She never noticed the living room curtains move just a bit as Ari leaned over to her for a deep good-night kiss before she departed the car. Nick was back in his place on the living room sofa when Aubrie quietly walked in the front door.
A quick glance around the lit room revealed Nick sitting at the far end of the sofa. Reality suddenly took over from fantasy, and Aubrie felt… distinctly uncomfortable.
“Oh… you waited up for me. That was sweet, babe,” she said as she walked toward him with her arms out like she expected a hug.
“Don’t, Aubrie,” he said quietly, noting to himself that she apparently had tried to straighten up before coming home. “You need to shower before you go to bed. I’ll be sleeping in the guest bedroom tonight.”
She had stopped walking toward her husband and stood a few feet away with a hurt look on her face. She had to admit to herself when the evening started that Nick being angry or hurt was not out of the realm of possibility. It appeared he was both.
Although both got to sleep late, Nick was up early Saturday morning and started on his weekend chores. He hadn’t slept well, but having chores to do at least sidetracked his brain somewhat from what his wife had done the night before.
Aubrie slept like a baby after her night of sex and a shower. When she woke at 11 AM, she lay in bed going over the night’s events. She thought the sex with Ari was some of the best she’d ever had, although not particularly because of her lover. In truth, he was a little smaller than her husband and not quite the pussy-eater her husband was, but the circumstances of the night had her revved up to a fever pitch. Sex with Ari was the triple crown of sexual experiences: he was new, he was different from her husband and the whole act was just so wrong… especially with her husband being at home knowing what she was doing. She knew she had told Nick she was doing this for her career, but she enjoyed it completely on a personal level as well. She was already thinking of the next time she would do it.
The one thing she was not thinking of was the emotional state of her husband, who at that moment was again debating whether his love for his wife was strong enough to withstand the pain she was inflicting upon him, supposedly for her writing career.
Nick came in at lunchtime to find his wife making lunch for the two of them. He acknowledged Aubrie with a nod, then sat down at the table. She set plates down for the two of them. They ate in silence for the first five minutes before Aubrie exploded.
“Damn it, Nick! At least have the balls to acknowledge my existence! We’ve been married for 24 years,” she practically screeched.
“As if those 24 years mattered for something,” he replied bitterly. “If it did, you wouldn’t be going out on dates and fucking other men.”
“Oh, for God’s sake, get over yourself, Nick. It’s research for my career. You know that,” she claimed.
“No, I don’t know that,” he sneered. “That’s what you keep saying, but I don’t believe a word you say anymore. If you told me water was wet, I’d still have to find somebody to confirm that for me, because I don’t trust anything you say.”
The two ate in silence for another five minutes before Aubrie asked Nick where he wanted to go for their Saturday date night dinner, a weekly thing they had been doing for the last seven years.
“Not going out with you,” he said. “Didn’t you get enough ‘out’ last night?”
Aubrie audibly harrumphed her displeasure with her husband.
“My research should have no bearing on our marriage and what we do. We’ve talked about this,” she hissed.
“Yeah, we talked about this… well, you lectured and I listened, then I disagreed with you. Just because you’re doing this doesn’t mean I’m on board. I told you I didn’t think I could do this… but all you heard was ‘wah, wah, wah.’ What I want apparently doesn’t matter if it doesn’t go along with your plans,” he said harshly.
Aubrie muttered something under her breath and walked out of the room. Nick didn’t feel like he won that point, however.
Aubrie felt smug when Nick returned to their marital bed that night, although neither one initiated anything.
Sunday was more of a normal day for the couple. Aubrie thought Nick was more like his usual self, both in demeanor and conversation. For his part, Nick decided he would not dwell on his wife’s cheating if he could avoid it. He was, however, eating Tums by the handful.
By Wednesday of that week, Aubrie was very aware that Nick had not made a move on her of a sexual nature, something that was almost unheard of for him when he was healthy. The pair still had a very good sex life; in fact, they had made love three times the previous week. It wasn’t unheard of for Aubrie to initiate, so she decided to take matters into her own hands—literally—that night.
As had been his pattern since Aubrie’s date, Nick crawled into bed that night and turned away from his spouse. He felt his wife scoot her body over to his and then felt her arm reach around his body before she took his soft penis in her hand.
“Don’t, Aubrie,” he said slightly above a whisper as his body stiffened.
“It’s been a bit, Nicky. Please,” she said.
Nick grimaced unseen in the darkness. He knew this moment was coming, and he knew Aubrie wouldn’t react well.
“We can’t do this, babe… because I’m pretty sure you fucked your date bareback last week… and you haven’t gotten yourself tested, have you?” he asked quietly as he rolled over to face his wife in bed.
“Wh-what? Ar… he was clean… I’m sure of it!” she cried.
“You might be willing to take that chance, but you’re not playing VD roulette with me,” Nick explained. “As long as you’re ‘researching,’ we won’t be having sex. I’m not taking those chances for your career. And you do realize that it can take up to six months for HIV to show up?”
“You’re serious, aren’t you?” she asked softly.
“Hell yes, I am. The fact that you don’t seem to be really bothers me. Are you going to have a character in one of your upcoming books get an STD? Is this part of your research?”
“You mean we’re not going to have sex at all while I’m… researching?” she asked, her eyes wide.
“Not if you’re not going to use condoms,” he said, exasperation dripping in his tone.
“But using condoms isn’t near as good as natural. You know that. How can I research if I have to use condoms?”
“You could stop this stupidity. Then you wouldn’t need to worry about condoms, and we could go back to being us,” Nick asserted.
“But… but… but…” Aubrie stammered.
Nick couldn’t help but smirk. He knew that was a mistake, because his wife would take that as a challenge to overcome, as opposed to a good reason to stop. On cue, he heard her growl under her breath.
“Every great artist has to suffer for his or her art,” Wanda told Aubrie the next day when Aubrie called her editor for some verbal comfort. “You’ll just have to get more from others while he’ll just have to get more from his right hand. You still win.
“Just make sure he knows that.”
When Aubrie ended her call with Wanda, she called her other co-conspirator.