by Nicky Wells
Alex was out shopping, and Casey was tackling her various pink jobs. She grabbed her laundry basket and trudged upstairs to return clean garments to their rightful places in the wardrobe.
‘I’m such a housewife,’ she laughed at herself. ‘Well, when I’m not seducing my husband in full view of the building crew. Have I always been that way, or does that come with being married?’
She cast her mind back to her and Alex’s relationship before the wedding and diagnosed that, in truth, they had divided chores into ‘his’ and ‘hers’ pretty early on. Probably they simply followed a natural order of things, a kind of Mars-Venus pattern. Although, to be fair, Alex was good at cooking, and he could operate the washing machine and the dishwasher. Only he was a bit haphazard about filling them properly.
No, Casey concluded, really she was no more domesticated and ‘wifey’ now than before their wedding. She was no different, except for the addition of a ring and a gorgeous husband. Albeit one who couldn’t perform most of the time!
‘Eek!’ Shocked to the core at the truth that her mind had so blatantly formulated, Casey clapped a hand in front of her mouth.
‘I so totally didn’t think that,’ she declared to thin air. ‘Absolutely not. Nasty thought. Stamp on it, quick.’ She stamped her foot on the floor a couple of times, and the symbolism calmed her down. She couldn’t allow her mind to go that way. It would be non-productive, and anyway, it was only a half truth. Last night, for example, he had been well up for it.
And on the other occasions, the ones where they weren’t being thwarted by external forces, she was in just as much trouble as Alex on the sexual performance front. Maybe they had got a virus. Some rare tropical disease contracted on honeymoon that stopped them from doing it. The can’t-have-sex virus. At this stage, Casey was ready to believe almost anything, regardless of how farfetched it sounded.
‘Nah. You’re being silly.’ She shook her head to clear her thoughts and set about folding up her lingerie. She adored her lingerie drawer. It was full of delicate lacy bras in white and pink, with the odd red and black ones thrown in. Plus, of course, there was her stage gear: the slightly more racy stuff that would show under the shirts she wore when Blue Heart performed.
She picked out her favourite black bra and matching knickers and held them against her body over the clothes she wore, turning this way and that while she looked in the mirror. Now that would have been something to show off last night. Maybe she should put these on and wait for Alex to return home with the shopping, wearing nothing but? She could arrange herself on the kitchen table, ready for action…
She pictured his face, and that did it. Quick as lightning, she stripped off her jeans and T-shirt and replaced her underwear with the racier set she had picked out.
‘Why, hello, sultry seductress,’ she murmured. She remembered how much Alex had admired her up-do on that fateful last night of their honeymoon, and with trembling fingers she attempted a quick reconstruction of the style. It didn’t quite work, but the result was probably more suitable for her designs anyway. She looked slightly dishevelled and befittingly come-hither. Perfect.
She heard a key inserted into the front door, and Alex’s greeting rang out. Damn it, he was too early. The kitchen table would see no action again, but maybe she could drape herself onto the stairs in some capacity…
‘Casey?’
‘Up here.’
‘Casey, are you there?’
Alex evidently hadn’t heard her. ‘Up here,’ she repeated, more loudly this time.
‘Excellent. Are you ready to go out? Myles called a band meeting. Apparently it’s urgent. Some kind of crisis with the tour next January.’
Band meeting?
‘What, now?’
‘Yes, now.’
Dammit. Casey’s pulse raced even faster. If Alex stormed in and saw her in her racy undies, they would both be frustrated. She grabbed her jeans and T-shirt and pulled them back on, dislodging the pins from her hair and shaking out her up-do. She sighed. Their predicament wasn’t only due to them. It was as though circumstances were conspiring against them at every opportunity. Illnesses, a power cut, and now a band meeting. Whatever next?
‘Surprise!’
A cacophony of voices greeted Casey and Alex when they arrived at Myles’s place in Shepherd’s Bush. Myles had converted an old warehouse into a massive loft-style apartment, and his abode doubled as unofficial band HQ and rehearsal venue. But today, there was no evidence of band work. There was no evidence of a crisis, either. Streamers and balloons had been rigged along the high ceilings, a makeshift buffet had been erected at the far side of the lounge, music was blaring from the speakers, and all of the band plus dozens of their friends had assembled for what appeared to be a surprise party.
Liza, the bass player, launched herself at Casey and wrapped her in a big hug. ‘Welcome back, honey! We missed you!’
‘Wow. Thanks!’ Casey was lost for words.
‘We thought we’d throw a party in honour of your nuptials, to welcome you back, and to celebrate with everybody who couldn’t make it out to the wedding.’ Myles grinned broadly and slapped Alex on the shoulder. ‘Hope that’s okay?’
‘It’s fabulous. I don’t know what to say.’ Alex grinned helplessly. ‘You had me all worked up about some crisis, and instead you’re throwing a party.’
Myles looked a bit sheepish. ‘Sorry about the crisis bit, but I needed to get you over here pronto. No point in having a party without the guests of honour!’
Casey laughed. ‘You’re a star, Myles. Thank you.’
‘My pleasure.’ Myles winked at her, and Casey had an awful sense of foreboding. She remembered all too clearly Myles’s comments on the yacht. He was bound to follow up on them. That would be exactly the kind of thing he would do.
She wasn’t wrong.
Myles continued talking. ‘Speaking of pleasure… I hope that man of yours showed you his wicked ways after I left?’
Casey gulped. All of a sudden, the babble of conversation died as everyone waited for her answer. She should laugh and put Myles in his place, as she had done so many times before. But given the sexual non-events of their honeymoon, she found herself tongue-tied and unable to take the joke. Instead, she could feel a furious colour rising in her cheeks.
Liza came to her rescue, probably without knowing so. ‘Aw, look at her, she’s blushing! I bet we’re going to see a honeymoon baby in… oh… about nine months!’
The whole room burst out laughing, and Casey forced herself to join in. The awkward moment passed, and Myles marched off with Alex towards the buffet, no doubt to elicit salacious details. Well, she would leave Alex to ride that one out by himself.
She settled herself on a sofa flanked by Liza and Sasha and held court. Sasha was dying for the inside story on the honeymoon beyond the sparse details Casey had shared on the phone.
‘How was it, sweetie? I felt like I’d lost my right arm, not being able to contact you! I want to hear all about it.’
Casey rolled her eyes. ‘You’re as bad as Myles!’
‘I am not! I want to hear about the yacht and the cruise and all the fabulous places you’ve seen. How was it?’
Casey heaved a sigh of relief. She could have kissed Sasha for giving her a reprieve, and she gladly launched into an animated recap of all their adventures.
‘Dolphins? Wow! I’m so jealous!’ Liza exclaimed after Casey described swimming out in the open sea.
Casey glowed with the memory. ‘It was pretty spectacular, I have to say. And Sasha, you’re simply the best for all the surprises on our wedding day. I don’t know if I’ve thanked you enough!’
She pulled her friend into a hug. At the same time, she caught Alex looking at her from across the room, and she blew him a kiss. He winked at her, and she felt ludicrously thrilled. It was almost like the old days, when they first dated.
Sasha intercepted their exchange and chuckled. ‘Honestly, you. Hugging your best friend and making
eyes at your husband at the same time. Tsk!’
‘I think it’s sweet,’ Liza offered good-naturedly. ‘They’re allowed to be a bit loved-up after their honeymoon.’
‘A bit? I’d say, a lot!’ Sasha teased, as Casey’s reprieve abruptly came to an end.
‘So… did you have lots of lovely sex, then?’
‘You are as bad as Myles,’ Casey tried to prevaricate, but this time Sasha didn’t let her off. She and Liza nudged closer to Casey and started whispering to her.
‘Go on, you can tell us. Getting married, does it change anything?’
Casey swallowed, desperate to buy some time. How on earth was she supposed to answer this one truthfully? It wasn’t her fault that she was the first in their friendship group to get married, and after a month, she was hardly the authority on married life.
Besides, she longed to blurt out the truth about their peculiar difficulty, but she couldn’t quite get herself to do so. For starters, this definitely wasn’t the right place. What was she supposed to say? She stalled some more.
‘Why would it change anything?’
‘I dunno.’ Liza shrugged. ‘Does it make it more exciting? Less exciting? Did you do it non-stop?’
‘We’re your best friends,’ Sasha coaxed. ‘You’ve always told us everything! Don’t leave us high and dry now.’
Casey cleared her throat. Mentally she cursed all the intimate girlie chats she had ever had with Liza and Sasha, not only about Alex, but about their respective boyfriends-of-the-day as well. It had seemed so natural at the time, dissecting their love lives, every nuance, every movement: Will he call me? Does he love me?
Now all that was coming back to bite her, and she wished they had never gone there in the first place.
‘It was—it was great. It was exciting. Different exciting, but don’t ask me how. And yes, we kept busy.’ At least that wasn’t a lie; they had kept busy—just not in the way she was implying.
‘“Great?” That’s it? You give us “great” and “busy”?’ Sasha burst out laughing. Alex’s head whipped up, and Casey was worried he would guess what they were talking about. She waved coyly and blew him another kiss.
Alex mouthed something at her that might have been ‘you tease’, but she couldn’t be sure.
Casey rallied to her cause. ‘Yup,’ she grinned. ‘I give you “great”, and that’ll have to do. Married women don’t tell.’
‘Aw, no!’ Sasha and Liza protested in unison. ‘That sucks!’
Sasha threw Liza a meaningful look. ‘Perhaps that joke about the honeymoon baby wasn’t such a joke after all.’
If only!
Casey started sweating. She could feel her hands growing clammy, and she felt slightly dizzy. She wouldn’t be able to keep up the pretence for much longer, not with Liza and Sasha. Their probing eyes and inquisitive tongues would tickle the truth out of her sooner or later.
‘Drink?’ She jumped up before either of her friends could answer and went to explore the buffet.
‘Hey honey!’ Alex was right there. He encircled her in his arms and kissed her ear. ‘Had a good chat with your friends?’
‘Yeah.’ Casey smiled her brightest fake smile. ‘How about you and Myles?’
‘Oh, you know. I fed him a load of technicolour stories about shagging you senseless.’
‘You didn’t!’
‘I did. I had to! It was that or hours of grilling. He got what he wanted to hear. Now he’ll go and spread rumours, and we won’t have to deal with any further questions. There’s method to my madness.’
‘I see.’ Casey laughed reluctantly. Somehow this whole talking about sex thing made her uncomfortable. She had never been a prude, but things had changed. Whatever happened to ‘what goes on in the bedroom, stays in the bedroom,’ she wondered. Was nothing private anymore?
Alex leaned in closer. ‘Sweetie, I know it’s been tough. But…’ He faltered, and Casey could hear him swallow. ‘But I couldn’t really tell Myles the truth, could I?’
Casey wrapped her arms around Alex’s neck, and they started swaying in time to the music. ‘And what is the truth, exactly?’
The blood was roaring in her ears as she waited for his answer. Why did he have to pick a noisy party to broach the subject?
‘I don’t know,’ Alex mumbled softly. ‘I simply don’t know. But we’ll fix it, I know we will. I love you.’
He kissed her gently on the mouth, temporarily forgetting that they had an audience. Their friends clapped and cheered. Alex drew Casey closer still. She could feel his breath against her neck and see his pulse throbbing in a vein on his temple. At the same time, there was a hardness in his groin that pressed into her thigh, and she pushed against it eagerly.
‘I told you we’ll fix this,’ Alex repeated. ‘I want it. Do you want it?’
‘Oh gosh, I do.’ Casey didn’t care how trite that sounded. ‘I do. But…’
‘But what?’
‘But what if the house has fallen down, or there’s a flood, or a pair of burglars are doing unspeakable things on our bed?’
Alex laughed out loud. ‘We’ll deal with it.’
‘And what if…’ Casey hesitated.
‘What if what?’
‘What if it doesn’t work again?’
Alex tilted his head. ‘We’ll deal with that, too.’
‘How?’
By way of response, Alex ground himself harder into Casey. ‘We’ll figure something out.’
‘Promise?’
‘Promise. But first, let’s dance. Let’s enjoy ourselves. Let’s have fun with our friends. Let’s take the focus away from the other thing. Maybe it’ll work if we pretend we don’t want it.’
It was Casey’s turn to laugh. ‘Pretend we don’t want it at all? I like it. Reverse psychology is the one thing we haven’t tried. Let’s go for it.’ She stepped out of Alex’s embrace and made a shooing gesture with her hands. ‘Be off with you and make merry with our friends. Just…’ She lowered her voice a little. ‘Just don’t drink too much. You know…’
‘I know. And you too.’
Casey shook her head. That was why she loved Alex, for these flashes of sensitivity and caring. Well, among other things. But really, what a turn-up for the books. They had very nearly had a proper conversation, and they had more or less agreed on a plan of action. That had to be a good thing. Channels of communication were being opened. They would conquer this… this thing that had befallen them. And for now, they would pretend they didn’t want it at all. What a grand idea.
Chapter Five:
Dress for Success
~Alex~
Of course, pretending we didn’t want it didn’t work. It was a dumb idea.
Alex stood in the shower—alone—and tried hard to ignore the urge to satisfy himself. That would have felt like a betrayal of sorts, but oh man, he could have done with the release. All through the afternoon and evening, he and Casey had played coy with each other, and their excitement had shone around them like a visible aura. Or, at least, so it had seemed to him. He had worked hard at not forgetting himself at the drinks table, and he was practically sober when he, at long last, carried Casey over the threshold of their house for the second time in as many days. They were both drooling with desire and pretending they weren’t.
Everything had looked really promising, but when it came down to it, it hadn’t worked. Again. Their love-making was like a firework that had its fuse lit but failed to explode.
Casey was the first to give up. ‘Hey ho, never fear,’ she exclaimed. ‘Let’s open a bottle of wine at long last and watch a movie.’
‘Christ, Casey!’ Alex exploded. ‘We’re newlyweds, not geriatrics approaching our ruby anniversary. We should be at it like rabbits.’
‘And you think I don’t know that?’ Casey shot back, clearly mardy now. ‘What do you suggest we do? Flog a dead horse until it miraculously rides again? It ain’t happening.’ She poked his flaccid appendage, and he didn’t feel a thing. Embarras
sed, he raked a hand through his hair.
‘I’m sorry for shouting. I don’t know what’s come over me. I don’t know what’s going on. I’m sorry.’
‘Me too.’ Casey snuggled up to him and searched his face with her eyes. She longed to talk, he could see that, but he wasn’t in the mood. The few words he had managed at their surprise party earlier were as much as he could manage at this stage. He was frightened what would happen if they lifted the lid off Pandora’s box in earnest. So instead he retreated into the shower. But man, he was so needy.
Perhaps… Perhaps the idea of a movie wasn’t such a bad one, he suddenly thought. He had some X-rated material stashed away that might inspire them. Of course, he wasn’t entirely sure how Casey stood on the matter of porn—hard or soft—but maybe he could convince her?
Galvanised into action, he turned off the shower, wrapped himself in towels, and bounded into the lounge. He found Casey sitting among a pile of DVDs, looking thoughtful. With a start, he realised that she had located his stash of saucy flicks and was scanning through the blurbs on the covers. He swallowed.
‘I didn’t know you knew I had those.’
Casey laughed. ‘Doesn’t every man? Besides, who do you think sorts through this cupboard every few months in search of one movie or another?’
‘Errr.’ Alex was lost for words. Casey grinned some more.
‘I wasn’t thinking of Bridget Jones when I suggested a film, you know. How about this one?’
She held up a mildly X-rated porn movie with some semblance of a plot. He recalled watching it ages ago, probably before he had even proposed to her. He swallowed some more. Even though he had had the idea too, it was strange that his wife beat him to suggesting it. It was… It felt wrong.
However, his body was of a different opinion and had eagerly sprung into life this time.
‘That one’s pretty good,’ Alex croaked.
‘Great.’ Casey popped the DVD into the player and stretched out on the sofa, completely starkers. ‘Care to join me?’