Grace slept for a long time. She was usually an early riser, even after she worked late, but when she opened her eyes and looked at the clock, she saw that it was past 8:00. She was feeling very groggy and shook her head to clear it. She went to sit up and felt the heavy weight on her right leg. Yesterday came flooding back.
"Now, there was a day straight from hell," she thought. But it had had its good moments too, she recalled. A blond knight in shining armor with a killer smile and strong, safe arms. He smelled good too, she remembered.
The day had started off with the final blow-out with Matt. They had been heading towards it for awhile. The more independent she became, the more he tried to control their lives. He didn't like her job, for starters. He couldn't understand why she did it. He resented the fact that she made more money than he did, although he knew that hers came in fits and starts, while his was a regular salary. He was a financial consultant and as his career grew, he would outdistance her in income, but it grated on him now.
Matt also resented the fact that she wasn't always there for him. When she was in the middle of a project, she was reluctant to let it go and sometimes worked all night. When he came over, in the mood for some loving, he didn't want to be rejected for some piece of machinery and he told her so. He also told her that when they were married, she would be quitting her job, or at least cutting it back to match his working hours.
The final straw had been the Lighthouse Project. Grace was doing it for free. The Lighthouse Project was a charitable organization that helped people with mental breakdowns re-assimilate into the community when they were ready to leave sheltered care. The website was to be an informational one, explaining mental illness to the general public and offering advice and assistance to those in need - directing them to accessible health-care facilities.
Sunday evening, she had been working on the project. She had hit a sticking point - there were too many links on the home page- she had to find a way to re-organize the main headings - and all her concentration was on the computer.
Grace had promised Matt that they would go out for dinner. When he arrived, she was not dressed for going out. He was angry, but she told him that she'd be ready in five minutes. She reluctantly shut down the computer. He poured himself a large glass of Scotch and turned on the TV. She came out a few minutes later.
"Oh, you look good, Baby," he purred, turning off the set. He slid his arms around her and kissed her, thrusting his tongue into her mouth and running his hands over her body.
She tilted her head back. "Matt, you know I don't like the taste of Scotch." She wrinkled her nose.
"Well, maybe later, you'll get to taste something else," he said, taking her hand and pressing it to his crotch, where she could feel him hardening.
"Let's go to dinner," she said, stepping away from him. Matt knew she didn't like 'dirty talk' outside the bedroom. It annoyed her that he had done it on purpose to pay her back for not being ready on time.
Grace tried hard at dinner, she really did. She listened to him talk about his day at work and asked questions to show her interest. But her mind kept drifting back to her project, seeking alternatives and turning them over in her head. Finally, she thought she had hit upon a solution. She was concentrating fiercely, trying to see if it would follow through successfully to the end, when she heard, "Grace!"
She looked at Matt. His face was stony.
"Um...sorry," she said. "I was just..."
"Yeah, you were just...I know, I know. It's disgusting - the look you get on your face - the kind of look I'd get if I were thinking about another woman, and you're just thinking about your stupid computer!"
"Are you thinking about another woman?" she asked.
"What the fuck do you care?" he replied and signaled for the check.
They rode in silence back to her place. Matt pulled up in front and said, "I'm not coming up. There's no point when you're like this."
Grace opened her mouth to apologize, but he cut her off.
"I know exactly what you'll do - take me to bed and allow me to have sex with you. You'll swivel your hips and moan and groan to make me come as fast as I can. Then you'll wait for me to go to sleep and head back to your computer. That's where your enjoyment lies."
"That's not fair, Matt," said Grace, but she knew there was an element of truth to it.
"Okay, I'm sorry. It's just that I want to be with you and I know your head's not in it tonight." He leaned over and kissed her. "Run along and get your work done, but don't stay up all night. Call me tomorrow at the office and we'll have lunch together. O.K.?"
"Okay." They kissed again. Grace got out of the car and entered the building. Her mind was already on her project.
Monday morning, she was in a great mood. She had worked until one in the morning and ironed out the glitch completely. She had a good night's sleep and was ready to make it up to Matt for her behavior the night before. She phoned his office and his secretary, Janice, informed her that he was in a meeting but was expecting to see her for lunch and that she should come to the office.
She stepped off the elevator and greeted Carol, the receptionist for the company. She smiled and waved Grace up the hall to Matt's office. As Grace was rounding the final corner, she heard women's laughter.
"Imagine, in this day and age, someone still wearing days-of-the-week panties. I didn't know they still made them."
"Sure do," said a voice that Grace recognized as Janice. "And I love them...only problem is, I've misplaced 'Thursday'!" Loud laughter greeted this comment.
"Ahem." Grace announced her presence with a cough.
The other women faded quickly away. Janice blushed, wondering how much she had heard. Thank goodness it wasn't one of the big bosses, she thought. She buzzed through to Matt and announced Grace's presence. He came out immediately and took her by the hand. He dragged her to the elevator and once inside, began kissing her fiercely. A 'ding' announced that they had stopped at another floor and he stepped away from her, as other people boarded. They grinned at each other all way down to the parking level. Before he opened the car door for her, he leaned her up against it and started kissing her again. He ground his hips against her and squeezed her breast.
"Matt, stop it," she whispered. "Someone might see."
"Let them," he breathed. "We're engaged, remember." And he ran his hand up under her skirt. She clamped her thighs together.
"Matt!"
He laughed and let her go. "Just wanted you to know how much I missed you. But I'll wait until later."
Whenever they met for lunch, Grace would take a taxi to the office, and then Matt would drop her off at her place. If he didn't have any afternoon appointments, he would come up to the apartment and they would make love. And apparently, he didn't have any appointments today.
They had lunch in a quiet restaurant and were very sweet to each other. It seemed like the previous evening's argument had been forgotten. On the way back to Grace's, Matt stopped for gas. While he was paying at the booth, Grace got a speck of dust in her eye and it began to water. She searched through her purse for a tissue, but couldn't find one. She opened the glove box to see if Matt had any. There were no tissues - but there was a pair of white nylon panties with the word 'Thursday' embroidered neatly in red.
Grace was stunned. She didn't know what to do. She sat in silence the rest of the way to her place with the panties bunched in her hands. When Matt pulled up in front of the door, she turned and threw them at him. "Tell Janice to stop worrying. We found Thursday." Then she bolted from the car. Matt started to get out of the car. Grace turned to him and said, "Don't. Don't ever come near me again." She stopped in the lobby long enough to tell Gary that under no circumstances was Matt allowed to enter the building and then she went upstairs to have a good cry.
Except she didn't. She waited for the tears to come, but they didn't. She was angry and she was hurt, but she wasn't destroyed. Why was that? she wondered.
Matt called her that night and Grace said she didn't want to talk to him. He insisted. He could explain, he said. Fine, she said, go ahead. He told her that he had been distraught the night before. He had really wanted to make love to her and it frustrated him that she was so unavailable. So when he had left her, he had phoned Janice and they had gone for a ride - just to talk, he said, but then one thing led to another and...
"...and her panties ended up in your glove box."
Well, yeah, he admitted. That was kind of what happened.
"And somehow, this is all my fault," said Grace, "...that her panties ended up in your glove box. This is all my fault?"
"Grace, you're overreacting..." he began.
"Overreacting?" Grace screamed at him. Then she calmed down as icy realization came to her. "It's not the first time, is it Matt?" she asked in a dull voice. She doubted that Janice wore her Thursday panties on Sunday.
There was silence.
"Aw, come on, don't lie to me at this point," she said, "It wasn't the first time, was it?"
"No," he admitted reluctantly.
"How often?" She didn't really want to know, but had to ask.
'I fucked her every time I couldn't fuck you," he answered.
Grace hung up the phone and yanked it from the wall.
******************************The next morning she plugged it back in and it rang immediately. It was Matt.
"Don't hang up!" he said. "You owe me that much - listen to me." So she did, but it didn't seem to matter how many ways he tried to explain things, it always seemed to come back to being her fault. Finally, she had had enough.
"Look, Matt, I'm sure you would like to make this all my fault somehow, but the bottom line is...you slept with someone else, so it's over. We are no longer engaged. In fact, we no longer know each other. Come and get your things and bring back my keys." And she hung up. She paced the apartment for awhile waiting for the tears, but again, none came. So she went for a walk to clear her head. And that's when she met Nick.
