Chapter 5

So — how do You like what’s happening?

I showed it all in such detail on purpose. Because this is the first sexual contact between Annette and Omar by mutual consent. The first betrayal by the most faithful of wives. Yes, she experiences it differently. But what does that change? A fundamental fracture has occurred. And I wanted you to examine — up close — how it happened.

By the way, here’s a little question to lull you: what do you think — after Omar came, did the darkness leave the apartment at 6 Maple Court?

Stop. Don’t answer.

Let the rain answer for you.

Do you hear how sadly the drops break against the glass while Annette, trembling in every limb, braces herself against the hallway wall? She got what she wanted: she kept at least a shadow of self-control and still did not lose herself.

But at what price?

Even a few steps are hard for the beauty — because of the explosive pressure between her legs. It had been building all day and now simply demanded release. Annette already knew — plainly, without extra shame and hypocrisy — what she needed:

I need to come.

And here’s another piquant fact. In Annette’s mouth is the janitor’s semen. It seemed vulgar to her — “like in porn” — to spit it onto him. And afterward ... somehow awkward. So, she kept it in herself and went to the bathroom to spit and rinse her mouth.

Only walking was difficult.

A need that yoga and meditation cannot tame seized her body. Clutching the throw, wrapped around herself again, Annette resorted to breathing practice. She closed her eyes and began to breathe rhythmically, deeply.

From behind her — from Omar’s room — came a stale, sourish smell, the smell of solitary pleasure that lingers after sex with a hand or, as tonight, with a mouth, but without intercourse. The smell threw her off, but even so, the breathing practice helped — at least partly. Annette could walk again.