'Look – I'm hungry and tired. Suppose we have something to eat and we can…'
'No!' Rita said, putting her hands on her hips and glowering at him. 'This isn't college, Owen. You can't just pretend that problems don't exist. I haven't told you before because I didn't know what to say. Now I'm telling you before things get worse.'
For the first time since they had started the conversation, Owen began to catch the drift of what she was saying.
'Now let me see if I have this right,' he said, fighting hard to control himself. 'You're telling me that I don't make you cum, is that right?'
Rita shook her head as though she was coming out of a trance. She had actually used that word without even thinking about it. She couldn't remember a time when she had said 'cum' in a normal conversation, and the mere sound of the word made her blush a little.
'That's right,' she said in a soft voice.
'I think you're full of shit,' Owen said, tossing the towel aside and lifting his head a little. 'I think it's all your problem, not mine. Remember, you were a virgin when I married you. I've had some experience with women, and I never heard any of them complain before.'
'You were never married to any of them,' Rita shot back, determined that she would maintain her courage in the face of her husband. 'Things were all right for a while, but they… they dropped off.'
'And you think it's my fault?' Owen just couldn't believe what she was telling him.
'Honey, please, I'm not saying it's anyone's fault. I'm saying that… that…'
'You're saying that I don't know how to fuck my wife, is that it?'
'All right, yes, damn it. That's it,' she snapped, pursing her lips.
Owen looked at her as though she had just told him that the world was flat. 'You really believe that, don't you,' he said in an icy cold voice that made Rita shiver. She had never seen him look like he did now. He was obviously gritting his teeth, and his lips were curled slightly, and pursed as though he were concentrating all his strength on his mouth.
'Don't look at me like that,' Rita said, trying to calm down a little, and in doing so hoping that she could calm her husband down as well. She hadn't known how he would take what she had to tell him, but she never thought he would take it so badly. 'I'm not saying that you can't, Owen. I know you've been under a lot of pressure, and…'
'And nothing, you little frigid bitch,' Owen snapped. 'Pressure is something I handle very well. Christ, I have less pressure now than I did in college. I think you've just got too high an opinion of yourself. You can't orgasm, and you've decided that you want to blame me. You refuse to put the blame where it lies, Rita, and that's with you. Don't try and make me feel guilty.'
They looked at each other for a moment, though it felt like an eternity to Rita. She decided that she wasn't handling this very well at all, and she was the first to turn away. Maybe if they ate dinner, they would be able to come back to the problem later. She wished she had taken Owen's suggestion that they eat first. Things might have been a little more rational if she had.
'Let's eat, honey,' she said, moving toward the kitchen.
'You eat,' Owen said, walking to the closet where he had hung his coat. 'I don't think you'll want to be in the same house with me. Not if I can't give you what you want.'
'Owen! Where are you going?'
'Don't try and make me believe you care, bitch,' he snapped, slipping into his coat. 'I'm not the husband you thought I would be, so why should you care where I'm going.'
The lovely blonde woman opened her mouth to say something, but she couldn't think of any words. She watched in wide-eyed amazement as Owen pulled open the door and walked out, slamming the door so hard that he made the glass window rattle. Rita stood in the dining room, staring at the door, not believing that he had walked out on her like that, until she heard the car starting, and then pulling away.
Just two doors down, Tina happened to be at her window, looking over the snow-covered, silent landscape while Bob mixed some before dinner drinks. At first she was a little confused by what she had seen. It certainly looked like Owen and Rita had just had a little spat and Owen had walked out. When she saw the handsome football player jump in his car and swerve several times on the icy road, she knew something was wrong, and she decided on the spur of the moment that this was the opening she and her husband had been looking for.
'Love,' she said quickly, turning away from the window and hurrying to get her coat and car-keys. 'Forget everything. Something's happened over at the Temples' that might make both our lives a lot happier.'
'Really,' Bob said, sipping on his drink and watching his wife scurry around. 'It looks like you're really going after Owen's cock hot and heavy.'
'Wish I could talk, love,' she said as she opened the door. 'Suppose you wait here until I give you a call. Something tells me that I'll be able to keep Owen away from his home long enough for you to do something nice to Rita, but for God's sake, let's not get our signals crossed.'
Bob nodded. One of the great things about his marriage to Tina was that they were both a team. There were times when one of them would start something, and the other would pick up on it right away, as though they could read each other's minds.
'I'll give you about half an hour,' he told her. 'Then I'm acting on my own.'
She blew him a kiss and hopped into her car. Turning her engine over right away, as it was still warm from her drive to the school. She hurried in the direction she had seen Owen drive. It wasn't hard to find his car. He was driving so poorly for the conditions that he could not make much distance, and there were no other cars out on the roads in the neighborhood.
Even though Owen was generally a good driver, and Tina hadn't had much practice driving, she managed to follow him. She smiled in her mounting excitement. This was like something from the movies or a television show, and it made her feel like a little girl again. She liked the feeling, and she was really getting into the thrill of the chase.
Owen sat in some nameless bar, at least he didn't know what the name of the place was, and he really didn't care. The place was pretty empty for a Saturday night, and his stool was surrounded by vacant ones on either side. A juke box was playing the Tony Bennett version of 'I Left My Heart in San Francisco', though Owen wasn't paying too much attention. He was looking into his second drink, a double Scotch on-the-rocks. The first one he had downed right away, and on his empty stomach, it had gone right to his head.
'Damn that woman anyway,' he thought, his mental voice slightly fuzzy. The nerve… the absolute gall of her to tell me, Owen Temple, that I can't make her happy. She ought to consider herself lucky that I married her. There were a lot of women who would have given their right arms to be where she is now, and she just doesn't appreciate it. Well… let her do some thinking for a little while. The nerve!
Outside the bar, Tina lit up a cigarette and smiled. She had just made her phone call to Bob when she saw Owen going into the bar. Bob had been all smiles. At least, he had sounded like he was all smiles over the phone. The plans had been set, and Tina was ready to put her end of the deal into operation. This hadn't been so hard after all, though she had to admit that she had been very, very lucky. Well, no point in dwelling on that, she thought. Luck or no, she was going to make her play for Owen, and she was pretty certain that he was in just the right mood to take her up on it.
She walked into the bar and received a whistle or two from the few men who were in a fairly jolly mood. She ignored them as she sauntered through the place, taking a seat right next to Owen.
'Small world, handsome,' she said, taking a deep drag on her cigarette.
Owen turned to her, his face carrying the expression of anger, though not at her.
'I'll have a martini,' she told the bartender, who gave her a little wink. Even though he had never seen her or Owen before in his life, he could see what the situation was, and he had learned not to get involved in such things.
When her drink came, she took a dainty sip and looked at Owen, who had gone back to staring into his drink. 'I was just driving around when I saw your car here. Bob and I… we had a little, oh… discussion, and I'm afraid I walked out on him.'
