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“Way to go, Marge,” Alice said. “If you need tips on bringing more passion into your relationship, you know I’m your gal. I’ve got everything you need to crank the heat to scalding. If you need sex toy tips, I have tried them all. We recently got this swing, and let me tell you we—”
“Stop!” Doris covered her ears. “Too much, Alice! Too much!”
Sylvie cringed. “Yeah. Too much, Alice.”
Closing my eyes tight, I scrunched my face. “Burned into the brain for eternity, you bastard. I’ll never unsee it.”
“Well, I’m stuck staring at your gap tooth. That’s more traumatizing. We’ll call it even,” she responded.
When I opened my eyes, I saw her sly smile. I matched it with a toothy, or should I say toothless, grin.
“Ugh!” She held up a hand and turned away. “See! I can’t unsee that! And I’ll be seeing it for the next few months until they can put in an implant.”
I kept grinning, but this time not just to freak Alice out. This time I grinned because the fear that the passion in my romance was gone for good dissipated. Instead of accepting my fate of having another roommate instead of a lover, I felt inspired to get home and fight to bring our romance back to life. I loved her. And she loved me. And now that I knew this was normal in a relationship, I was determined to drive us straight back out of the rut.
“You know,” Sylvie said. “Alice is onto something about making ourselves sparse more often. Tom was all over me before I left, and I know he’ll be all over me when we get back, but eventually, things will fizzle out to normal. What do you all say to making a pact to help each other keep the passion going in our relationships? Instead of a Wilder Widows pact, this one is a Wilder Wives pact. Every month, we all go out of town for a night or two together. Leave our spouses at home, missing us a bit.”
Doris lit up. “Oh! I love that idea! We get extra girl time, and our spouses will remember how much they love us while we’re gone!”
“I’m in,” I said. “I love seeing Roxie all the time, but damn. We need some time apart to miss each other. Like right now, I’m goingcrazywanting to see her when this time last week, I was hiding in the bathroom for a few moments of alone time.”
“It works for me,” Alice said. “And I’m happy to share the wealth. A monthly Wilder Wives weekend sounds perfect.”
“Then we make a pact right now,” Sylvie said. “We are going to keep the passion going in our relationships, and we’re going to help each other do it. None of us will succumb to being the couple who falls asleep in front of the TV every night and only gets intimate on birthdays. Not us. We earned this second chance with our loves, and we’re not gonna blow it.”
“Hear, hear!” I cheered. “We are gonna spice things up!”
“Oh!” Doris clapped. “We could call ourselves the Spice Girls on those weekends.” She blushed, then finished on a whisper, “Because we’re spicing things up.”
Alice’s face went flat. “I hate the Spice Girls. I’m not a Spice Girl.”
Sylvie chuckled. “Let’s stick with the Wilder Wives. I think that works great. We’ll have our big Wilder Widows trip every year and a monthly Wilder Wives trip.”
“Perfect!” Doris grinned.
“Works for me,” Alice agreed.
Sylvie put her hand forward, and we all placed our hands on top of each other.
“To the Wilder Wives who will keep the love in their lives wild forever,” Sylvie said.
We all grinned, then lifted our hands with a whoop.
“Thanks for the talk, ladies. I’m so glad I opened up to you. I feel so dumb that I had no idea this was normal.”
“How could you?” Sylvie asked. “You’ve never been here before. But you have us now, so don’t keep these things to yourself. If you have relationship questions, we want you to ask us.”
“I will.” I smiled. “Thank you.”
“We always have your back,” Doris said. “That’s what friends are for.”
I was always grateful for my Widows, but now, even more so.
We packed up our lunches and started back toward the Jeep. I took one last look at the beautiful scenery surrounding us, pausing to let it sink in that I was in Australia. After spending so many years watching travel shows with Percy but never going anywhere, I truly appreciated my Widows and how much they’d changed my life.
A cloud moved across the sun, and when it popped back out, I squinted against it. “Oh, cripes. My sunglasses.” I patted my chest where they should have been. “They must have fallen out over there somewhere. Hold on. I’ll be right back.”
The Widows stopped and waited as I hurried back to the tree we’d dined beneath. As I got close, a kangaroo hopped out of the bushes beside it.
