I’d been out in the garage cleaning the inside of my car. My wife Deb and I both had a three day weekend, so I spent Friday preparing. I was planning on a nice couple of days out of town up in the mountains for the wife and me and I’d let my car’sinterior get a little nasty. It’s amazing, when you stop to think about it, the things you do on the inside of your car make it a pretty disgusting place. Over time you drop pieces of tater tots, fries, you spill sodas, sneeze. All of which leave layers ofcrud and odors. But after an hour plus, and a considerable amount of elbow grease, now it was all nice.

My wife’s SUV was always clean. She kept it as neat and clean as our house. I would come home from work, drop my socks on the floor and pick them up atthe end of the day. She would walk in and pick them up and drop them in the laundry. I guess I tried to do better, but I know I usually failed.

I walked in the door to find Deb nicely dressed and I figured we were going to have a night out before our weekend in the mountains, alone.

“Oh, Deb. Looks like you have a plan for us tonight.”

“Not really, Mick. I’m going out with some of the women from work.”

“You see those ladies every day. I was hoping we could have a nice date night before we took off for theweekend.”

“Well the ladies and I are going to blow off some steam and have a few drinks and club a little.”

“OK, well, if you don’t mind, I’d like to go along.”

“No, you’re not.”

I looked her in the eyes for several seconds until she finally looked away. Oh oh.

“Why can’t I come along? As a matter of fact, why don’t I drive you and then I’ll sit off to the side and not bother anyone. Then I’ll bring you home. Then you can let your hair down and not worry about having a drink or two more than normal.”

“No, Mick. I just want to hang out with the girls and do girl talk without worrying about the bosses hearing us or the guys bugging us.”

“The guys at work bug you? I guess I can see that. You are still the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen. Maybe it would goodthen if I came along to give you girls cover in case any guys get too aggressive.”

She looked at me and I caught something in her expression.

“No, that’s OK. We’ll be fine.”

I thought for a moment. What was the best case scenario? The girls go out, Deb comes home. We make love and head out in the morning. What was the worst case? She goes out with the girls, some guy drugs her drink and takes her for a train ride in a van in the parking lot.

“I’d like to go along.”

“Mick, no.”

“How can you stop me from following you?”

“This is stupid! Don’t you trust me?”

“Why? Are you planning on doing something to make me not trust you?”

“What? That is a stupid question! I haven’t done anything that would cause you to not trust me.”

“Except not want me to follow you tonight. Deb, I’m just worried about you. Going out with the girls on a Wednesday after work is one thing, but on a Friday night, when all the pussy hounds are out on the prowl, worries me.”

“There will be six of us, we’ll be fine.”

“OK. I’m going to change andgo out for something to eat.”

“I made you something already. It’s in the refrigerator.”

“That’s OK. I’ll go get something out.”

“But I made it just for you.”

“I wish you’d have made it just for us. Go on. Meet your best friends.”

She stood andwatched me go to our bedroom. I quickly showered and put on a nice pair of slacks and a polo shirt, socks that matched the shirt and some loafers. When I came down, Deb was still in the living room.

“When were you going to meet the girls?”

“Later. We wanted to miss the happy hour crazies.”

“Well, have fun. I’m going to The Shedd and then maybe a movie.”

She looked at me and then looked to the floor.

“I’m sorry. We all planned to go out before we planned our weekend. You said we would leave in the morning.”

“It’s alright, Deb. I’m going to take off, so I don’t have to see a movie that starts after nine. I want to get a good night’s sleep before I drive in the morning.”

I walked out the door and got into the SUV and backed out of the garage. I drove away slowly and went to The Shedd. I had some unsweetened iced tea and sautéed mushrooms, before a big cheeseburger and sweet potato fries. When I finished, I paid my tab and thanked my server. She was a good kid and always seemed to be happy.

I got into the SUV andpulled out my phone. I started up the paired GPS app that would help Deb or I find our phone if we lost it, something we both did too often. It showed her out in the downtown entertainment district. I started the truck and drove downtown. As I got closerthe location became more accurate.

I drove around a couple of blocks and finally found the club she was in. I parked in the public lot down the block and walked to the club. Humpin’ Hannah’s seemed to be pretty busy for an early Friday night. Most places didn’t get busy until after ten.

I walked in and scanned the place. The group of women were at a table near the dance floor, so I walked up the stairs to the balcony overlooking the dance floor. It was populated by young men looking down the women’s tops asthey bounced and danced to the band.

My server asked me what I wanted to drink. I ordered an Irish Death dark ale and sat and watched my wife and her friends. The dance floor lights were in front of me so I knew she would never see me. I sipped the highalcohol content ale and watched as several men came to the table at different times and asked a woman to dance. Some said yes and some said no.

Deb always said no, until a guy came to the table and she stood before he even said anything. They went to thedance floor and for the first time I saw my wife dance like one of the college girls. She had her back to the guy and was grinding her ass into his crotch in time to the music. He had his hands on her hips and occasionally squeezed her ass.

For the next song she faced him and straddled his thigh and ground her pussy against it. I drank a little more of my ale and as the fifth song started, he took her into his arms and kissed her. I stood and walked down the stairs to the dance floor. I walked up behind him and tapped him on the shoulder.

“Excuse me, but that is my wife you’re kissing.”

“Mick,” Deb moaned with a tone of despair in her voice.

The guy released her and quickly and quietly returned to his bar stool, and I turned and walked up the stairs and returned to my seat, leaving Deb on the floor alone. I watched her go back to the table and talk to the women, all of which looked up and tried to see me past the dance floor lights. There was still quite the conversation going on at the table as I finished my Irish Death and left the club.

I drove home and pack the SUV for the next day’s trip. I sat in the living room and turned on the TV. I ordered up the new Godzilla movie and right near the end of the movie, Deb came home. I heard the garage door open andclose. Then I heard her open the door into the house. I was a bit surprised when she walked past me without a word and then upstairs with her phone to her ear.

I stood and followed her up the stairs, into the bedroom, and watched as she went into the bathroom. I waited for what seemed like a long time.

“Deb?” I said.

She locked the bathroom door. The sound of the door locking set me off. Without a second thought, I kicked the door open. She was sitting on the toilet, lid down and had her phone to her ear.

“As long as we are married, don’t you ever lock a door between us again,” I announced loudly.

I walked away.

“Mick! Damn it I have a right to some privacy!”

I went to the garage and took a center tap, hammer and vice grip out of my toolbox. I began downstairs and I removed the doors from the downstairs bathroom and to the garage. I set the doors in the garage. I walked upstairs and removed the doors from the two spare bedrooms and the second floor bathroom, carrying them to the garage.

Then I went to my bedroom and removed the door and took it downstairs. By now Deb was in the shower, so I removed the bathroom door and took it downstairs and into the garage with all the other doors.

So much for her privacy.

I went upstairs, stripped for bed and got under thecovers on my side facing away from the bathroom. Several minutes later Deb got out of the shower and dried herself. I heard some muttering and then she got into bed with me.

“Mick?”

“Tomorrow.”

“But, Mick...”

“Tomorrow!” I growled.

She figured out that Ididn’t want to talk. It took some time before I heard her breathing slow down, then I let myself relax and sleep until my alarm went off at five and I got up, went to the bathroom and turned on the light. It shone right into her eyes.

As I was getting offthe toilet and into the shower, I heard Deb complain.

“Can’t you at least close the door?”

“Nope,” I said as I stepped into the shower.

The sound of the water spray and the light and increase in humidity got Deb out of bed. She walked over to close the door, only to finally notice that there was no door.

“Where’s the door, Mick?”

I didn’t answer but threw back the shower curtain. She was standing there in a pair of panties and I had splashed water all over her tits and face.

“What?”

“Where is the bathroom door?”

“Gone. I’m leaving as soon as I’m done here. Are you going along?”

“Going?”

“To the mountains, like we planned.”

“But breakfast?”

“I’m not hungry. My stomach is still upset from last night. Are you going along?”

Before she could answer, I shut off the water and stepped out to dry myself. She quickly sat on the toilet and tried to get herself in some sort of shape to travel. I left the bathroom and went to my dresser. I pulled on a pair of underwear and white socks. Then I slid into a pair of jeans, at-shirt, and a sweatshirt. By the time that I was tying my shoes, Deb was scrambling to grab some clothes. She pulled on jeans and a shirt with no underwear.

I walked out of the bedroom and down the stairs. I went out to the SUV, opened the garage door, and pulled out onto the driveway. Deb came running out of the house and quickly opened the passenger door and got into the truck. I back out as the garage door closed and took off down the street.

“I guess we need to talk,” Deb said.

“Or not,” I replied flatly.

“Well after last night we need to talk.”

“I’m sorry I broke the door, but you locked me out. I took allthe doorsoff of all the rooms last night, so that’s no longer a problem.”

“But what about when we have friends over?” Deb said. “They need privacywhen they go to the bathroom.”

“I’m not going to be having any friends over before the divorce is over.”

“Divorce? Divorce ... Divorce...” she kept saying over and over in disbelief.

I didn’t say another word as we hit the road that left Boise and headed westup to the mountains. I turned on the radio and there was a sports guy talking about the weekends football games.

“Mick?” Deb asked quietly.

“What?”

“Can we talk about last night?”

“I already told you I was sorry about the door.”

“I mean beforethat.”

“What was before that?”

“At the club.”

“The club?”

“Mick! Stop it. You know what I’m talking about.”

“Nope. I don’t. Explain it to me.”

“The women from work met at the club and we were drinking. We always go there on Wednesday nights after work. Wedrink and gossip and dance.”

I didn’t say a word.

“Guys always ask us to dance hoping that they can get a date. We never do anything but dance.”

I looked at her.

“We don’t, Mick! We dance and flirt and act like kids. We’re all in our late-thirties or earlyforties. Sometimes it’s just nice to feel lusted for. We all feel like our husbands tell us they love us, but they take us for granted. We go to bed; we make love. We come home; we cook dinner. It never seems that there is any time when we get flowers, ora gift, that has nothing to do with a birthday or anniversary or a holiday.”

I was staring straight down the road ahead of me.

“So, when guys come along and treat us as something to be won, we take advantage of it. We dirty dance, we let them touch ourbodies in places that they maybe shouldn’t touch. It never goes farther. Some of the guys know that now and they just dance with us to get the cheap thrill of coping a feel or feeling a woman rubbing their hard on when they dance. It never goes any farther.”