Free The Mammoth Book of Erotica presents The Best of Marilyn Jaye Lewis by Marilyn Jaye Lewis Page A

standing there alone to straighten her clothes and feel like a fool.
    “Aren’t you going to wait for me?” she called out.
    He stopped and turned and looked at her. “Come on, then. Hurry up.”
    She hurried. She pulled herself together and ran to him, searching his face for even the slightest clue that he didn’t completely despise her. “That was pretty sucky of me, huh?” she finally said. “I’m just really confused, Connor.”
    He didn’t reply; he started walking again.
    Kaylie kept pace with him, afraid to say anything more.
    When they reached the car, a light snow had begun to fall. Connor opened Kaylie’s car door for her and held it. She slid into the passenger seat and then looked up at him, smiling hopefully. “Thank you,” she said.
    “You’re welcome, Kaylie,” he replied. He closed her car door and went around to the driver’s side. He got in and closed his own door. He turned the key that was still in the ignition and – nothing. He tried again. “Great,” he spat. “This is just great.”
    “What?”
    “The battery’s dead.”
    “Oh no, you’re kidding.”
    “No, I’m not kidding.” He tried the ignition again – nothing, just an ineffectual click. “Shit.” Connor got out his cell phone. “Give me the number for the auto club; the membership card’s in the glove compartment.”
    Kaylie complied, feeling that somehow this dead battery was her fault. “I’m so sorry, Connor,” she said.
    He took the card from her and dialed the number.
    “I need someone to come out and jump my battery,” he said into the phone. Kaylie stared morosely out the window while Connor gave the auto club their exact location. “You’re kidding,” he said. “Why so long?” A frustrated pause; Connor tapped his fingers angrily on the steering wheel. “Okay, then. Well, obviously, we’ll be waiting.”
    He closed his phone. “It’s going to be at least half an hour,” he told Kaylie. “And probably more like forty-five minutes. There’s no one closer. In the auto club’s opinion, we happen to be out in the middle of nowhere.”
    Kaylie looked at him apologetically. “I’m sorry, Connor. I really am.”
    “Why should you be? You don’t work for the auto club.”
    “You know what I mean. I’m sorry about the whole thing, about what just happened out there.”
    “And what did just happen out there, Kaylie?” He studied her now unflinchingly. “Do you want to explain yourself?”
    “If you’ll let me.”
    “I’m letting you. Who’s stopping you?”
    “You’re not being entirely, well, you know—”
    “What? I’m not being what –
considerate
of you?”
    The way he emphasized the word “considerate” made Kaylie feel three years old. “Point taken,” she conceded quietly. “That was inconsiderate of me, to put it mildly.”
    Connor sighed. “I
don’t
want to fight with you, Kaylie. We were having such a great time. Why would you do that to me? Since when is this just your marriage, huh?”
    She had no adequate answer for that.
    “And not just the way you shoved me away from you so rudely – and never would I do a thing like that to you, Kay. But this baby thing – it’s getting out of control with you. What were you trying to do, trick me into creating my own kid? Like I wouldn’t want to be there with you if a thing like that could
maybe
be happening, after everything we’ve been through about this already?”
    “I just . . . I don’t know. I guess I was just . . . I’m
thirty-two years old
already, Connor,” she finally sputtered in defeat. “I am so tired of waiting for you to be ready.” God that came out sounding mean she thought; why am I being so mean?
    Connor fell silent. They said nothing more for a while. They sat and stared out at the falling snow. It had gotten heavier; their footprints into the orchard were already obliterated.
    “It’s cold in here,” Kaylie finally said.
    “I know it is. The heater’s not on.”
    “I know that,