked out the front door, leaving Josh standing there with his mouth hanging open.
The moving truck was almost empty when Sarah crossed the street to greet the neighbor. Josh jogged across the street to catch up with her. The movers all stared at her like they hadn’t see a woman in years. Josh draped an arm around her protectively, claiming his territory.
“You’re jealous. That’s sweet.”
“Okay, let’s just meet the guy and go home.”
“He’s the guy standing in the garage.”
Sarah and Josh walked toward the garage where a skinny guy in a white polo shirt stood, holding a blender and looking around as if searching for an escape route.
“Hi! We’re your new neighbors. I’m Sarah and this is my husband, Josh.”
Sarah held out her hand and the man looked at it for a second as if he were afraid it was going to grow teeth and bite him. Sarah looked back at her husband, then back at the man and smiled. The skinny man reached out tentatively and gripped Sarah’s hand.
“I-I’m Dale. D-Dale McCarthy.”
Josh stepped up and stuck out his hand. The skinny man winced as if he thought Josh was about to strike him.
“Nice to meet you, Dale. This is a great house you’ve got here. We knew the previous owners. Nice old couple. They took great care of the place.”
The skinny man shook Josh’s hand and smiled nervously.
“Nice to meet you both. You live across the street?”
He looked at Sarah when he asked, then looked away, dropping his gaze toward the ground and grinning. Sarah once again felt a shiver race up her spine.
“Yeah, we live in the big two-story. So where ya from, Dale? What brings you to Vegas?”
“I’m from Mesquite originally but I just moved here from Henderson. I do Web design.”
“I’m a blackjack dealer over at the Hollywood Galaxy Casino. The wife here just finished grad school and she’s still working on her dissertation. It’s a study of the sociological effects of pornography on society’s collective unconscious or something like that. She’s going for a doctorate in social science.”
“Wow. Congratulations. You must be really proud.” He was staring at her breasts when he spoke. His odd little grin was widening. He was almost drooling.
“Thanks.” Sarah folded her arms across her chest and crossed her legs, visibly uncomfortable. She looked at Josh and then back at the house and then back at the skinny little man in the white polo shirt.
“She’s the brains of the operation. I’m hoping that soon she’ll be the one taking care of me. They’ve already offered her a position at UNLV.”
“Excuse me? Where do you want your TV?”
A large black man in gray overalls with LOW-COST MOVERS silk-screened across the chest stood holding a plasma screen in his enormous hands.
“Jesus! Be careful with that. Put it in the master bedroom.”
“Well, Dale, I’ll let you get back to moving. Nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you too.”
Once again Dale looked at Sarah when he spoke, then down at her breasts, then grinned awkwardly and looked away. Sarah turned and walked back across the street, anxious to get out of the man’s sight. Something about the way the neighbor looked at her made her feel violated. She felt like she needed to take a shower. Josh had to almost run to catch up to her. He caught up with her just as she opened the front door and stepped inside. She shut the door behind him and locked it.
“What was that all about?”
Sarah closed her eyes and took several deep breaths, trying to slow her racing heartbeat.
“That fucking guy is weird. He creeps me the fuck out. He’s got to be some kind of pervert or something. Why did you have to tell him I was home alone all day?”