He watched her, thinking about it; and then she nodded her head. “Okay,” she said. “I’ll work on that.”
They spent the rest of their evening apart. At 10:20 Nick was suddenly so exhausted he couldn’t hold his head up, so he undressed and brushed and went to sleep. Some time he later he felt Emily slide into bed behind him. She kissed the back of his neck, then snuggled up to spoon him.
**********************
Nothing particularly dramatic happened after that, nothing sudden, but things got better. He noticed after about a week that he felt warmer towards Emily, that their conversations were easier and a little less stilted.
One night when he forgot to stop for the dry-cleaning he said he’d pick up she snapped at him for being thoughtless—then stopped, looking at him a little worried—then shrugged her shoulders and went back to her cooking.
He said, “you’re right, Em. Sorry. I’ll get it tomorrow, I promise.” He watched her look back at him with a little half-smile. “Okay,” she said, and they let it drop.
When she got into bed that night, wearing nothing special, just one of her everyday nighties, she snuggled up against him and put her head on his chest. She said, “let’s make love tonight. Like the old days, okay?”
It wasn’t great—it was kind of awkward, in fact. They kissed and touched, sweetly, a bit carefully, and finally he was between her legs, thrusting, in good old missionary position. Nothing unusual, nothing at all like the wild sex-fantasy stuff of recent weeks.
When it was over, she clung to him tighter than usual, and whispered, “I love you.” They fell asleep entwined, as they hadn’t done in a long time.
*********************
“I did it today,” she said quietly. Her back was to him, facing the stove; he’d just come home from work.
He knew right away what she’d meant. They’d discussed it and planned it a few days ago—how Emily was going to contact Pritzker’s wife, in case she didn’t already know what a cheating asshole she was married to.
“How did it go?” he asked.
She came and gave him a quick kiss, looking tired and little pale. “Not as bad as I was afraid it would be. When I explained why I was calling there was this long silence, and then she said, ‘actually, this isn’t the first time I’ve heard this story.’