Pay By the Hour

It was an email that started it. They'd been together for about three years now. The honeymoon stage had long passed and they had settled into the complacency of the long married. The sex had become perfunctory- a weekly appointment to be kept. Every Friday at precisely 10:30pm Harold would tilt his head back swallowing the last of his luke warm beer. He'd place the bottle carefully on the coffee table with one hand while clicking off the tv set in the other. Suzy would already be standing by the time the tv was off and headed down the hall towards the bedroom. The lights were always turned off, Suzy was always on top and Harold would stare up at her with his half lidded gaze until he'd come. Sometimes she came too but whether she did or didn't they always both went to sleep immediately after. There was a comfort in this routine, which is why Suzy was so surprised to find herself bent over a rickety desk in a sleaze bag motel at the edge of town. With every snap of Harold's hips, the creaky desk seemed to wheeze under her.

She'd received the first email at 9:30am. Suzy did the books for the local optometrist. She had worked there since everything had to be written down which really wasn't that long ago but it seemed like forever to Suzy. She still did her job efficiently and quickly but now she could at least browse the internet when the day dragged on. The email was from Harold and it said "Do you remember the last time we fucked in the back of my truck?" Suzy's pulse had quickened just a bit and she remembered glancing around to make sure no one could see what she was reading. It was pointless really seeing as no one was in the office but Dr. McAdam and Seth, Monica Potter's son who'd been wearing glasses since he was three and looked like an owl when he stared at you sometimes. They were in the examining room.

The second email from Harold came before she could even respond. "Do you remember the last time we fucked outside in the fields behind Grady Samuels farm? It was about noon and the sun was so hot on my back. Afterwards your nose was burnt red like a lobster and I laughed at you until you smacked me on the back and I jumped from the sting of my own sunburn. Later on we fucked again but it was cool from the aloe you'd just put on me."

Suzy had felt like her heart was about to jump out of her chest and she was sure her face was flush after she read the second email. She wasn't sure what was happening but once again- before she could answer him- there was another email from Harold in her box. "Do you remember the Rode Side Inn of off the 90? Meet me there on your lunch break." And she did.

The desk under her wobbled and creaked and she felt the smooth surface under her cheek. She couldn't help imagining how old it was to have such a smooth feel to it without any varnish. She found herself picturing an elderly gentleman and his wife who had presented the desk to him on his 65th birthday so that he could finally sit down and write the book he'd always wanted to. She pictured him writing away on it until one day when he just up and died. Then the desk was passed on and on until it ended up for sale and then spending the rest of it's days here in this pay-by-the-hour hotel on the side of a forgotten highway. Suzy moaned as Harold panted in her ear pushing her down onto the desk harder and harder. She closed her eyes and let go as he emptied into her with two final frantic thrusts. Suzy lay there trapped between Harold and the desk trying to still her rapidly drumming heart listening to Harold doing the same.

"Harold?"

He grunted something vaguely resembling "yeah".

"I want a divorce."