Poof. All of the excitement, all of the anticipation and planning, strategizing and executing fled toward the ceiling and the gaps in the windows, through the attic, out the roof and into the heavens. Gone. That fast. They’d gotten so close. She lay down, eyes closed. “So you don’t want to make love with me.”

“Well, part of me does, I guess,” he said angrily, pointing toward the unflagging pole holding up the sheet.

She laughed.

“It’s not funny!”

“Okay,” she said, but it was.

“Let’s just have sex, Allison.” Irritation saturated his voice.

“I don’t want to if you’re going to be like that.”

“You don’t want to?”

“Why would I want to have sex with someone who feels like it’s a job?”

“I said I’d do it.”

“But you’re doing it against your will.”

“Let’s just get it over with.”

“Over with? Really, Ted? Forget it.”

“Really? We can forget it? Because that’s what I want.”

“Yep. Forget it,” she said, and she rolled away from him, throwing off her ridiculous teddy and putting on her flannel nightgown.

Before long Ted was asleep beside her. She couldn’t resist a peek before blowing out the candle. As suspected, his erection remained high and lofty, waving a flag for no one.

12

DECEMBER 7

When Nick Cox, comfortable in a leather armchair, swilled his glass of wine, Grant, sitting in the matching chair opposite, swilled his. When Nick Cox shut his eyes and sniffed his wine, Grant sniffed too. When Nick Cox unfolded the preliminary plans for the addition to Grant and Suzanne’s house, Grant interlaced his fingers behind his head and eyed the mural on the wall.

They were in Nick’s basement, in the lounge adjacent to the wine cellar. Grant had stopped by for a “quick sec” after this evening’s Annie Get Your Gun rehearsal, to see what Nick thought of the plans. He was a builder after all.

The mural was fantastic. You really got the feeling you were somewhere in Italy, with all those grapevines and blue sky, that villa off in the distance. He shut his eyes and basked, imagining himself on a sunny patio, not far from the olive trees.