erect penis dancing before her eyes, not to feel it slamming against the inside of her mouth.
“We always talk about this sort of thing,” Vicki protested.
“I know, but …” Chris glanced toward the living room. “You know the saying about little pitchers having big ears?”
“Big pitchers are exactly what we’re talking about,” Vicki said with a laugh. “Besides, I’ve been challenged. You know I can’t walk away from a challenge.”
“So, there are no problems in that department?” Barbara asked, deliberately egging Vicki on. “I mean, Jeremy’s what … sixty now?”
“He’s fifty-seven,” Vicki corrected.
“And?”
“And everything’s working very nicely in that department, thank you very much.” Vicki took a long swig of the wine in her glass. “Besides, Jeremy’s pitcher isn’t the only one in the ballpark.”
“What!” the other women gasped as one.
“Oh, my God!” Barbara said. “What are you saying?”
“Hey, can you keep the noise down?” Tony called up from downstairs.
“You need some help up there, darlin’?” Jeremy’s voice rang out.
“We’re doin’ just fine, darlin’,” Vicki called back.
“What exactly
are
you doing?” Susan asked.
Vicki smiled. “Well, we all know that variety is the spice of life.”
Chris quickly returned to her seat at the round pine table. “You’re having an affair?”
“Don’t look so shocked. It doesn’t mean anything.”
“How can it not mean anything?” Susan asked.
“It’s just sex,” Vicki told the other women, as if this fact were self-explanatory. “Are you saying you’d never have an affair?”
“Absolutely that’s what I’m saying,” Susan said.
“Never say never,” Vicki admonished her again.
“What if Jeremy finds out?”
“He won’t.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because he never has before.”
“Oh, my God!”
“I don’t believe it!”
“What’s going on up there?” Tony called out.
“You’ve been holding out on us,” Barbara said, brown eyes narrowing accusingly.
“Timing is everything,” Vicki told her.
“Mommy!” one of the children called from the living room.
“Yes,” the four women answered in unison.
“Whitney’s head is too big. It’s in my way.”
Susan sighed. “Her sister’s head is too big,” she announced to understanding nods. “Give it a kiss, Ariel,” she called back. “It’ll shrink.”
“Speaking of getting head …” Vicki said.
“You are so bad,” Barbara said, laughing as Chris lowered her gaze to her lap. “Look, you’re embarrassing our hostess.”
“Really? I love that. Chris, am I embarrassing you?”
“Maybe we should talk about something else,” Chris suggested again.
“Like what?”
“I don’t know. Politics, literature. Anybody readany good books lately?” Chris looked toward Susan. Susan was always reading something.
“I read the new John Irving over the Christmas holidays.”
“Any good?”
“I liked it.”
“Boring!” Vicki pronounced with an exaggerated yawn. “Come on, you guys. This isn’t the time for intellectual discussions. Let’s get to the good stuff.” She pointed to one of the headlines on the cover of
Cosmopolitan
. “Multiply Your Orgasms,” the words all but screamed. “So who here, besides me, of course, has multiple orgasms?”
“I don’t believe this,” Barbara said. “You don’t give up.”
“You have multiple orgasms?” Chris heard herself ask.
“Sometimes,” Vicki said with a shrug. “You don’t?”
Chris raised her glass of wine to her lips, took a long sip. What the hell? she thought. She was keeping enough secrets. “I’ve never had an orgasm.”
“You mean you’ve never had a multiple orgasm,” Vicki corrected.
“I mean I’ve never had an orgasm at all.”
“You can’t be serious.”
“I haven’t either,” Barbara admitted after a slight pause, her voice a whisper.
“Get out of here,” Vicki said. “I thought Ron was