chapter 1
fiction
HUFFINGTON
09.23.12
“Take it all off!” said the manager. She winked at Janet.
“Turtlenecks are good that way too.”
Across the room, the woman with the red ribbon finished lining up the blouses and had moved onto the
slacks. It was true, what the manager said. That ribbon
was practically made to be removed. Even Janet herself wanted to slide over and undo the knot and unspool
the choker from the woman’s throat. So, the man didn’t
know what was coming, Janet thought as she walked
to the escalator. They’d been married for years, and he
wanted her to give up the last thread of cover, so she
would stand before him, nude, and he could make love to
her entire skin.
Well, of course that made her head fall off. Of course.
A
T HOME THAT NIGHT, wearing her new fuchsia
turtleneck, Janet made a simple dinner of spaghetti and red sauce from a jar. She and Daniel ate
together in silence. When they were both done, he
cleared the dishes and put them in the sink.
“Thank you,” he said, at the counter. “That was very good.”
She watched him run water over the forks. His hair
needed a cut—it was getting too long on the sides.
“It’s November 9,” he said.
“I know,” she said. “Thank you again.”
He dried the forks with a cloth. He seemed unusually quiet.
“You know, you were right,” she said, brushing crumbs
off the table into her palm. “What you said a few weeks ago.
About your wife.”
He didn’t turn from the sink. “When I brought you
flowers?”
“Yes.”
“And what did I say again?”
“That she does not love you very well.”
He ran his finger under the tap, back and forth, and