The Worst Thing I've Done Read Online Free PDF Page A

David?”
    â€œThe twitching?”
    â€œYes! The twitching!” Dr. Virginia sounds testy.
    â€œAfter we are done…doing it.”
    â€œAfter you are done doing what, David?”
    â€œAfter they’re done fucking,” Annie explains.
    But David is not nearly as blunt. “You know…,” he mumbles.
    â€œDavid—if you want me to find a solution to your problem, you have to provide me with all the specifics of your problem. Is that clear? I refuse to engage in guessing games.”
    â€œCopulating.”
    Dr. Virginia is silent. A first.
    Mason is giggling. “Multiple orgasms,” he tells the caller.
    Dr. Virginia is still silent. It’s a whiteout, soundproof silence. More silent than a quiet person’s silence. The kind of silence you’d better enjoy, fast, because it won’t last. “Multiple orgasms,” Dr. Virginia clarifies. “The twitching that your wife experiences is an orgasm. And extended twitching—”
    â€œExtended twitching—” Mason imitates Dr. Virginia’s voice.
    â€œâ€”the way you describe it, David, means that your wife is experiencing multiple orgasms. The older a woman gets, the longer her orgasms continue. Perfectly normal.”
    Outside it is dark except for the headlights of one other car. A siren far away. A few miles to the right, parallel to 27, lies the ocean.
    Inside Annie’s car Dr. Virginia: “And who is watching your child tonight, Annie?”
    Mason
    â€”ask me, Annie. Ask me what’s the worst thing l’ve done. Ask, goddammit. Because then you’l know I’l never go beyond last night. You’ll know and let me stay with you and Opal.
    You’ve left to drive Opal to school, and l’m searching through your collages. I want the one you’ll miss most. From your Raft Series, Annie? Your Train Series?
    You think you know the worst thing l’ve done? It’s not that simple, believe me. Because it turned on itself last night in the sauna when you and Jake lay on the bench below mine, glistening in the soggy heat. I took some crushed ice from the cooler, dribbled it on Jake’s chest, and as he swatted it away without glancing at me, I suddenly wondered what it would be like if your bodies came together, Annie.
    Out of that came wondering what it would be like for me, watching you make love to Jake. And then I was sure both of you were imagining that too. Of course, then, I had to ask.
    I asked, “Have you ever imagined making love to each other?”
    You both laughed, the kind of nervous laugh that’s meant to hide something.
    â€œOf course not,” Jake said.
    â€œDrop it, Mason.” You were sweating, Annie, sweating-beyond-sauna sweating.
    â€œListen,” Jake said, “we’ve been friends forever, you and I—”
    â€œAnd Annie,” I reminded him.
    â€œWho is married to you.”
    â€œAs if I didn’t know that.”
    â€œJust drop it,” you growled at me, Annie. She-bear. Female. Haunches muscled, strong. Everything about you abundant, generous: your curls, your nose, your appetite for exertion and food.
    â€œThe Canadians are waiting for rain,” Jake said.
    â€œNearly fifty fires,” you said, “burning the forests and—”
    â€œYou are not going to distract me with Canadians,” I said.
    â€œThey need rain,” you said. “The ground is so dry that—”
    â€œRain…” I picked up the wooden ladle, poured water on the coals, chanted, “Rain rain rain…” into the sudden mist.
    Did you hear Opal’s breath on the monitor, Annie? Because you looked at it, there on the shelf by the door. So did Jake. And as we listened to her sleeping breath—deeper and slower than it used to be—I thought of her in the house, in her bed.
    â€œRain rain rain…isn’t it strange how skinny-dipping in the pond or being in the sauna as often