Chapter 5

Pat heard the door push open and he heard Pauline quietly inquire, "Are you asleep Pat?"

"No I'm just laying here trying to make some sense out of things. Are you having trouble sleeping?"

Pauline approached the bed, "Can I get in with you? I'm terrified and I need you to hold me."

Pat tried to stop her, "Uh, wait Pauline. I don't have anything on under these covers."

Pauline shrugged the motel robe off of her shoulders and let it drop to the floor. She got into bed and moved close to him.

"Please hold me and let's talk for awhile. I'm so scared. I don't think I've been this afraid of anything in my life."

Pat put his arm out and pulled her to him. He felt the warmth of her body and the firmness of her breasts pushing into his side. They lay together for several minutes without talking.

"Do you have anyone at home?" Pat asked.

"No, I broke up with my last boyfriend a few months ago and I've been living like a nun for the last several months. He was running around with my best friend and when I caught them he laughed at me and told me that I was stupid not to have known that they were going together. He told me that she was much better in bed than I was. He really hurt me and I swore off men for awhile. I never knew that someone could hurt that bad. It felt like all of my insides were rotting away."

Pat gave her a squeeze, "Sounds like good riddance to bad rubbish to me."

"Yes, I feel that way now. There's still a little hurt there but I'm moving past it."

Pauline put her arm across him, "What about your wife. Was she really as bad as you said on the bus?"

"Worse. Bess was the most spoiled rotten girl that I had ever met. I thought that she was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen when we started dating. In college I never got any indication that she was like she was. Whenever she was around her father she changed. He ruled her every thought, her every action, her every desire. Her father was involved in most of the decisions in our marriage. I really think that no man would ever live up to her father in her eyes."

"Was there ever anything going on between them ... you know." Pauline asked.

"No, not that I know of. I just think that he just couldn't and wouldn't ever let his little girl go. I think that he felt that I was an interloper and that I had to be taken out of the picture."

'And Bess didn't realize how unfair he was being to her?"

"No, she still thinks that her father is the only real man in the world."

"Why didn't you leave before you did?"

"I was raised by my mother and step-father. I only saw my real father once and that was the day that I graduated from college. He came to my graduation half drunk; I think that my mother had called him to let him know that I was graduating from college. I was determined that I was going to be the best husband in the world and I was never going to get a divorce. I thought that I was better than that. I had the stupid idea that divorce was a sign of failure."

Pauline moved her arm and she bumped against his erection.

Pat moved her arm, "Sorry, I was hoping that you wouldn't find out about that. I am next to a beautiful naked woman you know."