Day One

She growled at her husband as he knocked on the bathroom door again.

“You ready yet?”

“Hold on! Just one more curl!”

Diane was used to this. John was always an impatient man. She knew it from the very beginning. They were seniors in high school and he wouldn’t take no for an answer when he asked her on their first date. The pressures of life were hitting her head on and she was just lonely enough to give in right away like he wanted.

Now here they were, ten years and two kids later. A house and a dog…just a blue collar family that tried their best to live luxuriously on a 20 dollar an hour paycheck.

Their children, Becca and Anne, were sleeping soundly in the next room. The sitter was in the living room, munching on a bag of popcorn and dozing to the National Geographic channel. They paid her way too much. But they needed to get out.

Diane curled another lock of her long brown hair. She watched it bounce back up against her face and immediately sprayed it with the canister of Tresseme hair spray. She thought of her marriage, how it was going down hill fast. They were ready to go bankrupt and John had sold the business for almost no profit. Landscaping in the winter…shit. They had just bought the damned business and right away, he sold it out from under her nose.

Again..that’s just how he was. No patience.

She was livid that he bought the business in the first place without asking her. She was his wife…she should be in on the finances. But he took care of that. And so now they were going downhill. There was no money, there was barely any money to buy the slinky red and black dresses he loved to see her in…or to take her out on the town like this.

Oh, but he always found the time to go out with the boys. He claimed they’d pay his way.

She hated John’s friends.

She couldn’t stand summertime. This was when John would find himself itching to throw bbq’s and invite the whole posse and at anytime she would find twenty men in her backyard, howling about sex and boobs as Anne and Becca watched cartoons in the living room.

Diane picked up the black mascara and the tube of red lipstick. Her tanned complexion and big hazel eyes looked perfect against the red silk dress John picked out for her. Yes, they really needed this dinner date. They were hanging on to this relationship by little threads.

Earlier that morning she received a call from a woman trying to collect on a debt. She threatened to repossess the stupid used Mercedes John insisted on buying three years back. Thousands of dollars behind on the car payment and even more indebted to cable companies, the electric company and the damned mortgage company, Diane felt like a little, helpless girl being drug along by a man that didn’t really know what the hell he was doing. A man that wanted it all but hadn’t the slightest idea how to get it and get it right. He was fucking up big time and Diane could feel herself resenting him. The resentment found it’s way into the bedroom…something John couldn’t stand.

John was reacting as though he were a sex fiend. It annoyed her at times. His anger with her for not giving it up confused Diane and put her into even more of an awkward state. If she didn’t want to she shouldn’t have to. She sometimes felt she was choosing between her pride and his “need” and she wasn’t going to give in anymore. She gave in to everything the whole duration of this marriage and this was one thing she wasn’t going to let him have.

Because of this, John was snippy with her. It was nearly a month that he had even been close to having his way with her. The things he would say were mean and spiteful and Diane wondered if the marriage was only based on sex alone.

She opened the bathroom door finally to see John leaning against the wall, arms crossed and looking at the floor. He looked up as she stepped out and smiled. The smile took her breath away…it always did. He had a mischievous look tonight. She studied what he was wearing and was glad he was dressed as elegantly as she. A pair of black slacks, a white button up shirt and gorgeous shiny dress shoes, he looked fabulous. Diane walked to him and snuggled herself into his neck. He was such a big guy, tall and thick, with a full mane of flowing blond hair that her mother couldn’t stand and yet she loved with all of her being. She couldn’t imagine him cutting that off. His eyes gripped her tonight, the baby blues sparkled as he cupped her face and gazed at her. Yes, they needed this night out. There was still love here…they needed to find it tonight. She was amazed at the transformation this man could make in just one evening. He was country and construction worker type all the way and sometimes he could switch it up so easily.

She checked on the girls one more time and walked out the front door with her man, hand in hand. He opened the door for her and she gave him a look. He was being awfully courteous tonight. He flashed that smile again and she wondered what he was up to.

“Um…so where are we going tonight?” she asked as he hopped into the drivers side.

“Somewhere new,” and then that smile again.

“Okay, are you going to tell me where it’s at?”

“Yeah, it’s a ways out a bit in the country. Yelmish, ya know, around that area. Friend told me about it and I thought I’d take you.”

“What’s it called? Are we dressed for this?”

“It’s called Lush and yeah, we’re dressed for it.”

She smiled down at her pretty dress. She was lucky her man would buy her things like this. Some of John’s friends wives couldn’t even get decent food in their fridges let alone beautiful wardrobes. At that moment she felt lucky and she looked at him as he drove. He turned to find her eyes on him and he smiled, taking a hand off the wheel and placing it firmly on the back of her neck. He began to pull her forward and she pursed her lips expecting to be kissed. Instead he pushed her face into his lap and she yelped.

Flying back into her seat she yelled. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

He furrowed his brow and didn’t reply.

“Way to fuck that one up, Mr. Suave… Jesus H. Christ.”

Diane reached to the radio and tuned in on a classic rock station. The Eagles, Hotel California played. Then Dan Folgerberg in Leader of the band and by the time they reached the restaurant she had sung nearly twenty songs, commercial free.

John stopped the car and she looked out the window. She gazed at a Southern Style building. It looked like a house, nothing like a restaurant.

“Are you sure this is it?”

“1063 Cutters Lane…yup this is it.”

She opened the door and looked around at a yard full of cars.

“They just let people park on the lawn, huh?”

It was dark and the shadows from the trees all around them made her shiver. The darkness had subtracted nearly fifteen degrees from the days warmth and she found herself wishing she had brought a jacket.

“This place seems busy.”

He didn’t answer…he took her hand and led her to the front door.

“Where did you hear about this place again?”

“From a friend…babe, don’t worry.