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Roxy shuddered at the mention. “What anawfulname for a fast food place.”
“Yeah, well, when you’re ripping off Dairy Queen…”
“Good to know you guys had a good time at Hellfire, though. That’s one of our fave places for a reason. Though I’ve never thought of you two being a couple who goes there.”
“That’s where Paige got turned on by the kinky stuff. She’s going in deep pretty quickly.”
“Oh? Keep that in check. Nothing worse than a newbie who sub-drops so hard she’s in a permanent coma.”
“Sub drop?”
Roxy snatched her hand around Rhea’s wrist from across their table. “Oh, dear.You’rethe real newbie here.”
Bristling, Rhea shook her friend off her and pretended she wanted to find the last few drops of her latte. “It’s a lot of effort putting my head in that kind of space. It felt like looking in a mirror when we were fooling around the other night.” Rhea lowered her voice. The odds of anyone hearing her were nearly nil, but why jinx it? “Here was this woman going from zero to sixty like it wasnothing.And there I was, psyching myself for something I had never done.”
“What? Be a top? I thought that was your usual dynamic.”
“It wasn’t the same ol’, you know? Like I did some of the same things, right?” Rhea shrugged. “But it was with this exhausting twist. I had to act like I was putting her in her place or something. Keep the party going until we can’t take it anymore. I dunno. Didn’t feel quite natural. Now I know she wants to keep doing that. You’re saying we should be careful about getting bored with the same scenarios? I don’t knowany otherscenarios! I don’t think I’m as inspired by this stuff as she is.”
“Yet you’re inspired by making her happy, right?”
“Of course I am. I’d do anything for Paige. She’s more than my wife.” Rhea folded her arms on the table. “She’s the love of my life. I can’t imagine a world without her. Why wouldn’t I want to make her happy in the bedroom? She already has so little interest in sex these days. I thought that maybe… that would be the new normal. Like once a year, you know?”
Roxy’s eyes widened. “Once ayear?”
Rhea was still blushing, this time for a very different reason. “I’m being hyperbolic, but to illustrate how itfeelsfor me. Since the beginning of our relationship, I’ve always been the one with the highest drive. Yet while mine’s stayed about the same, hers has… depleted? I don’t know. I wasn’t too mad about it until we started seeing the counselor. Suddenly she’s got all this interest? Does this mean I was doing something wrong all this time? That I’m not…” Rhea was going to stop there once she realized where her train of thought was going, but Roxy was watching her, waiting for the inevitable.She must know what I’m about to say anyway.“I’m not interesting anymore. Maybe I never was.”
Roxy could have immediately claimed that wasn’t the truth, but to her credit, she didn’t blow any unnecessary smoke up Rhea’s ass. Instead, she looked away, hand perched beneath her chin as she contemplated what she had heard.
“That’s probably not what Paige is thinking at all,” Roxy eventually said. “If what you tell me about your days in college is right, she probably burned herself out on chasing tail and feeling like nothing came out of it. Then she met you, decided to take things slower for once, and it worked – you guys fell in love and got married. You know, even though Jeannie and I can be too hot for TV, there are times when we don’t make love formonths.I didn’t even realize it was that long once. Life had gone by so quickly, you know? Then she looks at me at the dinner table and suddenly says,‘You still want to fuck me, right?’”
Rhea guffawed to imagine someone as composed as Jeanette blurting that out over dinner. But she also got it. There were times when she wanted to ask Paige that same question.
“My point is that it happens to lots of couples. Even those of us who have a wholethingabout our sex lives. It’s good that you’re addressing this, right? Before the resentment settles.”
“I can’t imagine a world where I feel resentful toward my wife. Not even about that. I know it’s not on purpose. It’s life, right?”
Roxy sighed. “That’s why you’re figuring it out. I’m sure you’ll figure this out too. It’s not like you’re not on board with exploring this stuff with her?”
“Guess I’m worried it’ll be too much, too fast for someone like me.”
“Someone like you?”
“You know…” Rhea couldn’t look her worldly friend in the eye. “Boring. Vanilla.”
“You’re the one putting those words in your mouth. I don’t know anyone, least of all Paige, who has ever said that about you.”
“Maybe that’s how I feel about myself. It happens.”
“So youwantto explore that stuff with your wife?” Roxy grinned.
“I think my problem is that I don’t want to go too fast too quickly. I’m like a horse right now, Rox. Easily spooked. Might kick you in the face if you startle me.”
Roxy laughed hard enough to make her straw clatter in her glass. “You’ve got too many expectations set up for you at home. You’ve gotta move ground zero away from the house.”
“How so?”
“Whenever ‘domestic’ things are pushing us over the edge,” Roxy said, “we leave town. Rent a cabin out by the lake or something. Get a beach house farther up the coast. Or spend a weekend in Napa. When’s the last time you two went away for the weekend? You know, disconnect from the world for a bit and focus on each other?”
