As the opening credits for the show rolled, Maddy realized suddenly that the blast of air conditioning left her uncomfortably cold.
“Carl,” she said. “It’s getting a little chilly. Do you think you could turn off the air conditioner?”
“Gee, baby,” said Carl. “The temperature feels fine to me. I think it’s because you’re dressed so skimpy. Here.”
Carl grabbed a colorful, crocheted throw blanket hanging over the back of his chair, and, hardly looking up from the T.V. screen, he tossed it to Maddy and Kyle. Maddy scooped it up and spread it over her bare legs and brought it up to her chest.
Kyle shook his head at his dad’s rudeness.
“I’ll do it, mom,” he said as he got up to turn off the air conditioner.
She left a space for him and half a minute later he was back in the same spot on the love seat.
“Would you like the blanket, too?” she asked.
Kyle wasn’t really cold, but the room was cool and the idea of sharing the blanket with mom sounded cozy.
“Sure,” he said.
All three of them sat, watching the show.
The lead character, Angel, arrived at her apartment after a tough day investigating a murder. She poured herself some bourbon on the rocks.
Something about Angel looked familiar to Kyle.
“You know, mom,” he said. “She kind of looks like you. Don’t you think so, dad?”
Carl grunted, barely registering Kyle’s question through the fog of his growing drunkenness.
“Maybe the way your mom was ten years ago, I guess,” he said. “I don’t know.”
His attention didn’t stray from the T.V. screen. Obviously, he didn’t want to be interrupted.
Kyle leaned over to his mother’s ear.
“I don’t think dad’s paying attention to what he’s saying,” he whispered to her so his dad wouldn’t hear. He gestured to the T.V. screen. “She does kind of look like you. But I think you look better than she does.”
Maddy, who’d scrunched her face into a frown at Carl’s rude remark, perked up and smiled at Kyle’s kind words. She patted him on the thigh with her hand. Again, she was struck by the tensile strength of his leg muscles, and also how much warmer his legs were than hers. Kyle felt a little electric shiver at her touch. Maddy left her hand lightly on Kyle’s leg under the blanket.
No sooner had Maddy touched Kyle’s leg, however, when the character on the T.V. screen, Angel, quickly pulled all her clothes off and walked with her drink, naked, to the balcony of her high-rise apartment. She stood at the railing with the twinkling lights of the city spread out beyond her.
Then the doorbell rang in the T.V. show. Angel went to answer it, still naked, and after opening the door she pulled a man, obviously younger than she was, through the door and into her arms. They fell to the floor and she pulled his clothes off and they writhed on the floor, naked, together.
One of the things Kyle — and the rest of America — liked about the show was that the lead character, Angel, looked so wholesome and straight-laced, but had such a dirty and kinky side. She took her clothes off in almost every episode. It gave Kyle something to look forward to ever week.