“Sure,” she answered quickly. “Maybe we could grab some dinner after that. There’s a new fondue place in the mall.”
Which would force us to be together for hours since it’s a multi-course meal.
“Um, yeah, okay.” Len folded the paper and then stood. “I’d better get out there. Looks like a scorcher.”
“Yeah, turns out you can get a tan in Buffalo.”
Len smiled and his gorgeous brown eyes lit up. That was a private joke between the two of them since so many people assumed it was always cold in Buffalo. Her heart caught as she stared at him. She really did love him and couldn’t imagine her life without him, but was that enough to save her marriage? Did he still love her back? Did he even want to fix things? Cissy bit her lip. He’d agreed to go on this date.
That has to mean something.
With a lighter heart, Cissy began her daily chores. On a whim she decided to stop by the mall to buy a new outfit. Who knew if Len would even notice, but she had to try. Besides, the infernal cottage cheese diet she’d forced herself to keep at had helped her lose nearly eight pounds. It was time to show off her new, though still far from perfect, body.
While she was there she got a manicure and pedicure, and when she got back, Len was watching a baseball game, a beer in his hand as he lounged on the recliner. Cissy took a moment to appreciate his body. Len was clad in a pair of cargo shorts, which she happened to know showed off his ass beautifully, even if she couldn’t see it at the moment, and one of those tight, breathable t-shirts.
She wanted to take a shower before they had to go, but considered surprising Len by sucking his cock. He never turned that down—what sane man did? But then she remembered how Len had acted the night before and shook her head, feeling tears well in her eyes again. Before she got more upset and ruined the entire evening, she left the room to get ready.
They had a good time on their date, though not surprisingly Len didn’t seem to notice her new clothes. During the movie she’d tried to take his hand, and he’d held hers for a few moments but soon pulled away to grab his soft drink. Disappointed, Cissy dropped her hand back into her lap and tried to concentrate on the movie, which she knew Len was enjoying. It wasn’t her kind of thing though, and she found her attention wandering. All that time she’d spent staring at the ceiling the night before caught up with her, and she fell asleep before the end of the movie. When the house lights came up she woke with a start, looking around groggily.
Len looked at her sideways. “Man, you’re a pretty dull date.”
Sometimes it was hard to tell if he was joking, and she gave him an uncertain smile. She hated feeling like this, as if she was constantly walking on eggshells, afraid to say or do anything that might make everything worse. But the way he had begun to treat her recently, with distant politeness, indifference or, at the worst of times, barely concealed contempt was a stab to her heart. Cissy didn’t even think he noticed when he was putting her down. Len wasn’t a cruel man by nature. If she had to put a name to the whole situation, she’d say Len was bored, and that was almost worse than if something more overt was going on.
They left the theater, and when they got home Len turned on some late-night TV while Cissy retired to their bedroom to read. She didn’t want to push the sex thing, and if she was honest with herself, she was afraid she wouldn’t be able to take another rejection. By the time Len came in, Cissy had fallen victim to emotional exhaustion and was asleep.
Len went fishing with a friend the next day, and Cissy sat down at the computer. She’d woken up determined to figure out what was wrong with their marriage and had come up with some actionable items to fix it that she hadn’t thought of yet. This was what Cissy did best—plan. Her job as a project manager for a large bank in the area made the skill come naturally.
After putting various search strings into her browser, she finally hit pay dirt. Apparently there was an entire faction of women who felt unappreciated and that their men didn’t care enough to try to keep their relationships working. But what she saw when she started clicking through the links on a bunch of websites related to the matter caused an involuntary guffaw to burst free. These women had decided to take charge of their men. And how.
As she read more she was surprised to learn there were so many women who played the dominant role in their households. Through her erotic romance reading, she knew how many women were submissive to men, but had no idea so many women had submissive guys.
Leaning her chin on her hand, she read about how the women made rules and expected their men to abide by them. That in itself intrigued her, since she was constantly doing things like waiting for Len to come home from work so they could eat dinner, and of course he never called to tell her he was going to be late. That was just the beginning. At this point in their marriage, they were basically living two separate lives. He had no accountability toward her, and she was getting tired of being so low on his priority list.