Thy Neighbor's Wife Read Online Free PDF

he
    yawned, then hurried down the stairs. “I’ll see you again soon.”
    “Definitely,” Alex replied, watching her walk quickly away and
    unable to keep from enjoying the gentle sway of her hips as she
    moved. She turned to the dog in her arms. “Well, you certainly had
    the best seat in the house, didn’t you? Little stinker.”
    She thought about her new neighbors and wondered what their
    life was like. Were they happy? They seemed to be, though she
    hadn’t seen them together more than a couple minutes. An idea
    sparked in her brain. She set Kinsey down, picked up her pad and
    pen, and jotted notes as they came to her.
    She focused on Eric and Jennifer, trying to picture what their
    life must be like. They were young, rich, and good-looking. Was
    Eric the sweet guy Jennifer insisted he was? Maybe he was posses-
    sive and bossy. Did he love her? She seemed so sweet and charming.
    Thy Neighbor’s Wife 19
    Did he love her like a sweet and charming woman deserved to be
    loved? Was he good to her? Did he buy her presents and bring her
    flowers? Did he tell her how beautiful she was on a regular basis?
    Did he hug her often?
    What about her? Did she love him? Was she happy? Was she
    bored? Much to her surprise, Alex made a list of all the questions
    bombarding her mind, and crumpled and tossed aside the sparse
    notes she’d jotted down before Jennifer had visited. The creative
    juices that had merely trickled earlier suddenly flowed abundantly
    and she kept them going as best she could. An idea took form in her
    head. She’d been having trouble smoothing out the details for the
    story she’d planned to write, but the whole thing took a back seat to
    the new piece now taking shape.
    Was Eric romantic? Was he gentle and sweet when he made
    love to Jennifer? Or did he simply take what he wanted and leave
    her unsatisfied? Alex laughed quietly to herself when she realized
    her brain was quickly thinking up several different methods of keep-
    ing Jennifer very satisfied. A good fantasy never hurt anybody, she
    rationalized.
    She kept working on her lists and before she knew it, she had
    created two fictional characters based not-so-loosely on Jennifer
    and Eric. A teacher friend of Alex’s had once told her that a writer
    should always know everything there was to know about a charac-
    ter…what she would do in any given situation, how she would
    answer any given question. Alex’s outlines grew lengthy as she cre-
    ated backgrounds and families and idiosyncrasies for two of her
    main characters. She gave them good jobs, bad habits, an unfulfill-
    ing sex life…
    …and a neighbor.
    Alex laughed aloud.
    This could be good. This could be very, very good.
    Chapter
    Three
    Alex blinked in surprise when she opened her eyes the Satur-
    day morning of the annual First Picnic of the Summer party. The
    weather in Upstate New York was fickle, to say the least, and the
    chances of having good weather in the summer, on a weekend,
    when something’s been planned are slim to none. When she real-
    ized the sun was shining and the sky was blue, she actually won-
    dered if she might be dreaming.
    Even Kinsey did a double take out the window. Then he
    yawned, his pink tongue impossibly long, and did his morning
    stretch—first his front legs, then his back legs. Next, he padded
    onto Alex’s chest where he stood on her like he was king of the
    mountain—or mountains in that case—and proceeded to give her a
    wake-up bath. It had become a morning ritual that Alex adored,
    though she didn’t tell many people about it for fear of embarrass-
    ment; not everybody understood the value of doggie kisses. Kinsey
    had been with her for five years and there had been more than one
    time in her life when she’d felt like he was her only friend.
    “Hey, leave my eyeballs in the sockets, pal,” she scolded with a
    chuckle as he became a tad overzealous in his washing. “We’ve got
    company coming today. Gotta get moving.” She stretched