Chapter 1

I sighed as I dragged a large garbage bag around, picking up the inevitable debris of entertaining. It hit me I wasn’t picking up just trash, I was picking up broken hopes and dreams. So much for a fresh start.

I really thought it would be different this time. A new town, a nice house in a good neighborhood with friendly people. This time was going to better, I just knew it.

We’d been here five months. Hubby worked long hours trying to prove his worth to his new bosses and I was alone a lot. I wasn’t allowed to work, he didn’t believe the wife should work outside the home. It might have been different if I had a child or two to keep me occupied, but that was another thing he didn’t believe in. Children, I mean.

Picking up the habit of taking long walks to break up my boredom of sitting home, I met a few of the neighbors. It was usually early afternoon when I strolled so it was mostly stay at home Moms, empty nesters, or a lucky few who had home offices. Most were nice, a few very nice, and there was one guy that gaves me such a bad vibe I stopped walking on his side of the street.

Amanda was a widow with two small children that lived three doors down and was especially nice to me. We developed the habit of having coffee together and soon we had another regular, Chloe. She was another stay at home Mom with a five year old I suspected was powered by nuclear fisson. The child was wide open from the time he got up until the time he went to bed. I suspect she ranked kindergarten as one of the greatest inventions of all time.

They invited Mark and I to the next neighborhood party. They held them about once a month and it was late spring, so it would be an outside event. “It’ll give you a chance to meet everyone else in the neighborhood, and us a chance to meet that elusive husband of yours.” I knew they were full of curiosity. Mark had a habit of coming into the house when he got home and not venturing back outside until time to go to work the next morning.

To my surprise, he agreed to go when I brought it up. I gently asked him to be on his best behavior and not drink too much. He stared at me and grunted, but he did behave.

It was a pretty closeknit group. Most had been neighbors for years. We were introduced to everyone and doing what couples do at things like this, we separated, the guys hanging out by the grill (and beer cooler) while the girls took over the patio. I looked up once to see Mark laughing and smiled. He hadn’t laughed much lately. I put it down to the pressures of the new job.

We left fairly early because Mark was starting to feel the effects of the beer and we had walked to the party. It was only eight houses down so we saw no reason to drive. I was half his size so if he passed out we were in a world of trouble.

He stumbled into the bedroom and collapsed on the bed. I was in such a good mood I wanted to make love, as a thank you and a reward. I freshened up in the bathroom, put on the dark red lipstick he liked and got into one of the few teddies I owned.

I could just as well have donned granny panties and sweats. Mark was out cold, snoring in a ragged rthym, a sign it would take an earthquake to wake him. I sighed, washed the lipstick off, put on a tee shirt, and went to bed in the guest room so I could sleep.