Wednesday, July 18
Jason shook his phone as if he might persuade it to come up with a response from Eliza. He felt as if he’d been tired and grouchy for months, and sitting in the car in the darkened museum parking lot wasn’t helping. His moment of clarity at work had led him to dozens of job applications in the wee hours, but not the thing he wanted most.
Eliza. She had been working endless hours, coming home too tired to eat, much less to spend time with him. Too many things kept her serious and sad and out of his arms.
Jason racked his brain for the millionth time, trying to understand what about home renovations made him and his wife feel they could never relax. No one locked them away from each other, yet every night one or both of them felt obligated to stay up late dusting or moving and sorting their belongings or filing paperwork from the contractors.
Jason wanted to throw his phone. All he wanted was to eat a nice dinner with his wife, and work had taken her again. Jason had been ready for commitment. He’d signed up for the long haul. He just didn’t know if he could get through it if being responsible meant resigning himself to this grim day-in, day-out parade.
He grimaced, and texted his wife again.
* * * * *
Eliza’s phone buzzed with another text message from Jason. Irritated, she called him back with one hand while working with the other to finish filing the papers on her desk.
“Did you get my text?” Jason asked without saying hello.
“All seven of them. I know you’re in the parking lot. I texted you back the first time to say I’ll be out as soon as I get my stuff together.” She picked up a big, glossy packet of information on major museum donors that her boss had given her that morning. Eliza sighed. She hadn’t had time to so much as touch it today.
“Are you getting your stuff together so you can come outside, or getting your stuff together in some kind of OCD way that’s going to take forty-five more minutes?” Jason pressed.
“I’m getting the papers off my desk so I don’t have a heart attack when I come in tomorrow morning.” Eliza gave in slightly, grabbed a fistful and returned them to her inbox. She would have to figure out tomorrow where they belonged.
“I’m starving, Eliza. You said I could pick you up at 8:30. You’ve been there for twelve damn hours already. Can’t you come have dinner with your husband?”
“What are we even having for dinner? Do you have a plan?” She tucked the cell phone under her ear and slung her laptop bag over her shoulder. The awkward position caused her to bang her hip against her desk as she slid past it. Eliza cursed.
“Calm down,” Jason said. “I’m sure we can figure something out when we get home.”
“You don’t have a plan.”
“Is it my job to have a plan?”
“Let’s just get takeout again.” She entered the security code to close the museum office for the night and leaned for a second against the wall—much dingier in the staff area than where patrons visited.
“You say that every night. We can’t really afford to get takeout this much.”
“I’m exhausted, Jason. I’ll be able to start taking better care of things once the annual fundraiser is done. And once the contractors are out of our way.” Eliza spotted their sedan in the parking lot and waved emphatically. “See? Here I am.”
“Well, you kept me waiting for almost half an hour first. I have that early morning job interview tomorrow, remember? I want to get to bed at a reasonable time tonight.”
“Let’s talk about this when I get to the car. Okay?”
“Fine.”
Eliza growled under her breath and dropped her phone into her purse. She strode the rest of the way to the car, tugging her skirt into a better position on the way. She had showered that morning but the long day had made her more than ready for another one.
She collapsed into the passenger seat of the car, twisted to stash her things into the backseat, took a deep breath and faced Jason. Her husband looked as tired as she felt, but she couldn’t muster much sympathy at the moment. “You are not my favorite person right now. Do you realize how stressful it is to get seven text messages while I’m trying to finish up and get out here for you?”
“Do you realize how depressing it is to sit in the parking lot for half an hour while I have a million things to do and I’ve barely even gotten to see you since that night we spent at your mother’s house? What was that? A week and a half ago?”
“It’s been almost three weeks,” Eliza said, wincing at the memory of the awkward breakfast they had endured before leaving.
“Almost three weeks,” Jason repeated, and grabbed her hand.
Eliza jumped, startled by his sudden ferocity. “What, Jason?”
“You see what’s happening to us, right?”
“What are you talking about?”
“We freaked out after we got embarrassed at your mother’s house, and now we’ve gone almost three weeks trying to ‘be responsible’.”
Eliza’s eyes widened. “Oh my God. And we’re miserable and ready to kill each other again.”
“Right. It’s like you said that night at the hotel. Sex isn’t just fun. It’s self-preservation. We need to get wild again or we’ll lose our minds.”
Eliza shook her head. “This can’t be right. Surely we can act like stable adults without needing to blow off steam all the time like a couple of college kids.”
Jason winced. “Don’t mention college kids.”
Eliza snorted.
“I don’t know,” Jason said. “I just remember feeling better after we started Operation Get Laid. More ready to face the world. I think we need to revive it.”
“What are we going to do? We still don’t have anywhere to go. I’d suggest home, but I think our bedroom is a giant gutted hole in the floor at the moment.”
“I’d go to a motel right now if I hadn’t just been complaining to you about how we couldn’t afford takeout.”
“I thought you were hungry. Starving.”
“Some things are more important than food,” Jason said solemnly.
Eliza found herself grinning at him. Considering that she’d wanted to tear him a new one when she’d gotten in the car, it did seem Jason was on to something here. She wanted to lie down and she wanted a shower, but the idea of his hands all over her body sounded pretty good too. That might be just the messy, sweaty relief that could make her forget her worries for a brief but necessary period. “Okay, so where, then?”
Jason twisted the key in the ignition. The car’s motor ground to life. “I was thinking right here.”
“In the parking lot to my job?”
“No,” he said. He wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. “How about in the car?”
“Not while it’s moving.”
“No, of course not. Didn’t people in the fifties do this thing called ‘parking’? Which really meant ‘making out’?”
Eliza warmed to the idea. “I like where you’re going with this. We just have to find somewhere where we won’t get caught. I can’t handle that after—”
“Say no more. Believe me. We will find somewhere good to go.”
Jason guided the car onto the road. Their intention transformed an ordinary night into something exciting. Eliza peered around every corner, looking for a likely spot. “I don’t want to park on the street or anything. It would be too weird to be right next to someone’s house like that. How about the parking lot at the grocery store?”
“The twenty-four hour grocery store?”
“Hmm. I guess not.”
“The mall parking lot?”
“That parking garage is creepy,” Eliza said.
“Well, we want somewhere poorly lit and not really patrolled.”
They drove aimlessly for a while, rejecting everything they passed. Eliza’s stomach growled. The streets grew darker but the streetlights seemed brighter and more reliable than she remembered them. Everywhere they went, Eliza thought they would effectively be under a spotlight. “You know, until tonight it hadn’t occurred to me it would be so difficult to find somewhere to do this.”
“Well, if you weren’t so picky… You sure you’re not about to chicken out?”
“I’m not! I just have standards!”
“Sure,” Jason teased. “I think you’re just nervous about being alone with me.”
“Please. I can more than handle anything you can throw at me.”
“Is that a promise?”
“You know it is.”
Jason grinned at her and squeezed her hand. “I have an idea. What about that park near the zoo?”
“Don’t you think they’d close the gates?”
“They can’t close off the whole thing. That place is huge.”
Eliza nodded slowly. “Deal.”
“Awesome!”
She laughed. “You look like you want to high-five me.”
“I do! I’ve had this fantasy a hundred times.”
“What fantasy?”
“About getting you in my lap in the car, putting my hands right at the bottom of your skirt, then sliding them up your thighs, taking your skirt with me.” Jason released Eliza’s hand and gripped her knee instead, slipping up her inner thigh as he spoke.
“You go two more inches and we’ll be done with conversation.”
“Is that such a bad thing?” Jason’s finger darted to the edge of her panties.
He pulled the car onto the highway. The zoo and the surrounding park were a short drive south. Eliza spread her legs a little in response to his probing finger, and he toyed with the elastic band of her underwear. She tried to shift so that his finger brushed her clit, but he knew her too well.
“You’re always so impatient,” Jason murmured. “You don’t want to let me build up to anything, you just want me to do this.” He pressed the palm of his hand firmly against her, then scraped a fingernail carefully over the fabric that covered her clit.
“You are so right,” Eliza said. “Shouldn’t you be focusing on the road?”
“Oh, you’re right. The road.” He pulled his hand away abruptly, leaving her gasping and unsatisfied.
“That’s unfair.”
“I have to keep you excited about doing it in the car.”
She reached under her skirt and panties, swiped a finger through her wet slit, and held it up to him, glistening with the evidence of her arousal. “I think I’m plenty excited.”
Jason grinned.
The green sign for the zoo exit approached. “You said you fantasize about me?”
“All the time.”
“Really?”
He glanced at her. “Of course. Does that surprise you?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. I figured I probably didn’t want to know who you fantasized about—could be a celebrity or maybe even one of my friends.”
“Right. Because all men are dogs.”
“Something like that.”
“And if I fantasize about my wife?”
“I may have to revise my opinion.”
“You should reserve judgment until you find out what I fantasize about doing to you.”
Eliza shivered a little. Her clit and nipples came to attention. “Like what?”
Jason didn’t answer. He turned off the highway and onto the road that led to the zoo. Traffic in the area seemed light. Eliza’s heart pounded as she realized they might really go through with this.
The gates to the big park next to the zoo hadn’t been closed. Jason eased the car down the wide, tree-lined roads. “We’re in,” Eliza whispered.
“Oh, I’m about to be in,” Jason said.
She swatted him. “Are you going to tell me about your fantasies?”
“Well,” he said. He tucked the car next to a curb at an out-of-the-way corner of the park and shut off the engine. “Sometimes I think about making love to you in front of a big glass window with all these people on the other side. They’re not paying attention to us. They’re watching a concert or something in another direction. But I like to think about how someone could turn around at any moment and notice what we’re doing. I like to think about how jealous they would be, looking at your gorgeous body.” Jason’s finger traveled up Eliza’s arm toward her breasts. “I also think about how all that person needs to do is say the word and the entire crowd will turn around and see me thrusting into you. You’d be making that face…”
Eliza jerked upright. “What face?”
“The gorgeous face you make when you’re about to come. You bite your lip a little bit and squeeze your eyes shut and you look like the most beautiful thing on earth, having the most delicious secret thought.”
She smiled. “Okay, that sounds pretty good.”
“Yeah?” Jason leaned across the seat and pulled her into a long, soft kiss. “How about you? Do you fantasize about me?”
“Maybe a little.”
“Don’t be coy. Tell me one.”
“It’s going to sound tame compared to yours.”
“That’s okay.”
She sucked a breath in through her teeth, working up the courage. Eliza knew Jason wouldn’t judge her for anything she said, but still found it hard to admit her most private thoughts. “When I’m really tired at work and I feel like I haven’t seen you in forever, I think about the beach,” she said.
“What about the beach?” Jason kissed down the side of Eliza’s neck, flicking his tongue out gently against her neck and taking little nibbles.
“I don’t know. The sun, the sand, the water. It’s sort of vague. It just seems like it would feel good to be naked with you surrounded by all that stuff. I imagine it all warm and wet.”
“Nice.” He reached her collarbone, then ran his lips along her shoulder. His fingers found the buttons running down the front of her shirt and started to undo them.
Eliza looked out into the darkness. She saw no sign of anyone else. Just in case, she reached over and pushed the button to lock the sedan’s doors. Then she closed her eyes and let Jason take off her shirt, knowing that anyone who did pass by would see her bared flesh and her husband swirling his tongue over the edges of her bra.
She arched her head back and sighed, aroused by the idea as much as she feared it. “You should take the bra off too.”
“Only if you tell me another fantasy.”
“The other one I can think of is really stupid.”
“Then I definitely have to hear it.” He tongued her nipple through her bra, then peeled the cup down out of the way. Eliza gasped when he flicked the point of his tongue back and forth over the hard tip of her nipple.
“You know that song, something about ‘love in an elevator’? I’ve always wondered how that would work.”
“Mmm, that’s hot,” Jason murmured from between Eliza’s breasts. “Just stick a big, glass window in the back of the elevator and we can get two fantasies for the price of one.”
“You’re terrible.”
He glanced up at her and winked.
“Why don’t we know this stuff about each other? How many years have we been having sex? Good sex, too, I thought.”
Jason shrugged, totally focused on Eliza’s nipple. He licked it with the flat of his tongue, then closed his lips around it and suckled. Eliza moaned but shook her head. The thought seemed important. “I’m serious,” she pressed.
Her husband exposed her other breast and scraped his teeth lightly down the curve of it. “I don’t know,” he said to her nipple. He poked it with one finger, then pinched it a little. “It’s probably one of those things about how marriage is work.”
“Not the kind of work people led me to expect.”
“A better kind of work,” Jason said, and gave this nipple its turn in his mouth. He came up for air to add, “Hard work.”
Eliza rolled her eyes at the pun, but took the cue and rubbed a hand down his body until she made contact with the shape of his erection. “How do we even do this?” she asked Jason. “The car’s not very big. Are we supposed to get in the back seat?”
“I’m going to get in your seat so the steering wheel’s not in the way, then you’re going to get in my lap.”
“Um, okay.” Eliza shifted, trying to figure out where she would go while Jason maneuvered into her seat. “Are we doing this now?”
He thrust his erection up against her palm. “I wouldn’t mind.”
“Right. Okay.” She put the seat all the way back, then tried to hold herself up above it so Jason could slide in under her. “I really shouldn’t have quit Pilates,” Eliza said.
“I had no idea Pilates had this kind of application,” Jason grunted, wincing as he banged his knee against the parking brake.
Eliza’s arms shook. The moment Jason seemed to be in position, she let herself drop onto him, catching him on the side of the head with her elbow. His breath hissed out and his body went rigid.
“Oh my God,” Eliza said. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“No, it’s cool. Just give me a minute to stop seeing stars.”
She clapped her hand over her mouth. “I feel so bad.”
“Don’t,” he said, rolling his hips up again so she could feel how hard his cock remained. “Certain parts of me haven’t noticed at all.”
“That wasn’t a total mood-killer?”
“Well, I wouldn’t want you to do it again,” Jason said. “But I’m pretty sure I’ll forgive you if you hike up your skirt and unbutton my pants.”
“Now you’ve convinced me that men are dogs.”
“Woof,” Jason said as he worked his fingers inside her panties.
Eliza struggled to balance herself while opening Jason’s fly. They both panted from the effort of maneuvering in the car, and sweated from the heat that had built up since Jason had turned off the engine. “Damn, when did the windows get that foggy?”
“If we didn’t steam up the car, we’d be doing it wrong,” Jason said. His hands slipped deep into Eliza’s hair and he pressed up toward her for a messy, sweaty kiss.
She managed to get his pants open and his cock sprang out. Eliza rubbed a finger over the pre-cum that had gathered at the head. “I’m not the only one who’s excited.”
Jason grunted and tugged her panties down her legs. “Throw those on the floor or something, please.”
Eliza kicked them off and kissed him some more. Her tired arms forced her to sink onto his lap, and her wetness took care of a lot of the rest, ushering the head of his cock through her folds until it poked at her opening. Eliza wanted him inside her, but couldn’t figure out where to position her legs. Her knees wedged against the sides of the seat and she couldn’t seem to lower herself any more. “Jason, help me out here,” she said.
He slid his hands up her inner thighs, kissing her chest and her breasts and any other accessible flesh he encountered. He guided her legs farther apart and his cock slid a little way into her. Eliza pushed onto it, loving the feeling of inner stretch. “Mmm.” She braced her hands on his shoulders and worked her body up and down. “Jason, I want more.”
Her husband gripped her hips and pulled her down. Eliza moaned as he finally pressed all the way in. They moved together, the difficulty of the position making the pleasure more exquisite. At every moment, Eliza wanted more of him than she could get. She whimpered and strained toward him, and Jason pushed up into her, his hands squeezed tightly around her waist.
“Do you know how you look right now?” He grunted between thrusts. “No panties, skirt pushed up around your waist, shirt open, bra out of place, sweaty, riding me. Hot as hell. Anyone who passed by and saw you would be a lucky bastard.”
Eliza sighed and tried to move faster. She shifted her legs a little. The perfect angle seemed just out of reach. Jason moved her again, hitting the spot in the process. She gasped, mouth open. “Right there,” she said, rolling her hips forward so she could rub her clit against his pelvic bone as he moved.
She sagged a little in Jason’s arms, letting his strength support her torso as she rocked above him. She ached inside, the orgasm so close she could taste it. Eliza squeezed her thighs around him, gripping him with her inner muscles so she could feel his every thrust more clearly.
Jason pushed in deep and held it, giving Eliza what she needed. She dropped her head against him and moaned into his neck. Her muscles twitched with pleasure as Jason followed her into orgasm.
As she adjusted herself to feel the full length of his final motions, Eliza’s knee slipped and cracked against the seatbelt buckle with a deep, hollow thud. “Oh my God,” she gasped. “Oh, ouch.”
“That doesn’t sound like the good kind of moaning,” Jason muttered weakly from beneath her.
“It’s not.” She tried to find something to grip but her sweaty hand slipped off everything she touched. “Jason, lift me up please.”
He obliged, gripping her ass tightly.
“Oh, my knee.”
“I’m sorry, sweetheart. Now I feel bad.”
“Don’t. I think it was worth it. That’s going to be a great memory once my knee stops throbbing.”
He kissed her cheek. “That’s the way to take one for the team.”
Eliza noticed the splotchy red patch on the side of his head. “Oooh, Jason, I think that might bruise.” She touched it and he winced.
“Listen, let me get back into my seat before I cause any more damage.”
The task required a few minutes of struggling and cursing. Eliza lay back in the passenger seat, hunting for the lever that would lift it to its normal position.
“You should probably put your bra back on,” Jason said.
“Wow, I must have hit your head harder than I thought. That does not sound like something my husband would say.”
Jason smiled but the expression turned worried a moment later. “How bad does it look?”
“Let’s just say you shouldn’t be surprised if your interviewers ask whether you’re into boxing.”
“Oh, man.” Jason pulled a sock off his foot and used it to wipe some of the fog off the inside of the windshield. He handed the sock to Eliza a moment later. “Can you get your window too? I can’t see anything.”
She wrinkled her nose and took the sock. “Please tell me the contractors haven’t done anything to our bathroom. I think I would die for a shower right about now.”
“As far as I know, you should be clear.” He rolled down his window and started the car. “So. Do you feel better? Injuries aside, I mean.”
“Injuries aside, I’m glad we did this. But I don’t know how they managed ‘parking’ in the fifties.”
“I guess these were the same people who had to walk three miles to school in the snow, uphill both ways.”
“Apparently. I feel like I participated in an Olympic challenge.”
Jason grinned. “So not a regular solution.”
“I think this is the sort of thing we can brag about having done once,” Eliza said. “I don’t think it should be repeated.”
“So back to the drawing board? Or do we throw in the towel?”
“Oh, we’re not giving up, Jason. We’ve been through too much for that. We’re just going to have to find a place where we can have sex without getting bruises. And right now we’re going to have to get takeout before I lose my mind.”
“Understood.” He pulled the sedan away from the curb. “I really didn’t think it would be so difficult to find somewhere to have sex.”
Eliza sighed. “I swear I’ll grow up someday. Is it okay to say I’m just not ready yet when everything is so stressful?”
“I think I’m willing to help,” Jason said.
“That’s good of you.” Eliza grinned. “I’m glad you’re willing to do the hard work of marriage.”