It was almost ten when they got out and near eleven when Bill got home. He smelled. He knew he smelled. He couldn’t wait to get into the house and into the shower. He couldn’t wait to get into bed and get a good night’s sleep. He was not due back until noon.
His wife was waiting for him. He hadn’t expected this, but it certainly was not unwelcome. She was dressed up for him too. She wore high heels and dark nylons that hooked into a black-lace garter belt. She wore matching black-lace panties and bra, a complete set.
She was sitting on the sofa, a kimono draped about her shoulders. She’d put heavy make-up on (usually she wore no make-up at all) and turned her hair down in front and under in the back to make a page boy. Interestingly, for a moment as he looked at her from a distance she bore a striking similarity to Nora only twenty-five years younger. She’d painted her lips dark red, that was one reason. The page boy hairstyle was another.
“Hi,” she said. As soon as he’d closed and locked the door, she stood up and started toward him.
“Hi,” he said. He looked her up and down. “Before you come any closer, I stink from chicken and fish so approach at your own risk.”
“I poured us some white wine,” she said.
“Great. Give me a little kiss, from afar, and I’ll run into the shower.”
She came close enough to be able to lean over and give him a peck-on-the-lips kiss, a brief touch and nothing more. Still he could taste the lipstick and feel its clinginess.
“Go ahead, darling,” she said. “I’ll meet you there.”
Thank God for little things he thought on his way to the bathroom. No Rosie, no Edelgarde, no Millie, and no Beverly who was there working but wasn’t there any other way. Thank you God, he said to himself.
He was naked and the shower was running when she met him in the bathroom. It wasn’t a bad moment at all. She looked him up and down, saw him with nothing to hide and nothing hidden, saw the obvious effect she’d already had on him. That brought a nice smile to her face.
“My my,” she said. She handed him a glass of wine and sipped from hers. “Busy day?” she asked.
“Steady and different. We did about eleven hundred, different banquets. The evening one was three hundred. Roast tenderloin. It was easy. The afternoon was a lot of chicken to sauté and fish to roll. Because the chicken one was fairly big, it was a lot of work. But we had plenty of help.”
“Tired?”
“No. Not so bad.” Bill finished the wine in his glass and stepped into the tub.
“You want more?” his wife asked.
“Sure.”
“You know I’d join you in there if I wasn’t dressed up.”
“I know,” Bill said. “I’m really glad you did what you did.”
“Didn’t expect it, huh?’
“Not at all.”
“Good,” she said.
She was sitting on the closed toilet when he came out of the shower. She handed him a towel and watched him dry off.
“Feel better?” she asked.
“Much.” He turned and she stood up to dry his back.
“Wash your hair?”
“Of course. Goes without saying.”
“Well you smell good now.”
She lingered on his butt when she dried him and couldn’t help but reach around to the front to dry him there.
“That’s harassment,” he said.
“Sue me,” she said.
He turned to her and took her in his arms. When they kissed this time it was long and hard and deep and familiar. The first thing that struck him was how different he felt kissing her, how different it was being with her.
Happy as he was, he wanted to cry.
