she didn't know what to do. She had looked around the house, as though she could find something that would take her mind off what had happened, but that had been useless. She tried to eat, but found that she had lost her appetite. While thumbing through a magazine, she found that she was totally lonely. This was not the same thing as when Owen went to work. Then, at least, she knew he would be coming home, and she knew when.
Now she tried not to think of the possibility that Owen had left her forever. This was the first argument she and her husband had had, and she didn't know what she should do. Having this near stranger with her gave her some comfort, but she couldn't go very far with him.
'Hey, come on now,' Bob said in a soothing voice, taking off his coat. 'We hardly know each other, I realize, but I am your neighbor. I'm sorry that I haven't gotten around to paying a visit sooner, but now that I'm here, I'd like to help if I can.'
He was telling the truth when he said that he was sorry he hadn't come around sooner. Uuuuummmm… now that he was standing some five feet from her, he could see that she was far more lovely than he had imagined. Her soft, shimmering golden hair flowed around her head like a rich cascade. It was full and thick, and it framed her face perfectly on both sides. Her pale blue eyes, sparkling as though she had just been crying, were like twin lakes in Wisconsin. She wore no make-up, and needed none. Her cheek-bones were high and distinctive, though not so prominent as to be distracting. Her lips were slightly pinker than the flesh of her trace. She was wearing a knitted sweater, and he could see the swan-like gracefulness of her cream-colored neck rising from the top. Farther down, the sweater was pushed out by the two globes of her breasts, and even though the sweater was very thick, he could see the nipples of her breasts, evidence that Rita, like Tina, did not wear a bra. Her slacks were casual, and followed the contours of her body, holding tight around her narrow, nipped in waist and flared out around her full, eye-pleasing thighs and buttocks. Her legs were long and trim, and as he looked at her, he could feel his cock giving a spasm… and then another, reminding him that he was here not to merely look!
'That's very kind of you,' she said, smiling, even though she didn't feel very happy. 'I don't know what you can do though.'
Bob took a seat on the couch in the living room. 'Sometimes just talking makes things a little easier,' he said, crossing his legs, ankle over knee. 'Tina and I have our little fights sometimes.'
'Uuuhhh… by the way, why didn't your wife come over with you.'
'She's busy with something else at the moment,' Bob said, wondering how she was coming along. 'She suggested that I make a little visit and invite you and your husband to a party we're having at our house next week. You and… uh… Owen?'
Rita nodded.
'Right. You and Owen deserve to get out and meet the people in the area here. Like I said, both Tina and I are sorry that we haven't come over sooner, but you know how those things are.'
'As a matter of fact, I do,' Rita agreed. 'Owen and I mentioned to each other several times that we should get out and meet the people who live around here. Excuse me, I'm not being a very good hostess. Can I get you something to drink? We don't have very much, but…'
'Gin? And maybe some mixer?'
Rita nodded and went to the liquor cabinet.
'Listen,' Bob said, playing his trump card, 'if this is a bad time for you… if you would rather be alone or something…'
'Ooohhh… no. Not at all,' she said quickly. 'Having someone here makes me feel better.'
As she mixed a drink for the both of them, she found that she was glancing at Bob again and again. He was rather good looking, she decided. She had seen him wandering around the neighborhood from time to time, but that was when things between her and Owen were still pretty good, and she wasn't interested in anything but making her marriage work. Now that a little reality had been infused into her life, she realized that she had been practically hiding from other people. She had never been anything like that in college, but she hadn't started thinking about it until just now.
'So tell me,' she said as she handed him a drink and took a seat across from the couch, liking the way his totally masculine form remained casual and exciting at the same time. 'What do you do for a living? I imagine it's something that makes you rather well off.'
'Ooo… I work with computers. I supply the banks in the city with the programs they use. It's a job, and while it's not as exciting as… say… stunt-driving, I like the work. I get to meet people, and I do some traveling around the country. All business, of course.'
He smiled and winked at Rita, letting her know that he, like so many other people, did a little cheating on his travel account.
'Tina goes with you on those trips?'
'When I can get away with bringing her… which is most of the time, I should add. She likes to travel and meet new people as much as I do.'
'I'm afraid I don't get to go very many places,' Rita told him a confidential tone. 'Owen has a good job. He's an insurance adjuster, by the way, and he provides me with a good many things. Traveling though…'
'That's too bad,' Bob said, seeing an opening. 'A lovely woman like you should be shown around the country as much as possible, though I can't say I blame Owen all that much for keeping you hidden.'
Rita blushed when she heard that. He was the first man to tell her something like that since she had married Owen, and while she was used to getting compliments like that in college, she was a little rusty on receiving them.
'I'm serious, Rita. You're a very attractive woman. And quite lively too. Is it that you don't like to travel?'
'Ooohhh… no… it's nothing like that,' she said. 'No, Owen and I like a rather sedate life.'
'Really now,' Bob said, raising his eye brow as though he didn't believe her. 'Now, let me get this straight. If I'm not mistaken, Owen is doing some work in the high school.'
Rita nodded.
'And he makes enough money for the two of you to take off from time to time?'
Again the lovely wife nodded.
'Owen Temple,' he said thoughtfully, taking a drink and looking at the ceiling. 'He was quite a boy in college. Lust for life and all that. I can't believe that he would just want to pack it all in now. And you, Rita, I sense something about you that makes you want to live… and live hard.'
Rita had been looking at him all the while he had been talking, but now she lowered her head and bit on her lower lip. He was getting just a little too personal, but there was no denying that he was bringing out thoughts she had tried to suppress. With the pressure of non-college life Owen had been under recently, she had been toying with the idea of another vacation. She would have brought it up, if Owen hadn't stormed out of the house like he had. And she knew that she could use getting out more than she did.
'Well… I was a cheerleader in college,' she said, lifting her head and looking at Bob again. His face carried a friendly expression… friendly and compassionate.
'Tears of a clown and all that?'
'What?' she asked, smiling.
'You know. You make other people happy, but no one makes you happy, since you never look sad.'
'Ohhh… well, Owen has managed to… to…'
She stopped, not really knowing where to go with that thought. She was going to say that Owen was making her happy, but that wasn't really the truth. The memory of Owen made her feel good, but what she had with her husband now was not what she had thought it would be when she first married him.
'Come on… open up to me,' Bob said, leaning forward. 'I don't know what you've heard about the suburbs, but we out here have all learned that people are people. We're all in the same boat, and I hate to see someone with a zest for life sort of cast adrift.'
Rita took a deep breath, wondering if she could really trust this near stranger. There was nothing threatening about him in the slightest, but she hardly knew him. 'Things with Owen were really great for a while,' she said evasively, 'but when the honeymoon ended… well, I guess that sounds like an old cliche…'
'Not at all,' Bob said, taking his eyes away from her face and resting them on her covered breasts, sensing that he was getting close to the kill. He had to play his cards carefully now, listen for little things and pick up on them right away. 'Like I said… Tina and I have our problems, just like everyone else. We talk about them, both
